Fourteener Films

I’m scattered all over the place. It’s funny because just at the beginning of the week I had this marvelous creative break through and I am working through it now. The problem isn’t block or anything. It’s more like I have all of these ideas on what should link the beginning to the middle and the middle to the end.

David provided me with some powerful stuff for the end of our first season. The beginning at this point is a splicing of his stuff and a touch of mine. The middle is a good mix of both. But the linkage is proving to be difficult to work through. I’m in the middle of redoing an outline because the changes are quite dramatic given the new stuff for the last few scenes of the season finale.

Perhaps the way we decided to go about this is too far forward thinking. I think I need to step away for a day or two. What I am finding to be the toughest thing about this whole webisode format we’ve settled on is the length. Trying to support such a complex hierarchy of story arcs with under 30 minute episodes – each needing to be self contained isn’t easy. I see why most more complex shows need episodes to be an hour long.

… let’s see how much of it left after we slice it and dice it. So, David wrote this screenplay nearly a decade ago. Right? So in many ways, this story is his baby. Right? Well, he shared the screenplay with me when we started this kooky adventure and we decided to make it into a series. So he gave me some insight into the story and the reason he wrote it. We batted around some ideas and decided we could work this into something great. We started this whole Fourteener thing and the rest will one day be history.

Then, David launched into writing and I built this illustrious website. When I finished the website about a month ahead of schedule, I was ready to jump into writing.

David and I were at lunch one day tossing around more ideas and sources of inspiration and we realized that we weren’t 100% lock-stepping on the story lines. So, David asked me to write some ideas down. So I wrote the premise as I saw it. Then I wrote treatments for the first six or so episodes. I was hesitant to give them to him. I mean this story is his baby and he’s been sitting on it for years. Right? My treatments introduced a lot of new story lines, plot devices, relationships, I mean I severely altered some stuff. I wasn’t sure it would be cool. But so far, David and I had been completely honest with each other about what we wanted to do. Before we even started shooting our first film was not the time to start holding back. Right? So, I e-mailed what I had to David.

David told me he liked some, hated some, and we started squeezing the shit out and trying to keep the good shit together. While this was going on, David started warming to some of the stuff he wasn’t sure about when he first read the treatments. Of course, some of it is still shit to be sure and there’s only so much you can polish a turd before you realize, no matter how it shines, it’s still a piece of shit.

But the parts that were good, are serving the story well. Devices driving the plot and developing the relationships are taking an already strong story and stretching it into a series. I’m excited.

So David is working on his master’s degree and is approaching midterms. He handed me the scenes that he’s written and said ‘go!’

So this weekend I finished the first episode. The execution of the story arc is a bit jerky. But it’s a draft and we’ll smooth it out. I am about 20% done with the second episode. The beginning feels pretty strong but it goes down hill pretty quick. Most of it will never make the finished first draft. But I’m excited. David and I are ahead of schedule. By original timeline, I’d have finished the website just a couple of weeks ago and launched this past weekend. We’d be just starting to write.

I am already thinking about things like casting, lighting, things I know I HAVE to take David’s lead on. I also know I need to stop and keep writing. And that makes me smile. I love this part. The writing. And there’s plenty of it. Write.

Baby won’t sleep. Been sick for days. Barely got projects in for college coursework I’m working on. Yet, strangely, with mere minutes to spare, everyday I have free time…whether it be minutes…or even seconds…I’m thinking about this project….WEIGH STATION is becoming ARKANGEL…I’m one of those quirky sorts who has to have the entire story in my head, INCLUDING, EVEN, NUANCES…then I sit down and pound the thing out in a matter of days….also, Walter has some very creative ideas on how to add to the story line, along with new story lines…the kind of things that move a story from a screenplay into a tv series.

school will finish and the deadlines Walter and I have established will be met. not long now

this stories close….way different from the “Weigh Station” screenplay, and that’s cool….concept will stay the same..Bullshit on the generalized version of Religion…mostly ’cause it’s gotten us to where were at….es no bueno….so forward we march….college classes and Chloe keep me grounded but am nearing the end of an extremely risque opener….question? the radicals went gunning for rushdie with a vengeance…do i play it safe for my baby’s sake, or do I go for the real true message so she’ll be proud of me…even though she may not know/remember ME…?….guts and experience say FALL INTO THE STORY and let everything else work itself out…good times…note to self….when we go into production, pack extra fun meters…

I am new to this whole film making thing. Don’t get me wrong, I have my strengths. As an advertising professional. I’ve been involved in production for television commercials. I’ve storyboarded, written the copy, and even been on set for the lighting and shooting for a few hours. I did some work at a local access cable station too. I was able to spend several weekends sitting in the production booth and watching a television show get produced. Learning to run the audio board, watching the director, floor manager, camera all work was very educational.

But seriously, that was all completely different than the world I am entering. Just taking direction and letting all the people who actually do all of this for a living was easy. Now, I’m not just going to be riding a needle on a sound board but letting sound engineers really make sure it’s all working. I’m going to need to know what I’m doing.

Now, David is a producer with a technical theater background. He knows how to light a shot, set up a sound stage and all of that. Me? I am going to get to tinker with the camera for awhile. I am going to get into all of that techincal stuff and learn as much as I can. I have a lot to learn from my partner but I think it’s all stuff I can handle.

When it’s all said and done, my involvement in the creation of the story is what I am really excited about. This first project will sort of ease me in. David came up with the concept and really fleshed a lot of it out almost ten years ago. But since we are expanding a 90 to 100 minute movie into dozens of hours of self-contained episodes, there are a lot of plot and character decisions that may be made differently. Some devices used to convey a specific amount of information within the 90 minutes can be altered, expanded on, or eliminated completely. So while the goal of the story hasn’t changed, the creative direction has been given a completely new set of parameters within which to operate. Dozens of new possibilities to build plots, subplots, develop characters and detail their relationships. It also gives us countless new ways to achieve the goals we have to accomplish with this series.

Obviously, I am speaking to the other novices here. Telling a story with pictures is full of amazing possibility. For example, dialogue is MUCH less important than the twitch of a gaze, clenching of a jaw, shot of garbage blowing across an urban alley. So much can be explained with four silent seconds of film than can be established using several minutes of dialogue. While clever, believable dialogue is a good thing, I am learning that what makes dialogue good in a movie versus in a play versus in a novel are extraordinarily different.

To any novice, I highly recommend reading Syd Freeman’s book Four Screenplays. I also recommend the collection of classroom notes from legendary filmmaker and dean/professor of the revered film school California Institute of the Arts Sandy Mackendrick. The book is edited by Paul Cronin and titled On Filmmaking: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director. Both are amazing expositions on screenwriting and directing. If you can find a partner who’s been there before, I highly recommend that as well.

I am new to this whole film making thing. Don’t get me wrong, I have my strengths. But I think the greatest strength I have, the one that will get me farther than any other, is the knowledge and understanding that I don’t know anything yet.