Client Project: Script

Earlier this week, I completed a draft of a story that has passed through several iterations in recent months, only to end up with a story that bears little or no resemblance to the original idea!

As it only to be expected from the drafting process, I took my story (what I felt was a 'hard hitting' tale about the right of the termianlly ill to die, with supporting characters) and turned in on its head and inside out, having read Ken Dancyger's 'Writing the Short Film' and deciding that
a) It covered fairly well trodden ground, and
b) It didn't adhere satisfactorily enough to the principles of short storytelling in film I have been studying over the last few weeks.

The script now revolves around a series of events at a 'crunch point' in the main characters life - the main character being the daughter of our terminally ill patient, facing some tough decisions in her young life. It is strangely satiusfying to know that despite having stuck more closely to a 'formula' if it can so be called, I think the script has more openness, more depth and less insistence on its themes, and so is a marked improvement.

This script however, is not the one we will necessarily shoot.

Once it has been assessed by our 'client,' Julius Ayodeji (both mine and Alan my producers tutor for the project, and whose group I joined once myself and Alan joined forces), we will be able to determine if the script contains a solid enough core in order to be further drafted into a real filming prospect, or if we should look elsewhere for a higher quality script that will lead to a higher quality product.

This is not simply a question of script quality either; the problem with a self penned script is that the accepted wisdom dictates it is harder to distance yourself from in order to make the combined practical and artistic decisions that make up the directors job.

As such, we await feedback before myself and Alan find out if we are allowed to shoot the script, if we choose too, and have been exploring other avenues for scripts in the mean time.