It’s Sunday evening, and Wellington weather is having a hissy fit outside. I’m still in the office, a long and bloody battle with twenty or so carded out scenes today.
This is how my day went:
It’s not working, it’s not working, it’s not working, it’s not working, it’s not working, it’s not worki-- oh, shit, this actually kinda makes sense now. Cool.
It might sound sort of depressing, but it actually kind of gives me hope in a weird way. I’m getting fairly confident the ‘It’s working!’ moment will eventually turn up if I keep at it. I’m not one of those people who believes inspiration comes from an invisible golden monkey sitting in the sky. The only reason I make any progress at all with a story is because I’m incredibly stubborn about making it work to the point of (metaphorically) punching myself in the brain until it does.
“Ooo, that all sounds positive..ish!”
Hmm, there’s still that flipside along the lines of what I mentioned last week. For every time I solve a problem, there’s probably about twenty more ready to crop up, often negating everything I’ve previously just figured out. But that’s just part of it. Right? Rightttt??? ...Shut up, you’re not my real Dad. Overall, though, I'm pretty happy with where GASH PALACE is heading.
So that’s where I’m at with writing. For directing, this week I started reading a book recommended by some friends called Grammar of the Shot by Christopher J. Bowen & Roy Thompson. It’s cool, it’s the closest book I’ve found to finger puppet explaining (aka. it’s nice and simple). Apparently it’s the classic “Hey, read this!” at Auckland film schools. My film school was more fond of Directing Actors: Creating Memorable Performances for Film & Television by Judith Weston. Also a great read for those wanting to focus on working with actors rather than the technical side of things.
Okay, I have a headache and I want to go home and watch something trashy. Although, it’ll hard to beat last night’s viewing trash wise: FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC (2014, Lifetime channel remake), and THE DISCO EXORCIST (2011). Both suitably terrible. Anyway, here’s some trash of my own, inspired by a book of drive-in movie posters I got in the states.
THREE NEW IDEAS!
This is how my day went:
It’s not working, it’s not working, it’s not working, it’s not working, it’s not working, it’s not worki-- oh, shit, this actually kinda makes sense now. Cool.
It might sound sort of depressing, but it actually kind of gives me hope in a weird way. I’m getting fairly confident the ‘It’s working!’ moment will eventually turn up if I keep at it. I’m not one of those people who believes inspiration comes from an invisible golden monkey sitting in the sky. The only reason I make any progress at all with a story is because I’m incredibly stubborn about making it work to the point of (metaphorically) punching myself in the brain until it does.
“Ooo, that all sounds positive..ish!”
Hmm, there’s still that flipside along the lines of what I mentioned last week. For every time I solve a problem, there’s probably about twenty more ready to crop up, often negating everything I’ve previously just figured out. But that’s just part of it. Right? Rightttt??? ...Shut up, you’re not my real Dad. Overall, though, I'm pretty happy with where GASH PALACE is heading.
So that’s where I’m at with writing. For directing, this week I started reading a book recommended by some friends called Grammar of the Shot by Christopher J. Bowen & Roy Thompson. It’s cool, it’s the closest book I’ve found to finger puppet explaining (aka. it’s nice and simple). Apparently it’s the classic “Hey, read this!” at Auckland film schools. My film school was more fond of Directing Actors: Creating Memorable Performances for Film & Television by Judith Weston. Also a great read for those wanting to focus on working with actors rather than the technical side of things.
Okay, I have a headache and I want to go home and watch something trashy. Although, it’ll hard to beat last night’s viewing trash wise: FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC (2014, Lifetime channel remake), and THE DISCO EXORCIST (2011). Both suitably terrible. Anyway, here’s some trash of my own, inspired by a book of drive-in movie posters I got in the states.
THREE NEW IDEAS!
- REPTILE QUEEN: Set in a world just like ours, a teenage Princess is sick of the demands of her Grandmother, the Queen of England. After walking in on her Grandmother unzipping her skin to reveal the fact that she is a LIZARD PERSON, the Princess must reassess everything she knows about her family, herself, and the dark reptilian secrets of the monarchy.
- THE BEARDED AUNTY: When beautiful Vera’s long lost circus performer Aunt comes to stay with her and her ailing mother, something doesn’t feel quite right - especially when her circus freak pals turn up and they all decide that ‘with a little tweaking’, Vera would make a very good addition to the freak show indeed…
- CONTROLL: A small garden troll makes befriends a little girl and convinces her that her family doesn’t love her, and she should eat his magical troll berries and join the troll race who will be her new family (oh god, I’m sorry guys, my buddy Jez bought me a ceramic troll back from overseas and he’s sitting on my desk staring at me telling me to write bad movie ideas about him… time to go home).
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