Working Hard, or Hardly Working?

Gather round boys and girls, we have a much-needed update.

We've been hard at work on the movie, taking time out of busy schedules to write for no money. So we can't really say it's been paying off, but we're enjoying ourselves. We have pretty much half of the movie written in treatment form, and we have a good idea of what happens in the rest of it. For those that don't know, a treatment is the movie written out in story form and is usually 3-4 pages for a feature-length script. So we have a long way to go for the 120 pages of a typical screenplay, but we're making steady progress. Once we figured out the major character Jason mentioned in his last post, the entire first act fell into place. That meant we had to reconsider most of the third act, but it's going to be a lot better than we originally planned.

One thing that became clear about the third act is that we want it to culminate at Jeff Mach's Wicked Winter Renaissance Faire. Wicked Faire has been described in many ways. Jessie likes to say that it is "teh awesome," and that it is a con at which people from many overlapping subcultures get together for fun and profit. At Wicked Faire one is likely to run into rennies, trekkies, Star Wars nerds, comic book geeks, cosplayers, goths, gamers, steampunkers, erotic hypnotists, zydrate addicts, and kinky people. It's a 16+ event and there's an 18+ room for various adults-only wares and performers. We're going to be at this year's Faire in Whippany, NJ from Feb. 20-22 doing "research" for the movie. We promise to work hard and not have any fun.

Also, there's going to be a shadowcasting of Repo! The Genetic Opera, and the co-creator/co-star/artist Terrance Zdunich will be there signing autographs, selling zydrate, and hopefully coming to our party! *Fangirl moment*

Anyway, back to the movie. One of the scenes we recently wrote for the second act provides an un-clumsy place to explain a lot about polyamory and how it works for real people (even though our characters are figments of our imaginations, they're still real to us!).

That's it for now, kids. Back to the salt mines. Maybe we'll see you at Wicked Faire!

Syncopation

Sometimes a character will surprise you.

We have been planning our characters out for about two months now. We had them pretty well figured out. All of a sudden, one of the characters didn't feel right. I didn't even realize it was happening until it had already happened. It hit me like a ton of brick-shaped character development. All of a sudden, things made sense, and I didn't even realize that they made no sense. Because this character suddenly changed, we've had to change our time line a bit. I think the changes worked in a big way, but time will be the true judge.

One of the best things about this minor overhaul to our script is how we (Jessie and I) were completely in sync. I realized that we needed a change about halfway through Saturday. I felt from the beginning that there was going to be an argument over this. I prepared myself for the argument, came up with every reason I could to justify changing something we had worked on for two months. Finally we were able to get together and talk about the script and I was prepared for a knock down drag out. After all of this, Jessie listened to what I had to say and agreed. She had been feeling that there was something off about that character as well. I've never felt like I was on such a similar wavelength with a writing partner. I'm looking forward to all the work that needs to be done.

Really, It's All About the Money

First of all, pardon my inconsistency with writing on a regular basis. I'm a student as well as a nursing assistant, and my schedule can be a little crazy. Jason and I have also decided that, although this blog is important, we won't have anything to write about if we spend our precious time on the blog instead of actually writing the movie.

I probably won't always write on the same topics as Jason, but I think writing about why we want to make movies, and this movie specifically, is a good topic for the beginning of a blog about a movie.

My desire isn't as straightforward as Jason's. Like I said in my last post, I've been writing and making up stories since I was a young child. I never really thought seriously about writing a screenplay; I always fancied myself as a novelist or a poetess. However, I've always been interested in the performance arts. I took dance classes from ages 4 to 18, I took piano lessons after school, and played cello and sang in school. As a little girl, I had a trunk full of costume pieces and my friends and I would make up a story, dress up in improvised costumes and put on a show. Theater has always appealed to me. I also frickin' love movies.

I used to be a literature major. The study of literature involves a lot of looking at the devices the author uses and what messages they convey. Not only do I find this really fun and interesting, I'm also pretty good at it. Film allows for even more interpretation. Not only does one get to look at the words, the plot, the characters and the themes, but one can also examine the cinematography, the blocking, the production design, the lighting, etc., etc.

This not only appeals to me as a watcher of movies, but also as a writer. Having that many more tools to work with potentially makes the process of depicting a story richer and perhaps even more meaningful. I say this with complete and total respect for novelists and poets; I love those forms of writing as well, of course. Verse and prose allow for layers of meaning in different forms (metaphor, imagery, even meter and rhyme), and film does as well.

Plus, you know, it's fun. Jason and I have gotten a lot of work done on our story, but it's enjoyable work, even when we disagree about something. I anticipate that the rest of the process will be just as fun (and probably more).

Not to mention the potential for fame and fortune.

Keep It Simple, Stupid!

Hello again, dear reader. Jason here, broadcasting from my desk at work.

I have a topic today, one supplied by my good friend and writing partner. "Why do I want to make a movie." When it was first brought up I felt that I was back in English class writing a prepared essay. I've never really thought about why I want to make a movie. Sure, I have the obligatory prepared answers:

"I want to tell stories."

"I love to entertain people."

"I want to create."

I tell people these answers all the time, and they have the added bonus of being reasonable and true. But none of them truly answer the question. I could do all of those things without making a movie, and I would probably be easier off. I'm not sure I even understood the question or the answer until today. Or maybe I've always known the answer but not been able to put it into words.

I've been thinking about what to write on this topic since Jessie brought it up to me. I thought I could talk about how my parents took me to movies in the theater throughout my childhood. I could talk about how magical movies are to me, how they draw me in, how they take me away. All this is true, but none of it is the real reason.

So why, why would I force myself into an industry that I have virtually no chance of succeeding in? Why would I put myself into a position where I might have to put myself into a huge debt that which I would probably still be paying off 20 years from now? Why would I want to kill myself over a product that needs a miracle just to be completed, let alone get picked up for distribution, and then another miracle before I will even see a dime? Why, for the love of God, would I do this?

Becuase I need to.

What the Hell is This All About Anyway?

A movie, duh! You ask stupid questions.

Oh, you want details? Well then, stay tuned, dear reader, we're about to tell you. And with a minimal amount of comma errors!

We hesitate to call our movie a romantic comedy, but that is essentially what it is. The typical romcom is unrealistic crap. We want our movie to reflect our experiences with romance, relationships, and sex. The script will represent the ways we and our friends discuss these topics and the types of humor we use (from the banal to the esoteric). Generally romantic comedies don't reflect the diversity of the people we know, nor do they include alternative forms of relationships. This movie will have poly characters, kinky characters, queers, geeks, goths, atheists and agnostics (maybe a Uni), activists, hippies, vegetarians, and Methodists! And many more!

Most films, even independent ones, only show the socially accepted forms of relationships. This film will embrace the plethora of ways people interact with and love each other. For instance, our main character and his love interest are heterosexual and monogamous, but his best friend is bisexual and polyamorous. Polyamory is a concept we would like to see be better represented in movies, so we're taking the initiative. Most movies that deal with the idea of non-monogamous relationships depict those relationships as short-lived, or ill-conceived and the people who participate in them as amoral or confused. We know this to be untrue. Our poly characters have issues (they're human, after all), but polyamory isn't one of them.

That's enough about the broader ideas, let's get down to the nitty-gritty. At the core, our story is about two twenty-somethings who fall in love, but when the honeymoon period is over, they realize that they need to figure out their own problems before they can have a healthy relationship. The movie is about their relationship, but even more so, it is about them learning to be comfortable with themselves.

Our characters live in Boulder and Denver, and that's where we'd like to shoot the film. We love Boulder, and we'd like to show our viewers why. It's important to us to depict Boulder authentically: the places locals actually frequent, the mountains, and the people.

Oh my god, we're dying of fatigue. More later.

I'll Try Not to Sing Out of Key

Hi all, this is Jessie.

I'm not sure what to write here, so I'll continue on the thread Jason started: why write with a partner?

I used to write all the time. I wrote in a diary every day as a little girl. Poetry seemed to spill out of me as a teenager. I started plenty of short stories, most of which I never finished. I think it was because I wanted to write a novel, but didn't have the focus or time to complete a project.

I don't want to wax too personal here, but I feel it's important to mention that I have bipolar disorder. Most of the ways it's affected my life aren't important to this project. However, it has had an effect on my writing, so I'll mention this bit. When I'm hypomanic (i.e. I only go a little crazy, not full-blown psychotic), it's very easy for me to write creatively. I write a lot, and well. However, when I was diagnosed and put on lithium, my creative drive seemed to leave me. Lithium was horrible for me and I was put on different medication that's not so famous for killing people's creativity. However, it seems that when I stopped writing a lot, I got out of the habit. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to come up with anything worth reading ever again.

Then I met Jason. Anyone who knows him knows that he talks about movies incessantly. Soon after I met him, he started carrying around a composition notebook in which he was writing his movie. I thought it was cool that he was committed to a project and actually working on it. I sincerely hoped he would be able to write his film and get it made. I really had no aspirations to be included in the project till he asked me to help him write. Apparently he couldn't get anything he wrote in that notebook to come together into something cohesive.

Having a writing partner makes the process a lot less daunting and more enjoyable for me. I don't have to come up with every plot point, every character flaw, every theme on my own. I don't have to second guess every idea I have and every line I write because he does it for me. We bounce ideas off each other and they get better the more we bounce them. Since we're such good friends, I can tell him when his ideas suck and vice versa (though the former happens much more often). We're both clever people, and I think we're more clever together.

I'm very glad Jason asked me to help with his untitled movie project. It means a lot to me that he thinks highly enough of me to let me in on it. It feels good to be writing again.

On the Difficulty of Shared Vision

Hello Peoples, Jason here.

I was recently asked about the difficulty of writing with a partner. I would like to address this briefly. Why this, you might ask? Because I'm at work (read: bored) and I really need distraction.

People, by which I mean amateur writers like us, have told me they don't think they would be able to write with a partner and give up their vision. I don't think that I give up any of my vision writing with people. I think they help me refine what I want to say. Sure we argue, but we usually end up agreeing. I don't see it as compromise. I see it as finding the best possible story.

I will say the difficulty comes in trying to express what I see in my head in a way that she can understand. Nothing is more difficult for me when it comes to writing. Sometimes I wish I could speak in images. But then they would probably be in the wrong format and I would have to render the image into the proper format and that would take awhile and by then I could've just come up with the right words.

Enough of that nonsense, back to the topic at hand. I find that I need a partner in order to get anything done. Otherwise, my thoughts just jumble in my head like... so many... things... that jumble. Damn, epic fail right there. If I could just write in jpeg this would be easier.

Off topic again. Fuck. My mind wanders something fierce.

So, I'm curious if anyone writing out there, whatever you're writing, is unable to write with a partner. Are you just unable to function in that way? Or perhaps you do write with a partner, how does it work for you? Do you have any suggestions? Yes, I'm fishing for comments.

Shit, the boss is coming. Gotta go.