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Showing posts from March, 2007

Not Waiting By The Phone

Zeitgeisters, As Edwin saith, he will not wait by the 'phone. Well, nor am I; I'm doing bunches of other writing, for other people. Some of whome will pay me cash money. I am attempting this in the four days that I do not work for a salary. So my weekly financial set up is this: three days working for wages, four days freelancing as a script writer with the occasional magazine article thrown in. I don't even think about film funding in between times, I leave that to the director and the producer. Concentrating on what might be is quite pointless. And a waste of energy. The downside of my 3/4 weekly split is that sometimes the projects pile up. Hence,my being awake at 3.45am writing this blog when I need to be up by 6.30am. Deadline stress just adds to my unnatural insomnia. And I've got a paying project really pressing in right after I shuck the present monkey on my back (a short film script). This is actually a typical dilemma for any freelancer. Suddenly you have too

Really good idea for a film (part 3)

Well. I'll eat my hat! After submitting BTS to the AFC and Bluecat , I started struggling with a sci-fi no-budget screenplay, Yellow . I was scheduled to shoot in Feb / March, but the script wasn't exactly writing itself . Then. Life took hold. Cancer in the family and a new job writing screenplaysfor DADAA saw Old Father Time disappear. Last week, I had coffee with a mate of mine who says, "I've got a really good idea for a film". He saw the irritated look in my eye and backed down. But I needed the distraction and, two sips into a strong long machiatto, heard myself say "Go on." It was a beauty. Story, character, locations - everything. He told me a riveting story about something that happened to a friend of a friend. It had a complete screenplay structure - turning points, mid-points, Voglerian call to adventures - everything! On a plate. I wrote an outline with my mate in about two hours and we're shooting it at the end of the ye