Psh, this blog is totally not late.

     I think I may have a love hate relationship with screenwriting. Dang it John August! Why do you do this? His tips are so helpful. Anyway, I believe there's a lot of revising to be done this week. That and Spring Break is going to be stressful.

Getting the Flow Going

     Is it bad that I actually enjoy the pre-production stage? It involves a lot of ideas and a lot of "what if" plots and it just really allow a variety of twists to flow freely. Although, I might just be saying that now since the writer's block/creativity block and just all the blocks seem to be seeping out of my veins now.
     So to make this quick, there has been a lot of tweaking to the story this week and in turn many details have been added as well. For example, we made the poetry competition have an acronym: H.T.A.L.P. Aka, Plath backwards. It stands for Heroic Teens Advancing Lexical Poetry (it's a mouthful, I know). Re-reading the story really allows my partner and I catch some things and double check if this is the story we want to go with. Once the story was established, the beat sheet was basically done.
     The only thing that this week that caught me off guard was how sometimes completely different schedules leads to late nights. I'm sorry to Stephanie because of the only odd hours I could work this week. Nonetheless, I think in general it's already a great accomplishment to have both partners on the same page with their story. We're getting there, and now that the outline is all framed up it's time for the details.

Playing With Blocks

     So, this week was actually pretty interesting because of how the treatments were collaborated. In film, it's nice to have that person or that group that you guys can bounce ideas off of. What makes sense to you may actually be really confusing. Trying to hit all the aspects of a film noir mood though was more difficult than we originally thought. It wasn't just about how it was shot, it was also about how the story developed. Because of that, some things were over thought and suddenly didn't seem all that believable for a high schooler anymore. Take for example the character's flaw. That was such an easy part to over think. You could have made him a thief, a pyromanic, a killer... but all you really had to think about was a realistic flaw. A chip in this seemingly normal person, be it that they say yes to everything, are too passionate, etc.
      As mentioned above, the most challenging part for Stephanie and I was the writing. The combining of our treatments actually went smoothly, but we suffered writer's block when rewriting the treatment. The thing about writer's block and artist's block is that (from my experience) it's mainly based of creativity and influence. If your thoughts don't flow, then you could be stuck for a while. It's even worse when you and your partner have it. However, mistakes are meant to be made which is why through this you really learn that writing is rewriting. Having a go at it and taking in other people's considerations really help the block move inch by inch.
      Overall, working with others is a skill you need in film. It's a helpful one too because even if your idea lacks in some manner, you get to have another try at it because people will suggest their opinions to you. Constructive criticism was really helpful for this story, especially when Stephanie and I succumbed to writer's block.