Hello, my fellow artists! It’s time for another exciting blog entry from yours truly. In today’s edition, I wanted to bring some love to my second goal of 2024: Finish the 1st draft of the “Third Act” feature film script with Kelly Tighe. Once that’s done, do a table read, get feedback, and complete additional drafts. Keep reading below 🙂
“Third Act” came to life back in September 2019 when the Professional Development Program 3.0 class decided to turn into a production company to workshop ideas and bring them to life. The idea for this script came from Richard Lawson, and it was based on an article he read many years ago about a scandalous incident that occurred in a nursing home. Over the next few years, the company met every Wednesday at 12pm to carve out this idea. We did tons of research, asked tons of questions, put forth tons of ideas, watched many films, put together look books, created character breakdowns, wrote scenes, scrapped scenes, wrote scenes again, etc. We even had Jeffrey Schechter, who wrote “My Story Can Beat Up Your Story”, read our outline and then come into class to provide us with feedback. Keep reading below 🙂
Throughout it all, the whole process was one of incredible respect, asking the next question, and “yes, and…” There was never a time where one of us shot down someone else’s ideas or writings or were critical over someone else’s work or research. And that’s a testament to the culture that Richard and the company created and instilled over the years. Our mindset was always on the bigger picture, the pursuit of excellence and collaboration, and the love of creating art. It’s why directors like Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino work with the same people in front of and behind the camera all the time: Because they are NOT PAINS IN THE ASS. Keep reading below 🙂
At some point, with the plethora of notes and research gathered over the years, it was time to appoint a couple of individuals to make sense of it all and take the reins of writing a complete first draft. Kelly Tighe and I were appointed to be those individuals, and we started the process in the middle of 2022. She and I met every Wednesday to begin the bold, colossal step of distilling, editing, and striking pages worth of story ideas, notes, characters, scenes already written by the company, etc. We continued asking the next question, did more research, and combed through everything (and I mean, everything) one piece at a time with the patience of a saint LOL. We repeatedly edited the logline, the central questions, and the plot points. We kept referencing “My Story Can Beat Up Your Story”. Each action provided just a little more clarity. The entire process took a long time, and we still hadn’t written ANYTHING yet. Not one page! However, we knew that all this work was vital. We knew that we couldn’t tackle the writing until we knew what story we wanted to tell. Keep reading below 🙂
I’ll never forget the day when Kelly and I finished combing through the entire outline and things finally made sense! We cheered and cheered and cheered! This was a huge win and moment for us! The outline was clear, and as a result, we were empowered to start writing. And again, our meetings were always positive, encouraging, and “yes, and…” We asked each other questions. We never invalidated each other. We never thought an idea was too stupid or ridiculous. The plot points within the outline became our guide and compass. The writing began to flow from us. We would assign ourselves a plot point and write the scene(s) for it throughout the week. When we would reconvene on Wednesdays, it was so cool to witness how synchronistic our writing ended up. For example, how something she set up in her scene paid off in my scene and vice versa. Or how her scene transitioned seamlessly into my scene and vice versa. Keep reading below 🙂
There were moments where we hit walls and roadblocks too. Moments were life took over and we couldn’t meet. Moments where we didn’t have any clue on how to write a particular scene(s) for a plot point. But understanding that writing is a process, we gave ourselves grace and encouragement. We also continued to ask the next question. When we did these things, clarity occurred. And currently, we have six more plot points left to write scenes for, and then we will be done with our first draft! And to give context, there are a total of 44 plot points in our script (this is the number of plot points that “My Story Can Beat Up Your Story” says is required to fulfill a feature film script.) Kelly mentioned this past Wednesday, February 14th, that it has taken us a long time to get to this point, but then she quickly remembered a friend who mentioned that it took her friend six years to write their musical. And I thought about other writers who took years to finish their scripts too. So, we’re doing good! Keep reading below 🙂
Kelly and I can’t wait to finish this first draft so that we can present it to our PDP 3.0 company and take the next steps. We are also interested in presenting the script to the Thursday Scene Study class so that students can see an example of the sustained effort it takes to create something from scratch. See picture below 🙂
Picture from: https://www.oscars.org/oscars/statuette
Chasing The George 