Hello, my fellow artists! Welcome to another exciting edition of my weekly blog. As you all know, I have two goals that I am focusing on this year. And each week, I am alternating between the two goals to provide updates that are hopefully inspiring and engaging. This week, we are back to my writing goal for 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.
This goal is moving along! As you all know, Kelly Tighe and I finished the first draft of the script on May 9th, 2024. This past Wednesday, May 29th, we had our first reading of the script with our Professional Development Program 3.0 group! It was a beautiful, exciting, full-circle moment because the story originated and developed in this class. Then, the journey progressed when the group assigned Kelly and me to write the first draft of the script. She and I could feel and see the excitement in the room. Keep reading below 🙂
It was wonderful to be back on Zoom with the group. The last time we saw each other was mid-2022! Everyone was excited to hear the script and celebrate this monumental moment together. I decided the best way to present the first draft was to have each person read a scene(s) out loud. I kicked it off, then Kelly read the next scene, then Lindsay, then Beth, and then Sayaka. Richard didn’t read but was actively listening and engaged. It was thrilling to hear other people read these words out loud. As we read through the script, Kelly and I made real-time edits to the Final Draft document. She and I also wrote notes to discuss and tackle in the next rewrite. She and I were also making edits in our minds during the reading. We saw which scenes we could trim down and how. Keep reading below 🙂
Another aspect of the reading was seeing how the story and characters landed on the group. Until then, Kelly and I were the only ones reading these scenes out loud for the longest time. People laughed and gasped. People had visceral reactions at certain moments in the script. A couple of people got emotional reading certain scenes. Everyone cheered when the script ended. Richard was so proud of Kelly and I. He praised the script, the story, the characters, the structure, and the tension that we maintained throughout the story. Richard congratulated Kelly and me as a writing duo, stating that this script is a calling card for us as writers. He believes that this is a viable script that can be produced. Everyone is excited to move forward with this script. Keep reading below 🙂
Kelly and I felt such an incredible sense of accomplishment and pride afterwards, a joy and understanding that keeps settling in that we wrote a feature film together. We enjoyed every moment of writing together. A new writing duo is born? Keep reading below 🙂
See you all next week!
Chasing The George 