writer life – Chasing The George

OUR SCRIPT IS DONE!

May 12, 2024 Chasing The George

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.

On May 9th, 2024, at 12:51pm, Kelly Tighe and I finished the first draft of our feature film script!!!!!!!!!! THE SCRIPT IS COMPLETED! 166 pages! As soon as we finished reading the last scenes we wrote, we asked each other, “Are we done? Did we finish the script?” And once we answered “yes”, we cheered, cried, danced, threw our hands in the air, and looked at each other with pride, joy, and a deep sense of accomplishment. A feature film script! This journey started in September 2019 when Richard pitched a story idea to the PDP 3.0 class. In the middle of 2022, the journey evolved when the group appointed Kelly and me to take over, make sense of everything, find the story to tell, and write a first draft. We devoted the rest of 2022 to making sense of the notes and research, various story ideas, characters, scenes already written by the PDP 3.0 company, etc. We revised the logline to reveal the story we ultimately decided to tell. We revised the central question to support the logline. We revised and cleaned up the entire outline. We removed a few characters and older scenes while keeping and strengthening a few other scenes. In January 2023, we took the bold step to start writing the script. A year and a half later, here we are! Keep reading below 🙂

Kelly texted the group to let them know about the great news. In the meantime, Kelly and I will meet this week to clean up any spelling and grammatical errors, check for any tracking/logic issues, etc. Then, we will meet with the PDP 3.0 group on May 22nd to catch up, celebrate, and plan the next steps, such as registering the script with the WGA, copyrighting the script, and having the group read the script together to generate questions and feedback before we do a table read. Thank you, Richard and PDP 3.0, for entrusting Kelly and me to write this script. We look forward to continuing this journey with you all to the next level of development and, ultimately, the bigger picture of production and distribution. Keep reading below 🙂

I’ll end with this. This past Thursday night, Richard invited acclaimed casting director John Frank Levey to speak to our scene study class. At one point, Richard and John talked about the importance of celebrating our wins (by the way, John loves that we share our wins at the top of the class.) John said, “We have to look for our wins, and we have to celebrate them cause that will give us confidence…” Richard added, “I kind of look at wins like gassing up. Where you put a little gas in your tank because ‘I had this wonderful experience’ or ‘I finished writing this script after five years’…it puts fuel in your tank to keep going.” John then shared a story about a recent talk he had with students from Carnegie Mellon University, and he connected it to our script. He said, “I was trying to encourage them to get the long view (about having a career). Don’t think of it like, ‘I gotta get this done by Wednesday.’ If it took five years to finish your script, you finished it. God bless you!” He and Richard then talked about projects that took a while to get off the ground. The lesson was that it’s about a sustained effort with intention. Keep showing up. The sustained effort now continues into the next chapter of this feature film script journey. Keep reading below 🙂

The End (for now!)

Writing In Abundance This Past Week.

April 21, 2024 Chasing The George

Act 3 is coming along, and Kelly and I had a great writing session this past Wednesday. After our writing session, Kelly decided to tackle the second to last scene in Act 3, and I realized that I needed to write a “transition” scene between two other scenes I wrote in Act 3. There was a harsh, quick timeline/story transition between those two scenes. I knew we needed a scene in between that would allow the characters and the audience to breathe for a second and to fill in the blanks a little bit more in terms of making sure the logical and emotional progression of the story continued so that when the next scene occurs, the audience doesn’t say, “Wait. Woah. What just happened? This next scene came out of nowhere. It felt jarring.” I am excited to share the scene with Kelly this week and hear her thoughts. Keep reading below 🙂

In other writing news, I had the pleasure of providing advice to a high school student this past Tuesday who wrote a short film script that they eventually want to develop into a feature film. A colleague and friend initially reached out to see if I would be available and willing to provide assistance and feedback on this student’s short film script. I said yes, and they connected me with the student’s teacher. I coordinated with the student’s teacher to set up a Zoom meeting so we could meet. I read the student’s script a few times before our meeting, generated notes and questions, and looked forward to meeting the two of them. The meeting went GREAT! The student had a positive attitude from start to finish. They received my notes and asked me questions. The teacher was so appreciative and thanked me for meeting with the two of them over Zoom. The next day, the teacher emailed me and said that the meeting was impactful and her student was eager to share their experience with their classmates. Keep reading below 🙂

Two days later, I receive a text message from another colleague and friend asking if I would like to read a feature film script they wrote for a specific TV network. I said yes, and look forward to reading it as well. Hmmm, I may have to look into writing consulting 🙂 🙂 🙂 It’s been a productive past week of writing that also included writing letters to people on my relationship map and paying attention to the writing structure in a feature film I watched. Keep reading below 🙂

See you all next week!

Crunching The Numbers On Our Feature Film Script.

March 24, 2024March 24, 2024 Chasing The George

Writing is a process. Each writer will share a different story about how long it took them to write a particular script, why it took that length of time, and the resources and research they utilized to make it happen. I thought it would be cool to crunch some numbers behind our feature film script so that people have a reality of what it’s taken to bring this script to life. And like I mentioned in my February 18th blog entry, this script started as a group project until Kelly Tighe and I were appointed/anointed to take over the reins in the middle of 2022. I want to thank our PDP 3.0 group for the numbers they contributed to this endeavor as well! So let’s go:

7 main folders in the Google Drive: Characters and Relationships, Feature Film Treatments, Miscellaneous Written Scenes, My Story Can Beat Up Your Story, Producing: Pitching, Agreements, etc., Research and Notes, Designs We Liked. Keep reading below 🙂

These 7 folders contained the following number of files within them: Characters and Relationships (15), Feature Film Treatments (9), Miscellaneous Written Scenes (21), My Story Can Beat Up Your Story (42), Producing: Pitching, Agreements, etc. (6), Research and Notes (191!), Designs We Liked (144!). Many of these files were Google Documents and PDFs that ranged from 1 page to 26 pages in length. Keep reading below 🙂

Since the inception of this journey, here are the number of weeks and hours put towards this script-give or take some numbers here and there because of pillar jobs, life circumstances, job bookings, a world-wide pandemic, economic uncertainty, much-needed and well-deserved breaks and vacations, writer blocks, writer and actor strikes, etc.: 4 years, 6 months (and counting), 450 hours (and counting) during our designated writing sessions, untold hours outside of our designated writing sessions, and 132 pages (and counting) of our first draft. Keep reading below 🙂

And just for fun, levity, and humor: Untold numbers of coffee drinks, dance breaks, bathroom breaks, lunch breaks, tears of joy, tears of frustration, Google searches, YouTube searches, character name changes, rewrites, rewrites, and more rewrites. Keep reading below 🙂

See you all next week!

How “Being Drunk” Helped Me Write A Pivotal Film Scene.

March 10, 2024 Chasing The George

I’m back! I took a few days off to engross myself in a series of much-needed celebrations. The celebrations kicked off with a weekend trip to Las Vegas on March 1st (my partner and I enjoyed attending the National Rugby League games at the Allegiant Stadium, Chippendales, lunch at Hell’s Kitchen, drag brunch at Señor Frogs, a bottomless mimosas brunch at Delano, people watching, etc.) The celebrations ended in LA with us attending Madonna’s Celebration Tour!!!! She’s currently on her first-ever greatest hits tour (celebrating four decades of an incredible, amazing, and enviable musical catalogue.)

Okay, so let’s get back into it. As you all know, I am working on two goals for this year. One goal is to book supporting roles in feature films produced and distributed by independent or mid-sized studios. The second goal is to finish the first draft of a feature film script that Kelly Tighe and I are writing through our Professional Development Program 3.0 collective. This week, I want to update you all on the progress made with our feature film script. Keep reading below 🙂

Kelly and I are currently working on the end of act two (we’ve written 129 pages so far!) She is rocking it out with the scenes she is currently working on. I was too…until I hit a wall with a particular scene for plot point Yes 14 (In “My Story Can Beat Up Your Story”, the Yes/No are known as “reversals” because these particular plot points “alternate between answering the central question first yes and then no. Anything that brings the hero closer to his or her goal is a ‘yes’. Anything that takes the hero further away is a ‘no'”. There are a total of 28 Yes/No reversals in act two. There is also something known as “the third-act solution”, which is introduced during Yes 7. “The third-act solution is a device, a situation, or a skill that is shown to the audience early, but is what the main character will need to be victorious in the end. Not every film has one, but it’s cool when films do.” The third-act solution is used during the Final Yes in act three. Keep reading below 🙂

I say all of this because I had the pleasure of writing the scene that introduces the third-act solution in Yes 7. I also had the pleasure of tackling Yes 14 and using this plot point to start setting up how exactly the third-act solution will pay off during that Final Yes in act three. LOL I could not figure this scene out. And when I thought I had it figured out, I quickly realized it wasn’t going to work for a variety of reasons. So literally, I was going through my own personal Yes/No reversals LOL. Yes, I figured it out. No, I didn’t figure it out LOL. Keep reading below 🙂

When I met with Kelly on February 21st for our writing session, I told her I was stuck with this scene for the last three weeks. She gave me some ideas that totally made sense to help me set up the third-act solution! Thank God for a sounding board. Sometimes, the work is so close to your face that you can’t see the answers or the picture in front of you. It takes that sounding board, that partner, to grab your hand and move the work further away from you. “Oh, now I see it!” Armed with these ideas, I sat down in front of my laptop, opened up Final Draft, and got to work. Well, I got stuck again LOL. I had these great ideas, but how do I now connect them in a cohesive way? And without giving away the story, certain characters partake in a drink during this scene that sets up the third-act solution. Okay, cool. But how do I utilize this drink to help the characters arrive at and experience these ideas in an uncontrived way? How does the drink drive the scene so that these ideas can be executed? And then, I had an “a-ha” moment. A light bulb went off in my head. OF COURSE! Keep reading below 🙂

I could utilize the drunk physical state exercise that I have seen several times at the Richard Lawson Studios to connect these ideas in the scene. This exercise is part of a number of cold acting exercises that Richard uses to let actors know that they are enough. That they can create art on the spot with little to no preparation because they have everything in their possession and beingness to do so. All of the cold exercises (some of which Richard created and originated) have an improvisational quality to them and they challenge the actor to be present, moment to moment, and interested. In the drunk physical state exercise, a group of actors go on stage and pretend that they are at a bar or party. The stage manager will give the actors water bottles and they have to determine what kind of alcohol they are drinking. The teacher instructs the actors to take a shot from their water bottles. They do so and the scene begins. At some point, the teacher says, “Freeze! Take another shot.” The actors take another shot and the scene resumes. The teacher will say freeze a few more times and instruct the actors to take another shot. This cold exercise is always fascinating and fun to watch because the progression of the alcohol drives everything. The actors get into more belief, they loosen up, they let their imaginations run wild, a story develops, humorous and dramatic moments occur, and the stakes get higher and higher. Keep reading below 🙂

The scene I am writing is a drunk physical state exercise, and these characters are a part of it! With this concept in mind, the writing flowed quickly and easily. It all made sense, and I understood how to use the progression of drinking to determine the chronological order of these ideas, how these characters arrived at them, and the degree to which these characters experienced them. I was happy and excited when I wrote this scene. I could see the progression of this scene from one drink to the next. I couldn’t wait to share this scene with Kelly at our next writing session. When I shared this scene with her, she loved it. We exchanged a few thoughts and I am excited to apply them in my next rewrite for this scene. Keep reading below 🙂

Next week, I will update you all on the progress I made with my acting goal!

The Oscar For Original Screenplay Goes To…

February 18, 2024 Chasing The George

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

My 2nd and 3rd Quarter Wins!

October 1, 2023October 1, 2023 Chasing The George

Hello my fellow artists! I’m still pumped up after completing a 9-week screenwriting course at the Sundance Collab, and I’m equally pumped up to share some of my 2nd & 3rd quarter wins. A win is an accomplishment made through effort, and recognizing them is important. Wins mark the progress of your journey and goals. They let you know how much you have actually accomplished along the way. A win is a step forward in your life, no matter how small or large it is. I’ll ask my students at the top of every class, “Who has wins? Large, small, professional, personal, anything and everything in between.” When you go through your wins, they should make you feel really good. Here is a sampling of some of my wins, broken down into different categories. And these wins are connected to specific goals I’m working towards as an actor and writer. I’d love to read your wins too, so leave me a comment below! Keep reading below 🙂

Acting wins: *Filmed a self-tape audition for the SAG-AFTRA Casting Access CD workshop with Emily Fleischer. *I did the following exercises as a returning scene study student at the Richard Lawson Studios: Environmental With A Crisis, Song & Dance, Personal Monologue, Improvisation, Laugh/Cry/Laugh, Falling In Love. *Began rehearsals for two different scenes (Jamie in “Yellowstone” and Inspector Todd in “Beverly Hills Cop”.) *I’m also receiving awesome requests to do additional scenes from different actors in class. *Supporting the SAG-AFTRA strike. Keep reading below 🙂

Writing wins: *Got accepted into and completed a 9-week screenwriting course at the Sundance Collab. *Submitted my feature film script, “Love Returned”, to the following competitions: Austin Film Festival, WeScreenplay Diverse Voices Screenwriting Lab, Final Draft Big Break, Shore Scripts. *Submitted my half-hour pilot script, “The Anthony Comeback”, to the following competitions: Austin Film Festival, Final Draft Big Break, Shore Scripts, Screencraft. *My colleague and I finished the entire outline of a feature film and proceeded to write the script (we are now halfway through act two!) *Assisted in creating a book proposal for Richard Lawson with him and my colleagues. *I hit 200 blog posts on WordPress on June 25th. *Researched literary agencies I want to target. *Supported the WGA strike. Keep reading below 🙂

Ongoing wins: *Being fucking cool. *Weekly blog entries. *Relationship map outflow. *Social media posts and engagement. *Teaching the Professional Development Program 2.0 class on Monday mornings. *Weekly career administration group meetings. *Attending scene study class every week. *Feature film writing sessions with my colleague. *Building and editing two out of three books for Richard Lawson with him and my colleagues. Keep reading below 🙂

Personal wins: *Relationship with my partner is still going strong xoxo. *FINISHED PAYING OFF MY STUDENT LOAN!! *Purchased a work on paper from contemporary artist Braxton J. Fuller, and in the process, he sent me another work on paper for free! *Successful dental procedure with Dr. Ziv Simon in Beverly Hills. *Adopted three kittens to give them a better, loving life. *My alma mater, Vassar College, ranked #16 amongst liberal arts colleges in the 2024 U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges edition. Keep reading below 🙂

Final Recap: Sundance Collab Week 9.

September 24, 2023 Chasing The George

Hello, my fellow artists! I am recapping my weekly experiences of the writing course I’m taking at the Sundance Collab. These recaps are a cool insight into the creative process and personal journey of building something from scratch. In this case, a feature film treatment.

Recap: Week 9. THE FINAL RECAP! I did it! I made it to the end of this awesome course. It was fun and challenging, and I am so proud of myself. Thank you to the Sundance Collab for this wonderful opportunity and experience. Thank you to my advisor and to the awesome writers I met. The whole purpose of this course was to take an idea for a feature film and create a 10 to 15 page treatment for it. The treatment serves as the source material for your screenplay. The more fleshed out and detailed it is, the easier it will be to write the first draft of your screenplay. Keep reading below 🙂

This final week was an additional opportunity for me to continue expanding upon my treatment from last week, with a particular focus on act two-which is usually the most challenging section to write. Act two can be a beast because it makes up and takes up the majority of a feature film script. Keep reading below 🙂

I expanded upon my treatment and ended up with 10 1/2 pages! Awesome! I have a TREATMENT! Now, am I done with this treatment? Absolutely not. Writing is rewriting. I see where the holes are, and I look forward to tackling them by revisiting my notes from weeks eight and nine, and by watching a few films that may help answer some questions. This plan will help me carve out my treatment and expand its current page length. Keep reading below 🙂

The other cool thing about the last nine weeks was the research I collected that will help inspire characters, future scenes, and future dialogue. I now need to organize my research into one central place so that I can access it easily when it’s time to write my screenplay. Keep reading below 🙂

So, this is the end, but not really. It’s more like the end of a chapter. I look forward to starting the next chapter of my feature film journey. Thank you to everyone who took this exciting journey with me over the last nine weeks. I hope it inspired you in some way. Now, it’s time for me to CELEBRATE this win! Keep reading below 🙂

Next week, I’ll be blogging about my second and third quarter wins before circling back to my acting updates!

Recap: Sundance Collab Week 8.

September 17, 2023 Chasing The George

Recap: Week 8. The moment has finally arrived! The whole goal of this course was to take an idea for a feature film and create a fully-realized treatment for it. This was the week to start transitioning into this final phase! Wow! I expanded from an idea to an action summary to a beat sheet to an expanded beat sheet to an outline, and now, to the beginning of a treatment. This has been an amazing and crazy ride. Seeing my story expand over the last 8 weeks is a wonderful feeling and accomplishment. I’m so proud of myself. One more week to go! Keep reading below 🙂

A treatment is where you now infuse emotions into your scenes. If you remember from last week, an outline is an expanded breakdown of what is happening from one scene to the next. Now, in terms of a treatment, “what do the characters feel when these things are happening? The treatment is an emotional short story. From scene to scene, what is this scene about? And then fill it out emotionally.” Our goal in this course is to create a treatment that is 10 to 15 pages long. And the purpose and power of a treatment is that it is the source material for our eventual screenplay. The treatment will guide us in the actual writing of our feature film screenplay. It takes the guesswork out of our writing. Keep reading below 🙂

Armed with my course advisor’s notes from last week and the answers I came up with, I meticulously went through as many scenes as possible and asked myself, “what is this scene about?” and “what is this character(s) feeling?” “When and how will Luke’s assets and liabilities that I created in week two show up in these scenes?” “Is the theme of my movie, which I discovered in week one, present within this treatment? When does the theme come up and how often does it come up?” “Is Luke’s emotional drive clearly coming through in my scenes?” Some scenes were easier than others in terms of discovering what they were about and my ability to fill them out emotionally. However, I know that if I keep going back to those other scenes and ask the next question, the answers will present themselves. Or, I’ll realize that those scenes don’t work. In which case, I can get rid of them (and I’ve already gotten rid of a few scenes that didn’t fit within my story.) I made it to the beginning of act two and realized I was going to need more time to continue tackling the rest of my scenes LOL. LOL. LOL. Keep reading below 🙂

With one more week to go, I have a feeling that we will be able to continue tackling our treatment. See you all next week for the FINAL recap of my Sundance Collab writing course experience!

Recap: Sundance Collab Week 7.

September 10, 2023September 11, 2023 Chasing The George

Recap: Week 7. We are almost nearing the end of the journey. Two more weeks to go! And once this course is over, I’ll be blogging about my acting endeavors, plus my 2nd & 3rd quarter wins! Keep reading below 🙂

Week 7 was all about taking our expanded beat sheet from last week and moving it towards an outline. An outline is where we start expanding upon the one-liner sentences from our beat sheet. We add details as we march towards the final goal of creating a feature film treatment. One way to add details is to think about the visuals of the film. Film is a visual medium. How can we utilize visuals to tell our story and reveal the emotional inner life of our characters? There’s that famous expression that goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” So that as you read my treatment, and eventually, my screenplay, you can SEE the movie in your mind. You can see and FEEL what’s happening from one page to the next. Keep reading below 🙂

It was great to comb through my expanded beat sheet and think about how to infuse visuals into my scenes. I used a blue font to add the visual components. And from using the blue font, I could see (pun intended) how my scenes expanded. Keep reading below 🙂

Once I added visuals, the next step was to go through the beat sheet again to continue adding more details about what is happening from scene to scene. This beat sheet, now called an outline, could be expanded up to 8 pages. I got to 7 1/2 pages and submitted it to my course advisor. Overall, she thinks I’m off to a great start and that I have a great idea for my feature film. She provided wonderful comments and questions throughout my outline to help me take my story to the next level. She asked the next question and came from a place of support. I let her feedback sit with me for a few days because I wanted to give myself time to let the answers come to me. And then, I received the weekly email from my Thursday scene study class that contained the inspirational quote of the week. That quote unlocked something within me! An “a-ha” moment! I sat down at my computer and answered all but two of her questions. Now, I have to implement these answers into my outline and keep carving them out. Keep reading below 🙂

Fun fact: I am writing a feature film with a friend and colleague of mine for our Professional Development Program 3.0 class, and I could see how week 7 immediately influenced the scenes I recently wrote. Keep reading below 🙂

Until next week!

Recap: Sundance Collab Week 6.

September 3, 2023September 3, 2023 Chasing The George

Recap: Week 6. This week, we were challenged to expand upon the beat sheet that we created last week. To help us expand our beat sheet, we were introduced to the “index card method.” This method was really cool because it reminded me of a method I use when I prepare for an audition. (For my fellow Richard Lawson Studios colleagues who have taken the Professional Development Program, you’ll figure it out as soon as I describe the index card method further.) Keep reading below 🙂

Take a stack of index cards and write down every scene from your beat sheet onto them. Once you are done, put them up on your wall in chronological order from left to right. (My fellow RLS peeps, does this ring a bell yet?) Once the index cards are up on your wall, read through what you have. This visual story on the wall helps you see what scenes you have and what scenes you don’t have. By seeing what scenes you have and don’t have, you can start filling in the blanks to expand your story. Having your story up on the wall helps you to see it in a clearer way versus seeing it on your computer. The story is out in front of you. Keep reading below 🙂

As I read the index cards each time through, a new scene occurred to me because I saw and understood my story a little bit more. Great! I wrote that new scene on a blank index card and placed it on the wall. (My RLS peeps, are you getting warmer?) Keep reading below 🙂

We were also encouraged to color code our scenes so that the main storyline was in one color and the B storyline in another. By utilizing colors, we can see how balanced our story is or how one note it is. For example, I realized that my B storyline was lacking in act 2. I also realized that act 2 needed more scenes in general! The other aspect of the index card method that I like is that you can move the cards around to make certain scenes track better, or take them out if they don’t work. Rearranging certain scenes or removing them helps to create clarity for your story. Seeing my index cards on the wall was so awesome, and I had fun reading through my story repeatedly and adding, moving, and removing scenes. Keep reading below 🙂

Okay, okay! My RLS community has to know by now what the index card method sounds like………………………THE SUBTEES PROCESS! The Subtees Process is a method we use in our audition preparation to discover the subtext of our character. Film acting is about subtext. It’s about what you don’t say. The first step of the Subtees Process is to write the entire audition scene on one stack of Super Sticky Post-it Notes before you transfer them to the wall, top to bottom, left to right. And through an extensive series of steps where you utilize different-colored Post-it Notes, you create and build a character from scratch, infusing them with history, light and dark subtext, the moment before, etc. And each time you go through the Subtees Process, you gain more clarity about your character and the scene. And the power of this process is that if I were to look at your wall and go through it, I could also perform the character. Why? Because the Subtees Process is a blueprint, an architectural design, that guides you on how to play this character. Once I expanded my story on the wall, I added those new scenes to the beat sheet on my computer. Keep reading below 🙂

The next step was to use the “sequence method” to continue expanding my beat sheet. I like the sequence method because it breaks down the three act structure into these smaller sections, or “manageable chunks”, that are like these mini stories. And each sequence serves a specific purpose or function to move the story forward. It’s a more gradient approach where I can tackle my story one sequence or chunk at a time. I can see what needs to happen in one sequence before I can transition into the next. I went back to my wall and rearranged my scenes into these sequences. The sequence method gave me more clarity. It helped me to see where the holes in my story were. For example, I realized I needed a little more set up in act 1 to propel my protagonist into act 2. I realized that the scene I thought was my act 2 climax was incorrect and that it was actually the one after it. I also had to make sure that not only did my scenes create a beginning, middle, and end within each sequence, they also had to fulfill the purpose of each particular sequence. So I ended up creating more scenes to add to my beat sheet. Keep reading below 🙂

See you all next week!