Tag: writersjourney

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.

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!

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!

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