The End

Yee haa! The script is finished. I'm fairly pleased, (I think) though of course there's now a hefty edit awaiting and a few holes that need to be filled.

It has been the most difficult script I've ever written for various reasons. One story thing that emerged is - since the conflict is explored from the POV of the main character - the antagonist becomes (almost) like a figment of his imagination. Hmm. I hope that works. You see this is a story, based on real life events - and while I have free reign with my main character, there is less leniency with the antagonist (he could sue) - so with him I've had to stick more or less to court records and news stuff in the public domain.

Early next week I'll send it off to the producer and a couple of others for quick-turnaround feedback (ha!). Let's see. If there's not too many dramatic adjustments needed, hopefully I can put an application in the post soon.

Onwards.

POV

In an exercise designed to solve issues pointed up by recent notes and feedback, I've been working on an extended monologue that tells the film story from the main character's point of view. Thanks to a little blogchat first with Pot I didn't rush into scripting.

The monologue is providing background and family stuff which won't even make the script eventually - but paints in the social backdrop (AIDS/crime). The character is complex and needs to be very engaging, self justifying and persuasive otherwise the audience might not buy into his worldview or morality. Every now and then (in the monologue) he launches into a long rant on some aspect of society. So his emotions and everything are laid bare through a bleak humour.

Being a monologue it is fairly organic - zapping easily back and forth between disparate places, people and incidents over time in a way a script could never do. In my mind I'm already highlighting what's going 'in' and what's 'out'.

Anyway around 9 pages of prose so far and still a long way to go. Think it will end up around 18 pages. Progress has been a bit stymied with my daughter off sick from school this week.

Later

Dusted

Final mix done and dusted. Let me draw a line under it.

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So back to scriptwriting.

Finished reading a script that I've been asked to do a page 1 rewrite on. The premise is great but the material is lacklustre (can't be too rude on the blog) The main problem is POV. Whose story is it? Well considering the main character's name is the script's title then the story POV should be fairly obvious. But hay nonny no no no. Actually what is needed is not a rewrite but an entirely new script from the same premise. Let's see - what side of plus minus the fee falls first....

So will first tackle TV drama 'WF' which has been waiting in the wings now for about 6 months. Plus catch up on all other stuff..

There's a brilliant short story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in Granta 95 (latest issue I think) 'Jumping Monkey Hill' - about a workshop for African writers taking place in Cape Town. Read it.

Laters