So K started shooting on Saturday and so far I guess no news is good news – on the grounds that if something was going horribly wrong, I’m sure I would have heard by now.
With that all underway it’s time to move onto the next project: Mixed Up.
Mixed Up is a comedy feature set in a Croydon record shop, directed by Lawrence Pearce and produced by my pimp, Jonathan Sothcott.
This is the blurb from Lawrence’s website:
“Mixed Up is a quirky independent comedy set in a second-hand record store with a heart and personality all of its own. The store is a real life treasure called Beanos and it’s my pleasure to bring this amazing place to the screen.
Taking inspiration from Empire Records, High Fidelity, Kevin Smith’s Clerks and Cameron Crowe’s Singles, this multi-character story presents memorable and lovable characters as they explore their own fears of failure and find that music still has the power to bring people together.”
Sounds good, doesn’t it?
Watch me fuck it up.
There’s a new challenge here, the ‘multi-character story’ part. I’ve done the treatment and I’m halfway through plotting out the scenes – so far so good. The challenging part is getting the scenes to marry up emotionally. I don’t want some of the stories all smilely and happy whilst someone else is getting screwed over … except when it works and one character’s happiness makes someone else miserable.
It’s an interesting process because moving a few story elements around messes up all the other stories and means I have to back off and have a re-think. I still want that emotional roller-coaster feel; but not from scene to scene. The film still has to have an overall cohesion which can generate real emotions as it progresses – without yoyo-ing from happy to sad every other scene as we switch stories.
It’s not something I’ve done before and I’m looking forward to seeing how it works out; plus I haven’t done any comedy for a while and I’m interested to see if I’ve still got it.
Assuming I ever had it.
Oh bollocks, I feel a tin foil episode coming on.
The Jobbing Scriptwriter 
Off with that foil, sir – you’re going to do a top-notch job!
When I worked at Kerrang! magazine, Beanos used to pay us fairly regular visits to relieve us of unwanted CDs. Funnily enough, I’ll soon be calling ’em to see if they make house calls in the Camden area…
No writers on set?
No, nothing dismissive. I could go along if I wanted to, but being on set bores the crap out of me. It’s thrilling the first time:
“They’re saying my words!”
Which quickly becomes:
“They’re saying my words wrong!”
And moves on to:
“Christ, it’s been four hours. Why are they still saying the same fucking words?”
All in all, I prefer just to see the finished version.