I had a day off yesterday, and very nice it was too. It’s been a long time since I did nothing all day, or at least intentionally did nothing. I’m not counting the odd days I have when I sit at the computer and completely fail to achieve anything – they aren’t days off, they’re just annoying. Fortunately they’re few and far between.
I finished the second draft of ‘Kapital‘ on Sunday, just waiting to hear back from the production team now. I’m curious to know if it makes any sense. It does to me, but getting the balance of exposition right can be quite tricky when you’re working on a project. Particularly when said project is designed to be the first of a trilogy and events in the second and third films have to be foreshadowed here, without confusing people.
Although there is one overall story, each film has to be self contained. We don’t want to go for the ‘Lord of the Rings’ thing of only giving you a third of a story at a time.
There’s a meeting scheduled for Thursday, hopefully it won’t revolve around the rest of them calling me names and swearing at me.
The second draft was a massive pain in the arse … and the fingers, back and eyes.
It’s taken me longer than any rewrite ever has, I’ve been working on it non-stop from 8 in the morning until 11 at night, every day for ages.
Except when I haven’t.
Like when I went to the pub last Thursday – but even then I worked on the train on the way up and back. The first outing for my gay laptop, I might add. An outing which proved no one wants to sit next to a bloke with a pink laptop. One guy sat down, but after a brief glance at the sheer pinkness of the thing, he upped and left.
Space to stretch out on a train, sheer luxury.
But the second draft’s done now (until the next lot of notes come in) and it’s time to move on to the next project. Jason Arnopp asked me when the last time I worked on a spec script was, and I honestly can’t remember. As appealing as it is, it’s difficult to find the time amidst the list of the things pending for other people.
As it stands today, the list, in no particular order, is:
- Cast Report for ‘Kapital’.
- Go through my files looking for sketches suitable for two women.
- Read and consider a rewrite to a short film
- Watch the latest edit of ‘LVJ‘ and make notes about possible changes.
- Write a new segment for ‘The Summoning’.
- Write a comedy short for an DoP I’ve worked with before.
- Rewrite a feature which may or may not be going into production soon.
- If there’s any time, write some sketches for ‘The Treason Show’/‘NewsRevue’.
And there’s something else. Something I know I’ve forgotten which is lurking at the back of my mind. Something someone asked me about writing for them …
Nope, no idea. If you’re reading and I’ve left you out – I will remember, I promise.
For anyone whose work is on the list – rest assured YOU are top of the real list. YOUR project is much more important to me than anyone else’s.
Honest.
The Jobbing Scriptwriter 
