…is complete!

I should clarify. It’s not the FIRST first pass of the script. I think I’ve rewritten it now about 5 times – for now. But the point is, it’s in a complete form that I’m happy with. It’s out with a few very trusted folks for some thoughts and notes. It’s also with the producer to start doing a production pass, set locations, start a budget, that kind of thing.

A very interesting thing happened on the way to the forum though. I had an ending in mind from day one. BUT…I didn’t know how to bridge from one scene to the next. I thought I had it all figured out but somewhere in my mind, I knew it wasn’t quite working. Something was itching me that I just couldn’t scratch it.

So I made the following mistake.

I acted like it wasn’t there.

UGH. Why can’t I take my own advice that I tell my students almost every day? I tell them, you HAVE to plan.

I did…sort of. Except for this bridge part thingy.

So I wrote the script and skimmed over it to get to the ending.

And the rewrote it…skimming again. Hey, if I don’t see the problem it doesn’t exist, right?

Well, I had to deal with it.

But there was a bigger problem.

I have the protagonist as this one guy who has never committed a crime. He does and has a VERY difficult time before and after it (it’s not a huge crime but still). The problem was, I didn’t include too much with his wife. You want an interesting story, you BETTER have more than one character that is rich and deep. My character’s wife wasn’t.

And worse yet, I was told she was dumb.

DOH! I don’t want that! I mean, if I WANTED a dumb character I could easily have written that but I didn’t want her to be dumb.

So I had to figure out a different ending.

And guess what happened?

The bridge path thingy got solved too!

Weird how that happens. But it drove me to something that I’ve always used when dealing with producers in animation. Most times, the notes that are given from the producers aren’t about the NOTE itself but about why that note doesn’t work. It’s not because Jimmy isn’t mad in that one particular scene; it’s because the camera or the mood or the character BEFORE the scene doesn’t work.

Same thing here. It wasn’t the bridge that wasn’t working; it was the ending.

Now it’s MUCH more satisfying and makes the wife very smart and even gives her more depth. After finishing, I had to rewrite a couple of earlier scenes with her to depict this correctly.

Let’s hope it reads up on the screen.

That will be soon too.