unsound · writing

This journal thing hasn't quite worked out for me. With all the time that I spend in front of a computer, whether it's at my day job or while I'm working on scripts, I find that I have little time to come here and post my thoughts. But, I'll try to change that. A lot has happened this past year, and none of it was recorded here, which is kind of a shame.

2007 started out on a high note when I was informed that my zombie script, THE DEAD OF WINTER, made it as a top 20 semifinalist in the Slamdance Horror Screenplay Competition. Winning would have meant that the script would have been produced by Angel Baby Entertainment in collaboration with the newly formed Maverick Red. Obviously, I did not win, but the competition helped to get the script a bit of notice. So far, the little attention that it did get hasn't led to anything, but I'll keep sending it out there and hopefully someone will eventually grab onto it. The problem is that everyone and their dog seems to have a zombie script these days, and getting people to recognize how truly different this one is can be a little difficult.

Then, in April there was my first involvement with Team Epic. This is the project that I would have liked to have kept track of the most this year. For those who don't know, Team Epic is a internet based comedy series about Canadian superheroes living and fighting crime in Toronto. The show has had its ups and and downs, which I won't go into, for various reasons. What is most important though, is that after coming on board as a staff writer, then moving on to the position of co-director for the pilot episode (which will only be shown as short promotional clips on the website), I now occupy the head writer position on Team Epic. Along with the other writers on the show I've spent the last month or so revamping several aspects of the show. I think that we now have product that is more original, more dramatic and a heck of a lot funnier than it was when we started, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the final result. The first episode should be broadcast on-line through PLP's broadband network in early November.

Most recently, I started to outline a new genre blending feature film tentatively called DYING DAYS. With equal amounts of horror, fantasy, sci-fi and western, I think it's one of the most original, and yet most simple ideas I've come up with in a while. This one should be a breeze to write, as soon as I can find the time to do it.

This doesn't quite put you up to date on all the work I've been doing, but it gives you a pretty good idea of what I'm up to at the moment. Hopefully I'll get into the habit of writing this journal, at least once a week to start, and I won't find myself writing a similar catch-up email to this one next year.

I'd forgotten how hard it can be to write a short film.

First off, let me say that I believe that a short film should be twenty minutes, maximum! There are a lot of people out there making shorts that are twenty-five, thirty or forty minutes long. To me, those films are just features cut down to a shorter length, probably because the filmmakers couldn't afford to make a longer piece. Ideally, a short film should even be less than ten minutes. Which presents a challenge to the filmmakers to succinctly tell their story, develop their characters and explore their themes in a very limited amount of time.

The last short I wrote, THE FREEWHEELIN' WILL, came out of a sudden moment of inspiration. The film pretty much wrote itself. So that means that I haven't had the challenge of writing a short, concise film since I was in film school. Recently, I've worked on two short films.

TIME AND TIME AGAIN was a completed script for which the writer/director wanted a re-write. The script capped off at about twenty pages and it already had a solid structure. My contribution to that one was pretty minimal. I polished up the action and the dialogue and added a few story elements, but overall it didn't need much changing. But it did get me back into the state of mind of writing short films, which was good, because the next film was much more of a challenge.

$5IVE came to me as a treatment. The story, themes and characters were in place but a writer was needed for the actual script. The challenge: to write a film that follows five different characters with their own individual stories (including dialogue) and the goal was (and still is) to make the film last less than six minutes. Now that's a short film.

So, did I accomplish the task? Possibly. If you follow the "one page = one minute" rule, then you would think not, because the script is actually twelve pages long. But, the dialogue flies by and although there's a lot of description the action moves along quickly. If shot and edited the right way, it could all add up to about six minutes. Having made a few of my own short films, I know that a five page script can sometimes play out as a ten minute film, and that a twenty page script can run at about fifteen.

The difficulty for me in telling such a short story with five distinct characters was that I had to let go of the idea that the characters have to go through some kind of great arch as you would do for a character in a feature. It's not that this can't be done for characters in a short film. If there was one main character, then that would be essential to the telling of the story. But in this case, there just isn't the time. Rather than a character's journey being the driving force for the story, the theme is what leads the story. And that's what's great about short films sometimes; you can just get to the point of it and cut away all the peripherals. A short film can be based around one intriguing idea, one fascinating image, one overwhelming emotion. Whereas a feature cannot be held down with one peg like that.

I’d forgotten how satisfying writing a short film can be.

When I started this journal, my intention was to write all of my thoughts regarding the projects I'd be working on. I wanted to work through my writing process; from research to outlining to the writing of the first and consecutive drafts. That idea has pretty much gone out the window. Since my first post I have completed the first draft for a thriller titled WINTER WONDERLAND for Future Launch Pictures, and am currently halfway through the first draft of a spec horror script, THE DEAD OF WINTER, and should be finished my first pass in about a week or so.

Other than story notes, I haven't written anything about my experience of developing these two projects, although I should have. The past two months have been eye opening. First, I've discovered that I can write a script in two weeks. I know, a lot of people have done this, but I never have. WW is the fastest screenplay I've ever written. And it looks like TDOW will be completed just as fast. It's quite invigorating to know that this can be done. The scripts are of course only in a first draft state, but at least they're there. They exist. They're not just a splinter of an idea sticking in my brain. They're not a blinking cursor on the screen. They are page after page, scene after scene of fully developed characters, actions and plot, just waiting to be read, evaluated and re-shaped.

Also, I'm learning the way in which I like to work. Throughout the years I've learned the general ways in which writers should work. Have learned how some specific writers like to work. And have approached my own work in various ways. Now, I think that I've come up with a method that works for me. One which allows me to tap into my own creative resources without over-extending my ideas, nor coming up short in the end. One which makes the best use of my time, but that doesn't wipe me out at the end of the day and that doesn't interfere too much with my day job and social life. It's a simple method, but it works and I'm comfortable with it.

In addition, I've learned that if a story is in you, if it's fighting to get out, you just have to let it out. A lot of times a story will come to mind that's only half formed, that needs some time to ferment. You put it away and let it do its thing. You let the idea, the story, the characters grow, change and sometimes stream off into an entirely new idea. Then one day its ready, but you're not. You might have other work obligations. Maybe there's a lot going on in your personal life, and you don't have time for anything else. Or maybe you're just procrastinating. But there's this story, just hanging out in the back of your mind, just begging to be written.

This is the point at which you discover if you're a writer or not. If you're not, you'll just let it sit there, talk endlessly about it with friends, and make plans to write it, but it's never going to happen. If you're really a writer, you'll shut up about it, turn off the TV, and ignore the phone and email; you'll do your research (if you need to), maybe watch a movie or read a script that has something in common with yours, you'll sit down in a comfortable chair and you'll write. And you'll write. People will ask you what you're writing, but you'll just ignore them and continue writing. And then one day a few weeks later you write the words THE END. And the story is out of your head. It exists and it's malleable. THEN you've really got something to talk about with people; THEN you have something to make plans for. THEN you are really a writer.

As a wise man once said: "Do. Or do not. There is no try." Be a writer, or don't be a writer. There's no in between. And if you choose to be, then you have to think as and work as, not just talk as.

I promise, the tone of my next entry will be much lighter... and I'll try not to let months pass by before a write a new one. Dammit, did I just say try? There is no try... there is no try... there is no try!

To anyone who has recently visited my website this information may be somewhat redundant, but as my work moves forward and the website changes, the differences between this journal entry and the information on my website will grow. So, here it is, a frozen picture in time.

Now, almost four years after graduating from York (has it really been that long?), I have to admit that I don't feel as though I have accomplished much in my professional life, but maybe that's only because some of my efforts have not paid off yet.

THE UNCLE, the animation series I'm developing, is the first project since film school that I've worked on for which I was not the initiator. I can't go into any details about it here, but I'm very satisfied with the pilot episode I've written (some of my best writing thus far, it's just too bad that I can't show it to anyone yet) and the current work that I'm doing on developing the first season's story arch. I'm confidant that this series will make it to the small screen, but we’ve still got a lot of work ahead of us before it can get there.

BLOODLINES, another television series, this one created by myself, is a hard sell given the concept, but I think that there is an audience for it. I'd been working on the pilot for a while and wasn't very satisfied with the end result. But after leaving it aside for a while and then returning to it to complete a few revisions in the last two acts, I am now left with a script that I believe is ready to be sent out into the world. The only problem is that I am in Toronto and this series is best suited to an American audience. I really have no idea how to go about getting this thing read.

THE WILL OF INSTINCT, my first feature screenplay, is a project that I hold too close to my heart and have to let go of. There's a fear inside me that if I send this script out and that someone is actually interested in producing it, then it will be snatched out of my hands and that I will no longer have any control over it. I have to get past this fear. It's ridiculous.

Those are the main projects that have kept me occupied over the past few years; along with writing and producing a short film with my partners at Unsound Films. All the Unsound partners are currently working on separate projects, but we hope to soon return to developing our own films. Which brings me to my future plans.

Other than getting over my own fear of losing control of my work and the always present fear of rejection, I have two projects that I’ll be working on. One of them is a story that relates to my experiences of being a teenager living in a small, wintery northern Ontario town. And the other, well, it’s a horror movie; and if I try to describe it in one line it will just come out as sounding derivative, which I can assure it is not. So I will discuss it at a later date, in another entry.

So that’s it, my first of many journal entries. I’m not sure what direction this whole thing will go in, but if you’re interested in knowing more about me or are curious about the process of creating a screenplay, then I invite you to come back once in a while to see how things are progressing.