234th post spectacular!

You know, just because it was post 2-3-4 ... yeah?

Anyway, the script's coming along nicely, and the first act is now done to first draft standard ... here's the problem though - it's 56 pages long, and the first act should be 30 page roughly.

So yep, there's some thinning to get done, but I'm certainly not gonna manage 26 pages of thinning - it's just gonna be one of those detailed scripts, because the story I'm trying to tell has a lot of detail. The visuals I'm trying to picture in the reader's mind, are very detailed and specific - and so it goes on.

I'm properly chuffed with it though, and I really feel good about it ... not from a stand point of "because I'm writing it", but just from a zombie genre fan perspective, I think it's a good script so far - and indeed, this was part of the planning process for this script, me asking myself "as a huge zombie genre fan, what do I want to see, what haven't I seen, and what do I want to see more of that hasn't been shown enough?"

The answers to these questions formed the basis of the planning for this script, and it feels really great to be incorporating them into the script, especially during the fast-paced action sequences - even I'm getting drawn in as I'm writing and reading them, my typing gets faster, I hunch towards the screen, the text ploughs across the screen ... it feels *this* close to seeing the real deal on a screen at times.

Anyway, now that act one is done (to first draft standard), I've just started act two - although I'm going to try and force myself to stop - go back to the start - and get the first act to second draft standard, then continue into draft one of act two ... although I'm rather tempted to at least write the first chunk of act two, after spending days on the main thrust of act one, it feels really good to write about a new location, with new characters, and a different feel ... certainly, the first act has been a real mountain to climb - several characters in several locations (near to one another) at the same time, communication either face-to-face or via CB radio and so on (I could go on, but I'd be dropping too many details, and possible spoilers).

So yep - it's going swimmingly, and I've found myself buoyed by the recent Charlie Brooker's Screen Wipe special on script writers, who talked about their processes, their insecurities, their problems and so on - and it felt good to realise that my processes, insecurities and problems were not disimilar, or indeed identical to those of the dudes getting interviewed ... although I'm not in their league mind you, I'm not a deluded, gloating ego maniac so calm down there skippy.

But nor am I some amateur, I'm investing serious thought and time into this script (and have done so with my other scripts), I've thought about them practically too (if I'm going to end up shooting them myself) ... and while I've not been formally trained, I wouldn't consider formal training to be a must-do - just like with filmmaking - but that said, I'm not dissing formal training either.

What I'm saying is - both informal and formal ways of learning the craft of filmmaking or writing for film, work in my opinion - and they can sit beside one another in harmony.

Plus I had a short script turned down by the London Film Academy, as one self-deprecating example, so it's not like nobody has read my stuff either ... I can't remembe which interviewee said it on Screen Wipe the other day, but they said that you cannot consider yourself a writer until you've completed something - and I have completed something, a number of things in fact, many small, some large.

I guess you could say, in more 'professional' terms, I'm currently an 'unsuccessful' writer...sort of...if I wanted to beat myself up ... but you know how it is, I'm at the beginning of my career, and filmmaking is one of those careers that takes years to get off the ground - but hopefully, it's one of those careers that rewards for the dues you have paid over the years getting there, crawling on your belly, fretting your hair out and doubting your own worth.

...

So yeah - going well! *thumbs up most definitely*