A summer abroad

I told you about the two Whiteworms projects I am working about, there is one other thing I am thinking about. I spent a great summer in Cambridge, I met some great people, made new friends, had a lot of fun and I think there is a story (or more) I want to tell. I had the great idea to make some notes of things hapening around me while I was there and those notes will serve as a backbone for a screenplay. I am not entirely sure how or when I am going to write it but there are just so many great moments, I just have to write a movie about it.

One of the challenges will be writing about my friends. So far I created characters in my head, sure some of them have been influenced by real people but I never wrote about real people before. Then there is the thing about me being in the movie. How do I write myself? Sure I am an important part of the story and all I know about the summer is what I saw and heard but somehow making myself a main character feels wrong. I don’t want it to be my story, I want it to bea movie about a group of people having a great summer.

Right now the Whiteworms project has priority but after the current or the next draft, I might need to think about something else and clear my head, that is when “A summer abroad” might come in handy even though I really feel the urge to write it right now. Why is “the other project” always more interesting than the one your currently working on?

My new project

Orlindo Frick, the other “owner” of Whiteworms and I decided to resurrect our little company. The plan is to produce a little short-film that hopefully gets us a few meetings. In these meetings we want to have something to show and that is why we are also working on a feature length animation movie screenplay. Orlindo focuses on the short while I started work on the feature.

The project is really important for me so I am trying everything to make sure that the screenplay rocks once it is finished. I don’t want to go into too much details, I don’t want to spoil the movie but I want to tell you how I approached the project.

Very early on I had a small idea. It is an animation movie so I went through the list of animals that haven’t been done for more than 100 times and I had a time and a place whe I wanted to set the story. To be honest, all I had was one scene but a scene I saw very clear. It is by no means a key scene in the movie but it is the scene that, at least for me, helped me find the movie.

After I had the initial idea for a long time nothing happend. Sure I had the idea in my mind but I wasn’t really thinking about it, at least not deliberately but somehow something happend in my head. Much later when I started writing the outline the story somehow just came along. Sure there was (and still is) a lot missing but there was a barebone story that somehow worked and hasn’t really changed in the last two revisions. The current version is much clearer, more detailed and better paced but the major plotpoints are still the same.

The newest draft should be finished this week and so far I think I improved the last draft substantially. After this draft and a longer conversation with Orlindo, I hope that I can get the firsz draft of the screenplay dond till the end of the year. It is a tough goal but I think I can do it. I am really psyched about this project and somehow I have the feeling thaz this could be the screenplay that launches my career and/or brings Whiteworms into the spotlight.

Wish me luck.
Greg