It's Time To Pick My Next Project

Now that my story "Tom Swiftly and His Incredible Traffic Model" is done, it is time to think about my next project. What with Christmas coming up and snow on the ground, I might not get started until the new year.

I completed four projects this year:

·         "Summer's Too Short" http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/filmlist/summers-too-short/

·         "The 89th Key" http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/stories/the-89th-key/

·         "Pete's Plan" http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/stories/petes-plan/

·         "Tom Swiftly ..." http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/stories/tom-swiftly-and-his-incredible-traffic-model/

All of these were projects that I stated long before this year. In the case of "The 89th Key" it was some 43 years before! I did start on one project, "The Disruptors", but didn't get far with it. So I haven't really started a new project for quite some time. I concentrated my efforts on some of my unfinished projects.

Movies

I have almost 40 unfinished movie projects. Most of these are little more than a few notes about the idea, but I have four feature length scripts and one detailed outline. There are also a couple of my short stories that I think could be done as movies. I've decided to treat most of these as writing exercises. When I read them over I feel no urge to finish them.

There are a few exceptions.

I think that I'd like to do something with "Bright Freedom", and earlier I decided to turn it into a novella. I worked on it for a short time this year, but dropped it for other projects. (http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/category/film-projects/bright-freedom/)

"The Crying Woman" could make a good movie. At this point though I'm not sure where to go with it. I would like to do a new movie with Nawmal and I think this might work. On the other hand, it might be better if I worked with live actors and have them improvise. (http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/stories/the-crying-woman/)

"The Barrier" is not really finished. I called the most recent version release 0.6. There are a few changes I'd like to make to the dialogue and story, but the main think I want to do is replace the artificial voices with actor's voices. (http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/the-barrier/)

These two movies are major projects and in my current situation, I really don't have the ability to take them on. I haven't had any ideas for shorter projects, which would be a more realistic goal. I would have to come up with some ideas first.

Stories

I have about 25 unfinished story projects. As with my movie ideas, most of these no longer inspire me to complete them. There are bits and pieces of them that I think are good, but a story isn't just a few bits and pieces tossed together. Maybe I can cannibalize some of this material in other projects.

I enjoyed writing my novella "The 89th Key" this year, and would like to do something similar. This lead to my idea for "The Disruptors". Before I can write that I really need to do some more research and develop the background and characters. I found that my familiarity with the background and characters in "The 89th Key" made it much easier to write.

I have drafts of both my "Bright Freedom" script conversion and my SF story "Felix".  I would like to have those finished. I have tried rewrites on both of these, but I got stuck on both. I've started to wonder if I should just abandon what I've done so far and restart from scratch on them.

I've wanted to do another transportation planning story, like "The Barrier", but I haven't come up with anything so far. I think that part of my problem is that I've tried to do a new story with the same characters as I had in "The Barrier". It maybe that I just feel like I've already told their story and there isn't really anything more I want to say about them. If I came up with some new characters that could get me started.

Video Presentation

There is another project I want to take on. I have been involved for many years with The Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities. (http://www.calgaryssea.ca/) They put on a series of talks on Ancient Egypt. I've felt I should contribute, but I am just not up to giving a learned talk. I do think I could put together a video instead.

My first idea  was to do a video about King Tut. After all, nobody has ever done much about him. ;) I did some preliminary research to see if I could come up with a story and some visual material I could use. My interest petered out and I dropped the idea.

I thought I should do something about how the pyramids were built. That would fit into my background in civil engineering. Again, after some preliminary research, I lost interest in the idea.

My current idea is to do something about Agatha Christie in Egypt. She visited Egypt and the middle east several times and these visits were an important part of her life. Three of her books are set in Egypt. I did a little research and found some material. I haven't delved into it yet, so I'm not sure that I can turn it into an interesting video.

I've never done a documentary, and never really had a desire to do so. Strangely enough I usually prefer documentary movies to fictional ones. That said, I think this would be a good project for me to pursue.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog