“The Magnificent River” Posted

I recently finished a short piece based on a writing exercise I did. I made some changes to the original exercise and posted it on my website.

You can read it at: https://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/stories/the-magnificent-river/

A couple years ago I joined a script writer’s group. Every time we meet, we do a writing exercise. I thought some of the ones I’ve done could be worth sharing, but this is the first time I followed up on my plan.

The prompt for the exercise was a title: “The Magnificent River”. I always find it interesting how people will take the idea in very different directions.

I may go back and see if I can develop some of my other exercises to the point where I feel I can share them.

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

Bright Freedom Update 2020 September 27

I started to work on this project as a script in August 2009. Since then I wrote 9 drafts as a script and 26 drafts as a novella. I dropped it several times and now I think I might take it up again.

Recently I listened to a few Perry Mason audiobooks that I found on YouTube. They are very different from the impression I had from what I remember from the old Raymond Burr TV show. My character, Bright Freedom, is also a lawyer with an unconventional approach, so that prompted me to revisit the story.

Story Threads

As it stands now my story has three main threads, which, while separate stories, are linked in a way that I can’t remove one without undermining the others.

The main thread, from my point of view, is the personal issue that Bright Freedom struggles with. I added the other threads as a way to externalize her internal issues.

The second thread is the conflict with corporation that threatens to destroy a community. The community hires Bright to help them fight back. While Bright is a hired gun in this thread, her personal issues drive her to take it on.

The third thread is Bright’s dedication to helping abused women. She takes this on as a personal goal. It leads her to take great personal risks.

Issues I’ve Run Into

• One issue that I struggle with is that the main character is a woman with a different background and life experience than I have. I have some trepidation about being able to create a realistic character. I also worry about how some people might feel about me writing such a character. It is usually this issue that causes me to drop the project.

I told myself that I should just write the story and then ask some people who would identify with Bright to tell me what they think. I assume that I could then manage to fix any problems with out having to make major changes to the story. That is something I am not confident of.  

I have tried to reassure myself by seeing examples, like Ripley in “Alien”, where filmmakers change a character written as a male character into a female. That gives me a bit more confidence about what I want to do.

•  A second issue is just what exactly the corporation is up to. I’ve felt that what exactly they are up to doesn’t matter, so I never make it clear in my previous drafts. I still feel this way, but I have come around to the view that if I had a clear reason for the conflict, that it would be easier to write and develop the story.

Ideally, the reason would connect more clearly to Bright’s internal conflict. I do sort of hint at that now, but it would help if I could make it more explicit. The main reason I have started to think about this is that I feel that it would allow me to add some more twists and turns to the story.  

The first 3 or 4 scenes of the story have a lot of action, but the later parts of the story are much less intense. I think the conflict with the corporation could supply more intensity.

• A third issue is that I wanted to write the story as a straight forward action adventure story. However, the issues that Bright deals with, battered wives and honor killing, are serious issues and I worry that my approach might trivialize them.

In the past I took the view that the story is a wish fulfilment fantasy, where the intrepid heroine defeats these problems. I think of the old cowboy movies where the good guy can kill off hundreds of bad guys with out reloading his six-shot revolver. I still think of the story in that way, but I still worry how people will react to that approach.

Why Do I Keep Trying?

Despite all the problems with the story, I go back to it again and again. There is something about it that I feel I need to express. I think it is the character of Bright Freedom that holds my attention. It is as if she has taken on a life of her own and demands that I write about her.

I had a similar experience with my movie “Line of Taxis”. It too took on a life of its own and demanded that I make it. In that case, it was the support of my collaborators on the film that helped me press ahead. I’ve wondered from time to time if I should try to find someone to collaborate on this story. I can’t think of anyone I know who I feel would be right for the story. I don’t know how I can find someone either.

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

The ZOOM Bomber – Update 5

I completed the story board for "The ZOOM Bomber". I have started to ask for feed back on the story. Based on what I hear back, I will decide where to go with the story.

I got quite energetic a couple weeks ago and finished off the story board in just a couple of days. Since then I’ve been asking people for their opinions before I decide on my next move.

I posted a video of the story board on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jePgb298O_k

If you have the time and inclination, I would like to hear what you think of it.

Production

I used WonderUnit’s Storyboarder 2.01 for most of the story board. For the most part I found it easy to use but struggled when I tried to create custom body positions. I think if I used it for longer, I would eventually develop amore skill at it. I got feedback that the characters lacked facial expression. Storyboarder does have a sketch tool that would allow you to add facial features, but I lack the artistic skills to do that.

I found it took me a long time to create the background in Storyboarder, so I used other tools to do the backgrounds.

I took some photographs and then used https://www.cartoonize.net/ to create more abstract images for the backgrounds. I used ArcSoft PhotoStudio 5 to modify some of the images as well – both before and after cartoonizing. I used Blender 2.79 to create the escape across the roof top.

I used Microsoft PowerPoint to combine the various image elements into each story board image. I also used it to add the character labels.

I used Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 to compile the individual images into a video story board. I overlay the images on a blank ZOOM page in Premiere Pro.

I added some dialogue and sound effects to finish off the storyboard.

I used some text to speech voices, David, Zira, and Hazel, which were available in Windows 10, for the dialogue. These voices do lack some character, so I would likely want to have actors do the voices if I were to do a revised version.

I used some free sound effects from SoundEffectsPlus.com and SoundBible.com. I also created some of my own sound effects. I used Audacity 2.3.2 to modify some sound effects.

Thoughts about making the Movie

The video turned out to be much more violent and brutal than I feel comfortable with. That said, I am not ready to abandon the project. Part of the reason I want feedback is to gauge if I am too squeamish.

I have given some though about how to shoot the movie.

First off, I think that for most of the characters I should look for people with martial arts training. I worry a lot about safety issues and would feel better if I worked with people who did this kind of thing on a regular basis. Also, when I think about safety, I would like to use sets with padded floors.

For the escape scenes, where you don’t see the characters, but rather their point of view, I think I could use a small camera drone. My sense is that would also be cheaper. I would certainly want to do this with the roof top scene. I am not so sure about how to do the crash through the window. For some of the other escape scenes I think a camera mounted on a stunt person would be safe enough.

I want the movie to come across as if it happened in real time, but I would like to shoot most of it in short segments. This make sense for the scenes with Scarlet, and Hunter. I would shoot those in probably 6 or 7 separate segments. I would combine those and then shoot Mother’s piece as she reacted to the pre-recorded video.

Feedback Request

Again, I want to get a sense of how people react to the video before I decide my next move. If you have the time and inclination, I would like to hear what you think of it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jePgb298O_k

Thank you.

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