Don’t Be Afraid of Changes

Years ago, when I worked as a transportation planner, I would create backup copies of my computer files frequently as I did my work. I was always afraid that if a made a mistake, that I would have to redo all the work. That happened to me before I developed the habit.

When I began to write and make films, I kept this same habit. For example, I have over a hundred different versions of The Doorman’s Sacrifice. My reasons were slightly different though.

I always worry that the changes I make will make my project worse. This fear often paralyzed me when I looked at changes to my work. I started to make frequent backups to give me the freedom to step back to my old version if the new one didn’t work out.

Just recently I realized that I don’t remember that I ever did go back to an older version of a project. Now my memory is not always perfect, but I’m confident that the vast majority of the time, the “improvements” I made did make my projects better.

I’ll never quit my habit of frequent backups, just out of habit. However, now that I know that I’m unlikely to ever want to go back to an earlier version, I feel I can let myself take more chances with my projects.

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

New Stories in the Works: “The Gladstone Barrier” and “The Crying Woman”

The Gladstone Barrier

I was stalled on my second “transportation engineer” story for a while now. This week I managed to get started again. I am about half way through the first draft now. It seems to be harder to write than the one I did before. In part it is because I’m trying to put more depth into the story. It also draws more from my personal experience and it does affect my emotions when I work on it.

I’ve come up with a new title for it. It was called The Priority Project, but now I want to call it The Gladstone Barrier. I didn’t like the first title so I picked the name of the project at the center of the controversy. After I picked it, I noticed that it has a double meaning that hints at some other aspects of the story.

I started to use some ideas that I got from Writing Dialogue. I think the dialogue does flow better. The Emotion Thesaurus was a big help to me on how to suggest what characters felt.

The Crying Woman

This is the idea for film that I’ve dabbled with for about 18 months now. Someone suggested that I make a film like Before Sunrise, which follows two strangers as they walk and talk through a night in Vienna. I like the film, but I wasn’t sure I could write a script in that style. After all, Richard Linklater felt he needed a collaborator to help him write it.

The story begins with a woman on the elevator. She is alone and cries as the elevator goes down. The door opens and a man gets on. While the woman tries to hide her tears, the man notices and asks her if she is OK. The encounter leads to a long conversation between them. The woman is afraid to reveal the reason for her tears, but desires a sympathetic ear. The man wants to support her, but he too has some secrets that he wants to keep. His motives are complicated.

I think the best approach is to have the film be at least partially improvised by the actors. Since I have never tried that, I am unsure how to proceed. I’ve decided to turn the idea into a short story. Later, I could use it as a basis for the film.

This week I started on an outline. It needs to be filled in some more. I want to go over the notes I prepared earlier for the film and incorporate them into the outline.

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