"First Date" Script Posted

I have been struggling to get started on my writing and movie projects. Some one suggested that I write a story about a man who's wife had died. My wife died last year. They thought that writing a story about what it is like would help me come to terms with her loss.
 

When I made "Line of Taxis" I wanted to use it to help me deal with some of the problems I had. Since it was an on-going situation, I didn't want to address it directly. I created a situation quite different from my own, but where the protagonist would feel the same emotions. I believe that focus on the emotions was the main reason the film worked so well.

I tried to take a similar approach with this story. I hadn't come up with any good ideas for a story that would allow me to explore my feelings.

Over the last few months I have been part of a script writing groups. They have a writing exercise every session and I wrote up a number of ideas. Recently they suggested I write a two page dialogue scene. That gave me an opportunity to write a character like myself. Since it would be just a short scene, I didn't need to come up with a larger story that it would fit into.

The scene is about an older couple who are on their first date. The woman is recently divorced, while man's wife died. Not only is it their first date, but it is the first date either has had since they lost their spouses. I haven't progressed this far myself.

I felt it turned out OK. I only intended it to be a writing exercise, but I started to get interested in the characters. I felt I could build a larger story from it. I'm not sure just where I would take it, or what the point of the story would be. It isn't the approach I planned to take.

I revised the scene based on some feed back, and posted it on my website at: http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/stories/first-date/

I would like to know if people think it would be worth my while to pursue.

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

Why Do I think “Line of Taxis” is my Best Movie?

I think that “Line of Taxis” is the best movie I've made. If I want to improve as a filmmaker, I need to understand why.

Just before I made “Line of Taxis”, I went through a bad period in my life. Initially, I didn't want to make a movie about it. It was still too close for me. There were also the possibility that a movie could reignite the situation.

I wanted to make a more challenging movie, but was stuck for an idea. One day I over heard someone talking about the mass layoffs we had in Calgary in the early 1980s. His phrase, “line of taxis”, stuck in my mind.

What I realized quickly was that in a movie about layoffs, I could draw on my own experience. Not in the sense of a story line, but in the emotions I felt. I could create a situation where the character would feel the same emotions I had.

There were several advantages to going this way.

It was a way I could deal with the residual emotions I felt. A way to exorcise them. I felt it would help me distance myself from the emotions that were still gnawing at me.

It would allow me to avoid the specifics of the situation. I was still afraid of the consequences if I made it too close to what actually happened.

It would shift the focus of the film from the story to the emotions of the character. This is something I realized later. It wasn't something I was aware of at the time.

I began work on the movie with a focus on the emotions of the main character. Then I developed situations and events that would bring out the same emotions I had felt. A relentless drip drip drip of minor events, that would force the main character to give in to the emotions.

In retrospect, I think that it was this focus on the emotions rather than the story is what made the movie as good as it was.

In the movies I made since then, I really have not had that focus on emotions. I think this has undercut the effectiveness of these movies. I know that I should focus on the character's emotional journey before I dive too deep into the story. I find that hard to do.

People often assume that writer's stories are autobiographical. “Line of Taxis” is, in a way, but in another way it isn't. While the emotional journey of the character is based on my own journey, none of the events in the movie reflect anything that happened to me in real life. I feel that I need to use the emotions from my experience but not the specific events.

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