30 Minutes. 30 Days. Day 5,6,7

Day 5,6,7

I'm discovering I'm not nearly as disciplined as I should be. It's only week 1 and I've fallen off the bandwagon of my own self-imposed schedule a couple of times. Tonight I was even questioning why I even added this challenge to my already busy schedule. Other people just watch TV or read or book or go for a jog. I've decided to try to write a feature script in 30 days with only 30 minutes a day. What was I thinking?

What has been rumbling around in my head is the need for a plot. I seem to start with art direction. The whole thing could just be various quirky art directed scenes with no dialogue or any plot and that would satisfy me. But wouldn't really cut it for most audiences.
I have this idea to incorporate famous Chicago innovations or points in history into the script. Luckily there are a bunch of terrific stories to draw from.

I've decided to make my lead character (who I'm calling Joyce) a woman in her late 50's who was part of The Second City Improv Troup - but did not go on to any fame whatsoever. She now makes a living doing improvised tours acting out scenes of history with her 24 year old actor colleague Brady. Then there is Al, the graffiti artist, who is leaving his own visual commentary of the art and history of Chicago. He may or may not be Banksy. And then, the non-English speaking recent immigrant parking lot attendant who is trying so hard to learn English with only a well used Tour Guide Book of Chicago as his source. Of course all of these characters cross paths and at some critical point are going to solve a major problem (hint - a repeat of the Great Chicago Fire perhaps).

Stay tuned....

30 Minutes. 30 Days. Day 4

30 Minutes. 30 Days. 
Day 4

International Ballooning Contest Chicago - 1908

I tried writing in the morning. This seems more energetic as I'm fuelled by coffee. A good thing.

So realized that in order to write a script it's not very efficient to just start from the beginning and write. It's better to try to draft out some sort of plan or point form of what will happen. Now I know a bunch of the classic techniques. Something happens to someone at this page of the script and there is no turning back - so the rest of the film is that forward journey - then the twist etc...

I'm nowhere near figuring that out. I have this idea to try to incorporate Chicago history into this film. I know nothing about that history so I'm doing some research. Very interesting stuff.
There is a theme of disaster, resilience and innovation. And elements - Fire, Flood, Wind. So...needless to say at this point my film has become very big budget and will need a lot of special FX.  Not practical. But it doesn't matter at this point. I just need to find a story.

30 Minutes. 30 Days

30 Minutes. 30 Days.

This is my new project. I began 3 days ago. It's called 30 Minutes. 30 Days.
The idea for this came about when I was feeling down. Feeling like nothing was worth it. A malaise.
What I know about myself is that if I have a creative project then I am just fine. I'm a creative problem solver and doing that makes me feel alive. Throw any challenge at me and I will have 10 ideas within minutes (not all great of course...but sometimes they are!)
So I thought, the only way I can get myself out of this funk is to have a creative challenge. So I made one up.

What if I spent 30 minutes every day for 30 days and tried to create something. Maybe in a skill I had never done before or one that I had some skills in . Why not?
So I thought I would start with my biggest love which is film.
I committed to writing a film script spending 30 minutes every day for 30 days.

So I have begun. Here are some notes on the first 3 days:

Day 1
I downloaded the trial version of Final Draft (the industry standard scriptwriting software - so they say).
I titled my script Castro Castro - thinking I would finally pen that Cuban Political Thriller that has rattled around my head for years. But then something else popped into my head. I wrote the setting for the first scene. Millennium Park Chicago. I have no idea why. I've only been there once before. But I've decided to stick with it. The rest of my 30 minutes was spent reading Wikipedia pages on Millennium Park (that can be a slippery endless slope that can take you off your scriptwriting task. Note taken)

Day 2
I didn't do it! Can you believe it! Only day 2 and I didn't live up to my commitment. I was just too damn tired to sit down at the end of the night and write for 30 minutes. So I went to bed. Luckily characters for the film emerged. I'm not sure if thinking for 30 minutes on this task is within the rules. But I'm making this up so I guess I can make up the rules too.

Day 3
I'm thinking I should do my 30 minutes in the day or morning. First thing. Get it out of the way first so if I'm tired at night I don't feel guilty. I spent 30 minutes at lunch writing out my characters. The damn Final Draft Application then didn't even save my 30 minutes of writing! Can't recover it. So spent another 30 minutes re-writing it in a good old fashion word document.  I already like where my imagination is going. It's like having puzzle pieces in front of you but without the cover of the box to guide you.

Stay tuned for daily updates. I may set up a separate blog for this. But until then....

Jill