23:00
Worked most of the night yesterday, rendering and making everything good for the short, then went to bed, having written virtually nothing, and got up this morning to do the sound with a couple of really talented post-graduate students at the RSAMD.
My beautiful girlfriend went away with her Mum to Ullapool this morning - something I was going to be able to do with them until work came along, so we had a lovely drink of ginger ale amongst the morning Glasgow drunks (we saw one staggering around, screaming and slamming into walls, about to be collared by community policemen - at literally 10:30am. And he wasn't the only one).
Got to the place to do the sound and then received a very sad phone call. Someone who I loved very much died today. My Grandfather. He was a kind, interesting and generous man. I mentioned him once before here - he wrote a great little autobiography, and I wanted to turn it into a proper book for him. I wish it had been finished in time, and that I'd been able to give something back to him. I wonder if any of the people we care about know just how much we love them.
The rest of the day has pretty much come and gone. It looks like I'll probably go down to Oxford next week, after my day's filming, and stay there until there's a funeral. So, we'll have to see about what happens in the next little while.
Saturday, 14 March 2009
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
Days 70, 71 and 72
23:21
Hey. It's me. You remember me? Your ol' buddy Cosmo. You know, the one who said he was going to write a screenplay every month, and blog every day? The complete fantasist? Yeah, him.
It's been pretty damned hectic over the last few days. A round-trip Glasgow to London on Tuesday. A day syncing audio and doing effects on Wednesday. Another audio session and more grading today. And within all of it, virtually no time dedicated to writing.
I feel like a total shit-heel.
The momentum for this latest project has been gradually unwinding as I've been concentrating from 18-20 hours a day on the short, which really worries me: I don't want to turn this new project into the kind of fizzled-out hulk that my crusades script is turning into. But I know that, by hook or by crook, on Monday, a version of this damned film will be winging its way to France, and so I should be able to get some respite to concentrate on some writing after that.
Except that I won't, because on Tuesday and Wednesday, I'm filming down South, and then cutting what I've filmed.
But in a week's time, I should be rocking the pen again. So my plan is this: work out the rest of the plot to a point I'm genuinely happy with, keep on playing the situations over and over in my head until they're the most interesting, explosive and dramatically richest I can imagine, and then sit down and start writing the weekend after next.
Hey. It's me. You remember me? Your ol' buddy Cosmo. You know, the one who said he was going to write a screenplay every month, and blog every day? The complete fantasist? Yeah, him.
It's been pretty damned hectic over the last few days. A round-trip Glasgow to London on Tuesday. A day syncing audio and doing effects on Wednesday. Another audio session and more grading today. And within all of it, virtually no time dedicated to writing.
I feel like a total shit-heel.
The momentum for this latest project has been gradually unwinding as I've been concentrating from 18-20 hours a day on the short, which really worries me: I don't want to turn this new project into the kind of fizzled-out hulk that my crusades script is turning into. But I know that, by hook or by crook, on Monday, a version of this damned film will be winging its way to France, and so I should be able to get some respite to concentrate on some writing after that.
Except that I won't, because on Tuesday and Wednesday, I'm filming down South, and then cutting what I've filmed.
But in a week's time, I should be rocking the pen again. So my plan is this: work out the rest of the plot to a point I'm genuinely happy with, keep on playing the situations over and over in my head until they're the most interesting, explosive and dramatically richest I can imagine, and then sit down and start writing the weekend after next.
Monday, 9 March 2009
Day 70
11:15
Woke up and made calls for the last hour - and have the exciting news that we'll be doing the ADR for the film down in London in a proper studio - which means the £115, twelve-hour round trip I'll be doing tomorrow might actually be worth it.
Now I've got to calm myself down and start writing.
17:15
Another studio booked for Glasgow, to do the other ADR work, on Thursday. This is pretty fucking awesome, right here. Big thanks have to go to the gate films, who have very generously arranged all of this - especially Simon Lewis, Sarah Jarvis, and Olivia Clark.
Went to see the two RSAMD students who are helping me with the sound design, and they've done some pretty exciting electro-accoustic work that might mesh really well with the film. We'll be meeting on Wednesday to see a rough version of their sound for the film, and I'm looking forwards to it a lot.
Unfortunately, because of all the meeting and phoning, I haven't had much opportunity to write, but I'm going to get on that in a little while.
00:00
Got to go to bed now: up in five hours. Got virtually no writing done again today, but have hopefully sorted out a massive amount about the short film, which is all good news.
Really tired. Will have over ten hours on the train tommorrow to write. Hopefully I can do some catching up!
word count: 82
hours writing: 0.25
Woke up and made calls for the last hour - and have the exciting news that we'll be doing the ADR for the film down in London in a proper studio - which means the £115, twelve-hour round trip I'll be doing tomorrow might actually be worth it.
Now I've got to calm myself down and start writing.
17:15
Another studio booked for Glasgow, to do the other ADR work, on Thursday. This is pretty fucking awesome, right here. Big thanks have to go to the gate films, who have very generously arranged all of this - especially Simon Lewis, Sarah Jarvis, and Olivia Clark.
Went to see the two RSAMD students who are helping me with the sound design, and they've done some pretty exciting electro-accoustic work that might mesh really well with the film. We'll be meeting on Wednesday to see a rough version of their sound for the film, and I'm looking forwards to it a lot.
Unfortunately, because of all the meeting and phoning, I haven't had much opportunity to write, but I'm going to get on that in a little while.
00:00
Got to go to bed now: up in five hours. Got virtually no writing done again today, but have hopefully sorted out a massive amount about the short film, which is all good news.
Really tired. Will have over ten hours on the train tommorrow to write. Hopefully I can do some catching up!
word count: 82
hours writing: 0.25
Sunday, 8 March 2009
Day 68
19:15
Spoiled a perfectly promising day by sitting down with the playstation while having lunch, and then not getting away from it for another five hours. Got to work out a way to become less of a loser. It's going to be hard. Feel very frustrated with myself, however. I can't seem to force myself to work, but I feel unhappy about not working. It's a bit weird, really.
Looks like I'll be making a whistle-stop tour of London on Tuesday, to record ADR for my short with my friend Ioan Waight. So that'll be an interesting 12 hour, 800 mile round trip. But I tend to get a lot done on trains, when I'm boxed in and don't have any other choices. So it's not a bad thing at all.
03:45
Did a couple of hours writing - acceptable, but not great. Managed to come up with another idea towards the end that will make everything a lot smarter: these little insights really make me think it's worth holding off a few days before you start working to ensure you squeeze everything conceptual you can out of your brain before you start writing the whole thing.
Worked for a hell of a long time on the short, and it looks like it's finally coming together. Actually feeling a little bit excited. Going to bed now.
word count: 806
hours writing: 2.5
Spoiled a perfectly promising day by sitting down with the playstation while having lunch, and then not getting away from it for another five hours. Got to work out a way to become less of a loser. It's going to be hard. Feel very frustrated with myself, however. I can't seem to force myself to work, but I feel unhappy about not working. It's a bit weird, really.
Looks like I'll be making a whistle-stop tour of London on Tuesday, to record ADR for my short with my friend Ioan Waight. So that'll be an interesting 12 hour, 800 mile round trip. But I tend to get a lot done on trains, when I'm boxed in and don't have any other choices. So it's not a bad thing at all.
03:45
Did a couple of hours writing - acceptable, but not great. Managed to come up with another idea towards the end that will make everything a lot smarter: these little insights really make me think it's worth holding off a few days before you start working to ensure you squeeze everything conceptual you can out of your brain before you start writing the whole thing.
Worked for a hell of a long time on the short, and it looks like it's finally coming together. Actually feeling a little bit excited. Going to bed now.
word count: 806
hours writing: 2.5
Saturday, 7 March 2009
Day 67
17:30
Okay, now we're being more honest. Have a lot more work to do on the short, and at the same time, feel the itching sensation to know what happens next to Nico Bellic, my favourite alter-ego.
But no-one ever improved their writing by playing computer games.
02:00
Did marginally better than yesterday: a thousand words, more or less, a couple of hours. Muddling my way through the second half of this new project. I don't want to start too early, like I did with the crusader project, and stump myself by writing a reasonable first act that sets up a middle and end I haven't fully worked out yet.
But it means a lot of staring at the paper and making squiggly diagrams with a sharpie.
We'll see if it pays off. But for now, I'm going to bed.
word count: 1,291
hours writing: 2.25
Okay, now we're being more honest. Have a lot more work to do on the short, and at the same time, feel the itching sensation to know what happens next to Nico Bellic, my favourite alter-ego.
But no-one ever improved their writing by playing computer games.
02:00
Did marginally better than yesterday: a thousand words, more or less, a couple of hours. Muddling my way through the second half of this new project. I don't want to start too early, like I did with the crusader project, and stump myself by writing a reasonable first act that sets up a middle and end I haven't fully worked out yet.
But it means a lot of staring at the paper and making squiggly diagrams with a sharpie.
We'll see if it pays off. But for now, I'm going to bed.
word count: 1,291
hours writing: 2.25
Friday, 6 March 2009
Day 66
23:00
Okay, I've got an admission to make. I'm not writing this on Friday at all. I'm writing this half-way through Saturday. Because I'm a no-good asshole who fired up his blog yesterday, wrote down the time and then spent the whole of the day changing and rendering new shots for my short film. And I spent the time waiting for things to finish - when I could have been scribbling notes down for my project - playing Grand Theft Auto IV. Like a complete loser.
I worked on the short until about 3:30am. And it's still no good.
But I'm going to stop pretending I'm writing a blog post from yesterday and admit which day it is.
word count: 49
hours writing: 0.25
Okay, I've got an admission to make. I'm not writing this on Friday at all. I'm writing this half-way through Saturday. Because I'm a no-good asshole who fired up his blog yesterday, wrote down the time and then spent the whole of the day changing and rendering new shots for my short film. And I spent the time waiting for things to finish - when I could have been scribbling notes down for my project - playing Grand Theft Auto IV. Like a complete loser.
I worked on the short until about 3:30am. And it's still no good.
But I'm going to stop pretending I'm writing a blog post from yesterday and admit which day it is.
word count: 49
hours writing: 0.25
Thursday, 5 March 2009
Day 65
13:00
Got up, made some calls and did half an hour's exercise at the gymn.
Having achieved so much, thinking about going back to bed.
01:30
Finished off the revisions, spent an hour back on the new project. It's going okay - the writing's a little poorer than I thought, but then it always is.
On a mad whim submitted my short film to Cannes. This means I have a week to finish it off before the deadline. But what the hell - I had no idea you could apply so late - it's a one in a thousand shot, but why not?
Will be back to the play tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be able to do some more play. I'll also have to spend time on the short - and possibly organizing a trip down to London for next week to dub the bloody thing. Oh well. Living on a pipe dream is a hell of a lot better than living in a depressive funk.
word count: 445
hours writing: 4.5
Got up, made some calls and did half an hour's exercise at the gymn.
Having achieved so much, thinking about going back to bed.
01:30
Finished off the revisions, spent an hour back on the new project. It's going okay - the writing's a little poorer than I thought, but then it always is.
On a mad whim submitted my short film to Cannes. This means I have a week to finish it off before the deadline. But what the hell - I had no idea you could apply so late - it's a one in a thousand shot, but why not?
Will be back to the play tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be able to do some more play. I'll also have to spend time on the short - and possibly organizing a trip down to London for next week to dub the bloody thing. Oh well. Living on a pipe dream is a hell of a lot better than living in a depressive funk.
word count: 445
hours writing: 4.5
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