Nicholl Fellowship

That’s something, I guess

Maximum Z Dreamship, Movie of the Moment, Nicholl Fellowship, outlines, screenwriting, zombies

As I’ve mentioned before, when I do the midday traffic shift, it usually results in some good output.  Something like that happened today.

I’m working my way through the first part of DREAMSHIP’s second act, and was trying to figure out how to approach a sequence from a different perspective. I think I may have reached a solution, so that’s good.

Not so good is a problem just like the one I was having while working on the LUCY outline: what does my antagonist want?  My ScriptQuack comments ask the same thing.  I thought I had an answer to that in previous drafts, but now I’m not so sure.  Once I can figure that out, putting more of this together should be easier – I hope.

I’m doing the midday again tomorrow, and the noon-to-6 shift on Saturday, so here’s hoping those are productive shifts as well.

Movie of the Moment: We started watching THE WALKING DEAD.  Wow.  Great stuff.  I especially like the ever-present feeling of ominous dread.  I’m dating myself, but I like how this is the same station that years ago played nothing but black and white films and their first original series was set in Pittsburgh during the Golden Age of Radio.  My, how times have changed.

There was a trailer for some set-in-space video game or something before it got to the menu page.  It got me thinking: somewhere out there has to be a spec script about zombies in space.  Think about it.  They don’t need air, but that whole vacuum-of-space thing might need a little planning.  The hard part would be to avoid having it come across as too cheesy.

But then again, that could be part of the fun.

Tough, but not impossible

Maximum Z Dreamship, Nicholl Fellowship, outlines, screenwriting

Taking on this rewrite has made me done something I haven’t done in quite a long time.

I am really approaching this with the intent of almost completely starting over from scratch.  The last time something even got near this level of difficulty was when I went through the Chinese restaurant script page-by-page with my then-manager.  But even then the suggestions were “make this funnier” or “tighten this up”.

Using my ScriptQuack notes as a starting point, I’m writing down what scenes I have from a previous draft of DREAMSHIP and changing each one as necessary.  Surprisingly, making those changes may not be as daunting a task as I originally thought.  Still challenging, though.

Hoping to have a more solid first act by week’s end, then once again into the abyss of Act Two.

I have doubts about having a draft I’m satisfied with by the Nicholl deadline, but I’d rather take my time and make this as perfect as possible than rush through it and send in something not good enough.

Ugh.

Maximum Z Dreamship, Nicholl Fellowship, screenwriting

I hardly got any work done on DREAMSHIP today. Just a day in, and I’m already running late.

This cannot continue.  Focus, boy, focus!

Putting a positive spin on this, I was at least able to fill in the plot points.  Not what I was hoping for, but it’s something.

No Movie of the Moment tonight. Inadvertently watched all of RED last night.  Could have been a little shorter, but still fun.

Up next: THE WALKING DEAD, Season One.  K likes zombies, I like Darabont. Everybody wins.

Oh. That.

Maximum Z Nicholl Fellowship, screenwriting
Nicholl winners 2010

No LUCY progress today.  Extended workday.  Too much rain.  Picking up V from school because she has a hockey game.  They say a writer can make time to write, but it ain’t easy when you got a lot of other stuff going on.

I got an email a few days ago from the Nicholl people, officially announcing last year’s winners.  It was a good wake-up call.

It had completely slipped my mind that the deadline is fast approaching (May 2nd). My original goal was to do a rewrite on DREAMSHIP.  I even have the great notes I got from the fine folks at ScriptQuack.

Then the idea for LUCY hit, and I haven’t looked back.  No regrets whatsoever.

But now I’ve got another idea.

I’m still planning on finishing the LUCY outline by the end of next week, which would then give me about a month to work on DREAMSHIP and get it in before the deadline.  It’s doable.

I just have to brush the dust off the DREAMSHIP notes first.