Screenwriting Journal May 17, 2023
Screenwriting journal: Writing the Galactic Riff screenplay was a bitch. It was really difficult. That one felt like I had a whole bunch of pieces that I was trying to attach, but the joiners didn't match perfectly so I had to really mash them together in a lot of places. The one I'm working on now is totally different. I did the three act, 40 scene, 'Save the Cat' story breakdown for it back when I first had the idea. Now writing it feels like I'm watching the movie in my head. I can make it go forwards and backwards and I just transcribe what I'm watching. And when I can't get it to go any further forward, that's how I know I don't have the beat yet. So I get on Loomo and go riding around, talking out the 'why' of the situation into Google docs until it starts turning into a description of action and dialog. Then I talk out the scene until I can't get it to go any further. Back to the computer to transcribe the note on my phone into the screenplay in Final Draft. I originally came up with this idea 5 years ago as a project for my YouTube regulars. As a period piece with a fairly large cast of characters, I put the idea on backburner when lockdowns came into place, and tried to come up with other things to work on. The idea only occurred to me last weekend that if I return to my original idea, and fictionalize it instead of directly basing it on true events, then it doesn't need to be a period piece. It mostly takes place in offices and on street corners so at that point there's no technical hurdles in the way of making it immediately. I've written 50 pages of a first draft since Monday morning, and hoping that after the movie is made I'll have a great story about how I wrote the screenplay in a week. I'm writing this as I'm taking a break to update social media, now I'm going to make a reel announcing that the Pick Up Rhymes official video is out. I'm already thinking ahead to when Z. Thrillington does the end credits song for the movie, and how dope that music video will be. And that's the update from the side of the mountain.
