April 8, 2012
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Decisions….decisions…decisions…creative decisions…
Five years ago I wrote a screenplay all about religion, relationships, the ethics of social science research and custom-made boardgames. I did get through the first draft but at the end of it, the thing seemed to have turned into a ponderous train wreck.
A high-speed train wreck filmed in 3D could be wonderful cinema. Dumb perhaps (depending on how we get to the train wreck and what happens next) but at least something that keeps you awake. My screenplay on the other hand just seemed slow-moving, confused and a little pointless.
Wouldn’t those be great review lines on a movie ad?“Slow-moving, confused and pointless.”
- Roger Ebert“Causes one to wonder if the invention of cinema was a good idea after all.”
- Jay Cocks“I’m so glad that I’m dead and don’t have to watch this stupid movie.”
- Pauline KaelThe draft has been sitting there in one of my hard-drives, quietly digitally decomposing, all these years…then two weeks ago my friends at the Film Coop asked if I had any scenes they could shoot for audition reels. This request became incredible fun where I adapted bits of my radio plays into movie scenes. It also made me feel better because I felt like I hadn’t wasted money buying that screenplay format software.
But I wanted to give them something in addition to my SF work — so I ended up looking at the screenplay again. When I started working through some of the scenes, I realized something…I really like this story…and I can see how I might really improve it.
So here I am. Given that I’m over half-way through my life, where do I best invest my time and creative energies? Return to the problematic screenplay (which probably nobody will ever produce)? Or keep hammering away at the latest novel even though my characters are mad at me for some reason and don’t talk to me much (and which probably nobody will ever publish unless I change my name to Ray Bradbury)?
As this blog title says, decisions…decisions…
