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Help Make My Film Production Journal Entry - August 22, 2003

 I had a guy respond to a posting I made on a www.foreignfilm.com message board and I thought I'd share it with you all. I've been posting on message boards to get the word out about what I'm doing (no advertising budget,  so gotta do something right?). I figure there are other people who might  be wondering the same thing...

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 (from groom_daniel):

I really admire your initiative. I'm an MA student majoring in scriptwriting,  and I was wondering what draft you're up to in your rewrite? I hope your  film gets made. I'll try to denote some money.

 (from evannblack):

That would be rewrite 10+. I stopped counting after 10. I've done a lot  of work to refine the script and make every scene mean something. I''ve  also made the script in so many variations with the end result different  each time.

 The last rewrite that I did though was the one where I knew I was on the  right track. The original 1st draft script went from a "Mahogany"  type story to more of a "Leaving Las Vegas" feel. I'm sure you  can imagine how many scripts were in between. Everytime you rework a script,  you usually find new elements that you could never have seen in the first  draft. I know once I'm done with this rewrite, I will be tweaking until  we shoot but this is the complete story now. I don't feel like I''m missing  something, I just feel 100% confident in what I have. I never felt like  that before with this project.

 Good luck at MA. As an actress I always had a lot of respect for the writers  but since I started writing my own projects, that respect has grown 10-fold.   People mistake the director as being the heart of a good film but they're  wrong.  Any great film starts with the script. There are plenty of  great directors but if the script is awful, there is nothing anyone can  do (director, actors, or even special effects) to salvage the film (ie.  Jurassic Park II).

 Keep track of what's going on and tell your friends. The more support I  get helps the momentum. And if you've ever worked on an independent set  before, you know all you have to lean on are the people helping you.

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I'm also sharing this post with you because some people don't realize that  it takes a long time to develop a script. This script was the very first  feature film length script that I had ever written (I've written a few  more since then) but the writing doesn't stop after the first or second  draft. At least it doesn't if you care about what you're writing. I am  a bit of a perfectionist although I've learned when to adapt when something  is less than perfect. (I used to do event-planning and trust me perfection  is a dirty word when planning any event - especially weddings ugh). So  for me, I wouldn't go to these lengths to get this project made if I didn't  truly believe what I have is great.

 But that's all for today. I have more rewriting to do after I spend an  hour practicing my rollerblading -- I'm preparing for the first stunt.  I have to make sure I don't kill myself or look like a complete idiot when  I do it.

- Evann Black