Self Observational Sunday: Rewriting Your Life

In about 2 weeks I will be completing my screenplay Describing the Moon. For long time friends and followers you will know that I began working on Describing the Moon in 2004. The script was originally called Evaporated (after my favorite Ben Folds Five song) and it was a very different whiny story.

It stemmed from a statement I made that it was possible to do a Romantic Comedy that ended with the main character not getting the girl but also not be depressing. While I still think this to be true, Evaporated was not the film to prove it. As far the scripts quality there was none to be found. It's hard to really call it the original "Describing the Moon" except for the last 20 pages which was frankly the only good thing in the script.

Next came a Script actually called Describing the Moon. It was written as a short film that stemmed from those last 20 pages. I quickly wanted to expand the story however and created yet another draft which was heavily influenced by Kevin Smith's Clerks and Mallrats. This script found the lead character working at a shop in the local Mall the day before it's officially closing. Once again the last 20 pages was the only decent scene.

The first draft that holds any similarity to script that I'm close to completing wasn't written until 2006. After years of rewrites, at least two false production starts and 8 drafts We finally have a script (co-written with my best friend Jeffery Shropshire) which we are hoping to film in the next year (Get excited for the Kickstarter).

The biggest influence on writing this latest draft was after we joined a local writer's group. Despite 10 years of writing a movie script this was both of our experiences dealing with notes and rewrites. While I used to fear negative opinions and notes on my work I found the experience quite exciting. Besides what is script writing beyond rewriting life?

There's a quote I hear attributed to Alfred Hitchcock that goes long the lines of "Movies are life without the boring parts". To expand on that the appeal to screenplay writing is that it gives me an opportunity to rewrite my own life. I'm able to make it funnier, wittier and end the way I wish it would.

I look forward to being able to let you in on a few things about production as we eventually begin pre-production (probably sometime in July/August).