The first day of my challenge. I must say I feel like a productivity machine right now. I had a four hour delivery shift this morning at work delivering food to self isolating households. After which I joined a series of different zoom calls before tackling my first script. The final result? Questionable. (It is attached at the bottom if you want to read it first.)
I thought for quite a while about what the story should be. At work today I spent a lot of my shift really needing to wee. It just seemed that between each of my 20 deliveries there was no where possible to stop. Any cafe's that were open would certainly not let me in due to social distancing. Likewise with any of the people I delivered to. I can't imagine I would be too pleased to welcome a delivery man into my home (my parents home) to use the bathroom during a virus pandemic.
Though I was in distress needing the toilet I did see the very funny side of it and I thought, 'hey, this could be a fun script. A delivery driver who needs a wee'. But no. In theory its sort of funny but in practice I think it would prove to be a immature start to all of this. However, this theme of needing to pee persisted for some reason and my next idea was to draw upon an experience I had when I was in a play at University. The Effect by Lucy Prebble. A play about a drug trial and the romance between the trialists. I played the main Doctor overseeing it. It's an intense play. Intense amateur theatre will get your heart racing. Anyway, a member of the audience confused the door to the dressing room with the door to an exit to go to the toilet (mid performance). It was hilarious. I thought again this would be a funny short. But again, I thought it best not to start in this way. I want to try and write about concepts deeper than just needing to wee. Being a member of the Baha'i Faith I certainly do not have a shortage of profound concepts to draw upon to inspire a story. However, I found (and you'll see) this is easier said than done.
The first script is about a magpie who has lost one of his wings and is now unable to fly. He stands on the edge of a cliff and will attempt a one winged flight. I was able to write it in about just under two hours or so, maybe less. Definitely not enough time to create a masterpiece. But then I guess that is not the point of doing this. These will be first and only drafts after all.
I wanted to write about equality. The quotation that inspired me was written by a prominent figure in the Baha'i Faith, 'Abdu'l-Baha, the son of the Prophet Baha'u'llah. He said, "the world of humanity has two wings - one is women and the other is men... Not until both wings are equally developed can the bird fly. Should one remain weak, flight is impossible". Now, as I said, translating a profound concept and image like this into a short film is much easier said than done. I told my mother about the script and the story after I finished. She is a Psychosynthesis counsellor and teased that my ending sounded more like two wounded individuals seeking a codependent relationship instead of anything about trying to find equality. I definitely see her point. I tried. But, I think thats what this is all about.
The writing itself wasn't too challenging I guess. Usually I like to plan out my scripts a lot. Think about the wants/needs of each character etc. But with this I just tried to trust and see if I could do that without needing to extensively plan. Adding subtext is/was something I've always struggled with. It's hard. I found that often the characters were saying too much about what they were thinking. What I understand is that the key to good writing is being able to avoid this. Another magpie appears in the story by the way, lets see if you get what I did there. The background characters in this story I am unsure of. The only function they serve really is for a bit of humour. Maybe that is enough for a short. But then again, character is so important to any story and to be honest I don't know how developed any of the characters presented in this story really are. Something to think about for the next one. I am already looking forward to tomorrow and having a new story to tell. I have no idea what its going to be about. Maybe a guy who really needs to pee.
Also... I bit the bullet and bought final draft for £65. Thought it might add some tension.
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