Lunch And Screenplays

I had lunch today at the cafe with Paul, Claire, Andy R, Sian, Bryn, Ruth, JTA, Liz, Hayley, and Jon, for the first public scrutiny of the script for The Film. As Production Coordinator (and Assistant Director), I’ll be keeping Paul and The Cast from killing one another. Or, at least, keep the former from killing the latter.

The good bits:

• The script, given a few tweaks, rocks. We’ve got a lesbian sex scene, a body mutilated by a train, a fire, beer, bad movies…
• With only a few exceptions, the cast and crew are highly motivated, despite (a) a delayed start to this point, which eats away at filming time, and (b) some of them having worked with each other before, and therefore knowing why they wouldn’t want to.
• The project remains ambitious, but this afternoon’s meeting makes me a little more confident that it can all be done.
• Did I mention that the script rocks?

The bad bits:

• I’m concerned by the balance of the complexity of the plot over the projected length of the film – can we realistically express all the things we want to in as short a time as we need to?
• Some of these characters will be hard to portray in a believable and likable way, particularly by cast members who have little or no experience of the performing arts.
• We’re still missing some key equipment, we haven’t contacted our proposed sponsors, and I’m only marginally closer to having everything I need to ensure a filming plan gets put together.
• There’s a particular couple of scenes that I think are vague and wooly, and will need some work.

So; it’s all coming together at last – given some time, space, and weather, we’ll be able to start filming next week, or even this weekend. I’ll be keeping tabs on progress on here, for those who are interested, and giving a couple of hints about what to expect, when… but only Troma Night folks will have access to the film plan and associated discussions. So, if you should have access and you don’t – sort out your Troma Night account now!