Feeling good today

As long as I don't look at the reading list that keeps getting longer on my little post-it note I'm feeling pretty good at the moment.

We did sound in production class this morning and it was interesting to see what he covered. He did a lot more physics that I ever did. But he's also spending a lot more time on sound than I ever had the luxury of. And I liked testing myself to see if I remembered all the physics. (I did.)

Then in screenwriting we reviewed little 1 paragraph story ideas that we'd written. We had to turn in 3 of them last week (see below) and I had an awful time coming up with new ideas. Especially since I'd just used what I considered one of my better ideas for my silent film treatment for our first production project. I ended up reusing that idea, though when I turned it in I admitted that it wasn't new but hadn't been scripted before. I also stole Will and May from Grandpa's Getaways and tried to come up with something for while they were just young. The scripts we'll end up writing for this class are meant to be short so I was trying to think of one sort of interaction between them. And I didn't want to use the Grandpa storyline. That defeats the purpose of the class. Then the last one came from a brainstorming idea with a friend. (Thanks Theres.)

The teacher, Debbie, agreed that the first one was one of my better ideas. In fact she seemed to like it a lot which made me feel great. Came home and called Linda even though I'll be calling her again tomorrow just because I was feeling so good. I think the fact that it's a more grown up story than she's probably used to getting in class helped. But also the fact that I'd been thinking about that story for quite a while, had by that point already written a treatment for it, and had done a lot of visualization for it even if I never wrote it up would have made it the strongest of my entries.

For Fluffy the not dead cat her reaction was (paraphrasing) cute and funny but lacking the depth and breadth I'm probably capable of. That's fair, there's no depth or breadth at all. On the other hand, I've never tried to write anything specifically funny so I think I'm going to keep it in the maybe pile.

Will and May was the weakest in her opinion as well as mine. I was trying to force it too much. Also, I had witnessed an almost interaction between two people in the rose garden in the park and had been trying to figure out what was going on with them (in life a couple weeks ago). So when I needed one more idea I took Will and May and force fit them onto that interaction. It didn't work. And then Debbie said it felt like it was part of a larger story. Which just goes to show, don't take short cuts. But I'm not good at ideas on demand.

Now by Thursday we need to turn in a 1 page synopsis of a story that will become one of our 2 final projects. (Project one 3-5 pages, project two 7-15 pages.) It can be one of the 3 paragraph ideas but can be something new entirely. I just checked and Grandpa's Getaway is 10 pages, but much as I'd love to have her read that and give me feedback I don't think I'll learn as much from turning that in as I would if I start with something less developed. I don't want to do Paul the company man because I'm already shooting that on Thursday. I might do Fluffy if by Wednesday night I haven't decided on something better. I've got a couple of ideas that I toyed with in the past that never went very far that I could try. And also a couple of ideas have started half baking in the last few days. Having been to Salem now I want to write a ghost story. When I had to come up with three ideas on demand I choked and then as soon as I turned in that assignment my brain loosen up and started being more receptive. I've been keeping notes.

-- the paragraphs I turned in --

1) Paul is a company man. Even though he’s not been there long, he takes great pride in working for the company. Until the day comes when the company lays him off. Then he has to fill a box with all of his personal possessions and walk out. He has no desire to come home in the middle of the day to face his wife and kids. When faced with getting on the train to go home he changes his mind and goes to the park. There are no empty benches at the park so he sits next to MJ, an old man doing the crossword puzzle in the newspaper. MJ peeks into the box and tries to make small talk with Paul, but Paul is having none of it. Finally MJ walks off, leaving behind his newspaper. When Paul picks it up he sees that it’s been turned to the employment section. Several entries matching the trade journals in Paul’s box have been circled.

2) It’s late at night when Molly gets on a city bus. It’s not crowded, but there are several people. She takes a seat behind Greg who is talking on his phone. He’s not saying much at first. Alice, an old woman from two rows back, reaches forward and taps Molly on the shoulder, gestures for her to move away from Greg. About that time Greg comes out with “There was a lot of blood, I’m sure she’s dead.” Molly moves. Greg is oblivious to the effect he’s having on those around him. He continues on trying to get advice from the person on the other end of the phone on what to do about the woman he thinks he’s killed. When his stop comes he hangs up, picks up the box that’s at his feet and exits. Everyone on the bus breathes a sigh of relief. On the sidewalk with Greg we hear a miaow come from the box. Overjoyed Greg opens the box and peers in. Fluffy is alive!

3) Will and May have had a fight and May storms out of the apartment in a fury. She’s too angry to be paying attention to where she’s going and when she looks up to realize where she is she laughs. It’s the statue in the rose garden, the place where she and Will met. With a sigh she sits on a bench to cool off. A little while later Will arrives. He sits on a different bench by himself eying up all the other people in the garden. Only when they’re finally alone does Will join May. She’s not done yelling at him. He was reckless. He could have jeopardized the job. He could have gotten hurt. He distracts her with memories of the day they met, the day she was reckless and could have jeopardized the mission. The point of a dead drop is that you don’t ever see each other. But she was sure that she was smart enough to figure out who he was without getting caught. Just like he knew he was strong enough to get away with his escapade earlier today. When in reality they’re both better together than individually.