The Page Generation Machine

Last night I sketched and diagrammed and played with Linda's idea that I had to move a rather major plot point. I was up until 1:30am, trying to outline and watching The Glimmer Man, one of the most vile action movies I've ever seen. I had actually heard good reviews of this movie, but they must have been from disturbed, lonely individuals.

I woke up in the morning and went right back to work. Type anything, I thought. Bring in Martians if you have to, but finish this goddamn thing.

The end of Act 2, in the traditional 3 Act structure, signals the point at which the main character is the furthest away from where he or she will be at the end of Act 3 (the end of the movie). So, if your movie is ending happily, you want the main character to have his or her Darkest Hour, often near death or seeing or being told about the death of a Loved One; if the movie ends unhappily, the main character is the closest to attaining the Goal. To wit:

1. Star Wars: the Empire has found out where the Rebel Alliance is hiding, things are looking grim.
2. Notorious: Ingrid realizes that she's being poisoned and that Cary Grant doesn't love her. Things looks pretty damn bleak.
3. The Remains of the Day: at the end of Act 2, Stevens has decided he's going to do what he should have done 20 years with Miss Kenton. Things are looking up for him, finally. You know right then that everything's headed downhill, and he's not going to say anything, and he's going to end up alone. Sorry if I've ruined it for you.
4. the :45 minute break of any hour drama show--the lowest point, the body is found, the unearthly force gets prominence (X-Files).

This is such a strong formula that when we went to see The Man In The Iron Mask and I had to go to the bathroom really bad, I stayed in my seat...until I realized, We haven't even reached the end of Act 2 yet, I'm not going to make it...so I got up. (Just to tell you how fascinating that movie was.)

Anyhow, so I sat at my desk from 9 on yesterday, trying to think of something, and finally I said, okay, what's the worst thing that can happen to my main character emotionally, since I can't quite seem to kill anyone here. So I wrote that--and I was able to do only one pass on those scenes, because I had to get it done.

I finished the draft around 2:30pm and went through it quickly trying to patch up the obvious holes. I printed, stuck it in an envelope, and ran to the post office to send it into the Nicholl Fellowship competition. So now I have 2 scripts in there this year, as opposed to last year's grand total of 0. (See what a difference a year can make?)

And boy, am I tired. It's a good thing I'm a page generation machine, no?

I'm going to give myself a few days before printing it out again (I didn't have time to make copies from the one I printed before running to the PO) and having Darin and Linda read this draft. And make changes to it before the Austin Heart of Film Festival deadline, which is May 15.

But now all the major deadlines are over. I can't believe it. I never thought I'd make it to May 1, and here I am.

Workers of the world, take a nap.

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

Yesterday: 5.3 miles.

Today: 5.3 miles.