Final Call

1 Day To Go Before DAY ONE

These last three days are whizzing by so quickly I feel like throwing up. Yesterday (Sunday), I had the key members of the production team come over for a lunch meeting here at home. We went through all the departments' concerns for the last time before we started grinding. I slept late last night so that I'd be up early with little sleep for my meeting with the entire post production team this morning. Together with my Post Production Supervisor, Director of Photography and Producer, we met with the staff from the post production house and the sound people.

After a quick stop at the bank, I dropped off my producer and picked up three of our regularly contracted builders to help my Production Designer in his preparation for tomorrow's shoot. We went to the location and I gave the PD, Location Manager and Production Manager last minute instructions. It also gave me an opportunity me to brush up on some of my plans for the sequences scheduled for tomorrow and quickly come up with solutions to problems that I just started realizing then. Finally, I went home and wrote in my blog. (More on all of these recent events in my succeeding blogs...)

After the Fuji people come by to hand me the cans of negative for tomorrow, I will go to my bedroom, sink into my mattress and wake up invigorated for my next day's shoot. That's why I wanted to have little sleep last night. I wanted to be so tired it would overcome my brain's penchant for stressful over-thinking. I want to have a good, satisfying visit to the land of nod.

Checking in for the last time!

When you see me next, the countdown has stopped.

Today

3 Days To Go Before DAY ONE

Today, I finished my shot list for Day 1.

Today, I met our new PM, real eager, really diligent and really committed.

Today, I also had my story con with two my lead actresses.

It's a tiring but productive day. In a few hours, we will have our first full production meeting with ALL the staff and crew, our last before Day One.

There's no knowing what's in store every new day, so let me relish this one before it ends :)

A Hole In The Hull

4 Days To Go Before DAY ONE

Last night, my producer texted me saying that our Production Manager had finally decided to drop out of the project completely.

Earlier in the day, the PM, getting support from our AD, talked to our producer, lobbying to push our grind date to one week after the original date (which is only four days from now), and scheduling some of the days after May 10. This was at around 2 in the morning, after our three-hour production meeting. The PM and AD thought that five days to prepare were not enough, and they also wanted to buy me time to prepare more. My producer called me at around 3.30AM to ask me what I thought about it

I told her that my biggest concern in aiming for the last week of April to the first week of May was because I wanted to shoot before the elections on May 10. I was concerned that the volatile political climate might develop into the crisis that many are anticipating because of the uncertainty and insecurity of the first automated national elections. I didn't want the production to be caught in the midst of that possible turmoil, so I thought finishing the shoot before that would at least protect and relax the status of the film. The post-production, which would be confined in the four walls of the editing suite, is more likely to be immune from all that.

My other concern, upon hearing this new proposal, was the availability of all the cast and crew who signed up to help the film. It's been a tremendous struggle getting actors and syncing everyone's availability. I reckoned getting everyone to agree on new dates - after the elections! - would run into the same problems we did before. Still, I told my producer that if everyone can get all the schedules synchronized again, then I'd be okay with it. That burden wouldn't fall on my shoulders after all. It's the PM and Location Manager and Talent Coordinator who will deal with that.

Before putting down the phone, I told my producer that I'm okay with the new plan if they can guarantee it will be sorted out. I assured them that five days were enough for me to prepare. I said that if I felt like it wasn't, I'd be the first to tell the whole staff that it is indeed too soon. Still, much as I would still rather avoid shooting after the elections, I wouldn't rally an army to charge into battle after they have expressed valid anxieties. So I tried to look at the bright side and thought that at least I'd be able to get more time to prepare - as the director, that is. For one, I've yet to finish my shot list... (Blogging around isn't really helping, is it?).

If any thing, the only thing that bothered me is why it wasn't brought up during the production meeting while I was there. We went through all the trouble of outlining tasks, setting deadlines and finalizing schedules only to be faced with this radical suggestion that threatened to disregard all that work only a few hours before.

When I woke up the following morning, I read a text from my producer saying that our TC was also against the idea of postponing the shoot. Like what I said, she didn't think it would be that easy getting people to say yes to new dates. In retrospect, I also thought that such last minute changes would also seem very unprofessional and ran the risk of some of my staff and actors bailing out on the project completely. I said I was fine with the original schedule anyway, so it's just business as usual.

Later that evening, that's when my producer texted me to tell me that our PM has finally dropped out of the project completely. My producer assured me that the PM has found a replacement and that they were in fact meeting that very moment to turn over the work load properly and comprehensively. This was the same PM who's been MIA the previous weeks and had promised to make it up here onwards.

I felt de-boned. I expressed my disappointment to my producer, saying that I can understand that the PM was busy and this was probably the best thing to do, but she could've been honest about it and we could've already accommodated this major watershed during the production meeting. We could've invited the replacement PM into our third meeting so she could have been thoroughly introduced to and updated on the status of the project.

All this, with only four days left before Day One. It's like paddling a boat with a hole in the hull, with the shore in sight. If I paddled faster and frantically, maybe I'll make it to land safe and dry.

The Countdown Begins

6 Days To Go before DAY ONE

With less than a week to go before Day 1 of the shoot, I'm overwhelmed with the all-too-familiar agitation of the previous weeks.


NEW ROUND OF MARKETING

In my desperation, I texted our consultant for ideas on who to approach for more funding and what new strategy we can pursue to address this huge hiccup (of not having money as we go into production). She gave me four pieces of advice: 1) write and send out letters asking for cash sponsorship; 2) ask my former boss if the company can lend me film equipment; 3) review the budget and cut down on the professional fees; 4) shift to video.

They all make sense, but I'm disinclined to follow any of them. I'm probably being stubborn, and stupid, but I feel like those aren't real options. Except maybe for the last one.

First, I think it's a late to be sending out letters soliciting cash donations to the production. While it's probably the fastest and most viable way of amassing money, it also requires a lot of time and personal effort, things I can't afford at this point in time. If I wanted to go this route, I should've started it much earlier or scheduled my shoot much later. Because it's asking money from private individuals, I will need to approach people I know personally, or I will at least need to make a list of potential donors from which a marketing team can work on. Like I said, I don't have time to do that this late in the game.

I'm even less hopeful about asking my former employer to sponsor our equipment this close to the production. It's too short a notice, with only six days before the first shooting day. Neither is it likely that the equipment is free as they surely have ongoing productions, this being the middle of a business year (and fresh off the long Holy Week holidays). This was also something that needed earlier consideration. I'm a bit miffed that we didn't pursue this before. I admit I didn't take this up myself but that was because I was prioritizing other prospects - like approaching corporations and organizations. I was hoping that our consultant could have made inquiries on my behalf instead of just sending names and numbers my way, expecting me to do all the work. I guess it's the natural consequence of a small production like this. They expect me as the producer, writer and director to do everything, which is simply not possible.

About bringing down the budget by cutting down professional fees, we were already conscious about this going into pre-production. All the people we approached with promises of talent fees already reduced their normal rates in consideration of the production. Most of their fees have actually been further reduced from the rates they first asked for. I think it's unfair to further reduce their rates after they've already put in work for the film.


SHIFTING FROM FILM TO HD

That leaves one last viable suggestion from our production consultant:

That we shift from shooting on 35mm to shooting on HD.

I'm not sure I'd be happy doing that, not after all this planning. Like I keep saying, it's too drastic a decision this close to the shoot. Besides, all it really does its cut down on the budget but it still doesn't solve the problem that there isn't any budget to begin with. Or so I'd like to think.

I don't really want to dwell on this too much cause I know that all things considered, shifting to HD isn't all too bad. It does make a lot of sense. All that's really stopping me from doing this is my insistence to shoot on 35mm. It's purely personal and selfish, but I'm not reneging on that.

So instead of taking any of those suggestions, I'm trying to be optimistic about finding funding within the next 4 weekdays prior to the shoot. I thought I was done with all the marketing woes that pervaded preprod weeks -1 and -2, but here I am writing letters and making calls again. Whereas it took time away from my revisions before, it's now distracting me from completing my shot list (yet here I am writing a blog instead of doing real work for the film, haha!).

Stupid, I know. But I don't want to compromise this film's ambition. So instead of cutting corners or taking the easy way out, I'm choosing the rougher path lit by a flickering torch. It's inauspicious, but I'm choosing to have faith that it will all work out.


CASTING SNAG

Because of all the setbacks from the production, like securing locations, we've moved back a lot of the scheduled meetings. We were supposed to have our story conference last Saturday but we moved it to yesterday, which has since then been moved to an indefinite date.

We also planned a production meeting with all the staff and crew, but since there remains uncertainty regarding the locations, we decided to push that back too.

Thankfully, most of the parts have been cast. The only parts left are nly bit players and one major part - it just happens to be the male lead's. Although this character's scenes are scheduled for only one day and on Day 3, which is one week after the first shooting day, it's still a cause for concern. Hopefully, I come up with a brilliant casting idea within the day.


FRIENDS

It's a good thing my friends are there for support. In my clamber out of this terrible pit I find myself in, numerous pals have come to my aid, giving me leads to new companies and agencies I hope to hit up, some even asking around on my behalf.

***

I hope this optimism and blind faith does me some good. Only six more days to go. I can hear the clock ticking down resoundingly.

1-2 Punch

Right after the auditions held in our primary location today, we had a production meeting. It was the first time we were able to meet with our Production Manager cause she skipped last Monday's meeting. Also present were my producer, Assistant Director and Location Manager.

I was actually content with the kids that turned up for the auditions. Although only fifteen students came, some of them showed enough potential and we were optimistic we could cast some of them for significant parts in the film. There are lots of bit parts that needed to be filled and it was to our advantage if they all came from the school where we were going to shoot. It would take care of problems regarding costumes.

That optimism was quickly doused during the prod meeting.

I immediately called attention to the fact that out of the 40 students we were expecting (I was even told it might reach 50), only 15 arrived. I didn't mind that they were that few. In fact, I don't think we had time or we would have been able to accommodate 50. I didn't expect all of them to come, but I didn't think they would not even reach half the expected number.

It made me concerned about the coming shoot. I've been hot on my staff's case about securing these students' commitment because I already anticipated that they might lose interest and decide to not show up. That it's already happening this early is a really bad sign. Our Location Manager was in charge of all this, and whenever I would ask her if she's confident about these kids, she would always say yes. I know it's beyond her official function, but I entrusted it to her because she was the one who gathered their names and contact details while location hunting.

I stressed the importance of securing enough talents on the day of the shoot. At the moment, everything is hinged on that because even if we the principal cast members were there, we wouldn't be able to create a credible school scene with only a handful of students.

As we carried on to review the shooting breakdown, more problems arose. In trying to work out a more efficient schedule, I discussed the possibility of adding a third day on our school location. Our LM said it depended on whether we could afford it. When asked how much that would be, she said that they haven't confirmed it with the Division Superintendent yet.

I was surprised cause I was under the impression that that there were only two more locations that we needed to secure. It was only today it became clear that we haven't secured our main location - our location for two of our four shooting days. With only one week left, and with the person who can give us permission still missing in action, things are looking dire.

My producer and I spent the remainder of the meeting lecturing them about the seriousness of our dilemma. We rescheduled Day 1 of our shoot which was originally locked on April 24, Saturday. We sorted out scheduling conflicts with our actors as we figured out viable alternative dates. We also reset the major production meeting that included the post production people. We tried to come up with better strategies for securing bit players, particularly the students.

I was ready to pull my hair out.

I felt really bad being so hard on my Location Manager, but I needed to get my point across. To be fair to her, she was inexperienced in this job, and a lot of her tasks were not really incumbent on a location manager. It was primarily the Production Manager's responsibility, but because our PM has been missing in action, my Producer and LM have been covering for her.

So we closed that meeting with me feeling slightly more optimistic... only to come home and find out that we have been declined by our last hope for sponsorship. Our production accountant forwarded to me and my producer an email from the government agency we were contacting. In it, they simply said that they have terminated the subsidy program we were applying for, and that they can instead offer help in processing work permits and like documents.

Talk about a knock out.

A Break

Thank you God, for giving me a break.

Today, my London account was credited with £1,342.81!

That's how much money I lost to fraudulent direct debits from my account. How that happened in the first place, I still don't know, but I'm sure glad I found out about it before it got much worse. (rest of this story)

Something to lift my spirit up amid the chaos of grad film preprod :)

You Win Some, You Lose Some

Early in the morning, my producer texted me that we needed to go to our post production house to close the deal with them.

Talking to this post prod house was one of the first things that I did when I arrived. They're the best in the business (in the Philippines) and I was really hoping that despite that, we'd be able to make them take pity on us and give us a good deal for colour grading. I would never even dare think of approaching them if not upon the suggestion of a good friend of mine who worked for this post house's sister company (which is, incidentally, a film production company competing with my former employer).

My friend did some ringing up and I ended up talking to no less than the head of operations. He was very friendly and very nice. Made me feel at ease right off. He asked me to pitch the story over the phone and then gave me assurances that he'll give us a generous quote. Within an hour of that conversation, I was talking to the head of sales and we were making arrangements for a meeting.

After my producer and I met with the head of sales for the first time, we received a quote from them. She gave us two options - one that packaged film processing, telecine, offline edit, colour grading and dub out of the final format, and another that excluded the offline edit. Both prices were still quite expensive relative to the size of our coffers. My producer, being more experienced than I, assured me that it's actually still quite cheap. She tried to check how much a lesser known post prod house would charge us, and it ended up being more expensive than this quote given to us. Needless to say, I was happy with it. I gave the green light and said that we'll be doing the entire post production with them.

Following yesterday's production meeting, my producer contacted the post prod house to close the deal, but not before asking for further discounts - just for the heck of it. Lo and behold, the post house slashed a further 16% of the original, already-cheap-quote for the full post production package.

Woot!

So we went to the post house and finalized the deal. We gave them a copy of the second draft and they clarified some things regarding the creative requirements of the project. They also gave us some reminders regarding the time table and asked who our sound recordists would be (it turned out that they have an existing relationship with the company doing our sound - and they're quite happy working with them). Within one hour, the meeting was done and we were all walking away feeling quite optimistic with the partnership.

On our way there, however, my producer told me about the lack of response from this corporation we were approaching for sponsorship. She said that it might be worth trying that I contacted the contact person myself, since he was acting sycophantically during our meeting. This guy hasn't been responding to her texts, apparently, and she's been trying for four days already. She gave me his number and I texted him while we were on the road.

As my producer had hoped, he replied.

He said that their company still felt like the packages we created for them were too expensive.

I was deflated. I was hoping that they would at least talk to us about it rather than categorically make a decision over text.

I replied courteously, saying that if they still wanted to discuss it, they need only to tell us and we'll make time for it. Though to be quite honest, I think that ship has sailed.

There it is. Our best hope for funding is gone. They would've covered for about 50% of our expenditures, had that been successful.

So yeah. It is a bittersweet day. Talk about peaks and lows (as the masthead declared).

I hope I had enough enthusiasm at this moment to dwell on the good instead of the bad, but right now, I can't help but wish that if we truly can't have it all, I'd rather we lost where we won and won where we lost.

The Universe Makes It Up - Preprod Meeting #2

I should know better than to write impulsively (but then what's the use of an online journal?  baka pang-twitter lang talaga ako, haha).

Last night, despite the frustration and lingering strain of my financial catastrophe, the universe seemed to have made it up (not entirely, mind you) by gifting me with a productive production meeting with my staff and crew.

It was a huge boost amid all the uncertainties, insecurity attacks and personal problems that have plagued me in the last few days. Not all the members of the staff were there, but it was attended by our producer, production designer, post production supervisor, location manager, our art director and our continuity supervisor who got promoted to assistant director. I only met the last two for the first time last night.

The meeting was quite productive. My producer has been giving me regular updates on the development, but I'm always reacting to her questions and texts, and they come sporadically, so it was refreshing to have a sweep of all the major developments so far. Of course, with that came a run down of things that we have yet to accomplish and existing problems, but that all kept us on our toes and aware of the need for urgency. For example:

• We have completed most of the cast, except for the three main characters. Kumusta naman, yung main pa, hahaha... Our talent coordinator have been working hardest on that but these actors, they're just so hard to nab. Getting straight and definite answers was a challenge that our top picks all said no at the expense of time. It definitely stretched my knowledge of local showbusiness. I had to keep up to date in order to know who my options are. It was also an exercise in resourcefulness. I ended up thinking out of the box and considering people who I would never consider for the parts in the script.
  
  
• All the locations, save for one, have been locked. That was what the location manager thought, until questions about logistics started to arise and it became apparent that there were still a couple of details that needed ironing regarding some of the locations. Like the street for one of the bar scenes. It is located in a busy area and although we are shooting in the evening to late at night, we have a long scene at the façade of the bar, and traffic will definitely be a problem. She said there are no rerouting options - but what we really needed is to know if it is possible and if not, what our alternative plan will be.
  
  
• My very organized production designer had anticipated most of the requirements and his biggest consideration now is wardrobe. The expenses will definitely get bloated if we ended up planting actors among the extras that we will be getting from the location itself. When he raised that, I suggested that he come up with a costing projection that would allow us to know how much more expensive it would be if we went with more planted actors or if we just assigned speaking roles to the extras (which was less reliable considering we have less control on acting talent than wardrobe). It was the same thing I said about some of the problems regarding location, where we are unable to close deals on certain locations because our LM was not sure how she would respond to the locations' concerns. It was a crash course on production management, but the crew are slowly getting the hang of it.
  
  
• We also discussed some production design issues with regard to the locations. We had to fake many of the rooms in the school we're shooting at to function as per the script's requirement. The PD also brought attention on the last scene, a very crucial one, and said that there's no viable option for it in the school. That added one more problem for our location manager to resolve, but it's good that we caught it early on. I was already aware of it during my writing, but I keep forgetting to raise it. That scenario proves how important it is that you have a good team who do their jobs well and with genuine dedication - because those who do will be your asset in making sure you don't miss out on anything important. Only then do I get the space to focus on my own job as director.
  
  
• Preproduction has been so overwhelming that we tend to overlook post during meetings. I asked our producer if she already sealed the deal with our post production sponsor. She said she'll do it tomorrow (which is today - update on this later). When the meeting was done, I asked our post production supervisor if he had any concerns and if there was anything he could start working on. It's a good thing that he has a lot of initiative. He said he already asked our producer about some of his worries. He updated her about his correspondence with the film stock companies, and the two of them were able to talk about details for the sound recording. It was only on our way to meet another friend who agreed to be second AD for us that I remembered to have him take charge of finalizing the stock requirement for the shoot. He agreed to coordinate with our DP on that, soon as our DP visits the locations. Our post prod super even took on some of the minor tasks, like coordinating with our college org to sign up some volunteers to act as PA's.
  
  
• Our LM mentioned that one of our friends from work was interested in helping out, whether as script continuity or editor. Our script continuity was there with us, so I told our LM that that position's been filled but our friend is welcome to help out in other ways. That's when our producer and the original script con thought that since we're still looking for an AD, our original script con can fill up that job and our friend could come on board as the new script continuity. That worked out quite well. I had a good feeling about our new AD upon our first meeting, so that's one problem resolved quickly and quite unexpectedly. My new AD immediately proceeded to taking down notes during the meeting and promised to do her breakdown of the script the following day. That's such a relief because I've been scheduling that in my schedule, now I can delegate it and I can focus on other things that only I can do as the director.
  
  
• We proceeded to do a scene-by-scene of the script. It gave me the chance to see how many bit players were required and therefore gave me the production team a picture of the challenges that would arise during the shoot. Like making full use of the volunteer extras, how many would be required per scene, how much more needed to be signed up, etc. How many of many of my friends will I have to ask to come? It also gave me the chance to discuss some of my vision for the scenes as well as my ideas for other aspects of production - like production design. We raised issues of nudity for the actors ("we might show the curve of the thigh..."), possible use of body doubles ("you mean we have that as an option?"), and make up ("does make up of a bruise rub off easily when scrubbed?").
  
  
• Having listed down the things that have yet to be accomplished in the different departments, we were able to set deadlines for them and impress upon everyone the need for utmost urgency. By Friday of this week, April 16, we hope to lock location and casting. We've planned for an ocular visit with the DP, PD and other staff on Wednesday or Thursday, a reading with one of our possible leads on Wednesday evening, casting of bit parts for the student on Friday, set dates for fitting (wardrobe), reading/rehearsals with actors, and most importantly, we have now specific dates for the shoot. Pending schedule availability of the main actors, we will more or less be pushing through with shooting on these dates.
  
  
• Marketing. We have yet to meet with this company we're targeting after sending a sponsorship package. We have yet to send the requirements for this other organization who might provide us subsidies for some of the production expenses. I have yet to get the production allowance from the school. We have no money. Period. That ought to say it all.

Despite a run down of so many problems, I realized that I actually do have a great team behind me. The amount of work to be done is unbelievable even though this is a short film of modest proportions (maybe not so modest, but still a far cry from a full-length project). It was exciting to be in the middle of all that. Going by that, it sorta confirms that I'm in a place where I ought to be.

The Universe Makes It Personal

As if my problems weren't enough, I got a call from my London bank last night saying that my account is a few hundred quid overdrawn. I haven't even used my debit card for one month now!

I tried to clear things up and, long story short, I found out that my account has been consistently haemorrhaging money for a more than a year now, paying up fraudulent transactions I didn't make.

As if my problems weren't enough.

All that money lost could've financed a fifth of my budget, at least. The budget that I have yet to complete. This is just the worst time to be worrying about this. The universe just made it personal! At least that's how it feels. When you're making a film, the line between professional and personal life disappears. Everything is personal.

Second Draft Feedback

The email to which I've attached the new draft of my script bore the request for my producers to give me feedback AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

It was unfair for me to be so demanding considering that I was the one who was far behind schedule, but if we wanted to seriously make up for lost time, I needed them to read it quickly and let me know if there was anything urgent for me to fix. I wanted the opportunity to tweak it a bit before we send it out to the other heads of department for their own respective production breakdowns. (Besides, the draft's delivery wouldn't be delayed if I wasn't sharing producing jobs with them).

I sent the email in the morning. By afternoon, my very diligent line producer had texted me this long message:

Raz, re draft 2, structure n pacing is better. Storytelling is mor cohesive n d writing is mor polishd. Nice opening scene, it captures atention agad, ilike d ending scene as well. Draft 2 delvs on issues more kaya mas informativ na, lyk ung scene ng 2 main characters. Lessbitplayers wc is always a gud thing n funnier ung dialogs. We get a clearer perspectiv on protagonist's upbringing din. D chaptering device is a nice touch.I dfntly like draft2 better than draft1. Shoot na tayo!:-)

The next day, my mentor (who was also the film's production consultant) woke me up (at 4.30 in the afternoon) to tell me that 'okay na.' She just had one very minor suggestion and said that everything else was good. She concluded by saying na 'ang galing na talagang magsulat ng mga tinuruan' nya - which I took to mean as an approval ;)

Second draft, baby! Ha!

I recently wrote about my struggle to complete this second draft. What I deliberately left out in that entry, in an attempt to avoid sounding arrogant or lazy, was that a huge part of why I was going around in circles, the reason I was resisting revision, was because I felt like the story was intact - and that the scenes I wrote were all integral, justified, and well-constructed.

The various comments on that draft were all welcome, of course, and I did have plans to incorporate new ideas that came about as a result of my various consultations.

However, I still felt like the draft didn't need any real revision. I felt like it just needed some adjustments - concision and restructuring, as I summarized in my blog. Things that could be addressed as we got into rehearsals and on the set during production. I couldn't come out and say that though because despite that confidence in the material, I thought: I can't possibly go into production with a first draft!

To be fair though, that first draft went through a lot of personal and internal brainstorming. This wasn't like back at work when a storyline or script or treatment was due for delivery after a couple of days or weeks of contemplation. This story has been in my head for quite a while, and I really have put in the work required. I'm a huge crusader of research - and even before I typed the first sequence of the script, I've gathered loads of it. That's why during the writing of the second draft, I was in constant argument with myself whenever I was about to change a sequence from the old draft. I kept saying the script was already as perfect as it could possibly be.

That being said, the second draft did allow me to come up with fresh innovations that wouldn't have been discovered if I allowed my self to be defeated by complacency. Cause really, that's all it was. True, I didn't really make any drastic change in the second draft. But I also had to acknowledge that no draft could be perfect (I've read articles where producers made mention of a script that was perfect - I don't buy it). What my personal experience has taught me is that the key is acknowledging when a draft perfectly captured all that needed to be said and shown - and having the openness, confidence and optimism that even when you decide that it's time to leave the pages, it can only get better henceforth.

Well, sana nga maayos na 'to and they're not just rushing their comments because I was rushing them, hehe... Perhaps I really do know how to write na, and efficiently, after all those years of toiling in my previous company.

***

After getting that initial round of feedback, I finally had the courage to send it out to my professional confidantes - the close knit of friends whose opinions about my writing I genuinely value.

I had lunch with one of them later in the afternoon. After perfunctory hi's, she said she just read my script - and she started laughing. She said it was very funny. The remaining time waiting for our other friend to arrive, we spent talking about the actors I was eyeing to play the parts in the script.

So I also took that as a good sign :)

***

I'm quite pumped by the positive feedback thus far. I just hope I'm able to carry it over to the shoot and that all the other preprod snags that we've been running into won't get in the way of this alright script. Once, I told my friend that I'm quite confident with the material. I'm not saying it's earth shattering, but I know that it's worth watching.

The script's alright. I just hoped the director doesn't mess it up!

Writer-Producer-Director

This week has been full of writing - half of which wasn't really for the script. In an almost frenetic way, I've been busy drafting marketing letters and sponsorship proposals to send out to so many people and companies. Our producer and accountant have been providing a great deal of help, but most of the work still falls on my shoulder. I was quite adamant that I do NOT get credited as producer (which is why I tried to settle the issue of finding one - or two for that matter - early on), but considering how much time I've been spending on producing tasks, I think I will have to get credited for that, too.

It didn't help that this was a long weekend and offices were shutting down as early as Thursday afternoon. Still, I rushed and managed to get everything finished and sent out by then. The new script draft, I already finished last Tuesday. All of a sudden, I found myself with nothing really urgent to do this weekend. Thus the time to write this.

This should normally be a welcome respite from all the stress of writing - which I've always believed to be one of the most stressful things in the world. This should normally be the time that I recharge; the time when the powers that be should be reading the stuff I've written and I bask in the tentative relief that it is now out of my hands. In this case, the onus to read and analyze and criticize the new script are on my tutors and heads of departments. The proposals that need to be polished or deliberated and approved are on my production staff and the companies and organizations to which we've sent them.

Then I remember that despite the break I get as producer and writer, I'm slated to direct this as well - in less than two weeks! And I remember that in the midst of all this brainstorming and consultations and writing and sending letters and proposals, I should already be making my storyboard and shot lists, discussing my plans with the production designer and the DP. Breaking down the script with my AD. Rehearsing with my actors. Preparing.

That's when I also remember that despite the decent job I've been doing as producer, it's been taking me away from my primary role as the director. This is why long before this project even began, I was already opening myself to the idea of directing another writer's script. Yet here I am now, not only writing the film I'm directing, but also producing in fact.

I have a great deal of respect for writer-producer-directors, but that's not my cup of tea. I think I would even enjoy doing each separately. But for now, I'd much rather stick to one specific job. And right now, it's definitely not producing.

The Proof of the Pudding is in the Screening

So this blog that I'm supposed to be maintaining is turning out to be a dud. In a good way, though.

The past few weeks have been very busy for me. Top most priority for me, in particular, was to finish the new draft of the script that I put off in favor of other pre-production concerns. I promise to write more about those. Here and now, I am celebrating the completion of the second draft.

I finished the script's first draft on the first week of February. That too was delayed since I was worried sick about laying the ground work for the film (pre-preprod, if you like). It's been two whole months before I was able to finish this new draft. All the meetings, emailing, calling, and marketing has left me with little to no time for anything else, much less writing. Perils of an independent production. Not discredit my team, but when you haven't got all the necessary people for the necessary roles, all the work and worrying really falls on the progenitor of the project.

It wasn't like I didn't pay enough attention to this revision. It's been constantly in my mind in fact, but I struggled with the how of it.

For starters, I gathered feedback and suggestions from people I trust (many thanks to them who responded!). After making a list of those that I thought were useful or applicable to the direction I wanted to take the new draft, I tried writing from scratch for the second draft, which is my usual process. It had always done me good in the past, allowing me to birth new ideas that enhanced while not necessarily discarding those from the earlier draft. This time around though, it wasn't working. I kept coming back to the old scenes and structure that I wrote.


CONCISION

Either I wasn't as open-minded as I thought I was or my writing was a little rusty.

I was my biggest obstacle. I kept arguing myself out of any significant changes that I started considering.

Should I take out this backstory? Do I really need that scene? Maybe that character is redundant?

Whenever I was stripping away elements from the first draft, I always found reasons to keep them. I remembered my meeting with the directing instructor back at LFS. We went through each of draft one's scenes and discussed the purpose for it. He had very good words for the entire draft. While he did say that it was on the long side, he didn't think any of it was superfluous.

Other friends who commented on draft one had questions or wanted clarifications, but none of them thought it was overlong or boring either. If any, their questions almost implied that they wanted more scenes, not less. Optimistic, I took that as a sign that I was successful in creating an engaging story, sympathetic characters, and a credible story world.

For practical purposes, making the second draft longer than its predecessor was out of the question. We already are buckling down the projected expenses, so there wasn't any room for more setups and more stock requirement. Quite the contrary.


RESTRUCTURING

Since I was failing miserably at slashing scenes, my other strategy was to probe for a new structure that might serve the film better.

I created four major units for the story and allotted five sequences for each to force myself to bring the total sequences down to 20 (from 29).

There were some brilliant suggestions that our directing instructor threw my way back in London. I started with that - and was quite hopeful. But soon after, I was back to the old chronology and story structure. While it did allow for some deft condensing of scenes, the length remained the same. It was apparent that condensing only reduced the ordinal number of sequences. I was still retaining all the story elements from the previous draft. Every time I tried to let some of them go, I always felt like I was compromising one of the key intentions I had for the film.


SECOND DRAFT

In the end, I managed a nifty 25 sequences in 28 pages.

Not much difference, I agree. The story did not change drastically either. I was, however, able to add new elements that I hope magnifies the theme. I cleaned up some of the dialogues and effected significant adjustments in characterizations.

I had hoped the change would be more drastic, but what I came to realize in the end is maybe it didn't really need a major revision of the story. I ended up embracing the fact that the story is already exactly how I wanted it to be. It was tailored quite deliberately even though it was just a first draft. It sounds a bit self-eulogizing, but it was perhaps a result of having thought about this story long and hard before I even started writing the script. Perhaps my years of writing scripts is paying off in making me more efficient.

Or maybe I'm just being lazy and trying to convince myself of my mediocrity.

Whatever the case may be, the proof is in the pudding. And the pudding won't be out of the oven until July - when the film meets its first critics at LFS's Cinema A. Until then, you'll have to trust my word that the second draft is good ;)