So, what's been going on around here. Well, firstly my two minute short The Walk To Goodbye succeeded in making the long list of the London Screenwriters Festival initiative 50 Kisses. There was an original field of 1870 entries and the long list cut that down to around 503. The short list of 100 was announced last Friday closely followed by the list of 50 shorts that would make up the movie 50 Kisses. Sadly I didn't make the second cut. It was tough. I thought the script was lovely and I hoped that being a more reflective piece it would play out well agains the inevitable high concept ones. Disappointing but I have to think that I beat around 1367 other people to the first cut and that's great going!
Currently I'm working on a reverse adaptation of my award winning script Since You've Been Gone - appropriately set, for the most part, in Dover. Reverse adaptation is interesting as the plot and the beats are already there. What has been great is that I have discovered deeper layers to my characters and have been, naturally, able to explore their thoughts and motivations at greater length. I've been highlighting new dialogue and new scenes so that I can transfer them back into the original screenplay. This should give it better depth. I'm aiming for around 62,000 words and I'm currently on 43,245 so a little way to go yet.
I also discovered a fabulous page on Facebook called Dover (Kent) History Page which has been a little goldmine of inspiration for my novel. Shops I'd forgotten or street scenes that had gone out of memory but which are relevant to the story I'm telling. The contributors are knowledgable about my hometown and recall things with wonderful clarity.
Hopefully, fingers crossed another short of mine will be filmed soon by the off shoot of the Colchester Filmmakers Club - the Colchester History Project. So, all in all I'm feeling positive about the writing so far.
