The Experiment

My aim is to write a first draft of a screenplay by April next year. But I know what I'm like. I write myself into a corner and feel all alone and can't get anything done. So to ward this off I'm making sure I don't feel too alone by letting people I trust comment along the way. I'm going to put up pretty much all my scribbles. Bad ideas, half ideas, snippets of conversation. And I'm hoping that those who read it will feel able to openly say when something's good, when something's a terrible idea and when they have something they feel they could contribute to it. I'll be leading on the script but want it to be as collaborative as a film is. With me directing it but not doing it all by myself.

The other thing I need advice on is which script idea I'm to do. I've narrowed it down (for now) to two. Their names are currently 'Towards Java' and 'Advanced Fun'.

They were picked from a shortlist with Aaron (producer) and Nick C (director) who hopefully are going to do the project with me. This is the very brief pitch I gave them for each:


Towards Java

Jules is on a bus going through a remote Indonesia village which stops to pick up a few more passengers including a Brit, Simon. Despite an initial argument they discover they are going the same way and agree to travel together and share rooms (if not beds)


Theirs is a relationship built on loneliness and sexual tension. It’s made more difficult by the fundamentally different views they have on travelling, life back home and monogamy.


I want to go for a Before Sunrise conversation heavy charm offensive. But I also want to bring in a bit of the Y Tu Mama Tambien narrator thing where small characters get given local stories as a cutaway to give a sense of the place they are walking through often indifferently.


And this is the other one

Advanced Fun


Tom and Jo have settled into domestic bliss. They have a house, good jobs, love each other. But they worry a lot that they’ve become old too quickly.


Tom’s cousin comes to stay. He’s suffered from ME since he was 16 and has just managed to finish university at 26. He’s never been able to go out. He’s never been to a club, barely been to a party. He’s never been to a gig or on an all night bender. Never been in the presence of drugs. Never had a girl. He’s not socially inept although he is quiet and shy. But he’s suddenly feeling a lot better. He’s holding down a job and finding that doesn’t have to be all he does. He can go out. So he asks the couple to show him how to have fun. And they’re petrified they don’t know how anymore but together they try and learn how to be young, reckless and fun again.


So pretty much all other posts are going to be about one or other of these. I might put the odd one in which is just a thought about the writing process but mostly it'll be about these two. All comments welcomed, none taken as offense (apart from one's about my mother). Hope it helps.