Script Update

It’s Saturday around 5 p.m. and I’ve hit the 50 page point – halfway there. As so often happens, except the one time, I got to the middle and had to wrestle with the plot, something that filled me with aggravation and a sick feeling. The key to doing that is to go out and walk around, and don’t come back till you know what you’re doing. I had one scene that lasted 7 pages and it was ruining the groove. I don’t care if you have the first time Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie ever had sex - 7 pages is too long. The standard way that I see in nearly every movie is to have the conversation continue as if it were unbroken and yet the actors are in several different places. They’re talking in the Oval Office, then they’re outside on a sidewalk by the Rose Garden, then they’re back inside in a conference room. That’s how it is done, but if everything is going great, you shouldn’t have to do that. I was also pinned down to the location so I had to pull a whole little sidelight story out of the air and cut between the two scenes. It worked but it’s a bad sign when you have to wing it like that. I actually winged the one script that sold but I never had to go out of my way to split up a long scene. That’s when you know you’re in trouble. Today I was in trouble, but it’s basically clear sailing ahead. I could end up 7 pages short but I’ve already got the idea: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie - their first sex together.