They Shot my Movie!

I'm just back from probably the biggest day of my screenwriting career. I was on the set watching my movie being shot.

Yes, even though they bought my script and they've made changes along the way — it's a collaborative process — it still feels like my story.

I was apprehensive when I arrived. I wanted to be excited, but was worried that the final product would be so different from what I had originally imagined that it might be depressing instead of inspiring. I shouldn't have worried.

Imagination Come to Life

All I can say is OH MY GOD!! It's the coolest thing on earth to have the characters you created on paper walk up, shake your hand, and tell you they love the script. It's surreal to have the folks who have inhabited your imagination suddenly 3D and getting coffee with you at craft services.

It's not just the actors, there are the sets too. I had guessed they would fabricate pumpkins for a "giant pumpkin movie" but it was the little stuff that caught me off guard. The product labels on products I had come up with and the banners with the town's name.

The last piece that stopped me in my tracks was all the people working on this. There were trucks full of equipment, folks (aka crew) running around doing all kinds of things I only half understood. It was hard to grasp that all these people were getting paid to work on an idea I thought sounded kind of funny.

In fact, the Canadian producer came up and told me and another producer, "If you didn't write this and you didn't sell it, I wouldn't have a job. Thanks!" I didn't know what to say, but looking back I should have given him a big smooch and said, "Right back at you!!"

I could go on all day. But in short, it was an event that effected me more than I ever anticipated. I spent the whole day keeping myself from shouting "THIS IS SO AMAZINGLY COOL!!!"

Maybe this is old hat for other writers with lots of produced scripts, but I can't imagine that every happening in to me.

Doing the Happy Dance!

I'm taking a break from doing the "happy dance". Just got an email from a producer to set up a time for me to come up and see them shoot Growing the Big One in Vancouver, B.C.

If everything goes well, next week at this time I'll be watching actors saying and doing things I dreamed up. (That's if it hasn't been rewritten completely.) It's a surreal thought.

Getting the story to the People

Writing a script is different from writing a book or an article for a number of reasons. The biggest difference for me is that once you've finished a short story, someone reads it and the communication is complete. It might have only been one person, but they enjoyed your story in the form it was intended.

Scripts, however, require producers, actors and a slew of other people to complete the process — communicate the story to the audience in it's correct form. It's frustrating because you may be a great storyteller, but so much of the process is out of your control.

Next week through my story will take on life. I'm actually going to see people walking and talking and doing things I've only imaged. Then, sometime in 2010, those actors will be walking and talking on screens in front of an audience.

I'm so excited. I will FINALLY have finished telling a story.

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