Hello
Finally, me and Celine get to go on a holiday. It's been nearly 3 years since we went to visit my brother and his family in Melbourne. Actually, it was also there were I proposed to Celine.
So this is our first trip as an engaged couple! We are off to Las Vegas for 5 days.
I assume we will win enough money to pay for the wedding!! And no, we won't be getting married in Vegas. I mean, our options are really:
A Married in Vegas
OR
B Married in Sligo
So we will be picking B. Still, we are looking forward to going on holiday in a few days.
Which also means that next Sunday's blog will be nowhere to be seen. I'll actually be at a pro wrestling PPV event. I appreciate someone who reads this might not know what any of this means but I am looking forward to Wardlow destroying MJF, Hookhausen continuing a brilliant odd couple friendship (that should be a sitcom) and I will also be trying to calm Celine down if Hangman Page loses.
Now, today's blog is just a quick run down of some writing news and activities.
1 - HUNTING BLIND SHORT SEES PROGRESS
My 3 page short Hunting Blind has advanced to the QF of Writer Duet Screenplay Throwdown contest. Here it is if you would like a quick read. It is based off the contemporary fantast short I have written. I like this idea and might want to turn it into a feature at some stage.
2 - FOUND FOOTAGE IS NOWHERE TO BE SEEN
Yet. I have been brainstorming what direction I want to take this short in. I have a backup comedy idea that I can work as found footage. It would basically be an action comedy in the same vain as 90s action movies but in the style of bodycam footage. That, I can write and I would be happy with writing it but I think I want to try something a bit different. That story doesn't need to be written. I also think that it being written as found footage is only making it a gimmick in the story. There's nothing in it to say the story improves by it being from a bodycam.
I was challenged to write the genre in a western, 1700s. I tried coming up with some ideas, based around time travel. I asked Celine, who is usually the first person to hear my pitches, but the pitches weren't working. The time travel aspect to it was a way to explain why there would be found footage in 1700. It just didn't cause any drama or conflict.
I believe a lot of found footage films, like Blair Witch Project, REC, Cloverfield, are from the perspective of the protagonist. Usually, since found footage is often used in horror, the camera is from the victims who are being hunted, chased by a monster or some danger. This works really well for horror of course. I think I would like to shift this a little though. What if the camera is being held by the antagonist, and is trained on the protagonists/ victims.
This leads me to think of reasons for the camera being from the villain's point of view. Is is a serial killer looking to document their murders? That seems the only real obvious way to do it. I like using robots/androids/cyborgs in my storytelling for shorts because it is a cheap and easy way to create a sci-fi story. So with that in mind I am thinking of a story with a sort of Terminator/found footage feel. The camera being a recording from the cyborg itself. I don't really want to dive into horror either so I will probably make it more of a mystery sci-fi found footage story.
I think the difficulty with found footage is you don't want to make it just a tacked on attempt to make the story itself interesting. It should be a part of the story. So a cyborg sort of character with its recording at the center of the script can't be just a "cyborg hunts human" tale. I think what would make the recording matter more to the story is if the recording is the focus in it. A character needs to look at the footage found in a possibly now defunct cyborg. That also helps make it a mystery.
This is due by tonight so I'll try to write a very short script for it.
3 - 11 HOUR FLIGHT = 12 MINS OF WRITING/10 HOURS 48 MINS OF THINKING OF WRITING
Our flight will be on Thursday morning. We will be going from Dublin to San Francisco and then onto Las Vegas. So with 11 hours of a flight to endure I am hoping to work a lot on writing. I surely should be able to write out a new short. The next genre will be a ghost movie. So I can write that. I am also inclined to want to challenge myself to write a full feature in that time. Why not? I have one or two ideas I could try writing as a feature. Not to mention I really do have some rewrites I need to get more on top of.
As I will be offline while on the flight, I will most likely be using Writer Solo which is very good for offline work. It will save my progress to the laptop so I should be OK. Writer Solo works the same as Writer Duet which is my go to writing software. There is also a feature in Writer Duet of being able to save to the laptop but I haven't worked that out yet. Either way. I should be good.
That's my planning for writing this week and next. I'll also be laying in a pool and having some drinks in a rooftop bar in Vegas.
It's a tough life!
Thanks for reading
Kevin