Writing

24 Days until we start shooting.

Over the next few posts, I'll be catching up on a few different areas of pre-production that we've been working on up to this point, as well as continuing progress updates as we near principal photography. First off, the script!

I almost didn't plan on making a thesis film, as my main goals were related to the camera and photography areas in filmmaking.  Though after some gentle persuasion from some good friends of mine, I realized that I was about to graduate without a film I could call my own.  I wouldn't have a conclusive product of what I was capable of creating - to showcase what I can do through storytelling, emotion, cinematography, etc.  A culmination of everything I've learned the past few years at UT film into my thesis.  And so, I began writing.  

I wrote about 4 drafts on the same story (none with satisfaction) before I hit a wall.  A ton of feedback was given to me from a whole lot of people - maybe too many.  Drawing from some of my own experiences with weight battle and image obsession, I knew what story I wanted to tell.  But I was having difficulty with its structure, dialogue, and overall flow.  Luckily for me, I have some incredible friends - Evan Ho and Taylor Peterson - who were more than willing to co-write with me and inject some new ideas into the story.  As of now, we're on draft 6.2 and feeling extremely confident on the script.  Though, we are going to continue working on tweaking it until shooting begins.

Some things I learned:

• If you have an idea, write it down somewhere.  You WILL forget it tomorrow. 
• Write.  Then re-write.  Then re-write again.  There's always something you can do to make it better in the early drafts.
• Take in lots of feedback and don't reject any of it at first glance, no matter how ridiculous.