And Take 4! SNAP!

Writing begins anew!

Tesla Movies....

I'm currently devouring The Secret of Nikola Tesla on Netflix. I am really enjoying the straightforward way this movie portrays the political-money machine. It leaves the appropriate bitterness in my mouth without being too conspiratorial about it. Greedy people doing greedy things. Selfish people doing selfish things. Egotism reigning supreme.

I want to read more about the men involved. I used to read a lot about Tesla when I was a kid. I still pick up books that touch on him and Edison from time to time, like Devil in the White City, which is a fun read and I do recommend it. But I think I need to read more. I am only so familiar with some of the other movers and shakers portrayed in the film. I know some of them, Morgan Stanley, Westinghouse, Samuel Clemens. Who doesn't? But I would like to know more.

By the way, since 1988 I have held the opinion that Edison was a prick... the  people who made this movie sure thought so, too. I really do get some perverse pleasure out of villains.

Renewed Efforts

Much that has gone on this summer has acted as a stumbling block to writing our script. There have been personal hardships and health issues and legal battles. As summer wanes, so do these trials. Writing will resume this week!

The Undiscovered Country

Yesterday I feel like I had a wonderful, yet terrifying realization: we are not as close to finished writing this script as I had thought. My partner brought to my attention and wrote a scene that we had sketched out in our notes, but had not yet written. Not only that, we've written well past the point that I had thought of using that scene. So we had to discuss where this scene would happen, and IF this scene would happen.

But she wrote it, and I loved it. She has captured the vision and molded it and shaped it right along with me. That's a new experience for me; sharing the creation of art. I would have thought that it would bother me to have someone else writing a story that I'm working on. I would have thought so, but it didn't. It was exciting, it was happy, it was a relief.

I'm NOT in this alone. She's NOT just along for the ride. This is now her baby, just as much as it is mine and now I know it, even though the likelihood is, that it has been so for quite a while. Now, I am sure and it's a relief.

My New Respect for Writer's Block

Writer's block is not just one's inability to think of what to write. It can be a fear, a fear intertwined with other similar issues as delicately and intricately as the finest lace.

As my personal life descended into the abyss I was afraid that I was losing my writing partner, or at least our ability to work and produce the story together. We may be WAY behind our initial schedule, but we are back, Baby. It was a slow process, but we are flowing and pulling the story out of each other again.

It is such a deep relief.

Now, we need to set up a schedule for writing and do it often, and we are going to have to start using technology to do it over the internet. That may be a little challenging at first, but I think that we'll adapt. I have a new faith in the strength of our partnership.

Overcoming Writer's Block and Other Longtime Maladies

Writing is coming along. The story is taking shape. I still very much feel like I am under the gun to get this thing done in the next 10 days, but if this weekend goes even remotely as planned and I have it all to myself, I think I can get the majority of the writing done. The outline is pretty well sketched out.

  As well as it's going, it would be dead in the water if it weren't for my new, dear friend and writing partner, HB. She's fantastic, enthusiastic and encouraging. MUCH LOVE! Slowly, but surely I am getting people to sign on to this thing.

 Last night, I bit the bullet and wrote an email to an amazingly talented friend of mine who could produce the soundscape for the film. I'm crossing my fingers and toes and anything else that's crossable in the hopes that he'll agree to do it. I don't think I can do that without help.

Inspiration Extraordinaire!

A couple of weeks back I was helping a friend turn his basement walls into a musical instrument. They are made out of loose wood paneling and they resonate beautifully, so we screwed up some 2x4s and we ripped some strings out of a rusted and partially dismantled baby grand piano that has been sitting out in the elements partially covered by a tarp for who knows how long.

Every time we touched, struck or plucked this thing in any way the sounds it made were amazing. We kept making comments to one another about how it made sounds like an old Sci-Fi movie from the 40s 50s or 60s. It wasn't too long before one of said that we should make a movie and use that thing for the music and sound effects. The second time that I was mentioned and my friend agreed, I decided that was it. This was going to happen. We were going to make a movie, and that poor piano would be the star!