A few notes about 'The Orchestra'...

the last two and a bit months have been swallowed up whole (sadly never to be regurgitated!) by pre-production and more pre-production. the script has evolved through two new drafts - and is now VERY different to what it was, and worryingly longer than it was too. right now, i'm not afraid of the possible extra work - but ask my again twelve months into production! no, no... it's all for the good of the finished work. thanks to mel, jen and mike at screen oz for their valuable script input..

what can i say about the new drafting process? well, i have since learned quite a lot more about the formulaic side of screenwriting. i was lucky enough to attend a seminar hosted by michael hauge and steve kaplin in which i was enlightened by the gurus of storytelling and comedy about such things as script arc and character development are, and about the mechanics of comedy writing. these things may seem intuitive, and they definitely are to an extent, but when you know the nuts and bolts of these concepts they provide perfect tools to give the old script a make over - so now when something is awry, instead of just pounding the hell outta the old draft like a busted TV, i feel better able to actually diagnose the problems. (there, is that enough metaphors and similes for you). having said that, i plan to still rely on naked intuition when i start a script, the formulas come later...

so, yes we now have a fouteen page script. this should, if the old one page equals one minute theory holds up, have a film equal in length to ol' 'Eugene Green'. my hunch is that it'll be more like eleven or twelve mins long though... still long! i guess that's just what you get when you try and cram a complicated plot with two protagonists and a whole bunch of minor characters in a short.

what else is new? i have plans to join the 3D revolution (somewhat) and build the backgrounds from 3D models. i've even started learning maya, and have started construction on a very nice-looking lamp. thanks to andrew brown for his enthusiasm and tutorship in this regard - i'm pretty excited that it's going to look great with some sketchy dense matt martin textures. speaking off, have i posted the test background that was drawn for the film pitch. here it is...

she's a beaut!








and while we're posting one picture, here's a couple of images of the characters. these are still pre-production images, but i think the characters of vernon and doreen are coming along nicely...





















okay then, that's all for now. in the next day or so, we'll hopefully be given script approval from the funding body and then there'll be no stopping us! animatic, music, animation... we'll be done by christmas! (just like WW1 was to be over by the end of 1914 - and that all worked out fine...)
roger roger charlie foxtrot! over. and. out.