Finishing the Script (finally)

Long time no see!  It's been a few days since my last entry, yet the progress is slow-going.  I've been working on re-writing my script, primarily by removing the dialogue scenes and replacing them with a monologue.  This seems like an easy enough task in theory, considering that a character's inner thoughts are easier to write than conversation scenes.  Yet, it's proven to be harder than I thought it would be.

My main problem when working on this is that I haven't had much time this week.  Considering that my SAT was on Wednesday, I spent the beginning of the week studying, and then spent Wednesday afternoon at work.  However, I plan to take advantage of the free time I have today to revise my script and the storyboard.  Having just finished writing, I've noted some major setbacks in the process.

Namely, writing ostentatious speeches is hard!  I tend to find monologue-led films to be cheesy and lazily written, but since it's the best course of action here, I wanted mine to at least be good.  I hoped for the writing to be thought-provoking and go past the surface level, which is always easier said than done.

"I Have Forgiven Jesus" lyrics

To ensure that I wasn't digging my own grave with this idea, I made three of my friends and two of my teachers read it.  Although they all told me that they liked it, only a few of them offered creative insight, which made me feel a little like I’m running in circles. Regardless, one of these conversations did lead to a subsequent discussion about Morrissey and his music, which led to me discovering his song “I Have Forgiven Jesus,” which would work pretty well with my production. However, as my history teacher jokingly told me, “He’d probably demand royalties.”  In any case, I do need to address the issue of music sometime soon, and this seems like a pretty promising path.

Finally, I showed the script to my dad, since he is one of my most honest critics, and will also be playing Father Peter.  Nervously, I stood over his shoulder and watched him read the monologue for the first time.  He slowly read over every word, before finally turning to me and expressing his awe.  He described it as a powerful script that hit you like "una pateada en la nuca," which roughly translates to a "kick in the gut."  This was exactly the reaction I wanted to extract from my audience.

Now having settled on the script, I decided to move on to storyboarding.  Again, this was easier said than done.  Since I had to remove the conversation scene and replace it with a voiceover, I now had a huge gap of visuals missing.  I knew that I want to include a scene picturing Joseph at church, and I knew that I want to primarily incorporate a brown/beige/greenish color palette.  But, apart from that, I was really at a loss.  To get my thoughts flowing, I decided to create a Pinterest board, which I linked here.  Although it's definitely skimpy, it did help get me inspired.  I decided that throughout the VO, I'll just have Joseph doing some everyday things.  He'll go out to get coffee, go to the bookstore, etc.

I'll also most likely be including a scene that shows Joseph in front of a wall with a comical amount of crosses, just because I think that it looks pretty cool.  One of my friends mentioned something about including a field in the production, which could be a cool addition, but might be a little random.

A potential issue that I will have to resolve sometime in the near future is that nowhere in the script is it mentioned that Joseph is gay.  Although I did this purposefully (and I believe that it's pretty heavily implied), one can never discard the fact that some people lack media understanding skills!  To combat this, I thought of a scene where Joseph sits by himself, subtly looking at a guy sitting close by, when they make awkward eye contact and Joseph looks away.  Also, I want the name of the production to be something pretty telling as well.  Although I briefly considered the name "Conversion," I discarded it for being too on-the-nose.  Still, there's no need to settle on a name this early into the production process.

For now, I'll work on finalizing the storyboard.  Updates to come!