I’m back! I took a few days off to engross myself in a series of much-needed celebrations. The celebrations kicked off with a weekend trip to Las Vegas on March 1st (my partner and I enjoyed attending the National Rugby League games at the Allegiant Stadium, Chippendales, lunch at Hell’s Kitchen, drag brunch at Señor Frogs, a bottomless mimosas brunch at Delano, people watching, etc.) The celebrations ended in LA with us attending Madonna’s Celebration Tour!!!! She’s currently on her first-ever greatest hits tour (celebrating four decades of an incredible, amazing, and enviable musical catalogue.)
Okay, so let’s get back into it. As you all know, I am working on two goals for this year. One goal is to book supporting roles in feature films produced and distributed by independent or mid-sized studios. The second goal is to finish the first draft of a feature film script that Kelly Tighe and I are writing through our Professional Development Program 3.0 collective. This week, I want to update you all on the progress made with our feature film script. Keep reading below 🙂
Kelly and I are currently working on the end of act two (we’ve written 129 pages so far!) She is rocking it out with the scenes she is currently working on. I was too…until I hit a wall with a particular scene for plot point Yes 14 (In “My Story Can Beat Up Your Story”, the Yes/No are known as “reversals” because these particular plot points “alternate between answering the central question first yes and then no. Anything that brings the hero closer to his or her goal is a ‘yes’. Anything that takes the hero further away is a ‘no'”. There are a total of 28 Yes/No reversals in act two. There is also something known as “the third-act solution”, which is introduced during Yes 7. “The third-act solution is a device, a situation, or a skill that is shown to the audience early, but is what the main character will need to be victorious in the end. Not every film has one, but it’s cool when films do.” The third-act solution is used during the Final Yes in act three. Keep reading below 🙂
I say all of this because I had the pleasure of writing the scene that introduces the third-act solution in Yes 7. I also had the pleasure of tackling Yes 14 and using this plot point to start setting up how exactly the third-act solution will pay off during that Final Yes in act three. LOL I could not figure this scene out. And when I thought I had it figured out, I quickly realized it wasn’t going to work for a variety of reasons. So literally, I was going through my own personal Yes/No reversals LOL. Yes, I figured it out. No, I didn’t figure it out LOL. Keep reading below 🙂
When I met with Kelly on February 21st for our writing session, I told her I was stuck with this scene for the last three weeks. She gave me some ideas that totally made sense to help me set up the third-act solution! Thank God for a sounding board. Sometimes, the work is so close to your face that you can’t see the answers or the picture in front of you. It takes that sounding board, that partner, to grab your hand and move the work further away from you. “Oh, now I see it!” Armed with these ideas, I sat down in front of my laptop, opened up Final Draft, and got to work. Well, I got stuck again LOL. I had these great ideas, but how do I now connect them in a cohesive way? And without giving away the story, certain characters partake in a drink during this scene that sets up the third-act solution. Okay, cool. But how do I utilize this drink to help the characters arrive at and experience these ideas in an uncontrived way? How does the drink drive the scene so that these ideas can be executed? And then, I had an “a-ha” moment. A light bulb went off in my head. OF COURSE! Keep reading below 🙂
I could utilize the drunk physical state exercise that I have seen several times at the Richard Lawson Studios to connect these ideas in the scene. This exercise is part of a number of cold acting exercises that Richard uses to let actors know that they are enough. That they can create art on the spot with little to no preparation because they have everything in their possession and beingness to do so. All of the cold exercises (some of which Richard created and originated) have an improvisational quality to them and they challenge the actor to be present, moment to moment, and interested. In the drunk physical state exercise, a group of actors go on stage and pretend that they are at a bar or party. The stage manager will give the actors water bottles and they have to determine what kind of alcohol they are drinking. The teacher instructs the actors to take a shot from their water bottles. They do so and the scene begins. At some point, the teacher says, “Freeze! Take another shot.” The actors take another shot and the scene resumes. The teacher will say freeze a few more times and instruct the actors to take another shot. This cold exercise is always fascinating and fun to watch because the progression of the alcohol drives everything. The actors get into more belief, they loosen up, they let their imaginations run wild, a story develops, humorous and dramatic moments occur, and the stakes get higher and higher. Keep reading below 🙂
The scene I am writing is a drunk physical state exercise, and these characters are a part of it! With this concept in mind, the writing flowed quickly and easily. It all made sense, and I understood how to use the progression of drinking to determine the chronological order of these ideas, how these characters arrived at them, and the degree to which these characters experienced them. I was happy and excited when I wrote this scene. I could see the progression of this scene from one drink to the next. I couldn’t wait to share this scene with Kelly at our next writing session. When I shared this scene with her, she loved it. We exchanged a few thoughts and I am excited to apply them in my next rewrite for this scene. Keep reading below 🙂
Next week, I will update you all on the progress I made with my acting goal!