The Baby

I managed to get the rewrite done in time to ship off the script to a screenwriting contest right here in Baltimore. The prize money is not a lot compared to some other, large competitions, but to come in the top three would lend the project some good cred and help me make some more local contacts.

I have accomplished a LOT in the last 10 days, some of which I can't go into quite yet. I'm having, "a moment," though. Probably just sleep deprivation with a touch of PMS, it will pass. I have lined up a lot of my ducks in the last week and a half. But there are a lot of them still waddling around aimlessly, and I want them all in place RIGHT NOW!!! But you know how ducks are.

The handful of people who have read the script are all telling me the same good things, and with each rewrite, fewer not-so-good things, so that is encouraging. I've chosen these people carefully, so that I have a broad critique. Some are people I know will look more at the structure than the emotion of the story, my "Mr. Spock"s. Some are cinephiles who see way more movies than I do and therefore have an incredible basis of comparison. A couple are people that I based certain characters on. And some are people in the industry. Those are the people I get the most notes from, as they are the people who know if what I am visualizing in my head will come across on the screen.

Those in the business of making films, whether they are writers, producers, directors, actors, crew, they all use the same jargon, and the phrase I hear most often is, "the Baby."

The Baby can refer to your script as a whole; for example, if you don't produce the film yourself but sell your story, and the people who buy it make so many changes that it is nearly unrecognizable, that's when they, "take your Baby away from you." Or the Baby (also sometimes called "your children")can mean your own(as the person who wrote it) favorite scenes, the scenes or lines that you feel are the funniest or most touching - that sometimes never see the light of day, let alone the darkness of a movie theater. If it doesn't move the story along, it has got to go. Cut it out, chop it up, lop it off.

So that's what I did, one of the many things I did, this week. There was a scene near the beginning of the script that I thought was pretty funny, and everyone who read it thought so, too. But the script was 20 pages too long and this three-page scene, funny or not, was two pages too long. Two of the main characters visit a character we never see again in the film. The cameo character does help set up some of the subplots, so I didn't want to lose her altogether. But in the original version, the audience learns quickly that she is a bit nuts. She says something strange. Then she says something absurd. Then she says something completely delusional. They were great lines! Okay, maybe they were just good lines. But people who read them remembered them, people who read them laughed. I didn't want to do it, but...I could get all the information I needed across in one or two lines and actions, not two pages. So. CHOP, there goes a finger, CHOP there goes a toe, HACK HACK HACK, come on now, the Baby doesn't really need both arms when one will do, right?

And when you are done, you think, "That's it," you think the script is as best as it can be, you think you couldn't possibly cut another line or scene. Unfortunately, this is not the case at all. But you need some time to accept that reality. So you set it aside for a month or so and get some other things done to keep yourself on the path, you wrangle a few more ducks into single-file, you have a couple more people read the latest incarnation of the screenplay, you get more notes...and then you go back and do it again.

The Baby is, indeed, keeping me up nights. I've never had much trouble with insomnia until now. I worry about the Baby constantly. How am I going to pay for the Baby? Will I be able to make sure the Baby is truly mine, will it look and sound and express itself like I would? I know it will be influenced by a lot of factors along the way, and it won't truly be mine alone. But can I keep it from ending up as an ugly bastard? I have met and continue to meet so many people who are being so very generous and helpful with their time, their experience, and in some cases even their cash. I know I am going to meet so many more, it makes me wonder if among these people, one, or more, of them come to the forefront and end up being the person or persons that let me crush their hand in mine and coach me through those little "Hee-hee-hoo-hoo," breathing excercises when it comes time for this thing to finally pop out there into the world.

But as much stress as the Baby causes me, it is already bringing me great joy. People who know me well have commented on this, they see an energy in me that has been dormant for ages. On the days after I'm able to get to sleep before three a.m., I think I might even glow a little bit. Today is not one of those days. The Baby kept me up all night. But I managed to check a few little things off the list today. It's been a big week. I'm going to take the evening off. The good thing about this Baby - no danger of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome :)