Monday, January 3, 2011

Carving Away the Excess to Discover the Story

Today I met with a fellow female film artist to help her find her story. From her long, intriguing narrative we carved not one, but three possible shorts. More than that if you count the twists and turns that can be added to any one of them. It was gratifying to participate in the process, and to discover that somehow I innately knew the steps to take to coax the story forward.

All we needed was some blank paper.

As she talked I jotted scene after possible scene down, each on a separate sheet of blank recycled paper. Once we carved away the myriad of details from her memory and research, and blew away the dust, we found the story that she wants to tell.

Of course it's not done yet. This is just the beginning. Or rather it's my beginning, and her continuation on this long journey. Art is more than just a final work; it's a process.

So don't fret if you haven't yet found your story. Begin carving away at the tale scene by possible scene. At the end of the process you may just find yourself as fortunate as we were today when we discovered that one third of our scenes will likely make it to the next stage: the script outline.

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