Finishing the first draft
June 22nd 2010 08:02
As I said, several days ago, I've been working on the script for a children's musical, along with a friend. She's been tied up with University exams for the last week, so things have come to a bit of a standstill in terms of the collaborative work. However, I've been moving forward, and officially, the first complete draft of the script is done.
When I say the first draft, I don't mean that nothing's been changed yet; in fact one scene early in the piece has been rewritten three times already. Another long scene in the first act didn't get off the ground at all the first time, and took another complete overhaul to get something worth working with. And there have been innumerable other changes made along the way with other scenes. So in a sense it's only a first draft in name. Perhaps a "collage draft" would be better, since it currently consists of so many versions pulled together.
All that aside, the ground work has been done (and in fact, a bit of music has been written as well, for some of the stuff that's likely to stay as it is). I'm keen to get on with the music, really, but there's no point if we're going to make further changes.
One thing that will need work is to make sure that the whole thing is consistent, that everything gels with everything else. This, I'm sure, is going to be an area needing work. Characters can alter as they move forward in a piece while you're still writing. As far as I know at the moment they're fairly congruent throughout, but the eagle eye of my collaborator may well find something flawed in this department.
And then there's the issue of making sure that the things that motivate the main characters actually work. And then there's the back story - have we told enough to keep the audience informed, without overdoing it? Does the geography make sense without lots of extra information?
On top of this - because it's a fairy tale, and therefore has magical elements in it - have we asked too much of any producer? I wanted the two children to literally fly into a scene late in the piece. This is probably not going to be practical, so a compromise has been reached - but will it be as effective? I've worked on the principal, endorsed by the collaborator, that it's better to over-imagine things, and then pull back where necessary. If you try and anticipate what can't be done, you tend to aim for less effect.
I've just seen that the third in the Narnia series is nearly ready for release. The trailer looks good, so hopefully they haven't mucked around with it too much. Personally I think The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is perhaps the least successful of the Narnia series as a book. It's very episodic, and the person who's the main character for the first half loses his status by the second half, when Reepicheep takes over.
I was reminded of that story because we did it as a play a couple of years ago: and it was full of impossible things that we actually, for the most part, achieved. Things done on stage don't have to be perfectly done the way they are in films: an audience somehow fills in the gaps and lets their imagination take over. I'm sure there'll be elements of that in our play as well.
When I say the first draft, I don't mean that nothing's been changed yet; in fact one scene early in the piece has been rewritten three times already. Another long scene in the first act didn't get off the ground at all the first time, and took another complete overhaul to get something worth working with. And there have been innumerable other changes made along the way with other scenes. So in a sense it's only a first draft in name. Perhaps a "collage draft" would be better, since it currently consists of so many versions pulled together.
All that aside, the ground work has been done (and in fact, a bit of music has been written as well, for some of the stuff that's likely to stay as it is). I'm keen to get on with the music, really, but there's no point if we're going to make further changes.
One thing that will need work is to make sure that the whole thing is consistent, that everything gels with everything else. This, I'm sure, is going to be an area needing work. Characters can alter as they move forward in a piece while you're still writing. As far as I know at the moment they're fairly congruent throughout, but the eagle eye of my collaborator may well find something flawed in this department.
And then there's the issue of making sure that the things that motivate the main characters actually work. And then there's the back story - have we told enough to keep the audience informed, without overdoing it? Does the geography make sense without lots of extra information?
On top of this - because it's a fairy tale, and therefore has magical elements in it - have we asked too much of any producer? I wanted the two children to literally fly into a scene late in the piece. This is probably not going to be practical, so a compromise has been reached - but will it be as effective? I've worked on the principal, endorsed by the collaborator, that it's better to over-imagine things, and then pull back where necessary. If you try and anticipate what can't be done, you tend to aim for less effect.
I've just seen that the third in the Narnia series is nearly ready for release. The trailer looks good, so hopefully they haven't mucked around with it too much. Personally I think The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is perhaps the least successful of the Narnia series as a book. It's very episodic, and the person who's the main character for the first half loses his status by the second half, when Reepicheep takes over.
I was reminded of that story because we did it as a play a couple of years ago: and it was full of impossible things that we actually, for the most part, achieved. Things done on stage don't have to be perfectly done the way they are in films: an audience somehow fills in the gaps and lets their imagination take over. I'm sure there'll be elements of that in our play as well.
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