The Rough Draft

Being a writer is funny sometimes. Not exactly funny, “Ha ha,” well actually it sort of is funny, “ha ha,” but in a bitter sort of self mocking laugh kind of way. It’s no secret that writers are an abused commodity in feature film. Not so much in the world of TV where the writers also tend to be the producers but in film, it’s okay to take a whack at us from time to time. Some producers even get their kicks that way. Others are just plain crazy, which in the end tends to make you think fondly of the sadist producer because they at least know why they’re torturing you. Truth be told though, film writers wear this current status system as a bit of a badge of honor. It allows us to play the, “Maid’s part,” a’la Richard the Third.

Right now, we’re days away from a Writer’s strike in the US. It’s been a long time coming and looks like there’s a good chance it’s going to be a long one. I won’t go into details about this, you can check them out yourself at the www.wga.org site but rest assured, there won’t be the usual rolling on the back paws in the air action of past boards. This board was put in place to get a certain result and the Studios better take note.

Of course, I’m a Canadian and our guild already had the contract talks. So this wont effect us too much but we will be paying close attention to our Southern brothers and sisters to see what goes down.

Had a meeting with my director D over the current script. Everything looks good, nothing that a big rewrite won’t fix. Mostly a dialogue thing but there’s a few scenes that have to go and a few more quiet moments slipped in. It was a good session and it looks like he’s a got a solid plan to get it made the way he wants, which will be good for me and even better for my family.

It’s funny how things come full circle. This is the sort of stuff I started out writing and then walked away from because I felt it had run it’s course and here I am twelve years later writing very much what started me as a writer in the first place. The only thing that’s changed is the medium I write for.

The reality of which is I’m still writing horror the difference being, this is a horror that’s really happening, every day.

Now we start the game of beat the clock.

I’ll keep you posted.

You live more at two hundred miles an hour in five minutes on a bike than most men live in a lifetime.

Burt Munro Official Speed Record Holder 190.7mph unofficial speed record 205.4mph

Every Screenwriter has a couple of stories that stay pretty close to their heart. One I’ll talk about here, is an Isle of Mann TT story. For those of you who don’t know, the Isle of Mann TT (Tourist Trophy) is a race around the Isle of Mann’s perimeter, not on a dedicated race track but on the regular road surface, used year round by the Island’s inhabitants.

The course winds up from the coast flanked on either side by rock walls, hedges and trees. It curves up and over the mountains that make the spine of the island Where you find yourself suddenly in cloud and drizzle and back down to the coast. It is a dangerous race that regularly claims lives. During the race series of the sixties, the track would claim up to ten riders a year. Even this year, two riders were killed.

It is one of the most thrilling races in the world to watch and most likely one of the most terrifying to compete in.

That being said, as a writer you focus on the character of the men who compete not the spectacle.

I’ve been riding motorcycles now for twenty four years. I started out on a little 175cc and went through a series of bikes before settling on a 600cc Yamaha, which was my main ride for a good twelve years. I’ve spent the better part of two years trying to get an 82 Seca XJ550 to live again (to no avail). Being used to single cylinder engines, the inline 4 of the Seca was a bad fit for me and more than a little frustrating and because we tend to anthropormize out vehicles, in my eyes a bit ungrateful. But now there’s a new love in my life, a 2004 Suzuki DL 660 V-Strom. It’s a Sport Enduro which most would say might make it neither fish nor fowl but the truth be told it’s one of the best handling bikes I’ve ever owned and it’s taken a lot of the worry out of the ride. Something you never leave behind on an older bike.

Now I’ve never gone 205mph (330kph) I’m pretty sure bikes that go that fast don’t have a speedo. I have however gone 161.5mph (260kph) and even in a fit of youthful stupidity popped a wheelie at 112mph (180kph) and my current bike would probably top out at 200kph. However those days are well behind me. I stay with the flow of traffic these days or stooge along country roads at speeds that still let you see what’s passing by you and if opportunity presents, snapping the scene with my camera. I guess right now the journey is the thing.

But those who worship the Gods of Speed strike a chord. They hang between the knowledge of how far you can push a machine and the hair’s breath between how far they can push their body and disaster.

The Isle of Mann is no flattened racetrack with perfectly formed corners, it dips, turns and jinks in ways that push the man / machine interface to the ultimate edge. It seems faster than regular races and those who race it become legend.

I hope I can do them justice…

I’m always amazed. I’d never walk up to Spielberg and say, “Directing is easy, all you have to do is aim the camera and yell, Action.” Or, “Acting is just pretending you’re somebody else.” It would be insulting but most people think they can write or at the very least have something interesting to say.

A lot of people like to, “Play,” the artist, not too many want to, “be,” an artist. Playing an artist is easy, you just dress the part and be ambiguous about your taste or use double speak when people ask you a serious question. We have a lot of, “Players,” in film. They tend to float into development. Mostly because they don’t have the ability to write, shoot or act and they lack the acumen to be producer types (suits). It doesn’t stop them from being the grease in the gears though.

I use the analogy as in gumming things up as opposed to reducing friction.

Being an artist is hard. When my daughter told us she wanted to pursue a career in the arts I talked to her about it being the hardest road to hold. There’s a reason why art is mostly a solitary pursuit, you’re the one who ultimately has to do it. Others can offer encouragement and even advice but ultimately, you’re the one who has to tough it out. I also told her that it’s okay to fail in art, that art is 98% failure and maybe only 2% success (if you’re lucky) and that’s okay because it means you’re trying.

There’s an art historian who released a paper this year on creativity. He breaks it down to to paths. Early stunning success where an artist changes the way we perceive an art form and long term success where an artist takes a lifetime to achieve the highest level of his work. There is a catch though. The artist who achieves early and great success tend to not have a second half. They spend the rest of their careers (in that field at least) trying to achieve that same level. Which must be a bitter and frustrating pill to swallow. Many times it leads to suicide, drug abuse. alcoholism and other self destructive behaviour.

The flipside of course is the long haul, which has its own frustrations and obstacles to overcome but in the end, the journey reflects the life and the art achieved. Though there may be no less instances of the above mentioned self destructive behaviour.

Still I’d like to think I’m in it for the long haul.

I hope you are too.