TIME WARP -brief departures
Yeah, so like, it’s 6:25 am. I’m on the verge of getting a first draft of Buds completed, but procrastination takes its hold. Much like late night specials on New York City’s Underground, writing in this “journal” serves as an evil mental potion much worse than certain herbs. At least with them, you put your mind to whatever needs done, then it gets done by the end of the day. It’s only those tiny tasks outside of the mental prep that are neglected. Like changing the cat litter.
Enough about that, not that I’d know. I was in character for a scene in Buds, of course.
Oddly, Southern Trash has a beginning, end, and character arcs, but no actual scenes for act two have been invented. I’m dwelling on the clues of a Mississippi-wide scavenger hunt, since I’ve never been one to have patience for riddles. I’ve always hated them, in fact. As always, they’re cruel haunts on my word-problem-hating ass.
It’s funny because in this script, I want to exploit every expectation and stereotype a movie about the Bible-thumping Deep South would have and I’ve discovered something. Mississippi movies could almost be genre movies in their own right. Perhaps they are and no one’s told me…
The idea for the script started as homage to the “Dukes of Hazard” and Smoky and the Bandit, you know, those southern-style action movies with a dash of Fried Green Tomatoes. But when attempting the afore mentioned stereotypes, you can’t help but frequent topics like: racism, Elvis, Jesus-loving religious nuts, civil war ghosts, blues music, poor education, aristocrats, and fried food.
Something else about this story, I find myself doing something that if I were to advise a fellow-screenwriter, I’d advise against it. Instead of the characters creating their situations by the way they react to the previous situation, much like a great film like the Bicycle Thief is renowned for, I’m creating situations based on their geographic location and/or premeditated setting and throwing the characters in and seeing what they do.
Now, that sort of writing may serve the story since in theory, that’s what this movie is by nature. An entrepreneur named Walsh who sponsors a contest to win a mobile home, builds a scavenger hunt, and lets the entrants go on their merry way. So it may work, or it may suck ass. If I keep writing journal entries instead of working, we may never know.
It’s 7:17am with only a brief disruption by the departure of a roommate.