Anatomy of a Short Film, Chapter 1: As Things Land.

The last time I wrote about getting this film on its feet, I think the decision was to run with another script entirely. Another variation on exploring the female/female dynamic, which felt "more exciting" I think was the intention. 

Well, the (very) long story short is that I was convinced to do a 180 and have come back to the original concept for the first short film project: the existential espionage story, "Close Observations of a Single Subject". 

My original misgivings with this was that there wasn't sufficient heft to the internal dynamics of the work. Not "drama" per se - as anyone who knows me could attest, I'm about as far from a drama junkie as you could get when it comes to cinema - I prefer the slow, creeping "but nothing's happening!" kind of storytelling that infuriates so many people out there in the world of you know, trying-to-sell-films. 

No - I think I was unclear back then on what I felt were the guts of the work. By "guts" I mean I suppose what traditionally people might feel as "the hook" - something - even if you can't identify it, have no idea what it is - that your gut can latch onto and say, "oh, yeah - okay - I don't know why, but I can't get this story off my mind."

But I was (thankfully) led back to the script by one of the producers - the version with two female leads - and was reassured that in fact there was enough in there. So I dove down into a series of re-writes, and came back up with something that I was actually really, really intrigued to see play out on screen.

And interestingly, as I approached these rewrites, the work of two specific actors began to take shape within the work in my mind's eye. And so, I kind of knew I had to do it. 

And incredibly, after much uhm-ing and ah-ing over whether or not I could be brave enough to actually ask these two actors to be involved, because they may not be interested, or too busy, I rallied the courage, sent the emails, had coffee meetings, and miraculously - wonderfully, they have both said, "yes". (Official cast announcements to come in future updates - stay tuned.)

And just as miraculously, my husband who is one of our producers, is shooting a television series at the moment (as an actor), and has managed to woo over some phenomenal talent to head up creative departments as well. 

Our other producer has provided us with an incredible location that is pretty much everything I had in my mind's eye as I was writing the script. 

So, I've been trying not to jinx everything, and have kept my head down and my bum up doing forensic script analysis, making production design notes, trying out different cinematographic ideas and listening to a lot of Bach. 

The wheels really very much are in motion on this fascinating creature. And I'm so grateful, and intrigued by the work that's unfolding. I'll check back in again soon with more updates.