Deserted

I realised last week that I'd been deserting this blog, unfortunatley this has been the first oppurtunity that I've had to drop a blog, so to speak.
So what's new?
Well, I've been watching some early Scorsese film. Beginning with who's that knocking at my door?, his student film which although amateurish in places still has flashes of Scorsese and the direction is very inventive during what could otherwise be seen as 'nothing' scenes. Boxcar Bertha has more of a plot and, due to Roger Corman's demands, something is always going on. The climax to the film is good too. Mean Streets is the first well known Scorsese film, hopefuly everyone has seen this film, if not stop reading this blog and watch now. De Niro has an alluring swagger and the constantly moving camera is always engaging also. Lastly i watched Alice doesn't live here anymore, which is the most un-scorsese-like out of all of them, a womans picture for one, a melodrama for two, very mainstream also. Ellen Burstyn is fantastic in it though and there are some great moments.
Been to the cinema a couple of times too, my favourites this year so far have been Gus Van Sant's Milk, a great performance by Sean Penn, only rivalled by Mickey Rourke's in The Wrestler. Another favourite was Revolutionary Road, but i still hope Slumdog Millionaire gets those Best Picture and Best Director Oscar's.
Right now I've just finished watching Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, George Clooney's first deirectorial effort, more importantly from a Charlie Kaufman script. Based on Gong Show host's Chuck Barris' autobiography which states that he was also a CIA agent whilst working on TV, it's a great premise, which is told well. apparently Kaufman fell out with Coooney during the making of it. I'm off onto the net now to find out more.
I'll just leave you with my writing tales of the past few weeks. Worked through episode one of The Dole, my TV drama script, but then left it as I had an idea for Episode 2 which i am halfway through now. Finished redrafting my childrens novel. also started a short film script but that is going a bit wrong. Will try and blog about that before the end of the week.
Going now.
BYE

First Draft- DONE!!

Today I finished the first draft on the script for my TV pilot. Hooray. Feels like an achievement even though I know there’s still a lot of work to do on it. I’m already making the odd change even though I know I should leave it for a bit. All the books tell you to leave it alone for a while after you’ve finished anyway. I know I won’t be able to resist touching it up (oo-err) and I’ll be diving in making changes.
I can see or feel some problems with it already.
· I believe one of my characters changes personality about halfway through just because I didn’t know how to write for her to begin with and the character formed throughout the process.
· Need to strengthen the thread that holds the story.
· I know the story is very slight because the characters all have to meet i’ve been busy setting everything up so need to put more story in there.

I am really excited by this process though. Drafting and re-drafting my novel felt like a massive and daunting task whilst this feels more like fun, I’m sure it won’t in a week or two and I’ll be regretting that last comment.
To cap the day off the Harlan Ellison book Shatterday came through the post today so it’s been a good un all round.