Writers block

The script process for "Clowning Around" has been pretty epic so far. Starting off with an idea two friends of mine had in 2004, I wrote a script in 2007 about two clowns having a slapstick face off. I then put in the OTT Filmmakers Forum (www.ottfilms.co.uk) in 2008 to get feedback and also worked with producer Heather Brunt (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2770092/) in order to submit fro funding the same year. The script went through about 10 rewrites in 2009 and has had minor tweaks here and there and is constantly getting feedback due to the collaborative process we are undertaking.

Throughout this, one thing that I felt never really grabbed the audience in the way we wanted was the opening, so have been trying to rewrite it over the past month.

Due to various other commitments and getting the other parts of "Clowning Around" sorted, this has not been possible. But yesterday morning I cleared my brain of everything else and sat down to do it. The elements I was trying to bring in were some way of seeing some interplay between our two clowns in which Mr.Fernelli manipulates Bonzo in someway and we start to see what could have sent Bonzo on his downward spiral, whilst still making it visually interesting and not spoon-feeding the audience with dialogue.

But I couldn't think of anything. Every option I thought of was clunky. As morning turned into afternoon and afternoon into evening I was starting to get a little frustrated with a wasted day, so called Leilani to get her input and after that just wrote something down so I felt I had an opening which was better than the current one. I sent this to Leilani, our 1st Assistant Director Greer and another producer Perry to see their thoughts. And then I left it alone for the evening, even though I wasn't totally happy that it worked fully.

And then it happened. At roughly 7.30am this morning. I had the idea! I woke up and read through some thoughts Lani, Greer and Perry had sent through and something clicked. It is a strange sensation that after 8 hours of trying and finding nothing, you can suddenly get it in 30 seconds and the words just flow onto the page! So I have rewritten the opening in a way I am much happier with, which conveys everything above but is done in a simple and effective way with no dialogue, which is what I was after.

What I have learnt from this is the ideas will come, don't fret or get over frustrated and keep things simple! Oh and a good nights kip does wonders for clearing your head :-)