The Process Begins Again

Last night, Vagabond Pictures reached an important new milestone - the completion of the synopsis of our second film, "Dane". For those who aren't familiar with the process of writing a film, there are certain steps you follow before a film is complete. Each step reveals a little bit more about the project. After coming up with an idea (first step), a very basic beginning, middle and end are figured out (step two), and then the entire story is fleshed out from beginning to end in a very basic Good guy shoots Bad guy type format which is called the Synopsis (third step). At this point, the writers know the entire story from beginning to end. So now, if you were to ask me what it was about, I could tell you with much more confidence.

In house building terms, the synopsis would be the framing. It doesn't look anything like a house, but its the structure upon which everything relies. If the framing is screwed up, the house will fall down before its finished. So in terms of writing, the synopsis might just be the most important part.

The next step in "Dane" will be to take the synopsis and scene by scene flesh it out into a script. In the first draft of the script, we will give voice to the characters, describe their movements, and start to visualize the look of the film (locations, time of day, important props, etc...) And then in subsequent drafts of the script, we will simply refine the script until we have exactly the story we want.

Ironically, the completion of the script is only one third of the story creation process. The story gets further refined during the actual filming as Director, Actors, and Crew work to bring nuance and meaning to the words. And then the story gets its ultimate polish when it goes to Post Production and editing, sound, and music are added to make the film a real world that you can visit for the duration of the story. But no matter how much additional polishing that will be done to the story, at its core you will still find the structure created by the synopsis.

We've created the story... now begins the process of making the film.

(Oh, and did I mention we want to start filming in June... so, the next part might be a little rushed. ;)