Last day of term.

Oh my god. What a term, what a YEAR! One of the worst years of my life for all kinds of reasons. I have never been more broke, more frustrated, more angry that I have been at various times this year. But the year is ending well, so bodes well for the year 2006. Let's hope so. I and all my brood have really earned it.

The end of term at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School is always a nice time to be around the building. We watch stuff we've been producing, like the short film "Inside You" which is now finished, well mostly... we also watch the end of term song and dance presentation by the first year actors. This year it was a joyful thing, and everyone clapped and cheered uproariously after every piece. They are so brave and so talented these people, after only 11 weeks training they dance, they sing, they act... they are all fantastic actors already, so another 1-2 years and they will be superb professionals.

Of course some are not as radiant in the song and dance presentation as others. Not all actors can dance or sing, that's true enough. But they DO dance and sing, and that's the thing. Carry it off with enough gusto and profesionalism and you can carry and audience with you.

I myself was watching the thing and smiling like a fool the whole time. Also part of the time I was making little casting decisions in my head. A number of the people today really impressed me, and I'm keen to cast them in the film if they are free to do it. Very suprised by a few people actually, and actually reassured about some of the people I was curious about and now sure they would be great in the film.

Thinking about this film is keeping me sane at the moment. Really. If I didn't have that to think about I'd probably go stark staring mad. Thinking about story ideas occupies my drive in and out in the morning and evenings. Writing the synopsis whiles away odd bits of evening and lunchtimes. Chatting with members of staff gives me support and ideas for set pieces and technical stuff. I've already got a number of members of staff on my side, and I hope to get a few more to follow. Making this film is partly for my own benefit, but mostly for the benefit of the students. I want to give them the experience of working in a green screen environment. Plus I want to get my film in the can so badly I can taste it in the back of my mouth.

Looking forward to getting into the actual script now. I've plotted the whole thing. Now it's all about structure. I reackon it might be about 100 minutes long, so 25 pages for act 1, 50 pages for act 2, and 25 pages for act 3. Yeah you can write totally freeform screenplays and suit yourself as to whether story points should be in any one place. But I am very much of the opinion that a well structured screenplay fulfills at least one of the audiences expectations.

Anyway, more later.