Hey everyone, welcome to my site! As we get towards the end of 2018 I’m pleased at the changes I went through this year. I realized I enjoyed being at the creative back end of making films. After almost 11 years of acting in film regularly it’s a nice addition to my life. I’m still learning, but looking forward towards 2019 and the new things that will come out of Call it a Whim 🙂 Right now I’m still revising my script for Wallie’s Gals. The cast seems to like it but I think everything can be made better. As a screenwriter you should never settle for the first draft, or even the second. Or the third. Everything can be refined. Start with a great story and refine from there. I’ve gotten some feedback already and am waiting for a couple of more sources of feedback. We are doing a read through at the end of December where hopefully the cast will give me even more feedback. A great film really starts with a solid script. And as I’m also new to this process I just want to make it as good as it can be.
Aside from this script I wrote a script for the NYC Midnight 48 Hour screenwriting competition. A fun romp where a menopausal woman helps save the day from a jewelry heist. While it didn’t place in the top 15 of my group, I got some helpful feedback from the judges. I am supposed to participate in Challenge 2 of this competition this weekend, another genre, object, and location will be assigned to me and I have 48 hours to write. I may or may not go on to Challenge 3 depending on how I place here.
I also signed up to participate in the NYC Midnight Short Story competition in January. Pretty much the same process as above except you have almost a week (and have to hit a certain word count or less).
I guess in the end, one of the first things you need to be solid about in creating films is writing. And that you shouldn’t rush. And don’t be afraid of blunt feedback. My script Red Shirt won a major award recently but that was after months of revisions. And to be honest, I still think things could be better in the script. Still I hope to also produce this next year (with even my brother in mind for a small role :-))
Happy Holidays everyone, and keep your eyes open for Call it a Whim!
-Mary 🙂
