Okay, just a quick update for today. (I'm trying to get into the habit of making short updates regularly instead of putting them off because they have to be long and detailed - we'll see how it goes.)
I just wrapped up a day of workshopping with Spencer that went really well. On the one hand, workshopping can be quite challenging - both for the actors, and for myself as the director. However, on the other hand, it's hard to call something that's this fun "work". I've done a lot of research into acting and directing techniques over the last year or so, and I've often encountered the word "play". After the workshops and rehearsals we've had for Play It Safe so far, I would say that "play" is a very apt term to describe the process. As I will describe in more detail in a later post, I am attempting to take a very organic and free approach to the performances in play it safe. This is not only an excellent way to realise great performances and allow happy accidents to occur, it's also a lot of fun. On days like today I definitely count myself very lucky to be working on a project like this. (How many people get to crack dumb jokes with their fourteen-year-old cousin as part of their job?)
In other news, Jack and I have just recently wrapped up the 3rd draft of the script, and last night we did the 1st full read through that we'd done in ages. I have to say that the script is developing quite nicely, and for the first time I can really see the end of the road. We started writing Play It Safe back in March 2011, and I feel confident that the shooting script will be done by March this year. It's taken a bit longer to finish the script than I anticipated (but then again everything takes longer than you expect when you're working in indie film), but I think that one year for a feature script is still a very good effort. Fingers crossed that the next one Jack and I write will come together even quicker.
That's pretty much all for today, hopefully I'll have some more updates next week.
