Thu, 2020-Sep-10 20:10 (BST)
I hope you are all doing okay through this turbulent times. I have to admit that I have good days and I have bad days. I'm someone good at keeping myself entertained alone but I've been getting cabin fever now and then. I just wanted you all to know I'm always here to chat if you need someone.
Hey CJ. I hear you, man. I love the fact that I have more time to focus on writing, concepting, and taking classes to improve, but yeah, some days are just a downer. On those days I go do something else outside, read a good Kindle book, or print out a script and watch the movie to "see" how in the heck they took that scene from the page to screen. I gotta tell you since I discovered Script Revolution, I have been reinvigorated to stay serious about my work.
That makes me so happy to read, Clark. A huge part of my motivation for creating Script Revolution was to help people keep their spirit going. So many of us get to the marketing stage with a script and just don't know where to turn.
Oddly enough, I'm writing less during lockdown but networking more. I also produced a lot of synopsis documents to be handed out to producers.
Hope you all and your loved ones are doing well! No one in my immediate/local circle has caught it so far that I'm aware of. National U.S. mood doesn't seem too good, just a constant stream of "oops maybe we shouldn't have done that after all". Hopefully a decent vaccine is available late 2020 or early 2021 and that best practices can start occuring after politicians aren't so wrapped up in election considerations post November. Otherwise hard to imagine another year of this without people here throwing up their hands and 'whatever happens happens'.
The shutdown did not effect us much in my part of the world. Alberta, Canada. For some here there were layoffs and more people working from home. The first two months I drove empty roads and had no problems finding parking down town but that ended about 3 months into the pandemic here. Other than masks, disposable gloves and hand sanitizer it is almost buissiness as usual. I did find my creative side had more angles to play into my writing. That is a plus.
Things are a bit messy here in the UK in terms of government leadership. The response has been varied too. I live in a small rural town in the Staffordshire Moorlands and the people here have been great. I'm really proud of that.
Given that I'm chatting to people in LA on a daily basis, that's been quite tough to watch unfold. The long term ramifications to our industry are going to be some of the biggest we've ever seen. I can see this really disrupting Hollywood's domination.
I wanted to include this comment to my above post but needed to lock down some legal first. I am a deaf/HoH writer.
Warning love story. One of the stories for me that I might never have thought of without the covid situation is a story about a young adult man that falls in love with a young woman from a distance. The main character is too shy to approach her before the Virus hits and looses his initial chance. During the pandemic the young woman is hit hard by virus and looses her hearing as a result (yes possible side effect). The catch is the main character does not know of her deafness but knows a small bit of sign language because of his mother teaching him some sign language as he grew up. The rest you will just have to read.
Hopefully I will have the story listed for a limited time exclusively on Script Revolution in the next week or so.
I am truly looking forward to more covid stories that have driven other writers to write.
Cool Marvin. Good use of the Covid situation to bring in some life affirming truths.
"Good days and bad days" seems to be the new normal for a lot of people I talk to, myself included. I'm grateful that here in Germany, things are somewhat okay, but I still lost my main source of income due to the lockdown, i.e. working at a cinema (free admissions, yay!).
I try to see it as a positive since it forces me to be braver in my freelance writing business. Plus, as others have said, it allows for more energy and space to write.
(in theory, unless it's a bad day and you can't focus from all the worrying)
Hugs to y'all!
Sorry to read about the income struggles, Jay. I admire the way you've turned it around into a positive though. Sometimes we need that push over the edge. I'm pretty open about how I started writing following a complete mental breakdown.
Texas is wide open!!! Our county is now at 100% open and occupancy. That's not to say we didn't lose a ton of business. In America, politics rule. Everyone in power is making decisions based how it can hurt the opposition. I CANNOT WAIT FOR THE ELECTIONS TO BE OVER WITH!!!!!
I work at a church and man, we were hurt hard. We have spent tens of thousands of dollars on safety and we are only currently running at 50%. People are using it as an excuse to not return. A huge shame for sure.
But we are resilient . We are a mass of humans who can endure and we are the writers who should take this experience and make the next great film from it.
Shawn........><
Hey, C.J. Thanks so much for this amazing site. I actually joined during the lockdown period cause I had to spend long periods at home and I had not much to do. Coming off the set got me back to a pad and pen. And, scripting has always been my primal nature. I love sharing my stories and I also love reading other people's. I get a lot of inspiration and I'm really glad for all this.
Ell.
Many thanks CJ for kick starting this thread and kudos to all above who opened up about what it's really all about. In some way or another everyone has been shot in the foot by covid era, my promos in Ireland and Spain could not take place and had to cancel my first trip to USA next year for a short BUT hey I'm not complaining. It's been a bastard but I'm still alive, well and like others above have done more writing. CJ nails it on the head "Cabin Fever" yep this confinement is ghastly and we got the addition of Neurosis in shops and supermarkets, Customers now make Mr Bean side steps away if you get too near in vegetable isle or look at you with scorn if you get too close in the que. We are writers and human beings so have to get some great scripts out of this natural disaster. Oscar Wilde "Through art and art alone can we shield ourselves from the sordid hurt of actuality." If anyone needs to reach out I'm here, I was about to train as a Samaritan but that's now down the pan, gripe over and time to move the Revolution forward. Stay Safe All!
I'm reading now that various mental health charities are seeing a tsunami of new cases falling at their door. It's getting brutal out there but I think there's light at the end of the tunnel. While we're probably looking at another six months of hardship (and decades of fallout), the world is going feel so united when we defeat this. Sadly, we've all been made more than aware that the cultures within many of our countries simply do not see the value that the arts bring and that's unfortunate. All we can do is band together and support one another.
New opportunities also present themselves because of Covid-19. I have written and made quite a number of short films and in July I was approached by a local theatre group to be the cameraman for a livestream play. None of us had ever done this before, but with one actress and three crew, we livestreamed our first 'pandemic play'. It was a great experience and one I would almost certainly have never been involved with if it hadn't been for lockdown here in the UK.
I heard about that "more easily transmissible" version of covid and have been thinking bout you guys in the UK! Tho like with early covid itself it might be in many more areas worldwide than they happen to be picking up on atm.