Dealing with Writers Blog

Well, it's been another couple of eventful days. The long weekend has been a joy, affording me some much needed time away from campus, lectures, and so on. But unfortunately, every second that slips by seems to push me closer to those (at this stage dreaded) shooting dates. I really question how/if we'll get ready on time! You can never have enough pre-production, but this time, with the somewhat mad deadline from Mnet's side, and the fact that I'm effectively forced to shoot during the September vac, as a producer, I've had very little freedom in the scheduling and setting of the production dates. But, less moaning and more action. Besides, until you're actually committed, nothing will ever get done. So...

Yesterday I took a drive around the outskirts of Maritzburg, to the Bisely Nature reserve, seeing once and for all if it will be possible to shoot locally. And whilst there were some awesome spots (the pic above was taken there, yesterday evening), I'm still not entirely convinced it will be possible. Well, it will be possible, but it's just a question of how big a compromise it will be.

Over the last couple of days it has really been my priority to try and get the new draft on the script done, and hopefully be ready to "lock" it, and begin pre-production in earnest. But, as I've mentioned in previous blog's, I've been in this weird tug-of-war tension. Unable, it seems to rid myself of my first visualisation of the story, i.e. set in the vastness of the Karoo. So, rethinking it all has been an interesting learning curve in terms of my writing, and how it is to have to do a major rewrite, as opposed to the general tweaking of dialogue that constitutes most other rewriting.

Shifting the narrative to another context, i.e. away from the factual setting of the true life Reitz adventure, has seemed like a serious betrayal of the honesty of the plot. At the best of times I've been struggling with how to maintain the integrity of the "Novel" (I've extracted a scene from Deneys Reitz' journal on the Boer War, entitled Commando - not sure if I've ever stated that). So, it's always been difficult. Not only from plot and structure point of view (how do you either condense a section of the tale into 15 mins, or chose which section to extract), but also, interestingly, from an ethical moral point of view. I've based my character on a real person, borrowing his name, age, and general adventure, but just how much "creative license" is OK? How much tweaking and upping the drama for convenience and structure's sake, is allowed? I was watching a very poignant documentary on the Boer War the other night, "Scorched Earth", dealing with Kitchener's nefarious farm burning policy and the subsequent detaining of Boer women and children, in the concentration camps. And it struck me that, when you narrate an historical tale, you are somehow given a lot of responsibility. There is perhaps the expectation the viewer may have that you will narrate the tale in line with their ideology, that their agenda will be matched. Perhaps I'm blowing it out of proportion? But, it seemed almost criminal for me to piggy back on Reitz' hardships, and infuse his adventures with what is arguably a very modern (postmodern???) character arc; that of a character coming to terms with his identity in the face of the senseless death and destruction that surrounds him. Even then, this line of questioning opens up a whole new can of worms. Is that my theme? If so, is it easily communicated? Can I pull that off in 15 minutes? Can I pull that off full-stop?

Enough questioning. I have, I suppose hit some sort of a breakthrough with the script. I managed to rewrite the opening that I was struggling so much on. And in so doing, I feel I'm creating a new setting and landscape which I hope will carry through organically into the rest of the tale. This setting is very much located in what I imagine to be the Drakensberg. I trust that the magnificence of these mountains will bring with them a new dynamic and element to the story that, whilst not suggesting what the barrenness of the Karoo would, will nonetheless resonate with the transformational arc of the character.

The picture below was the catalyst for the new found mental imagery I'm giving to the script, and whilst it will probably be impossible to get to where this is, I'm hoping to capture some similar scenes. Shooting in the Drakensberg will present a myriad of complications, but it's good to have mostly decided on this place. Now it's a question of preempting and overcoming the problems as and when they arise.

I've uploaded a video of some of the locations visited so far. It's viewable at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWmEYSaw3r4 How I have time to edit videos as well, is a mystery...well, truth is I don't. But...what can you do?!