Questions from YOU #1: Dialogue that doesn't work...? REWRITES

Cole here. I'm going to invite Jeremy to field this one when he gets a chance over the weekend, and this does not count as my topical blog-of-the-week. That'll be later or tomorrow.

We've invited questions and comments from you, and we're going to answer them. That's our promise. That makes this a wild ride everyone can enjoy.

We got a question from someone asking about a particular bit of dialogue. I won't say that I know the fate of THAT particular line just yet, but it raises a good eye-brow and perks our ears, and it is much appreciated.

Jeremy has already posted about the importance of less. It's ironic that in order to be a writer, you NEED to put pen to paper. But in order to be a GOOD writer, you need to stop at some point. I've never heard of a writer being able to cut a great amount away from his script unless he has weeks and weeks to say goodbye to it. As the co-writer of "Glass City" my re-write and cutting process accidentally added a page or two the the screen-play. Woops...

Enter Jeremy and the reason he's going to be a marked raise in our standards. In one fell swoop, Jeremy Sony cut Separation Anxiety from 120 pages to 92. 

That's almost 30 pages. 

That's almost 30 minutes on film. 

And it all still makes sense. It all still induces sadness and jollies.

"Glass City" was a raging success. It is competing at a major film festival(s) (Trail Dance in Oklahoma) and has garnered nominations for best director, best actor, best actress, and best drama. However, a glaring flaw was that, in our budget of time and money, we were only able to put the draft up to revision number six. Having Jeremy on-board with enable us to really pay attention to the writing, which is something that should be given the same priority as the casting, the investing, the concepting, the shooting, and the editing. And with as far as number of re-writes and revisions. The number "50" has been tossed out there over the next nine months.

And that's just about the standard.

This will be a marked difference to the play some of you had seen in January of 2008. That playwrights festival dealt with one playwright who lives out of town (attentive as possible, but unable to be in the room has to be frustrating for any new work artist) and our own Jeremy Sony was busy being the president of a theatre company as well as directing a major piece of his own (again, with the ambition....). What we have here that is different is a dedicated playwright. And the revisions just keep on coming.

Hope this helps! Thanks for asking! Awesome question.

Cole Simon