Gill Dennis part 3

An extraordinary morning. Gill had Sara Sugarman go through his process of recounting her saddest, shameful, most terrifying, most angry and most joyful times. Her emotional honesty was overwhelming and what came out were the most moving, exciting and riveting stories. I am so pleased this is the AFIs approach to story - emotional honesty.



Afternoon - script development with Tom Rickman (nominated for an oscar for the 'Coal Miners Daughter'), head of the script writing faculty. Adam's script came in for some heavy critique as we identified key weaknesses: poor POV, tell not show, very verbose dialogue which sounded like 22 year olds and left no insite into character. All for the benefit of the story.

Sat down with Adam in the afternoon and the two of us worked through the script beat by beat. Had a fantastic breakthrough for the male character in the story 'he doesn't want to be reminded of work when he is at home.'

Adam disappeared off to rewrite the first two scenes.



Evening session. Talk given by:

Producting: Neil Canton ('Back to the Future' 'Witches of Eastwick')

Directing: Jim McBride ('Breathless' 'The Big Easy' 'Great Balls of Fire' 'Six Feet Under')

Cinematography: Steven Lighthill ('Vietnam War Story' 'Nash Bridges')

Production Design: Jospeh Garrity (designed all Christopher Guests Films)

Robert Boyle: born 1909 - was the Production Designer for 'The Birds' 'The Thomas Crown Affair' 'Cape Fear' and 'North by North West' - the man is a legend!!

Robert Boyle, after a few anecdotes re the performances of various species of birds in the Hitchcock Film, incidentally crows are meant to be exellent to work with whilst Seagulls are greedy, he went on to outline the key info Production Designers need to know before they can fully contribute:

1 - Economic - rich, poor, new money or old etc
2 - Attitude towards money - hoarder, spender etc
3 - Social Status
4 - Relationships - family, job, friends etc
5 - Education - school, university, street
6 - Sex - hetero, homo
7 - Physical/Mental Capability
8 - What do they do? - work, hobbies, interests
9 - Ethnic - race, religion, origin
10 - Geographic
11 - What do they do with the environment - do they change the environment or does the environment change them
12 - Politics

Afterwards, spent the evening with Nick Quinn. Another Brit! Oh also bumped into Edd Lukas a Brit cinematographer in the second year. Previously at the LIFS, wasn't impressed with that school but loving the AFI. Nick and I went for a bite to eat then a couple of sherbets at the Dresden in Los Feliz Village. An old 60s looking joint with piano and crooners. Nick originally studied music, playing in a band in Manchester - but it never happened, and his family insisted he found a job. So started off editing at a betting chain. Over the next 10 years went from strength to strength editing a host of UK TV. We put the worlds to right.

Back at 1.30 Received e mail from Adam with the first two scenes rewritten. Smiled. They are very strong.