Cinematic Superhero

Like any great editor, time can be ruthless.

In August, I finished writing the second draft of my new feature screenplay, Bitter Pills.

Bitter Pills is the story of a small town doctor who begins telling all his healthy patients they are dying of cancer. This news gives them a new perspective on life.

Back in August, I was rather happy with what I had written and felt the script was almost ready to be released into the world.

Having spent most of the first eight months of 2009 distributing The Last New Year (and writing Bitter Pills), in September it was time to get a job and pay some bills. I took a job as a producer on Down2Earth, and put the writing aside for a while.

Last week, I picked up Bitter Pills for the first time in almost three months. Reading it, I was shocked (and somewhat dismayed) over the amount of work which still needs to be done! Far from the polished work I had considered it to be three months ago, I feel it’s now a ‘good’ draft that requires considerable structural changes to get it where it needs to be.

… As the paint dries, the cracks begin to show through.

Stephen King says giving your drafts time to rest is one of the best things you can do as a writer. He suggests pounding out a draft, and then putting it away for at least a few months. The time between drafts allows one to become detached and provides a new perspective on the work.

Of course he’s right. What’s most surprising is my ability to forget this truth over and over again. Every time I finish a draft, I think it’s perfect, or at worst, only a ‘polish’ away from perfect.

Coming back to the work several months later is both daunting and exciting. Daunting because, even after diving back in, tearing the work apart and piecing it back together with laboured precision, there’s a good chance I could find myself in a similar state of mind three months after completing the next draft.

Exciting because, seeing the cracks so clearly now, I know there are ways to make it better.

Despite my feelings last September that Bitter Pills was ready to leave the nest and face the critiques of a harsh, unforgiving world, I never really felt it was as good as I’d initially hoped. Although well structured with strong characters, it wasn’t as remarkably, unbelievably, stupendously compelling as I thought it deserved to be. It wasn’t jumping off the page and grabbing me in a headlock and throwing me on the ground and kicking me in the teeth. It just wasn’t THAT good yet, and I thought, perhaps that’s just its fate. Perhaps it will never be that good…

But, perhaps it will, and with time come new ideas and new hope. I again believe it can and will be an amazing script, an ass-kicking script, and I have an arsenal of ideas about how to take it to the next level.

Now all I need to find is the time to work on it!

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Yesterday was one heck of a day:

After calling myself to action on the Percy Schmeiser treatment, I FINALLY just sat down and pounded it out. Although developing this script has been a frustrating process, every time I return to it I’m reminded about what a meaningful and important story Percy’s is. (More about this in future posts…)

A man named Cory came to the house in the afternoon pedaling investments; oil fields, annuities, life insurance, housing developments, land banking, etc. Despite my initial skepticism, the conversation, which lasted more than two hours, was fascinating. The schemes that have been developed (because really, that’s what they are), to expand personal wealth at the expense of the welfare of our planet and its inhabitants are really quite mind boggling. In one example, you, as the investor, are encouraged to buy out the life insurance policies of the infirm. You buy the policy and the sooner they die, the more money you make… Life Settlements, as they’re called, are Cory’s favorite investment product. Apparently Warren Buffet is into them big time.

Attending Wade Davis’ book reading was an ironic (yet very appropriate) followup to Cory’s investment presentation. Whereas Cory unveils how we may benefit from the death of our fellow humans, Wade passionately reminds us of the intrinsic value of human life. Chosen for this year’s Massey Lecture series, he is National Geographic’s ethnobotanist-in-residence and one of the most articulate voices for the preservation of indigenous cultures (and their lands) around the world.

From New Album 09-10-28 11:35 AM

A riveting Q&A followed the reading, and, of course, central to the discussion was the question, “what can we do to stop cultural extinction?”

Wade explained that these cultures do not disappear on their own accord, but rather, that there are clear, discernible forces causing their collapse… greed and corporate interests (expressed through land development, resource extraction, cash crop farming, ect.) being the most predominant.

Climate change, of course, is having a huge impact. Already, there are hundreds of thousands of ‘climate refugees’, people forced to leave their lands, as a result of flooding or desertification caused by the changing climate. As Wade so poignantly describes, land and culture are inseparable and with the loss of one, the other is sure to follow.

He explained that perhaps the most frightening example of this is the loss of the Himalayan Glaciers, which regulate the water supply to the Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra, Mekong, Thanlwin, Yangtze and Yellow rivers, and are the major source of water for hundreds of millions of people. As the planet heats, and the glaciers melt, the rivers will first begin to flood, but ultimately recede to the extent that it is predicted, in 30 years, the Ganges will become a seasonal river.

What will happen to these hundreds of millions of people when the water runs out? Hopefully, we will never find out. Hopefully, we, as a global community, will get our act together and stop climate change. Hopefully.

After the Q&A, there was a book signing with Wade and I had an opportunity to talk with him briefly about Down 2 Earth, the web/TV project I’m currently working on about indigenous solutions to environmental problems. He generously said he’d be happy to help in any way he could, either personally, or via access to his extensive network.

Joseph Roberts, founder of Common Ground magazine was also there, and afterward, we went to The Naam to eat and process everything we had learned. If any magazine carries this hope for a better, more peaceful world, it’s Common Ground. Joseph, who still personally runs it after 27 years, shared with us his exciting plan to take it international. This is great news. As the people of the Ganges will attest, the world needs such voices… more now than ever.

After that it was back home to bed, my head spinning with ideas and ideals.

I lay there thinking about all that had happened during the day — and then suddenly an image struck me – something that had somehow got lost between the financial adviser and the ethnobotanist. In our back yard we had had a visitor that evening. I managed to grab my digital point and shoot and get some video.

Bear Visit

The video doesn’t show the bear cub that was  hiding in the trees. Seems mama and baby were filling their bellies for the winter to come, and had chosen our yard as their buffet for the evening. It was a very cool sight, and yet another reminder of how close and intrinsically connected we are to the natural world.

This post is a part of Blog Action Day

Need to work on the Percy Schmeiser treatment. I’ve been busy, so procrastinating has been easy.

I don’t know why it’s giving me such a hard time?

Sit down, get it done, end of story….