Did a bunch of BW work…

Did a bunch of BW work yesterday; going to do more when I'm done with this entry. We progress, if slowly. In the evening, I made dinner for Lisette and her friend/co-producer, Brett. Mixed mesclun salad with apple, grapes and Stilton, in a light balsamic vinaigrette. Potato, basil and tomato frittata, light and fluffy. Garlic tomato toasts. Poached peaches with caramel sauce. Was fun cooking a full dinner. :-)

Afterwards, she somehow convinced me to go out with her to see The Others. I will say only that a) it scared me. lots. b) it was really a pretty good movie, and Kidman did a good job. c) if you're going to see it, see it soon, as there are some potential huge spoilers, and if you accidentally hear one, it'll wreck the movie for you.

We ended up staying up another hour (now midnight? one a.m.?) arguing about Unbreakable, and the ways in which it succeeded or failed. Good discussion; interesting stuff. She knows a lot more about film than I do, and it's fascinating taking my knowledge of storytelling in fiction and seeing how it intersects with storytelling in film. So different!

Brett and I ended up talking a lot about my possibly doing some screenwriting for him; adaptations of a book he likes, or something of my own. I don't know if that'll happen, but it did start me thinking about what some of my stories would look like on film. "Seven Cups of Water", for example, could make a pretty good short erotic film, I think. There's not enough there for a longer one, but it has tons of dramatic tension from night to night. And "Beth and Julie's Wedding" could almost be done entirely as a silent black and white; I got caught up imagining just how you'd portray in images everything that currently gets told:

  • first scene: the breakup -- show him packing, her walking
  • second scene: the invitation to the wedding arriving
  • third scene: the bridesmaid's dress alteration; she's noticeably thinner
  • fourth scene: the hordes of women dressing the bride, patting the protagonist on the shoulder
  • fifth scene: her crying in the bathroom
  • sixth scene: the dance (might be a couple of scenes
  • seventh scene: kissing the bride's father
  • eighth scene: them in bed
  • final shot: her sitting in the windowsill, watching the rain
Heh. Now all I need is a digital video camera, some friends who can act -- and a wedding to shoot. :-) I wonder how you could indicate a wedding without the big crowd scenes... hmm...relatives sitting drunk at a table; the brides dancing; a waiter pouring champagne -- it might be fun doing a bunch of those shots very quickly together, in fact, having the pacing of the film get faster and faster up until that point....and then slow way down, starting with the kiss...hmmm....

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