Getting to work on many large and small films, I have seen a variety of methods employed in story telling over the years.  The person whom I most identify with in his process is James Cameron.  I worked on Avatar for 2 1/2 years and witnessed how he developed a film from a script.  Out of the other big name directors whose films I’ve had the privilege to be a part of – Spielberg and Peter Jackson specifically – Jim made the most sense to me.  He told me once “make the films YOU want to see”, and that stuck ever since.

My entire career has been helping other story tellers dreams come true, so I decided it is my turn.   From the time I was a kid visiting my dad on movie sets, to college, to my 1st job in “the industry” doing storyboards on League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, I have been grooming myself for this moment.  But what did I want to say?  What is the message of this first story of mine?

I poured myself a modest glass of Glenfarclas 105 single malt whiskey, put on the Morhpine station on Pandora, sat on my couch and began to labor out notions of what I wanted to voice for or against.  Determining which of Earth’s problems to solve first is no small undertaking.  I knew it had to be something most of us could relate to, something practical and pertinent to the day.

As soon as I recognized what was in plain sight,  my animated parable was quite forthcoming.  I sat at my desk and wrote as fast as I could.  The pen was leading my hand from the opening and character establishing, to the second act conflict, to the 3rd act resolution.  I had never written a complete script prior to this, but my 1st revision was miraculously done in 30 minutes!

I spent the next month revising and rewriting a few things, cutting out a few others, but my script was locked within a month and a half.  The next question is:  where will I get the money or time to do this?  I still don’t have the answer to the 1st half of that question, but the latter came after BO5A 😉