photo by us (Gill and I... well, someone else held the camera, obviously)
Hang in with me this week, eventually we get to the bit about movies and screenwriting...
I got married two days before publishing this article, and tomorrow Gill and I go on our honeymoon. We're going to Paris. Yippee! It's a city that loves writers, newly weds and media hobos... and I'm all three! Huzzah!
This week has mainly been about the wedding. Of course, part of "being about the wedding" has been wallpapering the kitchen. I didn't know that part of getting married is about redecorating the kitchen... but, apparently it is. The list of stuff that has to be dealt with, in order for two people to get married is immense. Not all of it is obviously directly related to the actual event, but stuff gets drawn into the gravitational pull of the wedding. The gravitational pull of a wedding is greater than that of your average black-hole; everything not nailed down gets drawn into its orbit. Trust me, it is possible to find yourself in a Tesco 24 hour supermarket, at three in the morning, with a list that reads: dish cloths, toffee hammer, twelve bottles of Hello Kitty bubble mixture, CLUMPING cat litter, toilet brush!
The funny thing is, it feels exactly like being in production, because my experience of taking scripts from development through to production, is that there is always at least one night where you'll find yourself in a Tesco 24 hour supermarket, at four in the morning, with a shopping list that reads: extra strong bin bags, shovel, bleach, stain remover, toffee hammer, ten bottles of Hello Kitty bubble mixture, some kind of heavy duty saw and thirty cans of Red Bull!
The other way in which a wedding is identical to dealing with the industry, is how very simple plans rapidly become complicated by people's stuff. Maybe this is true of all human endeavours, but I think there is something about movie making and weddings that forces people's insecurities to the surface. I include myself in this. I am far from immune from the practise of letting my fears about what could go wrong, force me into over managing situations. I see this a lot in the industry... where something as simple as arranging a meeting to talk about a project, can turn into three days of exchanging emails with twenty people (very few of whom will be at the meeting). Very simple events always seem to have repercussions.
Ironically, it has also been one of those sorts of week's professionally. Where one piece of great news, has turned into a full week of damage control. If you think of it in terms of the wedding, it has been the equivalent of sending out an email to all concerned, saying that the bride has decided to wear purple rather than pink. Chaos ensues.
As it happens, the wedding is coming together nicely... and the drama surrounding the new TV series has been managed and put to one side for a week. (Well, except for a couple of little details).
If I've learnt anything this week, it is that in any project, 95% of the work is about managing people's fears and expectations. It doesn't matter whether it is a wedding or a new TV series, a lot of the actual graft is about making sure that everyone who genuinely needs to know, knows not just what's happening, but why it is happening... and, ultimately, why what's happening is in everyone's best interest, in the long run. People who don't understand that it's about managing people's legitimate concerns are the people who run into to problems.
LATER: (AFTER THE WEDDING)
By the way, it all worked out; we're now married; everything went to plan; we had a wonderful day.
keep writing and viva la marriage! Huzzah!
Posted via email from Filmutopia's Sunday Morning Movie Blog
