Last week I bought and downloaded a new screenwriting program. After a few complications as far as registering the system -- due to the lack of internet access en mi casa -- I finally was able to actually use it on Sunday. As of today I've banged out what is essentially the entire first act. (For the uninformed your average screenplay is about 90 to 120 pages long, with each page equally roughly a minute of screentime. I'm up to page 24.)

Initially I thought that I'd grown bored with writing dialogue which was why I my original plan was to write the script through improvisations with actors. Then for some reason after seeing Notes on a Scandal I rediscovered my desire to actually sit down and write a full script with dialogue. I'm a little out of practice so I think the beginnings a little choppy but I got more comfortable as I kept writing. Having a fully conceived story and treatment to refer to helps a lot but I really haven't used the treatment that much as the story, by now, has been so internalized.

The music mixes I mentioned in my journal really did help me find the voices of my two lead characters. I was also helped out by repeated listenings of the new Clap Your Hands Say Yeah album, Some Loud Thunder. The album is really great, not as poppy as the first one but musically it's a lot more dense and complex. The band brought in David Fridmann (sp) who I believe produced for the Flaming Lips in years past. There's a definite Lips feel throughout the album but not in a copycat kinda way. It's a little bit weirder and little bit darker but overall from a songcraft standpoint it's way more adventurous. This band's for real folks, no sophomore slump here.

Also today I saw Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima which is one of the best war movies I've ever seen. Period. It's more Thin Red Line than it is Saving Private Ryan. It's really really good. It's also a bit disorienting, though not in a bad way, to see a WWII movie with the U.S. as the antagonists. The true antagonist, though, isn't any particular country but rather war itself and the struggle of man's sense of duty, tradition, honor and patriotism versus our humanity. It's really awesome, very Kurosawaesque.

Anyway, I hope to have a completed script by the end of February (if not sooner.) I'm really in a good groove again.