Phoenix International Christian Film Festival – Day 5

Wow! I can hardly believe the festival is almost over!!  I have one more morning and then I’m done 😦 .  It’s been a great festival so far and today was one of the best (mostly).

First was “Entrusted with Arrows”, a documentary film by Dallas Lammian and his family.  The film was awesome!!!!  All the interviews were really interesting, the clips selected really pushed his point, and still kept your attention, the facts presented were compelling, in all, a good film.  Good job, Dallas 🙂 .  Unfortunately, the audience for the showing was very small 😦 .  About six people (including my dad, sister, and me) were present.  But it was really great.

Next we decided to hang out and watch the next set before “Breaking Man”.  That was a mistake.  And I’m sorry I have to say that.  This block of films did not seem like something that should have been accepted into the festival, or at least, not one that claims to be a Christian film festival.  Very disappointing.

However, “Breaking Man” was a great relief that it was actually a story worth seeing.  It was still rough and the projector did made it really dark and really hard to see, but the film was still good.  I would say that it can still be tightened up a bit, but over all, it was pretty good.

Then I went to a workshop called “Improv Your Writing”.  That was a LOT of fun.  Basically, what the speakers were trying to impart some games and fun things to do when you are brain storming and writing.  Their goal was to help you get up off the chair and move your mind so you don’t think so hard when you are writing.  Great fun and very enjoyable.

Dream

Dream of a Ballerina

Dream, I think. Or Prison

Prison. The Blur is the teacher running across in front of the camera 😉

Prison - Jailers fighting over keys

Prison - Breaking out

Then my dad and sister wanted to see “Rust”, a film that I hadn’t a clue about.  This was another one of those gems hiding in this festival.  The features in the festival have been truly wonderful, even “King’s Man” wasn’t half bad (except for the ending).  And the majority of the features have been truly phonmeonol.  Just terrific.  “Rust” is one of these.  The film is about this old guy who comes back to his home town and digs into the mystery of the deaths of a family who were burned to death and it appears that this man is the murderer.  But this doesn’t sit right with the guy, so he starts digging into it.  At the same time the guy, a minister who is having doubts, refinds his faith while searching for the answers to this mystery.  Great detective story and film.  This one I’m going to see about getting lined up for a youth night out in Benson.

And then the wrap up of the whole night, “A Christmas Snow”.  WOW!  What a sweet comedy with such a wonderful message.  Enjoyable, tender, and with a great message about family, “A Christmas Snow” was a good film.

So, now I’m tied with three films for my Audience choice vote.  “Lifted”, “Rust”, “A Christmas Snow”.  I almost want to vote three times, because ALL three are wonderful in their own ways!

Riding Into the Sunset – #1

I am a member of this awesome forum (www.christianfilmmakers.org), a diverse forum, with composers, writers, producers, directors, editors, actors, every aspect of filmmaking. (It’s an awesome place 😉 ).

Anyway, the composers had an idea “What if we composed a piece of music and the writers wrote a script off that piece of music and then the directors and producers made a short off the script and piece of music.” All of us thought this was a great idea, so the composers got busy.

In about a month, five composers had turned out five pieces of beautiful music. Each was wonderful. Then it was the writers turn. The writers got to pick out of the five the one they were going to write to. I was excited to be a writer for this, and jumped right in.

I personally chose Riding Into The Sunset, composed by Benjamin Curlee.

The title made me think of a western and I ran with that idea. The first thing I did was listen to the piece several times, noting when speific moments happened in the music, like when it was very dark sounding, or when a new instrument came in. Part of the requirement for the writers was that we had to write our script so that the producers and directors could read it and listen to music and see where each piece went. For example at the beginning of an action line, I write 00:18 because at that moment in the music, this bit of action starts.

Then I thought about what kind of stories could be told with this music. I had three ideas:

Idea 1: Two cowhands, one older with a lot of experience and one fresh in the saddle, are taking a trip into town. In town, they meet the bad guys, who threaten them. On the way out of town, the cowhands are ambushed and the older hand is shot. Younger hand takes care of his wounds while also avoiding the encircling bad guys. The older hand dies. Younger hand gets his horse stampeded and is chased by the bad guys. He comes upon a burned out house, his former home. He then confronts the bad guys, they have a shoot out and Younger hand wins. He than rides off into the sunset, the town at rest again.

Idea 2: Two cowhands, one older with a lot of experience and one fresh in the saddle, are leading a herd to the market. They are watched by rustlers, who rush in and steal the herd, wounding the older hand in the process. Younger hand tends the older hand’s serious looking wounds. Older hand makes younger hand promise to get the cows back and then dies/goes unconscious. Younger hand goes off to find the cows in a draw with the rustlers at camp beside them. Younger hand steals back the cows and has a final showdown with the leader of the rustlers. Younger hand wins, older hand survives, and the cows are again on their way to market.

Idea 3: A young couple (maybe newly weds) are out riding/on a trip on horseback. Bad Guy sees them (maybe is hiding out for them). Bad Guy rides in, shoots the Guy and kidnaps the Girl. Guy is knocked out and Girl is concerned for him. Bad Guy don’t care and rides off with Girl. Guy wakes up and looks for Girl. He finds Girl in Bad Guy’s camp, in bad circumstances. Guy has showdown with Bad Guy. Guy wins, thus rescuing the Girl. The couple than ride off into the sunset.

I was allowed to communicate with the composer during the development of the script, so I asked him which story idea he liked best. We eventually decided on Idea 1.

The next thing I did was to completely time out the music, writing a short sentence about what I thought would happen at that time.

Start:
00:00 – Opening credits
00:16 – Introduce the hero (or the love interest)
00:32 – Introduce the sidekick (or the hero)
01:05 – Arrive at town (first sight of bad guy and his cronies)
01:25 – Intimidation by Bad Guy (bad guy slides off to ambush the couple)
01:53 – Leave town (couple advances into the ambush)
02:15 – Ambush! (Ambush)
02:34 – Aftermath (Hero wakes up to find girl gone)
02:56 – Bad guys close in as older hand dies (bad guys threaten girl)
03:58 – a pause, could be hand’s last words (?)
04:07 – Running begins (hero chases after the bad guys with girl)
4:29 – Hero could stumble on something (Girl confident that she will be rescued)
04:48 – Running resumes (chase continues)
5:12 – Pause, something happens (Hero’s wound could reopen)
5:26 – Hero loses horse (Hero loses the trail and wanders around looking for it, bad guy boasts that hero will never find them)
6:08 – Hero sorrows over horse (Hero finds a possible trail)
6:13 – Hero begins to struggle on to town (nope, not the trail)
6:17 – Is that the bad guys (another possible trail)
6:22 – Nope, its the town (nope, dead end, hero despairs again.)
6:43 – Hero tells townsfolks about his partner’s death (horse finds a clue to where the girl is)
7:12 – Bad guys show up in odd corners, stalking the hero (Hero finds traces of the bad guy’s camp and finally finds the camp)
7:53 – The bad guys close in (Hero creeps into camp)
7:57 – Hero notices, bad guys stop for a moment (hero makes sound, attracting attention of a gaurd)
7:58 – Hero continues walking, bad guys continue closing in (Guard shrugs off sound)
8:01 – Hero looks around and sees the number of guys closing in (Hero appears next to girl and keeps her from screaming or saying anything)
8:02 – More walking, more closing in (Hero cuts girl’s bonds, girl watches to see if anyone notices)
8:06 – the Bad guys are all around the hero (Bad Guy stands up to come to Girl)
8:07 – ? (Hero tries to cut faster as Bad guys approaches)
8:32 – The SHOWDOWN! (Showdown)
9:03 – After the showdown (Hero defeats bad guys, frees girl and revives her after her swoon.)
9:19 – Hero rides off into the sunset (Hero and Girl ride off together into the sunset.)
9:25 – End credits

The composer looked it over, gave some feed back, and I then redid the timing sheet to look like this:

TIMING FOR IDEA 1
Start:
EXT. TRAIL – DAY
0:00 – Opening credits
0:16 – Introduce the hero
0:32 – Introduce the sidekick

EXT. TOWN – DAY
1:05 – Arrive at town
1:25 – Intimidation by Bad Guy
1:53 – Leave town

EXT. TRAIL – DAY
2:15 – Ambush!
2:34 – Aftermath

EXT. TRAIL SIDE – NIGHT
2:56 – Bad guys close in as older hand dies
3:55 – Hand officially dies.

EXT. TRAIL – DAY
4:07 – Hero begins hunting down the men that killed his friend and partner.
4:29 – Hero comes upon the burning remains of the ranch.
4:48 – Hero continues following trail.
5:12 – Hero loses horse in a gunshot by bad guys
5:26 – Hero sorrows over horse
6:08 – Hero begins to struggle to town on foot
6:13 – Hero is running out of water in the hot sun
6:17 – What is that ahead?
6:22 – its the town! Hero is SAVED!

INT. TOWN BUILDING – DAY
6:25 – Hero tells towns folks about his partner’s death and is warned that the bad guys are looking for him.

EXT. TOWN – DAY
6:37 – Bad guys ride into town.
6:49 – Someone tries to talk Hero out of confronting Bad Guys (to no avil)
6:56 – Bad guys dismount and begin to take up positions around the town.
7:12 – Hero slowly walks out to the street. Giving it a “The Guy, Bad and Ugly feel. (must watch that movie ) (Mingled with flashbacks at certain points)
8:32 – The shooting begins!
9:03 – After the showdown
9:19 – Hero rides off into the sunset
9:25 – End credits

This was the ground work, the structure of the script. With this timing sheet at my finger tips, the script was almost ready to write itself.

**To Be Continued**

WELCOME!

Welcome! I’m so excited to be able to share some of my writings with you!

Who am I? I’m Tabitha, writer-wanna-be and up-coming producer. I love to tell stories and have for many years. When I was seven, I would narrate what I was doing as I played outside, usually with some big dramatic story behind it. As I got older, a lot of my imaginings revolved around princess and royal weddings and kings and knights. I have always had a passion for historical work, from American Girl to Lord of the Rings to King Arthur, I love it all! One day I want to write and produce a feature film set in the Medieval era and one in the Western era. I have the stories, they just need to be fleshed out and made whole 🙂 .

I love meeting people, people from all places and who do all sorts of things.  I hope one day to get a database started with all the names of people I’ve worked with to encourage others to work with them and so that they can work with each other.

I am also a devote follower of my Lord, Jesus Christ. I accepted Jesus as my Lord when I was about 6 years old and spent the next 14 years learning about Him and learning what a walk with Him looked like. I’m still not sure what it really looks like, but a very foggy picture is beginning to form in my head.

Please come back! I will have lots to talk about on here and I hope that we can start some good conversations on here as well!