Blog: A Dinosaur Script Meeting

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I strolled up through Idyllic Islington (and Charming Clerkenwell) last night to meet Mr J Kell for another Script Meeting. We were discussing his adaptation of Dinosaur Planet into ANIMATED format, something we'd started a week or two ago but had only got about half way through, due to a) me having to go off to a gig and b) it all being ALMOST TOO EXCITING.

This time was very similar in that John who had to go off to a gig AND it was DEFINITELY too exciting, but we did manage to get to the very end of it, with a couple of HUGE moments of us both going "COR!" Last time we talked about CHARACTER ARCS and how we needed some Big Emotional Moments and, BY GOLLY, we certainly got those in. We also had a long argument about, basically, ONE word ("regrouped" or "retreated") which revolved around the most SENSIBLE route an army being chased by Space Dinosaurs would take across East Anglia. These things are important.

The BEST bit was when we came up with a whole new FRAMING SEQUENCE which leads to a MIND BLOWING TWIST at the very end. Anyone who's seen the show will know it ALREADY has a MIND BLOWING TWIST at the end, but this is a whole OTHER one. We used a traditional technique in our plotting - talking about it, reaching an IMPASSE, one of us going to the toilet and then, once back at the table, the IDEA would have arrived - and in this case John sat down to find me CLEARLY IN A STATE OF AGITATION. "John", I said, "Prepare to have your MIND BLOWN." He looked a little dubious, but once the idea was expressed he had difficulty EVEN SPEAKING. "Wow" he remarked. "That's... that's quite good."

It was all a WHOLE LOT OF FUN - chucking ideas around together led to all MANNER of hilarity, I ended up LARFING for about five minutes at the mental picture I had of a new GAG featuring a Classic Double Take during a chase scene, for instance, and as we left I could feel my brain A JANGLING with all the new ideas buzzing around in it. John is going to take the HEAVILY AMENDED script away and re-draft it, then I guess we'll have to see what we can do with it. I'm sort of thinking of maybe trying to turn it into a COMIC, like one of those old Alan Moore Future Shocks with rhyming couplets or something, but we'll see how we get on.

Whatever happens it must be treated with utmost care - for LO! in the wrong hands, it will make BRANES EXPLODE!

posted 15/10/2010 by MJ Hibbett

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Comments:

Hard as it may be to comprehend, this makes the Giant Space Squid look SILLY!
posted 15/10/2010 by MJ Hibbett

it's a giant space squid isn't it?
posted 15/10/2010 by Carsmile

Thank you for providing necessary insight into the creative process behind future works of genius. The previous sentence was formed sarcasm-free in my mind. Why does it now look like I'm a kill-joy older brother sneering? I'm really not. This blog post was ACE. Me, still retaining the memory of the newsletter tagline "Let's allow it to occur, shall we?"
posted 16/10/2010 by Olle J

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