About a year after writing the rough draft of "For Better or Worse", I wrote my second feature length screenplay currently titled "Turning Point". I was 20 years old when I decided to pen my ideas onto paper. Technically I typed my thoughts onto a screen but that does not sound nearly as sexy.
It took me five days to write that first draft. If I've learned anything from writing it is that your first draft will inevitably be garbage. You might as well get it out of you in the most painless manner so you can get to the fun part sooner... Rewrites!
Through all the projects that I've done in the past, from writing to directing short films, I kept pushing myself to learn from the mistakes that didn't make me love my work. This sort of mindset inevitably allowed me to create more professional work on my next project.
Recently I looked back at the first film I worked as the cinematographer on. I did the cinematography for my good friend Pattara's thesis film "Curry Cookies". When I look back on it now, I cringe.
He personally hates his film but I still think it was very well done. Especially for a thesis film. However, that being said, I regretted not being able to do a better job on my behalf. This sort of personal disappoint motivated me to become the best I could be.
Three years later, when I worked as the cinematographer on my friend Chase's film 'Cingulate Blue', the results of my new knowledge and skills that I possessed astonished me. In between Chase and Pattara's films I had personally worked as the cinematographer on one short film, that I also directed, but other than that I had not touched any sort of motion picture camera.
Through my knowledge of still photography and lighting I was able to take a drastic leap.
A year after writing my rough draft of 'Turning Point' I took a hard copy of it with me to Hawaii. I bought a one-way ticket and rented a room there with no real plan of what I was going to do next in life. My filmmaking "career" wasn't exactly blossoming at lightning speed and I knew I wanted out of Arizona. So why not flee to paradise?
Within my first week in Hilo, HI I had developed a strong case of island fever and I knew I did not want to live there for the rest of my life either. No matter how beautiful it was, I knew I had bigger things on my horizon. Being stuck out at sea was preventing me from getting my dreams to come true.
Since I was only going to stay for a few months I decided not to get a job. Something that I've personally always hated. I have a very strong work ethic when I'm doing something I love. But when I'm working for simply a paycheck, it's never motivating enough for me. I was fortunate enough to be able to live off of my personal savings.
One of the things that I'm most proud of, in myself, is that I've financially taken care of myself through wise spending. People have always assumed that I leech money off of my parents since I go through spurts of unemployment and have traveled quite a bit. However I have never made my parents financially support me since living on my own.
Anyways, while I was in Hawaii the only things I had to occupy my time was a library card and my skateboard. I would go to the library everyday when I woke up to check my email, since I did not have a computer where I was staying. I also did not have a television so I began checking out books incessantly because I had nothing else to do at night besides read. It got to the point where on average I was reading a book a night. I read anything and everything I could get my hands onto, including lots of filmmaking books.
I lost a lot of weight during this venture because it was my first real time on my own and I did not know how to properly nourish myself. Plus, skateboarding all day in the humidity causes a person to sweat off pounds rapidly.
It may have been this concoction of ingredients that created the perfect recipe for a beautiful insanity. I picked up my hard copy of 'Turning Point' one evening and I began reading through it. I realized that the story had a lot of promise and if I were to rework things, I might actually be capable of creating a quality story. Unfortunately, when I looked at the hard copy of "For Better or Worse" I did not see this potential. The words on those pages will forever be my little secret.
I began coloring the pages of my hard copy of 'Turning Point' blue with ink. Writing and rewriting scenes. Taking notes and rearranging sections of the film. Rewriting dialogue over and over and over and over again.
When I finally came back to the mainland and retyped the screenplay on a computer I had cut out 40 pages of what I considered "fat". From that point on, I had something that was actually readable and I began getting notes from friends.
Over the course of the next few years I began having numerous friends read the screenplay to give me notes. No matter how poor some people's opinions seemed to be, I would almost always find one piece of advice that would really help better my story.
Over this time I kept crafting and re-crafting the screenplay into something that would make for quality storytelling on screen.
(To Be Continued)
-Ryan Moser.
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