Five Wives Of Fela Kuti Draft3 Done

Completed draft 3 minutes ago and have now emailed it to Kate Chapman and Bianca Winter of Theatre Writing Partnership (TWP)

It is much changed in plot and some characterisation. Think it’s much better. The plan is to have a script meeting this week and then for me to deliver a polish draft for 25th of this Month. The script will then go out to potential producing theatres to seek collaboaration for a production 2011/2012. I am hoping the Steve Mcqueen Fela biopic will help in creating additional interest around the man and his life.

I’ll post again after feedback.

More Images of Fela Kuti’s Wives

Urban Images have a number of Images of Fela Kuti wives. Check the images out here and Urban Images home page here

Alot of them I’ve seen before but some still new to me. The colour images work really well for me in terms of representing a time and a place. I also like the detail of rugs and food, etc. Just day to day living. This type of stuff will be fantastic for any eventual production. Can I use the word versimilitude? I think I may just go for it with no spell check.

I am incidentally into the final third of the new draft of Five Wives of Fela Kuti.

Writing Method

I have started writing in a notepad again after years of going straight into Final Draft or celtx or the Amstrad from way back when. This is more to do with not wanting to carry my laptop around with me all the time but it has led to a reconnection with a style of writing.

Using a computer meant that I would always, always, always start a writing session by re-reading the previous sessions words. Writing on to a notepad instead relies much more on carrying a sense of what I’d written in the previous session into the new session. It has led to interesting transitions between scenes and moments in scenes. I used to write in a much more ‘cut/paste’ way where the challenge of having to connect scenes/moments led to a more poetic sensibility in the work. I would get an idea for a scene and then write it and not worry overly about where or how it might fit. Trying to ‘force’ it to fit led to the creative collisions which was good. Writing from Treatments and writing on a computer has resulted in less of this style of writing. I’m really enjoying it at the moment. I am not doing it exclusively but mixing and matching so when I transcribe the scene I then continue on the computer.

read this article about the difference between Pen and Computer.

ifc link

Added the url for the Independent Film Channel ifc to my blogroll. It’s mostly about Sundance 2010 at the moment as the festival has just closed but keep an eye on it over time. There’s an interview with Chris Morris about four Lions on the site at the mo.

Kevin Pollak’s Online chatshow

Actor Kevin Pollak (A few Good Men, Casino, The new Kevin Smith that was called a couple of dicks, etc) has an internet-only chatshow. You can catch it live but he also has a YouTube channel here.

Listening to an interview with Chris Mcquarrie Oscar-winner for The Usual Suspects at the moment. The guest list seems to be made up of Directors and actor/comedians. Didn’t realise that Pollack is also a standup comedian. There’s an interview with Jane Campion (The Piano, Sweetie, Bright Star) that I want to catch.

MM graduate student Rowland Kimber

I get regular searches for Rowland Kimber ending up at my site. Rowland is a Multimedia graduate from a few years back. 2005 I would think. I thought I would post his website here so that anyone looking for him can see what he’s up to. lots of good work being produced by him and his company Ivory Tower Pictures so more power to him. Virals, Ads, Music vids and corporate promos. International work includes some recent work for Thermos the american company.

Turner vs The Masters

Went to the Turner vs The Masters Exhibition at the Tate Britain.

I love Turner’s work and the stories about his attitude to life. I haven’t been to the Tate Britain for a while now, for a good number of years I would go on annual visits to London to see the Turner stuff, so I really enjoyed it. Bought the exhibition catalogue by Solkin and a biographer by James Hamilton (Biog from Amazon as it was £4.00 cheaper than in the shop).

The exhibition closes on the 31st of this month.

In the free Turner part of the museum there were new works to me on display and a good exhibition about his craft and techniques.

Will read them after either the Mack Sennett book I’m currently not quite finishing or after the Thames book by Peter Ackroyd or the Homicide book by David (Homicide: Life On The Streets; The Wire) Simon.

Turner is the one person so far who springs to mind that I have considered writing a screenplay or stageplay about. Not really been overly interested in doing biog pieces but this guy’s story would be fantastic and incredibly visual.

I also took a stroll down the the Tate Modern but didn’t enjoy that as much.

rewriting

I love rewrites. They have a kind of snowball momentum for me, once I start then new ideas come and I pick up momentum as I go along. Rewriting draft five (might be six, I can’t remember) of the Fela Wives play. I found the last two drafts quite hard going and when I re-read the piece recently I felt it was going to be quite hard going overall but so far it is proving not to be. See this link here on writers talking about rewriting. I love the Hemingway quote.

For me every piece is always about ‘another two drafts’ away! Ha

Script-ets- Scripts

Posting a couple of the scripts-ets written for NTU Multimedia students here for your perusal or otherwise you decide. The students received the scripts on friday and the idea is that they will interpret, adapt, shoot and edit over the next four weeks.

Cough Gaze Brick

Five Wives Of Fela Kuti

Just re-read the script presented by TWP as part of the Momentum:nottingham festival back in oct 2009 at the Nottingham Playhouse. It feels full of problems, some of which I have solutions to, others not yet. Will start at the beginning and rely on the process of writing to get me there. Trying to have clear ideas about each section of the script and see what happens. The aim is to try to make it better not to make it perfect. Mid-February delivery for the next draft.

First thing that’s changed is the title. I am now calling it Fives Wives of Fela Kuti. See how long that lasts!