16th April

Had 2nd meeting with Matt and Adam yesterday, went well. Think they were a little surprised that the Careers Advisor scene wasn’t first but at least they had both read it. The reason that it can’t be the first scene is that the story starts after the characters return from having graduated at university. Originally each of the protagonists was going to be seen at each stage of coming back. Jim at Grad Ball, Ed in car with Isabelle, Simon returning home but having talked to them last night about it, I realised it was rubbish. Thankfully last night I realised I can do it in two scenes, Simon leaving his university room and then returning to his room at home. It has a nice symmetry to it and I love the idea of starting with a goodbye. It also brings Simon into the centre, the main character and hopefully his goodbye scene with Julia will get the audience to emphasise with him immediately. It also means I get to the career scene quicker but the problem is it means I have 2 longish scenes with a lot of exposition and no jokes! Wrote the first scene out entirely which is good, bad news is that it is a bit dull, sweet but dull. Needs jokes, although I know the father figure will be funny in the 2nd scene but even then I want to set-up the scene, introduce Simon’s parents and Jim and Ed in 2 pages if possible, I mean it’s impossible but I can at least try. Just realised that this also means setting up Ed and Isabelle later on but that’s ok, makes her entrance better, more important. Try to keep thinking in images, I like the idea of the three protagonists sitting on the sofa with Isabelle perching on the arm, that’s scene 6 possibly and probably 10 pages in. Almost a third of the script! Near the end of the first act and still so much I want to put in, maybe we should make the first episode a two-parter but that means taking out the episode 3 school reunion thing that Matt and Adam like. I suppose after a lot of the character exposition the plot and the scenes will get a lot quicker. Exciting, today for the first time feel that I can get an episode written within time, I have two weeks after finishing my last exam to get a first draft in. If I keep thinking the way that I have been recently then that will be easy and then if I can get onto episode 4 quickly and write that… it won’t happen like that but it’s something to hope for. Anyway back up to Norwich tomorrow, will be interesting to see if a change of location will produce a change in thinking.