Less than two full months after my first ever consultation for my adaptation of Dig Down, I was sitting down with the judge of another screenplay competition to delve into the analysis of my script. Here were the positives from that meeting:
They were complimentary of this website. This took my by surprise because I hadn’t included this website, or the email address associated with it, in any of my submissions, both to this screenwriting contest, or any of the other ones that I had entered. This told me that the judge I was speaking with had taken the time to research me online, and actually had to seek this website out, as the website with just my name was actually already taken by I believe an Icelandic DJ.
That he said it looked professional was also a pleasant surprise. I didn’t want to just slap something together when I created this, and took my time organizing how I wanted the layout to go. I also had noticed when looking at the websites of other writers that few actually had links to their books and where to buy them, so I had spent time making sure that any book had a link to its Amazon page to facilitate the sale if people were interested in them.
They also said the title was cool. This was more expected than the first compliment and I felt a sense of validation as I had spent time coming up with what felt like the right title, trying to capture a level of the desperation Rob would go through, as well as hint at the depraved events that would take place.
There was only a little bit of a setback when they said they thought the story might have to do with archeology…
The biggest positive for me was that the judge felt it has a real starring role, and could attract actors to want to play the part. This also felt like great validation, because I had shelved writing this story for years because the character of Rob didn’t feel right when I first came up with the concept of the story. I had originally envisioned Rob as a good guy who got in over his head with the wrong people, and that led to some of the heinous things he ended up doing. It wasn’t until I found out who Rob should really be that this story worked, and that the complexity of his character was able to take shape.
Unfortunately…this last positive happened at the end of the meeting. While it was good to end on a positive, and what I felt was the biggest positive of the meeting, this was a ninety minute consultation, and that left a lot of time to review the negatives in the script, which I will get into next time.