THE WEEK THAT WAS OR WAS IT?

The last time I was here was the first day of RIPFest. Now we are approaching the film being shot. So let's flashback: When I got hom on Saturday night exhausted and full of information about the cast, the location, the director, the producers, the barebones outline, etc. I started to formulate some lyric ideas in my mind and the words "The wheel goes round and round" began to come to me. This, of course refers to the potter's wheel in the primary location, a pottery studio. So that let me to a short chorus that I envisioned as feeling both contemporary and folk like so that it felt like it had been around forever:
THE WHEEL GOES ROUND AND ROUND
THE POTTER'S WHEEL IS GROUNDED IN THE GROUND
AND YOU THROW THE POT
FROM A BALL OF CLAY
AND THE WHEELHEAD TURNS
AND YOU SIT ALL DAY
AND LISTEN TO THE HUMMING SOUND
OF THE WHEEL GOING ROUND AND ROUND

I changed and refined until I came up with this and that night I slept little and started to find some modular lyrics for the leading character who I named Peter, after my parter.

The next day I started putting it all together, taking the modular lyrics sections and moving them around to make an arc and a solid musical story. Off they went to David Krane, composer extraordinaire, and the set everything brilliantly. I got to hear it on Monday morning, do some work with him and we were thrust into a cold reading situation on Monday night, which, for us, was scary and crazy, but ultimately safe. Tuesday the rehearsing and rewriting began. An actor would learn one piece only to have me come back and rewrite 90 percent of the lyric (including new intentions) the next day. We finally settled on the final form of the 4 minute musical sequence on Wed (it cut some small cuts on Thurs) and I worked more on the script elements. The two short scenes at the beginning and the end. All this of course with directorial input. A movie is different than a stage piece and I need to be short and terse and get my points across fast. After all it's all 6 minutes! Last night (thurs) we did our pre-recording with a valiant and brave cast, most of whom hadn't sung much or recorded at all (exception was our brilliant leading man) but they all did their best and really put it out there and we will make a great soundtrack and they will sound the best they ever have. I trust. I do. These kids are willing themselves to be great and I am proud of them. So here it is the day before the first of two days of shooting. Just okayed some little script changes for the last scene and there we are. What a week!

RIPFEST!!!!

Today began RipFest. I am one of six writers (3 musical writers and 3 non) chosen to be part of the 10th of these. We are put together with Directors, producers, actors, locations etc. and given 2 days to write a 5-7 minute musical film which gets shot next Sat and Sun. and shown on the 26th! Oy! It's like being shot out of a canon but I am writing lyrics as fast as I can and hoping inspiration will come to me in the AM after a good night's sleep. What a first day!