Improv/Writing

Bevan (director), Frank Zappia (producer) and the actors are wrapping up the improvisational sessions for Effective Immediately this weekend. I managed to attend a few of the sessions held on what will eventually become one of the locations for the shoot, Bevan's house. It was fascinating to see how Bevan directed the actors through chosen scenes, giving each actor separate instructions and only enough information to work the scene, allowing key revelations emerge as naturally as possible. This, of course, only really works on the first take, but those moments have yielded some excellent emotion. Subsequent takes borrow from that emotion and focus on developing the beats of the scene and the dialogue necessary to carry the story forward.

In the meantime I've been working on the first draft of the screenplay for Effective Immediately, using our extensively developed treatment and the tapes from the improv sessions in tandem. At this stage the writing clips along at a pace of up to five pages a day, which feels really good. Also, after having spent over a year with these characters, developing the treatment without dialogue, it's rewarding to finally hear them speak.

The momentum on this project has been building ever since the Manitoba Arts Council committed script-development funding, and with the involvement of the actors, the success of the improv sessions and now the writing off the screenplay, it seems to have taken on a life of its own.