The weeks went to hell in a hand basket

So it's been a little while since i posted. As the title suggests things have been less than ideal lately, in fact they have been pretty f***ed up. There are both good and bad things, but mainly there is a lot of it, just busy as hell. My senior project is still struggling with fundraising, but location talks and scouting has been very successful and I am in the process of negotiating with several places. I am also realizing how much work goes into a project of this magnitude and keep having new tasks added to my plate every day. At the moment I am looking for a professional make-up artist, and a bunch of visual effects support. I am also trying to wrap my head around the PA film tax credit to get a little bit of my money back.

In the not so good news front,  this has been a very stressful week in relation to suicide. I was the head camera op and technician for the philly It Gets Better project, a video campaign to help prevent LGBT youth suicides, so it was a pretty hard hit to take when I learned that both a close friend and also a close family member are currently suicidal and have both been hospitalized in the past 2 weeks for either an attempt or severe depression and seriously considering an attempt. I have been basically counseling my friend and trying to keep him from going over the edge again, and my family member is now on medication and mellowing out, so at least one of them is in the clear. Several months ago I lost a good friend from highschool to suicide, so to learn that I have several more people I am close to considering it has been a very big emotional toll. Nothing much more I can do about it but keep reminding them both that they are wanted and loved and that nothing is worth that in the end.

So onto the screenwriting workshop project. My first act that i turned in was very rough, but it at least laid the groundwork and I know what i want to change and where to take it to keep advancing. For the second act up to the midpoint, here is a basic outline for what is going to happen. Braden is going to go looking for his grandfather, which will lead him to the rougher side of the magical underworld. Unprepared, he is quickly cornered and in over his head until the Ringleader from the circus, Victor, finds and rescues him. He takes him back to the circus and promises to aid him in his search for his grandfather and also takes him on as his apprentice. Braden learns more magic and also increases in strength and ability (now that he has been removed from his "parents" and is now longer being regularly drained of his innate powers). The circus is goign to be welcoming vastly different from his home life, and bascially will be the first time Braden seems to "fit" anywhere. The searches for his grandfather will be unsuccessful, and as Braden gets acclimated to his new home surroundings he begins to lose his sense of ugency to find his missing grandfather, up until the midpoint where Braden becomes accepted into the circus by having his first preformance with the group.

One of the things I am having difficulty with is thinking of creative characters at the circus he can interact with, so if anyone has suggestions let me know.

Notes on my first act

Well, my first act is written. it's not nearly at the point of development I would like, but it's on the page so at least I have something to work with. Now that it is all written down there are some things I know I will have to go back and change/insert/improve. First, while I like how Jerome, the grandfather/teacher of the main character, can be abrasive at times towards him I need to make him more endearing and make him be the one person Braden really cares about to motivate his wanting to go out and find him more after Braden discovers the workshop in shambles. I also need to make his reaction to finding the workshop more intense. I need to research circus acts more so I can do a better job of describing the one Braden sneaks out and discovers. I also need to work with the transition of Braden being chosen and "discovered" by the circus for his magical abilities to when he goes back to regular life and finds the workshop in shambles.

What works and what doesn't

So some ideas in the outline work better than others when actually put onto the page. The one I am wrestling with now is the issue of Braden's (the main character) "parents." In the story his parents are actually a low level succubus and incubus that the antagonist, Jerome, is controlling and using to keep Braden's powers in check to easily control him. Succubi and Incubi are minor demons that feed off the energy of the opposite gender, usually through seducing their victims and draining their energy and life while sleeping together. So basically they are sex demons. In my script they are leaching off Braden's energy just by being in close proximity to him. Since they are demonic entities forced to do this against their will I have is written in that they have little emotional attachment to Braden and spend most of their time satisfying their lusts with each other (thus making them neglectful parents). It sounded like a great idea on paper when I outlined everything, but now that I am getting into the meat of the first act it's just coming across as very awkward and doesn't fit with the rest of the tone of the script. My script is a fantasy/adventure and on the darker side of writing, but the parents constantly doing it just seems out of place and way over the top, so I need to figure out a different way to present thier neglectfulness of their charge.