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Enter the Pathfinder
After the creative direction is set, the story has to become something like a road map, showing a single path through all the creative possibilities. That's what a script is for. It expands and populates the concept, turning it into a form solid enough to schedule, budget and shoot.
Look at it this way: the concept is a story you can imagine, but the script is a story you can actually tell.
The Doctor Is In
Sometimes I'm called in to flesh out ideas provided by others, or revise a preliminary draft that's too vague to shoot. In such cases, I roll up my sleeves, push the chassis into my garage and begin welding on the missing parts.
On Formats
I favor traditional screenplay format, though I use two-column AV format when a project requires second-by-second structuring of sound and image. But unusual jobs call for unusual formats. I've written scripts with up to five columns, to separate multiple sound or image layers. And if the client only needs to see narration, I provide a document with only the barest of visual detail.
On the Page
The print world is also familiar territory. I edited a 70,000-word non-fiction book, Incredibly American, authored by two AT&T quality managers. I wrote an entire interactive learning system on copiers for Ricoh. And I wrote IBM's presentation for the 1999 Edelman Competition (the "Nobel Prize" in operations research). They won.
On The Silver Screen
When time permits and inspiration strikes, I write movies. My first love. I've written three features, 18 shorts, and counting. Since 2002, I've been an active member of a writers group moderated by Chris Messineo of Off Stage Films. We meet monthly for coffee, discussion and readings, and I love them all dearly.
You can read some of my scripts here.
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