Today I received outstanding script notes from Monica Solon, a Brazilian writer who has a particular affinity with Wales. She fed back on my previous draft a couple of weeks ago, which was useful, but this time she’s really excelled herself by seemingly highlighting the cause of every single weak point (as well as the strong points) in the story. This has given me a great opportunity to come up with a solid final draft, which I’m now looking forward to writing. Thanks Monica!

I heard back from a producer friend today who again seems to like the script, but unsurprisingly has some concerns about the budget. As it is, the story is about two men, and in the current draft you could argue that there’s no discernable protagonist. The common sense approach from a producer’s point of view would be to make it leaner and more manageable by focusing on the main character. This is what he would like to do if he did take the project on, but he’s also moving away soon, so it might not be practical for him to produce it.

I think that the slightly impractical or at least challenging nature of the script production-wise will prove to be a problem in getting it made, but as I said before, if I get it to a solid final draft I’ll be happy. Then, if someone wants to produce it, we’ll take it from there. I will have a chat with my producer friend in the next couple of weeks anyway and see what he says.

I received feedback from a writer/academic friend who also liked the story. He came at it from a different perspective from most film people, which was really useful. He made a number of valid points about my use of language and also questioned a pay-off that occurs at the end. I’m glad he mentioned that, because it’s crucial in terms of the story’s meaning, and I think I need to make the pay-off clearer, and set it up better as well.