Short Attention Span

Recently I've been thinking more and more about doing a short.

I realize I'm bouncing around too much. The new stolen baby spec, the animated spec, blah, blah, blah. And now this.

But for a long time I've been out of production, spending all of my time at work developing new TV shows and whatever out-of-work time I can writing specs. All of this is based in ideas. I miss the concrete. I miss producing.

Last year I did the 48 Film Project, and it was a blast. It was just wicked fun and exhilarating to get my hands dirty again -- casting, locations, wardrobe, stunts, directing, editing, scoring...

So I keep thinking about a short. And giving myself more than 48 hours to pull it off. I'm too old for that shit.

Then I thought, District 9, Napoleon Dynamite and many others began as shorts that showed off interesting worlds that producers and investors wanted to see in a feature. So I thought about flipping it around a little:

Could I adapt my latest feature spec, an actioner I'm currently shopping around, into a short? If so, and if I direct it myself, and if it turns out well, it might be another way to try to market the feature script. And maybe me as a director in the feature world.

Hmmm. Interesting.

Anyway, that's what I've been doing the last few lunch hours and evenings -- trying to adapt the feature screenplay to a short script.

It's been a hell of a wrangle, and my brain hurts a little. But then again, your brain has to hurt a little if you want to do something worthwhile, doesn't it?