Mundane Details

For the last few weeks Douglas and I have been doing the mundane details of laying the proper foundation for our project. Getting deal memos in place with the distributor and the subcontractors. Deciding where we'll locate our business for tax purposes. Deciding on a name. All important things, but we can only get so much done at a time.

In the middle of all this, we got our first round of notes. We were nervous before we got them, because we haven't shown the scripts to anyone. So when we got the feedback, it was generally positive, but there were some major changes requested.

Now you'll see on Project Greenlight, or see some fictionalized accounts of what happens when a writer is asked to change his work. Great huffing and puffing -- how dare those philistines question my work.

But this was different. There were some minor issues about the tone of the piece, which we generally agreed with, and there were requests to have mroe fun with the idea within the environment. Which we thought were cool.

But the best note we got, was to eliminate a whole character. I could tell that when they gave us the note, they were a little skeptical about how we'd react, but when they said it, it made so much sense. This character was a problem to write for in every single situation. She didn't really serve any purpose except as a setup in the beginning of the story.

It was such a weight lifted from the narrative, and I don't think Doug and I would have seen it because we were too close to the material.

That's not to say there aren't asshats out there that don't know what they are talking about, but if you do get a good note, screw your own ego and run with it.