The Cobbler’s Father

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An old cobbler tells the story of his father, a famous watch-maker.

I am currently in the middle of rewrites on a feature script of mine called Good Old World. It’s quite a big rewrite where a lot of stuff is changing. In all the earlier drafts one of the themes has been the power of storytellers and throughout the script I have featured scenes where a character tells a story to one of the protagonists. This then leads to a revelation or a change of opinion for the protagonist. But slowly while writing this latest draft that theme has become less and less important and all of the storytelling scenes have been cut or incorporated in a different way.

So this week’s two-pager is one of the scenes cut from Good Old World. It took quite a bit of rewriting to get it to stand on its own but I’m happy with the result and glad that it can be seen even though it’s no longer part of the larger story.

Hope you enjoy it.

The Cobbler’s Father

Film: One Way Single

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Another two-pager has been made! This time it’s One Way Single and it has been produced and directed by Seattle-based Andrew Mitrak. It has recently screened to positive reactions in a couple of festivals in Seattle and now Andrew has made it available to view online. Here’s an introduction from Andrew:

I read everything on Two Pages a Week. One Way Single struck a chord. Robert’s ability to convey powerful imagery through a simple scene of dialogue between two people on a train resonated with me. I needed to make this movie, so I emailed Robert for his approval. He said yes.
I thought it would be easy to produce. Grab a few actors, a few friends to crew, hop on Seattle’s Light Rail, shoot the scene, and hop off at the end of the line. This was a bad idea. Moving trains are noisy. Their natural light looks amateurish. Shooting without a permit is illegal. The solution: build a set. This was a good idea.
Building a train interior took some time, money, and effort, but the process got people excited for the project. Our whole crew volunteered to help construct the set. It was a great experience to work with this team. We’re all very proud of this movie. It’s all thanks to Robert and his two pagers.
Hope you enjoy it.

Life Support

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A late night encounter between a hospital patient and an orderly.

Part of my process when writing a two-pager involves sitting in a cafe and making notes on ideas, characters, themes and stories. This gets pretty stream-of-consciousness so can often be quite abstract. While looking back through my notebook I found a note which read “What kind of man would wear a suit that is also a functioning pipe-organ?”. Can’t imagine why that note didn’t go anywhere.

This week’s script has nothing to do with that.

Hope you enjoy it anyway.

Life Support

Last Meal

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A prisoner and former chef prepares a meal for a fellow inmate.

I have been wanting to do something about the preparation of a meal for a while and was fascinated when I found out that a condemned prisoner’s last meal is usually prepared by a fellow inmate. I know there are more stories to be told about this subject and would love to see somebody else’s take on it.

Hope you enjoy it.

Last Meal

Flight

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Remy is feeling isolated and alone at Rose’s wedding. His friend Perrin comes to his rescue.

This is the third and final part of the Paper Trilogy. I realise that there is camera direction in there but honestly I think that’s fine if used in moderation.

I am actually working on a feature with these characters and this world but will definitely be visiting them more in two-pagers in the future.

Hope you like it.

Flight

Clair de Lune

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Remy attends Rose’s wedding in an effort to show that he’s okay with being “just friends”.

This week sees the second part in what I’m calling The Paper Trilogy in the vain hope that it will catch on.

I have found lately that instead of scripts that fit nicely into two pages what I seem to be writing is longer stories that are then difficult to squash down into the required length. I found that in this one, making it short and concise meant losing a lot of the subtlety that the dialogue had in the longer drafts. I still like it though.

If you haven’t read last week’s script I wonder if you might read this one first and let me know whether it stands on its own or if you think you need the information from the first part. I’m not entirely sure you could come to this one without any prior knowledge.

Hope you enjoy it.

Clair de Lune