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zoetifex Studios Blog
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- 17 January 2020 /
- by zoetifex Studios /
Hey, I know it’s been a while folks, but a lot of you have been inquiring wanting to know what’s going on with the Lacey Sturm story. First, let me say that I have not stopped working on writing. The last time I checked in on here I gave the announcement that the first draft was finished. It was actually more like version 1.5 as I had a bit of a re-start, but I digress. After that, Lacey and Josh have been focused on their Reflect Love Back ministry, and Lacey went out on a mini-tour. Throw in some other projects and home and family life and you can see how some time can pass by.
Last month, we wanted to get back together to start to regroup and focus on the story once again. So we gathered at a local Chick-fil-A (what, isn’t that where everyone goes to talk about writing screenplays for movies?) and started to go through the opening of the script. We actually made great progress but the Holidays were upon us, so we had to once again put things to the side to be with friends a family and celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior.
After ringing in the New Year, we all wanted to get back on track to focus on getting the next version of the script finished. Since then we have gathered a few times and so far we have been very productive. We are already 1/3 of the way through the script and the changes that are being made are amazing. I’m really trying to make sure that Lacey’s voice is heard in this story and by going over what I originally wrote, that’s exactly what’s happening here. And so far, we are all pretty satisfied with what we have to this point.
Just so you know what to expect, once we get through this draft of the script, my job will be to comb through it a few more times to clean up dialogue and to make sure that every scene we have in the script is of value from Lacey’s point of view and from an entertainment point of view.
I’m also very excited because, along our journey, we’ve had a few prominent people express interest in getting involved with the project. I’m not going to drop names at this point - are you crazy? But I will say that it gives me a lot of confidence to believe that God definitely has His hands in all of this, and when this film is made, it will be successful and impactful. So please keep praying for us! Pray that God continues to open doors and bring the right people into the fold. People who can help in areas that we just don’t have the ability to do on our own. And that we keep Him in our sites at all times so we can be clearly guided on telling His story, which was given through Lacey.
That’s all for now. I’ll check back in with everyone when we wrap on this round.
Blessings to all!
- 27 September 2019 /
- by zoetifex Studios /
Wow, what an incredible week it's been. In one week, the following took place: I got to go to Akron, OH to see Lacey and Josh kick off their new tour and hang with them for a little bit. What an incredible show. So much energy and excitement in the room to see Lacey perform a great mix of Flyleaf, Solo, RLB and new songs. If that were the only thing, it would make it a great week.
But then I found out that her Granny was in the hospital up here in Pittsburgh. She had asked if I wanted to go and visit with her and there was no way I was NOT going to do that. So I made my way there on Tuesday and not only got to visit with her, but Gramps was there too. I found them to be the most delightful people and they told me some great stories. One of my favorite moments was when a nurse walked into the room and she asked if the nurse could come back later on saying "This nice young gentleman here is writing a movie about me." Funny lady! And Gramps was filled with character too. He was smiling the whole time I was there.
And finally, the biggest news of the week (oh, as if this other stuff wasn't big). Well, this blog is about the process of writing the script for this movie, so in that regards - it's big. Ok, I'll shut up and say it... I got to write "The End" on the first draft of the script. While it was amazing to write those words, there is still sooooo much work left to do in order to finish the script. Currently, I'm going through it to clean it up so I can consider it a "final first draft". The next steps are that we will go through the story and clean up some of the scenes for accuracy and then also decide whether or not those scenes are important to the story or not and either delete them, replace them or update them. That will begin the next phase which is 2nd draft. However, remember back when the story was getting to be too long and I had to scrap many pages? I was up to 130-some pages and still wasn't done, so I had to kind of rethink the story and start over. So you could kind of consider this final first draft a second draft, or maybe 1.5 (not going to nitpick). But the story is back up to 140 pages. That is long, but as I've said before - it's always better to have too much to scale back, then not enough and try to build up.
Because of Lacey and Josh being on tour right now, I'm not sure when we will be able to get together to go over the script and start picking it apart. Once I'm done cleaning it up, she will have it to review at her leisure and return it to me with some change notes. So the process will still continue until she gets back home. So until that happens, these blogs might be even more scarce. So hang in there for a little while. Just know that I'll be back as soon as there is more to tell.
Thanks again so much for your prayers and encouragement. Also your questions and comments via private messages. I love to see the enthusiasm so early on about this movie. Don't stop!!
Until next time (whenever that may be)...
- 17 September 2019 /
- by zoetifex Studios /
Well, I'm certainly not deliberately posting every other week, it's just the way it's working out lately for some reason. That being said, I have a few things for this blog.
First, I have to address something that has come up a handful of times since we started writing this script. People want to know the name of the movie or if the movie is going to be the same as the book. I get this because many movies and especially Biopics have a different movie title than the book title. I didn't think it was important to address this but since it keeps coming up I will. We have a working title for the film. What that means is, we have all agreed on what we would like the title of the movie to be, but that doesn't mean it will end up staying that way. Like, the original working title for Star Wars was something like "The Adventures of Luke Starkiller" or something close to that. As you get closer to the production, the title is given a more serious consideration. If the working title still stands up, then most people just roll with it. If not, then a better title is put through the ringer. So, for this reason, I won't divulge the working title of the film. As you can see, it really doesn't serve a purpose to do that. Because, if it changes, and that name is circulating out there, then there could easily be confusion when the movie is finally made and released. So, for anyone who asks in the future, I will point them to this blog post for my answer. :)
Now, how is the story coming along? As I mentioned in the last post, the script was getting very long, and the focus was getting lost. That has since been very well corrected, and I feel the story is on a great path right now. All of the pages that were scrapped have been replaced and the story has advanced even more. In fact, I would consider this draft to be in the home stretch. But please keep in mind what I said before... getting the initial draft done is just the beginning. We have to go through the story with a fine-toothed comb and pick it apart. Make sure that what is there is solid and if it's not, figure out how to fix it, delete it, or replace it. We have to go through all of the dialogue and make sure it's as good as it can be. Other production companies and writers aren't very strict about this (as is evident in the final product), but we want to make sure that what is being said is accurate, and is also believable. I really don't like when you hear dialogue in a movie and you say to yourself "Nobody would ever say that. What are they thinking?" Well, usually they aren't putting that much thought into it. But Lacey and Josh are on the same page as me when it comes to this. Probably even more. So that will take a little time to get right also.
When I said that the story was getting long because Lacey had so many interesting things happen in her life, Josh jokingly said "That's why she wrote three books!" Funny - but true. So, while the movie is based on her first book "The Reason", I have been pulling stories from all three of her books to make a complete story. So hopefully those of you familiar with Lacey will appreciate that. It's making for some great scenes!!
Well, that's all I have for this time around. Thanks again for your prayers and your interest in this story and the writing process. Keep the notes coming.
Until next time...