Sign Here; Sell Soul.

That is what the question I keep asking myself seems like.

Warren and I met today to go over the movie contract. He saw things I completely missed. Dear friend Jane advised me wisely to be discreet here, but the title of this post explains how I feel—rather, the position I feel we (Warren and I) are in.

The remuneration offered is not fixed to the size of the movie's budget as it would be were I a unionized screenwriter. If our movie's budget is what they have been proposing, our offer is less that 25% of what union pay would be and it is far, far wider in its scope than a union contract would be. Plus we are called upon to be available for rewrites.

Worst of all, whereas Warren and I are writers, it is not about his life, it is about my life and the contract offered allows them to use my name and image as they see fit and any way they want globally—they can do anything they want with my real name.

On Thursday, we meet Brad to discuss our concerns.

When—and if—you tell someone you are negotiating the sale of your screenplay, it elicits either a very positive or very cynical reaction. Many people congratulate me, several warn me about the nature of the industry and they are clearly very skeptical. And, they think I am naive. It is, therefore, supremely interesting to experience the process firsthand. 

Warren remains a stalwart treasure. It feels like some kind of divine grace delivered him. Going through this process alone would be traumatic.
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UPDATE:  I was wrong! A key phrase in the contract was left out. See here.

Final Reading

Phew. It's done. We had the last reading of Trudeau yesterday and it went well in that it is the right length, both acts end with a decent beat and there was universal agreement as to where I should cut bits.  The only down side was that Kim had to read the man's part. Allan is home recovering from surgery and David (who has a bit of a pt, unfortunately for costuming) is in a show in Prince George.

After the reading, I got to see that my adjustments to Vivicean's costume and wigs were fine. They fit Lois and she felt confident with them on.

At the end, there was an interesting discussion that had Harridan come up and quell surprise, Lois liked  the concept very much. She was terribly enthusiastic and encouraging, bless her heart. And loved the songs (as do I).

At one point during the discussion when Lois was talking to Kim. she referenced me as "an artist." That was the first time in my life someone has called me an artist— the A word I am so afraid of, for some reason. But it felt very, very good.

All my confidence is back for Harridan.

Hendrik Kerstens

I am developing a lot of man crushes on people I am finding on the Internet who share with me a passion for costumes. Henrik Kerstens is not one of them, but one thing he did will stay with me for a long, long time. He is a photographer who made a series of portraits of his daughter repurposing mundane objects to recreate historical looks. Look at the photo above. Is that not delicious? Her collar is plastic ducting. Could it ever possibly look better? And those are doilies, below.

Saturday

It was a stunning day Saturday but I did not feel like a long walk. Instead I took several short walks, each one part of knocking things off my "to do" list. One thing I did was take THREE garbage bags of clothes to Goodwill and that allowed me to get rid of a large dresser that used to be in my bedroom, taking up a rather large footprint in my small condo.

Today, Sunday, I start memorizing lines. The coming week is an exciting one: Monday is the last reading of Trudeau before rehearsals start and I am expect to get my suit on Tuesday. Pn Wednesday, I perform at The Flame. And then on Saturday, my party at which will be 60+ people ("dressed" by request) , 30+ bottles of champagne, 150 canapés (ordered for their eye appeal) and a huge Bon Ton Diplomat cake.

Scented azaleas (above and below) are one of
my favourite flowers.

Serial Commas

I was taught never to use the serial comma (the comma before the word "and"  in a series of three or more things; also called the Oxford comma).  The hilarious, knowledgable and experienced, Mary Norris, discusses its use very objectively (at the risk of being shunned in the New Yorker elevator—she is an editor there) in the Feb23/March 2nd edition of the magazine. She gives some examples that made me laugh out loud where the serial comma was omitted but had to be inserted:

1. "We invited the strippers, J.F.K. and Stalin."
2. "This book is dedicated to my parents, Ayn Rand and God."
3. "The country-and-western singer was joined on stage by his two ex-wives, Kirs Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings."

Diving Into Basil

Putting the collar onto Basil's jacket has proven brutal, given my make-it-up-as-you-go style of creating. And sewing requires great light and the "right" position. It is not easy to do the finishing touches. This collar was tough!

My Mandate

Cartoonist Nina Paley (with the help of Chris Carlson, Theodore Gray,
and the "Behemoth") created a quilt based on the circa 1878
"Horse in Motion" photographs by Edweard Muybridge.

I am living a new life. You can that I have changed in the clothes I wear, you can see it in my apartment and you may notice the change when I talk. What’s different? How I think about myself.

I value the development of successful relationships as life’s greatest accomplishment. So I have felt like a failure my whole life because I am neither a parent nor a partner and I don’t work well in close proximity with people. This negative view of myself has been counterbalanced by the pride I have taken in various achievements.

That pride seems entirely unwarranted to me now. But it got me through life. You have to be able to get up every morning with enough pride to go on so I have no shame or regrets about being so wrong. What seems so wrong to me now was the source of my pride.

It’s making the costumes that changed everything.

All my experiences with pride until this year came from the approval of others and their approval was of things about which I felt ambivalent. The screenplay becomes a source of pride when it is sold.

With the costumes I need no one. I can sit in front of them or look at pictures of them and I feel a pride that is both self-generated and far, far more satisfying than pride triggered by the approval of others.

I am grateful for the pride I took in my achievements. I was able to live a life of integrity in spite of failing at what I deemed to be life’s greatest accomplishment: A long-lasting intimate relationship. But those accomplishments were in the wrong voice. They came from my head voice, my brain, whereas the sense of pride I feel as an artist has changed how I dress, how I live and how I talk because it is the voice of my soul.

I have found my voice: I am a maker of entertainments.