Script Discussion Schedule and Updates

MithLuin

Administrator
Staff member
I realize that it might be a bit tricky for some people to keep track of when we are holding the script discussions. So, I wanted to have a place where the schedule of future discussions can be clearly found, and any changes can be made to alert people in advance.

(That depends on me keeping this up to date, but I will try!)

A reminder that *everyone* who would like to be involved in this project is welcome to participate. It helps if you're up-to-date with the Silm Film Session podcasts done by Corey Olsen, Trish Lambert and Dave Kale, but anyone with a knowledge of the content of the Silmarillion can probably find meaningful ways to contribute. Participation can be 'on-screen' with video/audio, or it can be in the chat/sidebar if you'd like to just type messages in - whatever you are comfortable with. The more people involved, the less likely we are to come up with dumb ideas :p Nick is in charge, so direct any questions to him.

His YouTube channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdlP0kk22eTXhMhXTsp_aFw


NEXT SESSION: Saturday February 4th 5 PM Eastern Time. The topic will be Worldbuilding in Valinor
YouTube link (to watch):
The link to participate via 'video conference':
https://hangouts.google.com/hangout...FtdCiwsLFtdCiwsLCIxbHI1YjZlYTNveWdoaTZrbSJdCg
Now live!

Future Sessions:
Season 3! See you then :)

Currently, though, the focus is getting the Script Outlines polished up and ready for review by our Exec team - Friday's Session focused on a review of Episodes 1-4, and next Friday's session will focus on Episodes 5-9, so take a look at the Outlines on those threads and see what you feel should be added or changed to improve them. We will then have two weeks to prepare for the Script Outline Session for Episodes 10-13.

Once we get the Season 2 Outlines approved, we can think about assigning Script Writers to each episode!
 
Last edited:
And for those who have been just itching to get into the actual script writing....

Season 2 Episode 1: The Awakening of the Elves is ready (as an outline with Exec approval), so any scenes from that are fair game to get started on. Any takers for writing some dialogue and scenes to go with the outline?
 
Yeah, I'm having trouble getting my tablet to power up. I might actually be a bit late myself this time... LE GASP! as Karita might say.
 
Reminder that there is no discussion tomorrow and we'll do the final episode next week on the 21st.

Also, it was announced during today's Session that next Session will be a discussion of the Script Episodes for Episodes 1-7! So, any tweaks that we want to make to them (especially to the Frame in light of today's Session) we should do that in the next couple of weeks. Also, they would likely benefit from being fleshed out to include better descriptions of what is happening in the scenes.
 
A question: I've been thinking about the desire to make the death of the Trees The Big Thing in e13. Also, I have a feeling that e12 is very much a buildup to the events in e13. Would it be possible and would it help to make e12 a double episode? And skip e13? What do you think? That would place the Darkening towards the end of the episode and perhaps make it easier to make it climactic along with Fëanor refusing to let go of the Silmarils.
 
Chinese New Year is the 28th, and I have the week before and the week after off. I can do some work on the Outlines before the next session.
 
Great! One thing the outlines need is a translation from any 'shorthand' I used to convey an idea to an actual fleshed out description of what needs to happen in the scenes. I know what is meant when I read over the outlines, but....they aren't really in a great state for someone who didn't listen to the discussions to understand everything. So, it would really benefit from another pass, and I'd like to have Episodes 1-7 ready for the Execs by next Thursday at the latest.
 
So due to some slight confusion about when precisely Chinese New Year takes place, I probably won't be present for at least some of the session today, if not miss the whole thing.

In addition, the undertaking of the outlines has, um... ballooned somewhat. I'm still plinking away, but they are quite a bit different than what I remember from last season; my own fault for not keeping up with things. Somewhere between Season 1 and Season 2 there was a pretty dramatic shift in Outline format (which, in my infinite procrastination, I have only just become aware of). The new formats include a great deal more creative writing, for which I am overjoyed, but are remarkedly less easy to follow in terms of “the-episode-at-a-glance” readability.

So, let me offer this as a cop out! I have done my best to get at the best of both worlds: the episodes are organized in accordance with the previous season's at-a-glance breakdown, and where there is creative writing to supplement and bring the outline to life, it has been appended beneath the relevant section of the outline as a new bullet point. I have also made efforts to make the most of the outline format and actually gather the Acts into bullet points unto themselves (again, for ease of at-a-glance reading): as such, the Roman Numerals now correspond to individual acts, and a general sense of the Act's progression (rising-action, pinch, rising-action, climax, falling-action) can be found in the 1-2-3 level, with additional subdivisions added as necessary. Episode one is very thoroughly outlined in this format! I am still working to get the remaining 12 (13!) episodes into shape, which they ought to be by next session.

Worth mentioning that I have also added to the outlines in areas where only a sentence or two was followed by the parenthetical "4 pages" or something similar, which is part of the reason why things ballooned out of control. Now that I have a good idea about the time investment required to get everything wrapped up, I'm thinking I can have the whole season done up with a pretty pink bow by next Friday (when my work begins and I dip back under the radar for the foreseeable future.

Let me know when my beheading will commence and I shall do my best to make it on time.

EDIT: After leaving the festivities early and then an hour and a half of fighting GoogleDocs' formatting, I give you this, the link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Qxo2MWCpK8ovHNNg6O4feo9z1bDwYJq8z8NoTMkKTJE/edit
 
Last edited:
No beheadings, and I sent our good hosts what we had last night, as they intended to discuss it this morning and I wanted to make sure there was something to discuss. :)

And yes, Happy Chinese New Year!
 
That's extra good news, because I just spent the last half hour looking for a way to send them what I put together and do not appear to have any contact info for them! In any event, I will spend the next hand full of days making the season conform to the new format (which I encourage you all to take a look at and critique). I am confident that it provides enough actual formatting to make it easy to follow an episode piece-by-piece without losing some of the genuinely excellent writing some of you have contributed to the project. I will also be in attendance this morning, so I will take notes and make necessary adjustments as the hosts provide them.

EDIT: Uhhhh, anyone else getting "This Webinar starts in 7 days"?
 
Last edited:
Update - today's session postponed until next week due to illness. So, we have one more week to get this all together. I don't currently have access to that google doc, but I will take a look at it when I get the chance.
 
Right, "illness".

As in "so mad at Brian I gave myself an ulcer" illness.

On the brightside, I will redouble my efforts and see if we can't hand something off by Tuesday or Wednesday.
 
Yep, exactly. You should feel really terrible about yourself for not meeting this arbitrary deadline during your vacation :p

But no, I do look forward to seeing what you come up with this week, as I never took the outlines beyond 'list of what happens in what order' in these episodes.
 
Back
Top