Chaos Complex (award winning) has once again descended on the sleepy village of Kaibo on the island of Grand Cayman to convene the second edition of our writers camp, where we focus our formidable wills on creating Brilliant And Ground Breaking Entertainment.
So far, we’re making solid progress. I think we will leave without a completed first draft (our mission), but the task has been pretty large. It’s a carefully crafted story that reads like a pretty intense and intelligent thriller, but will play with a lot of comedy. That’s not an easy wire to walk – you have to maintain high tension in the intrigue, but the laughs have to be honest. The goal is for people to laugh, but not be entirely comfortable with it. “Oh my god that’s hilarious. And terrible.” See? Weekend At Bernie’s, this is not. We have reeled ourselves back from going too dark several times.
I never said we took it easy on us.
We’ve gone into depth with seven of the twenty main beats, with most of everything else at least sketched out. I feel like we’ve successfully crossed all the bridges but one – and that’s whether or not to use a flashback at the funeral to explain the relationship right off the bat, or let the audience catch up as we go. Traditional exposition (bleh) versus bold and creative writing (yeah). We’ll see how the latter goes, and let that guide us on the necessity of the former. I love my job.
The weather has been mostly cloudy with sunny breaks, so it’s warm and humid but nobody’s feeling threatened with a sunburn. And the breeze keeps the mosquito population otherwise occupied. I like it. And the pool is handy for a rinse when the humidity gets too sticky. I love my job. We were hoping the weather would shape up enough to do some shooting with Blair on his boat – a well-earned break from the mental grind, and we’re remaining open to the possibility, but I’m thinking tomorrow will be an early start back on the laptops and a celebratory feast at the Kaibo bar in the evening. Maybe there will be opportunity Wednesday morning for some playtime with the camera before we catch our plane at 4.
So yes, tomorrow is already our last full day and we have lots more to do. We’re a bit exhausted – Lee’s already sacked out and Matt and I are taking some quiet time to do something besides craft. And here I sit crafting a blog post. Ah well. An addict is an addict.
All things considered, this has been a more deliberate outing compared to last year, more efficient and more challenging. But it sure has been great to be back among the Cayman gang. Old friends and new. I think we will make this a regular thing. Blair’s wife Jen has given us extremely good reason to be back here next February. Like, do not miss.
In other news, we also concepted a web series which could be very compelling viewing, with a broad niche appeal. Broad niche appeal? You heard me. Not sure we have time to produce it, but I think it’s got some very sexy legs. Worth more discussion.
And in a little more than a week I turn 40, and my girl will be there. Booyah. Life is sweet.