So I've been meaning to post again every single day since my last post, and every single day it hasn't happened. A lot of other things have, though, which I'll now talk about.
First of all, I've sort of discovered a rhythm. It's not quite as productive as I'd hoped it would be, but on the other hand (in other ways) it's a lot more productive than I expected it to be, which is nice. It goes like this:
9:30-11:30 (depending on the day) - get up
after that: exercise (running, yoga, gym, etc. - I've actually done one of these every single day since I got here, which is still a surprise to me.)
after that: shower/dress, and then go make some type of breakfast food. the time is usually between 11 and 1 at this point, and the meal counts as both breakfast and lunch.
after eating: clean up the kitchen in some capacity. I hadn't expected to spend a ton of time cleaning up the kitchen, but a lot of other people don't, which means it gets really gross, so my friends and I end up cleaning up a lot. this might sometimes happen after dinner, rather than lunch.
sometime around 2pm: start working! (I'll go into more detail below)
sometime around 6pm: stop working and start making dinner.
I always expect to keep working after dinner, but it hasn't happened yet. usually hitting 6pm means I'm not going to get any more work done that day. my immediate goal is to start working two hours earlier, since I'm pretty sure 6 hours/day is the actual amount of time required for a full-time Winter Term project. Still getting there.
Anyway. Over the past few days, I've:
- watched Psycho and taken notes on each scene/dialogue I like/where songs might go
- done character planning for the four major characters (Marion, Norman, Sam, and Lila)
- written a basic plot summary of my version of the story (subject to change as things develop)
- written most of the first song, "Lunch Hour."
The most frustrating thing about all of this is that I'm already behind schedule - I took the first day after I got back to do a lot of productive things, like go grocery shopping (which meant walking to IGA and back) and unpack and get settled in, in addition to working. Additionally, my writing process tends to take at least a few days, and though I'd hoped I'd be able to compress that into 2-4 days per song for the purposes of this project, so far, it hasn't happened yet. I do have most of Lunch Hour done, though, which I'll upload.
First: here are my notes so far.
And a preliminary song list:
My biggest issue that I've had as I've been writing is figuring out how to portray Marion/her relationship with Sam. The movie opens with them together in a motel room, with Marion declaring that it's the last time they'll meet there. She talks about respectability, about getting married. He talks about wanting to provide for her. These are not things that resonate with me, necessarily. Respectability wouldn't bother me; I rarely even think about getting married right now; and, even if I did, I can't imagine pressuring my partner into it (which was the direction the original Lunch Hour lyrics were going in). But I wanted the show to remain set in 1960, and I didn't want to change Marion into a version of me (I already did that with TIAMAZ).
So was the solution to parody her old-fashioned ways, and to parody her relationship with Sam? Marion's supposed to be the protagonist, and I didn't want that to change - for her to become unlikable - just because I was uncomfortable with the qualities she exhibited. Furthermore, changing her character because of those qualities made me feel like I was judging her for life choices that were actually just fine - just not my own.
In the version of the song I have now, I tried to parody her and Sam a little bit, but also keep them likable and relatable. I sort of made fun of her fears of aging - she's only 28, but she's still nervous - and gave a lot of the song over to Sam describing his idyllic middle class fantasies with her (kids, pets, a house with a yard). But I also tried to make their feelings and their fears seem legitimate. I think - I hope - I found a decent middle ground. I think it'll become clearer in a day or two - I tend to develop stronger/more constructive opinions about my songs a day or two after I write them.
I'll try to figure out how to upload audio later, but for now, here are the lyrics I currently have:
I added a bunch of dialogue at the beginning just to give me a little bit of context for how it could start. I don't think I'd include it in a recording - it's pretty bad - but it did help me figure out where they were each coming from. There's a little bit in the middle, too.
Oh, and here are the original lyrics. I wrote these over break before re-watching the movie and realizing that their motivations are reversed - Marion wants to get married, and Sam's hung up on their financial problems. I did end up using a lot of her original lyrics for his verse, though (mostly out of laziness, but also because I like them).
Anyway. For now, I just have to finish writing the music for that - I think those are all the lyrics - and I should be REALLY done with it by tomorrow. I had planned on giving myself Sundays off, but I don't think I can this week if I want to get back on schedule. Maybe I'll just give myself slightly less to do than usual. Fortunately, my next song isn't due (based on the schedule I made for myself) until Tuesday, so if I start writing tomorrow I'll have a little bit of time. This is another I'm not super worried about, mostly because I have a vague idea of how it'll go and what I'll be writing about. It's Marion deciding whether or not to steal the money, and it gets reprised once or twice later on.
After I upload this post I'll also copy/paste all of the outlining I did into different posts - the character outlines and plot outline and song list. I think I'll have 7 songs (9 if I arrange the opening theme for a cappella and then reprise it at the end as a finale - I don't really think that's going to happen, though), and what I'm realizing is that if I get half of those really polished and finished by the end of the month, I'll be happy. My plan, of course, is still to write the entire thing, but I don't think it's realistic. I figure if I get through half by the end of January, there's no turning back, and I'll be more motivated to keep working after Winter Term is over.
My other big frustration at the moment is that I haven't started any outside piano practicing. On the one hand, I'm still getting playing time in because I'm composing so much, but on the other, my compositions are still pretty repetitive - I'm catching things that are way more similar to TIAMAZ than they should be - and I'm not actually improving. I think I underestimated how distracting it would be with everyone else here... Like I said, after dinner (when I'd planned on practicing), there's always a board game or a movie or a long conversation to distract from anything I'd been planning on doing.
What's really funny is that trying to write this musical seems to be making me more productive in other ways. I clean more than I ever did, and I'm cooking more, and I'm exercising more, and in general I'm just sort of better at managing myself and my time. Honestly, I think it's because I'm procrastinating on working - so I'm just getting really good at all of the things I normally also procrastinate on. I'm guessing if I'd made my project some sort of Self-Improvement thing - if I'd decided to exercise more, cook more, clean more, etc. as part of the project itself - I'd probably be doing a lot of something else, instead. There are always ways to procrastinate... I just was lucky enough to find a very productive one.
Pretty sure that's everything that's happened so far. I'll probably try to check in once every two or three days from now on. Cheers.
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