Fairfield Script

I've been primarily using this blog for visual projects, but since writing Fairfield has been a major project of mine since the end of 2006/beginning of 2007, and has again become my main focus approaching 2010, it seems wrong not to mention it on a blog about projects I'm working on.

I began the planning stages of Fairfield around the end of 2006 and wrote the original script for a class in my final semester at SFSU in 2007. I always wrote it with the intention to film it, which is a privilege not many writers get, and one that helps me greatly through the writing process since I can visualize who's going to be playing who, and can really hear a specific character's voice while I write. My previous film, Phat Tony, really lacked in the performance of the actors, and I don't feel that it was as much of a fault with the people in it, as it was a fault of poor casting on my end. In Phat Tony, I only thought visually of who would be good for the role, instead of thinking about actual personalities. I think the casting was greatly improved between the two films, and being able to have a casted film while writing it really helps with writing dialogue, especially for the more colorful characters like L Teezy Mac and Bruce in Fairfield.

After graduating in May of 2007, I moved home to Ypsilanti, Michigan and shot the film that summer. I've been asked before why I didn't just stay in San Francisco to film it, and I think there are both pros and cons to having chosen to shoot it in Ypsilanti. Certainly, the production value would have ended up better had I chosen to stay in San Francisco and worked with other people who were going to school for Cinema. Ultimately though, I decided I wanted to work with the same people I had been working with for years. As film is such a collaborative medium, I think Fairfield turned out significantly better by working with people who had all been used to working together and felt, justifiably, that they were just as much a part of it as me. In San Francisco, I may have been able to bring on more talented, experienced people behind the camera, but in the end, none of them would have felt remotely attached to the project and would have just been doing it either for credit or to be nice - not because they actually felt invested in it. Being able to work with some of the same people you've been working with since you were fourteen is not only more fun, but as everyone has been working together for so long, you really know how everyone works, and again, what their strong-suits are.

The film has now been completed for some time, but having some distance from it has brought to light some issues with the script that I wanted to address. I always wanted to extend it to be a legitimate "feature-length" film (at least 90 minutes), but never could figure out a good way to lengthen it without just adding pointless material, thus weakening the script overall. Through feedback from my former screenwriting teacher, as well as my own analysis, I started to think of ways that expanding the script would actually help it.

In the main turning point of the film, the main character, Rodes, leaves Fairfield and all of his friends behind to move to the wealthier, more hip college-town of Madison. In the original script and film, I don't feel there was enough motivation for his final push to move. We get from the beginning of the film that he has recently graduated from college, doesn't know what to do with his life, and can't find even a hobby to interest him, but why the move? It really lacked that final push for him to make such a life-changing decision.

Likewise, there wasn't enough of a motivation for him to return to Fairfield. His friends eventually realize he lied to them about why he moved, which he feels bad about, and he gets bored with his one friend in Madison, Elijah, but generally we just don't see Rodes spend enough time in Madison to be fully convinced of his decision to return. In the re-write, I've tried to not only explore his relationship with Elijah further, but also to add more failures in work and romance so that we can really see Rodes realizing on several levels why Madison ended up not being better for him.

Another issue that my screenwriting teacher often pointed out was that, other than a couple minor roles, the film had no female characters in it. I've often stayed away from writing female characters for two reasons: 1) I almost never knew any girls who wanted to be in films I was making, and 2) i've never successfully written a female character that doesn't end up being cliche and one-dimensional. Since I'm not planning on filming the re-write of the script, problem #2 is the only one I need to worry about. I think in the past, I suffered from only writing female roles as foil characters for the main character. They had no real dimension and were only present to enhance the main character's motivation for doing something. This may sound like I have some sort of deep-seeded issue with women, but I think generally it was just because I was forcing myself to throw in a female character so I'd would have one, rather than only using a female role where it actually fit. I was thinking of adding female characters in terms of "OK, I need to have a female role somewhere, so where can I throw one in?" instead of "Where would a female character actually help strengthen the script, if anywhere?" This is obviously not effective, and with Fairfield, I originally avoided it completely and just left out female characters. With the rewrite, I've found a spot where a female character makes sense and actually aids the story instead of only being present out of the necessity of not wanting the film to be all male.

I'll leave it at that since this has become substantially longer than I originally intended, but I thought my recent writing process, as well as intial decisions in making Fairfield, was something worth exploring.