Compliments to Papadom Vithal Da' for the finding of Final Draft. Its a great solution for getting started scripting dialogue in a standard that is universally accepted. The hard bit as we're both finding is filling the damned dialogue in. You can have a good character sketch and know how they would react and interact under given situations. You can even know the situations they're going to have to go through to fit the narrative you have in mind & then you stall at the points where you think, sure that's what he'd say but isn't that a bit much? Geez, this guy talks for the country - Oh Shut up already, you're using up precious screen time that the hero might want later, so you strip it down to minimal dialogue and then think grrr, he sounds like a man of few words, but that isn't my character. He's actually Damian - all he does is scowl.

It's mildly amusing in itself that I'm doing a first draft in a program called Final Draft but it reminds me what we're aiming for & fills me with optimism - every now & then.

.. and such is my world at the moment, a man of few words that aren't even me. Haven't been to the cinema since Salaam-e-Ishq Ishq Ishq .. last week. Should probably do that to get back into the right mode of thinking, but the viral infection of colds and flus running round the country like the infestation of ipods in our society is holding me back some.

That and the whole 'things on your mind' that seem to accumulate are doing so at some exponential rate, this isn't a bad thing (apart from my finances), part of me feels alive again after what seems like a long long time, yet the part that is usually an ode to efficiency personified seems to be dying, the timing of it all is terrible with deadlines to meet and the pile of things to be done, but its a little beyond even my control, hopefully once the health bar reaches back to full on the top of my imaginary beat-em-up gaming screen, the rest will fall back into place.

Side note: Not that I've gone past my Don phase or anything, but the soundtrack of the competing Diwali film Jaan-E-Mann is growing on me in a way. At first it was just the 'Humko Maloom Hai' (I know this) theme that almost brought tears to my eyes, but 'Sau Dard' (100 pains) which incorporates this theme and 'Ajnabee Shaher Mein' (In a stranger city) are quite emotional too, I'm impressed.

Talking of which - I have been informed that there is at least 'one' person out there watching out for when I finally get a full review done for 'Don', so I have decided I will do that (though I had decided against earlier), probably also one for Jaan-E-Mann to compare and contrast the supposed biggies of October. I think I may do them some justice now that its been a few months and I've had the chance to get past the initial hype.

Okay I'll stop here & breathe for a long moment or two ..
Silent Salutes'