Another Video Girl Update

And how a bizarre party became part of our writing process.

How I feel after this month (still from Triangle of Sadness)

Do you ever have one of those months where you’re the designated drama firefighter at your sister’s wedding, then the following weekend you’re packing up your apartment because the rent is too damn high, and the weekend after that you move to your new apartment in a new part of the city, and meanwhile the project you’re working on at your non-film job is falling off the rails so you’re updating your resume and emailing everyone you know because you’re worried the freelance work is going to stop and you’ll have to move back to your parents’ house in a very small town in the middle of nowhere where you’d have to go back into the closet and your skills would not apply to the available jobs, and then suddenly you have to find time to get an endoscopy because of a very fun, very sexy digestive problem you’ve been dealing with for years?

That’s kind of month I’m having.

All of that chaos put a huge wrench in my writing habit. I’ve been telling myself that as long as I do one thing every day, no matter how small, it’s still a step toward making this film. Today, my one small thing is hunting for a great bodega exterior for the opening scene of Video Girl while out on my daily walk. I’m looking for a hand-painted sign, a colorful but faded exterior, cigarette ads, and, in my dream-world, a small calico cat that sits inside the door. If you live in Brooklyn or Queens and you know of a place, please share the location in the comments.

In the meantime, I’ll catch you up on where we’re at with the screenplay. 

The weekend after finishing the second draft, Ziggy and I went to a party in the West Village thrown by the scene-y Manhattan art kids—the ones who renamed Chinatown “Dimes Square.” It’s def not my scene, but I was curious after reading several New York Times stories dubbing the scene the next Factory, and claiming its artists are the next Mapplethorpe and Chekhov. 

We arrived at the unmarked brownstone, and we were immediately directed to find a seat because the performances were about to start. We waded through clouds of cigarette smoke and found a spot on the floor. I expected readings—poetry, excerpts from novels, or short stories. But instead, this party was (I am not being hyperbolic) a talent show for rich kids. 

A pianist played Rachmaninov from memory, his hands seemingly on different substances that distorted time in opposite directions. A sixty year old man cried as he read a personal essay about the struggles of being raised in the upper middle class—the son of a famous man. We parted to create an aisle as a mime ballerina in clown gear wobbled on pointe to the front of the room. She finished her performance by stabbing herself with an invisible knife, yanking a red scarf that got stuck in her oversized lapel. The audience ate it up. 

After the talent show, several young women asked me my age, horrified yet impressed that one could be in their 30s. How had I managed? Botox? Skincare? The blood of virgins? Young hotshot artists powdered their noses and ranted about neoliberalism while acknowledging that their very lives and art are funded by it (via their parents, obviously). It was a wild night, and great character inspiration.

But because karma is real for judgmental assholes like me, Ziggy and I tested positive for COVID two days later. For three weeks, I couldn’t move, walk, think, or taste. When we finally came back to the screenplay with fresh eyes at the end of February, we saw that it needed major revisions. The story was fun and entertaining, but it wasn’t saying what we wanted it to say. So instead of jumping right back in, we spent 2-3 weeks re-outlining.

After that, Ziggy wrote the next draft of Video Girl, once again as a short story. When I read it a few weeks later, it was amazing—they could easily have published it as a short story or novella. Instead, they sent it to me, and I adapted it into a screenplay.

We passed it back and forth a couple more times—honestly I’ve lost track of which draft number we’re on. But in this latest draft, we’ve decided to add more truth to the antagonist character and the relationship between him and Shuggie, our protagonist. Ziggy’s been writing their draft since the end of April or beginning of May, and so they’re planning on finishing it in the next few weeks.

In the meantime, I’ll continue sharing updates, inspiration, and process. Feel free to share any tips you have for making progress through times of chaos in the comments below. Until next week!

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