Conducting the performance of the screenplay in your mind
Tuesday, December 15, 2020 at 9:14PM 
I watched the new Taylor Swift documentary about her album Folklore (which I think is one of her best albums). Iwas struck by how Swift “conducts” her singing with her hand (especially while sitting quietly in a chair) – telling her voice to go up, down, faster, slower, louder, softer, more emotive, less emotive, by the motion of her fingers and arm.
How interesting that one part of her body (her hand) is telling another part of her body (her vocal cords) what to do, as if they were separate and distinct entities.
And then I was thinking: Do we do that as screenwriters? Could we? Should we? What if one part of our bodies were conducting the part of our brains that writes characters, scenes, and acts – louder here, softer her, climax here, more emotion, less emotion, now be silent, now speed up again, now SCREAM! What would that look like? Maybe we do this internally. But what if we did this externally? I’d love it if my hand were guiding my creative process and the shape of my writing.
Anyway, will be thinking about this as I continue to write my latest work – what mechanisms, whether real or imagined, whether external or internal, am I using to guide how the screenplay is coming out. . . Or maybe, like Swift, once written, I will use my hand to help perform the screenplay in my mind – Does it feel like a song? Is it complete? Satisfying? Has an emotion been expressed? Is there closure. . . Or does the performance reveal holes/weaknesses/repetitions. . .
Interested in your thoughts and interested in continuing to ponder this. In the meantime, my hand drops slowly indicating this is done for now. . .
#taylorswift #folklore #documentary #conducting #vocals #singing #screenwriting #creativeprocess
