Awaken Update
Alright, so “where is Awaken?,” you ask?
The script is complete, as I’ve mentioned a few times.
I’ve gotten reviews back from a handful of people and consensus is “great” and “I really like it.” So… that’s fine? I have one more copy out in the ether, so I’m going to wait for them to come back before posting. You can go take a look at the portfolio page for the film right now if you want.
Awaken Portfolio Page
This is my first feature length script that isn’t a television series posted to the site, so I wanted to create a “special feature” of sorts. The television series have all sorts of supplementary materials and the feature film page felt slim. The special bonus feature I decided on was a Spotify playlist that serves as a film “soundtrack.” The playlist has a few songs from the decades of my stewing on this project that have inspired certain scenes in the film. I don’t listen to much modern music, so if you go on there expecting WAP, I’m sorry you’re out of luck. I’m trying to round it out to ten songs, so check back every now and then.
I’m going to include a soundtrack with my next original feature One Night With Michelle as well. There is currently one song. But, that will probably be a trend going forward for my own screenplays. Obi-wan won’t get one because it’s Star Wars. Just put in your favorite Star Wars soundtrack and roll with it.
Kenobi: A Star Wars Story
Speaking of Kenobi, I’ve started writing again. I was writing the first major set piece for the film and it has a lot of moving around the city of Anchorhead, the film’s largest location. To make the elements work and keep them consistent I thought “What does Anchorhead look like?” Officially, it’s never been seen. There are fan versions, secondary source versions, video game versions, but most of them suck. I made my own to fix this. It may suck too. I don’t take this as the “official version,” it’s just to help me stay oriented.
Brief History of Anchorhead
Anchorhead is a small city straddling the border between the great salt flats, where the Lars Homestead is located, and the Jundland Wastes, the range of mountains where R2-D2 gets lost in A New Hope. The city was once a major outpost during the Old Republic Era, but has fallen by the wayside as Mos Eisley became a much larger port. More and larger docks allowed for massive amounts of traffic to pass through Mos Eisley, much more than Anchorhead could keep up with. In an attempt to endear the city to traders a large dual pad dock was erected outside the city walls, but it proved to be too little too late as the expansive criminal enterprises keep money flowing through Mos Eisley and allowed rapid expansion of its facilities.
Anchorhead’s primary commodity is water, harvested and traded by the numerous moisture farmers that live on the salt flats to the east of the city. The city operates it’s own moisture farm that runs it’s yields into a central cistern. Moisture farming and moisture processing are the cities two major industries, but there are various other vendors and traders throughout. Because of these vendors, the city serves as a central hub for the local farmers to buy the food, equipment, and supplies needed to live. These supplies are brought in through the ports and sold via local venders, such as Tosche Station. The local teenagers enjoy Anchorhead’s expanded services and the small gardens, afforded by the relative abundance of water in the city, allowing them to escape the monotony.
The Map
I made the map in one day over several revisions. I took to Google to find real maps for reference with the intention of drawing my own, but I thought that was entirely too much effort. I simply needed a map for reference, after which it would be discarded. In the first row of image results was a map of the city of Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. Being a Craig Ferguson fan, I went with this.
The Original Reykjavik Map – Circa 1905
I printed several and started planning right on the pages. I used pens and markers to sketch out the zones. The blue water became the brown mountain the city would be butted up against for protection. The docks along the former coast became natural places to have starports and cargo facilities. Rekyjavik’s most notable feature, the separated lake with the bridge became a dock like those in Mos Eisley. There is a bit of lore for Anchorhead in the Knights of the Old Republic game, I kept some of that intact with the “Old City” ruins sections, showing that the city expanded over the millennia. There are a handful of buildings in this zone I imagine would be from that time period.
I was going to remove all the green areas in the city once I established the wall borders, but I decided to leave a few of them. Maybe its just tufts of grass, but those bits of grass are an oasis from the depression that is Tatooine. A little something to keep the young people dreaming of better things and give this city some charm and visual interest.
The lynchpin to the city is the establishment of the cisterns held in the mountains. This would be coveted on Tatooine and the central point of my first set piece. These cisterns would be how Anchorhead stores and distributes its water.
I put in some ships for scale and the little project really came to life.
Now What?
Now I keep writing. I’ll make a post when I publish Awaken and I’ll keep you appraised of my progress on Kenobi as well. I’m hoping to have the vomit draft done by the end of the month.
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