Well, after unintentionally shelving the script for 10 months, I have finally pulled it back out to begin reworking it. It’s not that I intentionally wanted to keep my eyes off the project for this long; just pone thing happened after another and sooner or later I was like,”Shit…I really need to start working on this again.”
The fires in San Diego back in October 2007 really set the project back because I had wanted to start filming bits for a trailer and playing with makeup for the main ghost character. I had hope to have the film nearly completed by now, but this economic hill we are all climbing had not been making it the easiest. I think somewhere in there I definitely lost focus on the project and I had a few other items taking precedent.
I wanted to shoot Hospital Hill to try and test some effects I was going to use in Redress, but once I had to shelve that project for numerous reasons, Redress seemed to get thrown in to an open grave and have a few shovels full of dirt tossed over it. Then my brain kept teasing me with story ideas for Ghost Lights, so I finally had to sit down and write out that treatment. I started on the script, but Redress keeps whispering in my ear now… I guess that’s one of the things that torments me most right now: I have a tone of great ideas flying around my head, but since I have no actual commitment to any of them now, they all keep trading places in line. One moment it seems like this project will be my next big thing, and then it seems like another.
Just because I have not been actively typing on the actual script doesn’t mean I have not been working on the story at all. My writing partner and I have had several meetings to discuss plot points, camera angles and locations for filming. I have also been giving a lot of thought to the overall ghost design and some of the other elements in the story.
One thing that I have previously touched upon in the story is a roadside memorial for one of the characters that is killed. The more I have thought about it, the more I want to make this shrine a little more of a focal point for a few scenes in the story. Seriously, what if you accidentally killed somebody and everyday on your way to work you had to pass by this shrine on the side of the road reminding you of your sins? I think it would begin to eat at your soul after a while.
I have been spending some time researching the various makeups of roadside memorials. I have an image of this white cross by the side of the road with a name neatly written on it. Someone, we don’t quite know who yet, always makes sure this cross has a fresh bouquet of pink tulips tucked neatly in its vase. Even though it’s been several years since the tragedy, a candle is always burning at the base of the shrine, rain or shine… can make a person start to wonder 
Damn…I need to get back to the script!
