Things seem to get really going by Friday, nominally the second full day of the conference. Which is interesting since the climax of the event for many is the Awards luncheon that happens today, Saturday. The pace of the conference is an odd combination of hustle and laid back. People connect easily, everyone is friendly, and there is some intensity to making sure you catch this panel or meet that person.

The hours can be a bit of a killer. Programs start at 9:00 am, but the late night parties for those with “producer” badges run to 2:00 am. Afternoon siestas seem to be the order of the day and there’s usually a nice gap in the programmed activities between 3:00 and 5:00 in the afternoon.

Because the new website isn’t open for another 17 hours I have no idea which of the pieces I have filed for the blog will show up so I’m trying to put something of interest in each one so they can stand on their own. It’s always about the distribution, isn’t it?

Panels today included a couple of good ones and one so-so. The so-so one was “Adapting Material for the Big Screen” with Aline Brosh McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada), Audrey Wells (Under the Tuscan Sun), and Bill Wittliff (The Perfect Storm). There wasn’t much except what you have probably already heard or figured out about capturing the “essence” of the book you are adapting.

Wells did have an interesting twist since her story is a created story with the context of the book as foundation since the book wasn’t a story at all. She had the blessing of the author to do this evolution, I suppose because it’s the only way the book could have made the screen.

My next session was richer. Set in a smaller more intimate room and billed as a “Tell Your Story” session, it featured Robin Swicord, (The Jane Austin Book Club and Memoirs of a Geisha). Robin talked about how she broke into the business when she and friends put together a low low budget stage production off off Broadway in New York, only to be approached by an agent. Since she had been writing “all my life” and already had a screenplay she was ready for this call, but her point was not to wait to have it happen to you, but to keep working on the things you love and bringing them to life one way or another until you do make the connection.

“Geisha” was a different story entirely. The audience in the room seemed to want to know more about this film, but from Robin’s point of view it seemed an anomaly. She was hired by Rob Marshal to do it after he had interviewed 40 writers. It was his film not hers so she worked to his vision not hers.

The best panel of the day from my perspective was “Writing the Drama” with Nicholas Kazan (Reversal of Fortune), Scott Alexander (Ed Wood and Man on the Moon), and Terry George (Hotel Rwanda, In the Name of the Father, and Reservation Road). The was a better panel about the challenges of adapting than the earlier one. Though many of the stories were about real people, they were for the most part based on books.

They all talked about outlining the story to start and Nick had an interesting approach. He just makes notes for a while thinking about the piece. As he put it “enough detail so that it’s real but not so much that you feel compelled to use exactly what you found in the novel or real life.” He also talked about find a myth or a fairly tale that has the essence of the story in it even asking Terry George at one point whether he would make up a fairy tell if he couldn’t find one. George said “yes,” and had already pointed out that “In the Name of the Father” was the father and son rescue from Pinochio.

All three talked about structure and George and Alexander had similar takes—they use the three act structure and find it useful. Kazan announced that “I know nothing about the three act structure and I don’t care.” He explained that what he knows is that the things in one scene have to cause something in the next, and then in the next, and so on.

It was a rich panel with a very engaging and vigorous discussion.