while we were in new zealand, twiddle thumbs and i decided that we needed to make a humorous 5 minute, south park-esque cartoon film of our adventures that takes the piss out of everything. i should've scripted it out while i was there and recorded kiwis saying the lines but i just couldn't concentrate on what the film might be until i had finished with our travels. plus i didn't want to have to explain to people why i'm asking to record them, speaking plainly or reading lines. you can't walk up to someone and say, "i'm gonna make a short film making fun of your country--wanna help me out and be the voice of one of the characters?"

2 months after our return, i've started the rough draft of the script. it will need some major editing and more brainstorming, but i've written down the initial ideas we had gone over and put them into scenes. even though i did all the writing, it was incredibly difficult to have my own voice in this piece. i love "south park" so much that i kept hearing in my head dialogue that would be between stan and cartman if they were in new zealand. i even heard cartman imitating the crocodile hunter as they did in one episode. making it my own is going to be quite a challenge over the course of the rewrites.

recently i found a program online for making comic books. i thought that'd be a great way to get this film sketched out or even just have it as a comic book instead of a short film. however, the reason we wanted to do a film in the first place--an animated film even though we can't draw--is because we came up with a song, a parody song. i guess you could still use the song in the comic book, but it's not quite the same to simply read the parody lyrics. i've already recorded the parody song although it might need to be redone. i just wanted to flesh out the song and the script.

today i started reading the script out loud to get a sense of the flow when i realized i had a major problem: i can't imitate the kiwi accent! i keep trying to remember how kiwis talked, the accents, intonations, phrases... easy enough to hear in your head but damned hard to imitate. hence i have been frantically searching the internet for sound files of new zealanders talking. i have found a few and they have been most helpful. the only sound files in this little mac's itunes now are all kiwi talk! i also listen to new zealand radio as i surf the web to hear a constant flow of kiwi voices. the only problem is that so much of new zealand is infiltrated by poms. it's hard to find audio of born and bred kiwis talking. the other thing i could do is rent a bunch of new zealand films and watch them over and over. "damn it woman, make me some eggs!" (paraphrase)

it's quite funny that here i am studying these files as if i were an esl student. i play, pause, imitate, rewind, repeat. damn, it's hard! i guess now i have no right to criticize actors when they take on other accents. it is tough. i knew that. i've always known that. which is why i've always admired comedians who can do multiple accents spot on. once again it comes down to this: i am not an actress! i'll give it the accent thing a shot and if it's terrible, then i'll just have to ask the kiwis i know to send me a tape of them saying the lines. if that fails, then i should be able to get an australian to do it. they lurv to make fun of new zealanders.

when twiddle thumbs gets back, we'll work on subsequent drafts of the script. i'll try to take our photos and work them into a comic book format to have a storyboard of the short film. the hard part really will be animating all this. at least my mom can draw. plus i have friends who can draw too. only i don't know if i can ask them to do this. i kinda want it to be a really small 2 person production, a surprise little thing to show people.