Rewriting whilst rapelling down a building

I've got a pretty good idea what to do with the script now. Comments from various people all point towards what I'd suspected all along: the first act is too slow.
Or rather, too long. The script takes a while to get to the kicking off point and while there is plenty of incident in the first thirty pages most of it can easily be relocated to the second act. I've changed a character as well. Originally he was a very dark person who by dying instigates the 'Bad Day' of the title. He's a lot more funny now and doesn't cut up his girlfriend's corpse (ha!). Tiernan, for it is he, is now an amiable oaf who is still dispatched in much the same way he was before but now we have a lot more sympathy for him. Changing this character also modifies the the whole tone of the first half of the film: it's a lot more jokey now and a lot more fun which will contrast more with later events when things get a bit out of hand. Of everything I've written so far about forty pages have been excised from the first act, which is quite preposterous if you think about it. The rest of the script has stayed pretty much intact throughout but it's the set up which seems to be the hardest part to get right. My instinct is to give as much time to characters and atmosphere as possible - the lead role had at one point an entire thirty page backstory - but it's really not nesesary in this kind of film. Cut to the chase is now my mantra. Scenes start half way through and end early. If we need to round out a character it'll be done at the same time as they're rapelling down the side of the building (not that this actually happens in the film).
Another thing that's going to change is the emphasis on who the main character will be. At the moment it's a bit open as to who is the hero of the whole thing, it's the Magnolia of survival horror when it might be better if it where the Last Boy Scout of survival horror. From the start there's been a buddy movie dynamic between two of the characters - this will now take a more prominent role.

It's odd how many variations there have been to this story, there are innumerable ways to essentially tell the same basic tale. Tweaking things here and there can bring certain elements to the fore and totally skew the feel of the film in a different direction. I recently wanted to make it incredibly dark and add feral children in to the mix (still do) or maybe make it more hyper-kinetic like Run Lola Run.
Perhaps wisely I've settled on a more realistic slant, a kind of Shane Meadows type of film that just happens to become an out and out action-horror half way through.

The break I've had from writing has allowed me to come at the problems in the script with a fresh perspective, I can see what needs to be done and where to do it.