MEDIA MADNESS

I hate this

2006-06-16T13:37:00.000-07:00

I sent a demo tape and some writing samples to an agency. This is it. No turning back. This is the time in my life where I'll find out if I'm worth all of the delusions in my head. Are they throwing my demo tape against the wall? Are they laughing at my scripts! Did I mention I hate this? I love what I do, I can't stand the fact that my out of control ego is such a big easy target. I'm going to throw up now. I need to hear from these people and I need to hear that they love it, and I need to hear that I have a deal and I need to chill and not work for a while! GRRRRR! Where's that bell tower?

Been a while....

2006-06-05T17:43:00.000-07:00

Film's off for now, just a short break until I pull it back together. Hammering away on scripts and getting things in order. Been making contacts with agents and agencies(big difference, agencies are nicer but harder to reach, agents call you back but are for the most part at the same level I am, so it doesn't exactly work out well). Anyway, getting an X Ray done tomorrow on my neck, getting a lump checked, which, the doctor said is only a cyst, which they all say..just kidding, I'm sure it's nothing...I'm also doing blood work for the yearly check up and so far every thing's in the clear exact for my fatness which must be reduced at a high level, doctor's orders, and believe me, for once I agree. That's it for now. See ya in two days.

....8....9....10....

2006-04-16T17:20:00.000-07:00

I'm down for the f-ing count! Been sick for four days! WTF!!!!?!?!?! That's what I get. Now I'm going to chill for a few days. Film's moving on and I'm hammering out some plans to run by Bill for his story idea. Don't want to say it here. Don't know who's reading, who isn't and who might rip it off, 'cause it's all gooooood. I'm going to go into full swing with pre production in the middle of the week and get this mother f-er shot. Thankfully it's not all consuming. It's actually not taking any time up at all. It's been pretty easy. The hardest part's done. I could see the film demanding at the most five or six days of my time from this point on so I know it'll all work out. Trying to figure out how to push The Tanner Troop Reunion, of course, I can't even count to ten right now, but this is the shit that keeps me going so I gotta keep thinking about it, keep breathing it in. It's the only way I can live. I've sent out some emails to those who are related to writers or might know some one. No answers yet. I'm entertaining the thought of running something by one more person I've been a little hesitant to approach. And of course my first contact has offered to give more digits. I'll keep researching and asking around, I know this script'll end up in the right hands. At least hands that'll hand out some good money to Bill and I. Got a nice raise, but, I still have to keep pushing for what I really want to do. Word. PS-Don't see that horrible film about the fourth plane that crashed on September 11. Boycott it. It's disgusting. I know, I haven't seen it, and I'm sure it's gripping, and emotional, but so is sitting on a thumb tac, and I'm not doing that any time soon either. I'm not one for censorship. In fact, one of my favorite films is one of the most hated films on the planet (Irreversible). But, this is a huge exception. This film and World Trade Center coming out in September of all months has to be stopped. We gotta send a message that these films can't, and won't make their money back! Nuff said. I'll write more that once a month, espcially with what ever drama will turn it's ugly craw in the next month. Keep on keepin' on.

Rollin' rollin' rollin'

2006-03-27T11:12:00.000-08:00

Jen and I had lunch today and solidified all the dates and the rest of the casting for the film. There are some quirky moments in the script that I'm hoping the cast and editing will smooth out. The general rule of thumb is you can't save a film in the editing room, so, I'm looking forward to see what sort of 700 pound gorrilla I'll be dealing with once everything's shot. I'm hoping it'll look and feel completely different than what I'm hoping for. Bill sent me a story a couple of weeks ago that I'd love to shoot, but, it's not published so I can't go into details here. It's smoking hot though, so I'm hoping to get an investor interested. Came to work a bit early to get some Emmy entries solidified with some people I'm going into the competition with. So much, and so little time. The whole sound and fury signifying nothing gobblygook. Back to the grind. My weekend's coming up(Tuesday and Wednesday). I plan to get nothing done for once.

Three Days and counting....

2006-03-26T13:39:00.000-08:00

Getting ready for the first scene of the film. It'll be a very short flash back scene that'll take up about 15 seconds of film but it's the incident that glues the whole story together. I'm not putting too much effort into the look of it as I'm going to do alot of enhancing in the edit room. It won't take too long, about an hour tops and should go by with out any effort. The other shoots are fairly massive and will take alot of work but the actors seem to be studying and doing alot of prep work. I'm a little concerned that alot of questions aren't being thrown at me by the cast but I'll simply take that as a good thing since alot of films are slowed down by too much gabbing, which I hate. I could sit around and talk about films I want to shoot for the rest of my life, or I can just go out and do it.
I'm prepping some Emmy entries as well as working out some mixes of old songs I've worked on. I'm also getting ready to submit some music to a song writing contest.
Still chasing leads and trying to tie up some loose ends. Things are good. I'm eating too much and need sleep, but other than that, every thing's on an even keel. NOT!

Vending machine

2006-03-17T13:30:00.000-08:00

Oh, vending machine, why do you mock me? In a world that's gone to shit, on a Friday, which is my Tuesday, becuase I'm a shmuck and I can't seem to get a deal where I work Monday through Friday, though others who sit around and read all day and do crossword puzzles seem to get the great shifts....any way...back to you, vending machine, route of all evil. I give you two dollars, and you decide to take ten minutes to give me the drink I want. I'm sluggish, I need the energy drink. I'm tired, and trying to stay away from cigarettes, so I need the drink. I don't want to drink booze, so I give you two dollars for an energy drink. So what do you do? Like a dumb teenager working the counter in a slow food restaurant, like so many people who don't give a shit about their job and would rather take their sweet, under educated un worthy time, you jam up and decided to take five when I need you the most. And then, after I've slammed you six of seven times with my left and right hook, and a kick to your bullet proof glass, the beverage drops to the bottom, and is ready for the taking. I grab the drink, compose myself, and continue on with my day, hoping against all hope that I get through it with out becoming a headline.

Terrorists

2006-03-16T19:43:00.000-08:00

I thwarted a terrorist plot today. Not really, nothing happened, thought I'd embellish.

Cheesesteaks are evil!

2006-03-11T10:42:00.000-08:00

Second Chances, once known as 2 to 6 is moving along. Getting a Group Read together and planning that and trying to get times coordinated. Most of the talent isn't really into getting together too much before the shoot which is fine with me, as long as they find time to memorize their lines. If not, there's always the magic of bad editing and jump cuts.

Downed two cheesesteaks today, a bag of chips, and a Pepsi. The bathroom breaks tomorrow are gonna suck, I can see it now!

I'm plain ol' f-ing wiped the f' out but still some how finding the energy to push on. I'm getting some Emmy entries together and crossing my fingers on keeping all this shit going with out stumbling over my own two feet.

Read Bill's shorty story and was blown away, as usual, and will be writing him back about it.

Hung out with the cats finally this morning. They hate me these days because I never stop to say hi. I feed the little bastards every day and fill their bowls with water and all they do is bite at my feet when I'm trying to sleep. Of course they love my wife, but, that's not really hard to do, so I can't blame 'em.

Got up super early and watched the sun rise which I haven't done since, well, let's see, college. But I was under the influence of a lot of psychedilics in those days so the sun rise looked a little different back then, and was musical as well. It was just as nice this morning though and it really made me realize I gotta hit the breaks soon and just chill. Once this film is shot I promised myself I'll just focus on life, Bill and I collaborating, and making sure I give myself a day off a week. There's some wheel in my head that doesn't let me do it. Wheel? What the hell am I saying?

Bought three powerball tix this morning too. Dreaming of winning and packing the missus and the cats up and getting on a boat and travelling the world if I win. No one will see my ugly fat mug for at least a year if I win. I won't win, so what the hell am I even talking about?

I didn't get much sleep last night, but I'm definately planning on it tonight!

Sopranos is on tomorrow but I'm going to have to wait to catch it on Monday night at 1AM since I'm working til midnight tomorrow. Apparently there's going to be a heart attack, a shooting, and a suicide. I'm sure they're hyping it and that all of the death will be suckas who wear red shirts like the doomed folks in Star Trek, but, they are saying it will be a huge shock. Hmmmm. Will Tony put his pecker in the wrong socket this time? We'll see.

Barrelling towards the finish line.

2006-03-10T15:09:00.000-08:00

Well, the whole shooting schedule's done. All players are locked. For now. Some dropped out, some stayed in, some were promoted to a better role. In fact, they all were. I'm feeling 100% on the look of some scenes and about 50/50 about the other scenes. I'll have to sit down and design them. This is going to be a nice laid back shoot, I can't wait to work with these people. They all sound great and I'm learning a thing or two about dealing with others. You know, you can shoot a few dozen commercials, shows, and documentaries and it's always like the first time. Strange how that happens. I have some great locations so this is going to be a blast. The best I can simply hope for now is that it gets done. Went to the book store yesterday for inspiration and read Lumet's Making Movies again for re enforement and finished The Late Shift to keep myself inspired. Also finished Billions and Billions by Carl Sagan to balance it all out. It's always good to polish off a couple books a week that are completely different from each other. Now I'm going to get back on track with Bill and keep pushing these scripts. I think I'll muster up the energy this week and just march on down myself to a couple of these places I've been emailing just to see what's there for me. I'm sure things will change for us too once I do this short film. It'll help get a dialogue going. It's crazy how all this shit feeds into itself and keeps going. There's no satisfaction in this field. I feel like I have to do more because I want more. It's almost like chasing a good high that never comes. Once you're high, and then when you come down, you want it all over again, but ten times better. It's the addict side of me that I really don't feel like ignoring, but channeling into work instead of other things of course. It's good to be clear headed. I haven't felt this good in a while. Strange. I always thought the answer was in a bottle. Dumb of me. Fucked up of me actually. Anyway, back to focusing. Back to life. Humpty hump.

Casting's done, onto other things

2006-03-03T17:33:00.000-08:00

Alrighty. Back in the mix. Went to my High School and spoke to a bunch of students who hopefully listened to what I had to say but won't go on to do what I did in college. Which was just make it by the skin of my emaciated liver! Anyhow, things are good. The film is basically cast and I'm still hammering away at a couple of scripts. I left another email at an agency and will be pursuing another agency next week, hopefully with different results. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. I guess that's the definition of trying to catch a break too! B O O H O O as John Bender from The Breakfast Club would say. Life's too fucking good right now to worry about anything. I'm planning to the film and waiting for some inspiration to wrap up Lee Harvey. It's all there, just need those extra ten hours a day to finish the fucking thing. Cookies are evil. Just pounded down a bunch with milk and now I'm renderred useless. Til the weekend!

Re re re write

2006-02-19T14:13:00.000-08:00

I've made the first golden rule of my career. I've been doing this for close to 18 years so I guess it's time to slowly start making rules. First golden rule, of many to follow is...don't say you're done with a script. Until it's shot, edited, scored, and the copyright rolls after the end credits, it ain't over 'til it's over baby, and that's the fun of it. I just re wrote and retitled 2 to 6. Instead of a goofy paranormal half assed story about the ghost of a girl visiting her father from beyond(like that was never done before), it's now a simple story of a girl meeting her biological father who doesn't even know she was born in the first place. It's a chess game now between the girl and her father. She finds him first, plays it off like it's a random encounter and decides to see what her father is really like before he realizes what the role her never played in her life. Ever wonder what your parents are like when you're not around, or what they were like before you came along and they became "Mom" and "Dad"? Well, hopefully this is a story about that, and so many other things. It's now called "Second Chances" and I hope that when I shoot it, it won't look like a life time movie. If it does though, I'll send it to them for some easy money. Not a bad way to start the next level, writing for life time. I'm not complaining about what I do now, but, it's time to move up, or left, or right, which ever direction it is. Now it's on to casting Second Chances, re re re writing Lee Harvey, jumping in with Bill on the super secret film script, and getting The Tanner Troop sold. Not much has changed, not even my psychotic denial which fuels my drive. Hopefully I don't drive off a cliff!

Top Ten

2006-02-17T12:19:00.000-08:00

A little vacation from my life, a list of the top ten movies I've seen in the past year. They might not all be from this last year, but since my wife and I rent and see an average of about 100 movies a year, here's a list.

1-MatchPoint-You're missing an awesome film if you haven't seen this. There's no way Woody Allen did this alone. The ending is a just pure evil, and you can't help but root for the bad guy.
2-Brokeback Mountain-Yup, there. I said it. Ang Lee sucked when he did the Hulk, the Ice Storm was a complete strike out, but this was amazing. If you're hung up on what you think it's about, and you don't see this, you're missing out on some of the best acting, writing, and shooting since On Golden Pond. It also makes you realize that there are so many great actors and actresses out there who will never get the recognition that this ensemble got because they didn't get to work with a great director.
3-Enron, The Smartest Guys in the Room-The first documentary to come out in years that couldn't help but be slanted. It is a factual accounting of one of the worst crimes committed in the last century and yet no one seems to care. It tells you, in a simple manner, who Enron got away with what they got away with. When you're done watching this, you might reconsider whether or not the death penalty should apply to white collar crimes.
4-Walk the Line-I gotta tell ya, this film felt like a total drag and a let down when I first saw it. Then, about a week later, it sunk in and hit me how amazing this film was. It's not a concert film. It's not a feel good film. It's a very simple film about Johnny and June Cash and their crazy relationship. Reese Witherspoon and Jaquin Phoenix became invisible in their roles, and the writing was superb. One less scene of them performing on stage and this would have been perfect. But, it's close enough. Oh, and Reese Witherspoon with a shotgun chasing away a drug dealer is worth the price of admission.
5-Slingblade-Old news, I know. But we rented it again, and, fair warning, once you turn this sucker on, cancel your plans. It keeps you from the first second til the end. And John Ritter was out of this world in this. The documentary on how Billy Bob Thorton went from a no name extra to a world famous star and writing is amazing and stays very humble and real. There's also a fantastic movie called One False Move that Billy Bob put together about 5 years before Slingblad that no one saw. Pity.
6-Kicking and Screaming-Will Farrel, lesbians with an adopted chinese kid, a fight in a coffee shop between said lesbians and Will Farrel. Come on, it doesn't get any better than this. Oh, and a great story too.
7-Munich-This is the best James Bond flick ever done, with out James Bond and with out the bad guy with an eye patch. Speilberg is still really pissed about all of the bad things that happened in the world over the past fifty years so he took a real event and made up a fictional accounting of the aftermath, which follows, in almost a paint by numbers fashion, an HBO movie from the 80's called 'The Sword of Gideon'. This doesn't sound like a good review, but, we're talking about Speilberg, so hang in there. I'm not being cynical when I say this-Speilberg takes every single cliche we've seen in suspense movies that involve guns, bombs, sex, racial vengeance, and terrorism, and still scares the shit out of the movie goer. I was pretty shaken up by this film and it really sparked alot of discussions and feeling about what we should and shouldn't do about terrorism and revenge. The last 40 seconds of the film which leads into the end credits is the final turn of the knife in your heart and you'll never forget it. I won't ruin it here, but, I promise you, even the most cynical will be swayed. You might also think about where we might be today if we wiped out Osama Bin Laden right away. Maybe it's a good thing it's taken a while, since we're all still so pissed. We'll get him eventually, but, a film like this makes you hope it stops there, and that we don't lose our perspective and just keep mowing everything down that hates us. Not for children, not a date flick, not for the weak at heart, but a great film nonetheless.
8-Superfuzz-I own the video tape. I'm proud. This is a film shot in 1980 by a group of University of Miami students who talked Ernest Borgnine into starring in a film about a cop who, once exposed to red gamma rays from a nuclear blast, gains superpowers. Some of these powers involve running really fast(they sped up the film and had the other actors move really slow, yes, I'm not lying, and it doesn't work, but it's brilliant), catching bullets in his teeth, and jumping off of tall buildings in a single bound. The only hang up is that the super cop, or Super Fuzz, loses his powers when he sees the color red. Later in the film, the Super Cop is framed for the murder of his partner, Ernest Borgnine(who is trapped on a ship that's sunk by the bad guys, don't ask, just enjoy). The Super Cop breaks out of prison by eating alot of beans so he can 'blast' his way through a brick wall and saves his partner from certain doom by....blowing up a piece of bubble gum so they can both float out of the sunken boat to safety. Dave Speed, the super cop, jumps off of the Gum Balloon and tells Ernest Borgnine, who's about a thousand feet in the air, to jump and he'll catch him. He takes the plunge, and is caught by Dave Speed, who, gets his fiane's red scarf wrapped around his legs just as he catches Ernest Bornine. They both plunge into the ground, fall through the eniter planet and fall 'up' into China. Like I said, don't ask. Dave Speed finds a phone booth, shaped like a Chines lamp of course with China men on bycicles pointing up and down into the air over the hole he and Ernest Borgnine just built, and proposes to his fiance(this whole scene would never exist in PC land). The film ends with Dave Speed marrying his fiance, and, as she takes off her wedding vail, we see that she's dyed her hair red. As he kisses her, the disco inflected theme song plays and the film ends. You can't get any better than that. This is a must have for parties and inlaws. Trust me on this. You're life will be complete once you have this. And it's great for kids too. Oh, and once you hear the theme song, it's stuck in your head forever.
9-Lilya Forever-Here's an uplifing movie about a prostitute who is growing up in post Russian Russia. You know, that huge land mass that's now made up of 876 different countries that don't talk to each other or have a currency exchange since we basically spooked the former country into collapsing? This film basically tracks the life of poverty stricken towns where women are bought from their mothers and are promised better lives else where but are tricked into the sex slave industry. It's shot almomst documentary style and doesn't let you turn away as you see it through Lilya's eyes. At first, you think her to be naive, but she then decides to accept what the world has handed her and uses her body and position in life to get the most that she can out of things, which isn't much. I've seen documentaries and have seen reports of what life is like in the wild west of post Russia but this really nails it, no pun intended.
10-Farenheit 911-This movie is a complete fabrication of events that occured after 9/11. This movie is also biased and relies on music, beats, and juxtaposition of images to make a point. Nonetheless, it's still an amazing film. And it works, for what it is. In the 40's, Frank Capra, of It's A Wonderful Life fame, was hired by the US Government to make propaganda films to sway the Americans into hating the Nazis to get our boys hyped up and to get people to join the military to get ready to fight. We didn't know about concentration camps, we didn't know about Hitler's attitude towards people who weren't German, and we sure as heck didn't dislike any one but the Japanese at the time, so it was up to the US Government and the film industry to reach the culture at large to get them pissed at those krauts and get ready for battle. This is what Farenheit 911 reminded me of. And luckily, I saw it in a movie theater. It just won't have the same effect as it would at home. The first five minutes are chilling. In the theater the whole place goes black and then your hear the plane fly over, in stereo, and then it crashes into the screen. We see images of people in New York from 911 staring at the twin towers, and then we're off and running into what went wrong. I won't go into what I believe and don't beleive, because, I didn't believe much, but the structure and the execution of the film itself was brilliant and about 3000 times better than any other film or TV show Michael Moore did. He'll never top this. I have to equate it to the movie about the Doors by Oliver Stone. 2% true, 98% great film. The Doors was such a well crafted, fun, stoopid movie that you can't help but love it. And Farenheit 911 is the same way. There's one scene where it is implied that George W. Bush flunked a physical due to cocaine use. Michael Moore accompanies this scene with 'Cocaine' by Clapton. No matter what side of the street you are on politically, this is funny, and you end up laughing. It's also a drop kick, a back hand, and a one two punch to George W. himself, and you can't help but laugh a bit no matter what you think about him. The trick editing and all of the other gobly gook surrounding other issues is a big grey area, but while you're in the seat in the theater, Moore does manage to take you into his world, and his perspective, and succeeds in ways he failed with Bowling For Columbine, which, I can't help myself, was a huge patronizing misfire. This film is the last film that will be of any value from Michael Moore and hopefully he'll stop here. He nailed it. Unfotunately though, he's too wrapped up in believing his own press, so he'll go on to make plenty of bad films, and unfortunately this one will be forgotten just in time for us to get back to hating each other.

Oh, and, I know, it's not a movie, but the British version of The Office, season one and two, plus the Christmas special finale is a perfect show. There's nothing wrong with it. It tells one story all of the way through, and you'll be suprised to know that you are following the wrong story all along. When it hits you as to what it's really been about the whole time, you'll be laughing too hard to be blown away. Ricky Gervais is the best thing to happen to TV since The Gong Show.

That's it. Hope you liked it. Let me know what you all think. And don't forget to click the ads!

Decisions, decisions....

2006-02-17T12:07:00.000-08:00

Alrighty. Now I"m picking the two leads. F' me! This is supposed to be easy, but of course, a bunch of really talented people showed up and now it's hard as fuck. The film, 2 to 6, will take on a completely different dimension as far as who is being chosen. The female lead is in the bag, Courtney looks promising, but the male lead is the toughest, and then all the orbiting characters of course. And of course, Courtney has to agree to do this, for free. Ugh! That's not the hardest part, but, the male lead will let me know what type of film this is going to be. The most fun comes in either picking the obvious choice, the actor who is closest in resemblance to the character in my head, or the other actors who don't look a thing like the character in my head, which might make it a better film. I'm always into experiencing a film along with the audience and if it's too well planned, it'll be stale. I'm still waiting to hear back from the agent. Bill and I have to land this. There's no justice in the world if it doesn't. If you don't write scripts, look at it this way...ever see a really hot chick with a clowny guy, who your know doesn't have the cash to back things up, so you scratch your head...well, that's what it's like writing a bunch of stories that you love and then feeling that no one might want them. Then again, I could always win the powerball tomorrow and we could shoot these ourselves. I know how to do it, Bill knows how to write it, a cake walk! I tried chasing investors once years ago for a film and it blew chunks, so hopefully we can just sell these m-er f-ers and let other people to the grunt work. I guess it helps too that I work in the field. I rememebr when I used to bartend and just punch holes in walls because I'd have to pour drinks for alcoholics and didn't even know if I was made for this shit. Poor me. But these days, it's somewhat worse because I've always lived in this psychotic denial that this is what I was meant to do and I've always put everything I had into it, at the expense of every thing else. I'm finding a balance with it, but, until shit starts to happen, I'll be chasing this at 100%. Some one asked me what it's like to work in my field, with all this stuff about tyring to get songs and scripts to people who might be intrested and more importantly, might put a chunk of cash in my hand to get ownership of these pieces of "intellectual" property. I told him to equate it to enjoying watching paint dry, because that's what it gets like some times. You know eventually the paint will dry and the wall will look nice, you just have to wait it out. Now if I could only catch flies with chop sticks.

Let's get it going!

2006-02-16T17:11:00.000-08:00

Alrighty, lots of stuff in the bag. Audition's done, sorting out who will be in this and who won't be in it. Getting a shoot date together, and getting the script drafted. Good stuff. 2 to 6 will be a reality very soon. boohoohahahahahah!
Bill and I working out our "supersecretscript" idea and will be shopping around the Tanner Troop. Still, yes, still working on Lee Harvery, but loving it. It's going to be bad ass. Fleshing out the treatment for Reincarnation Incorporated and will be putting my two demo songs to disc. Fwhew! Life's getting exciting. Sinking in the bills a little but I'm sensing a turnaround soon. Filled out an acting form for Mike Lemmon casting as well. No mas talking. Talk Is Cheap Productions Inc. will be a reality very soon. Tiring, but fun. Can't wait to go for a run tomorrow morning. Yes! By the way, still not smoking, haven't been drinking in a long while either. Feels fucking great!

Vacation

2006-01-16T15:03:00.000-08:00

Ukee got back to me about Bill and my script. Will be meeting with him Friday and hopefully my new agent. All these years of hard work will hopefully turn into something. Now it's time to chill for a week, recharge, and finish up on some other labors of love. See you all in a week. I'm staying home this vacation. Just staring at the ceiling and writing. Peace.

DONE!

2006-01-15T18:01:00.000-08:00

2 to 6 is done! The script is ready! One four hour blast of a writing and it's finalized! The Tanner Troop is formatted, and ready, and Ukee and I are conference calling an agent. Bill and I will be hooked up with in two weeks. Here we go!
I'm gonna explode! In a good way!

Httin' the ground runnin'

2006-01-13T16:50:00.000-08:00

Place is secured! The film hath beguneth. Now I gotta write it! Jinkies!

Take a deep breath

2006-01-12T19:15:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow I solidify the audition space. There's no turning back. I'm finally making a film, and I am fucking scared. This is it. This is the beginning of the end of the pay check cycle. The beginning of my stomp on the ground as a film maker. God I hope this works. It's times like this when you feel the most alone, but you know you're really not. I can't describe it. It's white hot fear matched with an unbelievable amount of strength. Keep your fingers crossed. I don't know why I'm so nervous. I've failed at this three times before. Let's go for a homer this time.

Very cool

2006-01-08T16:08:00.000-08:00

The script is really coming together. I outlined the rest and fleshed out the foundation. Lee Harvey is going to kick ass. I'm really drawing upon the whole home less aspect and how karma is run by people and how we all have guardian angels in life and some times demons take the angels away. The underlying thing is how the police and undergrounders are looking out for us and fighting for us as a metaphor for how demons and angels would fight for our soul until we sometimes exhaust both of them and cause our own fate. It's turned into a story about how we are always offered opportunities but some times decide to pave our own path anyway.
This is going to be a blast.
The super secret film idea with Bill is looking brilliant too. And my film is finally underway and will be shot within the next two months. What a great year so far!

We're on!

2006-01-06T19:50:00.000-08:00

We're cooking with crisco! It's on. The audition's set. Fate is rolling. Feb.7th. Film is underway! Lee Harvey script is growing. Will finish it this weekend. Getting comical I know. Getting very very excited!

Getting excited

2006-01-02T16:34:00.000-08:00

My focus is zoning in on the film. I can't believe this is going to happen! Even if it's a shorty, 30 minutes tops, it's a start and will be a blast nonetheless. Waiting on audition spaces and getting lots of responses which will make me apprehensive. Can't wait to see what happens next. 2006 is a good year so far. Still can't get over new year's. I'm off for two days...til then...ta ta.

Flaked

2005-12-26T14:12:00.000-08:00

No writing session, but, I did reserve an audition space. Woo hoo. Progress.

Friday

2005-12-23T16:59:00.000-08:00

Welp...getting ready for big writing session on Saturday. Am planning to knock out most if not all of Lee Harvey and brush it up. I can't wait to crack this baby. It's been in my head for two years and now it'll finally see the light of day. The whole shibang's in my head. Then I can get cracking on Reincarnation Incorporated and an outline so when I meet the agents and powers that be, Bill and I will have plenty to show.

The Bob character is slowly taking shape. I gotta rehearse in the mirror and do some excises. I'm getting psyched. I'm guessing the shooting for this will be months away, but it feels good to be a part of the process in this manner rather than producing, writing, or directing. That is if they pick me. I feel bad for actors who just act and do nothing else. It must be insane. At least if I'm not picked I can just go back to writing scripts until something else comes along. Great script though, and it really makes me raise the bar. It'll be good. I haven't seen the folks who wrote the film in years so it'll be a good way to work with them.

Bill and I will soon be working on the super secret script so I'll be anxious to get Lee Harvey and Reincarnation Incorporated off the oven. Tough dead lines but it'll all be worth it in the long run. At least I'll get my writing chops back in order. If only life were as smooth....tell next time.

Moving right along

2005-12-22T20:18:00.000-08:00

Working on Lee Harvey, a really dark script about a drug addicted TV editor who falls in love with a hooker and decides to avenge her death. It doesn't work out quite as planned.

Memorizing the BOB role in my friend's feature script.

Getting excited about working on Re Incarnation Incorporated after Lee Harvey's done, which should be by the end of the weekend!

Did I mention Christmas is three days away? Do I give a shit? Nope.

The Beginning

2005-12-19T19:52:00.000-08:00

It's Monday, December 19th. A number of scripts are on the fire and a couple more are done. Well done. I'm talking with a coworker about getting an agent. I'm cowriting with a life long friend who's as demented and focused as I am, and I'm hoping for the best. I'm throwing together a number of songs and will be shooting a very short film in two months. Oh, and I'm going to act in an indy too in a few months. Focus, focus, focus, 2006 is going to be one hell of a year.

The Tanner Troop reunion is the first script we're shopping around. We're currently working on a super secret film idea that's so golden I can't even begin to feel like I'm on the verge of kissing the ol' paycheck to paycheck existance good bye.

Fingers crossed, teeth gritted, suck in that gut cadet, smoke 'em if you got 'em, and by the way, don't call me shirley.