Saturday, July 29, 2006
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
The Second Part of the Catch-Up
Been spending most of my days up in the writer's loft, a.k.a the barn, a.k.a. the tiger cage (on account of the heat) researching and outlining a pitch I'm putting together for a cable TV show, a one-hour drama about a TV reporter, which just to insure it's a hard sell I've set it in the 70's at the height of the Watergate stuff. So for about a month I've been immersed in documentaries about Vietnam, Watergate, the CIA, and all sorts of fun stuff that's gonna look great on a lunchbox.
Anyway, I'm pretty much done with the outline and ready to pitch. I've really only ever pitched once before, formally, and it was with a partner. But I've been pitching all my career as a promo guy, sitting around a table and trying to get assigned a particularly good spot. I dunno. The first pitch (with the partner) went well. We did what we were supposed to do, which was charm her and tell the story. It went like this:
Walked in the office. Exchanged pleasantries. Made a few funnies, broke the tension a bit, kept things light and casual. Then turned on a dime - at her behest - and got to business. A few jokes on our side. No smiles on the other side. Mental note that jokes are for bullshitting time before the pitch proper, and the pitch proper is all business. Finished up, fielded a few questions, took to heart one or two astute criticisms, and got "I'll take it upstairs and see what we can do." Eventually she passed.
So that's pretty much how I figure it'll go this time, ideally leaving out the pass. Oh, and this go round I'll be pitching to a TV screen; the development person in question is based out of New York. I look at this as an opportunity for comedy. She may look at it as an opportunity to crush someone's dreams via remote control. It remains to be seen who is right.
On other fronts, things grind slowly along with the storied Duvall script. I just got some pages from the director, or should I say writer/director, as he has pretty much rewritten it a hundred times and there is nothing left of my script except the "concept" which is fuck-all as far as I'm concerned. Every time I think about Get Low, it just brings to mind the William Goldman quote, which I'll paraphrase as "If you're looking for creative life as a screenwriter, you won't find it."
To wit I've been thinking more and more about the possibility of writing a novel justforthefuckofit, but the problem is it's time consuming... which I know you're thinking, you've got no job, all you've got is time... but you'd only be half right since I fill find my days writing things I hope will earn me a living, whoring myself essentially, only to have them thrown down the memory hole. As far as a novel goes, I reckon you need money to write one unless you are a true bohemian, a lice-ridden mooching drifter douchebag artist like, say, Henry Miller circa Tropic of Cancer, living in your own filth and schnorring meals off your gainfully-employed friends.
I don't know if I'm quite there but I feel the itch more and more to write something... yes, I'll say it... noble. Also I think it's time to make a short film but that's another post.
Saw Little Miss Sunshine last night. I was ready to be unimpressed, it seemed to be sooooo targeted at my indie sensibilities, what with the Sundance pedigree and the hipster directing duo, and the eccentric soundtrack contibutors. And dontcha know it won me over. What a sweet, sweet, funny (and a little flawed but so what) movie. Get out there and see it, not because I said so but because this world would be a better place if Alan Arkin were in every movie. Not to do dirt to the other actors in it, all were uniformly excellent. Steve Carell just shows more and more promise as the heir the to beaten-down, disaffected Bill Murray crown. God bless them all.
And so...
I hope to get back to a screenplay in the next few weeks. I hope I can find the time. It's a passion project, which probably means I shouldn't bother. But it's in my craw and I'll talk more about it as it starts to develop. For now, it's backburner. Oh, and I didn't even mention my meeting with my former bosses. More on that in the future...
Anyway, I'm pretty much done with the outline and ready to pitch. I've really only ever pitched once before, formally, and it was with a partner. But I've been pitching all my career as a promo guy, sitting around a table and trying to get assigned a particularly good spot. I dunno. The first pitch (with the partner) went well. We did what we were supposed to do, which was charm her and tell the story. It went like this:
Walked in the office. Exchanged pleasantries. Made a few funnies, broke the tension a bit, kept things light and casual. Then turned on a dime - at her behest - and got to business. A few jokes on our side. No smiles on the other side. Mental note that jokes are for bullshitting time before the pitch proper, and the pitch proper is all business. Finished up, fielded a few questions, took to heart one or two astute criticisms, and got "I'll take it upstairs and see what we can do." Eventually she passed.
So that's pretty much how I figure it'll go this time, ideally leaving out the pass. Oh, and this go round I'll be pitching to a TV screen; the development person in question is based out of New York. I look at this as an opportunity for comedy. She may look at it as an opportunity to crush someone's dreams via remote control. It remains to be seen who is right.
On other fronts, things grind slowly along with the storied Duvall script. I just got some pages from the director, or should I say writer/director, as he has pretty much rewritten it a hundred times and there is nothing left of my script except the "concept" which is fuck-all as far as I'm concerned. Every time I think about Get Low, it just brings to mind the William Goldman quote, which I'll paraphrase as "If you're looking for creative life as a screenwriter, you won't find it."
To wit I've been thinking more and more about the possibility of writing a novel justforthefuckofit, but the problem is it's time consuming... which I know you're thinking, you've got no job, all you've got is time... but you'd only be half right since I fill find my days writing things I hope will earn me a living, whoring myself essentially, only to have them thrown down the memory hole. As far as a novel goes, I reckon you need money to write one unless you are a true bohemian, a lice-ridden mooching drifter douchebag artist like, say, Henry Miller circa Tropic of Cancer, living in your own filth and schnorring meals off your gainfully-employed friends.
I don't know if I'm quite there but I feel the itch more and more to write something... yes, I'll say it... noble. Also I think it's time to make a short film but that's another post.
Saw Little Miss Sunshine last night. I was ready to be unimpressed, it seemed to be sooooo targeted at my indie sensibilities, what with the Sundance pedigree and the hipster directing duo, and the eccentric soundtrack contibutors. And dontcha know it won me over. What a sweet, sweet, funny (and a little flawed but so what) movie. Get out there and see it, not because I said so but because this world would be a better place if Alan Arkin were in every movie. Not to do dirt to the other actors in it, all were uniformly excellent. Steve Carell just shows more and more promise as the heir the to beaten-down, disaffected Bill Murray crown. God bless them all.
And so...
I hope to get back to a screenplay in the next few weeks. I hope I can find the time. It's a passion project, which probably means I shouldn't bother. But it's in my craw and I'll talk more about it as it starts to develop. For now, it's backburner. Oh, and I didn't even mention my meeting with my former bosses. More on that in the future...
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
That Long-Ago Movie I Made
A few of you who knew me way back when remember me yammering and bitching and complaining and pissing and moaning about how awful it was that someone had paid me five figures to buy a script I wrote and make it into a movie. (See, all you people who currently know me, I was always a kvetch.) Well, I was trolling around MySpace the other day and happened upon a "friend" who promises me that the film - in a newer, shorter, shinier version - will soon be hitting Amazon and Netflix. The significance of this is that the film never saw a release in the first place, and to this very moment I do not own a copy of it in any way, shape, or form. No VHS, no DVD, no digital stream on a website. Nuthin. I saw the thing twice, once at a screening of a rough cut (reeeal rough) and another in a festival that played in Santa Monica - which sounds fancier than it really was since I had to purchase my own ticket. Anyway, point is the thing was shelved and now there is the glimmer of hope that all of you will be able to not just judge me on the merits of my personality, emotional health, ethical moorings, or grooming habits, but finally, finally on my "artistic output." God help me. And hoorah for this, the possibly official release!
No word on either Netflix or Amazon as to a date, even though somewhere on the Myspace page it says Aug. 1, so I have my suspicions... Meantime, count down the minutes. I'll be warming up the new laptop in anticipation of podcasting the commentary track.
No word on either Netflix or Amazon as to a date, even though somewhere on the Myspace page it says Aug. 1, so I have my suspicions... Meantime, count down the minutes. I'll be warming up the new laptop in anticipation of podcasting the commentary track.
Monday, July 24, 2006
The First Part of the Catch-Up
Shout out to my dogg MacDaddy, who reminded me that I wanted to check out crazy* Al Gore in his movie An Inconvenient Truth. So I saw it Friday night. The movie theater was a nice respite from the ass-melting heat we've been enjoying here lately. Yeah, it's hot. I know it's hot in the world generally but you know it's really also hotter than hell here in L.A. So what do I do? Become a bike rider all of a sudden. I hope... nay, I believe I'm reducing the carbon footprint. Gas out here, I mean it's crazy wherever you live - we here in the U.S. just set a record high average price. But California is higher than just about everyone else. And let's not even really open it up to what's going on in the Middle East. You see, the oil is running out. Everywhere. They're circling the wagons. So it seems pretty obvious to me it's high time to get off the petroleum tit in whatever way possible.
"The Dutch conduct 30 percent of all their trips—to work, for errands, socially—by bike. In America, that figure is less than 1 percent. We drive 84 percent of the time, even though most of our trips are less than 2 miles long. More than three-quarters of us commute alone by car, compared with just half a million (way less than 1 percent) who do so by bike, according to the 2000 Census."
That quote is from this article by Bill Gifford from Slate.com. I hope I don't get sued for reprinting it. Anyway.
I'm trying. I'm conducting my business as locally as possible, and riding where I can (yesterday to the video store and Circuit City, today to the Downtown Library). And don't get me wrong, it ain't easy with the temperatures what they are... but... doing my part.
Anyway, tomorrow some info on, you know, what this site is supposed to be about. Screenwriting and my career and other such miseries.
*My father won't see the movie claiming that Al Gore is crazy. He said, and I paraphrase: "Al Gore is a crazy person and I don't like him. Could you imagine the trouble we'd be in now if HE were President?"
"The Dutch conduct 30 percent of all their trips—to work, for errands, socially—by bike. In America, that figure is less than 1 percent. We drive 84 percent of the time, even though most of our trips are less than 2 miles long. More than three-quarters of us commute alone by car, compared with just half a million (way less than 1 percent) who do so by bike, according to the 2000 Census."
That quote is from this article by Bill Gifford from Slate.com. I hope I don't get sued for reprinting it. Anyway.
I'm trying. I'm conducting my business as locally as possible, and riding where I can (yesterday to the video store and Circuit City, today to the Downtown Library). And don't get me wrong, it ain't easy with the temperatures what they are... but... doing my part.
Anyway, tomorrow some info on, you know, what this site is supposed to be about. Screenwriting and my career and other such miseries.
*My father won't see the movie claiming that Al Gore is crazy. He said, and I paraphrase: "Al Gore is a crazy person and I don't like him. Could you imagine the trouble we'd be in now if HE were President?"
Sunday, July 23, 2006
It's so hot
It really is just miserably hot. Frikkin carbon emissions. Anyway, this is just a little Sunday morning note (being written on my new MacBook) to mention that I am back among the living. Tomorrow morning I'll do a long post to explain my pathetic absence from this forum. I'm sure all three of you will look forward to that.
In the meantime, I'm going to peel my sticky ass off the couch and get some air. Looks like rain here in L.A. Weird. Rain in the summer. Weird.
In the meantime, I'm going to peel my sticky ass off the couch and get some air. Looks like rain here in L.A. Weird. Rain in the summer. Weird.
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