Monthly Archives: January 2010

Someone Mentioned my Work… More Pics Uploaded!

Last year I entered the NYMCC screenplay championship contest.  I made it through three rounds but not the final round.  The contest was won by David Bowman (Redmond, WA).  I have never met David nor have I “talked” with him on-line.

Why do I mention this?  Because, in the “winner’s interview”,  David mentioned “Hux Hollow”, one of the stories that I entered in the contest.   This is the first time my name/screenplay has ever been mentioned like this by another screenwriter, and I can not begin to tell you how “honored” I felt.  So, anyway, congratulations to David and thanks for the nice words.    Click here to read David’s interview and here to read Hux Hollow.

The production of “Bart Vader” is still a “go”.  I told Margaret that, if she changed her mind, I’d certainly understand.  But she still wants to pursue this project and I think she’s going to do a really great job.  I can’t wait to see the finished project.  She’s been busy scouting down props and is planning to hold a casting call…

I uploaded some “behind the scene” pictures of the filming of “The Charl(Y)ie Factor” which is being made for the DVXUser competion.    Click here to see them.  I’m really proud of Rich (the filmmaker) because he has quit smoking in the middle of this project.  I quit smoking almost twenty years ago and I must tell you, it is one of the most difficult things I have ever done.  Even now, I occasionally get the “urge” for a smoke.

“The Screenplay” is doing very well…  I’m on page 43 and fast approaching the half-way mark!  The deadline for the MoviePoet “logline” contest is January 31st.  This is where I will enter the title and logline for “The Screenplay”.  I haven’t made any changes to my logline in over a week, so I guess it’s done.  The title never did change.  I wish I could write about “The Screenplay” here but I can’t…  It must remain anonymous. 

I finished reviewing all the shorts for MoviePoet’s “Third Time’s a Charm” contest…  a lot of variety this month.    I entered a short screenplay in this contest.  The winners will be revealed on February 1st and we’ll receive our feedback at that point.

Because I’m working full-time now, I find it difficult to keep up with all the opportunities that are on the internet.   For the past month, I have been absent from Zoetrope and Trigger Street.

In December, I rewrote “A Thousand Miles to Freedom”.  It is now titled “A Thing of Beauty” (no, I have not updated this site yet for the title change).    “A Thing of Beauty”is written from a different viewpoint than “A Thousand Miles to Freedom”.  It really is the same story, but it’s different.    I entered it in Script Savvy’s December contest and should be receiving feedback on that rewrite any day now…

Modern Day Concerns About Filmmaking…

As mentioned on an earlier post, my short film “Bart Vader” is going to be filmed by Margaret Ricke in Bagley Minnesota.  “Bart Vader” is a short script that is ideal for a student because it involves only ONE location and ONE actor and is only ONE page in length.

To quote Margaret, “This story is an homage to Star Wars, but it isn’t ABOUT Star Wars…  It’s about Bart.  It’s about a fragile man in an elderly body who still looks for the magic and miracles in life…  He relates to the anti-hero who becomes a hero.  At his age, he still indulges in modern mythology…  ”

There is a “Darth Vader” mask in the story and we’ve had concerns expressed by fellow writers that we just might get our butts sued by Lucas films because of the reference to Star Wars.  There is also a line at the end of the story where the old man says “This is CNN.”  Someone suggested we might get in trouble with CNN for using that line…

Because we are not going to make any money from this film, I don’t see a problem with making it.    As a writer, I don’t like to bother myself with these kind of details but, I think it sad that filmmakers must “cover their butts”.

Working on a Feature? Work on it Every Day…

I ended up having a tooth extracted on Monday.   And, I learned something about my writing from the experience.

The tooth-ache interfered with my creativity so instead of working on “the screenplay”, I worked on my web-site.   Yes, I was productive with my time but, I didn’t pay any attention to ”the screenplay” for a few days.

Yesterday, after I’d recovered from having the tooth pulled, I finally returned to writing “the screenplay”.  And I discovered that just being away from it for a couple of days hindered how quickly I could immerse  myself back into the plot.

So I have learned that when I write a feature … even if I don’t feel like writing … I should do something each day related to the story to keep the “flow” going.    Perhaps I could have reread the work, or reviewed the outline.  Sometime to keep it fresh in my mind.

Now, I’m sure other writers will say that  breaks are good because when you come back to the work you will see it with fresh eyes.  Yes, this is true.  But when trying to keep the “continuity” of a story that is in its first draft, I think it is best to work on the story every day.