The Devils Hour and the 7th circle of hell

7 drafts. I am now starting over Devils Hour from a page 1 re-write for the 7th time.

This officially makes it the most re-starts on a script since Indom, which has 11 drafts........ till that puppy comes due to be feature'd and I'm sure I'll set an untouchable record for that one when the time comes.

Devils Hour:

Draft 1 - started off with "Randy", a writer trying to escape the daily distractions of life in a cabin in the woods only to have paranormal happenings occur to him.

Problem? I played ball with the "why wouldn't you just fucking leave!?" The escalation of the story was too quick and I had 0 reason to keep him there. Ugh.

Draft 2: Melanie takes her dog out for a walk late at night in a park. Dog gets loose and stumbles into the woods and sees a witch and runs away. Melanie attempts to follow and has a stand off with the witch blocking her path to follow her dog. She finally cuts around an alternate exit to the park and makes it home, only to have the witch follow her.

Took too long. Felt cliche. Ah fuck it, start over.

Draft 3: Randy again, only this time driving home from somewhere in the rain and falls asleep at the wheel. Once he wakes up with his car in a ditch he realizes he's surrounded by the thickest, creepiest fog he's ever seen. Shadows of witches surround him and move around the car and he's frightened to get out.
Had him get out and disappear into the fog only to hear his screams cut short far in the distance.

Too fucking cliche again and kind of boring.

Draft 4: A boy, Randy and Melanie (listen, names are good, you keep them.) walk along a dirt road late at night. They're discussing their cheating affair on Melanie's best friend and Randy's gf. A lone witch like figure stalks them from far behind and eventually catches up to them disrupting the conversation. They are all alone on an abandoned road late at night and try to avoid confrontation with the figure as it stalks alongside them silently.

Didn't know how to end it. Fuck. Start over.

Draft 5: A young guy drives home from the night shift and upon entering his drive way, sees a shadowy figure at his left and right neighbor's doors. He quickly makes his way into his house after they both start approaching him. He locks up the house quick and attempt to go to bed and ignore it. Winds, sounds and fear keep him awake and he decides to investigate. He takes a baseball bat and works his way around his house to find 3 witches waiting for him. He runs back to the house and finds his parents dead, and attempts to get his little sister from the house only to have her dragged away by the witches as another witch casts a spell on him, preventing him from moving, only to listen to his sisters screams and cries for help. An unknown monster pulls him into the basement and he screams - cut to black.

Again - felt too cliche and gave exposure to everything all too quick and the mystery factor seemed lame yet again. Damn it, start over.

Draft 6: Start right out the gate with the main story. A family arrives at a cabin house in the woods to start over after the death of their mother. While this remained the main story for the first 7 drafts - it recently came too close to the story of "The Conjuring" in both content, style and execution.

Ugh.

More to follow....

a little up, a little down

So I love my grandparents. And not because of the generosity i'm about to speak of. I just love the old folks. Never really led me awry. Sure there's been difference of opinion at time, but overall, we're close. Well 2 days ago, my grandfather, out of the blue decided he was going to pass on to me a huge amount of money. All his life he had been saving the quarters and dimes out of his pockets in this giant glass vase. And now he's given it to me. It has two bulbous portions to it, one smaller, the other forming the larger base of the vase (hey that rhymes!) I only emptied out the top, smaller vase which is about 1/3 of it all. After counting how much that is, it seems as though that camera that I was going after is incredibly closer to being in reach. And yet, another part of me is aprehensive to just jump forward and get this camera. Why? Well, Alden is slightly behind paying me my paycheck from last week and my college loan payment is due this week. That's not considering the time it takes to clear once it's deposited. I have a worry that my job may be in jeapordy. Not so much being fired/let go, but that the company may not be doing to well in these trouble economic times. So should something happen and I can't pay my bills per month, this giant vase of change that I'm rolling for the bank may be something helpful to float me should i have to try and find another job. I don't plan on shooting digits anytime soon, but I would like to get the camera and really get aquainted with it. I think my plan of action, at the moment, will be to conserve the money I've gotten from my grandpa until I can afford to pay for the camera myself and then use that money. I don't know, it's all tricky. Anyone have any suggestions?.....if there is indeed anyone out there who reads this.

PS: It's raining outside. Hard. I love it. I love rain.

- Andrew

What? Funny like a clown funny?

I've set the date.

No, I'm not proposing to my woman or getting married, or having a kid, or killing myself.

Come to think of it, you can "set the date" for a lot of things. Well, I'm trying to put myself in a professional mentality after a dream I had last night where Me, Eric and the cast/crew of "Digits" held our premiere screening of the film and held a Q&A after it. One of my not-so-weird dreams for once. I woke up this morning and I remembered that rewarding feeling I once had when Indom's stand alone scene screened for an audience of like 500 people and I got that grand ovation. It was one of the best moments of my life. It may sound glory goaled to aim for that "moment." Seasoned writers would scold me for not "writing just to write." I enjoy writing. But I also enjoy seeing my writing enjoyed. I don't know if that immediately disqualifies me from being an "Indie writer" who writes for himself, but this script does speak to me and I think it is great. Or, will be. I'm around 22 pages into it and just can't get enough of writing it. I want to be on set (just as bad as having a premiere) and working with actors as well as being one myself. I just miss all aspects of the film making process. So I've set the date. October 15, 2010. That will be the day I need to have Digits completed by. That gives me a little over a year to finish the script, shoot and edit. To a normie, (you non-film maker peeps) that's a rediculously long time. In actuality though, it's not. It's fair amount considering where I am and where I want to be, but I think it's obtainable. I need to save money for a camera, an adapter and sound equipment. I'm less concerned about lighting equipment at the moment, but I'm sure I'll find a way to make that work. The audio and quality of the shots are very important to getting some legitimacy brought to the project. It helps that I want to shoot in a mockumentry (Arrested Development meets The Office) style because that allows us to have some problems and still cover them up and make it work. At this level, in this economy, with these resources, I'm willing to fight on forward and take those hits because I don't feel it'll hurt the substance of the film or the effects of it.

All I need is an HVX200, a RedRock micro adapter, a vista glide and a nice sound set up. We're looking at roughly $7000. Which may seem like a lot, but we'll see what I can do. The red rock and vista can be left out, but I'm still aiming for them.

October 15, 2010. Digits.

Doing it like the pros. Setting the date. Working towards the date.

Now I just need to find someone to hold me accountable for that date. Some people would hate that pressure. Me? I need it.

- Andrew

That ain't for me, but it is for me....

I love watching The Soup on E!

Now granted, they say to understand the target audience of a television show, pay attention to what the commercials airing between it are selling. And unless I'm looking for bra-strap adjusters or changing my life with Dr. Phil, then this show isn't aimed at me.

And yet, it completely is.

I'm not entirely sure if it's just me, but as a writer, I hate reality television. No, I really do. You have no idea how much I hate it. It's worked fully from the opposite end of the spectrum that I operate. The editing, putting things together to make it look like something that it's not. Furthermore, the producers bait and swap the "contestants" to do or say things to "spice it up a bit." Now I wouldn't have a problem with this normally, but the whole thing is just drama that I don't need. I have friends and co-workers. I don't need to see pretty people's problems when I have my own. Gossip, gossip, gossip. And then, we have the wonderful world that is, The Soup. A show that mocks all of this. I don't know how else to put it. I love this show. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm back to work with Digits before my internet radio podcast with the West Coast today.

Oh, and one last note, I think I'll celebrate film making today by NOT watching the Oscars, and going to see a movie in the cinema instead.

Tis a new year.....

And well, things started out rough, but I got a call from ESPN asking me to come back. Which is good, because I need a job. This time around, I'll be budgeting myself better. Saving to pay bills if I get laid off, saving for production equipment, and for production of Digits. And maybe even submitting to some festivals as well. We'll see. All I know is, that for all of my "New Years Resolutions" I've surprisingly kept all of them so far. Which, 25 days into the new year is a new record. I haven't had a drop of Coca Cola and have been working hard on my writing. I've been asked to do some acting jobs which I'll prolly persue. I miss acting. So yeah....that's it for now I guess.

Digits coming soon! (like anyone reads this lol)

The numbers are up....

So it's now my second day of being laid off from work. I took yesterday to relax and get myself situated. Financially as well as just getting some things done like Christmas shopping, cleaning and a whole bunch of other stuff no one cares about.

Anywho, today I multi-slacked. In a sense I mean, I wrote intermitedly. I wrote, i cooked. I wrote, I ate. I wrote, I watched Superbad. I wrote, I ate again.

Long story short, I gained a total of 10 pages on Digits. Pages that further the plot and story and character relationships, but really aren't that funny. At this rate, I'll have a solid first draft by this time next week. But Christmas and a job hunt will no doubt put a strain on that. Either way, I'm thinking I should have draft 1 done by the new year. In total, I'm going to attempt 7 passes on this script.

1. Rough draft with a focus on Andy's story and comedy situations/set ups.
2. Revisions with a focus on Eric D's story and comedy situations/set ups.
3. Revisions with a focus on Lucas' story and comedy situations/set ups.
4. Revisions with a focus on DTM's story and comedy situations/set ups.
5. Revision on Andy's story again.
6. Comedy re-write and make sure humor and theme are intact.
7. Final polish and such.

I'm aiming for this baby to be done by the end of February at the latest. I really think if we can garner enough money for some equipment we can actually shoot this during this upcoming summer. If not this summer, most definitely next. I've come to the realization that I can't slack off on these things anymore. I have to put my nose to the grind if I want to go anywhere in life. I have talented friends and I would personally enjoy being in the film myself so I know that there's a ticking clock on this more than anything. It's really low-budget at the moment and completley do-able. And I know my friends. They can't get behind something unless they're tagging on during the fun part. Especially Eric. He's a great talent, but I find it hard to get him enthused without something to show him. Either way, I'm hesitant to show any drafts to anyone till I have it where I wanted. Which sucks because I thrive off their enthusiasm and ideas. And they me. So someone has to step up and take the initial hit. Problem is, if my game isn't spot on, then it'll all fall to the wayside and it'll be really hard to get any of them to give it a second look.

So, I guess we'll see.

Slacker!

So I haven't updated since mid-October, and for good reason. I ended up taking that over time work because our economy is piss poor at the moment and my job is most likely coming to an end. I can't lie, I'm semi-excited at the idea of collecting un-employment. While I don't want to be a lazy slacker, I love the idea of being able to pay my bills and have time to work on my screenplays. I've permanently shelved Indom as the current draft of it is sufficient for what it is at the moment. It's decent, but not as epic as I want it to be.
Digits is coming along rather nicely. It's still very rough at the moment and I dare not show it to anyone without doing some revisions, but I find myself doing it in a "Superbad meets Arrested Development/The Office" style. Which I think the more realistic you can convince someone that the material it is, the funnier it can be and the more things you can get away with. That is, after all, what it's all about, "suspension of disbelief" - right? Well that's my rational and I'm sticking to it. In addition to Digits, I find myself brainstorming "The Villain". I think I really shouldn't write this one just yet and just keep my head stirring on what and how to handle it. It's really new ground, for me at least, to try and see things from a Villain's POV. But then again, this Villain wants to be a hero and all that. We'll see, right now I'm just playing around with concepts and ideas on how to make it truly epic. The Road Goes Both Ways is always promising in my mind, but the daunting idea of researching drug sales, police procedures, court cases, the law in general, and the actions of activist groups are quite daunting. That script, while I think could be my most socially concious and reachable yet, can wait. I love it, but I can wait on it. It's not that I'm not passionate about it, it's just not the most driving force in my mind right now. Trust me, after all the racism that was conjured up by Obama winning the election, plenty of ideas and concepts crept into my little skull. I think this is a script that I can't create from my mind, but rather, need to experience more from life and understand it before I can truly capture it on paper.

So for now, the focus is on Digits. And getting a job so I can start buying equipment. I'm really not interested in playing this "let me get your coffee so you can berate me" bullshit. I know whenever I "make it" (whatever that means) as a professional screen writer, I won't change who I am. I know I'm one of the most rational, level headed and non-aggressive towards people, person around. I plan to stay that way.