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.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
What to do, what to do.....
So I've been offered overtime at my job. I've met a young lady whom I'm quite fond of. My friends are jumping off at the hinges to do little projects (mock music videos, improv skits) on a high school A/V budget for fun and all that. I still have no health care (how's that economy in Canada......? lol) And yet, I cannot for the life of me find time to work on things. And of course, now is when my motivation gets high to work on stuff. I'm pumped about doing the final things to "The Indomitable Spirit" and so unbelievably jazzed about "The Villain" and "Digits" that I'm like joy gasming at the thought of their potential. But alas, I have no time to work on them. I slept for 12 hours last night because I'm so run down. It's insane.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
The Villain
So, let's get an update on where I stand shall we?
Indom - I know now how to make it work. I realized I'm not intertwining character relationships the way I could be. In addition I discovered how to make the antagonist stronger and more understandable in his cause. Which will, in turn, drive the story more. And it will give more depth, and re-define the main character in a way that I like a lot more. Not to mention it will add a bit more drama and explain why other people do things and even more so - make the ending that much more believable.
In a nutshell: It can work. And so much better.
On the Produced Indom Front: I'm working on the DVD cases and such right now. I'm trying to get it out to the cast and crew as fast as I can, but I want to make sure it's quality and that takes time. Another thing it takes is Money. Which i'm quickly running out of.
Job Situation: Still working at ESPN for $10 an hour and no health coverage. Just interviewed for a internship in NYC yesterday - which pays $20 a day. Which means it would cover the cost of travel into the city. So if I get the Creative Development Internship there, I'll most likely cut back on karate, put in the extra hours at ESPN for 4 days, go to the internship 1 day a week and then get a part time job on the weekend at like Best Buy or something.
And beyond all this - there's a glimmer of inspiration twinkling in my eye. "The Villain" is a story idea I'm developing right now that I really think would be both commercially in demand and at the same time quite awesome to make and watch. It would be a lot of fun. It's got that comic book style to it, with colorful characters so I'm talking to my sequential artist friends, headed under Matt Walters, and trying to see if we can do some kind of graphic novel out of it and then I can use that to get some attention for a screenplay. I'm super-passionate about this puppy, more so than I ever was on Indom. It's just so awesome....in my head. When I can finally find free time to work on it I will. This is priority 2 right now. #1 is paying bills and getting health care. 2 is Villain. 3 is Indom. 4 is girls. Haha.
This is starting to become that part of my life on the E! True Hollywood Story or VH1 Behind the Music where the celebrity goes "It was a hard time. Couldn't find a job and if I could find jobs I'd have been working 3 of them."
Hopefully something will open up soon that won't make me miserable my whole life.
- Andrew
Indom - I know now how to make it work. I realized I'm not intertwining character relationships the way I could be. In addition I discovered how to make the antagonist stronger and more understandable in his cause. Which will, in turn, drive the story more. And it will give more depth, and re-define the main character in a way that I like a lot more. Not to mention it will add a bit more drama and explain why other people do things and even more so - make the ending that much more believable.
In a nutshell: It can work. And so much better.
On the Produced Indom Front: I'm working on the DVD cases and such right now. I'm trying to get it out to the cast and crew as fast as I can, but I want to make sure it's quality and that takes time. Another thing it takes is Money. Which i'm quickly running out of.
Job Situation: Still working at ESPN for $10 an hour and no health coverage. Just interviewed for a internship in NYC yesterday - which pays $20 a day. Which means it would cover the cost of travel into the city. So if I get the Creative Development Internship there, I'll most likely cut back on karate, put in the extra hours at ESPN for 4 days, go to the internship 1 day a week and then get a part time job on the weekend at like Best Buy or something.
And beyond all this - there's a glimmer of inspiration twinkling in my eye. "The Villain" is a story idea I'm developing right now that I really think would be both commercially in demand and at the same time quite awesome to make and watch. It would be a lot of fun. It's got that comic book style to it, with colorful characters so I'm talking to my sequential artist friends, headed under Matt Walters, and trying to see if we can do some kind of graphic novel out of it and then I can use that to get some attention for a screenplay. I'm super-passionate about this puppy, more so than I ever was on Indom. It's just so awesome....in my head. When I can finally find free time to work on it I will. This is priority 2 right now. #1 is paying bills and getting health care. 2 is Villain. 3 is Indom. 4 is girls. Haha.
This is starting to become that part of my life on the E! True Hollywood Story or VH1 Behind the Music where the celebrity goes "It was a hard time. Couldn't find a job and if I could find jobs I'd have been working 3 of them."
Hopefully something will open up soon that won't make me miserable my whole life.
- Andrew
Friday, August 22, 2008
Hey! Wait a minute....
So for whatever reason today I had a moment of clarity. An epiphany if you will.
I realized what I haven't done any screenwriting that I enjoyed or that I thought was good in so long. I've been so worried that I had to please everyone with what I was writing that I stopped having fun with it. I just let myself dictate what I thought everyone else wanted to see that I never thought "what do I want to see?" and just have fun writing it.
I think I'm going to get a lot of writing done this weekend with this new mentality on my shoulders. I'm just going to write and have fun. I'll have to trust that the craft is embedded in my head by now.
....if not, that's why they made re-writes.
haha
I realized what I haven't done any screenwriting that I enjoyed or that I thought was good in so long. I've been so worried that I had to please everyone with what I was writing that I stopped having fun with it. I just let myself dictate what I thought everyone else wanted to see that I never thought "what do I want to see?" and just have fun writing it.
I think I'm going to get a lot of writing done this weekend with this new mentality on my shoulders. I'm just going to write and have fun. I'll have to trust that the craft is embedded in my head by now.
....if not, that's why they made re-writes.
haha
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Well I'm glad.....
...my momma raised me right. But we’ll get to that in a second.
“Now here I am sitting here by myself, uh, talking to myself. That’s, that’s chaos theory.”
Nice to know nobody reads my blog. Oh well, I’ll continue to post and maybe it’ll catch attention someday and people will read back this far.
So alright, I’m working in the offices today. Screening tapes as usual. And one of the higher up PA’s comes in and is checking log numbers for some of the tapes and one of the clients comes in and proceeds to say “It’s not a big thing, but my lunch order was messed up. The rice that came with the chicken was white, and I asked for brown. It’s not a big deal. I don’t know if you messed up or if they messed up, but yeah. I got white rice and I wanted brown. Like I said, it’s not a big thing, just an FYI.”
……
are you kidding me? My buddy got called out because some rice was white and not brown? I see that kind of stuff about Hollywood types in movies, but damn. I never thought it was true. I always figured it was an exaggeration.
Anyway, my script Indomitable Spirit has a VERY good chance of being handed to a pop culture icon at the moment and see if he’d like to help me get it made. Which means all that stuff about “putting it on the shelf” is being “dusted off” already. I don’t think there’s any dust on it. I have to act on this now. So I have to get back to work on that.
In addition to that, a major job offer has come through the vines to me that has nothing to do with writing or film, other than being near film students again. But it pays really good. Do I try and get out of debt or chase the dream? That’s the kind of decision that shows who u really are if you ask me….
“Now here I am sitting here by myself, uh, talking to myself. That’s, that’s chaos theory.”
Nice to know nobody reads my blog. Oh well, I’ll continue to post and maybe it’ll catch attention someday and people will read back this far.
So alright, I’m working in the offices today. Screening tapes as usual. And one of the higher up PA’s comes in and is checking log numbers for some of the tapes and one of the clients comes in and proceeds to say “It’s not a big thing, but my lunch order was messed up. The rice that came with the chicken was white, and I asked for brown. It’s not a big deal. I don’t know if you messed up or if they messed up, but yeah. I got white rice and I wanted brown. Like I said, it’s not a big thing, just an FYI.”
……
are you kidding me? My buddy got called out because some rice was white and not brown? I see that kind of stuff about Hollywood types in movies, but damn. I never thought it was true. I always figured it was an exaggeration.
Anyway, my script Indomitable Spirit has a VERY good chance of being handed to a pop culture icon at the moment and see if he’d like to help me get it made. Which means all that stuff about “putting it on the shelf” is being “dusted off” already. I don’t think there’s any dust on it. I have to act on this now. So I have to get back to work on that.
In addition to that, a major job offer has come through the vines to me that has nothing to do with writing or film, other than being near film students again. But it pays really good. Do I try and get out of debt or chase the dream? That’s the kind of decision that shows who u really are if you ask me….
Friday, August 15, 2008
Outcome....
So the final result has come to this - "Indiana.....let it go."
I'm shelving Indom for the time being. The damn thing is just so problematic that it's hindering all the other projects I want to get going on. Not to mention, some people pointed out a couple great points:
1) It's not my grand master peice as I think it to be. It's a personal treasure to me, but a "bleh" to everyone else. It's "my" story, so to speak. So that's why I'm so attached to it.
2) It has not much different from any other film of it's genre. There's nothing special about it. I need to find something special.
3) I'll grow more as a writer and make it something valuable after I hone in my craft from working on other projects.
And all that was staring me in my face, I just wasn't looking at it. It took a bunch of people to grab my head and twist it forward.
Ok ok, so metaphors aside, I'm working on "The Road Goes Both Ways" right now and although it's only 7 pages in, I'm not bored with any of the scenes. Which, I think, is a good sign. I'm doing the whole "drop the audience 1/2 way into the story" thing and we'll see if that works.
Just as a side question; does anyone read this blog or am I just voicing to myself. You can leave an anonymous comment if you like, I'm just curious.
- Andrew
I'm shelving Indom for the time being. The damn thing is just so problematic that it's hindering all the other projects I want to get going on. Not to mention, some people pointed out a couple great points:
1) It's not my grand master peice as I think it to be. It's a personal treasure to me, but a "bleh" to everyone else. It's "my" story, so to speak. So that's why I'm so attached to it.
2) It has not much different from any other film of it's genre. There's nothing special about it. I need to find something special.
3) I'll grow more as a writer and make it something valuable after I hone in my craft from working on other projects.
And all that was staring me in my face, I just wasn't looking at it. It took a bunch of people to grab my head and twist it forward.
Ok ok, so metaphors aside, I'm working on "The Road Goes Both Ways" right now and although it's only 7 pages in, I'm not bored with any of the scenes. Which, I think, is a good sign. I'm doing the whole "drop the audience 1/2 way into the story" thing and we'll see if that works.
Just as a side question; does anyone read this blog or am I just voicing to myself. You can leave an anonymous comment if you like, I'm just curious.
- Andrew
Thursday, August 7, 2008
A social experiment.....
So I'm on Facebook the other day, and I stick up one of those Photoshopped pictures of my head on an Abercrombie and Fitch model......problem with that is, I'm damn good with Photoshop. And this was one of my lesser composites. Regardless, in one day's time I got 5 responses from random good looking girls in my social network.
....So in addition to doing a couple sit ups this morning and eating Subway for lunch today, I'm going to try something out.
I'm always curious for honest feedback on my screenplay ideas but it's the hardest thing to muscle out of someone cuz people are so damn sensative these days. Not me, I want to be torn down. It'll help me grow and I'm very self-aware of that.
So what I did was post a note asking a few questions and instructed my friends to post their answers in the Honesty Box so they could give me feedback and not worry about me getting upset to them.
We'll see how this goes....
- Andrew
....So in addition to doing a couple sit ups this morning and eating Subway for lunch today, I'm going to try something out.
I'm always curious for honest feedback on my screenplay ideas but it's the hardest thing to muscle out of someone cuz people are so damn sensative these days. Not me, I want to be torn down. It'll help me grow and I'm very self-aware of that.
So what I did was post a note asking a few questions and instructed my friends to post their answers in the Honesty Box so they could give me feedback and not worry about me getting upset to them.
We'll see how this goes....
- Andrew
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