Paul Schrader made me realize....

That metaphors come before the problem when you are adapting someone else's work or story into a script. Which applies to Freed Men. The metaphor of reconstruction came first, and I had to make a problem out of it. Which basically equals what happens in the story with twitchell in the middle of these two peoples warring with each other. LOVE paul schrader. man thinks exactly how i do when it comes to using your personal problems and issues you are dealing with in your own life and converting them into metaphors that you can use to write a script. GENUIS

Done

December 10th, 2009.

Freed Men is done. 129 pages.

I can breathe a new atmosphere. With a new earth beneath and a new sky above.

Rounding the bend

I'm rounding the final bend on Freed Men. 95 pages down on the third draft. Wooh! Last lap.
Me and the guys are than gonna prep it to go out to our initial connections (mostly there's). And hopefully I'll even score an agent in the process!
I've been patient for close to two years now, working on this baby, and honestly I'm pretty psyched about the possibilities.

Do You Have What it Takes?

Wavers, writing, particularly in entertainment, is like running a marathon. It is to push yourself further than you ever have before, to hit the wall and burn inside because you want to quit so badly. It’s punishing. And exhilarating. And it’s about stamina, determination and training. It’s about staying in the race.

Aspiring screenwriters line up at the starting line, the pistol is fired and off they go, joyous and optimistic. It’s a crowded race, fans cheer, the sun is bright and life is good. Anybody can write! It’s easy! Movies are fun!

But the writers thin out relatively quickly. The ones with no natural talent or willingness to develop writing skills go first. Splat. Next come the impatient and the unrealistic. Splat. Splat. Next come the writers who are ego-invested and neurotic. Splat. Splat. Splat. Next come the writers who have just grown too exhausted by the ups, downs and near-misses. Splat.

But a few writers remain. Writers with the patience of Job and an almost certifiable single-minded determination. Sure, they get tired. They want to quit. They look back at the other writers crawling off the track with a mixture of pity and envy. They begin to hallucinate. They want to lie down and breathe in the smell of sweet poppies. But they keep their eyes on that finish line no matter what. Those are the writers that make it.

It could take 10 years. Can you handle that? It could take 10 years, nine scripts, having a baby, needing a new car, hating your day job, and your friends and parents taking you aside sympathetically and telling you you’re crazy. Are you tough enough? It could take 15 crappy meetings, a flat tire, third place when you deserved first, 29 printer cartridges and 14 tons of coffee. Still in?

Gatorade up, everybody, and do your stretches. Are you in it for the long haul? Do you have what it takes? A support system, goals, feedback and drive? Are you taking classes, networking and writing every single day? We Rouge Wavers don’t mind if other writers stumble to the side and quit with dignity. They just made it easier for the next writer to succeed. And that writer will be a Rouge Waver who just didn’t stop trying.

What I'd like to be like

From a review by Michael Stark (this screenwriting lecturer who when I asked for advice told me to just buy his book) of an in development screenplay 'RED'.

"Perhaps that’s what stayed with me so long after reading Red. It’s really a throwback to an earlier era/age/style of screenwriting. It has action, but it doesn’t call attention to itself like today’s product. The sequences moves at a nice clip, but it’s totally devoid of any look-at-me-as-I-cleverly-off-someone-with-a-bednob-or-a-broomstick-or-something-else-you’ve-never-seen-before. We’re totally invested in these characters and I found myself getting gleeful as they miraculously pull their mission impossible off.

Red is different because it’s so refreshingly underwritten. You won’t get a jolt or a rush or a headache after putting it down. There’s an old showbiz axiom that admonishes to “Always leave them wanting more.” "

Yeah...so that's pretty much the style I've been going for and appreciative of in other works. Fuck the cutesy writing bullshit.

Good comedy is drama that doesn't take itself so seriously.

Stunt 101

Finally...a breath of time to write a decent blog entry.

So this marks the 3rd month in LA after my move from Northridge (out of purgatory), and I have been hard at work just trying to survive in 'the real world.' Wow...not so easy. I'm trying to keep up the writing...almost everyday I'll sit down and open Celtx, spend a good hour or two working on Freed Men. At this point in time, I think the third draft will get bought. In fact, I have such a deep feeling in my soul that someone will like this script that I can only imagine good things coming out of.

It's simply the AMOUNT OF TIME I put into the thing that will make it sell. Not just the concept, not the scenes, not the dialogue, THE AMOUNT OF TIME reworking the story itself. Simplify simplify simplify...always simplify in story is my belief. And that is what I told the high school kids I taught screenwriting to this summer at the FilmEd Workshops that I help out at. The little fuckers are lucky they got me to help em out...cause, no exageration, my lectures were more engaging than 90% of the professors I've had in film school.

And the truth is, even if I don't sell this script, I still will have learned a TON from getting through the third draft. Jesus...three different drafts...each a completely different imagining of Marshall Twitchell's story and the era of Reconstruction. My pseudo-manager Brendon is going to start showing it to some people as soon as I finish this draft. I read on wikipedia that the script for The Patriot went through like 17 drafts before the guy sold it. Needless to say, I hope that's not me...and it won't be, I'm sure.

So that's the writing thing. Then there's the actually making enough money to pay rent thing, which I have gotten somewhat under control at my monotonous retail job. I've also started acting as an extra in commercials, which is helping a big I must say. And it's semi-fun. So if you're broke...do it.

That in itself was a new experience. Being on a real set again and seeing all the different and very individual crew doing their job. The hours sucked but I liked the experience.

And tonight I have class. One of two classes left before i GRADUATE FINALLY. The other one I will start at UCLA in a couple of weeks. The professor of that class is the guy who wrote Scary Movie. Should be funny.

So yea...work, writing, class, gf/attempt at a social life.

I need to go to more parties. I'm 21 still. And in my last semester at college...so I still can use that as an excuse!

“How do you know when your script is ready? When the only choice is do another draft or blow your brains out.”
Max Wong, producer

ALMOST THERE

third draft halfway done

Nothing to lose, it's just me against the world

Don't let this pressure make you panic.
I know it seems hard sometimes
but remember one thing: for every dark night, there's a bright day after that
So no matter how hard it gets, stick your chest out, keep your head up, and handle it.

-2pac

The hardest part of my life is being patient enough to wait for the things that I know will come.

I miss it so much

Freed Men has reached the halfway point of its third draft. It is taking a new shape that I had not reached before.

Last night I talked to Dustin Lance Black for a second time in my life. He is 27 and just won the academy award for best screenwriting for milk. He tells me to just get my work out there. (I also bumped into Arielle Kebbel who i absolutely love). Hollywood really is a small town.

Kris Layng and I have agreed to work together on our next project. The short script will begin development shortly. Kyle Cox may DP (www.youtube.com/ktckyle)

That's it for now. Evolution is still underway.

I can now see the Writer's Guild building from my bedroom window. It casts a shadow on my apartment complex and I take it is a sign.

P.S.
I hate corporate slaves.

found while packing up my room

I wish there was a way
I could prove to you I'm real
Some way to do something big or something small
Until you can see me
It's not a simple thing
Leaving a trail when you run
So close to the light
Eyes opening all the way
Almost there in your mind
My vision is yours
Just once

-2008

job ----- check
place to live ------ half check
new approach for final draft of freed men ------ check

looking alright for now, stabilizing

but come august
shit is going down

Stuck in this room

This room is a prison and since I'm desperately looking for a job I'm stuck here. It's not good what it does to my head. For example: I start doubting my newest version of Freed Men. I got some people interested in representing it and me as well. They like it. I liked it. I did as much as I could do it and now I don't know if it's good enough. If the script does get bought and does miraculously get made, I don't want my name on something associated with a whole era in american history that isn't as good as it possibly can be. Right now it's an action film. But should it be? Or should it be a drama? I don't know. This room is bad for me right now. I'm moving out soon (if i have the money to). It's make or break right now.

Pilot Light

Heading to New York later this week. Just started a new pilot script 'Interns.' Was getting a bunch of ideas for it last night and just knew I had to start writing it ASAP. The show would be like a younger version of entourage, but focusing on the struggle of four college grads as they try to make it in different divisions of the film business. We'll see how the pilot turns out.

that was fast

MAIL ORDER BRIDE 1st draft is complete. And in only 3 months.
What may very well be the next film I make.

Outcall has been picture locked...finally. 8 more scenes to sound edit and then coloring and it's in the can.

one day this will be proof

You need to get better at believing in the impossible.

I will sell this script.

I will work my ass off until I do so.



He did it.

My money over the last 6 months

Magazine Cover Design

For Visual Communications Class

timeline

2/13 (Friday the 13th) - I purchase a brand new Imac at the apple store with money I had been saving for 3 months. That night, my car is broken into and the computer is taken. I was most likely getting drunk while this was happening.
2/14 - I awake to feed the meter at my downtown location and see the meter person driving away from my car. I see a parking ticket on my car. I see my window had been broken. I do not see a brand new Imac under some clothes in the backseat of the car.

2/15 - I replace the window on my car with the last of my money (I had spent it all on the computer).

3/16 - I am notified by the Ontario (LA) Police that someone is claiming I was involved in a hit and run on the 13th of that month (friday the 13th, yet again) on the 10 freeway in Ontario. I've never been to Ontario. I am told that an officer is investigating. I research and find that on the 13th I had stayed home nearly the entire day so that I could not endanger myself in another friday the 13th incident.

3/25- The credit card the Imac was purchased on refunds $500 (a portion of the amount). I purchase another one with family given money.


4/7 - I am currently looking to buy another used car.

I've FINISHED my feature length script FREED MEN based on the book Edge of the Sword by Ted Tunnell. I've sent it out to some peers to review, and one of them is going to be able to bring it to the Tribeca Film Festival to hopefully get it into someone's hands. What I really need is a manager/agent right now. But I'm glad it's pretty much in the can.

Being broke sucks

I have no money. This is directly because of the new computer getting stolen incident, and the ticket I got that day, and the general gayness of life right now. Now my pipe is gone (why do we loan things to people anymore?), i'm out $75 because of girls not bringing their money when they go out on a friday night, and I have bills to pay.

I am greatful for a few things: the girl, the completed script, my health, the completed rough cut of outcall...

I somehow feel that the general fucking over i'm being subjected to right now will serve to build my character.

"Bad luck either makes a man or destroys him." - Kurosawa's Stray Dog

ah

been a while. had a computer stolen on friday the 13th from my car. depressed for a while. getting back on track.
you realize after a while how happy you need to be with the things you have. yea, I've wanted a WRX since 8th grade and still can't afford one, while fat guys wearing jerseys drive past me in them. it doesn't make sense but it doesn't matter cause I know one day soon I'll be able to actually afford things that I want.

Freed men = polish stage
New script = Mail Order
Outcall = STILL being edited (fuck) but almost done

REJOICE

We have gotten the lost footage back from outcall. after our shoot, a good portion of footage was lost due to some faulty hardware. Hope stayed alive though, and I got a recovery program that eventually led us back to all the footage. it was 4 weeks of hell and stress about having to do reshoots and lots of shit i wouldn't have really wanted to do that is now over with. these tests will come up time and time again and the only thing to do is perservere and keep hope alive.

jack respects my work ethic and i respect his.
this is how good partnerships work

we will be working together to get the feature script out there and read.
the next chapter !

Hard Times

We are '87.
We crush the future
We know it all
More than before and more than after
We are the birth of the future
In your eyes so long ago

We are at an alarming rate
We are more everyday
We suffer like everyone else
We create more than ever

We leave amidst chaos
Just as when we were born

I want to be able to make films that feel like they are from another planet.



I am nearing the completion of my feature length script based on the book 'Edge of the Sword,' to which I have the option rights. Upon the idea of a friend, I have renamed the story to 'Freed Men.' As Barack Obama takes office today, I feel as though the finishing of my script at this time in history is amazing timing.
In two weeks or so it should be completed. Then distributed, revised, polished, and hopefully sold.

I have selected a few ideas I have been developing to function as my next feature length script. The one I am most interested in involves drug addiction in the early 1800's in England. Here is a picture of the author of the original work.

Outcall Trailer A

After 6 months of laboring, I finally have some edited footage from Outcall. Here's the first trailer for the film.




Its definitely a step up from anything I've ever directed. It's the first time a post 'screenwriting enlightenment' script of mine (with time spent on it) has been made into a movie.

Would you like butter on that?

I hate my job at Arclight.

I mean, I don't hate it, I enjoy free movies monday through thursday and I can tolerate most of the people there.

It's just that I hate getting hot butter squirted all over my arm.


I remember simpler times, when people didn't have Iphones and Facebooks and unnecesary stupid shit. I played handball a lot back then and was outdoors a lot more. I miss those times.

On a lighter note, not that anyone reads this, but I'm actually close to finally having a rough cut on Outcall, one of the big project's i've been working on. Nate turned to me as he was watching it and said "dude...how does it feel to have a real movie." That made me happy.


Edge of the Sword is now on page 100...