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!