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PAST ENTRIES:
March to April 2000
May to October 2000
November to June 2001
If you're an aspiring screenwriter, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's Wordplayer is the best resource on the web, period.
Why? Because they're working screenwriters (original draft of GODZILLA before Emmerich and Devlin hacked it to bits as well
as THE MASK OF ZORRO and other produced films).
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Thursday, September 13, 2001
- If you want a more personal account of what happened in New York City -- THE MAGNITUDE of it -- check out weblogger Jason Kottke's excellent collection of links to first-person accounts and photos. Brace yourself. Some of it is very shocking. This is stuff the TV stations are not showing. The web showed its limitations on Tuesday with all the news sites timing out (it wasn't designed to be a one-to-many model). But the Web excels as a personal medium. Also , the digital revolution has made itself astoundingly known this week: we don't have just one Zapruder-like film -- there are most likely dozens of recordings of Tuesday's events. Who knows how many people in NYC caught the event on personal video recorders? I'm not sure yet if this is a good thing. I wasn't really happy to turn on the TV in time to watch the second plane impact the South Tower at WTC. My mind saw it, but couldn't process it.
Like millions of people, I was glued to the TV on the 11th -- numb and dumbfounded
as I watched everything unfold.
But it didn't really hit me until yesterday. I just wanted to get out of the house, so I took a drive.
I stopped subscribing to the LA Times on a daily basis, but wanted something -- anything --
to make this real for me -- even if was just a newspaper with text and pictures -- something
to hold onto.
I came back home and as I ate lunch, looked through the paper at all the efficient diagrams outlining what happened.
I started reading some articles, but barely finished one before I threw the paper down.
I picked up the phone and called my dad, someone I haven't spoken to in over a year -- we've been
estranged for some time since my parent's divorce.
It was nice to hear his voice, even if only on an answering machine. I assume he's okay, but since
he's retired from the Defense Department, he sometimes travels overseas TDY (that's like "space available" on military
flights). If he's out of the U.S., I'm sure he's okay. Hopefully he'll have the smarts to go to the closest U.S. Embassy for directions on what to do. I'm sure there's a lot of that going on today -- people wanting to
touch base with people they haven't seen or heard in a long time because of past grudges.
All it takes it something like Tuesday to make us realize how impermanent our lives really are,
how stupid and futile it is to sweat the small stuff.
I live in Manhattan Beach in the South Bay area of Los Angeles County.
I took a walk on the strand along the ocean, which affordds a view looking north up towards Santa Monica and
Malibu. Usually I hear the planes taking off from LAX. And at night I can see their lights
coming in and going out over the ocean. It's something that I've just taken for granted, like a clock ticking.
Not yesterday. Nothing. It was eerily silent. Just the waves of the ocean.
And people on the strand seemed subdued, maybe a few talking excitedly about yesterday.
The beach itself was pretty deserted, even though I know summer is officially over.
Here and there were a handful of people playing volleyball, sunbathing, surfing or boggie boarding.
Yes, it was a beautiful day -- as it is today -- but there's that inescapable feeling in my gut:
we lost something as a nation and things will never be the same after this.
Just Monday I bought a plane ticket to go to Austin, TX next month for the Austin Film Festival.
"Oh yeah," I keep telling myself. "I'm gonna get on that plane next month. No bastards with box cutters are going
to keep me from flying." But I am scared -- a little. But if we fundamentally change our way of life, the
bastards have already won.
Tuesday, September 11, 2001
- What is the reason behind such malevolence? My mom woke me from bed with a phone call at 6:35 a.m. PST. "Turn on the TV!" she cried. And I watched all the news today dumbfounded, numb. At 4 p.m. I took a walk to clear my head, and as I looked at the Pacific Ocean, I could not help but think that there are people in this world who would like to see me dead -- simply because I am an American. The United States will never be the same again. When I watched the assembled members of Congress sing the song below today I almost cried. Irving Berlin wrote it the summer of 1918 at Camp Upton, located in Yaphank, Long Island, but it remained tucked away until 1938. In the fall of 1938, Berlin decided to write a song about peace. He recalled his "God Bless America" from twenty years earlier, altered parts to update popular sentiment, and was introduced to the world on November, 11, 1938, by Kate Smith:
God bless America, land that I love
Stand beside her and guide her
Through the night with the light from above
From the mountains
To the prairies,
To the ocean white with foam
God bless America,
My home sweet home.
That's all for today.
Monday, September 10, 2001
- The joys of living in SoCal:
There was a 4.2 earth quake this afternoon centered in West Hollywood -- I felt it down here in the South Bay. I thought it was a semi-truck rumbling past my house!
Reminder: get Earth quake insurance re-newed ASAP!
Saturday, September 08, 2001
- So I got the last of my three features letters from Austin. And I made the quarterfinals (but not the semifinals). That means I beat out over 3,000 other writers. Plus I get a steep discount on the Festival pass because of this. I'm considering going because I've heard great things about it -- it's a short hop from L.A.
Still don't know what's up with the TV script I entered...more good news I hope. If I'm a finalist in the TV script competition then I'd only have to pay airfare and accomodations -- I'd definitely go if that's the case.
Friday, September 07, 2001
- So the other night I went back to the "Third Watch" TV script and found no less than 8 typos. Sheesus. Yes, I paged through it in Final Draft, but this is what happens when you don't take the time to line edit. I'm hoping the Warner Bros. Television people understand that I was trying to make the deadline (I basically had a day to get it done!) and not hold it against me. I just read a draft of SUSPECT ZERO by Zach Penn and he had typos in that, but I guess you get that luxury when you're already established.
Also received two "nice try" letters for the Austin Film Festival. Still have to find out what happened with one last feature script and a TV script I entered.
I went back to NOIR THING last night, which I wrote during my last quarter at UCLA. It's actually better than I remember it being and I've thought about ways to improve it -- and did some re-writing last night. It's hard to decribe that jazzed feeling I get when I start pecking on the keyboard and plot twists and turns start materializing in my mind and put them down. Great feeling.
Otherwise, still trying to find my way with the thriller outline which I've basically put off because of the TV script writing. I promised Laurie, the instructor, I'd have at least an outline done by the end of the class.
Last week I met up with Bill and some other film folks at the Formosa Cafe in Hollywood. Tracy, someone in Bill's writing group, founded a non-profit film fest and she invited a bunch of us to hang out. It's a pretty famous bar where stars have hung out since the 40s (if you've ever seen L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, they use it in quite a few scenes). It's still one of Hollywood's hot spots where Beautiful People hang out. Unfortunately, I woke up the next morning with a headcold.
Otherwise life is good.
That's all for today.
Wednesday, August 29, 2001
- So I just express mailed my "Third Watch" script to WB Televsion over in Burbank (they need it IN HAND by Friday to consider it). Monday was the first time I'd ever seen "Third Watch" (for some reason NBC didn't air reruns this summer, but it's very gritty, set in NYC about EMS, fire fighters and NYPD cops in a fictional 55th precinct -- I couldn't tell where in NYC exactly, but I assumed Manhattan). I basically went to NBC's "Third Watch" web site, read through all the episode summaries to make sure they hadn't already run similar storylines and went for it.
I wrote three storylines, two of which I left open ended (I would have liked to have wrapped it all up in the fourth act, but made a note to let them know I intended that -- in the real world, I don't think freelancers get to invent on-going storylines -- maybe I'm wrong about that).
So if I had to grade the thing it would be:
Action/description - A
Character development - C/B (but really, the characters are already established -- I did add some shadings regarding ethics for one of the characters).
Storytelling: B/A
Will this help me get an interview in October? I'd like to think so. At least it will show ambition on my part to the WB folks since I submitted two scripts for two vastly different shows instead of just one.
On the other hand, all this TV writing has forced me to put the thriller script aside, though I've come up with a workable idea. I'm probably going to skip class tomorrow night since I have nothing new to show and hit a party at the Formosa Cafe that an acquaintance Tracey is having there. Bill's bringing some friends along as well.
That's all for now.
Friday, August 24, 2001
- Before class tonight I saw Arnold Schwarzenegger at Starbucks in Santa Monica today (the one at the intersection of Montana and 8th St.) He's shorter in real life. I wanted to say "Hi Mr. Terminator!" But didn't.
The current thriller story is changing but I couldn't make the last version work. Now it's on track. Plan to finish the outline this week and start writing in earnest next week. The outline is 10 pages single spaced and will probably be 14 by the time I'm done.
That's all for today.
Tuesday, August 21, 2001
- On the other hand, this looks very nice. You write a 200 word essay. If you're chosen you win a property on the Oregon coast appraised at $1MM. I would own the property (would have to manage it as well obviously and fix stuff or hire trades people to fix things, but hey....).
I see possibilities with this lifestyle.
- Turns out the WB Television people are allowing people who entered last year an extra week (till the 31st) to enter (they changed the deadline this year and didn't notify most of the past entrants).
I already sent my script, but I might try to crank on a "Third Watch" script -- the catch is that they need to have it by the 31st, not just postmarked. I might be able to pull it off....
- Can you say, "The Shining"? (Read the Idaho ad.)
Friday, August 17, 2001
- Close to breaking through the story on my current script, which feels good -- I hate it when I'm not productive. And I realized after my last script that I really need a solid outline before I start writing. I just can't write a script with just the barebone ideas of an inciting incident that starts the narrative, an Act I break, an Act II break, and the ending with no idea for how I'm going to reach the end of the story. After this script I'm writing a novel. I'm getting sick of the script format and its limitations in structure. I just need a break from the script format. Basically, with a novel you can do whatever you want. But with a script, you're writing to a story structure. My novel idea revolves around the early days of the record industry in the South, so I'm doing research for that.
Also, Stephen Pevner's development director in NYC requested my script about my experiences in Silicon Valley. Pevner represents people like Neil LaBute (IN THE COMPANY OF MEN, NURSE BETTY), Todd Solondoz (WELCOME TO THE DOLL HOUSE), and Richard Linklater (BEFORE SUNRISE, DAZED AND CONFUSED). I'm not expecting anything to happen. But if something does, hey, great. The ball started rolling with this when I tried to market the book manuscript last year. The Pevner people sent this letter saying they'd be interested in a feature script, but I tossed it out (I didn't have one at that point and I was working on other things). But then they called me this week. I figure things must be slow for most people in the industry now, so they're probably going through their backlog of requests for material.
That's all for today.
Monday, August 13, 2001
- I put the "Gilmore Girls" spec in the mail. I have to wait almost a month to see what the WB Television people think.
In the meantime I'll be cracking/writing my current thriller script. I've been watching a ton of old film noir from the '40s and movies like KLUTE, a contemplative, brooding Alan J. Pakula murder mystery from the '70s -- lots of people consider it part of his "Paranoia Trilogy" that includes ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN and THE PARALLAX VIEW.
Oh, I also received my "pass" postcard from Circle of Confusion, but the upside is they encouraged me to submit future work -- they don't tell everyone this. Bill said it was positive sign -- it took him two specs before they agreed to rep him.
Songs as story? That's how I feel about "I Don't Like Mondays" written by Bob Geldof. He wrote it immediately following a radio interview -- while he was being interviewed the Associated Press telex machine typed out a story of a young girl's San Diego shooting spree. Her absurd reason for the atrocity: "I Don't Like Mondays."
That's all for today.
Thursday, August 09, 2001
- My "Gilmore Girls" spec is coming along fine. I wedged my episode in between two episodes from the first season -- I did that last year with my "Bull" spec and the WB people seemed to have liked that. I have the storylines worked out and the scenes broken out and a very solid teaser (that's the five minutes of screentime that grabs the audience's attention and clues them in to what the episode is about) and Act I and most of Act II done. Act III&IV are coming along nicely as well. Confident I'll get this done by Saturday and into the mail on Monday (the deadline).
The one thing about "Gilmore Girls" that bugs me are the multiple pop culture references that will date the show in twenty years time. The best TV shows, like movies, are timeless. I can still watch an episode of "All in the Family" whenever it's on because they didn't drop pop culture references -- I often think it's a writer's weakness to cover up the fact that there's no real drama in a scene. Example: there's a 16-year old in "GG" named Lane. Another teenager comes over to borrow CDs. Lane says she'd love to be the drummer in a Siouxsie and the Banshees reunion tour. Now, I love S&TB, but there's no way a 16-year-old in an out-of-the-way rural Connecticut town would know who they -- that's the writer speaking through the character.
Also caught FEVER PITCH on HBO the other night, adapted by Nick Hornby from his book. Fun movie, like HIGH FIDELITY (another Hornby book) about single, obsessive guys, but this time it's English Football instead of pop music.
That's all for today.
Sunday, August 05, 2001
- So my friend Ken and I caught the last showing of the new version of APOCALYPSE NOW tonight. Unfortunately, the last reel burnt up right as Willard is about to hack Kurtz to bits -- no joke. I never seen that happen before: the film got stuck on the sprockets and then -- POOF! No more film. We got free passes for another movie, but still...talk about "cinema interruptus"!
As for the added footage: the French Plantation sequence didn't feel right, but was interesting to see. Liked the added material for Killgore, Robert Duvall's character, as well as additional material at the end that explains how Kurtz sets Willard free (the previous edit is pretty sudden -- one minute Willard is tied up, the next he's wielding the machette to hack Kurtz up). I saw this movie back in '79 for the original release -- I was only 8 or 9 years old and "Heart of Darkness" meant nothing to me back then, so needless to say the story went right over my head. The sound this time was incredible and backs up what Spielberg said in an interview I read recently: Motion pictures are now "Sound Pictures."
The theater I was in tonight had an 8-track SDDS speaker setup and I really felt like I was on the beach when the 9th Division of the Air Calvary blows the VC-controlled village to bits to Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyrie."
Anyway, catch the new APOCALPYSE NOW if you can -- and hope the final reel doesn't melt on you.
And remember: "Charlie Don't Surf!"
Monday, July 30, 2001
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An Irish fellow named Tom Cosgrave runs an interesting site called "Dublin Stories" that I submitted a story to (though I wish he had an edit feature since my entry has two spelling errors in it -- whoops).
Not much going on. Or a lot going on. Depends on how I look at it. I was toying with the idea of pursing this opportunity with Primerica. They're like the Amway of personal financial products (debt reduction loans, financial planning, term life insurance etc.). It's a valid opportunity, but I just don't feel comfortable hitting up friends to sell something, even if they maybe do have a valid reason for needing the services. You basically have to ask people to layout their personal finance picture to create this "Financial Needs Assement" document. Well, if they do that, they won't be just friends anymore.
I'm in no desperate need of money right now. I'm damn lucky I can write that and I know it. I made the decision to pursue the writing thing until next summer. I just feel like I've some momentum going now. The next script I send the Endeavor agent might be the one. Or Circle of Confusion might actually like the 'Nam script enough to agree to rep me.
Or maybe I'll actually get into the Warner Bros. Dramatic Writing Workshop this fall (I'm writing a "Gilmore Girls" spec script -- that show has some nice subtext in the dialogue and I like the premise: a young woman, 32, raising her teenage daughter in a small Connecticut town. I'm also working on the script (a thriller) for my last UCLA class.
That's all for today.
Friday, July 27, 2001
- I received my three letters from Greg Beal at the Academy regarding my entries in the 2001 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting. Unfortunately, none of my three entries made it to the quarterfinal round. But Beal was nice enough to hand-write "Close with DH - next 10% of all scripts" on my thriller entry rejection letter. They received 5489 entries, then 285 scripts made the cut for the quarterfinal round. That leaves 5204 entries, and 10 percent of that puts my script in the next 520. That leaves 4684 other writers behind me. Not bad. I must be doing something right with that thriller script.
I don't mean to reduce the craft of writing to a horserace, but I need some kind of metric to know I'm improving.
That's all for today.
Tuesday, July 24, 2001
- It's funny how the grass is always greener when you're unhappy where you're standing. When I was working Silicon Valley, I dreamed about the day I could leave the HTML-drudgery behind -- but I was really working in a Golden time -- I just didn't know it.
The state of San Francisco from the New York Times. Man, when I was living in San Francisco from '96-'99 it seemed like the money would keep flowing. In my gut, I always knew it was a bubble bound to burst -- but not this loudly.
Sunday, July 22, 2001
- I'm definitely enjoying having cable again: caught EYES WIDE SHUT on HBO the other night. Like most of Kubrick's movies, I liked it on an intellectual level. I never get involved emotionally with what the characters are going through in Kubrick's movies. It's always the dialogue or settings that pull me in. I kept thinking, "Okay, I'm gonna switch the channel to see what else is on." But I never did. Absorbing as all get out. I read a long time ago while it was in production that Kubrick used soundstages in England to mimic NYC since he hates to fly. They did an amazing job making a set look like NYC. They also effectively used establishing shots (probably filmed by a second unit) to establish the places. There was one scene though when Tom Cruise is walking the street and you can tell they blue-screened the shot.
In script news: finally got the 'Nam script in the mail to Circle of Confusion in NYC. Now I'm working on the beat sheet for my new script for my final UCLA class. We did this exercise where you name your top five movies at that moment, and the class picks out the themes the stories deal with -- this comes from a book by Julia Cameron called "The Vein of Gold." The class deducted that I'm interested in exploring themes of entrapment, manipulation, and corrupt heirarchies and institutions.
That's all for today.
Tuesday, July 17, 2001
- Yesterday I received my Entry in the Foreign Births Book from the Irish Consulate in San Francisco. This means I'm an Irish Citizen. The process took about a year (I lacked of certain documents). My brother Robert started the ball rolling and did most of the footwork to get the necessary documents (thanks bro!). Now I'm applying for a UK/Irish passport -- next time I go to Ireland I won't have to wait in the customs line at Heathrow.
In script news: I'm line-editing my 'Nam story today and getting it off in the mail to Circle of Confusion in NYC. I think it's better. It's a little longer at ~122 pages. Bill told me it'd make a good writing sample. Hopefully the manager at CoC will feel the same way.
Oh, and I was wrong about Adelphia Digital cable not having TNT on the lineup. I'm not sure "Bull" got picked up again for another season though. Their official web site says more shows are coming next month though.
That's all for today.
Saturday, July 14, 2001
- Went bowling at Hollywood Star Lanes this afternoon (parts of THE BIG LEBOWSKI were filmed there).
Then dinner at Mexico City Restaurant in the trendy Los Feliz section of L.A. Travis, who throws these monthly bowling get-togethers, is a friend of Patrick, someone in my workgroup at UCLA for two quarters last year. Travis sold a script to Jerry Bruckheimer (THE ROCK, CRIMSON TIDE, TOP GUN etc.) last year -- Travis is emblematic of the "rags-to-riches" Hollywood success story. As he was showing me around his new house tonight he told me a year ago he barely had two month's rent in the bank. Very nice guy and proof that good things happen often to good people.
I'm almost _there_ with the 'Nam script and will get that off to Lawrence Mattis this week.
In other news I subscribed to digital cable via Adelphia so I could watch "Bull" and "CSI" and write entry spec scripts for the WB Dramatic Workshop this fall. No TNT in the channel lineup, which was hard to believe. Also, you can't time-shift with your VCR (digital tuner in the cable box vs. analog tuner in your VCR). This is progress?
That's all for today.
Saturday, July 07, 2001
- I archived the last eight months of posts (Nov. 2000 to June 2001) today. If this is your first time to this site, you might want to check out my archives.
I saw A.I. twice this week. I still can't get it out of my head. Is it a perfect film? No. But for Spielberg I think it's a huge leap forward. It tells me he's still willing to take chances. I was expecting a schmaltzy flick like E.T. Was I ever wrong. A.I. is a wonderfully kaleidoscopic, futuristic Bros. Grimm fairy tale -- tonally it's all over the place, but I found that exhilarating.
The problem for the mainstream audience is that, at its core, this movie is a Stanley Kubrick film (I even felt like I was watching a Kubrick movie with the long-angle shots during the first two-thirds -- the image composition is very deliberate in regards to where objects are placed in the frame. In terms of the dialogue, the characters speak to one another, but they often aren't communicating).
IMHO Kubrick was never a populist filmmaker: I can't say for sure, but I don't think Kubrick ever gave a damn how well his films tested with NRG and the like -- he dealt with themes and ideas he thought important, and if the audience didn't "get it" or couldn't make the effort to think, well, that's their problem.
Combining Kubrick and Spielberg's sensibilities has produced a schizophrenic movie that's like a brick covered with icing -- and it's really going to be hard for some to swallow.
Even with the flawed ending, A.I. is NOT the movie to pass up this summer. I'd go as far as saying it's best movie the major studios have put out this summer. I was never bored, and it held my attention throughout
the span of its 2.5 hours.
Someone on alt.movies.kubrick posted that the plot follows the story of "The Divine Comedy":
I realized, on reflection, that The Divine Comedy is an underlying
theme of AI. Can anyone add to my observations here?
Flesh Fair = Hell. Rouge City = Sodom
Dr. Hobby / 2000 year wait = Purgatory
Home = Heaven
Flesh Fair starts with a long sequence for something "Lost"
Joe starts with the song "I'm in Heaven"
Joe walks on water several scenes
Joe leaves by ascending to the heavens.
Joe *needed* to get over the river? Charon?
Joe = Virgil, a guide for David
Hounds of Hell (3 different heads seen) in
Flesh Fair opening.
"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."
Blue Fairy is angelic in appearance.
David has Unconditional Love.
Numerous references to playing god.
Earth is destroyed by a cataclysm, only David survives. (Noah?)
David, when he falls into the water, is moved along by fishes,
for no apparent reason.
David's first sight could be called a stylized cross
Dr. Know is omnipotent
7 questions
Does anyone believe any of this?
-- Ed Pegg Jr, www.mathpuzzle.com
I went back and watched it a second time -- and he's right! I wouldn't be surprised if Kubrick intended this secondary level of meaning.
Also, a fellow named Brian Siano posted a 1968 interview from "Playboy" with Kubrick -- he was one smart cookie. (NOTE: the interview is in Adobe PDF format; it's also 10MB in size -- high speed connection recommended for download).
That's all for today.
Monday, July 02, 2001
- Things may be very different next time I go back to Ireland, particularly in the North where my mother's relatives live.
In other news....
So I had a writer's group meeting this past Saturday in Sherman Oaks (and damn, it was hot over in the Valley!). Interesting...not sure if the group is really helping. One guy just didn't get what the 'Nam story is about and tried to talk me into re-writing it so it's a love story (!?) like THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY -- now that's a great movie, but that's not the kind of story I was attempting to write. That's a romance and I wrote an action-thriller.
The 'Nam script is now like a beast taking on its own life as I do the rewrite. I'm going to have to sit down and map out every scene in order to streamline the narrative. I do think it's going to be better after all this though.
I also received my certificate for finishing the UCLA Professional Program in Screenwriting. For a while I didn't think I was going to get it, and in some ways I didn't care. But I was happy to get the certificate in the mail. I'm just a perfectionist like that I suppose. I had a falling out with the instructor of my workgroup last quarter and basically stopped going. But I did turn in a script. The program coordinator called and said she felt bad about the whole situation. So they're letting me take another course for free this summer. Not a bad deal at all.
Tuesday, June 26, 2001
- Went on a book buying spree the other night (though I am trying to use the library more often now -- "your tax money at work" etc.):
"A Hearbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" by Dave Eggers has received a ton of positive press.
"The Intuitionist" by Coleson Whitehead -- he received a Whiting Award for this first novel.
And a writing friend lent me "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy.
Plus I have some other books I have laying around I've not read -- looks like I'm set for my summer reading.
Shoot, this page is getting long. Time to archive soon.
That's all for today.
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