{advertisement}

Weekend Recap: Nominate me for Awards!

I am still sick, I have been sick for so so long.  I mean, I’m 87% better.  Which is to say I’m not totally exhausted but I’m still coughing and my nose is still icky.  I finished my course of antibiotics, so I’m guessing there’s nothing to do now but hope.

My posting is probably going to be erratic at best starting Tuesday — I’m going to be in South Carolina for a week.  I’m hoping to start getting some feelers for raising money there.

I was on set all weekend, shooting two different things.  I was script supervising the pilot for Alice and the Monster, which is from the same creative team as Gold: The Series, and then I “starred” in a makeover shoot from which I got a super cute dress that I wore to my company’s holiday party.  So, huzzah.

Also, you can nominate Gold: The Series and/or my editing of Gold for the Streamys.  They’re pushing for Gold to get Best Comedy and Best Ensemble.  Under individuals, you can nominate me for Best Editing, and you can nominate the super awesome Frederick Snyder for Best Director.  The site address is www.goldtheseries.com

That’s all for now!

Weekend Recap: Nominate me for Awards!

The Black List

Today is the drop date of the list of Hollywood’s favorite “unproduced” screenplays of the year.  Of course, almost everything on the list is in production or has been optioned.  But there are a few scripts that might get that extra needed bump simply by being on this list!

Here is the list: http://www.deadline.com/hollywood/the-black-list-to-be-posted-here-in-entirety/

More on what the black list is: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-currid11-2009dec11,0,6702050.story

40% of the 2005 list and 30% of 2006 list have been made into films so far.

Some Black List Scripts: The Queen, Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, Hancock, Things we lost in the Fire, Rendition, A Mighty Heart, There Will Be Blood.

The Black List

Reality TV: People are Crazy

The thing about reality shows is that you’re working with people who have to be willing to be on TV.  And the thing about people who are willing to be on TV is that most of them are crazy.

Today, there was sent an e-mail to a show that the producing team spent probably half an hour trying to figure out what it meant and why it was sent.  It was basically a crazy rant about why the person who was scheduled to come on their show wasn’t going to do it.  Everything in different font sizes and strange numbers and apparent quotes; it was paranoid and afraid of gossip and afraid of the show hurting her.  The staff then began throwing out reasons, these were all actually said, all of them seriously:

“Maybe it’s dementia?  But she’s under 50.” “Maybe it’s a forward?  But it has my name on it.” “Maybe it’s a poem?” “Maybe she’s sick?”  “Maybe her neighbor told her that all reality shows are about making the participants look stupid.” “Maybe she’s stressed cuz it’s the holidays and she’s having trouble financially?”  “Maybe she’s supposed to take psychiatric medication and she went off them for a few days.”

What was not resolved was how they’re going to deal with it.  Since she’s signed a contract and everything, and there’s probably not enough time to find someone new.

Reality TV: People are Crazy

Bible Con: the rewrite

I’ve been sort of kind of rewriting Bible Con for the last two months, but I think I’ve had a breakthrough.

It’s a Mockumentary and has a lot of characters and a fair few balls in the air at any time, and the most consistent note I’ve gotten on it is that the conflict needs to be heightened and specified.  It’s tough, in an ensemble piece, to make sure that every character has a goal, flaws, and something stopping them from being happy.  It’s not that these things didn’t exist in the previous draft, but they are a bit murky.

So I’ve decided to completely rewrite one of the 6 main characters and make him, essentially, not a main character at all.  There’s a lot that’s going to be coming out of this draft, I’m a little worried it’s going to drop too many pages, but hopefully it’ll all balance out.

Bible Con: the rewrite

Eddie Kritzer: I thought he was gone

Eddie Kritzer seems to be going to unrelated posts and commenting with ad hominem attacks.  I’ve told him there, but I’m posting it again, I don’t want to block anyone, but I’m not patient with people who simply post trying to get some sort of emotional rise out of people.  There are plenty of places on the internet to go be a dick, this is not the forum.  I don’t want to censor anyone, but at some point it is spam, not a comment, and I will throw it away.

I know it’s tragic to not have as much opportunity for you all to make fun of his grammar, spelling, and acting like Sarah Palin with a Levi Johnston size bee in her bonnet, but I’m bored of it.

His recent comment.

Eddie Kritzer: I thought he was gone

Hollywood: Not for the weak

I very rarely get into anything particularly personal on this blog.  One, because it’s public, and two, because it rarely seems relevant to my career, which is the focus here.  But sometimes the personal and the public are a bit intermixed, and that’s what I want to talk about.  My health versus my career.

I have for the last few months been really struggling with extreme fatigue, dizziness and nausea.  This isn’t totally out of the norm for me, I have several chronic conditions which often take the wind out of my sails: allergies, asthma, depression and hypothyroidism.  Any of those on their own is usually manageable, but they pack a bit of a wallop all together.  On top of this, I’ve been to the doctor a half-dozen times since this started and they’ve tested for everything they can think of and they can’t find anything wrong.

This last week has been totally lost.  I was so fatigued that I cannot actually remember most of it.  It is extremely frustrating.  I manage to go to work which fortunately is a very low energy sort of job, but I struggle even there.  I haven’t managed to do much editing because I stare at the project and get overwhelmingly tired or motion sick.  I basically come home and lay down.  Last night I went to bed at 10pm and got up today at 1pm; it’s not yet seven and I am barely awake.  Obviously it is quite difficult to be productive, in writing or in anything else, when you’re that exhausted.

Film and TV are not careers for people with low energy.  If your personality doesn’t naturally exude the sense that you’re on speed, it’s a really tough business to be in.  It is probably a miracle that I got through the two years of film school with as little collateral damage as I did — one broken bone, one major case of bronchitis, three total emotional breakdowns, and three months of vomiting for unknown reasons that led to my current state as a vegetarian.

I could imagine nothing worse than letting my health dictate what it was I could and could not do with my life.  But sometimes, especially after weeks like this, it’s very difficult to believe that it’s not going to do just that.  Sometimes it’s hard not to go to the dark place and wallow in self-pity.  Hard to remember that this is just my struggle, and, though it’s different for each of us, it’s never easy.  I want to be able to offer advice to others, to make it and say, “See, my health didn’t stop me, and it won’t stop you!”  But all I know is that right now it’s really hard and sometimes fighting to survive in the film business just sucks.

But here is something nice, from a fellow writer at myothercareer.wordpress.com

Hollywood: Not for the weak

InkTip: 3 months in, first Script download

My script has been up on InkTip since the beginning of September.  Today, for the first time, it was downloaded.  The logline has come up in someone’s search 94 times, 34 of those hits were from LA Feature Film Academy.

Today someone at LA Feature Film Academy actually downloaded it.  Anyone know anything about them?

Other stats: My resume has been downloaded once, the synopsis three times, the script once.  Interestingly, though one person looked at the synopsis twice, no one’s looked at any two of those, let alone all three.

InkTip: 3 months in, first Script download

PitchQ: Highest rated of November; A winner is me

So, I guess I won this contest of the highest rated pitch of November on Pitch Q.  They didn’t alert me or anything, nor did I know I had comments, I just happened to go to the page and see my face all huge and pink on the front.  So… yay for me!

http://www.pitchq.com/?pitch/&4490

I also got a note that I cannot decipher.  I’ll assume it was useless.

PitchQ: Highest rated of November; A winner is me