I’m sorry I’ve been so lacking in interesting things to say. At the moment I’m just showing up to work and trying to write a business plan. I’m doing a slight re-write of my Nicholl Script, “Bible Con”. I’m hoping to have it and a new script ready to send to Nicholl this year.
So, I dunno, not a lot going on. I’m about to start working on editing a short, but I haven’t actually started yet. I spend a lot of time trolling the internets for jobs. Yeppers.
I received an e-mail from a director who is looking for a script and who was told to e-mail the Nicholl Semi-Finalists. He sent a mass e-mail that had all of our e-mail addresses in the TO: field.
After replying with my logline and synopsis, I included a PS about how impersonal it is to send an obvious mass mailing and that not everyone wants their e-mail to be revealed to a bunch of strangers, and that he should BCC in the future.
I mean, maybe that’s not cool of me, but I feel like someone should tell him. Maybe he just doesn’t know about the BCC. And he really should. Because I don’t really mind having the e-mail addresses of my fellow semi-finalists, but they might mind.
1. I truly hate the new designs for individuals on IMDb. It’s ugly and difficult. But there is a way around it — go to by type on the side.
2. I’ve updated and added a bunch of credits to my IMDb page. At the prompting of one of the actors in my short musical “Lord of Dreams” I’m trying to get that up again.
3. I’ve worked on a ton of Reality TV in the last year. Sheesh.
Sorry I’ve been quiet a while, crazy couple of weeks. I went to SC this weekend. I’m trying to put together a budget and business proposal for Bible Con, with plans to shoot it in SC. I think it can be done on a low enough budget that raising the money myself is feasible. I don’t know that I’ve described the story here, so have my logline:
Bible Con — Comic Con for Christians — goes straight to hell when Jesus and Mary Magdalene fall in love, the keynote speaker turns out to be an atheist, and the event is besieged by DaVinci Code fans.
It’s Best in Show meets The Life of Brian.
Nicholl Semi-Finalist, Movie Script Contest Finalist
I’m trying to do a rewrite now, but the drama in my life is making it difficult to concentrate on. I know too many unemployed people is basically what the deal is. One of my roommates is having to give up on LA and drive back home, selling all of her possessions to afford the trip. My other roommate is also unemployed, but theoretically has something coming up. Obviously, not a happy situation. And my closest friends can’t find jobs either.
And as much as I hate logging, and as much as it doesn’t pay me enough to live off of, I guess at least it’s something. Admittedly, the idea of getting my own project off the ground is probably all that’s standing between me and the cratering depression my current economic state brings on.
I’ve gotten a couple more requests that I haven’t kept up on posting. Maybe I’ll do that at some point.
I had a weekend that was no good for writing. I’ve set myself a deadline of end of Thanksgiving holiday for a rewrite of Bible Con and a Polished first draft of Dyke for a Day. I had time to work on it this weekend because all of my editing projects are floating in nebulous waiting for other people to do things. But I didn’t work because my shoulder is messed up. This didn’t make it impossible to write, but it was really uncomfortable to sit in front of my computer or look down. It’s still killing me. Maybe I should start dictating.
Instead, I just watched a lot of Christopher Hitchens. I try to imagine the God/No God debate from the other point of view and find I just cannot. Cannot imagine it. I suppose I am like Hitchens, I never lost my faith, I just realized I didn’t have it. I was eight, I found all my teeth that I’d lost in my mom’s room (why she kept them, I don’t know). And there it was, proof that there was no tooth fairy. And that meant no Easter Bunny, no Santa Claus, and no Jesus.
I am going back to Columbia, SC this weekend. Doing the red-eye Wednesday night/Thursday morning. I’m seriously considering trying to raise money and film my feature in SC. I think it could be done for a modest budget, and I think the idea of a Native Daughter shooting in SC is something that could raise some money. I have a lot of connections there, including with the university. I hold secret hopes that somehow I could tie it into the university and get a lot of young people involved with the production. There aren’t a lot of opportunities in film in South Carolina.
Maybe I’ll get some writing done on the plane. We’re going to not put odds on this.
I started watching Jeeves and Wooster. I highly recommend it.
I am a GENIUS of UNSPEAKABLE EVIL and I want to be your CLASS PRESIDENT is the best book of the century for at least three reasons. 1. Josh Lieb is funny 2. Middle School is Hell 3. Jon Stewart approves. Josh will also be writing the screenplay, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Here’s my favorite excerpt from the first chapter:
In case you’re lucky enough to have escaped it, Fahrenheit 451 is one of those books that is about how amazing books are and how wonderful the people who write books are. Writers love writing books like this, and for some reason, we let them get away with it. It’s like someone producing a TV show called TV Show are the Best and the People Who Make Them Are Geniuses.*
*Probably the name of Aaron Sorkin’s next project. Ha.
Here’s a link to a very long interview with Mr. Lieb: http://bigthink.com/joshlieb
(Full disclosure: Gail Lieb, Josh’s mom, is my favorite person in the universe)
What I’ve learned: You don’t break into the industry with a Mockumentary.
People really enjoy reading them, but no one wants to make them or believes you can write based on them. Which is weird because there’s a screenplay sitting there that they really enjoyed, but despite the success of The Office and Best in Show, and reality style in general, Mockumentaries are apparently too difficult to set up in Hollywood.
I wrote the screenplay because I liked the story and I love mockumentaries, I really never thought it’d be getting attention from Hollywood. From small indie producers, maybe. Maybe I hoped Christopher Guest would somehow find it on his reading list. But I didn’t figure Hollywood would be interested. And I was wrong in that they seem to have liked reading it enough to stay in touch with me, but not enough to take it on board.
15: Congratulations on your recent 2009 Nicholl Fellowship success! We read about you and would love to read your script BIBLE CON.
At *** Entertainment we manage about 50 writers in television and film, and produce feature films as well.
I’ve attached our **** Entertainment release form, and need it filled out for each piece of material being submitted. Despite its stringent language, I can assure you this is an industry-standard release form. Please fill out the form and either scan and email with the script, or fax the release to *** and then e-mail the script, or you can throw it all in the mail as well – our address is in my signature below.
16: I actually got this a long time ago and missed it
Congrats on your script being a semi-finalist in the Nicholl competition!
Sounds interesting–may I read it? My company manages screenwriters and playwrights and we are always reading new screenplays to find potential clients we can introduce to the Hollywood studio system.
Can you email me a copy?
The ScriptFunnel team would like to congratulate you on your Nichols Fellowship achievement. You are undoubtedly being contacted by managers and development execs alike and we wish you all the best during this exciting time.
We’d also like to ask for a small moment of your time so we may introduce you to our service. ScriptFunnel’s mission is to bridge the gap between entertainment professionals and writers like you. What does this mean? Look, we know that your achievements have garnered you and your project some attention, and let’s face it, you deserve it! That being said, wouldn’t it be great to reach an even wider audience of agents, managers and execs? ScriptFunnel is home to over 800 working industry professionals who listen to what we have to say about the material that is funneled (aka vetted) through out site.
Working with ScriptFunnel is a no-lose situation. You join our writer community, submit your film or television script, and we vet it through our coverage services (you receive back two pieces of coverage from two different Industry Analysts). If your project receives a “consider” grade or higher (averaged between the two pieces of coverage) we alert our professional contacts and they can immediately request your material. Furthermore, if your script receives a “consider” or higher grade, we will refund the cost of submitting your script. ScriptFunnel isn’t here to make money off of coverage services…that’s just our vetting process. The reality is, ScriptFunnel is a budding eManagement company whose services are two fold – working with you to develop your script, and getting your script in front of the eyeballs that matter.
I’m going to do their logline competition because it’s free. But to submit your script is 125 dollars. Way, way more than it cost to submit to the Nicholl…
12th: Thanks so much for providing us with a logline for your feature screenplay BIBLE CON. We’d love to take a look! Please fill out the attached Release Agreement, and mail a hard copy of that form and your script to the address provided below. Please note we cannot return the copy of your script you send to us.
Again, congratulations, and thank you for the opportunity to take a look at your material.
Frustrating because it costs money to print out 100 pages, find time off work to go mail something, and pay for the postage. I mean, I can’t complain too much because they do want to read it, it’s just difficult to actually get it to them this way. I, of course, may be the only one who prefers to read scripts on my computer screen to trying to flip through a hard copy; and I feel better about the not wasting paper.
I sent an email asking if it has to be a hard copy, but they wouldn’t have said it if it didn’t.
EDIT: Compromise: Fax the agreement, e-mail the script. Huzzah.
9th: Thanks for letting me have a look. I’m a small company so my interests in writers are quite specific. I generally like to see three completed features before considering representation. When you’ve completed something new, if you’d like, you can get back in touch. Regards and congratulations on your placement!
This is the person who asked for 20 pages. I find it interesting that she didn’t ask to read the other script I told her about, or for the remaining pages of Bible Con but she does want me to get back in touch if I have a third script. Not sure what that means. But of course, I will surely contact her some day (long from now, no doubt) when I have three features.
11th: The very cool, very mysterious, very recently arrested at an airport for being a groomsman Cine-a-Craze asked to read my script. I’m counting this.
12th: A pretty cool management/production company that has something to do with comics. More, I will not say. It’s not who you think it is.
Congratulations on your acceptance into the semifinals of the 2009 Nicholl Fellowships competition! At ***, we continuously strive to find and represent the most talented writers in the entertainment industry. We are writing to request a logline of your script BIBLE CON, to give us a sense of whether your script falls into one of the categories of material we excel at representing.
We appreciate your time in reading this, and once again, congratulations on your achievement.
