Dead Joan

This summer I finished the first draft of a supernatural thriller entitled Dead Joan. I'm currently rewriting the script. It deals with the concept of redemption and being forced to go back and clean up the problems that you have caused.

Some Old Scripts

Just for fun, I thought I'd go back over some of my previous attempts at feature film screenplays. I'm currently doing my first internal rewrite of my latest script and thought it would be fun to go back over what has gone past. So here goes:

1. Down The Road - My first feature length film script. I wrote this in college. It was a road movie and it is embarrassingly bad. I rewrote it several times but it ultimately went nowhere.

2. Reflectors - Kinda of a quirky indie comedy about a love triangle between a guy, a girl, and a male Japanese exchange student. I wrote this during a class I took at AFI. Finished a couple rewrites but could never get the ending right.

3. We Always Lie To Ourselves - A big sprawling film about a group of college students coming to terms with what happened the night before during a raucous college party. I think I wrote this because I had seen Pulp Fiction and was playing with non-linear storytelling. Wrote several scenes and a sprawling treatment. But never finished a full draft.

4. Evil Is Never Fun - Trippy film about a guy trying to find a girl that goes missing after having a one night stand with her. I wrote several scenes but never got past the first Act. I modified this opening for the novel I started writing.

5. The Hunt - Basically two lost souls in the city find each other. Basically Barfly in the 90s. Wrote about 30 pages then lost interest.

6. The Summer Of Our Discontent - A quirky comedy based on a short script I wrote in one of my screenplay classes in college. That short script wound up becoming my short film Coffee. I've still thought about going back and writing this one. Got as far as a treatment and that's it.

7. Glamour - Stupid idea for a film I had about a female singer leading a double life. Never got past a short synopsis.

8. Art Murder Film - Came up with this idea in high school about a painter who kills women and paints with their blood. Kind of a stupid idea that didn't go anywhere.

9. Carjacking Pirates - I still love this idea we came up with in high school about a bowling team called The Pirates that got hit on the heads while bowling and thought they were real life pirates. It was a slapstick comedy about a bunch of pirates that instead of sailing the seas, they would sail the highways and take over other cars. I still think it has potential. Maybe one day I'll write it.

So there you have it. I'm sure there are dozens of other ideas I've had that I've never developed. Just thought it would be fun to list them all in one place.

Am I worried about people stealing these ideas? Not really. These ideas aren't that original. And it's the execution not the idea that counts in this industry.

PS. This doesn't include any scripts I am currently working on. I have probably a dozen more in the hopper, including the one I am currently working on. And there's that novel I've been working on as well...

100 Movies in 2010

I made a point of keeping track of every movie that I have watched this year and where I watched it. Since I travel a lot, I do watch movies on the plane quite a bit. Plus I watched a bunch of movies on Netflix Instant. I made no indication of the quality. I'm not a critic, so I don't do film reviews. Here's the list:

54	DVD
2012	Airplane
A Single Man	Theater
Alice In Wonderland	Theater
All Boys	Film Festival
American Psycho	DVD
Art School Confidential	DVD
Assassination of Jesse James	DVD
Bear City	Film Festival
Being There	On Demand
Best Worst Movie	Theater
Big Fan	On Demand
Bitter Feast	Film Festival
Black Dynamite	DVD
Blade	DVD
BlowUp	DVD
Broken Embraces	Theater
Brotherhood Of The Wolf	DVD
Brothers Bloom	DVD
Bruno	DVD
Cactus Flower	Airplane
Charlie Bartlett	DVD
Children of Men	DVD
Chocolate	On Demand
Code 46	DVD
Contempt	DVD
Creatures From The Pink Lagoon	On Demand
District B13	DVD
Domino	DVD
Election (2005)	On Demand
Everything is Illuminated	DVD
eXistenZ	DVD
Eyes Wide Open	Film Festival
F For Fake	On Demand
Factotum	DVD
Fantastic Mr. Fox	Airplane
Fisher King	On Demand
Funny Games	DVD
Futurama: Bender's Big Score	On Demand
Girl Who Played With Fire	Theater
Girl With The Dragon Tattoo	Theater
Grey Gardens	DVD
Grey Gardens (2010)	DVD
Helvetica	On Demand
Howl	Film Festival
Hurt Locker	Airplane
Inception	Theater
Inglorious Basterds	DVD
Inside Deep Throat	On Demand
Into The Wild	DVD
Invention Of Lying	Airplane
Jules and Jim	DVD
Kick Ass	Theater
Layercake	DVD
Le Samurai	DVD
Lord of War	DVD
Machete	Theater
Maxed Out	On Demand
Mothman	On Demand
Once	DVD
Out At Annapolis	Film Festival
Outrage	DVD
Outsourced	On Demand
Paranormal Activity	Airplane
Paris Je T'Aime	DVD
Parting Glances	On Demand
Peaceful Warrior	On Demand
Plaguers	DVD
Ponyo	DVD
Pop Star On Ice	TV
Pursuit Of Happyness	DVD
REC	DVD
Rock N Rolla	DVD
Running Scared	DVD
Salt	Theater
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World	Theater
Second Skin	On Demand
Session 9	On Demand
Shutter Island	Theater
Sicko	DVD
Sukiyaki Western Django	DVD
The Crazies	DVD
The Expendables	Theater
The Fountain	DVD
The King Of Kong	On Demand
The Machinist	DVD
The Men Who Stare At Goats	DVD
The Modernism of Julius Schulman	On Demand
The Naked Civil Servant	On Demand
The Warlords	Theater
The Wrestler	DVD
Transsiberian	DVD
Trick R Treat	DVD
Tropic Thunder	DVD
Underworld Evolution	DVD
We Live In Public	On Demand
Word Wars	On Demand
Wristcutters	DVD
Zack and Miri Make A Porno	DVD

UCLA Screenwriting

I am pleased to announce that next month I will begin attending the UCLA Professional Program in Screenwriting. It was suggested by my friend Jody Wheeler who has gone through the program. He has since graduated from the MFA program at UCLA and written a script for Regent Entertainment.

I've always been interested in writing ever since I was young. I haven't been as focused on writing the past couple of years. But I've been focusing more and more on my writing recently. Lately, I try to write every day if possible. One of the things I learned in my screenwriting classes at UCSB was to aim for an average of three pages a day, which is entirely doable. I think the problem a lot of writers have is they have an"all or nothing" mentality, saying to themselves "If I don't write 30 pages this week, I'm a loser." By setting your goals too high, you set yourself up for failure. And this consistent writing has been good for me so far. I'm over halfway through the first draft of a screenplay I started writing this summer. I hope to have it finished by the end of this month. If not, it's not the end of the world. I will keep writing until I am finished.

Let's hope that this can take me to the next level in my ability and professionalism as a writer. As much as I love international film sales, I need a creative outlet beyond designing posters and email blasts. Wish me luck!

Modern Nature

I have been reading the book Modern Nature by Derek Jarman. It is basically one year in the life of the avant garde filmmaker told through the diary that he kept one year while living at Prospect Cottage in Dungeness in Kent.

It's not an easy read. But it gives insight into the creative process as well as his obsession with gardening, along with an insight into living under the reign of Margaret Thatcher during the early days of the AIDS epidemic in England.

Like his films, it's not for everyone. But if you have seen his films and wanted to know a little more about his as an artist and filmmaker, or just an insight into the creative process, it's worth giving a read.

2 years of ignoring my blog

I just realized that as of March 16, I have been mostly ignoring my blog for about 2 years. In those 2 years a lot has happened. The lack of posts is mostly due to my busy schedule. Working in international film sales means a lot of traveling. Last year I went to Hong Kong, Cannes, The Netherlands, and throughout Scandinavia. In addition, I've gotten distribution on one of my short films, gone to Coachella, and been front and center at a Pet Shop Boys concert at O2 arena in London.

Already this year, I am in the middle of a trip through Asia, including Seoul, Taipei, Singapore and Hong Kong. There's only so much you can learn by surfing the internet. Sometimes you have to actually go to the territory and see what's on the channels and go to the DVD stores to see who is selling which titles. Overall, I really think the DVD market is suffering everywhere in the world. Between piracy, illegal downloads and illegal imports, the DVD market is quickly disappearing. But luckily new digital and IPTV channels internationally are growing and expanding quickly. That is why I am always telling filmmakers to start making TV movies instead of focusing on direct to DVD films, which had supported independent filmmakers for the past 30 years.

We will see how the international film distribution world changes in the next two years. Things change really quickly in the world of independent film. Distributors and producers come and go very quickly. Who could have predicted that Summit would become a new mini-major while the Weinstein company would be struggling to survive?