Over the last 2 weeks I’ve made my way down to old city on numerous occasions to catch a few flix at the Philadelphia Film Festival. Alicia and I have been talking about going for the past 2 years or so but never made it  there. This year we caught 4 good movies and 1 not so good one. The first was Half Nelson staring Ryan Gosling which I liked a lot more then I thought I would. I picked this one because I’m fan of his and the director was giving a Q&A afterwards. While I thought some parts were very awkward I enjoyed this very much and got to ask the director, Ryan Fleck a question. Also in attendance was the young female lead in the film Shareeka Epps. She did a great job and was very excited to be in Philly as she wants to attend a local college here. Great movie followed by an even better Q&A.
The next film was the documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated which is about the MPAA ratings board and the rating system it uses. I highly recommend this one. Go see it when it’s released wide. The cut we saw was different then the one in Sundance and the director, Kirby Dick said he still has a few things to tweak before it’s released wide. The film uses film clips from well known movies to expose the hypocrisy of the ratings system in a funny, informative and entertaining way. The Egg people explaining what can and can’t be done in movies is classic. The film also interviews well known directors (John Waters, Kevin Smith, Kimberly Peirce, Matt Stone) who’ve had to deal with the MPAA’s self-righteous maneuverings.  Afterwards Kirby Dick fielded some questions and entertained the crowd before running out of time before the next movie screening. This movie was well worth it and made me want to see some of his other films.
Next was LOL. Before LOL the short film Fly was screened and received a warming applause. It was a funny 12 minute movie about a young man’s compulsive attention to his “fly.” After seeing this I had a feeling it was going to be better then the feature to follow. I was right. LOL is an 82 minute film that could have been cut now to the 12 minute running time of its opening act Fly. Most of the cast was in attendance as well as the director, and after the movie ended they took some questions from the crowd. The director announced that they film was not scripted and you could almost here the audience exhale and say, “That’s why it wasn’t good.” The Q&A did add a little incite which made some things make since but it was not enough we make me like the film even though I wanted too. After the Q&A they gave out CD’s which was cool but it was music from the movie, so it really didn’t matter. This film has been compared to the film Funny Ha Ha which I hated but many people love. I think the same thing that pulled me into that film pulled me into this one. A Young cast, young director and good trailer. The one thing I liked about this was that they were all happy to be at the screening and seemed truly excited.
On Saturday April 9th, we saw Hard Candy. Hard Candy comes out this weekend, GO SEE THIS MOVIE. This is an awkward and tense work of beauty. Ellen Page’s performance was amazing. One of the best torture scenes ever! Once again, GO SEE THIS MOVIE! The gripping suspense will have you stuck to the edge of your seat with an unease that’s gut wrenching but engaging. Do it, go see it, do it.
And lastly we saw One Last Thing… which has local ties with the writer, director and some cast members being local as well as some of the movie being shot in Marcus Hook, PA. This movie was very funny despite of the subject matter – a young man with a terminal illness makes an unconventional request on local television. The writer did a great job making you care for every character and handle the inclusion of religion with out making it seen preachy or forced. This is a great movie to see with a great cast to boot.In all, I had a great time at the film fest and will be attending next year. One thing I would have liked to see more of is people hyping there own films. I only had one person hand me a flier to go see his movie. I wish there were more people pimping there films. Hopefully next year I can hand out fliers to my film at this festival.

First, what I’m not doing:

I’m not hating myspace anymore.

I signed up after swearing I would never. For what I want to do it’s the perfect application. (More on that later)

I’m not buying a Canon XLs (Also more on that later)

Being indecisive about buying a mac.
I want a laptop and was considering getting the new mac book pro but the reviews aren’t favorable for what I want to do with it. It doesn’t run Final Cut Pro yet (as far as I know) and that’s the only reason I’d want to get it. I have Adobe Premiere for editing but I really want to learn and use FCP. So, right now, I’m not getting it.

Not checking comments posted to my blog (Sorry Carrcakes). I thought all comments were approved.

What I am doing:

I’m planning to shoot a short script that I wrote sometime this summer. I have a few more polishes and then it’s on to casting and location scouting. There will also be a lot of begging for favors

I am buying a PANASONIC AG-DVX100B with my tax return. I was planning on getting the Canon XL1s but after doing a little research I’ve found this is just what I need and at the right price

I also signed up for a myspace account to help promote this short. I have a myspace film account and once I figure out how I want to use it I will link to it from here.

I started thinking about ideas I want to write for a spec script of Grey’s Anatomy. I just watched all of the episodes from the first season and started to work on an outline. This is purely for my entertainment only as I have no plans for this once I’m done. If I think its any good, then I will let others read it. If they think its any good, I will maybe, maybe send it out. As of right now I’m only doing this to practice writing for T.V

Trying to find a way to make my page look right in Internet explorer.

I’ve been messing with code for a while and can’t get it to look right. It looks fine in firefox, Internet explorer, not so much

And lastly, I will be going broke and crazy very soon but it will be very fun.

With my acting class approaching fast I had to choose which monologue I was going to perform. As I said in the last post my last monologue was a little too hard for someone with no acting experience. With this class I wanted pick something that was more on the comedic side, but with a little drama mixed in.

I chose a monologue from the play Dinner With Friends by Donald Margulies. The monologue goes as followed:

I don’t know about you, but I’m at the point in my life where I want to enjoy myself. I don’t want to go through life hoping I’m gonna get lucky with my own wife. You know? You go to bed and you think you’re gonna have sex and then you say something, some kind of offhanded remark of no consequence whatsoever, and it pisses her off and the mood is gone and it’s lights out and that’s it. I must’ve masturbated more then any married man in history.

I’m not asking for it twenty-four hours a day, all I’m asking for is a little affection.

No, Gabe, there were no other women. There were opportunities, though. I mean, when you’re out of town as much as I am… You’re lonely, you’re far from home, it doesn’t seem like you’re living in real time. I’d be in a hotel bar and strike up a conversation with a female colleague, or some divorcee with big hair, and I’d make them laugh and they’d look pretty and I’d feel competent again, you know?, and think, gee maybe I am still clever and attractive after all. There’d be that electricity in the air, that kind of buzz I hadn’t felt since college, remember?, when a single move, and move at all, and there’d be sex? But I’d get scared and say goodnight and go back to my room and call Beth out of guilt, or hope, and get some shit about something I neglected to do or did badly. Well, by the time I met Nancy — she made me feel good from the first time I talked to her on the phone — I hadn’t even laid eyes on her yet — she booked all my travel.

She had this great laugh and this flirty sense of humor, and she said, “We’ve been talking for weeks, I want to meet you already!” And I began to think, Why the hell not? What am I saving myself for? This hypercritical woman waiting for me back home? Who looks at me with withering disappointment. All the time. This accusatory, how-could-you-be-so-thoughtless look. So, on one hand, there’s this delightful women who makes me feel worthwhile and there’s this other women, my wife, who makes me feel like shit. Who would you choose?

Nothing to hard but challenging enough. The class starts on Tuesday Nov. 15th. I’ll update on the Wednesday after. Wish me luck!

Earlier this week (Oct 24), I started an online TV writing class at the Writers University. The class is Beginning Television Writing, which covers exactly what it says. Buy the end of the class – four weeks from now – I should have a tight, well plotted outline and all the knowledge I need to start writing my spec teleplay. We shall see about that. I’m only 2 days into the class and the information I’ve gained so far has been well worth the $119.96 + $10.85 for the book by the two course instructors, Lee Goldberg and William Rabkin.

I found out about the class from Lee Goldberg’s blog A Writer’s Life which I go to daily. His blog is very informative and updated nearly everyday, unlike my mine. I have a few ideas for TV shows and never really understood how to write them. I get the whole screenplay thing for movies, but TV is a whole different thing altogether. I think once I get the basics I should be fine. I’m sure there will be a lot more to learn after this class but this class will lay the foundation for what I do in the future.

I also will be taking my second acting at Mike Lemon Casting her in Philadelphia. I had so much fun in the first one I took which was, the basics of acting with Donna Marrazzo

For that class I had to do few scenes with others, some improve, script analysis and a two minute monologue. I decided to pick a very hard monologue which at the time I thought was a good idea. It didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to but I did learn a lot.

With that class I had all 8 weeks to go over my monologue and got feed back from the class along the way. With the new class I’m taking – Film Acting I – I have to have my monologue ready for the first class on Nov 15^th. This class is also an on camera class so I will be videotaped and forced to watch myself act like a fool. No pun intended. Well maybe some pun intended.