Philly Screenwriter

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.

I so wanted to like this movie. One of my favorite movies is Almost Famous because the way the movie blends with the music. I also like Garden State for that same reason. The different between those last two and Elizabethtown is they had a story to tell. Elizabethtown was just a music video with voice over.

Dunst was good. Bloom was ok. Susan Sarandon and Jessica Biel where pointless. Judy Greer and Alec Baldwin were under used. Just buy the soundtrack.

I’ve only seen 2 of Crowe’s movie in theater, Elizabethtown being one and Vanilla Sky being the other. Both sucked it hard.

I just finished going over my short script doing a polish and then a write. I like the out come. I only have two scenes that I have to tighten up then it should be done. What do you do when you’re done your script or any other writing that you want critiqued? I have a few friends I will give it to, but they are my friends and I want an honest answer.

What questions should I ask? Should I ask any, or just let them tell me what they thought? I’m not sure. I plan on shooting this script sometime in the spring or early summer if everything goes well. What so you do?

“Looks like its some mother fucking ninja’s in the house!”

That line is a direct quote from Mr. Robert Van Winkle a.k.a. Vanilla Ice. On Saturday I had the fortune to witness an anomaly, a Vanilla Ice concert. Why was I there? A few friends and I went to Brownies 38th st for some drinks to celebrate my birthday. Vanilla Ice just happened to be there. I have to admit I was a big fan of his and can still do the dance to his best known song, Ice, Ice baby! I still have 2 of his albums and yes I said 2.

I was going to write whole post about it but who really cares? I’ll just leave you with some of his quotes.

“How many of ya’ll watched the surreal live this year? I had the chance to hang out with a legend, Ron Jeremy.”

“I paved the way for Eminem!”

“I have a new album coming out on under ground platinum, go out and get it. Don’t sleep on it creep on it.”

There were more but I think these will suffice.

26 years ago I was born. On this day, 26 years after that, I Blog. At the age of 26 the Voice of Unicron in Transformers: The Movie wrote Citizen Kane. In other words, this is my year! One of the screenplays I’m working on will be the next Citizen Kane! What I mean by that is, it will be a commercial failure, but regarded by many as the best film ever made. Now all I have to do is find the exact one, then write it. But first, I have to celebrate my birthday.

I’ve never experienced writers block, but I do have Writer’s Laz and Writer’s ADD. You might call them something else, but being as this is a post on my blog, that is what they will be called. A while back I had the fortune to see one of my favorite “film makers”, Kevin Smith in his hometown of Red Bank, NJ. If you don’t know, he does this question and answer thing for his fans. These could last anywhere from 2 hours to the 7 hour marathon I witnessed. One of the questions asked was, “Do you believe in writer block and or do you have/get it?” Kevin Smith’s answer to the question was, “I never get writers block, I kind of get writer’s laz. I don’t really get blocked, I just get lazy.” I have writer’s “laz” on top of a case of writer’s ADD. My problem is I’m just lazy. Sometimes I don’t want to do anything but sleep. The worst part about it is, sometimes I’ll have Writer’s laz all day long and right when I decide I’m going to go write, I sit down in front of my computer, write one sentence and then fall asleep. As I have yet to find a way to write while I’m sleep this usually doesn’t do my projects any good.

My case of Writer’s ADD also keeps me from doing any writing. Most people call it procrastination. I don’t because while it could be that, I have better ways of procrastinating then thinking about which project I will do next, which is what I do. One of my biggest problems is knowing which project to pick next. I have a bunch of new ideas and want to pick the right one so when I’m done with it, it would have been well worth it. I don’t want to start something and lose interest in it because in the back of my head I have that other project that might be better then the one I’m working on.

As it stands, I have a short that I just did a polish on that needs another re-write. My next project will be a feature in the thriller genre. I hope to have the first draft done before summer, and it should take that long because of the Writer’s Laz and ADD.

When it comes to collecting information, what kind of person are you? If some one wanted you to take a look at something, what would be the best way for them to get the message to you? Would it be visual? Having you look at a tape or DVD? Maybe you could presses the information better if you listened to it. If those don’t work, maybe you reading the information will do the trick. Me, I’m more of a watch or listen kind of guy. Lately I have been looking for some podcast on the subject of screenwriting. The first one I came across was, Sam And Jim Go To Hollywood. Their podcast is full of energy and good tips on things from Character, to how to handle a pitch meeting. There are only 11 shows and I have listened to all of them and would give this a podcast an A- only because the last show, Voices in out heads, was just weird. They said they didn’t plan the show and maybe they should have.

Another podcast I like is the Creative Screenwriting magazine podcast. Right now this one only has 3 show as of now but has the potential to be a very good podcast. I also listen the Treatment from KCRW. This by far is the best of the few I’ve listened to. Another one is Spike Lee’s Inside Man podcast, which is also very good. Are there anymore?

It’s been awhile, I know. Does anyone care? The funny thing is installed a counter right before I took almost a month off from this blog and more people stopped by. Maybe they like the idea of me writing but not the actual writing. Anyway, here are a few updates:

The book a week thing I was trying to do, didn’t work. Still haven’t really finished the first one I started. I’m reading 3 books beside that one as well as 4 or 5 magazines.

I decided that I needed to read more books on story and chose to put down the screenplay books. I think I have a good grasp on those as I have read tons. Personally I think my weakness is in story development. So I have started reading books on that subject.

Also, I finished the first draft of my short screenplay, Connected. I like the way its come along but I know it needs whole lot of work. I’m also starting another short script as well as a outlining a feature. So there you have it. Maybe after I’m done with the second draft I’ll post a scene or two to see what you guys think.

A book a week… Yea right!

I decided I would read/re-read all of my screenwriting books over again in light of me getting back in to writing screenplays. I have close to 10 of them, if not more(Don’t know the exact number because I’m writing this from work) and have read most. I’m trying to read one a week (7 day week) because I have other books I’m also reading and have since put on hold. The main reason I’m re-reading them is because they are supposed to be used for reference and I haven’t gone back and read any more then once.

The first book I’ll be reading is: The 101 habits of highly successful screenwriters: Insider secrets from Hollywoods top writers. This was one of my favorites out off all the ones I own. I highly recommend it. I think this should be one of the first book people new to screenwriting must read. The book is formatted in an interview style with some of the businesses top screenwriting professionals answering questions that everyone wants to ask but can’t get close enough to do so. If you on the fence about whether you want to be a screenwriter, what it takes to be one or any other question, I’m sure this book has the answer.

Explained by the Author:

This book is not intended to replace any of the books on craftsmanship. As
Robert McKee says,”No one needs another recipe book to reheat Hollywood
leftovers.” Whereas the more then one hundred books on the craft attempt to
teach the reader what to do, this book outlines, by
asking those who are already doing it successfully, how to do it. It focuses on the necessary habits, so
that the “how” becomes second nature to you. In other words, it explains how to be a screenwriter.

This book departs from the established interview books in that its
structure is organized by topic rather the by individual interview, following a
much more efficient model of reverse engineering. In other words, it focuses on a
particular habit, trait, or indispensable skill, and then has a group of highly
successful screenwriters share their thoughts on the subject, much like a panel
of experts discussing a specific topic.

I will list the other books as I get to them, but now I have to go read this
one as I am already behind.