screenwriting

On Learning Screenplay Format

I’m not a teacher. It’s not that I’m not good at it. I’ve taught things to people before, but I don’t have the long term patience for drilling stuff into people’s heads. Put me in front of a class of thirty students and I’d start the hour teaching Calculus and end up making balloon animals. […]

Blue Cat Screenplay Competition

As of right now, there are 17 days, 15 hours, 29 minutes and 22 seconds until time’s up for submissions to this year’s Blue Cat Screenplay Competition. I only bring it up because if you’re thinking about entering, you might want to to rethink that. Well, I mean, unless you don’t mind settling for second […]

Final Act: Revenge

As the end of the year approaches, so does Six In 2006, my big plan to complete six screenplays in one year. Here’s a quick recap. January & February: rewrite STRANGE ANGELS. Done. Though, it needs yet another pass. Can’t quite seem to crack that one. It’s difficult and rather large in scope. March & […]

Nightmares

Haven’t been posting as often lately. People are tired of seeing the same post for three and four day stretches. There’s a reason for that. Three reasons, actually. The first has to do with that flowchart of the previous post. I’m racing at light speed through the new script. I’ll be wrapping it up this […]

How To Write An Action Scene

I’m working on the finale of BLOOD & GLASS. In fact, it’s the finale of the whole trilogy. The epic, final battle scene unfolds in a downtown Los Angeles high-rise. It’s gonna be huge, like DIE HARD in a … well, in a building. But wait,we have to break it down. What’s really going on? […]

Rejection #187

So I get a little item in the mail yesterday. It’s from the Austin Film Festival. Remember this? I sent them ELEMENT because I could really use the prize money and it’s the world’s greatest unproduced script. I won’t provide you with the entire text of the letter, just the part that counts: To summarize, […]

Dahlia overload

Website traffic is through the roof all of a sudden. It’s the ol’ Black Dahlia again. Do an image search for “Black Dahlia” and you get this. The very first picture on the page is on my own site. Click on that and you’re pulled into my page about the delicate skin. I wrote the […]

BLACK DAHLIA French Key Art

I guarantee you my script is better. From Variety: ROME — The world preem of Brian De Palma’s James Ellroy adaptation “The Black Dahlia” will open the 63rd Venice Film Festival in competition on Aug. 30. Based on the 1947 L.A. murder of aspiring actress Elizabeth Short and focusing on the investigation by two former […]

Late Night Editing

I’m at home. It’s past midnight. I’ve had a few glasses of Dry Creek Zin. It’s been a long day. Today, I work on Blood & Mist, I nap, I stop by the store for some fresh tomatoes, some basil and some garlic, I work on a client’s website, I walk around Hollywood with my […]

The Horse Latitudes

A stream-of-consciousness post about writing. This is where I go a little crazy. I’m on page 88 of the new script. if I reach page 110 by the 30th (certainly feasible) then I’ll have managed to catch up on the whole Six in 2006 scheme. That in itself is remarkable because I started this one […]

Austin Film Fest

As I mention in yesterday’s post, Script Number Two of Six in 2006 is done. I print it up on Sunday, which is a good four weeks later than I’d palnned. But sickness, New Mexico and Coachella all conspire to make me late. And Script Number Three is already twenty pages towards its eventual immortalization […]

Six In 2006 – Part III

It’s May. That means a lot of things to a lot of people. For my Sister-In-Law, Joy, as well as my friend, Victor, it means Happy Birthday. So happy birthday, y’all. For me, it means we’re on to part three of the increasingly famous Six In 2006. Script Number Two is supposed to be done […]

Six in 2006 Phase II

So Strange Angels is done (more or less.) It’s now the First of March. That means it’s time to move on to the next script. But this is the part where I’m paralyzed. The blank page stares, zombie-eyed, back at me. I know what I’m supposed to write. I even have it mapped out. The […]

Six in 2006

Looking over the past several posts (not counting the boring blog-related ones) the casual reader might assume that this is blog about music. It isn’t really. In fact, it isn’t really about anything. It’s just a place for me to write some stuff. ‘Cause that’s what I do. I’m in L.A. because I’m thinking about […]

Pitch

I haven’t been able to post this week. Since returning from SF, it’s been all about catching-up. That, and preparation. I’m pitching my new script to Maple Shade over at the Warner lot today. Then Threshold Entertainment tomorrow. Then I’m meeting with an independent director on Saturday regarding The Last Hit. He wants to make […]