Create A Logline Meme

Thanks to a Rhys meme tag, here is my meme post. The meme goes a lil' something like this, to quote the lovely Rhys:

1. Post 3 consecutive pages of any script you choose that you've written. It can be a completed project, something you're still working on, a movie, spec pilot, spec episode, whatever...as long as it's 3 consecutive pages. You must tell the title if it's an existing TV show. If it's a movie or spec pilot, revealing the title is up to you.

2. Tag 5 peeps to do the same.

3. Follow the meme around (it can be the people you tagged, the person who tagged you, someone's you stumbled upon) and after reading the pages, come up with a logline/episode summary you think fits and post it beneath the entry. Try to do this for at least 5 people.

4. After your own meme has gotten enough guesses, post the REAL summary/logline and see who got the closest.

Ok. Some of you may know this script from past postings, and if you do, well, I don't know what to tell you. It's called HEADSHOT.

INT. CASTING COMPANY - LOBBY
DAGNUS TODD, a paranoid-type in his late 20s, sits across from JENNY JAMES, a hottie in her early 20s. A pile of her own headshots sits on her lap.
Near her are three other ACTORS. One reads a Variety with a headline that reads:“Indie Film Cast & Crew Found Slaughtered”
Pacing near Jenny is NICK, a perfectly-built dude in his 20s.

DAGNUS
Nice headshot.

Jenny sighs.

DAGNUS
I said, nice headshot.

Jenny looks at him.

JENNY
I didn’t realize you were talking to me.

DAGNUS
It’s cool.

Jenny smiles politely and fidgets.

DAGNUS
So anyways, nice headshot.

JENNY
Oh, right. Thanks.

DAGNUS
No problem. I’m nervous. You?

JENNY
No. I just wanna get it over with.

DAGNUS
It’s my favorite part of the process. The audition.

JENNY
Oh. Well, my favorite part of the process is actually getting the part.

Dagnus laughs annoyingly.

DAGNUS
That’s a good one. Can I use that?

JENNY
It’s all yours.

DAGNUS
You had any big roles?

JENNY
Few things here and there. Was a stand-in on a soap. A few supporting parts in some college films. A lot of theater.

DAGNUS
You’re too pretty for the theater. You should be up on a great big movie screen, in the lead role. Way too pretty.

JENNY
Oh. Um, thanks.

Nick stops pacing.

NICK
Hey, dude. You’re like harassing her. Leave her alone.

DAGNUS
I’m not harassing anybody.

NICK
Whatever, creep.

Nick sits next to Jenny, staring at Dagnus.

DAGNUS
You here for the audition?

NICK
I already got a part. My buddy is the director. I’m just chillin’ like a villain.

DAGNUS
Oh, cool. I’m chilling, too.

NICK
It ain’t “chilling.” It’s chillin.’ And you're not.

DAGNUS
Hey, you say tomAto, I say tomAHto.

NICK
And you’d be wrong.

I hearby tag Tom, Aaron, Robert, Lew and Scriptweaver.

Cranberry Sauced frickin' rooles!

Poster is from a little indie called Teeth. Not sure how the movie will turn out but I like the poster.

Turkey day is over. Thank Christ. Such a pain. But I do look forward to chowing down on the sides (turkey is ok, but I'm not thrilled about eating it). I'm a Stove Top stuffing guy, and I also need to have my cranberry sauce (from a can obviosuly, I won't eat it unless it has the can shape on it. An assortment of pies is nice, I prefer Pumpkin, Lemon, and Apple.

Haven't worked on much this week. Been crashing a lot, maybe I need to switch vitamins. Trying to get my Laid re-write done, and I'm eager to push ahead on some new scripts I've been kicking around.

Songs of the week: Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head and 2 from Radiohead - All I Need & Videotape.

Be safe.

Flashbacking

Every once in a while, I get slapped in the face with a image from my past, usually just a flash for no reason at all. This ever happened to y'alls? Perhaps I'm just loony. Probably that.

Anyhoo, I've got a two part question for those give a rat's. List some cheesy/cool/whatev stuff from your past that you think of every now and then that takes you back to a moment/event in your childhood. 2nd, name some flicks that you saw when you were young that you thought were like totally rad but now, not so much.

Here's My Part 1 List:
*Parachute Pants - I looked PHAT in those, boooooyyy!!!
*Good bad bands I loved: Night Ranger, Asia & Journey, all the way. Asia once said, "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes." Has it?
*Mousse - I used a LOT of mousse when I was in my teens. I mean, my hair would not move. At all. Why should it?
*"Girls" by the Beastie Boys
*NKOTB
*Jailbreak
*Playing Chinese Checkers with my Mom.
*My X-Wing (best spaceship EVER).
*Thundercats - Um, ho.
*Legos - Before they came with directions & moving parts.
*My Diamond Back bike.
*Mix Tapes (I made dozens)
*Braces - I got them during my freshman year and had them removed the week after I graduated. Go, high school!
*Hitting Disney with my Grandparents.
*Drakkar Noir

And don't forget videogames:
Atari 7600, Colecovision, Intellivision.
Dig Dug, Q-Bert, Galaga.
And the Gateway/MAC of its time: The C64. I ruled Bard's Tale, by the way.

And now, my movies (forgive me, I was young and stoopit):

Red Dawn: "WOLVERINES!" Loved that!
Friday The 13th Part 4 - I was cheering with the rest of the guttertrash in the audience when Jason was getting hacked up by Corey Feldman.
Rocky 4 - Two words: Ivan Drago.
Commando - Not that commando. I prefer boxers or boxer-briefs. I'm talkin' Arnie kicking ass & takes names. Sweet.
Invasion USA - Chuck Norris. Also kicking ass & taking additional names.
Lucas - I don't blame you, Luc. That chick is HOT.
Oxford Blues - Rob Lowe's finest hour.
St. Elmo's Fire - Rob Lowe on sax (Not the finest hour)
They Live - Roddy!!!
Gotcha! - Totally awesome teen spy triller!

Teen Movies that fucking ruled:
The Breakfast Club (Actually, one of my all-time faves).
Weird Science
Better Off Dead
16 Candles

Note: I was never a fan of Pretty In Pink (Gasp!)

Your turn............

My Best & Worst

Here is a list - just for the hell of it - that describes my best and worst screenplays, as well as the in-betweens.


Da Worst:


Lost & Found - first script I ever wrote (1997), painful to read now. Painfull. I'd rather crawl across a field of glass (yes, naked, obviously) than have someone read it. It was about friends searching for themselves, blah, blah, blah. Get over it.


Stain - 2nd script ever. A story about homeless youths. Made a movie out of it too, which was even worst 'cause of its crappy budget. The main problem was that I held back, and I should have pushed the envelope more. Plus it was bad.


Love Interest - Has some decent scenes, but overall a mess. About a guy who is in love with a girl, then meets another cool girl, and then some other stuff happens, and ends up alone anyways. Why? I dunno.


True Colors - My worst title, by far. About a long distance college relationship that doesn't work out. Lame, pointless. I never actually printed it out from my old word processor (Then does it really exist?)


Alleys & Intersections - Another dopey title. Crappy crime drama where the main character dies at the end 'cause I thought it be cool if the main character died at the end. Main character didn't really need to die at the end.


My Best:


Union - My latest and greatest, at least in my own eyeballs. Trying to come up with a decent logline, and I'm not sure I want to post it for the world to see quite yet - I'm afraid the idea will get stolen and then I'd go postal.


Good People - A fun story, and my first option. It's gone through a ton of drafts, and I might revisit it soon. Wrote it back in '98.


Cricket Hill - A pretty edgy take on family dysfunction. Includes but not limited to incest (the game the whole family can play - by Milton Bradley!) between one of the brothers & the sister, adoption, weed, an affair, etc. It's better than I'm making it sound.


The Flight Of Barnaby - This will win me the Oscar, if I don't leap from the Walt Whitman Bridge first. It's a period love story set in the early 1900s about an inventor trying to invent the first airplane. Kind fo a hard sell, but worth it damn it! Written in 1999.


The Money Shot - Apparently, producers shun porn-related movies, but if they didn't they'd love this puppy. It's about a college kid whose financial aid gets screwed up so he decides to make a porn & sell it to cover his tuition. Was optioned for 6 months in 2002 but then the producer dropped off the face of the Earth.

Shuttlecock - Comedy about Badminton. I love this script, it's fun, and I got a kick out of putting the word cock in a title.

The Rave At Danny Carter's House - well, it's about that. I wanted the story to build up to the rave at the end, but some people said it needs to happen sooner. F them.

A Couple Of Joes - This was optioned a few years ago. It's a fun, family movie about a kid named Joe (and his buddies) helping Joe's Grandpa (also named Joe) run for governor.

Doing It Sideways: The Joshua T. Bolt Story - Another porn script. Always loved this one. An out-of-work actor gets in a bind and turns to making porn with his friends. Their pornos take off just as Joshua's childhood love returns. Like a grown up versi9n of The Money Shot.

Tom Noodle - Tom (little kid around 9) goes searching for his Mom in the late 1920s, and his guide is a prostitute. Yeah, hard sell, but I thought it was solid.

Toss Ups:


Headshot - I set out to make a funky horror comedy about a weirdo extra who loses his shit on a film set and tries to kill everyone. Everyone who read it recommended to keep the killer's identity a secret, but the fun of it for me was to see this nutball losing it and offing everyone, I really didn't plan on making it some twist later, I wanted people to know that this is the killer, and let's see who can survive. Maybe I'm just an idiot.


White Gold - Yeah, that white gold. This was meant to be a simple little script and is, it would need only 1 location (a house). It's about a film crew trying to shoot a sex scene. I think it's fun and would be good for a low budget quick shoot, but plot wise there isn't a whole lot going on.


Smoking America - Pothead from NJ wins the Powerball and runs for President. Has promise, needs work though.


Brightsword - Kinda like The Princess Bride meets Lord of Da Rings. This would be a 180 million production. One of my fave scenes is where the main characters are swallowed by a whale and after stumbling around its belly, they are shat out. But I noticed the main character has a limited arc and I need to work on him.


Tourniquet - Small town goes searching for a missing penis that was flushed down a toilet. Too many characters and a little confusing, plus it takes too long to get to the slicing it off part, but I love huge portions of it. Obviously, a tough sell though.


Jablasco - Driver's Ed teacher hires students to kidnap wife so he can save her and look like a hero. Students turn on him and try to rob him and kidnap her for real. Not really like To Die For but it's been compared to it. I think it's a fun/dark script, but needs some work.


Zucker - I like it but it hasn't gotten great reviews from the peeps who have read it. Older man (Zucker) falls for a rich younger chick, then panics and takes off for Mexico, leaving her in debt. Rich dickheaded father of the chick sends a hitman after him. Zucker realizes he loves her and tries to break back into the US, with hitman in pursuit. I like it a ton, but it needs work, I need to get to the meat of the story quicker, Act 1 wanders a bit.


The Go Getters - Exactly like Freaks and Geeks, written before Freaks & Geeks. My longest to date, 140 pages.


The Bomb - I'd like to re-visit this. It's about a bomb that accidentally falls on a small town (doesn't go off) in the mid 50s. The government wants it back and the townsfolk try to hide it. Fun but needs another pass or 2.


Monster - My first horror flick. I wrote it back in 2000. I ramped up the action in it though, so there were bridges blowing up and scenes with the Army, etc. It's got some good stuff here and there.


Superhero Blues - Written before Mystery Men bombed. Basically about the everyday lives of Superheroes, what they deal with (Bills, divorce, etc).


Deacon Street - Dark dark drama. I mean, DARK! Guy watches Dad shoot himself, then loses his mind, ends up in a mental hospital (that's all BEFORE it begins). If I had the $$, I'd shoot it and win Sundance with it.
95% of the movie takes place in the mind of the main character.


20 Seconds In Dullville - Something Ed Burns has probably already made. I still like it, though I'd love to punch it up. A drama about coming back to the place where you grew up, and you've failed at life in every possible way.


Being Gordie Flynn - Depressed guy kidnaps then pretends to be Gordie Flynn (a cool rich guy) at Gordie's high school reunion. I'd work on it but I lost my disc, and didn't back it up. Note to self: Don't do that anymore.

West River Drive - I shot a version of this a few years ago. It's about a kid dealing with his mentally unstable mother. The script was pretty much taken from my childhood, although it had years of situations crammed into 100 minutes. I'm going to make it a book instead.

That's it. I've got probably 15 scripts I didn't mention, not too sure what categories they'd be in, but this is enough. I'm tired, and after seeing all the shit I've written (and not truly sold) I've gone and depressed myself.

My Meme

Okay, I just got slapped across the face by a meme. (love ya, MO). So here it is.

Post a song/video/link/lyrics to a tune that has inspired your writing, given you a script idea, has something to do with whatever you're currently writing, or just gets you in the mood (for writing, scumbags). Then carry on the grand meme tradition and tag some of your peeps.

Now, I'm internet-impaired so the best I can do is post links. But click on them because they rock.

So many choices. Geez. But there's one song that always blows me away, and it's best experienced with its video. Click here, then simply choose the 2nd video (glósóli music video), sit back and get inspired. This Sigur Ros composition astounds me, such a simple, beautiful piece of music and the video is breathtaking. Watch it and try NOT to be a better person afterwards.

But I've got a follow up, and it's a song I used in my movie from 2001 (Better Days), called Just Like Fred Astaire, by James. They've got about 6000 amazing songs that inspire me but this one is among my faves. The script for Better Days had a lot to do with finding love and all that jazz, and this song was a perfect fit. Check these lyrics:

I believe in happiness
I believe in love
I believe she fell to Earth from somewhere high above
I believe in Hollywood
Don't believe that love must bring despair
Cause when I hold her in my arms, I feel like Fred Astaire

Who said love is just a disease
A plague for the naive
These days no one believes

Meteors may strike the earth
Nations live and die
I'm the boy who got the girl
And now were gonna fly
We can cross the race divide
Bridge a gap that wasnt really there
Cause when I hold her in my arms, I feel like Fred Astaire

And here's the video.

I shall now tag Aaron, Crymes, Todd, Da Weaver, and Sweet Lew.

Sing A New Song

Several posts ago I mentioned that I sing in the car, not the shower. Well, today I thought about what songs really make me want to lose my voice; the songs that you sing along to until your voice cracks/breaks/shatters/melts. Here are some I came up with, most are things I listen to on a regular basis, with a couple oldies (for me at least) from the 80s. Feel free to add to the list!

U2 - 40, Desire, Bad, Where the Streets Have No Name, Exit, Beautiful Day, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, One

INXS - Don't Change, Guns In The Sky, New Sensation, Suicide Blonde

James - Sit Down, Sometimes, Seven

Youth Group - See Saw

Arcade Fire - Wake Up, Keep the Car Running, No Cars Go

The Waterboys - The Whole Of The Moon

World Party - Way Down Now

Tears For Fears - Shout

Snow Patrol - Run

REM - Superman, Green

Depeche Mode - Never Let Me Down

The Cure - Just Like Heaven, In Between Days

New Order - Regret, Age Of Consent, Love Vigilantes

Coldplay - Yellow, In My Place

Travis - Turn

Radiohead - Let Down, Just, Karma Police, Fake Plastic Trees

Interpol - Not Even Jail

Sum 41 - Pieces

My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade

GNR - Paradise city, Sweet Child O'Mine

Journey - Faithfully

Asia - The Heat Of The Moment, Only Time Will Tell

Secret Machines - 1000 Seconds

Nada Surf - The Blizzard Of '77, Killian's Red

The Killers - Smile Like You Mean It, When You Were Young

Bosox!

This is sweet.

My Shorts

Been a while since I've made a movie, '03 to be exact. And that's just fine. I like just writing for now, maybe someday in the future I'll get the bug again, but after shooting 3.5 features and some shorts - all of which went nowhere after lots of hard work by most involved - I have no plans to get back on that horse.

I was going over the list of shorts in my mind today, and here they are:

The Passenger - My Senior Thesis project. What a wasted opportunity. I had access to cameras, film & editing equipment, and I blew it on a lame concept/plot:

Guy is driving home from college, passes broken-down motorists, then he breaks down, starts to walk. Calls home, hangs up on stoner brother, gets beat up by broken-down motorists he passed earlier, then keeps walking.

What did it mean? Was it a metaphor for his life? Beats the shit out of me.

Neil - In class project, the only one I didn't direct. I acted as a newscaster who delcares his love for the weatherman while Neil Diamond's "Today" blasts in the background.

N2 - No budget horror: A group of friends is stalked and killed in a house during a night of nothing happening. At the end, after the last person is killed outside, we see the killer - It's a film camera, who comes back inside the house and sits in front of the TV to watch Neil Diamon sing "Sweet Caroline."

Short - Actually pretty good. Story of 2 homeless guys trying to make ends meet. Very little dialogue, mostly stark images & music mixed in with flashes of their past (via old home movies).

FeedMeBack - Non-sensical film class project, basically I just slapped a bunch of images together (including funky feedback of a video camera taping its own images from a TV screen - trippy). Teacher loved it for its meaning. Damned if I knew its meaning, I just thought it looked cool. Got me an A! Yeah, boooyyy!!

The Family Dog - The most successful. Played a few minor fests and made some cash off the internet (back when Hypnotic, Ifilm and Atom websites were popular). Shot on Super 16. Sweet.

The Reappearance Of Homer Pitts - I liked this one. Story of a kid who feels left out and turns invisible. When he realizes he family indeed loves him, he reappears.

The Disintegration Of A Boy Band: Made before bashing boybands was popular. Ended with a "where are they now" sequence. One was lost in a forest, one cleaned trash of the streets, one was homeless, and the last was a stock boy.

George Clooney as Michael Clayton

Damn! A must-see. One of the best of the year (My tops of the year list is now Sunshine, Michael Clayton and The Lookout).

Clooney is just amazing in it. He really is. A very layered, incredible performance. He lays it all out there. Tilda Swinton is as good as always. Tom Wilkinson and Sidney Pollack rock out in their supporting parts.

Tony Gilroy's writing and directing are so perfect, it blew me away. Not a scene is wasted.

One of my faves was the sequence at a birthday party (at Clayton's childhood home), including the scene with his son in the car afterwards. Any scene with Clayton and his brothers were perfectly done. Gilroy knows mood & tone, and he pulls it all off. Brilliant.

And there is a scene about mid-way through that will rock you. It was so creepy, so freaking disturbing, it easily blows away any junk-gore torture porn bullshit you'll see in Hostel or Saw 9: Buzzsaw!

Check it out.

UNION - Done.

Still polishing my newest baby (UNION), but for the most part, it's complete. And I love it. Can't wait to get a nice, sleep logline together, when I have one I'm pleased with I'll post it and see what y'all think. It clocks in at 102 pages.

Have been editing LAID with some notes from my managers, so although I have a decent version I can send out, it's not officially out of the oven. It's like I put it back in because the middle was gooey....or another way to look at it is they gave me some killer notes and I decided to work on it further.

I just don't have enough freakin' time to write. Between work, wife, kids, and awesome TV like Reaper, Chuck, & 30 Rock, it's hard to get more writing done. Two scripts this year is decent (Laid & Union plus 2 re-writes of 2 older scripts) but I've got about 9837 more ideas I want to write, and easily 100 saved files on my cpu that are either partial scripts or a bunch of scenes that I've been dying to get to.

I'm itching to work on something dramatic next, so I might get to my Dakota idea, or my horror epic. If I feel comedic then I'll jump back into the Stand-In (already at page 60, I just put it aside to simmer) or Temp'd (I'm into act 2) or my mini-golf comedy I started 2 years ago, or Rollin' Thunda, another comedy. Jesus, see?!

For tonight, I'll polish Union. It's a damn good script, I just know it. It's sorta not too commercial, but then again, kinda is.

Oh well, I'll listen to the new Radiohead while I edit. I downloaded the new album. Amazing. As Tommy Cruise once said while manning a machine gun in TAPS: "It's fucking beautiful, man!!!"

Perry Does It Again

Box Office:
Why Did I Get Married: 21.7 million - Damn!
Game Plan: 11 million
We Own The Night: 10.8
Clayton: 10.4
Heartbreak Kid: 7.3 (ouch)
Lizzy 2: 6.2
Da Kingdom: 4.6
Across the Universe: 3.8
RE:3: 2.6
Seeker: 2.2
Final Season: 664,351 (Jesus Christ)

I'm gonna try to see Clayton this week, would love to check out Darjeeling & Yuma, too. Is it just me or does 30 Days Of Night look bad ass?

Damn!

Man, those Rockies handed our asses to us. I almost feel like the Mets....oh, wait, no I don't. We beat the piss out of the Mets all season and skipped past them to win the Division.

Tough loss for the Phillies, but it's their own fault, they just didn't hit.

So, Redsox vs. Rockies? That's what I'm thinking. If so, it's the Redsox in 5.

j o y d i v i s i o n

Please check out this trailer for the Anton Corbijn film, CONTROL, about the life (and death) of Ian Curtis, lead singer for Joy Division (who, after his suicide, became New Order). The film looks amazing, love the crisp black & white, and the actor playing Ian looks JUST freaking like him. Can't wait for this.

IRON MAN

Go, Ben!

I saw this on the movie-bytes.com website:

Newcomer Ben Frahm, who had been working as a special-needs teacher at a middle school, has sold his comedy spec Dr. Sensitive to Universal in a deal valued in the mid-six figures. Shady Acres will produce. The script, in the vein of Liar, Liar, is about a doctor with the world's worst bedside manner who undergoes a transformative experience that makes him overly empathetic. The screenplay was discovered by Frahm's reps at Underground Films through a query letter, and was developed for a year prior to going Shady Acres, where it was developed further.

The thing that caught my eye was that it was initially discovered via a query letter. Whoa. Somebody actually read one of those things? Anyways, good for Ben.

Funny Games Poster

Kudos to the marketing people for this film. Actually, there have been some pretty cool posters coming around lately. Can't stand the typical "headshot" posters Hollywood usually slaps together. Anyway, check this out........

Phillies Phever!!!

Congrats to our Fighting Phils, who came from 7 games back only a short time ago to the champs of their division. Certainly, it helped that the Mets completely C H O K E D, but the Phillies kicked all kinds of ass to win their division. Sweet! Jimmy Rollins - MVP!

Before The Devil.........

I need to add this to my list of "must-sees," this is the new film from Sidney Lumet. Sweet poster.

Also, the Wes Anderson short film (prequel to Darjeeling) called Hotel Chevalier is a FREE download on itunes (co-stars Natalie Portman (she gets nekkid!!!). Check it out.

"Union" countdown - I'm into the 80s, I should have an updated page count for my next post.

Go Phils! Goodbye, Mets.

Script countdown - UNION

Finally finishing this one. Been creeping and crawling around my head for a few years, got it started last year but put it on the backburner while I did other scripts.

It's called Union, and is a sorta comedy/drama about a family, set around Christmas. I won't divulge the rest yet, the actual plot is pretty high god damn concept.

I'm on Page 74 now, and plan to wrap it up within the next week.

TV

Some cool stuff coming up this season. The shows I'm looking forward to most are Chuck & Reaper, and the return of Lost, Weeds, Dexter and Heroes. Californication is holding my interest, but Tell Me You Love Me is a snooze. It's supposed to be so "real." Try lame. Bunch of whiners.

It'll be interesting to see where Heroes goes after their limp finale - some showdown. They should have just had a rock/paper/scissor battle royale. But it's a good show that should get better.

Thought the first K-Ville was decent, although I'm not sure that an escaped convict could join the Army & be a cop, just because records were lost in New Orleans from Katrina. Wouldn't his social security number come into play?

Bionic Woman could go either way, but I think it'll be decent. Can't promise I'll watch though. I'll check out Pushing Daisies, at least it sounds different.

What will get canceled? Hmm, there's no way Life will make it past a few epdisodes. It's a so-so premise, and too much other stuff on for people to care. Big Shots will probably have a big premiere then die. Journeyman looks blah - people didn't dig Daybreak and that had Taye Diggs. And Dirty Sexy Money might make it, but it's got a shit title and a lesser Baldwin.

What will U be watching??????