Hi this blog is not dead. Well, I didn't make the Top 50 but I sure did make the top 350+ out of many thousands of entries, and that must mean I did something right.
Coming soon: The Horror Competition!!
In November: pitch fests in NYC and LA!
Thursday, October 9, 2008
My Flash Portfolio v 3.01
Now with a more interactive and fun kind of face, although the two highlighted pieces - my casino game, and my personal wealth calculator (this may be more universally useful than I had imagined) - may still be buggy. I invite you to play, twiddle, break them and let me know how you did it.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Moondance 2008 Semi Finals
I'm very happy that the Moondance '08 competition nominated The Propeller as a semi-finalist. It also got a Blue Star at Trigger Street - that's an old draft that bears little resemblance to the script as it is today.
I'm traveling to LA in November for the Screenwriters' Expo, with the intent to sell my scripts (and see the Wild West again), so if there are veterans of the Expo or Angelenos out there reading this, don't be shy!
I'm traveling to LA in November for the Screenwriters' Expo, with the intent to sell my scripts (and see the Wild West again), so if there are veterans of the Expo or Angelenos out there reading this, don't be shy!
Thursday, May 15, 2008
My Flash Portfolio
I've completely overhauled my Flash website. It has five clips nested in an interface which took about 12 and 1/2 hours to create in MX. (Not all at once, as Steven Wright observed.)
UPDATE July 08: I've added a new SWF, a calculator designed to show off my OOP programming. What I would like is for this to load the final page into your spreadsheet, so a user can do a week to week budget of what they save. (Ideally this would be available to Paypal donors ;) but we'll have to see the reaction first.) I also want to add more options for week to week budgeting. This is just a work in progress, as it always is. As for the main menu, I fixed some of the weirdness on the different layers. I don't want to overhaul the whole thing again but I do want the page to have a more active look.
I hope you enjoy my hand-drawn style of animation, because this is just the beginning.
UPDATE July 08: I've added a new SWF, a calculator designed to show off my OOP programming. What I would like is for this to load the final page into your spreadsheet, so a user can do a week to week budget of what they save. (Ideally this would be available to Paypal donors ;) but we'll have to see the reaction first.) I also want to add more options for week to week budgeting. This is just a work in progress, as it always is. As for the main menu, I fixed some of the weirdness on the different layers. I don't want to overhaul the whole thing again but I do want the page to have a more active look.
I hope you enjoy my hand-drawn style of animation, because this is just the beginning.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Beverly Hills Film Festival 2008
Have I mentioned that I'm a finalist!? The fest has been running all week, and tonight is the awards ceremony, including honors for writers. I entered on a very old draft of The Bloody Duchess, which has no chance in hell of winning and plus I can't afford the outrageous airfare to LA right now.
If any other entrants followed this link from the online exchange, firstly, welcome to my blog! And congratulations to us for placing, and especially to whoever gets the grand prize. Options and nice weather is what I wish for everyone!
UPDATE: Congratulations to the top 3 winners! The director estimated over 500 scripts were entered, and 69 were chosen as finalists. The top 14th percentile isn't too bad, is it?
If any other entrants followed this link from the online exchange, firstly, welcome to my blog! And congratulations to us for placing, and especially to whoever gets the grand prize. Options and nice weather is what I wish for everyone!
UPDATE: Congratulations to the top 3 winners! The director estimated over 500 scripts were entered, and 69 were chosen as finalists. The top 14th percentile isn't too bad, is it?
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Almost An Evening, by Ethan Coen
Hot off winning an Oscar (finally!) along with directing brother Joel for "No Country For Old Men", Ethan Coen hits the mean floorboards of Greenwich Village with a trilogy of plays, now running at the Bleecker Street Theater. And his Beckett influence jumps to the forefront here, although there's still room for his signature slapstick and jaundiced eye.
F. Murray Abraham, who's got an Oscar himself, is the most recognized name in the cast, and (with Lebowski-esque hair, natch) plays God, literally - and then plays playing God. He also delivers a f-bomb laced monologue that had me and the whole theater rolling. Carlin himself would be proud. The whole cast, eight actors playing over twenty roles, is aces. The other leads are Tim Hopper as a shady Briton who has a crisis of character, and Joey Slotnick as a man who can't get out of his doctor's waiting room. Enjoy!
Tickets are readily available, or you can make a reservation and get a cool personalized ticket package at www.broadwayoffers.com. And the requisite link: www.almostanevening.com Maybe one day we'll see that fourth play?
F. Murray Abraham, who's got an Oscar himself, is the most recognized name in the cast, and (with Lebowski-esque hair, natch) plays God, literally - and then plays playing God. He also delivers a f-bomb laced monologue that had me and the whole theater rolling. Carlin himself would be proud. The whole cast, eight actors playing over twenty roles, is aces. The other leads are Tim Hopper as a shady Briton who has a crisis of character, and Joey Slotnick as a man who can't get out of his doctor's waiting room. Enjoy!
Tickets are readily available, or you can make a reservation and get a cool personalized ticket package at www.broadwayoffers.com. And the requisite link: www.almostanevening.com Maybe one day we'll see that fourth play?
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Remembering The Wire
Five seasons, 60 episodes, and at least a dozen distinct storylines later, the grungy, truthful, uncannily real series is retired from HBO. It just gave me a reason to pay for cable, and I hope carved a path for more shows that will redefine their genres the way The Wire redefined the police drama.
One interesting aspect is the way it not only illuminated the world the detectives and their quarry, the druglords, create and inhabit, but it also illuminates other professions: dockworker, teacher, newspaper writer and editor, coach, priest. Compare this with the insulting two dimensional portrayal created by a lesser TV writer for, say, CSI. They may have read a little about someone like Cutty the boxing coach, or the Sobotka family of the Baltimore Stevedores union, or Gus the overly ambitious cub reporter. They may have read about a Detective Jim McNulty too, or Omar The Terrible (the only openly gay gangster I've ever seen, and a character for whom the word 'sissy' is quite inappropriate), or Stringer Bell. This show, however, is written by people who were these people, or neighbors or best friends or even family of these people. And David Simon and Ed Burns, leading a crew of superb writers (including star novelists like Dennis Lehane and Richard Price) were in a rare position to not have anything held back in telling their stories.
Not to mention the cast. Clarke Peters as The black Sherlock Holmes, Lester Freamon. John Doman as the cruel and conniving Major, then Deputy Commissioner Rawls. Wendell Pierce as the dapper Bunk. There's a whole lot of characters here, a guide to which can be found here: http://www.hbo.com/thewire/orgchart And lots of changes are made in the finale "30", which may feel disappointing but is entirely appropriate to what the show means. The Wire is about the world, and specifically urban America, the way it really is: good guys don't triumph, underdogs don't win, and power doesn't ever fail. It's not pretty or heartwarming, but it's true.
One interesting aspect is the way it not only illuminated the world the detectives and their quarry, the druglords, create and inhabit, but it also illuminates other professions: dockworker, teacher, newspaper writer and editor, coach, priest. Compare this with the insulting two dimensional portrayal created by a lesser TV writer for, say, CSI. They may have read a little about someone like Cutty the boxing coach, or the Sobotka family of the Baltimore Stevedores union, or Gus the overly ambitious cub reporter. They may have read about a Detective Jim McNulty too, or Omar The Terrible (the only openly gay gangster I've ever seen, and a character for whom the word 'sissy' is quite inappropriate), or Stringer Bell. This show, however, is written by people who were these people, or neighbors or best friends or even family of these people. And David Simon and Ed Burns, leading a crew of superb writers (including star novelists like Dennis Lehane and Richard Price) were in a rare position to not have anything held back in telling their stories.
Not to mention the cast. Clarke Peters as The black Sherlock Holmes, Lester Freamon. John Doman as the cruel and conniving Major, then Deputy Commissioner Rawls. Wendell Pierce as the dapper Bunk. There's a whole lot of characters here, a guide to which can be found here: http://www.hbo.com/thewire/orgchart And lots of changes are made in the finale "30", which may feel disappointing but is entirely appropriate to what the show means. The Wire is about the world, and specifically urban America, the way it really is: good guys don't triumph, underdogs don't win, and power doesn't ever fail. It's not pretty or heartwarming, but it's true.
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