Archive for the ‘Film’ Category

I’ve got a birthday party in an hour (Happy Birthday, Laurapalooza!) so let’s get right to it:

- Been watching THE WIRE a lot lately. I had taken a break after season two. A break that lasted almost a year. Not because I didn’t like it, but because I was so blown away and wanted to savor the experience of watching it the first time. I hope to some day write and produce a television show that is a tenth as brilliant, real, incisive, brave, and chilling. The layers of it and its ability to introduce new characters while slowly expanding the reach of the narrative is unbelievable. I’m at the start of season four and I can honestly say that no show has ever touched THE WIRE’s level of complexity and feeling of unflinching reality.

-On the flip side of that, looks like BOSS is, for all intents and purposes, dead in the water with HWY 61 and PH. His agency, the biggest and most powerful in all of Hollywood, sent it to four heads of cable networks and they all passed – unwilling supposedly to do anything with politics with or without PH attached. It appears that we won’t be getting it back any time soon, either; which is baffling and frustrating – though it didn’t get us to where we are for now. We haven’t reached the end of the road completely, but we’re just about there. I’ve been told that unless someone comes to HWY 61 and PH and says: “Yes, we absolutely want to do BOSS” it won’t get pushed anymore and PH has definitely decided that he doesn’t want to go out and knock on doors/pitch it, which is ultimately what the “no’s” thus far are telling us what the project needs to get off the ground. It’s a tough spot as we share representation now. Apparently, they’re going to push it to the backburner for now and consider what else they may want to do with it. Which will mean nothing, in the end. Hopefully, down the road, it will be like a MAD MEN which was rejected and then filed away by Matt Weiner for eight years, until he had success and could do it.

- Looks like I may be getting some good copywright freelance work coming up (Thanks Artichoke Artisans!) Along with a few other things hear and there, I feel like – thanks to move – I’ll be able to tread water and maybe even break into copywrighting a bit more as I search for a teaching gig of some kind. I may do some extra work here and there to fill in the gaps, or maybe look for a Writer’s Assistant gig on a show.

-Very excited about the newer, cheaper AppleTV (is it ITV now?) and that it will be capable of streaming Netflix as well. Let the movie streaming revolution begin! Say good-bye to DVD’s!

- My niece Ellen was at her first Fighting Irish football game today as she’s at Saint Mary’s of Notre Dame, her mother’s alma matter, for her freshman year. The last time I was there was in college for a game with the Keefe’s. But I watched part of the game today, thinking back to my visit to see Claire there, when I believe I was in junior high. Here and her friends tried to sneak me in the student section, but I got bounced. Luckily, once I got in on my regular ticket, they found me and walked me into the section, which was packed with students. I still think of that visit and being in autumnal South Bend as the iconic collegiate experience. I remember we went to the pep rally and it all seemed as College should be.  I hope Ellen had a blast and is finding her place in the new community she’s in as well as her older sister, Emily, has at Villanova in Philly.

- Caught part of an episode of House Hunters International today. Saw a couple buy a COMPOUND with four small homes on it for two million in FIJI. Compound hopefuls be ready – we may forego Malibu/No Cal and decamp to Fiji. They had a private beach. It was slick. I’m thinking one hit TV show and five million and we might be able to buy a town.

- Been having very in-depth dreams lately. Like I’m almost conscious in them. But, I’m not remembering them when I wake up. What’s up with that? At least let me remember them. Their might be good material in there.

- My beloved Redbirds are imploding as I type. It’s pretty painful to watch. It’s like a NASCAR accident, not some mere stumble. A full on metal and fire, blown tires, hitting the wall implosion. I have long been a fan of Tony LaRussa’s hard charging (i think) brilliant managerial style. He is one of the greatest in-game generals and strategists ever in the game; but it may be time to give The Secret Weapon the chair and see what he can do with it. I think the team is not responding. We definitely have to 86 Mark McGwire as hitting coach and suck it up on the ownership side and raise the payroll to $120 million a year.

- New Arcade Fire album The Suburbs? Brilliant! Check it out. Now. No, I’m serious. Check. It. Out. You won’t regret it.

- Need to get back to work on my play and start in on my new one.

- Best meeting of the week – in terms of wow, we’re in a Hollywood office? Definitely Gran Via Productions, which was in Century City, near CAA. It was on the 16th floor of this office building located within the larger company WALDEN MEDIA (they did The Narnia Films, among many others.) When we walked up to the reception desk, it was hard to not notice to the right an enormous prop from the latest Narnia movie, THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER – the mammoth, ornately carved wooden Ship’s Helm. It was rather impressive. Then we sat in their lovely lobby, where they had a large flat screen (naturally) playing their various films on a loop. Great way to wait for the meeting to start.

- And the best water award goes to….Brillstein Entertainment Partners. When we sat in the lobby and were asked by the receptionist if we wanted anything, shortly after the expected reply of “water” out came a lovely lady with a silver butler’s tray, polished to a high sheen. She set the waters down on lilac colored leather coasters. The water proved to be a cut above the rest – crisp, cold with ample ice in the glass. (Jason promptly awarded it the best water award after the meeting.)

I think that’s all for now, folks. Have an excellent and safe Labor Day!

I’ve got a birthday party in an hour (Happy Birthday, Laurapalooza!) so let’s get right to it:

- Been watching THE WIRE a lot lately. I had taken a break after season two. A break that lasted almost a year. Not because I didn’t like it, but because I was so blown away and wanted to savor the experience of watching it the first time. I hope to some day write and produce a television show that is a tenth as brilliant, real, incisive, brave, and chilling. The layers of it and its ability to introduce new characters while slowly expanding the reach of the narrative is unbelievable. I’m at the start of season four and I can honestly say that no show has ever touched THE WIRE’s level of complexity and feeling of unflinching reality.

-On the flip side of that, looks like BOSS is, for all intents and purposes, dead in the water with HWY 61 and PH. His agency, the biggest and most powerful in all of Hollywood, sent it to four heads of cable networks and they all passed – unwilling supposedly to do anything with politics with or without PH attached. It appears that we won’t be getting it back any time soon, either; which is baffling and frustrating – though it didn’t get us to where we are for now. We haven’t reached the end of the road completely, but we’re just about there. I’ve been told that unless someone comes to HWY 61 and PH and says: “Yes, we absolutely want to do BOSS” it won’t get pushed anymore and PH has definitely decided that he doesn’t want to go out and knock on doors/pitch it, which is ultimately what the “no’s” thus far are telling us what the project needs to get off the ground. It’s a tough spot as we share representation now. Apparently, they’re going to push it to the backburner for now and consider what else they may want to do with it. Which will mean nothing, in the end. Hopefully, down the road, it will be like a MAD MEN which was rejected and then filed away by Matt Weiner for eight years, until he had success and could do it.

- Looks like I may be getting some good copywright freelance work coming up (Thanks Artichoke Artisans!) Along with a few other things hear and there, I feel like – thanks to move – I’ll be able to tread water and maybe even break into copywrighting a bit more as I search for a teaching gig of some kind. I may do some extra work here and there to fill in the gaps, or maybe look for a Writer’s Assistant gig on a show.

-Very excited about the newer, cheaper AppleTV (is it ITV now?) and that it will be capable of streaming Netflix as well. Let the movie streaming revolution begin! Say good-bye to DVD’s!

- My niece Ellen was at her first Fighting Irish football game today as she’s at Saint Mary’s of Notre Dame, her mother’s alma matter, for her freshman year. The last time I was there was in college for a game with the Keefe’s. But I watched part of the game today, thinking back to my visit to see Claire there, when I believe I was in junior high. Here and her friends tried to sneak me in the student section, but I got bounced. Luckily, once I got in on my regular ticket, they found me and walked me into the section, which was packed with students. I still think of that visit and being in autumnal South Bend as the iconic collegiate experience. I remember we went to the pep rally and it all seemed as College should be.  I hope Ellen had a blast and is finding her place in the new community she’s in as well as her older sister, Emily, has at Villanova in Philly.

- Caught part of an episode of House Hunters International today. Saw a couple buy a COMPOUND with four small homes on it for two million in FIJI. Compound hopefuls be ready – we may forego Malibu/No Cal and decamp to Fiji. They had a private beach. It was slick. I’m thinking one hit TV show and five million and we might be able to buy a town.

- Been having very in-depth dreams lately. Like I’m almost conscious in them. But, I’m not remembering them when I wake up. What’s up with that? At least let me remember them. Their might be good material in there.

- My beloved Redbirds are imploding as I type. It’s pretty painful to watch. It’s like a NASCAR accident, not some mere stumble. A full on metal and fire, blown tires, hitting the wall implosion. I have long been a fan of Tony LaRussa’s hard charging (i think) brilliant managerial style. He is one of the greatest in-game generals and strategists ever in the game; but it may be time to give The Secret Weapon the chair and see what he can do with it. I think the team is not responding. We definitely have to 86 Mark McGwire as hitting coach and suck it up on the ownership side and raise the payroll to $120 million a year.

- New Arcade Fire album The Suburbs? Brilliant! Check it out. Now. No, I’m serious. Check. It. Out. You won’t regret it.

- Need to get back to work on my play and start in on my new one.

- Best meeting of the week – in terms of wow, we’re in a Hollywood office? Definitely Gran Via Productions, which was in Century City, near CAA. It was on the 16th floor of this office building located within the larger company WALDEN MEDIA (they did The Narnia Films, among many others.) When we walked up to the reception desk, it was hard to not notice to the right an enormous prop from the latest Narnia movie, THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER – the mammoth, ornately carved wooden Ship’s Helm. It was rather impressive. Then we sat in their lovely lobby, where they had a large flat screen (naturally) playing their various films on a loop. Great way to wait for the meeting to start.

- And the best water award goes to….Brillstein Entertainment Partners. When we sat in the lobby and were asked by the receptionist if we wanted anything, shortly after the expected reply of “water” out came a lovely lady with a silver butler’s tray, polished to a high sheen. She set the waters down on lilac colored leather coasters. The water proved to be a cut above the rest – crisp, cold with ample ice in the glass. (Jason promptly awarded it the best water award after the meeting.)

I think that’s all for now, folks. Have an excellent and safe Labor Day!

Might be a little brief tonight. But, straight from wonderful Corona Del Mar, here’s a collections of things from this week, the daily grind, and the thoughts rattling through my head.

-There’s an etiquette rule, long standing, in Hollywood for meetings. When you’re the Exec/Producer/Rep hosting, you always offer something to drink (the Assistant does) – water, coffee, or soda are usually the choices. Though Soda and Coffee are hit or miss – water is a given. I know we’ve talked about this before. You ALWAYS say yes to the water, as a creative and the guest. It’s polite and endears you to the host, or something to that effect. (This is not the only such little quiet etiquette/social interaction dance ritual that has to happen, but it’s the primary one.) Anyways, that’s a rather overly long set-up to something I noticed this week – the disappearance of the bottle of water. Which was a Hollywood staple of the meeting. Now you get the glass of filtered, cold water in a pint glass – no plastic. This is a big shift (to be so pervasive already.) For example, double-sided printing – to save money and the environment – has not quite caught on yet.

- They have bonfires on the beaches at night in Newport Beach. That’s the public beaches, BTW. I don’t quite know how it all comes about  (do people rent the fire pits?!) But, their they are, one after the other for several miles. So much so that as you zoom down the PCH with the ocean on one side and the town on the other – you can smell the wood burning intermingled with the ocean air. It is one of my most favorite things in the world to experience.

-Apparently the Cardinals don’t want to go to the playoffs this year. Instead they’d rather stumble about and lose to teams they should grind into dust. I’m not frustrated about it or anything. Really. I swear I’m not.

-Anyone watching HBO’s Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the New York Jets? I saw the time they did the Ravens, a few years back. Jets head coach Rex Ryan is a pretty colorful character and really worth the price of admission. I’m sure you’ve seen some news articles about his controversial “mouth” in most of the episodes. While he definitely goes for the “R” rating (but not on purpose) it’s usually comedic and worth it.

-Still no word on those last two meetings. Which is disappointing to say the least, but not entirely unexpected. Hopefully Monday we’ll hear something.

-The car is officially sidelined until further notice. The brakes are in rough shape – metal grinding on metal, plus their seems to be something amiss upfront between the regular brakes and the parking brake. So, I had to rent a car from Enterprise (Hotwire had a great deal actually.) Unfortunately, I won’t be able to take it to my Mechanic (Who’s seriously one of the best in all of L.A. and completely honest. I lucked out finding him through a classmate.) Thankfully, I now live about five blocks from his garage. Still a bummer though. Los Angeles is a place where it’s almost impossible (not entirely, but ninety-nine percent impossible) to go without a car, so when the wheels go you need to do something about it – whether you want to or no.

-Been looking for flexible jobs – freelance gigs, night jobs, anything that would leave my days open for these meetings. Not much has surfaced yet. I’ve put in an application when it has, but that’s been about it so far. Not much out there right now. Wish it were a little more straightforward (getting some paying work.)

We’ll I think that does it for me. I’m kind of toast and ready for bed. Be good out there!

-

New feature here at the Wire. I’ve been meaning actually to do it for some time now, but had never quite gotten around to it for one reason or another. I enjoy Friday Night Randoms. It may seem silly, but having a form when I sit down to compose the post makes it easier – especially after a long day of writing. With this new feature we’re gonna shift the focus a bit and try a content directive for Saturday nights, which are usually pretty quiet in my world these days.

It’s pretty simple and I would guess if anyone is reading this – you’all will know what I’m up to with the title of the post. Regardless, just so I lay out some ground rules for my own self, here’s the focus: Every Saturday night, I’ll endeavor to write a review. It will most likely be on some form of entertainment as I’m obviously immersed in the field. That being said, I will endeavor to move beyond just entertainment and challenge myself to write about some of my other interests – food, gadgets, iced coffee, and whatever else makes its way into my orbit and steals my attention. I’ll also try to keep it brief, or relatively brief and tothe point – my reaction, basically, and what I liked or disliked about it or why I think it has merit or not.

The idea stems from something I’ve been meaning to do for a much longer time than this blog or blog’s in general have been around. Back in college, I started to think to myself – “You should take out a notebook and record, like a journal, every movie you watch. Just a brief reaction, a few sentences and see in ten years how many notebooks I have (even then I watched a ton of movies.) Well, I never got around to it. So, in a way, this is my nod to that initial impulse. And with that, we’ll kick things off with a movie review.

GET LOW

Saw it tonight with JJ and Cheyna. I knew almost absolutely nothing about the film before seeing it. Which is a bit rare these days. It’s directed by a first time director/longtime cinematographer, Aaron Schneider and written by a former writer on Mad Men, current writer for Justified (along with another writer) Chris Provenzano.

I won’t get too much into the story. The cast includes Robert Duvall, Bill Murray, and Sissy Spacek. It’s based in part on a real event that’s become something of a legend in Tennessee. I will admit the cast above is what got me to say yes to going tonight, but the writing and directing really stuck with me after. Don’t get me wrong – it’s a star turn for Mr. Duvall and Bill Murray, as well as Sissy Spacek turn in fabulous performances as well. I mean, the acting in this picture is superb. I wouldn’t be surprised, completely to see an Academy Award nomination in their somewhere – especially between Murray and Duvall.

But, the story itself, and more importantly, the understated but poignant directing. This film is such a beautifully told tale. It’s the kind of movie I feel audiences are starved for. A film that has laughs, but definitely brought tears to my eyes at several points – especially at the end which was so touching and beautiful. This film is a classic example of the old storytelling maxim – complex characters, simple plots – that’s what makes great movies. This couldn’t be more evident in a film like Get Low.

If you’re starved, post-summer blockbuster season – to see a humane, rich, low key film that has laughs, breaks your heart, but makes you feel so warm inside when the credits roll (and you haven’t seen The Kids Are Alright yet) then get out and see the folkys, charming Get Low. I was so thrilled when I walked out of the theater tonight. It’s such a treat to not know what I’m about to watch and then have it steal my heart. That’s the best of both worlds for me!

All right, thanks for playing. Be good to yourself and go see this film!

Went to see SALT tonight by the venerable Australian director, Phillip Noyce, starring Angelina Jolie and Liev Schrieber. I highly recommend it – especially if you love thrillers and spy thrillers, in particular (as I do.) It’s a classic action-thriller centered on a female spy and delivers on all accounts. I was impressed by how it embraced its genre and charged ahead, delivering a story and experience that didn’t try to hide what it was – exciting and entertaining, a great Saturday night movie with friends. (Thanks Mike for treating with 3 yr old passes that still worked!) Too often, lately, I feel as if genre movies – especially more conventional genres like the spy-thriller, or the action-thriller, feel embarrassed by the act of entertaining, and therefore feel the need, often unnecessarily, subvert their conventions. Which, if done poorly (as so often is the case), or if their are too many cooks in the kitchen, ruins the entertainment factor in the story (Yes, I’m looking at you KNIGHT AND DAY.)  So, check out SALT. Jason has a good, to the point post on some of the other cool aspects of SALT, namely that its another original story, instead of a knockoff or adaptation of a game, which is doing gangbusters at the box office.

Not much else going on. Just work, though today was a bit of an unplanned day off. I traveled down to Anaheim and the Disneyland Hotel to steal a few hours with my sister and brother-in-law, Caroline and Kent, who were in town with my nephews, Sam, Will, and Jack (everybody’s getting so big!) to tackle the Disney experience. We sat by the Neverland Pool while the boys swam and caught up a bit. It was wonderful to see them. I wish we’d had more time, but that just means I need to plan a trip to see them, once I get everything ironed out.

Been a long, long day. So, without further adieu, let’s get down to the task at hand:

-Viva El Birdos! The Cardinals had rallied quite well out of the game their, post all-star game. Then stumbled a bit recently. Still not sure what to think of this team. But, the bats appear to be waking up (for the most part), now if we could just get everyone healthy, we might be able to play some October baseball.

- Had breakfast with my friend, writer-director Lily, today. It’s always fun to see her and hear how she’s doing. We caught up on various news. She’s a kick-ass double threat and a good friend. You will probably see two features from her in the next year. She tends to make things happen, rather than wait. It’s a quality that I admire, because it’s tough to do that in life, let alone this town. She does it quite well.

-Also had lunch with a dashing young lady that I met at a party a while back. She’s a screenwriter as well, quite charming and funny. That’s all for now. Hopefully, we’ll hang out again.

- Jason and I put in more hard work today on CLIPPED. We’re about halfway through the bloated draft that we used to love. We’ve cut ten or twelve pages so far, simply by going line by line through the script together. It’s a long and involved process, but it’s producing big time results for us. I think we’re both amazed. In a way it’s a riff on an exercise we learned in our 431 class (not the writing group, per se.) Which was – you write a couple of scenes – say a brief sequence of five pages; now, without cutting anything major (like a whole scene) shrink that sequence down to 2-3 pages. It’s like acting like a trash compactor on your pages. Great exercise. We’re excited to see what we have when we get the script down to the proper sixty or so pages. It’ll be the same script, but much clearer and leaner. Can’t wait.

- Unfortunately though, due to the time commitment it takes to do this on a ninety-three page script, at about five -six hours per twelve or so pages; we’ve fallen a bit behind on other projects. Not what we wanted right now. C’est La Vie. I’m not completely surprised by that, but still, we’re not exactly thrilled we fell behind (I think we’re behind seven-ten days on delivering a few projects)We’re about forty-five pages in and genuinely concerned about whether we can finish by the Thursday meeting with our new TV Lit Agent. I think we’ll pull it off, but its gonna be close. Real close.

-I kind of have been having a hankering to play some Texas Hold’ Em lately; but am a) too broke, and b) don’t have the time. Kind of sad.

- The Swell Season’s new album is amazing. I can’t stop listening to it, Go out and get it right now.

-Need to start packing. I can’t wait to get in the next place. I will end up saving a ton of money monthly (a third of what I’m paying now, by myself!) This will help.

-Despite still being completely overwhelmed (in a good way) I’m going to have to keep my eyes peeled for work. There’s some longshot, advertising (writing copy) jobs that might be out there and we’re gonna see if those come through. Just wish we had a sense, of where we’re headed and what we could expect in the next few weeks.

-Going to see The Cheeseman’s tomorrow out in Anaheim at Disney Land. Looking so forward to seeing them.

I think that’s it for the night. Be good to yourself!

Today, after digging in for the long haul, we got down to business and had a good day. Nothing is more satisfying than a productive day. Nothing major accomplished. No projects finished (which is really all I mean by “nothing major accomplished.”) Just showed up and got down to it.

We had a conference call meeting at 12:15 with the young CE/Producer on the Sony Lot to discuss the treatment we just handed in – our take, basically, on that seed of an idea he pitched to us, about a month ago. One lesson we’ve learned and have gotten fairly decent at, is to continue to work hard, even in times of great change. Either change that brings us low (the option deal falling apart two months ago), or change that brings us way up with excitement (Last week’s events, for instance.)

It really can’t be overstated, but the one thing that will keep the typically anxious, self-defeating, insecure screenwriter somewhat sane in the turbulent sea of Hollywood is to always be onto the next project, not waiting for the results of the one that just went out. It’s really a matter of emotional sleight of hand – you were totally thrilled about that story you sent out. You completely sold yourself on it being the best thing you’ve ever done. But, now it’s out there – alone and unprotected. People, with your fate in their hands (or so you believe) will judge it (whether or not they have your fate in their hands, they will judge it – that much you can take to the bank.) What should you do? It’s common sense, but so many writer’s find it nearly impossible to do! What would you think? Transplant that excitement to something new! Something that’s the farthest it can be from going out there, alone and unprotected, something brand new and still chock full of possibilities!! Duh! (It took me a good decade of beating my head against the wall, and three years of grad school, to get this concept to even sink into my thick skull, let alone practice it in any fashion.) I think you get the point, though. You put your focus on the new, shiny object, so that when the old shiny object comes back, burnt to a crisp and bent in half, you aren’t completely devastated.

So this meeting was on something new. A feature idea that’s barely four double spaced pages, total. In the end, when it’s all stacked up and the outlines, character profiles, beat sheets, treatments, and drafts are written, I’m sure we’ll top out at 600 to 800 pages, maybe a few hundred more or less, but about there. So, you can see, it’s first steps – which is awesome. So fun. Waaaaaay better than sitting around, staring at the walls, wondering what everyone (our team) thinks of the two spec scripts we gave them. Waaaaaaaay better.

The meeting itself was fantastic. We got smart, considerate, challenging notes from and spitballed some ideas, deepening and tightening the skeleton of it, in a really comfortable collaborative fashion. Jason and I are pretty darn adept in the room developing things. We’ve shown some good skills at that in a couple of different situations. We feed off of each other’s mindsets and imaginations extremely well and both of us don’t have that need to be the one who gets the idea across. I’d say we’re both really excellent, natural team players. But, it’s thrilling to get a person on the other side of the table that has a confident opinion, is receptive to outside ideas, can give a note and remain flexible to what the note might spark – even if it’s something unexpected, and can keep an eye on tone, character and plot without letting it overburden the discussion. It was that kind of thrilling today. Always fun. And this is someone down at our level, a little bit further along than us, but still making a name for himself, too. He’s had good success and really is on a good trajectory to at least a strong career. So making this fan, of how we work and our writing, is excellent. It’s a seed that could bear fruit at any time over this project, or something down the line.

After the meeting, we got some errands (and pizza) in. Then we came back to my place and dove back into CLIPPED, which was the project we almost optioned, but it all fell apart a few months ago. CLIPPEd holds a special place in our hearts. It’s our baby. The one we really have an extreme amount of passion for, I mean we love all our scripts; but CLIPPED holds some kind of higher sway, even if unspoken, over us. But, we knew we had to take a good hard look at it. The script is meant as a one-hour TV Pilot script, for a television series, but it’s thirty pages too long. Which means the script had to go on a big time diet to drop those pages, before the big meeting next week, so we have something fresh to talk to our new TV Lit Agent, too. So, the past two days, we’ve been moving through CLIPPED, which has gone much better than either of us expected.

Instead of wholesale cutting of sequences, scenes, or even characters; we’ve simply taken a good look at the bloatedness of the scenes and writing and trimmed accordingly. We are on a good pace to bring it down to the required sixty pages by next thursday and make the story a hundred times leaner and easier to see as a show. Some cool things I’ve noticed about this process, though. For one, Jason and I don’t normally work or write in the same room, let alone together, out loud, talking back and forth. We’ve really clicked through this rewrite on this more traditional writing partner method (one computer, one room, two guys.) We’ve done good solid work. It’s slow going, though. Probably runs us four hours or so to go through about ten to twelve pages of script and winnow it down to half that through word choice and careful trimming of extraneous elements or repetitive writing, line by line.

The funny thing is we really thought this script was just amazing and in reading it over again as we go, I think I can speak for both of us and say – “Wow, I can’t believe we ever let anyone see this. It’s so bloated!”  But we did and hear we are, relatively unscathed and a little wiser for it. We lived. And that’s all you really want from life, right?

Starting to get sleepy. We’ll have to resume tomorrow. Until then: Onward and upward! Tomorrow’s a brand new day. Plenty to do. Lots of enjoyment to earn.

Good Night!

Tonight marked the official end of Summer Writer’s Camp. Jason made the call that he would have to stay on the west coast for the duration, so he returned home to Topanga and had the house sitter depart. (Sorry Darby, Lyric, Ollie, and all on the East Coast!) On my end, I called in the cavalry to ensure a smooth road through the move next week and this initial slate of meetings. In other words, we put aside the belief that there will be a significant lull anytime soon, and dug in for the long haul. We realized that we’ve got a lot of work to do – to get ready for the meetings, to get ready for what might come after, to wrap up some of our side projects, and to develop new stuff. We feel the more we hustle, the sooner we can push through to the next stage (That’s the  theory we’re sticking with, at least.) We know the one thing we can control in this whole tornado of activity is how hard we work, so we decided to go all in on the hard work. Double down and look for those split aces, if you will.

Sad to see Jase go, though I’m sure he’ll be relieved to sleep in a real bed. It’s been a week since he flew in, late Tuesday night, and we had the big meeting on Wednesday. So hard to believe its been a week. Feels like ten, but then again it also feels like just yesterday. All in all, its been a strange out of time experience. For seven days straight it was all movies, meetings, food trucks, and writing; with a few social events tossed in for celebratory purposes here and there. We worked through a rewrite of the Chinatown in the Desert feature, wrote the first draft of a short film that we’re getting paid to write (For a 3D shoot and with a heavy Special FX budget), wrote the treatment for a screenplay we’re doing with a Junior Creative Exec at Sam Raimi’s company, and started trimming down (30 pages have to be cut) a pilot we wrote months back and need to get ready for the meeting with the TV Agent next week. That’s a pretty heavy attack. I actually feel like I’m missing something, too. Which is nuts.

We have a phone meeting with the JCE at Sam Raimi’s Company tomorrow at 12:30 to discuss the treatment. We start in on a feature for a young, up and coming director who’s about to graduate from UCLA. We’ve been working on the story for a year, almost, developing it, working out the kinks, making it strong. We booked the meeting with the TV Agent next week for Thursday. We’re waiting on word from our Feature Agents about our spec scripts and whether we’ll go out on a blitzkrieg of meet and greets, or try and package one of them to sell, or write something brand new altogether. We even had lunch with a good friend, and up and coming writer-producer at the Disney/ABC lot  the other day. This is all just the next seven days, or so. Somewhere in there we have to prep a TV pilot outline that we have for the TV Agent meeting as well, and I’m sure we’ll hear notes back on the rewrite of Chinatown in the Desert feature.

Pretty crazy, huh? By no means do I think it’ll always be like this. I only lay it out, so that one day I can remember this time in my life; because it feels so fast moving, right now. It strikes me that we’re at this final push to get to the top of one mountain. One we’ve been on for years. By no means is it the last mountain; or, by no means is it about climbing mountains so much. The top of the current mountain will be working and getting paid at the same time, possibly signified by membership in the Writer’s Guild, which is the Writer’s Union here. That will come with our first job, which should come as a result of the impending meetings. I’m not talking about getting rich, or out of debt completely, even. I’m simply talking about earning insurance coverage through the Guild, and enough of a payday to keep writing. Liftoff essentially. To achieve that, we have to give ourselves over to the work and the momentum and ride that boost, to climb the last bit and get to the top, so we can finish the beginning of this journey and settle into the next phase.

I hope that all makes sense. It’s a fun time. One that feels like its okay to have tunnel vision, to be consumed by the work in a good way. But, it’s also disorienting and nerve wracking at times. Heck, it might always be nerve wracking, actually. Who am I to say? The interesting thing, and some that know me well will laugh (hopefully), there is no preparation for this sudden explosion. You could study the business, study other writer’s paths in – go ahead, it still won’t prep you. I don’t even know why exactly, but as someone who maniacally researches and preps and studies as much of the business as he can, nothing I read or studied before shined a light on the experiences of the past week. None of them. You’ve gotta learn on the job, as it happens. I suppose that’s what a PHD is.

One of the last things we did for Summer Writer’s Camp is head back over to Venice and The Brig, which is a bar on Abbott Kinney, with a parking lot next to it, which is a home base of sorts for Food Trucks. We  headed over to catch our new favorite, The Buttermilk Truck. This is where we went last week, Wednesday night as we waited for word on how the big meeting went and grabbed dinner from The Comfort Truck. It was very Suberian (Howard Suber) ending (Completion and Return.) While The Comfort Truck makes these awesome beef sliders, they aren’t anywhere near The Buttermilk Truck, which gives the Grilled Cheese Truck a run for its money.

Here are some pictures to prove it:

The Elusive Buttermilk Truck at The Brig in Venice, CA

On the left is the world's greatest Biscuit Breakfast Sandwich (With Sausage) and on the right are The Buttermilk Truck's infamous Red Velvet Chocolate Chip PANCAKE bites with a Vanilla Pastry Cream on top. Commence drooling....now!

Close-up on the biscuit breakfast goodness. Gotta go sausage though, bacon fans. Trust me.

Jason boldly inquiring about the make-up of the mysterious Hawaiian Breakfast sliders, which some food bloggers claim is the only way to Buttermilk, though I'm holding out for the extremely rare pumpkin croissant.

A big perk about the Brig parking lot is the long bench where you sit, often with others, and eat your food truck treasure. Other places, you might have to get back in your car; or wait and drive someplace more conducive to picnicking, like Santa Monica Beach.

Back of the Buttermilk Truck and a peek at the kitchen area.

A Hot Dog truck, which was sharing the parking lot with The Buttermilk Truck. We were hoping for King Kone or The Sweets Truck, but no luck.

Then this is one of the Calbi Trucks, which is Mexican food, arriving as we walked away.

That’s about it for tonight. We’ll see what tomorrow brings!

(Oh, yeah. I had my FINAL dental appointment today. Every thing’s finally done, that needs to be done. Whew!)

Today, Jason and I officially signed with United Talent Agency for representation in Television and Film.

Here is the official UTA web site and also here’s another run down on the Agency, in case your curious.

This is what all the hullabaloo and anxiety and excitement was about the past few days. Heck, it’s ongoing!

This agency is one of the of the Hollywood Big Four, which are CAA, WME, ICM, and, of course, UTA. These four agencies are the largest, strongest, and most successful in town. UTA alone has over a hundred agents and 2,000 clients in all media – film, television, production, music, literary, and online. Here’s a brief example of UTA’s client list:

Key clients include actors Johnny Depp, Harrison Ford, Owen Wilson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Lopez,Paul Giamatti, Anthony Hopkins, Tim Robbins, Seth Rogen, James McAvoy, Ewan McGregor, Rachel McAdams, Paul Rudd, Don Cheadle, Elizabeth Banks, Kirsten Dunst, Tracy Morgan, Martin Lawrence, Simon Pegg, Bryan Cranston,Patrick Dempsey, Mark Ruffalo, Ice Cube, and Keenen Ivory Wayans; filmmakers and screenwriters Joel and Ethan Coen,Judd Apatow, Andrew Adamson, Wes Anderson, John August, Noah Baumbach, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Julian Fellowes, Curtis Hanson, Charlie Kaufman, Ehren Kruger, Peter Morgan, Mike White, F. Gary Gray, Lasse Hallstrom, Greg Mottola, Jimmy Hayward, Adam Shankman, Phillip Noyce, Nicholas Stoller, and Sylvain White; television writers and creators Dick Wolf, David Chase, Alan Ball, Tom Fontana, Ed Bernero and Steven Levitan, as well as non-fiction television producers Tom Forman, Allison Grodner and Sally Ann Salsano.

It is, in so many words,  a major, major break for us – hopefully one that will put us over the top.  I really can’t stress that enough. This is easily on par with my acceptance into UCLA – a day dreamed about, hoped for even, but one that I didn’t ever expect. You can’t allow yourself to do that, expect something like this to happen to you. Many, many writers in this town never attain this kind of representation and have healthy, happy careers. But, you do dare to dream. These Agents (Ramses IsHak & Mike Sheresky) were our top pick, as well as UTA, when we started this process two months ago. So we are not only ecstatic that we got Agents, but that we got these two Agents. Here’s what one friend, who’s been a creative exec in the industry for the past year said our about our new Agents:

Swear I am not just saying this to make you feel even better than you already do, but those two agents are seriously the nicest, most talented duo in the industry. Love them!!!! You guys could not have done better… seriously. So happy you are working with them!

It’s still kind of hard to process. It’s really just the beginning and there’s still a ton of work to be done. Heck, I don’t have a job, or much money, and I’m about to move in two weeks and don’t even know if I can get a job now – not if we want this momentum to continue on.

Well, that’s for tomorrow. Tonight, at least, I can bask in climbing another mountain in this crazy business. A fairly major one at that.

Thank God, I didn’t leave early and miss this miracle.

I’d like to get into more detail, but we’re not all the way there yet, so it’s still not quite time. So, out deference to what’s been a delicate process, so far, I will refrain from details a little longer. There’s still some things to discuss with our lawyer and manager, which hopefully will happen tomorrow.

Besides, it’s been an anxious, exhilarating, and long day. It’s late. There’s work piling up and still more phone calls in the morning. BUT I will say this: today Jason and I had a meeting with one of the big four agencies about representing us and it went well. Wait a minute. That’s actually an understatement. IT WENT INCREDIBLY WELL. Wait, that’s still an understatement. It went better than we ever could’ve imagined, outside of Steven Spielberg or a million dollar check making a surprise, guest appearance at the meeting. (Though for the record, I would’ve been more jazzed if there was a special guest component to it and Spielberg was the man tapped for the gig.) That’s a little closer to the truth. Check out Jason’s entry on it here, if you doubt my account.

Bottom line: These guys were our number one pick. They loved us. We KILLED in that room today. This was a major step today and would be the final piece in putting together a near (for writers at our level, at least) all-star representation team.

Alright, more when I know more. Be good to yourself.