Blogs

I’m currently reading Tales from the Script by Peter Hanson and Paul Robert Herman.  It’s a great read that I would recommend to anyone who is a working screenwriter or who is hoping to someday become one.  The book has numerous interviews with professional screenwriters and shows each of their viewpoints on the craft of screenwriting and how screenwriting fits into Hollywood.  The let downs of being a screenwriter is consistent with every one of them, no matter if they’re selling screenplays for $1 million or $20,000. 

Yesterday was the last day of a much-needed vacation.  I spent the entire week enjoying LA with my girlfriend and daughter.  Yesterday we went to a water park and as we were leaving I received a phone call from my brother-in-law.  In his lawyer tone of voice he told me that I received a rejection letter from West LA College.  Earlier this summer I had applied to a full-time tenure track film professor position.  I thanked him for informing me and then went on with my day completely unscathed. 

*WARNING!!! NERD ALERT!!! I PROBABLY WON’T GET ANY ACTION WITH THE LADIES FOR A WHOLE YEAR FOR WRITING THIS ARTICLE!!!
 
If anyone were to ask me what my favorite videogame system of all time is, I would have to pick Super Nintendo. Super Nintendo, in my opinion, had the greatest role-playing games (better known as RPGs) ever consistently released on a single platform. Some of those great classics are: The Legend of Zelda A Link into the Past, Final Fantasy IV-VI, Secret of Mana, Dragon Quest I & II, Secret of Evermore, Chrono Trigger, Shadow Run, and many many more. 
 
For those of you who don’t know what a role-playing game is (in other words, for those of you who were getting laid in high school), a role-playing game is a huge adventure that can

 Don’t be turned off by the title of this article.  Please lend me your imagination and attention for just a moment of your time.  Say I was to go to any Starbucks for a coffee in Irvine.  If there were only 20 people there, how many of them would likely work in the entertainment industry and would be able to help me advance my career?  Maybe one if I’m lucky but more chances than likely the number would be zero.  Now imagine if I went to any Starbucks in Los Angeles for a coffee.  Out of the 20 people there, more likely than not at least 10 of them would be working in the entertainment industry and would be able to help me advance my career. 

Stephen King in my opinion is the greatest American writer in the history of literature.   While most great American writers only have one great masterpiece like To Kill a Mockingbird or The Scarlet Letter to secure their legacy, King has many he will be remembered for like Stand by Me, The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and Hearts in Atlantis.  Few writers are able to create a literary series that lives on like J.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, but King too has captured that success in his The Dark Tower series.  I could go on forever talking about King’s accomplishments and the truly scary thing is I haven’t even mentioned the milestones that he has written in his main genre, which is horror fiction. 

 The Father of Zombie Films: George Romero

Ever since 1968 George A. Romero has shocked the world with his unique vision of horror fiction.  Audiences of horror, as well as the genre of horror itself, were forever changed since the release of Night of the Living Dead.  The film was Romero’s first feature film, and it would give rise to three more sequels, all written and directed by Romero.  Romero has a distinct style that separates him from the other great directors in horror.  Romero has permanently changed the way that horrors stories are told on film, as well as the way horror effects are done.

 I got home late and don't have a lot of time to post this but I wanted to get something out about Anaheim ComicCon which started today and runs through Sunday, April 18th. (info)

Thumbs up.  It was entertaining and delivered on a lot of what you go to Cons for.  

I went with OCSWA board members Eric Hensman (Lennexe Productions) and Chris Stambouli.  Eric has been to many shows of this type but for Chris it was his first since he doesn't do the fanboy thing much.  Both enjoyed it as did I.

Last month I went to Sharkey’s in Newport Beach to celebrate my bestfriend’s 27th birthday.  While there I did what typical young guys do and had a great time.  Later that night a guy pointed to me and waved me to come over to him.  I walked over and said, “what’s up, dude?”

 Four Years of Torture 

Four years ago I had a dream that I would one day own a horror production company based out of my hometown of Fullerton.  On February 24th, 2010 I got to celebrate the forth anniversary since I put that dream into motion.  It has been a tough road and I’m proud of a lot of things that we have done, but I know there are so many more things left to do. 

Here is a recap of the previous four years of owning and running Torture Chamber Productions, Orange County’s Home for New Horror Media. 

 The Confinement Writing on Assignment

Orange Coast College

They have a film department?  Yes. 

But it's a 2-year, community college, right?  Yes.

So, I can get real filmmaking experience, right down the street, for $26 per unit?  Yes.

 STANDING OVATION IS THE GOAL

First things first; gratz to all the nominees!

oscar.go.com/nominations/nominees

Extremely happy with all of this.

I am a little surprised by a couple of nomination in a couple of categories, but won't begrudge any.  Some of these are going to be extremely difficult to predict winners.

 Superheroes = Role Models

The Logline Formula

Last night one of my clients e-mailed me asking what a logline should look like.  I replied with Jule Selbo's formula.  It's from her book Gardner's Guide to Screenplay From Idea to Successful Script.  

I've taught from her book at the college for 3 years (hurry up and write a book, Mark!).  Jule is a great mentor and friend.  She's written for Lucas, Romero, and Disney so I think her formula is pretty legit.  

BLOG 4

F*@&!

I really want to cuss up a storm, but I think swearing is largely unattractive, so F*@&!  it is.

 Let me tell the story about this guy I met back in film school.  I remember sitting in the hallway of the film department waiting to talk to one of my professors.  There was a cute girl sitting in the hall waiting for a professor as well.  I already had a girlfriend at the time so I paid her no attention and continued drawing in my sketchbook.  Suddenly this guy comes into the hallway. 

He must have been single since he struck up conversation with the cute girl almost immediately.  His voice became loud, trying really hard to impress her,  so I overheard him say his dream was to work at Marvel Productions.  Something clicked inside my mind.

Here is a trick I was taught by the greatest editor I ever had the pleasure of working with.

I'm a first time blogger here (that should serve as my warning). As a writer, I'm on the more self deprecating side of things. I know a lot of writers that are cocky and confident, but I just can't quite get there, but I'm beginning to accept the idea that someone else might be interested in what I have to say. I'd like to think that it's due to my wonderful prose and clever wit, but I'm sure it's more along the lines of a rubber-necker looking at a horrible crash. I'm hoping you can learn from this crash.

 I think almost everyone who wants to be screenwriter starts off as a reader.  If you don't know what a reader is, it's someone who works for a producer, agent, or production company and reads scripts and writes coverage all day.  Coverage is a like a two page review of the script stating whether it should be reviewed or passed on.  I have worked as a reader for two studios: Mark Wheeler Management and Ben Katz Productions.  At both places the rule was this, if the screenplay isn't in proper format, throw it away.  

             I have taught screenwriting part-time at Fullerton College for the past three years.  Where I differ from most film professors is I split my lectures into two parts: one half on creative technique and the other half on business.  Notice how I purposely stated ‘most’ film professors in my previous statement?  That’s because professors at the established film schools (i.e.: UCLA, USC, AFI, NYU, etc.) usually do teach the business side too.  The reason why I teach the business side of filmmaking is because the last thing I want my students to say to themselves when they graduate is, “I can tell a great story with pictures but how the *#%& do I get a job?”

            Recently, on Facebook, I posted my opinion that Stephen King will go down in history as one of the greatest writers ever, while Stephanie Meyer will be forgotten in the pages of time like all of the other pop authors who exploit the market for financial gain, as opposed to writing what's in their hearts.  A respondent replied that she felt Ms. Meyer was “brilliant” and she loved her “twist” to the modern day vampire.  My response was as a professional writer, Meyer is the polar opposite of brilliant.  Brilliant is J.K. Rowling’s twist on the modern wizard.  What Stephanie Meyer gave the world isn't a 'twist' but a perversion.

 “Up in the Air” is a character study. No car crashes. No giant robots. No space marines fighting aliens. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.