The Look Machine is a rock band from the Philly area that draws on everything from acoustic finger-style to melodic rock to create their own original sound.
October 11, 2008
The Nicholls Contacts Begin
It seems the list of winners from the Nicholl Fellowship competition was released today, because I have already gotten 6 different people email me, asking to either read the script or read the logline. Hopefully something positive will come of this. So far, the people who have contacted me have been managers, production companies, and one agent...
It's pretty exciting, so in honor of this occasion I will share one of my favorite images with you.
Posted by jason at 01:26 AM | Comments (5)
October 10, 2008
Special Time with Ollie
Darby and Lyric are away, so Ollie and I have had the chance to have some special guy time. It's been fun. We went to the 3rd Street Promenade, shopped at Puzzle Zoo, went to the Apple Store, and then had burgers and shakes at Fatburger.
Today we went to a park we just discovered called Rustic Canyon Rec. It was really cool. We played handball, climbed trees, played basketball, ping-pong and foosball. Then we played Lego Batman and beat two boards. Alway good times.
Ollie's such a cool guy.
And he lost a front tooth.
Posted by jason at 12:43 AM | Comments (10)
October 08, 2008
AIG gets bailed out and then tightens the belt...
...Tightens the belt around our necks, that is.
AIG was so dangerously insolvent that they required a government bailout to the tune of $85 Billion dollars. And they got it. So how do they celebrate? Oh, how about a $440,000 retreat for its top executives? On our dime of course. I really truly think that should somehow be criminal. These people are completely willing to run a company into the ground because they still get their millions regardless.
And people wonder why normal civilians are suspicious of the bailout.
Posted by jason at 04:34 PM | Comments (4)
Slamdance Screenwriting Competition
First, a tiny smidge of bad news. I didn't advance to the final 10 in the Nicholl Competition. Oh well, again, that would have been icing on the cake, so while it would have been fun, in the long run it's no big deal. Placing as a semifinalist will give me a ton of momentum regardless.
Now, to take the edge off of all of your obviously crushing disappointment, I am happy to tell you that I found out today that A Well Adjusted Boy has placed in the 3rd round (the top 50) of the Slamdance Film Festival. Over 1900 scripts were submitted, so again, that's an achievement. They'll announce the final 25 on 10/13.
It's funny actually, they have been trying to get in touch with me since 9/30 but my email apparently kept bouncing for them. So I got a desperate call yesterday because they need me to sign a release form and send a new pdf of the script.
I also have a meeting with another producer set up for next week. Taking meetings with producers once a week is probably a good habit to get into.
Again, I'm not expecting anything huge to break from any of these events, specifically. But you get enough sharks in the water and eventually somebody gets eaten. (hmmm, maybe not the best analogy.)
But you know what I mean.
Posted by jason at 03:13 PM | Comments (5)
Meetings, meetings!
Today I had two very interesting meetings. The first was in Westwood with a genuine Navy Seal named Geoff. How do I know him, you wonder? He's a good friend of my mentor here at UCLA, a screenwriter named Paul Castro, who was also in the Navy. They are both fantastic people.
Geoff just got back from the set of Transformers 2, and he showed me a ton of pictures from the shoot. It looked amazing. (I'm one of the few film students who will admit that he loved the first Transformers movie... but then again I enjoyed Beverly Hills Chihuahua!) He was in the first film too, he played a secret service agent who was killed by that little boom box transformer.
I'm working on a web site for him, called iwanttobeanavyseal.com. He wrote and is now selling an e-book about training to become a navy seal. It's intense.
Then I had a really great meeting with a producer here in the Palisades. We talked for more than 2 hours about what she was looking for, and then the stories I've written. She seemed very into many of the stories, and asked to read all 5 that I pitched to her. Not bad! Of course, you always know the best meetings can result in NADA, but still, just getting acclimated to talking your own stories and seeing what interests people and what doesn't is great.
Posted by jason at 01:57 AM | Comments (3)
October 07, 2008
iPhones and Producers and Beverly Hills Chihuahua
I'm very excited right now because the iPhone application is really shaping up to be amazing. I can't wait until I can share all the details, because it's going to rock your socks.
I have a meeting with a producer today at 3. And another meeting with a Navy Seal at 11. Interesting day.
I took Lyric and Ollie to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua. It was surprisingly entertaining. We went to El Capitan, in Hollywood. It's an old, grandly restored movie house owned by Disney. It's just beautiful, and a wonderful place to see a Disney film. They almost always have some special live event before the film, and this time the actual dogs who starred in the film were there, doing tricks with their trainer. It was really fun.
And people complain about movie formulas. For the most part I agree. But BHC is a testament to the fact that if you hit all the points to a hero's journey kind of formula, and hit them well, you'll have a satisfying story, even if it's not all that creative. I am not ashamed to admit that I got a little teary eyed at moments. Ok, yes, I'm ashamed to admit it but there it is and nothing can change it.
Posted by jason at 12:55 PM | Comments (4)
October 04, 2008
Netflix + Roku = amazing value
If you have a Netflix account, you absolutely owe it to yourself to check out (and buy) the Roku box. It's $99, and that's all the additional money you will spend. Then, once you have purchased it, you can watch any film available for instant viewing from Netflix on your TV.
The quality is DVD level. And the selection, which used to be mostly classics, indies, and documentaries (which honestly, was fine for me, I had the actual DVD delivery aspect of Netflix for the other films), has recently been dramatically boosted, and now has more recent films and a much larger back catalog.
I'm serious, you should check this out.
Posted by jason at 01:01 AM | Comments (5)
October 02, 2008
Trying to be a good father
Sometimes parenting can be difficult. You wonder if you're making an impact, you're annoyed at yourself for not doing what you should, you're distracted, or losing patience.
Most of the time parenting is a joy. You get to view things through your child's eyes, you get to tangibly feel this deep well of love that you've built up over time. You have this little person that you just adore and have adored since they were born. There is no other relationship like that. I love to share most of my life with my kids.
But then, there are times when it goes above joy into pure... euphoria. When all of your efforts to be a good parent pay off, and it's obvious that the things you have done have worked, the investments you've made pay dividends. Today my daughter Lyric had a very difficult day. Actually, back it up, she had a very difficult two days, and yesterday fed into today. I don't want to get into details because it's her business and she is a very personal person, but I decided to talk to her as the best father I could be.
And it really worked out. She came alive, and I could just tell she was hearing everything and taking it in. After we talked, she played this song that's been one of "our songs" since she was literally one year old. It's called Snuggle Puppy.
These are the moments you remember forever.
Posted by jason at 12:30 AM | Comments (5)
