At the beginning of the night, the hardest question is where do you want to go for a drink. Never enough Options.. usually because of poor service.

And for getting thrown out of.

And for calling the female owner of the bar "Sweaty Beatys", KD Lang.

And because you brought home a 6 and the shame of seeing people from the night it went down back at that bar... That never happens though... Maybe I should go to Sweaty Beatys tonight..

I don't say Never Give Up to be positive. I say it to tell the Devil to fuck off... Does that make me religious?

I'm not gonna give up... the world wants it too bad.

Positive thinking only helps negative people.

Woke up this morning completely hung over. Ended up doing nothing productive on the writing front. However did have some funny ideas.

I know a Mexican place that has such good Mexican food that their chicken burrito has the same effect on you as a good movie. You think about it for hours after you're done with it. You walk around with the thought of it in your head. Wondering how all the elements came together so well. You have a tough time sleeping after it because the theme and plot and characters are running through your head. Finally, you wake up in the middle of the night and discover something new about it; I woke up at four in the morning in a cold sweat because of the Cilantro...

Was sent a late night email, from a good friend and a Gemini-award winning writer late last night: "Dude.Clear your calender. We have a pilot to write." I replied "You know I'm always doen to battle a script with the Reid brothers." Hopefully something comes of this...

C

Film Journal Jan. 7th, 2010

Today spent a great deal of time working on Shilas and the Tomb. Everything went smooth. This project is going to be great, because I get to work with a lot of new people.

This will work as a silent film, Chaplin-esque, but a humours narrator, would really make it come to life. Almost like a video game narrator who comments on everything the character is doing. Like the voice in Space Quest. Also a very heavy sound design and score would work nicely.

Spent the whole day trekking along working perfectly with this script, then went and had a very productive meeting regarding it...

The next step on this script is distrubuting a shooting script/directors script, in which I describe the action and, roughly the shots needed. We plan on shooting this film tight and static, with stylized cut-aways and close ups. Also trying to decide whether to use a dolly or a steady-cam. This film, could potentially be the first in a series of 'From Beyond the Grave' tales in which our main character, Shilas, keeps getting new jobs in which he short cuts and ultimately gets punished for his lazyness. Maybe need to introduce a love interest that is always waiting for him, but he keeps getting stuck.

Shallow Glen...

Didn't touch today....although feel good about where we are going. Tomorrow I will look at all the notes and begin to compile a few rough plot lines that we can use, but overall it is going to need a major re-write.

C

Film journal, Jan 6, 2010

Spent a great deal of today trying to wrap my head around Shallow Glen, the first 4 hours I spun my wheels endlessly looking at the network notes and re-reading all of our outlines and notes. Finally, after re-reading the 1st chapter of the Agassi book, 'Open', we were able to have a break through...maybe the biggest yet for the script. By taking the 5 elements of tennis that Agassi says also apply to life (service, love, advantage, break, and fault) we were finally able to make think of a way to relate tennis to life. I really feel today that we learned something about our style as well. Since I have a great deal of experience in Sociology and social situations, it appears fitting that I should focus more on exposing subcultures and trends in society. Make projects from a sociologists perspective, or better yet, comedic fictional ethnography. W/Shallow Glen we hope to focus more on the 'club-life' we are so familiar with, and less on the trials and tribulations of a failed ex-pro trying to get back on the pro tour. We hope to focus on the service of a tennis club. The faults people make in tennis club life. The advantages some members/people have over others whether born or earned. The love that blossoms in tennis club life, and the origin of the expression love in tennis (actually l'euff or egg). And the breaks, whether good or bad, that can happen in life. Using these sub-heading we should hopefully be able to chapter our script. Also, after our recent trip to Mexico, and the constant hilarious dialogue from Dillon in which we would all interact and talk as different characters, it makes sense to focus on the characters we are able to bring to the table. The characters we know dwell in the tennis club environment because we can imitate them all and know them well. This script will come together...now that we have an idea of how to keep it in one location. And Andre Agassi saved out ass....at least today....and I was always a Sampras fan.

Shilas...meeting tomorrow. Going to continue to focus on the bucolic Yankee Shilas...bucolic means of country-side or rural habitat....I hope to use this word in a sentence tomorrow. Hope to get a feel for the POVs of the crew..I don't really know them all so should be fun. Plan on doing a lot of listening.

C

Film Journal

Jan. 5 2010

Yesterday's film journal helped. The second I finished it, I re-read it, and instantly got ideas on 'Shilas and the Tomb'. I haven't though on 'Shilas' today, but already I am excited to make it more of a narrative. By introducing Shilas' money issue of wanting to get the most out of the land that he has purchased, I was able to find an ACT 1 OUT - Shilas has a body that is too big for the final coffin in his graveyard. What is he going to do?

Shallow Glen

Today we compiled our notes on the feature film script, 'Shallow Glen'. We have been working on the idea that it is a film about 'talent'. The main character, RUSSELL, is a busted talent, who never lived up to the potential everyone prophecied he was capable of. A character who was one of the best in the whole world as a junior, (18) and one day got the yips. Through helping a young tennis player get a scholarship Russell comes to realize that although he is great at coaching and his over analysis techniques actually help others, Russell prefers to go back to the tour where he would rather die unsuccessful living the dream, then stay home coaching. Now at 28, at the end of his troubled career Russell is suspended off the tour for an illegal blood doping trade. Russell hides out at his old home club of Shallow Glen, after having lived out of a suitcase for the last 15 years while traveling, waiting for his suspension to expire. Gerry, Russell's lifelong friend, allows him to use the club, as long as he gives tennis lessons and plays with some of the members.

This idea has been tough to write, because the producers we are writing it for aren't fully sold on it yet. They keep wanting to know what other movie it's like...The Wrestler meets CaddyShack meets Bottle Rocket meets Role Models meets Clerks meets Match Point meets Napoleon Dynamite meets Eastbound and Down.... A big fish thrown back into a small pond.

It is tough trying to find the style..the voice...I want to make a movie about a tennis club exploring the minutia, but it seems now that I am working on a talent expose...I should really stick to my personal experiences and my thought on talent...relationships with ex players...relationships with coaches...ideas on what makes an athlete... comedic way...- players excuses, outbursts on the court, crazy tennis club members, characters.

Need to keep grinding with it.

C