or the last four years I’ve participated in the 48 Hour Film Project, an international filmmaking competition wherein teams compete within their city to make a short film in 48 hours, after drawing their film genre out of a hat and being given specific parameters that must be included in the final product. This year, the team I formed, ALBATROSS!, drew a particularly tricky genre: “Musical or Western.” We chose Western.
For a Few Flowers More: As the internet becomes our new frontier, a man from a simpler time must defend his virtual property the old-fashioned way.
In addition to the genre, we had to include a character named Wilma or Winston Weatherby (a gardner), a scale, and the line of dialog “You win some, you lose some.”
To say that I am immensely proud of my team and what we accomplished in such a short time frame would be an understatement of epic understatedness. Whether or not this film is recognized in the competition, it represents a momentous leap forward in the quality of our shooting, editing, scoring, and storytelling. Congratulations to all the 48Hour filmmakers—every year I’m blown away by the creativity that panic inspires.
arch has been an overwhelming month. I spent most of February obsessing over the particulars of my graduate/film school applications, which I finished back in October and then forced out of my mind. But not for long, of course—as snow melted and winter receded, notification-deadlines began to loom, and by late February every day felt like waiting for the results of an MRI. I remained cautiously optimistic, but only just.
Earlier this month I was offered a place in the Peter Stark Producing Program at USC. I accepted on the spot; it was and is my first choice program, an intensive immersion in the art and business of the film industry that seems to implicitly reject the notion that “artistic” and “commercial” projects exist in different spheres. Unfortunately I can’t talk too intelligently about the curriculum, beyond what I’ve read, which is half-fact, half-pitch.
I don’t begrudge any program its bragging rights—stellar reputation is what drew me there in the first place. The little legends are awesome, too—I love the anecdote about a Starkie throwing a chair in a passion-fueled dispute. (“There’s your Felliniesque!” I imagine him screaming.) Still more impressive is whatever the other guy said to provoke the chair-tossing. Apparently I have four months to hone my dodging skills.
THIS IS HOW MOVIES ARE MADE!
Anyway, back to March. It’s about to end, you know. And then it will be April, and then it will be May, and then, in June, Sarah and I will be enjoying our final days as Boston-Cambridge residents. For me, it will have been just under seven years—for Sarah, closer to ten. A friendly reminder that time flies, which is itself a friendly way of saying, life is too fucking short. Our relocation is no trivial thing—in addition to the logistical and financial burdens, we’ll be leaving behind our community of friends, family, and artistic collaborators, just trusting that in LA we’ll find new opportunities and awesome people, and that eventually we’ll find the money to visit old friends. Anxiety? We have it in spades. But we’re not complaining. It’s exciting, it’s a priviledge, it’s a challenge, it’s the next chapter in the great adventure we promised each other when we married.
Onward, friends! Come, collaborators! Adventure awaits us all.
’ve been a terrible blogger this month. It’s a busy time of year, and my free time has been claimed by scriptwriting and planning for 2010, which promises to be an eventful year.
30 days’ worth of delightful milestones, condensed:
Finished a spec script for 30 Rock, hopefully demonstrating my chameleon-like ability to write in other people’s voices. Hopefully 30 Rock will stay relevant for another season or two.
Obsessively read the comments for our Hard Left Choose Your Own Adventure sketch (see previous entry). Not a lot of helpful feedback from the YouTube crowd, but lots of fun and affirmation.
Brought Code Duello to the UCB for our first UCB show outside the Del Close Marathon. New Yorkers turned out in spades, and we had a very enthusiastic and welcoming full house. We’re headed back there in early January. Matt and I are also reinventing the show itself, retaining some superficial elements of our structure while drilling deeper into the characters.
Submitted Unbalanced to the ITVFest in LA, one of the few festivals on which I hang a lot of my hopes for the pilot.
Watched far too much (good) television and read too few books.
Helped Sarah build the framework for her own website. Outlined a plan for filling it with content.
Launched my next screenwriting project.
Experienced Sleep No More for the first time. Obsessed with going again.
On top of all this, I’m cautiously approaching 2010’s biggest project: moving to Los Angeles. Sarah and I have been dancing with the specter of LA for a year, and every month it becomes more of a real thing, a plan with shape and purpose. The latest date that we will move is July 31st, but it may be earlier depending on what opportunities we discover in the next six months. Every snowfall may be “our last in Boston.” It’s an exciting time.
For example: the cost of moving all of our scrappy, utilitarian furniture to LA is equal to the cost of buying all new furnishings in our new home. Can we really sell most of our belongings in the next six months? It’s liberating to think so.
’m proud to help unveil the newest Hard Left Productions YouTube sketch, an interactive Choose Your Own Adventure! Thanks to Robert and Taylor for the invitation to write, direct, and edit this piece. We shot it in a single day.
If you share it with friends and family (please do), make sure YouTube annotations are on… that’s the interactive part!
or the last four years I’ve participated in the 48 Hour Film Project, an international filmmaking competition wherein teams compete within their city to make a short film in 48 hours, after drawing their film genre out of a hat and being given specific parameters that must be included in the final product. This year, the team I formed, ALBATROSS!, drew a particularly tricky genre: “Musical or Western.” We chose Western.
arch has been an overwhelming month. I spent most of February obsessing over the particulars of my graduate/film school applications, which I finished back in October and then forced out of my mind. But not for long, of course—as snow melted and winter receded, notification-deadlines began to loom, and by late February every day felt like waiting for the results of an MRI. I remained cautiously optimistic, but only just.
hen I was a kid, this short-lived cartoon was one of my fleeting addictions:
’ve been a terrible blogger this month. It’s a busy time of year, and my free time has been claimed by scriptwriting and planning for 2010, which promises to be an eventful year.
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