Covered in Slush to My Knees

Day three of working at First Line Entertainment/Edward Bass Films started out pretty crappy. I walked out of my building to be hit with a downpour of freezing cold rain/ice. Not to mention the wonderful mix of snow/ice/slush/whatever that was coating sidewalks in all five boroughs and had to be walked threw for blocks and blocks between trains, subways and buildings. But other than that, I must say that I'm really liking this job so far.  All the people I work with are very friendly and they all seem to like film. And really, what better people are there to hang out with than film people? It's been lots of hours spent in front of my laptop reading threw script after script while taking copious amounts of notes for the past three days. This is going to, at the very least, be a great learning experience in what it takes to write a good script. Just the shear amount of time reading scripts written by other people, that producers/actors/directors are actually interested in reading and making come to life will only help my writing ability. Then, there's what I call the committee session. At least an hour or two every day is spent sitting around the livingroom at the office sharing our notes and impressions and brainstorming how to fix problems and debating the merits of certain lines of dialogue or scenes or what have you. This is a very fun and enlightening process and I enjoy it a ton. I'm loving the fact that I actually get to travel into the city and hang out around movies all day. What could possibly be better. Right now, life is very good. 

Creeky stairs are scary

It was pretty warm in the city today as I went to my interview at First Line entertainment. The office was pretty crammed and still being renovated, but I managed to find a place at the table to sit down at and answer a few fundamental questions about my resume. After that, I sprawled on a nice big leather couch with a pretty cute girl named Susan and my laptop and read a very rough draft for a film that Edward Bass is working on. I took notes, ate pizza and we had a fairly informal brainstorming session, giving notes, ideas and impressions about the script. i think this is where the interview really began. Either way, I was opinionated, but polite, forceful but respectful and got my points across then got the job. I start Monday- I think- doing general work that any entry level slave in the film biz does for a boss with much more experience, money and power, and is kind enough to give them. Plus- and here's the bonus- I may get to spend the month of March in Tennessee working on a film staring Christian Slater and Demi Moore. This is my dream in action people. It's definitely a step up from freezing cold lofts in Union City with people who have no idea what they're doing to an Academy Award winning producer in Manhattan. It's another scratch mark on the bricks as I eagerly try to climb up the edifice of the movie biz and break in thru the window. Let's see where it goes. 

The whole country has gathered to celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama but more so the end of the George W. Bush reign. An air of relief has taken over around the country. We can all breathe easier now. Dick Cheney looked impotent and feeble, rolling down a ramp and out of the White House for the last time, taking the smell of sulfar and his evil chess set with him. Millions of people screamed at the top of their lungs as the first president of hope took over. Time to party. 

Snow Angels are people too

Woke up this morning to find a fine white powder about half an inch thick covering all the cars parked along the road outside my house. Called Jeff to see if we were shooting the pilot today only to find out that shooting had been canceled so I went back to sleep. Around 5:30 pm Nikki and I started getting ready for my auditions. A handful of people were kind and brave enough to make the trip from points all over the metro area despite the steady fall of snow. After some trouble with trains (missing them, taking the wrong ones and getting off at the wrong stops) we were able to proceed. All three of the girls who read were amazing and I had no problem with casting any of them, but unfortunately am only able to cast one. All three definitely nailed the character and gave great performances, but alas, the two guys who auditioned did not. Luckily I'm meeting with a couple other actors this week. It was definitely a fun and exciting experience to hear and see people acting out words that I had written. Everybody seemed very nice and we all had fun and got along well. The easy part is over, for now. On to the task of finishing rounding up the gear and the people and then the actual filming itself.

TV Pilots and Frozen Toes

Today I was in beautiful Union City, New Jersey working on a pilot for a tv show called 'Grind'n'. It, supposedly, centers around a group of young wanna-be rappers who run their own label and recording studio. I was in a big loft with no heat (but two spaceheaters) freezing to death while holding lights, setting up lights, holding cables and doing other miscellaneous production assistant-type duties from noon till about six. Today was the first day of the shoot with four left to go. The best thing I can say about this job is that it is something I can put on my resume and may lead to other (hopefully paying) jobs in the future. More filming, plus auditions for my short film, tomorrow. 

Silver Plates

small flowers crack your skull

like lightning bolts

through silver plates

like days that never end

and dreams that never start

like the distance between 

two kindred hearts

and sunshowers

that refresh your soul

like the weight

on your shoulders

that never gets lifted

and the prayer

that never leaves your lips

like deserts of time

that stretch out before you

and dreams

that never end

2008 in review

Ahhh, 2008. What a wonderful year. The year that showed us the most sensitive person on Earth might be a cartoon robot, that even Governor's like to get their freak on and that George W. Bush is really good at ducking shoes. 

Billionaires are shooting themselves in the head at an alarming rate, a Starbucks on Fifth Avenue closed and even Manny Ramirez can't find a job.  

The house you live in is worth less than the paper your mortgage was written on, you're unemployed (or very soon will be) and the crooked bank that gave you that mortgage? They were just handed billions of dollars more to invest wisely.

I find it entirely fitting that 2008 will go down as the only time a professional football team played sixteen games and didn't win any. Did anybody do well this year?

But let's look on the bright side. All of that is over now as we've officially turned the page on '08 and in a few days we will have a brand new commander in chief. One that is actually competent, unlike the outgoing one. And if all else fails, we can always go to Gaza or Mumbai on vacation. Wait. Nevermind.