A polish...

After hoping to have a relaxing long weekend, I got an email this afternoon that I needed to have a "polish" on Cole done by Tuesday. I was planning on going to see Werner Herzog's new film at the Seattle International Film Festival, but I'm not complaining. This urgency means something good is about to happen, and maybe gives us a chance to start shooting by the end of the summer.

Here are my instructions for the polish:

1. We've reworked the dinner scene and need you to add some dialogue ending it with
the great VO about his family but now said out loud.
2. We want to amp the frogger/kenny scene after the **** a la good will hunting.
Frogger helps him start to realize he can leave.
3. We've done a lot of rearranging at the end and we've pulled all the voice over to
the bottom. Can you tighten everything up and alter the vo to fit the new order
and/or reinsert the stuff at the bottom. Basically a cleaning is needed.

And that's it. Back to work...

Miranda July...

I went to Miranda July's book reading/dance party at Neumo's in Seattle on Thursday. July wrote, directed, and starred in one of my favorite movies, Me and You and Everyone We Know. She seemed incrediably nervous the whole time. She read a hilarious story from her new book of short stories but her voice was shaky, almost unsure.

I bought a book and had her sign it. She had this overwhelmed look in her eyes, like she'd rather be anywhere but there... like maybe Idaho or Scotland. I couldn't figure out why and it seemed a little strange at the time.

After reading half of the book, I think I understand why she was so overwhelmed... she absolutely bares her entire being in these stories. It's like the stories are naked, and not only are they naked, but you can look at the nakedness with triple magnification. Now everyone that reads these stories can see her insides and maybe that's why she looked so uneasy at the reading--because she was anticipating the inevitable fact that everyone would soon know these things about her.

Anyway, the book is great. It's called No one belongs here more than you. Check it out sometime.

Sleepless...

I just saw a rough cut of "Sleepless"--a short film I wrote while at VFS. It's a romantic comedy about a guy who believes that when he falls in love, he will finally be able to fall asleep. My buddy Mike liked the script, took with him to the frozen tundra of Edmonton and filmed it in February.

I'm pretty happy with the way things turned out. Mike definitely put a lot of time and effort into it, and it's his vision the whole way. The kid is a talented filmmaker--even though he doesn't know how to make fish tacos.

I'll post when a final cut gets uploaded to You Tube.

Sorry for the delay...

I'm still here! Been super busy in the past month with a new rewrite. With this new found prospective on things and after enjoying a beautiful 75 degree Seattle day, I have decided to abandon past journal posts and just focus on the here and now. Which leads us to... now.

I turned in my second official rewrite for Cole last Saturday. I even got paid! I ate some wild boar with the producers and played poker until 5am. I sat next to a lady who was a casting agent/model. The most brilliant thing I said all night was, "So... modeling... is it good?" And then I folded.

They're optimistic about getting this thing off the ground by the end of the summer. They're trying to attach Jeff Daniels to it now--the script is set in a small town in Michigan, Jeff Daniels is from a small town in Michigan... etc.

So yeah, the script has legs. Skinny legs, but legs all the same. The budget is small, but so are the settings, and it should look like a decent little indie flick when it's all said and done.

Questions? Concerns? Feel free to ask and I will reply to the best of my ability. Thank you all and have a pleasant tomorrow.