Do you live in Canada?

If you live in Canada you can watch "Sleepless" online here. If you don't live in Canada you can still listen to an interview with Mike McLaughlin, director of the film. So click on the link. Support Canada. Support my film. 

I saw Cole

Jessica and I went up for a test screening for Cole on the 16th. I had butterflies in my stomach all day. Here's a quick recap of the events:

• Noon. We pack up the White Shadow and head north. 
• Noon thirty. We stop at Panda Express. I can barely eat my orange chicken. I tell Jessica I'm nervous. It's a weird feeling, getting ready to see your first produced feature film with a crowd of Canadians who will be judging the film for its flaws.
• 3:30pm. We cross the border. The border guard warns us not to give away the Crown Royal we bought at Duty Free otherwise we will be subject to duty. Now you know. 
• 4:30pm. We make it through Vancouver traffic and a confusing parking structure to meet up with Dylan and Kimani (Cole's producers at the Blenz coffee shop at Seymour and Richards. They fill me in on Cole (it's on its third cut, it looks great, they really want me to see it to get my feedback). They just got back from the Toronto Film Festival, having meetings about Cole and Northbridge, the other feature I optioned to them. They hope to wrap up the work on Cole by December and film Northbridge in the spring (if all goes well). We talk about my new script, A Change of Fate (they like it and give me a couple of notes for a rewrite), and a new script I've started. A girl at the coffee shop gets her purse stolen and asks to borrow Dylan's cell phone. Flustered, she realizes Dylan is acting agent (she is an aspiring actress), and stresses out between canceling her credit cards and pitching her talents to him. 
• 6:00pm. We make it to the small theater at Vancouver Film School. A theater I routinely had classes at just two years ago. Sean Minogue, a former classmate, sets up the theater for us. People arrive. Irene Nelson (producer). Richard de Klerk (Cole Chambers). Kevin Eastwood (line producer). Jason James (producer). Carl Bessai (Director). about 20 test viewers. Hugs and handshakes all around. I barely recognize Richard with an attempt at a beard and slick-back hair. He says he wanted to come in disguise. 
• 6:20pm. Carl introduces the movie and we're off. Everything sounds echoey. we realize that the theater sound is set to "Sci-Fi." Sound is fixed and we start over. 
• 6:30pm. Unbelievable. 
• Around 7:00pm. I watch a scene and it hits me that I wrote this. The dialogue, the actions. Crazy. People are laughing when they're supposed to laugh, and not laughing when they're not supposed to laugh. I squeeze Jessica's hand. 
• 7:30pm. I find myself wondering what comes next even though I know. The movie is surrounding me and I believe that it's real. 
• 7:45pm. There I am! I made the cut (at least this one--at dinner, we all agree my scene needs to go. Oh, well, I had my 15 seconds.)
• 8:00pm. Black screen. The words, "End Credits." Lights come up. Amazingly, everyone claps. Crazy. 
• 8:15pm. Irene asks me if I liked it, if it met my expectations. Everyone is smiling. They look like they just had a good time. They fill out their comment sheets and filter out. The movie needs another edit or two to fix sound and a few rough edges, but it's there. It's really there. 
• 9:00pm. Dylan, Kimani, Jana (Kimani's wife and a bartender in the movie), Sean, Jessica and I all eat dinner at the Yaletown Brewery. We all are happy. We just saw a good movie. we rehash just about every scene, smiles on our faces. Jana asks me how I feel. All my  words are gone. 
• 11:30pm. We cross the border back to Seattle. The border guard asks me what the purpose of our visit was. "I'm a screenwriter," I say. "We saw a test screening for my movie." "How'd it go?" he asks. I pause. "Good. Really good." 

Good Publicity for Maia & Jonah

The Edmonton Journal interviews Mike McLaughlin, erstwhile director of "Maia and Jonah," a feature film I wrote that he turned into a short. Read about Mike's career and his thoughts on the film here.

In other news, the energy drink that I had before I got an appendectomy denies any correlation between the drink and my illness. So there. 

A Monster Appendix

The test screening for Cole is now slated for September 16th so that they can go to the Toronto IFF and do things filmies do.

In other news, I did have my appendix out early last Friday morning. Here is a brief e-mail exchange I had with an energy drink company regarding the situation:

Last week, my girlfriend and I moved into a new apartment and I was left to much of the heavy lifting. I have only had a handful of energy drinks in my life, but I was feeling zapped and thirsty and so I had a [x company's energy drink]  both days of our move. This was my first time trying your product. The [x company's energy drink] gave me energy, no doubt, but the following day, I had an awful stomachache and 24 hours later I went to the emergency room and had to have my appendix taken out. [x company's energy drink] was the only new thing I introduced to my diet that week--so a part of me associates drinking [x company's energy drink] with getting an appendectomy. Is there anything you can do to ease my concerns? Thank you for your time. Feel free to call me on my cell phone number above.

Adam:

 

Thanks for visiting the [x company's energy drink] website.
Due to the technical nature of your question, I have forwarded you e-mail to Dr. [deleted name], Technical Director to the [x company's energy drink] Company. He will contact you direct to answer your question.
We appreciate your further patience and understanding in this matter.
Later,

[deleted name] @ [x company's energy drink]

***

I will be sure to update the status of my complaint as soon as I hear from Dr. [deleted name].

Appendix Free...

I got my appendix out Thursday. I'm okay, and thankfully everything worked out okay (I plan on posting more on it in a couple of days)... on to industry news...

• Check out this poster for A Change of Fate that the amazing Laura Walker mocked up for me: 
• While in surgery, I got another message from an agent responding to my query for A Change of Fate--two responses out of 56 isn't bad, is it? Anyway, I just finished my rewrite about a half hour ago and plan on sending out the script tomorrow... fingers crossed.
• They are tentatively planning on having a test screening for Cole this Thursday! I'll go up to Vancouver to see it. I'm a little nervous, but I guess it's out of my hands at this point, right?

Catching up...

So it's been a couple of weeks since I posted, so bullet points are always the best way to update things:

• My name is on the New York Times website! Check it out here.
• I have been working like crazy on a new script- I had a draft done a couple of weeks ago and then I got contact from an agent in California saying that she was interesting, so I spent the past two days writing and writing and writing... My brain is fried but I think I'm on to something pretty good. Here is the logline for the new script (I'd love to hear thoughts and or questions): A psychic teenage boy knows the exact time and date and of his death, an event he expects and welcomes. However, when he discovers that there are things in the world worth living for, he struggles to change his fate.
• Keith Rivers, who helped direct and produce "Nowhere Man," and I are working on getting a Cold Reading Series started up in Seattle. Writers submit scripts, actors read the scripts live, cold, in front of an audience. We have a meeting tomorrow for a location- hopefully we can bring some more film community excitement to Seattle.

Nowhere Man

Here is our short film "Nowhere Man," for the Seattle 48 Hour Film Project. Once again, we had to include a nail file in a suspense/thriller, have a paparazzi character named Mike Jordache, and have a line of dialogue be "What time do you get off?" This is what we came up with: