Watch everything I've written that is on the web

Recently a friend of mine posted to YouTube a couple of videos of things I wrote in college.  One of which I wrote about before. That prompted me to gather all of the videos of everything I've written that has found its way onto YouTube onto one big list.

Together, that's nine videos, a combined two hours, four minutes, and fourteen seconds of content, according to YouTube's count. They are:

1. Ourmageddon.  A short film which is a finalist in the 2012 48 Hour Film Project, Boston. A post-apocalyptic buddy musical.

2. Motivations Unlimited. A short film which was a finalist in the 2010 National Film Challenge. A comedy about a romantic advice service.

Ourmageddon: A Musical in 48 Hours

First off, I haven't blogged much recently as I hadn't written much due to life circumstances.  That has changed, and I should be making a few posts on things I'm working on right now, as I'm working on a lot.

When the time approached for the 48 Hour Film Project for Boston, I was pleased to hear from Malarkey Films, the team I've worked with successfully on three previous entries as well as The Ex Factor web series (which is still in editing, believe it or not).  Talking with Jack beforehand, it was a surprise to hear him testing the waters about the idea of doing a musical. Now, typically for the 48 Hour Film Project, you're randomly assigned a genre and most teams dread drawing the musical or Western genre.  This time we were going to do a musical on top of whatever genre we were actually assigned.

It's a Wrap!

Last weekend we wrapped up the principal filming on The Ex-Factor.  Astonishingly, as they planned, they filmed 90 odd pages of script in just four filming days.  I haven't seen any of the footage, but from past experience and from what I've seen of the filming, I think it's shaping up to be what I wanted it to be. I designed the show to be as easy to produce as possible, but the extent that the production was streamlined was shocking even to me. The first shooting day they shot all of the studio scenes, which was about half of the script.

Comedy is hard. Also, hot and sweaty.

Armed to the Teeth

The result of my recent participation in the 2011 Boston 48 Hour Film Project was just posted on YouTube. This was the one that I recently live blogged about.


My contributions to the film are as follows:

• Wrote a script that they didn't use (see live blog).
• Gave comments to the guy who wrote the script, basically amounting to "This makes no actual sense. That might be a problem." I said this as constructively as possible. To his credit, the guy changed the end of the script to make everything intentionally a joke as opposed to unintentionally a joke, which was an improvement.
• Procured props and costumes and gave actresses a ride to the shooting site.
• Got pizza.

Liveblogging the 48 Film Project

7:00 pm.  Sitting in a hotel room with my team.  We know the genre.  Detective/Cop.  Waiting on the other criteria. Some people are writing already, I want to wait for all the criteria.

7:02 pm.  Stakeout? Scene of the crime?  Anatomy of a crime syndicate?  Much will depend on the required character.  Will probably use the woodsy house that we have available to us.

7:06 pm.  Character: Uncle Hank or Aunt Henrietta
Prop: Chess Piece
Line of Dialogue: "I didn't see that coming."

Another Year, Another 48 Hours

This weekend is the latest round of the 48 Hour Film Project in Boston, and this time I'm on yet another team.  With the good people at Malarkey Films busy doing preproduction on The Ex Factor, I was left without a team.  So, I put a listing up at the volunteer for a team page on the 48 Hour Film site, thinking that it probably wouldn't pan out.  However, I soon got an email from a guy putting together a new team.  Unlike other teams I've been on, the guy heading this team is a 48 Hour rookie but has assembled what seems to be a good group of people, many with experience and others with a lot of enthusiasm.  In a little over a week the film we made will be screened at the Kendall Theatre.

48 Hour Go Green Boston Results

The results for the 48 Hour Film Project Boston Go Green event are in, and the Malarkey entry How Mobile Apps Saved the World did pretty well, although we didn't get the big prize.  The film won "Best Director" and "Best Ensemble Acting", which were both ironic since the directing consisted of one camera shot and most of the actors were non-actors who were interviewed in the Errol Morris style. 

Of the 15 Boston entries, ours was named the Runner Up for Best Film which was a heck of a showing for something that was even more of an ad hoc production than is usually the case for a 48 Hour Film Project production.  We basically showed up on Saturday with a few pages of notes, a homemade "Interrotron" and the hopes that we could get normal people to make up stuff that we could fit together into a coherent piece. It just goes to show how well the normal people brave enough to go on camera did when asked to riff on stuff, and how good the editing was.

The Silent Treatment

At the end of the nineties I had a silent comedy phase.  I went back and rented every Chaplin and Keaton movie I could find and read both of their autobiographies.  I read every bit of commentary I could about that era, and even took clowning classes to get a sense of how you someone can tell stories without words.

During this time, I wrote two full length biographical pieces, a screenplay called Buster Keaton's American Life and a play called Chaplin and Keaton on the Set of Limelight.  I like them both, but I might never be able to do anything with them due to the legal difficulties of using real historical figures. I may post them here at some point.

Writing Under Pressure - The 48 Hour FIlm Project Go Green

This past weekend, I just took part in Malarkey Films entry in the 48 Hour Film Project's Go Green Challenge.  If you're not familiar with the 48 Hour Film Project, it's a challenge in which teams are given 48 hours to write, film, edit, and produce a short film.  In each case you're given a set of criteria that you have to include in your film, usually a genre, a line of dialogue, a prop and a character.  In the Go Green iteration of the challenge, the genre is up to the teams to choose but the films have to have an environmental theme.

It's the sixth time I've been involved with a 48 Hour team, the third time with Malarkey.  Before I had latched onto teams, I had wanted to get involved in the project for a while but hadn't been able to find a team to join.  Eventually I discovered some co-workers of mine were involved in a team and joined up with them for a few events.  When that team lost steam, I was referred to a team run by a friend to the Malarkey Films team, where I discovered that people I knew were in the group.

Lilith at the Wedding

Link: LilithAtTheWedding.pdf
Type: Short Screenplay
Status: Unproduced

My regular writing group has a yearly tradition around holiday times.  Each year we decide on a new writing challenge, and we give ourselves the period over the holidays to work on it.  Sometimes we give ourselves inspirations, such as music or photos.  Other times we have to hit certain plot points at certain times.  Sometimes we give ourselves requirements that we have to use.