Jul. 11 Fun: Today at work this guy showed up, and I thought I knew him from college.
Omar: Hi Tracy.
Me: Hey, I thought it was you.
O: What have you been up to?
Me: I've been working here for a year. Did you get the diploma or the degree?
O: I dropped out after the first year. I now have a job at the magazine Avenue.
Me: Oh yeah, I applied there a few months ago.
He had an internship there for 6 months and got paid like $1300/ month. Now he's got a paid writing job.
I watched the last 2 eps of the Secret Life of the American Teenager season 1. Well the 2nd to last ep, I only saw the first 20min because I can't get the full- length like all the other eps.
Jul. 12: Today I watched another ep of SLAT. I think I overdosed on this show.
Omar: Hi Tracy.
Me: Hey, I thought it was you.
O: What have you been up to?
Me: I've been working here for a year. Did you get the diploma or the degree?
O: I dropped out after the first year. I now have a job at the magazine Avenue.
Me: Oh yeah, I applied there a few months ago.
He had an internship there for 6 months and got paid like $1300/ month. Now he's got a paid writing job.
I watched the last 2 eps of the Secret Life of the American Teenager season 1. Well the 2nd to last ep, I only saw the first 20min because I can't get the full- length like all the other eps.
Jul. 12: Today I watched another ep of SLAT. I think I overdosed on this show.
Movie: However, this movie trailer popped up called The Stepfather which comes out in Oct. The premise is has Penn Badgley (Gossip Girl) playing a teenager. His mom is getting remarried to this new guy. The old woman who lives next door saw America's Most Watned and saw a sketch of the stepfather.
Penn's character does research and tries to figure out if the stepfather is a bad guy. It looks pretty scary. One nitpick is that the step parents being evil is a common archetype and has been done. Here's the trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSVmrqAMQZA&feature=fvw
Writing: The TV producer John told me that there should be more conflict with the characters. Put the characters in a situation like Sophie's Choice.
Me: What is that? A movie?
J: No, it's a book. It's where a woman has to choose between which kid to send to concentration camp.
Me: Oh that reminds me of the Prison Break series finale where Michael has to choose between saving his brother or his girlfriend. Also in Batman Forever, Batman has to save either his girlfriend or Robin.
That's kind of a cliche. Well it's been done before.
Jul. 13 Birth order theory: I was thinking about my cliche in my script. Shawn has a big brother who's an overachiever. Well it's based on my big sister. I find it too common. In Harper's Island, Henry was the smart older brother, while JD was the troubled younger one. Then it's not until later, it turns out Henry was a sociopath. They did quite a good twist on that one.
I was watching Flash Gordon, and Flash's friend did a toast to his big brother who's getting married. The friend talked about how his brother got into law school and is an overachiever. Well it is birth order theory. The oldest is often the smart and mature one.
Except on The Simpsons, Bart is a trouble maker and doesn't do well in school. Lisa is more like the oldest being smart and mature. Now I'm thinking of the MTV cartoon Daria. Daria is the oldest, and has the traits of the oldest. She has a little sister Quinn who is more interested in being popular.
Then there's Michael on Prison Break. He is the youngest and he's smart. His big brother Lincoln is a criminal. That's different. There's also Tru Calling. Tru is the middle child and helping people out. Her little brother is immature and irresponsible. She does have a big sister Meredith who has it together. Though she does have a drug problem. Later she gets treated for it.
Writing: The TV producer John told me that there should be more conflict with the characters. Put the characters in a situation like Sophie's Choice.
Me: What is that? A movie?
J: No, it's a book. It's where a woman has to choose between which kid to send to concentration camp.
Me: Oh that reminds me of the Prison Break series finale where Michael has to choose between saving his brother or his girlfriend. Also in Batman Forever, Batman has to save either his girlfriend or Robin.
That's kind of a cliche. Well it's been done before.
Jul. 13 Birth order theory: I was thinking about my cliche in my script. Shawn has a big brother who's an overachiever. Well it's based on my big sister. I find it too common. In Harper's Island, Henry was the smart older brother, while JD was the troubled younger one. Then it's not until later, it turns out Henry was a sociopath. They did quite a good twist on that one.
I was watching Flash Gordon, and Flash's friend did a toast to his big brother who's getting married. The friend talked about how his brother got into law school and is an overachiever. Well it is birth order theory. The oldest is often the smart and mature one.
Except on The Simpsons, Bart is a trouble maker and doesn't do well in school. Lisa is more like the oldest being smart and mature. Now I'm thinking of the MTV cartoon Daria. Daria is the oldest, and has the traits of the oldest. She has a little sister Quinn who is more interested in being popular.
Then there's Michael on Prison Break. He is the youngest and he's smart. His big brother Lincoln is a criminal. That's different. There's also Tru Calling. Tru is the middle child and helping people out. Her little brother is immature and irresponsible. She does have a big sister Meredith who has it together. Though she does have a drug problem. Later she gets treated for it.
Writing: The TV producer John said: "Link all the bad things happening because the bad guy caused it."
I got an email from this guy rejecting the script, and then I asked if he could mail it back to me. He said sure. I'm waiting for that script to come back. As that's occuring I'm writing scenes for now before I type them up.
I'm also reading a screenwriting book from the library called : "Writing Movies" edited by Alexander Steele. John told me to read "Story" by Robert McKee saying it's really good. I'm on the waiting list at the library. It'll be a couple of months.
Rant: Here's a mild rant. I was reading Metro, and it was about Brittany Flickinger who won Paris Hilton's BFF first season. Now BF says they aren't friends after the show. BF is launching her perfume and fashion line, and trying to get her music out there. I know a lot of reality shows are used to get publicity for people.
I guess my rant is that there is bad TV shows out there like this that exist and needs to get cancelled. I will admit I only watched 3 minutes in total of both the American version and the British BFF show. It looked bad, and I changed the channel real quick. I then go on imdb.com and read people's comments dissing the show.
I'm going to admit something else. I saw some of the beginning of Big Brother 11. Well I watched the first 15 min. of it because I was killing time until I would get a call from the TV producer to meet up. Yeah, well at least it's funny. They also win money, something's that's tangible and real. The only thing that is real about reality TV.
Blood Diamond: It was on the other week. It starred Leonardo Dicaprio playing a South African looking for a diamond to sell. Dijimon Honsou plays a man who's been seperated from his family after rebel soldiers attack his village. It was so gruesome and violent, and realistic. Jennifer Connely plays a news reporter covering the story.
It's a really good story. Great cinematography of Africa. I thought the movie was going to show Part 1 on Sunday, and Part 2 the next day like it said on my TV. Then it wasn't on the next day. I thought it would be next Sunday, but it wasn't on either. Instead, they actually showed the last 30 min. after the 30 min. news show. Well at least Patrick saw it in the theatres and filled me in on the ending.
It had great acting and good story. There are strong characters who have a lot of conflict to get what they want.
The Forbidden Kingdom: I borrowed this movie from the library yesterday and saw it. It's a good movie where it stars Jackie Chan and Jet Li for the first time. I thought that there was a creative twist in the movie about the Monkey King. It's about a teenage boy named Jason (Michael Angarano) and he loves kung fu movies. He then goes to Chinatown and hangs out with the pawn shop owner who sells those movies.
Jason, Lu Yan, Silent Monk (Jet Li), and Golden Sparrow all team up to give the stick back to MK. Great fight scenes, and good comedy.
Jul. 14: It's good today. I actually forced myself to read that screenwriting book. I find it hard to concentrate. As long as there isn't a TV or computer around, I'll be good.
Cliche: I read reviews of the movie I Love You Beth Cooper where a geek professes his love to the popular girl Beth (Hayden Penettiere). I read in the Metro about this genre movie is a cliche. There are lots of movies with geeks getting the popular girl. I read some pretty bad reviews of it.
Here's another cliche: I read the review of The Listener pilot about the cliche of the bad guy turns out to be a cop. I was watching a rerun of The Mentalist, and I realized they did that 3 times in the first season. It's not repetitive though. I really had to force myself to think of the entire season to see how many times they did that.
Unlike Smallville. It's so repetitive. If you ask me to name freak of the weeks, I can name those freaks instantly. If you ask me to list car accidents on the show, I can list them instantly. In fact, the first season of Smallville, Whitney's truck got into 5 accidents. I remember reading on jumptheshark.com back in 2001.
This person says: "Smallville doesn't need Superman, they need better drivers." lol.
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