Stargates and etc.

So Eli Roth is working on three projects simultaneously, which, including a fantasy past time of beating Nazi with baseball bats, makes two things we have in common. Getting back into the workshop scene has revealed that my tenuous grasp of storytelling has slipped and that my favorite convoluted and apparently genre-obscure project isn’t universally appealing. So two projects go on the back burner and another one comes back for another pass.

Elsewhere, I snagged my second limited edition print from the arg-inspired LOST art project damoncarltonandapolarbear.com. It did not involve dolphins killing the president, but I am expecting some murderous marine mammals once the show returns.

Also, completely unexpectedly, I’m kinda digging Stargate Universe. The first episode was interesting, and it might just scratch the itch BSG left behind when it finished up. Robert Carlyle is playing things slightly detached, which is creating conflict with just about everyone at this point. Here’s hoping it holds up.

Won’t waste time or effort on the CS Open again

Updates being few and far-between I don’t expect I get much screenwriting traffic on the blog anymore, but just in case, I thought I’d pass along an opinion on the CS Open screenwriting competition- avoid it and spend your time doing more productive things. Like clipping your toenails or something.

The CS Open sounded interesting $12 an entry for an elimination style tournament. You get a prompt and have increasingly shorter deadlines to return a new 5 pg scene with each round. Since I’m a spec writer and I’ve been out of college for a while, the idea of a deadline really appealed to me. (I’m sure working writers who genuinely sweat crazy deadlines are thinking I’m crazy, but… Well okay, I can’t really deny being crazy.)

Here’s how things have played out… First, there were technical problems with registration, then some folks had issues submitting their entries by the deadline so it was extended, and now it appears some entries have just disappeared into the ether. But as far as I knew until this morning, I wasn’t having any of these problems. Got my proper #digit entry ID, had my pages done and submitted, properly formatted and title paged, by the original deadline, got a confirmation page and everything. But no score. No nothing.

I’ve sent several emails after each “Check by” date they posted to the site and still have not received a direct response. Found out via Twitter that a few other people are having the same problems. Done Deal reveals others.

So to hell with that noise. And I’ll be honest, I didn’t have a lot invested in this. $12 ain’t gonna break me, which was half the reason I entered. Plus I had a lot going on the weekend of the first round, SparkCon was going down in Raleigh, bands were playing, I had even gotten a little sick. But I came up with my 5 pages anyway, trying to put a fun spin on the vague plot requirements- but that was it, these weren’t characters I’ve spent months learning about and I guess I like my process a lot more when I live and breathe my characters for more than 5 pages.

My Olly Moss Locke print….

Courtesy of Damoncarltonandapolarbear.com:

Snagged print no. 281 of 300. Looking for a nice chunky wooden frame and gonna put it on the wall next to the classic Anatomy of a Murder one-sheet.

Too much and not enough.

Too much to listen to, watch, read, drink, snap, practice, backstory and write. Not enough time, sleep, insight, structure, space, truthiness, courtesy, etc. I persist. Sticking my neck out on a spec thing before September’s up. Trying to get another thing off the ground. Entered some sort of up-all-night writing comp because I thought it would be fun. Obviously dementia’s setting in early this year.

Caught a break

Made it to the next round of Page International with N&D, and subsequently dinked the next cut which isn’t much, but I’ll take validation where I can get it.

In other news, the Ghostbusters video game is just about the greatest thing ever. However my love is slightly mitigated because I’ve got the difficulty cranked all the way up, so invariably Ray and Peter are getting possessed and attacking me, and Egon won’t get out of the damn way when whatever giant monster is rampaging so I keep dying trying to save his ass. Janine runs up the long distance bill and Winston just wants some pizza.

The fact that it’s the 25th anniversary of Ghost Busters is kinda weirding me out.  Both flicks are artifacts of my childhood, near and dear to my heart. I’m willing to bet the Real Ghostbusters cartoon modified my DNA at some point and it definitely put a few wrinkles in my brain. But it’s cool to see Ramis out and about doing a ton of PR for the Blu-ray release (and his new flick of course). Not entirely sure how I’m feeling about the talk of a sequel. There’s much potential for disaster, but George Lucas isn’t involved so I have some hope. What would really be great though is if some smart writers out there would diligently spend time and effort creating a new Ghostbusters-esque comedy, different premise, fresh characters…

Oh hey, some of those script meters are actually moving!

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