Smokefilledrooms

A Victory for New Media and Independent Film

2008-07-17T13:08:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

So for any of you that don’t know yet, Johnny Appleweed is an official selection of the From Here to Awesome Film Festival. This means that the film will be released on Netflix, Amazon, Indieflix, Heretic Films, Joost, Caaschi, Vuze, Hulu as well as both guerilla and traditional theatrical release in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, London, Melbourne and Edinburgh.

This is a great thing not only for the film, but a great experiment for all filmmakers who are looking for alternative methods of distribution. Hollywood eyes are on this festival and the success can show how new forms of distribution and revenue sharing will work in digital age.

Between Microsoft and Sony’s new VOD services for the Xbox and Playstation, IFC’s Festival Direct, Sundance winner Ballast rejection of traditional distribution and From Here to Awesome we are beginning to see that the instead of believing ‘The Sky is Falling” as Mark Gill said in his infamous LA Film Festival speech, the independent filmmaker is on the rise with more control, increased accessibility and in most cases, greater revenue opportunities.

Tami exhausted herself promoting this thing and so many of you on this board helped out by voting and commenting and favoriting her submission video and trailer. Congratulations to Tami and John and thank you to everyone who helped out.

You can check out more at http://showcase.fromheretoawesome.com/2008/07/johnny-appleweed/

2008-06-23T23:37:00.000-07:00

It turns out that this "lost Amazon tribe" photo was fake. The photojournalist came clean (http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/91536). In a suprising twist, this picture was actually a picture of Browns fans tailgating. The photo looked so fake to me when I first saw it that I nearly shot milk out of my nose. Which is weird since I haven't drunk milk in 10 years. I don't know what's worse, that this dude faked t, or that the major "news" outlets believed it.

RIP Tim Russert

2008-06-13T13:30:00.000-07:00

Tim Russert's Meet the Press was one of the must see televisions shows for anyone who wanted to be even mildly educated on politics. I learned a lot from this show and have a great deal of Mr. Russert.

However, I connected to Tim on a sports level. As a long suffering Brown's fan, I know how it must have felt when he cheered on the Bills each and every weekend.

Anyway, here's one of my favorite Tim Russert pieces.

RIP Tim.

Surveillance Trailer

2008-06-13T11:31:00.001-07:00

Surveillance Trailer
Video sent by trailerhaus

official international trailer for Surveillance, a film by Jennifer Lynch, executive producer David Lynch, Warner Bros. Pictures

New Movie from Jennifer Lynch. Trailer looks dark and hip. Like father, like daughter.

Screenplay Competitions

2008-06-13T11:22:00.001-07:00

A good friend of mine put this together. I thought that a few of you may be interested in this:

List of Contests/Scholarship Deadlines

1. IHS Film and Fiction Scholarship Jan. 15
(Initial application submitted online - Jan. 15)
http://www.theihs.org/scholarships/

2. Fox TV Diversity Writer’s Initiative
(Accepts Original Pilots) Mar. 30 – June 15 http://www.fox.com/diversity/creative/writer_submission.htm

3. Film Independent – Project: Involve April 30
http://www.filmindependent.org/index.php/diversity/filmmaker_labs

4. Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting May 1
(USC will pay for app fee thru OperationWin)
http://www.oscars.org/nicholl/index.html

5. Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab/Fellowship May 1
(Apps avail. 2/15 online)
http://www2.sundance.org/applications.html

6. Film Independent Screenwriters’ Lab May 4;
May 28 (late)
http://www.filmindependent.org/index.php/diversity/filmmaker_labs

7. Slamdance Film Festival (screenplay) May 18
http://www.slamdance.com/writing/feature.html

8. Austin Film Festival
(USC will pay for app fee thru OperationWin)
http://www.austinfilmfestival.com/new/
(screenplay)                               May 15;
                                    Jun. 1 (late)
(teleplay)                               Jun. 1

9. Annual Writers Network Competition May 31
http://www.writersnetworkcompetition.com/

10. CBS Diversity Mentorship Program: June 1
http://www.cbscorporation.com/diversity/cbs_network/index.php

also CBS Diversity – Directing Initiative Ongoing app
need directors reel (same website as above)

11. Warner Brothers Writing Workshop
Comedy Jul. 1 – Aug. 15
http://www2.warnerbros.com/writersworkshop/comic.html
Drama
http://www2.warnerbros.com/writersworkshop/dramatic.html Jul. 1 – Aug. 15

12. Slamdance Film Festival (teleplay and Original Pilots) Jun. 1 – Sept. 5
http://www.slamdance.com/writing/teleplay.html

13. Writers’ Arc Fellowship June 30
(app/scenario avail. 6/16 online)
http://www.writersarc.org

14. Disney ABC Talent Development Program
Writers Program                               July 1
www.abctalentdevelopment.com/programs_writers.htm
Directors Program                               Feb. 29, 2008
www.abctalentdevelopment.com/programs_directors.htm

15. Sundance/Sloan Commission Grant (science screenplays) Sept. 10
www2.sundance.org/applications.html

16. Film Independent Directors’ Lab Nov. 16 – Dec. 14
www.filmindependent.org/index.php/diversity/filmmaker_labs

17. WGA Writer Trainee Program rolling
www.wga.org/subpage_writingtools.aspx?id=933

18. NBC Writers on the Verge ?
www.diversecitynbc.com/index.aspx

Pyramid schemes, the economy and your bum friends

2008-05-27T16:19:00.000-07:00

Most professionals have their ways of determining if the economy is going into recession, coming out of recession, dipping its toes in recession or just getting downright depressed. There are indicators for this.... beats me what they are, but THEY tell me there are indicators so I believe them.

I have my own economic indicators. A surefire set of criteria that will always lead you to the truth....

If there are a high level of “work from home,” “mystery shopper,” or pyramid schemes in the help wanted section of the paper or online, welcome to the recession.

Pyramid schemes stalk the unemployed. If the unemployment rate is high, then you can bet the scam ads will flood in. Buy our crap, sell it to your other derelict friends and have them do the same. If you can get a long enough chain of people will to fuck over gullible acquaintances, you’ll be a millionaire!

Come to think of it...that kind of sounds like NAFTA.

Airline Safety Edition

2008-05-27T10:00:00.000-07:00

While sitting knee to nostril in coach, waiting for our plane to go in reverse and pick up our forgotten luggage, I---for the first time in a long time---decided to follow along with the flight attendant and read the safety card. I am not adverse to airline safety precautions, it’s just that I’ve been on enough planes to know the safety procedures. I don’t think that a United Airlines attendant is going to get on the intercom and say:
“Unlike other airlines, our evacuation procedures involve screaming like a baby and wetting yourself.” Although, this would probably be a more realistic evacuation procedure.

Back to the safety card. The next time you are on United Airlines, take a good look at this brochure. In one set of panels, a mother gently puts a life vest on her baby. My uneducated guess is that the child is one or under. The baby looks happy (or gassy) as the mother inflates the vest. The next panel left me disturbed and wanting for more. In the moonlight, on open water, the baby floats in his mothered life vest ALONE. The mom is gone, the plane is gone, no passengers to be found. Just a lone baby, bathed in moonlight, drifting with the current, happy as pie.

The second set of panels instructs passengers on how to inflate and release the slide/life raft. Now, I’ll assume this is a completely different water crash because the sun is out (which begs the question: How many freaking planes are crashing into the water UA?) In one panel, a man sits on a life raft while others swim to him. When closely inspected we see that the man has a SPLINT on his arm. It’s a make shift splint so he either had a shitty doctor or HE HAD TIME TO SPLINT HIS ARM DURING A PLANECRASH. Like a missing reel in a movie or a ghost chapter in a book, this mysterious splint is never explained.

I’m hooked by this safety card story. Now, I will continually watch the back of my airplane chair, waiting for Chapter Two.

From Here to Awesome

2008-03-02T21:50:00.000-08:00

During one of the first writing classes at a Los Angeles film school, a professor took a group of students to the Chateau Marmont as a way to introducing them to networking. You see as a person outside the industry, the fine art of sucking up is just as important as actual talent. Even independent filmmakers that are lucky enough to find distribution and representation will many times find themselves making creative concessions on their next picture. The industry does not respect talent and vision half as much as it does old formula marketability and obsequious directors and writers.

Independent talent has always had their hands tied by the archaic distribution module that has run the industry since its inception. That is why From Here to Awesome is such a great opportunity. Here is a chance for the filmmakers to get their film shown without making concessions. Art as art is intended. Financially this opportunity cuts out the middlemen and puts the money in the hands of the creative talent. If you have a short or a feature, put a video blog together and submit. The drinks are expensive at the Chateau. Help break the mold.

Another try: A Procrastination Edition

2008-03-02T17:57:00.000-08:00

One of the biggest problems I have with blogging is that it requires I actually blog. Interesting, trendy, hip blogs don't just appear here by some magical blog fairy, I must write them. The first and only blog I wrote was about something I know a little about, but now I am going to list a few things I will probably blog on but know nothing about.

1) physics
2) gardening
3) how to make money making movies
4) how to make money
5) When and how to use punctuation correctly.

Because this blog will now and forever contain fairly random thoughts, each blog will come with it's own edition headline. It's my way of providing some order to my foolishness.

Smoke

Confessions of a Film School Screenwriter---

2007-10-18T16:14:00.000-07:00

I go to school for writing. This doesn’t make me a better writer than anyone that hasn’t gone to school. What it does provide is the opportunity to study screenwriting with as much time and input as any “legitimate” academic pursuit. The fact I spend as much time dissecting Casablanca and the Pilot episode to Friday Night Lights as an international politics student spends pouring over the UN Declaration of Human Rights is pretty embarrassing.

Because I’m in the unique position to constantly gab about filmmaking, many of my friends will ask me what I’ve learned, how the industry works, and if I’ll read their script. I thought I might take some time and write out this little blurb about some of the things I’ve learned in hopes it helps someone who’s trying to break in. Also writing this probably fills some narcissistic need of mine… but I’ll leave that for the next article and the comments section.

1) Don’t be so f#@king sensitive. One of the benefits of film school is how to take a critical beating and rise up from the ashes. Workshops are attempts to streamline your story and to get input from like-minded people that are trying to do the same thing. They are not blowjob fests. People that read your material should be harsh. They should tell you when your story doesn’t make any sense, when your characters have no drive and when they simply lose interest. If you don’t have a little masochism in your heart, then do something else because taking the abuse is part of getting better.
2) If someone reads your material and tells you they like it without any criticism, then they didn’t really read your stuff. If someone really likes your material, they’ll generally offer ideas on how to make it better. You can generally tell how excited some is for your material by how excited they are to give you ideas on how to change it. “I like it” is code for I put it down half way through.
3) Outline your story, then outline it again. Then step outline it, then write it, then outline it again. Your story will live and die on how familiar you are with the material. Outlining is a great “getting to know you” process. This process doesn’t kill your creative spontaneity… it adds to it by showing off your unique ability to write those beats.
4) Put your Freud cap on and sit your characters in the chair. The more you know about what drives your characters, the better story you have. What is it your characters are trying to do? What is the one thing they want more than anything? Are their actions and true needs in direct conflict? You should have an idea of what your character is trying to get with every line of dialogue you write. Actors tend to break dialogue down by discovering the intentions behind each line. A good director will do this as well. The more psychological work you do with your characters, the richer the experience for everyone involved.

These are just a few things that are crammed into my head and just came out my ass. Good writing everyone!