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Since Rogue One is opening this week, I thought it would be nice to remind everyone of one of my favorite customer complaints when working a busy opening night. Just ignore the empty green lobby backdrop. Budgetary concerns. Classic manager freak out. Happens more often that you know and I care to admit. #ScenesfromtheMovies #webseries #harrypotter #rogueone #movietheater

My writing process is all over the place. I wish I did the notecard thing and had all the scenes laid out in front of me. I tried that a couple of times, but then I got bored with it and started writing. I outline at times. Sometimes, the outline gets to completion. And when I write the story, I kinda-sorta follow the outline. But usually when I outline, I get bored with it and I start writing. I bought a new program called Scrivener and it's meant to give me the tools to outline a story on the computer. I used it for the last short script I wrote (Katie Kennedy) and it was good. It worked. I followed what I wrote and I enjoyed it. Perhaps I'll continue to use it. Most of the times, my process is to write a few notes down in a notebook. Get bored. Start writing. Get stuck. Walk away for a few days. Come back and start writing. Then rewrite. Rewrite. Rewrite. Let people read. Rewrite. Rewrite. Rewrite. See? My process is no process. Even better my process is based on my level of boredom with the process. I'm a process mess. What's your process? #writing #amwriting #scriptchat #indiefilm

The Life Ends @ 30 team had a bit of good news this week. The short we made, Escape the Room, was nominated for a Writer's Guild Award for Outstanding Achievement in New Media Short Form - Original. Pretty cool stuff. It takes everyone involved with the production to make that happen. Any award or nomination is a credit to the talent involved both on-screen and behind it. Yes, I may write the words. But actors must do their thing and make those words come to life. Directors lead the focus. Cinematographers need to create that visual atmosphere. All the crew help make the director's vision happen on screen. Even the P.A. who needs to make a coffee. (An unsung part of any production) And the producers are the ones who put it all together - Putting the right people in the right room at the right time. While the written word is being honored with this award, it wouldn't have happened without everyone involved in the production. Thank you all. Now, check out the short! #shortfilm #WritersGuildofAmerica #awards #production #indiefilm #webseries

Nothing! Sacrifice nothing for your story. In a perfect world, that sentiment works. But if you work within the independent film world then you already know that you are faced daily with a choice of what to sacrifice. Whether it's a scene or a line of dialogue. Maybe it's an extra round of coverage. Something inevitably crops up threatening your plans and you must make a compromise. For me, there are certain items I will not sacrifice. Sound. With the exception of bad acting (which you can control in the casting process), there's nothing that will destroy the connection between your story and its audience faster than bad sound. A bad sound mix in a movie is like someone screaming in your ear while you watch. You notice it. It affects you. You grow to hate the experience. With apologies to cinematographers and directors of photography, you can get away with sub-standard visuals if you have a good story and you're telling it well. But you cannot overcome bad sound. I've watched plenty of indie films where the acting is phenomenal, the story is compelling, but the visuals are not clean and crisp. And it worked. Sound is something I won't sacrifice. What about you? What are you willing to preserve? What are you okay with sacrificing? #badsound #indiefilm #filmmaking

I've tried five different times to do a blog post about indie film and what you would sacrifice to get that film made, but this dude won't let me get any work done. So enjoy this instead: My how they grow. #kids #writing #dexter

It's commercial. It's a short film. It's content. It's Wes Anderson doing what he does best. #WesAnderson #shortfilm

A movie that I really enjoy is Two Family House. Written and directed by Raymond De Felitta and starring Michael Rispoli and Kelly McDonald. If you've never seen it, please do. It's really good. Like most good movies, it deals with several themes. One of those themes is what I had in my head while writing the feature screenplay, Maybe Molly. Buddy Visalo (Rispoli) has a dream to own a bar and while he first believes his wife and friends support him, he soon discovers that are in fact the ones holding him back. I'm sure that sounds familiar to many. When I started writing about Molly, I thought about all those cliques we form in high school. Just pick your favorite high school movie and you'll see those cliques on full display. Maybe Molly is about two people who have been locked in their place dictated by their friends and family. They have been told who to be in the present because of how they were in the past. Through their own actions and desires, these two characters seek to break out of their molds and in the process find each other. So I wrote the script. Re-wrote it several times over and it sat there. For some time. A few people have read it. Generally, it's well received. But again. It collects digital dust on my hard drive. That's when it was decided to a take a scene from that script and shoot it. It could be an example of what the script would be like. And we did just that. Casted the roles, found a location and shot the 4 minute short that takes place at the beginning of the script. There are some things I like about it and some things I do not. Everyone involved did me a big solid by giving up their time for one long night. It was very appreciative. The problem with doing little scenes from a bigger script is that your short better be pretty spectacular. It needs to be amazing and make people demand to read your feature script. Unfortunately, this short does not do that. That's my fault. The choices I made as a director failed the content and the people involved. But you learn from it and move on. That's all you can do. It's all you should do. Even is the short was nominated for an Oscar, if you don't learn and move on, you lose in the long run. #shortfilm #maybemolly #twofamilyhouse #highschool #writing

In honor of Thanksgiving... If you watch ESPN long enough, you usually get to a story about how a professional athlete grew up. They talk about all the sacrifices their parents make. The early hours for practice. The long drives for games. Money spent. Time spent. Energy spent. And those athletes never forget it. It's great. It goes to show you that one person cannot achieve their dream along and without help. The same holds true for writers, actors, directors, etc. The same holds true for me. My wife sacrifices quite a bit: My grumpiness, my time spent writing, money spent on submissions, grumpiness. (That's twice for a reason) If you're going for a dream, someone is making a sacrifice for you to do that. I don't thank my wife enough for putting up with me. (This blog post doesn't count, right?) Thanks honey! (She doesn't read my blog. Sigh.) Hi Dex! #thanksgiving #thankyou #sacrifice

Last semester. Summer session, that is. I had to make an infographic and I chose one that dealt with the battle many filmmakers face these days. Do I make a short film or a web series? If you asked me this question several years ago, I would've said "web series" without a hesitation. But now, I'm leaning more towards short film. Honestly, the real answer is anything. Make anything! Here's my infographic. It could probably use a once-over, but hey...it was made free with the help of Piktochart. #piktochart #infographic #webseries #shortfilm

Further proof that a writer never stops writing, nor do they forget their characters. When I posted about my experience with one of my earlier short films, One Up, called Revisiting One Up, I was reminded of the sequel I wrote. On Facebook, I made mention of the sequel in the comments section of an initial post about that article and well, I figured it was my duty to share. So here it is. One Up Again If you haven't watched the original One Up, you might want to check it out. I reference the first short movie quite a bit. Yes, it's in 480p. (You love it) Enjoy! #oneup #writing #shortfilm #indiefilm

This is an old one, but it's fantastic. Granted, you probably have to love the movie The Third Man or Orson Welles or the acting of Vincent D'Onofrio (which I am. I love Law and Order: Criminal Intent) Synopsis: England 1949. Broke for cash, Orson Welles has agreed to play a part in a spy movie, "The Third Man." The pivotal scene of the movie is about to be shot. But there is a problem: Orson isn't happy with Harry Lime's lines. Screenplay by Will Conroy Story by Vincent D'Onofrio Directed by Vincent D'Onofrio Starring Vincent D'Onfrio & Janine Theriault One of my favorite lines: "Ambersons was a failure." "A magnificent failure." If you've got 30 mins, please watch. It's really quite good. #ThirdMan #VincentDOnofrio #shortfilm #OrsonWelles

We were born with the innate ability to weave a tale. Some are good. Some are great. Some are awful. But storytelling is in our DNA strand. I watch my children play and between my oldest daughter carrying on plot lines with her Barbies or my youngest devising death-defying adventures for Thomas and Friends, it's all about the story. When we grow up, that fades for some of us. It's too bad. I couldn't imagine not having the desire to spin a tale. For many of us, the storytelling desire manifests itself in other forms. That relative who can tell a great joke. The friend who's always got the gossip and knows when to drop the juiciest bit. The same old man at the edge of the bar remembering a different time. I think we need that. All of us. We need a way to share our thoughts and emotions. Storytelling is one of the more effective ways. How do you tell a story? What's your outlet? (Facebook rants don't count) #storytelling #writing #amwriting #scriptchat