May 31, 2021

Flew home from Austin this morning. Man, I've been in a bad mood all day. Too many days of drinking in a row. Too much travel. Too much fear of being out of control, that I won't be able to get back on the horse and feel well again. Maybe I should take up meditation, even if it's just like ten minutes a day. I'm trying to be proactive - exercise, cooking, chores, answering emails promptly, setting my schedule and not procrastinating. I'm not teaching any classes right now so I should have more than enough time for everything. So much traveling over the past month has sapped my stamina, though. In large part because I've been traveling without actually taking any time off. I've been working remotely, and I still have homework, plus I've been pushing myself creatively. I'm in a dark head space, wondering if I'm ever going to feel good again. 

I suspect I will feel good again, but being mentally solid isn't something I take for granted. I love my mind. Using it feels like wielding a massive club -- I can bash through anything -- but sometimes the club swings around and takes me out instead. It's hard to recover from. 

Mlog Time! 

THE HUSTLE

2019

Directed by: Chris Addison

Written by: Stanley Shapiro, Paul Henning, Dale Launer, Jac Schaeffer

Watched: 3/29/21

Josephine is a seasoned con artist with millions of dollars who runs into Penny, a less-seasoned less suave grifter. Josephine wants to get Penny off her territory, so she tries to get rid of her. Penny keeps hanging on. Josephine agrees to train her, and they run a successful con together. When Josephine doesn’t pay Penny her cut, Penny walks out (Josephine hopes) forever. But Penny is resilient and doesn’t want to leave the rich Mediterranean town. So the two make a bet, whoever can con $500,000 from a young internet tycoon first gets to stay in the city. Penny pretends to be blind and need the cash for a medical procedure, and then Josephine slots in pretending to be the psychologist who can help Penny. The two duke it out before realizing that the boy himself is a con artist. In the end, the three team up to all con together. 

Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson are great in this. One of my favorite scenes was the one where Josephine (Hathaway) is training Penny (Wilson). Josephine, wearing ridiculously posh clothes, jumps over this column like a gazelle. Both women are funny in big but opposite ways. The movie reminded me a little bit of The Heat, but the stakes and the chemistry don’t end up hitting Bullock/McCarthy levels, unfortunately. It was enjoyable and entertaining and sometimes made me laugh. 

Rating: ★★★

 

May 30, 2021

My husband and I did a lot yesterday. We slept in and then walked to a donut food truck, walked to breakfast tacos and Allen's Boots -- which had been recommended to us as "Allen's Boats" because of autocorrect. It makes me really want Cowboy Boats to take off as a concept. We road the bus to a brewery, then we saw live music at another brewery, then we went and watched the bats, then we went to Rainey Street, which was packed with people. I saw four bachelorette parties. No one was wearing masks. COVID was being disregarded complete. I felt like I was stress testing my vaccine. Hopefully everyone else was vaccinated as well (but of course it's very unlikely all of them were). 

At the bar we posted up in at the end, we met a couple who had moved to Austin from LA within the last year. I feel like... that must mean that Austin is overrun with Angelinos, right? The couple said they loved it here, and when I asked about how it was career-wise they said very tough. It seems impossible to find a job, they said. 

I was thinking about how one of the things I like about LA is that people are career focused. Obviously that can be taken to an extreme, and it probably is in LA. But working in Colorado, I noticed that everyone goes home right at 5pm. That they seem to live for nights and weekends, for their recreation time. If I were from a career-obsessed place like LA, I might move to Colorado for that reason. But I still think it's appealing that people are trying hard in their work, that they're ambitious, that they want to advance. My feelings on that could change, of course. And then who knows where I'll end up. 

May 29, 2021

In Austin, Texas! My husband and I got in at 1pm yesterday and had to kill two hours. We took a bus from the airport towards our Airbnb, and then we posted up in the lobby of a Hyatt. It was great. Good tables. Fine internet. Nobody looking at us funny for sitting there with our suitcases. Then I had the idea to walk the 0.8 miles to our place. 

Holy hell is Austin hot. And humid. And the sidewalks aren't very good. We made it, but not before I regretted the idea. We could have taken a five minute rideshare. 

Was worried about that thing when traveling where you're (I'm) all irregular and you (I) get constipated and only think about wanting to poop for a couple of days. Happy to say, I took care of it this morning. Hoping that's the end of that worry. 

Last night we went out to BBQ -- delicious, -- and then it started thunderstorming so hard there was a flash flood warning. Instead of figuring out which bars to go to and how to get there, we ordered some cocktails to go and then watched a movie in our place while it rained and thundered and lighteninged outside. 

Mlog time!

Actually, we're going to head out so I will do this later. 

May 28, 2021

 I'm on an airplane! Headed to Austin. Using that Southwest wifi, which is not great. But hey, it has to go to space. Also they don't have coffee on this flight, and I woke up at 5:30 this morning. I'm going to drink some coke to make up for it. Wild times. 

Went skating on the beach path yesterday. It went pretty well. My new wheels and bearings are so much faster than my old ones, and my wheels light up! But I did fall on my butt -- maybe even on my back? I went all the way down, is the point. It didn't hurt too much, fortunately. I didn't break a wrist. Mostly I was embarrassed. Hopefully I'll feel confident enough to show my face on skates ever again. 

I've felt meh lately. Several days in a row. Not sure what's tripping me up these past few weeks, and maybe there doesn't need to be a reason. Going to try to keep doing things that make me feel good, like exercise, writing, seeing friends, trying new things, hanging out with Mitch. 

Slog Time! 

**SPOILERS** 

SECOND ACT LIBRARY

2020 Blood List

Written by: Kimberley Elizabeth

Read: 5/27/21 

This is a meta-horror script about various characters – from different movies – meeting up in the library to try to research the monsters/evil that are chasing them. The crew runs throughout the labyrinthian library, running from monsters, many characters dying. Eventually there are only three characters left: the smart ambitious guy, the final girl, and the girl with the locket/witchcraft. They battle against the big bad which winds up being the librarian and her coven of witches. 

I wanted to like this script more than I did. I love a horror comedy, but it didn’t seem to have a lot more to say on horror stories than, say, what Cabin in the Woods already gave us. The script is well-written – this writer can clearly write – but it does have a lot of cheekiness in the action lines. I would say a distracting level of cheekiness. It’s like we get it, you have voice. My main issue with the script is how from the very beginning, the teenagers seem nonplussed about a bunch of their friends dying (which has happened to them right before this story begins). It’s an issue I have with a lot of meta horror: you get too removed and it loses the scariness, the reality, the fantasy. It’s like watching something through an extra layer of glass. If the characters aren’t terrified by this point and don’t seem to care about the people who have died, why should the audience care? Also, the script in its dialogue feels very Buffy. And unlike Video Nasty, which has a similar-ish premise and tone, this script lacks the sense of joy. It lacks the clear love for horror. 

Plus the villains and their plan don’t really make any sense. I never really got if these were characters from movies or if the witches were putting them in a movie and what the library had to do with that. 

Second Act Library has a good premise, great setting, and some good scenes, but the overarching story and the depth to each of the characters needs work, I think. 

Rating: ★★1/2 

May 27, 2021

I feel off my game lately, and I realize that I might not really get a chance to get back on schedule -- at least not on my working-at-home schedule. Things are chaotic for the next month, and then I go back in person. It all should be fine, but it's kind of startling to realize that maybe COVID is over. It could of course come back, especially if we don't get most people in the world vaccinated, but barring that... I don't know, maybe we're good. 

What would I like to do differently in the post-COVID world? (I mean differently from the pre-COVID world, not differently from the present-COVID world.) More control of my schedule, I think. Or maybe more prudence is the way to look at it. Deliberate social engagements that maybe also have the benefit of being exercise? Like skating the beach path or going on a walk. I want to not overbook myself, get into good routines, but also regularly do something new. It starts getting impossible pretty fast. 

I want to take care of myself so that I'm excited and up for things while also being more willing to say no to people and space things out enough that I have enough opportunities to take a break. I love breaks! 

Okay, I watched a double feature yesterday of METROPOLIS and DARK CITY. 

Mlog Time! 

METROPOLIS 

1927

Directed by: Fritz Lang

Written by: Thea von Harbou

Watch: 5/26/21 

Metropolis is a silent German industrial/art deco film about Freder, the son of the man who rules the city. Above ground, in giant skyscrapers lives the elite – the brains of the city – while far under the ground live the workers, who power the machines that run the city. A prophetess-type figure named Maria has been speaking to the workers about peace with the elites. She wants there to be communication and connection between the two groups. Freder is entranced with Maria and staggered by the hard lives of the workers. An inventor brings a robot to the leader of the city, who decides to get rid of all the workers now that he can replace them with machines. The inventor and leader discover Maria and decide to replace her with a robot who looks like her, so that she might lead the workers to their destruction. It pretty much works, with the workers destroying the machines which causes the worker city to flood. Fortunately, Maria and Freder are able to rescue the children from the city before they drown. 

When the workers discover what has happened, they decide to kill Maria. They burn her on a pier and realize she’s a robot. The workers are told that Freder and the real Maria saved their children. The leader, thinking he’s lost Freder at one point, understands the workers plight and humanity, and Freder is able to join the workers to the leaders. As Maria says, the only way the head and the hands can communicate is through the heart. 

The visuals in this are incredible. Mobs of people wearing gray workers clothes, the white of their faces and hands jumping out of the screen. The sets, the robot. Everything is enchanting and jagged and high drama. Something that I noticed early on was that – because it’s a silent film – something would happen and then you’d see a character involved go run to another character. You could tell he or she was telling the new character what had happened, but there wouldn’t be a dialogue card about it, because the audience already knows what happened. I could use something like this in my own scripts. If one character needs to tell another character about something the audience has seen happen, we don’t have to hear that dialogue. They could be towards the back of some larger scene/spectacle. The important part for the audience would be the exposition of knowing that this character now knows and of seeing their reaction to the news. A good tool to have handy. I didn’t realize until watching this movie how easy it is to fill in information like that. 

Brigitte Helm’s performances as Maria and Robot Maria were excellent. She was angelic and creepy and funny and cathartic. Wow. This film looked like it cost one billion dollars. So many crowd scenes, so many special effects, and tons of elaborate sets – they even flood a whole area. I couldn’t believe how impressive it was, and I was surprised by how much it kept my attention. (On some level, I still have that bias of thinking that anything old must be boring.) 

Rating: ★★★★

DARK CITY 

1998

Directed by: Alex Proyas 

Written by: Alex Proyas, Lem Dobbs, David S. Goyer

Watched: 5/26/21

John Murdoch awakes in a bathtub with no memories. He receives a phone call from Dr. Schreber, who tells him that there are people after him and he needs to get out. There’s a dead woman in his room. Murdoch flees before the men in trench coats and fedoras find him. Detectives arrive later. They’re looking for a serial killer who’s been murdering sex workers. They’re pretty sure it’s John Murdoch. Murdoch realizes he can change reality with his mind. The men – aliens – who are after him can do this as well. These aliens are able to shut everything down, make everybody go to sleep, but it doesn’t work on Murdoch. Murdoch wants to go to Shell Beach but he can’t seem to get there. He can’t leave the city. The aliens have been studying humans, swapping out their memories while they’re asleep and changing the city as well. Murdoch realizes that he doesn’t remember the last time he did anything during the day or the last time he saw the sun. In trying to get to Shell Beach, he discovers that he’s not on Earth but rather a big dark city floating in space, constructed by the aliens. None of the humans remember where they come from or when they were taken. With Dr. Schreber’s help, Neo – I mean Murdoch – is able to defeat the aliens, and he reconstructs the city to his own liking, adding oceans and sun. 

It’s wild how much in common this movie has to the Matrix, which came out a year later. I watched it as a double feature with Metropolis, because the Roger Ebert website said it was a kind of spiritual descendant. I had a few issues with the movie: when Murdoch changes reality with his mind, a warbling effect comes from his forehead in a cone (and there might even be a sound effect) which is very cheesy. Also, the aliens are dying out, and they’re experimenting on the humans in order to survive. It’s not clear how the humans are going to be able to help them. The aliens want to know about the human soul – it’s never clear what the movie means by the human soul. The aliens are a collective brain and the humans are individuals, which is interesting, but it’s not explored. For example, why wouldn’t a collective brain have a soul? The Matrix, with its “the machines use humans for batteries” is much simpler and more convincing. In addition, the dialogue and some of the minor performances are pretty rigid. 

I’m glad that they don’t make it back to Earth at the end of the movie. It’s an interesting ending, knowing that you’re stuck on this small floating alien city, but now you have control. Not quite happy and pretty dangerous. They could do a show based off this or at least a sequel. (It did feel a bit like the floating city Doctor Who episode.) I know Matrix came after it, but Matrix blows it out of the water so much that it’s tough to be properly impressed with Dark City. 

Rating: ★★1/2 

May 26, 2021

Was just thinking about "breaking in" to the industry. (I prefer to stand outside and knock.) Maybe, at the end of the day, you just keep doing it until they want you? Thinking idly about how there's not much standing in the way of someone making stuff. Internet. Cheaper gear. If you can get something going then come on in. Who knows. 

Listened to Edgar Wright and Quentin Tarantino - on the Empire Film Podcast - talk about audience reactions in movie theaters. Tarantino kept saying, "That's subversion on a massive level!" (Or maybe it was "massive scale") He meant that the movie was leading audiences to feel and react counter to their predicted or moral programming. Rooting for a killer, for example. Laughing at a tragedy. Finding depth, sadness, love in a slasher film. SUBVERSION ON A MASSIVE LEVEL! 

What else? 

Yesterday was more productive. I needed that. 

I'm thinking of putting together a personal website in case the next Black List reviews I receive are any good. What to make a person website look like? Everything "stylish" seems to look like Apple these days. Should I just do that or try to figure out something else. I don't need it to be my calling card. I just want something that indexes my projects and accomplishments. 

I've already started bouncing around the internet looking at personal websites, so I should probably wrap this up. 

May 25, 2021

Running out of time to say much this morning, and I have two Mlog posts to write. So I better get started on those. I rented these two movies because they were a pair on Edgar Wright's list of double features. 

Mlog time! 

**SPOILERS**

A HARD DAY’S NIGHT

1964

Directed by: Richard Lester

Written by: Alun Owen 

Watched: 5/22/21

Each time I go to write one of these, I pull up the plot summary on Wikipedia, and it’s always very good. Okay, this movie is a day in the life of the Beatles with one exception: Paul is looking after his ne’er-do-well grandfather. Paul’s grandfather sews disquiet among otherwise harmonious groups. The Beatles have a series of sets they need to play on live television, and in between each set they get up to some hijinks – often because of things Paul’s grandfather has said. Each Beatle gets separated from the rest for a little bit and has his own spotlight for a second. In the end, they lose Ringo for a while, before finding him and getting him back to the studio right in time to go on. 

I liked this movie okay. The songs were good and the little set pieces tended to be funny. If it wasn’t put together so smoothly, you might think it was the kind of thing a few friends decided to put together in a weekend. The ideas are light and held loosely. It was happy-ish. 

Rating: ★★1/2 

HEAD

1968

Directed by: Rob Rafelson

Written by: Rob Rafelson, Jack Nicholson

Watched: 5/24/21

This movie, like A Hard Day’s Night, is a musical comedy but it’s the Monkees instead of the Beatles. It’s also like a psychedelic sketch show through movie-making history. We see the Monkees walking through a backlot, in a WWI-style trench, jumping off a bridge, dying in the desert, hoovered up by a giant vacuum, what else? Belly dancers. There are cowboys and Indians, a kissing contest, a surprise birthday party, a factory, and a mysterious black steel box. Apparently, the Monkees and Jack Nicholson, and Rob Rafelson came up with the ideas while doing a lot of weed and/or acid. It’s cool, though. There are a lot of interesting little tricks while the Monkees act more or less deadpan, like they’re always in a dream. 

I liked this movie, especially the beginning (and then it comes back in the end), where Micky runs through the red ribbon – the opening ceremony – of a suspension bridge and hurls himself off of it. As he’s flying through the air, tumbling and turning weightless, he looks like the only Gap ad to ever feature a suicide. When he hits the water, he does not die. But it does look like a suicide, and maybe it represents how the Monkees, with this movie, intend on pissing off their fan base, essentially committing suicide. I also liked the trenches scene, where the four were blasé about the gun shots and cannon shells. One of them was tired of wearing his helmet and another recommended that he keep doing it anyway. The kissing contest scene was surprisingly gross. A lovely lady goes around and kisses each of the monkees one right after another (maybe twice). I mean, there’s obviously much more body fluid swapping than that on the internet, but the scene still struck me as especially gross. Don’t kiss people like that! 

This movie was interesting, and it mostly kept my attention. Plus it lets you know early on that it isn’t going to make much sense overall. And then it doesn’t make much sense overall. 

Job done. 

Rating: ★★★

 

May 24, 2021

I felt so anxious at the end of the day, yesterday. I'm feeling better this morning, but I was pretty hung up on the fact that I need to go into the office today. I'm not worried about COVID - I'm vaccinated - it's the social anxiety of it. Not used to being there. Not sure how it'll go. This morning it doesn't feel so bad. I'm going to be heading in in about 15 minutes. So we'll see. 

One of the grad students in the lab is giving her thesis defense over zoom, right now. And it's nice to see the names of some former lab members on the call. I've got to get up there to set up her in-person thesis defense party. It's my job to pick up ice. 

Tlog time! Yep - this is a TV log. I'm just starting it. 

**SPOILERS**

BLACK MIRROR

Season 3, Episode 6 – “Hated in the Nation” 

Written by: Charlie Brooker

Directed by: James Hawes

Watched: 5/23/21

Two detectives investigate the death of a click-bait commentator/journalist who had recently received the scorn of the internet for an article she had written. The detectives find her throat slashed with a broken bottle, and her husband says it was self-inflicted. The detectives find an ADI – a robotic bee that has been designed to replace the dwindling bee population and prop up the ecosystem – burrowed into her brain. The next day, a different person, also hated by the internet, has a screaming fit until he’s sedated. When put in an MRI, one of these ADI bees is sucked out of his skull through his eye socket. The detectives discover that the deaths are linked to a “game” on the internet. At 5pm, whoever has the most #Deathto (along with a photograph) against them will die. The detectives track down a former employee of the bee corp who’s motives are to make people realize there are consequences to online hate. In the process of trying to shut the program down – before the chancellor dies – the detectives end up activating the hacker’s end game: to use the bees to kill every person who’s used the hashtag. Consequences. 

I watched this episode because I saw it was linked to Jon Ronson’s book, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, which I just finished. I thought the way the Brooker unfolded this episode was really nice: starting with a normal-ish murder mystery and opening it up and up to the final reveal. The fact that the government is using these bees to spy on the whole population is just a passing horror compared to the look at the vitriol of every day human beings. When the people who used the hashtag got targeted for death, I felt a little bit like they deserved it. But of course they didn’t! Piling on and using a hashtag is not an action that should be punishable by death. I think we – me included – revel in punishing people. 

The bees also look really nice. They must’ve spent a fortune on special effects for this movie-length TV episode. Good for them. 

Rating: ★★★

 

May 23, 2021

It's my birthday today! Hung out with people at a brewery yesterday and it ended up being okay. Having to navigate among friends who don't necessary know each other was making me very anxious at first. I haven't had to do that in over a year. Is it worth doing, I wonder. It's a pretty good way of people meeting each other, meeting friends of friends is. A lot of times, people don't seem especially keen on getting to know new people, though. Or it may take several times of hanging out together for things to click. A big bunco party would be nice this Christmas. People can meet without having to talk so much. They can just play a game. 

I will probably write more about this (if I haven't already covered it in one of these posts already). Navigating social situations is a challenging, energy-consuming part of life for me. 

My husband and I played basketball in the park, yesterday. I was amazed how naturally it came back after not having played for a year. My shot felt the same, the only difference being that my legs and arms felt a little weak. I guess you do something over and over as many times as I've shot a basketball and your body remembers it. Neat. 

 Blog time! 

**SPOILERS**

Ronson, Jon – SO YOU’VE BEEN PUBLICLY SHAMED

Published: 2015

Read: 5/2021

This is a nonfiction book by documentarian and Louis Theroux-y Jon Ronson. (It’s very hard for me to keep his name straight at this point. It’s not Ron Jonson.) He researches and interviews people in connection to public internet shamings. He talks about Jonah Lehrer, who made up some Bob Dylan quotes to make his book on Dylan and creativity more inspirational. There’s Justine Sacco, who made that racist joke and then took a flight to South Africa, unaware that she was blowing up on the internet (in a bad way). There was also Lindsey Stone – who 

I hadn’t heard of – who took a jokey picture next to a sign in DC. (The sign had something to do with fallen soldiers.) Each time the internet piled on abuse. Ronson follows up with these people, months later, to see how they’re doing. 

It seems like part of the consensus as to why piling on public shaming is okay is the assumption that everyone will forget and the person receiving the pile on will be able to return to their normal life – if slightly chastised and hopefully changed for the better. But the thing is, whenever someone googles that person’s name, they’ll get a face full of the public shaming. The internet doesn’t forget, not really. Every new job interview or date or linkedin request could come with that google search. Opportunity over. Ronson’s conclusion is that public shaming on the internet over things as minor as offensive jokes will lead us to a more bland and conservative time. 

I went ahead and called Justin Sacco’s joke racist. I get where Ronson’s coming from in his interpretation of it – the joke is meaning to make fun of an insular and privileged perspective, assuming that no one would believe that someone would actually think that the color of their skin would protect them from a virus. But she’s white and able to fly intercontinentally and being jocular around the topic of AIDS. Anyways. 

I think people online (and offline) are frustrated that racism is still a thing. That other people disagree with their worldview. That things aren’t really going the way they hoped. It’s complicated and hard to get to the root of a problem (there’s probably not one root anyway), so instead of taking on structures and institutions, we think that if we could just get every individual to fall inline that we’d be welcomed into a bright utopia. We think individual racist holdouts are the problem, so if we think we see one we obliterate them. We want our neighbors to behave. 

The book also made me (inevitably) nervous about my own potential to incur the internet’s wrath. I say things without worrying too much about the consequences. I try to be funny or maybe provocative just because. I figure there’s safety in obscurity, but as I’m trying to build a career in writing, I of course will be googled by potential collaborators or representation. I should probably be more mindful of my internet presence in general. 

Rating: ★★★

May 22, 2021

I cried first thing this morning. Not an auspicious start! I've been traveling the past two weeks (to two different states) and then my boss gave me a bunch of pointless time-consuming work, and this weekend is busy, and next weekend I'm going to Austin. I feel not on top of things and like I suck. So I cried and asked my husband to stay home with me instead of going to Glendale to play pickup basketball. 

Yesterday, though, I went on a motorcycle ride. All day leading up to it, I thought of this sketch: 

Motorcycling, motorcycling around.  

It was really fun. We went on the PCH and up through the canyons. My friend was a really good drive -- better than my brothers, sorry brothers -- and only dropped the bike once (which wasn't really his fault). Here's what we looked like: 

Also, I don't think I've done this yet: 

BREAKING UP IS EASY by Amy Brown Carver is a script our readers loved last week. Read it here: https://t.co/VHVbe1v83L #BlackListWeekendRead pic.twitter.com/Q6IzoEp6ey

— The Black List (@theblcklst) May 12, 2021

May 21, 2021

Yesterday, I sat in on a zoom call put on by the Writers Guild Library. It featured Elly Lachman, Administrator of the Warner Bros. Television Writers' Workshop. I haven't applied to the television fellowships since I started writing screenplays, and when I was writing pilots I wasn't writing them very well. So I never got to the second round in the WBTWW. 

A few take-aways from that informational session: 

- I didn't realize that that program was run by two people: just Elly and her boss, Rebecca Windsor. (I'm just now looking them up on LinkedIn, and they both went to Northwestern for undergrad. That's interesting/encouraging - given my connection to Northwestern - I'm used to all the alumni being from USC and NYU.) Anyway, given all the reading and interviews and coordinating of the actual program, that seems like a huge job for two people. 

- She said that the program is to teach the soft skills of a writers room. That they're looking for people who absolutely already know how to write. With how competitive it is to get into the program, it's no wonder. Only super standout scripts/writers will get to the second round. Things that are presented as fellowships or apprenticeships and are open to the public to apply are not where you're going to learn how to write. You'll never get in. It's an industry where you have to figure out how to do the brunt of the work on your own. (Unless you get in early and get a mentor, I suppose.) 

- She said it was not common for people to get to the interview stage four years in a row before actually being admitted to the program. And how long did it take them to get to the interview stage, I wonder? Getting to the interview stage means they've written a new great spec script and an excellent original pilot each year. Good enough to be in the top one percent of all the scripts. At that point, how are they not staffed already? Why do those people need to complete a six-month fellowship in order to be deemed ready to enter a writers room on the lowest level? It reminds me of the masterclass video with Aaron Sorkin where he provides notes on a group of unproduced writers' scripts. He's a bit stunned by the quality. What's happening there? Is there just far too much good writing going around for their to be jobs and projects for everybody? Or is there a pipeline problem where some of the good stuff is lying fallow for want of attention. This bullet point ended up being a long one. 

- She brought up these thoughts by Ira Glass: 

The zoom event made me want to try writing a pilot again. (Kind of) Screenplays have come easier for me, but that might be in part because I started writing them later and had become a better writer at that point. I feel excited to do everything. Screenplays, short stories, audio series, television pilots. Fin.

May 20, 2021

Work was rough yesterday. My boss was on one and huffing and puffing over email. Sending all caps and large font and lots of punctuation????!! It's a stupid job, sadly. The work of it, I mean. Being able to work part time and then use the rest of my time to write is really nice. Although, now that I have more of a packet -- stuff that's ready to show people -- maybe it's time to get back into the industry. I guess that would be what grad school is at any rate. I'll email HR today and find out whether or not I'm eligible for the education discount. I've been putting off asking in case the answer is no. But if the answer is yes, then I should start looking into how I can put together the best applications possible. 

I'll also text my friend who got her agent and manager through the Black List. Maybe she can help give me some context for my score. 

Ugh. It sucks to suck. 

Slog Time! 

OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH (Pilot) 

2020

Written by: David Jenkins

Based on ideas by: David Jenkins, Taika Waititi

Management: Manage-ment (Dan Halsted) 

Production/Distribution: HBO Max

Read: 5/19/21

In the 1700s, a wealthy landowner has a mid-life crisis and chucks it all in to become a pirate. He runs his ship on good management principles, like talking things through, being open to feedback, and reading bedtime stories to his fellow crew. The crew are all actual pirates, although “they’re still the sales rack of pirates.” They plan to mutiny and murder the captain, led by Black Pete, who’s scary and people don’t really like (possibly the villain of the series). The captain delays this inevitability by arranging to attack a large ship. After it’s too late, they find out the ship is in the British Navy. They almost get blown to bits, but the naval captain sees the pirate captain and recognizes him from their school days. He used to bully him, actually. The ship pretends to receive them for tea, kills a bunch of them, and makes their mistake. In his attempt to merely stun his old school mate, the pirate captain causes the naval captain to fall and impale his face on his sword. The captain gets newfound respect from the crew. 

Right off the bat, you know the tone of this script. This is from the very beginning: 

 

That repetition of the phrase “mentally devastated.” 

    There are also a couple of visual gags that I think will be really funny. Example: 

 

    Also, I appreciate how in that last example, he just uses “FLASH” or elsewhere “JUMP” to indicate a very brief cut to something else. It’s annoying having to make a whole new slug line for that kind of thing, and I think it interrupts the read in a negative way. I’m pocketing that technique for later! 

It’s seems natural to compare this to What We Do In The Shadows. Instead of vampires it’s pirates. Tonally similar. Seems to handle the darkness in the same way – accidental death, the truly murderous impulses of the characters thwarted by their own incompetence, the seduction of the more gentler pleasures in life – but the dialogue in this isn’t as funny as WWDITS. Maybe by the time it’s produced it’ll have that specificity line-by-line that makes any given part hilarious all on its own. 

Rating: ★★★

May 19, 2021

Yesterday was my last in Seattle. My friend and I microdosed and ate caviar and creme-freche, went and got food twice, had a cocktail, had a bottle of Proseco. Talked a lot because that's what we do. Took bets on which of the couples in the world was most likely to get a divorce. She gave me and my husband a 50/50 chance which was a little alarming. I guess it is the statistical average, the top of the bell curve. Whew, it's hard to feel secure in things. 

I'm back in LA now, and it's good to be home. I'll be excited for no travel for a bit (after my husband and I go to Austin for Memorial Day). Both trips have been great, but I'm ready to get back into my routine again. I miss feeling like a robot whiz who accomplishes all her goals and finishes her tasks. 

Mlog Time! 

**SPOILERS**

SEARCHING

2018

Directed by: Aneesh Chaganty

Written by: Aneesh Chaganty, Sev Ohanian

Watched: 5/18/21

David Kim has had a strained relationship with his daughter, Margot, ever since his wife (and Margot’s mother) died of cancer. It takes a day of unreturned texts and phone calls for David to file a missing persons report. Detective Rosemary Vick gets connected with the case, and together they start the search for Margot. David goes through Margot’s laptop, through her social media, through her contacts. He learns that Margot stopped piano lessons six months ago and has been depositing the money for the piano lessons during that time. He learns that Margot doesn’t really have any friends. She’s been sad and distant for a while. He has a heartfelt conversation with the detective, where she talks about a time a neighbor accused her son of stealing from her – something she had thought her son was incapable of doing. David discovers YouCast, a live streaming site like Twitch, where Margot talked a lot with a user called fish_and_chips. David figures out that Margot liked to go to a lake near where her car was last seen. He drives up there, discovers her key chain, and they find her car in the lake. A media frenzy ensues and a man makes a confession and then commits suicide. But David realizes that fish_and_chips’s profile picture is a stock photo and that she’s definitely not the waitress in Pittsburgh that Vick claimed to have called. He also finds out that Vick volunteered for the case, rather than being assigned to it like she claimed. It turns out “fish_and_chips” was her son who had a crush on Margot. Margot believed that fish and chips’ mom had cancer and not enough money for medical bills, so Margot venmo’ed her $2,500. The detective’s son was returning the cash but scared Margot who was hanging out in her car by the lake late at night. She fought him and ran. In the dark she couldn’t see the ravine and fell in. When Detective Vick got there, she presumed Margot to be dead and started covering for her son. But Margot wasn’t dead! And her father finds her and they reconcile. 

I did a long summary for this one. I should mention that this whole movie was made up of computer screens – Facetime, text, livestreams, youtube, finder, files, desktop. That and John Cho as David made it remarkable more than anything else. The plot had some holes, which I don’t usually mind, but I think because I’m used to the mystery/thriller genre, they stuck out to me more. For example, if the detective’s son didn’t want to be Venmo’ed the money, than how did Margot get his venmo user name (which was like User-77r or something)? The confession from the man said that her disposed of Margot’s body and her suitcases. We know that that guy was lying, but one of the first steps in the investigation would have really been to check if any suitcases were missing from the house. I also guessed really early on that it was the detective’s son. As soon as she gave the anecdote of her son stealing and her covering for him, and saying “but if you tell anyone, I’ll deny it,” I was pretty sure. Her son was in the storyline way more than he needed to be. It feels too coincidental that the detective on the case is related to the murderer and throwing the whole thing, even if they do clarify that she volunteered. There was also a bit with David’s brother that I could tell was going to be about weed not sex. I don’t know, I just felt ahead of the movie. 

Also, as a side note, I watched this movie on a plane and my monitor wasn’t really working properly. I knew ahead of time that I wanted to watch SEARCHING, but the scroll function in the movie menu wouldn’t work. So I was able to click on the spotlight for Asian and Pacific Islander heritage Collection (which scroll function was working) because I knew John Cho was in it. Success! 

Rating: ★★★

 

March 18, 2021

I watched Richard Herring's Self-Playing Snooker Semifinals yesterday, and Female Me lost. The Finals are going to be Viking Me vs Serious Me. It was fun to watch but now that all the characters I root for are out, I'm not sure I care who wins it all. Maybe Viking Me? He's the only one with an accent. I tweeted about my post-game heartbreak and Richard replied. 

 

Sorry Amy. I wish I had some control over it.

— Richard K Herring (@Herring1967) May 17, 2021

He even used my name! An extremely personalized response, don't you think?

What else? Still in Seattle. My friend and I talked a lot. Another friend came over and we thought about coming up with a winery whose wines are always out of stock but who do sell t-shirts. Here were a couple of the ideas: 

Alright, Mlog time! 

**SPOILERS**

ANOTHER ROUND

2020

Directed by: Thomas Vinterberg

Written by: Thomas Vinterberg, Tobias Lindholm

Watched: 5/17/21

Four middle-aged male teachers decide to try an experiment where they’re drunk all the time. Well, not drunk necessarily. The psych teacher has read about this Norwegian philosopher who maintains that humans are born with 0.05% too little blood alcohol. The main character, Martin has been a shell of his former self for years. No self confidence, no joy. As the teachers go they escalate, and one night they try to get to “ignition” phase – where you either stop drinking and go home or get itchy mouth and want more and more – and beyond. The men stop the experiment due to “extremely negative social consequences,” Martin’s wife leaves him. Another of the men has his wife walk out. People are starting to figure it out at school. One of the four men can’t stop and ends up drinking himself to his death (out one day on his boat). The others mourn but also celebrate with their graduating class of students, who they’ve done much better with this year. Thanks to the drink. 

Mads Mikkelsen is in this and he is great. It makes me want to rewatch MEN AND CHICKENS. Reading subtitles can be a slight pain, but overall watching foreign films is getting the best things you’ve never heard of. Distinct locations and wardrobe and faces and ideas about movies. This movie stays pretty lighthearted in spite of the potentially very dark subject matter. I don’t think an American movie with this premise would end that way or hit so many happy notes along the way. We’re way too baked in Puritanism for that. I liked how the four men (in their 40s-50s) are friends, how they’re trying to better their lives even though it’s through unconventional means, how they want more inhibition and joy. It seems like the process of becoming an adult man could take the whole life out of you. The work, the aging, the pressures of masculinity, and the absence of any emphasis on connecting with others. Maybe being a bit drunk all the time isn’t such a bad idea. Or maybe, as the movie kind of seems to suggest, it’s only a bad idea for one in four. 

Rating: ★★★1/2 

March 17, 2021

I write again! It's going to be more of a regular day, today, even though I'm in Seattle still. My friend is teaching remote classes, and I'll work on work and writing. I'm going to make something from Budget Bytes tonight, which I'm excited about. The weather is more Seattly, especially compared to the blazing sun over the past two days. 

At my friend's friends' yesterday, I talked them through Baby Teeth. (My friend put me up to that. I wouldn't volunteer it on my own.) I think I did an okay - a not too boring - job of describing it. It's awkward talking about an in-progress project. Actually, it's awkward for me to talk about any of my projects. But I guess I need to get better at that. So the practice was probably good. Who knows what those people think of me, though. 

I want to watch a movie today/tonight.

We'll see. 

May 16, 2021

I am writing this in the evening. I am still in Seattle. Today, we walked and got brunch and took my one friend to the airport and then walked and drank beer and then walked to my friend's friends' house. It was fun. This evening my friend and I talked and cooked dinner. She asked me if I still believed in God and I said yes. This comes with an asterisk on my part, in as much as IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK! But even with the asterisk, I feel like saying you believe in God is like telling someone you've seen a ghost. It's more or less admitting to some form of mental illness. Oh well. My friend was nice about it. And hey, she asked. 

Tomorrow I will drink less I think. And work more and have a bit of time to myself. I think that will be good, to have some down time. I don't leave for Los Angeles until Tuesday. Seattle is really pretty and the houses are cute. Lots of plants too. Will keep you posted.  

May 15, 2021

I am in Seattle! Yesterday, my friends and I walked around and drank some beers. We went to a restaurant (sat outside) where you order through a website, and my friend accidentally got 4 spam musubis (plus on purpose ordering plenty of other food). So we've been eating spam musubis. Talking has been our main entertainment, and we may run out of things to talk about. I could go on and on about screenwriting or basketball, but I don't think they'd want that. 

Mlog time! 

**SPOILERS**

LOST IN TRANSLATION

2003

Directed by: Sophia Coppola

Written by: Sophia Coppola 

Watched: 5/13/21

I watched this on a plane! The Wikipedia summaries of these films are generally pretty good. Anyway. Lost In Translation is a story about two Americans – Bob and Charlotte – feeling displaced and lonely in Tokyo. They’re both married to different people and feel disconnected or abandoned by those marriages. Bob is a middle-aged movie star and Charlotte is a recent college grad. The two are staying alone in a Tokyo hotel, and they start hanging out together. They become intimate without becoming physical, and as Bob has to leave to go back to America, he and Charlotte exchange a cordial goodbye. On his drive to the airport, he catches sight of Charlotte. He runs to her, hugs her, says something in her ear that the audience can’t hear, then the two kiss. They leave each other, smiling. 

This was a very stylish movie. I liked the romance, the lack of romance, the stillness and the slowness. The beautiful isolation. It took pot shots at the Japanese, making them seem extremely other, which felt racist. At the same time, it was supposed to feel other, thematically. I’m not sure if it accomplished in primarily making the American characters seem out of place without portraying the place itself as ridiculous. There were also long segments that seemed like a travel guide to Tokyo. Charlotte just wandering around. 

It was beautiful, though, and melancholic. I really liked the choice of not letting the audience hear what Bob tells Charlotte in the end. Knowing what he said wouldn’t have added – it would have probably sounded trite – but it was for Charlotte and him, between them. It was cool to see a movie, in the end, give its characters their privacy. There were excellent, stylish stills from this movie as well. Kind of like Bonnie and Clyde in that way. Cool characters! 

Rating: ★★★1/2 

May 14, 2021

I am in Seattle! Sitting on my friend's patio with my other friend in the sun. It is nice. I have a little bit of sore throat/runny nose from being around my nephews. I am spreading disease, just not COVID. COVID has had a long enough run, it's time for other sicknesses to shine. 

I watched two movies yesterday! I was inspired by Edgar Wright to watch one in the middle of the day. I got all my stuff done by 4pm so I could squeeze one in before my flight. 

I retweeted the Black List tweet about Breaking Up Is Easy. Friends from college saw it (and were excited, which was nice of them), and now I'm explaining the Black List to people. I am doing it in great depth because I think a lot about my potential career, and I like to blow on about it when given a chance. I have not been telling people about the movies I pitched to that producer (because, well, I haven't heard back in a few weeks, which I think means it's a no go -- but still! At one point it was a possibility) or about the grant application I put in for my audio producing. Maybe I'll get that! Maybe I'll have more success soon. We don't know. 

Mlog time! 

**SPOILERS**

DOUBT

2008

Directed by: John Patrick Shanley

Written by: John Patrick Shanley

Watched: 5/13/21

Father Flynn gives a sermon on doubt, about how in doubt we are not alone and how it may be as sustaining as certainty. The principal at the catholic elementary school, Sister Aloysius, bridles at the sermon. She becomes wary of the priest and encourages the other nuns to report to her if anything suspicious happens. Sister James, a young innocent and passionate teacher, tells Sister Aloysius about Father Flynn calling Donald, the only black student, to the rectory alone. When Donald came back he was acting strangely and had the smell of wine on his breath. Sister Aloysius is convinced that Father Flynn is having – or working on having – an improper relationship with Donald. She’s determined to get Father Flynn out of the school herself. 

The whole movie, it’s unclear whether or not Father Flynn is guilty of this accusation. He’s shown to be kind and progressive, and it’s suggested that Sister Aloysius doesn’t like him because he does too modern things like writing with ballpoint pen. And yet there are more red flags, the way one of the students recoils when the Father touches him. The revelation that Donald is gay. The fact that Sister Aloysius lies and tells Father Flynn that he talked to a nun at his former parish. This gets a rise out of Father Flynn, suggesting that there were allegations of misconduct. In the end, Father Flynn does get moved to a different parish. He even gets a promotion. Sister James is sad about his leaving, unsure about whether or not Father Flynn was guilty of misconduct or simply a kind person. Sister Aloysius breaks down crying and admit that she has doubts. And I’m pretty sure she means doubts beyond the question of Father Flynn. 

I could definitely tell this started as a stage play. It’s dialogue driven. Conversations in a handful of locations. It’s a wonderful movie that probably never needed to be a movie. The acting is great – Philip Seymore Hoffman, Amy Adams, Meryl Streep sounding just like my Aunt Kay. My favorite part was how the movie opens with a question – who was Father Flynn thinking of when he wrote his sermon on doubt? It’s suggested – by Sister Aloysius – that he meant someone in the parish, perhaps even speaking about himself. That question is then entirely upstaged by the question of whether or not Father Flynn is a pedophile, and Sister A is certain that he is. To then come back, and with the ending, answer that first and almost forgotten question, was wonderful. 

Rating: ★★★★

 

May 13, 2021

I had zoom class for my Baby Teeth screenplay last night, and I didn't have any questions to ask the teacher. I told her that I had a general idea of what needs to happen in Acts 2 and 3 and at this point I just need to write it. I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions at the end, but at this point I feel like I just need to crank it out. Maybe that's not using the class very effectively. 

I listened to Kumail and Emily's Staying Home podcast, yesterday, because they were interviewing Edgar Wright. I hadn't listened to him talk at all before. But it was exactly what I wanted out of him, just pure love of movies. Movies, movies, movies. He consumes so many of them - multiple in a day, sometimes as many as four. Also he mentioned Joe Cornish. I know who that is! I thought in ecstasy. I'm flying to Seattle tonight, going to visit a friend and hang out for a few days, which will be fun, but I can't wait to get back to LA and to start my movie watching again. I have a long list! And Cinephile has everything. I'm going to become Edgar Wright! 

Also, I wonder if when Edgar Wright goes on first dates if he introduces himself as Mr. Wright. Ha - get it? I bet he does. 

I hit "enter" very firmly just now, like I definitely had someplace to go with this. But I don't think I have any pressing thoughts. enter. Enter. ENTER. ENTER! Places to be. 

I took a skating lesson yesterday day with Downtown Sam. I was the worst one there. But I didn't fall down. Click clack click clack. That's what my skates sounded like as I did the footwork. It's fun to learn new things, to improve even if it's really slowly. You do something for long enough and you get better at it, I think. Other people fall away and then eventually you're out front.   

May 12, 2021

My morning is fairly back-to-back. Have to crank this out and then go take a shower.  I'm back in LA! It's good to be on my couch, in my apartment, with my coffee and my cat. I'm going to be back in person in July, got to soak up this work-from-home time. ("Soak up time" is my husband's expression. He's all about soaking.) 

Yesterday, I spent the night at my brother's house. I got to hang out with my sister-in-law and my nephews in the morning. They are so cute, but they are a lot of work. Constant work. Trying to keep them occupied and emotionally regulated is like a minute-by-minute thing. Every minute! You have to be on. 

Time for Slog. 

**SPOILERS** 

VIDEO NASTY

2020 Black List 

Written by: Chris Thomas Devlin 

Management: Bellevue Productions

Managers: Jeff Portnoy, John Zaozirny

Agency: UTA

Agent: Charles Ferraro 

Financier: Lionsgate

Producers: Point Grey Pictures, Stampede Ventures

Logline: Three teenagers who rent a cursed VHS tape are pulled into an 80s slasher movie that threatens to trap them forever. 

Read: 5/11/21 

Shawn and Lena Wright, 14 and 15, leave NYC with their mom after she gets divorced and move to a suburb in Pennsylvania. The siblings used to bond over horror movies, watching and making their own. But now, Lena’s moving on – she’s interested in a girl, Izzy – while Shawn is stuck in the past. He doesn’t want anything to change. Shawn rents a VHS – a video nasty – from an out-of-time movie rental store. When he pops it in, he, Lena, and Izzy get sucked into the movie. The three have to battle their way through an 80s thrasher movie. If they die, they’ll be stuck forever. 

I really enjoyed this script. It’s a meta horror, a love letter to the genre. A phrase that popped into my mind was “death in drag.” I was pleased with that. Here’s a couple of little bits I liked: 

 

That made me chuckle, but I also wondered if it was a bit cute? It’s the only time that sort of commentary happens in the action lines. It’s writerly, for sure, but not exactly practical. 

 

This part is calling back to an active shooter drill Shawn did in class. It both reflects his flaw – unwillingness to embrace the here and now – and also sets up a mini thesis you could broadly apply to horror movies: they’re more fun than the societal fuck ups and existential emptiness of daily life. 

 

That little “yes” is doing good work. 

Rating: ★★★★

May 11, 2021

I slept at my brother's house last night. I stayed up laaaate last night doing coverage on a couple of scripts for that one producer. (He paid me right away after I turned them in too! Progress!)  My stomach was hurting a little so I decided to drink some hot water to see if that would help. I selected the Louder with Crowder mug from my brother's cupboard. I'm a tourist to conservative land and I decided to drink from the traditional mug of their people. 

Oh, I listened to Adam Buxton be a guest on another podcast. He talked about how Bowie would try to remove himself from the art. He kept working on it until it felt strange and surprising and he could no longer recognize himself in it. Thinking about that idea. It doesn't really resonate with me. I don't think I've ever tried to do anything like that. If anything, I've tried to infuse more of myself in it. Voice and stuff, etc. 

Slog time! 

Well actually, maybe I shouldn't post it on here. It's going straight in my slog, instead. Don't worry, I really am writing it though! 

May 10, 2021

It's my brothers' birthday today! Nate is working out of the Fort Collins house today, and we're going to walk and probably get lunch together. I'm trying to clean the house as much as I can before I leave so that there's less for mom to do when she gets back. Look at me! Becoming helpful in my early middle age. 

I read "Integral Nothings" by Robert Reed in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. He had a nice description in the part of his story about the smartest person in the world: "Yes, the strong mind learns easily and joyfully. Novelty is a sweetness, and by stringing together delicious new ideas, great truths can be unveiled." The passage goes on to explain how this can also be a weakness. The mind falling for the sweetness and pleasure in a certain wrong idea. But I've been thinking about people who do well in certain fields, at their jobs, at their studies. I think of that undergrad we had in the lab who had a first author publication already before she graduated. She woke up early for club lacrosse practice. She was in the lab as much as possible, camped out in the conference room studying when she wasn't doing bench work. She never seemed to get tired or grumpy. I think she was thrilled to be doing what she was doing. She got into grad school at MIT. 

I went to church yesterday with my family. It's what my mom wanted for Mother's Day. The pastor was strong along some lines that I appreciated. He of course alluded to heterosexuality being the only one that's okay and men being the head of the household and all that. Also he talked about how the Bible is breathed by God so we know exactly who He is and what He thinks about everything. But it is a religion, I told myself. A good helping of humility is probably too much to expect. The sermon was also way too long. He must feel that he's losing people, up there. He's looking out to the crowd and making eye contact. His teaching style was what Mitch would call "Sage on Stage" to a very literal degree. I was wondering why sermons don't tend to use advances made in education in order to boost engagement and retention. Maybe having the audience participate more -- write down answers on pieces of paper or doing one of those word map polls on their phones -- would threaten the inherent hierarchy that's important to the church. 

May 9, 2021

I'm reading The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction again. I'd like to achieve the long-shot of being published in there some days. (I'm into all kinds of long shots.) I feel like maybe short stories are harder to write than screenplays? My question is, how do I know if I have a short story idea? It seems like you can write about anything, have any structure, for any length. With all that license, I'm not sure how you narrow your focus. I've definitely got a better idea of what goes into a movie. 

Yesterday, I played volleyball in the park with my brothers' friends for their birthday.  Their friends are from church and are young, married, with kids (mostly). I wonder if people like that - in those communities - care if you're married with kids or not, or if it just seems like they care. It's a little exciting to be around; deviance extends to a wide range of benign activities and lifestyles. 

This is by Lucas: 

  ljnhjhytrewq    ZXSDCVBN.''

\

May 8, 2021

I played with my nephews yesterday. Really, I played with my one nephew and the other nephew watched us. He's still not sure about me and will hide if I say hi to him. They have this toy called the Stomp Rocket. It's a bladder of air attached to a tube attached to a plastic tube open at the top. You fit a "rocket", a plastic tube that's capped at the top, on the launching tube, and then you stomp on the bladder of air. The rocket shoots up as the air is forced up and out. If you're an adult, you can make it go surprisingly high. My dad wanted to do it, and the launch tube looked a little crooked to me. "That's going to go on the roof," I said, and he stomped and it went on the roof. 

My brother and his wife were out on a date, so I was the ablest-bodied person around. My dad got my brother's ladder out of the garage, and I climbed up the two stories to check the gutter. (We had heard the thing clatter down the roof.) It was kind of scary. I saw the rocket at a place I couldn't reach it, so we moved the ladder, and I climbed up again. Retrieving it and saving the day. My nephew told my brother and sister-in-law about it first thing when they came home. 

I haven't worked on my Baby Teeth homework yet this week. I'm off my schedule because of this trip. 

May 7, 2021

I just remembered that the dream I was having last night was something to do with a high school reunion. I was still unpopular! I couldn't believe it. I tried to catch up with people, ask engaging questions, and not be weird, but the popular girls weren't having it. And because they weren't having it, no one was having it. I wonder what it's like, being popular in high school and then going on to college. You've probably got decent social confidence, in that case, but also high social expectations, which might be hard to satisfy. Maybe if or when I do ever go to a high school reunion I can ask them about it. 

Yesterday, I found out that my script, BREAKING UP IS EASY, got a 9 on the Blacklist. 9s are 1% of the scores given for uploaded scripts. I was shocked! I mean, I think the script is really good, but I guess I've gotten used to a score-of-7 ceiling on the site. They gave me two evaluations and two months of hosting for free. I think now, the thing is to hope for is another 8 or 9. Then just hope that someone interested will see it and like it and want to follow up with me. 

I'm in Colorado and played with my nephew last night. I was being a dinosaur and stomped hard down my brother's deck step. The deck is pretty rotten -- they're replacing it soon -- and I went through the step. I was surprised to be uninjured. No dinosaurs were harmed in this anecdotes. 

May 6, 2021

Missed two days of posting because I was driving with my friends and their baby out to Colorado. We took three days, stopping in Las Vegas and in Green River, UT. We stayed at the MGM Grand the first night. I hadn't spent time in Vegas since I was in high school. Being there with a baby was incongruous. My friend and I were trying to put the baby to sleep by singing nursery rhymes to him while we could hear partying in the room next door. Our row-row-row your boat was banging, though, so I think the party room appreciated it. 

My friend's husband watched the baby after he was asleep and my friend and I hit the strip. Everything is so expensive! And kind of trashy. I'd like to go back with my husband, though, and actually use the hotel's pools and lazy river all day. Lounging and drinking and playing 25 cent blackjack on those machines that are slightly boring would be fun. 

It's interesting spending that much time with a couple with a baby. (The baby is 9 months old.) The parents are like a two-person SWAT team and the enemy is... crying. It's pretty non-stop. 

Slog Time! 

**SPOILERS**

HEADHUNTER

2020 Black List

Written by: Sophie Dawson

Management: Bellevue Productions

Managers: John Zaozirny, Zack Zucker

Agency: WME Entertainment

Agents: Matthew Balick, CK Fight, Brett Rosen, Sarah Self 

Logline: A high-functioning cannibal selects his victims based on their Instagram popularity, but finds his habits shaken by a man who wants to be eaten. 

Read: 5/5/21

Alan Pierce is a fussy New Yorker with a boring high-paid job as a headhunter. He takes immaculate care of his body and he expects his food to do the same. He eats people who have more than 100k followers on social media. He does this because their social capital and the likes inject lots of serotonin into their flesh. He prefers to fuck and kill them right at the point of orgasm. He also loooooves Bergdorf Goodman. He spends a lot of money there buying suits. 

There’s a guy, Damien, who wants to be eaten, which Alan finds off putting. Damien stalks him everywhere, making Alan lose his nerve. He’s also downgraded at his company, and Alan is worried about his social standing in general. There’s a “perfect head” at his work that he desperately wants to eat. Also, in his spin class, a woman’s leg falls off. Alan’s girlfriend, Emily, takes this in stride. A stranger starts coming after Alan, telling him that he’s paid for all the people that Alan has killed and eaten. Alan is starting to get bad stomach cramps. As Alan unravels completely, we (the audience) learn that he’s been stealing mannequins from Bergdorf’s. That the people he’s been eating and keeping the heads of are all mannequins. That his girlfriend has made him see a doctor because of all the plastic he’s been consuming. He doesn’t really have a job at all. He’s just a crazy rich guy with a thing for fucking and eating mannequins. 

I think I like this twist on a twist. I was thinking it might be a World’s End sort of thing where the premise is a hidden sci-fi premise. Most people are androids, something like that. Him being crazy works, but it comes with a little disappointment in the style of “it was all a dream.” There’s a ton of Voice Over throughout the script, which I was skeptical about at first, but which makes a lot of sense seeing that Alan is just crazy. Of course he’s talking to himself a lot. This script got the most mentions (29) on the 2020 Black List. I think that’s pretty decently deserved. A lot of time is spent on the character of Alan. A lot of effort has gone into the specificity of the rich world he inhabits – brands, parties, social influencer crap. The script is also generally funny and only occasionally clammy. 

It’s like a really dark take of a Sex and the City episode, one that follows one of the guys the women dates. (Emily explains her involvement with mannequin-man Alan by saying how hard it is to date in New York.)  

Rating: ★★★1/2 

May 3, 2021

Yesterday, I went to another Lyra (aerial hoop) class with my friend. We hung out with the instructor afterwards -- her apartment is a loft downtown that doubles as her studio. Went to Golden Road in Grand Central Market for $7 six-packs. I hadn't been there since before COVID. There's definitely something impressive and exciting about downtown. Real buildings, storefronts that have metal roll down doors, jewelry and homelessness and good food. Our Lyra instructor's sister met up with us. She's a clown contortionist - both sisters are circus people, essentially. They talked about gigging at parties and how part of why people hire them is for party starting and for mingling. Basically just being an interesting person people can talk to. It made me think more about social capital. It seems like, in my thirties, part of social capital is to be at a certain place financially, family-wise, and in one's career. Like owning a house -- people are getting into it. It's frightened me to forego those things. I mean, I still want to have friends. 

But the clowntortionist was great to talk to, and she gets paid to go to parties. I think it points back to how we -- as children or in society -- treat life like there is a right way to live and a wrong way, rather than that no matter how you choose to live there will be advantages and disadvantages. The potential disadvantage of running the traditional route is that maybe you run out of things to talk about, that you've got to bring in a party starter from the outside. 

What else? 

I'm driving with a friend to Las Vegas today. We're staying the night and then heading all the way to Colorado. Back to CO! I'm excited to hang out with my friend and to see my family again for a few days, but I'll miss LA skating and my husband. :( 

May 2, 2021

Sunday mornings are bagels and coffee. I sliced my salt bagel in half and loaded both sides with cream cheese. I walked over to the table and when I went to put it down, one of the halves fell off my plate, flipped through the air and landed cream-cheese-side up on the carpet. It smeared the couch on the way down though. I brushed off the bagel as best I could, scraped off the top layer of cream cheese and added a new one. Then I very carefully set it on the coffee table. My husband started playing with the cat, having her chase this felt streamer that's attached to a stick. He flicked the streamer onto the table and it landed right in the cream cheese of my bagel. 

Yesterday, I went to the beach with friends who are moving back to Colorado. They like LA but want to be able to buy a house eventually. I like the beach and ought to go more often. It was nice being there with them as they said Goodbye to the Pacific Ocean (at least for a little while). It's nice to look at it through that lens and be grateful. 

May 1, 2021

Yesterday I did a zoom networking event for female filmmakers. It was actually pretty fun. I might reach out to a few of the people I met, and also I think it was good practice talking to people in a networking setting in general. In general, I'm terrified of it. So any practice helps. Bluuurrrpp. I am tired of my own thoughts. 

Found out that the UCLA screenwriting MFA program did awful on an internal review and that's why they shut down admittance for a year. I still think it's like my only choice at this point, especially if I can get the employee discount. But it seems wild that you could mess something like that up so badly. I'd just have people write a new screenplay each semester and do weekly script journal clubs and point them in the direction of a lot of internships and call it a day. They should make me head of the program. 

Went skating last night up at CSUN, and it was a smaller scene than Mar Vista but still super fun. Music, skating, people trying tricks. The regular stuff. It was good to see new people - I'm not sure how much crossover there is between people who skate in the city vs the valley. Taking over a place with smooth concrete and making it a little party is so great. 

Okay! Time to go to the beach.