lukeward.com

I was just reading a couple of the previous entries and realized that I’m using this blog to make myself feel bad. I have to stop that.

Nothing new to report just yet. I haven’t been writing (see previous paragraph), although it is the holidays, so I’m using that as an excuse. I did see Collateral over the weekend and found that the use of digital video in that was great. So, I’m definitely more inspired to use video in this piece than I was before. I think that it adds a bit of familiarity to the story. Digital video looks like home video, and that essence is what I want to capture. Just saying.

That is all.

It’s late Sunday evening, and rather than working on the next great American screenplay, I opted to play PlayStation. Is that sad? I think it is. I have a real hard time motivating myself to do anything to work on this movie. Why? I don’t know entirely. I have a hard time with personal motivation, I know that. I don’t have anyone pushing me to do this, because I’m the only one who has anything to gain or lose because of it. This blog is getting too heavy. I don’t like that at all.

I’m going to go now and wallow in self pity.

So write now I’m trying to think of things for the character Beth to do and to be. I’m not sure what her function is yet, but I know that I need 4 characters in this piece. I want her to be more experienced than the other characters. She’s the one that’s been in comedy the longest, so she needs to be the most understanding, and the most jaded. She should be able to perform on a dime, and yet also be the most frustrated with her life.

This is helpful. For me anyway. We’ll see how she turns out.

It took about a week, but I did do some writing last night. I had a character, Beth, who didn’t have much screen time, and now I’m trying to give her more to do. I only wrote a page (which is sad), but it has the potential to be something. I don’t know how other writers do it, but I find that my stuff tends to be too autobiographical. That is to say that when I write, the characters start sounding like mixes of friends of mine. I’m sure everyone writes that way and then tweaks the words after the first draft–or maybe it’s just me. Ah well.

So after I wrote, I went home and watched “Freaks and Geeks”, and man, they make it look so easy. The episode I watched, “The Garage Door Opener” was funny, and heart-warming, and sad, all at the same time. The scenes were succinct and well-written, the acting was dead on (Samm Levine and Sam McMurray really played so well off of each other), and the pacing of the whole thing was great. It gave me a mild complex after watching it, but it was worth it.

Ok true believers. It’s been a while since I’ve written. Although, since no one really knows of this blog, that doesn’t seem to matter. Anyway, I’ve decided that this blog now has a purpose. I’ve started a film. That is, it’s in the initial scripting phase, and I’m going to try and single-handedly (well, not single) make this movie a reality.

So, this blog will be a part of the trials and tribulations that go along with making a movie–with absolutely no money (that’s the big kicker). I’m also hoping that if I keep up this blog, it might help motivate me to actually make this thing, because I don’t want to put so much effort into the blog only to have the movie crap out because I can’t figure out how to make it happen.

There are no rules for how to make this movie happen. Right now what I’m trying to do is interview friends to get some ideas for scene/character development. I’ve already completed one with the illustrious John Flynn (many thanks to JF for all of his insight–it was definitely helpful to say the least). Jeff Hiller is next.

I’ll keep you all posted.