"Starter Wife" Premieres Tonight - 10/10/08 - on USA Network

Last summer, The Starter Wife mini-series became a must-see event. This fall, with scribes Sara Parriott and Josanna McGibbon on board, USA Network hopes The Starter Wife series inspires the same must-see fever.

Check out my interview with showrunners Sara Parriott and Josanna McGibbon in September/October script magazine's "The Small Screen" column.

For more information:
www.scriptmag.com
www.usanetwork.com/series/starterwife

Also, read my guest blog about the show in The TV Guy column:
www.macon.com/thetvguy

2008 Sublime Primetime

On September 17, 2008, the Writers Guild of America West hosted 2008 Sublime Primetime, a panel discussion of Emmy-nominated writers. A feeling of camaraderie and respect was in the air as writers in the areas on comedy and drama, miniseries and movie, came together on stage in Beverly Hills to discuss their craft, journey, and creative process.

Larry Wilmore (The Office, The Bernie Mac Show, creator) moderated the panel of Emmy-nominated writers: Mad Men's Robin Veith and Matthew Weiner (creator); Danny Strong, Recount; Kirk Ellis, John Adams; and Bryan Fuller, Pushing Daisies.

Kirk Ellis, John Adams, and Danny Strong, Recount, are both nominated for Emmys in the category of Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special.

Larry Wilmore with panelists Robin Veith and Matt Weiner of Mad Men. Robin and Matt, whose series was nominated for two writing Emmy's: Matt for the Mad Men pilot--"Smoke Gets in your Eyes" and Matt and Robin for "The Wheel." Mad Men was nominated for a total of 16 Emmy's, including Best Drama Series, Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series (also for the pilot), and Lead Actor for Jon Hamm.

Bryan Fuller, creator of Pushing Daisies, with boyfriend Scott Roberts (left). Fuller's Pie-Lette for Pushing Daisies, about a pie-maker who brings people back to life with one touch and sends them back with another, is nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series. Lee Pace, who plays Ned (the main character who gave his childhood sweetheart the touch of life and kept her there) is nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.

WGA West President Patric M. Verrone with Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner.

The 60th Annual Emmy Awards will br broadcast on Sunday, September 21, on ABC. For more information, go to www.emmys.org

Comic-Con Chat with Filmmaker James Gunn

Comic-Con International is more than a sneak peak into what’s coming soon in movies, TV, graphic novels, and the like. It’s an excellent opportunity for fans and up-and-comers to connect with industry professionals. And for entertainment pros to connect with their audiences.

“Interacting with the fans is the main thing,” says filmmaker James Gunn (Slither, Dawn of the Dead). “You work in a vacuum when you make movies. You make the stuff, you put it out there. Going to Comic-Con—seeing these people who [are your friends in the MySpace world]—is a neat experience.”

Gunn is currently filming the VH-1 reality show Scream Queens—Gunn, actress Shawnee Smith, and acting coach John Hom are judges; the winner will be cast in a Lionsgate movie—and was at the fest promoting another new project: Comedy pilots by horror directors made exclusively for Xbox LIVE. Gunn and producer Peter Safran (Scary Movie, Meet the Spartans) are giving horror directors, such as James Wan (Saw), Andrew Douglas (The Amityville Horror) and Marcus Nispel (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th), the opportunity to bring their comedic visions to life.

Gunn’s pilot for Xbox, in which he directs and stars, is called“Humanzee! It’s a sitcom about his human-chimp hybrid son, played by Gunn’s brother, Sean Gunn, from Gilmore Girls. The pilots start airing this fall

“Comic Con has really become a huge part of the movie industry,” Gunn says. “It's a place where we debut new material.

“We've been working on these XBox shorts now for quite a few months,” he continues. “We've been holding back on the announcement, because we wanted to debut it at Comic-Con.”

Gunn got his break as a screenwriter when he wasn’t expecting it. In college, Gunn applied for a part-time job filing papers at famed B-movie studios Troma Entertainment. He ended up writing the screenplay for a movie called Tromeo & Juliet instead, for which he was paid $150. In 1997, the film became a cult hit, playing in theaters around the world, including over a year of midnight screenings in Los Angeles.

While, as a screenwriter, the key to success is to write, Gunn believes there’s another element a screenwriter must keep in mind.

“You have to be open,” he says “There's a delicate balance between chasing your dreams and being open to the dreams that you don't know exist.

“There were other things in life that I wanted to do when I was younger, and I really had to listen to the world, put my ear to the ground, to see where my talents truly lie.”

Part of it was about what Gunn wanted to do, but he also wanted to discover how he could be self-fulfilled through making entertainment that helps others.

“A lot of the stuff I do is really stupid,” Gunn says. “I make a show called Humanzee!, I made movie[s] called Slither and Dawn of the Dead.

“But when I was a kid what really meant something to me was listening to the records of Alice Cooper or watching the movies of David Cronenberg—those things made me feel like less of an outcast, that's what I normally felt like. I felt like there was something out there, somebody out there as weird as I was. That meant a lot to me.

“And when I get those emails from those kids on MySpace or whatever who feel that same way about the stuff I did, there's nothing better in the world. That's the best possible experience.”

It's in the Bag: Baghead's Jay & Mark Duplass

Baghead, which opens in limited release today, is just the right amount of twisted. The latest film, written and directed by The Duplass Brothers (The Puffy Chair), is a romantic comedy that kind of gets hijacked by a horror movie.

Baghead is about a group of struggling actors (played by Greta Gerwig, Elise Mueller, Ross Partridge, and Steve Zissis) who, after attending the Los Angeles Underground Film Festival, are “inspired” to go to the woods for the weekend to make a film that would turn them all into stars. The usual problems—romantic entanglements, unrequited love, jealousy—take a backseat when a maniac “Baghead” starts terrorizing them.

When audiences see this movie, “people are alternately either laughing or screaming,” Mark says. “Or sometimes they yelp and then they laugh at themselves, because ‘It’s just a bag. Why am I screaming?’”

“That has been our favorite part of watching this movie,” Jay adds, “that laughter-screaming combo thing. Trying to figure what the hell people are reacting to and watching them go through it is like really a joy.”

Jay and Mark Duplass didn’t set out to make a “let’s-make-a-movie” movie.

“It just happened to be what we knew about,” Mark says. “The last couple years of our life we spent a lot of time on the festival circuit, so we were around these people.”

Being authorities on the subjects of their movies is essential.

“[Baghead is] about people who are desperately trying to achieve their goals,” Mark says. “That’s kind of us. We actually tried to shy away from the film within a film element in the editing process, and really just focused on the characters.

“We’re making fun of ourselves as much as anybody else in this movie. We like to have [actors] who comfortable enough in their skin to poke a little fun.”

Although they have had offers, the brothers have stayed away from the studio systems … at least thus far.

“This is a process of discovery,” Jay says. “And it’s not a process of machination.

“We go out to an environment with our friends and our collaborators, and we are discovering what this film is going to be. And we want to protect that process.

“In particular with this film, it’s about desperate, unknown actors. And one of the key ingredients that a studio was going to want was to put famous people in the movie. And it wouldn’t have made sense. The second side of it was that the studios inherently wanted to move it more toward a horror film because it would be much more marketable, and we totally get that. But at the same time we were more interested in making a relationship movie that was funny, that also was scary; in trying to get that tone right; and [in making] something that was unpredictable.”

The brothers’ filmmaking process is very much collaborative from the get-go.

“Pretty much what we do is we structure the movie out together, and we come up with the spine of the film, so it really has a solid arc,” explains Mark. “We believe if you’re going to make a shaggy, loose, improvised movie, you’d better have a smoking plot to get yourselves towards the climax; a combination of the slow and the fast.

“Then I take one of these Dictaphones and I speak out the whole script … really quickly… so you get natural dialogue,” he continues, “but it’s usually a mess. And we transcribe that and then Jay quality controls it, helps fix it up.

“Likewise on the back-end of the process, when the editing is going on, Jay and Jay Deuby, our editor, are plowing through the footage. Then I’ll stay a little bit more objective in that process and do [quality control] there.”

Jay and Mark Duplass live by the “two heads are better than one” philosophy throughout their work process.

“There will often be an unspoken thing that happens between us,” Mark says, “whether it’s an interview or we’re directing or we’re writing or editing, where it will become really obvious to us within the first half hour of showing up, that one of us is more on than the other one.”

Without even saying anything, the brothers will know who is in charge that day and who will be the trusty sidekick!

The Duplass brothers’ film set is a positive and creative environment.

“We’re not very auteur-oriented people,” Jay says. “We’re not like, ‘this is my vision, and we’re going to shove it down your throat.’

“We’re really just looking to our actors and looking to each other to find something that’s inspiring on-set.”

For more information, go to http://www.sonyclassics.com/baghead/

Emmy Nominations

This morning, the nominations for the 60^th Primetime Emmy® Awards were announced. Here are some of the highlights:

Outstanding Drama Series

Boston Legal, ABC

Damages, FX Networks

Dexter, Showtime

House, FOX

Lost, ABC

Mad Men, AMC

Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series

James Spader as Alan Shore • Boston Legal, ABC

Bryan Cranston as Walt White • Breaking Bad, AMC

Michael C. Hall as Dexter Morgan • Dexter, Showtime

Hugh Laurie as Dr. Gregory House • House, FOX

Gabriel Byrne as Paul • In Treatment, HBO

Jon Hamm as Don Draper • Mad Men, AMC

Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama Series

Sally Field as Nora Holden-Walker • Brothers & Sisters, ABC

Kyra Sedgwick as Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson • The Closer, TNT

Glenn Close as Patty Hewes • Damages, FX Networks

Mariska Hargitay as Olivia Benson • Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, NBC

Holly Hunter as Grace Hanadarko • Saving Grace, TNT

Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series

William Shatner as Denny Crane • Boston Legal, ABC

Ted Danson as Arthur Frobisher • Damages, FX Networks

Zeljko Ivanek as Ray Fiske • Damages, FX Networks

Michael Emerson as Ben • Lost, ABC

John Slattery as Roger Sterling • Mad Men, AMC

Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama Series

Candice Bergen as Shirley Schmidt • Boston Legal, ABC

Rachel Griffiths as Sarah Walker-Whedon • Brothers & Sisters, ABC

Chandra Wilson as Dr. Miranda Bailey • Grey’s Anatomy, ABC

Sandra Oh as Cristina Yang • Grey’s Anatomy, ABC

Dianne Wiest as Dr. Gina Toll• In Treatment, HBO

Outstanding Comedy Series

Curb Your Enthusiasm, HBO

Entourage, HBO

The Office, NBC

30 Rock, NBC

Two And A Half Men, CBS

Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series

Tony Shalhoub as Adrian Monk • Monk, USA

Steve Carell as Michael Scott • The Office, NBC

Lee Pace as Ned • Pushing Daisies, ABC

Alec Baldwin as Jack Donaghy • 30 Rock, NBC

Charlie Sheen as Charlie Harper • Two And A Half Men, CBS

Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series

Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Christine Campbell • The New Adventures Of Old Christine, CBS

Christina Applegate as Samantha Newly • Samantha Who?, ABC

Tina Fey as Liz Lemon • 30 Rock, NBC

America Ferrera as Betty Suarez • Ugly Betty, ABC

Mary-Louise Parker as Nancy Botwin • Weeds, Showtime

Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series

Jeremy Piven as Ari Gold • Entourage, HBO

Kevin Dillon as Johnny Drama • Entourage, HBO

Neil Patrick Harris as Barney Stinson • How I Met Your Mother, CBS

Rainn Wilson as Dwight Schrute • The Office, NBC

Jon Cryer as Alan Harper • Two And A Half Men, CBS

Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series

Kristin Chenoweth as Olive Snook • Pushing Daisies, ABC

Jean Smart as Regina Newly • Samantha Who?, ABC

Amy Poehler as Performer • Saturday Night Live, NBC

Holland Taylor as Evelyn Harper • Two And A Half Men, CBS

Vanessa Williams as Wilhelmina Slater • Ugly Betty, ABC

For a complete list, go to www.emmys.org.

2008 LA Film Festival Winners

Congratulations to the winners of the 2008 LA Film Festival!

- Target Filmmaker Award for Best Narrative Feature: The Prince of Broadway, directed by Sean Baker, written by Baker and Darren Dean (above)

- The Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature: The Wackness, written and directed by Jonathan Levine

- Jury Prize for Best Performance went to Jennifer Lawrence who starred in Lori Petty's autobiographical The Poker House

- Best Narrative Short Film: Magic Paris, written and directed by Alice Winocour

- Best Animated or Experimental Short Film: I Have Seen the Future, directed by Cam Christiansen, written by Kris Demeanor, animated by Christiansen and Scott Underhill

- The Audience Award for Best Short Film: Frankie, written and directed by Darren Thornton

* * *

- Target Documentary Award for Best Documentary Feature: Loot, written and directed by Darius Marder

- The Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature: Anvil! The Story of Anvil, directed by Sasha Gervasi

- A Special Documentary Jury Commendation was awarded to Pressure Cooker, directed by Jennifer Grausman and Mark Becker (below)

- The Audience Award for Best International Feature: Man on Wire, directed by James Marsh

- Best Documentary Short Film: City of Cranes, directed by Eva Weber

- The Audience Award for Best Music Video: "Run,” directed by Melanie Mandl, music by Air

Santa Barbara City College Film Students Enjoy the Festival

Santa Barbara City College offers a Festival Studies Program in conjunction with the LA Film Fest, thanks to Instructor and Film Studies Program Chair Nico Maestu. Classwork includes multiple daily screenings, blog postings, and instruction/"office hours" at the festival. Student blogs can be read at http://filmreviews.sbcc.edu 

"I like meeting everybody. Getting conversations going," says student Jackie Lopez. "As a film student, I feel like I’m getting more out of it than watching movies for sure." Lopez's favorite film of the fest, she says, is The Garden. "Not a dry eye in the house," she continues. "[Scott Hamilton Kennedy] made a beautiful movie. "By the end of the movie, whether you started off knowing anything [about the LA Community Garden] or not, you want to fight for their cause. Everyone should see this. " The Garden, just one of the amazing films--and learning experiences--at this year's festival, will be screening again on Friday, July 27. The best part of LAFF for Maestu? "Introducing the festival to all the students, most of whom have never been to a festival," he says. Santa Barbara City College Instructor Nico Maestu and student Stephanie Rieger in the Target Red Room at LA Film Festival.

Tech Talk - 15 Seconds of Fame

Everyone's Famous for 15 Seconds, on Saturday, June 21, at the Festival Gallery at the LA Film Festival.





Danae Ringelmann, CFA, Chief of Finance & Customer Development, IndieGoGo (left); moderated a panel of Linda Olszewski of Shorts International and Independent Filmmaker Phillip Von Alvensleben, Filmaka. The trio explained how the Internet and other digital media have ushered in new opportunities and challenges for the independent filmmaker, and ways in which independent filmmakers can use it to their advantage.

They discussed the ways in which independent filmmakers can use short films as a calling card, as well as marketing tools for self promotion.

"Opportunities are everywhere," Ringelmann said. "There's never been a better time to be an independent filmmaker."

"[Short films] are a fairly inexpensive way to show your talent and show your commitment to your dream," Von Alvensleben explained.

A live-action short film can range from 10 to 40 minutes, an animated one: 5 to 40 minutes. A webisode can run 2 to 5 minutes. Also, Olszewski recommended shooting the film (or at least mastering it) in high definition.

Genre films, niche, animation, anything with a hook can get a filmmaker noticed.

The best way to stand out online? The experts agree: "Make a good film."

LA Film Festival Press & Filmmaker Party - June 20, 2008

As the LA Film Festival got rolling, filmmakers enjoyed the Filmmaker and Press Cocktail Party on Friday, June 20, 2008.

Kathryn Aselton, Mark Duplass, Jen Tracy-Duplass & Jay Duplass (left to right) Writer-director-brothers Mark and Jay Duplass (The Puffy Chair) celebrated with their wives. Their latest film Baghead is having summer previews at LAFF, and will screen again on Friday at The Landmark at 4:45pm.

Pressure Cooker directors Mark Becker and Jennifer Grausman. The film, about Philadelphia's Frankford High School culinary arts teacher Wilma Stephenson, who helps inner city students prepare for a citywide cooking competition for scholarships to some of the country's top culinary arts institutions, is in the Festival's Documentary Competition. This inspirational journey of self-discovery and cooking will screen again on Tuesday, June 24, and Wednesday, June 25.




The Garden producer-director Scott Hamilton Kennedy stopped by the party before catching a screening of a documentary in competition. The Garden, about struggles facing the South Central LA Community Garden, had its World Premiere on Saturday, June 21, 2008.

Writer-director-producer Olaf De Fleur Johannesson's film The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela is in the LAFF International Showcase. The film, which screens on Thursday, June 26, and Sunday, June 29, originally started out as a documentary, yet Olaf decided to go the narrative route instead. A Filipina transsexual dreams of love and Paris in this so-surreal-it-must-be-true "visiomentary," a documentary/re-staged re-creation/fantasy that won the Teddy Award for Best Gay & Lesbian Feature at the recent Berlin Film Festival.

The Prince of Broadway co-writers Darren Dean (left) and Sean Baker. Their film is in narrative competition at the Festival.

Check www.LAFilmFest.com for more information, including times and locations, about these and other films screening at the festival.

Opening Night at the LA Film Festival

Opening night of the 2008 LA Film Festival in Westwood.

Film Fest Attendees await the opening night screening of "Wanted," starring James McAvoy, Morgan Freemen, and Angelina Jolie.

Paper or Plastic? Executive Producer Oren Jacob (left) and Director/Cinematographer Alex D. da Silva with Debra Eckerling (Final Draft, Script magazine) at the LAFF Opening Night party. Director/Producer Justine Jacob is waiting on her and husband's Oren's next production--their next child. (Update: Ellis Noemi Jacob joined siblings Toby, 4 1/2, and Sammy, 2 1/2. Mother and daughter are doing great!) Paper or Plastic? premieres on June 20th at The Regent, 1045 Broxton in Westwood, at 7:30 pm.

At 5 pm, witness firsthand the fastest grocery bagger contestants as featured in the Los Angeles Film Festival’s documentary competition film "Paper or Plastic?" State Champions from the National Grocers Association (NGA) will provide live demonstration of the NGA BEST BAGGER CONTEST. James Hunter - California Best Bagger Champion; Brian Bay - Utah Best Bagger Champion; and Jacob Richardson - Virginia Best Bagger Champion, will be competing in front of The Regent. You will never view grocery baggers the same way again!

Actress turned Writer/Director Lori Petty with producing partner Peter Quartaroli at the Festival Opening Night Party. Lori's autobiographical film, The Poker House, which she co-wrote with David Alan Grier, premieres Friday, June 20, at The Mann Festival Theatre, 10877 Lindbrook Drive in Westwood.

The film, starring Selma Blair as Petty’s struggling abused mother, Bookeem Woodbine, David Alan Grier, and newcomer Jennifer Lawrence, is based on Petty's teenage experiences and struggles in a poor, small town in Iowa, circa 1976.


For more info on these and other films at the festival, go to www.LAFilmFest.com

LA Film Festival Opens Tonight

The Los Angeles Film Festival, held annually for ten days in June, showcases the best of American and international independent cinema. With an expected attendance of over 100,000, the festival screens over 175 narrative features, documentaries, shorts, and music videos. Now in its fourteenth year, the festival has grown into a world-class event, uniting new filmmakers with critics, scholars, film masters, and the movie-loving public.

This year's festival runs from June 19 - June 29 in Westwood Village.

For more information, go to: www.LAFilmFest.com

AFI Top 10 List of 10 Film Genres

Here is the American Film Institute's top-10 lists of the best in 10 film genres:

ANIMATION

1. "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," 1937.

2. "Pinocchio," 1940.

3. "Bambi," 1942.

4. "The Lion King," 1994.

5. "Fantasia," 1940.

6. "Toy Story," 1995.

7. "Beauty and the Beast," 1991.

8. "Shrek," 2001.

9. "Cinderella," 1950.

10. "Finding Nemo," 2003.

FANTASY

1. "The Wizard of Oz," 1939.

2. "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," 2001.

3. "It's a Wonderful Life," 1946.

4. "King Kong," 1933.

5. "Miracle on 34th Street, 1947.

6. "Field of Dreams," 1989.

7. "Harvey," 1950.

8. "Groundhog Day," 1993.

9. "The Thief of Bagdad," 1924.

10. "Big," 1988.

GANGSTER

1. "The Godfather," 1972.

2. "Goodfellas," 1990.

3. "The Godfather Part II," 1974.

4. "White Heat," 1949.

5. "Bonnie and Clyde," 1967.

6. "Scarface: The Shame of a Nation," 1932.

7. "Pulp Fiction," 1994.

8. "The Public Enemy," 1931.

9. "Little Caesar," 1930.

10. "Scarface," 1983.

SCIENCE FICTION

1. "2001: A Space Odyssey," 1968.

2. "Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope," 1977.

3. "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," 1982.

4. "A Clockwork Orange," 1971.

5. "The Day The Earth Stood Still," 1951.

6. "Blade Runner," 1982.

7. "Alien," 1979.

8. "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," 1991.

9. "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," 1956.

10. "Back to the Future," 1985.

WESTERN

1. "The Searchers," 1956.

2. "High Noon," 1952.

3. "Shane," 1953.

4. "Unforgiven," 1992.

5. "Red River," 1948.

6. "The Wild Bunch," 1969.

7. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," 1969.

8. "McCabe & Mrs. Miller," 1971.

9. "Stagecoach," 1939.

10. "Cat Ballou," 1965.

SPORTS

1. "Raging Bull," 1980.

2. "Rocky," 1976.

3. "The Pride of the Yankees," 1942.

4. "Hoosiers," 1986.

5. "Bull Durham," 1988.

6. "The Hustler," 1961.

7. "Caddyshack," 1980.

8. "Breaking Away," 1979.

9. "National Velvet," 1944.

10. "Jerry Maguire," 1996.

MYSTERY

1. "Vertigo," 1958.

2. "Chinatown," 1974.

3. "Rear Window," 1954.

4. "Laura," 1944.

5. "The Third Man," 1949.

6. "The Maltese Falcon," 1941.

7. "North By Northwest," 1959.

8. "Blue Velvet," 1986.

9. "Dial M for Murder," 1954.

10. "The Usual Suspects," 1995.

ROMANTIC COMEDY

1. "City Lights," 1931.

2. "Annie Hall," 1977.

3. "It Happened One Night," 1934.

4. "Roman Holiday," 1953.

5. "The Philadelphia Story," 1940.

6. "When Harry Met Sally ...," 1989.

7. "Adam's Rib," 1949.

8. "Moonstruck," 1987.

9. "Harold and Maude," 1971.

10. "Sleepless in Seattle," 1993.

COURTROOM DRAMA

1. "To Kill a Mockingbird," 1962.

2. "12 Angry Men," 1957.

3. "Kramer Vs. Kramer," 1979.

4. "The Verdict," 1982.

5. "A Few Good Men," 1992.

6. "Witness for the Prosecution," 1957.

7. "Anatomy of a Murder," 1959.

8. "In Cold Blood," 1967.

9. "A Cry in the Dark," 1988.

10. "Judgment at Nuremberg," 1961.

EPIC

1. "Lawrence of Arabia," 1962.

2. "Ben-Hur," 1959.

3. "Schindler's List," 1993.

4. "Gone With the Wind," 1939.

5. "Spartacus," 1960.

6. "Titanic," 1997.

7. "All Quiet on the Western Front," 1930.

8. "Saving Private Ryan," 1998.

9. "Reds," 1981.

10. "The Ten Commandments," 1956.

Script Frenzy - Down to the Wire

Well, maybe not quite THAT down to the wire.

Script Frenzy encourages writers to complete a screenplay in a month. The month of April, to be exact. Next Thursday is May 1st, which means - if you are a fast writer, there's still time to start. and, if you are a procrastinator and already started your great American screenplay, there's still time to finish! Good luck to all.

Miss out on Script Frenzy? National Novel Writing Month is in November.

Script Frenzy

On Your Mark...Get Set...Write!

This year’s Script Frenzy—the screenwriter cousin of National Novel Writing Month—is in April. That’s right 30 days, 100 pages, and a completed screenplay at the Finish Line.

The point of Script Frenzy is productivity. The math is simple: If you write moving forward, with a page-count goal, you end up with a finished product. The website—Script Frenzy—offers message boards, announcements of local write-ins, resources, and other motivating fare.

Script Frenzy is a donation-funded nonprofit, and there is no fee to participate. The only prize, which is awarded to all who finish, is a Script Frenzy Winner's Certificate and web icon. The best prize? A completed screenplay. Whoo hoo!

According to the site, here are the 5 Basic Rules of Script Frenzy:

1. To be crowned an official Script Frenzy winner, you must write a script (or multiple scripts) of at least 100 total pages and verify this tally on ScriptFrenzy.org


2. You may write individually or in teams of two. Writer teams will have a 100-page total goal for their co-written script or scripts


3. Script writing may begin no earlier than 12:00:01 AM on April 1 and must cease no later than 11:59:59 PM on April 30, local time


4. You may write screenplays, stage plays, TV shows, short films, comic book and graphic novel scripts, adaptations of novels, or any other type of script your heart desires


5. You must, at some point, have ridiculous amounts of fun

Stephanie Palmer Booksigning

Stephanie Palmer, author of Good in a Room: How To Sell Yourself and Your Ideas and Win Over Any Audience, was beaming as she signed books at The Grove in Los Angeles Tuesday night. The crowd of about 50 friends and fans came out to support her first book, and learned a little bit more about taking meetings in the process.

According to Palmer, some of the classic mistakes people make during meetings are "saying too much, speaking too quickly, and asking for more than one thing."

Palmer, a former MGM executive who has taken more than 3,000 meetings with writers, directors, and producers, says "It would be ideal if great ideas sold themselves."

Since that is not often the case, Palmer developed a system to help people take better meetings, so they get the results they want. She started her company—Good in a Room—after she left MGM. She has since coached 12 Oscar winners, 5 Emmy winners, and numerous corporate executives, including Fortune 500 CEOs.

Palmer's book's purpose is to help more people gain access to this important information.

The best part of her job?

"To help someone with a fantastic idea bring their idea to life," Palmer says. "There's nothing better than that for me." For more information, go to The Writers Store.

2008 Cinema City International Film Festival

On Monday, March 10, the ballroom at the Century Park Hyatt sparkled. Soldiers, filmmakers, and supporters came out to honor the winners of the 2008 Cinema City International Film Festival, as they capped off their 2-day screening competition.

Cinema City is dedicated to supporting the next generation of independent filmmakers. Yet the festival was much more than that. The Gala served as a fundraiser for numerous burn foundations, and honored American Soldiers who have endured burn injuries while serving our country.

Final Draft was pleased to sponsor the award for Best TV Pilot Script. Our winner, Liz Alper, who wrote Wheat in Chicago, was absolutely ecstatic.

"I feel like I'm on top of the world," she said. "I have a gold statuette that tells me I can go out and do anything."

Wheat in Chicago is the story of two brothers who went to Chicago during the Great Depression to make a better life, and wound up getting seduced by the gangs.

"The heart of the story," Alper says, "is based on a relationship I had with a friend, who was a role model for me."

The friend has since passed away, and Alper dedicated her award to him. Alper knows her journey as a writer is just beginning.

Congratulations to all the 2008 Cinema City International Film Festival Winners:

Best TV Movie Script - Watching Closely

Best TV Pilot Script - Wheat in Chicago

Best TV Short Form Pilot - The Volt

Best TV Pilot - Loving the InLaws

Special TV Pilot Diversity Award - The New Americans

Best Music Video - Siempre Pude Ver

Best Commercial - Too Many

Student Filmmaker Award - Marcus Clarke

Audience Award - A tie between Gunmen and Undoing Time

For more information, go to Cinema City International Film Festival

Hollywood's Big Night

The Oscars® were really a free for all, tonight … with a few exceptions.

Best Picture and Best Director went to No Country for Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen), as did the award for Adapted Screenplay. Best Supporting Actor went to Javier Bardem for the film. No shock there. Ditto for Best Actor winner Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood; the film also won Best Cinematography.

Best Actress went to Marion Cotillard for La Vie En Rose (which also won for Best Makeup) and Best Supporting Actress was Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton (the film’s only major award).

Best Original Screenplay went to Juno’s Diablo Cody, who won Best First Screenplay at Film Independent’s Spirit Awards. Cody, who was cool and excited on Saturday, looked totally blown away by her Sunday win.

Once beat out three songs from Enchanted and one from August Rush, winning the Oscar for Best Original Song: "Falling Slowly," music and lyrics by the film’s stars Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. (Once took home the Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film the day before.)

Austria’s The Counterfeiters won the Academy Award® for Best Foreign Film, and Taxi to the Dark Side took home Best Documentary. Ratatouille won Best Animated Film and Atonement took the award for Best Score. Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street won for Best Art Direction, The Golden Compass won for Visual Effects, and the award for Costume Design went to Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

The Bourne Ultimatum was full of surprises: it won Best Editing (which usually goes to Best Picture), as well as awards for Sound Editing and Sound Mixing.

For a complete list of Academy Award winners, go to Oscar.com. For a complete list of Spirit Award Winners, go to Spirit Awards.com.

Turn on Friday Night Lights

NBC’s Friday Night Lights was one of the best new shows last season. And tonight marks the last pre-strike episode of the show, perhaps the last ep of the season, and possible the series finale. Since the ratings were not that great—even with brand new episodes airing against less than stellar strike-fare—season three seems unlikely. (I am still hopeful, as those rose-colored glasses block out a lot of drudge.)

If you haven’t caught this prime-time football drama that’s more about the people affected by the game in small-town Dillon, Texas, than football itself, you are missing out. Friday Night Lights, filmed in TX, is shot more like a feature film than a TV program. The acting is superb—if the plot lines tend to be a bit melodramatic. And even the most fanatical, annoying character at the beginning of the show’s run (Buddy Garrity, I’m talking about you) has become endearing. Meanwhile, the most stable—Matt Saracen—has totally lost it after being tested one too many times. Lucky for Matt, Coach is watching out for him.

Check out FNL before the lights go out for good.

Christmas in January?

You have to hand it to House (Tuesdays on FOX). Who else could pull off doing a Christmas episode nearly a month into the new year? With House scoring the primo post-Super Bowl spot this Sunday, it was only natural the network would pull the fresh ep from the end of last year and put it in a position to promote Feb 3rd's Super Stunt-casted ep with Mira Sorvino (the original proposed Super Ep was postponed, as it apparently still needed rewrites, and therefore was not ready to film, at the time the writers went on strike). Holiday disorientation aside, I'll take a good new episode of House any time of year, no matter how badly the episode is timed in relation to real life. It is, after all, just television. Right?

Decisions, Decisions

The Oscar® nominations just came out last week, and I have already seen three of the Best Picture nominees: Atonement, Juno, and There Will Be Blood. Usually I find myself playing catch-up after the announcements. Given my good foresight, I wonder if I should rush to go see one of the other must-see films--Michael Clayton and No Country for Old Men. Or, since I am so far ahead of schedule, if I should say the heck with it, and go see Cloverfield, which is getting excellent reviews, though the likelihood of it making next year's ballot is somewhere between slim and none. (Come on. I am not being harsh. No one releases a movie in January that they think will be the next Great American Movie.) Will let you know what I think of Cloverfield.

We've Got Weather!

Note: Those of you who live in Southern CA will know exactly what I am talking about. The rest of you, this is just how the weather works over on the left coast...

Stormwatch 2008. It's very exciting! Yes, really. It is. And if you don't think rain is news, then you must not live in Los Angeles.

The people who seem to benefit the most from rain in So Cal? The newscasters, of course. It's almost like they're happy it's wet and there's gridlock, and they can interview people on the street, asking them why they do or do not have an umbrella. It's something different, and we like different. We're spoiled. We have sunshine at least 335 days a year. And anything that differs from it, becomes the top story of the day.

In any other part of the country, rain isn't really news. It probably shouldn't really be news here either, but, shh ... don't tell anyone. If it gives the LA newscasters something to talk about besides the war, the election, crime, slow speed car chases, and the latest health craze, then, we'll just let them have their fun.

Now, a snowstorm. Well, that's another story altogether.

It's a Blog World

Many thanks to Helen Jupiter and Gerald Jones for all of their insights into the world of blogging at yesterday's IWOSC seminar. For more info about the seminar, check out Gerald's Post.

Happy Blogging,
Deb