Back to school

Earlier this week (Oct 24), I started an online TV writing class at the Writers University. The class is Beginning Television Writing, which covers exactly what it says. Buy the end of the class - four weeks from now – I should have a tight, well plotted outline and all the knowledge I need to start writing my spec teleplay. We shall see about that. I’m only 2 days into the class and the information I’ve gained so far has been well worth the $119.96 + $10.85 for the book by the two course instructors, Lee Goldberg and William Rabkin.

I found out about the class from Lee Goldberg’s blog A Writer's Life which I go to daily. His blog is very informative and updated nearly everyday, unlike my mine. I have a few ideas for TV shows and never really understood how to write them. I get the whole screenplay thing for movies, but TV is a whole different thing altogether. I think once I get the basics I should be fine. I’m sure there will be a lot more to learn after this class but this class will lay the foundation for what I do in the future.

I also will be taking my second acting at Mike Lemon Casting her in Philadelphia. I had so much fun in the first one I took which was, the basics of acting with Donna Marrazzo

For that class I had to do few scenes with others, some improve, script analysis and a two minute monologue. I decided to pick a very hard monologue which at the time I thought was a good idea. It didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to but I did learn a lot.

With that class I had all 8 weeks to go over my monologue and got feed back from the class along the way. With the new class I’m taking – Film Acting I – I have to have my monologue ready for the first class on Nov 15^th. This class is also an on camera class so I will be videotaped and forced to watch myself act like a fool. No pun intended. Well maybe some pun intended.

Elizabethtown

I so wanted to like this movie. One of my favorite movies is Almost Famous because the way the movie blends with the music. I also like Garden State for that same reason. The different between those last two and Elizabethtown is they had a story to tell. Elizabethtown was just a music video with voice over.

Dunst was good. Bloom was ok. Susan Sarandon and Jessica Biel where pointless. Judy Greer and Alec Baldwin were under used. Just buy the soundtrack.

I've only seen 2 of Crowe's movie in theater, Elizabethtown being one and Vanilla Sky being the other. Both sucked it hard.

I see the light...

I just finished going over my short script doing a polish and then a write. I like the out come. I only have two scenes that I have to tighten up then it should be done. What do you do when you’re done your script or any other writing that you want critiqued? I have a few friends I will give it to, but they are my friends and I want an honest answer.

What questions should I ask? Should I ask any, or just let them tell me what they thought? I’m not sure. I plan on shooting this script sometime in the spring or early summer if everything goes well. What so you do?

Ninja Rap!

“Looks like its some mother fucking ninja’s in the house!”

That line is a direct quote from Mr. Robert Van Winkle a.k.a. Vanilla Ice. On Saturday I had the fortune to witness an anomaly, a Vanilla Ice concert. Why was I there? A few friends and I went to Brownies 38th st for some drinks to celebrate my birthday. Vanilla Ice just happened to be there. I have to admit I was a big fan of his and can still do the dance to his best known song, Ice, Ice baby! I still have 2 of his albums and yes I said 2.

I was going to write whole post about it but who really cares? I’ll just leave you with some of his quotes.

“How many of ya’ll watched the surreal live this year? I had the chance to hang out with a legend, Ron Jeremy.”

“I paved the way for Eminem!”

“I have a new album coming out on under ground platinum, go out and get it. Don’t sleep on it creep on it.”

There were more but I think these will suffice.