The Dreaded Email

It came this morning.

Subject line: Hello There!

Yes, with an exclamation point.

Not that I wasn’t expecting it. I knew it was coming. I just wasn’t ready for it.

Doesn’t he know things don’t work that way in this town?

Christ. He’s been here for over a year. Working in the industry, no less. How dare he.

Okay, here’s the email (I know everybody loves to read other people’s mail, right?):

Deb,

I wrapped on FLOAT. We have some pick ups to do (as well as Banking) but I know that we really need to get into “Kiss” right away.

So, send me the latest script. Let’s meet up and talk.

I hurt my back moving gear on the last friggin day of the film (of course) so I am going to the DR tomorrow…end of the week?

PPB

Meet Peter Paul Basler. He is my producing partner on My First Kiss. He was shooting a movie all month and told me he wouldn’t be available until the first of February. The email was dreaded because I haven’t finished the rewrite. The shiny new brilliant script that I wanted to send him before he had a chance to tag me. See, I always want to be the person who’s one step ahead. I failed.

But the dreaded email is also the reason I asked Peter to work with me. This is the point in my story when I need to take you back to beginning. Picture the cloud formation gathering around my head as we travel back in time to the week of September 19th, 2005. Occasionally, I peruse the Film/TV ads on Craig’s List but rarely, if ever, answer any of them. One day there was an ad posted by this guy from New Jersey. It said he was moving out here and wanted to meet people in the film industry. What? Are you kidding me? Who does that? What a dork.

He mentioned in the ad that he had written and directed a couple of movies, and even put his real name in the ad. It was a straight-forward, no bullshit, no Hollywood shuffle ad. He just put himself out there. I checked him out on IMDB. Yup, he was there with credit for the two movies he made. I will still scratching my head. It was like a business personal ad and for some reason I felt compelled to reach out to this stranger in a strange land.

I emailed him and told him a little about myself and probably said something like “I never do this but…” He emailed me back and we arranged a coffee meet at Starbucks. We actually ended up next door at a deserted pizza place because we were both hungry. My first impression of Peter Basler? Wow, you’re really tall. My second impression? Wow, you’re the guy that inspired the adage “salt of the Earth.” I had never met anyone like Peter Basler. Especially in this business. He’s the kind of guy who says what he means and means what he says.

What a breath of fresh air in this smog-ridden bullshit flinging town. He didn’t want anything from me. He was brand new in the land of dreams and just wanted to meet people in the industry. And he was willing to put himself out there to do it. Networking. But again, not in the traditional Hollywood sense. I don’t think he would even know how do that, and if he did, I’m sure his first thought would be “why bother?” But he was on a mission. He had outgrown the New Jersey movie biz (is there a movie biz in NJ?) and was moving his wife and dog out as soon as he could get the lay of the land.

It didn’t take him long. He developed more industry relationships in his first year here than I did in – well, way longer than that. Then, when I answered a call for crew on a short film (more about that film in future post), I offered him up to work on it too…for no money. No problem. He jumped at the opportunity and handled the BTS (behind-the-scenes) shooting and interview duties. I did the stills (and the BTS the first weekend because Peter had a job on some horror movie). He did what it takes to make something happen for himself. This is one of the many things I like about Peter. Even though he is a produced writer and director, it wasn’t beneath him to volunteer on the short or take an AD job on someone else’s film. He didn’t complain about this ofttimes pain-in-the-ass town. He didn’t wait for something to drop in his lap.

After the short, he pulled me in on Big Heart City – a feature producing job that he found on mandy.com. I shot four days of stills (including the day at the Del Mar racetrack that I wrote about here) and made some really good friends. Thanks, Peter.

I watched how Peter handled himself as a producer on the set of Big Heart. When I decided that I was going to produce My First Kiss it was a no-brainer to ask Peter to come on board. The dude knows his shit. He knows how to deal with people. He knows how to get things done. He knows how to put out fires. And most importantly, he doesn’t know how to do the Hollywood shuffle. I am so glad I answered that ad.

We’re meeting on Thursday morning. I have no doubt that things are going to really start cooking. I’m really excited. Between the two of us (and all the other amazing people that will be drawn to this project), we will get this movie up on the big screen. No doubt.
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…providing Peter forgives me for not having the script ready when I said I would. Damn, that really pisses me off.

The Critics and Me

A couple of weeks ago I burdened my writing group with pages 29-55 of My First Kiss. I say burdened because while my words were being spoken out loud by some wonderful actors I was…well, let’s just say I was waiting for it to end and the anvil to fall on my head, because I thought my pages sucked.

It finally ends and I amble up to the stage and take the center seat…waiting for someone to hit me with a laundry list of faults…but it doesn’t happen. For the most part the ofttimes highly critical writers liked these pages.

Huh? Knock, knock…anybody in there?

I don’t know. This seems to be how it goes for me. When I like the pages, I get the most criticism. When I hate the pages, mostly praise. Can someone please explain this to me?

So, what am I going to do with the praise? Stop this post and rewrite the shit out of pages 29-55.

Thanks for stopping by…now, go rewrite the shit out of your own damn pages.

Search Words

Okay, this is off-topic. But I’m in the middle of my rewrite (deadline: January 31) so there’s not a ton going on, production-wise. Although, I do have a post started about marketing. So far, that’s what I have – the title, “Marketing.”

In the meantime, a little entertainment. I’m always fascinated by the search words people google. I became painfully aware of what people are looking for with my other blog, Everybody I Shot Is Dead, as noted in my Google Me This, Google Me That post.

I can understand how I reach the oddly affected with a blog called Everybody I Shot Is Dead. After all, it has photos and posts about dead rock stars. But My First Kiss? It sounds so innocent. How could My First Kiss be misconstrued?

Okay, it starts out pretty innocent with…

teenagers tell about first kiss

and,

my first

even this makes sense…

how to give my 1st kiss

but then it gets a little dicey with…

how to get a first kiss 9 year olds

(hopefully it’s another 9 year old looking for those instructions)

and there’s always the narcissistic request…

my first kiss (but not my partner’s)

but the one that really got me scratching my head?…

fuck first time college girls videos

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…anybody got any videos they want me to post?

The Marc Klaas Project

This post is to pimp an important TV project done by my friend, John Miller, and relative, Tyler Chesher. It’s a reality show that follows Marc Klaas and his foundation in their search for missing children. Marc Klaas is the father of Polly Klaas, who was abducted from her bedroom and murdered in 1993 when she was only 12 years old.

Please click the youtube banner below to watch, rate and comment on the video. The more buzz we can create, the more likely the show will get on the air, and hopefully children will be saved. There are two videos; a short teaser called “Missing” and the main video called “The Marc Klaas Project”.

Also, if you are a Myspace member, please click this banner to connect to their Myspace site. I’m just getting my own Myspace started, so I’m a little clueless on this part. I think they want to add you as a friend and have you add them. Also, Marc Klaas personally blogs on the site.

Thanks for your support.

Music

How the fuck am I going to get the music I want?

That’s the million dollar question…

…since the songs I want will likely cost that, if not more. There’s a lot of music in My First Kiss. After all, it is a story about two teenage girls who run away from home to start a rock band in California. Being a road movie, there’s some car radio action and radio stations play hits. And in this case this hits from 1967.

I currently have 18 songs in the script, including two or three to-be-written originals. Of the 15 released songs, I want 8 of them to be heard as played by the original bands (those would be the most expensive). The other 8 will be a few lines sung a cappella by the girls, or on stage with a bar band playing them and the girls singing. That costs less than playing the song in its original form.

Remember Almost Famous? Cameron Crowe has 17 songs in his movie. Only a couple of them were originals written for the movie. The rest were songs of the time, from some of the biggest bands of the time. Bands that are still big. Led Zeppelin, Allman Brothers Band, The Beach Boys, Yes, The Who, Simon and Garfunkel, Elton John, David Bowie, etc. I’m going for the same thing. Except I’m not Cameron Crowe. He has a lot of clout in the music business. I used to have some. Not so much anymore.

I’m guessing most of you are thinking I’m crazy (don’t you have to be a little nuts to be in this business?). You’re thinking I should just do all original songs and fictionalize them as hits of that time on the radio. I could, but I think that would diminish the story because the music is part of what drives the story. It won’t be authentic if one of the girls is talking about some fictional singer in some fictional band who broke out at some fictional L.A. club. Who could relate to that? I want my characters referencing what’s real. Jim Morrison and the Doors breaking out at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go.

Isn’t the real music in Almost Famous what made the fictional band, Stillwater, believable and authentic? Who can forget the scene on the tour bus? Tiny Dancer plays and when Elton John’s vocal comes in, the characters join in, one voice at a time.

Clout or no clout, I’m going to figure out a way to get the music. Whatever it takes. I’ll beg. Starting now. Anybody out there know anybody that can help? Perhaps a big time music supervisor that would consider working on the little movie that could?

Ratings

Do you think about ratings when you write?

I’m currently workshopping My First Kiss in my online writing group. After posting the first 11 pages, I got a comment as a result of this line on page 8:

LOUANNE
Fuckin’ A. You have a gun.

The comment:

Just in case you don’t see this as an R film, the second fuck makes it an R (let alone the ones that follow).

The “Just in case you don’t see this as an R film” was a completely legitimate statement because my story is about two teenage girls (14 and 15).

Hence, one of my many conundrums. Will an R-rated story about two teenage girls find an audience? I’ve pondered this since I wrote the story. And rationalized it and justified it and mollified it and nullified it. There is no way I can rewrite this story for a PG-13. Louanne has to talk like that. It’s who she is. And it contrasts Jenny, who never swears – well, until a certain something happens way later in the story. Plus, the story gets dark. It’s not a PG-13 la-la-la-la-la teen movie.

The result of this internal debate was that I could get past the ‘liability’ of the R-rating with the ‘assets’ I cleverly placed into the the story. For example, there’s a teen-slumber party-striptease on page 1…I mean, that alone should titillate the trench-coat wearing middle-aged male population into the theater.

But, this could also be me reverting back to my usual m.o.:

Smart Person: You can’t make an R-rated movie about teenage girls.

Me: Really? I can’t do that?

Smart Person: Adults don’t want to see a movie about teenagers and teenagers won’t be able to get in the theater.

Me: (completely ignoring Smart Person’s words) You don’t think I can do it?

Smart Person: No. Absolutely not.

Me: Watch me.

Do you think I’m crazy to revert to my two year-old “don’t tell me I can’t do something because I’ll do it just to prove I can” behavior?

Am I shooting myself in the foot before I even get out of the gate?

Or, is this one of those ‘rules’ that can be broken?

Would you go see an R-rated movie about two teenage girls?

The Script

I wrote the original script a bunch of years ago. The story of two young girls in the late sixties who run away from home (I think that was the first act break), have some good and bad experiences, get caught (that may have been the second act break), and are sent home. A couple of people read it and thought it was good…especially the middle-aged male reader. He was titillated.

The script ended up in the proverbial drawer (actually, somewhere in my computer files…or maybe I buried it in the backyard) and I finally pulled out in early February of last year. Reread it and reacted with a huge “blech”…this is not a good movie. But I still loved the two girls and I loved the idea of them setting out on this adventure. Then lightning struck…what I had written in those 100 and someteen pages was the first act of a good movie.

So I did what every good writer does and outlined the second and third acts. Okay, so maybe I just started writing without the outline. Whatever. And by the end of April, I had a whole new script. A better adventure. A more interesting relationship between the girls. Way more conflict. And a cool organic twist to boot. That was the draft that became My First Kiss.

But of course the script still wasn’t done. Are they ever? I made more changes and more changes and at some point over the summer, I decided this was the script I wanted to produce. It’s an indie (hopefully a commercial one) and can be done on a reasonable budget and, with the proper marketing, I’m sure it will make money. I’ll speak more about marketing in a future post, since, on the surface, my script appears to be a marketing nightmare. For now, just know that having marketable aspects to your script is important.

My friends, kind readers and members of those elite writing groups I belong to have been giving me one nagging comment over and over again. No matter how many times I rewrote it and how many new eyes read it. Actually, with one group of writers I brought the nagging comment up as a topic of general discussion. It’s about motivation. Why a character chooses to do something. In my script, it was in reference to why one of the girls decides to run away. The more I got the comment of “How come she runs away?” or “I don’t think getting caught skipping school is enough motivation for a teen to run away,” the more I tried to add on motivation. Trouble at home, trouble with friends, trouble at school. And the more I added on the motivations, the more motivations the readers wanted.

I couldn’t seem to buy a motivation strong enough to satisfy anyone. They wanted to see the trouble at home but I didn’t want to show that because this isn’t a movie about trouble at home. And when it came right down to it, I know that teenagers make their most stupid decisions because the decisions aren’t motivated — they are made on the fly. Come to think about it, adults do it too. Frankly, I didn’t want this girl to have problems at home. I just wanted her to make the kind of on-the-spot rash decision that teenagers make and I wanted the story to be about what happens because of that. As in, maybe the moral of the story is ‘look before you leap.’

Damn…it’s 3:15 and I haven’t had a lunch break. Be right back.

Okay, that was lunch. Toasted ham and cheese, Ruffles and a Pepsi. It’s gone now, along with an hour or so of other work distrations. Where was I? Right. The motivation debate. I finally rebelled and dumped all those contrived motivations that I had added and tried a more bare bones approach of why this girl leaves…just because. Funny, no one had a problem with the other girl leaving, even though she has no apparent reason at this point in the story. They accepted her choice because she is perceived as a tough girl. A rebel.

More people read it. Just that first part. And they still wanted a motivation. Fuck. Suggestions abound…let’s see what her relationship with her mom is all about. Fuck no. Wait a second…I just remembered…one person that read it had no problem at all with her motivation. He loved the script and raved on about the relationship I created between the girls. Thank you, Shawn. God, I love actors. He’s attached for a cameo role, btw.

Anyway, there was absolutely no way I was going to succumb to the motivation police. The decision for this girl had to be made on the fly. Rash. Otherwise, the story wouldn’t work for me. It wouldn’t be the story I want to tell. Then it hit me. Like the Sultan of Swat’s Louisville slugger on the side of my head. Duh. The motivation could be an in-the-moment event. Nothing to do with her life at home. Nothing to do with the shit that was going on at school. Why didn’t I see it? The seed of the event was sitting right there the whole time. It was already in the scene. Trying to grow into a big event that changes everything. Out of all the smaller events that were leading up to it. Dumb me.

I can finally rewrite with a purpose. I have a solution that will satisfy the motivation-seekers but won’t screw up my story. Actually, it will make the story better. It will inform everything that happens after the event. Yeah!! Now the hard part. Writing it down.

I think I may have posted this somewhere some time before, but if you’re interested, this is the first page of the most recent draft:

EXT. CALGARY, ALBERTA - NIGHT

The partially-built Husky Tower shoots above the glittering
city lights.

WOMAN (V.O.)
There are so many things you forget
in the course of a lifetime. The
memories you swear you'll remember,
slip away. But the secrets you try
to bury, haunt you, every day.

SUPER: Calgary, June 1967

EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD - CONTINUOUS

A block of upper-middle class houses.

WOMAN (V.O.)
Have you ever kept a secret? I
don't mean a little secret like
stealing a chocolate bar from the
drug store. Bigger than that. The
kind of secret you can't even
whisper to the wind.

Light shines through a Canadian flag hanging in an attic
window.

INT. ATTIC ROOM - NIGHT

A rock'n'roll '45 drops and spins on the record player. The
same flag drapes the lone window. Pillows, sleeping bags,
bowls of potato chips and pop bottles litter the room. Seven
TEENAGE GIRLS play Truth or Dare.

WOMAN (V.O.)
If I could just go back.

JENNY BARRINGTON, 14, cute tomboy, in-crowd fringe, watches
KAREN, the birthday girl and leader of the pack, work her
striptease.

Karen kicks off her last fuzzy slipper, then slinks her baby
doll pajama top over her head. Jenny stares in horror. The
other girls hoot and holler.

JENNY
The birthday girl in her birthday
suit. Big deal.

Karen shimmies her bare chest toward Jenny.