Sit Rep

Today, I mailed out my "Ra-Gho-Zu" SF story to the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest (WOTF).

Woohoo!

Rewriting this story has been an odyssey that's taking a lot longer than I expected. I've lost count of how many times I've rewritten this story on and off. It's way different from how it first started. Good thing I believed in it because it never occurred to me to quit.

Three people who independently took an interest above and beyond in my story among the many who read different drafts were Scott Andrews (Odyssey alum and fellow Taos chum), Oz (Clarion alum and fellow Taos chum), and Larry Hodges (Odyssey alum and Critters chum).

Thanks guys! You all helped point out bugs that I missed because I'd gotten too close to the story.

I don't know what'll happen when the WOTF readers make their decisions, but this story is stronger than the submission of mine that placed in the 2006 first quarter quarter-finals. I'm looking forward to seeing what'll happen.

Now I'm going to put my screenwriting hat back on to tackle script rewrites for five screenplays. Ugh. It must be done before I move ahead with more scripts I wanna write.

Later.

Day 8

I saw my final flick for my time at the 2007 Austin Film Festival (AFF): "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead."

A thriller about two brothers who rob a jewelry store--owned by their parents. They mess it up, and everything goes downhill from there. A simple story told in a nonlinear way. There were a few walking-through scenes, but the film still moved along. No happy ending with this flick, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I considered going to the wrap up party, but I decided to head back to my hostel before the main bus lines shut down and rest up for my pickup tomorrow morning.

AFF was an interesting experience. I didn't really learn anything major about the business or writing, but I got to talk to some other writers and emerging indie directors.

A lot of people here in Central Texas are very friendly and hospitable. Going to AFF was worth doing at least once. I'll know better what to expect the next time I come out to Austin. Don't know when that'll be as I don't plan on coming out to a film festival every year.

Must do some packing now and get ready for my flight home.

Hailing frequencies closed.

Day 7

I can feel the end coming. Bittersweet. I do want to go home, though.

Fewer and fewer people are making it to the film screenings.

Today, I went to the Dobie theater by the University of Texas (UT)campus, which is the furthest theater used by the film festival while still being in hailing distance of Austin.

After getting off the free Armadillo shuttle, I reconnoitered the land, locating the theater, scouting out the bus stop, and determining which buses drove by and at what times.

That done, I walked around the UT campus. Nice place. At an hour before the 6 P, I grabbed a sandwich. Then it hit me that I probably could've audited a class, but film was on my mind today.

I caught "Year At Danger." Coming in, I somehow thought it was a feature, but it was actually a documentary shot by a Texan army national guardsman on his 2005 Iraq combat tour. It was very touching to see how he received his orders nine days after getting married and missed his daughter's birth as he protected the division headquarters of his forward operation base.

Needless to say, the filmmaker made it through random gun ambushes, mortar firings, and bombs to return to his family. Seeing the documentary made it clear that conventional forces are nothing more than targets for insurgents and that the Iraqi army was capable of policing its territory--with American supervision.

Intelligence, counterterrorist task forces, and political solutions at the grass roots level are what's needed rather than a military presence to solve the mess in Iraq and Afghanistan, but I see I'm starting to digress...

"Year At Danger" gives people one man's perspective of the current war. It's worth watching.

The next film was "Superheroes" which tells the story of an Iraq vet with physical and psychologial scars who's documented by a college filmmaker. I thought this was a documentary, but it was actually a feature film. I'm afraid I walked out after seeing a third of the film. I felt for the vet, but the film wandered along at a crawl and I got tired of waiting to see what point it would make.

I took a Capital Metro bus back downtown to watch "Poor Boy's Game," starring Danny Glover and sundry unknown actors. A tale of class stuggle, racial tensions and boxing set in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

I almost walked out on this film, too, but I was intrigued just enough by the puzzle of Glover's character help train the male lead for a boxing match against his nephew. The male lead just got out of prison for severely beating the son of Glover's character. Glover's nephew, who happens to be a rising Canadian boxer challenges the male lead, who happens to be a boxer himself, to a match. I did not see the ending coming. It was worth watching, but I feel the film needs to be cut by at least a third. And I thought the Nova Scotia setting was boring, though I can imagine that it was cheap for the filmmakers to work in.

Now as my grip on consciousness loosens, I'm debating whether to catch a film tonight before my Friday morning departure. If I do, I won't stay out late.

I'll see.

Hailing frequencies closed.

Contest Update

I got news from the last two script contests I entered this year: the Screenwriting Expo and the Scriptshark Insider Contest.

Neither "Heaven's Mandate" nor "Stars and Stripes Forever" advanced to the quarter-finals of the Screenwriting Expo. They both finished in the Top 20%, though. It's something.

For the Scriptshark Insider, I entered just "Stars and Stripes Forever." It made it to the quarter-finals. Finalists'll be announced come mid/late November. I'll be curious to see what happens.

Anyhoo, I have changes in mind for the scripts, which I'll make and I'm working on at least one other script to enter in contests next year.

Looking forward to sending my "Ra-Gho-Zu" SF fiction story out to WOTF later this month. Must get back from Austin first.

Day 6

No missing post.

I stayed in yesterday to recover since there were no film offerings that caught my eye.

Today, I ventured into Austin and hung out with the cool people at B-Side, checked out some stores and restaurants, then caught two flicks.

The first was "Trail of the Screaming Forehead": Spoof of every 1950s B horror movie there ever was in color. Creeping alien foreheads attach themselves to and possess the unwary folk of a small town--as a prelude to an invasion from space.

Helped pass the time for what I really came for: "Rebel." A Vietnamese martial arts epic.

I went to the scheduled theater, got my seat, and had a pleasant chat with another festival goer. Then when the local Austin Film Festival rep announced the film was moved to another theater at the last minute, I hightailed it to catch a shuttle to the new location. Got in just when the opening credits were through. :-)

A major player American audiences may recognize is Dustin Nguyen ("21 Jump Street"), starring as the baddie. The 1920s. Nationalist uprisings against French colonial rule begin to rack Vietnam. The French respond by having loyal Vietnamese agents infiltrate the leading rebel group, except one agent develops feelings for a comely young woman revolutionary and comes to question his loyalty to his French superiors.

The film is sure to touch heart strings with Vietnamese and Vietnamese-Americans. IMHO, some bugs in the plot and character development may keep nonaction audiences at a distance. Interesting flick, though.

Must rest up for today now.

Day 4

Today was a light day. Relatively.

I chose a business oriented curriculum on the final day of panels.

11:30 A Attended a panel on "Packaging, Copyrights & Contracts."

1 P Attended a panel on "Financing."

2:30 P Attended a panel on "Budgets: Talkng to People, Working the Numbers."

No more panels. Woohoo!

I could go into some detail on what was said, but I don't feel like it. Suffice it to say, the more one knows about the business side of things, the better off one is when dealing with those who specialize in stuff like contracts, financing, distribution, production scheduling, etc.

Good thing I took that production company class earlier this year. It made everything the panelists talked about understandable.

I caught two flicks today.

First was "Juno."

Juno, a whip-smart teen girl (Ellen Page, "X3"), deals with an unplanned pregancy by her best friend Paulie (Michael Cera). With the help of her best friend Leah, Juno finds her unborn child a seemingly perfect set of parents: an affluent suburban couple Mark and Vanessa (Jason Bateman ad Jennifer Garner).

Dialogue was quippy and trendy, which means it'll be dated in a few years. The story didn't have a challenge or antagonist per se, but I was happy enough to follow it to the end.

Second flick was "Lars and the Real Girl."

Lars (Ryan Gosling), a delusional twenty something, starts a relationship with Bianca, a lifelike woman doll, Lars buys from the internet. Lars' family and friends go along with it to help him work it out. It's a real hoot watching everyone treat Bianca as if she were real. And the way how the relationship ends and Lars moves on can't be missed.

Now all that's left are films.

At first glance, the Monday line up doesn't really catch my eye. I'm definitely gonna sleep in, then I'll see how I feel about Monday's offerings tomorrow.

I'm definitely looking forward to some stuff on Tuesday and Wednesday.

A bunch of people are cutting out now that the panels are done, but I signed up for the duration for better or worse.

I'm gonna make the best of it.

Hailing frequencies closed.

Day 3

Today didn't seem too bad.

Must be getting used to the rhythm. I expect it helped that I stopped lugging my laptop around after the first day.

On the way to the bus stop, I noticed a couple joggers padding by. Later on, Oliver Stone mentioned at his talk (more on that later) that he ran into waves of joggers. I guess a lot of Austonians get into fitness mode on the weekends.

At 9 A, I attended a "Doing It Yourself" panel where some indie directors talked about the hassles they faced while completing some recent and/or first productions. Useful to know when I cut my teeth on short films at the future directing workshop I'll take.

10:45 A, I attended "A Conversation with Oliver Stone." Shortly before then, a contest Finalist from NYC exchanged cards, saying he wanted to rap about stories. Very flattering.

As I waited for Oliver Stone to come up, a guy at the head of the room with a handlebar mustache and clothes out of the '70s, said into a mike, "Excuse me. Is there a Mr. Redpath in the room?"

A woman in the audience said, "Do you mean Reddick?"

The guy shuffled some big note cards and peered at 'em confused, "Maybe."

The woman said, "I hope it's not for anything bad."

Another guy straight out of the '70s behind the first guy grabbed a mike and said, "His dad died."

The first guy gave the second guy a shocked look. Then someone mumbled "No one died."

A guy with a camera and another with a soundstage mike than came up behind the '70s guys, and they repeated the sequence to a tee. Deja vu. For a second, I'd wondered if the '70s guys were trapped in a repeating time loop confined exactly to their spots in the conference room. Then an inner light lit up.

As the '70s guys left the room with the camera crew, I asked if their takes were for a short film? They said a pilot episode. For a cable show I'd wager. The short scene didn't really do anything for me.

It did pass the time, though. Oliver Stone came up, and talked about why he did the films he did. He pointed out how the presidency has become a "benign tyranny" and the press is a "fourth estate" that's supports Bush as he ignores the will of the people and circumvents Congress and the Supreme Court in contravention of the Constitution. Stone feels that it may be time to take to the streets and protest again. Unfortunately, if earlier protests are anything to go by, it won't do anything to influence presidential policy.

At noon, I indulged in an expensive hotel restaurant calzone with chicken, tomatoes, and gruyere cheese. I also got marinara sauce, which unfortunately, was nothing more than mashed tomatoe. Lacking change, I gave the waitress a larger tip than I needed to. Oh, well.

On my way to the B-Side lounge, I passed a grass roots march of flag waving locals calling out for people to support Texas' republican congressman (forgot name) for the presidency. I took a card from the first person who waved one at me to keep other people from pushing them on me. According to the card, this person champions many good and wholesome things, including freedom. How can he be a Republican? I'm an independent myself and don't care about either party, but it seems to me the Republicans are all about blindly supporting Bush and hanging onto every bit of power they can nowadays.

Anyhow, I got to the B-Side lounge, where I played some X Box "Halo" for the very first time. I was just starting to get the hang of the controller when it was time to get back to the Driskall hotel. Fun game. Good thing I don't have X Box. Too busy writing and doing important stuff.

2 P. I attended a "Writing for Animation" panel run by some Pixar writers, including Terry Rossio. They talked briefly about how they broke in and about the the good results that can come from collaboration. As they waxed on about the joys of working in a committee over as much as five years at a time, I wondered how they felt about the later "Shrek" films? Or for that matter, "POTC 2 & 3," "The Legend of Zorro," etc.?

3:45 P I attended a talk on "Writing a War Film" led by Oliver Stone. John Milius was there, too. Interesting talk. But then I found myself wondering about "Alexander," especially when Stone mentioned tongue in cheek that he may turn out a fourth version for DVD. I had a kick when Stone and Milius said they would've fragged Tom Hanks' Captain Miller character for going after Private Ryan.

I asked Stone (and Milius) how he felt about "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters From Iwo Jima." They said "Flags" was solid even if it overstressed how the US government used the flag raising to raise war bonds and that Clint Eastwood is a deeper and more interesting person since his "Dirty Harry" days. I agreed. Unfortunatly, neither saw "Letters From Iwo Jima." I was especially curious to hear their take on that flick.

Film screenings came next. I caught the "Made in China" documentary produced by a person who investigated the mountaintop where his father was born in China in the early 1900s. I was intrigued with the subject, but the focus of the documentary seemed to waver between the director's dad and a bunch of vignettes of other Americans who grew up in a vanished China. I also wondered what the director hoped to gain by going to the site of his father's cabin?

A short film was tacked on and played before the China documentary, in which an Austrian woman (auf Deutsch) detailed how her mother tried to pass on her family's religious piousness, but failed. I was relieved when it finished.

I then caught "Beyond the Pale," produced by Jennifer Howard of Friday's acquaintance. She neglected to mention that she had a part in it also. It was a hoot watching a 13 year PhD candidate scramble to finish his disertation paper to avoid getting expelled. It was like watching "The Office" on campus, complete with the moving handheld camera shots and speeches to the camera man. I didn't know that Harve, who drove Jennifer and me, to the Arbor theater on Friday night was the lead. Nice. If there was one thing I thought could be done, it would be for the film to be shortened by a third.

I capped things with the film "Control," a biopic about Brit rock star Ian Curtis who killed himself. Nice look with the black and white color and great performances, but I felt this flick crawled by at almost 2 hours and I wondered if I was supposed to feel sorry for Curtis when he fell out of love with his devoted wife, got attached to another woman, and didn't have the guts to break it off with either?

I declined going to the bar again to catch a late night bus to get back to the hostel and type this account up.

Must grab a few winks now.

Hailing frequencies closed.

Day 2

Sigh...

Another 14 hour day over.

I had no idea AFF would be such an event. I may want to take a break when I get back home...which won't be till Oct. 19.

I attended 4 panels from 9-4P, 3 of which were for us Second Rounders. Two were the same, Q&A with producers, agents, and managers about the mysteries of the film biz.

Good thing I took my production company class earlier this year. I knew just about everything the panelists shared.

The other panel was run by working writers/directors, who answered questions about working in the film biz full-time. Very interesting.

The other event was the couch chat with writer/director Robin Swicord, who did among other things the adaptation of "Memoirs of A Geisha." Interesting to hear about how the old boys club in Tinseltown repressed women directors, film composers, etc. for so many years.

At lunchtime, I got some free food at the B-side lounge again. I expect to try a restaurant or two in the next few days since the JJ subs're wearing a tad thin now.
I also called up the cabbie, who said he didn't find my folder. I then called the movie theater, and they didn't find anything neither.

Dag gum it.

When the panels were over, I went to a Texas BBQ event and got some free viddles: turkey, beef, beans, and tater salad. Could've gotten more if'n I wanted, but I decided to not overindulge.

I chatted with some filmmakers about their films, including one Jennifer Howard, who lives almost in spittin' distance of me back home. I'm gonna make a point of seeing her group's flick tomorrow.

Today, I saw a documentary of the split and eventual reconciliation of a Vietnamese woman's family by the Vietnam war, "Oh, Saigon" Unfortunately, I missed the first half when the generous folks who gave me a ride got lost after a late start. The second half was plenty good, though. I hear tell this documentary will come out on PBS come next May. I'll look forward to seeing what I missed.

With the same people, I also saw an autobiographical indie feature called "Numb," starring Matthew Perry. He plays the director, who had a "depersonality"? problem or some such. Matthew done good, and without putting on his Chandler routine, too.

There was a party, but with the night progressin' as it was, I thought it best to ride my late night bus back to the hostel sober.

Must catch a few hours of sleep for this morning's activities now.

Day 1

It's over. Finally.

I'm actually into the wee hours of Day 2 now.

Lots of walking (lugging my laptop along). Good thing I'm not a couch potato, but gods.

Having a car in Austin is a necessity. I walked from the hostel I'm bedding down in to a bus stop, then from the drop off point to the Driskall hotel...

I registered and picked up my producers badge. I attended two panels called something along the lines of: "Getting the most out of competitions" and "A Shot of Inspiration for Writers."

In the first, some past contest winners told us how they parlayed contest wins into becoming filmmakers, individual journeys that no one else is gonna copy.

In the second, the panelists passed whiskey shots around for...inspiration. They fielded questions on how a writer can stay encouraged, learn when they're writers,etc.

Then I walked to a lounge a few blocks away to grab some free food, then I walked to a party in an "industrial" bar where it was too loud to really hear what everyone else was saying. I tagged along with an English indie director, Michael Bartlett, and his mates. Salt of the Earth. I'll have to see if I can see his flick, "The Zombie Diaries," at least once.

With some regret, I cut the party to hike back to the hotel to catch an expensive cab ride to view a Vietnamese film being shown at a theater too far away to walk.

The film itself was quite good, though. "Owl and Sparrow," a tear jerker about an orphan girl who brings together a young woman flight attendant looking for love and a guy hurt by a past flame.

There're some other Vietnamese films in the next few days that I'll want to see...but they're all in that same theater.

I was able to get a ride from someone leaving, but not before the taxi came to pick me up. I gave the driver a tip, then learned later that I left a folder in his car with a copy of my flight itinerary and my ticket for my airport shuttle pickup.

I can check in at the airport, and I can give the shuttle driver a confirmation number, but I want my folder back. Since I have the cabbie's card, I can try calling him and asking him if he has the folder. But I think I know what he'll say.

On the way back, I had a nice conversation with an old-school veteran woman screenwriter, Harmony. Harmony regaled me and our driver, Sassy, about how Hollywood used to be filled with reliable and professional people, who have been leaving the place in droves for the last 20 years or so. Sharks mostly infest Tinseltown nowadays. One must keep an eye out when navigating Hollywood's waters.

I attended a late night welcome conference party at a nearby bar. Talked about film with some other festival goers, and I made a suggestion to some festival staffers that shuttle service be extended to all distant theaters for all the good that'll do.

I passed on free beer to stay awake and checked out of the party to head back to my hostel. I then spent 40 minutes walking in a circle to find a late night bus and ended up at the stop I started at.

Leastways, I learned about Austin's bus schedules.

Today, I have 4 panels to look forward to. Three of which are devoted to us Second Rounders. We can ask working producers and writers anything about the secrets of breaking in. :-)

The fourth panel will actually be a "sofa" chat with the writer for "Memoirs of a Geisha."

I'll be curious to see how today turns out.

Must drag myself off to bed now to catch a few hours of semisleep.

Zen Pen Critique

This past weekend, I got a critique on my "Ra-Gho-Zu" story (formerly "For Kimi") from The Zen Pen, run by Carina Gonzalez, the former slush editor for Realms of Fantasy magazine.

She gave me an editor's view of the story and offered a few tips on further tweaking the story during an ongoing dialogue these last few days.

Her scoring scale is 100 maximum points achieved in three parts.

The first is 75 points for good writing and telling. The second is 15 points for the story itself. The third is 10 points for luck, researching publication personalities, and being at the right place and the right time.

I got:

~ 73/75 for the writing and telling.

~ 14/15 for the story.

~ Assuming I target the right market and the gods are with me, I have the highest possible score of 97/100.

Woohoo!

I'd already been working on the story for a while before subbing it to her. Earlier drafts wouldn't have scored so high.

Once I do make some final adjustments, my top 3 choices for my opus are WOTF, Jim Baen's Universe, and Analog.

I'm looking forward to WOTF. :-)