The Church Supports the Writers As Well.....

We know who has the big man on side........















my favourite below...



cheers
Dave

2.13am

started at page 89 around 3pm after getting work and a quick nap in.....we fought....staggered back to page 88, bloody, bruised but still in the fight.

2.13am - 101 pages.

One more day of time dedicated to writing. Bring it on.

Came into this day with a strange feeling. I hear Pro's talk about being scared of starting a new script because what happens if "it" won't come this time. The blank page just sits there mocking them.

For the first time ever I experienced that feeling (not of being a pro :) ) of dread. It is a truly scary, black abyss, that I had to push myself away from. That is some scary shit.

Time to grab my teddy and hit the sack.

cheers
Dave.

I'm baaaack....

Hi All,

Hmmm July was last post. Didn’t seem that long. Sorry about that. You would have seen me commenting here and there around the place, so I had not dropped off the edge of the world.

One word to describe my actions. Selfish.

Instead of blogging, I’ve been putting that time into the scripts. In addition to that, I still know both my kids names, wife still tolerates me, dog doesn’t bite me and I’m still employed, so the juggling act is working.

Two scripts going nicely, 90 odd pages on one, and 50 on the other. Got two days coming up of a motel room, no family, hookers or bookies. Just me and Final Death, sorry Final Draft. That was actually a typo…..I think I am approaching these two days like a big tournament. Two days, 40 pages is what I want, take no prisoners. Wonder if I can sell tickets?

Okay, but no grief about writing whilst the strike is on. My own project, own time, etc. I have been following it as closely as I can from over here. That petition that was started. I was actually number 26. My birthday number, so hopefully that is a good sign for the strike.

I would like to say thank you to all the writers who are out picketing. Yes, it is for yourselves but it is also for people like myself and for the future, so thank you.

I wanted to show my support in some way, would love to be there and walk the walk with you all. Unfortunately, a few thousand km’s in between and saving the money for if I ever need to attend a few meetings over there :) One must have hope.

I did come up with one way to show my support and I think it is something that a lot of us aspiring writers based overseas can do. I went to my local store, grabbed some local chocolates(I don’t think they are available in the US, could be wrong though) and have just mailed them off to the WGAW offices asking them to distribute them, along with a letter of support at whatever gate they wish to take it to.

The chocolate I chose was the Cherry Ripe.

Lovely red packaging, I picked the snack bags, and popped them in mail. Thought it worked in well with the whole strike colour theme :) Should be there in a week and I hope the WGAW staff will pass them on.

I’ve given up reading the comments at Craig Mazin’s site for a little while. Anonymous(anonymi? Anonymous squared??) is/are becoming annoying and there are too many comments about the same thing or are just rehashing old points, bashing the same dead horse to a slow second death.

I feel for the under the line crew. I can see their point of view but they are amazing for standing by the writers, in most cases.

To the actors, thank you, and yes, you are next, so its good practice for later and any publicity is good publicity so we should not look a gift horse in the mouth.

I would like to discuss slogans. Some good ones, my personal favourite was the Lost writer’s sign asking if you wanted to find out what was on the island. Great stuff.

Here are a few ideas of my own, feel free to use if you like them:

(insert studio or studio head of choice) has a 0% strike rate.
Husbands: No Soaps means your wife will want to talk to you.
Wives: No scripts means more sports on TV.

Nothing fantastic but use ‘em if you like ‘em.

Till next time, take care and all the best for the strike, again, thankyou for doing it!

Cheers
Dave.

Loved It

My wife and I watched Hot Fuzz the other night. It's one I've been waiting for as well.

Loved it, had us both laughing from very early on, definitely put off the sleep to catch that one. Well worth it if you like the dry British sense of humour and can Simon Pegg act?! Loved his T2 type persona. Hilarious. I had read reviews where they thought the third act went on too long but I thought it was a great send up at a good length. Each to his own.

On a personal note I have actually just spent two weeks at home working. Wow what an experience! I'll have to do it again soon, back on the road next week but not for too long. Going to book in a writing weekend for myself, I need to if I want to get my main one back on track asap.

Maryan over at Fencing with the Fog is treading water waiting for the Nicholls letter. Hope she makes it, here's something for good luck. Your own Nicol (mc)



Back to the Aquawoman shoot Maryan!! :)


Just been playing with a camcorder to DVD convertor I purchased a few months back. Found this grab from a wedding my family and I attended back in 2001 up in Palm Cove in northern Queensland.

The wedding was over and my daughter (2 and a half at the time) who was flowergirl wanted to go for a walk on the beach. Mum was Matron of honour so Dad was lucky enough to be the one chosen. It is my favourite piece of footage of my daughter and I. Unfortunately, in the conversion from the camcorder to AVI the quality has taken a dive but you'll get the idea.

The thing I love about it is the differences. Me. Smart casual dress(it was beachside wedding so nice and casual and tropical summer, 38 degress and 120% humidity that day I reckon!) black shoes.

Her, special flower girl dress on, flowers in hair, shoes off. Exploring the beach, finding sticks and rocks fascinating as it is all new to her. Life is exciting, I was only allowed to point things out, she wanted to run and grab them all. It is just one of those moments in life that you do treasure. Thought it would be fun to share through the magical powers of youtube. Forgive the shaky cam work, I didn't second someone from NYPD Blue, my brother in law actually just spotted us and took the opportunity to film us, unbeknownst to me until I saw the footage later. I was very thankful he shot it.



Stay well everyone.

cheers
Dave.
PS I think my favourite part of blogging nowadays is putting the tags in.

So, I was in Texas last week…

For about 30 seconds all up.

It’s not very big.





Texas, Queensland(see the red arrow and smiley face), couple of hundred km’s from where I live(Brisbane). About 500 people, not so good for a screenwriting expo’s I imagine.

Been absolutely flat out, managed to get some writing done on the joint project but none on mine, although with the driving I have been doing lately(racked up 2500km last week) I have had time to run plenty of scenarios through the old think wagon and have come up with a few ideas to improve both screenplays, so that’s good.

Below is another map showing you the area I cover in my job. Feel free to then jump on a world map and compare the size of Queensland and Northern NSW to the US or Europe. It’s a decent size I have to cover. Anything over 1000km, I fly. We all have our limits :)



The red only indicates where I currently have properties, around 60 at present, as more come online I can go wherever I am needed in Queensland or Northern NSW. However, must say I am coming to love Northern NSW from Grafton up to Ballina. That’s a lot coming from a Queenslander :)

I tend to help this process along by downloading and burning onto a CD the CS podcasts, great company when all you are left with is ABC radio and about 4 hours of driving ahead.

I put the question out there a while ago about software for converting and burning mp3’s to a CD, discovered Windows Media does that itself. I knew it ripped but was not aware it converted…..so there you go. Saved me plenty of time.

Along with half the western world got to see Transformers, enjoyed it for what it was, fun to see John Rogers name up there, hope he did not get to shafted in the whole Michael Bay film situation. Michael Bay is an enigma to me…..hmmmmmm I may be making that too complex. I have read things, as we all have about MB, however, I have found a number of his films(not all) enjoyable – for what they are. No, they are not wildly thought provoking, etc. They are however, generally entertaining in that big screen, action, summer blockbuster way.

Someone in the scribosphere once wrote that the average movie goer is tired from the week at work and wants to escape, hence the reason for dumbing down movies(I could be a little wrong in the wording, it was a while ago). I think they are right for the first part, but I don’t see it as dumbing down so much as just making it entertaining….if you can entertain and educate(that includes making people think about a situation), bloody well done, if all you can do is entertain, then well done!

Finally saw the Da Vinci Code the other week. Neither my wife and I had read the book so we were going in knowing the basic spoiler, but still keen to see this movie. Lasted 20 minutes before we turned it off. I kinda thought it was going downhill when the priest was whipping himself and I was thinking, not as painful as where I’m sitting mate. We could not waste our time waiting to see if Tom Hanks cut his hair or changed his expression, there was sleeping to be done! It really did not entertain us at all and therefore lost us.

Hey, I’ll watch a doco about flies crawling up a wall if you make it interesting and educational.

Going to be home for a number of weeks now so will have a chance to catch up on a number of things, jobs, writing, work, etc. which will also allow me to post a bit more regularly. Stop laughing.

Parents situation is in flux. Dad has moved back home but it is day by day stuff. Must admit, did not think he was going back. Happened once twenty years ago(like I said, huge backstory, but no violence towards each other at all, nothing like that) but I knew then he would go back, but did not expect it this time. Not sure if I am happy he has moved back...hmmmm. Time will tell if it is a good move.

Take care and again congrats to all the people like Fun Joel, Chris etc that have been picking up writing gigs lately, well done!

cheers

Dave

I'll drink to that.....

July 10, 2007 12:00am
Article from: Daily Telegraph


NEW research, to be revealed at a conference of some of the world's top neuroscientists in Cairns today, has found alcohol does not kill off brain cells as always thought.

For years imbibers have been told a big night on the drink wipes out entire sections of human brain cell function with much the same destructive equivalent as a napalm bombing strike.
According to Queensland Brain Institute director Professor Perry Bartlett, this is not true.

There is no evidence drinking alcohol leads directly to the death of brain cells, he said.
"Some of the best studies, done in Italy, show a bottle of wine a night can reduce the risk of dementia in old age," Professor Bartlett said.

In moderation, alcohol has positive benefits for blood vessel health and stroke prevention. And, as an added bonus, new brain cells are generated every day of our lives.

Research by Professor Bartlett and his team has found we all have an inbuilt repair kit replenishing the more than 100 billion cells - or neurons - in our brain.

What are you waiting for? There's plenty of inspiration to be drunk!

cheers
Dave.