Random Thoughts! v2.0

[Kenny]

Thanks! Baha, basement dweller. He's got no parents though, or any guardians.

I was really hesitant to mention he's a "college student", even though that's what he is, at risk of sounding very stupid on paper. It's one of those things that works better in execution, at least the way I envision it.

I downloaded all the ten page scripts and reading my competition. There are some concepts that sound really good but they're pretty boring when I actually read them. Hardly any personality, just line-for-line description of what's going on and ping pong dialogue (Hey John how are you doing?...I'm doing fine James, how are you?....I'm great, you saw the game on Sunday?...Yeah, the game was great.)

Based on what I read people are more into the "viagra loaded zombie" script, which was...to be nice, an easy read. Easier compared to what I read so far. Man, I know I have more stuff I need to revise with DEUX but i'm taken aback at the way people write their dialogue....

Anyway, we'll see what happens.

Here's one of the newer "to the point" loglines i'm thinking of now:
A DUMB-LUCK college student clashes with a paranoid EXPERIENCED veteran in a weapons testing program...played out like a high-tech duel, for EXUBERANT AMOUNTS of cash. Their unique skill sets cancel each other out--and if there isn't a victor soon, they'll BOTH GET ELIMINATED!

[AnimeGamer183]

Yeah, that guy agreed with me, the twenty something thing is BAD, vague etc. I think he is right a whole other adjective to describe that character should probably be implemented. I mean what does his age really signify? That hes young of course... but beyond that? I am curious as to why you think him being young is important, or more over why the viewer or reader thinking he is young should be important.

[Kenny]

Cause he's in college, the reason he's in the games is to pay off an enormous college debt (by ironically paying it back with government cash for dueling) and the guy I want to play him looks college-age. I don't want Bruce Willis or Sly Stallone in this role and it'd be weird if an old person is going to college unless it was a comedy. Plus young people in action films is uncommon, its usually mid-age people so its something unique.

But yeah, if they want more meat on the bone I'll think of someting else. Main point is to get a sale and a greenlight.

[AnimeGamer183]

heres a thought kenny, have a professional read the script and figure out the log line for it? I mean you are the script writer, why is this your job anyway? does the script writer usually come up with these himself?

[Rakim]

He doesn't want to pawn the duties of his creativity off onto someone else. After 100 pages of script whats one more sentence?

[Bluecast]

So he is being dorian about it? Can't he just get a job and a loan?

[Kenny]

^I have those bases covered in the script. He can't get a job cause of the bad economic turndown and the fact he fucked up on his last job for reasons unknown. He also mismanages money badly and has a terrible credit score, which gets worse when he gets his fat checks. He's also too close to graduating and he figures he might as well finish with a degree rather then drop out with no degree.

Its over-explained, so I'm planning on making that stuff more "visual". The basic message is that if you're financially fucked, you do anything for money.

heres a thought kenny, have a professional read the script and figure out the log line for it? I mean you are the script writer, why is this your job anyway? does the script writer usually come up with these himself?

Nah, that requires cash. People want to be paid for their time and I rather work on it in collab with friends. It might be one of those scripts that'll have to be made when I "make it" first. Tech and Project Exodus have much stronger loglines than DEUX.

[Bluecast]

So no selling himself for sex or drugs or becoming Walter White

[Kenny]

That's in the script too. Both as jokes but justifcations nonetheless.

Trust me, I carefully constructed his situation to be impossible to do anything else.

[KiBa]

It's perfectly believable. I've come close to selling myself to medical researchers. There are adverts all over Boston. Harvard and MIT are looking for test subjects all the time for no less than $200 a job. I imagine it's a lot like Portal, except extremely boring.

Then, of course, there's Chinatown. They'll buy anything you don't need to stay alive, and take more.

So, would a student drowning in debt test weapons for a huge sum? Absolutely.

[Kenny]

It was inspired by that and writer/director/everything-in-between Robert Rodriguez who cooped himself in a medical testing institution for some random lab experiment to raise the $10k for his first film, El Mariachi.

I kinda figured, how long can you stretch a situation like this to convince a person to kill another for lots more money and have that death game benefit you in return? That's basically where the weapons testing thing comes to play in DEUX.

And Kiba, if you're interested in reading the current draft I can PM it to you. I'm interested in brutally honest opinions, what works and what doesn't work.

[KiBa]

Very much so, Kenny. I can try to read it this weekend. Thank you.

Here's a nice followup regarding Chen Guangcheng, the famous blind Chinese dissident now in exile in the U.S. In a lovely turn, Christian Bale, who attempted to meet the heroic man in China (before his escape to the U.S. embassy), but was forced away by the Party guards, was finally able to meet him as well as give him a human rights award at an event in New York. Wonderful, really.

http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-tal ... 30035.html

[Bluecast]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVBG2ta72XY[/youtube]

[Kenny]

Oh mah GAWD.

The guy who I want to act as one of my characters just sent me a page and a half script based an idea he just thought up. It's the best goddamn page and a half i've read in a long time. It puts my stuff and everyone else's in that blog post to shame, ABSOLUTE SHAME. And its so simple!

I definitely found myself a second writing partner. It's amazing how life works sometimes.

[AnimeGamer183]

So apparently I have an infection in my toe that I picked at a few weeks ago, it was all swollen and red when I looked at it earlier today. I had to put my toe in hot water and then pop the swollen part and let the clear gunk drain out :/ I put some healing cream on it and put a band aid on it. Hopefully that will suffice. AND THAT FOLKS IS THE STORY OF WHY I WALK LIKE A GIMP!!!