Morning Sleep

Dariel is shot and thrown out

The best thing about the conclusion for Planning In the City is that the president relates to several of our, or any other country's presidents. And the rookie cop, Dieter, relates to several cops in this country, or, any other country.

The reason why Dieter's good friend Dariel, kills him is because Dariel also relates to several people who will sell out their friend for lots of money; or in this case, kill his friend just to do the president a favor. How much do favors cost now-a-days?

While Dieter is chased by the hookers, cops, internal affairs, Dariel, and the president, he runs and runs like a cattle about to be slaughtered. He runs but the potion that has protected him this long soon begins to run out.

Dariel is shot and thrown out of the helicopter after completing a hit on his good friend, Dieter.

SOYMILK

I'm taking a break from editing my recent screenplay. It's amusing to experience the distractions of a large project such as a screenplay: Screwdrivers, dinner, walks to the beach, and now soymilk and granola cereal.

After the heart slows down and it's ready to write, while Dylan plays in the background, then and only then is the whole experience of what screenwriter's long for, and are obssessed about: Minutes away from another cereal plate of granola and soymilk, I hope to edit over 20 pages. It's just that the real world of responisbilities sometimes drains the soul's rhapsody for art. 

The screenplay is titled, "Planning In The City." It offers a youthful look into what is plausible in a city where one must be two-faced or they'll get trampled on. 

The conclusion, whis is complete, but yet to be edited, gives the audience an analysis of a city where one cop and one president make deals while drooling with the upper hand. 

MELBOURNE INDEPENDENT FILM MAKERS FESTIVAL

This friday and saturday is going to be the Melbourne Independent Film Makers Festival. I don't have to work so I'm going to drop by both days and check out the talent. I' m also planning to carry with me several copies of the synopsis for two of my complete screenplays. I'm not on a mission to get noticed, but you never know where fate might strike. I was also thinking about taking several copies of the two scripts, just in case some big shot with connections says, "Let me have it."

Has any unknown screenwriter ever had any luck at a film festival. It can't hurt to take my synopsis and scripts. From what I've read there is going to be several guys who have plenty of experience in the industry. Maybe I'll tackle them to the floor and slip them the synopsis with my contact info. What soda pop should I spill on them to get noticed. Should I tuck in my shirt or be myself and where my black t-shirt with the Statue of LIberty with bombs and oil refineries next to it.

If any one out there has ever scored with connections at a film festival go ahead and share your story. Maybe I should show up pulling a donkey just to celebrate the democrats recent victory. Are you telling me I won't get noticed. Of course I will.

I got it, during the question and answer show I'm going to make paper airplanes out of my synopsis and launch them at the guys sitting at the round table. I'll yell, "JIM MORRISON!" If I don't post another blog on this site it will be because I was registered into Circles Of Care, a mental institute. It's just that when a screenwriter wants it so bad, he or she will go to great lengths. 

AMERICAN VOTERS PREVAIL!!

After Kerry's defeat I couldn't help but fall into despair. I said f-uk following politics; the Bush regime has this shit on overdrive and my voice can't be effective. A month later I came across the radio station AIRAMERICA. The beacon was in motion. The news began to air the chaos in Iraq. I began to follow politics again. I attended protests, flew to D.C. twice to protest W's illegal war. In one of the protests in D.C. there was over three-hundred thousand Americans exercising their dissent against the Iraq war.

And now, the democrats win twice as many seats as they needed to gain control of Congress. The Senate is still up in the air. I called my friends, made my roomate register to vote, and informed others to vote democrat across the board. So, last night at one in-the-morning, I went to bed with a positive belief in our democracy. This morning the news aired the greates news ever: the dems DESTROY the neo-con-republicans and take over Congress.

Ladies and gentlemen, the top two issues for Nanci Pelosi, who I think is a super-rad lady, are Iraq and accountability; that's why Rumsfeld was forced to resign. It wasn't for the troops. It's because the dems are going to have hearings aboutt the lies of pre-Iraq and Rumsfeld was going to be chewed up on tv. Now that he's no longer in power, the investigations will have to target others.

Still, voters went out and voted to fix what Bush has done to America. Just check out his face from today's press conference. The man is going to hit the bottle again to deal with the train that's coming from the DEMOCRATS!

SOLAR'S IDEA

I don't usually spend time at strip bars, but, my buddy, like always, paid for every dollar I spent. I met Solar - she claims it's her birth name. Solar is a red head, five-two, 30, and an ass that will make every girl in the room suck her teeth. Solar gave me two private dances before asking me what I'm about. I told her I'm a screenwriter. She told me about how she needs to make rent tonight before she gets her roommate mad.

I jokingly told Solar that I want to take her to space and never return. She proposed a more plausible idea: We go on a road trip and make my first movie; raw, sexual, powerful - not knowing where or how it will climax, and for that matter end. Does Solar leave me for some richer man, or does she shoot a "man in Reno just to watch him die"?

Two hours after the strip bar closed we are now at her place. She's packing her shit, writing an apology note for her old roommate, and kising me passionately while I play around with future scenes... My digital camera should be enough to complete this project. I could afford to take off for a month, so I'm not even thinking twice about Solar and her raw energy.

FADE IN:

EXT. SPANISH COFFEE SHOP -- VAGUE SUNRISE

SOLAR, 30, red head, sexually beautiful, is still wearing her stripper clothes. She pours milk in JOSE'S coffee. Jose is 29, Spanish, great looking exotic eyes.

                                                             SOLAR

                                                        (big grin)

                                If the scenes move real slow we'll have to act some out.

                                                             JOSE

                                As long as the road introduces us to interesting experiences the

                                film will force itself to be a documentary.

Solar sits next to Jose, looks deep into his eyes, and sucks on his neck. Jose quickly grabs his digital camera and begins the documentary of a film that has no begining, middle, or end, but is a climax from start to where ever and how ever it will finish.

INT. CAR -- HOURS LATER

Solar sleeps like a beautiful angel. Jose stares at her stripper's outfit.

                                                      JOSE (V.O.)

                                                (driving)

                                  What the fuck am I doing? She's a damn slut. She shakes her

                                  ass for a living. What is she robs my camera? What if the film turns

                                  out to be the worse decision of my life?

EXT. GAS STATION -- VERY SUNNY

Solar walks out with bottled water. Jose pumps gas.

Selling It... Por fin!

So... do I save my cash and fly West and attend a two-day seminar to pitch my screenplays? Do I subscribe to FADE IN Magazine and hope a reliable screenplay contest is just months away? Do I take a train out West and drop off my screenplays at some agent's office and just hope God hooks me up with an answered prayer? What if I make Super Size Me part two and become a well-known film writer. I could eat cows and chickens for days until something tragically, masochistic happens.

Maybe I should just send out queries, and cherries, and all that other protocol stuff I'm supposed to do. Or maybe I'll listen to Social Distortion's lyrics, "Goodbye to all the masses - I will not follow." 

Seeing as my recent screenplay is based on friends of mine, who have their flaws, should I change their names and obvious references because I might piss them off? Should I delete my soon-to-be live-in girlfriend from my screenplay because she'll probably get pissed-off once she see's what I really think of her on the screen?

Being a writer is the most fascinating gift the Creator could give anyone. 

Log Line for Living Love

Log Line: Five couples go through a forced-fate of love until each one of the males has the revelation of ending things for their own virility sake. Jose, a self-acclaimed demigod, lectures his male friends over dinner about the true etiquette on love. That is, until he goes against his own doctrine and dates an ex-girlfriend.

The following are pages 16,17,18 of Living Love. The screenplay has been on the market since 2005.

                                                                                                                       16

Eileen calls in sick. After hanging up, she begins to sob. She grabs a popsicle and takes Fido for a walk.

CUT-TO INT. JOE’S APARTMENT

He walks in his bedroom to find Michelle holding scissors. She has magazines scattered all over the floor.

                                                                     JOE

                             What’s going on?

                                                                     MICHELLE

                                                                        (looking innocent)

                             I’m cutting out all the pictures of girls from your magazines!

Joe doesn’t know what to say. He exits the room. Michelle continues to cut out pictures. She plays a CD. Joe leaves his apartment, gets in his car and drives off.

CLOSE-UP of Michelle’s HAND holding the scissors, cutting a picture of an attractive girl from the magazine. FADE-OUT on CLOSE-UP.

ONE MONTH LATER

INT. RESTAURANT

Jose, Carlos, and another male are having dinner at a restaurant.

                                                                     JOSE

                             All I’m saying is that a person should never go back to their 

                             ex’s- The past is the past for a reason- All a person could do

                             with their past is learn from it. You never, ever, build a new

                             relationship with a past girlfriend. You’ll be cheating yourself

                             out of life.

                                                                     ANOTHER MALE

                             What if your ex has lost weight and she looks super hott?

                                                                     JOSE

                            I’ve never dated a fat chick and I will never date a girl

                            who weighs more than me. So I’ll never see any of my ex’s

                           hotter than what they were.

                                                                     CARLOS

                                                                       (digging into his food)

                             This steak tastes so… good.

                                                                     JOSE (CON’T)

                             I just see so many people forcing their relationships to happen-

                             Every time I witness such relationships I piss in my pants with

                             laughter.

THREE GIRLS WALK IN THE RESTAURANT: Vanessa, Betty, and another female friend.

                                                                     CARLOS

                             All right, finally, hott chicks just entered the restaurant.

                                                                     JOSE

                                                                      (noticing)

                             Dam, you’re right.

The girls take a table across theirs.

                                                                     CARLOS (CON’T)

                             Jose, what’s up with Frenchy? Do you guys stay in touch?

                                                                     JOSE

                             Yeah. Sometimes we speak on the phone or we’ll go online and

                             talk for like an hour. I am definitely on her mind because she

                             needs to hear from me like every other day.

                                                                     CARLOS

                             I bet she fell in love during her visit to the States. Imagine if

                            she moves over here just to be with you.

                                                                     JOSE

                             I don’t think I’d want to move in with a girl who I had sex

                             with the first night.

Vanessa walks up to their table.

                                                                     VANESSA

                                                                        (big grin)

                             Jose, what’s up- How are you?

                                                                     JOSE

                                                                       (surprised)

                             Vanessa, wow, I had no idea it was you who walked in.

                                                                     VANESSA (CON’T)

                             I’m sorry if I’m disturbing your dinner.

                                                                     CARLOS

                             No not at all. Take a seat.

                                                                     VANESSA

                             So, Jose, are you close to a career?

                                                                     JOSE

                             I’m currently interning for a paper and should get hired by them

                             before summer.

THEY TALK FOR FIVE MINUTES. THEY EXCHANGE PHONE NUMBERS. SHE RETURNS TO HER TABLE.

                                                                     CARLOS

                             She looks better than she did in high school.   

                                                                     JOSE

                                                                      (stunned)

                             Yeah she does.

                                                                       (loss for words)

                                                                     CARLOS

                             Are you going to call her? Because, if you do call her that

                             will be against everything that you believe in as

                             far as dating ex-girlfriends.     

                                                                     JOSE

                             Yeah, you’re right. That reminds me, take Peru for example.

                             He decided to marry my ex-girlfriend. That was the

                             biggest mistake he could have ever done in his life.

                             He’s holding on to the past and keeping it for

                             his future, which is now. He’s too afraid to

                            let reality take its course and accept what it has to offer.

The waitress drops by to check on things.

                                                                     CARLOS

                             How long do you think their marriage will

                             last?                                                                  

                                                                     JOSE

                             Five years, tops. He will realize that he married

                             sloppy seconds. Just imagine if I bring to his

                             attention how I’ve had my tongue and other

                             things all over his wife, and she has the

                            ability to tell him the same thing.

                             It’s going to hit him like a train.

Misadventures of an unknown screenwriter

Before I began to edit the third revision of my latest screenplay, I planned to work-out and relax. I did relax, but I didn't work-out. There has to be an explaination as to why I always end up planning to work all day on my screenplay, but end up working on it after the sun goes down.

I watched the movie, The Misadventures of Margaret. The movie and characters were interesting. I was somehow inspired by Margaret, the female author who lived to find her muse.I then came across Festival Express, a 1970's train tour through Canada in which the Grateful Dead and Joplin toured. Both the movie and the documentary were inspiring as they showed what a powerful medium a camera could be.

I admire the freedom of successful artists; the freedom to make money just by being themselves.

After a few glasses of cheap red wine and dinner with a friend, I have edited over thirty pages.There has to be an explaination as to why I always end up editing my screenplay at night, rather than doing it during the day time after coffee.

Morning Sleep