CASABLANCA is coming! One night only!

CITIZEN KANE can go suck it. If film historians were HONEST, they would admit the movie is slow and pretentious. CASABLANCA, however, deserves to be one of the top films of all time. It's not only hilarious and wildly entertaining, it's "invisibly" directed - which is much tougher to do, unlike CITIZEN KANE, where you're aware every time the camera moves.

Still "cleaning the bathroom" on the novel...

Did I mention how TEDIOUS it is to make changes on MS WORD from a marked-up hard copy? There's no "creating." It's line by line, page by page of add a comma here, change a word there, correct this or that sentence - i.e., "work." I want to scream.

The Novel...

Once I e-publish it, I'll do an in depth write-up of the origins, etc. For right now, let's see...I wrote a very first draft, did a round of rewrites, and printed it out. I marked up that hard copy, and as I made those changes on MS WORD, I did another pass. Printed THAT out, marked it up, and now I'm making THOSE changes on MS WORD, and keeping an eye out for any other changes I need to make and may have missed. (So far, there's been only a few.)

This is the part of writing I loathe - the final, "cosmetic" rewrite, where the story is done. All the changes being made are just tweaking a word here, or a sentence there. It's the writing equivalent of cleaning your bathroom. (It HAS to be done, can't be avoided. It's just no fun.)

Noah Baumbach and Nicole Holofcener Are The Same Person

Seriously. Both make indie dramatic comedies that are well-written, well-acted, and well-made, but feel almost free form. Both had tremendously good debuts during the awesome indie relationship comedy era of the 90's - WALKING AND TALKING for Holofcener, KICKING & SCREAMING for Baumbach. (See? Same movie.) Both now make more dramatic movies that feature neurotic, high-strung, and highly-verbal characters. (For Holofcener, it's with Catherine Keener.) Both are very talented...but need to get back to more "focused," albeit "commercial" fare.

Oh, right...

...I'm also writing a novel. Well, re-writing one. It's horror. (Oh, how I love horror books. The best of all junk food reads.) I hope to have it finished by the first of March. A full write-up about the origins of it then.

I Write To Music

Some writers do, some don't. For me it sets the mood. It helps create the atmosphere of the genre in which I'm writing, and makes it seem more like I'm writing a movie, not just writing a script. (Therefore, it's more fun to write.)

Atmosphere is everything in film. Think about it. The good-to-great films have a specific vibe. You feel like you're placed inside the world of that movie for 90-120 minutes. The fair-to-bad films usually feel like they could take place anywhere. They feel like widgets.

If the screenplay I'm working on is horror, a thriller, or action, I write to scores of other movies. Some I've purchased over the years. A lot comes from Rhapsody - which is a Godsend for music lovers and screenwriters who write to music. Comedies, relationship comedies, drama and dramedies, I like to write to artists who fit the mood of the genre. I'll compile a massive playlist on Rhapsody. As I write the rough draft, I'll choose the best songs off each record, and form a final playlist of 40-50 songs that I can write to for the final rewrite later.

"The Fate Script: The Soundtrack"

Right now, the Rhapsody playlist is just Death Cab For Cutie and Cary Brothers. It's a modern relationship comedy about 30-something professionals in the city, so that's who they would be listening to. I will add more artists as I go along.