Spamments

OK, I know writing this post is rather futile, but in case this discourages anyone: I keep getting spam comments on my posts. I would love for them to stop. (I know -- ha.) But if I may be helpful to any spammers, you are wasting your time. Not only do I know buy any of what you're selling, I don't publish any of these comments, making your spam efforts completely wasted. (And I do recognize the latest attempts at making them seem personal, so don't bother with that, either.) So, please, stop cluttering my inbox with them. Real comments are still welcome, though.

News -- and Messages

I'll start this off with a little news:  my short screenplay, Beat 'Em, is a finalist in this year's Broad Humor Film Festival's screenplay contest.  I'm honored, of course.   The Broad Humor Film Festival is dedicated to comedic films and screenplays by women.   (Yes, chicks can be funny.) Thank you to Broad Humor for making my work a part of this year's event.

I had a few people read the script to get feed back before I considered it finished.  I had one person tell me she thought it was very funny even if she wasn't sure she agreed with the message.  (I won't get into what that message came across as because it would involve giving away the story a little bit.)  I thought, oh no, I didn't really intend a message -- it was just what came out.

I never start off intending to put any message in what I write, but sometimes they do come out and turn out to be messages I support.  Eddie's Winning Date was just about trying to be the best you can be; Sally's Dream House was about learning to not be so aggressive with your pursuits that you miss what's going on -- and that sometimes you have to relax and let things come to you; and I Just Want to Eat My Sandwich told the audience that sometimes you have to leave your desk if you want to eat a sandwich during work hours -- something I'm sure that most people wouldn't know if I hadn't made the film to enlighten them.

I also never intend any character to represent a larger group of people.  Each character I write speaks for only that character.  In one film I had a character who was rather a weak character and he turned out to be gay.  I was afraid that people might think I was making a statement about gay men through that character --  and really, the fact that he was gay was only a plot device.  Actually the character, himself, was more of a plot device than an actual character.

I've worried a lot about what people think I might be saying.  I want to say, hey, the story happens the way it happens, the characters do and say what they do and say.  I'm just writing it down.  Not that I don't consider multiple angles and analyze every detail, but it still has to come organically.  I think you can get in a trap if you start writing with a message in mind.  It should always be about the story first.  I have no problem with people putting messages in their films, but am just weary of using it as a starting point.  Put the message aside, look for a story, and then see if that story supports your message and develop it from there.

It's not just with films, either.  I can't tell you how bugged I was by John Mayer's song, "Waiting for the World to Change".  I couldn't believe how often it was played, because it just wasn't that good.  It was a hit only because people loved the message -- and it was by John Mayer.  It didn't matter that the song was bland and went nowhere.  I've never wanted to publicly criticize anyone but the only reason I'm doing it here is that I think Mayer is brilliant and that this is the only sub par song of his.  (And come on, everyone has sub par songs... except Barry Gibb.)  So I really love John Mayer's work (he has stuff that gets me in ways that very few songs do), and that's why I feel I can rag on one of his songs.   All it was was a message looking for a song and it didn't find it.

Anyway, maybe I should put a disclaimer on my films and scripts saying that nothing is intentional, it just is what it is.  Though maybe that depends on your definition of "intentional".  Or "is".

Well, thank you again to Broad Humor for liking my script and always inspiring me to write.  Maybe this isn't the smoothest finish of a blog post but that's all I have at the moment.

New Post

Well, hasn't my posting frequency gone down. So has my writing ability. My blog writing ability, I mean. But I've had fewer reasons to write on here. I've used Facebook to share most updates and whenever I do get to write I plug away at my scripts.

What I put on this blog anyone can see whereas on Facebook it's just a few hundred. But in reality whatever I post on here is seen by very few, because who knows or even wants to come here? This has become a quieter place for me to type a few words.

I don't like to talk about my personal life right out in the open here so I'm not going to explain why I haven't filmed anything in five years -- well, actually less than four, but I barely count the quickie film I threw together with my brother. It's not that I'm so secretive in person -- it's just that I don't feel this is the forum for that.

I'll just say that I have been writing, and since the table reading for "Jimmy's" last year, I completed two more short screenplays, one of which was a finalist in the Broad Humor Film Festival screenplay competition. I had to put "Jimmy's House of Hugs" (the play) aside for a while and I'm just starting to work on that again.

OK, this was not the most fascinating read, so I'll post a couple of pics from that reading several months ago. Pics with smiling people, hoping to get you to believe that the actors had a good time. Really they did. Before I bored them.

Harry McEnerny, Matt Rouillard, Alyce Householter

Casey Preston, Scarlett Redmond, Stephen Radochia

Arlington High Class of 1986 25 Year Reunion

Latin class -- Spring 1986

There's very little information out in this big web world on Arlington High School's (Arlington, Massachusetts) class of 1986' 25th year reunion. (Though really it's the 26th, isn't it?) So I'm trying to help spread the word, hoping to find a few of you who might be searching via internet.

Here's the info:

Saturday, January 7, 2012
7:30 to 11:30pm

at
Sons of Italy
19 Prentiss Road
Arlington, MA 02476

Hope we reached some of you.

Come on, who doesn't want to do a table reading for my play?

So I'm planning a table reading for Jimmy's House of Hugs: The Play and am trying to find 11 actors to read the 28 roles -- and stage directions. It is so not the same thing as casting a film. Because actors want to do films. They like getting copy for their reel, they like having the credit for their resume, they like that they'll have an audience, and an IMDB credit.

But there isn't even a "Table Readings" category on actors' resumes. And if there were, who would care?

On top of everything, I'm planning the reading for two days on a weekend (June 25th & 26th) because the play is about 200 pages. Who wants to hand their weekend over to a table reading? I wish I could pay people well, but all I can offer at this time is $10 for each day, basically to cover transportation expenses, because I think that no actor should have to have money come out of his/her pocket to do a favor for me.

I also don't want to be in the position to beg people. Because I want people who want to be there. I'm just hoping I'll find actors who find value in reading a new play by a (gulp) first-time playwright.

All I can say, in my very humble opinion, is that the play is fun. So I hope that I'll get some good actors who will take a chance and hand themselves over to me for a few hours on each day. I'll be gentle, I promise. Hugs and brownies (or something of that sort) included.

Working on the Website

I've finally added a bunch of pages to the website. Still needs a re-design as I haven't even put any menus up (just links to other pages). I just felt the need to create new pages before perfecting (or attempt to perfect) the site. So please visit www.houseofhugsprod.com!

Eddie's Sitings

Or should it be “Websightings”? OK, neither is really an impressive pun, but I had to try.

So, it's that time of year again – Super Bowl time. The Patriots aren't in it but I've gotten just a wee bit of consolation in that my Patriot-themed film, “Eddie's Winning Date”, has popped up in another online article about Super Bowl movies, “Movies about the Super Bowl”. It's a short article that only briefly describes a few films, but it tickles me to know that it was on some writer's radar to garner a mention.

Oh, FYI, search engines, that's, “New England Patriots”. Not that this post will come anywhere near page one million for those searching just those words. But for any searches including an “Eddie's”, “Super Bowl film”, or a “Radochia” (sure), then this post might pop up closer to a fewer figured number.

Yes, I think about making my posts, as well as my films, easy to find on the internet. If someone searches “Eddie's Winning Date” or “Jimmy's House of Hugs”, the search results will be only those about my films. “I Just Want to Eat My Sandwich” and “Sally's Dream House” will bring up other results, but most of them, including the top ones, will be about the films. I have Google alerts for all of these films (and also one for my name), so that I will find out if they, or I have appeared on another website. Sometimes I just wonder if I've been up to anything lately...

So, I got a Google alert about the article and went to check it out, assuming this article, by Bob Bong, that was re-emerging online:

It wasn't. It turned out to be a new one by Toby Welch. Yay, Eddie's made it to another Super Bowl film list.

The next day, I wanted to find the article again, so instead of bringing up the email, I did a web search on “Eddie's Winning Date” and “Super Bowl”.

I was scrolling through the pages of results when “the favorite was Eddie's Winning Date” caught my eye. Wait a second. Favorite? Eddie's had won a few awards (okay, four), but they were all juried awards. It had not won an audience award.

I clicked on the link and found it was a page for the Twinsburg Library in Ohio and on it was a report of the Twini Mini Festival in March, 2007. I Just Want to Eat My Sandwich screened at the same festival in 2008 and was voted the crowd favorite. They had gotten Sandwich from the Ohio Independent Film Festival where it screened in 2008 and Eddie's Winning Date had screened in 2006. (See old post on my weekend in Cleveland.)

I don't know how I never knew about this before but I was quite pleased to discover that this was a good sized crowd, and that they voted for Eddie's, making it two years in a row my films won at this event. (Thank you, Twinsburg, Ohio!) Plus, I wasn't even there to charm them into voting for me.

I'm not delusional. I know this is no Oscar or Golden Globe. And I know that the online article probably won't get a ton of traffic. (Though it did get more “Like”s than I would have expected.) What I enjoy is that years after I've stopped submitting Eddie's to festivals, and years after spending much energy further promoting it (other than uploading it online) that I'm finding new things about it, whether it's winning an audience vote or that it's listed among big Hollywood films. I put so much time, sweat and my hard-earned money into this film. To see that it still has even the slightest momentum right now is just kind of fun.

I love how the internet can connect things so easily. I love helping those connections. And now, to connect to other things about Eddie's Winning Date, here are some links:

Watch Eddie's Winning Date:

On Vimeo

On Ourfilmspace

On Facebook

Toby Welch' article

Twini Mini Festival

Eddie's Winning Date on IMDB

Blog post about making Eddie's

And don't forget these links below and in the left column, too: