The View Up Here

It's Leap Day, Year of the Water Dragon! I like mixing my East/West calendars, so what? It's been awhile since my last update. Nothing earth-shattering has gone on here, but I did attend an R.I.T. alumni event last Friday evening that proved to be fun, surreal, and fruitful. I reconnected with people with whom I went to film school, including someone who might be in a position to get me some work at some point down the line, and one of my very first screenwriting students. Now THAT was trippy. I knew he looked familiar to me, and I barely had a chance to talk to him at the end of the evening. He reminded me that he had been a student of mine. I had to ask for his name, and as soon as I heard it, I felt suddenly like I was in a time vortex, spinning around on my axis. I think we call that "full circle." I used to kick myself and bemoan my time at R.I.T. because it wasn't this or it wasn't that, and I did go into a soul-crushing amount of debt to get that MF...

Last night I attended a wonderfully inspiring event at the Writers Guild Theater: Beyond Words - A panel discussion with WGA and Oscar-nominated screenwriters, sponsored by The Writers Guild Foundation , the Writers Guild of America, West , and Variety. I went courtesy of Ithaca College's Pendleton Center (they take good care of me). I took notes - though I didn't see many students taking notes - this is because I've still got a grad student alive and well somewhere in my head. Here are some of the gold nuggets from the panelists: Tate Taylor - (The Help) - Write it long and cut it. Be fearless to write everything, then cut and slash later. "Don't be afraid to take a crap on your computer." (That got a lot of laughs.) You'll figure out what you were going for after the first draft is done. Don't over-think it while you're writing it. Stan Chervin - (Moneyball) - Get your pitch to two sentences so that anyone can see your movie immediately. Aa...

The novel is off to the editor, so I'm taking a break. Last night a friend called to come over and watch the third episode of Sherlock Series 2 (if you haven't watched Sherlock, you absolutely must do and soon), and we sat and drank wine all night, joined by my roommate when she got home. I stayed up much later than I ever do any more, and slept in. And now I'm having a prog rock morning. Thus far: King Crimson and Emerson Lake and Palmer. I'll be getting back into my sci fi screenplay this afternoon along with some over-due laundry. For now, I'll leave you with some ELP to get your afternoon in gear: And one of my fave King Crimson songs: Aaand another, just to round things out:

Can't embed the video, so check out this beautiful score by Bear McCreary with incredible timelapse exposures: Temporal Distortion from Randy Halverson on Vimeo . So I'm a little late with this week's blog. I just wasn't feelin' it over the weekend or yesterday. Not much new to add here...except that I am excited at potential prospects for some level of involvement with THIS: Space: 2099 For months, my gut's been telling me Space: 1999 is on the verge of a resurgence. I was right. Stay tuned for more. Meantime, the first draft of my 1999 novel is 99.999% done (want to do another read-through before I submit to my editor), and I have begun the revisions to my sci fi script that I think will make it a solid contender. For what, I don't know yet. I have finally sold the car, albeit for much less than I should have, but I was getting antsy and it was the only offer. So I will have that money by the end of the week, and will then turn my eyes to purchasing a b...

Okay, it's looking like once a week is what you get, folks. This week was quite busy. I had a job interview, but it ended up being for an office P.A. (production assistant) slot. Those jobs are typically held by recent college grads with no debt and who live in a house of 14 people so that they each only pay $250 a month in rent. And the work is grueling, with 12+ hour days (every day), $8.50 an hour, no bennies. It was good to see the inside of a production office, and I did get the connection through a rather big name in TV who I met last year, but they didn't offer it to me, anyway. But hey an interview is an interview, and I did learn a few things. The car issue has become, well, an issue. I've been carless for over a week. I borrowed a friend's car to get to the interview, and then lied through my teeth that I had a car at said interview (P.A.s do a lot of running around and errands, generally called "running"). Good thing I didn't get it, huh?...