Prime Land

I failed at the Script Frenzy 100 pages in 30 days contest. I was off to a strong start, I had 40 pages in the first 10 days. But school took advantage of my time. I also ran into numerous problems with the latter half of the second act and third act. I had no idea how to work it all out because I never did bother to do a beatsheet before starting(A big mistake.) And I now have to go back and rewrite the 1st act in order to make some major changes. All in all i got up to page 62. I plan to be incredibly inspired next month when I go back home and go to a few grads and spend time with my pops.

Here is the script in a nutshell-
Robbie Hutton is going to University to become a doctor, he's married to Dia, who worked at coffee shop that Robbie frequented. Dia has a 9 year old kid that she had when she was 14. Rob has taken the resposibility of being the father of Cameron, the 9 year old. Anyways, Rob's father dies in a fire trying to save some of the cattle on the Hutton farm. Rob comes back to the farm for the funeral and accepts the farm from his will. The farm has lived through the Hutton name for 11 generations, and Rob feels guilty for stopping the tradition at him, so he accepts the responsibilty to take over the farm. Dia is hesitant, but she accepts. There is also another piece of the puzzle, Roy Miller and his counterpart Catcher, are ranchers. Roy owns a massive amount of land and for his entire life he has wanted the Hutton valley. He is also an alcoholic and a Gambler, and Catcher is silent and tough. Roy tries to buy the farm from Rob after Rob inherits it, but Rob denies him. Rob and the old farm hand Quintin fix up the farm. But over a years time Dia begins to dislike Rob never being home. Dia finally says she is going back to the city, she can't take the lifestyle anymore. Rob continues to live on the farm. But Roy comes back to buy the farm, thinking that Dia leaving will make Rob sell it. Roy rages when Rob denies him again. The next day Rob's tractor starts on fire, Rob thinks Roy did it and gets the police involved. But Rob gets proven wrong. Rob then realizes that he won't be able to make it through the year without the tractor, so he decides to sell all the cattle and turn the pasture into farmland. He goes to the big city and talks to an old friend of his who works as a professor for Agricultural studies named Dartry. Dartry is ambitious and takes on the task of converting the farm with a now cranky Quintin(Quin was a cowman who resents technology, now he has to work with a brand new tractor and his cattle are gone.) In that time Rob tries to reconcile with his family and convince them to come back to the farm, promising Dia that he will spend more time with her. They go to the mountains for a family ski trip. Rob convinces Dia, but he must also convince Cameron who has become accustomed to the city life again. Quintin and Dartry are working on the farm, Quin goes to get more dirt to fill in a hole. On the way to get more dirt Roy and Catcher unsuspectedly follow him. We get a glimpse that Roy is cautious about who Catcher talks to. This ties in later when it turns out that Roy made Catcher start the fire that killed rob's father at the begining.

This is where I'm at. This is what will follow.

While following though, Quintin crashes. Roy and Catcher save Quintin who gets out of the truck with a broken arm. Rob comes back to town and immedietly blames Roy. roy gets pissed off and heads off with Catcher. Rob is restrained by Quin, who admits that it was himself that caused the accident. Rob then goes on a fishing trip with Cameron to talk to him about the farm and if he wants to move back. While back at the shore Quin tells Dia why Rob originally went to school. As it turns out, Rob's mother had a terrible disease and died because of it. Rob decided he would rather work for a future that meant something rather then stick with the farm. Cameron doesn't want to live on the farm, he enjoys his friends and such in the city. Dia and Cameron decide to stay the weekend. During the entire weekend Robert has to work becuase of Quintin being Injured. Once Robert comes back Dia is packing up and crying. Dia tries to get away but her vehicle wont work. Dia demands Robert to leave because she partially owns the house. Robert finally does. Robert goes tot he bar and drinks. Meanwhile, Roy and Catcher are in town. Roy finally tells us his whole plan from day 1, and that he's getting incredibly pissed that he has to wait until Rob keals over to get that land. After losing a poker game and beating a guy up, Roy goes overboard and demands Catcher to go set the farm on fire again. Catcher goes against Roy. But Roy knocks catcher out and leaves to go back to the farm area. Robert goes to Quintin's house drunk out of his mind and starts a fight with him blaming him for all of this. Quintin defends himself and get's Robert restrains and talks him out of his drunken rage. Quintin offers him his sofa, and tells him he should get awya from the farmlife, it's not for him. Roy gets to the Hutton farm and starts everything on fire. He gets to the shop and starts it on fire. Quintin wakes Rob up and Rob heads back to the farm. Rob saves his family from the burning house and they run back to shelter at Quin's house.

The next day Roy comes to Quin's and asks to buy the farm again. We then cut to Rob going to the land office, then Rob packing up and driving to the city. Then Rob going to the University and talking to Dartry. Then we go back to Roy and Rob. Rob simply says no, moments later Catcher comes in with the police and arrest Roy. Rob moves back to the city and goes back to school and stays with his family. He gives the farm to the University for research ground. And Quintin helps out on that farm and starts driving a tractor.

I hope to have it done with the rewritten first act at the end of May. I think I can pull it off with some help from my dad who knows more about this world then I do.

Recent Movies

The library has become an addiction for me. I'm watching so many movies lately that I can't find the time to talk to people about them. So here it is... also, I've swayed away from my movie list a long time ago. But I'm slowly getting some of them off of there. So here it is, some of the movies i've watched lately and what I think of them...

All About Eve-Some of the best acting ever. Makes sense since it was a play first because everyones dialogue is way to god dman sophisticated. The end of the movie is pretty awesome aswell, Eve gets served and the person Eve was linching off of lives (sort of) happily ever after.-8.5/10
Black Dynamite-Best spoof movie ever. Black Dynamite is a badass character and everything he does and says is pure awesome. Really wish more people knew about this movie because it is pure win.-9/10
Slapshot-I love hockey movies, and I love random fights and outbursts of anger. Unfortunatly I didn't get to finish it but it was pretty amazing. The Hansen brothers make this movie.
United 93-Nearly cried manly tears. The best movie involving planes... I felt like I was in all of the scenes with everyone, it almost felt like watching a documentary due to all the clearly improvised and realistic dialogue. It's also interesting to note that the plot is in real time. -9/10
Anytown, usa-A blind guy with no job and no money tries to run for mayor of a small town. He's up against the current mayor who knows what he is doing, and a mobster looking fellow who doesn't seem to care. The movie showed small town america in a light i've never seen it. I personally never thought of voting to be such a big thing but it is for americans. It also has a really touching ending.-7.5/10
Battleship Potemkin-Oldest movie I've ever seen (1925.) It was an interesting movie when you think about the plot and what country it came out of. A bunch of higher up leaders on a battleship force the lower ranks to eat rotten meat and do slave labor while they cherish all the rewards. The men battle back due to the dictatorship among the people. In the end all the common people flal behind this ship and it's lower class people. And well, Soviet union bro...-8.5/10
The Thin Red Line-Visually one of the best war films I've ever seen. Besides the death scene of Woodie Harrelson non of the movie felt cliche. Unlike Saving Private Ryan. And even that scene played against the cliche. The story itself is really all over the place. And Adrien Brody is in it the most, yet he never does talk. It's my favorite ww2 movie now.-10/10
The Green Zone-Pretty good writing. Annoying camera styles and to be honest, it felt like a really small movie with a stupidly massive budget for what it contained.-6.5/10
Kick Ass-Great Comedy, Great Action, Great characters. My only problem with it was the fact that it followed the cliche hollywood standard of our day. To entertain the youth and make hollow films only to generate profit. The reason I kind of dislike this film is because it relied heavily on our modern era fads and pop culture. In ten years from now all of it will be obsolete and this movie will be extremely dated and bleak.-8/10
How To Train A Dragon-Toothless is beyond adorable. And almost every scene involving dragons flying is spectacular and breath taking. I watched it on the net so I didn't get the whole experience but i'm definetly buying this movie when it comes out on dvd. Just wished it was a little bit longer.-8.5/10
Hot tub Time Machine-It had some good one liners, but the last half of the movie went by a little to fast for my liking. I think they could have explored the 80's a bit better. Also the call to the 8 year old was amazing.-7/10
Streetcar Named Desire-Brando is a god and that bitch was clearly crazy. I feel for him because she was being annoying and ruining his somewhat peaceful household. But Stella was caught inbetween both of these lunatics. Poor Stella.-9/10
I Heart Huckabees-Confusing plot. But a great message at the end. At times I was about to shut it off due to all the preachy existenialism chat but I think the non existantialism chat and mark whalberg kept me entertained.-7/10
Fantastic Mr.Fox-Fantastic, the best stop motion pic I've seen. It was the perfect length, and it was all perfectly cast. Bill Murray as the Badger, cussin awesome. And Jason Schwartzmans dead pan character was well played-9.5/10
Rashomon-The first Kurosawa flick i've seen all the way through. It is by far the most flawless mystery tale ever. To explain why I'd ruin the plot, but the themes balanced in it are thought provocking to say the least. And the cinematography is top notch.-10/10
Rain Man-I enjoy Tom Cruise. He's an energetic guy and he plays the type of character in this movie perfectly. And Hoffman is effing brilliant in this. It is truely a timeless film from it's cinematography to its themes and its performances. -9.5/10
The Brothers Bloom-I liked Rian Johnson's first film Brick and I liked this one. not so much as Brick but it still had some really cool characters and it once again showed that Rian johnson is a competant director. The card trick scene involving Rachel Weisz is... "Wow". -7.5/10
HUD-Paul Newman is badass beyond badassery. He takes it way to far though and smacks some folks up. It really inspired me to write my current feature which shares some of the similiar themes and stylings and plot aspects. The only problem i had with the film is that I didn't think that HUD's dad died in an epic enough way, given what he went through.-9/10
Lawrence of Arabia-The definition of EPIC. 4 hours long, massive armies, massive story, god like characters. The only thing I didn't like was the whole... 4 hours thing.-9/10
Holy Grail-I think I laughed more reminiscing about it with friends then I did while watching it. It definetly has some awesome replay value-9/10
Being john Malkovich-Strange, but great. some really different styles being explored in this flick. i'm also a big Malkovich fan, even though I've only seen a couple of his flicks. In my last script I wrote the antagonist with him in mind.-8.5/10
Barton Fink-Great performances by all and some of the best dialogue exchanges in a Coen brothers movie. I needed the ending to be explained to me, but it is pretty dense. It is also sort of inspiring and uninspiring for writers.-8/10
Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid-Anoth Paul Newman flick! One of the best westerns ever made. Just wished the bike scene was made a little shorter, felt really stupid.-9/10

The Walker

Another idea that randomly popped into my head. I was waiting for the skytrain and I randomly made up a scene in my head. So i added onto that scene and thouight of a great movie idea(All in a single skytrain ride.)

A young man named Devan Walker goes to an empty train station where one man awaits him. Walker asks his name thne shoots him. He then walks to a house and asks who lives there, he shoots the occupants of the house. He then goes to another house, walking a rediculously long walk through out a large city. He gets to the house and knocks on the door, no answer so he breaks in. He kills two parents then randomly gets stabbed by some kid. He wastes the rest of his ammo and misses. He chases after the kid only to fall down some stairs into a cellar. The door is locked, and the girl asks who he is, the Walker doesn't say anything, then the girl asks wky he killed her parents. Walker takes out a notebook from his backpack and reads the profile on the parents, he finds out that they are both raging alcoholics, and that they beat the kid. Walker puts away the notebook then smashes the door open. Instead of killing the girl he offers her a hand. He walks with her, she continues to pester him with questions, he finally tells her that he's going to bring her to his father.

When he gets to his father we find out he's a hitman for a bounty hunter, all of the people he killed owed money and didn't pay. Walker hides the girl outside the mob place.When Walker brings up the girl the father asks if he killed her. Walker hesitates and says he did. Then the girl pops up and The father gets men to kidnap her, Walker has a change of heart and pulls a gun and shoots three men and shoots at his father. His father shoots back and injures him. Walker escapes with the girl.

Walker gets a safe distance from the mob place and the girl(Let's name her Sarah, she's about 12) is made at him for nearly getting her kidnapped, we finally get her into the light and realized she has bruises from being beaten. Walker apoligizes and says he is going to get her a safe distance away from the city, she brings up an uncle of hers that is a a teacher, Walker says he will bring her there, but he lives a city away. Walker says he only walks, no buses, no cars, no trains. Sarah asks why she can't go alone, because she's only 12 and the mob might be after her aswell as him. Walker says he will bring her there.

Walker and her start walking and talking. Walker is quite silent but we learn more about Sarah here, she's actually happy to leave being that her parents were alcoholics and gamblers. She enjoys riding bikes, playing yahtzee, listening to electronic pop, and watching Star Wars. Walker has been raised his entire life by the mod with no mother, that's all he has to say. He still hasn't nursed the wound yet and Sarah address it. Walker goes to a friend to the mobs house named Danny. Danny is a medical guy who also sells drugs. Danny stitches it up and and takes the bullet out but he says it might be infected and Walker should seek medical help. Walker will worry about that later, Danny asks some questions and Walker tells him to tell anyone in the mob that he was never here. Walker leaves with Sarah and they start back off again.

Sarah is hungry so Walker brings her to a grocery store. Walker buys some things but Sarah doesn't want to eat food from there. So they go to Mcdonalds. Walker bought a yahtzee set at the store and Sarah teaches Walker how to play. They bond over it and after the meal they hold hands as they hike down a river to the next town. They get to gas station to a gas station so Sarah can go to the washroom. The gas station gets held up and Walker gets told to give one of the crooks his backpack. Walker shoots the crook and the guy robbing the counter in a swift emotionless motion. The shootout heightens when the guy behind the counter pulls a gun. Walker hides and reloads and Sarah gets out of the washroom. Sarah is scared and Walker gets her out of the way and escapes the building. While doing so Walker sprains his ancle.

Sarah begins to lecture him on what he did, Walker takes it all in and apoligizes. He can barely walk, but they get back to the river and hide. Sarah asks why he is like this, Walker admits that he was beaten as a child aswell, and that he was made into the man he is because of it. Walker also admits that he doesn't trust transportation, it killed his mother right infront of him. They end up sleeping over night under the bridge and playing another game of Yahtzee. Half way through the night Walker starts coughing and eventually coughs up blood. He looks at his wound and sees it's infected. He cleans it off and gets some tissue and tape and covers it.

They wake up and Sarah says she wants to walk along the road. they're only about 30 kilometers away. Walker agrees. They get on the road and start walking, but then a cop car pulls over. They threaten to arrest him, Walker is about to take out his pistol but Sarah stops him. Sarah takes out the pistol and shoots at the cop car. Walker and Sarah escape on foot into the bushes. Walker ends up falling and coughing up more blood. Walker tells Sarah to get away from all of this and get to her uncles. Sarah sees the cops coming and she accepts and takes his backpack and gun. Walker tells her tot hrow them away. Walker gets arrested and brought into the cop car. They arrest him to the cop car for what he did at the gas station. They bring him to the city he was going towards. They get to the city and a vehicle destroys the cop car and releases Walker. The guy who did it is his father. His father tells Walker that he killed Danny for helping a betrayer, and he killed the two cops so his father could kill him himself. He also mentions that he is going to go find Sarah and kill him right infront of her for doing all of this. Walker starts coughing again, he coughs up more blood and faints. His father wakes Walker up and brings him to his feet. The father brings him into the house and shows him the Uncle. The Father then shoots the uncle. He then goes to Sarah, Walker manages to unfold himself shortly before they get ready to shoot her. Walker shoots both men beside him and another guy. The father and Walker have a standoff. Walker and The Father both shoot after exchanging some words. Walker gets mortally wounded, but he releases Sarah. Walker apoligizes for this, Sarah tries to help him but he's a gonner. Walker tells him to leave before people show up. Walker apoligizes and thanks her for being the first human contact he ever managed to help. Sarah hugs him, then she takes the backpack and heads off into the sunset, walking..

so i mostly made this up as I went along. But it seems like a fun idea. I love those random anti-heros who kill people emotionless, i find it haunting(Like in The Dark Knight, History of Violence, or Leonne spaghetti Westerns.) I'll think more about this later, some feedback would be cool. And if it sounds to cliche then let me no.

Writing on my blog

So this month has been flying by, both in school and outside of school. The plan is to move back to G.P and get a fulltime job to pay off debts and such. Once November rolls around i'll head back here and do whatever I find to be a suitable occupation while I work on other things. I'm also seriously considering branching out into the indie film market. I got some ideas for easy to make flicks that I could make in G.P. While I'm there i'll get a camera and work on camera techniques and make some short films and such on my off time.

On April 1st I joined the Script Frenzy thing and started writing a script that I barely had thought out. And this weekend i felt incredibly drained and lazy. I really wanted to get this script done within the month but i have a feeling that I don't know where I'm taking it. I'm on page 40 right now and I feel that the conflict is way too light... Oh well. I'll finish it despite the fact that I don't know where it's going. The only thing I really need to focus on it is the first act which needs a major rewrite in order to add a new character and fix some believability issues that troubled me.

This is the only place that I can really let loose on my writing as far as outlines go. So I'm going to follow up my last blog post with character Bio's for the characters in my NEXT feature. Which i'll start in mid May. This next feature is going to be in the indie light hearted comedy genre. Something like Little Miss Sunshine or Nick And Nora's infinite playlist. I'm writing this one entirely for amusement and to mock the genre. But after making some character Bio's I think it has some possibilities... Here are the character Bio's and the actors I'm writing for them in mind. Obviously they would never act in it, but i like to dream :3... Oh but first. I must write the story. Shit..

The story in a few sentances-Micheal is an awkward teenager who goes to school on the 22nd of december and is told by the girl of his dreams that there's gonna be an awesome concert by one of his favorite bands palying on christmas day. And the girl of his dreams says she is going to get stupid hammered at the concert. So Micheal goes to his parents and asks and they say he must go to the big family christmas. Micheal doesn't much care for it, but he shrugs it off, stating that there will be other chances, and the Wilson brothers(They beat him up shortly after the conversation with the hot girl, simply because he was talking to her) will be there.

The family is clearly disfunctial and crazy. 4 brothers, 3 of them served time in different wars, a grandpa, and grandpas brother. The only kids belong to Micheals family. The kids are both drug addicts that later form an incest relationship(lol.) So for the first half of act 2 Micheal will try and cope with the family and there shenanigans. He will suffer the agony of playing pond hockey with his family. Having a christmas dinner accident, dealing with a war arguement, and then finally when he is about to go to sleep, he gets a text from the girl who just can't wait. He talks to his uncles wife about the whole thing, and she's pretty much lays it al out for him on what the cons and the pros are. Micheal being biased goes with the pros, gorgeous girl, might get laid, getting away from psycho family... The thing he neglects is that he needs to be with his family, even if they're disfunctional and crazy. So Christmas day Micheal opens up his gifts, and asks again if he can go to the show tonight. Micheal gets shot down. Then starts looknig at other options. his first option is his brother, he fails at that, then his mother, then one uncle that tells him to go, then one that tells him not, then finally he talks to the aunt again and he gives him the keys with the same reasonings as before(The pros and cons, reminding him again.) Micheal takes it and heads off to his concert.

Once he got to the concert he would meet with the girl and attend the show. But his family will be close behind them, (all of his family). The family gets there and crashes it pretty much. The wilson brothers are there and break up Micheal and the girl, Micheal nearly gets in a fight when the family intervenes. The grandpa and the uncle hear a comment from one of the Wilson brothers about how the war is wrong etc and they snap and kick the shit out of them. Meanwhile Micheal tries to escape the emberessment, the other uncle, the one believed to have shell shocked and can't talk. He pretty much spells it all out for Micheal about how he needs his family etc.. The entire family gets kicked out and micheal apoligizes. Micheal gets grounded, but some of the family sympathisizes.. So, the family decides to join him in going back to the concert. The Wilson brothers cower in fear and leave. Micheal goes to the girl woh is weirded out by the whole family thing at first, but they snuggle and such, nothing serious.

This was a shitty outline writing. But hey, it's a comedy. and most comedies aren't very easy to write...

INDIE AS FUCK

I wrote this in referance to a picture making fun of all the wacky indie comedies.

Ok here is my pitch for this story. Micheal(Micheal Cera) is being bullied by two brothers at his high school(Owen and Luke Wilson). He goes home to his somewhat dysfunctional family. His father(Bill Murray), his young gorgeous mom(Cameron Diaz), his prissy drug addicted sister(Kirsten Stewart) and his douchey jock big brother who is over for christmas(Robert Pattinson). He goes to his school again and hangs with his friend(Zack Galafanakis(sp?), and the girl of his dreams(Ellen Page). He tries to talk to her, but the wilson brothers kick his ass and make him eat dirt. So the next day Micheal gores on a roadtrip with his family to visit the whole family. They get there, shenanigans involving music, family issues and teenage puberty. Some of the uncles consist of Tobias, Will Arnett, William Shatner, Willem Dafoe, Jason Bateman, and The Sheen brothers who are woman seducing sex addicts. Throughout the family visit Micheal get's the encouragement from his messed up family to face the bullies and get the girl. In the third act he ends up going to a new years dance and instead of kicking the shit out of the wilson brothers, he does a really cool guitar solo that ends awkwardly. Ellen page is the only one that claps. And The Wilson brothers threaten to beat him up. But The Sheen brothers beat them up instead.... Indie As Fuck