Master Class in Filmmaking
 

I started a thread last month about trying to chose between a young, up and coming director and an established genre giant. Well, we're going with the giant, but he has quite a few script notes and want to "kick our ass" for a couple of weeks or rewriting.

Normally I'd tell any number of people to go screw, that we know how to write and they simply don't get it. But the man giving us these notes is none other than XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

That's right. I'm going to be spending a great deal of time over at XXXXXXXXXXXXX's house as he helps us whip this script into shooting shape. We'll be learning from the creator of xxxxxxxxxxx, xxxxxx, xxxxxxx, xxxxxx, etc. I'm ecstatic! People would pay good money to learn from a master of the craft, but he's going to be working us over because he likes our writing and wants to direct our script titled LA GOTHIC!!!

I'll be keeping a journal of the experience and will keep you all posted. I'm such a geek.

pictures, man, pictures!!!!

I need to get a camera phone so I can be sort of discreet about it.

i'm sure if you ask the great man, he wouldn't mind the odd one.

Yeah, but I'm trying to meet him on his level - not look like a novice or a startstruck kid (which will be a tough one to supress:o )

As our relationship progresses, I hope We'll be able to snap a few pix together - but until then I plan on snapping quite a few clandestine shots to document the process. This is so once-in-a-lifetime I can barely stand it.:D

Fucking awesome. Congratulations dude! This is huge for you!!! I can tell how thrilled you are about it (rightfully so) so I'm really happy for ya. I can't wait for the updates!!!

Who was the up-and-comer that was also in consideration? Aja?

Thanks.

No it wasn't Aja - whew - it was Scott Glosserman who's Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon comes out next month. He would be a fine choice as he is really smart, really cool and totally loves the genre. I'm hoping we'll get to work with him in the not-to-distant future.

Holy shit! Congratulations!

That is so cool! Congratulations, man!

No doubt. When you meet him, make sure to let him know he's responsible for 2 of HDC's top 5 horror films of all-time, but if he has to ask which ones... Tell him Ghosts of Mars & Vampires. haha

That is so cool! Hopefully he'll write the music too (I know he did on a lot of his movies).

And I actually really liked Ghosts of Mars.

Congratulations! So any idea what sort of timescale you'll be working to? Will it be out next year?

Everyone should see this thread. It would serve as an inspiration to all those aspiring writers out there.

No concept of when this will be made, let alone released. I'm just looking forward to the process.

Just got this email:

"You four are TENTATIVELY set to meet with XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX regarding LA Gothic on:
Thurs. March 1st @ 4 PM

You will meet at the office"

So excited!

The countdown is on! I assume you & your writing partner are 2 of the 4, but who are the other 2? Your agent & manager?

yep

it's my managers

Your name is gonna go through the roof on this. It's been six years since Carpenter directed anything feature length, so the work will get a ton of attention on those merits alone.

from your lips to God's ear:D

Word is already spreading through town even though we haven't gone public with the news yet. A producer friend over at Disney emailed me yesterday with congratulations - felt pretty cool to know we're being talked about.

Glad to hear it. Sets a good example on the forum. There's a lot of real world nay-saying for creative people nowadays. It's great to see a real person able to prove the raw potential of getting off one's ass. In the last four days, I've written a pilot and three outlines on account of realizing that people can make it in the genre.

When I started acting I got a few horrible reviews and I loved them. Other cast embers always got bent out of shape of the negativity, but I told them...

A critic is just someone who wishes they could do what we do - but either can't or won't because they're too damned afraid of wat some critic will say about them.

Negativity has no place in creativity - it kills the spirit. I'm really glad to hear you're cranking. Nothing like a nice bout of creative diarrhea...crapit all out, then go back and clean it up:p

What's your pilot about? Have you looked up American Accolades yet? They have pilot competitions on a monthly basis.

I have two. One's for a Gothic noir set in a quarantine 1939 American midatlantic where vampires are a wave of immigration and necromancers have replaced the lower class with zombies. It deals with the formation of America and immigration debates as well as contemporary humanity. The other pilot is for a series animated show about giant monsters awakening in the modern world because the earth has been given a cleansing prerogative by an insane psychic who can speak to the gaea. It's mostly centered on mankind's will to survive. Imagine Joss Whedon meets Jack Arnold with a serious message.

sounds ambitious as hell. period tales are a tough sell, but I love 'em and have a couple under my belt... too bad I can't get anyone to read them.

Good luck, man

The noir story isn't so much period as alt-history. It's a German Expressionist New York, with kind of a pulpy vibe. I decided the latter should be animated because tv stations probably don't want to make a big budget 44 minute dramatic monster film each week.

That's funny. Have you told them you have a foreign investor interested in the script they called unsellable yet?

Enjoy your week at the cool kids table! Hopefully you can stretch your week there into a semester or two!


And by the way, no matter how HUGE you get, I'm still gonna hold you to that beer @ the Beanery when I get out there. :D

We'll certainly ahve that beer. and the other script...I'm not saying a word to the reps until we have a deal in hand - but things are moving in that direction very quickly.

Imagining the looks on their faces when you tell them just made me laugh out loud & that's ironic since I don't even know what they look like.

Both those stories sound really cool and interesting, especially the first one. I would love to read those when they are finished.

you are fucking genuies man you are so lucky

So we met with XXXXXXXXX last week. Really cool. First off his office is a house. Not his house, mind you, but a small craftsman house in a nice neighborhood in Hollywood that is a dedicated office. Pretty cool.

We enter the living room/lobby and the walls are covered with movie one-sheets from XXXXXX & XXXXXx & XXXXXXXXX there are maquettes and figurines of XXXXXX, XXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXX and a few Chinese take-out boxes with "XXXXXXXXX" printed on them. I'm already getting geeky.

One of the three assistants comes in and offers us something to drink. I take a coffee - those of you interested in doing the Hollywood thing, always take the drink that's offered, seriously - and we wait while a yappy little white dog tugs at my pants lag.

After a minute of two we are escorted into a back bedroom that has been converted into Mr XXXXXXX's office. Bookshelves line the walls. More toys, more movie posters...including Howard Hawkes' The Thing. There's a spread on the table, an actual spread - grapes, brie and crackers, coffee, sugar, cream - and behind the desk is THE MAN.

He smiles we shakes hands. He dives right in, asking us our ages. My partner Jim replies "medium", so John flips him the bird. He does this a lot, three times actually throughout the course of the hour-long meeting. He is awesome. Super cool and not at all pretentious. We talk about the script for twenty minutes in which he tells us that "we did it wrong" that we were imitating. He believes there is something good, maybe even something great here, but we're going to have to dig and work to get it to the right place. He wants us to come back and go over the script page-by-page and work together as long as it takes to turn this into the movie he wants to make. He also tells us he doesn't work in the mornings and he only works here in his office.

I'm in heaven.

Then it gets fun. We start talking about our favorite films. A half hour passes with us discussing the merits and weaknesses of John Ford films. This is Hollywood cool at its best.

We go back to his office again tomorrow for the first full day of work. I can't wait!

That's amazing! Particularly the John Ford debate and that there WAS a John Ford debate. It's also good that he's pushing for the script to innovate. Some people would go the other direction and that would suck.

Woohoo! Update numero uno was every bit as fun to read as I was hoping it'd be! Man, that sounds like a blast. I'm green with envy. I bet JC has a pretty rad toy collection.


Does he smoke the herbs or haven't you guys gotten to the joint sharing stage yet? I bet he smokes....

He made a specific point of saying he doesn't work in the mornings.
But he smokes cigarettes constantly.

Or maybe he just likes to sleep in. Lord knows if I was a successful director like him I'd never get out of bed before noon, and I almost never drink:p

Fair enough. I shall endeavor not to speculate into or allow myself to succumb to rumor. I officially and legally renounce all sinister innuendo and/or slanderous remarks, expressed or implied.

That should keep me clean, right?

Met with him again today.

God I love him. This could turn dark very quickly...

Oooo so before we see the Damned we could see the real life story of Carpenter's stalker!?

in the immortal words of PJ Soles' Linda Van Der Klok, "totally":D

So we've been working with Mr XXXXXXX of the last couple of days and it's still a blast. We're becoming friendlier each day. The rest is probably a bore to all of you. Just reading the script aloud and figuring out what works and what doesn't. We're hitting a particularly weak spot in the script, so much tuning will be required. We got to discussing our weekend plans and when I asked him what he was getting up to he says "four words for you...God of War II"

So he's a gamer.

Sounds like a hell of a movie and you're having quite a time writing it. Good to see somebody who's really having fun with their work still.

Yeah, I'd go check that film out even if you weren't involved in it. Sounds rad.

Todd Browning was a genius that was underappreciated in his day. That being said, it really sounds like you picked up on all the best themes from the classic horror genre. It looks like it will be really great. :)

This is off-subject, but out of curiousity, where did you learn to write screenplays? Did you go to film school?