Every Journey Needs A Roadmap

The script is done... 

...Now, the knees-knocking, nail biting part where I send it out to a handful of trusted friends and industry folks for critique.  I've actually already received notes from one person who subsequently voiced excitement about being a part of the emerging project.  I guess that's a good sign. 

In the days to come, I plan to shoot a short video of me talking about the project, with the intention of finding funding/investors.  I have been encouraged to use www.kickstarter.com and/or www.indiegogo.com.  I don't really know the difference between the two but we shall see.  And, I'm in NOW WAY interested in videotaping myself (seeing myself on camera or hearing my annoying, nasally voice), but this movie needs/deserves my best effort.  (ugh!)  There was a suggestion that I solicit hungry filmmakers from a local college to reduce costs, but I have fallen in love with a particular idea of how this will manifest and I am praying that it plays out the way it has in my mind.

So, if you have any suggestions on approach to budget, holler at ya girl!  (Keeping it real.)  And, if you are interested in seeing my (WGA registered) script, let me know.  I'm more than willing to welcome you into my CURDLED world.

Curdled offers a hilarious glimpse at a support group for post-40 pregnant moms.

I'm Here, I'm Good, and I'm Ready to Rock!

A coworker just reminded me that it was Thomas Edison who said,"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work."  For an aspiring screenwriter, let me tell you, there is no more fitting a quote than this.  The paradigm of old has shifted, at best, IF it even exits at all anymore; where some impassioned no-name screenwriter (like me) pecks out a brilliant longshot spec (or seven specs... to date) that becomes a hot, sought-after project, making him (possibly even HER/ME) the hot, sought-after now-AGENTED screenwriter of the moment, penning blockbusters for 6-figure deals at major studios. 

In short, the days of writing your script in a silo and being "discovered" are gone.  On his blog, John August and his contributor talk at length about the fact that a new paradigm has yet to clearly be defined, except to say that screenwriters have to act with more passion, more heart, more motivation, more flexibility and more action than ever before.  And, with the advent of the smart phone video camera accessory, any bearer interested in acquiring quick YouTube fame can shoot a film.  So, those of us who ache with the incurable desire to realize our actual stories must go hard or go home.

The hard part about going ANYWHERE for me, though, is that between my life day-job life, our part-time teens and our full-time three-year-old, support of my drummer/musician hubby/partner, care for my ailing mother and managing my own household, I already have to steal late-night-early-morning -the-baby-is-asleep-coffee-break moments to write.  So when accomplished screenwriters espouse that they "just did it," it is a bit overwhelming.

At the San Francisco Black Film Festival a few weeks ago, I reunited with a Tuskegee brother/friend/classmate (Kevin Avery) who has carved out an impressive career as a working writer/stand-up comedian in L.A., now New York.  Kevin wrote and produced a brilliant short, Thugs, The Musical which was screened at the festival and earned rave reviews.  We laughed through nearly the entire film.  When we weren't laughing, we were composing ourselves for the next round of laughter. "You gotta put something out there.  Let people know you are here."  He told me.  In that moment, I decided, I'm going hard.

I have to let people (other than my family and friends) know that I'm here, I'm good and I'm ready to rock.  I've finally written a viable short script that I feel really proud of.  And, as I claim the script more and more, the necessary pieces for the production of it seem to be falling into place.  Location... CHECK!  Badass Director of Photography... (tentatively) CHECK!  Kick ass actors... CHECK!  Money... well, I'm working on that part.

Stay tuned...

The Inaugural Blog

FADE IN

This is the launch. The FADE IN. The inaugural blog for the SSOnscreen Blog. I’m by no
means a Blog-Virgin. I’ve been blogging for years as a poet/ writer/ mother/ wife/ creative/ world citizen. But I decided to birth this space because I am realizing it will make me a more effective blogger. I read great blogs pretty regularly and the point to them is that there is a point to them! So, this won’t be the gumbo blog of old. This is the blog that will capture my adventures in screenwriting/film/entertainment. The conundrum for me has long been figuring out how to be a positive, contributing, productive part of an industry that has so many negative features. I don’t know. And maybe I will figure out here. But, seven scripts in, I can’t silence the calling. So, I am doing what most obedient spirits do… I’m answering the call.

I’m giving life to the characters who need to be created as much as I need to create them. I’m crafting scenes so vivid in my mind that, since I can't paint them, I must write them. This art gives me the space and time to visualize an artistic rendering of the people and the world I love. The world that challenges me. The people who love and believe in me in spite of myself. The world I hope to make better by sharing this art.

Major shout out to screenwriters John August and Craig Mazin (the former The Artful Writer), for putting so much work and heart into your blogs so that we, the aspiring many, could get so much out of them. Shout outs to my mentors, my children and husband, my extended family, my friends and all of the people who are walking this journey with me; who keep me strong and humble; who inspire me, hang out with me, and check on me to make sure I haven’t fallen victim to this dogged maelstrom of inspiration.

Onward and Upward...