Dispatches

I finished the mechanical polish on a script for a producer friend, properly formatting it mostly, and have started getting out from under the coverage I promised some writing pals on some scripts. There's the kind of busy where there's a lot of motion but nothing seems to get done and there's the kind of busy where it doesn't seem like you're getting anything done but all of a sudden you look around and your plate's clean. I can't tell which kind of busy I am right now.

In the meantime, I have updated my sidebar with a lot of interesting links of people that are more talented than me. I am especially still enjoying Josh Friedman's blog, though it's easy to have an indulgent chuckle about all of your screenwriting mishaps after you've sold the million dollar screenplay and had Spielberg direct it; when you're still in the trenches looking for that tiny patch of blue sky, eh, not so funny. I wonder if Spielberg used Friedman's script to shim up any dolly track, as seen here.

I get a lot of hits from the blog Complications Ensue, but I noticed recently that it now lists me as a "moviemaker" living in Flyover Land instead of a "scriptwriter" living in aforementioned place. I wonder if that's an upgrade or a downgrade, or just a reflection of the fact that I haven't posted much about screenwriting since blasting out a rewrite and a brand-new script in about six weeks this spring. I'm pitching a few things right now with some people I'd like to work with, and hope to have more to post soon. It always seems to be feast or famine. I wonder about those LA screenwriters, and what they do in between. I'd probably be living in a cardboard box behind a liquor store at this point. But at least I'd be getting good material for my next script.


In the meantime, give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.