Crossing the Finish Line

Wally Fong cowboys up and finishes the rest of the skillet with a straw while Jon Solita records this monumental event. The shamefaced competitors who fell weeping were not recorded.

There Can Be Only One

Wally Fong said he was drinking water here but I think he was throwing up in his glass. But much respect for completing the Palatine Triathalon: drinking all night, eating a meat skillet, then watching movies all day.

Hoosiers

Cool Indiana filmmaker Peter O'Keefe, at the afterparty and post-screening of his short LULU TAKES A LOVER. Peter and I taught screenwriting at a workshop in Palatine two years ago. Even sitting down, he's taller than me.

Rollin' With My Homie

Microcinema Scene O.G. Gary M. Lumpp and I reunite at the Fest again this year. Gary and I met on the Triggerstreet message boards and wrote and critiqued each other's work for a long time before we ever met. The interwebs is a funny thing.

Brain Trust, with Donuts

It was hard as hell to judge the Fest this year, as there was a ton of good stuff. We were up until I think about 3 a.m. trying to get it right. Naturally, I brought the Spunky Dunkers but forgot a pen.

Awards Banquet

The home stretch, the Awards presentation, with a nice buffet on Sunday morning. As I've said before, you will never go hungry in Palatine.

The Winner Is...

Wally Fong and I help Fest organizer Jeff Greene of Theatre Nebula hand out the awards. I was there as the eye-candy, sort of a micro-Vanna White.

Nashville Skyline

Me and talented Tennessee filmmaker Chase Kuertz at the banquet. He's from Nashville and my daddy's from Crossville, so we're probably cousins.

Like Mike

CNGM dude and former Fest organizer Mike Noens has slept maybe four hours a night for about six or seven years. He has so much energy he's like standing next to human cocaine. He is going to Flashpoint Academy and probably getting some sort of computer brain put in or something.

The Tao of Steve

Last year's Fest organizer Steve Coulter and me. I wanted to give him a shout out because a cute girl at the Fest told him he was like a brother to her. That's worse than the friend zone! I wish I could help a brother out, but I'm not much of a wingman since the last stone fox I pursued was probably before Steve was born. But Steve is out in L.A. now and hopefully will remember me when he needs his car washed.

Dinner for Four

Wally Fong and I snap a picture with filmmakers Cara Maria O'Shea and Peter Kohl, who made AESOP'S DINER, one of my two favorite projects in the Fest. My brother and I listened to the cool soundtrack on the way out of Chicago.

Return of the Five Deadly Venoms!

It's hard to believe it was four years ago that I shared bunks at American University in Rapid City with these dudes. All they have done since then is work harder and get more mad skillz. That's Wally Fong, me, Jeremy Neander, Jon Solita, and Jay Neander. We missed honorary Venoms Tyler Wilson, Miguel Coyula, and Jon Clark. We always say we'll see each other again before a whole year goes by, and I hope that's true some day.

Good Night, Palatine

Back from Microcinema Fest 2007 in beloved Palatine. I have had little sleep and my brother Eric even less. I will update more soon with blackmail photos and unvarnished opinions, but in the meantime go over to ReWind to see video and photos of the long weekend.

Meanwhile, while I was in Palatine my alma mater's most famous grad, David Letterman, came back to campus to dedicate the new building named after him. I wish I had been there to thank him for the check he wrote me back in 1987, when I won a Letterman Scholarship.

Also, the Colts won! Life is good all around. And better after I get some sleep.

Give me a yell at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

In A Far Away City, With A Far Away Feel

Loyal reader Dave writes, about DC Comics' "52" event:

I was suprised you hadn't already read it. You're in for a heck of a read, but I think my enjoyment of the series was greatly enhanced by the Comic Geek Speak (podcast) monthly specials, reviewing/discussing the 52 issues that came out that month. HIGHLY recommended if you have some free listening time to fill.

Though it is hard to believe, some epic nerd events have transpired without me. I am trying to play catch-up.

Microcinema Fest 2007 starts tomorrow: you can read my war journal of last year's event right here. Check out this year's lineup here. Look for posts on 2007 right here at this blog and probably at ReWind soon!

Until then, give me a yell at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

300 MPH Torrential Outpour Blues

A student asked me to give him a list of books to read to learn about screenwriting in particular and the grassroots DV movement in general. Obviously this wise youth wants to avoid the terrible pitfalls that have befallen me, and learn from my bitter mistakes. It was nice to be asked and set me to thinking. In the end, I came up with the following list. There are some about screenwriting and some about the industry and some for inspiration. Your additions welcome.


Alex Epstein, Crafty Screenwriting

William Goldman, Adventures in the Screen Trade

William Goldman, What Lie Did I Tell?

Jones & Jolliffe, The Guerilla Film Maker’s Handbook

Lloyd Kauffman, Make Your Own Damn Movie!

Robert Rodriguez, Rebel Without A Crew

Shari Roman, Digital Babylon

John Russo, Making Movies

Rick Schmidt, Extreme DV

Rick Schmidt, Feature Filmmaking at Used Car Prices

Bret Stern, How To Shoot A Feature Film For Under $10,000 (And Not Go To Jail)

J. Michael Straczynski, The Complete Book of Scriptwriting

Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

Makin' Love is Like Sifting Through Sand

A local group has decided to put on an Indiana film festival, where either the films have to take place in Indiana or have a writer/director/actor/somebody involved who was an Indiana native. They are sticking with older movies at first and have included such titles as FRIENDLY PERSUASION, KNUTE ROCKNE ALL-AMERICAN, THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, BREAKING AWAY, SOME CAME RUNNING, A PLACE IN THE SUN, RAINTREE COUNTY, and TWENTIETH CENTURY. More modern titles that I thought of include CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, which takes place in my hometown of Muncie (and check out Richard Dreyfuss in the "Ball U" t-shirt) and THE HUDSUCKER PROXY, where Tim Robbins plays a bumpkin from the same said locale. As the saying goes, there is more than corn in Indiana.

Unfortunately I learned that artist Mike Weiringo died. He did a lot of good mainstream work, but on the independent tip check out TELLOS.

My pal Doug brought me the entire stack of DC's 52 yesterday and I stayed up late reading the first couple of issues. Better than Marvel's event, CIVIL WAR, by a stretch.

Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

Moonlight and Stars in your Strawberry Wine

Yesterday marked the 41st year I have spent on the earth. It has been seven years since I decided, after a long layoff, to get back into freelancing.

I would have to sit down and count but I think I have written somewhere between 15-20 screenplays on assignment since then and maybe two or three specs. I have about a half-dozen or so you can go out and get on the shelves with a few more in the chute. But every year on my birthday and evaluate where I am and whether I want to go one more year.

In 2006 I took a year off from writing. I had just changed jobs/careers and coupled that with some family issues. Last December I decided to pick up the pen again and was surprised to find that there were still people wanting to work with me after my self-imposed exile. Since December I have done SPLINTERHEAD and NEW JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH for Polonia Brothers Entertainment, PRIMAL for director Michael Su (which has since come out, minus my rewrite, but that's how it goes sometimes), MENTAL SCARS for producer Richard Myles, and am working on URAMESHIYA/GHOST SCREAM for director Amit Tripuraneni, with another secret project in the offing. I have worked pretty steadily since I started back up, pretty much picking up right where I left off.

This year I want to expand my base a little bit and look harder at other elements of the writing world I have been interested in. To that end I started keeping a new blog, THE HOMEMADE WORLD REVIEW, which you can check out here. Hopefully you will see more efforts in the coming months.

I had a nice birthday. I got some after shave and a new wallet and some clothes, and a gift certificate to "Books A Million" from my daughter. We had pizza with my parents and then went to the home opening football game of my alma mater in their shining new stadium. But they broke my heart, losing by one in the waning seconds.

Until next year, give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

Ghostbusters 3

It's good to feed the muse once in a while. My wife and I made a quick trip up to Chicago and checked out the Art Institute. This is a great place that has such works as Edward Hopper's Nighthawks and Grant Wood's American Gothic. If you have ever played the game "Masterpiece" you know what I'm talking about.

More Art

Here we are in front of the Dayton Art Insitute in Dayton, Ohio. There was some interesting art, and a really good asparagus and blue cheese soup there in the cafe.

Up, Up and Away

A pretty cool sculpture that is a tribute to the Wright Brothers, at the Dayton Art Institute. This is my new desktop background.

Sure As You Can't Steer A Train, You Can't Change Your Fate

I saw THE LIVES OF OTHERS the other night and thought, damn I wish I had written that. Even though I don't know German.

Meanwhile, and I knew this day was coming, you can get several of my movies in dollar bins nationwide. As reported by Tim at the Polonia Brothers Fan Club, double DVDs of FEEDERS/AMONG US and HOLLA IF I KILL YOU/PETER ROTTENTAIL are cropping up in Dollar Stores across this great land. I grabbed myself one of each already.

Check out my pal Amit Tripuraneni's new movie FIVE here, with the first couple of minutes posted online. Looks like they shot the eyes out of this one. This will be playing at Microcinema Fest in a few short sweet weeks.

The return of mom and pop video stores? It does my heart (and my career) good.

Empire Star

A while back I wrote how I would love to go to Nigeria and become the William Goldman of the Nigerian film industry. Now I'm learning this emerging industry, which is all shot fast and cheap on video, almost entirely direct to video and largely genre-driven, is the third largest film industry in the world. They even have a name for it now--Nollywood. Damn, if I took the Polonia Brothers with me we could be like Dreamworks over there. I seriously would like to write something for that market.

These guys will give you a lot to think about. Especially this part.

Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

Zirn Left Unguarded, the Jenjik Palace in Flames, Jon Westerly Dead

I moved my daughter to college, my wife has been sick and also heartbroken, 50 to 75 percent of the people at my day job have been gone with various family dramas and illnesses, the midwest is facing a drought, I owe a lot of people a lot of emails, the great Pacer Reggie Miller may unretire and go play for the Celtics.

But the world is full of small happinesses. I found a 1,000 page omnibus at the library called THE SPACE OPERA RENAISSANCE which I love. I heard "Spinning Wheel" on the radio and thought about days gone by. A friend showed me a baby squirrel he found he is nursing back to health. My wife made homemade ice cream. The world is good.

Give me a yell at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

Sun Comes Up, It's Tuesday Morning

The real world has encroached onto my blogging time quite a bit lately, but I hope to return to regular programming before long. But go check out the site for Microcinema Fest to see what promises to be a really strong lineup of projects from the micro world, once again in beautiful sunny Palatine Illinois. It looks like Amit Tripuraneni's FIVE will be closing out the Fest, the sweet spot where SEX MACHINE sat last year. If you're in the neighborhood come holla at me and my brother there this year!

In the meantime I am punching up a third draft of URAMESHIYA (GHOST SCREAM) for my pal, the aforementioned Amit Tripuraneni, and then seeing what the world brings.

I keep forgetting to tell people that I did this. I called it FRANKENSTEIN THUMB and will be making photocopies by the end of the week if anybody wants one.

I wrote in here recently that the Redbox in front of the McDonald's in the little town ten minutes away is now officially the closest video store to my house. I finally stopped and rented one and it was pretty cool. There was actually a line there, so I'm thinking I'm not the only one who feels the same way. When I walked in my wife narrowed her eyes and said, "You just couldn't stay away from it, could you?"

Give me a yell at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

Grey Flannel Life

It's been one of those hairy days when you look around and almost two weeks have gone by. I hope to return to the blogosphere soon; in the meantime, check out my new blog here.

The yard is a blasted desert, the air God's hair dryer.

I did have a BBQ sandwich dressed with blue cheese chunks that I can't stop thinking about.

I stumbled across ON THE LOT again the other night, after I had sworn it off. I keep forgetting that reality shows aren't real, and I should have remembered that more clearly as ARMED AND FAMOUS came to my hometown not long ago to make a show about law enforcement and mostly used their time there to ridicule the populace.

So much alleged fakery and trickery sprung up around ON THE LOT, this supposed reality search for a new movie director, that many people jumped ship and formed their own website that is currently hosting its own contest. The whole thing makes me a bit tired so google it for yourself if you care to know more.

They are down to six people, two of whom I was suprised to see as they should have been kicked off in the first ten minutes. They are down to one episode a week and the elimination of contestants wasn't even shown live any more. They are wheezing to a conclusion and in the end I just feel sorry for the guys left. Some of them ransomed off their lives to be on this show and it's going to be a sad footnote. I wonder what work, if any, these guys are going to be able to get. I'm sure everybody involved feels a bit sick to the stomach.

Sadly for them, I'm getting more work than these guys. I am getting ready to do a third draft of URAMESHIYA (GHOST SCREAM) for director Amit Tripuraneni. More on this soon.

Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.