Pulp Fiction And The Theory Of Autonomy

Have you ever been asked what your favorite movie is? Have you ever asked someone what their favorite movie is and they couldn't give you a response? It's a hard question to answer. With all the great movies out there it's hard to narrow it down to just one. And there's always the fear of rejection when they didn't like the movie you chose.

I find this a hard question to answer when it comes to music. I listen to so many different types of music and I love music so much that I'm not able to give a justifiable answer. Giving an answer to your favorite band question is even more typecasting than movies. If I said Nine Inch Nails then you would automatically assume I'm goth. Or if I said Bon Jovi, you would assume I'm an over-the-hill pot smoker stuck in the 80's. And If I told you what I really like to listen to right now is Bluegrass, you would assume I'm a down-on-the-farm country hick with straw sticking out of my mouth. But really, I'm a college town suburbanite from the Midwest.

But when it comes to movies, it's more ambiguous. For instance, what does it really mean to like Will Ferrell movies? Well, for me, it's on par to liking Britney Spears or the Backstreet Boys. Yeah, they have that one good song, but overall they suck!

But not having an answer to your favorite movie is just as bad. It either means you are incapable of forming your own opinion or you just haven't thought it through yet. Or it means, your afraid I'm going to judge you harshly for liking Will Ferrell movies .

I decided long ago that the answer to my question was going to be Pulp Fiction. And here are the reasons:

A) It's a safe option, being one of the most critically acclaimed movies. And it's constantly being listed on every one's best movies of all time lists. Besides, if you say you didn't like it, I can say you're a moron and more people agree with me than you.

B) No move has ever given me a better movie-going experience than Pulp Fiction. Here's the story: Me and my girlfriend at the time went to go see it at the theater when it first came out in 1994 (So I'm not jumping on the bandwagon, here). To me, I was just going to see the latest Bruce Willis movie. I'm one of those people who will go see a movie just because it has Bruce Willis in it. And I remember sitting there listening to Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer just talk about nothing important and it through me for a loop. Where's the story at? What's the point? Then the cool surf music came, then there was that guy from Grease and some black guy with an Afro. I thought, "How cool is that?"

Then they killed a guy for something in a brief case and then John Travolta was dancing. And then Uma Thurman O.D.'s and John stabs an adrenaline shot into her chest to make her wake up. At this time it's game over. This has been the coolest movie with the sickest shit I've ever seen! My best friend at the time, rented this movie and got to this part and had to shut it off. He couldn't watch any more. I don't think to this day, he ever did finish watching it.

And Bruce Willis hadn't even done anything at this point. When he comes out and does his "Die Hard" thing, It's like you've watched two cool movies at once. And it ain't over. There's the Bonnie Situation, and Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer again. None of the stories put together made any sense, but you still walked out of the movie theater thinking you watched a complete movie.

Not only can you quote from it, you can watch it over and over again and still surprised.

So that's my favorite movie of all-time. When I tell people that, they're either surprised that I've thought it through so much or they didn't see the movie to begin with and couldn't say much either way.

And it pretty much defines who I am. I love crime movies. I love Tarantino. I love Film-Noir or Neo-Noir. And I live my life in a post-modern society where pop-culture is recycled and spoon fed to the masses. This movie is the turning point. It's the Nirvana "Smells Like Teen Spirit" of Cinema. You can take it or leave it. But that's just me.

Another Top 5...

Top 5 movies as this years Waterfront Film Festival:

1) Chapter 27 - The darkest movie I saw this year. A fictional tale about Mark David Chapman's three day stay in New York City before he shot John Lennon. His adventures mirror that of Holden Caulfield's in Catcher In The Rye. And Jared Leto gained 67 lbs. to play the lead role. He won't get an Oscar nod but he sure does deserve one.

2) Eagle Vs. Shark - New Zealand's answer to Napoleon Dynamite and in many ways, surpasses it. A quirky romantic comedy for the rest of us.

3) When A Man Falls In The Forest - This movie contained the single most exciting moment of the film festival. When Timothy Hutton calls his wife Sharon Stone on the phone and gets her answering machine, he pours out his heart and soul in rapid fire. Afterwards, the audience clapped at his heartfelt honesty. Then the audience let out a loud gasp at what happened next. Go see this movie to find out.

4) The Go-Getter - They ought to name a genre after Holden Caulfield in which the premise is always the same. A teenage boy comes of age while going on a road trip to find a family member or discover an unknown truth. Throw in a little Oedipus Complex and you got yourself a good movie.

5) Tie - Blue State/ Divergence - Both these movies took on Bush and the war in Iraq. In Blue State, a defeated democrat attempts to move to Canada. in Divergence, a wounded soldier falls in love while contemplating the fact he may have to go back to war. I'm not anti-war or anti-Bush so the filmmakers' attempts to draw sympathy to their plight went over my head. But put together, these two movies did have enough of a storyline outside their political agenda to warrant a place on my top 5.

Screenwriting And The Art Of Being Lazy

I realize I haven't been posting that much on here. My excuse is that I'm busy working my day job trying to make money to eventually make the move out west. But really my intention was to only write quality stuff on here to represent my writing style. I suppose I could turn this into an online diary and tell you guys what I had for breakfast, but I think I should keep it somewhat professional.

Instead, I'll give a sort of state-of-the-union address on this summer so far. First, what's with all these two-and-a-half/three hour Blockbuster movies? Pirates, Spiderman, etc. I thought we were told to keep our scripts under 110 pages? I personally subscribe to the hour-and-a-half movie theory myself. If it clocks in at one-fifteen, bonus!

Next week, I'll be attending the Waterfront Film Festival and I'm excited. I was a bit disappointed at this year's selection at first. But after reading all the movies, I've found a couple I'm looking forward to seeing. Like Chapter 27, the Mark David Chapman movie starring Jared Leto. Lindsey Lohen is in it, and since she's Maxim's hottest babe right now, that can't be bad thing. Although, there's no horror movies this year. Where's all the genre films at? But I'll get my weekend pass and watch every movie I can. I plan on taking in over 19 movies/documentaries/seminars/short film programs in a three day span. I'm devoted like that. Or crazy.

I've got my next script down in treatment form. I let my screenwriter friend read it and he liked the storyline and loved the title. But he often likes my ideas then trashes my screenplays. But that lets me know what I need to work on then.

Top 5 movies of the first half of 2007:
1) Smokin' Aces
2) Grindhouse
3) 300
4) Alpha Dog
5) The Number 23

Screenwriting And The Art Of Losing

Well, that screenplay contest I entered just announced the finalists. And I wasn't one of them. I'm not too upset because you can't expect to win everything. But it is a good experience for me to feel failure and rejection on one of my screenplays. It's all new to me. It's a new feeling. One that I'm going to have to sort out and work through. Other screenwriters have felt this feeling on much larger scales. It's something I should expect to get used to.

It does bring up a lot of questions, though. You take stock in what you've accomplished so far and measure all the hard work you've put into it. You start asking questions like is it all worth it to continue? Do I believe I have enough talent and determination to continue? Am I willing to make it a life-long career pursuit or should I try something else? Am I ready for Hollywood?

Than you need to ask yourself the hard questions. Did I really write the best screenplay I could write? Did I really work hard enough? Am I just fooling myself? I can say the answer to that last question is yes. We all are fooling ourselves. But some how we press on anyways. It doesn't matter that we're chasing after fool's gold. Because how neat would it be to write a movie someday?

So, here's my post-contest depression plan:

1) I'm going to post this for all the world to see.

2) I'm going straight to the movie theater. I'm going to sit by myself with a large tub of popcorn with extra butter and I'm going to fight through the screenplay blues.

3) I'm going to come home and take stock. Set more goals. drop more time-consuming activities. Read more books. Write more every day.

4) Enter another screenplay contest.

5) Repeat process until I have a happier ending.

P.S. Now that I think about it. My original goal wasn't to win the screenplay contest. It was to enter the screenplay contest. Something I had wanted to do the last two years and had failed. But this year I was determined to and I did. So I'm a winner after all.

Football And The Art Of Narrative Flow

It's an ongoing debate in my house about the narrative flow of something and how important it is. Or maybe I'm just on a kick and I'm driving my roommates crazy. The arguments usually follow our Sunday night line-up of Sopranos and Entourage (Which we have dubbed Family Night). My one roommate usually suggest, "It needs more nudity!" To which I spout off something about gratuitous nudity and it not being necessary to the narrative flow.

So I'm watching the NFL draft and all the boring analysis that's going on and what do you know - a narrative story pops up. I'm talking about the plight of Brady Quinn. Quinn is from Columbus, Ohio and his dream as a young kid was to play for the Cleveland Browns, which is not too far from his hometown. How do I know this? Because they kept flashing up the photo of him at age 4 with a Cleveland Browns helmet and jersey. The Cleveland Browns had the third pick in the draft and a really good chance of picking Brady Quinn. When Oakland picked JaMarcus Russell and Detroit selected Calvin Johnson (Yes!), it looked like Brady Quinn will have his dream come true. They cut to Quinn sitting in the audience with his hot blonde girlfriend (No nudity...that would be gratuitous) . He's excited with anticipation. Cleveland has 15 minutes to make their selection so for 15 minutes the commentators talk up Brady Quinn.

"The Cleveland Browns select Offensive Tackle Joe Thomas from Wisconsin."

Everybody's going crazy! What just happened? Brady is reserved but you can tell he's dissapointed. Not only is he not gauranteed to be one of the top paid rookies, he has to sit there for who knows how long until he's drafted by another team. There was talk of him going to Miami at No. 9. But when that pick came and went hours later, you could see the smile on Brady Quinn's face getting strained. And you couldn't miss it because the camera was there to record every facial expression when his name wasn't announced.

For the next couple of hours, Brady Quinn was the top prospect coming in the draft and he sat there and watched as Cornerbacks, Safetys, Defensive Ends were drafted in picks 10 through 21. Then Dallas was next with pick 22. Now Dallas has been known to trade away their picks for more picks and it was a strong possibility. All Brady Quinn could think about is will he be drafted by Dallas? Dallas already has a quarterback so probably not. Then the announcement comes.

"The Dallas Cowboys trade their pick to the Cleveland Browns."

What? Is it true? Could it really happen? Did the Browns have a change of heart?

"The Cleveland Browns select Brady Quinn out of Notre Dame."

Yes! Out protagonist reaches his goal. It was a long, hard road for Brady Quinn but dreams do come true. And I would like to thank Brady Quinn and the NFL for providing a little narrative flow to spice up an afternoon of watching the football draft on TV.

WGA Certified!

I just got my documentation of registration from the Writers Guild of America, west. This may seem like a very trivial thing to you but for me, I'm quite excited! I was entertaining the idea of framing it. The only other thing I've got to proudly display is a little trophy I won in high school. If you can believe this, I won a Turkey Tourney Free Throw Contest. It was the first time I ever won anything. It will always be a fond memory of mine.

As far as the big picture goes, it doesn't mean squat. But, it's these little moments that let you know you've reached the next plateau. It's good to sit back and see how far you've come and take pride in that. And it keeps you in perspective on how far you still got to go.

So, toast to me - and my certificate of registration. May there be many more to come.

Hello World Of Screenwriting Blogs

I've decided to join the world of screenwriting blogs. For my first post, I realized I didn't have that much to say. I've got a few ideas I'd like to share with you but I'll save them for another day.

I should probably start with a little bit about myself. I live in Michigan and have been studying screenwriting for a couple of years. I'm 33 years old and I am determined to make a career out of my passion for movies. My education isn't NYU or USC Film School, but rather my education began when I sold a lot of my CD's on ebay (I'm also a music fan) and used the money to buy every screenwriting book I can get my hands on. In essence, I'm getting my screenwriting education at a fraction of the cost. I've bought over 88 books, most of them for under five bucks. Later, I hope to review some of these books for you to let you know how helpful they might have be.

I realize reading a couple of books doesn't make you a screenwriter. But isn't it all really just theory. Like football - it's just a ball and field. Everything else is theory. That's why I've called my blog Philosophy Of Screenwriting. To me, it's all a bunch of rules I need to learn and dissect. To learn their importance. If I can figure out why to do something, I can figure out how to do it better. And, if need be, how to break them.

So far, I've written three screenplays and do not consider myself anything but amateur. Maybe even Lower than an amateur. I recently entered my first screenplay contest. If anything comes of it I'll let you know. But just disciplining myself enough preparing to enter was a tremendous learning experience about myself. And I'd like to share that with you also.

Other plans of mind include actually moving out to California in the near future. I don't plan on moving to Los Angeles until I'm invited, but I recently have received an opportunity to move to San Diego that I'm preparing for. That will put me two hours outside of Los Angeles.

Well, that's all for now. Breathless in on the Sundance Channel and I'm looking forward to watching it.