Walkabout Thoughts #75

Thoughts & Stream of Consciousness, rough and ready, from an award-winning filmmaker and author you’ve never heard of, while walking off long Covid, and listening to podcasts…day of walk, 5/14/2024

Weather for the day… starting out, 56° nice sunny day 72° upon returning home

Podcast Marc Maron ep. 1538 - A. Whitney Brown

So May 9, 2024 Roger Corman died. I grew up watching his movies. Thank you.

Marc on the podcast will interview A. Whitney Brown at his home in Austin, Texas, which is cool because I remember him well mostly on SNL (boy he had some interesting things to say about Dennis Miller, whom I had liked until more recent years when he turned into a braindead conservative of sorts...now I know why). But then Marc talks about being at the rock museum or something and someone pulls out a bunch of cool stuff, showing him things that’s pretty cool to hear him talk about.

Interesting story about Marc’s stand-up (sitdown?) show, when a guy yelled out “fuck you“ as Marc starts talking about "Jew stuff" (being Jewish) as he put it. After talking for a while about the event he said, "I don’t know. Maybe the guy just got triggered."

I do get a kick out of, after an entire lifetime of venerating, enjoying, and watching those who entertained me, to now hear the background stories to all of those things and those times in general. This is a good podcast.

I guess as someone born in the mid 1950s, growing up through everything I had, getting "triggered" was a luxury. I never understood those knuckle draggers who just spent their egos all over anyone in range, picking fights, arguing, generally showing their ignorance and using their egos like cheap, bad guy perfume (when real mean wear cologne, you see).

I spent most of my life biting my tongue about things I wanted to speak out about. I was raised to be polite, to fit into situations. Speak up for yourself, to be sure (if you met my mother, she lived that). Over time as society evolved, where eventually you could do that and feel somewhat protected, somewhat so in a group, to the point that you can often say it when you’re alone against some other person or even to a group...maybe. 

Some of us have enough privilege that we can walk away from those sitautions alive, or to at least survive the ensuing hospital visit, while some of us, won't, don’t, can't. All for what? An opinion? An orientation? Because you were born into who you are? WTF? What is wrong with some people's children? Like MAGA who punched people in a Walmart for wearing a covid mask. WHY? Who made you the fasion police, because that's what you're doing/being. That is, an asshole.

I have trouble with the word "triggered". "Activated" perhaps...activated? Someone came up with a better word but I can’t remember if it was "activated" or not. But to me "triggered" is not a lack of self-discipline, an issue of poor personal restraint, but something that goes to the root of one's soul. Something one truly can have no control over. While often today what we from many people being “triggered “is about shit that they just want to feel triggered over, or to let go, to respond to aggressively over for a variety of reasons. How can so many, have so many issues/problems. Some do, to be sure. I feel for them. But for too many? I suspect it's poor parenting. Perhaps not putting your kids through enough trials, to help them evolve to be strong individuals. To pay attention to that, to mature into it.

Fully, I agree some people should say things they say that trigger people. But we shouldn't get triggered. Annoyed, upset, irritated? Sure. Respond intelligently? Cleverly counter stupidity, ignorance? Sure. But we're not doing that as often as I'd like to see anymore. Not that we were even a race of geniuses about that kind of thing.

I'm not a person to say the kids are weak, stupid, whatever. We've evolved. Both sides however need to grow into these times so we're all more reasonable, aware, understanding, comprehending. That ain' "woke". Though on the other hand, "woke" is just better aware. What the Buddists (Buddha Dharma) refer to as Zanshin, or Enlightenment. React appropriately because you understand, or don't react until you do. React because you do, not react and realize later, you don't.

Both sides could toughen up a little. Especially, those who resent simply being better aware of other's needs who are less considered. 

I suspect there are many people who think they’re triggered in the way that they believe Black or Gay people have a life choice of who they are. It’s nice we can speak out more freely now. But too often people are speaking out when they should keep their damn mouth shut. Sorry, but MAGA comes to mind.

Too many delusionally believe (I'd say think, but I'm unsure where thinking comes into it) we live in a theocratic or totalitarian state where they are part of the majority. Which doesn’t matter then as long as you’re part of your beloved leader's group. Until he (probably "he") goes psychotic and you become part of those, as in the USSR when Stalin slaughtered at least 9 million citizens (somewhere between 6 and 20 million). Fun times. Authoritarianism. Yay! Rise up authoritarian autocrats! It’s all, fun and joking until you are the one that gets tossed in the camps, or shot in the back of the head after being dragged out of your bed at 2 AM while your spouse and children watch. Then it’s not quite so much fun.

Stalin by the way practiced the fun form of government called (wait for it) Stalinisn:

Key characteristics of Stalinism include:

• Totalitarianism: Stalinism is characterized by a totalitarian means of governing12.
• Marxist–Leninist policies: Stalin implemented Marxist–Leninist policies during his rule12.
• Socialism in one country: This doctrine held that a viable classless society could be built within Soviet boundaries, despite encirclement by a largely capitalist world1.
• Rapid industrialization and collectivization: Stalin launched a program of rapid industrialization and forced collectivization of agriculture1.
• Cult of personality: Stalin presented himself as the sole infallible interpreter of party ideology1

ANY of that sound familiar to any current America FPOTUS now in his own personal criminal trial with more trials to come?

Anyway, I think we need to be less triggered. 

And I agree we need to do less canceling. 

There’s a difference between confronting, or refusing to accept a concept. Than simply ignoring it utterly, or refusing it to be brought into the light were it tends to die after a while. I attribute that to a lack of patience in today society about the bad things we don't like and about the wrong things we think if you won't talk about them or refuse to acknowledge them, they'd go away. We really need to get that straight in our heads. You addrews evil, civily. When it becomes murderous, you act accordingly. You act proactively, in ways that are more intelligent than less. Holding your breath until it goes away? Is no solution.

So I’ve been doing these "Walkabout Thoughts" for a while now. Which, as you may know, started with my trying to walk off symptoms of long Covid and found that it worked. Somewhat (some is better than none) If I just walked enough miles. Before it would take me a few days to get around to doing a read through of my podcast thoughts and walking ruminations, toward getting it to a functional point of anyone else reading it. Now I’m often doing it the same day, putting it out the next day, at 6am in the morning. I’ve had my overall Murdockinations blog around for 13 years now? Something like that.

There was a time where a lotta people around the world were reading it. I think my biggest readership was during the Arab Spring when a lot of Egyptians were having trouble accessing information in country or about their country. So with this current rendition of my blog, with these "Walkabouts Thoughts", which I intersperse with various oddities intermittently, once the blog hits the internet and goes live, I then share it on social media. And I pretty quickly get hits by people reading it. It was nice to see this morning when my previous blog went live, even before I could share it I noticed there were already people reading it. Tthank you for that! Actually, I still haven’t shared that one on social media today, I forgot.

As for those intermittant blogs between these "Walkabouts", some recent ones include:

• AI Evaluation - "POTUS" Al Capone vs FPOTUS45 Donald Trump
• Mother's Day (or a holiday) blog
• Kicking Around What God Knows, With Copilot
• The MAGA Moebius Strip Conundrum
• Atheism was Created by Theists... Who Came Second

Anyway. Moving on…
Wow. A. Whitney Brown only got as far as eighth grade? He was always a really sharp guy. I always thought he was more educated. He just had that air. I guess like Dennis Miller. And according to Brown, yeah, book and it's cover, and all that...

A. Whitney Brown left home in 1968 at 15, leaving behind the kerosene lamps and outhouse and his family who was falling apart through alcoholism and mental institutions and he headed up to Canada to a rock festival with Steppenwolf and some of the people that were there were not long after a Woodstock. Then he went to Woodstock. How was that? Damn. Pretty cool.

My older brother is about his age. He had a band with my sister in the 60s. I think I remember him talking about wanting to go to Woodstock, to some big festival the entire country of young were headed to and it was going to be awesome! But he couldn’t get the money together and didn't go. He later regretted that.

For Whitney, he said LSD saved his life and that Woodstock had a lot of psychedelics. For me, I refuse to do that or heroin until I got out of high school. My brother turned me onto cannabis when I was 16, the summer before 12th grade (I turned 17 within a week). Graduated 1973 having tried weed for the first time with my brother that time in Phoenix on the way home that summer from Cape May, New Jersey where I was surfing with my cousin. My older brother lived in Arizona for about seven years. I went home and immediately stopped doing all the pills I was doing back then, which was gonna lead me to early grave. I didn’t get into psychedelics until I think '74 when I graduated,got a job, and moved out to my own apartment that summer of 73. Friend of mine turned me onto his fiancé’s girlfriend who was living a block away and who I eventually married.

I had acquired some acid from somewhere that first time. I wanted to try it, but was afraid to. But my girlfriend said she had done it before a few times and she would stay with me that night and what a great night that was. Then I really got into it over the next 10 years or so until the 80s when cocaine came on the scene. While there was still acid, more so... mushrooms. I’d have to say over the 70s and 80s I tried a lot of things. Make a good book or a movie, maybe.

As happened to Whitney as detailed on the podecast, I wonder if I can find a single moment in my life that I can trace everything back to when it changed everything? I want to say yes, but I also want to say, probably multiple episodes of that. I suppose the situation I mentioned above with my brother and the first time I tried weed in Phoenix, actually Mesa, Arizona, obviously changed my life (for the better) because I truly believed I probably would’ve done the wrong pills, probably with some alcohol, over that next year and never graduated. Or made it into the next yeara. I had a serious belief back then that I'd never live until 21. That belief freed me up to do a lot of crazy shit. Though I hadn't accounted for something. I think the reason I survived that, the crazy shit, was because I’d had so much professional training, already. 

Martial arts in grade school and early junior high, fighting tournaments, under a world class Sensei. Military training, search and rescue, and first responder first aid in Civil Air Patrol in Junior high when I flew and landed my first airplane, and took ground school. And damn just so much stuff. I used to say by the time I graduated high school had done more (back in 1973) than many adults had done in their entire lives. I mean, I wrote a screenplay about part of that, “The Teenage Bodyguard. “An internationally awarded screenplay, actually with a known Hollywood producer attached to it...if we can ever get it sold and find the right damn director who has a vision at least somewhat similar to mine, in telling a story of what actually happened, rather than trying to make it into a simple money making vehicle (That is, money, nice!). I mean, dude! Let’s do both!

Shhhh… Don’t tell anyone, the screenplay I wrote was my own biopic for a week of my life in the 70s. Apparently it’s bad form to let people know you’re the screenwriter for a story about you. I don’t know why it should matter. (no, I DO, with generally so many bad screenplays...I do get it, bad screenwriter, bad story, producer's/director's wasted time, they do get hammered with nonsense...)

But I have a university degree in psychology and phenomenology, both good training for self discovery, and professional observation and reportage. I’m also an award-winning writer/screenwriter and the screenplay is a multiple award winner. Now, if I can just sell the damn thing. So if you know any good preferably known, directors…

I pitched that bodyguard concept to a producer in London long ago now. I had adapted a paranormal romance novel to screenplay format, at the authors request. Which got me in touch with him. He asked, "What else do you have?" I told him I’ve got these written screenplays and I have these ideas that I’m thinking about writing. He said, "If you ever write that idea, “the teenage bodyguard", I want to see it first."

I’m not stupid. Over the next 19 days I wrote it as fast as I could and got back to him. That was no where near as good as it is now, by the way.

This was a while back I don’t know 2012 maybe. He said, "Thanks, I'll send it off to the readers and see what they say." And then, I never heard from him again. Over the next years I reworked that draft. I hadn’t send him my first draft, I sent my second. Never send your first draft to anyone. I  eventually worked with screenplay consultant Jennifer Grisanti and that producer I mentioned above, Robert Mitas, who still produces alongside producer/actor Michael Douglas. Loving his new series on Apple+ streaming about Ben Franklin in France.

Anyway, that London producer disappeared. Eventually, I tried to track him down. What I found was, he was actually a micro producer on very tiny projects. Too small for this story.Maybe he could have been a good connection, networking and all. I don't know. So I moved on.

Oh, one thing I did want to say about that London producer was, I offered to change the title. I thought it was too obvious. But he said he loved that title. Don’t change it, he said.It says everything right there. He also said the storyline reminded him of “The Place Beyond Phe pines". So I went and watched that movie and loved it and it re-oriented me on my screenplay. My first draft was trying to be a biopic, a dramatic documentary. I was trying to stick to the truth. But that’s not entertaining. That’s a documentary, which while it can be entertaining as a documentary, I was shooting for something else.

It’s a true crime genre film and a biopic. But that seemed to be working against me so I came to wonder, is it a biopic if it’s only covering one week of someone’s life? Nope. But the thing is, for people to accept the protagonist, they had to know his background so they would buy it all, buy into what they were seeing? So after years of not realizing I shouldn’t call it a biopic, I started calling it a true crime drama. 

Now I think I have a better chance at a director seeing what I'm hinking and take it seriously as a drama. Not to mention it actually happened as a true crime story involving a 1973 Tacoma Washington mafia family. And this kid how protects witness who is running from that family, who owned the Tiki topless restaurant in Lakewood Washington, the  greater Tacoma area's first topless joint. I researched these guys for years and the more I found the more I was stunned.

Turned out there was a federal court trial of these guys that had to be moved to San Francisco and became national headline news, because they couldn’t trust Seattle/Tacoma government as the crime family had their fingers deep into the sheriff's office, the prosecutor, and maybe even the governor, or at least his office.

There is a fascinating book by a Seattle newspaper writer who did write a book about the greater Seattle area mafia families. Good book.

VICE: STRIPPERS, PROSTITUTION, DIRTY MONEY, AND CROOKED COPS

by Rick Anderson

Just passed my 2nd mile, working on my third, hoping to get a fourth. Not really feeling 100% though.

Whitney is now recounting his travels on the podcast at this point, so awesome.

That’s something, he said, maybe remember something. 

After I got divorced in 2002, whenever my kids would be away for the weekend, I would hit the bars in Seattle. All I did was commute 4 hours a day, work hard in IT, then raise my kids. No time for dating, or adult oriented fun. I had a lot of fun with the kids, but you know, you need to blow off steam in a novel environment once in a while.

With the kids gone, I would take the ferry over from Bainbridge Island, and try to hit every bar in Seattle... over time. I'd wear completely different clothes each time: Grunge one time, dressed to the 9s another. Had some adventures. There was one bar I liked, owned by a Russian guy. Called the "Backdoor". A block or two up the street from Pioneer Square, which is a big party bar venue area, with the bar right next to the Seattle underground light rail entrance, on an incline and across the street up above...the county courthouse. 

There were steps going down to the light rail and a few feet away the back door of the Backdoor with steps going up (like 60 steps, they were killer when you'd had a few or many). This place was often packed, I remember fighting to get to the bar to order another drink so I could talk to the Russian owner. I gave him my card and said, "You know what you’re missing here? A website." Why that’s memorable is I said that and he looked around at that packed little room off the dance floor, which was off the other bar on the other side side. Everything‘s packed with people (almost every time I was in there, the only time it wasn't was one day I wandered in around lunch time and people were sitting around eating lunches). He took the card, nodded his head, smiled and said, "OK." Never heard from him. Days later, I realized how stupid that was. Why the hell did he need a website when a lot of people still hardly knew what a website was. And with little marketing the place was always packed.

I forgot to mention that I rewrote my bodyguard screenplay with Robert Mitas’ input. I’ve sent them both off to screenplay contests and for whatever reason, my longer more accurate version has won more awards. Although that shorter collaboration screenplay in a better screenplay format to be honest, has also won a couple.

You see, what I came to realize, or believe anyway, with the rewritten version, it is a better spec script, better sellable script. And the problem with that is even if the true crime drama is not as easy to sell, I personally find it (and apparently others do as well) a far better story. And for how I am, a far more accurate screenplay, depicting more of what happened more accurately. I found it was funny because I had cards in the screenplay with dates and Robert thought that would confuse the audience. Too many dates and jumping around. I was telling my childhood in reverse and the criminals actions in real time leading up to the beginning of "the week". Sounds confusing, it's not. And since we re-wrote it I’ve seen a lot of movies that have cards on screen with dates and by cards I mean on screen text, or inserts (SUPERS). Since we re-wrote it, I've seen a lot of movies that have those and a lot that don’t... so I don’t know. I wonder if it isn't just personal preference.

Well? I’ve got until I die to sell the script and see it produced. So I’m giving it my best shot. I’ve submitted it to several companies just the past couple weeks. If only I knew who would be interested I'd send it to them. But that's every screenwriter's dilemma, isn't it. Of course the problem is not sending it, but it getting to them, whomever would care to see it. I find it ironic because true crimes pretty popular, so WTF is the problem?

OK, I just hit 3.5 miles. That means I’m guaranteed 4 miles plus today. Yay! 

Whitney has a good point on the podcast about Mark Twain who he said was a stand-up comedian but they called it lecturing back then. He said he was his hero as far as doing stand up. I love Mark Twain, always have. I never thought of him as a standup, but I’ve often thought that about quotes of his.

Whitney said nobody made him laugh harder than WC Fields. Regardless of anything about him, I have always enjoyed his work since I was a kid, love those old funny guys, and duos (or trios). I was a huge fan of Woody Allen since I saw his first film back in this 70s? Aside from my psychology degree at university and aside from my minor in writing and screen writing, I had focused on the cinematic works of Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen, and Hitchcock. Since then as I found out about all three of those guys being...problematic...characters, in their personal or professional lives. So, what are you gonna do? No one‘s gonna give a shit 100 years from now when they view their works.

On that topic, I first ran into problematic professionals and their art when my beloved grandmother told me as a kid she didn’t like Charlie Chaplin. She’s been dead for decades now and I’ve since learned Charlie was greatly misunderstood and malaigned. Sigh...

So the way I look at it is if they’re still getting money (and they’re still alive) from their art, consider not giving them more money. But if they’re dead, I don’t know, fuck off? They’re historical at that point.

Whitney said: “the casual brutality of life, day-to-day.” “to respond to that with laughter, to turn that into laughter… “

That’s interesting. I’ve long thought about writing my autobiography and I’ve been storing notes anytime I write anything that’s historically correct about my history, just toward that. I found a lot of humor in the tragedy in my life. Not alot, not always big, but it's there. We all have it. The tiny tragedies just to us? Maybe I need to focus more on that. It’s funny because since I was much younger, like high school, I would tell friends things that happened to me and they'd be rolling in the aisles laughing about it. I’d be like... you think that’s funny? But I was in on the joke because I would laugh with them because you could see the absurdity. The whole pain and anguish plus time equals comedy, thing. I never quite knew what to do with that. How to turn it into money, or a living?

In my way of thinking, a lot of my fiction, of my published sci-fi and horror, has a lot of comedy in it. When I think back in my life to just about every time I almost died, there was always laughter or a chuckle involved first and then it happened. Giggle, giggle, grin, then Boom!

And I got in my 4 miles for the day [this now is from after I got home: I finally took my prevsious walk's steps of 3 miles and subtracted from today's and found the "steps" for 1 mile at 2,190 (I'm just calling it 2220 steps equaling a mile, for me)]

OK, so I’ll leave you with that. It’s almost time for lunch.

As always, I wish you all, all the greatest success and good health!

Just put in the time and effort for those successes.  
Until next time!

Cheers! Sláinte!

Walkabout Thoughts #56

My thoughts, Stream of consciousness, rough and ready, while walking off long Covid and listening to podcasts… July 17, 2023, Monday

Weather for the day… 67° starting out, 72° when I got home

Podcast Deja News by Rachel Maddow, final episode of the season: Episode 6: “Hello America, this is Addis Ababa.” This episode is relating our defense of Ukraine, through to something that happened many many years ago in 1935 when blacks signed up to defend an African country, Ethiopia who were a member of the League of Nations, precursor to the UN, when there were only two black governed nation states in Africa. This was Mussolini, the Italian fascist, not the current fascist Putin in Russia. Mussolini thought if other countries are taking land in Africa, why shouldn't we? So instead of our decision to support Ukraine against Russia today, in 1935 America decided not to for Ethiopia against Italy. This is that story. Mussolini conjectured, they take over another country in a continent where other nations have colonized them. Why was that wrong? Because the era of colonization was over, dumb ass.

An anthropologist once said, "The human race is designed to raise up certain individuals and then take them down. While they were raised up in being something new, different, maybe better (hopefully), at some point they become an irritation to the overall organism and must be eliminated. Thus in example, Jesus was raised up and then eliminated. Where is that happening today and with whom? And are they that useful to humanity or just a small minority who have wrested power to abuse the entire nation (organism) as we see when authoritarianism takes countries over? To be sure at times a majority gets into it, supporting it.

I have published two of my screenplays as books, but for only a short time. I ordered my own copies, and when I receive them, I’m going to turn them off. I'll leave them there until these are produced as films and then, turn them back on again. “The Teenage Bodyguard", is a biopic and true crime story that’s been winning awards. I worked with producer, Robert Mitas (who was a producer on films with Michael Douglas) as consultant and producer to rewrite it is a shorter screenplay. 

But this is the longer original, a very well researched screenplay that got his attention. The second screenplay book I published is my horror and kind of comedy, “Gray and Lover, The Hearth Tales Incident". I entered a screenplay festival, where a side benefit was getting your screen place published as a book. I thought what the heck? But I also thought that if you  are really serious about having a screenplay produced, publish the screenplay as a book after the films is released, or at least after its purchase toward production (maybe not then).

Speaking of other works, my antiwar documentary filmic poem, "Pvt. Ravel's Bolero" is available exclusive on ThrilzTV. It has 18 short film awards internationally including, Best War Documentary, Best Experimental Film, Best Director, and others. In my previous blog you can see my previous poster for the film.

It sure seems like we usually know a war is coming, before it starts. So why don’t we do things ahead of time. as if the war has started? I also never understood, we have NATO and we have the UN, and while there are countries not part of NATO, why do we let that stop us from refusing war, ever again? Or at least do everything we can before one starts to cut it off. Yeah, yeah, I get all the contraindications, but while we're still at a point in our infancy, in our adolescence that we continue to allow wars, aggression against other countries? Come on! Sometimes after long paying your dues, you simply have to accept that you are a professional...or you ARE mature enough to do what is right and correct.

Aggressors, either Mussolini, or Hitler, or Putin, do not learn lessons. Donald Trump did NOT (never will), as one Republican Congresswoman Susan Collins had said ("Trump has learned ‘a pretty big lesson’ from impeachment"), learn a lesson from his bad actions. Nope. ain't gonna happen. What these dictatorial autocrats learn from failure is how to succeed further, the next time. What you do with these people, as we saw in World War II with these imperialistic aggressors, is you physically stop them, disallowing them their desires. We have still not done that with Putin, or helped Russia out of their delusions. Putin has fed them propaganda and dezinformatsiya for over 20 years. They have generationally been inculcated through the Soviet union since 1917, and before that as a country of serfs under a czar. Putin should have been reacted to long before the Ukrainian invasions. He should’ve been stopped before the 2014 invasion. Not just western democracies and America seem crippled when it comes to being proactive. One can offer climate change as evidence. I offer Ukraine here as evidence. At some point one has to learn you do not put up with bullies or you actualize them and propagate their existences.

In 2014, when "little green men" we’re running around, supporting Ukrainian Russian separatists, when still no one knew who they were, that was when we should (all) have supported Ukraine. 100% in all ways possible. Because Russian would not have taken Crimea and we would not now be involved in the Ukrainian war because of this delusional, Russian dictator once again. When will we learn that? Never? Apparently. Well, we're doing (a little) better, now.

I also think we need to sign on to the agreement about cluster (bombs) munitions. We need to sign on about land mines (thanks again, Trump). We need to get the world into a knee jerk reaction against international aggression at some point and, granted this may be a little premature, though I hope not, because earth really needs to stop allowing war.

The bombing of Japan that ended the war in the Pacific was a horrific event that did with Oppenheimer thought it would do. What he pushed for. It horrified humanity. Perhaps what we need now is for Russian nationals themselves to set off a nuke. A college kid can create an atomic bomb, they just need some fuel. Once they find specifically were Putin is at the moment and trying to minimize "collateral damage" as the military prefers to say, that might just wake the Russians the fuck up. But if anyone other than Russians do that, it just simple not serve the purpose to turn Russia around in their current despicable course.

Why do we allow people like Putin or Donald Trump even to breathe the same air as decent people? This is not a conundrum, by the way.

As Rachel says in the podcast, "Dictators force you to consider your own interest against others." In the hope that yours will win out, to support theirs in the end, and the beginning. In this far too narcissistic world anymore (See, MAGA), an entire political party apparently devoted to narcissism, and the needs of the one each one over that of the group or the group over that of all citizens.

Putin has shown himself to be a callous anachronism...someone who displays a lack of empathy or sensitivity in a context where such behavior has become (by him...or them) no longer appropriate or acceptable. And the same is true of Donald Trump, and those who support either of them.

I agree NATO shouldn’t be going to war against Russia because of Ukraine. The United Nations Armed Forces should be. Which doesn't exist in that form. And if it did, might prove problematic. But does end  justify the means?

According to Donald Trump, his January 6 insurrection was an FBI false flag operation. But if we put him in jail, his supporters will do it again. That’s what we’re up against? One has to be unavailingly stupid to buy that line of bullshit. Well...MAGA.

Putin: the greatest catastrophe of the 20th century was the fall of the Soviet Union. Excuse me, while I guffaw. Donald Trump: his not being reelected is the greatest catastrophe in the entire 21st-century. Which we just started. Double guffaw. Moronic comics.

If Donald Trump‘s allegedly mushroom shaped penis were to "eat" all of his ego for a solid year until it was found to be engorged, like him, it would vastly larger than his character could ever attain. The man has no character, from a time when "character" was considered a comment on good character and not the existence of merely ANY character at all. Some "character" is not to be acceptable, or locked up, or wiped from existence for the benefit of Humankind. Remember when we were, "kind"?

After Trump's so far now, mere six court trials get going, I’ll need to be sure to get a photo of him now and from a year ago to compare to his photo from a year from hence. Because I would think his decrepitude will be easily observed in advancing exponentially.

The only metaphor I could think of just now for Trump's ludicrously adoring fans would be if he were seeb as their "cake", where instead of icing, it's just an inch of fat with no sugar, and maybe a little rancid, and they lap it up, loving it. And of course he and they, "want their cake and eat it, too."

Those especially in Congress or Governors of states, or Attorney General’s of states, who still disingenuously cannot clearly see how Donald Trump is criminal and how what he did was criminal, truly should be removed from office. So much of what these people do is not direct logic and they have to be able to draw conclusions and synthesize information, to apply it elsewhere. Tim Scott, saying he doesn’t hold Donald Trump accountable because Trump didn’t personally come and try to kill him on January 6, is probably the most disingenuous thing I’ve ever heard him say. Remove him from office. And he therefore has no right to run for POTUS.

I love Pad Thai. My son told me he read somewhere that Thai people don’t usually eat Pad Thai. That saddened me. On the other hand, there is a lot of other Thai food that’s much tastier. There’s Chinese food too, which I love that you can’t find in China because while it’s Chinese food based or China fusion or something. Chinese people in China wouldn't recognize it. I just don’t much care for Pad Thai with a solid wafer of egg in it. I only started seeing that in the past few years. Chicken, cut up in it is fine. I think when I started eating it, it was with pork, probably, but I’ve come to really like the chicken version. Even the tofu version can be good.

The number of Republicans who believe what Donald Trump did during his January 6 insurrection was criminal is under 10%. These are definitely low information people. Let me explain that. Information is real, it’s factual. They are however on the other hand, rather high DISinformation people. They're not stupid, but they are selective ignorant (on purpose).

What the hell is doing a shibboleth? That from Jon Lovett on the "Pod Save America" podcast: "Shibboleth is a single sign-on log-in system for computer networks and the Internet." Nope, not that. "a word or saying used by adherents of a party, sect, or belief and usually regarded by others as empty of real meaning." Maybe? What did AI said: "The phrase "doing a shibboleth" typically refers to using a particular word, expression, or custom as a test or a way to identify insiders from outsiders within a group or community." Ah, that must be why he keeps using it. "The term originates from an ancient Hebrew word, "shibboleth," which means "ear of corn" or "stream." In the Book of Judges in the Bible (Judges 12:5-6), it is described as a password used to distinguish between two groups of people who were at war."

I switched over to "Pod Save America" when Rachel’s double length, hour long, excellent podcast ended. And everyone should listen to Rachel‘s podcast of her season finale of Deja News ASAP.

Cheers! Sláinte!

"The Teenage Bodyguard" screenplay - Ruminations - Happy 4th!

Wishing you all a very happy 4th of July, 2023!

On that patriotic note, celebrating one of our own... 

I know a producer who’s worked with A-list talent on films, and read my screenplay, a true crime/biopic titled, "The Teenage Bodyguard". It sucked him in enough to then work with me on a rewrite. The rewrite was a selling script version while my original was what I referred to as the “Bible“ for the story that was the most researched, accurate and detailed. 

I get the concept of a biopic been entertaining. But for myself watching one, I prefer do at times, accuracy over entertainment value. As long as it’s interesting, engaging, evocative, and informative on things that happened, especially when in arenas I am unfamiliar with, even if it's a bit harsh, or bittersweet, I much prefer that in biopics better than the ones I would like which are merely entertaining and then, I later find out that half or all of it was just pure bullshit. IF you're going to tell a true story, based in a true story, at least try to be as accurate as possible, as much as possible. Unless possibly, if at the beginning your clearly state, "This is all bullshit, but very entertaining."

That producer said about the ending of my screenplay, a true story about a 17 year old guy (he was actually 18, but the producer thought 17 was a better idea), and about his experience over the course of a week in 1974 while protecting a murder witness. She had been a cocktail waitress at Tacoma‘s first popular topless club, run by the local crime family, the Carbones, enemies of the bigger and scarier Seattle crime family, the Colacurcios. And yes, all of Italian ancestry. The Carbone situation made national news in the late 80s for their federal court trial that had to be moved to San Francisco.

This producer said of my ending that he hated it. It had "ripped his heart out". Which was the point. The rewrite we did together, I wrote it, he guided me, and is a more mechanically functional screenplay than mine. But we left out that ending. I loved that. I loved it because this was the orientation of the entire story: bittersweet. For the young guy in a real world, growing up in a tough town of Tacoma, Washington in the Pacific Northwest, a town far tougher than he knew. This is not a typical "coming of age" tale. It is darker than light. Sadly, so many who I have tried to share the screenplay with, latched onto the young guy, hot girl, both caught up in the absurd situation storyline.

The first producer I told about this story was a London producer who triggered the whole thing. He said it was a great story. And that bittersweet intensity was its selling point. I have ongoing access to the actual character in the story and full agreement from him to tell his story. He and his story both are the selling points of this screenplay/story. The problem I ran into with the story immediately when I started writing a screenplay about it, after a lot of research and ever more as the screenplay developed and through rewrites (before I met the producer I was convinced to rewrite it by) was that no one believed this guy‘s life when he would tell anyone about it back in the 1970s. 

So he eventually quit telling this story to people. Stories he would tell people about this life story in general were discounted and disbelieved. "Kids just don’t do things like that," they would say. What is so sad for him about all that was that he was already downplaying those things but still people disbelieved him. Which surprised him. They would claim he was lying to try and make himself look better. But he didn't lie. His desire to never lie is another story altogether. So when people disbelieved him, he was shocked to be questioned. Why would he lie. But then he learned how unusual much of what he had done was to most people. Back then.

Nowadays we know far more about people and more about kids who are known for doing amazing things. And more kids are doing more amazing things now. Just consider Greta Thunberg, for instance.

But back then, for that woman to have happened upon that kid, at that time in her situation, really was an amazing stroke of luck for her. Or them both, depending on how you view it. In the end, he succeeded in his first job as a bodyguard. He later had a few protection jobs after that and into adulthood. She remained while in his protection, unharmed, unseen, and unfound by her enemies until she left the Tacoma at the end of that week. The awakening of this young man, raised as and by then a lapsed Catholic, with an old-school Slovakian mother, and a distant, seldom seen, Irish father, with a troubled stepfather who really didn’t like him very much, these are all entirely other but interesting elements of his story. 

It was a different time in the 60s and 70s. Drug culture was more prevalent. Free love was, if not more of a thing, more of a cultural phenomenon. There were no cell phones. If you were in danger, you had to get yourself out of it or find a phone somewhere. People could commit crimes more easily, and get away with them more easily. 

Some crimes, like the one this story begins with and because, in that of a bouncer at that topless club, in reality his murder was committed at 2 AM in the club's parking lot. It was deemed by a corrupt Sheriff's office, first on the scene, as a random event of violence by an "anonymous person". When in reality it was done by that crime family, to one of their own and most likely, the Sheriff's office, at least some, probably the Sheriff himself, knew what was going on, and what had happened. As he was in the Carbone's pocket, 

I had well known screenplay site, "The Blacklist", perform coverage of the screenplay. One of the reviewers asked in his review, "Why isn’t this already on the screen somewhere?" And that was years ago. Why? Because I don’t live in Hollywood? Also, although things are easier now with the Internet, the Film Industry is still after all a business. For whatever reason, I've been unable to find just the right person who gets what I'm selling here. Hard to believe, but it's true and I bet this happens all the time with great stories/screenplays.

The aforementioned producer, when he read the screenplay, said he had trouble with the beginning. But he got himself through it and in the end, it made him want to contact me. He said he wanted me to rewrite it with his help. Which I think says something right there. 

After it was rewritten, we talked to several directors he got interested in it, who wanted to make it as a film. But either we didn’t really click with one another, or I simply didn’t like their "take" on the spirit of the movie, and it didn’t happen. Because I wouldn’t go forward. We had three chances to make it into a film that I turned down. Because no one seemed to catch onto what the film is really about or who the protagonist was/is. He wasn't just some teenage boy with raging sex hormones. As one true crime podcast put it ("Scene of the Crime"), he was incredibly knowledgeable for his age and time, a quite disciplined young man, with ADHD, who was quite ethical, and had since childhood had a strong sense of character and of right and wrong. Things that had gotten him into trouble at times. 

He had found the works of Aristotle in the local library, in fifth grade and read him. In the early 60s as a little kid, he had liked watching adult detective and court ("Perry Mason") TV shows, and espionage shows. Some he watched with his grandmother. While he watched kids shows too, these were not shows other kids watched. Anyway, overall this a very good story. I just hope before I die, or even after I die, that somebody makes it into a good (great?) movie. 

Ah, now I remember what that London producer had said about this story… It reminded him of the film, "The Place Beyond the Pines" (2012). Bradley Cooper and Ryan Gosling. A gritty crime drama. And that is what "The Teenage Bodyguard" is.

THAT is what I have been shooting for. More of a serious drama. But everyone wants to turn it into a teen romp or some bullshit. I don’t understand it. The screenplay starts with a few scenes that lead into the protagonists childhood in order to make his story/character all more believable/acceptable. It stresses ta bit on his family situation. He was perhaps immature emotionally, but in other ways much more of an adult than many adults. 

By the time he was 18 he'd done many things that some adult would never do over their entire lifetime. He was a trained marksman by 9th grade. He was military trained in the USAF auxiliary, Civil Air Patrol with search and rescue training, where in his squadron, he was a Flight Commander training other cadets in drill and discipline. CAP kids can get called out of school for search and rescue missions, whenever a small plane goes down, to search for it.

When he actually entered the US Air Force, he was made primary squad leader which the entire flight of 50 men take their lead in marching from. Granted, at over 6' the tallest also goes to the front right for reasons that should be obvious.

He had his Radio-Telephone Operators permit in 8th grade in 1968, in order to operate HAM radio and that same year he flew and landed his first airplane. He landed it with a 2-point landing, which the USAF pilot owner of the plane (a "Senior" in CAP) said was excellent. "Better than some pilots would do", he had said. That scene is in the screenplay. He took pilot ground school, twice that year. He had begun Isshinryu Okinawan Karate in fifth grade and fought tournaments around the Pacific Northwest. 

By time he got connected up with that waitress (through a "friend", or so he thought...), he might well have been the most adept teen in the entire region, if not one of the most adept and well trained on the entire West Coast. 

Tell me that isn’t all set up for one hell of a story!

I’ve not named that Hollywood producer who I had worked with, because we’re not actively working together now. However, he did said should I find a buyer on my own, he would definitely be interested in  being a producer on it. He also said he’s always looking for somebody for this project. 

He's a really busy guy, working on more active projects. He saw this film as a small indie feature. I see it as a little bit bigger indie project (again, "The Place Beyond the Pine"). So we’ve kind of parted ways, but on good terms and may still work together one day. I will say, at the time I worked with him, the last A-list actor/producer he had worked with, has been one of my performing arts "heroes" since childhood. Not to mention, his father. Who, when I was very young, with my own birth father absent, was one of my "TV/movie dads". I've spoken to other guys over the years, who knew exactly what that means, and who also had absent fathers.

By the way, interesting side note… That A-list Hollywood actor producer, whose dad I so admired in the early 1960s, up until he died too soon (but at an advanced age)… that dad of my producer had been discovered by a famous Director, back in the 49? Or so he said. 

After receiving my second-degree from Western Washington University (first from Pierce College), I attended a series of seminars with that famous director. I got to sit and listen to him Saturday after Saturday, about the most amazing tales and advice on film production and the golden age of Hollywood, about his career and the famous actors he had worked with. What I would do to have a video tape of those lectures. Or even an audio recording of it. I’d have done that, recorded it, but it would’ve been too obvious back then. I started that first day seminar to take a notes, but I just gave up because of the onslaught of what he was saying, story after story all that were so amazing and distracting. He moved up north here to the PNW to retire near his daughter who lived up here. Best seminars ever. Week after week of looking forward to Saturday Kramer seminars, in 1984, at Bellevue Community College.

The problem I feared I had with this screenplay, this story, this protagonist, this real person, was getting people to find his character and actions, believable. Just throw him into situations with no backstory seems artificial. It's hard to buy into. People might see it as fantasy. How is this kid able to do all this stuff? Or have the "guts" to even agree to do it? Some is just ignorance. Some is boredom in life. Some was his position in his sometimes troubled nuclear family. Some was his position in his dojo in grade school or his  position as Flight Commander in his CAP Squadron and his first responder training.

Nowadays we can maybe see that in a youth. We see too many films that really are fantasies, but sold to us as action adventure, sci-fi, whatever. I think about the protagonist in "The Teenage Bodyguard" in that he just had a solid foundation. He had a lot of training. He sweat and worked hard since childhood. He was a "dojo rat" from fifth grade, which means he was at his dojo 7 days a week, and even when the dojo wasn’t open sometimes, on Sundays. If he heard the Sensei was going to show up to do some paperwork on Sundays, he’d request showing up alone and working out. And begrudgingly, at first, it was granted. So after mass at St. Joe's Slovak Catholic Church, he'd take the bus to the dojo.

The point of all this? "The Teenage Bodyguard" is a very interesting, well researched, true crime biopic. It just need the right director who gets the story for what it is. One of these days...

A Mafia Murder And An Armed Teen

This is the story of "The Teenage Bodyguard." Who? Well, if you haven't already heard about this, in 1974 a teenager protected a murder witness, a woman and cocktail waitress for a week, from the mob, the mafia, from their "Enterprise". And he kept her alive. But did she survive?

Graphic by Kelly Hughes

Welcome to the Pacific Northwest podcast, "Scene of the Crime", who recently did a podcast titled, "Enterprise" (Also, here - podcast currently seems unavailable), in June of 2020. It told of the story of the Tacoma, Washington Carbone crime family who abused local Pierce County law enforcement and government all through the 1970s.

Years later, in 1978 during their San Francisco federal trial of their "Enterprise", they again murdered one of their bouncers who had been subpoenaed. But he was not the first bouncer they had murdered. The first was in 1974, and his name was Danny McCormack.

In the spring of 1974, there is a particular story that is of interest to us here. And that is the story of Gordie. After receiving a phone call from a "friend", he gave a woman who had been staying with the friend, a short ride.

When she got into his car, a 1967 Camaro RS/SS red convertible (two years later this model would be renamed as the Z28 model), she refused to give him an address to where he was taking here.

The first red light, and sign there was something wrong. Instead shea just told him where to turn until they got to her new living space. Her new home was with four people she had just met recently. With no ties at all to her past, or Gordie's friend, or Gordie for that matter.

At this point one might ask, "Why isn't this in theaters yet?" And if you're someone who could see this film produced, surely, say, "Hi!"

Exactly. Even the podcast pointed that out. The Blacklist, indicated that on an evaluation of this film. The Bluecat Screenplay Contest asked that exact question.

The Blacklist: "Since 2005, each December, the Black List releases its annual list, a survey of the most liked unproduced screenplays of that year. The annual lists are aggregated using votes from film executives working in the film industry." From The Blacklist

Bluecat Screenplay Contest: "Founded in 1998 by award-winning writer Gordy Hoffman, BlueCat has remained committed in discovering unknown, gifted screenwriters and showcases their work to a global audience year after year. Through written analysis provided to all entrants, BlueCat has supported thousands of screenwriters with many who have gone on to successful careers in the film and television industry."

Actually, I've been working with Gordie, the protagonist of this story, along with Voyage Media's head of their Originals Department, Robert Mitas. Robert has had screenplays produced himself, and worked producing films with actor and producer, Michael Douglas.
We are currently working to see this screenplay and story produced and into theaters or via another of many viewer platforms. I'd be happy with Netflix or Amazon Prime or others.

Text from Thursday, January 24th, 1974 Tacoma News Tribune article:

Patron kills bouncer at Tiki

The bouncer in a Lakewood night spot was slain early Sunday as he argued with a disgruntled customer in the parking lot.

Danny Derrick McCormick, 25, 3102 S. 47th St., was pronounced dead at Lakewood General Hospital at 2:30a.m.

He was employed by The Tiki, at Villa Plaza.

Sheriff's deputies were told McCormick was shot in the chest by a young white man who earlier had been harrassing a waitress in The Tiki.

After closing at 2AM, the suspect returned to pound on the cabaret door, unsuccessfully demanding to be let in. When McCormick and a friend went to their car, the suspect and a companion drove over and began angrily discussing the Tiki operation.

The suspect pulled a revolver, deputies were told. McCormick's friend grabbed him and told the bouncer to "get the gun."

McCormick was shot as he approached the suspect, who broke away and fled with his companion in their car.

An off-duty school security officer who had left with McCormick but gone to his own car fired a shot at the fleeing car as it sped away.

Mccormick was rushed to the hospital but did not respond to treatment.

It was this murder of a coworker that sparked this whole story. A story that led to a cocktail waitress to go on the run because, as she contended, she was IN that parking lot when Danny was murdered. A murder she said was NOT performed by an anonymous disgruntled patron, but rather by one of the capos of the head of the "Enterprise", John "Handsome Johnny" Carbone himself.

Why isn't this on screen yet somewhere?

Getting a film made is a magical thing. But we continue to work toward seeing this produced so you can see this story for yourself. And maybe, make up your own mind.

Popsicle Death - A Short Horror Screenplay

Too much fun. I do love this story. Short screenplay, really.

Popsicle Death

I guess I'm kind of known for my titles. Colorado Lobsters is another. I have some simple ones like my novella Death of heaven is based in part upon, or Andrew and Sarah. But my most notorious title is my medieval surreal tale of horror: "Poor Lord Ritchie's Answer to a Question he Knever Knew on the Knight that the Knight Lost All. [Music: Henry Purcell's music for the Funeral of Queen Mary]"

Now that's a hell of a title. But then, it's a hell of a story that I've expanded forward and back. It's a short story and a short screenplay. Actor Rutger Hauer chose it once as a winner in a short story contest he held. It's also a short screenplay now. I also wrote a prequel to it called, Breaking on Cave Island that was in an anthology. But? I digress...

I worked on a poster for the screenplay of Popsicle Death with Marvin Hayes, a great artist who has done some of my book covers. You can tell his, they're not just all black with a graphic in the center. I had seen another artist's concept and ran with it, solving the longtime problem I'd had about a cover or poster for it.

I originally wrote this short screenplay in a scriptwriting theatre class at Western Washington University in my last and senior year. I was in a class with seven very talented and funny people. At least one of them, Dave Skubinna, is no longer with us.

I was sad to hear that as Dave was always enjoyable company. I remember him taping away on his "notepad" device in class. The only one I'd ever seen and never saw another before I graduated. I'm still in contact with another friend in that class, Mike Rainey.

A few years after I graduated they, along with a few others started the Annex Theatre (originally on Bainbridge Island), still running in Seattle. Their most famous alum perhaps is one of my favorite actors, Paul Giamatti. I went into more detail in a previous blog post in 2011.

I had felt honored to be studying and working with those other students in that class and to be accepted by them. Even though I was older as I'd been in the service before starting college. My university and college years are some of my best memories and that series of classes under Bob Schelonka some of my favorite. Writing in a team environment, producing scripts of all many and short screenplays. It was a kind of magic.

When the idea came up for Popsicle Death, we were each to write a short paragraph and pass it to the one next to you around the table, I got mine from Chris Brooks who was a dancer in the theatre dept. He reminded me of David Bowie in some ways.

I immediately loved what he wrote. I came back to the next class and after reading what I'd come up with, they were all over it. I tried to say it was all Chris but he looked at me surprised and said, "No, I didn't take it where you did. That was all you." Still, the initial idea and I think the name were his.

The story is about a boy who buys a popsicle, goes in to get the money from his widowed mother and gets in trouble. He never returns. The vendor is in dire straights, having a bad time of life. He leaves, goes home and kills himself. The non-payment was his last straw. In retribution, Death Himself comes to reap payment. From the boy. And from there, everything goes to Hell.

I was loving this story idea. And my time working on a team of other creatives. While my girlfriend, whom I lived with, seemed to hate it all. Possibly because I was breaking off from my intense focus in psychology by getting a minor in creative writing through my senior year. We had been up to that point, side by side as psych students and quite well known in the psych department.

Actually, she did kind of start it, as she had taken a class in programming FORTRAN. Maybe there were other issues she had. I never knew. But once I started hanging in the theatre department, around those intensely creative, talented and possibly certifiably insane students, I was taken. Smitten with the creative arts. Always had been really, just never brave enough to invest myself in overt creativity with others. Like in theatre in high school. As my cousin had done. In fact she got a degree in costume design or something and went on to be a costume mistress on a big production in Seattle.

As for programming, I'd first taught myself BASIC the year I met my girlfriend in college (we ended up as lab partners in a chem/physics class my first quarter out of the military one summer, and the rest is history).

Before I got out of the service, I had sold my guns and bought a Radio Shack Tandy TRS-80 (the so-called and notorious, trash80). I taught myself to program in BASIC and wrote my first batch command files and had some fun with it in writing a fake AI.

When I got into that first college class with her, we were tasked with learning the entire periodic table which intimidated me (all of us really). I had an idea. I wrote a couple of programs that taught it to me. It worked. I was the only one in that class to get 100% on the period table test.

After three years of our studying psychology together, a great deal of that under the amazing Dr. Rod Rees, she started programming on the side and I started to hang with theatre types. In high school, I'd always loved hanging around my cousin's theatre friends with her. They were just... fun. We'd had different high schools and though she was a year behind me, she's only three months younger than me. All because MY birthday is near the end of August.

Anyway, I couldn't figure out back when why my girlfriend seemed so negative about my theatre classmates. She was actually kind of rude about it when they visited. We were working on a script and she came in from school one afternoon and she was so dour, they took the hint and left.

Anyway, Popsicle Death.

I think Chris just wrote that Death was a popsicle vendor and something about a kid. I went off the deep end and got very dark and added in his mother and a dead father, an Uncle priest and other surreal elements of horror.

Even though Chris had started it all as a tossed off joke, it turned into not a joke at all but rather... "Mom, help! No, no, you can't! Stop, let her go! Stop, no, no, no..."
"I am Death, little boy, back off!"
"But I didn't mean to it wasn't my fault! HONEST! Please! Don't!"

And the rest, as I'd said...is history.

#screenplay #PopsicleDeath

No Budget PreProduction on Indie Horror Short - Gumdrop Sampson

Hi. Ever made a movie? Not a home movie, but one you want others to see, others you don't know and will never meet? Putting yourself out there for comment. Making a statement. Sharing what you are thinking and showing how you think? Want to make a movie? Then stop listening to others who say you can't and just DO IT!

If you want to or are going to do it, this might be interesting. If you've done it, then this might just be sad, or hilarious. I know something about movies. Studied it some in college. I'm no practiced expert, but I've figured out a few things and I'm learning as I go. That's part of the fun of it.

I was with friend and local indie director Kelly Hughes when were at the Port Orchard Film Festival yesterday, to support the festival and see his music video collaboration "We're Nothing", entered in the Experimental Block of films, as I write this. From his website:

NEW COLLABORATION! To promote my docu-series Acting Up, I made a music video set to Postvorto's song We're Nothing. Postvorto is a post-metal band from Italy, and they have an intense sound that inspires me. The music video includes new footage I shot in Gorst and Sunnyslope, WA. One of the band's guitarists, Andrea Fioravanti, is also composing new music for me. I've heard several of his tracks already, and they are pretty amazing.

Kelly asked who he should introduce when we got (today) to Crypticon in SeaTac. We're spending the night, hitting panels on film production and Kelly's music video is also playing there. I'm obviously an author, blogger, aspiring screenwriter and now functionally, a filmmaker. I suggested that.

Kelly smiled and said, "Well, wannabe filmmaker."  I thought about that for a moment, a bit bummed out. But maybe he's right. Though, I would alter that slightly and say, "aspiring filmmaker". I have perhaps a few more projects to go, and maybe a feature-length film to go, in order to consider myself a full-fledged filmmaker.

To be sure I have earned the title filmmaker in having produced and documentary and a short. That's only fair to me. But, to be fair to more established filmmakers, I really should wait on that until I have a few more projects under my belt. Let's not jump the gun. Yes, you CAN call yourself a "filmmaker" after one project regardless the length. Or quality? Just Do it! But, strive to be more and really and proudly call yourself a filmmaker, once you have truly and fully earned. it.

I may add to this in the future as things progress if I find anything I left out. But following is the history and mindset I've had in building this project to production and preparing to shoot on set.

But that's not why you make films. As in being a writer, you produce because you have a need to produce. Because you enjoy it. You have a story to get out. Or you have a need to tell stories. Filmmaking, however, is not for the faint of heart. And then you put it out for others to see and you have to steel yourself for someone sooner or later shredding your work and your ego.

So do your best.

I started this by considering my next project, obviously. In 1993 I produced a documentary for public access cable TV at Viacom in Seattle. A studio up on Roosevelt Way Northeast. It was a comedy of errors like you wouldn't believe. I had moved out of Seattle and hard to return to work on the project, finished it, it "aired" twice in the PNW and that ended my work in production.

Until 2016. I got new equipment, I started writing. I came up with a viable project as a test after all these years and working with new equipment and produced "The Rapping". I have also been working with local indie horror director Kelly Hughes for a few years now.

Because I wanted to get on set and get a better understanding of what happens to my writings once it hits production. It's been fun, anxiety invoking (like when the police showed up wondering why a woman was screaming things like "Let me go!" "Why are you doing this to me!" That was actress Jennifer True. The cops couldn't have been nicer and said now that they knew we were shooting they'd be aware for the rest of the day.

art by Marvin Hayes

So, in choosing my next project I considered my original and recent reason for shooting films. To take some of my own published writings and turn them into live action. I decided the one with least special f/x could be Gumdrop City. I wrote about this before. Originally written in 1983, it was first published in an anthology in 2010. Then I put it in my own Anthology of Evil in 2012. And I wrote about this new film project in April.

But this is about the production now that it's been selected.

Preproduction.

I came up with the idea to not produce the story itself, but to do a prequel. How did this all begin? The story itself is based on a true crime story I heard about in college toward my psychology degree in a class on abnormal psychology. It affected the class so strongly I felt in walking out of that class I had to write about it. I'd never even known such things existed back then.

But to do the story itself would require some difficult scenes I didn't want to get into, I didn't even want to get into in the short story. Special effects I didn't want to do on a first full narrative film project with my limited money and resources. So I settled on a prequel. An origin story of sorts. I just let my imagination go after re-reading the original story.

And a vision emerged. I decided to go a bit more bizarre. What if this was bigger than the short story. What if this guy wasn't such a degenerate as he is in the short story? What if, he lived the prequel storyline and then severely degenerated between that and the short story? That freed me up in many ways. Creatively. Financially. Resources. And it made it more fun.

So I wrote some notes out, then wrote my first draft. Over the next couple of weeks, I worked on other things and kept going back, adding ideas, fleshing it out, honing it to imperfective perfection.

I started to think about who should act in it. I had wanted to do something with my voice actor who has read a couple of my stories as audiobooks, Tom Remick. Nicest guy ever, playing the part of a sick demented murderer. Sure, why not.

I started to consider other actors I know. Tom said his son might be interested, and his two young boys. Excellent. I needed around ten actors. Three are voiceovers and never seen. I know actors from my friend and director Kelly Hughes' stable of actors (he and I will be at Crypticon Seattle in SeaTac this weekend, by the way). I've acted with some of them, done f/x around them, pyrotechnics, etc. As it turned out I'll only need a few of them. I now have the production cast.

I continued honing the screenplay. I started picking up props. I started researching the f/x I will need and some of the food props. That all in itself was an experience and an education. Any idea how expensive a lot of gumdrops can be? Single color? Red? Maybe easier to make your own.

Marvin Hayes who did most of my ebook covers and my print book covers had some f/x suggestions. That was handy.

A production is a collaborative effort. In a low budget indie, or no budget indie, it can have much more of a family/community feel to it. People volunteer their skills or efforts out of a love, not payment, for what they want to do. Some who never dreamed of doing it find they're doing it and living a kind of dream. But they still have to be able to pull off whatever it is they are offering. They still have to show up on time and pull their schedule off or they're replaced.

Some directors can get gold out of even problematic actors. Kelly is like that. I've been told I'm quite good too at directing by actors. We'll see soon enough. I'm used to working with professionals in other careers. I'd expect no less in this one. Demand quality and it shows on screen. Let the production take over your production, or your actors or crew, and you lose the production. Set up an environment for productivity and creativity and keep things moving forward, and you'll all feel the joy of creating something special.

Rule #1 in a production... Preparation: a solid screenplay, actors, camera work, f/x, and sound makes life so much easier and sets you up for a much better end product. Especially pay attention to sound. Because it can so easily ruin a good project.

Rule #2 in a production...Finish the production. David Lynch took five years to finish Eraserhead. But he finished it.

OK. So, I hit the point where the screenplay was finished enough to send to the actors. A screenplay is finished when the film is shown. It's perpetually in a penultimate state as things change on the set when shooting.

At the same time, I was working out practicals. Number one, gumdrops. Purchasing them was too expensive and finding only red ones even more problematic. So I decided making my own was the cheapest. AND, it gave me a new scene where Sampson, the lead character, makes his own. That gave me more opportunity to add in some more creepy factor.

That meant I had to research the recipes. That led to ingredients. One was problematic and expensive. More research until I found one source that was best and purchased it online. It's here now and more than we will need.

I had an idea for an opening camera shot involving my Syrp Genie and equipment. I continued honing that complex shot in the screenplay. I finally got around to digging out the equipment.

Syrp Genie configuration for this opening/closing shot

By the way, I charge all my equipment batteries the first of every month on all my equipment, something an assistant would be assigned to do if I had a bigger crew...or a crew. I set up the configuration I would need and began to plot out the setup and execution of the shot. Which, as it turned out, wasn't practical.

So I had to work around that. Splitting up the programming (there is a cell phone app where you program the equipment) into two programmed shots. The Syrp equipment simply won't do the shot I wanted.

The plan was to start high and happy and shoot downward slightly, tracking to the right and lower to and sad, at the other end of the track. Uncovering and exposing the other side of a face. Then I could take that shot and split it up, using the first half in the opening and the second half at the end. It was a moving example of "the Comedy and Tragedy Masks" or just "the theater masks".

Preproduction is so important in so many ways. Having a good screenplay. Rehearsing at least some. You want the actors to understand what you want of them which relaxes them some. Trying out camera shots ahead of time. Testing f/x and recipes for things like blood. Lighting issues and setups. Locations and test shots. Etc.

I've learned not to send my screenplay out to too many or ask for too many comments on it (same with dailies or rushes if you have them) as a lot of times it simply muddies your thinking. If you find someone who really does understand how you think and can productively critique and add to the project, they are simply gold.

I'm deep into preproduction now.

At some point, you need to write up a list of shots, or a shooting script. Some don't do it at all, some get very technical about it. Find your bliss, what works best, what turns out the best product for you and go with it. Always considering to enhance or alter as you find what works better, or you are eventually able to evolve into. The mission, the project, the product, the film is what takes precedence, not you. Kick your ego to the curb and produce quality at all costs.

You also need a schedule for the production and consideration for what needs to be on set before anyone arrives. You can send a screenplay to a company and they will produce for you a shooting screenplay, or cost estimates or all kinds of things.

Or you can do it yourself (preferable). it can be as intricate or simple as you like. All that matters is that it is good enough to make your life easier and the project more productive and aid in enhancing the quality of the end product.

What day, what actors, when do the actors /crew need to be where. If you have any crew and I suggest you have some. I hear, certainly, on a larger crew/production, an AD is so important, an assistant director to take on your more mundane or difficult tasks freeing you up for the real directing on set issues.

What do you need for all of them? Food and drink, to be sure, always keep your actors happy and fed and happy to return. Costumes? Practicals? Props?

The list of who is shot when and in what scene. You may have an actor in scenes all through the production, but do they need to be there in chronological order or can their scenes all be shot on the same day and edited into place later?

Taking the screenplay from its format and order and timeline into when is most economical in many/all ways is imperative. Logistics are important and getting them right in preproduction is a life saver.

I have children in this project. So getting them in as early as possible, their scenes shot all in one day makes my life, and theirs, and their parents lives, easier.

Paperwork. Do you need shooting permits from the city, county, area? Or are you guerilla shooting, shot and run shots? Actor waivers/agreements. I know many don't bother with them on no budget films but it's so easy to do, I think it's worth it.

That alone makes the actors feel more respectable, more professional, more respected and sets a tone overall for the project. Not to mention it gives you and them, the reasonable protections you want later on if something unforeseen does come up.

Now with all these things under consideration, preproduction is a matter of going over them until you hit your desired level of perfection and costs. Which is where I am now.

Last Friday Tom and Amy came over and we did a run through on Amy's scene and it was so enlightening. Table reads, rehearsals, save so much time and can really add so much to tweaking the screenplay. Iron your issues out before you begin principle shooting.

Next up? Production?

Actually, just a lot more preproduction. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Cheers! Sláinte!