Tuesday, April 7, 2009

1




It's like the dawning of a new era. I can see the sun come up over the hills and the glistening dew on the grass. It's chilly,yes, and you may be a little frightened, but it will be all right. Just take my hand as I lead you into this fresh beginning.

That's right, people. This post marks the first post of my next 100 posts. Wait, what? 100 down, more to come. And this time, I promise to post semi-daily.

I went to a free Gotham City Writing Class today. It was an introductory class on screenwriting. I found the majority of the lecture interesting, but it didn't lead to any technical breakthroughs in my own head. The middle aged instructor was enthusiastic and would frequently race around the room as he talked. The classroom was full of middle-aged adults who liked the sound of their own voices. When the instructor asked for examples of our work, the over 40 crowd would describe elaborate, poorly written scenes involving heavily-cliched characters. The instructor, being the cordial man that he is, would offer little in the way of constructive criticism.

At one point, the instructor asked for an example of exciting dialogue that you would like to find in a screenplay. A lady's hand shot up and she started off by stating, "well, this doesn't have a lot of dialogue but...." It went downhill from there.

This is one of the quick, five minute long, exercise things that I wrote. I have no idea where I was going with this:

They sit at a long table in the kitchen. She stares out the window towards the street below and slowly smokes a cigarette.
Brian talks while forcing a smile.
"but, you know, it's not what I want to do forever."
She inhales the cigarette and doesn't say anything. Brian tries to widen his smile.
"What about you? I can't imagine you want to work in PR forever. What do you actually like to do?"
She quickly blows smoke towards the open window. She focuses her eyes on Brian.
"What do you mean, I like my job," she says; quickly.
Brian shifts in his chair
"Yeah of course, I like mine, too. I mean, what are your hobbies? do you have any hobbies, like golf, or something?" Brian laughs at the idea of her playing golf.
She picks at her plate and puts her cigarette out.






For any of you who actually read, "This is what a recession looks like," more vignettes coming soon.