Alright, already.

I know. It's been over a month since I 'blogged'. But lots has been happening and I've been very busy! Regrettably I did not win ScreeMo and I still have a lot of work to do. Thanks to a very, very wonderful family friend (and now cousin, sort of!) I found myself being the office assistant on a TV pilot for the month of November and was not left with a lot of time to write.

But being in the 'industry' (as we say) is SO COOL!! Now of course as soon as I found out what show I was going to be working on I went home and IMDb-ed the director and writer and lead actress (stand-up comedian Laurie Elliott - see YouTube.) and was completely starstruck when I actually met them just for having seen their names in the big print on IMDb. It was a short show, just five days of shooting and some prep time. Most of the people who work in the Production office are freelancers, so they all come together, set up an office and a company, make the whole thing run smoothly and then shut everything down. They are super efficient and know exactly what they're doing. I, on the other hand, was completely lost and on the first day I showed up and embarrassed myself royally by sitting down in the board room with the producers because I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing. But they started to give me more direction and I started to get the hang of it. They rented a car for me for the month so I did all the running around getting the actors' contracts signed, shopping for the office, picking up payroll, dropping off the daily footage and running errands to and from set. I learned so much about how production worked, it was so encouraging for the writing!

It's funny, though, to work with people who work on every movie or TV show that is filmed in Canada. As it turns out, Toronto is the best place to shoot a movie because it's cheaper than practically anywhere else so even some really big American films, TV pilots and all the horrid low-budget horror movies get shot there. After seeing our 'set' on the streets of Toronto I started to notice production entourages all over the city. One day when I was running an errand I saw a huge line-up of trucks and a few crew-members. I walked by and casually asked, "So, what production are you on?" The guy tells me they're filming Boondock Saints 2. Inside I was yelling, 'Boondock Saints 2!!!!??? WHERRRRE is Sean Patrick Flanery???' But outwardly I oh-so-casually just said, "Oh cool, a sequel after 10 years, eh?"

Back to my office I was spouting about my run-in with the coolest-vigilante-movie-ever-part-deux and they all look at me sort of blankly, "So?" Later, I learned that the accountant was at the party where Edward Norton hired some "female escorts of the night" and was subsequently dumped by Salma Hayek and the production coordinator's good friend invited Renee Zellweger home for Thanksgiving while she was in Toronto filming Chicago, etc. Sooo I learned to 'play it cool.'

Now that the pilot is done, I'm nannying for said wonderful new cousin, we're opening a restaurant and I'm finishing up my screenplay and hope to start getting it read in January. Stay tuned for next... month's... edition.

Love,

Lady Liberty

ScreeMo '08

What with all of this NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo, I have been inspired by my prolific friends and family and have decided to take part in what I call... NoNaScreeMo. I am the sole participant.

Yes, there is a real script-writing month in April called Script Frenzy but I just felt so left out of all the November writing that I decided to initiate the first inaugural November National Screenwriting Month. This endeavor is not made any easier by the fact that I started working in the production office of a TV pilot (more to follow on this very exciting development) and TV production hours are a little hectic. But fortunately I have a head start. I am on page 37 of my very first screenplay, The Black Sash. I won't give a full synopsis until it's finished lest some blog-wanderer steal my blockbuster (and... there's the fact that I don't quite know what happens) but it is inspired by the organization that I worked for in South Africa and when I found this movie in my head about them that I really wanted to see, I realized I had to be the one to write it! Thus, ScreeMo 2008.

How does one write a screenplay? Well, I'll tell you when I figure it out. But I have learned a few things. If you've ever seen a screenplay you may have noticed the odd formatting. Yes, this is required. There is a reason for this. When it comes time to shoot the movie, all of the different elements (dialogue, action, transition, camera shot) have to be easily identifiable. And each page equates to about a minute of screen time. A screenplay then generally ranges from about 90-120 pages (or longer if you're Titanic) and this is key because different things are supposed to happen at different parts in the movie. So there's a wonderful little program called Final Draft that formats the script automatically. It keeps writing very simple and makes it go quickly.

Now, how to make a plot? Well, play this little game the next time you watch a movie. If the movie is about two hours long, there will be a point about half an hour in that sets up the whole premise for the movie and then with about half an hour to go, there will be the climax before everything starts to come together for the finish. This is a pretty standard format and thus you really plan your plot around what happens on pages 30 and 90. Then you fill in the holes!

Easy? I'll tell you on November 30th. My goal is to make it at least to page 60 by the end of the week and then I should be on track to do 30 pages a week. Wish me luck!

Love,

Lady Liberty

A Word on our Generation and Politics

My real introduction to American politics were named Monica Lewinsky and impeachment. I've spent the better part of my so-called adult life living abroad in a very anti-American world (Ironically, most of that time pretending to be Canadian) and four years ago when I voted for the first time I was left with a feeling that our generation was completely excluded from the process, and so was the opinion of the rest of world.

Then this guy came along and university students, my foreign friends, professors all took their place standing behind him -- he was our candidate. For precisely that reason, I never truly believed he would win. But then it would seem the stars aligned, and when I sat in a Toronto movie theater and listened to Jon Stewart announce that Barack Obama had just been elected my president, I cried and then I cheered with about a thousand other people of my generation. But these people raucously celebrating were Canadian! Our candidate became everyone's candidate, and such celebration hasn't moved the world since that scene in Armageddon when the meteor that hurtled towards earth to end all life as we know it was destroyed. Remember that? Remember how wonderful and inspiring and mythical that felt?

Until now, it had been a bumpy road for me and my nationality, so patriotism and love of country had always felt cheesy and naive. But they were all I could feel as I listened to our President-Elect speak. And then for the first time in my life, I woke up yesterday overwhelmed with pride to be an American and to claim this fairy tale for my own.