Back From MD...

I'm not normally affected by jetlag, but I think the time difference really helped me. My clock has been all f#$%ked up, but going to the East Coast seemed to get me back on track. It's midnight right now, and if I go to bed at 2am versus 4:30am, then it will be back to normal.

My gig at Salisbury was fun, and my Alpha brothers were GREAT! Sometimes I wish others knew how great it is to meet fraternity brothers who really are good peeps. The brothers on the Maryland Eastern Shore are those types of brothers.

I was able to do a LOT of work on MEN OF THEIR TIMES. Tightened up the dialogue, added a couple of scenes, and I'm close to the end of the first act. I'll probably cut out a scene to keep the first act around Page 35. But it's really beginning to get nice and tight.

This weekend, I have to get going on my showrunning class. Because of speaking gigs, I've missed the last two classes, and I have a project due with a partner. We're doing an analysis of the Sci-Fi Channel. Next week, I miss both Hal's 434 and Fred's comedy class while speaking at Purdue.

We've got a Chuckie Cheese party on Sunday for the Munchkin, so that should be fun.

Diet still rolling along. Still hard to eat well on the road. But I didn't mess up. The belly is about ten pounds from being gone, and although I initially said I'd go down to 190lb, that was straight laughs. I'll get down to 205lbs and be happy. So that means I need to lose another 11lbs, and then I'm set.

Time to Breathe...

I was pretty much burnt last week, and after talking to a lot of my fellow students, we're all kind of burnt. Some are planning spring break trips to Paris, others to Mexico. The Ross Fam? I don't know yet. I wouldn't mind going back to London, and if we can get a nice package, maybe we'll do it. But I don't think that would be exciting for Langston. We might go skiing, but the season may be over by then. So I don't know. But I think we need a break.

My annual Black History Month lecture tour began last week, and I fly out tomorrow morning for more. I speak at Salisbury in Maryland on the 9th, and then at Purdue on Valentine Day. A late add has me going back out to Baltimore on February 22nd. Lastly, I'm supposed to sign books at an event at Howard University on February 25th. So it's busy, busy, busy.

As for writing, I've going to put down the computer for a day and let my mind rest. But I'm getting more and more confident in my ability to recognize and utilize screenplay structure. That was important, because I didn't have it before I got into the program. With that structure starting to become second nature, I can feel my brain starting to demand better writing. Until now, I've been writing okay dialogue, but it's mainly there to fit the skeleton of my script. But the confidence in my structure means that I can now REALLY look at my characters and how I want them to interact. So this week will be spent thinking about Langston and Latimer.

I'm still waiting on my porn book contract from my lit agent. In the last message, he said that he's still negotiating with them. I was too tired to ask what the negotiations were about, and in reality, I really don't care. He's the agent and it's his job to look out for me. I let him do his job. Micromanaging stuff like that would get on his nerve and would eventually get on my nerves. The contract will come when it comes.

My frat brother is going to take snaps for the book, and that's cool because he's a great professional photographer. I have a particular look I want, and I know he can do it.

Diet is still going well. Just too lazy to post the latest data. But right now, I'm at 215-217lbs.

Tough Week...

This has been a tough week. The Houston Exxon lecture went GREAT and the people were absolutely fabulous. If you're ever in Houston and you hear that the Texas Southern University Jazz Ensemble is playing, GO! They played before I spoke and I could have listened to them all afternoon.

As for my work, Men Of Their Times is coming along, but I'm running smack into a scene where I need to talk about science. I don't have a science mentor yet, because of something that needs to be resolved, but that's finally holding me back from finishing my Act I. Today and tomorrow, I'm going to try to work around it.

For the comedy class, I'm still trying to finish my premise. I've changed it SO many times because it wasn't organic. But I think I have one ready. This week, we're to write a four page characters meeting scene, along with a minor character breakdown. I've started, but not finished it.

The brain was a bit tired this week, and I need a rest. It gets no better next week as I have to travel again, so that means I'll be tired. But it's gut check time.

Nothing Worse...

There's nothing worse than feeling sick, particularly with a sore throat. Add to that, having to speak with that sore throat. And then, add to that, travel, then you have my predicament. I woke up this morning feeling bad, and it hasn't gotten better. Right now, I'm in Houston and I'll be speaking about African American fraternal organizations in about six hours. What you do is simply gut it out. There's nothing else you can do. I remember being so sick at one event that I threw up before the lecture and then threw up after it. But I pride myself on being a professional, so my hosts didn't know a thing. Health is one of the wild cards when you lecture, and right now, I've pulled a joker.

Crunch Time...

It's 5am in the morning, and I'm doing a final check of my Houston Black History Month speech. I wrote it months ago, and I just want to make sure that it comes out nice. Normally, I speak about forty minutes, but they want a twenty minute speech on AA fraternalism and civic orgs, so I want to make sure that I get in as much information as possible.

The next few days are going to be mad hectic. Hal wants us to finish our first acts by Monday. So I have about ten pages to write for Men Of Their Times. In my comedy class, I have to write a character breakdown for a minor character, and then a four to five page scene where two character meet. For this class, I've revamped my premise twice, but I think I'm closer to getting it straight. And in my showrunning class, I'm working with a partner to write an analysis of a cable channel. On the porn front, I've got to get on the ball. I need to schedule more interviews beginning next week.

It is weird, but when I get a lot of writing work, my mind tends to focus sharply. I think it comes from when I owned a catering service and I have to be on my feet for 72 hours straight. At the end of the 72 hours, you collapse, but while you're working, you get things done and done right. Right now, I'm on the clock. Let's see how well I can do.

Beginning of Week Four...

Now we're at the beginning of UCLA Winter Quarter Week Four. And I'm at page 20 of a 110 page script. That means I'm a bit behind. Logically, if I'm doing ten pages per week, I should be at the end of Act I. But I'm still going back and forth over the first twenty pages, doing small rewrites of my scenes. This week will be a slight challenge as I have to fly to Houston for a Black History Month gig. It's going to basically take out two days, so I think I'll try to write some new pages after 434 tomorrow and get to the end of Act I by the middle of the week.

Black History Month is always a dual edge sword for me as I enjoy lecturing on The Divine Nine, but the travel is a killer. When you've traveled to over 300 colleges in six years, you tend to lose your appetite for security checkpoints, tight seats, rental cars, and hotel rooms. I always laugh when wannabe or soontobe authors get excited about the "author's tour". If I could do my tour from my couch, I would. But then again, I do enjoy meeting the different people at the various campuses. If you've ever met me, you know that I'm a people person. So I can't complain too much. I'm only doing about three lectures this year when I normally do about ten. But I simply don't have the time.

Tomorrow, my son and best friend go to their first Cub Scout meeting. That should be fun because he really wants to get a flashlight and go camping. Just as long as I don't have to wear those khaki shorts to meetings, I'll be cool.



Starting Weight: 226lbs.
Start of Week Four Weight: 217lbs.
Goal Weight: 190lbs.

Britain and Television...

When I was around thirteen years old, back in the days with seven channels, and midnight meant that the station went to test patterns, I used to watch thousands of hours of PBS. It was different, and it seemed like my own private world. And I actually liked the programming. And one of the things I liked was the British programming. It started with a little sitcom called "Butterflies". It was a rather ordinary comedy about a bored housewife who was on the verge of having an affair, but never does. Loved it. From there, it was Up Pompeii!, Are you being served? Chef! (a personal favorite), Monty Python's FC, and thousands more. After that, I started liking British culture in general, and now I've been a Manchester United fan for the past fifteen years. Why am I talking about this?

My new show is on AMC, and it's called Hustle. Hustle stars Adrien Lester, and is about a group of grifters. I've always been an Adrien Lester fan, (although in America, he's most famous for Primary Colors). If you get a chance, check it out. Hustle is a show that I'd like to emulate when I start balling as a big writer/producer.

Stepin Fetchit Friday...

Yesterday at UCLA, I had the pleasure of attending a book signing/panel celebrating Mel Watkins new book, The Life and Times of Stepin Fetchit. This is significant for me because I'd written a Stepin Fetchit book proposal a few years back. My agent began shopping it just at the time when Watkins' proposal had sold. So that was that. But Mel Watkins is a very good writer, particularly when it comes to black humor, so I'm not mad at him.

Stepin Fetchit, for those who don't know, was the character played by Lincoln Perry. Lincoln Perry had started in vaudeville around the turn of the century, and then was signed by the major studios in the 20s to play what has been termed, derogatory roles. Normally, his character would shuffle into frame, mumble his lines, and act as lazy as white folks thought black folks were. Soon, while playing with people like Will Rogers (the first black/white buddy films), Fetchit was making millions. He was also the first black actor to get first billing.

For years in the black community, the worst thing one could say about a performer was that he was a "Modern Day Stepin Fetchit", meaning that his character embarassed the race. But what makes Fetchit interesting is that he was more complex than what appeared on the screen. He wrote columns for black newspapers like the Chicago Defender, talking about discrimination in Hollywood. He appeared in black cast movies where instead of being a derogatory character, he was simply a comic character. His timing was impeccable, and it's hard not to laugh at a person who obviously is a talented clown.

In the years following his death in the 70s, there's been efforts to rehabilitate his image. Before he died, he received a Lifetime achievement award from the NAACP, and folks will probably do retrospectives on him. However to me, he still presents a problem, particularly as a black screenwriter. My question is this: Is Stepin Fetchit a legitimate part of the African American comedy linage, from Fetchit, Foxx, Cosby, Pryor, Murphy, etc. and therefore a legitimate character, or is he still a derogatory character? And if he's a legitimate character, what are the nuances that divide him from being a derogatory character? I hate the movie Soul Plane because it plays into every derogatory stereotype ever made for African Americans. But Soul Plane is very close to what Stepin Fetchit played. Is Soul Plane legitimate?

Conscious African American screenwriters try to adhere to the doctor's oath of "Do No Harm" to their community. And so writing modern characters that harkens back to Steppin Fetchit are fraught with danger and complexity.



Starting Weight: 226lbs.
Ending Weight Week Three: 217lbs.
Goal Weight: 190lbs.

My weird sleeping patterns messed with my eating schedule, so I was certain that there would be a drop off in weight loss. But last night, I got to bed at one am, so I'm back on track. Regardless, I was still able to get to the Wooden Center three times last week, so my cardio is on track. The goal this week is to sleep right, eat right, and then get in three workouts. If I can do that, I think I can get to either 214 or 215lbs.

Late Night Writing...

My clock is all off. This is the fifth straight day that I've stayed up until 4am to write. I write my best during this time, but it's terrible for the body clock. I'm getting home from school around 5pm, exhausted and sleepy. So I take a short nap and WHAM, I'm up until the early morn watching VH1 We are the 80s. But, I'm gradually rolling pages for MEN OF THEIR TIMES. And, I solved a problem that had been bugging me. At the end of Act I, I want Langston and Latimer to have a huge argument about race, and for some reason, I couldn't figure out what was going to be the issue. But it was right in front of me. Now, the end of Act I will have a great emotional end. Now, back to Depeche Mode.

The 434 Experience...

434 is UCLA's advanced screenwriting class, and we pretty much have to take it each quarter. In 434, we write a script a quarter. Good practice. But it is also a place where you will feel the thrill writing good scenes, and the despair of writing bad ones. Basically, you spend a week working on your script, and then you bring it in for critique. Even the most confident writer can leave a 434 feeling raw and unconfident after a session where either your classmates or teacher doesn't get what you're writing.

Today in Hal's, it was pretty rough. Folks are going over their Scene-O-Grams (get Hal's book for further info, but basically it is the event at the end of every ten pages in an Act, plus the inciting events, exposition, etc.). One of the things I like about the Scene-O-Gram is that it's basically a schematic for your script. One can get loosey-goosey with where things are going if you don't have a roadmap, and the Scene-O-Gram keeps you focused on the various points within your script that are important. But the other thing a Scene-O-Gram can do is point out where your characters are flat, one dimensional, or the story is too linear.

So as we roll through our second week, each student has to take their Scene-O-Gram up to the overhead and hear real criticism, notes, comment, and "I just don't know what the fuck you were trying to do" comments. Some of the comments are REALLY good, because I think most students in this program want to read the best script you can write. I know I don't want to write crap, and since I'm not a singular genius, I'm open to as many good ideas as possible. But it can be tough to take, especially as you stand there and listen. However, it's good preparation for the real Hollywood. In real Hollywood, and not film school, producers, marketing folks, etc. all have two cents to add to your script, and not all of it you'll like. But at least film school is a safe place to learn.

The Goals This Week...

Kobe went for 81 last night, so that's inspired me to go for the gold this week. Get EVERYTHING done that I need to get done. Ten pages for MEN OF THEIR TIMES. Buy the Creative Directory for my Showrunning class. Get a fast start on Fred's new assignment. That's UCLA.

For the porn project: Contact the talent scout and schedule a time to follow him around. Contact my main subject for the book. Finally find the transcriber for my interviews. Go back over the proposed Table of Contents and tweak it. Set up my contacts list because I'm always bad doing that. I tend to have business cards and things all around, instead of having them put in a file.

For the diet: More of the same. Work out at least three times this week, mainly on the days I have school. Eat six meals a day. Avoid carbs and sugar. Drink eight glasses of water. Add 50 crunches per hour to the regime. The one big problem is getting to bed by midnight, because I love writing at night. So I may amend that to getting to bed by 2am.



Starting Weight: 226lbs.
Start of Week Three Weight: 218lbs.
Goal Weight: 190lbs.

This Week...

The last class I'm taking is a show running class being taught by Paul Nagel from the William Morris Agency. In short, we're learning how to create and package a show for a television network/s. At UCLA, there are relatively few television classes, so this class was filled with MFA students, a few law students, and a couple of MBA students. Showrunning is where the cash is, so the students follow the money. Since this is a producers program, most of the screenwriters were worried getting in, but there were enough spots. So with that, my schedule is done. Three classes, sixteen units.

This week was pretty much a waste, writing wise. Okay, not a complete waste, but I didn't write as much as I meant too. I'm almost done with Fred's comedy assignment, but still need to work on Hal's Scene-O-Gram. I'll do that later tonight.

In the coming days, I'm going to be meeting with my Sloan science professor (more on that later next week), so that I can start thinking about the science scenes for MEN OF THEIR TIMES.



BTW:
Starting Weight: 226lb.
Beginning of Week Two: 221lb.
End of Week Two: 218lb.
Target Weight: 190lb.

Amazing what eating well and moving will do for a body. LOL

Only One Page Done...

Okay, so I only wrote one page yesterday, played a lot of Call to Duty (thought I would retire it, but I got to the Russian sector), and then started work on Fred's comedy assignment. And then I slept for a few hours. Never did contact the porn talent scout. So sue me. Sometimes, it be's like dat. Got class tonight, and then it's back to the grindstone. I still have to do Hal's Screen-O-Gram, but I'm dedicating all day Friday to it.

We just pulled Langston out of Warner Elementary and put him back in his old Catholic school. Warner was so cold and distant, it's going to make a great template for a script one day. The stories I could tell and will tell. It'll be a very dark movie. Beware of 10 out 10 school credentials. That's a nice fascade, but the inside could be rotten as a fish sold on Monday. Two days back at his Catholic school and my son is 1000% more happy. Saw all of his old friends and it was like coming home. He'll be there for the next eight years, just like I was.

February 2006 Best-Selling Books

The Divine Nine is back on the Essence magazine bestseller's list. Not bad for a six year old book!

Essence Magazine
February 2006 Best-Selling Books

Paperback
1. The Mis-Education of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson (African American Images, $12.95)
2. The Willie Lynch Letter by Kashif Malik Hassan-El (Lushena Books, $3.95)
3. The Pact by Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, Rameck Hunt (Penguin Group, $14)
4. Chess For Success by Maurice Ashley (Broadway Books, $14)
5. Reallionaire by Farrah Gray (HCI, $12.95)
6. Keeping Black Boys out of Special Education by Jawanza Kunjufu (African American Images, $15.95)
7. The Divine Nine by Lawrence C. Ross Jr. (Dafina Books, $17)
8. Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama (Three Rivers Press, $13.95)
9. Letting Go of Stuff: Powerful Secrets to Simplify Your Life by Darren L. Johnson (Inside Out Learning, $12.95)
10. Cooking With Grease by Donna Brazile (Simon & Schuster, $13)

What's On Tap Today?

Today, there are no classes, so it's writing and getting stuff done. I'm going to contact a porn talent scout I met in Vegas and see if I can hang out with him as he goes on the look out for new talent. Also, I need to get back in contact with my main subject in order to see what's happening with his business. That's on the porn end.

On the writing end, I want to write freely for about ten pages on MEN OF THEIR TIMES. I'm not going to worry about if it's right, I can go back over it later and either delete it or rewrite it. I just to see where my character is going.

Yesterday, I had my comedy class with Fred Rubin, and it's quickly becoming my favorite class. We're going over a lot of stuff as it relates to character development, specifically to comedy, but it's working for dramatic work to. Again, Groundlings co-founder Phyliss Katz came in and worked us through some improv, and I just might take her Improv writing course. She was really good.

As for assignments, I need to do Hal's Screen-O-Gram, which helps you plot out your script. That will take time. Then, I need to go over the premise for my comedy script, and then do a character breakdown for my two main characters. Should be a piece of cake. I've been up since 6:30am, so I think I'll start work about 9am.

On Notes From Fellow Students...

In our 434 class, we read each others work and then give notes on what we think is strong or weak with either the story, the script, the dialogue, or the characters. It is the students responsibility to take what they find valuable and discard what is not. I say responsibility because you have to leave your comfort area, that rest area inside of the brain that tells writers that everything they write is made of pure gold, and be willing to listen to criticisms and shock, BETTER ideas for your story/script.

Yesterday, I took all of the notes my fellow students (and Hal) gave me, and sat them on my coffee table. Then I went through them. Some stuff, I didn't agree with, but there was one thing that did strike a nerve. In MEN OF THEIR TIMES, Langston Hughes is 25 years old. One of my fellow students told me to remember that if he's that young, then he would be a bit more immature and irrational than the iconic Hughes that we know now. I had to keep that in mind as I wrote him, so that his actions wouldn't simply be Hughes as perfect debater to his opposite, the scientist Latimer. That was a EUREKA moment for my script, and it made me go back through the story to add logical flaws for a still developing Hughes. This will change the story to a certain degree, but that's good. It'll mean that the characters will be more well rounded around a more well rounded plot.

The other thing I'd worried about was the use of flashbacks in my script. This is a period piece, and it has to use them. However I want to be judicious with them. Too many flashbacks and you get a CBS movie of the week during Black History Month. So I'm going to have to get creative with using the present to explain the past.

Top 'o the Week To Ya!

Happy MLK Day! A great man, and we should never forget how he created a non-violent social revolution at a time when oppressed peoples around the world were picking up guns. He saved America society.

Now, today. First day of Hal's 434 and man, it was great. We all brought the stories to our scripts and you could see the difference between what we were doing in 431 (intro to screenwriting) and 434 (advanced). The stories were much more developed, more well thoughtout, and made SENSE. In 431, I thought a lot of our stories made overall sense, but when you got into them, some kind of fell apart. That's not to say they couldn't be saved, but they were sort of immature, including my own first story. But in 434, the stories were GOOD. Interesting, different, and adventurous. And I could see them as fillms.

So now it's on to Hal's Screen-O-Gram. Tomorrow is Fred's comedy class.



Weight Loss Update:
Start of Week Two:
Starting weight: 226lbs.
Today's weight: 221lbs.
Target weight: 190lbs.

Back at the gym tomorrow.

Double Consciousness...

On Double Consciousness

by W. E. B. DuBois

After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world,--a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his twoness,--an American, a Negro; two warring souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.

The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife,--this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. ...

Excerpted from the chapter "Of Our Spiritual Strivings" in his book The Souls of Black Folk.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

One of the dilemmas of being an African American screenwriting film student is figuring out what you want to write. Now why is that different than any other film student of any race you ask? Well, I think it's different because I think there's an expectation that you will concentrate your writing on African American subjects. That's pretty natural. I am African American and I do have a ton of script ideas that are African American themed. But...

Screenwriting is a business. No, kill that. Screenwriting is BIG business. And while there are those who will like to sing KUMBAYA and say that only the story and script counts, I learned in Terry Press' class (Director of Marketing at Dreamworks) that while that counts, so do a bunch of other more practical issues.

African American films don't sell internationally, so they don't get bought often. When I met with an agent friend at Paradigm, he told me the same thing, but also said that if I brought an African American script to him, he would be able to send it to about two companies versus twenty five. When I talked to my friends at William Morris and Endeavor, they said exactly the same thing. So what is a brother to do? Do you turn your back on writing African American subjects? Of course not. But I have to be smart.

When writing my books, I thought that since I was a published author, I would have the freedom to write outside of the African American genre. Easier said than done. It's a Catch 22 situation. You get published time after time because you've built a loyal African American readership. So to your publisher (and agent) the idea of blazing new trails outside of the African American is not that appetizing. So you write on African American topics. Is that bad? No. Is it limiting. Yes.

My interests are not all African American specific interests. My ideas are not all centered around African American life. That doesn't make me any less African American as the writer who only writes African American scripts. So why the hell am I talking about this?

At UCLA, there are going to be scripts that I write that will have African American themes, and others that won't. For example, my Sloan script is an African American period piece. However, the scenes I'm working on for Fred Rubin's Comedy Class will be for a predominately white themed script. When I eventually bring both scripts to agents this Spring, I want to be able to demonstrate that I can not only write for the African American audience, but the broader audience. That's a part of the double consciousness that African Americans have to think about, whether they write scripts or work on Wall Street.

Gotta Get Back To Brazil...

When writing my second book in 2001, The Ways of Black Folks, I had a chance to stay two weeks in Brazil. It was absolutely great. I stayed a bit in Sao Paulo, which I loved, and also Rio, which was great. While in Sao Paulo, I had a chance to go to a place nicknamed, The Bronx. There, all of the shops paid tribute to African Americans by naming themselves "Black Power" and then the title. It was great, and I miss the friends I met there, including my boy Kibe (on the left). I think I may take the family down there during our summer, and their winter, when the rates are low and the beef and beer is cheap!

Change of Title...

I love good titles, and I think I'm pretty good at creating them. My books: The Divine Nine, The Ways of Black Folks, Friends With Benefits, have done me well. But the title of my Sloan script was bugging me. I'd originally named it LATIMER, after the protagonist Lewis Latimer, but that was pretty lame. Langston Hughes is as central to the story as Latimer, so I needed something better. Something that spoke to both. And I think I found it. MEN OF THEIR TIMES speaks to story I'm writing and now I can roll.

If you look to the right, you'll see that the progress bar is back. It was pretty dead and gone because the previous progress bar started asking for money. Natch. So I found some new code and voila! As you can see, I'm twelve pages in. We write a script a quarter (ten weeks), which means I'm right on schedule. I have no room for brain farts, and since I don't believe in writers block, I think I'll be okay. I may just divide my time between new material and rewrites.

Money Shot work is allocated to the weekends, and that's for interviews only. I won't start writing Money Shot until June, so that way I'll be concentrating on writing scripts during school.

Done Pitching...

I'm done pitching, and now all I need to do is make sure I get into a producer's class on showrunning, and then I'm set. I finished the first assignment for my comedy class, run by Fred Rubin, and I can tell this is going to be fun. Yesterday, we did improv with Phyliss Katz, co-founder of the Groundlings troupe, and it was a blast. I haven't done ANY sort of improv since I was in a play at Cal nearly twenty years ago.

Other than that, nothing much happened today. I need to send in a few lecture contracts and then try to settle my final schedule. Since UCLA waits forever to let you know when you're admitted to the program, I had scheduled a few lectures for Black History Month and the Spring.

BTW, the diet is going a-okay. Went to the gym twice this week, missed this morning, and I'll go two more times. I'm eating about six meals per day, with an hour of cardio. Very little carbs. White meat only. No sugar, but fruit okay. Plenty of water. NO CHOCOLATE.



Starting weight as of January 9th: 226lb
Today: 224lb.
Goal: 190lb.

I've Been Tagged with a Meme...

All right, my boy Dave at Man Bytes Hollywood has tagged me with a meme. So I'll answer it right now and then tag a few other folks.

ONE (1) earliest film-related memory:

My earliest memory is sitting in the backseat of my parent's car at the Century Drive In (now torn down, the bastards!) in Inglewood. We watched James Earl Jones, Diahann Carroll, and a young Lawrence Hilton Jacobs (to become Freddie "Boom Boom" Washington in Welcome Back, Kotter) in Claudine. It was 1974, and I remember this because my mom put up a blanket to block our view when Jones and Carroll had a love scene.

TWO (2) favorite lines from movies:

Sofia: Sat in that jail, I sat in that jail til I felt like I's bout to rot to death. I know what it like to wanna go somewhere and cain't. I know what it like to wanna sing... and have it beat out 'ya. I want to thank you, Miss Celie, fo evrything you done for me. I 'members that day in the store with Miss Millie - I's feelin' real down. I's feelin' mighty low. And when I seed you - I knowd they is a God. I knowd they is a God. : The Color Purple

Pogue Colonel: Son, all I've ever asked of my marines is that they obey my orders as they would the word of God. We are here to help the Vietnamese, because inside every gook there is an American trying to get out. It's a hardball world, son. We've gotta keep our heads until this peace craze blows over.: Full Metal Jacket

Just have to throw this one in: "Shut up Donnie!": The Big Lebowski

THREE (3) jobs you’d do if you could not work in the “biz”:

Work in an advertising agency
Teach History in High School
Create a non-profit

FOUR (4) jobs you actually have held outside the industry:

Caterer
Internet businessman
Magazine editor
Newspaper reporter

THREE (3) book authors I like:

Walter Mosely
Langston Hughes
Martin Gilbert

TWO (2) movies you’d like to remake or properties you’d like to adapt:

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: I'm going to write another version of the classic
The Big Sea by Langston Hughes.

ONE (1) screenwriter you think is underrated:

Charles Fuller: A Soldier's Story. He is constantly asked to rewrite other people's material, but I can't get his stuff made. It's a crime.

THREE (3) people I’m tagging to answer this meme next:
I've got to figure out how to put html tags in the body of a message first.

Pitching is fun...

I pitched my script yesterday, and it was fun as hell. In our advanced screenwriting classes, better known as 434s, writers, directors, and producers, all get a chance to pitch their script to the professor. So about thirty of us pile into a room built for twenty, and listen as folks pitch their ideas for scripts. It takes about two and a half hours to finish, but it's cool because you get to hear about some really good script ideas. I have to say that those of us writing scripts for the Sloan have some wonderful ideas. We've all weaved science into our scripts, and it comes organically. It should be a good competition.

But pitching is fun for me. When pitching, the person needs to have a clear idea of what their story is, and then tell it in a way where people can grasp the story. But having said that, you don't have to be, in the infamous words of Tom Cruise, glib. It's more important to be concise. I learned the lesson about two years ago when a friend and I pitched to a producer at Endemol. We had a reality show that they were interested in. We talked, and talked, and talked too much. Never again, I thought, as we left.

But the key to pitching, lecturing, or anything else that requires one to speak in front of crowds is to realize that it isn't life or death. If you flop, no one is going to recommend your immediate execution. You just try again. It's the same way I approach film school and my scripts. A lot of what I write will be crap. Well intentioned crap, but crap none the less. What I understand is that if you work hard on that crap, filet out the good parts and work from there, and then start writing something that's good, then you are WAY ahead of someone who believes that everything they write is already gold.

School, Working Out, and No More Chocolate...

Today is the first day of the quarter. I have to pitch Latimer to two advanced screenwriting teachers today, and hopefully it'll go well. I'm pretty confident in the material, so it shouldn't be a problem, however you never know. I just need to be concise. The start of school means that I have to reluctantly put my copy of "Call To Duty" in mothballs for a while.

I got up this morning at 6:30am and worked out at the Wooden Center. The goal is to lose about forty pounds this year and get in shape. Too many headaches, body aches, and general lumpiness. I had the wife take front, side and back picture (sort of like the 360 degree mirror they use in What Not To Wear) and boy was it revealing. It's amazing what your brain will tell you look like, and what you ACTUALLY look like. So I have a nice program set up. One of my saving graces is that I lose weight pretty rapidly when I actually change my diet and exercise. I've done it before, but writing and lecturing tends to throw a monkey wrench into my plans. Now I have no excuse. So it is four times a week at the gym, watching The Big Lebowski on the iPod (the best damn gym invention ever).

BTW, Final Draft is f*ing up. Every so often, it won't recognize my serial number, so I have to keep my disk in the computer to save my work. That's a real drag.

Day Three at the Porn Convention and Back Home...

Day Three at the AVN, and I've finished my interviews. I decided to skip the award show on Sunday because I don't think it will really help my book, and also I needed to get back for school. The porn heavy hitters came out today, Jenna Jamison and Tera Patrick (pictured) and it was like Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz had decided to show up. The whole convention tilted toward them and it was nothing but camera flashes for about an hour.

On the black porn front, I met a guy who runs a porn operation out of Chicago, which is VERY unusual, since about 95% of porn is based in the San Fernando Valley. I've got to figure out how I'm going to cover him.

So it was a good three days of research. And now, I need to forget about it. I need to get my brain back to screenwriting. I'll start working on the porn research on the weekends. But for now, it's lay on my ass time while watching Sunday NFL football.

Day Two at the Porn Convention...

The interviews just continue to get better. The porn industry tends to be dominated by white men, a lot of whom couldn't get jobs in other industries, (felons, uneducated, etc.), and yet I'm finding a LOT of college grads among my black subjects. I did about eight interviews today (about thirty minutes each) and I'm really glad I chose this topic for my fourth book. There's nothing like peeling back what you think you know about people and then showing who they really are. But this weekend is just the beginning. I have six months of research before I start writing.

BTW, the folks who kind of creep me out are not the people in the biz, but the fans. The fans in porn are like fans in sports, or entertainment, etc., but there's something weird about a guy wanting to put his face in a porn star's silicone breasts, and then have his buddy take a picture. Where do you show that picture? To the fam at Thanksgiving? On the coffee table next to the kids? But then again, I may be too much uptight. One of my subjects said I had to loosen up a bit. Easy for her to say. She was wearing a thong and pasties.

Day One at the Porn Convention...

Ladies and gentlemen, I just attended day one of the Adult Video News convention, and it literally overwhelms the senses. There's porn for EVERY taste, fetish, or kinky idea one might have. Plastic breasts and bubble asses are everywhere, as this is a flesh market, and the bigger the better. But there's a funny thing about porn. It's not that titilating and all of this flesh becomes a bit of white noise. If you really want to learn about who these people are, you have to ignore what they are showing and focus on their faces. That's where the truth is.

I don't have time to go into it right now, but I got about five good interviews from African American porn actresses, and I think I'll be able to get a bunch more throughout this week. Very interesting stories and why I like this topic, these people are not who you think they are. Very complex and not all sob stories. So now, it's uploading photos and interviews to the computer. I have a full day tomorrow.

UCLA: The Second Quarter...

One of the beautiful things about UCLA film school is that it has classes which literally make me hyped when I read the descriptions. I actually have to hold myself back so that I'm not taking too many. This quarter, I'm taking three classes. I'm taking my obligatory 434 advanced screenwriting class. We begin pitching next week and since I have to write my Sloan script, LATIMER, in the class anyway, it's pretty much well thought out. I was able to roll about ten pages of script by the way. Next, I was accepted into a television comedy course being taught by Fred Rubin. One of the things that surprised me about UCLA is that there doesn't appear to be a lot of television classes. This class is about writing comedy scenes, and since I have a comedy show I've already sketched out, I'm interested in what makes a scene work. Then, I have a class on showrunning, which allows me to understand how to sell my next Nielsen winner. I think I'm one of those rare writers who actually LOVES the business side of things. Maybe because I've actually run businesses? That'll be enough work with the book manuscript due in September.

Big Ups!

Big Ups to my boy Dave at Man Bytes Hollywood! For the past week, good ole blogger wasn't letting a brother post to his own blog, AND user comments weren't posting. Double plus ungood. But upon his genius recommendation, I've changed templates, and voila, things are kopastetic again. I've also decided that I'm going to liven the blog up a bit with some pictures.

So it's January 2nd, and I've eaten too much gumbo. To wash it down, I decided to treat myself with a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. The good ole diet begins on January 9th, first day of school for the quarter, so I figure I should get in all of the bad stuff right now.

In a couple of days, I go back to the land of adult make believe, Las Vegas, as I begin work on my next book, Money Shot. From Jan. 5th to the 8th, the Adult Video News magazine will be holding its annual convention and award show. For me, this is a WONDERFUL opportunity to conduct interviews in one place. My deadline for the book is September, and with school, I don't have a ton of time to waste. So among the silicone, nakedness, heavy makeup, and buzzing toys, will be a guy with a digital recorder hoping to get great stories from the folks on the outside of polite society. Ya gotta love it!

My 2006 Schedule:

As I looked over what I have to get done in the next year, I realized that I have to do something I really hate doing. I have to create a schedule. The problem is not having enough time to do everything, but I just need to get a bit more disciplined. I have grad school with at least two scripts to write, a book to write, and then a documentary project. I can't "luxuriate" anymore by getting started with my day at 10am. And, I need to get in shape. The belly is getting swelly (as my six year old likes to say) as a result of a ton of travel and bad meals (and king sized snicker bars). So that means 6am wake ups and everyday workouts. The goal is to lose about thirty lbs. between now and 2007. I'll feel better, which means that I will concentrate better. And that means I will write better.

I've been writing a few scenes for my Sloan script. The script, tentatively named LATIMER, is about the African American inventor Lewis Latimer. It's starting well. I will begin work on MONEY SHOT, a name by the way the publisher wants to change, after the New Year's. My first task is to go to the Adult Video News Award in Las Vegas this January. For three days, I will be interviewing every black porn star, business person, etc. in the industry. My plan is to do all of my interviews and research between January-June, and write the book during the summer.

Annie Hall...

As I've stated, I have to work at learning the language of film. I've never been a huge film buff. So I'm watching movies. And one of the movies I'm watching is Annie Hall. A great movie, it is also instructive in one great precept when it comes to scenes. The idea is: Get in late and leave early. Annie Hall does it great and I think I'll watch it over and over to make sure my own scenes are this tight.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Kwanzaa!

Tomorrow, I'm shopping all day, so I wanted to make sure I said Happy Holidays to everyone before I forgot!

Back From Vegas...

Hey y'all,

Just spent three days in Las Vegas to watch Cal wax BYU. A good time was had by all, but the old school Tropacana had no internet access, so I'm just now answering any posts. Check ya later!

Nine Months...

2006 is going to be the Year of Writing for me. I talked to my new editor, Anita Diggs, and my next book has a September deadline. That's nine months, kids. Oh well, JGTSD.

Finalist for Sloan Foundation...

It is official. I'm one of ten screenwriters at UCLA who's a finalist for the Sloan Foundation script contest. So that means a few changes. I have to write this script for my advanced screenwriting class next quarter. So I need to get cracking with my research. The script is due in April and there's a $10,000 prize.

Act One...

So for our advanced screenwriting course in the winter, we have to pitch. For one professor, he wants ten pages of your script instead of the verbal pitch. Fine. So I went over my ten pages with a fine tooth comb and discovered something. I like working on my script in ten page chunks. My Act One needed work because as one of my classmates correctly noted, it was too long. So I started cutting. Anyway, the effects of the flu are starting to wane, and now I can concentrate on working on it. Our classes begin on January 9th, so I have time get my Act One tight.

This Week...

Well, the Ross family is down for the count with the flu. And it hit us all at once. Where it came from, I have no idea. Maybe it was from the airports or hotels? Anyway, the wife is knocked out, I'm delirious, and my son was so sick that he crawled up into our bed. If you know my son, who is damn near hyper, that tells you something. What else could happen this month? Death, flu, maybe locusts? But for all that, things are looking up.

1. My agent sold my non-fiction version of Money Shot on Monday. Not a lot of money for the advance, but it is a go. Plus, my agent was able to get a nicely sized kicker put into the contract if I reach a very obtainable number of books sold. That was nice. I sort of felt like I was an athlete who had to run for X amount of yards for a bonus! And for the first time in three books, I have a new publishing house and new editor. That's both exciting and scary. The tricky bit will be writing it while in school. But then again, I wrote my first book while working full time. JGTSD* is my mantra.

2. Grades are in for two classes, Hal and Richard: A's in both. I just turned in my final for my film marketing class. I'll find that one out later.

3. Met with the agent from Paradigm and had a GREAT meeting. He was REALLY cool, and I told him I'd send him my script this Spring. Next quarter, we write our full script in our advanced screenwriting course. I'm going to take the script I was writing in Hal's course, the agent liked the idea and even noted that he'd been reminded of my script's main character the day before, and then finish and polish it. My goal in Hal's course was to learn the fundamentals and not try to get cute with my writing before I knew what the hell I was doing. As I've been rewriting, I've gained more confidence that I know where I'm taking my script. But that's just Act I. I have Act II and Act III to write. Before I start writing those, I'm going to re-read Hal's book about those Acts.

4. BTW, we have to pitch our scripts to our perspective professors. That shouldn't be a problem for me since I talk alot, but I need to be precise about what I'm saying, and not rambling. So I've got to practice.

5. I'm still waiting on word for the Sloan, but I'm going to start work on my research anyway. My story is based in the 1920s and I need to do some research on Flushing, Queens and Harlem before starting the script. If I'm going to do a period piece, I want to see a photo of what a particular area looks like. I need to know what was in the neighborhood and what wasn't. I like accuracy.

6. UCLA MFA writer, MK Asante and UCLA MFA producer Ben Haaz (who is a dynamo) and I are working on a documentary proposal for next summer. We just got good news and it had nothing to do with Geico. We were looking at two directors for our project and we've just begun talking to them. One is a heavy hitter with NFL films and the other has won two Academy Awards. Ben and MK know them both and we found out that the NFL guy is interested in our project. Ben is contacting the Oscar winner during the break. It's a great project about sports and race.

Okay, time for Thera-ful and some chicken soup (I made it homemade. Remember, I can burn)


*Just get the shit done

Thanks!

Thanks everyone for your condolenses, both public and private. We had a beautiful memorial service for my father in law, and it was a testiment to his life that folks came from far and wide to attend. We got back this afternoon and it feels good to be back in my own house. After eight days in a Castro Valley Holiday Inn (that was being renovated CONSTANTLY!!), it seems like we haven't been home in weeks.

But December means royalites, and I had a royalties check waiting for me when I got home. That was cool and provides a nice Xmas for all. I'm still waiting on decisions for Money Shot, both fiction and non-fiction versions. Either would be nice.

For UCLA, I missed the last class of the quarter, but the professors were super cool about it. My intro to screenwriting class ended with the professor deciding to give everyone credit. Aces! With my marketing class, Terry decided that we all did so well on our midterms that we'll simply have to answer a few questions for our final. Aces again! And for my 431 with Hal, we got notes back. Each time I get notes about my Act One, it continues to be answers to questions I can't see. I'm not skilled enough to recognize problems in my scripts, at least not yet. I continue to have problems with on the nose dialogue. I think I can work on that. My goal for my 431 script was to learn. Again, this is a form that I'm not familiar with, so I felt it a bit arrogant to think I could start running before walking. So right now, after one quarter, I feel that I'm standing up straight and learning to balance myself. I can walk pretty cool and but still a bit unsure. I'm going to take this winter break to work on the notes for my Act One, plus I'm going to send it to some friends for additional notes. After that, I'll keep rewriting it.

We start our advanced screenwriting course on January 4, and we have to pitch it to our professors. I have a story I'd like to write, so I think I'm going to do something different than what I did this first quarter. But at the end of this year, I want three complete scripts.

Still haven't heard about the Sloan, so if my story has been accepted.

On December 13th, I have a coffee meeting with an agent from Paradigm. As an alum from Loyola High, there are numerous connections with Hollywood, and some have been very gracious about meeting with me. I'm not bringing any writing samples because they aren't ready, but we're just going to talk about what I should do to grow my career in Hollywood. When a script is ready, then I'll schedule a second meeting. As part of a second contact, another Loyola alum who's a CAA agent has asked to see my script when it is ready. I will vet that script FULLY before I send it out.

But for now, it is rest on my oh so sweet couch. Tomorrow, Cal plays Kansas in basketball and then Loyola goes against Esperanza for the CIF Division One Championship. I'll be there watching them win at the Home Depot Center.

Bad News...

My father in law passed in his sleep last night, and so we're heading to Oakland. He was truly a great man, and I'll miss him like a best friend.

re: Hal's Class...

Yesterday, I wanted to test out an alternative opening for my script. I have an opening scene that I'm pretty sure works (1b), but I wanted to see if I made my main character really vulgar, would it work. I think I confused my poor classmates. The idea was to make my main character vulgar, a bit blase about his subject, and a little above the frey. But it didn't go over well. Oh well, that's why you try it out in a workshop. But from that convo, I knew that I had to make his antagonist this vulgar character as a direct contrast to my hero. So those lines will be heard in Act Two. I'm going to send Hal opening 1b to make sure it works. Our first acts are due next week, so I'm not going to chance it. But I'm pretty sure that this first act will work.

What I'm noticing in our workshop is that there are quite a few scripts I don't get, but it seems like most of the other students get. Not that it is bad or good either way, but I'm wondering if each workshop will be like that? We get along pretty well, but I can see that our interests are widely varied.

Anyway, back to writing. I'm going to polish up my first act over the next few days. I want it nice and shiny by Friday.

Full Metal Jacket...

I went to see Jarhead this weekend. Hated it. But it made me remember how much I LOVE Full Metal Jacket. Here's what I tell my six year old, which is paraphrased from FMJ.

"Son, all I've ever asked of you is that you obey my orders as you would the word of God."

Classic.

New Savoy Magazine Goes on "Hiatus"

Well, it looks like I'll get paid when the moon turns to cheese...lol

Lawrence
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New Savoy Magazine Goes on "Hiatus"

November 14, 2005

Underfinancing Halts Black Lifestyle Monthly

The new Chicago-based incarnation of Savoy magazine, which debuted in February, is on "hiatus" and unable to pay its contributors, but plans a Web edition in December, publisher Hermene Hartman told Journal-isms.

"I was underfinanced from the get-go," said Hartman, Publisher of the Chicago weekly N'Digo. "I'm waiting on some dollars to come in." Savoy's last issue was dated June/July.

"I can't pay writers and I can't pay staff. Advertising is wonderful; reader response is wonderful," Hartman said Sunday. The lifestyles publication had an unaudited circulation of 325,000, she said.

Savoy, which aspired to be a "black Vanity Fair," was the flagship publication of Vanguarde Media, whose publications were auctioned in bankruptcy proceedings last year. Others in the Vanguarde stable were Heart & Soul, a health and fitness magazine, and Honey, which described itself as "a fashion and entertainment magazine aimed at stylish urban women."

Hartman bought Savoy for $600,000 from the Jungle Media Group, a small New York publishing house that won the magazine at auction in May 2004 for $375,000 plus the assumption of consumer liabilities. Hartman hired as editor Monroe Anderson, a Chicago-based veteran journalist who had worked at Ebony, Newsweek, the Chicago Tribune and Chicago's WBBM-TV.

Hartman said the publication ran into higher-than-expected postal expenses when it failed to qualify to mail at magazine postal rates. "We missed it by a month. We were out of publication for a full year," she explained. "We were mailing out at full postal rates, and magazine status is half of that."

Hartman's debut issue in February featured Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and his wife, Michelle Obama. It ran 116 pages and carried 14 articles, features and columns. It planned to publish 10 times a year, with combined issues for June/July and December/January, as Target Market News reported then.

Anderson is editing the online edition of Savoy, which will be posted at http://www.savoymag.com, Hartman said. Writers who are owed money will be paid when "some dollars come in," and subscriptions will be honored, she said.

Of the other Vanguarde products, Honey was bought at auction in May 2004 by a company headed by Philmore Anderson, a former record company executive who has not yet relaunched the magazine, and Heart & Soul reappeared on Oct. 7. [Added Nov. 17: Anderson said he was still assembling financing for the magazine and "we'll be publishing in '06."]

The health and fitness publication had been purchased at auction by Baltimore-based Twenty-First Century Group. Publisher Edwin V. Avent told Journal-isms Sunday that "we had similar issues" as Savoy with its postal costs, but "you have to have enough capital to deal with it. It's something you have to budget."

The next Heart & Soul issue is scheduled for February/March, and after that it will publish every other month, Avent said. As reported last month, Yanick Rice Lamb has returned to the publication as editorial director.

Posting of material below was delayed until Nov. 16:

Savoy...Still No Pay...

Ah, it's been months after I was supposed to be paid by Savoy magazine, and still nothing. About two months ago, I began calling the editor, the one Hermene Hartman, who also publishes a weekly Chicago rag called N'digo. Now, my dealings with Ms. Hartman have been comical to a certain extent. The first time I talked with her, she said that I would be paid by the end of the week. Two ends of the week passed and I decided to give her another call. She couldn't remember having said that. Okay, common mistake. So I gave her another month and then decided to find out when I would receive my check. She then gave me a long explanation about how she had been paying high postal rates and now she was hoping to get a rebate and THEN pay me. I said, okay.

Two months go by, and not a peep. So, I decide to call again. Now this time I think she mistook my name, she called me Mr. Harris a few times. Mr. Harris must be an important person because she was extremely apologetic, which was a change. Normally, she was extremely abrupt and acted like I was really taking a lot of her valuable time from her. But when I corrected her on my name, she went back to her abrupt self. Again, I received the postal excuse.

I got off the phone the last time and became curious. One of the photographers for the Savoy issue is pretty much world famous. I sent him an email and he said that he hadn't been paid and didn't think we'd see a dime from Savoy.

Now this is the point where most folk would say, hey, chalk it up to experience and don't think about it. Write it off as a tax loss and move on. And since I'm a daily advocate of black business (I've kept a weekly journal since I was 15, detailing when and where I spent my money, and how much went to a black business), I would normally do that. But here's the thing. Freelance writers get JACKED all of the time, and we're constantly told to just lump it. I don't think I'm going to do that this time.

As I noted before, Ms. Hartman also runs a weekly. I may send every last one of her advertisers a letter about how financially unstable her publication is. I'm also going to send a letter of protest to the National Association of Black Journalists, which I'm a member. I may also talk to the Chicago Sun-Times and Tribune about this situation. Lastly, I may take her to small claims court and then immediately go to her offices and enforce the judgement.

In plain terms, what Ms. Hartman is doing is stealing. She is promising to pay for work, and once the work was done and used, she is refusing to pay. That's sad. What do y'all think?

My New Website...

Hey all,

I've finally put up a website. Check it out at www.lross.net and let me know what you think.

Lawrence

Kid in a Candy Store...

One of the great things about film school is that I get to listen to experts outside of writing. I love the business side of things, and one place I get to learn the biz is in a producer's class. Terry Press, Director of Marketing at Dreamworks, is a funny, gruff, and highly intelligent teacher of marketing, and she's been showing us the ropes of what it takes to market a movie. The woman can literally tell you how much any given movie is going to make before it comes out. She KNOWS her shit, and I like people who KNOW their shit. Today, she brought in Laurence Mark, producer of movies such as Jerry Maguire and As Good As It Gets. This is why I went to film school. He was great. He explained how African American movies are marketed and his movies in general, from the best to the worst. He's on my list of people to call once I have scripts ready.

Hal's Class Today...

We didn't have anything due today for my screenwriting class, but we watched the first acts of three movies: The Professional, Tootsie, and A Walk on the Moon (which was written in Hal's class). It was very informative as we watched how writer's wrote off the nose dialogue and how conflict was the center of every line, scene and the act itself. Again, it makes you very cognizant that you need to know your characters REALLY well. Right now, I'm doing a character sketch for my characters, and it's really making them come to life. Last week, I rewrote my story and started two scenes from Act One. But over the next couple of days, I'll first flesh out the characters, and then start writing better scenes.

Called Karen at Kensington to see if they were going to buy Money Shot. I sent an email to my agent, but I haven't heard back. Turned in my story idea for the Sloan Foundation ($10,000 prize) and I really like it.

Tomorrow begins my workout schedule. My knees are at 85% and I can walk straight without pain. Cutting, like a football player, is out of the question. But Lifecycle, here I come.

That's Better...

Sent my newly revised story to my professor and we both agree that it works much better. Still has some problems, but not huge. It's more writing this weekend, unless I go up to the Cal vs USC game.

Paul Haggis and Crash...

I went to see a screening of CRASH as presented by Creative Screenwriting magazine, and the writer Paul Haggis was in attendance. It was cool listening to someone rather than being on the stage myself. Anyway, each time I see CRASH, the more the impact lessens, but then again, that may simply be the nature of the movie. The plot twists, the emotional moments, the coincidences, are all known, so the surprise is gone. But still, I'm not sure that it's going to hold up over the long term. But I could be wrong. It wouldn't be the first time.

I have done a third revision of my Hal's class Project X and I like it. I threw away a LOT and I think I have a better, more logical story. I'm really getting into this throwing shit away. I'm not wedded to anything in my scripts, so I feel nothing if something doesn't work. Keep trying.

I also did a sketch of ACT ONE, and tomorrow, I will do a finish our assignment, which is to tell the story in the first person from our characters perspective. That'll help me understand my characters and their motivations for what they do.

One of the fortunate things about having paid for high school is that your fellow alums are extremely generous with their time and are willing to listen to you. Two of my high school alums are agents in this town and they've graciously agreed to meet with me once I have a script done. Remember, I want to learn the fundamentals, write a good solid first script, get representation, sell a script, and then begin to experiment while in film school. So this first script may not have many Charile Kaufaman moment, I'll save those for 434 advance screenwriting, but it will be solid, even if I have to re-write it over and over.

Revision...

Had Hal's class today and we had to present a synopsis of our script. My synopsis showed flaws, such as folks were unclear as to where the story was going. Not too good. But that's what this is for. I look at each session as molding my clay project. So I'm going back over and throwing some stuff out, changing the direction in other ways, and then coming up with a better reason for telling the story in the first place. One thing though. I'm loathe to criticize the work of others unless I truly believe what I have to say helps. So, although I didn't say it today, I feel like some of the work read was a bit literary, when I am trying to move in the opposite direction. When I say literary, I mean a lot of description that could be action. I see some of the works as novels, but I'm going to be interested in seeing how they translate it to a script. My strategy is to take each and every description I write in a script and see if it can best be done as an action instead. So my descriptions aren't as long or flowery. Three words are my goals. Describe characters in three words. But make them good words.

More movies watched:

Mystic River
Catch Me if you Can
Wonderland

Projects to finish:
1. Revised synopsis and then continue working on Act One of Hal's Project X.
2. Work on the treatment for the Sloan Foundation: Due November 18th

Backed Up...

I'm a bit backed up due to travel, so right now I'm doing my Hal assignments. We have to create a synopsis of our thirty page script, and we have to show how we'd adapt a story. Normally, I literally stare at the computer for a few days, relaxing while thinking about the assignment, and the tackle it. But Clemson set me back a bit. But neither of the assignments are difficult, so I should get them done by tomorrow night.

On the Friend With Benefits front, Black Expressions (the Doubleday book club) has listed my book as a hot read on their website. Let's hope for nice sales from that.

I haven't talked to the agent in a week, and I need to do that. I decided to scrap my old book proposal for the NEVER ENDING NON FICTION BOOK PROJECT and start again. I found my favorite book proposal book and I'm going to take a week and re-read it. Hopefully, I can crank out something worth selling.

I've got to see if Karen wants to buy Money Shot. If so, that's a few extra dollars in the coffers.

Went to the Ortho pedic doctors today, where they twisted and turned my knees. I now need an MRI on the right knee, because it still hurts. They want to see if there are any miniscus (sp?) tears there.

Tuesday, I'm going to start working out again. I need to get in shape because my diet is terrible and I feel like a blog. The Wooden Center sit there on campus with all of the state of the art exercise machines (and only $50 annual membership for the wife. Go UCLA!) and I need to get off my ass for an hour and work out. Bad knees or no, there's no excuse.

Tomorrow, the wife is out for her sorority meeting, and I take the now front toothless munchkin to his morning art class. After that, it's finishing my stories and football all day. I'm out!

Last Night...

Right now, I'm typing from a hotel in Clemson, South Carolina. I spoke last night for the Greek community, but better than anything, I had the best Shrimp and Grits in the South at their restaurant. I spoke here four years ago and had them, and since then, I DREAMT about them. I just wish that I could have taken a doggie bag of them back with me to the hotel.

I'm about to get on the road and drive three hours to Atlanta, get on the plane, and then go to class this evening. Tomorrow, I'm going to talk to my agent about my troubles with my book proposal.

ME

Four Pages...

We are writing the first four pages to our thirty page script, and I have never stared at four pages more than I have these past four days. I NEVER thought I'd say this, but I'm having fun cutting out useless words, lines, and anything that doesn't move the story forward. Each time I find that I can say something in three words versus a ten word sentence, I feel like a person doing a jigsaw puzzle and finding missing pieces. I know this must sound naive to established screenwriters, but this is new to me. BTW, my script is a sports comedy, but I'm not going to say the title because it's that good of a title. More later...

My Movie A Day...Continued...

I forgot to list the movies I've watched...

Sideways...about four times. I like to read the script at the same time as I watch the movies.
Wonderland
Foxy Brown...all hail Pam Grier

I have more, but I'm tired...

Friends With Benefits Pub...

AP wants to do a story on Friends With Benefits, so that is going to be great pub. On another note, Savoy magazine still hasn't paid me. Now the publisher's excuse is she is waiting for the US Postal Service to give her some money. She runs two different publications, but she can't pay me. Sad.

Today's Biz...

This morning, I got up around 6:30am and called my editor. I wanted to see if there are any numbers in for Friends With Benefits. The first printing was 24,000, and 19,000 are gone from the warehouse. We don't have any sales numbers, but that's a pretty good figure. Being that I'm an unknown in fiction, normally half would still be sitting in the warehouse gathering dust. So that was good news. Plus, Friends With Benefits was featured on the first page spread of Black Expressions, Doubleday's Book Club. Black Expressions has 200,000 folks, so that is real good.

Karen is going to her Wednesday editorial meeting with my Money Shot proposal, so I should know more within the week. That's where they'll sit back and see if the story is marketable, and how much they can afford to pay me. I'll let my agent take care of that.

I've got to put FWB and Divine Nine publicity on my schedule. I've been lagging badly in both areas.

In class, things are going better. Screenplays are a completely new form for me, so I'm trying to get the fundamentals down as quickly as possible. We have some really good writers in the class and I'm pretty impressed with their attention to details. Not an excuse, but we had an exercise where we took an antedote and wrote story in prose, and then in script form. I kept my story pretty generic, trying to work on getting the basic screenwriting form down. My descriptions were not as detailed as the others, and the story was pretty linear. The comments in class reflected that I could have started either before my opening or after. Fair enough. But we're done with that. Now, we're starting our first four pages for the thirty page script we're developing. That's what we've been waiting to do, and I can't wait.

With these scripts, we start them for thirty pages, and then the next quarter we can either throw them out or continue to develop them. I'm not throwing out crap. If I spend time on it, I'm working on it. So what am I going to write about? I haven't decided yet. I have a list of twenty stories I want to develop, but I haven't decided which one I want to spend time on right now. I'm close, but not yet. I'll let you know as soon as I figure it out (tomorrow).

I wasn't able to get to the building for the Black MFA Association, but I may do that tomorrow. Everyone is very enthusiastic about the idea and I think it will be a hit. Even if we're not able to get official recognition this quarter, we can still meet unofficially and bring in speakers from the industry. My hope is that we'll create a support system for Black MFA students, and a gateway into Hollywood via mentorships and new relationships.

Yesterday...

Last night, I went to my first bi-monthly MFA gathering at O'Brien's in Santa Monica. Threw down a few Heinekens and met with the various writers, directors, and producers of the future. For the most part, most were pretty cool. We bitched about our various assignments, professors, and whether or not we'll make some cash from all of this. I talked a lot, but watched even more. It was kind of easy to see who probably drank every night, and who didn't. Still would like to see more MFA's of color in the program. Diversity is a good thing, ya know.

Tomorrow I'm going to see if I can start up the UCLA Black MFA Association. Technically, I missed the date for new organizations, but hell, ya gotta believe that they can waive a few rules for something like this. I heard that they tried to organize it last year, but it fell apart last year. The overall MFA program is VERY inclusive to everyone, but whether they realize it or not, there are some very special issues for black directors, writers, producers, etc. that aren't covered in the general program. I want to suppliment our education with real black folks in the industry, and that Black MFA Association will help get that done. I already have a lawyer friend at the William Morris Agency, who's agreed to talk to us. Hopefully, we can get more folks each month.

As for my assignments, things are finally rolling. My four page opening act feels pretty good, and I finished my "age" story. I'll probably work on both throughout the night, polishing them for tomorrow's class. Still a little vague on the style of writing Hal wants, but C'est La Vie.

Knackered...

I am, as the British like to say, knackered. On Wednesday, I took an overnight flight to Chicago on American Airlines. Big mistake. They put a full flight on a plane just larger than the prop planes they used to shuttle folks on in the 50s. My knees took a beating. I landed in Chi-Town at 6am and our conference started at 9am. It was GREAT to see all of my friends on the panel and I think we were able to get a lot of work done informing college advisors about Black Greek Life.

After the conference, I rolled BACK to O'Hare and flew overnight again to LAX. I've been sleep since I got home in the early morn, and I have a feeling that I won't be able to really get up until this afternoon. I had an Orthopedic appointment this morning, but I'm too tired to make it. I'll reschedule.

My agent Manie has been sick, so my non-fiction proposal is still in the same place. I need some advice on how to get this thing over the hump. I have two assignments due on Monday, but I haven't started them. I've been reading and re-reading Hal's book before starting so that I can apply his principles to Act Ones correctly.

Hal's Book...

It's 2am and I'm reading my professor's book, Write Screenplays That Sell the Ackerman Way, and I've got to say that it is a great book. If any of you are trying to write a screenplay, he explains the nuts and bolts in a way that makes logical sense. Now I don't know if I'll be able to write a screenplay worth a damn, but I honestly can't put the book down. Right now, I'm about eighty pages in and I'm reading about the structure of a screenplay. More later...

Stuck on a book proposal...

For the first time, I'm stuck while writing a book proposal. I HATE writing them in the first place, but this one is especially hard because it is an investigative book and I won't find out a lot of information until I start interviewing people. So it is on my mind. My agent is sick and probably won't be available until Friday, so that means another week goes by with it not done. I need to get it out of the way so he can shop it. It's a great topic and I really want to do it, but again, I hate book proposals.

In Hal Ackerman's class, I'm really starting to get a feel for what a good screenplay should have. We're sort of dissecting other films and looking at them from the standpoint of a writer, and it is interesting what ten different people can see when watching the same movie.

In Richard's class, I think that he's going to use a few pages from the MFA student scripts as an example of what not to do. That should be fun, watching who's going to draw the short straw.

Today is devoted to reading Hal's book and thinking about what I'm going to write for my first thirty pages (first act) in Hal's class. I have a title: The Proper Englishman, and I like my general idea for a story. Maybe I'll detail it later.

As for the Sloan, I'm going to start writing the first draft of my treatment and then find someone like my mentors Yule and Andrew to help go over it. It's a $10,000 prize and I'd like to win it. In fact, I'm going to submit scripts for every damn prize UCLA offers. LOL I'm not independently wealthy, and if prizes can subsidize my education, then that's what's going to happen.

I'm off to Chicago for a brief appearance at the NPHC National convention. It's an all day thing with a book signing, but I fly back the same day. I just don't have much time to waste as I did way back in the day (last year).

MK and I are still working on our documentary about race and sports. We have a producer so we're getting ready to get started, to get ready. Now it's about connecting the dots over the next six months.

I still need to see if Kensington has made a decision on my fiction piece, Money Shot. I'll ask my agent about that when he feels better.

I've added an anthology to the work schedule. It's something I've always wanted to do but never had the time to do. Hopefully it'll work out.

BTW, the knees are feeling a LOT better. I still can't move them side to side without MASSIVE pain. Today, I tried to swing my right leg over the bathtub rim and damn near crumbled from the pain. I'll NEVER do that again. But I can walk pretty much without pain, and only with a slight limp. The abrasion on the kneecap has almost healed. The MCLs are going to be the ones that take the most time. Hopefully it just will require rest. The patella has a fracture, but it's not tender to the touch. I'll find out more when I go to the Ortho doc on Friday. But thanks for all of the good wishes from everyone.

More tomorrow...

Weekends...

Went to see Capote, the movie about Truman Capote and came away really impressed with Phillip Hoffman yet again. He's a truly great actor and probably will get an Oscar nod for this. But I also wondered why the screenwriter didn't get more pub for such a well written script. Screenwriters in Hollywood, for all of the money one can make, are treated like insignificant help, rather than the brains behind the whole joint. Guess I'll have to sneak in a year of directing so I can use a slash for my films.

I'm applying for the Alfred Sloan Foundation script prize along with about fifty other screenwriters. You have to write a script that contains science or is about a scientist. I've got my subject ready, so I feel pretty good. Yesterday, we had to go to an all day symposium, but that's hard for those of us with kids. You want to spend a bit of time with them, so I did a half day. Hope that doesn't hurt me when they make a selection about who goes in the final group.

Now it is off to Aunt Kizzy's for Sunday brunch...

Movies...

I have to see Capote for class, so I'm going to do that tomorrow. Also, I'm trying to see the Green Street Hooligans before it leaves the theaters. On Tivo (or the crappy Adelphia cable version of Tivo), I'm watching High Fidelity (Nick Hornby's joint. I really didn't care about this movie, but I LOVED Hornby's book, Fever Pitch. I'm not even commenting on the movie versions of the book.) and Judgement at Nuremburg. The movie a night thing is cool, but you really see how many crappy movies are being produced when you scroll through the listing. Ninety percent of these movies I'd never watch if you paid me.

My Movie A Day...

Now that I'm in film school, I've decided that I should actually start watching some films. So I'm watching at least one film per day. Some are classics. Others are obscure. Some I've watched, but now I'm rewatching in order to observe the screenwriting. And they are different as could be. Today, I watched 12 Angry Men and Goodfellas.

The Question of Race...

Have you ever noticed that when a black person is beat senseless by white folks, that the news anchors always ask the victim whether they think the incident was a racial incident. I always thought this curious. Everyday, reporters draw conclusions about everything under the sun. Whether Karl Rove will be indicted. Whether Bush knew there weren't any weapons of mass destruction. Whether or not the avian flu is going to kill us all. But when it comes to race, the reporter always wants the victim to make the decision. And if the black victim knows they are in a no win situation. If they say it is racial, then they will be accused of playing the "race card" (an illegitimate principle anyway). If they don't say it is racial, then it's like the anchor can breath a sigh of relief. White folks are off the hook! But why can't the anchor draw their own conclusions? Why can't someone say that we rarely find tapes of random whites people being beat down by black folks? Or that to the untrained or trained eye, it appears that a black man was being kicked, maimed, dragged, etc. by white people? Because a whole lot of commentators sure as hell declared black folks criminals from the looping of the looting during Katrina. I don't remember any of them asking those folks whether or not it was stealing. They just declared it so.

MRI results...

Here are the results for the MRI on my right knee: (1) no meniscal tear (2) severe injury to medial collateral ligament (no tear) and (3) small, nondisplaced fracture of patella. I have an appointmentt with the ortho specialist tomorrow, so I'll know what I have to do for rehab. I really would like to know what's going on with my left knee too.

Today's Class...

Today, we had our class with Hal. The assignment had been to write short story based on one regret we'd had in our life. It could be funny, serious, or anything in between. It didn't have to be true, but interesting. So I wrote my piece and as soon as I started reading it, I knew I'd made a mistake.

Hal called it scaffolding and I call it fluff. My piece had too much descriptive fluff used to intro elemets of the story. I made the mistake of writing this piece as though I was in the MFA program for creative writing versus screenwriting. My words needed to move the story forward in a spare manner, with sights and sounds described as it moved forward, rather than paragraphs of words that kept the story stuck in one place.

If I had to set up my own screenwriting rule, it would be called the Tuco rule. In my favorite movie, The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, Tuco (the Ugly) shoots a man in the right arm in the opening scene. About an hour later, the one armed man confronts Tuco with a gun in his left arm. Tuco appears to be helpless, as he's soaking in a bath. The one arm man gives a long soliloquy about how he'd been tracking Tuco down. Tuco says nothing. Finally, before the one armed man can shoot him, Tuco blasts him with a gun he's hidden underneath the soap bubbles. As Tuco looks down at the dead would be killer, he says simply.

"When you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk."

And that is the same with screenwriting. Screw the long descriptions and move the story forward.

Now I'm rewriting it so that it follows my Tuco rule.

Where I'm At...

All right. Let's get going and recap where I'm at and where I'm going. Besides struggling to limp around the UCLA with two busted knees (which has made another UCLA MFAer named Dave a hero in my eyes. Dave walks with crutches and I am forever in awe. My temporary ass immobility will get better and I'll go back to not noticing the thousands of unnecessary steps at each building, or how far the ATM machines are from each other. Being permanently disable is a bitch and this world, despite ramps and auto door openers, ain't built for folks without full mobility. I'm getting a small taste of it now.)

From now on, I'm going to divide the blog into my two different lives: UCLA film school and my books. Both will be active over the next two years and it will seem like I'm doing a lot of stuff, but it's all about compartmentalizing. I did get burned out while on the Friends With Benefits tour, but that was mainly because I hate to do book tours, and I'm starting to detest travel of any sort. But knock on wood, I haven't even come close to getting burned out on writing. It's the pleasurable thing about this whole biz.

So for the next two to three years, I will be serving two masters, and this is probably the best time ever to read this blog. My wife knows that I'm going to be selfish with my writing over these next few years and so does my son (who is hilarious by the way. I did a lecture at UC Santa Barbara and he was silently doing his pencil drawings close by when he pipes up and says to the audience "You're a funny man.") So, if you're interested in writing books, this is the blog for you. If you're interested in going to film school, this is the blog for you. If you're interested in writing screenplays, this is the blog for you. If you're interested in how documentaries are made, this is the blog for you. If you're interested in black writers in Hollywood, then this is the blog for you. So here we go:

UCLA:

I'm excited, really excited. I have three classes this quarter and two are led by the co-chairman of the MFA screenwriters program. Richard Walter teaches 130A, which is a mixed course of undergrads and graduate students. Hal Ackerman teaches 431, which is a sort of intro to screenwriting course for grads only. It is much more intimate with about ten students per class. My last class meets on Wednesday evening and is a marketing course taught by Terry Press, who is the head of theater marketing at Dreamworks.

What I like about UCLA to date is the atmosphere. Per being a California institution, the professors and students in the program all seem casual and determined that the best way to get the best out of you is for you to focus on your work, give it your all, but still keep some perspective on life at the same time. Richard Walter is an example of that. Honestly, after having gone to his first class, I'm not too sure what we're going to be learning. Scratch that. I know that we're going to be learning about the craft of screenwriting, but Richard talks about screenwriting in a very eclectic style. One minute he's talking about communism, Aristotle, writing a personal story, George Lucas, and the right wing nut job David Horowitz. I figure that it'll clear up soon enough. He has a great sense of humor and knows what he's talking about.

Hal's class is more my flavor though. Small set of writers who each have their own life experiences that they bring to their writing. I like that. I don't want to only hear about my stories. I thirst for other people's stories. In our first class, we did a sort of "My Name is Earl" exercise, where we listed our regrets. Some were funny, others were poignant, but as you wrote them, it became very apparent that you could be a little bit vulnerable. And if you are, you damn well better trust the people in the room. I think that even though everyone in the room is somewhat nervous as to how they stack up against each other as writers, we still trust each other because we obviously had enough talent to make it this far. As we continue to write, that trust will help us write the best screenplays possible. At the end of Hal's class, we're to write a thirty page first act. It's going to be fun.

My last class is a marketing class and when I sat down in that class, it felt like was stealing from UCLA. I LOVE marketing. For three hours, we talked about how bad "The Island" was, why it is hard to get older men to get off the couch and go to the movies, etc. Then we watched trailers. I was in bliss. I have an Art and Commerce philosophy about writing and my writing career, and since I want to write a lot of scripts that put black folks in international situations, i want to learn how a studio will or more importantly, won't marketing it.

MK and I are working on our documentary. More info later...

So that's UCLA. On to my bread and butter.

My agent wants my non-fiction book proposal soon and I'm determined to get it done by this weekend. When it gets sold, I'll say what it is.

Money Shot, my next fiction piece, is still being read by Karen Thomas at Kensington. I expect to have an answer by the end of the month.

I am about to do a telephone interview tour Friends With Benefits and The Divine Nine.

That's about it. More tomorrow.

The Verdict...

Small fracture on the left knee cap. I have an immobilizer on it right now and an MRI is getting scheduled tomorrow. My other knee just hurts. I have crutches, but since i can't really put a lot of weight on my right leg, they're a bit useless. But life moves on. Hopefully, there's no ligament damage when the MRI comes out. I see an orthopedic doctor next week for an evaluation.

Almost Killed Yesterday...

Yesterday, I was almost killed. First day of film school and I decided to ride the motorcycle. Put the bike into first gear and it jumped out under me, leading me into an SUV. My knees are fucked and the bike is totaled. But I still made it to school. Right now, the pain is unbearable and I need to get them checked out this morning. I already know that there's some ligament damage. Updates later...

The Little Things...

There was once a book called "It's the Little Things" and it detailed how the little things between blacks and whites make us distrustful of each other. They are little slights. One little slight is that I tend to believe that the humanity of African Americans is only grudgingly acknowledged by American society. Examples: Hurricane Katrina and the lack of a timely federal response. Former Secretary of Education Bill Bennett using African Americans as a hypothetical example of how abortion could cure the crime rate. Etc. But one little thing still bugs me. It is an honor delivered to different people in two different ways.

Ronald Reagan National Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport
LaGuardia Airport

Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport

Notice the difference? About six months ago, the state of Maryland fought about how to honor the late Thurgood Marshall, and they finally came up with a plan to rename the BWI airport after the Supreme Court justice. But notice that they decided to basically keep the old name and tack on Marshall's name as an afterthought. Now is this something that will change the world? No. But in some parts of the black community, this is another thing to point to when we look at whether we are second class citizens in this country. It's the little things.