Oscar Picks - Only 4 Months Late!

The 83rd Academy Awards took place on February 27, 2011 at Hollywood's Kodak Theatre. On June 20th I watched The Fighter - completing my goal of viewing all ten of the Best Picture nominees.  Here's how I rank 'em:

1) The King's Speech - absolutely deserving of every bit of praise it has received.  Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, all of it.  Absolutely.

1A) Winter's Bone - liked this so much I can't bring myself to rank it number 2.  Watched it first and was convinced it would be my clear-cut favorite of the year.  Jennifer Lawrence is solid but it was John Hawkes' character Teardrop that got to me the most.  I couldn't look away.


3) The Fighter - like Speech and Bone, The Fighter and True Grit were very close but I'm going with Fighter here based on originality and Christian Bale's crazy-good performance.  He may be somewhat of an asshole on set but you cannot deny the man's talent.


4) True Grit - I'm a sucker for all things Coen and the brothers don't disappoint.  The usual strengths are all here - great dialogue, great characters, great imagery.  It's hard to believe Hailee Steinfeld is only fourteen.

5) The Social Network - I've been a fan of Aaron Sorkin since his West Wing days and found the story of Facebook interesting.  Jesse Eisenberg just bugs me.  So sue me.


6) Black Swan - intriguing, dark and a tad disturbing. And I'd rank it this high even without the lesbian scene between Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis.  Maybe.


7) Inception - though I refuse to climb aboard the Christopher Nolan-is-a-god bandwagon you can't deny the visual power.  A couple big problems with this film, all screenwriting related, but  still a blockbuster worth watching at least once.


8) The Kids Are Alright - solid performances all around and they actually made Mark Ruffalo unlikable - not an easy task.


9) Toy Story 3 - I don't have a problem with a cartoon being nominated - it's just that a third installment requires little in the way of character development, backstory, etc.  Plus it felt like I'd seen it before when I hadn't.


10) 127 Hours - to me this actually felt like 127 hours, and not in the 'so-intense-I-felt-like-I-was-there' way.  Were this not directed by the same guy that wooed Hollywood with Slumdog Millionaire 2 years ago I don't see it receiving a nod.

Another 48 Hours

Alternate title: "How to make 48 hours seem like 48 minutes" or "Why I love Albuquerque."

Another 48 Hour Film Project has come and gone - the result of which to be shown tonight at one of three premieres at the beautiful Kimo Theatre in downtown Albuquerque.

For those not familiar with the process, you first form a team (cast, crew, etc.) to take part in the madness.  Friday evening each team draws one of a dozen or so possible genres.  We draw dark comedy.  Considering other options included musical/western, serial adventure, silent film and horror we are very happy with our draw.

Actor/Exec Producer Rachel Hroncich with the welcome draw.

All teams are then assigned three elements they must include in their film: a character, a prop and a line of dialogue.  This year the Albuquerque teams had:

Character: Lee or Leah Stephens, Electric Company Employee
Prop: A mask
Line: I can't get it out of my head.

Teams then have 48 hours to write, shoot and edit a short film (7 minutes max).  48 hours is a tad misleading really as our producer started getting things ready weeks in advance - scouting locations, lining up crew, logistics, etc.  It's no small task.  Producers do a mind-boggling amount of work.

A 90-minute brainstorming session with most of the team sets us on the path.  I toss out the idea of doing something on the recent Rapture silliness.  The group likes it and we go over possible story lines.  As a backup we come up with a second option - doing something set in an office (one of our prearranged locations) in the spirit of 9 to 5 but more violent.

The storming of brains.

At 10 I'm sitting in our executive producer's living room, writing.  The executive producer and director are there as well, helping.  We seem to get started and then another angle is suggested.  Then another.  At 11:30 I make the decision to go with the alternate story unless we have a defined framework in 30 minutes.  Twenty minutes later we have an outline.  :)

The next 4 hours are like a roller coaster in my brain.  Thoughts range from the good (hey, this has potential) to the bad (this isn't working) to the horrible (why the hell did I sign up for this?)

4 am and the script, for better or worse, is finished.  After some tweaking with the help of the exec producer I send it to our producer who's been waiting, somewhat patiently, to turn it into a shooting script and get the other wheels of production in motion.

In theory I could catch a couple hours sleep now but I want to be available should the producer or director have any changes.  I'm also pretty wired on adrenaline and caffeine so I stay awake until we meet with the cast/crew at 7.  Copies of the script are passed out and it hits me that this is the toughest part - waiting for the reaction.

An actor comes up with a big smile and says she loves it.  Then another.  Then a crew member gives his approval.  And another.  Not everyone likes it - usually no comment signifies the fact.  Some of the suggestions mentioned the night before didn't make it in.  This may have something to do with it.  I tell myself you can't expect to please everyone.  That said, it's a gigantic, gargantuan exhale when it's clear that, for the most part, it's being well received.

Our director, Scott Takeda, shows the calm, cool demeanor for which he's known.

Everyone dives in - even those that don't like the story - and does their part to make sure it's something we can all be proud of.  And this is perhaps the most wonderful part of this event - everyone does it for free.  Twenty-five people (just on our team) giving up an entire Saturday (most much more) simply because they are passionate about filmmaking.  It's a beautiful, amazing thing and a big reason why I go back year after year.

We shoot into the evening and semi-wrap around 10.  Everything is handed to our award-winning editor who, along with the director, will stay up through the night turning a bunch of scenes into a short film.  A few more shots are done the next morning and the final product - a dark comedy called The Rapture - is turned in around 7 - on time.

There are three premieres the following weekend with ours scheduled to be shown Saturday evening.  With any luck we'll make the Top 10 and maybe get some other awards.  I believe members of our team certainly deserve it but in the industry 'deserving' doesn't always mean 'getting.'  C'est la vie.

I'm back in Phoenix less than an hour when I start showing signs of what our exec producer calls PFEHFPD - Post 48 Hour Film Project Depression.  It'll pass, though it may take until we start talking about next year's effort.  I can't say enough about the film community in Albuquerque - a tremendous group of passionate, dedicated, talented, generous people.

For those interested in reading an actor's take on the 48 there is a wonderful article penned by one of the amazing actors on our team, Summer Olsson, found here.

The Game One team wraps a successful shoot.

Life's a Pitch

Attended another pitchfest yesterday - the Great American Pitchfest to be exact.  For those not familiar - a pitchfest is an event where aspiring screenwriters pay a considerable amount of money to try to sell, or pitch, their screenplay (or potential screenplay) to a large room full of production company executives.  Or those that report to executives.  Or those that report to those that report to executives.


You stand in line for a particular company - the larger, more popular ones have longer lines, naturally.  Then you're herded into a waiting area.  A bell rings and you scurry over to the numbered table, introduce yourself and then get five minutes to sell.  The bell rings again, you thank them for their time, and get in line for your next target.  Rinse, repeat.  If you don't take any breaks and happen to hit the companies with the smaller lines you can squeeze in 15 or 20 pitches in all.  I think I managed 16 - about the same as last year.


There's an art to pitching, of course.  A popular format is title, genre, comparison, logline.  Most of my meetings yesterday went like this: "Today I'm pitching a movie called Going PlaceS.  It's kind of like "Click" meets "It's a Wonderful Life."  The logline is, what if your GPS didn't take you where you wanted to go but where you needed to be?"


You can usually tell what's going to happen next by their reaction.  If they smile or seem interested, that's good.  If, half way through this brief intro you notice them yawning or counting ceiling tiles, that's not so good.


The goal is simply to get them to request your script.  Even if it's requested, the chances of it being read past page 5 are pretty small.  Of anything happening beyond that even smaller.  But in a business so heavy with competition (something like 80,000 scripts are registered - not written or submitted but just registered - each year) wanna-be writers without serious connections have little choice but take those odds as long as they may be.


My results this year weren't as good as last, which is funny because I was pitching essentially the same story.  I'd rewritten it but the premise and logline were the same.  Whereas last year 15 of 17 showed what I'd call significant interest, this year about half did.


Three people requested the script - one actually took the only hard copy I had with me - complete with scribbles and notes.  Another person asked about my other projects and ended up requesting another script I'd written called, "Getting Old is Murder" - a story that received no love whatsoever at another pitchfest a couple years back.


So fewer requests than last year, but as mentioned above just because many people request that doesn't mean anything.  I think I'd trade 15 requests resulting in nothing for 1 request resulting in something.


If nothing else comes of it at least it was entertaining.  And standing in line with my competition, chatting about story ideas it became clear that I'm certainly not the worst writer out there.  Of course, if you see a sci-fi/horror flick about giant, vampire chickens on the big screen next summer that will prove that I know absolutely nothing about this industry after all.