The Dotted Logline

So I submitted my play Goodbye Dolly to Baker’s Plays about the middle of October. Up to a six to eight month wait, so I was hopping to hear something in the next month or so.

Well, I heard from them. Apparently it will take ANOTHER six to eight months for them to complete their “extensive reading process.”

…

I suspect what happened is this:

The Baker’s website said that they would send a postcard notifying the writer when they receive the play. So apparently they just GOT to my play in the mass of submissions. Hopefully they skimmed it/read the first ten pages/whatever to see if it was worth considering, and shot me a postcard to notify me they were going to consider it. Because I’m hoping they actually have some interest and aren’t just sticking it in another pile to get a glance and a quick no many months down the road.

So no big sales or publications before I turn 25, I guess.

Since I left Emerson, I’ve missed being surrounded by writers and discussing writerly things (which was really much less pretentious than it sounds) Some of the forums I frequent have sub boards for writers, but most are crowded with bad angstful poetry-writing pseudo goth kids. So I ended up joining a writer’s forum I stumbled across during my agent research, Absolute Write Water Cooler. They have an astounding number of sub forums, really too many to list here, but any place that has screenwriting, playwriting, sci-fi/fantasy writing, spiritual writing, AND bitch about rejections sections is good by me.

I’m not quite sure why The Terminal wasn’t a big hit. A-list director and leads, a story that was heart-warming but not really sappy, fairly formula but not overly. And frankly, I find being stuck in an airport lounge more interesting than being stuck on an island a la Cast Away (but maybe just because I always wondered how people would survive having to live in a department store/mall)

I do have to say that The Terminal probably beats out my screenplay for Most Entertaining Janitor. Though hopefully I still hold the record for Most Entertaining Crazy Female Janitor.

Caught the Scooby Doo movie on Nickelodeon. Aside from being very well cast, the true identity of the villain was brilliant. I love a property that isn’t afraid to make fun of its weaker moments.

During my daily perusal of Done Deal, I found out that Joss Whedon is slated to write and direct a new Wonder Woman movie. Now THAT should be really interesting. Curious as to who will be cast as Wonder Woman, seeing as how Linda Carter is still such an icon in that role. Totally random first thought for me: Victoria Pratt with a dye job.

Read an interesting profile in the latest New Yorker about the president of the William Morris Agency. Apparently, not everyone was pleased with the story, though.

Sent out query letters to agencies about my script, six snail mail and one e-mail. The most nerve-wracking part was actually calling the agencies and finding out who to address the queries to (and also finding out two weren’t accepting queries at all/)

I’m not sure why I’m finding this process so nerve-wracking. It’s as though instead of just saying not interested, I’m expecting them to show up at my door, burn my script, smash my computer, and shoot me in the head execution style.

Hmm. That would make a good short story. Or a comic strip.

I finally saw Shaun Of The Dead, which has been near the top of my watchlist for a while. It was quite funny. At times. It also had a bit more gore than I was expecting (never been a big fan of entrails) and some really heartbreaking scenes. I’m used to seeing all three in one vehicle (it was one of the main attractions of Buffy) but such extremes in such a short span of time are a bit awkward. I’m still not sure how I feel about the movie. Other than the fact that I LOVED the zombie in the wheelchair.

Thanks to a tip from my dad, who actually reads the newspaper, I finally got off my ass and went to something arts-related in South Florida. Amber Benson, best known for playing Willow’s girlfriend Tara on Buffy The Vampire Slayer, was promoting the release of a movie called Chance that she had written/directed/starred in along with several other Buffyverse alums. I’d heard good things about the movie and Amber herself was doing a Q&A after the she showing, so I trekked over to downtown Ft. Lauderdale despite my fear of driving at night and walking alone through cities that aren’t Boston at night.

The movie itself was very interesting. It was apparently shot on DV over the course of five weekends, so it had a very homemade feel to it, yet the cast was comprised of mainly very talented professionals. The structure was interesting (though time progression was occasionally hard to follow, and the writing was quirky and funny (though it was best when it wasn’t trying to be.) There were some really interesting directorial choices and several spots where everything just snapped right into place perfectly for a moment. It was overall a very crafted piece and I enjoyed it, though at the same time my first thought afterwards was to wonder what Amber would create in the future with more time and money and experience. Amber herself indicated that this was a project she hadn’t necessarily expected to ever be seen by the public, and while it is good, it does feel like that.

Amber herself was very nice, answering questions and talking with people well past midnight, despite it being the second showing of the night and her apparently having spent the day at a local convention. I got to speak with her a bit and she was very friendly, even willing to have me send her my screenplay AND stage play for her to read, which I thought was beyond generous. She’s also very tiny in person. I like talking to people around my size because don’t feel like I’m five years old, for once.

In a related note, a local film writer wrote a brief but scathing review of Chance on the basis that the actors are portraying characters that are very different, sometimes even the opposite of the characters they played on Buffy. Either I just arrived from a strange parallel universe where actors are generally praised for being versatile, or Phoebe Flowers is an idiot. Though I’m sure there are people out there who are horrified to learn that James Marsters doesn’t always talk with a British accent.

Continuing my quest to catch up on movies I should have seen years ago, I watched the director’s cut of Alien tonight. The first hour was pretty slow, I still didn’t know half the characters’ names when they died, and the alien character design has almost become a cliche, but I will say the set designs blew me away. For the most part, they didn’t really look dated and they managed to convey both expansiveness and claustrophobia. Very creepy, very wonderful. I IMDbed the film afterwards and checked to see if it was nominated for an art direction Oscar.  It was.

I do have to ask though: what the hell was up with the milk robot?

Pulled myself together and dug up the list of agents who accept query letters that I compiled a while back. I’ll do some more research on them and narrow down the list if need be, then hopefully send out the letters next week. I know that query letters are often a waste of time, but it is a more affordable option than contests or moving. I’ve got the script and the logline, so it’s worth a shot.

I found out my script was passed on (I don’t know exactly who passed on it, since it was my professor who was dealing with everything.) Now I’ve dealt with plenty of rejection as a writer before, but this is the first time that I don’t know what to do next. The fact is that I have no connections and am pretty much dependent on what my old prof can do for me. And with no job prospects either at the moment, it’s a scary place to be. Things would be better it I could just figure out a way to get to L.A.