Tag: screenwriter

FIN.

15 years ago, in 2010, I started on a long journey. It was a journey I thought would never end. It came with many ups and downs, and it just seemed to drag on and on for years. What was this journey that I finally finished? College.

It all started when I was 18. I went to a university fresh out of high school, and I had the time of my life. I met some cool people and I was finally on my own. I got to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. There was no one to tell me otherwise. Unfortunately, being on my own was also my downfall. I screwed around too much, and in doing so, I was put on academic probation. What’s academic probation? It means if my grades were to drop any lower, I’d be kicked out of the university.

The following year, I went to a community college. I took several classes and worked on getting my GPA back up. After that year, I returned to the university only to find that all the work I did was for nothing. My new GPA didn’t transfer over. I stayed at the university for the fall semester, and I lived the college dream for a week in January before I went back home. What’s the college dream? I was at the university, but had no classes to take. My bad grades meant no financial aid. No financial aid meant I couldn’t pay tuition. Since I couldn’t pay tuition, I couldn’t sign up for class. The only option left? Leave the university and go back to community college.

I HATED COMMUNITY COLLEGE. I was mad I had to be there. I was mad at myself for being such a screw up. I let myself and everyone else down because I didn’t do my best. I didn’t take school seriously (up to that point, I never did). I was lost. I didn’t know what I wanted or what to do. I kept taking classes, but nothing seemed to interest me. I was bored. I was bitter. The only light I found in the dark was when I wrote for the college newspaper. It was something I enjoyed doing and it was fun. Shortly after I started doing that, I had my own radio show at the college.

For about seven years, I HATED the fact that I screwed up my only chance to become something. I finally got away from the disaster of high school only to be brought back home in no better position than before. I had a shot to become something more than just a kid from Chicago. Everyone around me was moving on. What was I doing? Nothing. I was a nobody. I needed direction. I needed to find something interesting. I needed to be shown that I could be something more.

As fate would have it, I got my wish. We moved to a different town and I had to go to a different college. I looked at the new college and found the one thing I felt I’d be interested in. Boy was I right. I started taking classes in TV and movie production, and I never looked back. I finally found what I wanted to do.

Over the last eight years, I’ve been taking classes that cover every aspect of film making. I’ve helped make short films. I’ve made my own short films. I just made my own music video for my final class. Every class, every assignment, every project was something that I never once regretted doing. Everything I’ve done since taking that first motion picture/TV production class has been what I was looking for.

I’ve had people make fun of me for being in college in my 30s. I’ve had people laugh at me for it. But you know what? It doesn’t bother me. Everyone is on a different timeline. I spent so long being angry at myself, regretting what I had done to myself that everything I’ve done for film has made it all worth it.

I don’t regret a second of anything I did. I don’t regret almost getting kicked out of a university because of my own stupidity. I don’t regret taking a bunch of classes I’ve never used or thought of since. I don’t regret going to community college for so long. And I surely don’t regret the student loans I have to pay back either. I messed up my own life and I needed to find my way out of it. Once I did, all that anger and regret I had went away. I was comparing myself to everyone else. The problem is, I’ve never been like everyone else. I’ve always been me. I finally understood that.

Now that I’m finally finished with college, degree and all, what’s next? I don’t know. I want to work on a TV show or movie, but I also love editing videos. My ideal job is to be a writer/director, but I know that’s hard to get into. Not impossible, just really, really hard. I want a job in film production and it doesn’t matter for who. When I’m not working in that field, I’ll be writing and filming my own projects that I’ll post online.

It took me such a long time to get where I am today, but I wouldn’t change it for anything. I’ve done some cool things. I’ve learned a lot. I met some awesome people that I’d love to do more projects with in the future as well. Everything I did over the last 15 years has lead me to where I am today. I’m so glad I stuck with it and didn’t give up. Deep down, I think I always knew I’d find something I’d love to do. It just took me a lot longer than I wanted it to.

A New Hope

Where do I begin? Another year has come and gone. It doesn’t feel like 2023 is in a few hours. But here we are. Another year, another chance to be someone new.

2022 started of so well. I was in Colorado for a week, and it was one of the best trips I’ve taken. I had so much fun skiing and just not being home. In April, I went to Galena, Illinois. In July, I went to Michigan. In September, I made my return to Hilton Head, South Carolina. It was the first time I had been down there in about 20 years and it was amazing.

Overall, I did a lot of fun stuff in 2022. I’m truly grateful for it. But 2022 wasn’t all fun. There were things that really just sucked. As the year went on, it just seemed to suck more and more. And of all my resolutions from last year, I only kept two of them. They can all be found here for future reading.

So, what didn’t I do in 2022? I didn’t post two blog posts a month, I didn’t read one book a month, and I didn’t film any of my short films. Does this make the year a failure by itself? No. I just kind of wish I did more. I know I could have done more. I just didn’t feel like it.

I did improve my video editing skills. I edited countless hours of video in 2022. I also finished writing my movie. I didn’t specify what the movie was, but I’m pretty sure I know which one it is. That also means that I took that movie and turned it into a TV show instead. The idea works better as a TV show since there’s so much to explore.

I do want to do a few things in 2023. I want to read one book a month. I have so many books, and I just got five more for Christmas. I’ll keep editing videos. I also want to put a serious effort into submitting film scripts to contests. It’ll be expensive, but it’s something I need to do to get where I want to go.

I also want to learn to say “no.” I often agree to things because I don’t want to make people mad. Well, that ends with 2022. I’m going to do things for me in 2023. That also means I need to let the past go. I often look to things in the past or people, and it never works out for me. To go forward, I have to stop going backward. The past is set in stone, but the future is undiscovered. It’s new. It’s exciting. That’s where I should be looking.

2023 is a chance to start new. It’s a chance for me to be someone different. And I fully intend on doing that. I look around and see where I am. I see where I can be. I see who I can be. It’s time I changed who I am so I can be who I’m meant to be.

What the F!@# Am I Doing?!: The Beginning

For those that don’t know, somewhere around two or three years ago, I wrote a comedy sketch called What the !@#$ Am I Doing?! It was based off of Arrested Development. It was funny, it had the narrator, and it was just my own version of it. While I like what I did with it, (it can be watched here), I’ve decided that I want to do it again, but better. Over the last three years, I’ve learned a lot about writing and film-making in general and I want to remake it with that knowledge.

I’ve turned that one video into an entire series that will be uploaded to YouTube. As it stands, it will run for three seasons and then be over. Why three seasons? Three seasons seems like a reasonable length for a mini series. So far, I have all of season one written and I plan on filming it this summer. That means I’ll release it some time this fall or winter.

Each episode will probably be five minutes or less. After all, this is a very low budget series. I’ve also written it in a way that allows for it to be low budget. I don’t know if that’s being smart or not, but it’ll work for what I’m doing. One day, I’d love to work on a big time production. I just can’t at this point in time, especially since there’s no guarantee that I’ll even make any money off of this series. But even if I don’t, it doesn’t matter. I’m doing it because I want to.

In terms of how it’s being planned out, season one focuses mostly on comedy. There’s dumb jokes and awkward moments that’ll probably make you cringe. But that’s what it’s supposed to do. I wrote it that way on purpose.

Season two is much different. I started writing it, but it isn’t anywhere near being done. Season two will be much more drama driven with a few jokes here and there. Unless I change my mind while writing it. I wouldn’t be surprised if I did. I let the story go where it wants to.

As for season three? Well, I’m not sure yet. I know how I want the series to end, the trick is getting there and making it feel natural and not forced. And if I have to change the end, then I’ll change the end. I’m not against that at all.

I’ve been working on this series for the last few months and I think it’s a solid idea and I’m really excited about it. I’m sure I’ll run into issues as they arise, but I just want to have some fun and create something that I can watch and share with others. I don’t care if it makes money or not. I just want to see my creations come to life.

I will also post occasional updates on the series as it moves along. I think it’s important to document the process not just for myself, but for others to see how I work. I think doing that would be both fun and helpful later on down the road.

Writing Comedy

There are always TV shows and movies that we find funny and even sometimes hilarious. I always enjoyed comedy and I still do. I’ve always wanted to write comedy too. The only problem is, I could never figure out how to write comedy. How do you write jokes down and then make sure others find them funny? Well, I think I finally figured it out.

I’ve always loved shows like Arrested Development and The Office. Movies like Deadpool or Game Night. I feel like the comedic writing in those examples is fantastic. Then you have people like Ryan Reynolds who are seemingly funny without even trying to be. That’s a talent in itself.

The thing is, I think I’m funny. I tell stupid jokes. I act goofy. I generally don’t care what people think of me. But still, I struggled with trying to write that on paper. I finally realized that it’s a combination of things. I need to write the jokes, and then, when I go to film it, make sure that it’s delivered in a way that’s funny. Comedy is just as much performance as it is writing.

So that leads me to the point of this post. For the past few weeks, I’ve been working on my own comedy series that I will film and then post to YouTube. It’s an idea I had a long time ago that I sort of forgot about. I had filmed one episode for it before the pandemic and it can be found here. I have rewritten that episode and I’ve written another episode to follow it. My goal is to film at least three episodes over the summer that I can release over the rest of 2022.

I just want to write and film something that’ll make people laugh. Comedy can be used as a healer. I’ve always liked making people laugh and I always will, even when they didn’t really want to. I think it’s a gift being able to make people laugh and I’d hate to waste it.

I’m Just Exhausted

So, I pride myself in being a content creator. I stream on Twitch, I edit gaming videos for my gaming channel on YouTube, I write short films and comedy sketches, but recently, I just haven’t felt like doing any of that. It’s not that I don’t like doing it, I’m just tired. And things like streaming and editing video have felt more like a job than fun. I already have a full-time job, I don’t need another. Even coming up with and writing two blog posts for March has been a challenge.

My trip to Colorado in January was my last real break. It feels like I’ve been working non-stop since I got back. I was registered for a film production class too, but I dropped it about three weeks ago. I just don’t have the time to dedicate to it. At the end of April, I should be taking a weekend off to go camping. I know for a fact that’ll be fun and relaxing.

Life doesn’t suck, though. Yesterday I went to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. I always loved going there. They have a new exhibit called The Art of the Brick, where it’s all LEGO sculptures. To be honest, it was both amazing and emotional. Why emotional? I played with LEGO sets since I was a kid. I still buy them sometimes. But to see that someone made a career out of it made me realize that I can still do fun stuff with them too. I can go back and make stop motion LEGO films, something I’ve wanted to do, but haven’t done yet.

Life gets busy. Life gets hectic. Sometimes, we just need a break. That’s why today and tomorrow I plan on not doing much of anything. I just want to sit at home and relax. Being able to not do anything will be just as good as going on vacation. I’ll probably play some video games, watch TV or movies, read comics (I have a bunch of those left to get through). I’m sure this feeling of exhaustion will fade, I just have to power through it.