wilderworks

About six months ago, my pal (who will remain without-codename for this post) had an idea for a horror movie. He bounced ideas off me about how it might work as a short, and then he wrote a version. It was roughly 15 pages. I took it, gutted it, and made it 7 pages.  Shortly thereafter, my Misplaced Planet pals came along and they filmed it. They'll also remain without-codenames for the moment, except Dump and Beezie, who were tragically cut from the final version. This little short film faced some challenges, but in the end, it worked out pretty well. I can say, with a straight face and my head held high, all the good stuff is not mine . Anyway. Enough ado. Here it is. In other words -- Happy Halloween 2010 to you, month of March 2011.

1095 Days Later... Three years ago, a producer gave us $5000. I'll call him Sheldon. (It's not his real name). In exchange, he entered into a "joint-venture" production of a short film based on my script, and won a three-year option on my feature-length screenplay. We'll pretend the name of that script was Zaniness Ensues.  It wasn't a great deal, but a starving man doesn't turn his nose up at a stinky Twinkie. When I signed, I made sure the dates all said January 2007, so the contract would extend 1095 days from cashing the check. Over the last months of 2009, Sheldon discussed that impending expiration date on at least two occasions. January came and went. No word from Sheldon. I was free. I started making plans. I had control of my screenplay and my short film again. I would finish the edit and send it to competitions. I would cash-in my few connections and get a packet out to agents, a packet including Zaniness Ensues . I  would leverage...

Feature Screenplays 2002: wrote Intelligence and Ladies & Gentlemen 2003: wrote Blaring Static and Bad Blood (aka Occult Blood ) 2004: wrote A Darkling Plane (aka Burying Amelia Waverly ) 2005: wrote Storybook Park (moved to LA, January 15th) 2006: fail 2007: wrote Zaniness Ensues 2008: wrote Voodoo 2009: wrote Gravedigger's Son  and Unpredictable Short Subject + Episodic Scripts 2002: fail 2003: Anniversary Dinner, Billy Bump 2004: Momentary Engineering, Antebellum, 20 Feet Less Dead, Tumble Dry 2005: Hit & Run, Brains!!, Signal Decay, Alien Ignorance 2006: Just Us League, Space Fax, Zaniness Ensues, Perversity & Wine, Zoe 2007: Security Deposit, Creative Comments, Business as Usual 2008: Batteries, Packages, Obama and the Red Phone, Hell Froze Over (8 episodes) 2009: Last Tank, Negative Space, Monstrous Mistress Filmmaking 2002: Kingdom by the Sea, Darwin’s Kids Graduation Special, The Div III ...

The producer holding the option on my feature screenplay, code name Zaniness Ensues , is hoping to get a distribution commitment, but I haven't heard any word since the 6th. I want Barb to artistically colorize my bedroom mirrors. A lot. I need to buy Alli her birthday present. Our composers promised to have music finished for the Zaniness Ensues short by the end of the year, which will finally tie up that project, and get it into festivals. I need to get Christmas presents. Thanks to my day-job, there are now four super-fancy holiday parties at super-fancy bars and clubs, which I'm supposed to attend in the next three weeks, and that makes me sick to my stomach. I'd like to get ridiculously dressed up and sit on a couch drinking champagne for New Year's. In January, Shaun says he'll be shooting the Shift Work short film in NY/NJ, which may (or may not) be for entry in yet another silly competition. In February, we're shooting the pilot for Hel...

I have an addiction to thinking about people. Beautiful and bizarre, fascinating and unusual women -- they're particularly good subjects. It's no surprise. I am heterosexual and male. I once wrote about a dream I had. In the dream, there was an Orwellian "Empire" that hunted people by collecting details, collecting secrets, about them. If the Empire collected enough personal information about an individual, they could eliminate that person. Mothers bundled up their children and sent them out into the world, warning them to keep their secrets, warning them to keep their silence, because "agents of the Empire are everywhere." At the time I wrote it, I thought the dream was about how we'd closed ourselves off to one another, how, for fear of giving others a weapon to use against us, we'd constructed walls against affection, how tactics and weaponry became necessary, simply to break through the defenses of others. But recently, I increasingl...

Thank you all for your support, your votes, and your continuing efforts to drum up votes and support for Misplaced Planet's little $300.00, New Jersey movie, Signal Decay , recently up for consideration on the Sci-Fi Channel / Sundance Channel Exposure Competition , missioned with discovering new filmmaking talent. Unfortunately, despite all your gracious help, we did NOT move forward to the next round. Instead, the prize went to another film. The winning nominee was produced in 2001, by an undiscovered professional television director, and prominently features a well-established entertainment personality, absolutely unknown for his starring rolls in small, unnoticed series like M*A*S*H ,as well as The Dead Zone , which aired on an unrelated, fly-by-night network called The Sci-Fi Channel. The judges of this competition should be very proud of their selection of nominees. One must admire their strict adherence to the noble goal of seeking out new talent. We can only hope that t...

My little movie Signal Decay is amongst this week's finalists at the SciFi / Sundance Channel Exposure Competition, and YOUR VOTE decides if we move on! You can vote once on Sci-Fi, and EVERY DAY on Sundance. Please, check it out, vote for Signal Decay if you like Signal Decay the best, and also, tell every human you know to do the same. Family, co-workers, delivery people, numbers randomly selected from a phone book. This is a chance to make a big difference for me and my friends, and it doesn't cost a penny. I'll only be bugging you until FRIDAY NIGHT, when it will be TOO LATE. Go here and vote for SIGNAL DECAY! http://www.scifi.com/exposure http://www.sundancechannel.com/exposure

Here's another vote you should be getting on top of this election day -- if you vote for our movie in the Sundance Channel / Sci-Fi Channel Exposure Contest, you will go to Heaven when you die. Promise. And while you're alive -- it's better than having a sex. Which I very much enjoying having. (I have male.) Go here and vote for Signal Decay . It's a big deal! http://www.scifi.com/exposure And go here EVERDAY and vote for Signal Decay : http://www.sundancechannel.com/exposure THIS WILL ALL END ON FRIDAY!! PLEASE VOTE!! IT COULD MEAN A LOT FOR OUR FUTURE AS HUMAN BEINGS!! Also: Repost this message! Send it to friends and family! If you do, you will be kissed by the object you desire the most at some point in the future. If you do not, your favorite television show will go off the air (eventually). And then you'll be SKINNED ALIVE AND HUNG IN A CLOSET BY A MAN WITH A HOOK. Love, Wilder, Shaun, Benni, Alli, Stirling, Karl, Gabe, Amy, and all of Misplaced Planet from...

The physical DVD arrived in the mail this morning. I watched it all through. What a thrilling and terrifying experience. It's so amazing to see it all, but also terrifying to think that people will be seeing it and judging it. I took a few copies over to the bar where I have lunch everyday. Alli was going to stop by to pick them up, but the waitress, Shelly, bought one for herself, and then proceeded to sell three more to regular customers. People I barely know, but see almost everyday at lunch. Industry professionals with long histories. Very nerve wracking. I am horrified at the thought of disappointing them, or looking like a fool. I am not subject to personal embarrassment, but my creative pursuits are always on fragile footing. I want to be doing well, to deserve better, so badly. Anyway, I'll say it again: it's worth the money. It'll make you laugh at least once, or there's something seriously wrong with you. It's something to explore over ...

If you haven't heard from me lately, it's probably because I've been locked away in the lab, putting together something special.  And now it's ready.  It's called Transmission from Sedna , and it's a two-disc DVD set, featuring all the short-films I've been working on over the last three years. They're professionally packaged, and the main disc is pressed from a glass master – not burned – which means it's an investment that will last, and last, and last, something you'll hand down generation after generation.  Because DVDs will never go out of style.  Never. On it, you'll find full-resolution versions of all our best shorts, Momentary Engineering , Antebellum , Home Team , Brains!!! , Signal Decay , Just Us League , Home Front , Home Movie , and more. There's over 90 minutes of stuff on the first disc alone, and it's all short and sweet enough to watch while you eat a midnight snack.  There's commentary on most o...

The Misplaced Planet DVD has gone off to be professionally duplicated. It has six of our short-films on it, along with behind-the-scenes documentaries and commentaries. This fist disc will represent the best of the stuff we've done in the last two years, and I really can't wait to see it. You can check out some samples at the forum. If you haven't already, you should be Misplaced Planet's friend on Myspace . Because that's me. Now, we need to polish off Disc 2 of the set, which will be a bonus for the real fans, and for ourselves. Hopefully, we'll be able to sell enough of these to partially fund the filming of Zaniness Ensues . Anything that reduces the amount of credit-spending is good. As for me, I haven't been getting a lot of writing done, since the design work for the DVD has consumed my time. But I have made a lot of progress on the Zaniness Ensues production. We have Jess Temple ready to play the lead female role of Meredith, and Matt McN...

I've gotten a good bit done over the last week or so. I finished a revision of Zaniness Ensues , my blog codename for the short that I intend to film, my big plan to break in as a writer/director, and I'm pretty happy with it. The old crew seems to approve, and the guys at work also approved, which was a surprise and a relief. I feel very good about it, and as a thank-you, I spent too much time today working on a "Paul Giamatti War Machine" animation. I also finished another segment of the Just Us League Behind the Scenes, though I'm still waiting on interview footage of Benni and Shaun, and also Shaun's brother's video footage. I'm hoping it will fill out the early parts of the day, where I have gaps. While laying around, I worked out a few kinks in my mental outline for the feature-length version of Zaniness Ensues . It will tap into some experiences of my own, and give the story a nice twist. Structurally, I've been thinking a lot abo...

Our new short film ( J.U.L ) is up and running at the dvxuser.com contest , HeroFest. Embarrassingly, the forum discussion about it has been consuming more of my time and thought than it should. Which is to say, it's gotten some time and thought. It doesn't deserve any at all. Meanwhile, I've been editing the Behind the Scenes footage for the same, and it's been going slowly. Yes, it's all digitized, which is an achievement. But I've only got about a minute of edited footage, and I'm still waiting on a tape from Shaun's brother. I must be patient. I don't want to go too far before I've seen the footage available on that tape. My method doesn't easily allow for last-minute entries. Things get too tightly interwoven to easily revise. Which is similar to the problem with Zaniness Ensues . Apparently, an inherent problem of the fast-moving, interwoven style that I like so much. A problem I'm going to have to teach myself to solve. ...

Possibly the most ridiculous thing that Gordy said keeps rattling around in my brain. "You really could make it, but you know ... you really could not make it too."  I don't know why it haunts me, depresses me, frustrates me. Perhaps because it frames it as a choice. I could keep writing these dark, risky things that come from my heart, and "be sitting here, in this office - well not this office, I'll have a better office - in that suit ten years from now," or I could fucking figure out some light and fluffy high-concept product to sell... I really feel sick. I finished the short script "The Dead Samaritan" today, and it doesn't work. Which proves a point. A month or more wasted. No one is into it. And for some reason, I'm not even getting e-mail that people are sending to be polite, say something pleasant, and pass on.

I met with Gordy Hoffman concerning Storybook Park . Despite his assertion that the present engine of the story (that is, Baron), needs to be fully excised with a thick rim of healthy skin, he didn't believe that should be my next move. Quite literally, he said I needed to drop all the bullshit, fuck all the short-films, ignore the people who want me to make sci-fi or thrillers, and write a high concept romantic comedy, and get it out there. Which means, drop all the crap... He wasn't overly excited by the Cusp of Aquarius pitch, though I don't believe I did a very good job of pitching it. Frankly, I did a terrible job, because, as always, I haven't yet figured out how to explain it, since I haven't yet figured out how to write it. I sent him an e-mail yesterday with a stripped down pitch for The Jumpers , and I've been allowing myself to think it's a brilliant idea, when boiled down to the core. I hope I'll hear back from him soon, so he can p...

So much to do, and so few people to share it with... Some people will follow small snatches of this update, but in whole, this post means nothing to nobody but me. I wish it did. I want to revise the main Misplaced Planet page (it's already 25% done, in secret). I want my sounds and audio page up, playing MP3s. I want lyrics restored to the writing section. I want my productions page upgraded. I want Storybook Park to have its own animation on WilderWorks . I want my Bio and Resume section to not look silly anymore.  I want Stirling to send me a new design for OMKF , so I can implement the many changes I've imagined for it. We have our podcast up, transmitting video, which for now means Brains!! We have the trailer up for the horror movie, Antebellum . We have a composer working on the score for Momentary Engineering . We have the script for the Sci-Fi Short Film Contest hammered out, and that's probably g...

I suppose the meeting went well. Traveling 3000 miles - by plane, train, and automobile - builds an event up beyond what any could really acheive. We decided that a partnership will be formed, and Misplaced Planet will become a legal entity. And we decided that we will do something . Write the script in the next six months, begin filming in a year or so. I hoped that a decision would be made about what that something should be, but it's been officially left to Caroline and me to create something for everyone to rally around... Cusp of Aquarius? Ladies & Gentlemen? The Jumpers? Storybook Park? Short films? If it works out, writing with Caroline could be very positive.... I would no longer face this daunting task alone... The vague goal of writing something "that people will like" becomes more surmountable with a fresh perspective... with someone to like it or dislike it as passionately and personally as I might... It is the minimum amount of teamwork p...

I feel like I'm waiting on my execution, but the Governor is an old friend of mine, so I'm hoping he remembers the good times, and gives the warden a call.

Back in New Jersey for a week. Trying to sort out my brain. Divide into keep, sell, and trash. Put up peg boards. Fold winter clothes into rubbermade. I've been getting a low in LA. Emptied. Starved for encouragement. To keep writing. I met with Caroline on Saturday. Got trapped in my apartment for an extra hour or two when the garage gate broke my way. And I'm right there with the pun. She says she's in for the Misplaced Planet Partnership. Says she's interested in both Cusp of Aquarius and Ladies and Gentlemen , but until her midnight calls begin waking me with ideas, I can't help feeling on my own in here. Thursday , I'll be meeting with her, Shaun, Benni, Zak, and Stirling... I can't even figure out what I'm going to say... How was it that I used to make these things happen? What is there to say? I want to make movies. I want to stop getting shot down. I want to care wildly about something. To do it, I need some energy in ret...

My month away has come to a close. The sad part is, it was freezing out west. Blistering, wind-burning cold. On my drive across the Mojave mountain pass, between Vegas and LA, I was trapped in snow. I-15 was closed off, with me on it, first at Primm, at the state line, and later at Barstow. A four hour drive became 18 hours, stranded in a snow-covered desert. Quite an experience, but I made it to the interview on time. Now, I'm in an oddly unpleasant place between boredom and anxiety. I don't know whether to pull for or wish against the internship off Mulholand drive, where the girl wore a Grover tee-shirt. Winning it would mean a long-awaited step toward a career, a step away from Christmas decorations, skin biopsies, and patient charts, but it would also mean a sudden and too-expensive relocation to Los Angeles. As in - Thursday. Losing the internship would mean incredible disappointment and self-doubt, and a future without any direction, and still, an expensiv...