That went well…

Remember back in September when I decided to use this blog to rant about stuff and broadcast my opinions? If not just look at the previous post. So much for epic fail, but who was I kidding, everybody knew that it wasn’t gonna work, it was just a bit/a lot sooner that expected. I’d love to say that this year everything is going to be different but I’m not going to. Talk (in this case typing) is cheap, only actions count so I’m not going to promise anything instead I’ll try to do stuff, or better:

Do or do not. There is no try.

So I’m not even trying anymore, I’ll will do. I don’t know what exactly but I’m sure It will turn out absolutely horrible and inconsequential but you, yes google indexing bot, I’m talking to you, are along for the ride. This whole new attitude is part of a New thing Orlindo1 and I are trying to get our writing back on track. I called it “Project Momentum”. We’re having shirts made and everything but the idea is to start writing and (and this is the key part) not to stop when it doesn’t fit your schedule.

We are both terrible at time management and don’t get me started about deadlines we set for ourselves but we want to do this writing thing and if we don’t change our working habits, we’re definitely not going to achieve our goal, and I’m not even talking about getting a movie made, I’m just talking bout finishing one.

I was totally motivated back in September and wrote almost 30 pages, some of them decent but then I stopped because I had other things to do. Long story short, we are writing again. We are also trying to do some form of Scott Meyers 1-2-7-14. It translates to “read one screenplay, watch two movies, write 7 pages and work 14 hours on prepping a story per week“. We’re not totally sure about the 14 and I decided to include books as well. Currently I’m in the middle of Max Brooks’ World War Z, which is so much better than the movie they made, but I digress. I’m also including one blog post per week, maybe to make sure I reach my numbers.

But no, just as I said it’s not about trying, its about doing. On that note, I think that’s it for today. I have to get back to my pages and the music of David Bowie.

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Yoda knows best.

  1. Orlindo will document his perspective of #ProjectMomentum on his blog. He writes in German so you not only get two perspectives, you also get two languages.

What to write about

My biggest problem with this blog thing is the eternal question of what to write about. I can’t write about writing all the time and to be honest my life isn’t that interesting. I think I should’ve blogged while on holiday but who want’s to sit down everyday to write while on holiday. I did a fair amount of writing writing in Australia but I don’t want to write about and I kind of already did.

So, what to write about?

New Apple products? There are tech sites who do a far better job with that, but seriously…Apple Pencil????

New Movies? I’m not a critic. I have strong opinions about movies but I don’t think that they are coherent enough to share on a regular basis.

Books? Same problem, I’m not a critic. I love books and I read quite a few of them but I don’t think my opinions are of any value to anyone other than myself and my students.

Music? …same issue.

Stupid people? This is really tempting but then again, I don’t want to be too mean. This is one of those things though, that when done in moderation might actually be quite fun. I think I posted some rants before and if I have something to rant about I might actually do this. As I said, I’ll try to be not too mean but if someone deserves a rant, he or she will get one.

Life advice? That’d be fun and probably deadly for the people following that advice.

I could go on, but what I’m really trying to say, I’m not qualified to write about pretty much anything, but I want to keep writing which leaves me with a big dilemma.

So I decided to not care anymore. I’m going to share my opinions, ideas and pretty much anything that floats around in my head. You might not like everything but I don’t care and I hope you don’t care too much either.

but lets end with one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century, Groucho Marx:

These are my principles, If you don’t like them, I have others.

Take care and stay tuned for my first opinion/rant piece.

Inspiration

Wow, second post within a week. what’s wrong with me, ah yeah, I remember, I got inspired. So let’s ride that wave as long as its there.

Inspiration is one of those things that you can try and hunt down but you might as well wait until it comes along on its own…and I can’t believe that I just wrote that crappy sentence because it kind of sounds right but it’s total bullcrap. Sure, it might seem from time to time that inspiration just hits you out of nowhere but you’re lying to yourself if you think that the hours, days, weeks or whatever that lead up to that moment weren’t as important as the moment itself.

Inspiration light bulb

Screw the light bulb!

Inspiration is often described as the moment someone switches on a light bulb and I actually quite like that image but it is misleading. Inspiration is not just the moment the light is switched on, it’s everything leading up to that moment. Before I can switch on my light bulb I have to build a house, makes sure the wiring is correct, actually buy a bulb, screw it in (insert you how many … does it need two score in a light bulb jokes) pay the utilities and maybe, maybe if none (especially me) made a mistake, then maybe I can switch the light on.

So what am I trying to say here. Inspiration isn’t a moment, it’s a process. You have to work for it, you have to earn it and sure, life is hard but unfair and they are those people that seem to get inspired all the time without any effort but I have news for you. Either their ideas are crap or they are just screwing with us and pretend that everything comes easy to them. Don’t ask me why they do that, some people are just dicks.

But anyway, if you want to be inspired, you have to work for it. Do interesting and new things, met new and interesting people and make an effort, the longer it takes, the better the idea. Picture it like a mountain, the loner and harder the walk, the better the view.

So, that’s it for today. I have to get back to enjoy the view and write some pages.

I’m back and this time I mean it…seriously!

I’m back and I’m writing.

I know I said that before but I truly believe that this time I might last at least a week or so. I feel motivated and full of energy and I honestly can’t remember the last time I felt this good about pretty much everything. Sure, there are the daily quarrels of life but somehow they don’t seem as bad as they usually are. Before you get any ideas about my sudden change in mood, perspective and excitement…. I cracked my next project and I’m writing again.

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Uluru

I know, you probably had a different thought but I feel really excited about my new (old) idea that I cracked during summer. I traveled to Australia and spent five awesome weeks there. Australia is a beautiful country, everywhere you look you get inspired but even more than the country, I got inspired by the people I met.

I had the honor and pleasure of meeting many awesome people on my trip and even though some of them I only met briefly, I’ll remember each and everyone. It really paid of to do this trip alone because it forced me to open myself up to other people and it was definitely worth it to get out of my comfort zone. “Getting out of my comfort zone”was pretty much the theme of the holiday. I decided to do all the stuff I never thought I would do and I was surprised how well I did and how those experiences changed me.

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Finding Nemo

You knew that I could have a great time camping in the outback and sleeping in a swag? (Well, taking a shower on an outback campsite is still on the list of things I have to do.) How did I not realize how much fun river rafting is? And why on earth have I waited 32 years to start scuba diving?

But, as great as all those things (and countless more) were, they get second place when I think of the people I shared those experiences with or the people I just randomly met on my journey. I would love to name a few of those people but it somehow feels wrong to compile a list and leave a few people off. Everyone was equally important in making this trip memorable and everyone contributed to the wonderful experience I had.

Among all the strangers I met, there are a few I call friends now and every time I think about my journey, I realize that they were the people who made this trip special and they are what truly inspired me. I had a similar experience during my summer in Cambridge and strangely, the people I met in Australia are somehow similar tho those I met in Cambridge, which I think that I must be one of the luckiest people on this planet to meet such great people not once but twice. Maybe I attract those kinds of people but I prefer to think that they found/find me.

So, when I say that I got inspired, I really mean that. Since that summer in Cambridge I always wanted to write an ensemble piece about people traveling and experiencing something together and in Australia I realized, that this is it. If I combine my time in Cambridge and my time in Australia with all the people I had the honor the meet and get to know, I end up with a great story, a story about people who are looking for something. Some are looking for adventure, some love, others are searching themselves but all of them are looking for friendship.

It took me 30 hours to get home from Australia but that was enough time to finish an outline and I’m almost 20 pages into the screenplay and so far, I really like what I’m reading. It’s far from perfect and I have to figure out the exact tone of the script but I’m in love with the characters and that’s what excites me the most.

I hope to be able to share something around christmas, so stay tuned.

So it’s January again

It’s January again, but I’m not even trying anymore. This blog thing is not going to work out the way I intended to but on the bright side, 2014 was a quite productive year for me. Saber Rider is coming along great and some other projects got some well deserved attention to. I reworked “The Passion of the Geek” and I’m thinking of taking “Tomorrow” out of the drawer.

Orlindo and I are currently working on an idea for a german movie project. We have some interesting ideas and we’re positive that we can come up with something that “ze Germans” are interested in.

I’ll try to keep you posted on our progress but don’t count on it. 🙂

Looks Like I did it again….

Seems like I forget to update the blog…again…but this time I have a good reason.

Actually I have more than one good reason, so let me give you an update.

1. My new flat is almost done and by almost i mean that I have absolutely no idea when it will be done. The only thing I know ist that building your own house/flat is one of the most bizarre things ever and that doesn’t include all the annoying things the contractors do.

2. Work is murder. I don’t know why but this year has been particularly stressful, especially the last couple of weeks. I’m really looking forwards to the end of the school year.

3. Saber Rider is coming along great. The last rewrite was a blast and I really think we cracked it. Sure, there are some minor kinks here and there but we have a fun movie that makes (for the most part) sense. In the end we started to change a few things and realized that we didn’t need to stick too close to the source and instead decided top deliver our version of Saber Rider. We don’t know how people will react but we strongly believe that we did the right thing. Certain things made no sense, or still make no sense in the series (ist just for kids, you know) and by bringing it to the big screen we just had to address some of these issues.

Yes, thats why I didn’t post and to be honest I don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel yet. Someday I’ll have to move and the next rewrite or the next project awaits and hopefully works is not going away either. But I keep you up to date.

A tiny update

So it has been a few days and I promised so here I am with an update. There is nothing new to report. We are still waiting for feedback on our Saber Rider script and The second batch of Skyscraper query letters is going out soon. We haven’t had any good news on that so far. I was turned down by a few agencies (the we are not looking right now) but Orlindo didn’t get any response from the production companies. Maybe they are still reading but I doubt it.

I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel about all this. On the hand hand I’m glad that we didn’t get a message telling us how bad our script is but it on the other hand it would be nice to get at least something. I know there are a lot of people trying to to what we do but I really believe that pur work is good enough to compete on a professional level. Maybe we really have to refocus on the short film and try to get attention.

One thing we’ll definitely do is enter the Blacklist again. We got some good feedback there and I think that Saber Rider will find an audience there. At some point we’ll have to contact WEP but I doubt that they are interested in in pursuing it right now (with us).

So that’s it for the moment. I have to get back to tweak a few lines of dialogue but let me share with you another contender on our list….

Let’s try this news thing

Here we go.

Seems like we have a winner…well not really but we’ll get there. “Saber Rider” is making the rounds and so far (the little) feedback we got has been quite good.There seems to be a small group of people who really like the idea of a “Saber Rider” screenplay and they are really impressed that somebody took time (and was stupid enough) to actually write it. Hopefully they’ll still think this after they read it.

We are still looking for more feedback so please head over to our “Saber Rider” page and read it. For the lazy ones I included a direct link to the screenplay.

In other news…no news. We still haven’t heard anything about “Skyscraper” but we hope that will change soon. We are confident that we have a good script there and we are certain that someone will notice.

If not…I guess we have to write another screenplay…maybe this one…

Juts kidding…maybe. 🙂

Sorry, I did it again…

Sorry, I did it again…I’ve neglected the blog but trust me, I was very busy.
As you all know, christmas time is not exactly the most productive time in the year but I managed to do some work. I completed the third draft of Saber Rider.
Orlindo gave me some great notes focusing on characters and dialogue and after a little back and forth we completed the new draft and we are quite happy with it. I know I should say stuff like that but it a great read. Somehow we just got the tone right, most of the jokes are funny and the pacing worked out great.

We are currently waiting for some feedback and the next step will probably be the online Blacklist. We know that a Saber Rider movie is a long shot even among long shots but we know we have a great writing sample and who knows what will come of it. if you want to read the current draft head over to whiteworms.com. We included a link in the project page. for Saber Rider.

You can even use the new subdomain: saberrider.whiteworms.com. You gotta love the internet. 🙂

So stay tuned and I hope 2014 started good for you.

I’m still trying

Ok, I’m still here and I’m really happy with myself. I’m still posting (more than a week after the relaunch) and apparently I have something to say as well. Ok, there’s the slight problem that I don’t have any readers but that’s a minor detail.

So, what is going on? Well, the new “Saber Rider” draft came along great. I managed to get some good changes in and I’m currently waiting on some feedback. I still need to check the typing and have a look at some of the dialogue but other than that, the draft is done.

After that I’ll focus on an idea for a new animated short and I hope to spend some time on the “Passion of the Geek”. The animated short is something we’ve been working on for quite some time and after a few setbacks we’re finally in a place where we think we have an idea we can work with. It’s strange how many good ideas just don’t work out the way you intend them to work out. You start with something you really like and you work on it as good as you can but somehow you just never get it to work.

So this is a short one. I’m binge watching West Wing but I want to leave you with something to get you into the right mood for the holidays.