Thoughts
Throughout the day, a thousand things come to mind. Here's a few...
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"Sometimes", after I've finish typing a screenplay, my last one had 27,000 words; I just look at all those words on the page & wonder... how in the world did I do it?
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I've come to realize in life; our most difficult problems have the easiest solutions, unfortunately the solutions are harder for us to accept than the problems.
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Is it possible as a human being to look in a mirror and be happy with what you see, if you've never done something for someone else other than the person you're looking at in the mirror?
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A good chunk of my life I've been moved by or just enjoyed the incredible imagination of others -- through scripts, movies, comics, cartoons or just face to face conversation. I never realized, though, that I also had something to tell, something from my own imagination that someone else might find enjoyable or moving. Once that was realized, things changed for me... forever.
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I love my family, my friends and God. Any complaints I have concerning my life, I can only blame myself; since no one's responsible for it but me.
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The majority of my interests have always revolved around screenwriting, movies, video games, comics and the entertainment industry. For any idea or story to go from the mind to materialization is amazing to me. I've been screenwriting since 1998 and once I started I never looked back.
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Even if I only have one of my movies make it to the big screen, all the years of my hard work would be well worth it.
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I see, read and hear a ton of things that give me the inspiration to write the screenplays I want the world to see. I ran across John Milton's Paradise Lost back in the late 90s when I was doing research for my 1st script, Sons of Perdition. I was amazed at the ability we have as human beings to put thought provoking words to paper the way he'd done.
Since living in Los Angeles, I constantly hear, "this is a town that hates to read," which is kind of ironic since a gazillion scripts are floating around town as I write this.
If you're not one of those who hates to read, you should check it out. If you are, give the cliff notes a glance -- either way, it's well worth a look.
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Before I moved to Los Angeles, I saw this article from a local newspaper back in 1999 (if my memory is correct) -- right before New Year's Eve. It was written by William Staal of the Grand Rapids Press, a Michigan newspaper. It was titled, "HELL IS REAL, BIBLE SAYS". If anyone remembers, it was when the whole world thought Y2K was going to be the end of us all.
It's funny how the world starts to get really religious, discussing everything from "Does praying really work?" to "Does God exist?" on tv and in the press when they think a world-wide catastrophe is about to happen.
Out of it all, this small, probably overlooked, article touched a nerve with me because it made me think, "If hell really does exist, how truly horrible it would be."
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As an artist, regardless of the type, I think we're all inspired by each other's work. Music, literature, movies and artwork continually helps us create new ideas to teach, entertain and motivate the rest of the world to create something of their own; something they can be proud of and remembered for.
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These movies, video games and one specific director have made a great impact on the stories I create. It would be a dream to someday have the opportunity to meet and/or work with those responsible for creating these amazing projects.
I have to start off with, not one, but "thee most" terrifying movie I have ever seen; William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist. I first saw The Exorcist on television at a very young age; an age when I should have never seen anything like it for years. And because of that fact, I was scared out of my mind and scarred mentally by the visuals used to portray the horrors that the Devil can inflict on a human being. Even adults that viewed this masterpiece of realistic horror were made to think about and wonder; "could the things this movie was showing them truly happen?" To this day, I still wonder.
Horror in space doesn't get any better than the Alien trilogy. I've heard a ton of varied opinions about the different movies within the franchise, but regardless, good or bad, this is the most original and disturbing SciFi movie ever made.
John Carpenter's The Thing has become a cult classic among horror fans for a ton of different reasons. I don't consider myself a horror fan. I'm just a fan of well-made, original films that move us emotionally and leave an impression in our memories that's almost impossible to remove. This film did that for me.
Any survival horror video gamer knows Capcom's Resident Evil is an amazing and downright scary game to play. I've had the opportunity to play almost every game in the franchise and have enjoyed each of them immensely. Resident Evil has almost single-handedly established the survivor horror genre among gamers and the video gaming world. It doesn't have the dark, disturbing feel of the Silent Hill games, but it gets the job done.
The Event Horizon, a 1997 cult classic, is another film that has inspired and helped me believe that a film, despite being science fiction, can deliver a realistic and dark message concerning the unknown evils of our universe. This film cut no corners in showing us what it might be like being on a ship that just returned from hell.
I saved this one for last... the drama/thriller SE7EN. How do I put into words how much I admire and respect this absolutely amazing movie? Really no words can do it justice... kind of that "a picture says a thousand words." Well this picture says 50 times that amount. I have read and researched the long road screenwriter, Andrew Kevin Walker, had to go down to get this movie made. But, of course, most movies that push the envelope the way this one did have an uphill battle to get them on the screen. The concept (A madman using the seven deadly sins of the Bible to prove his point of how horrible man truly is.) was crafted into the storyline in a way no one had ever done before and I doubt will ever be able to do again to this level. As a writer, I have never been jealous of someone coming up with an idea for a film before me... until this one.
(Unfortunately for me, jealousy/envy is one of the seven)
As I previously mention, these above movies, video games and one specific director have made a great impact on the stories I create. The one director I was speaking of is David Fincher, the director of Se7en, The Game (Michael Douglas & Sean Penn) and Fight Club (Ed Norton & Brad Pitt). Fincher has taken each of these scripts and created a mood and darkness within them that makes each of the stories come to life in a way, I'm sure, the screenwriters never dreamed possible. Most of the scripts I write fall into the dark supernatural/drama category and I'm working to have one of them be his next project.
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If possible, don't blindly go through life hoping, wishing and desiring for more (whatever "more" may be for you). Take stock of what you already have,
then look around and see that it may be more than another person could possibly ever dream of having.
I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'.
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You don't have to believe this... but we "all" will reap what we sow.
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I'm amazed by Time -- it never stops, it never discriminates, it's filled with uncountable memories, it's a healer, it's a killer, it's a creation of God -- a creation that man, with all his wisdom and knowledge, will never be able to abuse, corrupt or control. Amazing.
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I've seen all of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter movies. The story of her life before her success and how Harry Potter came about beats them all, hands down.
More to come...
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