Oh Mandy....

I wish this was some heartfelt, swooning post about a girl. That would probably mean that there was a girl in my life at this point in time who I was looking to have do more than just read my scripts. Alas, however, the only Mandy right now is Mandy.com, a site that a co-worker of mine directed me to today.

Mandy, or "the mand" as I'm going to call it, is an employment site for people specifically looking into careers in the television industry. Particularly, it helps people who are more interested in the production and technical aspects of it, though it does have postings for writers and office assistants wanted, as well. It's sort of like a glorified Craig's List employment section, as one can search by location and aspect of television entertainment. It's free to create an account and upload a resume, though I actually applied through the site without creating a profile first, which was a nice little time saver.

Many of the positions are for temporary employment. Though I searched for full-paying jobs --if you go to the site, you'll see that you an either search the part-time and low to no pay gigs or the full-salary positions-- most of them were still only for a few months long. Some of the gigs actually only last a day or two (has another opportunity to use "gigs" ever been more appropriate?).

But despite the short term aspect of most of the jobs, the site also offers some of the most interesting opportunities I've seen thus far in my increasingly extensive job search. Why, just a few hours ago, I applied to be an associate producer on a National Geographic special, to be a writer on what I can only imagine is a Middle-Eastern owned network called EbruTV in New Jersey, and an office assistant paying slave wages.

For anyone still looking for a job (and who isn't who is fresh out of college and pursuing a career in entertainment?), Mandy.com might be worth a search. And, by chance, if you know any cute girls between the ages of 18 and 26 named Mandy, be sure to direct them my way.

Edward Albee Article

The New York Times is running an article about Edward Albee that every writer should read. I know he's a playwright and all, but there are some writers that transcend mediums. He's one of them.

One Step Forward...

The New York Times had an awesome article in the Sunday Arts section about the new Broadway production, The Pirate Queen. It dealt with how the producers had to basically revamp the entire show after it got destroyed in a trial run in Chicago before arriving for its opening in New York...only to get...well, killed is too harsh, but perhaps mutilated by the critics works. I mean, let's face it, when words like uninspired and banal are used, in some cases in the same sentence, you may have a problem.

However, I bring all this up because the article focused on the producers and how they coped with having to make drastic changes to the show. Without giving away too much about the screenplay I'm currently working on, it would be fair to say that my premise is almost exactly that, only mine has the added flair that would, you know, make it worth being a movie.

The article was incredibly informative, and as I'm a graduate of the "only do as much research as you need to write a first draft, then do more later if you need to" school, reading it gave me some great things to consider and even a few ideas to immediately address some of my script's issues. Yay!

And yet there's that pesky task, which seems to have dragged out for at least the last month, of finishing my friggin rough draft. I'd been stuck over the weekend, and as most writers know, when you can't move forward, it's because your problem lies behind you. Needless to say, I wrote negative five pages yesterday. At this rate, I should be back to zero by mid-May.

(I'm frustrated. So there.)

Anyway, in tying up a few loose ends, there have been a few Spider-Man 3 reviews popping up here and there, most of them saying the same thing: the plot is stretched incredibly thin, the film seems to drag in places, many of the characters are hardly fleshed out, and yet the action sequences are incredible and at the end, everything is tied up and you feel...satisfied.

Given how ass-tastic X-Men 3 was, I suppose that's better than nothing.

(Of course, rumor has it that Spidey 3 cost almost 300 million dollars! 300 million?? Really? But then again, I saw figures that Sony stockpiled almost $1.6 billion on the first two films, so I guess they can do whatever the hell they want.)

Hopefully we'll have a short comic up by Friday. Expect part 3 of And So It Begins sometime next week.

Happy writing...

Best Scenes From "The Wicker Man"

Because everyone needs to understand that a man in a bear suit punching a woman is never, in any circumstance, anything but downright hilarious.

Happy Birthday Cake Man

It's belated, but we try our best...

Addendum

To piggy-back off DOA's recent post, while the employment opportunities offered by the sites below are a great way to pick up extra cash and work on ever-valuable coverage skills, The League does not recommend actually paying money for feedback. Writer's groups and good screenwriting classes are the best way to get reliable, constructive feedback that is specific, helps you address the things you're struggling with, and that ultimately aids in the process of writing a script.

Hypocritical as it may be, this is still a great find, and writers with any experience writing coverage and giving formal feedback should definitely apply.

Write on...

Page by Page, Final Product

Earlier this week I had a dream I could fly. It was pretty awesome because it was so authentic - I had very little control over it, and would fly up and down way too quickly, all accompanied by my fear of heights. The "controls," if you will, reminded me of the Peter Pan level in Kingdom Hearts, but still....it was one of the best dreams ever.

My girlfriend has proposed that it could be some sort of sign and that I should go running down the street and jumping to see if I can, in fact, fly, but I've yet to do so. If anything superhuman develops, I'll be sure to let you know.

Needless to say, the rest of that day was completely shot - I spent most of the day thinking about the dream and, ultimately, wishing that it was a little (or a lot) more than just that.

I tend to get this way when an ideal situation, or one at least more interesting than a current set of circumstances, comes into light. This affects me in practical and impractical ways, but in regards to my writing, I've noticed that I'm looking forward to a day down the line when rough draft becomes fourth draft becomes the next project because...I don't know what.

I've heard people use a phrase that drives me insane: that they hate writing but love having written. To me, that's the dumbest thing in the world. If you hate writing, then why the hell are you doing it? I bring it up because I want to emphasize that I'm not in that group. I actually really enjoy the physical act of writing. It can be frustrating if what you're producing isn't any good, but in general, it's something I enjoy doing. Hence, that's why I actually, you know, do it.

However, there must be a relationship that purists and sell-outs alike acknowledge but don't ever talk about: that being the relationship between the work and the product. I imagine you don't hear much about it because it's something that has more layers than an onion. I've always found writing to be refreshing because it's always something you can be doing, as opposed to say, acting, where if you're not actively involved in a project well...then you can do some monologues...by yourself...in your room. Anyway.

Being something that takes so much time and, ultimately, so much effort, it seems ridiculous to write anything that you're either not planning on sharing with others, or not trying to sell. I feel like the moment that thought goes through my head, the joy of writing itself diminishes a bit, and yet, I'm not naive enough to think that the finished product...*sigh*...a.k.a. having written, isn't a gigantic part of the process that I am so dearly fond of.

Spinning around in circles, getting way too far ahead of myself, I ultimately come back to the task at hand - that act of writing and all the collaboration involved in rewriting (what else would you call sifting through all those notes but collaboration? Oh, hell? That too.) Progress is slow but steady, and unless they uncover some evidence to the contrary, Rome (to sound far too much like my father) wasn't built in a day.

But I bet if the Romans could fly...I bet they might have gotten close.