ALL ABOARD!

After Six years, two months and some days and hours, the decision was taken: we're leaving New York City.
We could have stay for many more years but, since around November of last year a had a hunch. It was like a voice saying to me "get out before November 2008, get out."
My wife always says that I have some kind of radar to detect dangers in advance, and indeed there's something that has allowed us to avoid some weird situations.
So, after finishing our business here, we'll be back to our home country, at least for a few years, very soon.
My wife has almost finished here PhD thesis defense with outstanding results. I'm extremely proud to say that along this time, studying in one of the toughest universities of the world, after and investment of close than half a million dollars, she is going to came out with a Masters and a PhD having only "A"as grades in all her courses.
I love this city, we love this city, and very dearly.
New York has been most generous, kind and amazing with us. We came with some ideas, some goals, and she has help us to achieve not only each one of them but many more.
We even have a child that is a fully, real, unique NATIVE NEW YORKER. As beautiful as the most beautiful moments we have live here.
I came just as a writer with some good background and New York turned me into a grown up writer.
How can you say thanks for all that?
Impossible.
But New York is more than a city, is indeed a state of mind.
That's why I'm going to keep that name for my blog. No matter where we're going to land, when feeling inspired, admired, smooth, all at the same time, I'll be in a NY State of Mind.
I love you NY.

FADE TO

RAVEL'S PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY - NOV 2008

While advancing the pre-production the final schedule for Ravel's principal photography is almost done.
As always, it's going to be great to have Rob Muraskin in charge of the camera, this guy rocks in his craft.
From late August to mid november, the light will change, but the mood to make the short film is still in the best shape.
I'll keep those interested informed.

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QUARTER FINALIST AT 2008 PAGE INTERNATIONAL SCREENPLAY CONTEST

I received a letter recently.
It was brief but direct, and most pleasant.
I'm one of the quarter finalists of the 2008 PAGE International Screenplay Contest.
PAGE, and the Nicholl Fellowship, are the two most important and prestigious screenplay contests in the world.
There were over 5000 contestants this year, and I'm between the 1/4 that made it to the next stage, wining over more than 4,000 submitted screenplays.
So, no matter the final result, I'm already a winner!
More happy ego, more...

FADE TO

FLYING COLORS WITH DAVID TROTTIER

This week I finished a screenwriting format course with David Trottier.
For those who don't know who this guy is, well, he's also known as "Dr. Format", the most authorized word in screenplays format in the USA cinema Industry.
The course was extremely good, really formative and informative. Trottier answers your questions in the good screenwriters way: lean and clean.
Every week we (the students) had assignments and he was very direct, sharp and clear with his feedback.
I was honored with his words congratulating me for my "homework" but specially honored as he asked me if he can use my last course assignment in future courses as an example.
It was David Trottier, nothing less, asking me for that.
I said yes, of course.
His last words to me at the end of the course were also very encouraging "congratulations for finishing the course with flying colors."
Yeah, my ego is on the skies :)

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RAVEL, Pre-Production started

Just a few weeks ago, and with a bit over two weeks before start shootings in locations.
Ravel is a short film, my goal is not to make it over 12 minutes in length, 10 should be ideal, but you never know.
It's also my first shooting in New York City and a retake of directing after almost 10 years.
I can't detail the content of the story here, but as usual, it came in a dream.
This is something that almost always happens to me: i dream screenplays.
Yeah, I know, many people dream stories, we all do it. But I dream full length screenplays, knowing while I dream them that is a story to be told with a camera.
That's why I have not one but two notepads and lots of pens in my bedside table, ready for that 4-5 am jump to write before everything fades.
Now, here goes another part of Ravel that many people would never believe it:
The main character is a young guy, who plays an instrument along the movie. He communicates loneliness, peace, transcendence.
As I was not sure about getting the right guy to play this character I made some changes to the screenplay.
Then, one afternoon, a week and a half ago I went to take the subway, in a hurry (as usual) to work in the screenplay alone.
When I get into the station - west 116th street - I heard music coming from there, beautiful, a mix of sadness and joy; it was played on a Cello.
There he was, a guy playing the Cello: and he was exactly as my character for the film.
The Subway arrived, I didn't know what to do, to stay and wait for the guy to finish playing and speak to him, to take the subway...
I noticed that he had some CDs on sale there with his name: Valentine Ash.
I took the subway thinking "I'm going to google him and find his phone or email."
I did it: nothing! The guy doesn't exist for the Web, anywhere, he's like a ghost.
So, I'm still trying to find him, and if I succeed, and he accept to play the role, well, I'll have the film exactly as it was literally dreamed.

FADE TO

SOME POLITICS 2008

Honestly, I don't like to discuss politics anymore (I paid my quote for quite long time doing it) but lets just drop some thoughts about the next elections here in U.S.A.
There are so many things that sounds familiar to me.
On one side you have the good grandpa-style candidate with the usual "traditional values" banner, "I love my ebay bought M-16" bumper sticker and the supposedly "maverick" senatorial past.
Okay, that guy is a Pass, using the screenwriting style to say "rejected."
Then, you have this young, energetic and for the first time (shame on this country) african-american candidate.
He sounds good.
Now, that's the problem he sounds good.
This guy is a natural masses speaker, a crowds hypnotizer, always have the right word or phrase that the people want to hear at the right time.
Now, as I saw, heard and suffer the government of so many guys so similar to this guy I did my homework and explored the guy's background. Not the personal one - I don't care if he used to like surfing porno on the web, crossdressing or stuff like that, that's his personal life - but the money trail, who's behind this guy.
Do it, you're going to get big surprises. I recommend to check an article of 3 years ago from Rolling Stone magazine (they're are endorsing the guy now so that article is no longer mentioned, humm.)
I'm not a spoiler, do your homework. But, there's so many fishy stuff behind this young, energetic "agent of change."
You know, I have lived so many of this kind of guys in my short life that I have a good idea about them: be careful, you can get a great disappointment.
But anyway, that's politics, a continuous great disappointment, isn't it?

FADE TO

VALENTIN WAS BORN ON THE 21ST!

We started early, at 5:30 am we wake up to our trip to the Roosevelt Hospital. Nani was induced with a chemical (?) around 8:30 am and at the beginning the contractions were not a big deal.
So she said "if this is the level of pain, I can handle it without epidural, no big deal". So he thought, while the nurse walked away between chuckles and a look to her of "poor naive."
At 11 am the contractions kicked hard and Nani went "Epidural!!!!" The blessed chemical came and from then on it was a pleasure, no pain anymore (lets nominate the guy who invented Epidural to the Nobel.)
The rest of the day and night were actually boring. Nothing do to, except sleep, watch the History Channel, try to write a bit...
Then, at 12 it started, Nani "I need to push". Running to the nurse "Hey girl, my wife needs to push, baby's coming!"
The nurse and doctor were great, but way greater was Nani.
The pushing part started at 12:05 and at 12:23 am... tata! Valentin was born! Crying loudly as saying "who the hell authorized any of you to took me away from my nice suite?!"
I'm not going to lie, a tear jumped from my eye as soon as I saw that beautiful living been over Nani's chest, still covered in blood, all sticky, but reaaaly beautiful.
Now, I'm a father, and just a few minutes ago, I wrote my first lines in this laptop while Valentin was over my chest, staring at me with his green eyes.
I'm happy.

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Valentin, my son, born May 20th, 2008

Here you can watch the beginnings of my first son, Valentin's marvelous travel to this life. He will born tomorrow, May 20th of 2008.
Many adventures are waiting for him as lots of love.

CONTESTS SEASON

April-May, the usual deadlines for the main screenplay contests are here.
Last year I did it great with ERASE.
Now I already finished send my latest creation.
You have to always push the envelope and yourself, at least it's what I believe.
So this year I'm aiming higher, the big ones, the 1000 against 1 odds.
Do I believe I can make it? Sure.
Do they believe I should make it? Don't know.
Anyhow, Nani has been the best support, as always.
She's remarkable. Not only she have carried a baby in her womb for 8 months, but finished her P.h.d Thesis, dealt with conventions and researches, and in the meantime, always had a time to check my stuff, with the right/sharp comment.
Many writers have a pen partner.
I have Nani, she's my accomplish in this amazing adventure.

FADE TO

VALENTIN VIDEOS

Just if you like to watch the video log that I'm making for my soon to be born Valentin:

http://www.youtube.com/tatoperu64

Yesterday we bought a nice HDD camcorder (finally!) so the next ones will have better quality.
Enjoy

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DONE!... FOR NOW

Finally, after almost exactly 3 months of almost non-stop work, my latest screenplay is ready.

March 13, 2008, 11:30 PM

Of course, now I’m working doing the usual gazillions of checks, to find typos (there’s always one, why Oh why!) grammatical errors and horrors.

But the baby has been delivered, it’s only matter now of cleaning it and the diapers.

I’m going to also need a mental cleanup.

It was my first heavily loaded Action one and I mean HEAVILY.

Funny, a Buddhist writing bangs bangs.

But it have its political background, it’s not just the usual BAD GUYS vs GOOD GUYS.

That’s a question: Good guys exist in politics?

Next steps? A couple of Production companies and maybe some big contests are the potentials.

So, while this screenplay does its first steps and grow, I’ll take some days to rest my mental hard drive and then start to work on the two screenplays that I left apart for a time to finish this one.

There are always good ideas waiting to POP! inside this brain.

FADE TO

IT WAS JUNO!

Thanks Diablo!

The Oscar for Juno was the highest point of the Ceremony.

It’s not only great to see a new screenwriter, who fought hard to stay alive and writing, getting what she deserved.

It was also great to see a great Screenplay getting recognition.

As Diablo said: “This is for the writers!” (Many tears and smiles when she said that)

So let’s keep writing.

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ABOUT THE BELOW MENTIONED

After my latest post my wife told me “Hey, you forgot to mention what happened to me in Lima last November.”

Oh, my memory! Yeah, I didn’t recall what happened, so I asked her again to tell me the story.

Here goes:

She was in Perú, and while visiting with a friend the Catholic University’s Cultural Center (a big building with theater, cinema, bookstore, exhibitions halls, etc… the usual Cultural stuff) an old friend of hers, who she didn’t see since high school, approached.

While doing the usual “What has been with you” chat, she mentioned that she was married with a writer, living in New York.

The friend asked for the name of something published by the husband (that’s me) and my wife mentioned “La Tierra del Fuego”.

After bye byes, hope to see you again, etc, my wife was going out with her friend when the old friend came running… with a copy of “La Tierra del Fuego!” and asked my wife to sign the book for her.

Out of curiosity, my wife asked the friend “Where did you buy it?”

“Here, in the bookstore. I asked and they have copies, so I bought one.”

So, again, my little fella, my ink & paper dude, is still finding ways to survive.

You REALLY never know…

FADE TO

WHEN WHAT YOU WRITE TAKES LIFE OF ITS OWN

A couple of years before moving to New York City I wrote a book.

Yeah, you know “plant a tree, have a child, write a book.”

Nah, just kidding.

Actually, I was in my transition from writing for theater, TV, films and other media to what I thought I wanted: to write books.

So I wrote a story that came to my mind some years before and I based my characters in real people that I know.

Hey, I BASED, I didn’t use their real lives.

Okay, the story was pretty interesting, a mix of lots of fiction with some real events.

The idea was to make a Road Movie into a Novel.

Now, how to get a publisher?

I wrote the book in Perú, where there WAS a book industry but since many years ago, mostly due to the books, DVDs, CDs, and whatever-format-you-can-imagine piracy, to publish was an effort, lets say… stupid.

Anyhow, I decided that if the market was a Pirate market, well, I was fully allowed to publish my own pirate version of my book. Catch the nonsense in all of this?

I invested some money and got a lame printed, ink spotted, cheap paper, grammatically incorrect, missing pages book. My real and own pirate book!

Then, I invested some more and printed the real version, better paper, properly printed, not so grammatically incorrect (I thought.)

The real version of the book was distributed in the main bookstores of Perú. I kept some copies for me and friends.

That was it.

I totally forgot the book and after almost eight years somebody sent me the following link found in Google:

http://www.incabook.com/shop/?page=shop/flypage&product_id=66996&category_id=VARIOS&PHPSESSID=b5af599841fed75d06e7f5ea2b7f8c93

Somebody was selling the book in a virtual bookstore!

I thought “Hum, that’s interesting.”

Then, some months ago, another somebody sent me this link, also found in Google:

http://www.bibliotecasvirtuales.com/comun/foros/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=48548

It was the critic of somebody who found my book (don’t know if the own-pirate version or the real one) between the cheap books of a flea market.

And he liked, a lot!

Like with those old shoes that you give for charity, you never know what’s going to happen with the stuff you write.

Somehow, it’s like some of the stuff that you write takes life of its own, refuses to die, and find the way to stay alive.

Good for you, my dear “La Tierra del Fuego”, keep kicking, keep staying alive. I love you.

CUT TO

WHY I LIKE “JUNO”

If you haven’t seen yet this movie, I fully recommend it.

Why I like it?

A) Great script.

An everyday base story: the unwanted/unexpected pregnancy of a teenager.

Diablo Cody does great writing a script without complications as the complications resides where they must be: in what happens to the characters.

It has great dialogues, real, with a perfect timing to place the right words in the right moments.

The theme is sensitive (are you pro-choice, against?). Cody deals that without falling anytime in the usual (so groped) formulas or tricks to avoid problems; she just shows the facts in a beautiful written manner (are you pro-choice, against? Good for you, no matter your choice.)

And what I love more: neither a happy ending nor a sad one… just ends, real; go to your home after watching a good story that has touched you, that’s it.

B) Great performances.

This part must be praised to the director and actors, but, I think, without a great script as Cody’s those would have never been able to shine like they do.

C) Great marketing.

I think me, as many, thought watching the trailer that “Juno” was a teenage comedy, an “intelligent” one. Far from that, it has comedy, yes, but is not a comedy, it's much more... and it is intelligent.

To market the movie as a comedy was a great move from the distributors. Otherwise, marketing it as a teenage drama with romantic and comedy touches would have been the subject of a lot of unwanted previous debate.

Just watch it. It’s simply a GREAT movie.

AN INSTANT GRATIFICATION WORLD

Reading my usual dose of magazines, books, etc, to keep in touch with the “what’s happening” in the film Industry, talking (live or through web chat) with some friends in the Industry as also with some that are trying to be inside it, I found something:

We’re living in an instant gratification world.

Some people could say “Duh, of course we are, do you just realize that?”

Well, in a sort of twist of “Matrix” I was felling it, I even was seen it, touching it… but looks like I was in a sort of denial of it.

Maybe because it’s an uncomfortable truth: we have made that world.

Reality -yours, mine-, is what we do, as individuals and as part of that big wired or wireless tribe called modern society.

This reality is not something that has been imposed to us. Slowly sometimes, pretty fast most of the times, we have helped to build it: could you live now (and I basically mean, work) without your cell phone, without your email account, without your TV’s remote, and so and so?

Of course, nothing of that is imperative to survive, but its part of what we’re now if we’re part of the production/consuming machine, and we are.

In some not pleasant way, its part of what defines us.

So, what these have to do with Screenwriting?

Well, a lot.

Let’s divide in two parts what a regular, or newbie, or not so screenwriter do:

-He/she is somebody who comes with an idea, spend a lot of time putting in words the idea as a story and finally (hope so) finish with a decent screenplay, spec, or whatever you’ll like to call it... let’s call it a “product.”

-He/she is somebody who tries to sell that product; alone, through an agent, manager, a friend…

Now, there was this sort of “established scheme” for the process of selling the product:

In one or more of many ways -if you’re lucky or have a good timing or have good contacts, etc-, the product reaches the hands of one or more producers/agents, usually the readers of the producers/agents, and then they usually invest part of their busy time reading your product to come with a “pass” (most of the times) or, if the planets are in their correct alignment and you don’t suck, with a “recommended.”

That was the scheme maybe ‘till a few months ago, and yes, there are some people who still use it.

However, that scheme of product-selling has changed.

The five minutes pitch is now the one minute pitch.

The two brads-100+ pages script, the synopses… humm, keep that for you.

Today all that, and more (including the treatment), goes in one page; sometimes even including the log line in that one page.

Actually, your log line and your ability to make it alive (the one minute WOW pitch) is what now can make a sell. Not the full script; even if it rocks, even if compared with Casablanca or Citizen Kane those pale against yours.

Why?

First: because in an instant gratification world readers don’t read.

OK, maybe some people (readers) will say “that’s not true”, so let say, today’s readers read LESS than in a not so distant past.

They want it all and they want it now. (Select that entire phrase and apply bold type)

Readers, because of their bosses, want to have all the idea, concept, marketing campaign, talents to be attached, even the movie poster concept in the spot... and you have to deliver that entire picture in one minute or one page.

You must be a whole concept-maker for them now.

Second: In an instant gratification world the producers-studios-distributors (the players) want, and need, to make the money now.

You must be a sure money maker for them.

Please, don’t blame anybody or anything for that; it will be like blaming the mirror for showing you and will not change anything.

(Of course, there's the Indy path, but we're not talking about that now)

So, what we can do, as writers who want our products to be read (and make sales)?

My advice: to focus more than ever in our writing and leave the selling part even more, way more, in the agents or managers or that-good-friend-inside-the-industry-who-loves-your-writing.

If you don’t have one, well, keep writing, keep learning how to write better, make your writing not only good but outstanding (and it must have original ideas), and then, only then, invest your precious writer’s time in searching for an agent, in doing networking.

However, you can make networking all the time if you keep learning, as learning, the good one, is not a lonely investment of time.

Are you the kind of writer that spends a lot of time writing and reading about writing alone? Stop it, go to the writer's outdoors (and the Web is in some way an outdoors space too now, but don’t get hooked): Festivals, Seminars, Courses. Learn with others, you learn more and also (this is very important) YOU’RE TRAINING YOUR “PITCHING” SKILLS.

You need to have them, now more than ever, for the “one minute pitch.”

Make this quick exercise: Think and take note of how much of your writer’s time you invest in trying to sell your products or searching ways to sell your product.

If it’s more that 50%, you have a big problem. If it’s 50-50 you still have a problem.

Still investing your precious writer’s time and scarce resources in writing/sending lots of Query letters (90% of them are never read), making calls to agents (without referral, no thanks) or (please, don’t do it) producers to get from them a shot to read your product? Stop.

Writing must be at least 80% of your writer’s time…

…Even more if now we’re living in an instant gratification world.

P.S: The good side, or not downer end… in this new world, the players need a lot of products in stock to sale.