Australia's New Prime Minister

Really, do we even have to vote????????




2006……Nice little year….always room for improvement, but a solid performance, I’ll give it a B+.

Onto 2007, the Viagra year of the 21st century. Why Viagra? Well this century is standing on its own now. Can’t keep blaming the 20th for all its problems J

Finally got to see Casino Royale and totally agree with all the positive sentiments out there. I was dubious of Daniel Craig due to the Tomb Raider movie. I enjoyed those movies because I take no sense of reality into them, but I did not actually like Daniel Craig in that role, one of the only ones I had seen him in besides Elizabeth. He did do a great job. The writers and directors also did an absolutely marvellous job. Wife and I even got to see it together…that is a feat let me tell you!

Heading back on the road, two week trip from Cairns to Mackay, as of Monday. Trying one big trip rather than three short ones, might be easier on the kids if they only have one set of goodbyes. Should be fun, I have even managed a weekend in Townsville which is truly exciting. Why? It’s Townsville, there is nothing to do there but write. Not quite true, I lived in Townsville when I was at Uni and had a ball there, but I don’t know anyone there now, so the whole weekend will be one big screenwriting extravaganza…..tickets available outside the motel. Bring your own booze. My aim is 40 pages between Friday night and Sunday night. I’ll let you know how I go.

Being a male I am a visual creature, hence Jessica Alba’s popularity :) Just like all males I read(past, not the present tense) the Playboy pictures for the articles, we ARE that visually focused. Sad, but true.

Since starting screenwriting I have developed a visual image of how a screenplay is written.

When I first started writing I understood what people meant who said anyone can write a first act. It is relatively easy, however, when it goes through pages about 30, through to 120 it gets bloody hard. Again my imagination kicked in and I started imagining a screenplay as something like the following:

My rack of ideas…….



The first act…..easy to carry, and change around…..if it never gets bigger than this….piece of cake.




But as you get into Act two…….and the pile gets higher and harder to manage




things get harder……..you try and take one little plate out of this pile to place somewhere else…

You can easily end up with …………





Of course……you have the professionals like Mamet, Kaufman, Rossio/Elliot, etc










I’ll be happy when I can carry my stack without dropping it.

Can you tell I spent 14 years in hotel management :) Interesting how our life experiences and background influence our perception.

I hope you are all well.

Cheers
Dave.

Smack the Dog

Hi All,

Remembered that Security Dog used to post on a blog written by a lady from Australia called Honey Smack, so I searched for it, found it and low and behold found some info out about Security Dog.

He is alive and well. He went to LA again, met Alicia Silverstone and from his location on his blogger profile, which was still active, he is back in the UK. So that is good news. Glad to hear he is all good.

Phrase of the week I came up with for my new screenplay "Motherboard humper"........I'll let you have fun trying to figure that one out. Not that hard at all though.

I previously mentioned the short that I wrote which is due to be shot this month over in Europe. What I had not mentioned was I had never pushed my wife to read it, she had never really shown that much interest in my screenwriting, but some friends were over and she mentioned to them that someone was going to shoot my short and they were quite interested. The wife of this couple has a desire to some writing of her own(childrens stories and she has a kick arse high concept story for one as well) so she was very interested, actually asked for a copy. They took it home read it and told me the next day what they thought.

Greatest feedback was from the wife(not mine, wife of the couple)......."I could actually see what was going on in the room". Made me feel bloody fantastic I can tell you. My wife actually asked to read it as well. After finishing it, she looked slightly taken aback, her comment......"that's actually good". High praise indeed from my wife! :) Her next question, so when are you going to finish the big one you are working on, I want to read that. Soon! She has even agreed to me spending more time writing rather than with her. Fine line between having enough time to write(never) and not neglecting one's family.

What else, had a good Xmas season, received Steven Kings On Writing, nearly finished it. Good book, reinforced some of the ideas I have developed and learnt over the past few years. I disagree on one or two minor points, but I put that purely down to my angle being screenwriting and his angle being more for the novelist, which is fine. Have always loved his books so I have enjoyed reading about his process.

For the parents out there, you would have heard that Greg, the yellow Wiggle has left the group due to illness, he kept fainting due to a condition which I can only spell and pronounce whilst drunk. Since it's only 6am on Friday I can truthfully state I am not. Lucky it's not Saturday morning.

I was a bit amazed that Greg left actually, because really, Jeff falls asleep all the time, so what's teh problem with a little fainting by Greg? My next thought was if Greg left, perhaps Jeff will be pushed out and replaced with a younger less narcoleptic version. So, in honour of that studio inspired possibility, I offer you my top ten(in spirit of my previous post) jobs Jeff could do if he is shunted out of the Wiggles:

Top 10 jobs Jeff the Wiggle could do if he ever leaves the group.

10. Replace Homer at the nuclear power plant.
9. Fill in for the security guards at all those high security places that have armed terrorists outside.
8. Customer Complaints at any major bank.
7. George Michaels chaffeur
6. George Michaels psychiatrist(well George is obviously not listening to anyone so why stay awake during the sessions)
5. Mets(or insert the team you love to hate) catcher.
4. Assistant to Naomi Campbell – would you like to be awake doing that job?
3. Replace Letterman, because what else would he do for the other 23 hours?
2. Jessica Simpson’s study buddy…the ONLY way.
1. President of the United States, at least Jeff admits he goes to sleep on the job.

Have fun!
cheers
Dave..

Top Ten Thing to Do

Gotta love butchering the English language.

Anywho.....for those of you who want to procrastinate but keep it within the realms of writing, perhaps calling it warm up laps or something similar. Soliloquy Squats?? :)

Head here

Letterman has a top ten contest running each week by the looks of it. You can win a mousepad. Week after week I am just blown away by TV budgets!

Scribospherean who has the most mousemats at the end of the year wins. Wins what? You already have a small collection of mousepads what else do you want? Okay you can have Jessica Alba's phone number* as well.

Best of luck!
cheers
Dave.

*No undertaking is given that the actual phone number given in the prize will be answered by anyone, let alone Jessica Alba. Roseanne Barr is a possibility. So is Dick Cheney, be warned, you may be shot.