Lessons in Being Ballsy!

This picture has nothing to do with anything, but I like putting pictures on my posts. :P

We just finished day 8 of Chronicles of the Dead and I can't believe how far we've come. I learned a lot about my writing. I learned a lot about the importance of having a good team. 

If there's anyone out there who wants to start a webseries, I say: DO IT! But go forth with caution. Limit your locations and actors. Limit your episodes. Start small. Unless you're rich, don't go big. You can get big later, and I hope we do!

There are going to be a lot of great things to come. In the meantime, I hope we can raise enough money to fund season two. Paying for everything ourselves has been INSANE but totally worth it. We just can't do it by ourselves anymore. Season one is definitely our "practice" season. We're going to have a lot more knowledge moving forward.

I guess the point I'm getting at is you don't really know what it takes to film something until you actually get off your ass and do it. I watched some videos about film and listened to people talk and I wrote scripts...but NOTHING beats hands-on experience. 

Even if I make a complete idiot out of myself, at least I'll know I had to the balls to put myself out there. Come what may, I tried, and I'm going to keep on trying. This is what keeps me going everyday. I'm sticking to the belief that it is better to try and fail than never to try. I don't want to wonder, "what if?" I hate those words unless trying to come up with a new story.

Speaking of new stories, my boyfriend and best friend are reading Undead Again and I'm expecting some good feedback because they both know their shit!

In closing, (haha) please check out Chronicles of the Dead. Like us on Facebook and watch our Pilot and Teaser. We're going to have more cast interviews and trailers coming before the BIG premiere of season one. Don't miss it!

All The Hairy Details

Let me start by saying I might not be in the best position to be writing a post with a strong opinion because I'm tired. We just finished an 8 hour shoot for the seventh day of Chronicles of the Dead. Or as my boyfriend likes to call it, "your second job that doesn't pay."

Even though there's no monetary value (yet) I get paid in experience. I get constant lessons in humility and gratitude.  It is exactly this reason why I can't stand the way success stories are told. I hate the abridged versions. I hate it when the story says, "He went to Hollywood." And the next sentence says, "he was discovered." What the FUCK does that even mean? You can't just waltz into Hollywood and "get discovered." It takes time and effort. You have to pay your dues.

And LOTS of famous people busted their asses to get where they are now but those stories are rarely told. We always hear the censored versions that have all the hard work taken out. We're sold a beautiful lie. They try to make us believe that you can just go sip a latte at Starbucks and "get discovered."

I'm certainly not going to sugar-coat my life story when I make it. People are going to know that I struggled. They're going to know that I was broke and that I wanted to kill myself and cry myself to sleep at night. None of this, "I got discovered," crap. And the Kartrashian's are no exception. Since when does having rich parents or making a sex tape make you someone fucking special? They're pretty much the butt of every joke about "famous" people. I don't want fame if it means losing sight of what's right.

Now I've constructed a decent rant about this, I can be quiet now. I'll leave you with one of my favorite inspirational videos. And to all the dreamers out there, never give up.

Uh...yeah

With the first draft of my spec done and the first season of Chronicles of the Dead nearing post-production, I'm wondering what I should do next. 

There are millions of things I could be doing with my time like reading, looking for a "real" job, making videos, writing second drafts of all my first drafts, looking for writing jobs and going to bed at a decent hour. 

I have trouble keeping up with a strict schedule. I have trouble making plans and sticking to said plans. I'm the kind of girl who sets her alarm for 6am but pushes the snooze button until 8am. I have to get my butt in gear!

I doubt my script will be polished enough for the Script-A-Thon in July so I'm going to save myself 50 bucks and wait until next time. I've been looking for other contests and it seems like there aren't really any good ones.

Right now, I think I should just worry about getting more sleep.

ZzzzZZzzzzZzzzzzZZZZzzzZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......

I Finished My First Draft!

I finished the first draft of my spec script, Undead Again. As you've probably already guessed, it's shit.

I don't mean it's shit in the, "I shouldn't have written this," way. I mean it in the, "OMG I need to rewrite this before it can see the light of day," kind of way.

Luckily, my awesome boyfriend volunteered to be the first to read it and he has a good eye for horrible plot and stupid characters. I've never written a feature length screenplay before but I have a feeling this won't be the last time. Here's a little bit about Undead Again just so you know.

This is my logline: Phoebe Sullivan, a 185 year old vampire, gets an unexpected second chance at being human after a cocky slayer kills Dracula.

Think of it as a threesome between Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Uptown Girls and True Blood.

The hardest part of writing this was deciding what format to choose. It could work as a novel and maybe even a short story, but I do those all the time. I chose to write a spec because I had never done it. Honestly, I didn't think I could!

After my boyfriend has read it and ripped me a new one, I'll report back with the dirty details. In the meantime, I have to get ready for tomorrow's Chronicles of the Dead shoot. Goodnight!

I'm Writing A Spec Script

I've never written a spec script before. It's turning out to be one of the hardest things I've ever written. 

This is the point in time when you're really putting yourself out there as a writer. No longer are you sheltered from the world of rejection. You're standing on a busy street corner wearing neon reflectors with a target painted on your back.

Congratulations. You've volunteered at the firing range. Now publishers and agents get to practice the art of rejection on you first hand. Some will flat out say no. Some will probably just ignore you completely. The chances of someone saying yes is slim to none. 

But, the more I query, the better my chances. Maybe I should enter contests and join writing groups like others before me have done. There's no telling what will come of it if I just try. I have a million stories in me and this is just one of them. It's just the tip of the iceberg.

It's time for me to dust off my creativity and give it another whirl. If I can write like I did in high school, it would be a dream come true. I'm not talking about the stories I used to make up (because they were awful) but the need that I felt. I was hungry and getting a story out of me and into the nearest notebook was my way of eating. I had to write so bad that I would finish all my homework at school just so I could spend the night writing. 

I want to be that girl again. And with 74 pages of my first draft complete, I think I'm well on my way.

Writing Prompt #1

The truth about the Greendale murders is that Martin and Timothy took their own lives. I know this because they told me they were going to do it.

Everybody has a friend or two that they share all their secrets with. Martin and Timothy shared their secrets with me. Two brothers, they were, and fed up with living their privileged lives. They had a strict father who was the CEO of a marketing company and an alcoholic mother who sucked at hiding her addiction.

"What can we do that would piss them off the most?" Timothy asked. I sat quietly because I would never dream of making my parents angry on purpose.

"Lets kills ourselves," Martin beamed. "It will be the ultimate 'fuck you!'"

Everyone was quiet now. I thought Martin was kidding. He was always big on making jokes. Had I known he was serious, I would have said something - anything at all. But I thought he was playing around. It's hard to remember not to blame myself for it all.

When the police found their bodies, they were still warm. At least they didn't have to rot and start smelling before someone found them. I always imagined that they were just sleeping and playing a terrible joke.

I miss my friends a lot but they had to make a statement. Their deaths pretty much ruined their parent's lives. Their dad isn't the CEO of that company anymore. He stopped working and left his wife. She still drinks too but she doesn't even try to hide it anymore.

Know how in the beginning I said these were murders? That's because people in our town didn't want to believe that two boys who had the world handed to them on silver platter would kill themselves. They kept on trying to say that Martin and timothy were murdered. I think they knew the truth the whole time but just said that to try and make his parents feel better. It worked somewhat. I guess people just like believing in a cozy lie.

3 Things I Wish I Had Known Sooner...

Soooooooooo, I haven't written here in forever...about six months to be exact. Why? Because writing is scary business! You're putting yourself out there for the world to see and it's not always a positive experience.

Chronicles of the Dead is proving to be a HUGE project which is bigger and scarier than I thought it would be. Oh well. Challenge accepted! I have great people behind me and I love them dearly - couldn't ask for a better bunch.

However, when you do things by yourself on your own time and money, it helps to have a little knowledge and research done. I have learned a FEW things along the way that I wish I had known ahead of time. Some things I was just plain naive about because I'm such a noob. Anyway, here goes...

3 THINGS I WISH I HAD KNOWN SOONER:

1.) BE SURE YOUR TITLE IS UNIQUE!
This may seem like a no-brainer to most people, but for some reason, I assumed that I had the most unique "of the dead" title I could come up with. Little to my knowledge, another "Chronicles of the Dead" would appear just a measly five days after we sealed our title in stone. I've been working on COTD since 2009 and when I checked, I couldn't find any others. Boo to the other guys for not doing the same. They may have more cash and better equipment, but do they have a better story? Maybe...I'm hoping not! It just blows that I'll never own the dot com because I was a week too late.

2.) DON'T NAME CHARACTERS AFTER PEOPLE YOU KNOW!
Another no-brainer to most people but not me. I've been writing stories with characters named after my friends since high school - no one ever got offended before. But...as I quickly learned...there's a first time for everything. Even though I meant no harm whatsoever, my motives were questioned, I was accused, belittled, unfriended, reprimanded and everything short of burned at the stake. All I do is write and make up stories based on the crazy ideas that come from my own brain. Oh well, you can't please everyone.

3.) THINGS HAVE A WAY OF WORKING THEMSELVES OUT, SO RELAX!
I tend to worry a lot, I get this trait from my mom. When things don't go as planned, I freak out and sometimes for no reason at all. Perfect strangers have come to our rescue so many times with this project that it's enough to make me cry tears of joy. You know those moments when friends let you down and you're left going, "OH MY GOD! What do I do now?" I hate those moments, but out of nowhere, someone will come along and help out and you get the opportunity to network and meet new people - it's awesome! Add to that the fact that I LOVE meeting new people and it equals a recipe for success.

There's also a few things I was glad to learn like film gives you room to cheat and take shortcuts. We can make one house look like three different ones. Also, you don't need a bunch of money. If you're broke, don't get discouraged. Lots of successful people started with nothing. And last, never underestimate the power of saying please and thank you.