It isn't the end of the year yet but I think I have fallen short of my goal of watching 366 movies this year. I haven't totaled it all up yet since I've seen a couple movies multiple times (Wall-E, Funny Games, Wanted, etc.) but in this post I will list the movies that came out (either to theaters or direct-to-DVD like Johnson Family Christmas Dinner and the "Futurama" movie) in 2008 that I have seen.

1 Bolt
2 Transporter 3
3 American Teen
4 The Dark Knight
5 Four Christmases
6 Horton Hears a Who
7 The Incredible Hulk
8 Milk
9 Johnson Family Christmas Dinner
10 The Promotion
11 Role Models
12 Run, Fat Boy, Run
13 Synechdoche, New York
14 W.
15 Saw V
16 You Don’t Mess With The Zohan
17 Bigger, Stronger, Faster
18 Choke
19 Eagle Eye
20 Burn After Reading
21 Baby Mama
22 21
23 The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning
24 Tropic Thunder
25 Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay
26 Smart People
27 Stop-Loss
28 Step Brothers
29 Doomsday
30 Johnson Family Dinner
31 Get Smart
32 Futurama: The Beast With a Billion Backs
33 Drillbit Taylor
34 Wanted
35 Wall-E
36 In Bruges
37 The Onion Movie
38 Be Kind Rewind
39 Kung Fu Panda
40 Pastor Jones 4: Sisters in Spirit 2
41 The Happening
42 The Strangers
43 Speed Racer
44 What Happens In Vegas
45 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
46 The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
47 The Ruins
48 Iron Man
49 Forgetting Sarah Marshall
50 The House Bunny
51 Semi-Pro
52 Jumper
53 Cloverfield
54 One Missed Call
55 Pineapple Express

(I also saw Year One and I Love You, Man which haven't been released yet.)

Since I haven't seen a lot of "Oscary" movies yet I won't do a traditional top 10 list but I think I'm gonna do some silly "Best-of"s instead. For the next couple of posts with just the 2008 movies and later with all 200-something movies I've watched this year.


Best Use of an iPhone
Winner: The Happening, it was by far my favorite scene of that movie. The guy waving at the lion, lol.
Runner-Up: Bolt

Best Johnson Family Dinner
Winner: Johnson Family Christmas Dinner for numerous reasons.

Biggest Tear Jerker
Winner: Milk Fraannncooooooo!!!!

Least Scary Supposed to be Scary Image
Winner: The evil baby with the cell phone from One Missed Call unless it was my phone and it was using my whenever minutes.
Runner-up: The trees rustling in The Happening/ most of The Happening in general.

Best Follow Up to a First Movie Role
Winner: Emma Stone as Natalie in The House Bunny, she was only in Superbad as Jules before this and The Rocker which I didn't see so it doesn't count. She had some funny stuff in House Bunny even though the movie wasn't great.
Runner-Up: Rachel Bilson as Millie Harris in Jumper. She was only in The Last Kiss before that. Jumper sucked, she was good.

Worst Amount of Christmases
Winner: Four Christmases


Best Use of a Tattoo
Winner: Synechdoche, New York, in the hospital room with Phillip Seymour Hoffman's Daughter!!!! No, spoilers, but awesome.
Runner-Up: Angelina Jolie in Wanted. Just bad-ass.

Single Frame I Wish I Had as a Huge Poster warning, both kind of creepy images...


Winner:

Brutal.
Runner-Up:

I think this movie was underseen, it was really tense.


Be Smart and Don't See This Movie
Winner: Smart People, Ellen Page...Who cares? Sarah Jessica Parker is gross.
Runner-Up: Get Smart, I'd holler at Anne Hathaway though.

Least Consistent Canadian Accent
Winner: John C. Reilly in The Promotion, really good movie though.

That's enough for now. Feel free to add your own.

I'm looking forward to My Bloody Valentine 3D so hard.

Weird

Ok guys, so the movie I wrote, Johnson Family Christmas Dinner, is apparently out and for sale (at Wal-Mart, Best Buy online, amazon.com, etc).



and you can:



Make sure you read my earlier blog about how they butchered my script.

Here are some LOL inducing reviews. They sound fake, especially because the cast and crew list and synopses on most websites is wrong.

From The Black Gospel Blog

Alicia Newby said...

This seems like it will be very interesting. I may purchase it for some holiday laughter.

Darla said...

Yea, the movie has a really strong message. It's great for movie night. Its from Jean-Claude La Marre who was apart of the Malcolm-X film. Picked up my copy for my mother at wal-mart. It's worth the watch.

http://blackgospel.blogspot.com/2008/12/johnson-family-christmas-dinneron-dvd.html

From Film Crave.com

just recently purchased this movie for my parents for christmas. My parents are really huge on christian family movies that deal with family issues and have a bit of humor. From what i hear, it wasnt that bad. I was told it could have uses a larger budget but the overall message in the movie is what really sells it. It has a loving cast and would make a great flick for movie night. Vivendi

And Film Crave has a more accurate synopsis as well!!!!!!!!

http://www.filmcrave.com/movie_page_main.php?id=27717

At Flixter.com

NOT INTERESTED

ouch, but at least I got this one too:

It's a decent family flick that you wont be afraid to watch with your children. Just in time for the holidays. Jean Claude La Marre is attached to it. He was apart of the Malcolm-X movie. Check it ou!

http://www.flixster.com/movie/johnson-family-christmas-dinner

here's another one by the same guy as the review before only on a different site called crosswalk.com

Jean-Claude La Marre who was apart of the Malcolm X movie, just released a movie titled Johnson Family Christmas Dinner. I found the movie at the store while I was out buying Christmas presents for the family. It’s one of those black Christmas movies that everyone watches because of all the humor and drama. Vivendi. If anyone has seen it, let me know if it was any good.

http://forums.crosswalk.com/m_4043457/tm.htm

I guess he ended up buying it.


iconocast.com

Looking for a great movie to enjoy with the family? What about a great Christmas gift for somebody? 'Johnson Family Christmas Dinner' is a great movie that the entire family can enjoy.

http://www.iconocast.com/EB000000000000074/R5/News1.htm

this poet wrote a review on movieweb.com

I am really into Jean Claude LaMarre’s work, he produced Malcolm X and the tv series Law and Order. He is really good in my opinion. He has a new film coming out Dec 9th that I’m looking forward in seeing called Johnson’s Family Christmas Dinner. It sounds pretty good, I read the story line and shit, and it doesn’t seem to be like every other x-mas movie that are all the same. I found out about it here…

http://www.amazon.com/Johnson-Family.../dp/B001D68ND6


Rob
UMGD

http://www.movieweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20992

Yes, this is what I was looking for, a little good natured razzing. I found it on screencrave.com

HORRIBLE STRAIGHT-TO-DVD OF THE WEEK

“Johnson Family Christmas Dinner”

The reason this movie takes the prize is because of its full title: Black Christmas Movies Presents: “Johnson Family Christmas Dinner”. What is Black Christmas Films? Is it a new production company? Is it some new genre?

The real question is can we look forward to other ethnic holiday productions from studios that only make films featuring a specific race about a specific holiday? Such as:

* Asian Thanksgiving Movies Presents: “Turkey Day with the Nguyen Family”
* White Fourth of July Movies Presents: “Fireworks with the O’Connors”
* Latino Easter Movies Presents: “The Great Hernandez Egg Hunt”
* Indian Arbor Day Movies Presents: “The Patels Plant a Tree”

It could go on forever!

I personally think from now on every holiday film should be qualified with the race of the main characters and the holiday they’re celebrating. Because a DVD cover featuring 10 African-Americans and a title containing the word “Christmas” really isn’t clear enough.

http://screencrave.com/2008-12-09/this-week-on-dvd-the-dark-knight-horton-hears-a-who-the-wire/

and finally, Johnson Family Christmas Dinner's Rotten Tomato Meter Reading is... N/A

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/johnson_family_christmas_dinner/

Get on there and review it if you've seen it.

I recently sold this guy my roommate's broken iPod nano.


eBay listing


In my listing I made it clear that the iPod was broken and all that. I think he has a slightly different strategy.

LOL at this:



Also, I couldn't find a picture or the name of this guy, but remember the Black guy on "Undeclared" that had a crazy face and a crazy overbite and glasses? He lived on Jay Baruchel's floor and always hung out with the Samoan guy? I saw him walking down the street today on my block. Just walking, hanging out.

I always see this guy at the gym too:



and this is just plain silly:

UCB

Last night Ash and I went to the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theater for the "Midnight Show." It's basically like SNL, there's a celeb host and a musical guest. Last night Dax Shepherd hosted with musical guest Tim Kasher (Cursive, The Good Life). Kasher is one of my favorite singer/songwriter/lyricists/etc. He was awesome. Dax was funny. The show was good. In the audience with us was Dax's GF Kristen Bell!!!!! and the guy who played Rachel McAdams jerky fiance in Wedding Crashers and a guy who must have been Dax's brother becuase they looked exactly the same and had the same voice. It was one of those nights when we (especially Ash) were glad to live in LA. I saw my first real life paparazzi scheming outside the theater (there was only one dude and the theater owner yelled at him). Ash and I also couldn't wrangle an invite to the after party even though we knew a friend of a friend. We didn't get home until 3 anyway so it was still a full night.

Thanksgiving in Chicago was fun. At LAX before we left Ash saw Danny from The New Kids On The Block. I saw him too but I don't know what that dude looks like and I don't know any of his songs so I didn't care. However, Robin Tunney, from "The Mentalist" asked me when our plane was supposed to land in Chicago and I told her. She was also on "Prison Break" and Empire Records.

Only a couple weeks until Nashville then PG. Are there New Year's plans yet?

Life

I finally saw some of my background acting expertise displayed. I am on the show "Life" on the episode titled Black Friday which you can watch on the internet for free right now.

http://www.nbc.com/Life/

I am wearing jeans, a navy blue vest, a light blue polo shirt with a light gray long sleeve t shirt underneath. My hair was a little longer at the time. Here are the timecodes of when you can see me:

5:23 i walk by in the blue vest on the right,
5:41 i cross screen.
6:38 in the way back to the right of the kiosk guy's face,
7:02 when the kiosk guy points i'm to the left of the kiosk girl,
similar position in 7:12,
7:45 good shot of me with bag exact center of screen in blue vest,
8:03 by the suit guys head

So that's good.

The movie I "wrote"

For anyone that doesn't know, I have recently written some screenplays for a production company called Nu-Lite Entertainment that distributes through Universal and BlackChristianMovies.com.

Well, I finally got copies of the movie I wrote for Nu-Lite, Johnson Family Christmas Dinner. It is more low budget than any of you can probably imagine but some of the acting is fine and the script was really good to begin with so it almost qualifies as a real movie. However, as Ashlea and I were watching it we began to notice a couple things. One, the characters on the cover of the DVD aren't actually in the movie.


Those are characters from the first Johnson Family movie.

Another thing we noticed is that there were scenes and lines in it that I didn't write, which is totally fine and understandable to a certain extent, no movie is going to be exactly how the script is. However, we got to a scene where characters say things that I did not write that made me embarrassed to have my name on the movie as the writer. I don't want my name associated with what they're talking about. I will only go into slight detail so that when people watch the movie they'll know that I didn't have anything to do with it and am opposed to it.

Basically the family is sitting at the table and the patriarch tells a joke explicitly ridiculing people with special needs. This comes late in the movie when we are supposed to be attached to these characters. After he made the joke I couldn't care less about them. The joke is tasteless and the scene doesn't add anything to the plot or the story (in fact it detracts significantly). When/if you watch this movie know that I did not write that scene and when I saw it I immediately stopped the movie and tried to get in contact with the Producers.

This movie will be out on December 9th. I'm hoping that no one will see the movie without knowing that I did not write that scene. The other day I was offered the chance to write several more screenplays for the company and I also have a script that they just finished production on. This makes me nervous as to what could leak into the other movies supposedly written by me. Hopefully I will not be embarrassed to have my name on the next DVD they put out but right now my relationship with their company is in jeopardy.

In good news, I have a short that I wrote being produced this afternoon by the company my roommate is starting up. For this shoot I will be on set, actually have input, and the quality of the finished product will be much higher. I'll hopefully have a link where you can watch it in the following weeks.

-Peter

Update

It's been going well. I'm counting down the days until Thanksgiving in Chicago then Christmas in Nashville and New Years in PG.

For Halloween Ash and I hung with Liz and some people. Ash was Tinkerbell and I was Peter Pan. Go to her blog for pictures (link is to your right).

My roommate is starting up a business that tailor makes short films for actors to put in their reel/resume and I wrote a short for him that he and a crew are producing November 16th. I think it'll turn out well. I hooked up my friend Bryan with one of the roles.

I am supposed to be for sure getting some copies of Johnson Family Christmas Dinner on Wednesday. It comes out December 9th. Pre-order now!!! Just kidding, I don't know how true to my script they were or how ridiculous this movie is going to be but I'm looking forward to watching it. I wrote a feature that's coming out on DVD, that's what's up.

I might be getting some new ink tomorrow, pictures of that if it comes true.

Ash and I visited the set of "Criminal Minds" and talked to Shemar Moore and Joe Mantegna. They were both super nice but I was excited to be talking to Fat Tony from "The Simpsons," dream come true.

I'm meeting a guy from the LAFSC my semester in a few minutes for lunch, so that's good. We had an alumni event last week and that was fun too kind of. It was cool saying that my first paid job out of the LAFSC was writing a feature script because my life is all about impressing LAFSC students at alumni events...seriously.

The big thing in my life right now though is selling a couple of my game systems to buy a Wii.

I like this guy...

I stole this from Jason S.



I like that guy, he's one third of the Lonely Island and he's in Role Models for a second.

Last Thursday Ash and I saw an advanced screening of Role Models the new David Wain movie that comes out soon. It was funny, there were a lot of familiar faces in it. David Wain, Ken Marino, Joe Lo Truglio, and A.D.Miles introduced the movie before it started. After the movie we saw this character lurking around:



Ken Jeong, the doctor from Knocked Up and the King from Role Models was hanging out. We talked to him and he was seriously the nicest guy ever. He signed my Knocked Up DVD which I happened to have on me. He was super nice, seriously. He was good in the movie too.

After that Ash and I headed towards our car and who did we see but David Wain and Co. also going towards their cars. I got them all to sign my Wet Hot American Summer DVD which I happened to have on me...

Over the weekend Ash and I carved pumpkins and made pumpkin seeds.



Ash carved/ is a crab (MD!!).



I'm too cool for it but I made a silly face.



Spooky.



Ash said now take a nice one.



Ash's nice one too.

Ash's roommate had a carving party the next day for girls only so Ash carved a vampire pumpkin too. You would know that if she updated her blog ever.

My "Intervention" job is going well.

I'm supposed to go to Nu-Lite and pick up some stuff this week. I'll let you know about that.

My writing is going really well, I restructured the movie I'm working on for my writing group and it's going to make it so much better.

I'm finally going to start watching "The Wire" all the way through starting with Season 1.

So everything is good, I'm excited to go to Chicago for Thanksgiving, Nashville for Christmas, and PG for New Years.

It's cool when your paycheck says this:



I work for the show "Intervention." Cool. I hope I can swing my transcribing position on "Intervention" into a job on "MTV's True Life," I'm only partly kidding.

Lately I've just been working at transcribing and eBay, going to the gym (I started swimming some again lately) and hanging out with Ash on her days off or my buddy Bryan who is an actor or my roommate and his friends (I played poker with them on Friday night and won, probably pictures on facebook at some point because he was taking pictures often).

Monday nights I eat dinner with Ash and then we got to the gym after.

Tuesday nights I go to a restaurant called Big Wangs for 25 cent wings.

Wednesdays I have my writer's group meeting.

Thursdays Ash and I have been seeing movies (this Thursday we're trying to get into a screening of Role Models, the new David Wain movie starring Paul Rudd, McLovin' and Stiffler. I'm pretty sure David Wain commented on this blog after I mentioned "Wainy Days" a while ago. David Wain and Paul Rudd are going to be at the screening so I'm going to try and get my copy of Wet Hot American Summer signed. I could try to buy The Ten before then too.)

So I'm settling into a pretty good schedule.

I saw Sam Rockwell's big buddy from Choke at the gym the other day. His name is Brad William Henke and he was in Choke and Me and You and Everyone we Know most notably to me. I always see these people and Ash is never there at the time.

I have news about Johnson Family Christmas but I'm going to hold off for now.

"Slapping the bass"... No one is going to get that reference for months

First of all, Ash and I saw an early screening for the next Paul Rudd/ Jason Segel movie which tentatively has two titles currently: I Love You, Man and Bromance both of which are horrible titles but the movie is really good. Some familiar faces are in it to varying degrees: Andy Samberg, Jon Favreau, Rashida Jones, Jamie Pressly, Carla Gallo aka Lizzie from Undeclared (she has some great/awkward credits to her name on IMDB), Joe Lo Truglio, J.K. Simmons, and many many more. It was good, I'm looking forward to the extended DVD.

Today at the gym I saw:
Clea DuVall (Can't Hardly Wait, She's All That, Identity, Zodiac, "Heroes") She got the clown make-up put on her in She's All That by Rachel Leigh Cook.

She was definitely getting her sweat on.

And
Jeremy Howard ("Undeclared" as the frat bro Totem Pole in one or two episodes, Men In Black II, Accepted) You might recognize him from every commercial ever.

He was stretching (his neck, jk his body).

I've had a few new posts in the past day or two so make sure you scroll down.

A typical day at the office, transcribing. Not too shabby.



Me and my roommate's cat.

Transcribing has been going awesomely. I'll post a picture of my typical work day when I get my pictures on the computer. Typing for hours doesn't make me want to blog and upload pictures and all that. But I'm ahead of schedule so I might be able to eBay and do some stuff tomorrow.

I had a job interview today randomly. My directing teacher from Towson who lives out here called me and asked if I could do a job interview and I said sure, when? He said "Now" so I had to shave my week long beard and take a shower, but I got there, interviewed, and then got home and had an e-mail saying they hired somebody else which is OK because the job was going to be really tough (but I could have still handled it). The producer said that if the pilot goes to series that she might hire me though, so the interview was semi-successful, especially because I wasn't expecting to interview at all today.

Last week Ash and I saw Eagle Eye for free at the Arclight (the theater Jeremy Piven is coming out of on "Entourage" in the episode when Head On first comes out). The movie was OK, a lot better than I expected and it was free. What else do you want?!?!?!?!? If they had cut the last 30 seconds the movie would have been a lot better.

Tomorrow Ash and I are seeing the new Paul Rudd/ Jason Segel movie for free. I think it's a test screening. I just bought Forgetting Sarah Marshall so I'm ready for some more of those two dudes. I should have gotten the Forgetting Sarah Marshall/ We Are Marshall two pack they were selling. Just kidding, that doesn't and shouldn't exist.

For the rest of the day: Gym, shower, maybe a little bit more transcribing, writer's meeting, maybe watching a documentary about steroids. Sounds good to me.

I will be in Maryland from December 28th until January 3rd. Home for New Year's!!!!!! Be ready to hang.

I was an extra on "House" yesterday. I saw Hugh Laurie getting coffee, I held the door for Omar Epps who gave me the thank you nod, and Kal Penn (Kumar!!) said good morning to me and chatted with me and two other extras for a minute. (Nothing like Danny's story...but still cool).

So to recap, here is a list of shows I've been on and what the episode is about so maybe you can see me on there:

"Pushing Daisies" - the episode has a magician flashback but they never called me to set so I won't be in it.
"Worst Week" - the guy gives his Dad weed cigars by accident. I'm a partygoer.
"CSI: NY" - this sleazeball gives drugs to a girl then gets shot in the head. I'm a club patron at this club that looks like the NY City subway. I'm right behind the drug dealer when he kisses the girl and gives her the pill.
"Starter Wife" - Debra Messing has a fantasy where she's Dirty Harry. I'm behind the girl she shoots and I'm wearing coveralls and fake sideburns.
"The Mentalist" - An episode that takes place on a college campus. I'm a college student walking around.
"Life" - An episode that takes place at a Mall during Christmas. I'm a guy walking around the mall and a COP in full uniform!!!!
"Criminal Minds" - An episode where the skinny guy does a bunch of magic tricks. I'm a bar patron and I'm right behind the Black guy when he and the skinny guy are at the bar.
"Dirty Sexy Money" - who cares?
"Do Not Disturb" - an episode where a famous author dies at the hotel. I'm sitting behind Jerry O'Connell and Dave Franco when they're talking about not liking to talk about naked dudes.
"Samantha Who?" - an episode where Samantha slashes somebody's tires I think. I walk behind her and Barry Watson when they walk into her apartment complex.
"House" - I have no idea what happens in the episode and I was only in one shot for one second so who knows.

I'm going to start being an extra a lot less because of my transcribing job with "Intervention" but I'll keep you posted on what I do and if I find links to the episodes I'm on.

I'm pumped to watch The Foot Fist Way later.

Lots to say.

I extra-ed on the show "Do Not Disturb" on Tuesday. It seems like that show will be very hit and miss. It has Jerry O'Connell and the lady from Reno 911 on it, but it also has Dave Franco, James Franco's little brother, on it. Dave had one line in Superbad and stars in these online videos:

See more James Franco videos at Funny or Die

But Dave seemed to have a pretty funny character on the show. One of the actors, Jesse who plays Larry, came over and talked to me, saying I looked familiar. I probably had never met him before but it was cool to talk to a series regular.

The coolest thing about that show is that it's filmed in front of a live studio audience so it was like I was performing on stage, even though I was just an extra. The audience was dumb and laughed at the same jokes over and over though.

On Thursday I was an extra on "Samantha Who?" so I was right next to Christina Applegate and Barry Watson (7th Heaven!!! and Teaching Mrs. Tingle) all day.

This is out of order but, on Wednesday I got my first DVDs to transcribe from "Intervention." I'm going to start doing that and when I have time I'll be an extra for extra money. I'm also definitely going to keep selling on eBay because I've been making some serious scratch lately. The "Intervention" footage is tough to transcribe because hicks are hard to understand and everybody talks at once. I signed a confidentiality agreement though so I can't say too much about that.

I got some more money from Nu-Lite on Friday, they still owed me from "Johnson Family Christmas" and they STILL owe me some more because they paid me the wrong amount. They said oh, OK, we'll send you a check on Monday. They could have sent me a check for the whole amount a month ago!!

Whatever.

Nothing can get me down because I saw and experienced the Meet Dave giant head the other day.



EDIT: Ash and I saw Burn After Reading the other night (it was good) in Sherman Oaks and afterward in the parking lot we saw Josh Peck aka Josh from "Drake and Josh" and the star of the movie The Wackness and he looked really drunk... or something. I was like "Hey, it's Drake or Josh!!"

This is the Gym Class Heroes show Ash and I went to for free a while ago.



You can see the show at http://soundcheck.walmart.com/oncampus/ but Wal-Mart sucks so whatever. You can see the back of my head in some of the crowd shots but if you don't know where I was standing it'd be pretty hard to see me. It's not like the New Friend Request video where Andrew is dancing at 1:11

LOL.

On the Wal-Mart site the sound quality isn't great, I'd say buy the album from somewhere besides Wal-Mart instead of watching the videos.

There are so many "edgy" zooms from the Axe logo to the stage.

"Hello, real cops."

Norm McDonald LOL



He is the king of not caring about anything. I laughed harder at this than I have in a very long time.



Bob Saget gets it. He directed Dirty Work.



I got all these from this blog: http://www.maximumfun.org/blog/2008/09/norm-macdonald-greatest-canadian-in.html

Not too much new to report. I've still been doing extra work. I did a couple days on "Life" with this guy Damian Lewis from Dreamcatcher.

This guy

who, if you remember, I saw at the gym one time a few weeks (months?) ago was also on the show and he said what's up to me outside the make up trailer. I had to get up at 4:45am two mornings in a row to get to Torrance, CA to a mall where they were filming that show. One day I played a mall shopper on the day after Thanksgiving and the other day I played a uniformed cop, which was awesome and I wish I got pictures bu I didn't bring my camera. I'm going to start bringing my camera though in case something like that happens again.

Yesterday I did "Criminal Minds" which was short and sweet and had good food. Later today I'm doing "Dirty Sexy Money" and they're paying me extra to use my car. I'm hoping that it's a short call too.

Ash hasn't been updating her blog because she's been really busy with school. We've still gotten to hang out every couple of days though and we went to a wedding near Monterey Bay over the weekend with Mom, Uncle Bruce, Grandma, and Grandpa and had fun.

I start transcribing for "Intervention" on Wednesday the 17th. I'm looking forward to it.

I'm probably behind on my movie watching because I actually work now, but that's an OK trade off.

I've been doing background "acting" almost every day. On Wednesday I drove down to Long Beach to be in a 70s scene on the show "The Starter Wife." At one point Debra Messing is only a couple feet away from me pointing a gun at somebody. I'm in the episode where she has a Dirty Harry fantasy/ flashback deal. Makeup put ridiculous sideburns on me.

Yesterday and today I was on "The Mentalist" starring Simon Baker. I am all over this episode so look out for one that takes place on a college campus.

Next week so far I have Monday booked for a show I've never heard of called "Life" and I prebooked "Criminal Minds" for Thursday which will be awesome if Erica is producing and/or writing the episode. Today I had to get up at 6am to go to the lot and on Monday my call time is 6am.

On Wednesday I had my writer's group meeting and the guys had some really good advice for my screenplay so far.

Starting in a week I am going to start working for "Intervention." I am going to transcribe raw footage. It's work from home so I can do it on my own time. I'm going to continue to do background as well and transcribe in my free time. Hopefully the transcribing position can turn to something else but who knows. My former Directing teacher from Towson hooked me up but the girl I talked to on the phone was an LAFSC alum. Small world.

I just read on IMBDpro that Tina Fey is going to play Sarah Palin on SNL... I knew it.

FYI, background actors are mostly idiots.

21 is one of the worst movies ever made.

This month will mark the first month that I've paid rent for myself ever (I'm still not paying my car payment, car insurance, or health insurance mind you, but still). I paid it by eBaying, temping, selling the screenplays, and most recently doing background work (aka being an Extra).

On Friday I worked on CSI: New York so watch for me in the background of a club scene in a bar that looks like a New York City subway station. I'm wearing a bright green dress shirt and I'm right behind the drug dealer when he gives a girl a red pill. In fact, he has to nudge me aside to get to the girl. I'm predicting that I do some really good "backting" in the episode.

Backting = http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/ac76766583

Today Ash and I saw Tony Hale (Buster from "Arrested Development") at our church. He supposedly goes all the time but today is the first time we saw him.

Short one today, no new pictures really but I'll keep you posted.

I started doing Extras work this week. On Monday I was on "Pushing Daisies" as a waiter in a magician flashback scene but I was never actually used on set so they paid and fed me to sit around all day.

Yesterday I was a party goer on the show "Worst Week"

which has Kurtwood Smith aka Red Foreman from "That 70s Show" and RonReaco Lee aka Tyreke from "Sister, Sister." I am in a bunch of shots for that show so look for me during a birthday party scene for Kurtwood's character where his son-in-law accidentally gives him "cigars laced with grass" as they kept saying on the show (aka blunts). I made a bunch of money yesterday (relatively speaking) because I was on set for over 12 hours. The food was also much better on "Worst Week" than on "Pushing Daisies."

Later today I am going to be a club goer on CSI: NY.

Maddy visited over the weekend and we had fun. I posted pictures on facebook but someone still has to tag them all. I will later if no one has yet.

The other night Ashlea and I went to Ghengis Cohen to see her cousin play bass for a band and afterward we stayed for dinner. While we were eating Adam Sandler and Kevin James came in and ate sooo close to us. Also, I swear I saw Nick Cannon at the post office today, LOL. On the paramount lot yesterday I saw the kid who plays little Chris Rock on "Everybody Hates Chris" because their trailers were across the alley from "Worst Week."

I'm not going to book a show for tomorrow in case this one today goes really late. Instead I'm going to sleep in, thrift, post stuff on eBay, and then go to Ashlea's co-worker friends' house warming party.

My writer's meeting went well. It's a good group of guys and I think it will force me to write by giving myself deadlines. They have some cool ideas they're working on. Also, it will give my week some structure. The first thing I'm presenting for the group is a screenplay I wrote a while ago loosely based on the Cheverly pool. I am currently doing a major rewrite to it.

I visited the set of Johnson Family Christmas last week. The movie is going to be an odd experience to watch. I met a couple of the actors. Two of them were from PG County, so that was cool.

Maddy came to visit. I'll probably put up pictures in my next post. We had a good time and one night I did karaoke for the first time. Ash and I sang a bunch of songs.

Brief post today because I got a background acting job on the show "Pushing Daisies." I am going to be a waiter. I'll post the episode that I'm going to be on once I know the info.

Tomorrow is a huge day. It's Ashlea and my anniversary (two years and nine months I'm pretty sure). I'm meeting my former Directing professor for lunch, then I'm supposed to have a phone interview to possibly be a screenwriter's personal assistant for between 15-20 dollars an hour, then at night Ash and I are going to Ghengis Cohen to see her Uncle play music.

Read Ashlea's blog, there's more info there. The link is to the right.

On Monday Ash and I went to a Gym Class Heroes concert video shoot. On the downside it was for Wal-Mart and apparently you'll be able to see the video on some new Wal-Mart website/ in Wal-Mart stores which is stupid and I hardly ever go to Wal-Mart. But Travis just joked about how you might see yourself on the video when you're buying "underwear or whatever."
The upside was that the concert was free and Ash and I both got our Gym Class Heroes t-shirts autographed by the four band members I first saw perform a few years ago: vocals Travis McCoy, drummer Matt McGinley, guitarist Disashi Lumumba-Kasongo, and bassist David Haik (see picture, guy on the far left):

sike, the bassist's name is Eric Roberts but right?

the shirt
They only played a couple songs but they hung out afterwards and it was a cool time. I'll post the video once it comes out whenever that is.

I had to revise the Johnson Family script once again. Again it wasn't for story or dialogue reasons but because they couldn't find casting. Instead of Lil' Sam I wrote a character named Scooter and now because they couldn't find a little boy I rewrote it as a little girl name Elisa. It really only changed her name and I had to make some hes into shes but it was still annoying.

I went to Central Casting today and registered to become a paid extra (aka background actor). We'll see how that goes.

Here's a picture of Ashlea and my roommate's cat Eva (presumably named after the girl robot from Wall-E):

"Girl robot" is probably an oxymoron.

I have my first writer's group meeting tonight with my mentor from Mr. Mudd and some other writers. I guess they have to accept me into the group. I don't know. I'll keep you posted about that.

FYI, Lucky # Slevin was a cool movie.

I am up to 203 movies on my list for this year. Most recently Ash and I watched All The Real Girls by David Gordon Green (George Washington, Pineapple Express). It is a great movie. It is mostly improvisational but I don't mean just funny riffs like an Apatow production but so much more, like elements of the story were made up as they went along. It works. It stars Paul Schneider (Lars and The Real Girl, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford) and Zooey Deschanel (The Happening, "Weeds") who Ashlea swears I have a huge crush or something on but I don't really. This movie also features a really funny and semi-thin Danny McBride (The Foot Fist Way, Drillbit Taylor, Pineapple Express). I would say see this movie for sure.
Danny McBride (pretty funny dude):


Johnson Family Christmas is in production right now. They filmed some stuff yesterday and they're filming the bulk of it this coming week, however, they called me yesterday and they weren't able to get the majority of the cast to reprise their roles (big surprise, they had like two days notice) so I had to rewrite the script this morning changing names and facts and relationships. It actually didn't change the script that much and it's still pretty good. The producer said it should be in stores by January (distributed by Warner Bros.!!!) but that I should have a few copies by next month possibly. Even if it turns out sucking you all have to buy a copy.
The predecessor to my movie:


On Monday Ash and I are supposed to be in a Gym Class Heroes live concert music video if it works for both of our schedules.

My roommate got his cat. It's only a few months old and it's mainly white with black and orange spots. He named it Eva. I'll post pictures once I have some, she's very elusive but thankfully likes to snuggle sometimes.

Maddy's visiting at the end of the week, should be fun. Hopefully we can hit up the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater or something fun while she's here.

I got "Entourage" Season 1 from the thrift store for $6. I don't think I would like the show at all if it weren't about the movie biz because the guys are all idiot bros, but since it is about Hollywood and all that I really enjoy it.

I spent four straight hours revising the script this morning, I can't believe it's already 3pm.

Has anyone seen Pineapple Express yet (besides me)? What'd you think?

I'm going to cover a lot of things in random order in this post.

I wish that I had bought JohnMcCain.com a few years ago so I could sell it back to him for so much money.

Don't you hate it when you go to click on the iPhoto logo on your MacBook's tray and you accidentally hit the iTunes logo??!?!?!?!??! ARGHHHHHH!!!

I might join a writer's group with my former mentor at my internship with Mr. Mudd. He said they meet once a week and they read each other's stuff, set deadlines, talk about working on future projects, etc. I think all of that sounds awesome.

As some of you may know I have been carrying around the same brand of pen in my left pocket since middle school (blue Bic round stic, medium of course) in case I ever need to write something, or I have an idea, or a hot lady asks if she can borrow a pen, etc. However, you may not know that I also usually carry around a pad of paper. Tonight I am officially retiring three proud soldiers.

The third one has a drink ring on it.
I am going to type up everything I wrote in them into one huge file and save it on my computer forever but I'm still going to keep the actual notebooks somewhere. I really need a filecabinet if anyone if getting rid of one.

Here are a few gems (aka dumb jokes or observations) from my notebooks:
- "Why do ugly people go to public places to make-out?"
- "The first time you see certain people in their winter hats they look ridiculous" (It's true)
- "I took a urine test today... I hope they don't want it back" (Zing)
- A list that contains the following movies: Beetlejuice, Antwone Fisher, Amelie, and Back to the Future
- A list of characters including: A racist guy who always punctuates his comments with "You know what I mean?" and "Am I right?"
- A page in the notebook is blank except for the words "funeral comedian" and a question mark
- A character idea for a guy who's never been to a Subway sandwich shop AND who can't read (I felt like I was trapped behind that guy once. I hate being there when people first try out a restaurant. They're like "wait, I have to tell you what to put on my sandwich?")
- Jean-Claude LaMarre aka Pastor Jones' phone number (to the highest bidder!!)
- Just the words "booger silhouette"

I obviously didn't just give away any of the really good ones because I am probably going to use them in movies/ real life conversations so people think I'm so clever off the cuff.

I don't think I ever explained the second movie that I wrote for Nu-Lite Entertainment. They did a movie called Johnson Family Dinner that is not in any way related to Ice Cube's Johnson Family Vacation. I'm pretty sure they were hoping that they could trick people into thinking that they were the same Johnson Family though. I never saw Ice Cube's one but it would have to be better than Nu-Lite's Dinner. I would suggest watching Dinner the way I did, with a buddy, drinking wine, and taking notes. But anyway, I don't want to slam Dinner, just watch it and judge for yourself, it's not even really like a movie.
But anyway, I was contracted to write the sequel: Johnson Family Christmas. I never thought that I would write a Christmas movie, much less one about an upper middle class Black family but I can honestly say the script turned out pretty good. If you want to read it message me or e-mail me and I'll send it to you in PDF form.
The exciting thing is that Nu-Lite is supposedly going into pre-production on it right now and it may be out by this Christmas. So log on to www.BlackChristianMovies.com and buy the straight to DVD movie of my first produced feature screenplay Johnson Family Christmas when it gets made and released. Life is funny, but sometimes not ha-ha funny.

I'm watching the Olympics and Michael Phelps just won his 172nd gold medal. This one was in archery actually. Just kidding it was actually in a new event I guess where he had to type 400 instant messages the fastest or something. That would be maybe funnier if there weren't actually a competition for the fastest text messager.

I need a job soon, not really monetarily speaking yet because I am an online auctioneer (I sell stuff on eBay) and I write screenplays for a couple dollars here and there, but mainly because I'm getting stir crazy. I have some good leads right now though, more on that in the future.

Tons

OK, first of all. Ashlea and I saw "Work Out"'s Jesse Brune at Pinkberry the other night.



You probably have two questions: What's Pinkberry? and What's "Work Out"? Pinkberry is a delicious frozen yogurt place where you put a bunch of toppings on your yogurt, and "Work Out" is this show about a gym and that guy is on it.

Also, remember Ron Lester aka the fat guy from Varsity Blues and "Popular" bka the fat guy from Not Another Teen Movie spoofing the fat guy from Varsity Blues? Remember him? Well it seems that he must have lost 300 pounds:



What???? Good for him.

Here's my ticket to the World Premiere of Pineapple Express.


and here's my copy of "Freaks and Geeks" signed by Judd Apatow, James Franco, and Seth Rogen:

now I just need Samm Levine to sign it!!!!

Ashlea and I visited her classroom today and started setting it up. It's awesome that she has her own classroom.

See her blog to read about our latest trip to the UCB Theater:
http://lashlea.blogspot.com/
Tell her Pete sent you.

I met with Nu-Lite yesterday and delivered my latest script. Have I talked about what it's about yet? If not remind me to. I have another meeting with them on Monday to talk about something pretty exciting. I'll let you know how that goes.

This post is chronologically out of order. Sorry.

My roommate got an XBOX 360 and is getting a cat tomorrow. I'm more excited about the cat by far. What are good games for the 360 that don't require me to press a million buttons at once?

Ash and I are going to San Diego tomorrow for her Aunt's wedding on Thursday.

Last night Ashlea and I went to the Pineapple Express world premiere. Before the movie we stood outside and watched the red carpet. I got my "Freaks and Geeks" DVD boxed set autographed by Judd Apatow, James Franco, and Seth Rogen. When Judd saw the DVDs he said "That's a good one" and I said "Yeah."



At the premiere we saw: Judd, James, Seth, Danny McBride (Foot Fist Way, Drillbit Taylor), Joe Lo Truglio (Wet Hot American Summer), Evan Goldberg (co-writer of Superbad and Pineapple Express), a bunch of other members of the cast like ROsie Perez and the guy who played the jerky boss on Office Space, Daniel Craig (everyone went nuts), Jim Carrey with Jenny McCarthy, Jack Black, Kanye West, Lloyd and the publicist from Entourage, Jon Voight (it was sad that the little girls around me knew him as Angelina Jolie's Dad), Wes Chatham (had the greatest line in In The Valley of Elah), Channing Tatum, Stanley from The Office, Ash saw Meredith from The Office and the woman who plays Jeremy Piven's wife on Entourage, Leslie Mann, Jonah Hill, Amber Heard, RZA, Emile Hirsch, and I talked to Jeff Garlin ("Curb Your Enthusiasm" and the voice of the Captain in Wall-E) but he seemed like he didn't want me to blow up his scene because he wasn't on the red carpet. I also saw the drug dealer from The Rules of Attraction and maybe Skeet Ulrich from Scream. And some others, Ash do you remember anyone else?

Here are some of the better pictures we took:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2150099&id=18400313

Then, to top it off we got into the movie for free because they handed out ticket right near us and I snagged two. There were two theaters playing it at the same time. We were in the one with Stanley and Channing Tatum and Skeet. The movie was really good but it wasn't anything compared to Superbad.

I'll post pictures of my ticket and my signed DVDs soon.

I was supposed to turn in my latest script to Nu-Lite today but they never called. I hope I can handle that on Monday.

I won't be able to cover everything in this post but I'll update you on a few things.

First of all, there was an earthquake today. I was at my apartment and I felt everything shake. It wasn't as strong as downtown but I could definitely feel the earth shaking for a minute or two. I'm OK and the only thing that happened was two of the speakers on my roommate's TV fell down. I didn't really know what to do during the shaking so I stood up from my computer, saved the screenplay I'm working on, and looked around.
Ashlea's OK too. Welcome to LA, Ash.

Speaking of which, we got in to LA on Sunday. There are pictures from our road trip on facebook. I'll post a couple of them on here too in the next post. We went to a younglife camp in VA, my parents' house in TN, The Dark Knight on IMAX in TN, and the Grand Canyon.
The Grand Canyon was one of the greatest things I've ever seen.

The Dark Knight was really good too.

We moved in all of Ashlea's stuff on Sunday and barely made it to the U-Haul place in time.

By the way, I am officially boycotting U-Haul. We had to spend 7 and a half hours at the U-Haul in Baltimore while they jerked us around and took forever installing our hitch. If you have to move somewhere use Penske or something. DO NOT USE U-HAUL, they're some jerkys.

Ashlea's apartment is really nice and her roommates are friendly. One of them has a really nice kitten named Mya. I think Ashlea is going to start a blog, I'll add a link once she does.

I'm working on the Johnson Family screenplay right now. I can talk more about that once I'm done. I'm turning it in on Friday but I just started it yesterday. I've been working on it for five hours a day for the past two days. I'm half way done.

Ash and I are hoping to go to Upright Citizens Brigade Theater tonight for some comedy. I'll let you know how that goes.

In conclusion, earthquakes are a weird phenomenon.

I am officially a paid screenwriter. I got paid for Pastor Jones: Preachin' to the Choir (the check is just a copy by the by). I am still supposed to direct it but the shoot is pushed back. They gave me a new writing assignment though that I can explain later if I actually complete it, they want it done in a week and a half or so.

In other crazy exciting news, Ashlea's parents are flying me back to Maryland so I can drive across the country with her and her car and an attached trailer. I leave tomorrow and I'll be in PG Saturday night. We're hitting the road Tuesday morning and stopping by a Younglife camp where my parents will be in Rockbridge, Virginia. We're going to stay the first night at my parents' new house in Nashville, TN. Ash and I are definitely going to hit the Grand Canyon and take a bunch of pictures.

Gotta go, I have to start writing this new movie.

Ashlea decided to come out to California to visit after she basically had given up on teaching out here this year. She had been in contact with a couple schools but they didn't seem very interested in a first year teacher who still lived in Maryland even though she was applying for California credentials and had sent them a DVD of her teaching. She wanted to see me a couple times if she wasn't going to live here so she flew out.

She got an e-mail on Monday from one of those schools agreeing to interview her, after she got pooped on by a bird at the beach, and they set up the interview for Tuesday. I drove her over to the school and she interviewed for over an hour. She said she felt like the interview went really well. Two days later she got a call from the school offering her a first grade teaching position and she immediately accepted. She flew back home the next day and is currently working on finding an apartment out here and packing up her life back in Maryland. We're both really excited.

I'm proud that she had the guts to fly out here randomly and impulsively and take a chance that really paid off.

I'm sure Ashlea will fill in what I missed in the comments section.

Gosling-a-thon

I was within arm's reach of Ryan Gosling at the gym today, no bull. He had a "giving tree" tattoo.

It has been a long and exciting week. Drew, Heather, and Ashlea are all here. Ashlea called me last Thursday to tell me that she decided to come visit me on Friday, the next day. I postponed my trip to Vegas a day and picked her up from Burbank on Friday. We came back and saw my apartment then drove the 4-5 hours to Vegas through the desert which was 115 degrees in some places.

Las Vegas was fun we handled business, saw some sites. Corey has a really nice house with a pool and most of his roommates were cool, we didn't really meet one of them. But we did what we needed to do in one night and came back the next day.

Sunday we went to the church I go to in Hollywood then walked around Hollywood boulevard. Then we drove down Sunset Boulevard and Rodeo Drive to scope the scene. Beverly Hills is nuts.

Monday we went to the Santa Monica beach/pier and all got a lot of sun but had fun. Ashlea got pooped on by a bird which is supposedly good luck. We came back and watched The Mist which is so good.

Yesterday Ashlea's bird poop good luck came to fruition. She got a job interview at a charter school in LA County so we took her there and hung out at a mall while she interviewed. It went really well so she expects to hear good things from them.

Last night was incredible. We went to the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater and saw four hours of comedy for $5. Among the performers were Matt Besser from Dewey Cox, Drillbit Taylor, and Junebug. Also, JUDD APATOW! Then Judd brought out Jonah Hill to do stand up for the first time in his life. Jonah Hill killed and one of the comics later said that Jonah Hill had a bunch of people backstage like Jason Schwartzman. Overall it was awesome and I want to go every week.

A bunch of pictures from the trip will probably be posted somewhere soon.

Meeeeeeeee And Pastor, Pastor Jones

I'm pretty much done with the script. I'm going to send it to the producer tomorrow and she's going to read it and see if it needs any work then we're going to meet next week so she can pay me. She's in the casting process.

I'm going to Las Vegas tomorrow to stay with Corey Reid and hang with Drew P and Heather. I'm looking forward to that. Heather and Drew are riding back to LA with me and staying at my place for a few days then Heather is flying back home and Drew is going to an organic farm. Then Drew is coming back to LA and we're making Pastor Jones. So that's all good.

I sold this Prince shirt for over $50.



So eBay is going well. I'm going to a few thrift stores today in fact.

When I get back from Las Vegas and the producer has signed off on the script I can start preproduction. I probably won't storyboard because I just draw stick figures anyway (that Steve Holt made fun of) but I'll do detailed shot lists. I have to show Drew Pastor Jones 4: Sisters in Spirit 2 so he's on the level.

I temped at 20th Century Fox a couple times. I made $15 an hour but they didn't have much for the other temp and I to do. On one day we put files into boxes and on the next working day we took the same files out of the boxes in different locations.

I have so much writing I want to do. I have about 9 loglines, I'm in the middle of rewriting Happenstances, I'm perpetually rewriting Hot Rodney aka Life's A Drag, and I haven't even looked at Suicide Watch since LAFSC but I have a lot of ideas for that too. I'm also formulating in my head an Andy from Suicide Watch spinoff. That will probably be the next fresh screenplay I write (even though In Sheep's Clothing should be at the top of the list always). Hopefully though none of that matters right now and I can write another script for Nu-Lite and get paid more and actually get paid to direct.

Oh yeah, so it's July, half way through the year and I've watched 169 movies (maybe 171 because I watched There Will Be Blood and Cloverfield twice if we're counting that), so not quite enough to be on track. I need to step up my game. I know that none of you care or want to see this, but:


Movies I’ve Seen in 2008

All The King’s Men (2006) Steve Zaillian
Wayne’s World (1992) Penelope Spheeris
Shooter (2007) Antoine Fuqua
Hoop Dreams (1994) Steve James
October Sky (1999) Joe Johnston
Murder By Numbers (2002) Barbet Schroeder
Superbad (2007) Greg Mottola
One Missed Call (2008) Eric Valette
Paris Je T’aime (2006) Various
The Break Up (2006) Peyton Reed
Blue Crush (2002) John Stockwell
Reservoir Dogs (1992) Quentin Tarantino
Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope (1977) George Lucas
Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back (1980) Irvin Kershner
Idiocracy (2006) Mike Judge
Eastern Promises (2007) David Cronenberg
Big Fish (2003) Tim Burton
Do The Right Thing (1989) Spike Lee
Airplane! (1980) Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker
Huo Yuan Jia (2006) Ronny Yu
Gangs Of New York (2002) Martin Scorsese
Rushmore (1998) Wes Anderson
Dogville (2003) Lars von Trier
Hooked: The Legend of Demetrius “Hook” Mitchell (2003) William O’Neill, Michael Skolnik
There Will Be Blood (2007) Paul Thomas Anderson *
Cloverfield (2008) Matt Reeves *
The Godfather (1972) Francis Ford Coppola
The Departed (2006) Martin Scorsese
Manderlay (2005) Lars von Trier
Y Tu Mama Tambien (2002) Alfonso Cuaron
Swimming With Sharks (1994) George Huang
The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001) Joel Coen
3:10 To Yuma (2007) James Mangold
The Big Lebowski (1998) Joel Coen
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) Brett Ratner
Eagle vs Shark (2007) Taika Cohen
Saved! (2004) Brian Dannelly
Rocket Science (2007) Jeffrey Blitz
Alpha Dog (2006) Nick Cassavetes
Wayne’s World 2 (1993) Stephen Surjik
Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi (1983) Richard Marguand
Juno (2007) Diablo Cody
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) Quentin Tarantino
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) Quentin Tarantino
Barton Fink (1991) Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
The United States of Leland (2004) Matthew Ryan Hoge
The Elephant Man (1980) David Lynch
The King of Kong (2007) Seth Gordon
Visions of Light (1993) Arnold Glassman, Todd McCarthy
Mystery Science Theater 3000: Gunslinger (1993) Joel Hodgson
The Savages (2007) Tamara Jenkins
Hot Fuzz (2007) Edgar Wright
Blade Runner (1982) Ridley Scott
Unbreakable (2000) M. Night Shyamalan
Harold and Maude (1971) Hal Ashby
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) Tim Story
Dan In Real Life (2007) Peter Hedges
Gone Baby Gone (2007) Ben Affleck
Jumper (2008) Doug Liman
Diary of the Dead (2007) George A. Romero
X-Men (2000) Bryan Singer
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) Andrew Dominik
Once (2006) John Carney
Michael Clayton (2007) Tony Gilroy
We Own The Night (2007) James Gray
Trois Couleurs: Bleu (1993) Krzysztof Kieslowski
Michael Caine: Acting In Film (1989) Michael Caine
The Darjeeling Limited (2007) Wes Anderson
Saw IV (2007) Darren Lynn Bousman
The Limey (1999) Steven Soderbergh
Fargo (1996) Joel Coen
Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters (2007) Matt Maiellaro, Dave Willis
Apocalypto (2006) Mel Gibson
Knocked Up (2007) Judd Apatow
A Simple Plan (1998) Sam Raimi
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) Anthony Minghella
Lust, Caution (2007) Ang Lee
No Country For Old Men (2007) Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Lars and the Real Girl (2007) Craig Gillespie
El Orfanato (2007) Juan Antonio Bayona
Awake (2007) Joby Harold
Rendition (2007) Gavin Hood
Sunshine (2007) Danny Boyle
The Amateurs (2005) Michael Traeger
American Movie (1999) Chris Smith
Southland Tales (2006) Richard Kelly
Borderland (2007) Zev Berman
Semi-Pro (2008) Ken Alterman
Bread and Roses (2000) Ken Loach
Best In Show (2000) Christopher Guest
Tooth and Nail (2007) Mark Young
O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000) Joel Coen
Into The Wild (2007) Sean Penn
Crazy Eights (2006) James Koya Jones
The Machinist (2004) Brad Anderson
Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006) Goran Dukic
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) Tim Burton
Breaking the Waves (1996) Lars von Trier
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007) Jake Kasdan
P2 (2007) Franck Khalfoun
Jackass Number Two (2006) Jeff Tremaine
The Lion King (1994) Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff
Atonement (2007) Joe Wright
The Baxter (2005) Michael Showalter
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) Nicholas Stoller
Alien (1979) Ridley Scott
Wet Hot American Summer (2001) David Wain
The School of Rock (2003) Richard Linklater
Smiley Face (2007) Gregg Araki
Bee Movie (2007) Steve Hickner, Simon J. Smith
Iron Man (2008) Jon Favreau
The Ruins (2008) Carter Smith
I Want Someone To Eat Cheese With (2005) Jeff Garlin
Teeth (2006) Mitchell Lichtenstein
Confessions of a Superhero (2007) Matt Ogens
Billy Madison (1995) Tamra Davis
Jim Gaffigan: Beyond the Pale (2005) Michael Drumm
American Cannibal (2006) Perry Grebin, Michael Nigro
Two Days in April (2006) Don Argott
Zach Galifianakis: Live at the Purple Onion (2006) Michael Blieden
American Pimp (2000) Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008) Andrew Adamson
I’m Not There (2007) Todd Haynes
Seven Up! (1964) Paul Almond
Seven Plus Seven (1971) Paul ALmond
Finding Neverland (2004) Marc Forster
Baby Mama (2008) Michael McCullers
Speed (1994) Jan De Bont
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) Steven Spielberg
What Happens in Vegas (2008) Tom Vaughan
Speed Racer (2008) The Wachowski Brothers
The Strangers (2008) Bryan Bertino
Mission Impossible III (2006) J.J. Abrams
Cassandra’s Dream (2007) Woody Allen
Elizabethtown (2005) Cameron Crowe
Sicko (2007) Michael Moore
The Wedding Singer (1998) Frank Coraci
Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (2005) Jim Sheridan
Pastor Jones 2: Help Save My Daughter (2006) Jean-Claude La Marre
Cashback (2006) Sean Ellis
The Happening (2008) M. Night Shyamalan
Pastor Jones 4: Sisters in Spirit 2 (2008) Jean-Claude La Marre
Hell House (2001) George Ratliff
Kung Fu Panda (2008) Mark Osborne, John Stevenson
Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show (2006) Ari Sandel
Funny Games (2007) Michael Haneke
Horror Business (2006) Christopher P. Garetano
An Evening With Kevin Smith (2002) J.M. Kenny
Happiness (1998) Todd Solondz
An Evening With Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder (2006) J.M. Kenny
Be Kind Rewind (2008) Michel Gondry
Super High Me (2007) Michael Blieden
The Grand (2007) Zak Penn
The Puffy Chair (2005) Jay Duplass
Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2007) Scott Glosserman
The Onion Movie (2008) Tom Kuntz, Mike Maguire
Small Town Gay Bar (2006) Malcolm Ingram
In Bruges (2008) Martin McDonagh
Almost Famous (2000) Cameron Crowe
Almost Heroes (1998) Christopher Guest
WALL-E (2008) Andrew Stanton
Film Geek (2005) James Westby
Full Frontal (2002) Steven Soderbergh
Charlie Bartlett (2007) Jon Poll
Spun (2002) Jonas Akerlund
Wanted (2008) Timur Bekmambetov
The Host (2006) Joon Ho Bong
Match Point (2005) Woody Allen
Drillbit Taylor (2008) Steven Brill

It's a pretty good list. I'm probably going to watch 10,000 BC today too so mark that off on your tally sheet. Drillbit Taylor was better than I expected but some parts, like the rap battle, were painful to watch.

Film Geek is by far the worst movie I've ever seen.

The Host was so much better than Cloverfield.

Clever Blog Title

Happy 22nd birthday Ashlea!
Inappropriately, here's a picture from my birthday two years ago, but you get the idea. Party hats.



Yesterday I temped for the first time. I went to the Fox building in Beverly Hills and emptied drawers into boxes, then on Monday I will return to put those boxes of files back into different cabinets. I only worked a couple hours because my co-temp and I did the job pretty fast but I was making $15 an hour so I made a little bit of spending money. It was a boring office proving there are many (probably mostly) boring office jobs in the entertainment biz.

Last night a few of us went to Universal City which is an outdoor mall type place before the entrance to Universal Studios theme park. That just made me want to go to Universal Studios theme park. I ate an enormous cookie at Bubba Gump.

Here's a very, very early Oscar prediction. I predict that Heath Ledger is going to win Best Supporting Actor for playing the Joker in The Dark Knight. I know you're saying "duh, Pete", but here's the twist. I predict that Daniel Day Lewis will accept the award on his behalf. At last year's awards shows, SAG and Oscars, Daniel Day said very nice things about Heath Ledger about how much he respected him, etc.

The Pastor Jones screenplay is going well. I am hopefully going to finish this weekend. I want to deliver the script by Thursday of this week. I'm also trying to work on some ideas for the next Pastor Jones movie so I can get another job with Nu-Lite. Pastor Jones Goes to Camp? Alien vs. Pastor Jones? James and the Giant Pastor Jones? You Don't Mess with the Pastor Jones? The Love Guru 2: Pastor Jones? The possibilities are endless.

WALL-E and Wanted come out today. I would see WALL-E but I'm not rushing out to see it, but Wanted looks awesome.

Jasper is on the internet!!





Watch it and tell everyone you know to watch it here:
http://web.mac.com/lafsc/iWeb/Films/Jasper.html

On Friday I played basketball with Rick Gonzalez aka Spanish from Old School. He was in Pulse, War of the Worlds, Biker Boyz, etc.



Then, as I was leaving, Joel Moore came to the court and I wished that they would know each other but I don't think they did. They have both been in Vince Vaughn movies though.

Earlier on Friday I turned in my Act One of the Pastor Jones script. The producer really liked it and only had one note about something that should happen later in the story. She left a message on my phone while I was at the gym.

So I was feeling really good about everything and then I went to the gas station and I waited forever for this woman, who wasn't even pumping gas, to pull away from the pump. I backed up to give her a lot of room and still waited for minutes. When she finally left the pump she sped up backwards and hit my car.









I should shoot the second half of a car crash scene now and the first half after I get my car fixed.

But so it's not that bad and I shouldn't have to pay anything but it is annoying and totally out of the blue. I'm probably not even going to call the temp place tomorrow so I can work on getting my car fixed. I also am supposed to talk to Nu-Lite and I need to talk to the technology director from the LAFSC about renting equipment but they announced at church this morning that his wife just had their baby this morning so he might not be in for the next few days.

Speaking of babies I talked to Mia on the phone today and she said to give her a shout out in my blog and I said "A shout out? No one says that anymore. Where have you been?" And she was like "Give me a break, I'm less than a week old." Then I said "You've been here almost a week and you don't even have a job yet? Slacker." Then she had to go because she had some errands to run and she had to start thinking about what to make for dinner, etc, etc.

I went to a BBQ at my mentor from Mr. Mudd's house last night and had a good time. He only lives a mile away so I might try and hang with that group more often.

Another thing I've accomplished:


So to recap, Tomorrow: get car fixed, get insurance claim figured out, talk to Nu-Lite, Send Ashlea's birthday present, Send thank you note to my uncle, e-mail Patrick about renting equipment, write a Black Christian screenplay, gym, maybe thrift, maybe finish reading The River (The sequel to Hatchet)

Sounds pretty good.

Does anyone have any questions that I haven't answered?

I saw Joel Moore at my gym again yesterday so I guess he just goes to the same gym as me. That's awesome. I bet he gets so many dodgeball challenges every time.

If you look at the comments for two posts ago I'm pretty sure David Wain, director of Wet Hot American Summer and The Ten, creator of "Wainy Days" commented on my blog. "Wainy Days" is great, it's on www.mydamnchannel.com and you should watch every episode every day. I watched a show called "Horrible People" on that site too and it's funny also if you like the Wet Hot American Summer, "The State" guys. Also, the woman who plays the Flight of the Conchords number one and only fan is on that show. I'm not thinking that David Wain needs my endorsement or anything but I do like his stuff a lot. All that said I'm going to go fondle my sweaters.

I met with Nu-Lite today. We signed some paperwork so it's a done deal. We have a working title and we're going to start casting as soon as I get Act One done, which will either be tonight if I work on it or tomorrow if I don't get called in to temp.

I have one day less than a month to finish the script, get a crew, and rent the equipment. Not so bad since I don't have a real job yet.



Over 2000 views, thanks guys. I'm taking into consideration that probably 1000 of those are just Ashlea.

Last week I played basketball with Joel David Moore from Dodgeball, The Hottie and the Nottie, etc. He used to be my favorite commercial star way back when. I was playing at the LA Fitness in Universal City where I go and he just walked in and started running with us. He was good. I jammed my toe and our team lost so he probably hates me.

He's the tall guy with the slicked down hair.


I've met and talked to Nu-Lite on the phone a couple times since last week. I got the correct movie with the characters I was supposed to watch on Friday. It's called Pastor Jones 4: Sisters in Spirit 2. The quality was much higher than Pastor Jones 2. I watched the movie on Saturday and instantly got ideas for my story. I finished outlining the script yesterday and I'm going to send a 5 page treatment to the producer in an hour or two, once their offices open. If she likes it then I'm going to start on the script (I'm also going to ask when I get mah moniez, because I'm not going to give them a completed script without it. I'm also going to register it with the WGA so they don't try to scam me) and since I outlined it so precisely it should only take me a couple of days, depending on if I get temp work or not. I called them already this morning and I just have to wait to see if they have anything.


This is kind of cool. This is the first time I outlined with note cards. Some screenwriters do it and it worked well on this type of story. The top row is ACT I, ACT II, and ACT III then rest are scenes or important things that happen in those Acts.

I'm going to try and shoot the movie July 18th-27th. I made the story easy to shoot. Minimal locations and characters, but a good story. I even put a Grandpa Slick cameo in there.

Other than all that I've been trying to keep busy. I saw The Happening which wasn't very good. I went to Nathan's church. I thrifted yesterday and put some stuff on eBay. I'm watching a lot of movies. I'm trying to feel OK about not working but I guess I am working because I'm getting paid to write the script and I probably will get a temp job at some point soon. If not then I'm supposed to start working at VER in July.

Happy Father's Day the other day and today Ashlea's Brother's fiance is having her baby Mia.

Nu-Lite sent me Pastor Jones 2: Lord, Please Guide my 16 year old Daughter. There were aspects of it that were funny.

Grandpa Slick is played by a younger guy but his wife is played by an actual old woman and Slick keeps making jokes about them dying and other jokes about them "getting freaky." That is really disturbing because the lady has got to be in her 80s.

The production value was lower than low. It look like it was shot on a regular consumer grade camera (maybe not even a 3-chip). Most outdoor shots were overexposed. In a few shots you could see a box light's reflection. In most of the indoor shots the lighting was very harsh like they just pointed that same box light right at the actors. I think that I could succeed where PJ 2 failed though. The story wasn't that bad (it wasn't great though and it jumped around considerably) and some of the acting, especially from Pastor Jones/ Grandpa Slick was good.

The characters I was supposed to be watching for weren't in the movie at all.

It seemed like the mom was the one messing up, the daughter was making mostly good decisions. She took one hit from a joint but other than that she abstained from her boyfriend's advances, turned down some beer, went to Bible study, gave a great (read: not great) sermon at the end, etc.

I hope all of Pastor Jones' sermons talk about da club. He asks the congregation something like "how many fellas stalk they woman in the club?"

I'm optimistic. I'm supposed to meet with Nu-Lite today or tomorrow.

I sent my resume to Sony Animation to be considered for a paid internship. My supervisor from Mr. Mudd e-mailed me about it.

I'm stoked to get the internet tomorrow.

5 days until Wainy Days season 3!!

I will finally have the internet at my apartment on Thursday. In the past two days I have seen two different people here at the North Hollywood library wearing the same shirt that says "I'm really excited to be here."

I talked to Nu-Lite and if the movies don't come today I'm going to pick them up at the office tomorrow. Finally Pastor Jones.

Writing wise I finally started to get my act together again. I'm working on my screenplay titled The Happenstances at the Yellow County Community Swim and Racquet Club the Summer Before Last. It's is kind of a prequel to Suicide Watch except about 7 years pass in between.

Ashlea was questioning why I would use the sauna at my gym. Here's an article explaining why:
If you enjoy using gyms and fitness suites, you may have wondered about the health contribution of the often-present sauna. Benefits of sauna use include improved respiratory function, healthier skin and a stronger heart, yet still very few people take advantage of them. Perhaps it's hard to believe that sitting around relaxing can do you so much good, but sauna benefits are real and can make a big difference to your overall health.

It's easy enough to understand how a sauna benefits the lungs. Breathing in hot, steamy air is a common treatment for a cold. A sauna benefits the lungs by cleaning out mucus and improving blood flow in the surrounding capillaries, stimulating the delicate passageways in the lungs which don't always get used. This can help to fight lung infections such as bronchitis. A sauna benefits other areas of the respiratory system such as the sinuses, which is why sauna benefits can include getting rid of headaches.

Regular use of a sauna benefits the skin by improving blood flow across it, bringing it a better supply of nutrients. This occurs because the body responds to heat by relaxing blood vessels in the skin, trying to cool down by letting heat escape through them. The skin also enjoys sauna benefits through sweating, which cleanses the pores.

Other notable sauna benefits include exercise for the heart. Using a sauna benefits the heart by increasing the speed at which it pumps blood around the body, another natural response to heat. This is equivalent to working out on exercise machines, which is why sauna benefits are appropriate to the gym environment.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Enjoy-Sauna-Benefits&id=649120

I didn't know any of that stuff until I just read it a minute ago, I just said that I liked to get a good sweat going.

Drew Payton, Jeff, Justin, Jason (after NYU with all his new contacts of course), etc should move out here and we'll all work at VER or whatever and rent the equipment for free and after we shoot Pastor Jones 7 or whatever (if that doesn't skyrocket us to fame) work on our own features on the weekends and get into festivals. I'm pretty sure Steve Holt would be down.