For Pete?

Thanks to everyone who came to the going away party. I had a lot of fun and I was definitely surprised. I think I would have figured out that something fishy was going on if I had a couple more minutes. I saw Drew P's car then Brendan's but Ashlea said it wasn't there cars and I believed her. Also, thanks for the kind words and the lewd drawings.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story was great because it had a similar tone to how I write. I'm glad there are ridiculous comedies getting made out there. It had most of the Apatow crew in it and some SNL alums. It seemed like an Apatow movie mixed with an SNL digital short mixed with The Brothers Solomon (in a good way). I know it's been out for a while but go see it. I would watch it again right now, there are so many jokes and it might even be better a second time through.

Junebug is also on the list of must see movies. It's incredible.



I leave for LA in a little over a week. I still need to get rid of my car, buy some stuff, and pack. I'm visiting New York a week from today though. Hopefully I'll see Tina Fey or Conan on the street because they aren't working right now.

Sweeney Todd

See Sweeney Todd. Period.

Buy the soundtrack.

VHS Tapes

Right now I am undertaking the huge project of transferring my movies that I have made over the years from mini DV, Avid file, Windows Media Player file, and VHS all to my MacBook and iPod. A lot of them are terrible but a couple of them are awesome. It has been a great timeline that has shown how I've changed since my early movie making days. It's also great that I'll be able to have my movies on my iPod. I'll be able to transport them anywhere and show them to anyone. However, I need to borrow a VCR to complete the task.

Does anyone have a good VCR with an output RCA port that I can borrow? Message me, leave a comment, or email me at PeterLHarmon at gmail.com

Has anyone seen Juno? I had really mixed feelings about it. Actually I really liked everything but the main character, Juno. Michael Cera was great, both hilarious and heartbreaking. Jennifer Garner walked a fine line between seeming to crazy to still being able to be related to. Jason Bateman was good as well. However, Ellen Page's title character (it wasn't all her fault) made me hate her nearly every time she opened her mouth. The slang and tone of her character wasn't natural. I think it was mostly the script's fault. I mean sure, people do really talk like that in real life, but I dislike those people in real life too. Also her character liked punk music...who cares? Is she Kirsten Dunst's love interest in Bring It On? He liked punk music too. They're both such rebels.
But apparently people loved the way she talked because the theater was responding very well to it and Diablo Cody got a Golden Globe nomination. I would like to hear someone who really loved Juno's character to tell me why they liked it. I didn't, but the movie is still good and watchable in spite of it. Michael Cera, again, was breathtaking and so is the closing shot of the movie.
The direction was really good too.

Here's a pic of Michael Cera I got from this blog http://weblogs.variety.com/thompsononhollywood/oscars/index.html who's got a much better blog than I.

This isn't going to turn into a Michael Cera fan blog, I swear.
But he is wearing some shoes I have.

There are too many movies out right now that I want to see.



Merry Christmas.

Waiting For My Big Break

I just finished the first draft of the script I am going to submit for the LA program. It is supposed to be 8 minutes (aka 8 pages in standard screenplay format). Mine is about 7 pages but some of my concepts will be longer in the film than they are on paper I think.
The script is titled Waiting For My Big Break and it is about a young woman who moved to Los Angeles to follow her dreams and become what she always has wanted to be since she was a little girl...a waitress. The only problem is that all she can get is acting jobs on the side while she's waiting for her big waitressing break. Get the title now? The pitch sounds a little hokey but I think I found a great tone and I'm really proud of the script. I was going to post the first couple of pages to give you a sample of the humor but the blog wouldn't let me format it correctly and it looked like a mess.
If you would like to read the first couple of pages of the script just email me at PeterLHarmon at gmail.com and I'll send you them. Or you can just wait five months until it is produced (hopefully).

I wrote this script more descriptively than I usually write just in case I'm not the one who eventually directs it at the LA program. I have a very clear vision of how it has to look and I don't want it to be messed up.

Online TV shows to watch: like I said yesterday, Wainy Days at www.mydamnchannel.com also Clark and Michael at www.clarkandmichael.com which if you haven't seen it by now you're really late but it's still worth watching if you're a fan. It's smarter and probably generally funnier than Superbad and I know how much we all love that movie (which I do but it's not the end all be all).

Fun fact: I'm friends with Clark Duke on youtube and I messaged him one time and he responded.


the aforementioned Clark and Michael

Movies to watch: Eastern Promises. It's so good. And of course Superbad but before you watch any Judd Apatow productions you need to buy the DVD boxed sets of Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared. Or borrow them from me but you'll have to give it back by January.

Questions, comments, feedback, (movie, etc related) announcements you want me to post send to me PeterLHarmon at gmail.com

Stellllaaaaaaa

David Wain has an internet TV show called "Wainy Days" that is really funny. It has millions of special guests like Michael Ian Black, Elizabeth Banks, Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Fogell/McLovin from Superbad), Martin Starr (Beard guy from Knocked Up), etc. There are about 15 episodes so far, they are only about 3-5 minutes each. You should sit down and watch them all right now. I think the latest episode comes out this Friday. Here is Episode 1 to give you an example.



Silly right? Totally.
If you have a video or link or announcement or whatever that you want me to put in my blog just send me an email at PeterLHarmon at gmail.com explaining yourself.

Yesterday I watched The Kingdom and The Heartbreak Kid. The Kingdom was great, Jamie Foxx did a great job and even though I usually don't care for political thrillers this movie made everything pretty clear as well as having some great action scenes where you could actually tell what was going on.
Heartbreak Kid was better than I expected. I didn't really like There's Something About Mary so I didn't expect this to be any good either. There are the typical shock humor moments that really aren't very funny but if you get a chance to see this movie for free (like I did) go ahead and take it. There are some bro twins who are kind of funny in it, maybe just because they're twins/bros (I mean bro like fraternity brother, not like biological brothers because that's implied by them being twins).

Once again, you should all listen to the Creative Screenwriting Podcast. It is fascinating to listen to writers discuss their breaking-in stories, how the studio (or independent) system works, and everything else you'd want to know about writing a movie. Go to iTunes and search for Creative Screenwriting in the Podcast area. Hostel Parts I and II are on there, Brick, The Kingdom, X-men 3, and probably about a hundred or two more.

I Forgot

Yesterday when I said that I was going to send out query letters soon, I forgot that the writer's strike is still going on which probably means that even if production companies and literary agents were accepting queries or specs that it wouldn't be a good idea for me to pursue them right now anyway. So for now I will continue to write and hopefully have a stockpile of work to show once the strike ends.
I'll try and register at least one of my scripts right after Christmas so that I'll have something to talk about. I have one in mind that is about 100 pages and has pretty good structure. Registering a script with the WGA costs $20 and although it isn't airtight for defending your ideas if a lawsuit were to come up, it provides a date for when you registered so if your opponents date is later than that you'll hopefully win.
I've never registered a script before so I'd like to talk to someone with experience before I do. I might e-mail my directing teacher to get the basics about it.
My last day of working at Blockbuster went fine, I got to rent movies for this week. I'm excited to see Eastern Promises because A History of Violence was so good.
When do Academy Awards nominations come out? I still have a lot of movies to see before they do.
Out of the Golden Globe nominations for Best Screenplay I've only seen No Country for Old Men but it was awesome. I'll probably see Juno soon (maybe today) which was written by Diablo Cody (a pseudonym) who is an ex-stripper. I hope one of those movies wins.

New Blog

I am about to go to my last day of work at Blockbuster.
I leave for LA in 22 days. This blog will be a way for people to keep in touch with me and/or hear about how my attempt to make movies is going.
I have written 3 full length screenplays so far, I am in the process of writing a fourth and outlining a fifth. I decided to actually outline this latest script because I've been listening to the Creative Screenwriting magazine's podcast (someone's going to have to teach me how to link things) and most of the screenwriters they interview do some sort of outlining process. My goal is to write at least a 25 page outline before trying to write the script.
I will talk about my stories and scripts probably once I register them with the WGA.
I started researching production companies/literary agents today so I can send out query letters soon.
This is a short one because I waited to start writing it 5 minutes before I have to go to work.

My new e-mail address is PeterLHarmon at gmail.com