Writing blocks and Writer's Block

Today I’m struglling with writers block. I stared at the screen for almost and hour and....nothing. Zip, nada. Now it wasn’t just a blank screen but page 17 of the current feature screenplay that I already have an outline for. Yes, outlining usually breaks this monotony but not today. Not the coffee or the breakfast got me into a mindset of throwing words into the mouths of my characters.

Sure I know where they’re going. What needs to be said in order for them to move from point M to point N. I even have point Z on the page. It’s just the case that nothing fun, original, or slightly contrived was spewing off my finger-tips.

I have a few writing aides, rum, cookies, porn, you know, the usual. But they just didn’t seem to be the right ingredient to get things moving this afternoon.

I even went to a decent site that deals with Writer’s Block. It talks about hacking the block. Very 2001!

So, I’m going to grab some groceries and see if that throws me back into the fray. I have a deadline and I’m going to meet it!

MTB

Flashpoint - recognition 19 times over

Yesterday, the nominations for the annual Gemini Awards were announced. The awards recognize the best in Canadian Television.

Flashpoint, the series that follows an elite tactical police unit, garnered 19 nominations for its first season. Hugh Dillon and Enrico Colantoni were both nominated in the same category as male lead in a dramatic series.

Between these two, it might come to ‘Rico talking Hugh down or Hugh going rogue and taking his own shot.

Having been a part of the first season. I knew the show had star-talent and the episode ‘Haunting the Barn’ or as the crew called it “The Bottle Episode” was stellar. The Academy agreed. Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern nominated for the script and Ron Lea does a stellar performance as a retired SRU officer who just can’t let go of a case.

Not only is this show great Canadian television but great television period.

If you haven’t seen the show or this nominated episode go to ctv.ca, cbs.com, or iTunes.

Chess - 15 Years Later

Tonight, I’m going to see the latest presentation from the Hamilton, Ontario theater that started my course into entertainment. The program at Theatre Aquarius, headed by theatre choreographer and director, Lou Zamprogna, was and still is the most rigorous training ground for anyone passionate about the arts and learning what focus and sacrifice it take to mount a production under industry standards.

The direction of the program is broken into two phases. The first phase, a multi-dicipline training in scene study, monologue, dance, movement, and choral singing. All these exercises hit a crecendo with an in-house audition for parts in the yearly musical production.

The second phase, a 13-day intensive mounting a full-fledge broadway musical production. Day 1 get the script, day 12, technical rehersals. This puts the students in a professionals mind-set and accumen of how things work in the real world where time and money are the pressures that don’t give much time to find the truth in the scenes.

In 1994, the first production of Chess, a rock-musical written by Tim Rice and music by ABBA members Börjn Yulves and Benny Anderson, tells of the fictional chess match between American chess prodigy Freddy Trumper (inspired by Bobby Fischer) and Russian Grandmaster, Anatoly Sergivesky. As the players manuver the pieces during the matches the CIA and KGB play with the chess-masters emotional weaknesses.

In 2009, a Lincoln Center benefit concert of Chess was helmed by Josh Groban as Anatoly and Adam Pascal as Freddy. To grab a hold of this awesome album check it out, http://www.chessinconcert.com/.

Medre to all those in tonights performance.

GLEE

I’m eagerly anticipating this show in the fall. It’s unlike any scripted show I’ve seen out there. Not only do the creators of the show know a thing or two about creating intense drama but believable drama.

The musical numbers are impressive on a feature film scale and mind-blowing that they are executing this on a television timeline, which for most hour-long programs is only 7 to 8 days. I’m sure they must have their own musical pre-production unit just to keep the quality at par with what the pilot has made the audience expect.

This is definitely a show I would recommend taking a look at, especially after a year of doom and gloom it’s time for some glee.

Closing doors = better choices

There’s something to be said when the face of rejection appears in a storytellers life. It usuay means that there is something not benefiting in that relationship.

Such was the case yesterday. I loathe the term “Canadian Television.” It’s as vile as “Reality” programs which are just unscripted drama competitions.

Television should not be defined or defended by its limitations as a national label. Good television is sought and watched, bad tv is painful and usually disconnected with any audience. The mediocre of these are state-run programs that are homoginized to the point they’re as mentally and emotionally nutritious as white sugar and bread.

They run their life, but never to much of an audience, and if there is the sudden mass appeal to the show it’s regretably cancelled. This has nothing to do with the show, but the network is run like a school-board. And we all know a school board can’t run a profit or become self-sustaining or the following year the government funding simply won’t be there.

I never want mediocre results and now I’m happy to know that with a little bit of rejection I’m back on the path to bigger things.

MTB

Sitting for what seems like an eternity at the Exhibition Station in Toronto.

Waiting and the Afterlife

I have a hard time believing that people go to the dramatic pits of hell when they pass on if they’re a bad person. To me, that just doesn’t male sense. The fire, brimstone, hot pokers, it’s all just a bit too predictable.

What woils be a fantastic way to treat these souls is to give them a notice from FedEx or UPS saying that they’ll deliver a package between 10am-2pm and have the clocks eternally move between those four hours.

Also, the last 6-digits of the tracking number would be smudged, so they couldn’t call to see the status of the delivery.