April 15, 2002
5:20pm Monday

I'M EXHAUSTED BY MY IMAGINATION

I'm not going to talk about taxes. I can't. We got so totally boned it's not even funny. IRS = CRAP.

I'm the worst at writing loglines, just totally the worst. I'd feel pretty bad about it too if it weren't for Max Adams' book and how she devotes a chapter to writing them because most screenwriters are so bad at it that she figures we can use all the help we can get. For whatever reason it's nearly impossible to encapsulate 107 pages into two lines, and her formula, something like:

(Title) is a (genre) about (protag) who must (do this) in order to (do this/save the world.)

Makes it a lot easier to break down. My action script logline right now is way longer than that ­ 60 words-worth of two big run-on sentences. I can't help myself. I'm writing loglines because I just did a big email query campaign with a new online query service and I had a pretty good response (maybe an indicator that my logline writing skills aren't so bad, or maybe an indicator that development people all over town are falling asleep in their soup for lack of good product and will read anything). One of them wrote and said, "We aren't looking for the kind of thing you queried us about, we're looking for action scripts!" to which I of course said, "It just so happens..." to which they said, "Send us a logline or a synopsis." So here I am, smashing 107 pages of sweat into two little blippy soundbites.

The thing that kills me is when someone responds to a spare-but-thorough query with: "Send us a detailed synopsis and then maybe we'll request your script." What the hell? Just read the thing already. It's like they're trying to be as lazy as possible. And I know it's a time investment to read a full screenplay, but if the logline is intriguing enough, take the chance. Throw it down after 15 pages if you hate it. I really want to write something slanderous about the worst perpetrator of that request, but it wouldn't be very nice. (Married into it!)

This weekend we had dinner with a friend whose movie is going into production May 1, and I think I'm more excited than she is. She doesn't think it'll wind up retaining her original spirit or vision of it, but acknowledges it'll be great for her career. So she's conflicted. I, for one, have never had a problem with the whole collaborative machinery that is filmmaking (except for the suits... I don't like the superfluous suits), and I think anybody who does should seriously consider being a novelist. How fucking rad would it be to have a movie going into production rather than languishing on a development office shelf? To see it come alive. Seriously.

None of Meshell Ndegeocello's music is available on audiogalaxy, it's all blocked or banned or whatever. But if you do a search for "Ben Watt Earth," you'll find the Meshell Ndegeocello "Earth" Ben Watt remix, which is pretty cool. Here's another recommendation: Joseph Arthur "Exhausted" live on Conan O'Brien. Wow.