The L.A. Dime

Almost everyday, I get my afternoon news from NPR’s All Things Considered — a national radio show carried locally on KCRW.  It’s been a pocket dream of mine to somehow get on that show someday.  Well, on Tuesday, while I wasn’t mentioned directly, my movie Road Trip – Beer Pong was featured on the show in a rather ignominious story about one of our principal locations, Agnes Scott College.  You can read the full story here:  http://tinyurl.com/kjtzjp

I’ve seen the whole thing. Hell, I wrote it (for better or worse).  Now you can see the trailer for ROAD TRIP — BEER PONG right here!  Holla!  Rumor is that the official release date is August 11.  Save up for your copy so I can get my nickel.

Last night, Tina and I zipped down to Hollywood for the Cast/Crew screening of Road Trip 2.   It was great to see everyone again before the show began, and when the lights dimmed, I felt a deep, sweeping, powerful rush of emotion as the Dreamworks and Paramount logos come up before the opening shot.  I’m blessed to say that it was my third time having that experience, and even though they are all small straight-to-vid movies, I consider the production of each a minor miracle.

The movie is a lot of fun.  No exaggeration here — the core cast is amazing.  Now, admittedly, RT2 is not for everyone, and is targeted toward a certain (young male) demographic, but if you like a raunchy romp, I think you’ll have a good time with it.  Steve Rash did another great job directing (we did Band Camp together), and the music is fantastic.  A major highlight for me was meeting The Transcenders (pictured below), and seeing my name in the song scroll with them during the end credits:  “In the Buff, Lyrics by Brad Riddell.” Cha-ching.

I visited set during the last four days of production, and saw a dozen or so scenes get shot, but otherwise, had no idea what to expect.  As a writer working on a project for months or years at a time, you have a set version of the movie in your head.  Once it’s filtered through the director, the actors, the DP, the set and costume designers, and the music people, then put under stress by budget and schedule, it becomes its very own, very different thing.  Sometimes the alterations, omissions and additions are wonderful surprises for which you’ll gladly assume credit, and other times, they can be somewhat disappointing.  But there is much to be learned by a writer by watching the final cut of his/her movie — mostly about efficiency.  What is truly needed and what is not.  There is no better experience than getting a movie made, and hopefully each one has made me at least a little bit better at my craft.

My career would not be possible without Tina, whose love and support and toleration of this moody writer’s life are the bedrock of my Hollywood Quest.  See the post below for her thoughts on last evening.

I’m very proud of the film and everyone involved, and look forward to watching it again with family and friends sometime in the fall.  I’ll let you know if I hear anything about specific dates.  Unitl then, remember this: “Girl, it ain’t so tough, to do it in the buff.”

With The Transcenders

Brad and I were invited to attend the cast & crew screening of Brad’s latest movie Road Trip 2: Beer Pong at the Raleigh Studios in Hollywood. We had been looking forward to this evening for a while and the excitement kept building through the day and as we were driving to the city.

Once we arrived, there was a cocktail reception and a chance to re-meet and mingle with all the actors, crew and executives. Even though I knew some of the key players from the American Pie movie Brad wrote, I was somewhat on the sidelines while Brad was busy being congratulated and thanked for writing a script that all these actors and crew had a chance to work on.

We then made our way into the theater and could barely stand the anticipation of finally getting to see what had become of the script Brad had labored over for many months. We have come to accept that the vision Brad has for a movie, and the scenes he writes into his script, don’t always make it into the final “locked movie” but are always hoping that the general mood, ideas and character voices remain.  As the movie starts, we settle into our seats and hope for the best.

Sitting there in the dark, hearing cheers when certain actors that are in the audience appear on the screen and people around us laugh at various spots throughout the movie, I realize that this, this moment, this experience is why we are in LA. Writing movies for a living is what Brad told me he wanted to do a long time ago when we were still living in Lexington. We made a decision to pursue this dream and see where it would take us. He quit his job and applied to film school. Got in and worked really hard for 3 years to learn the craft and refine his skills. Since then, he’s done great work, earned the trust of executives at various studios and proven himself to be able to deliever on their vision.

I am so very proud of his dedication to this work; his commitment to providing for our family and in the midst of this crazy Hollywood life we’re living, still make the time to be an absolutely incredible husband and father. When the lights came on, and the audience clapped, Brad got up, walked towards the people who had worked in his movie and was received with nothing but compliments, accolates and pats on the back.

On a side note – while I am bursting with pride today, I know that there are many, many more ideas in Brad’s head and I hope that one day soon, his own scripts will also see the lights dim in a screening room on a Hollywood lot.

Here’s the thing about writing — it surely beats the hell out of digging ditches, but it’s with you ALL the time. No time is really down time, or off time, because the story always needs to be finished, and you should (or you think you should) always be writing it. Always. Playing with family, watching TV, eating dinner, visiting friends…it is the itch that will not go away, even if you scratch at it with industrial-grade sandpaper embedded with diamonds.

There’s a lot of guilt involved, especially on bad days when fear of the great white page, or terror at the idea of suckiness, partner up with procrastination to overwhelm you (this blog post means they’re winning). There’s also a lot of time committed for minimum to no gain. Like a running back plowing into a stacked line all day long for one measly yard. Today, up at 4:00 AM on a Saturday, I may work for 5 hours to get two pages that down the line will likely be cut or totally altered beyond recognition.  But a paycheck awaits (which is rare, I know), and it does beat digging ditches (though I’ve never done that before), and today, right now in fact, I’m gonna open up a can of whoop-ass on those twin devils Procrastination and the Great White Page (“Evil, I know thy name!”). Wish me luck.

This is stupid and silly, and kinda Hollywood Blvd. touristy, but last night, while watching Ashton Kutcher’s ustream feed as he battled CNN for Twitter supremacy, I sent him this @reply: “Cobra Kai! Sweep the Leg!” About a minute later, he gave me a shout out, and even pronounced my last name right. Tina witnessed the whole affair. We heard Demi laughing in the background. I don’t usually get crazy about celebs, but thought that was pretty cool.

Big news for you patient bargain shoppers!  American Pie Presents: Band Camp, which sold 2.5 million copies despite only receiving 5 stars out of 10 from IMDB users, is now on sale in the $4.99 bin at your neighborhood Best Buy!  You, too, can own a piece of cinema history!   Don’t wait, they’re going fast!

I’ve been asked many times why I’m teaching. People say I’m relatively young for the profession (in terms of teaching writing, anyway, but by no means am I an unheard of aberration), and should focus all my effort on building the most successful writing career I can muster.

Well, truth is, I could have probably done a good bit more writing by now if I weren’t teaching, but whether that writing would have sold, or led to new work, or faded away after a weekend read around town, or simply gathered dust in my manager’s “maybe once you’re more established drawer” — no one knows. And while I have many writing/filmmaking dreams left to accomplish, and while the teaching may slow my advance toward those goals in some ways, they’re going to have to pry the dry erase marker from my cold dead hands before I’ll ever quit. And here’s why–

The most rewarding moments of my career have been in and around the classroom. Helping a student crack a story, see the light, understand the stakes, change their tune, relax, fess up, buck up, break out, take the hard path, dig deep, commit, endure, persevere, grow, and ultimately, hopefully, “get it” — those moments are soul-satisfyingly good. And, the most rewarding of those rare moments are not the ones for which I have lesson-planned, but the ones that crop up on the fly, where inspiration strikes mysteriously much the same as it does on a good writing day, and I know exactly what to say (or not) to help someone climb one more step toward their dream.

I often lament that I rarely see or feel the physical product of my day’s writing work — a few electronic pages, a couple of new ideas, a problem solved, worsened, or created….. It’s not like plowing a field where the end result is visible. (And believe me, I know a writing life beats digging ditches on most counts.) But with teaching, if I’m patient and I pay attention, if I plow as hard as I can every day (especially on the bad ones, of which there are plenty), eventually I can see growth and change spring up from that tilled earth, and in a cold, calculating, soulless industry such as Hollywood, it’s the time I spend in the classroom, at the plow, that sustains my writing and reminds me of my craft and to practice what I preach.

Ultimately, if I am ever to achieve any of my more lofty goals, I’m sure those successes will come in some way as a result of teaching. And if I fail to advance my career further, certainly there will be disappointment, but not regret, as I hope to always have a white board, a marker, and a field to plow.

I have been invited to do a video interview tomorrow at Paramount for the Road Trip 2 DVD, scheduled for release later this year.  Last night, incidentally, I  bought a new shirt with a gift card from my mom.  I’m also going to get a much-needed haircut.

One of the questions will be, “if you were a legendary beer pong player, what would your signature shot be and what would it be called?”  Any ideas?  Perhaps the best suggestion will make it onto the DVD.

These are my Oscar picks, for what they’re worth.  Rather than voting for whom I think will win, as in a gambling pool, I have noted who I would choose were I given a vote (which I wasn’t).

LEAD ACTOR: Tough category and hard to dismiss Rourke or Langhella, both of whom turned in amazing performances, but my vote goes to Sean Penn for Milk.

SUPPORTING ACTOR:  Heath Ledger, no doubt.

LEAD ACTRESS:  I have little hesitation in giving Kate Winslett the nod for The Reader.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS:  This seems to be a weak category this year, I know I won’t get this right, as one of the Doubt actresses will likely win, but I’m going with Penelope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona.  I’d still be happy, though, if Marisa Tomei got a statue for her — revealing — role in The Wrestler.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:  Dustin Lance Black for Milk.

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:  Simon Beaufoy for Slumdog Millionaire.

BEST DIRECTOR:  Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire.

BEST PICTURE:  Slumdog Millionaire

I loved Milk and The Reader, but Slumdog is beautiful, smart, funny, inspiring, and heart-warming.  It’s a no-brainer must-see, must-win.