So I'm updating for the sake of updating. I don't have anything to say right now, as my writing has stagnated recently. I mostly want to vent about things.
So, back in 2003, my senior year of high school, I turned 18 in January. For my birthday I'd received a digital camera. One month later, I was home alone from school due to some government class (going court watching) and I was playing with the video filters, which included a black and white style.
I started filming myself talking to the camera, talking about a murder. The first things that popped into my head was a Dragnet or Columbo thing, as I was a fan of both. The result of that hour of filming was a short I called "The Murder of Frosty the Snowman." That summer I did a sequel or follow up or whatever called "the murder of the wicked witch of the west." During the second one I gave the character an actual suit (a blue sports jacket and a blue dress pants and an un-tucked button down shirt, and the name Jerry MacArthur.
As you see, there was a pattern forming, which I took advantage of. The following year (in 2004) I started writing a full length screenplay. I expanded the world to the Drury Lane Police Department, where Jerry worked. I called the movie The NaRK or The Nursery Rhyme Killer. In that film I had jerry receiving a series of letters taking an established nursery rhyme and then changing it with a reference to a murder taking place.
After that feature length, I altered the concept even further. It was to be a TV Series that I wanted to develop. And with the Pilot I was going to go to Jerry's origins, or to the point before he became a detective. Kind of his "coming of detective age" story.
So, For my senior thesis project in the winter of 2009, I had written, and then directed (Yes, starred in only because I could not find someone else to play the part) A 42 minute or so Pilot Episode of the show "The MacArthur Files." At this point, the world consisted of the town of Drury Lane, where Jerry lives and works, along with his Aunt Geraldine and many other characters. As I wrote this I plotted out a season, with various episodes of locations including the City of Dell (as in the farmer and the dell story). I took things from Nursery Rhymes, Fairy Tales and Folk-tales and put them in this world.
What I ended up with in the pilot was the Murder of the Gingerbread Man (who, in the finished pilot is a man made of gingerbread, but in subsequent drafts has become a human who acquires that moniker at one point.) The idea, was the take characters from all those stories, who may be creatures or whatever, and make them all humans. Partially because it's easier to film that, but mostly because it's more creative.
So in the pilot I have the Fox from the gingerbread man story, but he's a human with red hair, an obsession with gingerbread, and wearing a brown bomber jacket with the furry collar. Kind of giving him the qualities of the animals characteristics but as a human.
After I finished that I graduated from college, and having wayyyyy too much (for my tastes) in loans that I had to pay back, I had to find a job and could not spend as much time on writing the re-write of the pilot or further episodes or editing the project the way I want to, I needed a job. So i worked, and worked as much as I could. I was in and out of jobs and plus I was also getting married (best decision ever), and needed to have money for a life out of my mother's house.
So as I continue slow work on the series and the pilot re-write I hear, earlier this year, of a show NBC is potentially releasing called "Grimm" hearing about its premise I start to panic (because I want to write for television one day and MacArthur Files is pretty much my 'baby' if you will.) Having watched a portion of the pilot of that show and read as many synopses as I can and viewer opinions I'm at the point where I feel I've wasted 8 years of working on ANY of it.
Jerry MacArthur is the son of Arther and Diane MacArthur, the best detectives Drury Lane ever knew, but they were killed in the line of duty when he was 6. He then went to live with his Aunt Geraldine. Their next door neighbor is the muffin man, and one of Jerry's Co-workers (Officer Jacobs) real name is John Jacob Jingle-Heimer Schmidt. Not every character in the show is supposed to be a derivative of a fairy tale or nursery rhyme or whatever, but all the guest characters are pretty much that.
Now, in Grimm, what i have noticed so far is that the main character, Nick, his parents died when he was young, (in a car crash he thought, but he was told in the pilot they were killed). After that he goes to live with his Aunt. So i'm pissed when i see that because it's all too similar to MINE. and MINE was first, just nobody's seen it.
Grimm is apparently a cop drama taking the fairy tales of the Grimm brothers and putting them into our world...but we acknowledge that they were stories and that they are real...
Whereas in MacArthur Files, it's more like we live in the fairy tale world but nobody acknowledges it as such. It's just the real world to the characters of the show. (a little harder to describe I know but accurate)
In Grimm, Nick is apparently part of a line of Grimms, who hunt, or protect the world from the creatures (such as a big bad wolf or whatever I guess). Sounds more like Buffy to me. And as it is created by one of the people behind Angel (Buffy's spin-off) I'm not shocked. But from reviews it seems to work for people as it is. Taking fairy tales and not saying who they are blatantly but keeping us guessing, I guess, which story the episode is about.
That's MY plan! I have taken characters and instead of giving them those exact names, I research the story and take things from them. like with the old couple who made the gingerbread man, I named the Penty's. in some versions of the gingerbread man tale, the old couple lived in a cottage. in other languages, specifically, french from Brittony France, the word for cottage is Penty.
From my research, the first or one of the first printings of the gingerbread man story, was printed in the St. Nicholas magazine. I named the man of the couple Nicholas. And that's kind of what I planned to do with much of the show, with its characters.
But if Grimm is not only popular and well received, and continues for several seasons, I pretty much feel MacArthur Files has no place in the world.
It's depressing, but I should have known this could happen, because it's not an untouched concept, but the way MY concept is, it's NEVER been done, not in the way I'm doing it, at least not much out of animation, which is not my venue at all. but with Grimm coming out or now ABC's Once Upon A time, and other various fairy tale themed tv shows, I'm at a point where I cannot spend time on these scripts and hope ANYTHING to come out of them.
so, wasting my time? or still worth it? I'm not even sure it's up to me to decide that anymore.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
He wrote that in an hour and a half....during a pyschology class??? that cant be good
Ok,so I stumbled upon another thing I'd written awhile back. Back in High School, senior year actually...so 2003, I had a psychology class. It was fun and I learned a lot. However, one day we had a substitute teacher, so no teaching really, just homework. I chose not to do homework, (oops!) and instead wrote this during the hour and a half of class. Here is, "Moon Cheese" a folk tale.
Moon Cheese
One day the moon fell to the ground, and shattered into many small pieces. Three rats came and tried to eat the pieces of moon, thinking that it was cheese. The first rat took a bite. “Yech! This isn’t cheese!” said the first rat.
“It’s like a rock.” said the second rat.
The third rat smacked the other two and said “you idiots, the moon is a rock, not cheese! Didn’t you pay attention in school?”
The first rat looked at the second rat and whispered in his ear, “Third Rat has always been mean to us. Let us devise a dirty plan to rid ourselves of this nuisance.” They looked back at the third rat and said, “ok. We need to get the not cheese moon rock back where it belongs then.”
The third rat agreed and quickly put together a plan for putting the moon back in space.
“First of all,” said the third rat. “We need a giant magnet to gather up the moon pieces.” The first two rats then set out to find a magnet. They soon found Bob’s magnet emporium. They went inside and found the world’s largest magnet, on sale for only $29,999.99, at Bob’s magnet emporium. Right off the highway, see the website for details.
The Two rats pooled their money together but came up short by two cents. Bob asked if they had anything else to use for pay. They thought and thought, and then they tore off their whiskers and tied them together in the shape of a dollar sign.
“That will work.” said Bob. They took off with the magnet, and soon made it back to the third rat.
“Ok. Now we need a Rocket of sorts.” said the third rat.
“Will a bottle rocket work?” asked the second rat.
“Yes, that will be fine.” replied the third rat. The first two rats went to the first rat’s home and found a two liter bottle. The put gasoline in the bottle and put the top back on and brought a few matches along, and returned to the third rat. He was cooking, and of all things, cheese.
“Do we need anything else?” asked the first rat.
“Yes, go and search for a clamp. A big one to hold the moon to the rocket.”
And so the two rats went out to find a clamp that would hold the moon to the rocket. They searched and searched, and found a place called “Rob’s Clamp Emporium.”
They went inside and asked Rob for a clamp. But who should it be when he turned around, but Bob, from Bob’s magnet emporium. “Bob?!” the two rats cried.
“Uhh no, I’m Bob’s cousin Rob. We have an incredible likeness. We’re uh..we’re twins!”
“But we thought you were cousins.” The two rats inquired.
Rob replied, “Umm yeah. We are. It’s weird actually, my whole family looks like me, even my cat.”
Terror spread on the two rats little faces, “You have a cat???”
They heard a meow of a cat and turned to see the cat they feared would be there. The funny thing is, it DID look like Rob. The cat chased them around Rob’s legs gaining on them and losing ground and gaining on them again and again.
“So you guys want a clamp? I got just the thing.” Rob left and got a clamp measuring to about 50 feet in circumference. “Here you are, and its free, since you are about to be eaten by my cat anyway.” The two rats were grateful and grabbed the clamp. They turned and clamped it closed on the cat, and then threw it across the room.
They made their way back to the third rat in time for night fall. “Great job you guys. Now for your hard work here’s some cheese cooked just the way you like it.” The two rats gobbled up the cheese with great joy. Then they went back to work and gathered up the pieces of moon with the magnet.
The two rats felt sick, and their stomachs felt like they were being pulled on or ripped from their bodies. But they pained through the work and clamped the moon to the bottle and magnet.
“Ok, stand back I’m going to launch it.” said the third rat. The two rats stepped back smirking, knowing that the metal plate that was placed in the third rat’s head years ago would eventually lock him to the magnet and send him up with the moon.
The Rocket took off with the moon attached to its special place in the sky. The first two rats felt a slight tug in their stomachs and then were ripped from the earth and slapped to the Magnet. The third rat had put pieces of the magnetic moon in the cheese that they ate. “Drats, foiled again.” they said.
The third rat walked away with a big grin on his face as the rocket flew away, until he too was ripped from the earth and flung onto the magnet next to the other two rats. Third rat had forgotten about the metal plate in his head. “Drats. I’m foiled.”
And the three of them bickered and argued all the way into space. And from that day on the nursery rhyme was changed from “The cow jumped over the moon,” to “the rats jumped into the moon.”
THE END
Moon Cheese
One day the moon fell to the ground, and shattered into many small pieces. Three rats came and tried to eat the pieces of moon, thinking that it was cheese. The first rat took a bite. “Yech! This isn’t cheese!” said the first rat.
“It’s like a rock.” said the second rat.
The third rat smacked the other two and said “you idiots, the moon is a rock, not cheese! Didn’t you pay attention in school?”
The first rat looked at the second rat and whispered in his ear, “Third Rat has always been mean to us. Let us devise a dirty plan to rid ourselves of this nuisance.” They looked back at the third rat and said, “ok. We need to get the not cheese moon rock back where it belongs then.”
The third rat agreed and quickly put together a plan for putting the moon back in space.
“First of all,” said the third rat. “We need a giant magnet to gather up the moon pieces.” The first two rats then set out to find a magnet. They soon found Bob’s magnet emporium. They went inside and found the world’s largest magnet, on sale for only $29,999.99, at Bob’s magnet emporium. Right off the highway, see the website for details.
The Two rats pooled their money together but came up short by two cents. Bob asked if they had anything else to use for pay. They thought and thought, and then they tore off their whiskers and tied them together in the shape of a dollar sign.
“That will work.” said Bob. They took off with the magnet, and soon made it back to the third rat.
“Ok. Now we need a Rocket of sorts.” said the third rat.
“Will a bottle rocket work?” asked the second rat.
“Yes, that will be fine.” replied the third rat. The first two rats went to the first rat’s home and found a two liter bottle. The put gasoline in the bottle and put the top back on and brought a few matches along, and returned to the third rat. He was cooking, and of all things, cheese.
“Do we need anything else?” asked the first rat.
“Yes, go and search for a clamp. A big one to hold the moon to the rocket.”
And so the two rats went out to find a clamp that would hold the moon to the rocket. They searched and searched, and found a place called “Rob’s Clamp Emporium.”
They went inside and asked Rob for a clamp. But who should it be when he turned around, but Bob, from Bob’s magnet emporium. “Bob?!” the two rats cried.
“Uhh no, I’m Bob’s cousin Rob. We have an incredible likeness. We’re uh..we’re twins!”
“But we thought you were cousins.” The two rats inquired.
Rob replied, “Umm yeah. We are. It’s weird actually, my whole family looks like me, even my cat.”
Terror spread on the two rats little faces, “You have a cat???”
They heard a meow of a cat and turned to see the cat they feared would be there. The funny thing is, it DID look like Rob. The cat chased them around Rob’s legs gaining on them and losing ground and gaining on them again and again.
“So you guys want a clamp? I got just the thing.” Rob left and got a clamp measuring to about 50 feet in circumference. “Here you are, and its free, since you are about to be eaten by my cat anyway.” The two rats were grateful and grabbed the clamp. They turned and clamped it closed on the cat, and then threw it across the room.
They made their way back to the third rat in time for night fall. “Great job you guys. Now for your hard work here’s some cheese cooked just the way you like it.” The two rats gobbled up the cheese with great joy. Then they went back to work and gathered up the pieces of moon with the magnet.
The two rats felt sick, and their stomachs felt like they were being pulled on or ripped from their bodies. But they pained through the work and clamped the moon to the bottle and magnet.
“Ok, stand back I’m going to launch it.” said the third rat. The two rats stepped back smirking, knowing that the metal plate that was placed in the third rat’s head years ago would eventually lock him to the magnet and send him up with the moon.
The Rocket took off with the moon attached to its special place in the sky. The first two rats felt a slight tug in their stomachs and then were ripped from the earth and slapped to the Magnet. The third rat had put pieces of the magnetic moon in the cheese that they ate. “Drats, foiled again.” they said.
The third rat walked away with a big grin on his face as the rocket flew away, until he too was ripped from the earth and flung onto the magnet next to the other two rats. Third rat had forgotten about the metal plate in his head. “Drats. I’m foiled.”
And the three of them bickered and argued all the way into space. And from that day on the nursery rhyme was changed from “The cow jumped over the moon,” to “the rats jumped into the moon.”
THE END
Saturday, October 15, 2011
No, NO! don't tell me he's bringing THAT up again.
Ok so, to keep in line with the whole writing thing, I figured I should post things I have written in the past. Maybe longer pieces, and maybe shorter pieces. This is a shorter piece. It's not incredibly profound or anything, but I enjoy it. I wrote it when I worked as a host at a restaurant and we were slow that night (wrote it on a order ticket).
I give you...
"The Ballad of the Chicken"
Enter the Chicken, with feathers light;
Brave and Daring, but lacking flight;
Lop of their heads, and see their plight;
The dying chicken, what a joyous sight.
We'll want to prepare them, first leave them overnight;
Put them in the cooler, packed in tight;
Comes time to eat them, first nibble then bite;
Gulp them on down, hit the spot just right.
They left some eggs, for us to smite;
covered in shell, that's oval and white;
Gone is the chicken, is gone tonight;
Gone to that great big chicken coop in the sky....
...Up where flies, the kite.
so, yeah. comment, tell me how horrible I am or how distasteful you found it. I for one, still enjoy it, despite it's lack of quality. eh.
Til next time Blogophiles.
I give you...
"The Ballad of the Chicken"
Enter the Chicken, with feathers light;
Brave and Daring, but lacking flight;
Lop of their heads, and see their plight;
The dying chicken, what a joyous sight.
We'll want to prepare them, first leave them overnight;
Put them in the cooler, packed in tight;
Comes time to eat them, first nibble then bite;
Gulp them on down, hit the spot just right.
They left some eggs, for us to smite;
covered in shell, that's oval and white;
Gone is the chicken, is gone tonight;
Gone to that great big chicken coop in the sky....
...Up where flies, the kite.
so, yeah. comment, tell me how horrible I am or how distasteful you found it. I for one, still enjoy it, despite it's lack of quality. eh.
Til next time Blogophiles.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Crazy little thing called......Blog?
So after several futile attempts over the years (probably including this one) I thought I'd give a ...."blog"....another go.
the original intent of Spoiled Mangoes was to be a review blog for independent films, Local and Non. Buuuut, since I don't get out much to see anything locally made, I figured what good would I be to offer my opinions. Plus, who am I to say what was good or not...right?
so instead, here i'll probably just rant about things like anyone else does. cliche' I know, but whatever. Since my goal is to eventually write and produce Television...maybe I'll share some thoughts on that, or progress...update on shows I like on TV, shows I hate...
...Maybe shows I want to make, but not too much, cause I don't want you people stealing my genius ideas! (ha!) maybe just a few notes here and there or portions of freewritten stuff...or just freewriting, kind of like now.
anyhow, that's all I got this time around. see ya next time on...
Spoiled Mangoes. ;)
the original intent of Spoiled Mangoes was to be a review blog for independent films, Local and Non. Buuuut, since I don't get out much to see anything locally made, I figured what good would I be to offer my opinions. Plus, who am I to say what was good or not...right?
so instead, here i'll probably just rant about things like anyone else does. cliche' I know, but whatever. Since my goal is to eventually write and produce Television...maybe I'll share some thoughts on that, or progress...update on shows I like on TV, shows I hate...
...Maybe shows I want to make, but not too much, cause I don't want you people stealing my genius ideas! (ha!) maybe just a few notes here and there or portions of freewritten stuff...or just freewriting, kind of like now.
anyhow, that's all I got this time around. see ya next time on...
Spoiled Mangoes. ;)
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