Flavours of the Month: September 2009...

Another month, another round of "flavours of the month"!

John Cusack:

So I've been into a bit of a John Cusack vibe of late, what with the bloody excellent Grosse Pointe Blank, and High Fidelity (I'm seeking the latter out as a new book to read), and then the not-that-good War, Inc. which was carried along by having Cusack's sullen face throughout. Indeed, that's the reason I will *eventually* (read, not in the cinema) see 2012 - which also sees Roland Emerich returning to safe ground after the disaster that was 10,000 B.C. I guess that's a lie though, because I will also *eventually* see 2012 for all the big things falling over ... but it was definitely seeing John Cusack in the trailer that curried any real favour with me for said 'sometime-into-the-future' viewing of it.

Jim Carrey:

I've also had a bit of a Jim Carrey vibe going recently too, what with both Ace Venturas (first one comedy gold from my childhood, second one a lame rush-job pilot for the follow-up cartoon), and The Cable Guy - which I also re-watched because I now know who Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann are.

Awesome Sauce:

As my fellow zed-heads on Homepage of the Dead will know, I've been particularly enamoured by the phrase "awesome sauce", and it's been following closely behind most of the praise I happen to be heaping on something at that very time ... so yes, September has been a month of "awesome sauce".

Daft Punk:

I've gone and gotten myself a Daft Punk best-of album (Musique Vol. 1) after getting all hot & bothered by their Tron Legacy excerpt, but I've been half-and-half about it. I've only given it a couple of listens, and to be honest I was a bit disappointed, but then upon a second viewing I can feel myself warming to it more - so no doubt after a few listens, I'll be properly in there. I like many of the tracks, it's just some of them haven't worn well on me yet.

Fallout 3:

I've also been getting back into Fallout 3 in a big, bad way of late - what with a bit of a lull work wise, and I've been meaning to really check that my new Quad Core PC is working well ... long, boring story, but there were some technical issues initially. Anyway - I've been barging a lot of that and have almost done everything you can do for the most part - roll on the new GTA IV content on disc (I've been mad keen on Eric Prydz's "Pjanoo" as well - which was in the first Ballad of Gay Tony trailer - it's not my kind of music 99% of the time, but now and then there'll come a track that I really dig, and this is one of them). Yes, there's certainly a lot of Xbox360 in my future's allotted spare time - new GTA, then Ghostbusters (fuckin' finally!!!) and then the gaming event of the year - Modern Warfare 2 - speaking of which, I almost went all Alpa Chino when I saw a grainy video of the first level ... that's a reference to those that'll get it, but aye, that movie has been playing this week on Sky Movies.

Script Writing:

Finally, what with having a bit of a work lull, I've been looking to take the opportunity to get some script writing done. I'd recently sent out some treatments for a couple of my scripts, and there's one place on my list at the moment who accept full scripts rather than just treatments (even though their website led me to believe they did take treatments ... but anyway) - I've been wanting to update "Generation Procrastination" for a while now, and that's what I'm up to right now.

But it took me quite a while to get the vibe going. A temporary software set back halted me making any progress - I'd thought I'd have to re-install Final Draft, but it appears that the copy of the file from which I was making another copy to revise was corrupted, so I copied from a different copy and it seems fine now.

As such, I'm in fine fettle with the script revising, and it's been really interesting to revisit this script - the title of which I really want to change, it was only a working title anyway - I began writing it on the 11th August 2007 and finished on the 14th January 2008, so it's been well over 18 months since I finished it, and well over 2 years since I started it.

Since then I've done a whole host of short scripts, not to mention two other feature length scripts - my zombie epic "The End", and my low-fi Brit-horror "From The Inside Out" - as such I've been able to bring my improved script writing skills to the table and I've been updating quite a lot. Thinning dialogue, and description, right down, as well as introducing new scenes, new jokes and new ideas. I've not gotten to the real bulk of the major changes yet (which will mostly be in the second act), but I've been doing a hell of a lot of fettling thus far and have been rinsing through the pages - so the progress is good on that front.

Now to finish that ... and figure out a title that's a damn sight better than the mouth-filling "Generation Procrastination", but which lurks around the same ball park being considerably succinct.

Well - that's it for another "flavours of the month", let's see what October brings, eh?