The Color Of Sonny

Why do people always think I'm being sincere when I say something like that?

Yesterday was an odd day for one because we had class. Brooke postponed last Tuesday's class until Friday because of Passover. We discussed the concept of the Five Year Plan, which actually has nothing to do with grain production. She went over a sample plan, describing what we're going to do to get started in the Industry.

After Brooke's class I went to hear the guest speaker, screenwriter Scott Frank, who seemed like a very cool guy, very real. I liked him a lot and he contributed new language to my vocabulary: when asked how he supported his family in between major writing assignments, he said he "put on the red dress" -- took rewriting assignments for money. I love that phrase and am stealing it.

After Scott Frank I headed on over to Justin to be the "producer" (read: hold boom mike, get pizza, keep talent entertained in between shots) on The Color of Sonny, his project for Directing this semester, a takeoff on The Color of Money. I asked him if he'd seen Ben Stiller's; he hadn't. The script Justin wrote is good, with some funny stuff in there. A lot of the project depended on meaningless, overdone montages (that were supposed to be meaningless and overdone -- I'm not dissing him) and gratuitously showy camera moves.

I got there at about 5:15.

I left 10 hours later.

I hurt in more places than I knew I had from holding the boom. I was in some shots (as the other pool player terrified by how bad the "Tom Cruise" character was) and was no help whatsoever for others. I read two scripts: The Ticking Man, by Brian Helgeland and Manny Coto, and The Truman Show, the author's name escapes me right now but this is Jim Carrey's current project, and all I have to say on that is: what was he thinking? Maybe his draft was funnier than the one I read, or maybe this is his big serious role.

Justin and Gonzo (as DP) worked very hard on this project. Way, way harder than I ever would on a directing project, because, frankly, I don't want to direct. Justin wanted a very specific look for his movie, and Gonzo and the actors spent quite a bit of time achieving it.

I left after 3 and started home. I looked at my Thomas Guide and it said that Beverly Blvd. becomes Coldwater Canyon at Sunset, so I headed down Beverly Blvd.

Clearly, the first problem was that I was trying to read a map at 3am.

I got terribly turned around. I ended up driving down Sunset and back up Doheny. I finally found Coldwater Canyon, but it took some doing.

The whole time I was navigating Coldwater the DJ babbled about some earthquake. I had no idea what he was talking about; I just wanted to be home.

I got home at 4am and Darin came bounding up to the front door. He gave me a huge hug. "I was so worried," he said.

"I'm sorry, honey," I said. "I thought it was too late to call again." (I had called once at 9 or 10pm to say it was going to be a while longer.)

"The earthquake woke me up and when I saw you weren't home yet -- "

I looked up at him. "What earthquake?" I said.

Turns out there was a 5.0 at 3:30am. Oops. Missed that one completely as I was looking for road signs. That's how concerned with earthquakes we are, folks. I felt terrible I hadn't called Darin again to tell him I was coming home, earthquake or no. As he put it, "Always err on the side of waking me up."

Like I said earlier, I read The Ticking Man yesterday, and today I read Highway to Hell, also by Brian Helgeland. I've already read two other scripts by him: Elementary, a Holmes-Watson story, and Conspiracy Theory, coming soon to a theater near you with Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts.

This guy is a good writer. You start reading and this guy grabs you, shows you everything you need and propels you on to the next scene.

I'm also a big fan of Scott Frank, mostly because of listening to him. He seems like a decent guy. Very down-to-earth. I'm going to pull up a couple of his scripts from the library and check out what his writing style is like, because I enjoyed Dead Again and Get Shorty as well as Little Man Tate, which was his character-driven "writing sample" that got him noticed around town.

His advice, by the way, was the same as everyone else's: write a good script, and the rest is cake. You don't have to worry about the agents or anything else. Write it, and they will come. Or something like that.