When The Shorts Hit the Fan

A couple of nights ago, a writing group I'm involved with here in LA (remember, Charlie's in Atlanta, Kosovo, Mars, someplace far away like that) held a public screening of 7 short films we'd written and produced.

One of those seven was written by me. I also produced it (with help) . And I was the leading actor in it (I knew the producer).

We held the screening at a funky club in Hollywood, four big screens on the walls, people drinking, laughing, watching, enjoying. Big crowd (close to 200 people). Plenty of shmaltz to go around.

Watching my short (and by extention, watching myself) up on those big screens was a hoot. My short went first (never a good position) and did fine. It wasn't the best of the evening (I easily admit) but folks liked it. Laughed at a lot of the right places, didn't laugh in any wrong places, gave me a friendly ovation when it was over.

What does this have to do with Producer Dude and Siege and the Next Big Horror Movie? Well everything you do is a learning process. I wrote this script (called Irwin's Special Friend) last summer. We shot it in August (mine was the first of seven that we shot as a group, the last one being finished, like, two weeks ago). It's got a subtle humor. Well, as subtle as you can get when one of the main characters is Death. My humor is often (though not always) subtle. Quiet. Unassuming. The kind of stuff that you go home afterwards and go "You know, that was really quite funny." and then you down a shot of Scotch and say "But the one with the man-on-pig sex, that one was REALLY funny."

I don't tend to write man-on-pig sex very often. And my humor is often enjoyed, appreciated, but then forgotten. I'm the nice girl who everyone likes but no one will take to the prom. The one where, at the prom, they go "Hey, where's David? You know, Girl David?" and they say "What? I thought she was going to the prom with you?" and they say "Me? I'm here with this hot blonde who can't count to three. I thought you were bringing Girl David to the prom?" and they answer "Well I'm here with Yvette of the Long Tongue." and finally someone says "Didn't ANYONE think to bring Girl David to the prom?" and they all shrug their shoulders, admit what a bummer it is that I'm not there, and then go have nasty man-on-pig sex. While their dates watch and take notes.

I'm not trying to get a date here. (I went to my prom. Brought a girl and everything. Unfortunately, she didn't really like me, but that's another post.) The point is, we can, and should, learn a lot every time we write something. Let alone everytime we write something that gets made. Writing Siege, I pulled up a lot of useful stuff I learned while writing and making Eliminator. When I sit down to write and produce my next short film (and yes, there will be another), I'll pull from what I've learned making Irwin's Special Friend.

Not that this has much of anything to do with writing C-movies. Other than to point out that I had a big Hollywood Premiere this week, and you didn't.

Do you like parentheses as much as I do? (I like them a lot.)