Writing ZOMBIES AND PIZZA (TM)

My quest to make ZOMBIES AND PIZZA (TM) has been an interesting journey, and a great learning experience for me. I hope you've been enjoying reading about it...

Technically, ZOMBIES AND PIZZA (TM) is my second film project, but it is still my first real production where I used professional cast and crew. My first film project was a 5 minute long experimental short that I made with a few friends 2 years ago. I did enter that short into the West Chester Film Festival at the time, but it didn't make the cut for the 2009 Film Festival. That video was called: What Happened to Jack?, and it's on You Tube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kvOUzz5gco When I wrote the "script" for that film, I was inspired by the narration in the beginning of Plan 9 from Outer Space. My script really wasn't a traditional script, in that I wrote it in an e-mail without the traditional script lingo that most professionals use. In general in my life I like to do things efficiently whenever possible, so to me it just didn't make sense for me to spend a lot of time getting the formatting "right". My main concern as a writer is to write as best as I can, and that's what I did with ZOMBIES AND PIZZA (TM). A couple people involved in the project encouraged me to format the script, but in both cases I didn't end up following their advice - mainly because I'm a procrastinator and I just kept putting it off... lol! When the film was shot over the Summer none of the actors complained about the lack of formatting though. So, for now I'm probably going to keep doing what I've been doing - writing scripts in e-mails and saving drafts. Another advantage of writing scripts in e-mails is that they are saved on the internet, so if my computer crashes I still have back-up copies online.

I try to be efficient, but man, it took a freaking long time to get the script to where it needed to be before I filmed ZOMBIES AND PIZZA (TM). I already mentioned in a previous blog about how me and Rob Melso wrote a few episodes of the ZOMBIES AND PIZZA web-show... I still have those drafts and may revisit them at one point. After I wrote them though, I wrote at least 3 very different drafts of the script. One thing about my writing is that I'm a constant reviser. Some people have complained about my technique, because it can be frustrating for other people when they are collaborating with me. I tend to hold nothing sacred, and will change anything at will - sometimes making drastic changes. Probably I'm better off not collaborating... lol, but I do like to get constructive feedback while I'm slaving away on my writings. In general I tend to write my initial drafts quickly, then slave away on re-writes for as long as I can. That's kind of how the writing for Zombies and Pizza went. Katie Lightcap did a bit of editing on one of the early drafts, as did Season Harper Fox, but in both cases they mostly just offered their support and told me it looked good at the time. The funny thing about this to me (and I love irony) is that all these years I've been writing have gone by and I have yet to find a collaborator who will just go and scratch out things and make changes like (I think) I want! Most people have too much tact to do that, but in my case I dish it out like I can take it... (I think)!

Anyway, everything in my life seems to be an evolution of ideas. One idea leads to a better idea, until eventually I find some other people who like my idea enough for them to take the time to help me make it happen.

Okay, well I've got to get running for now... I'll try and post a new blog before too long... it's still "crunch time!"