Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Listerine Commercial - Plaque

This is the second in a series of commercial ideas for a mouthwash product like Listerine.  This one deals with a little kid and the horrors of plaque.  These are a lot of fun to write and would love to see them on T.V.

Monday, April 28, 2014

Listerine Commercial - Morning Breath

I had an idea for a series of mouthwash commercials, which I'm using Listerine for my example.  It introduces a recurring character that ties all the spots together.  I'll probably write up a couple of them.  This one deals with morning breath.


Saturday, April 26, 2014

Rise for Kids Commercial

I had applied for a job with a company that worked on improving children's education through legislation and finding out what techniques worked best and passing that information along.  I thought it was a great company and decided to do a commercial idea based off of them.  It's a non-profit .org group, so it was a little different in the way I handled it.

It was a more serious piece and tried to convey the information about them mixed with some emotions about helping out children.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Follow That Car Commercial

I had another idea for a automotive commercial so I decided to go ahead and write it up since I'm in the "Auto Zone" right now.  I needed something new and sporty and decided to use the 2015 Toyota Camry as the car.  It looks pretty cool.  There wasn't a lot of concrete details on it yet, so I put in as much as I could find out from the Toyota website and a news article about it.  Here's a picture from the Toyota website.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Car Commercial with Mikaela Shiffrin

I was fortunate with my limited time to watch a smidgen of the Winter Olympic Games.  I was also lucky to happen to see Mikaela Shiffrin (local Colorado hero), during her record breaking slalom title and gold medal winning time.

She almost lost it, but through shear determination, willed herself to stay upright and win.  I thought that would make a nice juxtaposition with a car commercial and wrote down a few ideas.  Over the last couple of days I decided to make this my next writing project.

This was something different since I was writing with a specific person in mind and needed to capture her skiing savvy.  I think the end result works well.

Sunday, April 20, 2014

E.D. Commercial

Yes, I'm talking about erectile dysfunction.  It would be for Cialis or other equivalent, but I kept to the same info and tone that Cialis commercials use.  I had to go to their website for some of the information about it and now I'm sure I'll be getting all kinds of pop up and banner ads from their cookies.  Sigh.  But I think it turned out well and is funny.  This would be pretty easy to do, so I'll have to think about filming this one to use as a demo reel.

Oh, and on a totally unrelated note, (way, way, unrelated), Happy Easter!

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Sleep Aid Commercial

This is a fun one that I wish I could do.  It's feasible, but I would need a bigger cast and I'm not sure I would be able to get it.  I had my wife read it and she laughed out loud, so I think I hit the mark on this one.  Special thanks to Lannie for lending me his lecture notes.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Grumpy Bird Children's Book

No, this isn't one that I created, rather the recipient of the One Book 4 Colorado for 2014.  75,000 copies are given out to pre-school children to get them to read (and hopefully be infected with a life long desire to read!)

The author, Jeremy Tankard, has been speaking at local libraries and today he was at the Englewood Public Library.  I went to listen to him talk and read the books that he's been involved with.

He was gracious enough at the end to talk to me just a little bit about the industry and how he got started.  He's an artist first, and sent out samples to publishers, and they told him he should put a story together with his pictures so he became a writer too.

He recommended the book, "Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market."  He said the information in there will be a lot more than anything you can get from any author.  It's a great resource with a listing of publishers and agents and what they accept, if anything unsolicited.

I'll be picking up a copy once I'm ready to start submitting my children's stories.  Here's a pic of Grumpy Bird.

 

Monday, April 14, 2014

Board Game Commercial Idea

This is a board game idea that takes place at an airport of all places.  I used the game, "Apples to Apples," for a reference and was able to tie the dialogue into it nicely.  This one would be fun to make, but I don't have access to an airport that I could film at.


Saturday, April 12, 2014

Wedding RomCom Feature Screenplay

A few months ago, my wife and I came up with a unique (as unique as any idea can be) idea for a romantic comedy about a rapidly approaching wedding that the bride-to-be isn't ready for.  We wrote down about a page of ideas, main characters, basic plot, main plot points, how it starts and how it ends.

I was at the in-laws and on the road most of the day, so I needed to work on something besides commercials that wasn't going to require research yet.

We worked out a log line and a couple of points for the story anatomy.  I'll try to squeeze in some time here and there to work on it, but it's not a priority right now.  This will probably be the next screenplay that I work on, but it's a long ways away.

Wednesday, April 09, 2014

Hostel Movie

I will usually try to check out other movies in the same vein or similar genre when I go to work on a screenplay.  Before working on my Crazy Family feature screenplay, I read the script for the remake of, "The Hills Have Eyes."  It was okay, but I wasn't blown away by it.

Over the last three days, (yes that's how long it took me to get through a 90 minute movie, time is scarce here) I watched the movie, "Hostel," by Eli Roth.

I was pleasantly surprised on how much set up and character development there was.  In fact, the beginning didn't have much horror to it at all.  It was a nice change of pace and I did feel for the characters in their hellish predicament.  I have to wonder how the script got read since not much happens in the first five minutes, and I've always read and have been told how important those first five minutes are and you better hook your reader right away.  Basically they hit a couple of clubs looking for girls.

It was a good movie, but certainly violent when the torture happens.  It's not for the weak of heart or stomach.


Credit Card Protection Commercial

This commercial idea came from a credit card company's perspective of keeping a high tech credit card/identity thief away from their customer.  It's high-tech vs. old school knockout.  This would be a lot of fun to see and it was a lot of fun to write.

Monday, April 07, 2014

Night Things Movie

Back in 2007 I helped out on a film friend's first feature movie called, "Night Things."  I did a little bit of everything for them, whatever they needed help with.  It was a blast to work on and even more fun seeing it up on the big screen for their cast and crew premier party a couple of years later.

After much editing, and appearances at several festivals including: Motor City Nightmares Festival, Zedfest, Pittsburgh Horror Film Festival, and Mile High Horror Film Festival.

They also won the Best Fantasy Film Award at the Fear Fete Horror Film Festival. Lead actress Kathryn Gould was nominated for Best Actress.


It's now available on Amazon for ten bucks.  If you like gritty, low budget, independent horror, then this is worth a look.


After her deranged grandfather subjects her sister to a tragic experiment, Alex (Kathryn Gould) finds herself trapped between life and death, prisoner of a bubble in time and space created by a mysterious machine. Here she cannot die. Each accident, each fatal injury, each suicide simply ends in resurrection. She is doomed to live out her days searching hopelessly for an escape and defending the lives of fellow prisoners who have been sucked into the bubble. But a new arrival gives Alex hope. Haley (Joey Thomas), a young physics student, may hold the key to unlocking the secrets of the Machine.



But Alex and Haley are not alone.

In the forest live the Lures, a race of creatures that are learning to mimic humans to insidious effect, and are determined to imprison them until nightfall for the Night Things, beings of amorphous darkness that deliver something far worse than death to those who stray from the light.

For when the Night Things take you, you don't come back.

Sunday, April 06, 2014

Car Insurance Commercial

This was a quick little comedic commercial about car insurance.  I went with a good idea/bad idea theme with an amusing outcome.

Friday, April 04, 2014

Subway Commercial Idea

This is another idea I've had for a while and would be a lot of fun to watch.  However, this has some pretty big effects needed, so there would be no way for me to even attempt to shoot this for a demo reel.  It's heavy on the comedy at first, then segues into the more healthy characteristics of their sandwiches.  It made me hungry writing it.

Thursday, April 03, 2014

David Letterman is retiring


David Letterman Picture
Image from IMDB, David Letterman page.

I learned that David Letterman has announced his retirement in 2015.  Although I haven't had much time to watch any late night T.V. (or any T.V. really), his Late Night with David Letterman way back when on NBC was a late night staple of my youth.  He was a lot of fun to watch and I always dreamed of the day I would appear on his show as a guest.  It would have been a monumental task as it is since I'm more into writing and writers aren't as visible and well known as say actors, but a man can dream.

With his retirement I guess that's not going to happen.  There's always a possibility of being on whoever takes over his show, but it wouldn't be the same.

Good luck in your retirement Dave, and enjoy the extra time with your family.

Tuesday, April 01, 2014

Chicken Commercial Idea

No joke, I just finished a commercial about chicken.  It's probably one of my oldest commercial idea's and one I've thought about making, just to show what I can do.  It's an action/comedy theme about who gets the last piece of chicken.