Charles Foster Kane

He's a politician and newspaper tycoon.  He has an unfinished mansion and likes to have big parties.  The worth of his mansion is innumerable.  Kane started the Spanish-American War to make more money from his newspapers.  He has talked to many political leaders like Hitler.

Freaks and Geeks Reflection

My favorite episode so far has been the Keg Party episode.  I liked that one the most because it had a lot of funny parts and we learned a ton about each character.  Nick finally starts to show his feelings toward Lindsay, Daniel and Kim get back together, Sam and his friends are very protective and Neal likes Lindsay too.

Sam's Secret Dolls

FADE IN:

EXT. WEIR HOUSE - AFTERNOON

Shot of the casual and contemporary home of the Weirs.

                                                                                                                CUT TO:

INT. SAM'S ROOM - AFTERNOON

Sam's room is surprisingly clean and neat but on the floor are figurines
scattered around.

SAM is talking to his toys using various voices.

                                   Sam
          Get down, Mr. Forest!  He's charging his
          laser weapon!

Sam makes fighting and exploding noises.

LINDSAY knocks on his closed door from the hallway.

                                  Lindsay
          Hey, why are you making so much noise?!
          Keep it down!  Don't make me come in there
          and make you shut up!

Sam panics and hurriedly attempts to put away his toys.

Man, I hate flapjacks.  They're just fluffy air that you drench in syrup.  I don't know why so many people like it, there's nothing special about them.

Freaks and Geeks Dialogue

Sam talks very politely and is completely innocent.  He usually makes excuses for things he gets caught doing or tries to do.

Nick and Daniel like to joke around a lot.

Kim and Karen are mean to everyone and feel they are better than them.

Neal has a large vocabulary and tries to act more mature than the other geeks.

Bill is very random.

ComicCon Discussion

Three writers who broke into the business and how they did it.
1. Created a spec for X-Files and got an agent.  Eventually got a job doing Sliders.

2. Wrote a pilot for a show called Van Hellsing, was rejected.  A movie by the same name later had some features the original writer could not have (a crossbow).

3. Went to work on Sea Quest that was canceled soon after.  Wrote a spec for X-Files after watching it for two weekends and came up with a script after originally thinking about albinos.

Screenplay Terms

From Joel Hall's "The Power of Waytergoth"

FADE IN:

int. Ellem Middle school PRINCIPAL’S office -- DAY

WILL HALEY, 27, sits in the old-fashioned principal’s office.  

-------------------------------------------------------------

A headline reads, TUTORS NEEDED.  

Will reads the ad, picks up his phone, then punches the number from the ad.

ext. greater seattle youth center --DAY

-------------------------------------------------------------

int. rose HOTEL --NIGHT

Will watches a snowy television screen.  The sound of money-love hammers from the floor above.

There is another series of thumps.  Will loses his patience. 

Short Script Revision

Bar Fight Scene

                                                Javix

                          Four guys right behind us.

                          Look sharp and keep calm, 

                          maybe they just want to talk.

 

                                                Alec

                          I don't think they're looking for

                          a nice conversation over some

                          beer. 

TOUGH GUY walks up behind them and eyes Javix with a mean look on his dirty face.

                                                TOUGH GUY

                          Are you Javix?  

                                                Javix

                          Who's asking?  

                                                Tough Guy

                          Someone wants you dead, and that

                          person's willing to pay some big

                          amounts of credits to have it done.

            

                                                Javix

                          Look, we don't want any trouble and

                          I don't think you want to mess with us.

Alec leans toward Javix.

                                                Alec

                          Looks like they're anxious to get at us.

                                                Tough Guy

                          We'll see about that, get 'em boys!

The men can wait no longer and jump the pair and attempted to pull their shirts and force them out of their seats.  

Freaks and Geeks Questions

1.  I think Lindsay has a lot of conflict within her right now.  She wants to be friends with the Freaks while still being the same person she is with her family and true friends.  She doesn't know how to balance both sides and so she ends up hurting others for the sake of her trying to fit in.

2.  The major plots are: Sam and his friends going trick-or-treating, Lindsay hanging out with the Freaks instead of her mom, and the parents giving out candies to the trick-or-treaters.  Sam and his friends get beat-up and their candy stolen by bullies, Lindsay goes with the Freaks to cause terror throughout the neighborhood and ends up accidentally egging her brother, the mom and dad at first fail to appease the trick-or-treaters by handing out unwrapped candy (cookies).

3.  Sam and his friends split after being egged by Lindsay and her friends.  She attempts to apologize but it is no use, the damage has already been dealt.  Lindsay comes back home to help her mom finish giving out candy.

Concept 9 Brainstormer Essay

All Time Domestic Box Office Grosses:

1 - Titanic

Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio)

2 - Avatar

The genocide of the N'avi

3 - The Dark Knight    

Setting - Gotham City

                                                             Blue Man Group in Gotham

      

          Jack Dawson, from Titanic, is a sweet and handsome young man who had fallen in love with a cute girl on the cruise ship Titanic.  In Avatar, the main conflict is the arrival of humans to a new world called Pandora where an indigenous group of humanoids called the N'avi live.  The main story would revolve around Jack Dawson trying to solve the case of his lone N'avi friend's murder case.  His friend, J'lok was found dead in a sewer near the edge of Gotham after a policeman saw a floating blue body in the water.  While this is all happening, Dawson's lover Rose Bukater is having trouble adapting to this new city where crime strives and people are never safe on the streets or even inside their own homes.  This movie would appeal to fans of romance, science-fiction, and those who like mystery novels/movies.  

Concept 10 Brainstormers

1.  I feel I know a great deal of fantasy fiction.  I could use some elements from one of the many series of books I read about fantasy fiction.  Those elements would include the type of architecture or costumes that would be used in the short film.

2.  The development of weapons is something I am very unfamiliar with.  At home there's not many resources available to me other than my dad who was only in the engineer corp.  He was a cartographer so he only drew up maps that the army used.  In the library there is such a wealth of information there would not be much trouble in finding books about weapon development, but a confidential thing (creating nukes, for example) would be a much harder subject to find information about.  I'm pretty sure no one around my neighborhood knows how to make weapons, so that is not a valid place to verify the accuracy of my findings.

3.  A subject that I am completely unknown to is the process of paper making.  This would be a good class for environmentally-friendly students that would like to learn the actual things that go on.  I'm not sure how the class would be prepared, since I don't know anyone willing to teach teenagers how to make paper.

Concept 8 Brainstormers

1.  I would set the scene at football game during night.  It would be filled with dialogue and maybe some crying/compassion if it was a drama movie.  It could be comedic too because of his role as Will Turner in Pirates of the Caribbean but even as Turner it was kind of more serious than the rest of the cast (Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow, for instance).  The plot would be about how Reese Witherspoon's feelings for Bloom and giving him confidence for his (if he was a football player) performance during the game.

3.  Character - Priest; Setting - Phone booth; Prop - Doughnut.
The priest finds himself locked inside a phone booth while awkwardly holding a chocolate-sprinkled doughnut.  He has been told by a super secret agent spy to bring that specific doughnut to a phone booth and call a specific number.  Little does the priest know that there is an atheist ready to tackle him into the ground and steal his doughnut.

Freaks and Geeks Extension

Freaks and Geeks "Pilot" Page 1

                                 FOOTBALL PLAYER
               Ashley, it's just . . .
      
                                 CHEERLEADER
               I'm ready to work through whatever it is
               we need to work through, but we need to
               communicate.  I need you to talk to me.

                                 FOOTBALL PLAYER
                         (sighs)
               It's just . . . I love you so much . . . it
               scares me.

              (extension) CHEERLEADER
               Why does it scare you so much?  . . . Is
               it something that I've done?  Just tell me!

                                FOOTBALL PLAYER
               Well, it's you, not me.  At least I'm almost
               completely sure that it's not me.

                                CHEERLEADER
               Oh, that doesn't matter!  As long as we
               have the power of love, nothing can
               stop us!

                                FOOTBALL PLAYER
               You're right, nothing you do can stop us
               from loving each other!
(end extension)

They kiss passionately.  The MUSIC SWELLS -- "Nothing's
right! I'm torn! /I'm all out of faith!"  Then, we MOVE DOWN
away from them and the music transitions into:

MUSIC UP: VAN HALEN'S "YOU REALLY GOT ME"

CHYRON UP: "1980"              

Favorite High School T.V. Shows

X-Men: Evolution - I watched this with my brother and

were both fans of X-Men because of my dad

Saved by the Bell - Watched it randomly in the morning 

before school. 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Vampires.  Awesome.

Concept 7 Brainstormers

1. Time Frames
1) One Day - Unstoppable
2) One Week - Zombieland
3) Several Months - The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
4) 10+ Years - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Short Script Reflection

What I think was my best scene in my short script was the bar fight inside the cantina. I thought it was the best because it was the most action-oriented scene in the script and the dialogue was not very insightful into the story.  My worst scene was the beginning because there was not a lot of work put into the exposition into the two characters (Javix and Alec).  

Concept 6 Brainstormers

Short Film - Pixar's Geri's Game (Sneak Peek)
1. 1) Age, Gender, Characters: Late 70's, male, 2 (Old man plays both sides)
2) Locations: One (The Park)
3) The problem: There is no one else to play chess with at the park.
The solution: The old man plays against himself with a different personality (White is conservative, black is competitive)
4) Length: 1min, 30sec
I liked the short film because I thought it was funny how the old man played both sides of chess with a completely opposite personality.

2. Yes.  The short could be made into a two-hour film.  There is a main problem in the short film but a temporary solution.  The problem being that he has no one else to play with because the park is void of other people to challenge.  The short could be lengthened by adding the arrival of a new character that can match the old man's skills in chess.  Then the whole film would be about how their relationship strengthens by just playing a game of chess for x amount of days.

3. My favorite feature-length movie is Glory.  There is a scene where the commander of the Union Army  was seeing how his regiment of colored men had terrible infections and their feet and finds out the problem as to why his soldiers have these diseases.
Beginning: Commander sees their ruined feet.
Middle: Commander confronts quartermaster who is in charge of distributing shoes for the army and demands boots for his men.
End: The regiment is given boots and socks to wear to prevent any more diseases and infections on their feet.