My entry to the MySpace / George A. Romero three minute zombie short film contest!

Hey guys! I haven't been around much because I've been writing and working and generally busy, but I did find the time to get my zombie short made for the Romero contest!

 

The winner and runners-up get their film on the Diary of the Dead DVD and they're chosen by votes. All I ask is that if you do vote, you vote honestly. The rest of the entries can be seen at the official MySpace for Diary of the Dead.

 

I think this is also a good time to do my February round-up: nothing much happened as far as the festivals go, but March is bound to be an exciting month as I hear from four festivals (including my hometown of Sarasota), Cemetery Dance about the short story I sent them, and about the results of the Romero contest.

 

I'm so happy and excited!! WOO!

Various and sundry...

Well, as some of you may know by now, the writer's strike is over! Some news organizations are crediting the AMPTP for "finally" settling the debate, but if anyone's actually been paying attention, most of their moguls have been sitting there with thumbs up their butts greenlighting one useless reality show after the other...or on vacation. The writers should be credited for the settlement, their persistence, and their solidarity and the fans should be given their props for being so supportive, something the AMPTP never saw coming. If the AMPTP had been interested in ending the WGA strike, it would have happened in the beginning, not 100 days on, but at least it's over now...at least, it is until the actors get their turn at bat.

 

Over the past few days, I've been reigniting my MySpaces as I stopped using them during the strike. I've loaded my trailer onto both pages with teeny-tiny updates in the blog areas.

 

My personal MySpace and my filmmaker MySpace.

 

You can also check out Matthew Nunnery's remix of the trailer at his website. Just go to "M.G. Presents" which can be accessed via the little film button. He sent me a copy so I could load it to YouTube to show off here, but I think I accidentally deleted it when I was fetching email on my phone at work last night. I'll have that fixed soon...haha!

 

I send out my first short story submission yesterday, to the aforementioned Cemetery Dance. I also sent a script (a Masters of Horror spec) to WILDsound and the zombie short I was going to film after the Sarasota festival to two other festivals that accept short screenplays.

 

It's been a busy month so far...and I'm loving it! Each submission makes me happier and more giddy and makes me feel really positive, and I haven't even heard anything back yet. Regardless of the outcome of any of my submissions, at least I'm not just sitting back waiting for things to happen claiming that I can do better than everyone else, but not actually doing anything about it. Feels good.

C'mon Ferris, we have work to do...

I received a NoFUN today (stands for Not For Us Now, the term comes courtesy of my mom and the Housewife Writers) in the form of an informal rejection from FirstGlance Hollywood. They didn't notify me so much as I went to their website and discovered that, lo and behold, I was not on the list of short narrative flicks they'll be showing at FirstGlance 8. So I was depressed for a moment, then perked up because I still have fifteen more festivals to hear from...of course, that could mean fifteen more opportunities for rejection, but all I can do is "pick myself up, dust myself off, and start all over again." So, while I'm prepping the Romero project (storyboards are done, but I haven't been feeling well for the past week or two...I really need to get on that!!) I've decided that I also REALLY NEED to submit a couple of short stories to a horror magazine. Since Fangoria doesn't carry fiction (understandable -- it's a "news" mag, not a fiction mag), the next best choice is to jump over to Cemetery Dance, which DOES publish short fiction.

 

Here's the link in case anyone's interested in reading or sending in their own story: http://www.cemeterydance.com/

 

So, I plan on popping Ferris Bueller into my DVD player (I don't know why, but whenever I'm home I almost always write with Ferris on in the background...), sitting down with my laptop, and editing a bunch of my stories. Once I'm finished, I plan on reading them over again, fixing whatever I spot, then choosing one or two to send to Cemetery Dance for possible publication.