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Work On Your Dream

By Tony LaScala · January 31, 2012

Ahoy Ahoy fellow Odd-Jobbers,

The new year is a time to forget old crappy friends who don’t return your Foster The People CD and then lie and say you never gave it to them and also claim they don’t have any money after ordering at Chipotle, when we all know they just got paid for that stupid Geico commercial… (Sorry, went off on a tangent there. You know who you are former friend! I’ll call you this week. Star Wars marathon?)

Aside from new and old friends, the New Year is also a time for New Years Resolutions. Most of us have the typical resolution to lose weight, read more books, or call our mothers more. I have one more resolution for you to fit into your busy Odd-Jobbing schedule: Work on your dream.

You know it, I know it, the barista at Coffee Bean knows it: You’re stuck. What did you want to be when you grew up? Are you that right now? And if not, do you still want to be?

My dream’s to be a writer/director on big budget films and TV. My New Years resolution is to write a small Indie budget screenplay I can film myself.

One month in and I’ve already bent (not broken) my New Year’s resolution. I started Script Preparation on my new screenplay, but a few minutes in I started mulling over my recently completed screenplay. Oh other screenplay, you look so good in your newly hole punched card stock cover.

A screenplay is like an old girlfriend: At one point you were fully committed. You liked it, you may even love it, but you have to move on to the next to get some closure.

I can’t move on. I keep thinking of little changes to make. Even though I know the best way to get over other screenplay is to start working on sexy new script. But starting new script is just so… hard. (After the initial honeymoon period of course)

Embarrassingly as such, I’ve made an addendum to my resolution: Do Script Preparation for new Screenplay in 3rd week of February. (I know, I know. Other Screenplay just keeps luring me back)

I’ve taken this weekend off of Odd-Jobbing to meet that end. My fiancé is at her mother’s eating scones and wedding planning or something, I’m home. Usually these two glorious days would be wasted devouring copious amounts of delightfully unhealthy fast food and leftover stocking stuffer chocolate, not exercising, and blasting through a full DVR of fiancé un-approved shows like The Walking Dead and Ultimate Fighter.

Not this weekend. Finish the damn script.

My fingers are click-click-clicking away at my MacBook Pro: thirty-six pages into a one hundred and thirteen-page semi-rewrite. When I get to the mid-point mayhap I’ll reward myself with some Panda Express and ONE episode of The Walking Dead. But, if my willpower can endure I should finish by 1:00 A.M. or so.

I need closure, other screenplay has been so good to me and I’ve convinced myself it wont hurt to give it one more romp on the keyboard. (I’ve written a plethora of computer innuendo’s to insert here, but I’m afraid my mother might read this article. That, and they were terrible.)

At the end of the month I have a read-through with some actors at a colleagues house and I intend to treat my egotistical Smart-Water guzzling Odd-Jobbing friends to a slew of diabolically engaging dialogue to spout off through mouthfuls of Gruyere and Ak-Mak crackers.

ONE glorious weekend…

ONE last semi-rewrite before sending other  screenplay off into the ether…

ONE episode of The Walking Dead

ONE two-item plate from Panda…

There can be only ONE Highlander…

ONE is the loneliest number…

Ok, back to work Odd-Jobbers.

 

Re-Invigoratingly Yours,

Tony LaScala