Information Overload

"See you on Friday," he said.

I feel like I haven't been in there for a million years, because there was no work on Monday and not much to do last week. Must not get out of the work habit.

Yesterday in writing class we had to give loglines for projects we were interested in working on this semester in class. Other students gave their reactions to the plot summaries and then the prof told us which ones he thought would respond best to the classic three act structure. Our projects this semester: we outline three of those ideas, and then we write a first draft from one of those outlines, so we can have the experience of writing a full-length screenplay (for those of us who haven't written one yet) and the experience of working on deadline, just like we would in the real world.

It seemed like everybody else had fully blown ideas and they gave the beginning, middle, and end. I, of course, did not do that; no, I gave the TV Guide one-liner. "A man and a woman, who used to be lovers in pre-war Paris, meet again in Morocco when she seeks his help to get her husband out of the country." That kind of thing. The class didn't like what I thought was my best logline, but I asked the prof afterwards if I could do it anyhow. (An idea close to my heart.) They did like another one that I came up with a couple of hours before class, one that takes my mother's life as a starting point and then goes way, way off-track.

Think I should ask my mother before I do anything?

Last night, before Brooke's class, the graduate screenwriting students group met to discuss a get-together they're going to host where students can meet agents and give the agents their spec TV scripts. The agents, by the way, would be interested in doing this in order to meet new young USC writers. One of the projects suggested was a booklet listing the student, the student's contact info, and a short summary of the spec scripts the student has available.

The student group had agreed beforehand, by the way, that only second-year students would be able to participate in this get-together, so that the second-years (who have to pay off their loans earlier than we do) can have the best access to the agents. After my initial anger at this decision, I decided it was a good idea -- besides which, I didn't have anything to offer.

The student running the group asked the second-years present how many people were planning on participating -- that is, how many had spec TV scripts (that's important: in TV, you must have TV specs available; movie specs won't do because it's a different medium, basically).

Five hands.

They're graduating in a few months. Five people are thinking about TV?

My biggest gripe about USC's program is that they don't force home the realities of the business enough. I'm not sure what Brooke tells us in her class is getting through.

The movie this morning in Film History class was Trouble in Paradise, a classic by Ernst Lubitsch. It was so funny and so racy. Several people howled at the suggestive banter. A classic film of the kind they can't make any more.

Tonight is a special seminar hosted by Reel Women on how to pitch. I have to drive over to Twentieth-Century Fox, which is in Century City. The weather sucks, so I'll have to leave even earlier than I otherwise would.

Heard on the radio as I was driving home from Paramount: Newt Gingrich is investigating if he can pay his fine using campaign funds. Does this qualify as "Unclear on the concept"?