heart on fire

A picture of Gandalf the Grey (from The Lord of the Rings) can be seen in the collection of great wizards in Professor Dumbledore’s study in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

(via omgharrypotter: via fuckyeahfacts)

me, to a friend in an email

“…but it’s almost midnight now and my brain no workey no more.”

Thank you and good night,
Crigsy

In Which I Disgust Myself Brag-Blogging About My Episode Of Weeds Airing Tonight

stephenfalk:

It’s funny that I have writer’s block when it comes to this. I’ll just do what I’ve been doing for almost a decade: just start typing.

Tonight my first episode of television airs. And it feels as though I should mark this event here. My professional writing career began about seven years ago, and came as a direct and indirect result of keeping a daily blog that five hundred or so people read every day. Erin Searcy, a then-assistant/now agent at Gersh, sent me an email, saying she liked my writing. I noticed the email came from Gersh and inquired if she was an agent and could she read my screenplays and help get me out of a cubicle and send me on my path to cocaine and Thai whore and a house high enough in the hills that Matthew Perry would perhaps some night drunkenly drive his car through it. (See, at the time, a Matthew Perry reference was still relevant.) She eventually “signed” me (as much as an assistant could), found me a manager, Brooklyn Weaver, who in turn found me an agency who would commit to me (unlike Gersh, sadly). This agency was BKWU, which would become BWCS, which would be sold to ICM. Josh Hornstock was the TV agent who took a shot on me, and quickly, after I sold my first feature screenplay, got me a script deal at Fox to write a one-hour drama. Josh then helped shepherd me through pilot deals at WB, Showtime, USA, ABC twice, Sci-Fi, and others I may be forgetting. Pitching and selling and writing pilot scripts that never get made can be a very lucrative way to fail, and I made a nice living for the last half decade, as my feature career stalled, doing just that. And much like this blog (back when I used to actually, like, write things in it), writing pilots helped me find my voice. Features had taken me a step backwards, but the freedom of television, the way it can be so much like playwriting, especially cable, helped me find that voice again.

Just as my second ABC comedy pilot in a row was looking like it wouldn’t be shot, and as I was slowly going stir-crazy writing alone, I read that Showtime had picked up WEEDS for two more seasons. I loved Weeds. I even wrote about it on this blog on numerous occasions. And I had a good relationship with Showtime. So I asked Josh to try to get me a meeting, or at least get my stuff read over there. And though going onto staff would curtail my development career (what they call making up your own shows that go nowhere) for the meantime and represent a bit of a financial hit, Josh was either tired of my begging him to get me a job on Weeds or was smart enough to realize that despite the temporary setbacks, having Weeds on my resume would help me in the long run, Josh got me the meeting. I met in October, and found out I got the job at the beginning of November, right around the time Obama won, and someone ran a red light into my car. I went to work at the beginning of January. We spent a few months “breaking” (outlining) the season, and were then assigned episodes to write. I holed up in a hotel in Santa Barbara to write this episode. Going from being a fan of a show to suddenly getting to decide what they say and do, is a mindfuck I’ve still not gotten used to. I finished the script, did some rewrites, and we shot in the beginning of May. I was on set every day, sitting behind the monitors in video village, watching each take, suggesting adjustments to the director, Bethany Rooney, (or 1^st AD Eric Jewett or DP Michael Trim). Occasionally rewriting lines on the fly. Five looooong days later, we were wrapped, and spent. Apparently my episode was very involved. I didn’t know. I just wrote what I thought worked. I was naïve enough not to know that having live animals and nearly 30 scenes and guns and fighting and Alanis Morissette and various other elements in an episode would lead to having to ultimately cut out an entire scene in post to fit into the roughly 28 minutes we’re afforded on pay cable. Oops.

I learned tons being on set, and even more in editing, where the show is really made. (My editor was the amazing David Helfand.) More post stuff happened that I know nothing about. I sat in on sound mixing and music spotting and foley, but all that shit remains a mystery to me. All I know is that the people who work in all departments on this show never fail to blow my mind at least once every day.

Jesus, this sounds like a really long, shitty Emmy speech.

But it’s a big deal. It actually kind of sucks that it is such a big deal, because I’ve been making a living doing this for seven years. But there is nothing graspable about what I’ve been doing. Pilots. Feature scripts. Adaptations. Open writing assignments. Fine, “But have you written that I can watch?” That question finally has an answer to it.

Right now I’m sitting in my office on our little lot on Cahuenga. My dog is farting and Arrested Development’s Tennessee is playing on my iTunes. Somewhere on this lot, they’re shooting episode 12. I wrapped my second episode, 11, entitled “Ducks and Tigers” last Thursday. We start shooting the finale, 13 on Friday, and we wrap in two weeks. I’ll still have to come in for a few days of editing and sound stuff for 11, but basically I’m then on (unpaid) hiatus for 5 months or so while I wait to find out if I’m asked back. I’m not sure what I’m going to do. Write a film script or two. Maybe a novel I’ve been kicking around for a while. Finally play Godfather 2 on my Xbox. Take my patient dog to the beach more. Travel. Hope I didn’t suck and am asked back for season six.

Anyway, episode 5005 of Weeds airs tonight at 10pm on Showtime. The episode is called “Van Nuys.” And yes, the title has a metaphoric meaning. Elizabeth Perkins and Kevin Nealon are hysterical as always. Mary-Louise Parker is stunning; each take is an acting lesson. Hunter Parrish dives into the silly shit I asked of him with relish, and Alexander Gould turns Shane in a very strange , exciting direction here. The guest stars, Stephanie Erb, James Urbaniak, Todd Robert Anderson, Larry Joe Campbell, Alanis Fucking Morissette, Demian Birchir and Hemky Madera all kill it. And Justin Kirk should win an Emmy for this episode. I’m serious. (And not because of my boneheaded words.) Watch his last scene with Nancy and tell me I’m wrong. The man is magic. He can do anything. I’m not kidding. Plus, he’ll kick your ass at Brick Breaker.

Big giant thanks to Jenji Kohan and Roberto Benabib. They will never read this — Jenji is too busy writing the finale script and Roberto thinks blogs are gay — but they are the best bosses I’ve ever had, and have not only given me a job, but an education.

I’m always painfully aware of the big picture. This sort of life seems very glamorous and can feel enviable. And it is and isn’t. I spent years and years of cold mornings walking through the hills above my little apartment in the base of the Hollywood Hills, dreaming of somehow wriggling my way into a career in movies and television. I joke about the coke and the hookers (I know nothing about either), but the dream really is to find a way to make money doing something you love. And for me, telling stories, whether as an actor or writer, was what I wanted to do. And that’s where I’m really blessed. The other stuff is honestly WAY less interesting or glamorous then it seemed to me when I was taking those yearning strolls. And through it all I repeat every day, “Fortunate. Fortunate. Fortunate.”

a huge CONGRATULATIONS to you!!!

Pardon me as I admit to being that one person who has not seen Weeds, at least not regularly enough to even remotely be able to jump in at this point or know what was going on (though I do have it netflix-ed to eventually remedy this problem). I do know that you are hilarious (I love the The Film Pigs movie reviews), entertaining, well-spoken and I would be willing to bet that you are a fabulous writer. Obviously. Now I have one more reason to freaking watch the show already!

.xo. Random Tumblr lady who follows you. On Tumblr (lest that be unclear).