Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category

back in the SF marina

Monday, December 22nd, 2008

I slept on the floor last night and shivered as though the 3 feet of snow on the ground in Boston followed me to San Francisco. It’s cooold in the foggy city. But I still miss this place.

With 3 moves in nearly as many days, it has been a busy return to California. First stop was Los Angeles where a loyal Scripped blog reader and mother of my someone special had a fantastic birthday party at a tapas restaurant in Ventura. Just one day prior, I loaded up a Zipcar and moved my crap from Cambridge to Boston, where I will sunset my days as a graduate student in a cozy new Beacon Hill apartment. From Ventura we took the 101 straight up to San Francisco and woke up early to help the movers load up a U-Haul. No more kitchen nook and views of Scott and Chestnut. It’s funny how much smaller an apartment looks when the furniture’s out. With hardly a moment’s rest, were back on the road to Davis for another apartment cleanout. Then half of us returned to the empty marina apartment and cuddled up on the bare floor next to the radiator that hissed and spat as it tried to keep us warm through the night.

And now I am back at the marina Starbucks. This place is like a friend that I couldn’t get along with for a while and is now back in my life. I credit it to the free wireless. I used to hate the fact that Starbucks, at the height of its cash hogginess, would charge obscene rates for Internet access. Finally, my old friend has come around. I’m loving the free Starbucks wireless, and I reward them by purchasing a soy mocha with my Starbucks card.

Today I am off to Napa for lunch and a visit to grandma. Sunil is traveling around Barcelona and Zak is currying it up in India. That leaves Josh and I to hold down the fort through the holidays. Were it not for my iPhone life would be much less pleasant and I’d have to duck into these cafes more often to keep up on your emails and other business. It’s such a treat how technology not only makes it possible to keep up with a virtual company, but also allows the possibility to be a student, a grandson, a boyfriend, and even an apartment mover, more or less all at the same time. I would not have it any other way.

Happy holidays, Scripped folks. We’re really looking forward to the new year. In the next big newsletter we’ll tell you why!

Cheers,

Ryan

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Posted in Writing, entrepreneurship, ryan | 3 Comments »

writing under pressure

Friday, December 5th, 2008

One of the best classes I’m taking this semester (or should I say took? 1 class left!) is taught by Maralee Schwartz, former political editor of the Washington Post. In this class, titled “How Politicians Connect,” we study the connecting strategies of Obama and McCain.

Of course it entails a good amount of reading and writing. Hmm… connecting, writing/reading… Seem to go together, no? A good book, or in Scripped-land, a good screenplay, connects the writer to the reader. It is done not just by writing well and looking good (Mitt Romney) but by being straightforward (McCain, at least in his better days) and always genuine (Obama, frustratingly consistent). Finding your true voice and being honest with yourself is what readers respond to in good writing. It’s probably why writing under pressure often produces your best stuff.

Like today. I got an email from Sunil asking me to put another one of my awesome blog posts together. I thought to myself, I have nothing to write about. Then I self-corrected - there is always something to say if I let my true self out. The best way to do that? Give yourself a time limit. I have contact@scripped emails to respond to before my lunch date with said Prof. Schwartz! Plus my own personal overflowing inbox! Plus economic problem sets to grade!

We all have our obligations, but taking the time to write, if that’s what you like to do, is critical. I leave with one last anecdote. Yesterday I had the good fortune to lunch with Jeff Taylor, the former “Chief Monster” at Monster.com (wildly popular job/resume website) and current head of Eons.com. He asked the other students at the table what we do for fun. Odd question from a bad ass CEO, right? Well, he told us he’s a DJ and spends his Sunday mornings sourcing music from all over the world and does his mixing on Thursday nights. Then his mix goes off to Sirius and XM where they broadcast his creation.

He told us that as you get older, it becomes increasingly important to do what you love. It helps you connect, stay straightforward, and be genuine and sincere with yourself. So thank you, Sunil, for making me write.

And with that, I return to those emails…

Ryan

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Posted in Uncategorized, Writing, ryan | 9 Comments »

real-life action heroes

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008

I’m writing about the Kennedy School not because it’s relevant at all to screenwriting, but because it’s kinda fun to write about. It is Harvard after all.

In the early mornings in the Harvard Kennedy School forum the tables are filled with mid-career students. They study Dutch labor markets, development in Niger, and leadership failures. They come from around the world: one mid-career I met recently holds office in Nairobi, another is a woman from Pakistan had a staff of 1,400 when her office suffered a suicide bombing.

Before I enrolled here I knew that people like this existed. I knew somewhere in the world there were those who risked their lives to eliminate corruption and have to convince their employees to come back to work after a 17-year-old boy detonated himself in the lobby. It’s the stuff of movies, but it’s also real life.

My favorite mid-career student is someone I sat behind on a small bus on a field trip to West Point. She is a photographer named Laura Rauch and her work is beautiful. Each picture she showed told a story. She knew the subjects and gave the context that led her to that particular village or hospital. She was embedded with troops in Iraq and followed Hillary Clinton and John Kerry around during the election. She also took some great pictures of Las Vegas. I’d guess she’s in her 40s. A real-life steely action hero journalist. Again, the stuff of movies. So maybe there’s a tie-in after all.

I was on the phone yesterday with Steve Schwartz of Chockstone Pictures. He searches for stories that have real meaning, perhaps the kind of film that would fly under the coverage radar. Participant Media, the company that brought us Syriana, Thank You For Smoking, and Good Night and Good Luck might be the closest big firm to Steve’s vision.

In seeking his projects, Steve looks for scripts that are unique and based off of real experiences by real people. I can’t help but think he should survey my older classmates. Or better yet, I’ll get them to write their stories on Scripped and tell him to search for loglines (when we get that function up… soon!)

It’s what we’re here for, after all.

Ryan

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