Backstory (003)

I never meant to become a writer. I meant to become a professional basketball player. My back up plan was to become a teacher and basketball coach. High School taught me a lot of things, but it mostly taught me that I wasn’t going to be a professional basketball player. For the most part, I did not enjoy high school, so going back to that environment to teach and coach quickly became out of the question.

I dealt with high school blues by escaping through film. When I was young my mother prepared me for a love of film by showing my brothers and me classic films, mostly Cary Grant screwball comedies or musicals like Singin’ In The Rain and The Court Jester. In High School it was Monty Python, Mel Brooks and Woody Allen. I identified with these films, but mostly with the authors voice. Something about them made me feel comfortable, safe, and confident in a happy ending.

When my senior theology class was assigned biographies, the teacher told us we could execute our project in any form we wanted. My subject was Albert Einstein and I chose to make a film about him. I wrote the script and my best friend played Albert. It was a comedic biopic where I told the story of Albert Einstein’s life in about five minutes. The end credits rolled and I took the VHS out of machine. My classmates just shook their heads like I was an asshole for wasting five minutes of their lives. It didn’t matter. I was hooked. I caught the filmmaking bug and later applied to colleges with respected film programs.

I studied filmmaking in Boston. The program was strong in film theory but weak in film production. I edited my first five short films on a Steinbeck. Editing one film on a flatbed makes sense, but five (in the 2000’s) is absurd. College exposed me to some amazing films and filmmakers. Bergman, Tarkovsky, Godard, Kurosawa – they all played a positive role in redefining the way I looked at film. College also introduced me to some young filmmakers who quickly became and remain some of my best friends. These friends helped me write and direct my senior film, an absurd comedy about a band of misfits that come together to save the banana from going extinct. The film was a relative success as far as silly student films go but wasn’t about to find its way into Cannes or Sundance.

I graduated from college and moved to Los Angeles not having much clue how the business side of the film business works. (Actually, I’m still confused). That didn’t stop me from starting a production company with seven of my closest college friends. We had a clever name, “F8 Pictures”, so I figured we’d be all set. I don’t remember exactly what our plan was, but I think our goal had something to do with opening our own studio, having arms in LA, NY, Boston and Sydney, ruling the film business, starting a new Hollywood in the suburbs of Boston and ending world hunger. I dissolved the company within the year. Apparently you need to pay small business taxes or something like that.

In Los Angeles I started working on films as a production assistant. Some small independents, some big budget Hollywood fair. This gave me conversation starters when my family interrogated me about life in Hollywood, but it left me creatively unfulfilled. I didn’t have the money to make another short film so I decided to concentrate on writing. When self-motivation wasn’t enough, I enrolled in a highly respected screenwriting program in Los Angeles. The program helped refine my skills as a screenwriter. I wrote one coming of age story (it wasn’t very good) and one family comedy (which I’m shopping around).

My family comedy got the young producer interested in my work. My latest project, the original sitcom that I wrote (based on the material of a standup comedienne), got the manager interested in my work.

I still play basketball twice a week.