Randall Nichols, Co-Director.

The big news tonight is that Kyle offered me the position of co-director on "Trendsetter," and despite some hesitation, I have accepted.

I may be being overly-cautious here. I didn't study the technical side of film or directing while at Bennington, even though both options were open to me. Wasn't much interest. Writing has always been my number one pursuit, and I am very worried that my on-job-training will cause hold ups in the filming of "Trendsetter," and I honestly don't want to steal the spotlight from Kyle. I am also moderately worried about my reputation; I can, at times, be difficult to deal with, and I fear that being in a position of power where people have to do what I say might make me seem even less pleasant.

Despite these apprehensions, I said yes because Kyle thinks me doing this is what's best for the project, and my philosophy since the first draft has been that Kyle's the boss. I trust his judgment on this, and he has assured me that if things start to go horribly awry, I can step down. Besides, it means a lot to me that he thinks I can. All told, and not that I'm looking at any of my projects as trial runs, but I probably need the experience, as Casey has been nudging me to direct "Un-Filmable" post "Clean/Electric City."

But that's getting way too far ahead of myself.

So, add "Co-Director" to the resume to be.

Other news. I had some excess energy tonight, and even though I hadn't gotten all my reading done [Finished Casey's thing -- I've had it longer -- and made notes, starting on Kaley's], Kyle suggested I write a short, and I found the idea kind of fun [my day-to-day writing lately has been scribbles of dialogue on legal pad or tweaking "Trendsetter"]. The ten-minute scene I wound up with isn't something I think Kyle would be interested in, but I'm going to post it here for him and anyone else to look at, if they so choose. You can download the .PDF at the following link:

"The Infamous Dan Cody"

I warn you ahead of time, it isn't very good. About the coolest thing in it I stole from Bucky Sinister, but he has allowed me to take from his poems in my private work before and I don't think he'll mind this either. Bonus points if anyone reading can identify where I got all the characters' names from, too.

Learned a few things from trying to get this onto the page. Don't tend to keep straight-to-Word screenplays, even shorts, and certainly not without copious notes and outlines. First of all, I think my fear of exposition has gotten crippling, because there was so much while writing this I wanted to do, and just didn't. Also, I think the whole "rad" thing from "Trendsetter" has given me a scare, because a lot of the slang I stripped out of this, while I was writing it. It is also gluttonous with the "beats" and "BEATS," and for the first time ever, I realize I'm doing that more for readers than for people actually saying the lines. It may be a little too strict of me, and I think it'd probably be good for me to trust my actors/readers more. Not saying I'm ready to do that yet, just saying the idea is germinating.

Also, it's just kind of terrible.

Considering doing another. As I said, was tempted to just delete this, but there might be something here. If nothing else, I know I want to write more about psych wards.

Please, if you read that... thing, don't hold it's against me. I'm actually a pretty okay writer, sometimes.

Should be sleeping. Head is killing me thanks to allergies, and the sun is already up. I loathe spring.

More soon.