the groundhog day project

Stand and Deliver is distracting me from ignoring it to write about something else. Police in the office investigating a crime as Escalante (Edward James Olmos) shows up for his first day. Even if that's what really happened, it's one of those details that is too on the nose to be believable. (Like John Dillinger taking seventeen people hostage with a wooden gun--changed to only three people to be more believable in Public Enemies per Cracked 's "5 True Stories Cut from Movies for Being Too Unrealistic.") And, movie classes are way too short. The scene starts like it's the beginning of class, but like a minute later the bell is ringing. A little better writing/editing and we could get into class in media res, or, you know, leave the scene before the bell rings. Just because it's a movie set in a classroom doesn't mean we need to be dismissed by the bell. Timeline is a little odd, too. He's been at the school "for a few months" and we...

Benesh (2011) is open to page 34, where there's a pink tab labeled "self-cursed." I'm on the floor by the coffee table as usual. Phil just showed up at Gobbler's Knob for the third time. Life on repeat. I had a thought today... but let me set it up. So, in my car, I listen to my iPod by way of a cigarette lighter adapter that broadcasts a weak radio signal. The frequency I use most often happens to be, when I don't have the iPod playing over it, a Christian station. Sometimes, I'll hold off turning on my iPod for a moment or two, listen to what the Christians are saying. I grew up going to church regularly, so it's not like they'll say anything particularly new or insightful. But, it occurred to me that my response to the question, why are you doing this? (this being the Groundhog Day Project ), if the person asking is a regular church attendee is why do you go to church? I've written before about how Groundhog Day and I are in a relationsh...

Subtitle: Notes on a script revision while sitting in the backseat of a car - part one. In the "Second Revision by Harold Ramis" Phil is already older, no longer the first time on air reporter. He's in his "mid-thirties, smart, rugged-looking, perhaps a little full of himself, but clearly a guy with a lot of personality." Some early lines go to Hawley, the Action News executive producer, that go to Larry and Rita later. For example, he tells Phil, "When I worked in San Diego, I covered the swallows coming back to Capistrano for ten years in a row." In the film, that's Larry's line, though he only covered the swallows for six years. Hawley also tells Phil, "It's a cute story. He comes out. He looks around, he wrinkles up his little nose, he sniffs around a little, he sees his shadow, he doesn't see his shadow—it's nice. People like it." In case you're as new as film Rita, that's her line in the movie. Phil has a ...