Well

Would you believe it? I've been updating this blog for a solid five days in a row and I didn't even acknowledge it until today. Am I going to become a blogger from now on? Who knows, not me.

I had a real breakthrough today regarding my screenplay [For those of you not in the know, I have written and cast a screenplay to be shown on my University's TV station by the end of February] I had a really good creative writing sessions where my fellow Producer and Director Katy and I just went through the story and in particular the crucial first few scenes, and threw ideas at each other and really developed the plot and the characters. It really feels like it's alive for the first time in a long while. I cannot wait until Saturday arrives and we're able to film this, it should be amazing.

I love going back over something you think you vaguely know, and finding out that your memory has stored more of it than you thought. This is what happened when I looked over Differential Equations work today. Okay, so it's not exactly the works of William Shakespeare, but it is a lot more relevant to me than he is right now.

Watching TV earlier, and 90210 comes on. All of a sudden, horrible memories from months ago come flooding into my brain as I recall watching the pilot for this teen drama abortion. I'm trying to hold back, but here's what I think is wrong with it:

• Blatantly underestimating its audience (One of my biggest bugbears about TV is a situation where relevant plot details are shoe horned into dialogue because they cant bear the thought of establishing details through other methods which don't intrude on the story e.g "This is Beverley Hills!" "This sucks." "Oh Josh, you've been saying that the last 1500 miles from where we came from, Kansas, which is that place we moved from to come here to help my ill mother." "WHY ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT? I WAS THERE! YOU EXPLAINED THIS TO ME SEVERAL DAYS AGO, YOU KNOW, BEFORE WE PACKED UP OUR STUFF AND LEFT?")


• Horrible clichéd characters (There's the sassy grandma, the quick talking and know everything journalist, the sleazy jock, the cool and witty teacher, the bitch, etc ad nauseum)


• In the opening five minutes, a main character gets into his car at the front of the school, which is populated with students everywhere, and is receiving a blowjob. That's a blowjob, in front of school, with people everywhere, and not even tinted windows, in the front seat. Not only has this never happened in the history of the world, but it also smacks too hard of 'anything goes on here, we're crazy!' which is too unrealistic to forgive.


• MTV generation hyperactive editing disorder, which can be succinctly summarised by the following rule; if it's been more than two seconds since we changed to a different camera angle, then it is too long. It's possible to get dizzy even while you're sitting down inactive.

I couldn't watch it for very long, and even despite it's awfulness, it has achieved success in the US and even has a spinoff in the works. It's doing its part in putting me right off working in the TV industry, that's for sure.