Comic-Con - Wow!

For the last four days (five if you include the preview night where those who paid for all for days got to see all the booths before anyone else) I've been attending the Comic-Con here in San Diego. It is a immensely massive gathering of people who come to see comic book artists and writers, TV and movie producers, writers, actors and directors.

I've seen Zack Snyder who directed Watchmen, 300 and the upcoming Watchmen, Kevin Smith who did Dogma, Chasing Amy, Clerk I and Clerks II among others, Frank Miller who did Sin City and the upcoming The Spirit, Judd Apatow who made The 40-year-old Virgin, Knocked Up and produced a hell of a lot more movies. The actors I've seen include Benicio Del Toro, Samuel L. Jackson, Billy Crudup, Seth Roegen, Jaime King, Elizabeth Banks among many others. Last, but not least I've met some of my favorite comic writers and great idols of mine, Brian Azzarello and Brian Wood who did 100 Bullets and DMZ respectively.

Nearing its end, I've managed to learn a lot about comic book writing and the ways to get into the industry. It's not at all as easy as it seems. Daniel Knauf, the writer of the amazingly awesome TV series, Carnivàle, said that you had to keep writing, but one of the most recurring pieces of advice was that it was likely that you'd need to publish a novel before getting into the comic business. This complicates matter further for me, as I'm unlikely to ever publish a novel here in the US (hopefully, it'll happen some day in Denmark and if that ever happens, it's unlikely that any of the big comic companies will ever know of it). But I haven't lost hope yet, and there may be a time when I'll try to pursue writing a comic book. Perhaps some day in the future when I've written a movie script that's been picked up (yeaaaaaaah right, keep dreaming!).

In any case, I'll enjoy the last couple of days here in Comic-Con before returning to L.A. where I'll stay for exactly one week before going back to Denmark August 4th.

Busy doing nothing - and Six Flags!

For the last many days I have done nothing more than sit on the couch here in Loftstel and just enjoy life. I've been partying and hanging out with people and writing, and basically also been busy doing nothing, if you can say that :-)

However, yesterday I went to a massive amusement park, called Six Flags - Magic Mountain, with three friends. It consists of numerous rollercoasters that can either give you the trill of a lifetime or a scare for life, depending on your nerve and courage. Some were better than others, of course, but none of them were particularly bad. The park itself doesn't compare to anything I've experienced before, and I'll never forget it.

In four days I will sadly leave Los Angeles. However, I will be going to San Diego which will most likely prove to be an awesome experience as I will visit the 2008 Comic-Con where a myriad of comic writers, artists and fans will unite, and as if that wasn't enough, several upcoming big-budget blockbusters will be presented by the actors, directors and writers, so I'm definitely looking forward to that.

Script-wise, I must admit that I've stalled the project temporarily as I've reached a point where I don't really agree with the structure of the story (not the entire script, just this point particularly), and I'm trying to figure out how to make it more tight. But I'll have four days where I'll probably concentrate a bit more on the screenplay.

Fourth of July!

In the days up to Fourth of July, I got to see that some Americans saw it as a big deal. I knew it already, but it was fun to see how they all got a little more patriotic than usual, some even stating that it was the day of the year when they could feel good about being American. However, as it was a holiday, I had expected that to some degree. When the day finally came, I went to the Manhattan beach (not in Manhattan naturally) to drink and have fun. It was a really fun day. The currents in the sea are extremely powerful, and it was fun to challenge the waves. Surprisingly, I didn't get sunburnt even though I was at the beach from noon until midnight.

After the Fourth of July, I've been a little more laid back, as I received a tip from a couple of screenwriters here in the Loftstel about a software program by the name of FinalDraft. It is a program that takes care of all the technical details of the script, e.g. how it has to be lined up and how you need a heading for each scene and how you need to have another margin when writing dialogue. It makes everything ten times easier than writing in Word (and I got the feeling that the other two screenwriters thought me to be crazy), and I've already started my second draft of my currently 70 pages long screenplay in that program.

Today I will probably stay in and continue my work, as it is going all too well.

A little Russian Turtoise walked up the road in Los Angeles...

I stayed at the USA Hostel in Hollywood for a total of four days. My opinion of it certainly improved over the course of the stay, especially because I met a lot of really friendly people and I severely enjoyed partying in the bar. At first, when I arrived, I didn't really feel welcome. Most were travelling in groups and, therefore, were more interested in seeing the Los Angeles area. I'm not blaming them, my entire trip in Washington D.C. was basically only to see the place and not really getting to know people. However, the parties greatly improved my impression because people got a lot more connected, and thanks to perhaps half of the staff (because the other half were not that helpful and considerably rude and crude), they managed to attract a lot of people to their parties and I might be repeating myself, but that made the stay so much more worth it.

I was sad to leave, especially with all the opportunities to party there, but then I arrived at Loftstel L.A., a newly made hostel in the Loftstel 'chain'. And I cannot believe how welcome I felt here when I arrived. During the day and the night, I got a warm welcome from everyone and I have yet to experience the feeling of just being right at home on the day of my arrival. So, I am very impressed by this place and the people, and I expect this stay to be just as pleasant as most of the other hostels.

And the random anecdote of the day begins with me just going outside the door to my dorm room and getting called upon to go outside to help with something. Because the washing machine is broken, I figured I was supposed to help them take that in, so I gladly agreed to. However, it turned out that a turtle the size of my fist was walking in the grass right outside our hostel. We took it in and actually found an aquarium tank in the yard (and what are the odds of finding a random aquarium tank in the backyard?) and put it in there, yet sadly it couldn't stay as no pets were allowed in the hostel. We did, however, discover that it was a Russian Turtoise, and it stayed most of the day. But it has to be the most random event of the day.