WRITING
The Box- Prose to Screen Comparison (2007/2008)
This is a side-by-side comparison of a novel I wrote entitled The Box and the screen adaptation I wrote for Developing the Screenplay Junior year. It was the first script I ever wrote, but the third (complete) novel. Then that stupid Richard Kelly movie came out and I had to rename it. First it was The Shadowman, the somewhat silly moniker of the villain, then just Shadows. I tried adapting it into a TV pilot last year, but then LOST revealed the Smoke Monster to actually be a person and I realized that was too similar to my titular baddie. It also wasn't that great of a story, although when I first wrote it I thought it was the best thing I'd ever made. Such is the case with writing.
While I won't be pitching the concept any time soon (it's a fable about growing up in NYC coupled with a fear of American totalitarianism), this side-by-side comparison showcases my ability to adapt prose into a script for the screen.
The Collective (2008)
My first horror film. I was watching a history channel show about underground passageways in major cities, and was intrigued by the concept of an artist's collective living in Parisian catacombs. Of course there's also a monster living down there, stemming from my love for creature features. Since horror is a genre that can so easily become cliché, I'm always trying to twist it around. In this case I thought about making the first half all about building tension, and the second half all about paying that tension off with horrific creature goodness. Sort of like Psycho, only it didn't really work out quite as well here. By the time I got around to writing another horror script, I had abandoned the slow burn structure in favor of a more relentless, heart-pounding experience that would keep the audience constantly gripped.
The Dead of Night (2011)
My most recent feature script, this horror film has been seeing the rounds in some script festivals as of late, and actually placed at #6 in the International Horror & Sci-Fi Film Festival. Originally titled In Darkness, I was forced to change it when the NYU Screenplay Bank informed me that another production had already taken it. I've also recently discovered that an upcoming horror film now shares my current title, so let me know if you have any ideas for a new, compelling title.
The script follows an American wildlife photographer commissioned by National Geographic to shoot a rare toucan in the Central American nation of Belize. He's joined by a local guide and an ex-SAS helicopter pilot, and needless to say, things quickly go awry when they head into the rainforest. I don't want to reveal too much, because it's more effective if you read it without knowing what's going to happen, but there's monsters.
Fed up with the clichés of the horror genre, I decided to write a creature feature/man vs. wild film that didn't create contrived backstories for its protagonists or throw in numerous supporting characters for the sole purpose of creating a high body count. I felt it would be more effective if there was no build up to the action- in fact it's only a mere eight pages before shit hits the fan- and if many horrible things happened to a small group of people rather than having countless jack-offs follow mysterious noises to their dooms.
This script has generated some interest among producers who read the logline from the Screenplay Bank, and I'm currently looking for agents or managers to help me sell it.
Demon Seed (2009)
This is a short story I wrote for Intro to Creative Writing during my Senior year. The name comes from a Nine Inch Nails song, whose lyrics were also an inspiration for the theme and style. The original version had virtually no backstory for the three characters' prior relationship; I added it based on comments from my professor and peers. I regretted the change later (partly because my story wasn't accepted to West 4th Street magazine) when I realized neither my professor, nor anyone else in the class was very good at writing. Almost made me glad I hadn't minored in Creative Writing while at NYU. That being said, this is still one of my favorite works.
Drywall (2009)
Science fiction and fantasy have always been my strong suits, but every once in a while I decide I need to dabble in real world stories to be a true artist. To be honest, I don't think I'm quite as good at it- my imagination is just too wild -and this feature length screenplay is a prime example. It's not that it's poorly-written, it's just that it isn't quite as gripping as my more fantastical works. After moving in to a railroad apartment in the West Village and dealing with listening to my extremely loud and obnoxious neighbor through paper-thin walls, I decided to explore the idea of listening in on those who live next to you. I was also intrigued by my fellow residents- I couldn't fathom why someone in their 30s or 40s would want to subject themselves to such a crappy abode just so they could live in super-trendy West Village. I'm also intrigued by age-gap romances and dealing with the loss of a great love. All these different ideas lent themselves to some nice moments, but overall the story didn't really coalesce and it never even went through a second draft.
George and Me (2006)
This is possibly the weirdest thing I've ever written. Another exercise for a screenwriting class, my task was to compose a scene with voiceover narration. I went a little overboard and wrote twelve pages, and even briefly considered continuing and making this into a full feature. I think it's best I didn't. The story concerns farm children hiding a hobo who claims to be George Washington in their attic, where he molests them. Yup. You read that right. So, probably a little too far out, but it does feature some pretty decent kid dialogue, something I often struggle with.
JP4 (2009)
When the producers of Jurassic Park 4 announced that the project was delayed indefinitely, I realized now was my chance- my chance to write the most awesome Jurassic Park script ever. And who better to write it than my friend and fellow JP-obsessive Rob Malone? We watched all three movies in succession and banged out some ideas, but didn't get too far on the actual script. We wrote 19 pages, only 4 of which were Rob's. The collaboration fell apart because we were both too busy with other stuff, and because truth be told we really had no idea where we were going with the story. All we had were random images and scenes we, as fans, would like to see in a fourth installment. You can see some of those ideas here.
In the Shadow of Cronenberg (2005)
This is one of several short stories I wrote at the end of high school, which I planned to compile into an anthology called Legends for an Adolescent. I had just read Salinger's Nine Stories and wanted to do something similar. I never got around to finishing the collection, but I did produce one of my finer shorts in the process. This is an intensely personal story and really sums up how I felt at the end of Senior year. Needless to say it was not a good time in my life.
The Last Scientist (2009)
This is the second story I wrote for Intro to Creative Writing. It changed little after peer review, probably because everyone in the class thought it was so cool. I felt I had seen and read lots of sci-fi stories where religion is outlawed in the future, but never science. So I imagined a post-apocalypse where human society was so terrified by science's capacity for destruction that they had eliminated it from the culture altogether.
Paradox (2005)
It was probably after watching the Back to the Future trilogy that my obsession with time travel truly began. I was fascinated by the concept of paradoxes, and decided to craft a short around the idea. This ended up being a prequel of sorts to my first novel, entitled The Man in the Suit. The book was the first in a planned six- two trilogies -which focused primarily on time travel but also mashed literally every fantasy and sci-fi concept I ever loved into one ridiculous universe. The second novel, The River of Time, was actually a collection of shorts that bridged the gap between the first and second books, and Paradox acted as the prologue for that volume. I got about 30% through the third book, entitled The Soul of the Sword, but abandoned the project altogether after a failed attempt at adapting it into a comic book with my friends Alex and Sarith (see below). Sarith made me realize that combining everything from vampires, aliens, cowboys and samurais was a bit over the top.
This is probably the best end product from the trilogy, a story that ties into the mythos but works perfectly on its own. It was originally shorter; I added some additional scenes to flesh out the plot after writing The Man in the Suit. The eponymous villain is introduced here, as is the Seer, the novel's Yoda character- it acts as his backstory. My dad really liked this story and is always telling me to submit it to The New Yorker, which makes me think he hasn't actually read a short story from that magazine in a long, long time.
Plague (2005)
In 2005 I was really into LOST and zombies. I had just seen Zach Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake and decided it was the coolest thing ever. I conceived an idea that featured a zombie apocalypse story akin to that film, and combined it with the flashback format of LOST. The ex-con character is more or less a complete rip-off of Sawyer. Still, the end result is a pretty taut story, one that won a Gold Key in the first round of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards and was featured in my high school's literary magazine.
Portal- Pilot (2010)
This is, I think, the best thing I've ever written, which is unfortunate, because shortly after finishing the first draft, I discovered that J.J. Abrams' Fringe shared a very similar mythos. I had hoped this script, about an amnesiac from another dimension, would be my ticket into the television writing industry. Unfortunately I was beaten to the punch. I am still incredibly proud of the pilot. It reads well, but more importantly, reads like it's actually a TV pilot. I've recently considered rewriting this to make it less like Fringe, removing the FBI element and focusing on its H.P. Lovecraft roots.
Portal- Short (2009)
This is the revised shooting script for the short film that inspired the above pilot, produced in my final semester of college for Tisch's Advanced Television Production course. Don't let that title deceive you- the class had absolutely nothing to with television and was kind of a travesty. Instead of learning how to write TV pilots or specs, all we learned was how to write short films that were then handed over to whippersnapper directors who didn't realize writers are the bosses in TV. Regardless, and despite various technical issues, it's probably the best and most professional film I've ever made and in my opinion, was in the top three of the six films made for the class. Since NYU dropped the ball it has yet to be completed- I'm still fiddling with the color correction and looking for some original music, but I plan to have it in the can before I move to Los Angeles. Until then, feel free to read the screenplay in its entirety. Eventually I'll get around to uploading the finished film to my Video section.
A Presence (2010)
I'm a big fan of H.P. Lovecraft and much of his work has influenced my own. Both the pilot I wrote, Portal and the short film I produced which inspired it, had shades of Lovecraft in their narratives, so a full-blown adaptation was the logical next step. I had wanted to flex my muscles and see how I handled adapting someone else's work, but decided to start things small, by tackling Lovecraft's short story, "A Colour Out of Space." I had dreams of creating a trilogy of Lovecraftian shorts, starting with Portal and ending with a film that connected it to "The Colour Out of Space." So I tapped my friends Andrés and Sarith over at Kloud TV to help me produce it. The script went through various drafts and titles, and in one incarnation combined Lovecraft's tale with the conspiracy surrounding the Roswell UFO incident. It's current incarnation actually sticks more closely to the original story than prior drafts, though I kept the 1947 setting. Even after cutting the script down Andrés still deemed it was too expensive to undertake on his own, and thus it has been stuck in limbo as I don't really know how to secure financing for shorts. I am quite proud of it though, and still hope to one day see it made, though I am now planning on adapting it into a feature film instead. If you've got cash and like horror movies, drop me a line and maybe we can make it together.
The Quest For Wong Ki (2005)
This is another story I wrote for the unfinished collection of shorts, Legends for an Adolescent. Here you can see my more humorous side, a side I have drifted farther and farther away from since graduating from high school. It was inspired by two separate drunken evenings with my friend Joe- one where we desperately searched for Chinese food at three in the morning, and another where we got lost wandering around the parks and hedge mazes of Tribecca. It's lighter than say, In the Shadow of Cronenberg because it portrays one of the best parts of high school: the camaraderie I felt with Joe when we were both plastered and exploring New York in the dead of night. It's also kinda goofy... but in a good way.
The Walking Dead- "Refractions" (2011)
This is my first attempt at writing a TV drama spec script, and frankly I think it was a resounding success. Granted, I wasn't accepted into any of the TV Networks' fellowship programs, but I imagine that is because they are looking for specs of a more procedural variety. I gave this to a lot of friends who've watched the show before submitting it, and all loved it. I was actually pleasantly surprised after finishing the script, as I wasn't sure I'd be able to mimic the voices of characters that weren't my own creation, but I think I nailed all of the show's characters.
This spec is framed as the second season premiere of the show, and while it isn't quite as cool as the zombie herd/highway scene from the actual episode, at least I gave T-Dog a real name and a backstory, and you know, made you care for him. Token black guy, everyone!
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Who Am I? (2006)
Kinda just threw this in for shits and giggles. This is an exercise I did for my second screenwriting class, Intro to Dramatic & Visual Writing (yeah, all of Tisch's course titles are that pretentious), a "comedic scene" as my professor put it. You can see shades of Office Space here, though like most of my work it's a lot weirder. In my opinion, actually a pretty nice little vignette that shows a comedic side I don't normally tap into.
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