Film and Theatre
I never wanted to write films. I vividly remember an argument with my friend Yas, an NYC-based filmmaker, about a play I was working on. He heard the story and said "That would make a great film ..." and then I told him where to go, at great length. Ironically, I would turn that idea into a feature film script 15 years later ... for which I even did get a scholarship.
We did cover screenplays in our classes and I remember all the boys working on their next Reservoir-Dogs-meets-Citizen-Kane kind of masterpiece, whilst all the girls were trying to give their stage plays as much pathos as they could and I was trying so very hard to write verse like Steven Berkoff, because that man was, after all, "a fucking genius". It turned out that my verse wasn't the problem ... but that, too, is now covered in a screenplay.
I am a profoundly negative person, so writing comedy comes naturally to me. Thus far I have written way more comedies than I have written dramas (And let's be honest: those were comedy-dramas.), but for some reason my dramatic scripts tend to make it into production faster. I used to think I wasn't funny ... as a matter of fact I have been told I wasn't funny. One man told me that my work lacked punchlines and didn't seem too amused that I retorted that this was because I didn't like punchlines. Another told me my work wasn't funny, but witty, and he wanted funny. He then proceeded to show me his work and well, it wasn't witty ... and it wasn't funny, either. And then I turned 40 and decided that my tits and arse were saggy enough by now for me to no longer have to prove a point. And I lived happily ever after.
Seriously, though, thus far several shorts and one and a half feature films of mine have been produced and I provided comedy fodder for the 'two ladies' comedy ensemble as well as the 'shakespeare for dummies' TIE programme with an abridged (and modern) version of the Scottish Play. I have recently completed my first feature documentary and am currently working on a new web series, several audio productions as well as two feature films, and because it really is so much fun, I am planning to start shooting my second feature doc some time this summer.