The title of this blog is the title of the short film that I adapted from a friend's short story, and directed. It is available for viewing at www.jfhl.net. It's the only thing up there right now.

The video quality (and audio for that matter) leaves something to be desired. It was shot on a 200 dollar minidv camera, and it looks like it. So we're not submitting it to any festivals.

Then there was Stain. Stain was a short we did as part of a 24 hour film making contest. It was conceived, written, shot, edited in 24 hours. We had a 10 000 dollar camera, a 10 000 dollar editing suite, and a professional editor to go along with it. It rocks. Everybody did such a great job of it... except the computer that was supposed to render and burn it. That computer failed. So, we missed the deadline. It was probably the most morose and depressed room I've ever been in, watching the minutes tick away, knowing we were gonna miss the deadline after all that work.

But not all is lost. It's a good little short, and our awesome producer has found a couple other small film festivals she's going to submit it to. That's the long way of me saying that Stain is not yet available on the internet.

But in the meantime, check out "A Brief Monstrosity" and let me know what you think.

www.jfhl.net

Yeah. A year at film school to learn writing, and my first two projects out of school are... directing.

So, TV.com only lets me type in my blog for about 3 seconds, before it just goes white and all typing ceases, so I'm typing this out first in another program, so I can copy paste, something I've never done before. Needles to say, I am in for operation... be quiet. Anyways, I have submitted a video the Evil League of Evil. I filmed it way back when I was in Vancouver still, and it's basically just been sitting around, waiting for the doors to open. And now they are. So here it is. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9d94ZWqwZs If anybody else has submitted an application, lemme know! I want to see them!

I suck at being on here lately. This seems to have been a problem for about the last 8 months... roughly the time I started at film school.

It's just so busy here! So far, I've written a feature length screenplay (which included an outline, two drafts of the treatment, writing the actual screenplay, then rewriting the screenplay), a spec episode of Reaper (which consisted of the same amount of work asthe screenplay... sending this off to the Austin Film Festival teleplay competition), sketch night (had 2 sketches produced), a short film that is soon to be in production (5 page short, but holy a lot of rewrites :|..), a pilot episode of a sitcom (awful. It was just awful.), a spec episode of What About Mimi (children's animated show), a speculative documentary idea (ick), plus all the regular school stuff that was just homework (genre studies type things).

On top of this, I've been working on several non-school projects... I've got one called "Henchmen" I'm hoping we'll be shooting on our own shortly with a few friends here in Vancouver, plus writing a pilot with a friend back in Edmonton (via msn, oh funtimes), PLUS with that same friend an actor friend (and a few filmly-inclined friends that are less involved), working on a soon-to-be you-tube short (and by soon, I mean Octoberish), and then a series of shorts with that same group.

And now, in school, we're writing our own TV pilots, starting a second movie, rewriting each other's sitcoms, and as I mentioned, going into production on our port-shorts.

I really do wish I was here more often, but I've just been incredibly busy with school. And drinking.

BTW... I suck at pitching. For some reason I start shaking and get nervous, and it's real embarassing. I was told that drinking could help loosen me up. Yes, I'm at a school where "drink before you come to class" is advice the teachers give me. I reall am not complaining.

But I will try to be more regular. I love the tv.com community, and really do wish to be more involved in it. For one reason or another, though, I've always been absent-ish... even before school here, I guess. Maybe one day that would change, I certainly hope it does.

The last four days, I was in Edmonton, because it was my best friend's wedding.

Has anybody seen previews for that Patrick Dempsey movie "Made of Honor"?

That's me, aside from the being in love with the bride part. I was given the title "Man of Honor", and yes, much joking was made about it. It wasn't so bad though, because the entire wedding party, outside of the bride, was male. So there were 2 bridesmen right beside me.

The whole weekend was a blast. Alcohol was had, friends were made, panic was had (naturally)... and there are some crazy pictures. The photographers came around at the end of the reception, and shook hands with everybody at the head table, and thanked us all for giving them the best photo ops/greatest time at work they've had in a long long time.

But, I'm back in Vancouver now. So. Yay?

So, I know I've been very MIA lately, and haven't been commenting on other's blogs, so if nobody reads this one, that's fine. It's also about my hatred for a hockey player, so possibly another reason to stay away. It's just that this is my only blog and after today's events, I have tovent.

So, about a year and a half ago, I blogged about Chris Pronger leaving the Oilers. A little reminder... Pronger was undoubtedly our best player in 15 years, and only spent one season in Edmonton, despite signing a 5 year deal. He never gave any reasons for demanding a trade, just that he wanted one. Naturally, Oiler fans were pissed.

"He slept around! He has an illigimate child! His wife is PISSED!"

Baby Pronger was sad. "Why do people need to spread rumours? I'm going to Anaheim, where nobody will ever spread rumours about me." (Well, actually, that's true, because nobody in Anaheim knows what hockey is, let alone who Chris Pronger is.)

So now, for the most part, we've let it go. It was a while ago. I mean, we still hate him, and boo him every time he's in town, but that's to be expected. We've let the rumours go (and it's pretty commonknowledge that his wife never stepped foot in Edmonton, and didn't ever want to.)

So, out of the blue today, Pronger is on the Jim Rome show (continent wide sports talk) and for no reason at all says "yeah, after I asked for the trade, a bunch of Oilers fans broke into my house and set all my furniture on fire."

When Pronger left, every other star in the NHL said to themselves "wow, Edmonton must SUCK. I will never play there." It has been an absolutely dreadful 2 years for us because of him. We were finally making some headway, I think, and then he said this. Well, it's not true. The fact of the matter is that if people had burned Prongers furniture, they'd have been hailed as heroes. We'd have celebrate "Pronger-burning day" every year. WE'D HAVE KNOWN.

Pronger knows it's not true. It's his furniture that, you know, he still has. The only reason he said this is to further hurt the city's image.

Thanks a lot, you dooshbahg. What was that you said about spreading rumours?

If there was ever a person whose face I would spit in if I passed him in the street, it's Chris Pronger. Not even a second thought.

Might be a while.

Having some SERIOUS issues with this script... haven't even got the outline done yet. I thought the first one was difficult to wrap 22 episodes up in one script... this one is even harder. There were so many new characters introduced... threads that ran through the season, and the MOST difficult, threads that were started, or hinted at, that don't become important until season 3 or 4.

It makes it incredibly difficult to decide what stays and what goes... I'm really afraid this script could turn into a completely chaotic mess simply because I'm trying to cram everything in.

The first script was like that, somewhat, but there were less characters, and everything was wrapped up at the end of the season.

So yeah, might be a while...

www.jfhl.net

Last night, I had a rather scary talk on MSN with one of my very close friends back home.

He, along with 3 of my other friends, were in a car. They were pulling out of the parking lot at one of their apartments. Well, the guy driving *almost* cut somebody off, accidentely. It happens. He screwed up.

Well, the truck he almsot cut off didn't take it so lightly. He followed them, leaning on his horn for 3-4 minutes. He pulled up beside them, and sideswiped them into on coming traffic, where they had a head-on collision.

My friend driving has a broken collarbone, but thankfully that's the worst injury. Everybody else came out of it with minor scrapes and bruises. I think the guy they hit head-on is in the hospital with spinal issues of some sort.

The jack*** that sideswiped them took off as soon as he hit them. Hopefully he gets caught. It's just ridiculous that some people are that messed up.

At what point did he have the thought, "Yes, this guy just about cut me off. Clearly he deserves to die. Not only that, but anybody in the car with him should die as well. To make this happen, I'm willing to sacrifice the lives of whoever happens to hit them."

Today's Thanksgiving in Canada. Today I'm thankful four of my friends aren't dead.

Well, it's not perfect, but if I kept tweaking it until it WAS perfect, I'd never release it. That's right, the first screenplay is now available for readingness.

If anybody starts reading it, I'd really appreciate if they make it all the way through... also, it should take 1-2 hours to read, maybe a bit longer depending on your speed, and that may seem like a long time, but it is best read in one sitting... same as any movie is best viewed in one sitting.

But I'm not a hack. This isn't fan-fic... it's the proper screenplay formatting (give or take a few small things, but that's all subject to interpretation), grammar and spelling is all good (there may be the odd thing), and all and all... it'sreadable. I think.

Anybody who reads it, PLEASE let me know what you think, positive, negative, whatever. I want feedback!

So, without further ado, I present

http://www.jfhl.net/

Click on the big Seasons logo (like at the top of this blog), and then on "Season 1 Screenplay"

It's in PDF format, I apologize if that annoys people... but it was either that or FDR, and I'm guessing most people don't own Final Draft, so that'd have been useless.

Enjoy! :D It may not be fantabulous, but I'm very proud of it!

EDIT: It appears that the bandwidth transfer on my site is... tiny. Usually it'll be up within an hour. If you can't wait, PM me your email addy, and I'll send you the script ASAP. I also promise not to stalk you.

Tomorrow, I will release the first screenplay in the Seasons/Laura verse. It is all of season 1 of "Seasons" rolled into one movie.

I've been taught I have to be able to pitch my screenplays in one sentence, in a certain format. Here goes...

"Seasons" is about a group of super-powered teens who must stop the Vampyris Leader from getting the Amulet of Curatio, or else he'll bring back all vampires ever slain in an effort to overthrow human society.

Season 1 definately borrows some MAJOR aspects of Buffy (I bet you couldn't tell, but the Vampyris Leader is actually based on.. dun dun dun... The Master!:o)... when I wrote it, I was still young and fresh, and needed to write what I was comfortable with. The screenplay is a bajillion times better than the season, but the overall plot is still the same, and still has those serious Buffy-themes.

Hopefully that cheezy tagline didn't turn anybody off of reading it...

It'll be up on a newly revamped jfhl.net sometime tomorrow night.

First, an update, I'm on page 75 of the first "Seasons" screenplay. (Seasons is the name of the stuff I wrote, that I mentioned in the last blog. It's spinoff is "Laura")

But the point of this blog is quite different. It's about suicide.

There is nothing wrong with suicide. I want to make that clear. I've been there, I understand that feeling, and really, the last thing anybody needs to hear when they're already desperate enough to end their own life is that they're wrong for wanting that. That they're somehow less than other people. That this particular illness (depression) isn't a real disease.

Well yeah, it is. (If profanity was allowed, I just would have used it.)

Not all suicidal people are depressed. That's fine, too. Not all people who die from smoking have lung cancer.

Here are some stats that always throw me. These vary from area to area, but roughly 16 percent of people SERIOUSLY consider suicide before the graduate from high school. 14 percent have made a suicide plan.

SEVEN PERCENT HAVE MADE AN ATTEMPT

TWO PERCENT HAVE REQUIRED SERIOUS MEDICAL ATTENTION DUE TO AN ATTEMPT

This is a lot of people! This isn't a tiny little deal, here, a LOT of people are suicidal! But where's the representation? Suicide is just SO taboo that nobody talks about it! Buffy touched on it breifly at the start of season 6. Jonathan attempted it in season 3 (I always pretend it's Buffy talking to me in that bell tower. Jonathan's my name too.) but even then, as soon as she finds out he wants to kill himself, and not others, she's outta there, which is understandable... but she doesn't even give him another thought.

I remember an episode of 7th Heaven that dealt with a suicidal kid. I was so happy somebody was finally airing an episode of TV I could relate to. Nope, turns out the kid wasn't actually suicidal, just wanted attention. Well, that was useless.

More stats? Okay. In the last 50 years, suicide rates have TRIPLED in youths aged 15-24.

In Canada, 4000 people take their own lives a year. That's 11 a day. To put that in perspective, about 3100 people die from drunk drivers in Canada a year. Now think about how many ads you see for each of those.

For people aged 15-24 suicide is the LEADING cause of death. More than ANYTHING else.

Worldwide, suicide is responsible for more deaths than homicide and war.

But nobody knows this! It makes me so sick.

Now, I said that I don't think suicide is wrong. I don't. So why am I so upset more people aren't getting help? Because you can get past it. Although it never really *completely* goes away, you can be happy again. And that's better than dying. I will never, EVER, get mad at somebody for attempting, or commiting suicide. But I will do whatever I can to convince them not to until it's too late.

Joss's charity is Equality Now.

If I'm successful in becoming a writer, I'm going to do everything I can to up the awareness of suicide. Suicide Prevention will by my Equality Now.

It would have done me so much good to see a TV show deal with suicide. Or a movie. Or something. I had no idea that 16 percent of all people my age wanted the same thing. I'm gonna do my darndest (again with the profanity) to make get those stories out there.