Today, around 1pm, we put the finishing touches and final scenes into a collaborative, feature length screenplay: 91 pages of witty dialogue, dramatic tension and, guns. Writing is interesting when you have four chefs in the kitchen. Every scene became another course, with one person providing the meat and potatoes, another adding the sauce, and on down the line until we had a huge collection of spicy meals.

I am not a chef. My point is, there are usually two parts of filmmaking that involve sitting alone in a dark room: writing and editing. Writing, when you start with a terrifyingly white screen and a blinking cursor taunting you until you start to fill in the space, and editing, when you are presented with hours of raw footage and it is your responsibility to cram the good bits into a small period of time in which regular people will love what you are giving them.

Left alone in that room, any of the four of us could have made the script equivalent of a taco, or a slab of corn beef with cabbage. Together, after weeks of running through lines, arguing motivations, and creating plot points in our twisting narrative we were left holding something like a Tex-Mex Asian Fusion Mediterranean dish, ready to ship out to coverage and marketing.

Put simply: Status Quo, ftw.

Please enjoy this video of Rob reading the script captured from Henry’s Blackberry.

Script Reading

Happy Thanksgiving from Crooked Lake Productions!

Pop a button and loosen the belt, bring on the bird!

Click here for your Turkey Day surprise:

Or click here.

(Pause for celebration) Now get back on the grind!

Congratulations! You and the rest of this generation have “single-Votedly” changed history and done something America has never been able to do.

Now what? Just because we won an election does not mean that the two remaining months we have with Jr. will be filled with skittle rainbows and golden tickets. Where and when will our troops move? How do we get the rest of the world to look us in the eye after 8 years of folly? When will non-insured people start to notice the benefits of a modified health care plan? Will we get to step out of the automobile box that was created for us last century and try something a little more new and efficient? What about us small business owners? Joe the plumber can now apply for his low interest loan, but what are we going to do about the recession we’re facing that is dragging us into the largest economic crisis we have ever experienced? Henry the film guy wants to know.
“Obama’s winning percentage appears likely to be the largest of any Democrat since Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 landslide and makes him the first since Jimmy Carter in 1976 to garner more than 50.1 percent.”

Last night our president- with the nation and the people by his side- claimed a significant victory that will be printed in history books with pride. The glory of last night flashes bright in our eyes but we cannot ignore the fact that we have inherited crucial problems of historic magnitude. President Obama is being compared to Franklin D. Roosevelt for his willingness to attack this country’s challenges and specifically focus on solving our economic crisis. While crisis may be a scary word, it is truly representative of America’s current financial nightmare; one that we desperately need to wake and recover from. Meanwhile, there is still a war in Iraq that needs to end, and al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan need to be stopped.

It looks like we will be a busy country.

We won…last night is ours to have. Remember how you felt when you watched the television screen, taking in those great words of inspiration. Remember it for your grandchildren and then tell them what you did to make those words part of our society’s present and past. Now it is America’s responsibility to own the next four years and take on the future.

“The road ahead will be long; our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America — I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you — we as a people will get there.”

I wonder what would happen if a mandatory part of life was having to abide by a government enforced law that regulated and legalized the use of oxygen? To utilize the right, a citizen would have to choose to register and every four years physically go to an assigned destination to obtain the use of oxygen.

One of the most positive attributes of being an American is the right to an opinion and the freedom to voice it. This belief rapidly leads to the most important question of our time… are you prepared to exercise that right and speak your mind?

Vote.

I’m not going to tell you who to pick I’m just asking you to choose.

It’s an easy thing to stand on a soapbox in the smoking area of a populated bar… apparent, smooth and quick to speak your mind. It’s simple to advocate a thought and control an opinion you take pride in, claiming it as your own. You’re ready to defend your beliefs against others who disagree. Preaching is basic but practicing seems to be a little more difficult, at least in our society.

I got my absentee ballot last Thursday, did you?

The following is an email from someone I choose to keep anonymous. I not only agree with most of what is being said in it but I respect and embrace the message. I encourage you to read it and pass it along. The author of the email is a Caucasian woman older than forty.

“Hi H. Darrow! –

It wouldn’t be a real party without you!  Fun debate last night.  I thought both candidates really talked to each other for once, and Obama continued to look unflustered and presidential.  He had a clear, easy-to-understand and reasonable answer to every barb that McCain flung at him.

The most important thing now is to make sure all the people who support Obama actually go out and vote for him.  Ride their bicycles, carpool, do what is necessary.  Many have probably never voted before in their lives, and may not be familiar with the terms “precinct” and “polling place”.  It takes a little where-with-all to know how to find the voting place and to get yourself there if you’ve never been before.  Republicans have been known to steal elections before just by

a) Providing reminder phone calls and offering transportation to registered Republicans

And

b) Discarding “questioned” ballots.

I know Obama has made it a point to register new voters at every rally, and his percentage of newly registered voters has far outnumbered McCain’s.  But November 4 is the test.  He is right to caution his supporters not to get too confident and complacent now that the polls are going his way.  I will be very happy if this is a landslide election.

I will also be very happy to keep McCain in the Senate, where he belongs, because I do kind of like the guy.  He has been a fine senator and he can use his quick temper and erratic ways to help get something done in our do-nothing Congress.  Of course, I don’t support his hawkish war nature (I think it is outdated), but I don’t think there is much support for the war now and he won’t go far with those views.  He has crossed the aisle to work to help the environment before, and there was a time in his life when he seriously considered switching parties.  I think he is capable of compassion.  I just don’t want him for president because the days of the old white guys are over and it is time to reflect the diversity that is now the hallmark of our country.  Plus we need Obama because he is REALLY SMART, young and fresh, and idealistic without being a foolish zealot.  We really need a leader.  Someone who can inspire people to do the right thing.  Someone who can make us feel like we are working together to create positive change.

I am looking forward to a democratic congress and a democratic president passing bills that will really jump-start energy alternatives, establish healthcare, and redistribute wealth in a New Deal sort of way.  A sort of Jack Kennedy – Franklin Delano Roosevelt combo.  Joe Biden can throw in a little shrewd Lyndon Johnson.  Hillary can stay in Congress and team up with McCain.  And we need to vote Pelosi out on her ass.  She pushed to make sure we didn’t impeach George Bush.  Impeachment was written into the constitution for a good reason — as part of our checks and balances — as a way to get rid of a “leader” who would be king.  When Bush decided he could run the world without congressional backing, he became a king instead of an elected representative of the people.”

Wow.

I wonder what would happen if governments made it illegal to breathe oxygen?  How many people would still be alive and would the ones who suffocated know they passed the chance to live?

Vote if you are with me and you sure as hell better vote if you’re against me because this year my vote will count – make sure yours does too.