Business Plans

If you're wondering why my blackout as of late, it's because I've been incredibly busy. I'm keeping most of the details hush-hush for now, but broadly speaking, my work has involved:

• developing a feature screenplay for production early next year
  
• developing another feature script for production after that
  
• writing 15 loglines, then two synopses for an WGA-affiliated agent (they loved one of the synopses, so now I have another script to write)
  
• laying the groundwork for a million dollar company, including writing a 30 page business plan, carefully selecting a company name, and navigating the complexities of who does what and how much everyone gets for their work
  
• editing a fundraising mini-documentary
  
• finishing the editing of my last short, My Shortest Apposition (Sorry, Ana! I promise it will get done!)

I must admit, business plans are a strange beast. They're like paintings in that each one is unique and its effectiveness depends how much effort you put into it. You could spend months aggregating research and still not come close to being finished.

Last night, as I was educating myself on business plans, one thought in particular hit me like a bullet: my god, I'm studying for a final exam. To wit, when I hand in my business plan to an investor, if I "pass" the exam, they give me money.

The difference, of course, is that the date of this final exam is a time of my choosing so I get as much time as I need to prepare my final essay.

Death of a President

Below is a fictional documentary made in 2006 about the assassination of President George W. Bush, and its ugly aftermath. I post this now because the race to the White House has been so prominent in the news, but also because Bush is still in office and that lends more impact to the documentary. Warning: this faux documentary clocks in at 90 minutes, so set aside some time to download it and watch it in full—it's worth watching.

I remember when Reagan was shot and how it affected the country, but I've never considered how an assassination of an American President would be reported in today's world, and what implications such an event would have on civil liberties and racial profiling. One can only hope nothing like this will ever happen... nevertheless, this documentary is an exquisite imitation of a British documentary should a nightmare scenario such as this ever come to pass.

After you watch it, you can read the wiki about it here.