On Friday, July 17, about 6:45pm a group of Hollywood’s best mojito drinkers went out on the town to review four bars that were known for their Mojitos to discover who indeed had the best mojito.  They came in with a group of about 10 to each bar and would order a variety of Mojitos, the bars did not know they were being commented on and rated for their Mojitos.  The bars included: East/West Lounge  7:00 p.m. Majito’s $12,  Mickey’s  7:30 p.m. Majito’s $10,  The Abby  7:45 p.m. Majito’s $12, and Saint Felix 8:00 p.m. Majito’s $12.  They picked the last bar to end the night with so they could eat their famous Sweet Potato Fries.  Although the timeline did not go as planned the drinks were excellent and everyone enjoyed themselves and the mojitos.  At the end of the night after all comments were reviewed and the scores tallied it came down to two bars, whos scores were the highest, but there was a clear winner.

The two were Mickey’s and Saint Felix.  There was no loser as all of the mojitos were of excellent quality, but the 2009 winner for the Mojito Promenade was… Saint Felix!  They have already received their award, as pictured below.  I don’t know about you, but I can not wait for next years Mojito Promenade.

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If you would like to suggest a bar in West Hollywood with excellent Mojitos to be considered for the 2010 Mojito Promenade please leave it as a comment on this post.

‘Check out the trailer for the feature length movie that [Jacob Metiva's] been working on this year. It’s a modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s comedy that maintains most of the original text, but updates the situation. We’re all really proud of the work we did on such a low budget. Please spread the word and try to leave us some positive comments!’

“This is the trailer to [Jacob Metiva's] film, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. It’s a modernization that keeps a solid 90% of the text intact and reminds people that Shakespeare was bawdy, naughty and lastly thoughty. In short the Bard was the first B-movie director. So here’s a taste of my B-movie version of a timeless classic. Please find something nice to say as our budget was in the neighborhood of $3,500. Directed by Jake Metiva, staring Luke Frydenger, Matt Brehner, Chris Turner and features Lloyd Kaufman of Troma studios.”

David Miller led the forum, he is a board member of ‘The Hollywood Badgers.”

His introduction went along the lines of: The two met @ U on W in Madison, WI. They then went on to write for ‘Fantasy Island.’ They also just wrote the sequel to ‘Tron.’

[Below are as much as the question and answer portion as I could write freehand, I can't put any of it in quotes as I'm not sure if I got it all verbatim, but you'll get the general idea.  Sometimes the answers jump around which means that they either jumped mid talking, which happened a lot, or I missed a section, which also happened a decent amount.  I was writing as fast as I could I promise.]

Q – Starting freshman year in Madison how did you get started in the field and in Los Angeles?

A – Well the Badgers were 1 in 10. We went there wanting to write. One started in Journalism and wrote for the Cardinal. They met in their Intro to Film class 355.  Eddy’s film was upside down and Adam flipped the film over and Eddy was like ‘I want to hitch a ride with this guy.’

Eddy was the assistant to Joel Cruver.  Andy was the post pa on ‘Tales To The Cript.’

After work they would write every day and on weekends they would shut themselves in and write.

William Morris was their agent when they were 23 years old.  They worked on ‘Fantasy Island’ after agents tried to get their film made.  They didn’t make it and they wanted to direct it.  “It would have been a disaster.”  Buy they made all kinds of cennections trying to get the film made witch led them to get the job on ‘Fantasy Island.’  After that they worked on “many bad shows.”  Then worked on ‘Popular’ (same guy who did nip/tuck) It was “The best two years of our lives.”  They worked with Carlton Cues on ‘Back Sash’ for 4 or 5 episodes.  They also worked on ‘Birds of Prey’ with Carlton and Robert Caymen who wrote Karate Kidd.  Followed by ‘Life as we know it’ on ABC.

The 1st season of lost had started, then right in the middle they needed help and brought on Eddy and Adam and there they stayed to this day.

Q – What should proper treatment look like?

A – Write a script, there is a milion ways to sell the script.  Wtire a script and show people what you can do and they may buy it or bring you on to write something else.  Studio execs don’t like risks, so if you write something…

Q – How does the dynamic of Lost writers work? Do you each have a role?

A – YEs, each member of the team have different roles and its very difficult to describe exactly what they each do specifically, but the dynamics do change but you do have a roll and all of the writers seem to jell together and make it work.

Q – What dynamic is the lost writers room?

A – It’s like a family thanksgiving.  Some days you hate each other, and some days you love each other.  The thing I love most about the Lost writers room is that it’s really creative.  If you were to sit in you wouldn’t be able to follow it because they finish each others sentences all the time and come to conclusions at the same time.

Write something your passionate about, and give agents your best stuff and always be writing something else, but if you want to write features and not TV shows just tell them.  If your sitting down with an agent you don’t have to pitch yourself because if they are sitting down with you then they probably have read your work and like it.

Q – Could you discuss your path to writing stories?

A – It varies, sometimes they start with premise, like with ‘Tron.’  They started with a basic premise but they approached it with a character and the two play off of each other.

Lost is a character show at the end of the day.  If ou have a strong character dynamic so much of the plot will be digested out of that.

Q – How do you write dialogue?

A – A lot of times if your writing a scene you do extensive outlines, then they start talking out loud, and go pass for pass making it better.  We do a lot of acting it out and I say ‘acting’ very loosely.  The last thing they do before they hand it in is read it out loud because if they stumble over it then the actors will stumble over it.

Q – Do you listen to music when you write? If so, what?

A – John Tesh? Guns and Roses, Zeplin.

Loves Bruce Springstein but doesn’t listen to him when they write.  Love Dylan but don’t listen to him when writing.  Because they love them so dearly they don’t want it to get in their head.

But a lot of times a song will inspire a scene it will get in your head and I’ll come home and write a scene and Adam will tell me if its a hit or not.  (They mimic a script being handed to him… “Not!” another script… “Shit!”… another script … “Not!”)

Q – What are the difficult aspects of writing with a partner?

A – Compromise, which is a blessing because all projects in holywood are a colaboration.

Q – Any scenes from Lost you take credit for?

A – (Jokingly) All of them! (General Laughter)

Hurley’s monologue to his mother is their favorite thing they’ve ever written.  When they wrote it they felt a huge sense of nastalgia for the show.  Carlton called him and said this is the best scene in the series.

Q – What are your favorite TV shows?

A – The office. 30 rock, Dexter, The wire, Top Chef, Big Love.

Q – Do you ever think about certain actors in your head?

A – Sure, I mean you have certain types in your head, but with quest performers they sometimes think, “Oh! So and so would be perfect for this!”

Q – In your writing process you have time constraints, but if you don’t have them, how do you know when your done?

A – They would show it , but they were always rewriting.  At a point its good to get outside eyes.  There’s a point where you feel its ready or you want outside eyes.  But it depends on the kind of work, with TV there area clearly deadlines.

Q – Whats it like having different directors, does it change the writing?

A – Not really, because Lost is Lost, they have a tone meeting and go through each scene and they will ask questions and the editor, directors, and line producers are in on it, so at that point everyone is in sync.

Q – Features vs. TV

A – Twice as long.  Whole different business.  At the end of the day tell the best story, but the role is different between tv and features.  Features are a complete story, TV can start threads and come back to them @ a later time.

Q – Cancelled themselves @ Lost?

A – Wanted to know where they would end it and cut it off.  There is a plan to the show.  Since Season 1 they were talking about what the end of the show would be.  As writers they wanted that ending point but execs want as many shows as possible.  They planned to en on Season 6 when producers met with them they agreed this is the final season.

Q – How do you determine if an idea should be a feature or TV show?

A – Its a case by case basis.  There is no formula.  Lets of people take pilots into features and vice versa.

Writers asst. at Lost is a very intense job becasue you have to write down everything they say.  Their writers asst. got promoted to a staff writer this season.

Fantasy Island first day they didn’t know what some terms meant and they went to Samuel French bookstore and picked up “how to write television” And we were already hired at this point, we were writers, we read the first page of the book and said “we are fucked.” they turned the book over and it was written by their boss.

But they were never scared to go up to a senior writer and ask for help on a specific scene.

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Click this link for the flier: HB July Panel

To answer this question you have to go see “True Accounts of Maddening Fiction.”

NOTHING SPECIAL PRODUCTIONS IN ASSOCIATION WITH SIDENOTE PICTURES PRESENTS

TRUE ACCOUNTS OF MADDENING FICTION

By NICK CARDIFF

Visit their website to see 3 excellent trailers.

Nothing Special Productions

Elgin, IL – 07/27/09—Nothing Special Productions’ (NSP) Marketing Director John Scheflow announces the production of True Accounts of Maddening Fiction by Nick Cardiff.

True Accounts will be performed at the Elgin Art Showcase, 164 Division Street, 8^th floor, Elgin IL, 60120 on August 7, 8, 13-15 at 8:00 p.m. . Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for students/seniors and $5 for kids.

This show will benefit the Laura Twirls Suicide Prevention Foundation.  For more information, to reserve tickets, or to find out ways to donate to this worthy cause, contact John Scheflow at nothingspecialproductions@gmail.com or visit www.nothingspecialproductions.com & www.cngmpictures.com.

Nothing Special Productions and Sidenote Pictures proudly presents True Accounts of Maddening Fiction, a movie-play by Nick Cardiff. The production expands the traditional expectations of a play letting you watch some of the action on screen.

This dark comedy with a modern Chicago setting follows the relationships of several individuals as they intertwine in each other’s lives to create a giant spiderweb in which they all find themselves stuck.  True Accounts shows the maddening hilarity of everyday relationships between loved ones, co-workers and complete strangers. Warning, the show contains F bombs, sexuality and exploding heads.

Nothing Special Productions is dedicated to serving their community by providing high quality entertainment, creative education through in-school workshops, and by raising awareness for local charities.  Previous productions have included Eroica, The Surprise Party (a part of the City of Elgin’s Walkabout: Theatre on your Feet), Midsummer Night’s Dream and Nightmare in Paradise: A Halloween Spooktacular!. NSP is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization started in April of 2005 in Elgin, IL, by Nick Cardiff, Alissa Jones, Mikey Laird and Brian Rohde.

Reserve tickets today! For more information please visit www.nothingspecialproductions.com.

WARNING: This show contains F* bombs, sexuality and exploding heads.

August 7,8,13-15 @ 8pm August 9 @ 2pm

Tickets: Adults $15 Students/Seniors $10 INDUSTRY: $7

Place: The Elgin Art Showcase 164 Division Street Elgin IL 60120

Follow this show on Twitter!

Letron James had her “In The City” Music Video Release at Les Deux in Hollywood last Saturday, July 11th, 2009.  We arrived at 10:15 and got to wait around for about 45 minutes due to the club bouncers being rediculous and not using the guest list, but we eventually found our way in just in time to see a music video that I’m sure you will all be seeing soon.  If you haven’t heard of Letron James yet, I’m sure it will only be a matter of time.  Her music video played on the brick wall at the club periodically throughout the evening and as an opening performance before Letron performed live there were two fire dancers.  While I have seen better tricks with fire before, these two knew how to perform, and were hot to boot.

Letron sang two songs for her performance, one being ‘I Feel Sexxxi” followed by “In The City” which is the song in her music video.  She was a fantastic performer and really got the crowd going.  After hearing her music I understood why the setting for the release was in a club, her music would be excellent for going out and getting pumped up to have a good time.  Now, I am not the biggest club goer, but her music was very fitting for the environment and I enjoyed myself once inside experiencing it.  After the performance she walked around the club thanking everyone for coming.  She was a very genuine person and very grateful and modest.

Blurry Pic of Letron Performing on the rooftop of Les Deux.

My final note:

Les Deux = annoyingly rude.     Letron James = entertaining and exciting.

Letron James is an artist who’s name… and kicks… we have not heard the last of.

“In The City” music video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aGiJdrkbFs