Sample Scene: I Don't Recall + other stuff

Hello Again,

Just wanted to keep everyone posted on how the new script is coming along. We have about 85 pages written. Probably have another 20-25 left. A scene here and there. The basic story is all there. Just need to tighten it up some and fill in some of the missing chunks. It will probably be about 110-120 pages by the time it's completed.

Below is a scene from the script. But before that I would like to give you a little context. Martin, a mild mannered pushover in his mid 30's, is meeting his long time girlfriend (Sara) for their anniversary dinner. He is going to propose to her. She has other ideas.

CLICK HERE to read the sample scene.

What else is going on?

Well, to help raise some money for I Don't Recall I am starting my own subscription channel.

https://mopedjones.pivotshare.com/

I am not "officially" launching the channel until May 1st. However, it is active now. So if you want to sign up, that would be awesome.

For $2.99 a month you will have unlimited access to our entire library. 

For $2.69 you can purchase downloads of The Truth About Average Guys, S.O.L., and Wingmen Incorporated. (if you subscribe to the channel, they are included into the subscription)

 

Here's a list of what we have currently have on the site...

Wingmen Incorporated              -  $2.69  (or part of the subscription package)
The Truth About Average Guys - $2.69  (or part of the subscription package)
10 Minute Abs: Episode 1          - $1.29  (or part of the subscription package)

 

The following are only available through a monthly subscription...

Wingmen Incorporated: Drunkenly Honest Commentary*
Wingmen Incorporated: BLOOPERS
Wingmen Incorporated: OUTTAKES
Wingmen Incorporated: Larry's Awesome Tattoo Story!
Wingmen Incorporated: Extended Sex Scene
Wingmen Incorporated: Extended Fight Scene
10 Minute Abs: Episode 1 Bloopers
The History of TTAAG: From The Beginning (18 minute documentary about TTAAG)
The Truth About Average Guys: BLOOPERS
The Truth About Average Guys: Alternate Ending
S.O.L. - BLOOPERS

 

Coming Soon...

S.O.L.
S.O.L.: Drunken Commentary*
Wingmen Incorporated: Sober Commentary Ken & Bethany*
Wingmen Incorporated: Original Drunken Commentary (unedited: Jason, Kate, and Evan)*
The Truth About Average Guys: Commentary with Jason & Ken*
No Regrets (short film)
No Regrets (short film) Commentary*

(*the commentaries are the video of the film with the commentary audio track)

And starting May 1st, new weekly episodes of The Moped Jones Drunken Podcast and we'll be doing Drunken Commentaries to popular films (like Titanic).

All proceeds from the channel will go towards I Don't Recall's budget. 

So that's what's going on right now. No Regrets will start up in April or May and will start shooting in May or June. It's a 4 day shoot (2 weekends). Hope it have it edited and ready to submit to festivals in August. Pretty pumped about that.

In the mean time, Kate and I will keep chugging along on the script. I say this a lot, but I can't believe how talented of a writer she is. I'm so used to bumping heads when I collaborate with someone, but she trusts me and I trust her, so writing with her has been a pleasant surprise.  Once the script is done we'll send it to a script consultant and get some feedback. Then we'll incorporate her notes and rewrite the script (hopefully we won't have to do too much).  Then from there we will start contacting some name talent and gauge their interest in the script as well as get a quote for what it would cost to have them in the film.

Pretty exciting times are ahead for Moped Jones.  Hope you enjoyed the sample scene!

Can't wait!

Jason W. Schaver
Moped Jones Entertainment
www.mopedjones.com

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Halfway Through The 730: 2013 Year In Review

This time last year I made a blog called "The Next 730 Days". It was about how I felt the 730 days from 1/1/13 to 12/31/14 will set the tone for the rest of my life. Feel free to read the link below to read it.

http://jasonwschaver.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-next-730-daysplus-video-clip.html

Are you back?  You didn't read it, but that's okay.

So here's my 2013 year in review & an update of how the first 365 days of that 730 have been going.

MARCH 2013- My film, Wingmen Incorporated, was finished 3/1/13. It was also brought to my attention shortly after that that my former partner (Ken) had went behind my back and edited out large chunks of my commentary. This was the final straw in a long string of shady behavior by him. I decided to cut ties with him because of this.  Somewhere along the way we went from me casting him in what would later be The Truth About Average Guys to us being 50/50 partners (which was fine with me) to him thinking I worked for him (without pay). He'd deny that, but that's what it felt like towards the end. Proof of that is him editing out my commentary without my knowledge. I wasn't given the chance to approve his commentary, which I wouldn't have because he said several things in it that weren't true. Oh well, I re-did my commentary and set the record straight on the things he said.

CLICK HERE To purchase a DVD that has the new commentary on it ($6.99) shirt ($9.99) shirt and DVD $14.99)

Sure, we did some good things, but I won't miss him telling me what to put in my blog, him telling me to lie to our fans, him telling me telling me who I can and can't have on my commentary, him casting people he's sleeping with in all our films, him editing out large chunks of my commentary, him telling me that we need to raise our prices b/c the reason people aren't buying it is b/c it's too cheap and they don't respect it, him telling me a Kickstarter campaign was stupid and it won't work (not helping at all on it) then when it worked him telling me what "we" should spend "our" money on b/c I only got it b/c I was under the "Adjusted Gratuity" banner. (WTF?)   Him giving me permission to film my own sketches that I wrote myself and use the money that I raised myself. (that was 10 Minute Abs)

(And I'm not even mentioning the shadiest thing he did in 2010 while we were shooting S.O.L. that violated my trust in the first place.)

Jason/Ken 2006-2013 R.I.P. 


APRIL 2013 - My lovely girlfriend Kate moved from Chicago to Fulton. We also started co-writing a book called Why She Left which is a book of quotes that I've actually said to her. I say some pretty fucked up stuff, luckily for me she thinks most of it is pretty funny. She's actually the one that suggested we start writing them all down.

MAY 2013 - got a letter from our landlord at the time that they were selling the building. The new landlord wanted to double the rent and wouldn't allow pets.  That first month or two was very stressful for us. There was just nothing jobs-wise out here for her.

JUNE 2013 - moved into our new apartment. It's not the best place, but it the rent is very reasonable, we live in a good neighborhood.  I also bought some editing software and taught myself how to edit. After parting ways with Ken I realized I would be the only one promoting the film and if I was going to be the only one submitting the film to festivals I wanted to submit a version that I was happy with. I cut out about 5 minutes of the film. Mostly boring stuff that slowed down the pacing. Really boring stuff. Felt like it was trying to be too cute and clever, and not working at all.

JULY 2013 - Helped my lovely girlfriend Kate start her business. She's doing really well and all her clients just adore her.   Also did a Indiegogo campaign for my short film No Regrets.  Raised $2202 from 51 donors from all over the world. Wanted to shoot that in the fall but life got in the way and before we knew it it was really cold outside. So we're thinking May of next year. I can't wait to see how it all turns out.

AUGUST THROUGH PRESENT - Submitted Wingmen Incorporated to nearly 50 film festivals.  Will have spent nearly $1750 when all is said and done.  We're 7 for 17 (.412%) with 34 festivals left to hear back from over the coming months (all the way up until October of 2014).  We've won 3 awards & been nominated for 5 others. We're just getting started though. I submitted to a lot of earlybird deadlines, so I'll start hearing back from lots of festivals in 2014.

NOVEMBER 2013 - won best feature at the 2013 East Lansing Film Festival.  Also, Kate and I started writing our next project, the feature comedy I Don't Recall. I came up with the idea nearly a year ago. Wrote a couple scenes back in January but then got busy with life. We started writing again back in early November and now have about 60 pages written. We're trying for 100, so we are 60% done with the first draft. It's turning out to be really good. Kate is a much better writer than I thought she was going to be. She really brings depth to our female characters. She also has no agenda. (No writing parts for whomever she's fucking or making secondary characters act a certain way so her character can be the hero. She isn't even remotely interested in acting in the film. If anything, her only agenda is writing an amazing screenplay).  This has been the most pleasant co-writing experience I've ever had and I look forward to writing many more screenplays with Kate after this.

DECEMBER 2013 - Well, it's not over yet, but so far so good. I have been battling a cold for the past couple weeks, but I seem to be on the mend.  Haven't started my Christmas shopping yet, but will start Thursday (pay day).  Mainly just looking forward to next year.

So what is in store for 2014?

1.  Finish first draft of I Don't Recall.
2. continue to submit and hear back from film festivals regarding Wingmen Incorporated
3. Send I Don't Recall to script consultant to help with final draft & submit it to contests
4. seek out investors to shoot I Don't Recall ourselves. I would like to shoot it for $50k and use some of that money to seek out name talent to play a few smaller roles (1 day shoots). 
5.  Start diet 1/1/14.  Get down to 180 by May when I shoot my short/drama No Regrets
6. Get No Regrets done and submit it to larger festivals.
7. save up my weekly incentive money (from work) to go towards I Don't Recall budget. Want to start filming in spring of 2015. 

All in all 2013 wasn't too bad. If my former partner hadn't bailed on Wingmen Incorporated (in lame ass attempt to con his way into a SAG card) more might have happened this year with it. But like I said above, I have submitted to over 50 festivals that I think will lead to bigger and better things for the film.  Since parting ways with my former partner, I feel like a huge weight as been lifted off my shoulders. I feel like I finally have control over my career. No bumping heads. No agendas. No shady behavior. I am very much enjoying the writing process again. Writing with Kate has been a breath of fresh air. She's even found some great music for the film. Writing with her has been so easy. And if the writing part has been easy, I can't wait to see how much better the filming part will be!

I think for 2014, the thing I am looking forward to the most is getting I Don't Recall done, getting a team together, raising the funds, and getting it ready to shoot. I think this will be a major step above my previous work.

That's all I got for now,

Jason W. Schaver
Moped Jones Entertainment
www.mopedjones.com

Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner!

I am very pleased to announce that my film, Wingmen Incorporated, took home "Best Feature" at the 2013 East Lansing Film Festival as part of the Lake Michigan Film Competition.  This is the second time in the past 5 years that one of my films has won the competition as The Truth About Average Guys won it back in 2009 (S.O.L. was submitted to East Lansing in 2011, but was not selected).   I was very pleased with this since after viewing the competition I expected us to get 2nd. There was a very well shot drama (with name talent) that I thought was going to win. Their trailer looked fantastic. The story was a little boring, but I'm not really into dramas so I didn't know if it was boring b/c it was boring or boring b/c I am just not into that genre.  Either way, I was very pleased with our unexpected win.

In other news, I've had a few more articles published by Yahoo! Please feel free to give them a read if you are interested.

http://voices.yahoo.com/i-hate-remakes-but-wish-hollywood-would-remake-better-12390457.html?cat=9

This is called "I Hate Remakes, but I Wish Hollywood Would Remake Better Films" and it's about the string of horrible remakes Hollywood has been redoing lately. I offer a few suggestions for movies I wouldn't mind seeing remade.


http://voices.yahoo.com/can-bears-survive-rash-key-injuries-12386794.html?cat=14

This one is about the Chicago Bears. So if you are a fan feel free to read it.


http://voices.yahoo.com/a-guys-perspective-whats-wrong-dating-profile-12380492.html?cat=9

If you are a lady and are on a dating website, this is a must read for you. As a guy that's viewed many profiles over the years, I can tell you exactly what is wrong with your profile. (to date, this is my most read article with nearly 400 reads in just under two weeks)


http://voices.yahoo.com/reason-optimism-u-mens-hoops-team-12380431.html?cat=14

This one is about the University of Illinois men's basketball team. I discuss why this years team, despite losing 75% of it's scoring, might actually be better this year.  Addition by subtraction. Feel free to check it out if you are a Fighting Illini fan!


What else is going on?

I had a fundraising screening in Clinton for Wingmen Incorporated on Wednesday, November 6th. About 60 people showed up. I was disappointed with the turn out. Mainly because I advertised with the local radio station (MAC FM, 94.7) and I don't think they played the commercial as many times as they were supposed to AND I don't think they played it during the time of day they said they would.  Needless to day I will not advertise with them anymore. I had more people turn out for the S.O.L. Clinton screening back in January of 2011 with NO ADVERTISING than I did this time around. Such a waste of money.   On the bright side, the film was very well received. This is the first time I actually watched my cut of the film with an audience. I was very happy with their reaction.

Things have stalled a bit on the new screenplay (I Don't Recall). However, I feel that Kate and I will be getting back in the groove shortly. Wingmen Incorporated is playing at a festival up in Wisconsin this weekend. Hopefully it does well and I can call my next blog "Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner Part 2".

Got some really good deals on DVD's and shirts. 

Wingmen Incorporated DVD (my cut) - $6.99

DVD includes... 
*NEW 76 minute film
 sober commentary - Ken Gayton/Beth Carol
*NEW Drunkenly Honest Commentary - Jason W. Schaver & Kate Johnson (b/c someone felt the need to edit out our previous commentary, so we made a new one)
7+ minutes of bloopers
8+ minutes of outtakes
*NEW Larry's Tattoo Story
*NEW Pictures From Set
(I also redesigned the menu b/c the other version looked like a 4th grader did it)

Wingmen Incorporated Black T- Shirt - $9.99

Get a shirt & a DVD for $15

The Truth About Average Guys DVD - $7.99
Buy TTAAG, WINC for $15 and get a copy of S.O.L. for FREE! 

Click the link below for details!  

(shipping is US only, if you aren't in the US shoot me an email at info@mopedjones.com and we'll figure something out)

http://www.mopedjones.com/store.html

Jason W. Schaver
Moped Jones Entertainment
www.mopedjones.com

Started a New Little Hobby....

Hello,

To get back into screenwriting I recently signed up to be a writer for the Yahoo! Contributor Network. It's a pretty cool way to get back in the habit of writing. You can pick assignments from Yahoo! or you can just write your own based off your own interests. Sometimes they get published for all the world to see, sometimes they don't.

It's been a while since I started a new feature length script, and when I say a while I mean over a decade. I wrote The Truth About Average Guys and S.O.L. back in 2001 (there were some rewrites since then, but the hardest draft by far is the 1st draft).  I also co-wrote Wingmen Incorporated in 2010-11, but most of what I wrote for that was previously written from a partial script I had lying around. So I really haven't started from scratch on a script (and had that need in finish) since 2001.  Did some stuff inbetween, but never really had that need/want to finish it.  But this new one MUST get finished because I think when all is said and done this one will have the potential to be the best thing I've done (so far) by far.  I feel with every script/film I'm improving as a writer, an actor, and as a filmmaker.

Anyway, back to my little side hobby, writing for Yahoo!

Thus far I've written three articles. Two have been published, and one is currently being reviewed. So technically I'm 2 for 2. I'm not sure how easy it is to get published, but I am going to pretend that it's incredibly difficult and very few people get their first two articles published.  Yes, I like to pretend that I'm that good.

Here are the two articles that I've published so far. Hopefully you find them interesting enough to click the links below (it actually helps me if you click the link, obviously I'd love for you to read the articles, but clicking the link is a pretty good compromise. You clicked THIS link to read my blog. So I know you care a little bit. ;)

http://voices.yahoo.com/why-hate-media-sometimes-12374483.html?cat=9

That one is called "Why I Hate The Media (Sometimes)" and it's about how the media has distorted an incident that happened over the weekend.


http://voices.yahoo.com/why-cubs-2013-season-wasnt-as-awful-as-seemed-12362001.html?cat=14

This one was my very first article published. It's called "Why The Cubs 2013 Season Wasn't As Awful As It Seemed" and well, it's about exactly what the title says it's about. There is more reason for optimism on the North Side than you'd think. 2013 was an awful season, but not as awful as it seemed.

http://contributor.yahoo.com/user/1791802/jason_w_schaver.html

That link is my contributor profile link. This has links to all my articles. So if you enjoy my writing please be sure to add me as add me to your favorites or subscribe to my articles. Don't worry, it's free.

Anything else going on?

Kate and I have been hard at work on the new screenplay and it's coming along pretty well. We got sidetracked with life the past several months but have really rolled up our sleeves this past couple weeks and have the first 20 pages of the script done. I really like what we have so far. If we can keep up the same level of quality/humor from the first 20 pages I think we'll have something pretty special on our hands. I'd like for this to be about 100 pages long.  And would love to make a movie that is actually 90 minutes long for once. That's usually what I've aimed for, but they usually end up between 76-82 minutes long.

Anyway, since you were so good earlier reading my Yahoo! articles, I will leave you with this...

The first 7 pages of our new screenplay, I Don't Recall.

LOGLINE: After an accident, a mild mannered pushover fakes amnesia to avoid returning to his unappreciative family.

LOGLINE #2: A man in his early 30's, unhappy with his life, gets into an accident. Upon waking from a short coma he pretends to have amnesia in an attempt to live a different life.

(yeah, I posted both loglines b/c I'm not sure which one I like better)
 http://howa5gota9.angelfire.com/IDR_first_7_pages.txt

Thank you so much for reading, hope you like it!

Jason W. Schaver

Why The Flint Film Festival Blows...

Howdy All!

Long time no blog.  As you can tell by the heading I am not pleased with the Flint Film Festival. I debated long and hard about posting this, but in the end I just felt like sharing. I don't mean to ruffle any feathers, but I feel like if people do a bad job they need to have their feathers ruffled from time to time just to keep them hungry and honest.

And without further adieu, here's why the Flint Film Festival blows...

1. They never told us that our film, Wingmen Incorporated, got in. I found out just a couple days before the festival that we got in because on a whim I went to their website and saw we were screening on the Friday night time slot (7:30, which is a great time slot, too bad no one told us).  

On the Tuesday before the festival I emailed the director (Dave) and said "I see that we got in. I never received notification from you. I know it may be too late, but is there anything you need from me? Stills? Posters? Let me know and I'll get it to you ASAP."

So that brings us to #2...

2.  I emailed them and they ignored it. How do you ignore someone that got into the festival? I understand festivals are bombarded with emails from filmmakers that don't get in, but you have to acknowledge the filmmakers that DO GET IN!

Despite being ignored, I decided to keep my mouth shut just in case this was a mistake and I didn't want to rock the boat in case we won an award. I figured our chances were good since in every interview the festival gave they gushed about our film. It was always the first (and usually the only) feature film they talked about when doing interviews with the local newspapers and TV stations.

Here's some of the interviews...

http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/flint/index.ssf/2013/10/flint_film_festival_to_showcas_1.html

Thomas said two films that have garnered the most phone calls, emails and Facebook messages for interested viewers are "Flint's Best Rock" and "Wingmen Incorporated."

"Wingmen Incorporated," directed by Jason Schaver, is about a jaded psychologist who forms a company to teach desperate men how to pick up women. "Flint's Best Rock," a 1988 film by Jim Baadeln, is about the history of WWCK 105 FM, "Flint's Best Rock," the top rock station in the country during the 1970s and most of the 1980s.

Here's one from the local ABC affiliate.  There is an article + a video of the local news. In the video, be sure to watch 0:58 to 1:15, which is where they show the clip of Wingmen Incorporated.

http://www.abc12.com/story/23649018/flint-film-festival-to-celebrate-10th-anniversary

There was another article, but for the life of me I can't seem to find it.

So, yeah, they talked about our film quite a bit leading up to the festival. So I figured despite them completely blowing off telling us we got in that I could easily forgive them if we won an award.

Well, we didn't win. The Rebound, a local film the festival directors did NOT talk about in any of their interviews, somehow won "Best Feature".  (go ahead and re-read the articles I posted, no mention of it anywhere)

Below is the trailer...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS3rqOtmQbo

Now I'm not going to bash another person's film, but there was a reason why the festival used Wingmen Incorporated to lure people to the festival and not this film. So they clearly thought our film was better, yet somehow, The Rebound managed to win the award.

So that was kind of the last straw. I filed a complaint with the film festival submission website www.withoutabox.com and the festival itself and got my refund.  The festival director couldn't have been more rude or condescending.

Here's a few snipets of his emails...

"Well they (withoutabox) forwarded me your nasty letter..."

First off, it wasn't a "nasty" letter. It was a letter of complaint. I told him about how I didn't appreciate not being notified of being selected or them ignoring my initial email.  I also asked how a film that they gushed about in every interview could lose to a film that they never mentioned at all in any of their interviews and that if I knew they were just going to give awards to their friends* I wouldn't have wasted my time submitting to them in the first place and would like a refund.

*Now I'm not sure if they are actually friends, but it was a local film. I called them "friends" to get my point across to them that from an outsider's perspective this looks really really really fucking shadey.

Here's an excerpt from another email...

I personally liked your film, and it was strong as far as the competition. Our scoring as far as the placement is by scored in certain criteria, and is just by number and not emotion or whether we like it or not. I hope you understand.

That being said, I saw nothing from The Rebound trailer that made me think it was a far superior film. In fact, I'd take our film over it any day of the week. He still never answered my question how a film that he used so valiantly to promote his festival could lose to a film that he didn't feel was good enough to even mention to the press? If it was so great, why didn't he talk about it more? Or at all even?

In well over 2,000 submissions we have never been asked for a refund.

I'm not sure if I buy that. If so, how unlucky am I?  Seriously, that's like a 0.05% chance of fucking up, and they fucked up the one time I deal with them.

 I'm sorry that things worked out the way they did or the way that you perceive they did...

This pissed me off. I didn't "perceive" any of this. This is what really happened in real life. There's no lack of communication or crossed signals or not being on the same page or whatever cliché you want to use. They really didn't contact me and they really didn't respond to my initial email and they really did award a local film "Best Feature" despite the fact that they really did never talk about the film at all in their promotional interviews.

....but kicking up all of this dust isn't doing any good.

Worked out okay for me. I got my f*cking refund.  (well, most of it, my submission fee was $25 and they sent me a check for $20. So they shorted me $5, but honestly, as incompetent as this festival is I will consider that a VICTORY!)

Anyway, I hope I don't come off as too pissy. Part of these blogs are to vent and get things off your chest and this has been in my mind for the past week or so.  If you are a filmmaker I would definitely recommend skipping this festival. I have been treated better by festivals that rejected me than this one, and they loved our movie. I can't imagine how they treat people who's movies they don't like.

Jason W. Schaver