Shea Fontana

Brandon James Scott has some insightful posts about his journey with Justin Time. Check it out!

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Creating a television series is an ongoing column about the creation, development, and production of Justin Time, through Brandon’s experience as creator and art director of the show. For past articles and more info about Justin Time, click here.

Genesis

So it starts. Maybe as a napkin sketch while at dinner. Maybe as a random thought while in the shower. Maybe as a small thumbnail in your notebook that haunts you until you say “Ok!” But there will be an idea that sticks.

For me it was a sketch.

I drew a picture of a kid in a spacesuit with a big head, and below the image I scribbled, “Let’s explore!” It stuck.

I was in college (studying animation), preparing for my next and final year, where I was to make my own film. My film, it was decided, was going to feature a young kid named Mike who traveled to ancient Egypt and learned about its culture and history. He would jump into his spaceship, and with the guide of his imaginary friend (who existed only as a narrative voice) he would go on an exciting adventure through time.

It would be funny, and educational, but mostly funny. I had lots of ideas, lots of gags - and it started to blossom into something quite big.

Read More

A fascinating gallery of the famous paintings parodied on The Simpsons.

Today: Finished first draft of my first live action feature script

Tonight: This

Tomorrow: Despair of rewrite

You know how the big thing in the upscale culinary world for the past few years has been deconstructing dishes? You go to some fancy restaurant and order a BLT, but instead of getting a BLT, you get toast foam, a sliver of sous-vide pork belly, and a wafer thin tomato chip topped with a teeny tiny lettuce sprout. And you roll your eyes at the pretentiousness, thinking “Puh-lease,” but when you take that first bite, you’re suddenly like the food critic in Ratatouille and the essence of a BLT—the essence that you had almost forgotten—overtakes you. 

That’s Drive—the deconstructed action movie. It’s so deconstructed that the main character is never even given a name. You don’t need to know anything about his or anyone’s back story. They’re just characters in an action movie. Stock characters with names like “Cook,” “Blanche” and even “Standard”.

The script moves really fast, almost twice the scene headings as pages. Lots of people who dislike the film complain that the movie is slow which is more of a comment on the style of film making than the actual story pace. It’s a momentum builder. 

More so in the film than the script, there’s some graphic, over-the-top violence (or at least over-the-top for what you usually see in movies. Having never actually seen such violence in real life, I couldn’t attest to what the realistic norm would be. However, once my dog did eat and pass a peach pit through her digestive track, and if a small, hard object slowly going through a living thing’s intestine in the semi-correct fashion can make that much of a mess all over my carpet, then I suspect that a small, hard metal bullet speeding through someone’s skull would make quite a big mess on the carpet…). It’s the type of violence that makes the theater audience gasp then laugh to relieve the tension. 

In reading the script, you can see how much the director and actors added to the finished product. That awesome silk scorpion jacket wasn’t even mentioned in the script.  Overall, the script was pretty sparse. In fact, the reason I wanted to read it was for some chase scene writing inspiration, but the chase scene writing in Drive is bare bones. However, the script is a fun read. It’s more ethereal than most screenwriting books would suggest, but it works for the material.

You can download the script here.

And then for laughs, read this.

These are the types of tea currently in my cupboard:

Chai
African Red Bush
Vanilla Chai
“Calm” 
Ruby Red Chai
Peppermint
English Breakfast
Scottish Breakfast (like English, but more kilt-y)
Sweet Wild Orange
Blueberry Peach
Ginger Pear 
Chai Spice (because when previously mentioned Chai, Vanilla Chai and Ruby Red Chai don’t satisfy…)
Winter Dream 
Citrus Chamomile
Pau D’arco (I don’t know either)
Oolang Tea (bought in China and saved for “special occasion”…which hasn’t come yet, so it’s probably getting old and bad)
Black Pearl
“Every Day Detox” (it doesn’t taste good, but ancient people who thought the earth was flat said these ingredients are good for me)
Jasmine

But at some point today, I will go to Coffee Bean and purchase a cup of tea.

I have a problem.