BEA 2010

This is old news to all of you who are my Facebook friends, but to those who aren't, here it is! I spent April 15-17th in Las Vegas with my mom and sister. We left the day after Mickey died, and at one point we hit some turbulence and I realized that the thought of crashing and dying wasn't so bad, especially if it meant that I could see Mickey again. Alex and I still have hair from his tail tied around our wrists as bracelets.

Waiting to board. I guess I was worried Alex would steal my sushi.

Lots of rain for us = lots of snow in the Sierras!

We stayed at the Las Vegas Hilton, which was lovely except for the rude neighbors we had each night. A group of women came into the room next to ours on the first night and one kept screaming for no reason. They went out at midnight and returned at 3am, sounding pretty drunk. So when we were up early the next morning, Alex and I made sure to shout at each other as we got ready, hoping to return the courtesy our neighbors had shown us the night before.

The Hilton hotel. We stayed on the 28th floor!

Never-ending art deco hallways! And a ghost on the lower left.

Staying entertained

On the second night, a group of young men were on the floor above us, shouting "We're in Vegas, whooo!" at the top of their lungs, over and over. I felt like shouting, "No shit, I'm in Vegas, too!" back.

Aside from the onslaught of noise, slot machines and cigarette smoke, the trip was a nice distraction from our grief. On the first day, we did a little sight-seeing and took Alex into the Venetian. Alex and I had our first sampling of tiramisu there!

The outside

The fake sky is welcoming

Tiramisu! Or at least tiramisu custard.

The river running through the hotel, complete with gondola rides. The boatmen sing live opera!

Friday afternoon, I accepted my award for Best Feature Screenplay, after which I pitched to two industry professionals, who I later found out are friends with the agent I've been working with.

Check out how fancy Alex and my mom were able to pin up my braids.


The pitch went much better than the pitch I did last year when the woman I was pitching to stated that no one would see my movie because it has a female protagonist and the hit movie in America at the time was Miley Cyrus because she's "what America wants." "But Miley Cyrus is a girl," I said, and then a vein bulged in her forehead and she nearly spit as she lectured me about "never talking back in a pitch!" In front of an audience, too. And here I thought that bringing up valid points was called a conversation.

This time around, they look afraid of me

Anyway, check out a little funny snippet where I stuttered about before answering a question:

After the awards ceremony, we got a quick lunch of brownie and lemon bar, then headed to the big event of the night: the Best of Festival Awards. They played a video to introduce the winner and her/his material before they called her/him up, and for my video, they used drawings that Ajla has done. We're collaborating on turning my winning script, Daughters of the Wind, into a graphic novel. Her art is amazing. Here's the video they showed before I accepted my award. It was made by the talented April Vickers.

BEA Student Scriptwriting Winner from April Vickers on Vimeo.

I was so blown away and pleased by April's hard work! It was also wonderful because lovely Ajla and her chivalrous younger brother got to attend the ceremony and see her work on the big screen. Something that made her crack up. Here is a video one of my professors made while I was there. At the end, you can hear my little acceptance speech.

Ignore my goofy expressions. It was filmed with a wide-angle camera which meant that it was literally just a few inches from my face the whole time.

Being emotionally exhausted/numb proved to benefit me while "performing." I wasn't very nervous throughout my pitch, which is uncharacteristic, and I'd been through so much drama recently that I didn't really care if I totally screwed up because it couldn't be worse than what I'd been through. Though at the end of that acceptance speech, I almost cried and had to hurry off the stage.

After the ceremonies, they had us pose for professional photographs. I hope I get copies, because the ones we took turned out, well...

...Like we'd been sucking lemons.

Pretending to be a politician. I was gonna pretend to be Hitler then realized that might not go over so well. Even if I was making fun of him.

With my beautiful sister and mommy

With Ajla, my "online girlfriend."

After all was said and done, we went out and had salads with Ajla and her brother. They're both wonderful people, and I'm so happy that we got the chance to visit despite my busy schedule during the brief trip.

I'll see you again soon, Ajlita!

Mak and Ajla

I wish I could say the plane ride back home early the next morning was pleasant, but alas, I got air sick, then puked all over myself in the car when we were just 10 minutes from home. Yeah. I thought it was disgusting, too.

While we were keeping ourselves entertained in our hotel room, however, we began a new series of videos. They're video diaries by both Ben Linus and Richard Alpert of LOST. Feel free to check them out here!

All right. I'm off to play a round of "MENTALIST." It's like "HORSE," except that you spell Mentalist. Because I've become obsessed with The Mentalist. I can't help it. It was meant to be.

Tracie -- I always think of you when I post pictures of animals. I'll have a special post soon... That was a long time to be in the Navy -- good for you! I don't know why I'm afraid of crabs. They never seemed to like me, even before I ever ate one. And their arms rip off when they pinch something. It unnerves me.

Mackenzie's Momma -- I hope you have fun in Vancouver! And thanks for the well-wishes. I picked up my thesis the other day and found out that there were so few mistakes that I don't have to edit anything, which means I can send in the final copy right away. :)

Winners!

Go Chunkles!

Our athletes are doing amazing. On Saturday, Apolo Anton Ohno raced in the 1000m short track and earned his seventh medal, making him the most decorated winter Olympian in history. Way to go, Apolo! What's even more amazing, is that a bad pass sent him from second to fifth place in a manner of seconds, and he managed to catch up to snare the bronze. I look forward to watching his upcoming races.

Though I'm still pissed at the judging call that took Apolo's teammate, J.R. Celski, out of the semis. A Frenchman grabbed his hips from behind (I kid you not, I couldn't get that out of my head, either) and when JR flung his arm back to bat him off and keep skating, Mr. French lost his balance and crashed. Okay, so the guy is actually Canadian, but his name is French. And the ref called the foul on JR and disqualified him. Maybe it's my ignorance of the rules of short track, but how the heck was JR the one fouling? Did he make a bad pass? Are you not allowed to swat Frenchmen off your ass?

Just five months ago, JR's own skate cut his thigh and he nearly bled out on the ice. Now he's got a bronze in the Olympics!

We'll see you at the rest of your events, JR!

And yesterday, Alpine Skier Bode Miller had the ride of his life in the men's super combined. His downhill time wasn't the best, but his slalom run was phenomenal, and he won his first Olympic gold. More importantly, he felt that he earned the gold because he gave the run his all, and worked so hard for it.

Awesome job, Bode!

Olympians aren't the only ones setting records. For the second year in a row, I have won the national BEA Media Arts Festival Student Screenwriting Competition for my script Daughters of the Wind. On top of that, I also took Best in Festival out of all the screenwriting categories. This is a big deal for my university, which continues to show its writing dominance over expensive film schools like UCLA.

I was excited to go to Las Vegas for the festival until I realized it's on the same weekend that I have to take my MFA exam. Luckily, my screenwriting professors are rallying behind me and have been pressuring the program director to let me take the exam earlier, so we'll see what happens.

In related news, I've been having some great conversations with a manager and am about to start work on an outline for her. If all goes well, I'll write the script, she'll sell it, and I'll sign with her. I'm also working with an agent at one of the top 6 agencies to pitch 10 ideas for TV shows. This isn't the first time I've started down this path, and I've learned not to hold my breath. I've just never shared the news publicly before. I guess I was superstitiously paranoid that I'd curse it. Or maybe it's like a pregnancy and you don't want to tell anyone till you're sure all is going well. At any rate, now you all know. What comes next is anyone's guess!

All right. That's it from me today. Enjoy the last week of the Olympics. I should get some writing done!

Mackenzie's Momma -- Yes, thank the gods for DVRs! I'm so glad you were able to watch the skating. I hope my blog didn't spoil the results for you! And you saw Apolo? Like, walking by? How cool! I would've stared. And walked into things because I was staring.