Smile

Okay, I'm here.
Things have been quite crazy for me lately. Here is what I'm doing:
Shooting Scrubs every day. (I'm directing my second episode next week.)
Recasting "The Last Kiss". This is the film I'm going to act in this spring. As some of you may know, Rachel McAdams was going to play the female lead, but she was unable to work out her schedule, so the part is now going to be played by Jacinda Barrett. (An amazing actress.)
Doing voices for "Chicken Little" the new Disney movie coming out in November.
Writing "Andrew Henry's Meadow". This is an adaptation of a children's book that my brother Adam and I are writing for Twentieth Century Fox.
Working on "Arrested Development". I'm going to be shooting a small part on my second favorite TV comedy on Monday.
Planning a music video for Gavin DeGraw that I'm no longer going to be directing cause I didn't agree with the label about what the video should be about.
Reading your comments. Just when I thought this blog was slowly fading away, the DVD brought it back to life tenfold.

Anyhow, that's why I'm unable to comment as often as I used to. Those of you who write sassy remarks about how I've abandoned you, please understand that I'm doing the best I can to keep on top of everything. Also, as this blog was established to be an online journal for me to share with you all what it was like to release my first film and go on the road promoting it, it's only natural that I will have less and less to say. But since so many of you remain interested (thank-you) I'll keep posting when I can. I imagine eventually I'll have to move this to my own site since Fox will probably soon evict us from their web space.

So, first of all- thank you all from all over the world for all the wonderful things you've been posting about GS, Scrubs, yourselves etc. I feel so lucky to be able to have this direct line of communication with my fans. I love it when you guys share personal stories from your own lives. So many of you ask me about writing, just skim through the comments and you'll see thousands of stories to write about. All I did was sit down and write about what I was feeling in my own life. What bothers you, what makes you laugh, what do you obsess about, what makes your stomach turn, what do you lust over? - just sit down and write about those things. That's what's universally interesting; those are the kinds of movies I like to go see: regular people in real life situations, dealing with emotions and worries I can relate to. Also, think about starting very simply; don't overwhelm yourself trying to think about the whole movie; write a scene between two people, then write what happens after that, then what happens after that. Don't get boggled down worrying about outlines and rules, just tell a bunch of stories that happen to the same group of people. And try (for lack of a better expression) keeping it real. There's a saying I really like to think about when I'm writing: "Don't do that, they do that in movies." Anytime I find myself writing something that feels nowhere close to reality, I try to stop and reign it back to what's true for me. Blah, blah, blah. I just wanted to offer up a couple of thoughts since so many have you have asked about it.

But take it for what it's worth. This is coming from a guy who got rejected from USC, UCLA and got C's in screenwriting at Northwestern.

I'm going to play poker at Donald Faison's place tonight. I lose everytime, but it is still a lot of fun. I try and learn how to be better by watching celebrity poker showdown, but it has yet to improve my game. It's really fun to have a regular game on saturday night, because saturday nights in LA aren't any fun. As in most cities I have ever lived in, the weekday nights are way more fun to go out then the weekend nights.

Okay: Amazing film to see: Maria Full of Grace.
Amazing Song to play obsessively: "Narrow Escape" by Ray LaMontagne
Insanely funny thing to watch on the net: Viral Videos on www.ifilm.com

Check out Keane on SNL tonight. (Great Band)
And please don't forget to check out my two best buddies web sites. The future of great music: www.joshuaradin.com and www.carybrothers.com

Smile, take a deep breath, it all starts going by really quickly after 28,
ZB