Brief Update

Here is a brief update on my current creative projects and endeavors…!

★ Important Note: “The Poet and the Flea 100 Day Countdown to the Premiere” is underway!! Join us on Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook!

Friday, August 24th

1. Continuing work on The Flea and The Man…
2. Yesterday, received e-mail from Shannon. She has finished the entire first draft of our graphic novel collaboration entitled The First Reich!!! After she does some editing, she’ll be sending me a copy to read — I can’t wait… ヽ(；▽；)ノ

Saturday, August 25th

• Taking a little break…

Sunday, August 26th

1. Continuing work on The Flea and The Man…
2. Received e-mail from a writer interested in collaborating on a children’s book. In the process of scheduling a meeting.
3. Two more Pixel-Flick Alliance meetings have been scheduled — one on September 15th and the other on the 22nd.

Monday, August 27th

1. Continuing work on The Flea and The Man…
2. After some correspondence, have scheduled a meeting with J.R. (jrbiche.wordpress.com) to further discuss his potential web series. Meeting on Monday, September 10th.

Tuesday, August 28th

• Continuing work on The Flea and The Man…

Wednesday, August 29th

1. Continuing work on The Flea and The Man…
2. For Robert Louis Stevenson research, began reading The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
3. Planning to sign up with OnlineComics.net.
4. Planning to contact Graphic Ladies!? on Tumblr about The Poet and the Flea.

Thursday, August 30th

1. Continued research for The Poet and the Flea.
2. Completed short screenplay The Man Who Never Smiled.
3. E-mail correspondence with potential production company about The Man Who Never Smiled.
4. E-mail correspondence with potential director/producer for Robots Are a Girl’s Best Friend.
5. E-mail correspondence with Brian (Pixel Flick Entertainment). Brian became the new organizer for the meetup.com group “San Francisco Movie Makers,” hoping to get more people interested in the Alliance. Would love to see the Alliance grow!
6. Did not make it to the next round of  The Austin Film Festival Screenplay Contest. As I said before, I just have to keep doing what I’m doing. There are still about 5 more I’m waiting to hear back from. Anything could happen!

Friday, August 31st

1. Working on the script for The Poet and the Flea!
2. E-mail correspondence with potential production company about The Man Who Never Smiled.

Saturday, September 1st - Sunday, September 2nd

1. Taking a little break…
2. Continuing to read Jekyll and Hyde — it’s incredibly different from any adaptation I have come across. Fascinating!
3. Bought a JPLT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) N1 textbook from Kinokuniya. Started reviewing the material, and believe it was money well spent. Not sure if I’ll actually take the test, but would be a nice addition to my résumé. If I decide to apply to The JET Programme as a CIR (Coordinator for International Relations), would be very helpful!

JLPT N1 Textbook!!

Monday, September 3rd

1. Continuing work on The Flea…
2. Shannon sent me the entire draft of our graphic novel collaboration, The First Reich. In the process of reading and taking lots of notes. Project will require much period fashion/settings research, but is a welcome challenge!

Tuesday, September 4th

1. Today, I found out some exciting news. I hadn’t realized that anything was announced since I received no e-mail. But I checked the Kaos Films website, and lo and behold. My screenplay Death Is No Bad Friend is one of 292 qualifiers (semi-finalists) in the Kaos Films British Short Screenplay Competition 2012. (This means my script will most likely be read by judge Sir Kenneth Branagh!!) The finalists should be announced sometime around January. Awesome!
2. Continuing work on The Flea and The First Reich.
3. E-mail correspondence with potential director/producer for Robots Are a Girl’s Best Friend.
4. Finished reading The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I think it was a good experience. Next, thinking of reading The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells.
5. By the way, I’ve just developed a new, little obsession with bats. Just look at their faces below!!  (゜▽゜;) Perhaps I’ll eventually develop a comic or children’s book with a protagonist named “Fluffernutter the Bat”™?

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these bat photographs!!

Etcetera

• The Poet and the Flea: 45 pages of written script (1 page of script = 4-6 illustrated pages), and about 36 pages (1-18, 21-23, 27-30 completed, and 19-20, 24-26, 31-36 in progress) of illustrated work.

To Do:

• Meeting with writer for children’s book on Monday, September 10th (noon).
• Meeting with J.R. on Monday, September 10th (2 p.m.).
• Schedule one-on-one meeting with Brian (Pixel Flick Entertainment).
• Pixel-Flick Alliance Meetup on Saturday, September 15th.
• Pixel-Flick Networking Event on Saturday, September 22nd.
• Work on research, character sketches, etc. for Shannon.
• Schedule second meeting with Shannon.
• Sign up with IMDbPro.
• Apply to the Bluecat Screenplay Competition (before October 15th).
• Sign up with Top Web Comics: Comic Rankings.
• Sign up with OnlineComics.net.
• Contact Graphic Ladies!?

***

For more updates, don’t forget to follow me on tumblr and/or twitter.

***

Copyright 2012 by G. E. Gallas

Some Visual Inspiration

Just wanted to organize some images that have inspired/continue to inspire me of late.

Images in chronological order.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these images!!

(Click on images to enlarge.)

“Antaeus setting down Dante and Virgil in the last circle of hell” (1827) by William Blake

“Symphony in White no 1″ (1862) by James Abbott McNeill Whistler

Portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson (1887) by John Singer Sargent

“Landscape with Green Trees or Beech Trees in Kerduel”
(1893) by Maurice Denis

Actress Barbara Stanwyck (1940s)

Japanese author Dazai Osamu (1940s)

“Mahoning” (1956) by Franz Klein

“Tet” (1958) by Morris Louis

Poster for Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” (1958)

From Ingmar Bergman’s “The Magician” (1958) starring Max von Sydow and Ingrid Thulin

Actress Sarah Miles in “Vogue” (1964).

***

For more updates, don’t forget to follow me on tumblr and/or twitter.

***

Copyright 2012 by G. E. Gallas

Summaries

Here is some information on my works…!

Full-length Screenplays

1. No Longer Human: A story of obsession. Inspired by the deaths of the artists Jeremy Blake and Theresa Duncan.
2. Valentine: A retelling of Alexandre Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo, focused on the story of Maximilian Morrel and Valentine de Villefort.
3. The Man Who Never Smiled: A contemporary film noir.
4. Houdini & Conan Doyle: An exploration of the friendship, falling-out, and rivalry between the escape artist Harry Houdini and the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Short Screenplays

1. Robots Are a Girl’s Best Friend is the story of a troubled middle-aged man who attends a Halloween party dressed as Marilyn Monroe. A life-changing encounter with an “inanimate object” helps him come to terms with his identity.
2. Death Is No Bad Friend: Based on the life and works of Robert Louis Stevenson. Robert Louis attempts to escape his guilty conscience through honeymooning on Mount Saint Helena. But his illness catches up, forcing him to face his demons.

Fiction

1. “Go Jump in the Lake”: The precursor to Who is Laurence Harvey? An imagining of Laurence Harvey’s experience on the set of The Manchurian Candidate (1962). During filming in Manhattan, Larry is required to jump into the frozen waters of the Lake in Central Park. With this feat looming over his head, he questions his ability to cope with the pressure.
2. “Robots Are a Girl’s Best Friend” (See above.)
3. “Bludgeoning The Walrus”: A ‘60s period piece about a movie set designer who is fed up with his lecherous, big-shot boss.
4. “Ulysses in Hell”: An account from the perspective of the hero Ulysses as he burns in Dante’s Inferno.
5. “Coin-operated Golem”: Inspired by “A Supermarket in California” by Allen Ginsberg.
6. “The Ink Drinker”: A dystopian story about a young girl who learns the truth about an outcast of society.
7. “The Scar Still Hurts” (In Progress)
8. “The Man with a Television for a Head” (In Progress)

***

For more information, please visit my homepage: www.wix.com/gegallas/writer.

For more updates, don’t forget to follow me on tumblr and/or twitter.

***

Copyright 2012 by G. E. Gallas

Brief Update

Here is a brief update on my current creative projects and endeavors…!

1. Last week, completed 7 page script for Robots Are a Girl’s Best Friend. Have important meeting scheduled for this week. I suppose this is the beginning of pre-production? Very, very, very excited!
2. The Poet and the Flea: 26 pages of written script (1 page of script = 4-6 illustrated pages), and about 24 pages (1-5 completed, and 6-24 in progress) of illustrated work.

3. Introducing thepoetandtheflea.wordpress.com : I wasn’t very happy with how my images were showing up on the Wix site I created [sorry, Wix!], so I decided to post the graphic novel on a sister wordpress blog! I think the formatting will be a lot easier to navigate and a lot simpler to update. We’ll see how it goes!

4. On the other hand, working on completely revamping homepage [yay, Wix!]. Adding more information/summaries about my various projects.
5. Sunday, applied to Kaos Films’s 2012 British Short Screenplay Competition. Submitted 14 page screenplay entitled Death Is No Bad Friend, inspired by the life and works of Robert Louis Stevenson. I’m very excited about the judges (Kenneth Branagh might read by screenplay!) as well as the prize (“The winner… will have their screenplay produced by Kaos Films. It will be premiered at BAFTA…, entered into film festivals around the world before being screened in selected cinemas in the UK.”). Wish me luck! Information updated on “Applications” post, here.

***

For more updates, don’t forget to follow me on tumblr and/or twitter.

***

Copyright 2012 by G. E. Gallas

Brainstorming

Ideas for future projects…

The following is a list of various works (literature, poetry, art, etc.) that have influenced me and may influence new projects in the future, as well as ideas that have been churning around in my head.

Also, this is a sort of semi-reading list for books I would like to read and re-read. Some advice for anyone interested in reading these books: Project Gutenberg, Bartleby.com, etc. are WONDERFUL for literature written in English. But if you are interested in Dumas, Hoffmann, Pushkin, or any other author who did not write in English, I would highly recommend Penguin Classics — their English translations are always BRILLIANT (although the very best, of course, is to read a work in its original language — for instance, I happen to hate Dazai Osamu and Yoshimoto Banana translated [no offense to the translators, it's not their fault], but I absolutely love them in the original Japanese)!!

In no particular order…

• Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin: about to read.
• The Tales of Hoffmann by E.T.A. Hoffmann: must read.
• The Moonstone, etc. by Wilkie Collins: must re-read/read.
• The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri: have read.
• The works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: have read/must read.
• Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther and his friend Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem: have read/would like to continue to research.
• Philipp Otto Runge, Romantic German painter: have researched.
• The Count of Monte Cristo, The Black Tulip, etc. by Alexandre Dumas: have read.
• The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and The Suicide Club by Robert Louis Stevenson: must read.
• Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincey: must read.
• John Singer Sargent and the Portrait of Madame X: have seen at the Met/must research.
• Lord Byron (“The Limping Devil”), Mary Shelley, and Percy Bysshe Shelley — the origins of Frankenstein: have read/must research.
• Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: have researched/would like to continue to research.
• Franz Liszt (as a young piano teacher): would like to continue to research.
• Béla Bartók (and his research into folk music): would like to continue to research.
• David Popper (Bohemian cellist and my all-time favorite composer): need to find more information about him!
• The Love of Don Perlimplín and Belisa in the Garden by Federico García Lorca: have read.
• A Supermarket in California by Allen Ginsberg: have read.
• The works of Christopher Isherwood: have read.
• The Quiet American and The Third Man by Graham Greene: love movies/must read.
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Constant Gardener by John le Carré: love movies/must read.
• Hollywood stars like Barbara Stanwyck, Mary Pickford, Sessue Hayakawa, etc.
• The Stones Cry Out by Okuizumi Hikaru: have read.
• The works of Dazai Osamu: have read/must read.
• The works of Ibuse Masuji: must read.
• The works of Mishima Yukio: have read.
• The works of Kenzaburo Oe: have read.
• Okinawan literature: have read.
• Nikola Tesla, Serbian-American inventor: have researched.
• Hendrik Goltzius, the Dutch engraver: have researched/would like to continue to research.
• Morris Louis, American Color Field painter: have researched/would like to continue to research.
• Jean Cocteau, French filmmaker: would like to research.
• Philippe Halsman, Latvian-born American photographer: would like to research.
• The operas of Jacques Offenbach, Giuseppe Verdi, Georges Bizet, Giacomo Puccini, etc.
• …?

To be continued…!

***

For more updates, don’t forget to follow me on tumblr and/or twitter.

***

Copyright 2012 by G. E. Gallas

Brief Update

Here is a brief update on my current creative projects and endeavors…!

1. Just registered Who is Laurence Harvey? and The Golden Curator with Writers Guild of America, West.
2. Applied to The Austin Film Festival Screenplay & Teleplay Awards. Information updated on “Applications” post, here.
3. Death Is No Bad Friend: Completed screenplay draft intended for short film (14 pages) this past Sunday.
4. The Poet and the Flea: Too hot to draw, so I intend to work on the script over the next few days.
5. Jeremy Blake/Theresa Duncan Screenplay: I intend to work on this as well.
6. New Idea: jukepopserials.com. Have to think about it. May try and submit a revamped version of my short story entitled “Inside the Display Case” about a Siberian pit viper named Peter.

To Do:

• Work on The Poet and the Flea and the Jeremy Blake/Theresa Duncan Screenplay.
• Contemplate jukepopserials.com.
• Apply to the Bluecat Screenplay Competition
• Apply to The American Zoetrope Screenplay Contest

***

For more updates, don’t forget to follow me on tumblr and/or twitter.

***

Copyright 2012 by G. E. Gallas

Brief Update

Here is a brief update on my current creative projects and endeavors…!

The Poet and the Flea, graphic novel: 16 pages of written script (1 page of script = 4-6 illustrated pages), and about 18 pages of illustrated work in progress. I am almost half way towards my goal of 40 pages. When I reach 40 pages, I will begin to post the graphic novel online. My first post will include 5 pages and I will update at least once a week following that. Also, working on constructing a tumblr page and a kickstarter.com profile.

New Screenplay!!: I began working on a new screenplay intended for a short film. The screenplay is entitled Death Is No Bad Friend and is about Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde) in San Francisco.

To Do:

• Register current screenplays through Writers Guild of America.
• Apply to The Austin Film Festival Screenplay & Teleplay Awards before May 15th.

***

For more updates, don’t forget to follow me on tumblr and/or twitter.

***

Copyright 2012 by G. E. Gallas