Hey everyone, could you please do a small favor for me and ‘like’ the Facebook page for my film (writer) “Three of One Kind” — once it receives 300 likes, the producers are going to release the trailer and I can’t wait to see it!  THANK YOU!

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=619478895#!/3of1K

Not my pants, my SCRIPTS!

The cast and crew of "Next-Life Crisis"

I’m very happy to announce New York City actor/producer Perri Pierre has optioned three of my short scripts (“Exit Survey,” “Unhappy Camper” and “The Perfect Woman”) and plans to shoot all three in August/September and present them in an anthology entitled “One of Three Kinds.” Perri (http://perripierre.weebly.com/) will play the lead role in all three shorts and they will be directed by Rachael Saltzman (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2324918/). I’m very excited!

I’ve also optioned my short script “Abby Normal” to Los Angeles director/producer Nikita Zubarev (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3320010/) with production planned for the fall.

“Exit Survey” and “The Perfect Woman” are scripts I wrote about 10 years ago. But thanks to my involvement in the fabulous filmmaking collective We Make Movies (http://wemakemovies.org/), I was able to have a free staged reading of both of those scripts this past winter/spring – with real actors, in Hollywood and in front of a large audience. I received tons of positive feedback, made some changes to both scripts and now they are destined for the screen. Pretty cool. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE AT WE MAKE MOVIES for your help!!

“Abby Normal” and “Unhappy Camper” are two new scripts I wrote this spring as a direct result of my involvement in We Make Movies. I can’t tell you how much fun it is to have your scripts read out loud in front of an appreciative audience! Really makes me want to write stage plays, and I’ll definitely do that at some point. I’ve had a few staged readings of feature scripts before, but now I can have a new short script read in front of an awesome audience every month or two! I wrote “Abby Normal” and “Unhappy Camper” with the intent of having them read at We Make Movies. Fortunately, I have eight more scripts waiting to be read, optioned or sold and made into movies, and I plan to write more very soon, so I’m looking forward to presenting that work at future We Make Movies gatherings. If you live in or near L.A. and you are an actor/writer/director/DP/camera op/producer/makeup artist or anything related to filmmaking, I highly recommend We Make Movies! Come join us!

I’ve included the loglines for my four recently optioned scripts below to give you a sense of what you’ll soon see on the screen! If you or anyone you know would like to read any of my available shorts for possible production, or have me write one specifically for you, you know where to find me!

Before I leave you, two updates:

I still have not received a copy of the short film “Guess Who’s Coming to Supper?” which I wrote and directed in February, nor have I been paid. I was hired by the producers to specifically develop the material for a Christian film festival. I’m disappointed these producers have proven to be unreliable, but I hope I’ll have a copy (and payment – it’s not much but every little bit helps!) very soon and be able to show it to some of you, or all of you if they’ll let us post it somewhere.

My short “Next-Life Crisis,” shot here in L.A. and Orange counties in April and May, is still in post-production. It was mired in a tape-transfer fiasco for some time but I believe it is now on its way to being edited. I was thrilled that my good friend Tod Huntington, who starred in my first film “Jupiter Landing,” agreed to play the co-lead. I absolutely love Tod’s acting and he is the nicest guy you’ll ever meet; I would LOVE to have his positive energy on every one of my movie sets in the future! It’s been a pleasure knowing him these past seven years. And the other actor on “Next-Life,” Herbert Russell, was equally fantastic and easy to work with – I have a feeling I’ll be working with him in the future as well. This film is sort of the opposite of a Christian film – I love showing my range! – and I’m excited for everyone to see it!

OK, now here are those loglines. Enjoy the sun in Leo everybody!!

EXIT SURVEY – When her dim-witted boyfriend tries to dump her, a woman forces him to fill out an exit survey. But will it help her achieve the closure she desires or will they simply get to know each other better? Male and female leads, any age. Exterior, city dump. Interior/exterior, house or apartment. Comedy, 9 pages.

UNHAPPY CAMPER – When a dating relationship gets serious, a woman must confront her biggest obstacle to achieving happiness in a long-term partnership – her former camp counselor, a man, who has lived with her since she was 10. When her boyfriend and counselor become embroiled in an argument, she decides to end her relationship with both of them. Drowning their sorrows at a local bar, the boyfriend and counselor realize they have much in common. Will they reconcile with the woman or go off to summer camp together? Male and female leads (20s or 30s). Male supporting role (30s or 40s). Exterior apartment building, interior one-bedroom apartment, interior bar. Comedy, 12 pages.

THE PERFECT WOMAN ¬– A man searching for the love of his life gets more than he bargained for at a mall boutique that sells human brides. Two leads, one male and one female. Two supporting females, one supporting male. Age range of actors fairly flexible, 20-45. All scenes interior, a shopping mall and store. Comedy, 11 pages.

ABBY NORMAL – A woman who is happy and mentally balanced uses a free coupon to visit a psychoanalyst, only to be convinced her life is a mess and she sorely needs counseling. Two female leads. Interior/exterior, office. Comedy, 8 pages.

Here’s the story from the Grand-Am Road Racing Web site:

Daytona Dream Documents Level 5 Competing in 2010 Rolex 24 At Daytona

Nov. 2, 2010

» Discuss this story in the GRAND-AM Garage!

Level 5 Motorsports drivers Scott Tucker (right) and Christophe Bouchut talk during preparations for the 2010 Rolex 24 At Daytona.

Yippeeeee!  My auto racing film “Daytona Dream” (writer-director) was shown for the first time at a private screening on Aug. 12 in suburban Kansas City, and it was a total blast.  (See my Facebook page for pics!)  The movie turned out extremely well, I am thoroughly satisfied with it, and it was enthusiastically received by its first audience.  Its world premiere is scheduled for the Clearwater Film Festival, Sept. 29-Oct. 2.  Yay!

We’ve submitted it to more than a dozen film festivals so we hope it’ll be showing at others — will keep you updated.  We do know for sure that it will be broadcast on the Discovery Channel sometime between the first of October and the end of December.

I am hoping, of course, this will lead to additional work — either with the same company, Drive Motion Pictures, or others.  It was SO MUCH fun!  If you need a writer-director for any film or documentary, you know where to find me!

Project update: After completing my fifth feature script for Feature Films for Families, I’m now working on a comedy/relationship script for New York producer Dean Mavrikas.  I’m extremely excited about this project, but since I’m working on it night and day, it won’t take me long to complete.  So, producers, come on — give me a call!  My 35th feature script can be the one I write for YOU!

Production update: My script “The Sound of the Game,” optioned by Eighth Island Films, looks likely to be shot in the spring or summer of 2011, possibly in Georgia or Louisiana.  Stay tuned for more info!

Thanks for stopping by!  Z

Here’s the official announcement by Drive Motion Pictures:

Drive’s Documentary – Daytona Dream – Selected for Clearwater Film Festival

It has been a long journey!

But I’m here. I’m doing it. I’m a full-time writer of movies! I have one film that’s been produced (”Jupiter Landing”) and I now have nine — count ‘em, nine! — feature scripts in development.

I’m not yet a household name, but I will be (at least, in households where the discussion of successful screenwriters is a common practice). And I am on IMDB!

For now, after doing nothing but screenwriting on contract for the past 14 months here in my quiet Pasadena apartment, I am simply happy to declare myself — finally and once and for all — free of the tiresome, conflict-ridden, stress-filled trade of print journalism! Now, instead of chasing down some crisis-plagued, small-town mayor for comment on a controversial issue he or she claims is irrelevant while personally blaming me for creating a public maelstrom when all I’m doing is following the orders of my editors, I’m sitting in my apartment in my underwear making up funny stuff! The level of enjoyment I experience at work every day now is a hundred times what it used to be. And I have the shortest commute in Los Angeles — two inches. (That’s the distance from my fold-out futon bed to the majestic antique desk I inherited from my grandfather.)

As I give journalism one final wave goodbye, I will leave it, and you, with one of my favorite quotes of all-time, from the ubiquitous Dr. Hunter S. Thompson:

“I have spent half my life trying to get away from journalism, but I am still mired in it — a low trade and a habit worse than heroin, a strange seedy world full of misfits and drunkards and failures.”

It did take me nearly half my life, Hunter S., but I managed to escape. Rest in peace, Dr. Gonzo!

I still remember the exact moment I decided to become a screenwriter. It was shortly after midnight on Nov. 15, 1998. I was sitting alone at my kitchen table, seriously considering a part-time job of stuffing envelopes just to make ends meet. Journalists don’t make a lot of money, as I’m sure most of you know, and it’s no easy task supporting four people on that salary. I worked overtime every chance I could get, and yet there I was, brainstorming for ways to get through to the next paycheck.

At that moment, I was struck by an inspiration so forceful and fervent that my brow, in fact my entire forehead, physically moved in reaction to the thought. It was as though I had been struck by intellectual lightning. The idea was so powerful it caused a physical wave, or spasm, as it crossed into, and/or out of, my cerebrum. The thought was a simple one. Something like: YOU ARE A SCREENWRITER, YOU IDIOT! It was like my spirit guides were jumping up and down and yelling at me, hoping that after all those years of being too busy to meditate, I’d finally paused long enough to hear what they’d been trying to tell me forever.

I heard them, all right. Loud and clear. In the next hour, I wrote an eight-page outline for a science-fiction screenplay (one I still have not written). In the coming weeks, I spent my lunch hours at Borders, devouring every screenwriting book I could find, despite being too broke to actually buy one. Less than six weeks after that inspirational event, I was well into my first feature script. Because I couldn’t afford screenwriting software, I wrote it — and all of my first seven screenplays, in fact — on WordPerfect, spending countless hours punching the tab and space keys to format it properly. So as not to disrupt my family’s routine, I wrote only when my wife and kids were asleep — usually from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. or later. Eventually, I started getting up at 4 or 5 a.m. and writing before work, allowing the more awake and alert version of myself to give his best to screenwriting and leaving the exhausted, worn-out model to fake his way through another day as a beat (no pun intended) reporter.

There were people in my life who doubted me; people who suggested I was trying to win the lottery and actually had less of a shot at success than hitting the Pick Six. But I didn’t see it that way. I knew from age 7, when I spent second grade filling spiral notebook after spiral notebook with stories about a rat and a rabbit who visited outer space, that I was a writer. When I began my daily newspaper career as a sportswriter at age 14, it seemed natural. And when I wrote, produced and co-directed two cable access TV series after I graduated from college, I thought those were the best years of my life. As miserable as I was in journalism, I saw screenwriting as a logical way out — and perhaps my only hope of ever waking up in the morning with a smile on my face, eager to begin my work day (as I, very thankfully, do now). I started winning screenwriting contests, I optioned a script (it was eventually made into an indie film), and along the way many deals were struck only to fall through or fade out (again, no pun intended) in some way, shape or form. I wrote five scripts for one manager with no tangible success. I wrote two for another manager, who sent my work “around town” to positive responses — but still no sale or option, and not a single meeting with a production company! But it was all very encouraging rather than deflating. People liked my work. I was close. So I moved to Los Angeles. And finally, a business relationship I began nurturing nine years earlier came through in a big way with a writing contract that, while still well below WGA minimum, was enough to permit me to leave the last (and most horrific) job of my journalism tour. Since then, the screenwriting work has been steady. And some of you who are reading these words will, I hope, help me keep going.

I would not argue that my entire foot is through the door. But a big toe? Yes. And perhaps half of that second toe. But the door is open, and I thank all of you who have empowered and fortified me in so many ways and helped me finally break through.

Hollywood is like no other business. You don’t walk into a production company, hand them your resume and tell them you’d like to write a script for them. Many screenwriters, in fact, have lost their lives trying this exact approach. On Nov. 15, 1998, I knew no one in Hollywood. Today, I know just a handful of people in this business. I have never had an agent and, for now, have stopped trying to find one; it seems almost as impossible as locating a parking spot around here. But I’ve gotten this far on my own and nothing is going to stop me from giving it everything I’ve got. Perhaps, one day, the agent who is meant to represent me will sit at his or her kitchen table at midnight and will feel their forehead move and their spirit guides will stand on their ethereal tippy toes and holler: SIGN ZACK VAN EYCK!

If you’re a screenwriter trying to break in, all I can tell you is I hope you have some Capricorn in your natal chart (I do, Capricorn rising). Because you’re going to need the tenacity of that ram climbing the mountain. It takes patience, perseverance, determination and ambition to get ANYWHERE in this business. Some people get lucky and sell a spec script — maybe even the first, second or third one they write. Despite winning multiple contests with my second and third scripts, it was my 11th screenplay that finally sold — although only for $500, under the WGA low-budget agreement. Now, I’m writing feature screenplay No. 32. But six of the last seven scripts I’ve written have been for pay, on contract. And the seventh one has been optioned and is scheduled for production next summer.

I’m not getting rich, and that was never my intent, although I am getting tired of sitting in the upper deck at Dodger Stadium. But I have the best job in the world, one I worked incredibly hard to cultivate for myself. And I’m making more than I made as a journalist. Plus, the reward — the satisfaction of earning a living through your own creativity — is so much greater. And how many new stories can you write in your underwear?

In future blogs, I will do my best to help other screenwriters who have yet to get that big toe through the door. Your comments and questions will always be welcomed.

I also want to thank my Webmaster, my daughter Emily, for designing this site for me. I hope she, too, will pursue a career she is passionate about and that will allow her to fully express her own potent creativity. Because, even if it takes a while, to finally realize your dreams and do the work you were truly meant to do is SO SWEET and so rewarding, you realize all the effort, sacrifice and lost hours of sleep were more than worth it!

Zack Van Eyck
Pasadena, CA
10-8-2009