I only push back on this because I think it's important that recipients of 7s or 6s or 5s not be outright discouraged. It's very possible their script needs more work, but it's also possible they just didn't connect with the right readers. A close friend of my received 5s on his Black List submission, then a few months later attached a very well known actor to the same exact script. They've now shopped it and have a big production company super interested. BUT -- it's a quirky script and not for everyone. Not a shocker that someone gave it a 5.

This might be an unpopular opinion.It took my first script (MAD RUSH) many massive rewrites to finally reach the level where it scored multiple 8s and one 9, with the lowest evaluations being 7s (all of them with subscores of several 8s). This version got me repped and shortlisted for an MGM blind studio deal. But the rewrites were brutal. For one of them I did one complete month of solid bitching to anyone who would listen, before finally hunkering down and just doing it (3 additional months of full-time work).My second screenplay is TELEPORT (a pilot), which currently got a 6 and a 7, with positive remarks, but with very valid quibbles. An earlier draft was a Top 5 finalist in Big Break (out of 16,000 entries). I think with that one I'm about two rewrites away from ironing out the quibbles and raising it to a consensus 8+ level. Am I doing the rewrites? Hell yeah.What I'm trying to get at, it's NOT random. There is such a thing as a script being 'undeniable'. But most of us have a hard time accepting the fact that it takes a MASSIVE amount of energy to execute those big rewrites just to reach those last few percentage points of supposed perfection. We resist it like Hell. We say "it's good enough." We comfort ourselves by saying that "it's all subjective" or "no one knows anything" or the Black list is a scam, secretly pre-programed to always score our second evaluation lower or that there is a strictly enforced secret quota... But deep down, we know our screenplay is not the absolute best it could be.Metaphorically, we want the 96% Pollos Hermanos purity level of our meth batch to be good enough. Metaphorically, we refuse to spend an entire episode just killing one fly in order to reach the mystical-blue-hued 99.1% Heisenberg purity level. But that's what it takes if we want to reach the A-level.

I did 3 pitches. First one was a pass and honestly, I didn't pitch well. I learned from my mistakes and feedback. Second pitch was great, still a pass, I suspect, just wasn't his thing. Third pitch, I decided to stop pitching to reps and go straight to the source - procos only. I targeted the prodco to one that seemed like a perfect match. Stuck the landing and got a request. Remains to be seen what they think, but it's a learning curve. Regardless, I feel like there is someone to talk to. Before the pitch they email me tips and after a survey. Jason is very approchable and accessible.

You don't want one. Agents, more than ever, are in the incoming calls business. They're for later. You want a manager. And you do that by submitting.

“In 1897, when we were living in Tedworth Square, London, and I was writing the book called “Following the Equator” my average was eighteen hundred words a day; here in Florence, my average seems to be fourteen hundred words per sitting of four or five hours.”

“Read and write four to six hours a day. If you cannot find the time for that, you can’t expect to become a good writer.”

I would recommend being a friendly presence around established writers. If you do, and they like your personality, the ones who aren’t assholes will eventually offer help. The ones who don’t offer wouldn’t have been helpful anyway, so it’s okay to wait for offer over asking.

"Be creative. Be unique. Be the writer who is a net positive and helps refine creative execs' and producers' ideas into something that makes the material stronger. Be the kind of professional who knows how to suss out when it's okay to push boundaries. BE COLLABORATIVE."

“I think it’s about where ideas come from, they come from day dreaming, from drifting, that moment when you’re just sitting there…” “The trouble with these days is that it’s really hard to get bored. I have 2.4 million people on Twitter who will entertain me at any moment…it’s really hard to get bored.”

“My working habits are simple: long periods of thinking, short periods of writing.”

As a kid, doing homework in my attic bedroom, I sometimes liked to imagine that Benchley had looked out over a similar lawn down the street, crafting his iconic scenes.

Da moda ao ativismo, da "atitude" à música e ao discurso político,vemos emergir novos sujeitos do discurso, que saem dos territórios reais, morros,periferias, guetos e ascendem à esfera midiática, trazendo o germe de um discursopolítico renovado, fora das instituições tradicionais: o Estado, o partido, osindicato, o movimento estudantil, etc. e próximos da cultura urbana jovem:música, show, TV, internet, moda.MV Bill é apenas um dos representantes desse novo discurso, de umamilitância midiática que pode até lançar mão das formas mais tradicionais defazer política, mas não se reduz a ela. No seu caso, concilia a música com aconstituição de um partido, o PPPOMAR (Partido Popular Poder Para Maioria- http://www.pppomar.cjb.net/) com manifesto, programa e projetos com ênfasenas questões raciais e na relação entre raça e pobreza, usando, como forma dediscurso e atuação o rap, o show, a performance, os videoclipes e agora ocinema (o documentárioDi Menor, sobre a participação de crianças no tráfico).

As cenas de violência são espetaculares e siderantes, com umaquantidade de assassinatos e violência marcantes. Vinganças pessoais,massacres estratégicos de um bando pelo outro, violência gratuita, violênciainstitucional, todos são encorajados a alimentar esse ciclo vicioso. A favela émostrada de forma totalmente isolada do resto da cidade, como um territórioautônomo. Em momento algum se pode supor que o tráfico de drogas sesustenta e desenvolve (arma, dinheiro, proteção policial) porque tem uma basefora da favela. Esse fora não existe no filme. E

Com exceção de O InvasoreO Matador, a maioria dos filmes não rela-ciona nem a violência e nem a pobreza com as elites, a cultura empresarial, osbanqueiros, os comerciantes, a classe média e aponta para um tema recorrente:o espetáculo do extermínio dos pobres se matando entre si.

Passamos da "estética" à "cosmética" da fome, da idéia na cabeça e dacâmera na mão (um corpo-a-corpo com o real) ao steadcam, a câmera que surfasobre a realidade, signo de um discurso que valoriza o "belo" e a "qualidade" daimagem, ou ainda, o domínio da técnica e da narrativa clássicas. Um cinema"internacional popular" ou "globalizado" cuja fórmula seria um tema local,histórico ou tradicional, e uma estética "internacional". Folclore-mundo

Da Estética à Cosmética da Fome

Art vs Entertainment

Immersion therapy

In that battle Činggis Qa’an (Qaγan) was wounded in a vein of the neck. He could not stop the bleeding and was in a great plight. He waited till sundown, then he pitched camp just there where the two armies had encamped right next to each other.Jelme sucked and sucked the blood which clogged Činggis Qa’an’s (Qaγan) wound and his mouth was all smeared with blood. Still, Jelme, not trusting other people, stayed there and looked after him. Until the middle of the night he swal-lowed down or spat out mouthfuls of the clogging blood.When midnight had passed Činggis Qa’an (Qaγan) revived and said, ‘Th e blood has dried up completely; I am thirsty.’ Th en Jelme took off his hat, boots and clothes—everything—and stark naked but for his pants, he ran into the midst of the enemy who had settled right next to them. He jumped on to a cart of the people who had set up a circular camp over there. He searched for kumis, but was unable to fi nd any because those people had fl ed in disarray and had turned the mares loose without milking them. As he could not fi nd kumis, he took from one of their carts a large covered bucket of curds and carried it back. In the time between his going and coming back he was not seen by anyone. Heaven indeed protected him!Having brought the covered bucket of curds, the same Jelme, all by himself, searched for water, brought it back, and having mixed it with the curds got the Qa’an (Qaγan) to drink it.Th ree times, resting in between, the Qa’an (Qaγan) drank, then he spoke: ‘Th e eyes within me have cleared up.’

Koumiss (termed čege or ayiraγ in modern Mongolian) is a kind of fermented liquor prepared from mare’s milk. It has traditionally been used both as a pop-ular beverage and as a medicine. Both the Secret History of the Mongols (SH)10and Heida Shilüe (黑韃事略)11 record that the Mongols, in the fi rst stage of their medical development, used this drink in order to recover from wounds and to strengthen their bodies. As the Secret History of the Mongols states:

Koumiss treatment

Nomadic culture and folk medicine

On the 8th - in the kidneys; On the 9th - in the sole of foot; On the 10th - in the foreleg's knee; On the 11th - in the spleen; On the 12th - in the shin bone; On the 13th -in the rump; On the 14th - in the shoulder; On the 15th - in the whole body; On the 16th -in the neck; On the I 7th -in the neck; On the I 8th -in the scapula; On the 19th -in the chest; On the 20th -in the forehead; On the 21st - in the teeth; On the 22nd -in the palate; On the 23rd - in the tongue; On the 24th -in the spine; On the 25th - in the cheeks near the mouth; On the 26th - in the pericardium; On the 27th - in the mouth; On the 28th - in the abdomen; On the 29th - in the teeth; On the 30th - in the whole body of people and animals. It wiU be surely fulfilled. It will be surely fulfilled. It will be surely fulfilled, Surely ten [timcs).

has its own soul that roams around during the month. I had the opportunity to consult such a manuscript that is in private possession. It is as follows: The soul of the yurt is to be consulted with this (booklet) The soul of the yurt. stays in the felt covering of the wall on the first of every decade of every month. If it is damaged, children, people and animals will fall ill. On the 2nd of every decade of every month it stays in the four-legged iron support of the kettle. If it is damaged, it is bad for the master of the house as well as for his wife. On the 3rd of every decade of every month it stays in the felt covering of the upper part of the yurt. It is dangerous to damage this covering. On the 4th of every decade of every month it stays in the door. If it is dam-aged, it is bad for women staying in the yurt. On the 5th of every decade of every rnonth it stays in the \Vinter felt board covering the bottom part of the yurt. If it is damaged it is bad for the elder girl. On the 6th of every decade of every month it stays in the ends of the sidewalls. If the end of the sidewall is damaged it is bad for the elder son. On the 7th of every decade of every month it stays in the fireplace. Do not damage the fireplace! On the 8th of every decade of every month it stays in the whole tent. Do not damage the tent; it would be bad for the daughters-in-law. On the 9th of every decade of every month it stays in the lattice wall. If it is damaged it is bad for the body of the grown-up man. On the I 0th of every decade of every month it stays in the frame of the smoke hole. If it is damaged, all the family will fell ill. On the days of the dog, of the dragon, of the ox, of the sheep - on these four days - the soul of the earth stays in the earth. Do not get a bride, do not move to a new settlement, do not move the yurt, do not take out the dead, and do not dig a well on these four days. These are the days when one should make a fire offering to the earth and to the lord of the fire. Let there be blessing!

So, it is no wonder that the yurt. also

Not only human beings have souls but animals as well. Just as the soul of man, that of an animal also roams around in its body. Another small manuscript of the Ori-ental Collection of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences indicates which day where the soul of the animal stays. It is written in Oirat (Kara 2000, Mong. 195). Text for consulting the soul. On the I st of the first ten days of the month - it stays in the sole of the hoof; On the 2nd -in the shin bone; On the 3rd -in the shin bone; On the 4th -in the leg above the hock; On the 5th -in the knee cap; On the 6th -in the hip bones3; On the 7th in the haunch;

On the 12th - in the tuft of hair on the temple side; On the 13th - in the gum of the teeth; On the 14th - in the hearth; On the 15th - in the whole body; On the I 6th - in the chest; On the 17th - in the breast; On the 18th - in the buttock; On the 19th - in the feet; On the 20th - in the inner ankle-bone; On the 21st - in the little finger of the band; On the 22nd- in the outer anklebone; On the 23rd - in the liver and in the foot; On the 24th - in the back of the hand; On the 25th - in the sole of the foot; On the 26th - in the chest; On the 27th - in the knees; On the 28th - in the thighs; On the 29th - in the shin bone; On the 30th - in the sole of the foot.2 The text does not give any instruction how to protect the given part of the body, It must have served as a hand-booklet just remindin g people to take care.

day and month. It is important to know these locations, as the concerned body part should be handled with special care at that time. lf this part is hurt or hit on that day it causes extreme harm for a man (Bawden 1962). A Tibetan medical text mentions that there is a certain 'soul pulse' indicating that the pulse is considered the abode of this soul (Karmay 1998).

The second soul (siinesiin) is immortal and not dependent on the material body of man. It can leave the body in the form of a wasp or bee through the nose or mouth. The soul can also become a bird. It can take several forms and is imagined in the form of a small man, or just the contrary, as a giant. This soul, most probably, resides in the blood. However, the heart, the lungs, the liver can also be its home. When one is frightened, or chuckles or sneezes, this soul drops out of the body and is chased by the evil spirits. That is why it is dangerous to frighten people, especially children whose souls leave the body more easily. If the soul leaves the body man falls ill or dies, as his soul is taken away or eaten up by the spirits (Sarkozi-Sazykin 2004).

The third soul (siilde) is a protective genius that stays with the person and de-cides his or her fate (Birtalan 200 I; Bawden 1962; 1970; 1985).

The State Fire Hearth

Even in the thirteenth century, it was taboo to touch the fire or anything cooking on it with a knife, or even to chop wood near it. Moreover, since the sixteenth century, Mongols have avoided putting anything dirty, smelly, rotted or unclean on the fire, will not pour water or spirit on it or pass anything over it according to Dorje Banzarov.

Every person has three souls. Two of them are mortal, but the remaining one is immortal. According to Shamanism, they are the three spirits or deities of a man or woman, including the female spirit of flesh and blood, the male spirit of bones and lastly the Heaven spirits.

The Belief in Three Souls

The Soul

Thus, Mongolian Shamanism considered that smoke lifted up the human soul along with the souls of his possessions to the darkness.

Soul and spirit have different meanings in Mongolian Shamanism. For example, a living tree has its own soul; but forest as a whole and other natural resources have their own special spirit. If someone cuts down the tree then it dies, but if someone builds a wooden house then the house’s spirit will always exist because many trees were killed in order to build it. If people use trees wastefully or start wildfires, their spirits get angry and natural disasters such as floods and snowstorms will ensue. So, the main difference is that a soul belongs to a single entity such as a person, a plant or animal, white land and water spirits protect an area or group of entities.