Jared Laws
Bio
Hopeful future screenplay writer, I believe we can all learn a little from the Movies and Shows we watch. I write about cinema to improve my own screenplays
Stories (11)
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Arnie in Seattle
Arnie Rowland's Journal April 8th: Six days after crossing the border. Canada is a lot meaner than you’d expect. The day started the same way the last few days have been. A knock on the front door right at 8:00 A.M. sharp. Two knocks and they came in, three Canadian soldiers with a cart with nothing but two glasses and two plates, juice and bagels for breakfast again, five days in a row. They gave us the usual fifteen minutes to eat before they would take us and question us for hours on end about nothing in particular. We figured out that no matter how much we ate we had fifteen minutes. I ate, went to the bathroom and got ready to be taken away. I stood in front of the soldiers waiting for their timer to go off and have them escort me away. As soon as the timer went off one of the soldiers lunged forward and punched me in the face, the shock and the force knocked me to the ground, Beka immediately started screaming
By Jared Laws4 years ago in Fiction
Will at the Prom
Will Tyrell Cure log Day 1 March 20th This was supposed to be one of the most important days in my high school career. The day's date was planned by Jordan, and Arnie. We played laser tag as early as the place would open and some of the guys came back to Arnie’s place, to play video games and hang out while the girls all went to Beka’s place to do makeup and hair for hours. After that we met up, took prom pictures and went to dinner. We didn’t want to shell out a hundred bucks each for a fancy restaurant, so my parents spent all day decorating and making the house fancy enough to match the formal dance setting. As we were eating my dad came in, looking at his phone. I knew something was wrong because the color had left his face and bald head.
By Jared Laws4 years ago in Fiction
Hux at the Armory
Huxley Wheeler: Log Number 23 April 1st - April fools day 24 days since the fog started: I left early in the morning letting everyone know I was leaving. I wasn’t worried about going out alone. I could take out a dozen Empties in my sleep after what happened in Yellowstone. I set out to bring back dozens of guns and thousands of rounds of ammo and possibly even a Humvee or a tank. One of the perks of the new Emptie America is I can have any car or truck I want. In such a small country town finding a massive six wheeled truck was pretty easy. Just a few miles from the base I drove over to the Military Armoury. The fence was still up and the building was fairly intact. I could make out the hum of electricity from the electric fence still working. A building still having electricity almost a month since the fog shouldn’t be possible. As far as I was aware there were no other buildings in the city that still had functioning electricity. I parked and took my shotgun to secure the perimeter of the fence on the opposite side of the building where there was a group of Empties. They had no ripped clothes and no missing arms or legs. Seeing them not move or attack me was a comforting and a terrifying feeling. They looked as if they hadn't moved since the fog, standing and staring at the armoury. Being careful not to touch the fence. As I approached them they didn’t move, they couldn’t be bothered to look at me. They had no drive to hunt their prey. I calmly walked up and blew all their heads off. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a camera, red light on, pointed right at me. I tried not to look right at it to see if it would follow me as I walked back to the truck. It didn’t move and stayed in place on the now dead Empties. I switched guns and I shot the hinges on the fence gate and disconnected it from the power supply. I kicked the gate open, and walked with caution. I could feel eyes on me with the cameras pointed around the building. One right at me, again. I pointed my gun at the building and shot out the camera’s, each sparking with electricity after each shot. The door wasn’t locked so I was able to walk right in. The lights were off, I clicked on the flashlight attached to my M27. In the circle of light I was able to see four fully geared up and helmeted soldiers, pointing their guns back at me.
By Jared Laws4 years ago in Fiction
An unknown legend: Michael Schur. The best sitcom writer ever.
Growing up Jewish in Ann Arbor Michigan and Hartford Connecticut, Michael Schur graduated high school and Harvard with an english degree and the comedy writing experience from being the president of the Harvard Lampoon. He started his career working on Saturday Night Live first as a writer and then going on to be a host of the Weekend updates segment. He worked for SNL from 2001 to 2004 winning an Emmy as part of the cast in 2001 and notably tackling the tough task of hosting a comedy show a few weeks after 9/11. After leaving SNL in 2004 he went on to start working on american version of The Office, which released in 2005 and started casting and writing in 2004. The first season was adapted and the first episode was almost shot for shot of the UK version, leaving little to no room for Schur’s own writing to change the bulk of the episode. While many episodes of the Office are credited with different people writing, Schur was the last step of the process for almost every episode. At the time the first season of The Office received mixed reviews from both critics and general audiences. Fans of the original UK office couldn’t get behind this version, including the cast. John Krasinski, unknowingly told Schur that he didn’t think the writers could replicate the UK office after his audition at a bar not knowing Schur was the showrunner. Several changes were made to the show that all seemed to turn out for the better, Phyllis and Toby were both crew members that made it in as characters when Schur liked their personalities on screen. Schur realized that the UK office worked for the Audience in the UK but needed to be adapted to american screens and the actors' strengths. Simply looking at Michael in season one and season two would show the change of the whole show. Michael goes from being a bad, douchey boss to a carefree, fun, boss that can get some work done if needed. His hair isn’t slicked back and the color grading on the show overall is more vibrant. The second season brought more success to the show, and more critical acclaim after not knowing how long they could continue with the poor viewership of the first season and episodes of the UK office quickly running out he knew that he had to change it up. For the next six seasons the office went on to be a very funny popular show that millions of people watched and talked about.
By Jared Laws5 years ago in Geeks
Why I Hated Writing Most of My Life and What Changed My Mind
Before I start into what my passion is I feel that I need to start by talking about how I absolutely hated it for most of my life. Starting in elementary school writing is a normal part of school, writing in some form almost everyday. In early classes they just teach how to write different letters with the large lines so you can figure out how letters look and fit on the page and how words are put together. At that point in school my opinion on writing was that it was my least favorite subject, but who really would like something like that, with no stories or narratives being worked on yet there wasn’t much to like. Also around this time was when we learned cursive, or script depending on where you are from. At the time the teachers told us that it was essential to learn cursive but within a few years it had faded out of the curriculum to never be written by me again. Continuing on through the early years, learning spelling, sentence structure and how to write a proper five paragraph essay I never liked any of it along the way. I understood that technology would be able to assist with pretty much every aspect of writing that we were learning in english class so I never cared to listen. Then in Jr. high the only thing from english class I remember was essays, reading speed and comprehension. I don’t think I ever had the freedom of picking my own topic for essays until about junior year of high school. By then I was so burned out from meaningless five paragraph essays for years I could never come up with a topic to write about or so I thought.
By Jared Laws5 years ago in Journal
The Most Popular Oxymoron I've Seen: Punisher and Blue Lives Matter
Frank Castle aka ‘The Punisher’ is my favorite Anti-Hero ever, I love the idea of an anti hero and most of my favorite comic and movie characters are Anti-Heros. The most comic books I’ve read are punisher comics and his live action appearance on The netflix shows ‘Daredevil’ and ‘The Punisher’ are some of my favorite shows. So when I see the now commonplace logo of his signature skull colored in blue lives matter flag style I immediately know that the person using that is an idiot. Yes I understand the skull looks cool but these two things crossing is just as stupid as Black Panther having the KKK cross on his chest.
By Jared Laws5 years ago in FYI
What is Happening to Theaters and Cinema?
As I was looking into any past articles that are on the same topic, I saw an article asking if movie theaters were dying. I looked at the date it was published and it was published in november 2019. I chuckled a little to myself. The author at the time it was published had no clue what was about to happen and how absolutely bad the cinema world was about to get. Before the pandemic what caused people to worry about movie theaters was streaming exclusive movies. Netflix and Amazon are the main two streaming services with a large catalog of exclusive movies. At the time it seemed like within maybe a decade theaters would become less commonplace and streaming would become the dominant movie platform. Within a few months theaters closed and every single movie released was on streaming. One of the major streaming only movies before the pandemic ‘The Irishman’ still needed to have a short limited release in theaters to qualify for the academy awards, given that the movie was marketed as a Netflix exclusive. Only being able to see a movie for three weeks in theaters, with some states only having one or two theaters that are running it is a concept that is brand new and would never have been conceivable a few years ago. Then clearly, the pandemic hit, theaters closed and everything changed. The Oscars are now recognizing straight to streaming movies with no theater release. This last year has seen a lot of changes, and for better or for worse, the world of cinema is going to be changed forever.
By Jared Laws5 years ago in Geeks
Avatar the Last Airbender: The Best fictional World building
When talking about movies, T.V. shows and pretty much any story based medium, world building is the general term for explaining what exists in that story outside of the story itself. Some stories don't need much world building, some need a lot, But very few are as good and expansive as the universe of Avatar the Last Airbender. An example of anther of these massive universe building ficional works Star Wars. In 1977 there was no Sci-Fi movie on the scale of star wars except maybe 2001 A Space Odyssey, which was still grounded in the idea that it was the future of our own world. In the opening title crawl of A New Hope, it is established that this is an entirely different galaxy with different species, planets and political structure than our own. In the Star Wars galaxy there are eleven movies, and a handful of T.V. Shows. Also in the Star Wars universe there is what is called the “Legends” a non-canon collection of stories. These Stories made by star wars fans expands over twenty thousand years of Star Wars history. The expansiveness of the galaxy that was created in just a few movies, and shows is phenomenal since all of the history in legends goes off of the canon in the shows and movies. Making a good world in a fictional story is not always necessary, some stories only work because they are small and fit in our own world. Some movies have a base in our own world but with a few major changes, typically Sci-Fi Movies will use our own world and change it like Blade Runner and 2001. Depending on what changes on our own world qualifies as world building. Phenomenal world building is when a world allows for almost endless movies and T.V. shows to be able to be made out of the world that has been created. There are several fictional worlds that exist that could be considered the best and most expansive, but in my mind, nothing can beat the simplistic but deep world of Avatar the Last Airbender.
By Jared Laws5 years ago in Geeks
My Problem with Martin Scorsese's 'Taxi Driver'
*This is a dark movie with darker implications, Shootings, Suicide, and things of a sexual nature like underage prostitution, rape, and sexual assualt are all discussed in this. Please keep that in mind. There is another disclaimer before the darkest secion feel free to read and just skip that section if you would like.*
By Jared Laws5 years ago in Geeks
What Happened to the DC Movie Universe?
Back in 2013 the idea of a cinematic universe was pretty much exclusive to marvel. So when the first DC comics movie in the newfound DC Extended Universe (DCEU) pretty much everyone was on board, given comics lend themselves great to universe style narratives and the only other universe had released seven movies two of them making a billion dollars at the box office. The only DC movies in recent memory that were not set to be connected to this universe were Green lantern and Christopher Nolan's Dark knight Trilogy. Given the success of the dark knight trilogy it made sense that DC would separate itself from Marvel by going with the successful dark tone of the Dark knight. However when reviews and audience opinion came in on Man of Steel it already was not looking good. A darker superman is introduced, going against the comic superman, many realizing that this universe was on track to make every movie dark and gritty. After Man of Steel there was a pretty long delay between movies. Unsure of themselves, three years passed before the universe started to actually feel like a universe with multiple releases a year. 2016 saw two releases, ‘Suicde Squad’ and ‘Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice’. Both of these movies are generally considered to be bad by the general audience, with some die hard fans. Which started the splintering of the DC movie universes. ‘Batman V. Superman’ saw an extended cut which was even darker than the original giving it an R rating, extended cuts are not that uncommon for movies and the general narrative stayed the same, so nothing was really affected, but this would continue to grow as an issue later on. ‘Suicide Squad’ started to have rumors of rushed reshoots, enough footage to make a Jared Leto Joker movie with the cut scenes, and the Director David Ayer voicing his frustration with how Warner Brothers not liking his cut of the movie. 2017 Saw ‘Wonder Woman’ and ‘Justice League’, ‘Wonder Woman’ getting the praise as the best DC movie, which I am not going to argue. Justice League had the same treatment as Suicide Squad, with another layer of problems. As it is probably well known, Zack Snyder Filmed almost Four hours of footage before unfortunately his daughter committed suicide and he immedialy left every project he was on to be with his family. Warner Brothers brought on the only director at the time to make a successful superhero team up movie, Joss Wheaton. The theatrical cut of ‘Justice League’ was almost completely reshot or used different takes from Snyders footage. The theatrical cut failed spectacularly both narratively and financially, almost as soon as it released #releasethesnydercut started.
By Jared Laws5 years ago in Geeks
How Shia Labeouf's Career inspired me to follow my own dreams
Making his first known public appearance at only ten years old when he started making his appearance in Californian Comedy clubs. Hailing from Los Angeles where the most famous stand up comedians come from being only ten years old is an amazing achievement. Shia had a signature comedy style that contrasted enough from his appearance that it caught the attention of the audience. Shia used comedy as an escape from his home life, which was anything but comedic. His comedy did not make much money but it got him and his dad in their hotel apartment. His dad being a rodeo clown and to some extent Shia’s manager and employee. Taking his dark, and abusive home life into his comedy helped him handle it. He was said to be “A fifty year old mouth on a ten year old body.” After hearing about managers he decided to get his own, by looking up a manager on the yellow pages and pretending to be an older representative who was willing to allow his client to be represented by them. Being a ten year old boy, the manager was not fooled but admired the ballsy move and helped manage him anyway. He soon started getting larger roles with that manager eventually landing on the disney show ‘Even Stevens’ which was a pretty great start to an acting role being only thirteen to sixteen when they were filming the show. Staying within disney he got his first real break with the movie ‘Holes.’ His role as Stanley Yelnats showcased his acting chops on the big screen with big names alongside him. Then leaving the disney machine and getting some supporting roles alongside Will Smith in ‘iRobot’ and Keanu Reeves in ‘Constantine.’ Neither of these being well known movies let alone a well known role. In 2007 things changed for him. He landed the leading role in a massive Micheal bay movie, Transformers. As well as two lesser known movies with the animated movie ‘Surf’s Up’ and Disturbia, which are not as well known, made a decent amount of money. The next year he came out as what is made to be the heir to the Indiana Jones throne. While clear now it was looking like Shia would be the lead star in the next Indiana Jones movie. He was looking to be the next big thing. However, similar to many other child stars, his ego got in the way. He bashed his own movie in interviews and his negative comments rubbed Steven Speilburg and Harrison Ford the wrong way. Calling him an idiot and a stupid kid. With those degrading comments his spot as the next big thing to the weird child star, eventually being written out of the transformer series with his last appearance in Transformers Dark of the moon and being written out by 2014’s Transformers Age of Extinction. The year before in late 2013 he made a short film that was a clear plagiarization,after an apology that was also clear plagiarization. While no one knew it at the time this was the first of many weird and wild art projects, fully realizing his ‘insane child star’ figure that he already had tagged to him
By Jared Laws5 years ago in Geeks
