Selling Out aka IMBD, Quit Playin' Games With My Heart!

All right, I am getting into it with the IMDB over having my Production Assistant credit from Lost added to my IMDB page. Yes, that Lost. The 2004 television show that was shot in Hawai'i. In April 2008, my friends and I all arrived at school to see that there was lockers in the junior hall. Being as this is an outdoor school, we don't have lockers. We inspected them and noticed that they were very small. Principal and some of the other heads of the school were telling us to move along and not to bother them. We knew something was going on, but in no way did we know that it was going to be this big. I remember that day, I was in my film class the whole day. My teacher, told me the news that some location scouts came to the school and decided that it was fit for filming the flashback scenes for an episode. That's all that we were told.

Classes at this school are three a day, six total for the credit hours, so classes switched out everyday. I was in the middle of my teacher's assistant course where I helped out in the film class and I was offered a chance to go help out and get some hands on experience. Now, you got to understand something, this was not a normal hands on job. It was the real deal. I went up to the junior area where they were prepping everything. A woman who was like vulture got on me as soon as I stepped foot past the first class room got on me and after trying to explain to her that I was called; another producer came out and he greeted me and sent her off. He told me to come back at the end of the day and he'll show me the ropes.

I walk back down the hall closest to the building where my film class was at and I was kinda surprised by what I just experienced. I went back to talk to my teacher and she was excited that I am achieving what I want to do with my life and it was with such a major television show. I remember going back into the second studio in the building as the first studio with the control room was being used by the students who's papers I usually grade.

The feelings and thoughts going through my head were kinda like; "Wow! This is Lost and you are now a part it coming to life from production to screen." It was surreal. After the day passed and everyone was waiting for buses, I went up the hall that was filled with students who were told that they cannot go past this point. I go up to the security guard and I tell him that I was asked to be apart of helping around the show. After a minute, he asks for an ID and I pull out my military ID to verify that I am Stephen Flannery. After that, he let me go right past him and the producer who I met earlier greeted me. I signed some documents stating that I would not tell anyone what I saw until after it aired.

We proceeded to go around the sets that were created on campus. Since most of the classes are pretty much set as is, there's not much to do in terms of work. All I did was help place a few things here and there in the health room which doubled as some teacher's office. There was a silver plate and some glass tea sets and some other stuff around. Also, there was guys putting up these wooden plaques all over the filming area of the fake school. The school in this episode was called Corwin Heights which was supposedly out in California somewhere.

The producer and I talked about various stuff while going around and checking if everything was ready to go. First thing off the bat; "Do you watch Lost? Do you have any knowledge of the show?" I gave him the rundown on how I first saw the show. I was in Germany and I saw it dubbed in German before the government AFN stations got it for us to view in English. So, by the time season one was over, it was playing on those AFN stations. And that after I made it back to the U.S. and had cable and hundreds of other channels that my interest in the show was kinda lost; pun!

One of the main things that I had asked was what J.J. Abrams' input was because Cloverfield came out three months prior and I was wanting to know how he went back and fourth from Lost to Cloverfield. He told me, straight up, that it is all him. Something around the lines was said that J.J. comes in once a month and gives all the producers and others bottles of champagne and would tell them "Thank you for your hard work".

Met the actors; and seeing as this was a flashback segment being filmed here, I knew off the top of my head who this flashback was centered on. The producer, he asked me at one point if I knew who it could be. I told him and he kinda chuckled and just continued on. Several hours had passed it was finally getting late and we said our goodbyes and he wished me the best in my career as a filmmaker.

So, now we are onto the IMDB. I am having a problem getting this P.A. credit added. Besides one photo I have of me on the set, I do not have anything else to prove that I was even working on the show. After oddly going up against them for years on getting Maze of Thought, Crisis, and Truth in Meanings added; now they are fighting against me again and not believing that I did this. Here is the only photo that proves that I was on the set of Lost:

Now; for the "Selling Out" part of this blog entry. I know I wrote a shit ton all ready, but after everything that is going on, I feel like being a bit of an ass. I was discussing with my cousin The Evil Dead remake and the draft that was written by the director before Diablo Cody was brought in to give it a polish. This thing is fucking atrocious and it is nothing like the original Sam Raimi film. To sum the script, it has no soul that can be swallowed.

To spoil the draft of the script, the characters are one dimensional and you can honestly careless who is who. It likes to make you think that this character is the lead when all of the sudden it pulls a magic trick on you and this person is actually the lead. This film was made for nothing more to piss off fans. I feel this is straight up deliberate, maybe for hating on Spider-Man 3. There is no way that Sam Raimi could honestly feel this could compete with his original classic. With Diablo Cody doing a polish just makes it a million times worse. I hated her hipster bullshit dialog that she put in Juno and Jennifer's Body. I am not giving Young Adult a chance, seeing as how Charlize Theron's character in the trailer wants to court an ex-boyfriend who's now a married man, is fucking stupid.

So, with "CAMPAIGN" going on; I essentially realized that this is basically what selling out is, to the internet cool kids. So, without listing what "CAMPAIGN" is. I am going to create a list of stuff that I want to make or remake or a character I want to portray.

#5

Turkish for Beginners

This is a German television series that was adapted into a film in 2012. After viewing the film and seeing some of the episodes of the television series; I would like to adapt the film for an English speaking audience. I felt that the film version worked a million times better than the show. With the show, it felt kinda incestuous as the two characters had lived under one roof for a certain amount of time and then they fall in love.

The film version plays out like a reluctant romantic comedy with a Cast Away type theme. A girl who is going on vacation with her crazed mother ends up stranded with a brother and sister and a Greek traveler who has a stutter. The girl tries to be the leader of the group and fails miserably and through a turn of events falls in love.

#4

The Hitcher

Sadly, I feel that the 2007 remake did way too much damage to the original film. If Sean Bean was not playing John Ryder in it, I would completely disown the film. What I really loved about the original is the dedication that John Ryder has to destroy Jim. To show Jim what hell really is. The remake had no soul to it. Hell, the straight to video sequel The Hitcher II: I've Been Waiting... is a much better film that the 2007 remake.

#3

Suzanne's Diary For Nicholas

It was given a television movie in 2005 with Christina Applegate. While the TV movie was all right, I felt there could have been more of an emotional punch with the material that James Patterson had written. I remember reading the book in 2007 and being amazed by it. This was completely different from most of the Alex Cross novels that I had written. I feel I could make a better adaption of this film.

#2

Alone in the Dark

My close friends know that I was working with Uwe Boll in 2008 and that I was working on some stuff for him that went nowhere. Did a draft of Janjaweed aka Attack on Darfur, treatment for In the Name of the King 2, and a pitch for Alone in the Dark III. I know most people would fret over seeing Uwe's name attached to anything; but, I was planning to get Alone in the Dark III made and was real damn close too. This adaption was planned to be an actual adaption of the first video from the early 1990's.

#1

Silent Hill

As much as I love the Christophe Gans film and cannot wait to see the new film coming out at the end of the month. I would love to do a trilogy based on the Silent Hill series. My favorite of the games is Silent Hill 2; Silent Hill: Shattered Memories; and Silent Hill Origins. I would really love to portray James Sunderland in a Silent Hill 2 adaption. We did a fake trailer almost six years ago and for the time I liked it; I would like to go out and do another one just as a pitch to help achieve that goal.