LA Festival 1st Scene: Premium Economy, by Michael Harris (interview)
New Releases
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4m 41s
Falling Down meets Dude, Where's My Car? Over 24 hours, a recently divorced accountant loses his job, his Jeep and accidentally traffics Heroin. His only escape? Become a beige pants badass aka a Dad Ass.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Shawn Devlin
Eugene: Allan Michael Brunet
Cori: Val Cole
Get to know the writer:
1. What is your screenplay about?
Eugene Heffernan is a recently divorced accountant who in the space of 24 hours loses his job, his Jeep, and becomes an accidental Heroin trafficker. His only escape? Become a beige pants badass--aka, a Dad Ass.
2. What genres does your screenplay fall under?
Action Comedy with an emphasis on Comedy.
3. Why should this screenplay be made into a movie?
Because it takes a lot of food to keep my round ass this rotund. Premium Economy is How Stella Got Her Groove Back meets Dude, Where's My Car meets Falling Down (without the racial animus). It's funny with deceptively touching relationships, even amongst the criminals, and it would be a low budget movie to shoot.
4. How would you describe this script in two words?
Dad Ass.
5. What movie have you seen the most times in your life?
Blazing Saddles
6. How long have you been working on this screenplay?
Original idea arose after a friend got his car stolen out of his driveway about four years ago. Been working on the script for over a year and a half.
7. How many stories have you written?
Two screenplays, Four full length plays, dozens of sketches and short films, and one novel.
8. What is your favorite song? (Or, what song have you listened to the most times in your life?)
Varies. Currently it's In Spite of Ourselves by John Prine & Iris Dement
9. What obstacles did you face to finish this screenplay?
General laziness. Making time while performing and working other gigs. The ever popular everything feels like a better thing to do right now when you are trying to write and nothing is coming.
10. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?
Acting, Making People Laugh, Shakespeare, My Wife, Trying to be Christlike.
11. You entered your screenplay via FilmFreeway. What has been your experiences working with the submission platform site?
Outstanding. Easy to track. Tons of great information, and the contests have consistently been top notch and highly professional.
12. What influenced you to enter the festival? What were your feelings on the initial feedback you received?
Comedy and Feedback. It's easy to say the feedback was great when you get a lot of positive notes, but the best part of the notes I received was that they were specific and useful. There was a blend of formatting and structure notes. When there were criticisms there were always suggestions on how to address them, and there were no utterly subjective (not my taste) type notes. I know I'm dealing with a less than helpful reader when their notes boil down to, "I would have told a different story," rather than meeting my story as it is and pushing for ways to more effectively tell my story. The notes from you all were objective and will make this screenplay better. Thank you for that.
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