Scripts
ME (V.O.)
The blueprint to any good film is a script. Below, you'll find four that I've written, directed and produced, with descriptions next to them on the inspirations, battles fought, and triumphs had.
(leans in; whispers)
And for any other writing samples...whether it's my shorts, pilots, or features...feel free to contact me at blake.miller19@yahoo.com.
LOLA
"Lola" was interesting. It was one of the shorts I made during COVID-19 - when I was reading a lot of books and watching a lot of films. Two things within those areas intrigued me: one, I read Sandy MacKendrick's "On Film-making," which is a masterpiece on film technique and grammar. Two, I finally finished David Fincher's filmography. With these two things happening at the same time, I wanted to make a short film that could simultaneously hold suspense over a long period of time, and be incredibly literate visually. Thus, "Lola" was born.
GET IT TOGETHER, JERRY
"Jerry" was the first real comedy I tried to make, and it was released back in January '19. We sought to make a relationship comedy evoking films like "Annie Hall," "Some Like it Hot," and mostly, "Sideways." Something I learned on this film more than any other is to test, test, test and test some more. Comedy is unlike any other film genre, of course, because it runs off laughs - and there were definitely spots in the script that didn't translate to the screen, most notably the opening scene. However, we did save a major surprise/punchline for the end, and I'm happy to say it worked to great effect.
BLACKOUT
"Blackout" was effectively a two-handed chamber piece, hidden within the horror genre. The tricky thing was hiding this: with the film, we were attempting to make bigger allusions to race and class in America, specifically in the 1970s. Something different we did with this script was to show it to all of our potential investors on our crowdfunding campaign. Typically, we keep the script guarded throughout production and up to release - but we needed to show it in order to raise funds. I'm really proud of this one, and I was lucky for it to open a lot of doors for me.
A DEADLY GAME
Unlike any other script I've written, "Deadly Game" was written and directed by me and my Kiwi friend, Ashley Pitman. When he told me he was visiting San Francisco, we knew we had to cook something up. The concept was mine and further enhanced by Ashley - in terms of writing, I would do a draft, then hand it over, and then he would hand it back, and so on and so forth. What was nice about co-writing/directing was that me and Ash couldn't be anymore different. We're from completely different cultures, generations, and processes. I learned a lot from him - namely the power of rehearsal, and the ability to throw out things on the fly if they don't work in the moment.