Neo-Jacking Your Screenplay into the Matrix

Know what's a blast? Seeing students' minds blown sky-high when they finally "get" the notecards of it all. Watching their "Neo-jacking-into-the-Matrix" moments slam home right before your eyes. It's like witnessing somebody's first Ecstasy trip -- only the drug is screenplay structure, and your head doesn't feel like a broken egg shell all the next day.

 

The rush of empowerment it gives writers is awesome. The realization that, armed with this pretty straightforward knowledge, they can do it, they do have a fighting chance. That all those deferred, semi-sequestered dreams are so much closer to becoming real now than they ever could've believed before.

 

One Sunday Tough Love class, one of my best students showed up without his notecards. Bright kid, great ideas, über tech savvy -- very much of his generation in the best sense. I politely asked him where they were (translation: "It's your day, Josh. Where the fuck are your notecards?"). My young friend reassured me there was nothing to worry about -- he had this program ("Index Cards and Panels") he used instead. It was so much more compact and convenient than dealing with all those messy paper index cards, plus it saved trees!

 

Imagine my expression. Think late '80's Michael Rooker/Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, staring maniacally into that one-sheet bathroom mirror.

 

Then came the crazy part. All my other students dog-piled his ass before I said a word. Rabid fuckers went American Me, treating Josh to a savage little blanket party, if I say so myself.

 

"No, Josh, it's not the same!"

 

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

 

"Suck it up, Josh, you're shitting the bed!" (this from a fifty year-old woman)

 

"That iPad shit doesn't work, that's the whole point!

 

I'd have to rank this among my proudest moments as an instructor. It's always nice to have confirmation that your patients are taking their prescribed medicine and that it's actually showing results -- even if one of your best and brightest has to be sacrificially gangbanged by his peers to provide hard evidence.