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[josh]

Tony, you wrote:
"Anyhow, I spent my Stimulus Money to buy an Apple Laptop to use to publish my book, and to make or sell my movie script, but I do not know how to use it and I do not have the right programs on it, and also I need to get a wireless router, I am using a 20 year old dsl for my internet connection on a 20 year old HP computer."

Clearly, the Apple laptop was a mistake, but it doesn't have to be permanent.

1) What software do you need/want to use?

2) What aspects of using it do you not currently understand?

Thanks Josh.

My first goals are to be able to share my movie script that I already wrote, and to be able to publish my poetry book with Barnes and Noble. So, I need some type of word processor to put the script onto the computer, and then some program to send it, and then to be able to share it. And I need to be able to put my poetry book onto the computer, and then I need to be able to publish my poetry book with Barnes and Noble.

Chapman film school said that the programs to make movies are...

Final Draft Pro - Screenwriting

Entertainment Partners Movie Magic - Budgeting and Scheduling

Adobe Premier, Avid Media Composer, Black Magic, Davinci Resolve - Editing

Avid Pro Tools - Sound Design

Mac Pages, PDF - To Publish with Barnes and Noble

Those are what the film students are using at Chapman film school.

The studio pros are all using Final Draft Pro for Screenwriting.

I was thinking about going to the film school and hiring a tutor to help me. I feel so silly, owning this Apple is like owning a beautiful bicycle and not knowing how to ride a bicycle. I want to learn how to use this computer, and my script and my poetry book are like money in the bank I just need to share my script to get it made, and publish my book.

And I had dreams of sitting around with a team eating pizza writing stuff, and I would like to find a girlfriend who wants to write with me, and we can produce, and publish, etc.

I saved my money for a long time and then used all of the stimulus on my Apple lap top, and I need to learn how to use it, and I need to get the right programs put onto it. It is like learning how to ride a bicycle.

Salute,

Tony V.

For learning about your Mac, I recommend a trip to the Anaheim Public Library.

When there, ask about Digitallearn.org - they have training for you in the MacOS and should be able to bring you up to speed with it.

They also have access to all the CourseRA courses, for other subjects.

What format is your script in, currently?

Libreoffice works on both PC and Mac systems and it's free.

Failing that, if you send it to me, I can turn it into something Mac Pages can read.

The same applies to your poetry book.

Apple Mail should work for you to be able to send it, whether to me or elsewhere.

[email protected] is my email address.

Final Draft 12 has a free trial copy you can download and experiment with. It's good for 30 days. There is a set of 48 training videos for Final Draft 12, free on YouTube, if you want them.

I'm going to suggest we stop there for the moment - you don't need the budgeting or film editing software at this stage. Let's see about your getting your Mac Legs under you and your script and book into useful formats for you, while you learn to use Final Draft 12.

You and I can discuss how to get your hands on your own copy of that software between now and when your trial copy expires.

Okay?

[FlyingVProd]

Thanks Josh, I sent you my poetry book, and my movie script, on very old programs from an old HP Desk Top. I have no idea if you will be able to open the programs, I cannot open them but my Mother was able to open my movie script, I guess. It is sad that everything gets old and that programs become outdated.

Thanks for the advice on the Apple, I will learn.

Let me know who you think should star in my movie, if you are able to open it.

Salute,

Tony V.

[FlyingVProd]

My favorite Casting Director is Julie Hutchinson; she started on Off Broadway, and then she went to Broadway, then she came to Hollywood, she worked for 20th Century Fox when I met her, and then she worked for Universal Pictures. Now she is retired, but I think she still enjoys to work.

When I met her it was at a workshop in Beverly Hills at Take One Studios, she broke the group up to do scenework and there was an odd number of people so there was no one to be my scene partner, so she told me that she could act and that she would be by scene partner. We did a scene from "A Life Less Ordinary" where she was my willing kidnap victim. We had chemistry, it was a great scene. She is my favorite Casting Director. I was able to spend the day with her that day at the workshop, on my Birthday, it was a great day. But, then after that day she became unapproachable, I could not call her, nor could I get an appointment to see her, the studio people kept her sheltered and away from the public. But, even though she became unapproachable she is still my favorite.

Salute,

Tony V.

[josh]

Thanks Josh, I sent you my poetry book, and my movie script, on very old programs from an old HP Desk Top. I have no idea if you will be able to open the programs, I cannot open them but my Mother was able to open my movie script, I guess. It is sad that everything gets old and that programs become outdated.

Thanks for the advice on the Apple, I will learn.

Let me know who you think should star in my movie, if you are able to open it.

Tony, I will take a look at each of your works, but I would not expect a response from me for at least a week.

In turn, you should find Mac-readable versions of them each in your inbox!

~Josh

[FlyingVProd]

Thanks Josh, I sent you my poetry book, and my movie script, on very old programs from an old HP Desk Top. I have no idea if you will be able to open the programs, I cannot open them but my Mother was able to open my movie script, I guess. It is sad that everything gets old and that programs become outdated.

Thanks for the advice on the Apple, I will learn.

Let me know who you think should star in my movie, if you are able to open it.

Tony, I will take a look at each of your works, but I would not expect a response from me for at least a week.

In turn, you should find Mac-readable versions of them each in your inbox!

~Josh

Thanks Josh. Good thing I have my script and my book printed on paper, I am not good with computers. I miss the old days when I could just send my book to a publisher to get it published, but there is actually more money to be made by self publishing with Barnes and Noble. With the modern environment artists are making their own way on Social Media and they are making it into show business. Stars from Tik Tok are going to work for Apple streaming services, etc, and for Netflix, etc. So, people are making it on their own in the current environment, I just miss the days when we had lots of helpers.

That is a good thing about buildings in Hollywood such as Empire West where all of the stars live, you can make movies with your neighbors, and also in Malibu.

There is a village in Germany where they have been keeping the study of filmmaking alive since the beginning...

http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Romantic-Comedy-Yugoslavia/Ufa-Universum-Film-Aktiengesellschaft-GERMAN-ART-CINEMA.html

The Germans want to bring back the UFA, and they want to have a whole village full of artists working in the entertainment industry.

And in Rome they have Cinecitta, I tried to get work there. I still might work at Cinecitta in the future.

Here in my neighborhood we have the Dodge Film School at Chapman University, and it is the #4 rated film school in the world. My plan is to go to the film school and try to get help and meet new people. They also have workshops with industry leaders at Chapman, etc. The school is there to help people, and I am sure the school is fantastic. And I need to make new friends too, so the film school is a good place to go hang out, I need to get involved with their activities. And I acted in a student film at USC a long time ago and it was a fantastic experience and now I have a cool film from when I was young. Maybe I can act in student films at Chapman. And I need to get out and meet new people in a nice safe environment and the film school is a nice safe place to meet new people.

Thanks for your time and effort Josh, I appreciate it.

Salute,

Tony V.

[Holly Martins]

Little quiz of random fun questions.

Fats Domino, famous R&B musician, inspired the stage name of what other musician?

The Canary Islands are named for what animal?   

What is the animal most dangerous to humans? (Aside from fellow humans)

What was the reason to give Easter Island its name?

[Oiled]

I know Senate seats are staggered elections, so that there is continuity, but never quite understood how that worked so that only a third of seats are up every two years.  Especially as to how seats are staggered at the state level, right from the start.  One person draws a shorter term, in a lottery, which means the two senators are in a different "class."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classes_of_United_States_senators

The only exception, where you could have both Senate seats up for grabs in the same election, would be a special election due to death or resignation of one member.  And that person still retains the class number of their predecessor, hence gets a shorter term. 

[FlyingVProd]

A secret to life is to keep on going, keep learning and training and studying, and keep working, it is not good to get stuck and then to just start complaining. Certainly the squeaky wheel gets the oil and it is okay to speak up when you are having problems, but it is not good to just give up and start complaining.

And the USA is still the land of opportunity and we are a wealthy nation. I have a nephew who worked on yachts as a crew member, and he traveled all over the world on yachts, and then he worked his way up to where now he is a captain, so then he worked as a captain on yachts for a while for the rich people, and now he is a captain on a ferry and he runs a ferry. He went right to work after he graduated from high school, and he has had a good life, and he is still working. The USA has been good for my nephew.

I may get stuck, and I may complain, but the secret is to keep the faith and to keep going. I need to keep learning, and growing, and studying, the secret is to keep going and not to give up. The USA is still the land of opportunity, we just need to keep trying. And we have great schools where we can go to learn and to get help.

Salute,

Tony V.

[FlyingVProd]

Here is a quote from Sanford Meisner, who got it from Freud...

"...And then he has won, through his fantasy he has achieved that which before he had only in fantasy; wealth, honor, and the love of women."

That is how acting and filmmaking is for some people, they go from being poor and homeless to being wealthy and famous and to being loved by all of the women, etc. The people who have succeeded keep telling the poor people to keep trying because the fame and fortune is worth the effort. Fame and fortune is great, and you can use it to help other people, etc.

It works for women too, the lady who wrote "Harry Potter" was poor, and now because of "Harry Potter" she is the wealthiest woman in England. Through her fantasy she achieved her wildest dreams, her fantasy made her rich and famous.

Salute,

Tony V.

[FlyingVProd]

Rudyard Kipling wrote in his poem "If" that we should treat triumph and disaster the same, and we are the same people once we become wealthy when people suddenly love this new person who we become when we are wealthy and successful, we can afford to be more generous which makes us to appear to be more kind, poor people cannot be generous because we do not have anything to give so it may make us appear more miserly but it just is because we do not have anything to give. So all of a sudden you can afford to be generous, and so you appear to be more kind, etc and people love successful people. But, then when you are poor then you go back to being the miser or whatever, and people forget about you. Triumph and disaster, they are both the same. Though it would be nice to have some triumph and success, you just cannot let it go to your head.

Salute,

Tony V.

[FlyingVProd]

I continue to be inspired by the stories that my Grandmother told me about how my ancestors survived through the Great Depression, they all worked hard at any honest job they could get and none of them broke the law, and they rose to success honestly.

My Grandmother's family came out to California from Colorado during the Great Depression, and my Grandfather hitchhiked from Arkansas to California during the Great Depression, and they all picked fruit, and they worked any honest job they could get. Eventually my Grandmother ended up with a job as a taxi cab dispatcher, and my Grandfather worked driving a taxi cab, and that was how my Grandmother and my Grandfather met, and they fell in love and got married.

Eventually my Grandfather ended up with his own hardwood floor company in Hollywood, and he was able to buy a house next to Roy Rogers in North Hollywood, back when Roy was married to his first wife Arlene, our families were destined to be connected as my Brother ended up marrying Roy Roger's Granddaughter years later.

The family moved around a bit, but eventually ended up out in the desert, where my Grandfather worked construction and where my Mother grew up and where she met my Father, and where I was born. My Grandfather built my Grandmother a dog kennel in the desert, and she groomed dogs and boarded dogs, and she had some very famous customers including Pete Knight who was the fastest man alive, and other test pilots from Edwards Air Force Base, and stars from Hollywood, etc, as a kid after my Grandfather died, and after my Grandmother lost her kennel which was burned down by arson, someone stole the dogs and set her kennel on fire and sadly some of the dogs died in the fire. Later in life when my Grandmother was grooming dogs to eat and to pay the rent I worked with her in order to try to help her and to make life easier for her, she was such a hard worker, so I washed dogs for her in order to help her, and I ended up managing a dog kennel and I had stars for customers like she did, but sadly the kennel that I worked at was owned by other people and I was not paid very much money, it was not like when my Grandmother owned her own kennel and worked for herself, she made good money from her kennel, and the kennel that I managed made a lot of money, but I never made any money, for me it was a waste of time. It was good for me to help my Grandmother, but being slave labor for people outside of the family was stupid of me, I just felt like a slave, and I had to live in an alley with the poor people on welfare because I was not paid enough to rent a nice apartment or to buy a house. For me the dog business was all a waste of time, but I loved my Grandmother, and she was successful with her kennel before someone burned it down.

My Grandfather died when I was a baby, but he was a good strong man and he was a good provider for the family, he was honest and he worked hard. After he achieved success then he started sending our family members to college, he sent my Mother's Cousin to college to become a pharmacist and he currently owns his own pharmacy in Fontana, he is successful because of the help that my Grandfather gave him. Sadly my Grandfather was not alive to send me to college, which I am sure he would have done.

The thing is, they never committed any crimes, they never resorted to crime because of their poverty during the Great Depression, they worked hard at any honest job they could get, my Grandmother even worked at the original McDonald's in San Bernardino, they remained honest and they did not let poverty steal their dignity. They stayed classy, and they worked hard and they rose to a good comfortable life and started helping the rest of the family to get an education and to escape poverty.

Anyhow, I am inspired because they overcame huge obstacles including the Great Depression, and they rose to a comfortable middle class life honestly, and they never did any of the bad things that some people think that you have to do to escape from poverty here in Hollywood, they remained honest, they kept their dignity, and they worked hard.

Salute,

Tony V.

[FlyingVProd]

I have a friend here in Anaheim who was Mayor Pro Tem of Anaheim on 9/11, and who served at Anaheim City Hall, after retiring as a school teacher, she is in a retirement home now, and she is my friend on Facebook, and she has been reading my writing, and she told me that I am a great writer and she told me that I should pursue writing and she said that I might become very successful as a writer.

I told her about my poetry book, and about my movie script, and I told her that I have a lot of ideas for new television shows and movies, and that I intend to go to the film school to get help to make my movie, and to publish my poetry book.

All of my life, since I was a little kid, people have told me that I have a great imagination, and that I should be a writer.

I am reminded of what they said about not being able to judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, and that is how life has been, I feel like a fish that they are trying to turn into a tree climber. I am color blind, so I cannot be a cop or a soldier. I am not talented when it comes to construction work, and for me it is like slave labor, I did not join a union and the pay was very low, I would rather work for Habitat for Humanity for free and just give everyone free housing. Anyhow, I have never been able to make any money, and some people are trying to turn me into something that I am not, instead of letting me flourish via my God given talents.

I was handsome when I was young, and a lot of people told me that I should be an actor, and I like acting, so I went to acting school. And I have always been a good writer, so I took writing classes, and I worked to improve my skill as a writer. The whole thing with poetry just came natural, and for me it was therapeutic. If I do things that come natural and that I enjoy then I can flourish.

And I love to eat, and I enjoy cooking, so I did not mind working as a cook at a casino in Nevada, the only bad part was that the pay was so low, again it felt like slave labor. Hard work for low pay. But, if I had my own casino, or my own night club, where I could cook, then I could make good money and I could have a good life. So, it was beneficial to learn how to cook and to learn how to run a casino.

Working at Universal Studios was good for me, and I learned a lot, including from Lew Wasserman who used to eat lunch with the workers, but again the pay was so low that I just felt like slave labor. I was literally going hungry when I worked at Universal and I was skin and bones. I was not skinny because I wanted to be skinny, I was skinny because I could not afford to buy food. If they paid me good, and if they treated me well, then I would have kept my job and I would still be working there, if I could have bought a house and found a wife and raised as family, that would have been great. But paying college educated people the bare minimum is just no fun at all.

I hate growing old poor and alone, and my talents have not been serving me well, I need to use my talents to rise.

Having a dear friend who I respect telling me that I am a great writer and that I should pursue writing makes me feel wonderful, and I need to keep going, and I need to go to the film school and get help as I have planned. And my friend from here in Anaheim is so nice to give me encouragement, it means a lot to me.

We will see what happens.

Meanwhile, at least I am not homeless on the streets, or living in a car, I am grateful for food and shelter while I try to get my movie made, and my poetry book published, and while I write more stuff. I can also volunteer to act in student films, etc. And maybe I can find a good woman who wants to write and produce with me, we can be a husband and wife team.

And I have a passport, so I can travel, which is great. People who owe money for child support, or who have felony crime convictions on their record, have problems getting passports and traveling. My record is clean, and I do not have any children and I do not owe any child support. And that helps to make Italy, and Greece, and Monaco, etc, nicer, because the criminals cannot get passports to travel there.

Anyhow, it was nice to get a compliment on my writing ability from someone I respect.

Salute,

Tony V.

[FlyingVProd]

My Nephew's girlfriend put my movie script onto the Cloud so that I can share it with people. I still have a lot to learn about my Apple laptop, and the various programs, and it was very nice of her to help me, I could not have done it without help from her.

Here is the link if you want to read my movie script, the title is "Echo, A Rock and Roll Tragedy."

https://tinyurl.com/yckt8pjs

It took three years to complete the script, it was a lot of work, and I think it is a great script that will make me rich.

If you read it, then please let me know which stars you would want to see starring in my movie.

Please let me know if you are able to read my script okay.

Salute,

Tony V.

[FlyingVProd]

I have a friend who is a rock star, and he spent his whole life working on personal development, and he is involved with Leadership Training and with Life Coaching, and he is going to help me get my life in order. He wants me to quit complaining, and he wants me to set my alarm in the morning and to get up early everyday and to have a plan for each day, and he wants me to get an appointment book and he wants me to start filling up an appointment book with activities. To start new in 2023 he wants me to get an appointment book and he wants me to make appointments and to do activities in 2023.

The first start is that he wants me to go to bed early and to get up early, he wants me to set an alarm clock and to get up early. And then he wants for me to have goals for each day, and he wants me to make appointments and to write the appointments in an appointment book.

So, to begin with I can go to visit the film school. I have talked about it forever, but I still have not went to the film school to check the place out. I want to go have lunch at the film school, and check the place out, and look at the bulletin board, and check out the book store, etc. I need to get up early and make a plan for the day to go to the film school, and then achieve that objective. Long term goals are to get involved with activities at the film school, and to act in student films, and to get help making my movie "Echo, A Rock and Roll Tragedy," and to get help publishing my poetry book, etc. And I want to make new friends who are into making movies and who can help to teach me how to use my Apple Laptop and to put Final Draft on it and stuff. It would also be cool to meet women at the film school, and we have tennis courts at Pearson Park if I meet a nice woman who likes to play tennis, and there is Starbucks for coffee, and we have a swimming pool here at my apartment complex, so if I meet a good woman then there are a lot of cool things we can do, and also we can write movies and we can write television shows, and we can produce. And I want to make new friends who I can make movies with. I need to put together a team of people who I can make movies and television shows with, plus I want to meet a good woman.

Then, in March there will be a French film festival at Fullerton Community College, so I need to go to that, and immerse myself in French cinema, and I will meet new people there too who are into making movies and television shows, and there will be women there too.

My friend is teaching me that I have choices in my life, and I can just let life pass by while I complain and feel sad and feel like I am wasting my life, or I can get back into life and I can be an active participant.

My friend wants me just to start out by setting the alarm clock and getting up early and having plans for the day. I am used to staying up late and sleeping in, so it is hard to go to bed early and get up early, but it is the first step towards making 2023 a great year and achieving some of my great dreams instead of just growing old poor and alone and being sad about it.

Salute,

Tony V.

[FlyingVProd]

I have had some great roommates over the years, and they taught me a  lot, as telling each other stories is just something that I have always done with all of my roommates, they tell me stories and I listen, and I tell them my stories and they listen. We drank coffee and told each other stories, for the most part.

I had a roommate who was a Franciscan Monk, and I had a roommate who was the daughter of a Chinese General, and I had a roommate who had an Uncle who was a Mayor of a city in Thailand, one lady who ran a house where I lived was a Cousin of Gloria Arroyo who was the President of the Philippines, and I had a roommate who was a Studio Executive at Paramount Studios and at Universal Studios, etc. I had a lot of great roommates, plus my buddy Tom was a Combat Medic and he was retired from working for 20 years as a Doctor in Pennsylvania for the Navy. God brought a lot of really cool people into my life.

My dearly departed former roommate Drew was a Studio Executive at Paramount Studios and at Universal Studios. He was born in New York City, he grew up in Long Island in a house next door to Carlo Gambino, and Carlo put Drew to work baby-sitting the children. Drew had a great childhood, and he was able to go to Broadway, and to the Metropolitan Opera, and he experienced the very best that New York City had to offer. Then, Carlo put Drew to work as a Buyer for the Fashion Industry, so that Drew could earn money to attend college. Drew earned enough money to attend college in Buffalo, New York, he earned a degree in Business, and then he moved to California, to Lake Forest, and he went to work at Paramount Studios as an Executive. He worked on a lot of great projects in his life, and one show that he worked on was "Family Ties" and he dated Courtney Cox for a while, Drew had a great life. Drew went to work at Universal Studios and he worked as an Executive on television shows at Universal after working at Paramount. Drew was my roommate for 4 years before he died. We used to drink coffee and Drew used to tell me stories, he had some amazing stories, and a lot of his stories would make good movies, and his life story would be a good movie. I wish I would have met Drew when we were young and I wish we could have worked in Show Business together. Drew died in 2006, I miss him.

So along with the hard times, and being homeless, and all of that bad stuff, there were also good times, and I met some wonderful people, and I had some wonderful roommates.

I just wish I could have made money when I was young and I wish I could have found a wife when I was young. But, life is what it is, and I have learned a lot, I spent all of those years learning. I can keep a sophisticated woman good company. I will be able to date the women who have class. And I hope to find a good smart talented wife someday who I can have fun with and who I can enjoy life with.

Salute,

Tony V.