Preparing for 2021 (and a bio!)...

I'm not one to blog. Never have been much the journaling type. When I have emotions I want to put on paper, I'll do it in script format. However, with 2021 approaching, I decided it was time to start helping the writers that let me read their screenplays on a regular basis.

These aspiring writers inspire me to continue on in this business. I have been working in & out of the film industry since I was 20 years old. I spent a bit of time riding a desk at Sony Pictures in my college years. By the time I was making enough money playing poker professionally, I decided to start spending that money on my love of movies. I produced on a few features, but I found myself neglecting my own writing during this time. 

In addition to all this, in order to fulfill a promise I made to my mother (who passed when I was a child), I was more or less forced to join the military. I had initially signed up to enlist right out of high school, but I was seriously injured in a car accident  and my contract was suspended. I ended up serving a few years in the United States Navy working as a Chinese translator and intelligence analyst at the National Security Agency (NSA).

​At the end of my enlistment (cut short by a medical retirement), I went on to work at the NSA and acted as a technical advisor/consultant on films such as Snowden and Megan Leavey. I have also worked as a judge for multiple screenwriting contests as well as freelance work as a script consultant (don't worry, I'm not selling anything but an old road bike).

Most importantly, the reason for this blog. I made the New Year's Resolution to read at least one (likely more) screenplay submitted to me through Twitter every week. For each script I read (if given permission), I will post my thoughts about not only that script, but also anything else that happens to come to my (often erratic) mind. 

So, join me, won't you? Follow me on Twitter @PittoreFilm for all my updates!

Oh, and I'll also include a Song of the Day whenever I post. Enjoy! 

​-A.

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Song of the Day

In honor of the end of 2020,
We'll close out the worst year of most
people's lives with these fitting lines
from ​Damien Rice's 'Rootless Tree':

So fuck you, fuck you, fuck you
And all we've been through
I said leave it, leave it, leave it
It's nothing to you
And if you hate me, hate me, hate me
Then hate me so good that you can let me out...