We took it to the last day, but Mark and I both finished the 52 week challenge from www.readwatchwrite.com. The past year, we read the following scripts:
 We're at it again sharing our thoughts at Snobby Movie Reviews. Check out our latest podcast on the zombie blockbuster World War Z. Mark Botts, Isaiah Mouw, and Ben Bronsink get down to the bottom of all issues zombie related. For instance, can zombies smell fear? If zombies were cats, would we love them more? And of course, exactly how many zombies would it take to make a zombie wall? Another feature-length screenplay gets notched into our belts. The Line of Control is a Science-Fiction/Drama that pays strong attention to the drama. What does that mean? A story with intriguing "tech" elements and captivating character pieces.  We've knocked around several other script ideas, even hurried a rough draft or two. But, chasing multiple ideas was pulling us from completing one. We tabled future script ideas and finished The Line of Control. It's a satisfying feeling. That is, until we get our feedback from our faithful readers and have to start another rewrite.
But in the meantime, on to the next work.  Check out our first podcast together on the wonderful little website Snobby Movie Reviews. Mark and I join the brilliant creator of the website, Ben Bronsink, on a review of Tony Gilroy's, Michael Clayton. We'd love to hear your thoughts and make sure to like the Snobby Movie Reviews facebook page. Film expert Isaiah Mouw joins Mark Botts and Ben Bronsink in a short but thorough discussion on Tony Gilroy’s best film to date, Michael Clayton. Corporate greed, escalators, horses and even sweaty armpits are all points of discussion and sometimes contention. A wonderful episode, and one of our shortest.  Today we heard back from Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting. We did not place as a quarterfinalists, but were very thrilled to place in the Top 15%. With over 7,000 scripts, we did better than around 6,250 of them with our first script, Allatoona Lake. Congratulations to the 372 Quarterfinalists. Looking forward to watching your stories on the big screen one day in the near future.
 It is finished. In the past 365 days, I watched 365 new movies. Along the way, I knocked out AFI's Top 100, IMDB's Top 250, and almost knocked out Roger Ebert's list of Great Movies. I'll admit, it wasn't as romantic as it seems. You have a stressful day at work, the kiddos get to bed late and you still have to watch a 3 hour Fellini film. I think I'm going to take a month long movie-free sabbatical.
However, I saw a lot of great films that I probably wouldn't have gotten around to watching until years from now. Some of my favorites of the year in no particular order were:  I saw a cool list on Letterboxd several weeks ago where someone listed their favorite films by letter of the alphabet. Neat idea, so I decided to create my own. Granted this list will probably change from week to week, but nonetheless, here is the list of my favorite films from A to Z with a bonus numeric selection.
Let me know your thoughts, unless they're negative. - Isaiah Mouw  Today, Mark graduated from Regent University with a Master of Fine Arts in Screenwriting. An exciting day for Mark, his family and our writing partnership.
 Yesterday was a sad day for humanity. Roger Ebert passed away. I'm a creature of habit, and one thing I do after watching any movie, is read Ebert's review. I learned a lot of what I know about cinema from reading his reviews. I remember during college waiting up every Sunday to watch Ebert & Roeper and would often watch or not watch a movie based on the direction of his thumb. In fact, I'm working on watching 365 movies this year and I'm using his list of Great Movies as a reference guide. What I like about the list is the wide variety of films. Ebert judged and reviewed films based on the film itself. Not the country it was produced in or the budget of the movie. I almost cried last night thinking that this list will never get any bigger and knowing that I will not be able to read his reviews on any new movies. This line from a NY Times article brought a ray of sunshine to my cloudy day. "Mr. Ebert — who said he saw 500 films a year and reviewed half of them — was once asked what movie he thought was shown over and over again in heaven, and what snack would be free of charge and calories there. Hopefully, one day in the near future, I'll get the chance to sit down with Mr. Ebert and watch 'Citizen Kane' while eating Haagen-Dazs ice cream.
- Isaiah Mouw  We completed our first short script, Crux, last month and decided to send it in to a few screenplay competitions that accept short scripts. Just received some judge's feedback on it today. Here's an excerpt of the review. "The characters and dialogue are well fleshed out and we are transported to the time and place." Keeping our fingers crossed that we might place as a finalist.
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Mark Botts & Isaiah MouwOur journey from obscurity to, well, obscurity in the wonderful world of screenwriting. Archives
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