high octane! or my t-shirt list design of my favorite action directors!

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I was recently inspired by the name & trend for shirts and thought I’d put my own spin on it by showcasing my favorite directors! If this was already a thing then don’t tell me but if you do I will just pretend like I can’t hear you anyways 😛

The shirt designs can be found on my online store Karma and Destiny

I listed these in alphabetical order, not by love, so simmer down in the front row!

I love a good high energy feature, something to get the blood pumping – I’m lazy and don’t want to do cardio. So here is a short list of (some) of my favorite action directors.

Ethan & Joel Cohen – Fargo, No Country For Old Men, Fargo, Burn After Reading and let’s not forget Raising Arizona and Fargo “And I guess that was your accomplice in the wood chipper” gets me every time!

Martin Scorsese – I never call him Marty — to his face, it’s Mr. Scorsese! The Departed would be enough to put him on my list, but why stop there – Shutter Island, Casino, Goodfellas, Taxi Driver “You talking to me?” Raging Bull,

Robert Rodriguez – drum roll please! Ya’ll know I got a thing for the Double R, and big dreams of filming at Troublemaker Studios. So let’s start things off with my first taste, Desperado.

“The stranger shot him, walked over to the bartender, paid, and left.”

“So the bartender lived? The bartender never gets killed!”

“No man, bartender got it worse than anybody.”

Of course it all started with El Mariachi and there was Once Upon a Time In Mexico. Dusk till Dawn, Sin City and the collab with James Cameron – Alita Battle Angel. Need I say more? I didn’t think so.

Quentin Tarantino – The master of adrenaline himself! Take your pick, you got the Kill Bill trilogy, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and my favorite; Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I especially love how he saved Sharon Tate and gave us the real Hollywood happy ending! I hear it goes well with a Royale with cheese 😉

Okay, so now you got my list, tell me, who are your favorite action directors?

New Designs inspired by the big screen

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Ah the BIG SCREEN, that magical portal into wonderous landscapes, spirited adventures, passionate romances, nail biting thrillers and even side splitting comedies.

I remember as a child staring, slack jawed and wide eyed while a future Jedi, a scoundrel, a Wookie, a metallic mannequin and beeping trash can rescued a princess with cinnamon rolls for hair. I was hooked!

So while I’m on my own quest as a screenwriter/filmmaker, I’m paying homage to some of my favorite directors on t-shirts and other clothing and accessories. Pass the popcorn will ya?

Mooving Piktures logo on right sleeve so you know it’s fresh 😉

https://karmaanddestiny.printful.me/

NOW SHOWING!

Love is in the air!
High Octane!
Oh, the horror!
Dum, dum, dum!

I’ll be posting about the individual designs – look forward to the comments; who I missed on my list, who shouldn’t be on my list, what is a list?

ROBERT RODRIGUEZ MADE ME DO IT!

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If this turns out bad, tell my mother I had no choice! Public opinion might claim I was brash, impudent and unqualified, I prefer daring, self assured and optimistic wink. Either way, I was on a ‘Go BIG or go home’ excursion and it was all his fault.

Robert Rodriguez – filmmaker extraordinaire – El Mariachi, Desperado, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Machete, Spy Kids film series, We Can Be Heroes, The Faculty, Dusk Till Dawn, Sin City, and on and on…

Before Robert, I was a flip flop, a waffler, a half asser if you will. I would throw myself into a project then abandon it just as enthusiastically once sh#t started to get real. Do you know what it’s like to have 32 separate files with incomplete creations? Like petri dishes with multicolored life yearning to explore beyond it’s tiny container yet suppressed by some unseen force?
I do.
I had BIG ideas for BIG screens and I imagined meetings with BIG names who would take my hand and lead me to this magical place of creation where dreams become actualized and relevant. In my bold and brilliant imagination these weren’t the gestures of pity or charity or even kindness but of need, their need to work with ME!

I was under a spell, an illusion that I was a creative connossieur, a breath of fresh air for a suffocating audience, hell I believed I could freakin fly!

The great Robert Rodriguez is like the fairy godmother in Cinderella, he waves his wand and speaks magical words meant to transform the drabest scribe into the belle-trist of the ball…well potentially.

He writes, directs, he shoots, he scores wink and edits, heck he has his own studio! Troublemaker Studios, previously Los Hooligans Productions) in Austin, Texas complete with costumes and the Alita Battle Angel city, Double R Productions for co creating content, R.I.P. Rodriguez International Pictures that focuses on horror and by the time of this writing he’s probably created a device for interdimensional travel or at least the ability to simulate it on a green screen wink

And did I mention he even made it on Evan Carmichael’s YouTube channel, dedicated to motivational greats including Wayne Dyer, Depak Chopra, Les Brown, Tony Robbins, etc… Yes, he’s even a motivational speaker! swoon

His 10 minute film school, detailing how he took $7225 – mostly earned as a lab rat, a borrowed camera, a busted guitar case, a wheelchair, a tortoise, and oh yes, his brilliant mind for solving complex or costly filming issues in the most clever and FREE or affordable ways, for his debut film El Mariachi, could inspire my own grandmother to grab her Nikon and her knitting group in hopes to screen their senior exploits at Cannes, or dare to dream, SXSW (South By Southwest). sigh

So how could someone like me be immune? I, with stars in my eyes since the tender age of 3 when I danced my way off stage (my bed) and into the E.R. – still got the scar to prove it! – greeted by Sam Shepard on my way out his movie set in Roswell, New Mexico as a teen (missed opportunity!) aspiring novelist and then aspiring screenwriter who was too shy to enter the Project Greenlight contest as an adult but learned a lot as a member and made friends for life and even got the chance to speak to Ben Affleck (yet another missed opportunity!).

How could I, the eternal dreamer, not be mesmerized, romanticized and possibly even hypnotized when Robert looks (at the camera) into your eyes…no your very soul and says, “You can do it.”?

It’s impossible, so why fight it? I’m no longer aspiring, I AM. I CAN do this, no, I WILL do this! So, be sure to wave when you see me passing above on that Delta flight to Austin, I’ll be waving to you.

Hey, tell me in the comments, are you a fan of Robert Rodriguez (of course you are!) Which movie is your favorite?

Also, if you haven’t heard it lately, YOU are amazing, worthy and deserving – YOU CAN DO IT!

But first you have to BELIEVE

Love and Blessings! Karma Marie

The Universe’s Totally Ridiculous Plan to Have My Debut Film Produced by Ben Affleck

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Some strange synchronicities have been occurring lately; I mean the Universe has really been having fun with me.

It started when I made the decision to write the screenplay for my novel, Amuse, a romantic portal fantasy with mythological elements.

In my head I heard a voice say, “And Ben can produce it.” This was really odd, because for one, I wasn’t aware that my subconscious and Mr. Affleck were on a first name basis and second, he isn’t a producer…

“He could be,” my son argued, “a lot of actors are producers.”

I shook my head, “Maybe for their own projects. They used to have Live Planet, which produced the Project Greenlight series way back in the day, but I had looked it up last year and it wasn’t…”

“You never know, it could happen,” he reasoned.

A quick Google search revealed Ben Affleck and Matt Damon had created the production company, Artists Equity. Ha Ha, good one Universe! But still, not an option for me, thanks anyways.

I decided I was going to move forward but with a story about a grandmother lost in the woods, more realistic than a big budget fantasy pic, and began watching every video on screenwriting I could find.  

Also, at the same time I was a member of House of Manifestation with Kathleen Cameron. For one of the exercises, you were supposed to journal as if you already received your manifestation. Mine said:

“I’m so excited that I’m traveling to L.A. to meet with producers and agents about my screenplay(s).” I then took it further, pulling out my suitcase, choosing my outfits and even recording a video (just for me on my phone) about my exciting trip!

What happened next was pretty cool. In my Facebook feed, an ad popped up for the Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting  contest – winners receive an all expense paid trip to L.A. to meet with producers, agents, etc… Hmmmm, interesting.

Even better, Final Draft offered a 30-day free trial. Okay, things were going along in a good and not weird at all way. Yay!

Over the next few weeks, Mr. Ben Affleck (still knowing my place) kept popping up. The sheer absurdity had become like a running joke between the Universe and me. I did have a momentary lapse of practicality where my imagination offered up a plausible possibility. Maybe Ben and Matt could reach out to people from the early days of Project Greenlight – a kind of ‘where are they now?’ and possibly ask, ‘You got anything to show us?’.

The Universe responded to that in a hilarious manner. I stumbled across an interview of Ben (at this point I’ve earned it) by Theo Von. During said interview, Theo mentioned he had auditioned for the Project Greenlight movie, Feast, (which I believe was season 2).

I posted in the comments about how that took me back to Season 1 of Project Greenlight, which I was involved with and that I had met Ben at the PGL party and he was very amiable. The very next day, a user by the name of Benjamin Geza Affleck commented, “Can you remind me when?” [insert eye roll]

Anyways, I responded that it was around 2001 or so in Manhattan Beach at a place called Mr. Pockets and how Ben was incredibly generous, taking time out to talk to every single person who approached him. I said, he’s one of my favorite people.

Benjamin Geza Affleck responds, “That was me anyways. I am Ben.” [cue belly laugh]

So I responded, “Well that’s perfect, you promised to produce my first low budget film!” 😉

I’ll be honest, a tiny, or not so tiny part of me fantasized, maybe, just maybe Theo or someone on his team would see the exchange and it would get back to real Ben…not the artificial one, and they would think it might make a good story and reach out to me and at least glance at what I had written. “Hey it’s not for me but I know someone who might be interested.” And I would dance with glee while my labradoodle Bella stared and judged.

The reality was no way that this nor any other screenplay would be of interest. My story style is fluffy cotton candy while his is gritty grit.

One of my screenplays is called, Lucky, about a woman who loses everything and turns things around by being obnoxiously hopeful. His films are Argo, The Town and Gone Baby Gone. It’s like we speak different languages.

But yet again, the Universe strikes. A Scriptfella YouTube video mentioned the screenplay for the movie AIR, about the signing of Michael Jordan to the Nike label in 1984. The screenplay by Kevin Convery is an example of a well f’n written first page. I read on and asked myself, ‘how have I not seen this movie yet?’ I’m a huge Michael Jordan fan, 23 is my lucky number!

I watched and it was incredible, I was absolutely giddy. Okay, so you got me Universe, he can produce happy feel good content. But who is the director, I mean this is really good…oh wait, it’s him, of course I should have known.

To be continued…

Tell me, have you ever had a premonition, dream or idea that was totally out of the blue? How did you respond and how did things turn out?

REWRITE YOUR PAST

On By karmamarie23Leave a comment

I was having a conversation with a friend, actually a few friends and family members about the concept of Past and Present relationships.

Have you ever had a moment where you couldn’t recall an event from say, your childhood or maybe your recollection doesn’t match what others remember?

I have a theory.

The first is this: If you shifted your reality so that your NOW doesn’t align with the past you previously acknowledged – for instance, in your ‘past’ you experienced money blocks – No matter how hard you worked there was never enough – but NOW you have multiple sources of income, savings, always more than you need!

Therefore, that previous past no longer is connected to this NOW, you connected to a past where you grew up with a prosperity mindset.

If your past is the foundation, then it would have to change in order to support the new reality.

Let’s not forget that we live in a multiverse, with an infinite number of realities to CHOOSE from.

Now, to flip this over, what if instead of focusing on your now and shifting what up till now has been the ‘destination’ of the GPS ‘directions’ from before, you connected to a different past?

Say you are sitting in Austin, TX but your goal was to get to Ashland, South Carolina, you could change your ‘directions’ so that you would be rerouted to the ideal destination.

If nothing else, you could have a lot of fun with this! Sometimes, I like to pretend that my ‘future’ self went back and gave myself investing advice and I might get a letter in the NOW stating my investment has matured and how would I like it to be paid out?!

Or if I feel a certain insecurity about say, learning new things, I could connect to the ‘past’ where people marvelled at my ability to recall information at will and ace tests!

What do YOU think? Share in the comments.

Also, what is something that you would rewrite?

Until next time – Love and Blessings!