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At Amazon Studios

 
 
 

Latest Work

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About

I'm a toy and game designer, with a background in art, animation and video game design. I had the privilege to work on the computer game incarnation of Nickelodeon's "Are You Afraid of the Dark" game for PC-CDRom, back in the heyday of full-motion video in games, and I got to work with Chicago's legendary Post Effects on the video production. Ever since, I've had an itch for film production I've been looking for a way to scratch.

This is my first serious attempt at a writing project in a very long time, and my first attempt at a screenplay ever.

I live in Northern Illinois with my wife, two wonderful kids, some raccoons who chase us out of the yard every night and two carnival goldfish who appear to be immortal.
 

Reviews Douglas Has Written

The Lonely, Matthew's Original Draft

1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Pretty fantastic work!

Overall Recommendation:
5 stars
 
Premise:
5 stars
 
Story structure:
3 stars
 
Character:
5 stars
 
Dialogue:
4 stars
 
Emotion:
5 stars
 
November 06, 2012
A great read- I love your monsters, and both your protagonists are great characters! Overall I can easily envision this as a feature length film

A few notes I jotted down as I was reading it:

1) awesome opening with the kidnapping rescue, but I'm not sure its necessary. It does pack a terrific punch, and it worked well when I read it at the beginning, but by the climax it didn't seem like tied in to the overall plot. It could certainly be compressed a bit

2) consider not showing the creature right away- it might be better to hold back on completely revealing full horror of the toad/tongue monster until later.

3) awesome! I'm really liking this!

4) I know it complicates things, but it seems to me that, when Dr. Meridians' office gets broken into, Angela would naturally suspect John. From her perspective, he just basically announced that he was stalking her daughter.

5) You've got an ELISE or two on the bottom of page 79- looks like an artifact

6) Solid climax! You might want to place more hints about them needing moisture earlier in the plot- right now it comes a bit out of the blue.

7) The epilogue works, but it's a bit formulaic. Maybe instead of just another appearance of the creature you can craft another horrific note to end on. Perhaps you could find a way to suggest that one of the monster kids we met in the story escaped the flames, and is transforming into a new Jodie creature. You've subverted the usual horror story very nicely, I'd love to see you twist the ending the same way.

Great work, congrats!
 

Match Less, Pilot Script 4 - Latest updated and funnier script

4 stars
Stronger, nice work on the additional scenes. I'll offer detailed notes and a few suggestions in the project forum, but overall I'm rooting for this one!
November 05, 2012

My Aunt: The Time Traveler, Pilot Script 1 - My Aunt: The Time Traveler

3 stars
Great premise, good characters- I like his relationship with his siblings. Advice I got on the first draft of my project: try not to rely on voice-over to tell the story-"Show don't tell". Solid start
October 12, 2012

Bump in the Night, Pilot Script 1 - Bump in the Night

5 stars
Lovely, twisted work- a few of the gags were a bit obvious, but the dialogue between the main characters is great. The writer is a fantastic character, Morgan could use a touch more development. nice!
September 28, 2012

Come Here!, Pilot Script 2 - Version #1.5

3 stars
A solid premise, but something that you see in your mind isn't coming through on the page. Another pass at tightening it up and punching up the humor would help. More in discussion thread.
August 30, 2012

The Pi Squad, Mini-bible 1 - The Pi Squad

5 stars
a strong mini-bible- well done!
August 29, 2012

Favorite Movies

Holy Grail, two and a half of the three Star Wars films that count, Serenity, Shawn of the Dead, The Big Picture, Ed Wood, Pan's Labyrinth, Spirited Away
 

Influences

Ed Wood (proof that a lack of talent and expertise is no excuse). Joss Whedon, Edgar Wright. Vonnegut, Douglas Adams, Heinlein before he got a little creepy, Asimov and Clarke. I also read way more Lovecraft than is probably a good idea.
 

Following

1 Person

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