Chapter 1: Chapter One: I Get Ideas
Key concepts: Chapter One: I Get Ideas
1. Chapter One: I Get Ideas
Slamdance and the Safdie Brothers
- Submits satire short to Slamdance
- Meets Josh and Benny Safdie at festival
- Decides they're the smartest people ever
- Shared ambition and ebullient mayhem ensue
Red Bucket Collective
- Ingratiates into indie film dormitory
- Works on Catfish, Daddy Longlegs, others
- Shoots misguided feature Creative Nonfiction
- Becomes part of fabric, not interloper
Greta Gerwig and Delusional Downtown Divas
- Greta uses space for audition tapes
- Acts as reader for code-named scripts
- Shoots web series averaging 300 views
- Falls in love with movies despite no money
Struggle and Mother's Journals
- Can't hold job longer than five months
- Involved with series of wrong men
- Discovers mother's journals under bed
- Same loneliness and weight obsession
Writing Tiny Furniture
- Writes script over few nights in father's office
- Mother becomes champion, raises $20,000
- Shoots with real crew and family cast
- Edits sprint for South by Southwest
David Carr and Festival Success
- Meets New York Times reporter David Carr
- Warns about Hollywood fickleness and nastiness
- Wins Grand Jury Prize at awards ceremony
- Carr becomes guardian angel for three years
HBO Blind Pilot Deal
- Walks into HBO lobby, pitches unrehearsed idea
- Show about New York recession feminism
- Writes page on brother's laptop that night
- Offered blind pilot deal, screams with joy