Eddie Leonardo

This is an unexpected post, so bear with me for this post may be disjointed.

John August’s post on his blog got me going this morning so I place full blame on him. It has to do with the The Bechdel test

1. Are there two or more female characters with names?
2. Do they talk to each other?
3. If they talk to each other, do they talk about something other than a man?

Here is the thing. Only one movie I have written/directed out of the two has passed this test.

An added bonus is that two films that I am working on are nothing but these rules.

The Family Affair
Octavia

In most movies you would think that there has to be two women, with character names, that talk to each other about something other than a man.

Not really:

It is a good idea to learn your craft and all the rules and tests that apply to it. (See Heroes Journey.)

Should this test be applied to every to every one of my scripts —- No

The reason is that while “tests” like this are out there, I think that if you are putting out a good story, it should just be good and if it happens to follow any rules, standards, or tests then bully for you.

An added point I would like to make is that in most of the scripts that I have written they have strong female characters in them. I do this for several reasons. None of which fall to the point of doing it on purpose. Strong female characters are nothing to be afraid of – unless it’s Octavia then all I would say is stay out of her way.

Questions you may ask yourself, maybe

Why The Name?

Here is the thing, My name is not Eddie Leonardo. When I started film making I wanted to get a name for my production company that was easy to remember. I thought Edward L Gerbracht JR. Productions was just too long and not very memorable.

So I was brainstorming with a friend or two and came up with using my first name and extending my second name from Leo to Leonardo. That’s it.

What Can I Expect?

Nothing. However you may be surprised once in a while.

What Can I do?

Encouragement. I like it. Donate money. I like that. Click on my Google links (it makes a drop, but like I said I like money).

Over the years I have received several types of emails on my blog.

Hate mail – I just ignore it
Love mail – sorry you’re just not my type
Advice mail – These can go a number of ways: hate, love, good, bad and sometimes outrageous.

I’ve actually received an email telling me to do a campaign for a movie that suggested something similar to the balloon boy incident.

If you want to give advice please do not hesitate. I am never above listening. Now this comes with a few caveats:

I may not take your advice
I may ignore your advice
I may use your advice and will credit you.

In Conclusion

I just want to say thanks for coming to my new website. I like to entertain and give people things to think, laugh and laugh again about. I would love to do this full time and make all my dreams come true.