Author: Donald L. Vasicek

Award-winning writer/filmmaker Donald L. Vasicek studied producing, directing and line producing at the Hollywood Film Institute under the acclaimed Dov Simens and at Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute. He studied screenwriting at The Complete Screenplay, Inc., with Sally Merlin, daughter of the famed Hollywood Merlin family of screenwriters and writers, as his mentor. Don has taught, mentored, and is a script consultant for over 300 writers, directors, producers, actors and production companies. He has also acted in NBC’s “Mystery of Flight 1501”, ABC’s Father Dowling starring Thomas Bosley, and Red-Handed Productions’ “Summer Reunion.” These activities have resulted in his involvement in over 100 movies during the past 23 years, from major studios to independent films including MGM’s $56 million “Warriors of Virtue”, Paramount Classic’s “Racing Lucifer”, American Picture’s “The Lost Heart” and “Born To Kill” starring the Charles Bronson of Korea, Bobby Kim, and his internationally-known brother, Richard, who directed, Incline Productions, Inc.’s “Born To Win”, 20th Century Fox’s “Die Hard II” starring Bruce Willis with Rennie Harlan as director, and Joel Silver as producer, Olympus Films+, LLC’s “Haunted World” with Emmy-nominated PBS Producer Alison Hill, and Olympus Films+, LLC’s “Faces”, “Oh, The Places You Can Go” and the award-winning “The Sand Creek Massacre” documentary film. Don also has written and published over 500 books, short stories and articles. His books include “How To Write, Sell, And Get Your Screenplays Produced” and “The Write Focus.” He has been a guest screenwriting and filmmaking columnist for Hollywood Lit. Sales, Moondance International Film Festival’s e-zine, Screenwriter’s Forum, Screenplace, Screenplayers.Net, Screenwriters.Net, Screenwriters Utopia, Spraka & Kinsla (Swedish), Inkwell Watch, and Ink On the Brain. Writing recognition includes Houston’s WorldFest International Film Festival, Chesterfield’s Writer’s Film Project, Writer’s Digest, The Sundance Institute, The Writer’s Network, and the Rocky Mountain Writer’s Guild, Inc. Don completed producing “The Sand Creek Massacre”, a documentary film project that includes the completed and award-winning documentary short, a book, a classroom video, Interactive Media, a study guide, and a lesson plans. The film is being distributed by Films Media Group. Don is on the board of directors of the American Indian Genocide Museum in Houston. He is the founder and owner of Olympus Films+, LLC, a global writing and filmmaking company and a screenwriting volunteer on AllExperts.com. Don’s screenwriting agent is Robin Kaver of the Robert Freedman Dramatic Agency, Inc., 1501 Broadway, Suite 2301 New York, NY 10036, 212-840-5751.
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“Smithsonian Institution Libraries Catalog Award-Winning Donald L. Vasicek’s Sand Creek Massacre Film”

For Immediate Release

Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
303-903-2103

dvasicek@earthlink.net
http://www.sandcreekmassacre.net

“Smithsonian Institution Libraries Catalogue Award-Winning Donald L. Vasicek’s Sand Creek Massacre Film”

Centennial, CO – June 10, 2011 2011 – “The Sand Creek Massacre”, an award-winning documentary film written, directed and produced by award-winning writer/filmmaker Donald L. Vasicek, has been catalogued into Smithsonian Institution Libraries.

“The Sand Creek Massacre”, an award-winning documentary film, has been catalogued into Smithsonian Institution Libraries. You can find the record if you go to http://www.sil.si.edu/. In the search box type, sand creek massacre. It is on page 3 in the catalog. The film won Best Native American Film at The American Indian Film Festival in Houston and the Trail Dance Film Festival in Duncan, Oklahoma and best short film in Cleveland at The Indie Gathering Film Festival. The story of the Sand Creek Massacre is told on camera by Cheyenne and Arapaho people whose ancestors were at Sand Creek during the massacre. Donald L. Vasicek, award-winning writer/filmmaker, who wrote, directed and produced the film via his film company, Olympus Films+, LLC, said, “This film is vital to inform, to educate, and to create awareness, for not only the Cheyenne and Arapaho people, but for all of the indigenous people in America. It helps neutralize ignorance and fear of cultures without the exposure to which most Americans have grown accustomed. It is indeed an honor to have the film in Smithsonian Institution Libraries.”

The film has been screened at colleges and universities throughout the United States in addition to various Native American organizations and groups. It has also been aired in Philadelphia, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Phoenix and screened in over 100 venues in the United States, Europe, Thailand, and Sweden. It is being distributed in North America and Asia by Films Media Group.

Olympus Films+, LLC was founded by Donald L. Vasicek in 1993. It has produced such films as “Faces”, a documentary film about who gays and lesbians really are, and “Oh, The Places You Can Go…”, a documentary film about kids with special needs in transition.

The Sand Creek Massacre Movie Poster

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Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
The Zen of Writing
http://michaelc.nextmp.net/wordpress
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103

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The Story, Filmmakers and Writers Alike

Award-Winning Writer/Filmmaker Donald L. Vasicek - Colorado Forest

Utilizing my writing background, which has proved very helpful
to me when making a film, I am perplexed about why it is so
difficult for many filmmakers to put together a coherent story
in their films. 

I have no problem with putting together a story, and again, it
is based on my writing background.  In the conglomeration of
film, tape, stills, etc., the story is fun to put together.  Even
if the filmmaker wants to make a non-linear film, it must tell a
story so that viewers can get a grasp of what the film is.  A
beginning.  A middle. An ending.  A main theme that holds
everything together. A compelling subject matter or character
that goes through a transformational arc in the film.  And, thus, a
coherent story.

If the filmmaker who is having difficulty with putting a story
together, then, the filmmaker should look inside of themselves
for the story. I mean, the story idea came up. From where did
it come? Your foot? Maybe your nose? How about your brain
and heart?  And I don’t mean, to tell a story about yourself,
unless that is your intention.  I mean, you, the filmmaker and/or
the writer, should ask yourself questions like, who was I when I
got the idea for this film?  What was I doing at the precise time
the idea popped up in my mind?  Where was I? When did I come
up with this idea?  Why am I making this film?

If the filmmaker and/or writer writes down the answers to
these questions, she/he will discover the story. And, I
emphasize, write down, the answers. Don’t think them down.
Write them down. By writing them down it will cause thoughts
to surface in your mind that of which you have no conscious knowledge. 
The story is about passion. Every story is about passion.
The passion is inside of the writer and/or filmmaker’s mind and heart. 

If the passion is slaying a dragon, say being unhappy about the
way our earth is decaying, then, being unhappy about it
is the passion. You gotta’ go out and slay that dragon via making
a film about it or writing a story about it, or both. Identifying and
understanding your passion for the film, should become the main
theme for the film.  And so on.

I hope this sheds some light on an issue that can be very complex,
if we allow it to be that.

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“The Man Who Looked Like Ernest Hemingway”

Ernest Hemingway

THIS ISSUE’S FURIOUS PEN STORY ON THE THEME SECOND CHANCES

by Donald L. Vasicek

The man who looked like Ernest Hemingway shot the blond woman with braces on her teeth, in both eyes. The skin on her forehead wrinkled into five lines, like sentences in a sonnet. “I have a seven a.m. appointment. It’s seven-ten,” Ernesto Jesus said. His aching molar drove a wood screw into his persistence. She kept her look on the sign-in sheet. “What’s your last name?”

The antiseptic smell of the dentist’s office and playful laughing in the other rooms hacked at Ernesto. “Jesus.”

“Oh, we’re working on the wrong Jesus,” she said. She smacked out of there like a high-tailing lynx.

Then, Ernesto found himself in the dental chair. A light cork-screwed into his eyeballs. Doctor Chumlach, a slight man with bangs, pasted a liquid over Ernesto’s molar. “You know the only Don’s that get any respect live in Italy,” he said. “Hope you’re not mad anymore.”

Ernesto’s molar hummed “Morning Has Broken.” “There’s only one Don who gets respect,” Ernesto said. The man who looked like Ernest Hemingway shot Chumlach in the eyes.

Chumlach smiled. Ernesto smiled back. “I never was mad.”

© 2001 Don Vasicek
Don Vasicek is a writer and filmmaker (“Faces”, “Oh the Places You Can Go”, “Warriors of Virtue”, “The Crown,” “The Sand Creek Massacre”).