The Big Woo

Incrementalism

2010-09-16T21:13:00.000-07:00

If I haven't had much to say of late it's because I've been focused on developing my portfolio of specs and pilots for television. Last year I did "30 Rock" and "Mad Men" for the several fellowship contests. No response. This year I specced "Parks & Recreation" and "White Collar." So far, the latter made it to the second round (top 10%, I believe) of Austin Film Festival's teleplay competition. Marathon, not a sprint.

Adventure people

2009-05-30T01:17:00.000-07:00

If it's summer, it must be time for another home run from the folks at Pixar. And this year is no exception, with the release of "Up." Initially, I was skeptical that a film about an elderly man flying his house to South America would pack the same narrative punch as the studio's previous releases. I need not have worried. And I don't need to say much more about the plot other than the movie's first ten minutes are the most emotionally deep and resonant moments Pixar has created yet. Even more than WALL-E's wordless first act. Other studios rarely achieve (or aspire to) such heights with live actors.

It seems clear that, starting with "Ratatouille," Pixar has moved from creating great kids movies that parents can also enjoy to just the opposite. Although there are still plenty of funny characters to keep the youngsters engaged, the themes and plots are now meant to connect on a deeper level with the adults in the audience. Frankly, I hope they take that trend one step further. I'd like Pixar to apply their considerable talents to material that is less comedic and more epic or classic in scope. Ten films on, they've mastered the tale of the misfit or dreamer who must overcome incredible challenges to achieve their ambition. But there are many other stories that they could be telling. I'd love to see them master those as well.

On the TV side, three important fellowship deadlines are coming up soon:

NBC's Writers on the Verge, June 30th
Disney-ABC Television Writing Fellowship, July 1st
Warner Brothers Writers' Workshop, July 25th

Happy speccing.

Werner, brothers

2009-04-18T15:45:00.000-07:00

Two weeks to Nicholl. In the meantime, enjoy these Werner Herzog films just posted at YouTube.

"Little Dieter" is a documentary about Dieter Dengler, a Vietnam POW whose capture and escape was dramatized in Herzog's "Rescue Dawn." And the others are some of his acclaimed, earlier features. Happy viewing!

UPDATE: Here's another, added after my original post.

As seen on The Artful Writer!

2009-04-01T22:32:00.000-07:00

I first heard about The Robotard 8000 on Craig Mazin's blog. It seemed appropriate to note on April Fool's Day. I don't know if the script itself is a joke, but there are jokes in it. They are puerile, politically incorrect, and pretty damn funny. But even if you can't get past the lowbrow humor, "Balls Out" is worth a download for the writing. Which I thought was really good. One of the best examples of "voice" I've read in a while, if you are trying to get a hold on that concept. And otherwise demonstrating a super-lean and economical style that I continue to aspire to.

Oh, and one month to Nicholl (now with online submissions!) and Silver Screenwriting. Start your engines.

Metablast

2009-03-08T22:07:00.000-07:00

It's a truth (almost) universally acknowledged that Francois Truffaut's Day For Night is the ne plus ultra movie about making movies. No argument here. Contemporarily, I'm also partial to David Mamet's satirical State and Main, which is more about everything that goes wrong in the moviemaking process. Neither of these are yet available at any of the (legitimate) streaming sites, but here are a couple other films about filmmaking that are -- one documentary and one not:

American Movie chronicles the real-life efforts of low (low) budget horror filmmaker Mike Borchardt to finish his short film Coven. Say what you want about Mike -- and as you watch him, there will be plenty for you to say -- but his tenaciousness in realizing his vision is undeniable. Would you or I be so driven?

Living In Oblivion, on the other hand, is a small independent film about the making of a small independent film. Steve Buscemi, Catherine Keener, and Dermot Mulroney stand out, but the thing to really keep in mind as you watch is that writer/director Tom DiCillo directed Brad Pitt in the indie film Johnny Suede before he made "Oblivion." Think of that as you watch the segment with James LeGros as Chad Palamino . . .

(sorry no video embeds. Crackle sucks about that apparently.)

I'm just not that into blogging

2009-02-14T16:49:00.000-08:00

Light posting duty as I try and wrap up a rewrite. In the meantime, a few things that caught my eye . . .

One of the persistent fears for aspiring writers outside of Hollywood (and a few of them around here) is having their script "stolen" by producers or studios. Frankly, they don't need to be that worried for a few reasons. As long as they go through the usual channels, e.g., querying companies and submitting the screenplay with accompanying release form to those who request it, the companies will be more than happy to pay (and are bound by the WGA's minimum basic agreement if they are signatories) the writer for a great script. The bigger problem for those writers is that they likely don't have anything close to a script of the quality that Hollywood is willing to pay for. That said, it does happen from time to time, as the recent controversy surrounding Paul Blart: Mall Cop demonstrates. Not a reason to hide your scripts in a locked vault by any stretch but just another reminder to keep records of drafts written, queries sent, and register the works either with the WGA or U.S. Copyright Office.

The Archive of American Television has posted its series of interviews with many legends and some lesser-known names of film and television on YouTube. Lots of great stories from actors, writers, producers, and other creative artists who came up through the industry during the Golden Age of Television.

And the Nickelodeon Writing Fellowship Program deadline is just two weeks away: February 28th. Half-hour specs for any currently-produced network shows (which, as a practical matter, means sitcoms). And although the fellowship is one year working on staff at Nickelodeon, the submissions do not have to be only for "kids" shows. Tick tock, tick tock . . .

Anyone can write

2009-01-17T13:25:00.000-08:00

As the Baltimore Ravens stand one Steelers beatdown away from another Super Bowl, one player who will have something to fall back on in the offseason (whatever the outcome) is defensive end Trevor Pryce. Turns out he's also a screenwriter. According to the article, he got the idea for a script when his daughter threw a penny in a fountain and then asked what would happen if her wish got mixed up with someone else. From the mouth of babes . . .

As a professional football player, Trevor was in the enviable position of having an agent who could pass the idea along to a producer here in L.A. -- Mike Fleiss (Heidi's brother). Fleiss asked for a treatment, Pryce had to Google what a treatment was, and eventually ended up writing the full script. He says he also wrote a second one and is shopping around a third. Even though his case is obviously not the norm for new screenwriters trying to break into the business, it is a good illustration of the old adage that "concept is king." In the meantime, I'll have to be content with a victory in the championship game and the knowledge that there is at least another playing field on which I actually can compete with Trevor and still keep my head attached to my body.

Author author

2008-12-13T13:52:00.000-08:00

Despite the labor unrest this year between content creators and content owners, the fact is barriers to entry for flimmaking have never been lower. Cheap digital video, editing software for your home computer, and online distribution with sites like YouTube mean you can shoot it and people can see it. Now, and without having to go through the studio gates to do it.

One of the precursors to this was the DVD. Sure, ubiquitous now but until the high-capacity discs were introduced, film criticism and commentary was not generally accessible to the average viewer. But with commentary tracks from directors and screenwriters and other production bonus materials, it became possible to understand how shots were constructed or why story choices were made. And the top of the line for DVDs has long been The Criterion Collection. Criterion licenses notable films ranging from the obscure to mainstream, foreign to domestic, independent to studio and throws in the kitchen sink with all manner of content.

Now, the company is leveraging its brand online with the launch of a website for film lovers: TheAuteurs.com. Part social-networking, part content delivery, it's in beta and anyone looking to broaden their film horizons should check it out. The discussion forums slant a a little toward the film snob side but the library contains free, streamable films that you can't catch on hulu or the like. If you need a break from the typical Hollywood fare, learn more about film, or even just hang out with other cinephiles, sign up and start auteuring.

Strike II: The Strikening

2008-11-22T13:12:00.000-08:00

Just in time for the holidays, another creative union -- the Screen Actors Guild -- is talking strike. Talks have been dragging on since the summer with no real progress and it remains to be seen if the will exists among the rank-and-file members to put the town through another labor stoppage (especially in a severe economic downturn elsewhere).

As with the writers last year, the sticking point between the producers and actors is residuals for new media, e.g., the internet and digital downloads. Of course, even reaching an agreement with the AMPTP is no guarantee. The WGA filed for arbitration this week against the producers, alleging that they haven't been making any residual payments at all on downloaded works (as was negotiated and agreed to in the latest Minimum Basic Agreement with the Guild). Who could have ever seen *that* coming?

Well, maybe one guy could have.

And just because it can't be said too often, in the words of the owners themselves . . .

Getting read

2008-11-13T23:58:00.000-08:00

A post about my table read last night at The Attic Theater is up over at The Rouge Wave. Thanks to everyone who came out and made it a great experience!

Phone a friend

2008-11-09T19:42:00.000-08:00

The holiday movie season got underway this past weekend with the release of Madagascar 2 (earning $63 million, which is a Pixar-esque number for DreamWorks Animation). It is also the unofficial start of awards season for Hollywood. In addition to the big crowd pleasers like Twilight and Marley & Me, Christmas is when the studios roll out the big guns for Oscar. This year, that includes Sean Penn as murdered gay-rights crusader Harvey Milk in the biopic "Milk," Brad Pitt as the anti-Dorian Gray in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman in the film version of John Patrick Shanley's acclaimed play, "Doubt"; "Frost/Nixon," "Australia," "Revolutionary Road" . . . the list goes on. And that's just the Hollywood slate.

This week, however, a smaller film that is more Bollywood than Hollywood opens that I hope doesn't get lost in the shuffle. "Slumdog Millionaire" is the latest film directed by Danny Boyle ("Trainspotting" and "28 Days Later") and it is said to be amazing. The basic premise of the story is this: Jamal is an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai. Incredibly, he finds himself one final answer away from winning 20 million rupees on India's version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."

Perhaps too incredibly. Because when the show breaks for the evening before he can answer the last question, Jamal is arrested by the police on suspicion of cheating. After all, how could a boy from the slums really have come by all that knowledge legitimately (NB: WWTBAM is Einstein-level hard in India. Apparently it makes America's look like Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?). We then see, as Jamal recounts the story of his life to the incredulous police investigator, exactly how he came to know the answers to each of the questions from the show. And the real reason that he is competing in the first place (hint: it ain't for the money).

"Slumdog" won the People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival in September and has been getting boffo reviews in the meantime. I know I'll be in line this week when it opens here in limited release. It feels like this year's little movie that could and hopefully it can build the kind of momentum that has carried similar films, like "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Juno" into recent award success.

That won

2008-11-06T00:07:00.000-08:00

Hear it now

2008-10-26T22:47:00.000-07:00

Just for L.A. peeps, Julie Gray has graciously accepted the first act of my rom-com for her next table read. I went to the last one and it was a lot of fun. Just the writer and some actors in a room reading the material aloud, with follow-up suggestions for improving it. So if you're in the area and want to attend, just go to The Rouge Wave II and RSVP.

It's happening Wednesday, November 12th at 7:30p. The location is The Attic Theater in Culver City -- 5429 W. Washington Blvd., ZIP 90016.

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And if you're in need of a laugh, check out this Onion-y satire of The Hollywood Reporter: The Hollywood Roaster! Funny stuff if you're at all familiar with the trades (which you should be, if you're hoping to have a career as a writer).

How Werner Herzog can change your life

2008-10-12T13:44:00.000-07:00

Julie Gray has started (another) fun feature, a weekly movie discussion, on the Rouge Wave II networking site she set up. It's a good way to finally watch all those films on your list that you know you should have seen but just never got around to. And then talk with other screenwriters about what worked, what didn't, etc.

The first movie she chose was "Fitzcarraldo" by German director Werner Herzog. Unfortunately, I didn't get to watch for that discussion and it remains on my list of must-sees. But it did get me thinking about Herzog, the man, and his unique aesthetic. "Fitzcarraldo" is the story of a European man (played by Herzog's frequent collaborator Klaus Kinski) living in Peru who decides to fulfill his dream of building an opera house in the middle of the rainforest. One piece to achieving that goal involves dragging a 320-ton steamship over a mountain to ferry the valuable rubber that will fund the construction of the hall. When it came time to depict this in the film, Herzog refused to use special effects and actually dragged a real steamship over a mountain in Peru.

What makes "Fitzcarraldo" perhaps the seminal Herzog film is not just the extremes to which he went in making the movie -- once he got the ship over the mountain, he nearly crashed it to bits filming a sequence through river rapids; he fought so much with Kinski that a native chief offered to murder him for Herzog (who declined because he needed the actor to complete filming) -- but because it also exemplifies the dominant theme running throughout the director's body of work and his own life. Like so many of his subjects, Werner has rarely let anything stand in the way of his filmmaking obsession.

The BBC documentary "Beyond Reason" tracked down Herzog here in Los Angeles and is a good review of the highlights of his career. You can watch it in two parts online:

Watch Werner Herzog: Beyond Reason [Part 1] in Entertainment Videos | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Watch Werner Herzog: Beyond Reason [Part 2] in Entertainment Videos | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

In addition to footage of him getting shot by a pellet gun sniper (just a flesh wound to Werner), the documentary has lots of other great Herzogian moments. He admits that when filming Aguirre, Wrath of God (also in the Amazon rainforest), Kinski threatened to walk off the set until Herzog calmly promised to shoot him if he did. Kinski finished the movie. When he was starting out as a director, and needed a camera, he stole it from the Munich Film School and shot eleven pictures with it.

The anecdote that stuck most with me was Herzog's wager with fellow documentarian Errol Morris. Morris apparently was struggling to finish his first film. Werner challenged him, betting that Morris would never finish the movie or he (Herzog) would eat his shoe. In Herzog's words, he didn't think that his friend had the guts. Well, Morris had the guts and finished "Gates of Heaven." And, true to his word, Herzog cooked up his shoe and ate it. There is even a documentary about it, fittingly titled "Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe." Here is a recent conversation between Morris and Herzog about documentaries.

How I think Herzog can change the life of screenwriters, filmmakers, or anyone really, is to follow his philosophy of doing whatever it takes to bring one's dreams and vision to reality. To have "the guts" to do it no matter what obstacles -- even a mountain in the rainforest -- stand in one's way. As he points out in Beyond Reason, barriers to entry for filmmaking have become so low with digital technology that there really is no excuse to not just do it. So prove Werner wrong, make him eat his shoe. Go do it.

The holy grail of screenwriting

2008-10-01T23:57:00.000-07:00

Okay, so back to blogging. I've been (semi) busy working on a TV pilot rewrite for a client from the day job. It started as just a dialogue punch-up, which turned into a more substantial reworking of the story. If there is one piece of advice on television writing that I would comfortable giving (having now completed a spec and original pilot) it's is simply to know your "act outs." One-hour dramas are divided into four (sometimes five now) acts, with the endings corresponding to the commercial breaks during broadcast. As you may already surmise, it behooves the successful television writer to give audiences a reason to want to come back to the show after a two-minute bombardment from fast food, soft drink, and automobile companies. Thus, the end of each act should be as cliffhangy as possible -- a shocking plot twist that will ensure viewers stay tuned to see what happens next. Every plot point in your episode's storyline should be built around maximizing the dramatic potential of the act outs.

I'll try and post more writing and career tips as I come by them in my own experiences. Until then, I'm hesitant to make pronouncements about the process or business that I aren't based on firsthand knowledge. An empiricist theory of screenwriting, as it were. But that's not the purpose of this post. The purpose of this post is to provide validation and encouragement to all of us who are afflicted by the procrastination bug. That is to say, all of us. In some strange Orwellian twist, procrastination is now productive! The WSJ article caught my eye because it quoted a Maryland attorney who "was surfing the Web, avoiding several pressing matters" when she came across the website of Stanford University professor John Perry: structured procrastination.

Perry's thesis is that putting off the big, big tasks can be functional if (a big if, in my experience) if you fill the time you're not doing the big, big tasks with numerous, smaller tasks:

Structured procrastination means shaping the structure of the tasks one has to do in a way that exploits this fact. The list of tasks one has in mind will be ordered by importance. Tasks that seem most urgent and important are on top. But there are also worthwhile tasks to perform lower down on the list. Doing these tasks becomes a way of not doing the things higher up on the list. With this sort of appropriate task structure, the procrastinator becomes a useful citizen. Indeed, the procrastinator can even acquire, as I have, a reputation for getting a lot done.

I haven't tried to put this system into practice yet, but I've promised myself I'm going to get around to it just as soon as I finish that next rewrite on my biopic assignment I'm starting next week . . .

Screenwriting is rewriting

2008-09-09T23:54:00.000-07:00

In case you, or I, had forgotten. And to make doubly sure that I had not, my progress in the Silver Screenwriting Competition was halted at the quarterfinals. The 18 semi-finalists are up. Some consolation in the fact that Julie's reports from the judging process are that it was very competitive even for those semi-finalist spots. For whatever reason, they just weren't into my script. Congratulations to those who are moving on.

Just another reminder that this is also a business of overwhelming rejection punctuated by brief, fleeting moments of acceptance. To wit, "Dreams on Spec."

This documentary from last year details the writing life of three L.A. screenwriters. One has his script in production (but still has to share a co-writing credit with the producer for what appear to be minor changes). Another is hustling to get hers in the hands of the elusive people who can actually produce it. The third is still struggling to really nail the story before it can even go out.

A cautionary or inspiring film, depending on your perspective.

Measure by measure

2008-08-25T23:19:00.000-07:00

Happy to find a congratulatory e-mail in my inbox today from Julie Gray. My rom-com is through to the next round of the Silver Screenwriting Competition. One of about 120 other quarterfinalists. I believe that represents 20% of the 600(ish) total entries. For a contest that bestows a cash prize, drinks at Chateau Marmont, meetings with three managers (plus an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter to be named later), those are pretty good odds. Congrats to all the others moving on. And if you didn't enter this year, keep it in mind for 2009: the number of entries in contests rarely decrease substantially year-to-year.

That's no moon . . .

2008-08-20T22:10:00.001-07:00

Computer wizardry or Bill O'Reilly's wet dream? You decide:

The wire

2008-08-10T21:02:00.000-07:00

Treated myself to a movie this afternoon for another contest deadline met and it was well worth the exorbitant upscale arthouse ticket price. "Man on Wire" is a documentary that chronicles the efforts of French wirewalker, Phillippe Petit, to string a wire between the two towers of the then-newly-opened World Trade Center and transverse the void. It works amazingly on multiple levels.

First, it's a fantastic heist movie (although technically Petit and his crew never stole anything). One does not simply walk, or elevator, to the roof of the World Trade Center with a ton of wirewalking gear. Months of reconnaissance and planning by Petit and his crew went into pulling off the audacious feat: staking out the buildings, figuring out the security, analyzing the architecture in order to determine how to string the wire. But that was only half the battle. The real fun begins once they are inside and -- true to heist movie form -- things don't go quite as they had planned . . . Especially for screenwriters, it's a storytelling clinic unto itself on a driven protagonist overcoming ever-escalating obstacles to achieve his goal.

Second, although it may seem obvious, Petit's high-wire act is also a metaphor for life. In his case, his dream to walk between the towers came to him the instant he saw a newspaper article about the commencement of their construction. From that day forward, his entire life became about preparing himself for that moment. The bigger message the viewer takes away from Petit's quest is that life itself is like a tightrope walk. Not that each of us has to climb 1350 feet into the air and walk across a wire, but that there is something in every person's life that they have always wanted to risk doing. And if you're not dodging security guards to haul your gear to the top of the building, then are you really doing everything you can to make that dream a reality? Are you willing to step out onto the wire and put it all on the line, so to speak, in pursuit of that goal?? For me, I suppose it was coming out here to become a screenwriter -- although I have no idea if I'm still just hiding out in the building waiting to climb up to the roof, or if I'm already out on the wire, halfway across to the other side.

Finally, even though the September 11, 2001 attacks that would eventually bring the towers down are never mentioned, it's impossible to watch the film and not think of them. We see footage of their construction from the ground up. The foundation pit is almost identical to "Ground Zero" as the world would see it nearly 30 years later. Seeing each steel frame section lowered into place, each floor of concrete poured, you know their inexorable destiny. But the cathartic power of "Man on Wire" is that, for 90 minutes, the viewer is given dispensation to commune with the structures and that space without being told how they should feel about their destruction. At least for the duration of the film, it's as if they exist again. And what Petit is able to do in fulfilling his own destiny gives rise to a surreal, beautiful moment in that place, which would one day become emblematic of the ugliest side of humanity.

People really do win (sorta)

2008-08-09T21:07:00.000-07:00

Resumption of posting duties now that my Disney/ABC materials are away. Nothing like having to get releases notarized, figure out what the difference between a "Statement of Interest" and "Autobiographical Summary" is, and finish a House spec before the copy place and post office close for business on a Friday afternoon. But, as it always seems to do, the crucible of the deadline works wonders for upping motivation and producing the necessary work product.

A few odds and ends that caught my eye in the interim:

One spec script sale that's gotten some play this week is first-timer Jason Sullivan's deal with Columbia. I mention it not only for the interesting facts -- Sullivan had to be driven to pitch meetings because his crapped-out car couldn't go more than 45 mph, held down the requisite several jobs at once while cranking out script after script -- but also to read between the lines for people outside L.A. who might think he merely hit the lottery with the sale.

Notice that, first, he studied screenwriting at Loyola Marymount -- both gaining an education in the fundamentals of writing and doing it locally, which couldn't have hurt his networking opportunities. Second, one of his many jobs? Assistant to pro scribe Sheldon Turner. Which is also how he came up with the idea for the script itself (over dinner with Turner and a producer at the boss's house). None of which is to say that a sale like Sullivan's couldn't be made by someone outside Hollywood -- it does happen -- but that the backstory behind these kinds of deals is usually not as cut and dry as the headlines and stories sometimes imply.

Ever have a block on your writing and then, one morning in the shower, you come up with the (now) obvious solution? Ever wonder how that process actually happens in your brain?? This New Yorker article explains it all.

David Milch is God. Hear God speak.

Heartbeeps

2008-07-06T01:45:00.000-07:00

Posting was on hold while I got a script for The Script Department's new contest, Silver Screenwriting, in shape for submission. This being the inaugural edition, the number of entries should be lower than many of the other more established competitions. At least from an odds perspective, hopefully that will work in my favor. As always, however, it comes down to what's on the page and I was pretty happy with the changes I was able to make in a short period of time (it was the script I worked with Julie and Jeff on in the writing salon). Anyway, out of sight out of mind until results are announced at the end of August.

With that deadline met, I spent my Fourth at the El Capitan enjoying the new Pixar release, WALL-E. Someday they may put out the film that breaks their unending streak of success going back to Toy Story but today's not that day. It's another funny and emotionally satisfying success. Maybe not quite as strongly plotted from start to finish as Ratatouille but the resonance of the love story is as strong as any that Hollywood has come up with yet.

And what makes that all the more amazing is that the couple in question are two robots who should, by all rights, be incapable of love at all. 700 years in the future, Earth has been abandoned by humans, leaving only an army of robots to clean up the mess left behind. Now, WALL-E is the only one of those robots still functioning. By day, he follows his programming, compacting trash one painstaking small cube at a time. At night, he goes home to an apartment that he's constructed from the detritus collected over the course of his mission. WALL-E's favorite item is a videotape of the musical Hello Dolly, from which he's developed a very human longing for companionship.

His routine is interrupted by the arrival of EVE, an advanced female robot sent back by the humans to search for any signs of rebirth on the planet. Naturally, WALL-E is smitten at first sight (despite EVE's habit of nearly destroying him with her laser at every turn). Eventually, she warms up to WALL-E's earnest charms. Which is just about the time she's recalled to the humans' ship far away in space. WALL-E follows and complications ensue.

Strangely, even though the pace of the action picks up dramatically once they return to the ship, the narrative loses momentum when it is less about WALL-E trying to win EVE's love and more about getting the humans back to Earth. His main goal isn't directly related to that secondary objective and the story gets somewhat disjointed at that point. But that isn't enough to take away from the brilliant emotional core of WALL-E and EVE's romance. If Superman made you believe a man could fly, this will make you believe a robot can love. And if, as David Mamet says, the perfect movie would be silent, then the first 40 minutes of WALL-E are as close to perfection as it gets.

Into the room

2008-06-20T18:48:00.000-07:00

Another Saturday, another Scriptwriters Network panel over at Raleigh Studios. This one a gathering of several writers from one-hour television dramas. Now that I have reached a certain level of comfort with the format and structure of feature films, I hope to make the transition to also being able to write for television. Not only for the sake of having range across media but also because t.v. is a writer's best chance at steady (paying) work here in Los Angeles. Also, with the fragmentation of the market between networks and cable, it's becoming more possible for a newer writer to get their original pilot ideas out there to the various channels, studios, and production companies.

The panelists this week were:

Jeanette Collins - Dirt, Big Love
Dawn DeKeyser - Samantha Who?, Ugly Betty
Jane Espenson - Battlestar Galactica, Buffy
Melody Fox - Flash Gordon
Amy Berg - Threshold, The 4400

Jane is well known throughout the scribosphere for her infinitely fab blog on television writing, janeespenson.com. And Amy is currently staffing John Rogers's new TNT heist series, Leverage. John has been tracing the development of the show and its writers' room on his blog. A fascinating look behind the scenes and he has very good things to say about Amy as well.

As with the Nicholl finalists, these writers took widely ranging paths to their staff positions. Dawn and Jane were both ABC/Disney Television Writing Fellowship recipients, which provided them with paid staff writer gigs. Before that, Jane had also specced her way into a pitch meeting for Star Trek: The Next Generation (they bought an idea and a script from her). Amy was working at Nickelodeon when she caught the attention of Buffy showrunner, Joss Whedon, with a one-act play about Joss and the rest of his staff discussing how great it would be if Amy could write for the show. Amy was also the first to say that this is not the way an aspiring staff writer should go about trying to land a job. But for her, it worked. Jeanette got noticed doing stand-up comedy and started writing sketches for In Living Color before making the move over to drama. Similarly, Melody began her television career writing for the animated show Rugrats.

The panelists all agreed that any aspiring writer looking to land on a show needs to have at least one spec of a current (read: hot) show AND an original one-hour pilot ready to go. The purpose of the spec is to demonstrate that the writer can nail the voice and structure of the show. The pilot is to show that they also have the ability to create memorable characters and storylines on their own.

With specs, the writer wants to make sure they are not writing for a show that is either so long in the tooth that nobody wants to read them anymore (Law & Order) or so new and untested that they could be canceled before the spec makes it out there (pretty much any new show premiering these days). Spec a show that has been on a couple seasons but is still fresh enough that agents or showrunners will be interested. Dexter was the show most panelists mentioned as being the hot spec of the moment.

As for pilots, the sky is fairly the limit. Although the writer wants a premise and characters that could potentially carry enough storylines for a series, the panelists cautioned against falling back on the old standbys -- cop shows/procedurals, legal, or medical. Or if the writer is going to work within one of those genres, they will have to work harder to put a new and interesting spin on everything everyone has seen a million times before. In either event, the overarching advice was to write something you love (sounding familiar?) and make the subject matter your own. Show them your own voice.

You may have noticed that all five panelists are women. Television, moreso than feature films (and dramas moreso than sitcoms) is more open to female writers than has been historically the case in Hollywood. Programs like the Disney Fellowship have focused on increasing diversity in the room and the panelists' experiences were that male drama showrunners tend to be more open to taking on women writers. Half-hour comedies, on the other hand, remain largely boys' clubs and dominated by guys with stand-up backgrounds. But it was encouraging to hear that the staffing process seems to have moved beyond hiring a lone female for the show.

What hasn't changed? It's still really hard to land a staff writer position, to say nothing of selling an original pilot idea. How to do it? Contacts, contacts, contacts. Assuming, for the moment, that your spec and pilot are blow-them-away level good -- and they have to be -- then it's all about getting it into the hands of a showrunner, agent, or producer. For staff writer positions, the consensus was (absent representation) to beg, borrow, or steal your way to a writer assistant position on a show. Essentially a staff writer in training, this will give you the leg up when staffing season rolls around, either on that show or others that might be looking. A job at a literary agency is also another route. Agent assistants get to read all the hot pilots in circulation and have their ears to the ground for staff hirings. With pilots, unless the writer has been working their way up and through the show ranks, the panel recommended the traditional query letter route. Many former network executives have moved over to the production side and are particularly good targets for the writer's pitch.

ABC/Disney's deadline has been bumped up to August 8th this year, so you still have some time to get your spec into shape for submission. There goes my July.

The winners' tales

2008-06-07T15:46:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this year's Nicholl deadline is well in the rearview mirror by now. I didn't make it this year but it's never too early to start thinking about May 1, 2009. To which end, I recently attended a panel of past Nicholl Fellows put on by The Scriptwriters Network. The panelists had lots of great stories on their own paths to the top of Greg Beal's heap (as seen in the picture) and advice for those of us still trying to make the quarterfinals for the first time.

The panel was a mix of some recent fellowship recipients and others going back several years into the competition:

Patrick Gilfillan, 1995
T.J. Lynch, 1999
Annmarie Morais, 1999
Pamela Kay, 2002
Arthur Jolly, 2006
Scott Simonsen, 2006

Annmarie wrote the recent feature How She Move and T.J. penned the family film A Plumm Summer, which had just opened at the time of the discussion. The other panelists were in various stages of development on their own scripts and writing assignments.

As to what it took to finally crack through and win the contest, people's experiences varied. T.J. had worked in and around the industry for several years, writing scripts in his spare time. Annmarie worked for a talent agency in Canada, writing scripts in her spare time. Patrick was an attorney in D.C. who moved out here for the MFA program at UCLA. Pamela lived in Washington state, taught dance, and did stand-up comedy. Arthur cashed out of his day job and spent one year writing five (!) scripts. Indeed, perhaps the only common thread to each of their success stories is that all of the fellows wrote multiple scripts (most between five and ten) and went through multiple drafts of their winning scripts before it happened. As in the business generally, there seem to be few overnight Nicholl triumphs. Annmarie, however, did have the distinction of winning with the identical script that got her to the finals (but did not win) the previous year. Didn't change a word, just sent it back in as-is.

The other experience that seemed to be universal is that none of the fellows' winning scripts had actually yet to be produced. In part, this seemed to be a result of the kinds of scripts that the Nicholl judges select, which tend to be personal and dramatic. In Hollywood parlance, "small" films. The inevitable response from agents and producers to the fellowship winner is "I love this but I don't know what to do with it." Ultimately, the value of winning the Nicholl to a writer's career is not in selling that script (though it increases your odds exponentially). Rather, it establishes the writer as credible with others inside the industry and opens doors for subsequent scripts and assignment work. Although it can be a huge first step in a writer's career, what I took away from the discussion is that it is just the first step.

And the one universal piece of advice the fellows had was to write your passion. Beyond mere excellent screenwriting, what the Nicholl judges consistently appear to reward is the more elusive "voice." In the fellows' experience, that is more likely to emerge when the subject matter and the story is one to which the writer feels a personal connection. And even though dramas have historically outperformed other genres, comedies, thrillers, and even action scripts have all made the finals in years past. So that's all there is to it. T-minus 11 months and counting to put it together for next year's competition.

Back to our regularly scheduled posting

2008-05-19T22:23:00.000-07:00

The first draft of what ended up being a monster script for my assignment is now done, printed, and delivered. Maybe someday I'll have deep insights as to the drafting process and working with producers etc. But not today.

Naturally, I took my first free weekend in ages and used it to . . . write! Well, not the whole weekend. But Saturday afternoon was spent with the fabulous Julie Gray at her inaugural writing salon for The Script Department. As I've noted previously, if you aren't keeping up with her blog, The Rouge Wave, it's essential reading. She is a reader for several big production companies out here and knows story inside out.

Along with her writing partner, Jeff, Julie was gracious enough to welcome me and three other Rouge Wavers into her home for an afternoon of analysis and rewriting in a fun and encouraging environment. Emily, of Bamboo Killers, was there, along with Vicki -- who just optioned a script she co-wrote to a company here in town -- and Kim, who drove all the way down from the Bay Area to participate. That's dedication.

Julie plans on having more sessions in the future and I can't recommend them strongly enough to any writers here in L.A. (or outside of the area with the ability to attend). After introductions were made, we got down to the business of diagnosing one area of the story that each of us wanted to focus on improving or fixing. By way of dialogue with the other writers and Julie and Jeff themselves, we really dug deep into elements of character, story, plot, and theme. What was particularly helpful for me was not coming up with all the answers, necessarily, but making sure I was asking the right questions about my script. That and the nummy cupcakes Julie served.

Screenwriting, for all the isolation of locking yourself in a library, office, or coffeehouse with your computer to knock out pages, is ultimately a collaborative effort. If you are working professionally at any level in the industry, you will get notes. If you are lucky enough to get a company interested in your script, you will take (multiple) story meetings with development executives before the script ever has a chance at being shot. Writing salons like Julie's are great not only for helping writers develop their stories but also becoming that all-important "good in a room" and learning how to take notes and break story with the suits.

So keep reading the Rouge Wave, if you weren't already, for details on the next session. And Julie will also be teaching her class " Top 10 Things That Readers Hate" at the upcoming Great American PitchFest. The classes themselves are F-R-E-E and the PitchFest happens at the Burbank Marriott on June 20-22. Check it out if you are in town.

Proud as a peacock

2008-03-27T09:27:00.000-07:00

In case anyone was still thinking that the AMPTP didn't know what they were doing when they got the WGA to agree to a 17-day window for royalty-free online streaming:

But, hey, they can always revisit the issue in three years when the next deal comes around. Just like DVDs . . .

Year of the rat

2008-02-07T23:50:00.000-08:00

Hola amigos, I know it's been a long time since I rapped at ya. I'm still around, trying to finish up the (non-scab) writing assignment. Light faintly visible at the end of the tunnel.

As there may be for the WGA strike as well. A big meeting of guild membership in L.A. and New York on Saturday night, where it is expected that proposed terms of a settlement (building upon the DGA's (underwhelming) deal with the AMPTP) will be presented to the rank-and-file. Whether the terms are enough of an improvement upon the directors' agreement to be acceptable to the membership remains to be seen. The devil, as they say, is in the details. If so, it could be pencils up as soon as Monday. If not, then picketers may figure that staying out until SAG's own contract with the studios expires in August will be the only leverage that is going to get the truly fair deal that was the purpose of striking in the first place. But nobody knows until the proposal is revealed.

In the meantime, there is this appropriate song from Badly Drawn Boy on the Chinese New Year:

If only it were that easy . . .

Progress report

2007-11-19T00:30:00.000-08:00

And there is progress to report on the strike front. The Guild and producers have agreed to return to the bargaining table next Monday. Hopefully everyone's yummy Thanksgiving dinners will have them in high spirits and ready to hammer out a deal. Never underestimate the power of stuffing, I say. And hopefully it's not just a ploy to get the showrunners back on the job (as they've agreed to do if the producers came back to the table) and get the last few scripts in the can before non-reality series grind to a complete halt. Their walkout was one unexpected twist that may have brought a little more pressure to bear a little sooner than expected. Not enough to cause any real "pain" to the studios but not an insignificant gesture either.

I walked Friday morning at Paramount. Got to meet John (as great as you would expect from his blog), a writer/producer from Journeyman and Sports Night (among many other projects), and one of the directors of the series Sabrina the Teenage Witch (he worked with TV's Frank!). And JJ Abrams brought us donuts, apparently -- without his glasses, I didn't recognize him (which supports John's Theory of Screenwriter Invisibility I suppose).

In the meantime, I'll link to this article, which Max notes really lays it all out in terms of what's at stake for writers and non-writers alike. The coverage out here in the trades and the LA Times has been stupendously pro-studio and Toni tells you just why that might be.

With the parties talking again, maybe the parties' stockings will be stuffed by Christmas with a big fat new minimum basic agreement that fairly compensates everyone for their works in whatever format they may be sold or used.

Melrose placed

2007-11-13T22:23:00.002-08:00

Following in the short, circular paths of John August, Josh Friedman, Ken Levine, Scott the Reader, Julie the Script Whisperer, Fun Joel, Kira, and thousands other Guild members, I took some time out of my Veterans Day to grab a sign and do a few circuits at the Gower Gate of Paramount Studios. I ended up not walking the full four hours because, unbeknownst, they moved the shift times back by three hours.

I wasn't there long enough to strike (har) up conversations with the others on the line. But there were many honks of support, even where we were on one of the side streets off Melrose Avenue. When they moved us all to the Melrose Gate for the last 15 minutes of the day, things got much more lively. Lots of chants, lots of honks, and even Strike Dog. The first shift now starting at 6:00 a.m. actually fits my Friday schedule pretty well, so I am hoping to make it a regular, if not weekly, thing while the strike is on. And even though I'm not union (yet), the organizers are happy to have as many bodies on the line as possible. So if you are in L.A. and believe that writers are entitled to fair -- heck, any -- compensation for the use of their works in the series of tubes, just find your nearest studio and walk right up. It's just that easy.

Remember, remember the Fifth of November

2007-11-05T00:05:00.000-08:00

Like most non-union writers, the WGA strike probably isn't going to have a huge impact on my life or career -- yet. And yes, as of this posting early Monday morning, the strike is happening. The decision was made on Friday and the time was set for Monday morning. Apparently there were some last-minute attempts at working out a deal but those attempts failed. If, as reported, they involved John Wells being the go-between for studio heads and union moderates, it may be for the best that an eleventh-hour deal wasn't reached. At least if it meant avoiding a repeat of Wells's last brokered deal that averted a strike in 2001 (now seen as a big loss for writers on DVD residuals).

Residuals are the heart of the dispute this time around as well. In a nutshell, writers want a better deal on internet downloads and other new media. The Alliance Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) initially wanted to just kick the can down the road with a "study" of how the new content delivery was going to work. Which was then upped to "if you don't accept that, we'll scrap the whole residual system altogether." Having the predictable effect of galvanizing rank-and-file support for the Guild leadership against the AMPTP. The producers took the residual rollback off the table (good) but remained adamant about keeping parity between the rates for DVDs and downloads (not good).

Could the union have done more to move negotiations along prior to zero hour? Probably. Trying to double payments for DVD residuals, at this point, is a losing battle for a a few reasons. First, one of the few things I learned from my employment lawyer colleagues is that, in collective bargaining when a concession is made, it's hard to later revisit that issue in subsequent contracts. The DVD residual ship sailed a long time ago. That's a chit that the WGA (and I assume at some point will) throw to the producers. Second, although it's not going to happen overnight, the DVD format will go the way of the CD, VHS, cassette tape, LP, cylinder, etc. Eventually, everything will be digital, online, downloadable, and stored on other media. It's already happening with standard definition DVDs. They've only been around a little more than 10 years. It took 30 years to kill videotape. Format life cycles are getting shorter and shorter. Even if a single hi-def DVD format emerges victorious, I'd wager it only prolongs discs' as content delivery by a few more years. Other union issues, such as organizing reality TV/animation and product integration into works, are potential concessions that could be made in the interest of furthering discussions. The future residual rate for downloads and new media is where the action's at.

But because downloads are the future, that makes it all the more crucial for the union to get this one right. As a writer hoping to one day be a union member, I think it's worth going to the mattresses over. Easier for me to say, since I only have a mere expectancy in future residuals of any kind. There are a lot of people in town who work below the line on tv shows and features who could really be in for a hurting if the strike drags on. Which it very well could. Although a quick deal may, theoretically, be in the work, I have to think the guild would not use the nuclear option of a strike if it didn't intend to cause the AMPTP some measurable harm. Most immediately, the remainder of this television season and pilot season (which starts in January) for next fall's schedule. So now that the strike is underway, absent a total 180 by the producers on linking DVD and new media, I expect it to last at least until after the holidays. A tough situation for all concerned. It's not a fight that anyone on either side of the table really wanted (as far as I can tell). But now that it's here, a fight worth putting bodies on the line to win.

The life exotic

2007-10-13T23:55:00.000-07:00

It's been over ten years since Wes Anderson rode onto the scene out of Austin with his first film, Bottle Rocket. He followed that up with the breakout success of Rushmore. Since then, he's directed two more features and possibly the greatest commercial since Ridley Scott's "1984" spot for Apple. Viewers seem to either be distinctly pro or anti-Wes (I'm farily pro), but he's one of the few American directors these days whose films' release are antcipated events in the same way that a Coppola or Scorsese was in the pre-conglomerate Hollywood of the '70s.

Being the oldest of three brothers scattered between here, the East Coast, and London, I had an additional interest in catching Anderson's latest film, The Darjeeling Limited. Where "Life Aquatic" and "Royal Tennenbaums" were ensemble pieces, here the story is more intimate, focusing on the journey of three brothers (Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Jason Schwartzman) across India one year after the death of their father. Arranged by the domineering, eldest brother (Wilson), the ostensible purpose of the trip is to visit the country's most spiritual sites and reach newfound levels of personal insight. This being a Wes Anderson film, however, the brothers quickly revert to their natural state, which is to say self-medicated, suspicious, and at each others' throats.

The plot never reaches much further than exploring the brothers' coming to terms with the baggage with which their father's death left them (literally and figuratively). But the script is chock full of Wes's dry, wry humor and change does come to the them along the way -- though not perhaps when or how they expected to find it. Keeping the story small, even set against the backdrop of the subcontinent, I thought worked particularly well. A picaresque to the base of the Himalayas isn't the most overly commercial premise, but I think it's possibly Anderson's most accessible film since "Rushmore." It may not win any new converts but for people who thought "Life Aquatic" went overboard (so to speak) with the quirk, it should be more of a return to form.

Visually, the screen bursts with the vibrant oranges, blues, and yellows of India's crammed cities and desert countryside. The direction also showcases Anderson's unique camera work: long dolly shots move in and out through the train's hallway and compartments as if looking in on a cutaway model; smash zooms and extended slow-mos show off his New Wave cred. It's enjoyable to see the results of a director at work who revels in the art of every shot and elevates them beyond mere functionality.

P.S. "Hotel Chevalier," a 13-minute short dealing with Schwartzman's character's time in Paris before the events in "Darjeeling" is available as a free download on iTunes. It co-stars Natalie Portman and, though not essential to understanding the feature, it does enrich the viewing experience by showing the backstory to several events in the film.

Don't be that guy

2007-09-29T22:44:00.000-07:00

No, this blog hasn't gone the way of some of the other links on the sidebar (I know they need cleaned up). A little vacation, a lot of time in libraries, researching and drafting the script.

In the interim, one person catching the eye, if not the ear, of some people around town is this fellow, a screenwriter named Kevin Michael:

Mr. Michael and his writing partner apparently have a romantic comedy script titled "The Hoboken Beach Diet" that, like any other screenwriters, they would like to sell or obtain representation from. Good for them. All of us at whatever level probably harbor similar aspirations.

To that end, beyond the obligatory website, (sparse) MySpace page, and YouTube video, Michael recently took to parading in front of the offices of several local agencies, production companies, and power watering holes dressed in the above-pictured spandex costume. I have not read any announcements in the trades that a sale or offer of representation was forthcoming.

Is it possible that someone will see these stories or look at the websites and decide to at least read the script? Sure, it's possible. It is always the case that everyone here is really looking for the next great script. My guess (without having read it), is that "Hoboken Beach Diet" is not the next great script. At least not yet. But, for the sake of argument, let's assume that it is where it needs to be in terms of being ready to go out to producers and agents.

Any credibility that Mr. Michael might have with the script is, I think, undermined by a stunt like the staking out offices in ill-fitting spandex wrestling costumes. Certainly nobody is going to invite him into their building in that getup. More than that, it is likely to brand him as an amateur and likely prevent the agents or producers from even wanting to request the script for a read at all.

Which is not to say that some level of initiative or self-promotion is to be avoided. Witness Diablo Cody, the midwestern stripper turned LA writer who is now getting some early Oscar buzz for her screenplay, Juno. Cody leveraged her memoir and the blog she started while writing for City Pages in Minneapolis into a burgeoning screenwriting career (and management by Benderspink). Ironically, for someone whose previous career involved taking her clothes off, Cody didn't have to bare any skin to get through the doors as a writer. She did it with a fresh voice and -- quelle surprise! -- good writing.

Summertime and the blogging's . . . sporadic

2007-08-20T00:48:00.000-07:00

Forgot to hang the Gone Writin' sign out on the front door. Not much happening in LA during the dog days of August. Nicholl made its first cut a few weeks ago and my submission, unsurprisingly, was a casualty. But two of my workshop members are through to the quarterfinals with theirs, so well done Lee and Z!

In lieu of anything substantive, I'll link to some business-related podcasts that readers in and outside of Hollywood might find edifying or enjoyable:

Sandra Tsing Loh, a noted chronicler and observer of life here in the southland, details the art of the screenplay pitch for This American Life. At the end of this episode, she tells a funny story of one of her friend's unlikely rise (and more typical fall) inside the Disney "family."

Also from the TAL archive: John Hodgman (better known as "PC" in the Get a Mac ads, and from The Daily Show) explains how and why he rewrote Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace sans Jar Jar Binks;

The author of the original book that would become the film (and short-lived tv series) Dangerous Minds, catalogs all the things that happen to the work after the big sale that every aspiring writer dreams about;

"So Crazy It Just Might Work" is the amazing story of an FBI sting that nearly became a produced film (and still got some writer paid $20,000 of taxpayer money for the script);

Cheryl Trykv narrates a surreal (and hilarious) Palm Springs travelogue from her teenage years, also starring Shirley Booth (Hazel);

And Home Movies is an episode dedicated entirely to the moving picture in its many forms and formats.

Local public radio station KCRW has two originally-produced programs, The Treatment and The Business, that are good listening for out-of-towners (or in-towners). More briefly, writer Rob Long gives his Martini Shot quicktakes on Hollywood and the industry.

Happy listening.

101

2007-07-18T00:27:00.000-07:00

Lest anyone think that a writing gig is going straight to my head, I was brought back down to Earth somewhat by BlueCat's first round of cuts. Of which, my submission was one and I won't be moving on to the next rounds. Maybe it's some measure of progress that I hadn't even thought about the results until the email popped up in my inbox. Nor was it entirely unexpected as I think I've taken that script about as far as I can go in its current iteration. Now it's Steve Austin time: I can rebuild it; I have the technology. I expect a similar response shortly from Nicholl but if I get anything more promising, all the better. For anyone interested in doing some serious bionic rewriting on their scripts, BlueCat now has a screenwriting lab competition as well. Detailed analysis and feedback from veteran screenwriters, directors, and producers. A table read by real live actors. Pitch prep and other amazing benefits to the lucky recipients. Early deadline ($40 entry fee) is August 1; regular deadline (um, also $40) is September 1, late deadline ($50) is October 1.

The happiest sound in all the world

2007-07-04T02:56:00.000-07:00

The hundredth post. An arbitrary demarcation for blogging milestones but one that coincides with an actual milestone in my own screenwriting career. By way of Salzburg and the Hollywood Bowl. Two years ago, when I was still practicing law in Baltimore, I saw that Sing Alonga Sound of Music was coming to the Bowl that summer.

For those who have never been, Sing Alonga Sound Music is like Rocky Horror for Julie Andrews fans. More than just a screening of the 1965 film, all the Rogers & Hammerstein-penned songs have the lyrics thrown up on the screen, karaoke style. Enabling audience members to, as the name suggests, sing along. Many audience members also dress up as their favorite Von Trapp, other characters from the film, or eve inanimate object, e.g., whiskers on kittens, snowflakes that stay on your nose and eyelashes, schnitzel with noodles. The non-costumed audience gets to choose the best costume by way of applause during the pre-show costume parade (this edition's victor? How Do You Hold a Moonbeam in Your Hand, pictured on the left). And then lots of other fun audience participation moments, like booing the Nazis, hissing The Baroness, and general MST3Kish riffing.

I first witnessed the spectacle several years ago, at the Prince Charles Cinema in London, where it originated. For all the mocking of the movie's often corny dialogue and melodrama, the people who turn out don't seem to have the same ironic detachment from the songs, which everyone sings with genuine affection. Altogether, a lot of fun for fans of the movie and I was sure to catch it again in D.C. when they started screenings over here. So when I saw that it was coming to the Bowl in 2005, and never having been to Los Angeles before, I thought it a perfect chance to kill two geese the fly with the moon on their wings with one stone. Then I got the news that I was leaving the firm I was working for. Although I wasn't able to make the trip then, that was the catalyst for my decision to move here and pursue screenwriting full time. Two years on, here I am.

Then, last weekend, back to the Bowl comes Julie et al. But now I'm in LA with a year under my belt. And, as of the week before, officially a paid screenwriter (there must be something in the scribosphere water these days). The amount is small (not disqualified from Nicholl yet) and the job is an assignment (nobody's bought anything of mine yet) but it is a paying job, which is a start. How did I get it? An actor client of the small marketing company I've been working for needed someone to help him flesh out some ideas for a couple scripts he hopes to produce. I wrote up an abbreviated treatment for the first story gratis, which, in a perfect world, I probably shouldn't have done. But he seemed to like the take. Enough to hire me to write up the other script anyway, a period biopic. At least in this case for me, being in LA was invaluable in making the contacts that lead to the work. So now that agreements have been signed and commencement fees have been paid, the only thing left to do is to do the research and put pixel to laptop screen to crank out the pages.

But this isn't the part of Sound of Music where Maria and The Captain lead the family over the Alps into safety. More like the moment that she's just landed the nanny gig but doesn't have a clue as to what plans the Von Trapp children have in store for her. I simply remember my favorite things and then I don't feel so bad. The power of Julie is not to be trifled with.

The year of the rat

2007-06-17T17:14:00.000-07:00

For a few years now, observers of Hollywood have been speculating (if not outright predicting) that the days of the theater experience as we know it are numbered. The explosion of DVD, HDTV, and other home theater technologies means, if a viewer is willing to wait about six months -- sometimes less -- they can get an experience in their media room that's pretty darn close to the best theatrical exhibition. Minus the $5.00 Cokes, ringing cellphones, and crying babies. Only the window between theatrical and home video release, so the theory goes, is keeping the moviegoing public from cocooning completely.

And though I'm annoyed by unruly tykes as the next person, I do think something will be lost for future generations of moviegoers if the place they experience their first film is on the couch in the living room. I know that some of the greatest impressions made on me were seeing classic Disney films, like Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Dumbo at the little movie house back home. I was reminded of those iconic images last night when I was lucky enough to snag the last (literally) ticket to a sneak preview of the new Disney-Pixar film, Ratatouille. It may well be the studio's best work yet.

The film tells the story of Remy, a rat, whose passion in life is the very un-ratlike pursuit of haute cuisine. When he lands in Paris, and at the restaurant of his gourmet idol, Gusteau, it would seem to be the perfect fit. Except for the fact that a rat in the kitchen, obviously, would spell doom for the restaurant. Let alone the fact that what human is going to believe that a rat can cook for the demanding Parisian diners? Enter Linguini, the garbage boy. In whom Remy finds the perfect vessel for working his magic behind the scenes in the kitchen. Hilarity, as they say, ensues.

After a softer than expected reception for Cars last year, and given the unusual concept of a cooking rat, questions about Pixar's unbroken string of critical and box office hits may have been in question. Ratatouille should put any doubts to rest until next year's release, WALL-E. The computer animation is stunning on every level. Characters, human and animal, are rendered with greater detail and realism than any before. The Paris settings have a depth to them that, again, recall the classic Disney era films and lend a more timeless feel to the story. More than anything, however, Pixar remains head and shoulders above other CGI animation competitors by focusing on a truly funny and touching story. Without hurling a million irrelevant pop culture references a minute at the adults, or throwing in needless bathroom humor for the kids. Neither age group is talked down to, yet there is more than enough for both young and old to enjoy throughout. As much as you'll laugh at the slapstick comedy, and enjoy the several action set pieces, I promise you will want to clap and cheer for Remy when all the chips are down about the time Act III kicks everything into overdrive.

It opens nationwide on June 29th and I can't wait to see it again.

Knocked down

2007-06-09T17:30:00.000-07:00

Scott and Billy have already commented on the various merits of Judd Apatow's latest comedy, Knocked Up. I have not seen it (the "modern American man as stunted adolescent layabout" shtick in current romantic comedies is wearing thin) but do note that Apatow and Universal Pictures were sued for copyright infringement this week by a Canadian author who claims the film ripped off the premise of her own similar work. Nothing like a $30 million dollar opening weekend to bring the litigants out of the woodwork. A copy of the (bare bones) complaint is at TMZ.com.

At first blush, it may appear that Rebecca Eckler has something to be upset about, legally speaking. In 2004, she wrote a Sex and the City-ish memoir, Knocked Up: Confessions of a Hip Mother-to-Be, which recounted her own experiences with unexpected pregnancy and the acceleration in maturity that the baby brought (a central theme of the Apatow film). Also, like the Katherine Heigl character in the movie, Eckler is a journalist whose nights of partying are cut short by the impending delivery. Without knowing more, however, I'd guess that Eckler's lawsuit goes nowhere, for reasons that are important for all writers to understand and remember.

First, although not alleged, it's basic copyright law that titles are not protectable. So the fact that both works are entitled "Knocked Up" carries little weight as to Eckler's infringement claims. More than that, however, it is not enough for a plaintiff to contend that the alleged infringing work has borrowed (either in part or wholly) a protected work's premise or idea: IDEAS ARE NOT COPYRIGHTABLE. Protection under copyright law extends only to the tangible expression of the author's ideas, e.g., the completed screenplay, novel, song, etc. The premise of a story about a child who wishes that they could be grown up, for example, is not subject to copyright; that basic idea as expressed in the screenplays for the films Big or 13 Going on 30 is protected.

Indeed, the defense of independent creation allows for the possibility, remote as it may be, that two authors could create the exact same works independently, with both of them being entitled to equal copyright protection. Which is another way of saying, to prove actual infringement, Eckler will have to show more than her story and Apatow's are merely similar. In the absence of direct evidence of infringement -- which is rarely present -- the plaintiff must prove that the alleged infringer: (1) had access to the protected work; and (2) portions of the infringing work are substantially similar, i.e., so similar that it likely could not have been created absent copying. I suppose the facts will bear out whether Apatow ever read Eckler's book prior to writing his script (access), and whether there are any portions of the book that show up in the screenplay largely unchanged (substantial similarity). Both tall evidentiary hurdles for Eckler to cross but possibly good enough for nuisance value and a settlement with the defendants that just makes the case go away.

Kill your (cable) television

2007-05-31T00:45:00.000-07:00

Living sans television for a year now hasn't been quite the cold-turkey experience one might have expected. Most of the serial dramas I follow (24, Lost) are available for streaming online a few hours after broadcast. I could get a lot more content via iTunes but I fear just how out of hand that could get for both my free time and wallet. A couple new products, however, offer a glimpse into a future of cutting the cable tv cord (or satellite dish uplink) altogether. I think network executives especially should be quaking in their suits.

By now, most have heard of, if not seen, YouTube, the repository of all manner of viral videos, music, and miscellany. But clips are limited to about 10 minutes, the low-rez video window is tiny, and it's often hard to separate the wheat from the chaff in terms of content.

Enter Joost, a new video distribution program from the creators of Skype and Kazaa. In a nutshell, it's TV over the internet but not in the way viewers are accustomed to watching TV over-the-air. Instead of scheduled broadcast times, all the content is available at any time through the user's computer. If you have a broadband connection, you're ready to watch. Programs are organized in channels similar to a cable box's but with more particularization, closer to satellite radio's narrowcasting. Some of the major cable channels, like MTV and Comedy Central, have their own channels; others include episodes from shows such as NewsRadio, Rocky & Bullwinkle, and even '70s cop fare like Starsky & Hutch. Music videos, fringe sports, and international programs also figure prominently. Programs are interrupted only occasionally by a short advertisement (usually under 30 seconds).

Using the beta version for a few weeks now, the content is the weak link in the chain at this point. It will have to expand beyond basic cable repeats and second-tier reality programming to be competitive with cable and network television. Dedicated movie channels would also be another welcome addition. But the concept is solid and it's easy to envision a time where, if access to any desired content was not an issue, something like Joost would be a cable killer. Instead of being at the mercy of the various schedules of a few hundred channels (90% of which go paid for but unwatched) or even the offerings on cable's own On Demand service, what to watch and when to watch it would be completely at the fingertips and control of the computer user. Stream it directly to a home theater via a device like Apple TV and there really wouldn't be a reason to need your Time-Warner or Comcast set-top box again.

An explosion in content delivery via systems like Joost also augurs well for creative types. There will still be gatekeepers but the barriers to entry keep getting lower and lower. Hi-def technology of the type that only a few years ago was in the hands of one director will soon be entry-level for professionals. The costs of computer processing, memory, and storage will be cheap enough that visual effects and editing can be done in an apartment instead of a post-production facility. If a screenwriter or director has a story they want to tell, they will not necessarily be limited to the largess of the studios, networks, or production companies to get the project made. Scrounge up some hedge fund money, a crew, and shoot it. Even if theatrical distribution remains the province of the big players (I'm not sure even that will be true once digital delivery becomes standard in theaters), internet distribution will allow an end run around the traditional system. It won't happen overnight but it's the direction I see things inevitably moving.

Until then, another nifty gidget I hope to pick up at some point is the Pinnacle HD Pro Stick, an HDTV tuner that plugs into any USB port. Allowing me to recieve local over-the-air hi-def broadcasts, and also record those to an attached hard drive a la TiVo. All for the low low price of $129.00. TV, I wish I knew how to quit you.

The verdict is in

2007-05-20T15:41:00.000-07:00

The jury in the Clive Cussler case returned its verdicts this past week. Although Cussler had been seeking $40 million in damages from Crusader Entertainment, the producers of Sahara (Crusader itself countersued Cussler for $115 million), the awards from the jury were far more modest: $5 million for producer Phillip Anschutz and $8.5 million to author Cussler. The jury found that, while Cussler did breach his contract with Crusader, Anschutz's company should also pay Cussler for a second Dirk Pitt novel that was never produced. While not an outcome on the level of the legendary USFL v. NFL antitrust suit (where the jury found for the upstart football league, but only awarded it a single dollar in damages), it's probably just enough to cover each sides legal costs for this kind of litigation. The attorneys tried to put the best possible spin on the verdicts but it's hard to believe that either side really considers the jury's baby-splitting "a complete victory" or that "Cussler is the clear winner." The lawyer in me wonders why, when the jury was apparently loath to award either party a substantial amount, the parties chose to roll the dice at all and take it to trial. I'll presume (without knowing more), that any settlement offers that were made beforehand were larger than the verdict amounts -- compared to what each side was seeking, anything in the single-millions would likely not have been viewed as a serious offer. The screenwriter in me realizes that when Hollywood-sized egos get involved in these kinds of contests, rational decision making often goes out the window. Now it's on to October and the expiration of the current WGA Minimum Basic Agreement . . .

Letters, we get letters

2007-05-02T23:49:00.000-07:00

Back in the land of the living after sending off my Nicholl entry yesterday. Same script as last year, with the benefit of extensive rewriting and invaluable feedback from my fabulous fellow workshop members. And still, I know it's not where it either can or needs to be. But even a quarterfinal placement or "Next 100" note from Greg Beal would be an improvement from last year, so I didn't really have anything to lose by submitting.

I'll ease back into the blogging routine, John August Q&A style, with my first non-spam email from Sam, who asks:

Do you know how to make Movie Magic Screenwriter handle overlapping dialogue? For example:

ZACK BENNY AMY
Let go! I'm trying! Where's my phone?

Sam, since I use Final Draft, I don't know, personally, how to do this in Movie Magic Screenwriter (in FD, there is a "Dual Dialogue" command that will split overlapping dialogue into two side-by-side columns).

Aiming to please, however, I did find this Tech Tip on the MMS website:

Movie Magic Screenwriter: How to format dual-column (simultaneous) dialogue.

Sometimes in a screenplay, you will want two characters to speak simultaneously. This is done by placing the dialogues side by side.

1. Hit Tab to place the cursor in a Character Name element.
2. Hit Ctrl + 1 on the keyboard. The element list at the top should now say 'Character Name (L)'.
3. Type in the character's name.
4. Hit Enter/Return to place the cursor in a Dialogue element.
5. Type in the character's dialogue.
6. Hit Tab to place the cursor in the next Character Name element.
7. Hit Ctrl + 2 on the keyboard. The element list at the top should now say 'Character Name (R)'.
8. Type in the other character's name.
9. Hit Enter/Return to place the cursor in a Dialogue element.
10. Type in the other character's dialogue.

The two dialogues will appear one above the other on the screen, but will print (and print preview) side by side. The program does take into account the stacked dialgoues in order to get correct page length.

Hope this makes sense, and if any other MMS users have other advice, be sure to leave a comment.

The areas of his expertise

2007-04-11T21:07:00.000-07:00

The Clive Cussler trial apparently resumed this week after some time on hiatus. Doing a little paralegal work on the side for a local attorney leads me to conclude that even the court system is not immune from the casual ethos that pervades Los Angeles. On the East Coast, the case would have been over in a matter of weeks; here, it began in late January and is expected to last into May. Whatever, Your Honor.

The fascinating development (at least screenwriters might find it fascinating, which is sad for us) to me was the producer's attorney calling Robert McKee as an expert witness. McKee, through his Story text and seminars, occupies a large (and polarizing) corner of the screenwriting universe. Some people swear by him, others just swear. Charlie Kaufman immortalized McKee by making him a character in Adaptation.

Philip Anschutz, the producer countersuing author Cussler for his share of the failure of the adaptation of "Sahara," called McKee to give his evaluation of Cussler's novel and screenplay version of the story. Anyone familiar with McKee's style can guess what the testimony was. Quoted in the LA Times on a 2002 draft of Cussler's script:

"The writing is very bad," he testified. "How bad? I have thought of phrases like 'seriously flawed' [or] 'fatally flawed.' But it is beyond all of that, because when something is flawed there is an implication that something else about it is good."

Ouch. Although, on cross-examination, Cussler's attorney, Bert Fields, got McKee to admit that he found Citizen Kane was "heartless," "emotionally empty" and "cold." Which I think was Welles's point about Kane's life but . . . okay. And while, as Fields notes, "McKee has been trying for 20 years to get a dozen screenplays made into a motion picture and he has never been successful," the $500/hour rate for his testimony ($60,000 total, or about what he makes for a single Story seminar) should make up somewhat for the industry's slight.

The New Yorker has an interesting feature on McKee from 2003 on their website.

Tools of the trade

2007-04-06T15:17:00.000-07:00

If you're reading this, chances are you might be procrastinating instead of writing. Chances also are that I'm procrastinating rewriting my Nicholl scripts in writing this blog entry. I guess screenwriting is what happens between the procrastination. Except, in the case of one procrastinating London writer, he used the time that he wasn't working on his novel to learn Cocoa and write what appears to be a pretty good writing-outlining-storyboarding package for the Mac.

Scrivener is not a dedicated screenwriting program but does have several features that might make it appealing to Mac-based scripters looking for an alternative to Final Draft. First, according to the website, "it does have basic screenplay and stageplay formatting features." Allowing the user to then import the formatted text into a suite like Movie Magic (or a regular word processor) for fine tuning and cleanup. Second, important to the preparation stage, Scrivener has extensive outline, research, and storyboard tools. For writers who prefer the index cards method of scene arrangement, for example, the program has a virtual corkboard built right in. And you can dump all your related materials, in whatever digital format, into Scrivener to keep it at your fingertips. Other features include full-screen editing mode and document "snapshots," which make it handy to return to earlier versions of a work instantly. At only $34.99, it's also a fraction the cost of Final Draft or Movie Magic. I haven't tried it yet myself but it seems like things are moving in the direction of converging the outlining side of the process with the actual writing tools into a single program.

Also in the same vein is Montage, which I've been checking in on over the past year. Release 1.0, as John August noted, was not ready for prime time. But the Mariner Software folks have been welcoming of the criticism and implemented many of the suggested changes to subsequent revisions. Version 1.2.2 looks and feels much improved. The main stumbling block I had previously -- script formatting that was unwieldy, unpredictable, and not as seamless as Final Draft -- seems to have been resolved. I can type without interruption and the words are formatted on the fly just as I intended. I don't think they've solved the issue of tracking changes to revisions yet, but if you are a Mac user and want basic screenwriting combined with outlining and scene-based arrangement functions, you might give Montage a 30-day free trial now. I think it's close.

Showcase showdown

2007-03-31T15:10:00.000-07:00

Though oft-maligned as buggy and crashy, the Final Draft screenwriting program remains -- with Movie Magic Screenwriter -- the industry standard (if there is such a thing). I, myself, have not experienced any problems with Final Draft since the universal binary update for OSX was released last year. In that time, the company has also begun to branch out into other areas of the screenwriting world. It purchased Script, the GoBots to Creative Screenwrting's Transformers of the screenplay magazines. A quick glance at the latest issue on the newsstand looked promising; it felt like there was more, and more substantive, content in it than the previous iteration.

A second area into which Final Draft appears to seek to make inroads is screenwriting conventions. Coming up on April 20-22 is the 2nd Annual Scriptwriters Showcase, at the Sheraton Universal in Universal City. It seems positioned as a smaller, slightly less expensive alternative to Creative Screenwriting's yearly Screenwriting Expo. Registration is limited to 999 attendees (Expo, in comparison, draws 4 to 5 times that many). Their "Take a Meeting sessions last 15 minutes versus Expo's 5-minute pitches (although cost $99 per session; Expo's pitches are $25 each). The agents/producers listed as committed to being present for the sessions didn't overwhelm me.

Another difference is live script coverage with the ScriptXpert Live service: 4 to 5 pages of analysis and 30-minutes of face time with the reviewer at the Showcase for $249. Comparable to what a critique/consult would cost a writer, on average, outside of the event. I didn't see on the website what "Xperts" are providing the coverage at the Showcase, however.

The panels appear to be the usual mix of nuts-and-bolts screenwriting advice, e.g., "Professionally Speaking -- Television Writing," and career development tips, e.g., "Represent! Agents v. Managers -- Writer Development." The panelists scheduled to appear are solid: Jim Uhls (Fight Club); Zak Penn (X2); and Simon Kinberg (Mr. & Mrs. Smith), for example. It doesn't appear that the keynote speaker(s) have been announced yet.

Packages start at $99 for a one-day pass, up to $399 for all-access, one (1) Take a Meeting, and other goodies. I'm on the fence about going to any part or all of this year's Showcase. I like the limited attendance aspect and the fact that it's close enough for me to just hop on the Red Line up to Universal to get there. On the other hand, it does feel just a notch below Expo in terms of the content and bang-for-the-buck. Did anyone attend last year's inaugural event? Any experiences to share? Does anyone plan on attending this one next month? I'd be interested to hear. I can envision this growing into a true alternative to the Expo, in the same way Script may soon be on a par with Creative Screenwriting as a magazine, but I'm not sure it's quite there just yet.

PSA (Pet Safety Alert)

2007-03-22T02:20:00.000-07:00

In case anyone is a pet owner and hasn't yet heard of the FDA recall of several contaminated pet food brands, Max has done yeoman's work with the full list of affected brands and products. The tainted foods can cause fatal kidney failure in dogs and cats, so if you have either, make sure you're not feeding them bad food. They'll thank you for it!

London calling

2007-03-10T13:11:00.000-08:00

Haven't heard too much on the music side of things that's really grabbed me lately but there are some good things coming from some female artists in the UK that might be of interest to some.

Although best known over here for the 1994 dance hit, Missing (as the vocal half of Everything But The Girl with husband Ben Watt), Tracey Thorn is just out with a solo album this week, Out of The Woods. KCRW has been hammering the single Grand Canyon the last month or so, another haunting dance stomper in the vein of Missing. Glowing reviews indicate other songs in the jazz/pop style of EBTG's pre-house work as well. For fans like me who didn't always follow Tracey and Ben on their diversions down the drum n bass side roads, it sounds like an awaited return to form. Meanwhile, Ben continues to mine the fertile London club scene with his Buzzin' Fly label and occasional d.j. gigs.

Also on the jazzy tip is Amy Winehouse, the young chanteuse from Camden Town. Somewhere between Lady Day and Shirley Bassey, Winehouse's voice is unforgettable. With a timeless quality that is enhanced by the traditional cabaret arrangments on singles like You Know I'm No Good. But also up-to-the-minute with subject matter like the Rehab that is so hard for other pop stars to apparently stay in of late.

London is also currently home to Claudia Brucken, former lead singer for the German '80s synthpop group, Propaganda. Claudia put out one fabulous solo album in 1991, Love and A Million Other Things (long out of print, sadly). Her new collaboration is Onetwo, with Paul Humphreys, formerly of British '80s synthpop group, OMD. The results I've heard so far are a little more ambient and dreamy than the dancy pop stuff the two had done in their previous incarnations, but still worth checking out (import only on CD but available for download digitally).

Onward and upward

2007-03-03T13:28:00.000-08:00

Still recovering from the push to submit for BlueCat by midnight last Thursday. Which I did with several minutes to spare. Rewriting 70+ pages, much from scratch, in the course of three weeks isn't my ideal way to work but I made it and am (mostly) happy with the changes. Semi-finalists are announced on July 1; finalists on July 15; and the winner on August 1. For others who entered and, like me, will spend the interim trying to calculate the odds of moving on to the next level, I was entrant #3957 at around 11:55 p.m. So, depending on how many more people got in just under the wire (and assuming that the numbers are assigned consecutively to entrants), that could mean almost 4000 submissions to BlueCat this year. By comparison, there were 4,899 for Nicholl in 2006.

Next up for the contest-inclined? Austin Film Festival's early-bird deadline is ~~March 15~~ [CORRECTION: MAY 15th. I swear it said March when I posted this.] (which saves you $10 over the regular $50 application fee for submissions up to final cut-off date of June 1).

It's a major award!

2007-02-25T12:30:00.000-08:00

Oscar Sunday, for a town that can't support an NFL team, is the equivalent of Super Bowl Sunday everywhere else. With the Bluecat deadline coming up this week, however, I'll spend it rewriting rather than fighting the crowds over at Hollywood & Highland. Or enduring the insufferably long telecast. But for every screenwriter who has dreamt of walking down the aisle and giving "that speech," this year's awards do provide a few inspirational stories.

Likely to take home the Best Original Screenplay is WGA-winner, Michael Arndt, for Little Miss Sunshine. His first script. Which only took a year (and 100 drafts) to write. And then five years to be produced. Michael, a former script reader and assistant, now works at Pixar. Nice work if you can get it.

Also in the category is Iris Yamashita, for Letters from Iwo Jima. Also her first produced screenplay. Iris worked as an engineer and web programmer while taking classes at UCLA Extension. And then she won the Big Bear Lake Film Festival's screenwriting competition, which got her hip-pocketed at CAA. Which also represents Paul Haggis. Who was working with Clint Eastwood on Flags of Our Fathers. When Paul begged off also writing a companion piece from the Japanese perspective, Iris's agent sent them some samples of her work and the rest was history.

The LA Times ran a roundtable discussion with all the first-time nominees for Original Screenplay this week.

Polish up those scripts for contest season and, maybe, you'll be polishing up your acceptance speech before you know it as well.

The wasteland

2007-02-17T01:33:00.000-08:00

The screenwriting litigation du jour is a lawsuit between author Clive Cussler and producer Philip Anschutz's Crusader Entertainment over the movie adaptation of Cussler's novel Sahara. Cussler's allegations, essentially, are that the script sucked. More specifically, that his option agreement with Crusader for Sahara (and a second novel) gave him the unqualified right of approval over the screenplay adaptations of his works. And, further, that the approved screenplay could not be materially altered by Crusader without his consent. Great for Mr. Cussler, who felt burned by the disastrous film version of his Raise the Titanic in 1980. And, in theory, great for Crusader, which obtained the rights to a popular action-adventure character -- Dirk Pitt -- upon which a franchise on the order of Indiana Jones could potentially be developed.

That was the theory, anyway. In reality, the film (starring Matthew McConaughey as Pitt) tanked. It grossed only $68 million in the U.S., with a budget of more than $130 million. Anschutz countersued Cussler for the $105 million he purportedly lost on the production, contending that Cussler overinflated sales figures for the Sahara book to induce the original option by Crusader. As well as deliberately undermining the film with fans and in the media prior to its release. The trial started a few weeks ago and the dispute between Cussler and Anschutz has been playing out daily in a Los Angeles courtroom. Cussler's attorneys are attempting to portray Anschutz, who lives in Denver, as a Hollywood outsider looking to blame anyone buy himself for the movie's failure. Crusader brought out evidence during discovery of Cussler's alleged racism, anti-Semitism, and alcoholism. In other words, the usual stuff for a movie industry lawsuit.

I have neither read Cussler's original novel nor seen the film adaptation, so I can't say whether the script, in fact, sucked or not. That the movie failed despite having the "built-in" audience that studios supposedly crave these days seems like evidence that whatever made it on to the screen was not very good. Of note for members of the scribosphere is the fact that Josh Friedman's draft of the script appears to be the one that sent Cussler over the edge (Josh is not listed as one of the four credited writers on the screenplay), branding it "juvenile" and "silly": "Mr Cussler said he was unimpressed with the finished result. "I got as far as page 35. I couldn't go on," he said." It appears from Cussler's testimony that several more writers were brought in even after Josh. The screenwriting-by-committee approach rarely bodes well for great story results.

So the jury got to go on a field trip to the Paramount lot for a screening of Sahara which, as jury duty goes, is a pretty good deal (although they still did have to watch Sahara). As a writer, I do feel some sympathy for Mr. Cussler, who just wanted Hollywood to do right by the story in his book. But any working screenwriter would likely have told him before he optioned it to Crusader, you can't always get what you want. And even if he wins on the merits, the labrynthine maze of industry accounting methods means years of fighting to collect any judgment awarded. Just ask the late Art Buchwald. On the other side of the table, it seems a hard case for Anschutz to say that Cussler's right of approval was the stumbling block to coming up with a good script when it apparently went continual rewriting with his continued okays. Crusader's allegations of inflated sales figures strikes me as a funny case of the pot calling the kettle black -- whose accounting methods are more shady? Hollywood or the publishing industries -- and whether the number was 100 million sold or something less than that, the Dirk Pitt books and character were the value that Crusader sought and received with the option agreement. With the evidence as it stands at this point, I would be surprised if the jury returned a verdict in favor of either party.

Out of the Blue

2007-02-09T15:47:00.000-08:00

Instead of melting snow and budding plants, Hollywood has screenwriting contests to herald the coming of spring. For writers in town and without, winning or placing highly in one of the well-regarded contests is a way to get noticed and read by production companies and agencies. The brass ring is still the Academy's Nicholl Fellowships, and that deadline is still May 1 (sooner than you think). One of the up-and-comers, which I plan on submitting to this year, is the BlueCat Screenplay Competition. Founded in 1998 by Gordy Hoffman (brother of Philip Seymour Hoffman), BlueCat has a few things going for it that sets it apart from some of the other non-Nicholl competitions. First, the winner receives $10,000 and finalists receive $1,500. Not an insubstantial amount as far as these things go. Second, all entrants receive written analysis on the scripts they submit. So if you get dinked early on, you're not left wondering why. And even if you make it a little further, you've gotten some value for the $45 entry fee with the reader's opinion of what works and what needs work. Third, the past two winning scripts both sold and are in various states of production (Gary the Tennis Coach in 2005 and "Hyung's Overture" last year). People in the industry are taking notice and committing to the winner's script. And Gordy has some great articles on the writing process at the website to boot. But if you plan on entering this year's competition, time's running out. The March 1 deadline is fast approaching.

P.S. Christina has a wonderful interview with Gordy over at Development Hell. Apparently, he's one intense dude.

Does it have to be an Old Mill?

2007-02-03T13:02:00.000-08:00

Love him or hate him, David Mamet remains one of the most influential American dramatists of the time. Even if you find the "Mametspeak" style of dialogue too highly stylized for your tastes, I still recommend reading his scripts as exemplars of lean, visual writing. State and Main and Wag the Dog, both skewering Hollywood and politics (large and small), stand out for me. And his book, On Directing Film, is valuable even to screenwriters for understanding why, in theory, a perfect script could be written containing no dialogue at all. Mamet will be making an in-store appearance at Book Soup in West Hollywood on Tuesday, February 6th, to present and sign his new book, Bambi v. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose and Practice of the Movie Business. A unique opportunity for those in the L.A. area.

The pen is mightier . . .

2007-01-24T01:09:00.000-08:00

This is Jeopardy! Well, the audition anyway. If you've never gone through the process and are interested to know how someone gets to stand in front of Alex Trebek and regurgitate minutae like "The only U.S. President to be preceded and succeeded in office by the same person" (Who is Benjamin Harrison?) on cue, this is what I can tell you so far.

Los Angeles area contestants who pass the online 50-question test may then be invited to drag their asses out of bed much too early on some Thursday morning in the near future. In order that they may arrive at a semi-shabby chain hotel in Culver City, not far from the Sony lot, and subject themselves to the scrutiny of the show's contestant handlers. Although they stagger the auditions over several two-hour blocks during the day, the first round starts promptly at 9:00 a.m.

The handlers, who are very nice, will give you some papers to fill out and take a Polaroid headshot for your file. No matter how well-groomed you are or how much you smile, you will still look awful in the picture. It is, in the end, still a Polaroid. Nerves may start to creep in a bit at this point. But soon enough they herd the 20 or so prospective contestants into a conference room for the audition. The process is divided between another 50-question test, administered live, and then some mock games with players rotating in and out in groups of three.

Before that, however, the very nice handlers go over some of the basics about Jeopardy! gameplay, in case someone has managed to advance to this point without ever watching the show itself. Phrasing of clues and answers, category quirks and rules, and signaling button etiquette. The signaling button, it should be said, is as much a key to Jeopardy! success as knowledge of the facts themselves. If you're contemplating trying out, and play along at home each night as practice, one piece of advice:

Stop yelling out the answer before Trebek finishes reading the question. Here's why. The signaling button is not activated on the set until the entire clue is read aloud. When it is, a backstage lackey will indicate that the signaling buttons are active by illuminating a set of lights on the gameboard and at the contestant podiums. Try and ring in prematurely and your signaling button is locked out for a split second. The more successful contestants on the show get in a zone where their timing is in near perfect synch with the activation of the "go lights." So grab a clicky pen and get in the habit of timing your answer to the reading of the questions to develop your Jedi signaling button abilities.

I didn't find the written test at the audition particularly difficult (the online test felt harder). The disembodied voice of Johnny Gilbert reads 50 questions from a wide variety of categories. Eight seconds a question and just fill in the blank (no multiple choice, c'mon). Supposedly, 35 is the cutoff point for going in to the show's active contestant file. But nobody learns their score, at the audition or thereafter.

Then it's up to the front of the room, where an LCD projector shoots a digital recreation of the familiar gameboard on a white screen and three applicants at a time get to play the game for a few minutes. With real signaling buttons just like the ones on the set. It takes a question or two to get used to the go lights and the pace of waiting for the clue to be read in its entirety. And then it's just a minute or so of patter with the very nice contestant handlers and that's pretty much it. Actually, aside from the signaling button stuff, the patter is arguably the most important part of the audition. Everyone at this point knows most, if not all, of the clues. The determining factor for appearing on the show is the energy a person can bring to the podium and how interested in watching the game they are likely to make the viewers at home. Be interesting and exciting.

Oh, and their last question is what you would do with the money if you won. Most of the other applicants had noble ideas of extensive world travel, belated honeymoons, children's educations, or the purchase/remodeling of family homes. I was quick to reveal my mercenary plans of retiring as much student debt as possible. I don't know if they hold that against me or in my favor. In any event, I'll apparently be in the active file for the next year and subject to being called for the show with a reasonable period of notice. And they even let me keep the snazzy clicky pen.

Trivial pursuits

2007-01-06T15:20:00.000-08:00

2007 comes in quietly in L.A. Business takes an extended hiatus after the holiday, with things usually picking up again after Sundance at the end of the month. In the meantime, as I work on more writing and rewriting of several different things, I will be attempting to put the myriad useless facts in my head to good use by auditioning for the game show, Jeopardy!. I took the initial online contestant test last fall and was surprised to find an invitation to the next round of the search in my inbox a few days ago. Although I thought I had done well with the 50-question test -- I knew most of the answers but guessed at a few and didn't even answer a few others in the shortly-alloted time -- I assumed that there were applicants who scored perfectly. But apparently less-than-perfect is good enough to move forward. So in a few weeks I get to fight morning traffic to make it to Culver City for a mock game, take another 50-question test, and do a short personality interview. Even jumping through all those hoops successfully, however, doesn't guarantee a spot on the show itself; merely a place in the contestant pool for the next year.

I have no idea how I'll fare at the audition. I have a pretty broad range of knowledge and I think I'm good at making educated guesses, which is often what many of the question/answers on the show come down to. But my geography skills are pretty atrocious, so I'll spend some time brushing up on that area. And Shakespeare. Trebek loves his Shakespeare. There is also a well-reviewed book by Bob Harris, Prisoner of Trebekistan, that I plan on picking up. It details his attempts to become a contestant and what happened after he eventually did. Full of helpful hints on things like buzzer timing, prediciting categories, and the all-important Daily Double strategy. With any luck, I'll make it through this stage and be one step closer to challenging Ken-Jen's record $2.52 million haul.

When the world is running down

2006-12-26T16:27:00.000-08:00

The year is 2027. It has been 18 years since a new human being has been born on Earth. Infertility in the population is 100% Human evolution is no longer marked by the world's oldest person, but celebrity is reserved for "Baby Diego," the youngest one on the planet. And he's been stabbed to death on New Year's Day (prompting a Princess Di-like outpouring of public grief). Everyone is just marking time now until the species dies out. That's the premise of Children of Men, which opened yesterday here in L.A. But even that simple premise doesn't fully describe the breadth of social and political commentary that the bold film encompasses.

Although the plot is not much more than a straightforward chase story -- Clive Owen's character, Theo, must run the gauntlet of a London on the verge of apocalypse to deliver what could be the key to mankind's salvation -- the getting there is amazing. The U.K. is beset by terrorist attacks within and waves of immigration from without. Everything from 9/11 to Guantanamo Bay/Abu Ghraib to the Iraq war itself is grist for director Alfonso Cuarón's bleak vision of a world without hope. "Men" also represents a paradigm shift in the sci-fi genre away from landmarks such as Blade Runner and the Mad Max series. Where those dealt with the fear that technology (replicants, computers, nuclear weapons) would ultimately be the downfall of society, now it is nature (global warming, overpopulation, *de*population) and man's own reaction to these crises that brings on the doomsday.

Also unlike Blade Runner, there are no massively-constructed indoor sets standing in for London. Excellent production design coupled with CGI-addtions to existing locations combine to create a gritty realism (the fact that the city today can seem not so far off from the 2027 we see onscreen makes it all the more believable). Similarly, Cuarón's style is 180 degrees from the glossy '80s-commercials look of Ridley Scott. This is the end of the world as seen through Saving Private Ryan's handheld, documentary lens. The seven-minute continuous take as Theo makes his final push through the Bexhill ghetto will both keep you riveted and take your breath away. Everything about it feels like what V for Vendetta should have been but wasn't. I don't know if Children of Men is the best picture I've seen this year (it never quite answers all the interesting questions it poses at the outset) but I would not be surprised to find it regarded as influential in 2027 as 1982's Blade Runner is today.

Complications ensue

2006-12-20T01:26:00.000-08:00

Contrary to Alvy Singer's assertion that L.A.'s "only cultural advantage is being able to make a right turn on a red light," there are plenty of shows and events to remind her residents that they aren't living in Peoria. For the time being, it remains the entertainment capital of the world and the destination of choice for many of the world's most talented people. Thus, where I previously found myself enjoying Mary Lynn Rajskub's portrayal of uber-geek Chloe O'Brien in 60-minute weekly chunks on a television in Baltimore, now I am able to catch her various performances live in and around Hollywood. Not as Chloe, but doing her stand-up routine at Upright Citizens Brigade's Tuesday night Comedy Death Ray. Or, as last week, her new one-woman show "Complications of Buying a Poodle Pillow" at the Comedy Central Stage down on Santa Monica Boulevard.

Ostensibly about Mary Lynn's search for something tangible to replace her poodle after an unfortunate encounter with a coyote -- namely, a a pillow with an embroidered representation of a poodle on it -- the hour-long show covers a range of topics in her improvisational style of humor. A large part dedicated to debunking the rumors that started last year when Rush Limbaugh planted one on her lips during a seminar on 24 at the Heritage Foundation. They aren't and never were an item. But she also trains her eye on the media and people who reflexively took her to task for the possibility that she would even entertain the notion of dating the conservative mouthpiece. Fair, balanced, and very funny.

Other subjects include: meeting Justice Clarence Thomas during the trip to D.C. for the seminar; how to handle things when your entertainment lawyer (and ex-boyfriend) text messages you that he has some coke and wants to hang out; and a hilarious deconstruction of the Morongo Casino billboards that are seen on the roads here. Fliers handed out when the show was over said that Mary Lynn will be reprising it at the Stage on January 24, 2007 (for free even).

Tis the season

2006-12-12T00:33:00.000-08:00

Well, there aren't really seasons per se out here. Although it's gotten noticeably cooler at night (and even rained the other night, for the first time I can recall since spring), it's hard to complain about sunny and 70something in December. It does, however, make it more difficult to get into the spirit of things in the same way that the coming of winter does back east. A couple Hollywood-related Christmas items of note:

A Charlie Brown Christmas as performed by the cast of Scrubs.

And some behind-the-scenes pictures of the Paramount holiday party (courtesy of davecobb). Not the typical office get-together. And which also caused something of a stir when CBS employees in the big Viacom corporate family were apparently disinvited from the studio merriment. Just further evidence of possibly the most dysfunctional lot in town at the moment.

Although for real showbiz holiday spirit, it's hard to top UTA's Wonka-esque assistant gift of a "lucky" bar. With their big hunk of chocolate, some "lucky" assistants could find a golden ticket worth between $100 and $5000 dollars . . . or they could find a couple of passes to an AMC theater of their choice! Ho ho ho. Nothing says giving, after all, like randomly-bestowed largesse to a select few persons.

Free parking

2006-11-20T22:41:00.000-08:00

Getting ready to head back east for Thanksgiving with the family, I noted with interest this story in the Baltimore Sun. As old parking meters are gradually replaced with new hi-tech ones, the city's downtown partnership is putting the obsolescence to a good and charitable use. The "Make a Change" program allows you to donate to homeless services by feeding the repurposed meters. Instead of precious parking minutes, however:

When someone drops a nickel, dime or quarter into one of the "Make a Change" meters, a pointer on the dial slowly shifts from "despair" to "hope." You don't get any more hope for a quarter than a nickel and to ward off despair, someone would have to stand at the machine forever with a bottomless bag of change.

A nice sentiment for the holiday, even if it is kind of a made-up one and our forefathers mostly exterminated the native Americans with whom the harvest festival was purportedly begun. Thankfully, this year there will be no hungry Americans around the dinner table (just some with lower food security than others). We are truly blessed.

WGA Confidential

2006-11-15T01:18:00.000-08:00

Not that it matters for me at the moment, counting myself among the thousands of other screenwriters who have yet to meet any of the credit requirements for the Writers Guild of America, West, i.e., actually getting paid for work produced. But as I continue the process of adapting my writing to the form and style of the screenplay, it still feels hard. Fun and satisfying, but hard. Little did I know, however, that it does get easier. Indeed, if Larry Arnstein is to be believed, the first rule of Write Club is that you're not allowed to talk about how easy Write Club is. The others I suppose you have to learn the hard way.

Tangentially, the WGA library is named, in part, for writer/director Melville Shavelson. It was fun to see him in a news story from 1981 on the then-gee whiz personal computer. According to the report, this was a "small" one.

Not quite the laptop-at-a-Coffee Bean-table of 2006.

Back in Black

2006-11-05T20:50:00.000-08:00

Another one of the big-name screenwriters from the golden age of the spec script (the 90s), Shane Black, resurfaced last year with the well-received Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. Black made his bones on big studio action buddy pics, like the Lethal Weapon series. His scripts, if you haven't read any (and you really should), are models for the breezy, post-modern style of screenwriting that now seems everyday. After receiving $2 $4 million -- the highest spec sale up to that date -- for The Long Kiss Goodnight, Shane dropped off Hollywood's radar screen. Now he lives in Austin and is content to write and direct movies on his own terms. Austinist caught up with him at this year's Austin Film Festival for an interview on his past and future career.

Another fellowship that rhymes with Nicholl (kind of)

2006-10-27T14:23:00.000-07:00

Although Kira from Fresh Hell won't need to apply, now that she's been accepted into the Warner Brothers Writing Workshop (woo hoo!), for those with an interest in animated or live-action comedy television there is this: the Nickelodeon Writing Fellowship Program. Spec -- funnily -- a current half-hour live action show, or 11 or 30-minute animated series, and maybe get a salaried position for up to a year at Nickelodeon. Where, as a fellow, you'll get experience in writing scripts, pitching new ideas, and all other sorts of tasks related to show development. This fellowship also places an emphasis on cultural and ethnic diversity, so there's that. Submissions for the next period, which begins in October 2007, must be made between January 2 and February 28, 2007. With the holidays coming up, that will be here before you know it.

365 + 1

2006-10-22T14:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the anniversary of this blog's inception. But since I was busy seeing The Decemberists, no time to post anything meaningful. Feel free to check out some pics I took at the gig. The Portland group has a new album out, The Crane Wife, which melds lead singer Colin Meloy's literate storytelling with some retro prog-rock sounds. It works better than you might think.

I stole this

2006-10-19T23:28:00.000-07:00

. . . from Max. But since she said it was okay, it's hardly like stealing at all. Funny every time I watch it.

Screenwriter -- Hero of Action!

Chin music

2006-10-18T22:39:00.000-07:00

Survived my two minutes on the spot at ScreenplayLab's pitchfest with Chris Lockhart. For $20, it's an astoundingly good value, whether you pitch or just sit and watch the carnage onstage. I hung back for the first two hours to try and gauge the quality of pitches and pitchers. When it became apparent that I stood as good a chance as anyone who had gone already, I hopped into line and gave it a shot. Didn't slobber down the front of my shirt and stammer but my title and concept were ones that Chris had seen all around town of late. No surprise there, admittedly it's a premise to whom I would certainly not be the first person it has occurred. Then, as Chris said, it's a question of what's "on the page" more than what's on the stage. But a good experience for me just in the preparation and delivery of the pitch itself.

A few things I took away from watching other attempts (some of which are also essential questions any writer should be asking themselves as they draft their script, outline, treatment, etc.):

1. What is your story about?

The crucial information you need to convey to your audience. Note, this not the same thing as telling your story from start to finish in abbreviated form. We attorneys call long passages of factual allegations that don't do much to further a legal argument the "who shot John?" The pitching equivalent is just getting up and regurgitating every plot point and character action in excruciating detail. Don't do that. Do understand what the heart of the plot is and be able to state that in one or two sentences that draw the listener in to wanting to know more. This includes things like "What is the genre?" The fewer the better. "World War II action-adventure romantic comedy" is not really a genre (except at pitchfests, apparently).

2. Who is your protagonist and what do they want?

Too often, Chris would ask a pitcher either who the protagonist of the story was, what their motivation was, or what they would have to overcome to achieve their goals. If your answer to that question is "stuff" -- as was one person's -- your script has some issues. Why do we care about your hero? What obstacles will they encounter along their journey? What makes it imperative to the story that they overcome those obstacles? How will their character be transformed in the process? Again, be able to state these points clearly in one or two sentences. Conversely, know and be able to respond intelligently to similar questions about your story's antagonist.

3. What makes your story different than every other one like it?

As I learned for myself, as great and original you may think your idea is, odds are it's been done before in some fashion. Or is about to be done. That's okay. What's not okay is being unable to explain how your twist on a concept or genre that has been done to death deserves to be produced. As the old saw goes, they want something like everything else, but different. Along the lines of not mixing too many genres, there are also some genres and story elements that are so common that, if you are going to use them, you better have a watertight premise and better write it better than anyone else. Including but not limited to:

a. vampires
b. zombies
c. the Old West
d. comas
e. time travel
f. Nazis
g. traveling back in time to kill Hitler and, thus, destroying the Nazis
h. elves
i. gnomes
j. other variations on the wee sprite theme
k. body switching
l. hidden codes in lost historical texts that have the potential to destroy humanity as we know it unless the dashing historian and his comely student decipher it in time
n. aliens

NB: If your premise is an amalgam of any two or more of these concepts, e.g., a young elf boy switches bodies with Hitler when he goes into a coma, put down your pencil and stop writing. Also, do not try and pitch that concept to Chris if he holds this event again next year. He is not mean, but he can be brutally honest and is likely to call it "dopey" in front of everyone else who has come to participate. Really, though, if you ever anticipate being in a meeting with the opportunity to actually pitch your script or concept, you will thank him for it.

One page that Mark Foley hasn't IM'd

2006-10-15T01:58:00.000-07:00

Just because I'm busy with several things (some writing-related, others work-related) and because I didn't participate last year, I'll take this opportunity to post my contribution to Red Right Hand's "One Page 2006". From the first draft of my rom-com, which lies fallow at the moment as I work on writing and rewriting a couple of other projects.

It was 79 years ago today . . .

2006-10-06T22:52:00.000-07:00

On October 6, 1927, The Jazz Singer opened in theaters. It was the first motion picture to employ recorded sound, ushering in the era of the talking picture. And, because actors now needed words to accompany the pictures more than ever, the date also marks the beginning of screenwriting as we know it. Although films in the silent era had screenplays, labor was often divided between the scenario writer, who was tasked with coming up with the story, and the intertitle writer, who penned the dialogue and other information that appeared on the title cards between the action. Like many actors of the period, some writers flourished under the new form, while others failed to successfully make the transition to "talkies." I'm embarrassed to say that I've not seen the original "Jazz Singer," though not as embarrassed as I am to admit that I have seen the 1980 remake starring Neil Diamond and Olivier.

Alright meat, show him your heat

2006-10-02T22:26:00.000-07:00

For those in the L.A. area, the always-helpful Infolist gives this heads up for what sounds like a pretty worthy event, courtesy of ScreenplayLab:

"ScreenplayLab Second Annual Pitch Contest

THE INSIDE PITCH
with ICM Executive Story Editor
CHRISTOPHER LOCKHART

Chris is back! Our most popular event last year. Check out the prizes this year! ICM executive story editor Christopher Lockhart hosts a live event in which the audience is invited to pitch to him and gets immediate feedback on the effectiveness of their pitches. A documentary that aired last year about Chris and his pitching process was nominated for an Emmy. For the audience this event is a great educational opportunity, a lot to learn whether you pitch or not.

Sunday, October 15, 2006, 3pm to 6pm

Raleigh Studios
Van Ness Gate
Chaplin Theatre
5300 Melrose Avenue (across from Paramount)
Hollywood, California
Free parking available on the street
Parking on the lot, if available, costs $6

Tickets cost $20
Purchase online at:
http://ScreenplayLab.com

Rules:
Chris picks who from the audience pitches during the event. There isn't time for everyone to pitch. Chris decides the winners with the help of audience applause. His decisions are final.

Prizes:
The three finalists with the best pitches get meetings with agents. Getting an agent is the best ticket to success in Hollywood, but how does an unknown writer get a one-on-one meeting with an agent? Finalists get real meetings with agents at the agent's office. (This is not like a pitchfest where you may meet with an agent for five minutes in a noisy room at the event.)

Each finalist will get a meeting with at least one agent. Agents choose which of the three finalists each agent will see. Agents from multiple talent agencies are participating.

The winner also receives a copy of Final Draft software.

Christopher will offer the winner industry coverage on the project.

Each finalist will also get a DVD of the Emmy-nominated documentary 'The Inside Pitch.'

Note there's no actors workshop reading during this special event.

About ScreenplayLab:
ScreenplayLab is a 1,000-member film industry coalition with the mission of making the world a better place through comedy in motion pictures and television. Our workshop readings present 30 new pages from selected scripts that are cast with working actors. More than two dozen actors
and writers have gained agent representation by getting noticed through ScreenplayLab.

Robin Rowe, co-founder
ScreenplayLab"

If you're not familiar with Chris Lockhart (and you should be), get thee to his blog, The Inside Pitch, and Two Adverbs site pronto. Both are invaluable online resources on the art of the pitch, logline, and query letter, all of which any screenwriter has to learn (if not completely master) if they hope to effectively market their script and themselves to "the suits." Even if not one of the lucky ones picked by Chris to give it a shot, sounds like it will be worth the price of admission to see how others do it and maybe hear some feedback from the pros on their performances.

Hey Joe

2006-09-23T13:05:00.000-07:00

Short of enrolling in an MFA screenwriting program, books on the trade are some of an aspiring screenwriter's best friends. There is no single bible on screenplay format or one how-to book that is going to explain exactly how to write the perfect script. For me, a basic style manual, collection of advice from working screenwriters on the aspects of craft and industry, and some war stories from a veteran of the business were enough to get me started. Once you have a firm grasp on the basics, then it's just a matter of applying what you've gleaned to the page (or monitor, I suppose these days) and coming up with the work product.

One new book that I do plan on picking up sooner or later is the modestly-titled The Devil's Guide to Hollywood: The Screenwriter as God, by Joe Esterhaz. Before there was Charlie Kaufman, there was Joe. The closest thing to rock star or celebrity that screenwriting could come up with in the 80s, Esterhaz penned adult-oriented popcorn fare such as Flashdance, Jagged Edge, and Basic Instinct. His seven-figure spec paydays and mansion in Malibu kick-started the idea of making the One Big Sale that would propel a screenwriter into the upper echelon of Hollywood.

After the debacle that was Showgirls, a battle with throat cancer, and settling down with his family, Joe left L.A. behind and returned to his native Ohio, where he currently resides. He and his wife have an interview over at MSNBC in promotion of the book's release. Although there are apparently plenty of tales from the trenches contained within, Esterhaz has also written "Devil's Guide" as, well, a guide for aspiring screenwriters. Maybe he'll never work in this town again, and we probably won't be returning to the days of $4 million spec sales any time soon. But it sounds like it will make for interesting and, hopefully, insightful reading nonetheless.

Back in the game

2006-09-15T19:35:00.000-07:00

Being sans t.v. for about five months now, I don't particularly miss it much. Summer is still mostly rerun season and, having foregone while I was in law school, it's nothing new. The lone exception at this point, however, is The Wire, HBO's crime drama set in Baltimore. Even more than creator David Simon's previous Mobtown series (The Corner and Homicide: Life on the Street, which were damn fine in their own right), The Wire perfectly captures the despair, futility, and insanity of the drug war. And the war's effect on all its players, from the top of City Hall to the boarded-up rowhouses down on W. Franklin Street.

The fourth season has just begun, with new episodes premiering Sunday nights at 10p. In addition to the continuing story of the special police unit's efforts to dismantle the city's main heroin distribution ring, the show will also train its sharp eye on Baltimore's dysfunctional education system and the pull of "the game" on its students. I'll have to wait for the DVDs but if you are wired for HBO and have never watched, I highly encourage doing so. The series has already been picked up for a fifth -- and as Simon has planned it, final -- season, so get while the getting's good. I don't know if The Wire is the "best TV show ever broadcast in America" but it certainly is the best thing on right now.

7 ups and downs

2006-09-10T01:30:00.000-07:00

Although Labor Day signals the traditional end of the summer box-office season, things have been quiet on that front for a few weeks now. Revenues are up this year by about 7% to date but beneath the surface, all the news is not necessarily rosy for the industry. My take on who made out like a bandit and who was left holding the bag:

WINNERS

1. Disney

The Mouse House ruled the waters this summer with Pirates of the Caribbean 2, Cars, and the profitable Step Up. "Pirates" just passed the $1 billion mark in its worldwide take, "Cars" continued Pixar's track record of b.o. success, and "Step Up" has grossed $50 million (double the $24 million budget set by Touchstone Pictures).

2. Sony

Close behind Disney was Sony, with a $200+ million performance from The Da Vinci Code and $100+ million from comedies Click and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Not quite as big a splash as Disney but good enough to get Amy Pascal named co-chair at the studio.

3. Little Miss Sunshine

In addition to the big studio comedy successes like Sony's, Fox Searchlight scored the summer's sleeper hit with its Sundance pickup of Little Miss Sunshine. The dysfunctional family road trip has slowly rolled its way into theaters over the past month and into the top five on the box office list, with $36 million in the bank to date. With a budget of only $8 million, "Sunshine" has proved the drawing power not only of smart writing but also good word of mouth.

4. Paramount

Although Mission: Impossible III underperformed here in the United States, in comparison to past installments of the franchise, it hass done well worldwide ($261 million outside the U.S.) and Paramount was able to attribute the shortfall to the negative publicity surrounding Tom Cruise during its promotion and get the studio out from under the star's costly production deal. Other summer performances ranged from respectable (Nacho Libre to below-average (World Trade Center).

5. Al Gore

Maybe it was the fact that the entire United States felt like it spent the summer inside an Ez-Bake Oven. Maybe it was the fact that people were taking out second mortgages to pay for gasoline. Maybe recent events simply made audiences nostalgiac for the days of geeky policy wonks with 90 minutes of Keynote slides on the scientific minutae of climate change. Whatever the reason, it was good enough to pull in over $20 million for An Inconvenient Truth, making it the #3 grossing documentary of all time. That's hot.

6. Marketing

Somewhat lost in the shuffle of the big changes at Disney this summer (see below), was the installation of Oren Aviv as the head of the studio. Significant because, unlike some of his counterparts, his background is not in story or project development but from the marketing side of the business. While this move could make more sense for a company that has a supply of built-in properties, like Pirates of the Caribbean, that can be turned into high-concept event properties, it remains to be seen whether other studios follow the trend when the next round of changes at the top come.

7. Nina Jacobson

The (now former) head of production for the Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group looked every bit the smart exec when a behind-the-scenes book told the story of her doubts about the script M. Night Shyamalan delivered for Lady in the Water. Night took his bruised ego and script to Warner Brothers, where it presently became the director's first certified bomb.

LOSERS

1. Warner Brothers

As bad as "Lady" was for Warners ($40ish million grossed against a $75 million budget), that wasn't even the worst of it for the studio with easily the worst summer slate. The Brothers started taking on water with Poseidon in May and not much improved thereafter. Superman Returns failed to meet high opening weekend expectations and will likely finish a few million short of the $200 mark. The Ant Bully, Beerfest, The Wicker Man, the hits just kept on not coming. Better luck next year, if only because it could hardly be worse than this one.

2. Universal

Not only was the studio beat out in the DreamWorks purchase by Paramount (which also poached Universal chief Stacy Sinder to run its new acquisition), but its summer tentpole, Miami Vice, failed to connect with either the youth market or older viewers who watched the original series in the 80s. Not exactly what you hope for when remaking a show with the vaunted "built-in audience" these days. Especially when you spend $235 million(!) to produce and market and only earn $65 million in return. Nor did The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift capitalize on prior installment's successes. The lone bright spots were the Wedding Crashers, Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, whose individual efforts, You, Me and Dupree and The Break Up, did respectable (though not "Crashers"-level) business.

3. Paramount

The underperformance of "MI: III," the public breakup with Tom Cruise, and the unceremonious dumping this week of Viacom CEO, Tom Freston, raises the question of how long Brad Grey is for the Melrose lot. With Sumner Redstone making the Cruise and Freston moves conspicuously his own, some say the writing is on the wall for Grey, especially with Stacy Snider (who has the experience running a studio that Grey does not) waiting in the wings if Paramount's releases continue to come up short. In the end Snider's DreamWorks may end up being the fish that swallows the whale and the sense is that things haven't stopped shaking out on the lot just yet.

4. Disney

Flush with the success of "Pirates" and "Cars," Walt Disney Studios chairman, Dick Cook, did what any good executive in his shoes would have: fire 650 employees, oust the head of production, and cut back the number of produced films from 18-20 per year to only 8-10 (branded properties, Pixar animation, and . . . ?). This contraction back to the company's "core competencies" looks like the right move with Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End and Ratatouille in the pipeline for next summer. If Disney is unable to keep the sure bets coming, however, it doesn't sound like they'll have the next "Step Up" to fall back on.

5. Stars

For the first two installments of the Mission: Impossible franchise and War of the Worlds, Tom Cruise had a lucrative production deal at Paramount that paid him a large share of the profits. Prior to MI: III, the studio renegotiated the deal to cut back Cruise's take and after the release, terminated the agreement altogether. Other high-profile projects for solid box-office performers, such as Ben Stiller and Jim Carrey, were put into turnaround when the studios balked at ballooning costs. The belt-tightening can be in part attributed to the same culture that is prevalent across corporate America (of which the studios have become a part) but the message seems just as clear that the balance of power is shifting away from the stars and back to the people who write their checks.

6. Marketing

All summer long, the Internet appeared bitten by Snakes on a Plane fever. Bloggers hyped the mere idea of a plane with snakes on it as the action-movie altar before which everyone would (or should) worship. New Line went back for reshoots to add the Sam Jackson line that all the bloggers wanted to hear, and more violence to give it a hard-R rating. Tracking predictions ranged from the 20s to the 40s for opening weekend. Result? A lot of bloggers apparently went to see it but not many others. On one hand, the $15 million opening may have been double what a standard B-movie action pic opening in late August would have grossed without all the online buzz. On the other hand, I'm sure New Line (and the other studios) were anxious to see if they had acheived the Holy Grail of marketing: being able to sell a picture without spending any money on advertising. They chose . . . poorly.

7. Nina Jacobson

Her instincts helped save Disney money and embarrassment in the case of "Lady in the Water," for which she was rewarded with a telephone call from Dick Cook letting her know that she was fired. In the hospital where, at the same time, her partner had just given birth to their next child. Congratulations!

Short cuts

2006-08-28T20:52:00.000-07:00

Current heavy rotation, in no particular order:

1. Richard Hawley

On the shortlist for this year's Mercury Prize with his album Coles Corner, Sheffield's Richard Hawley sounds like a dead ringer for Sinatra. If Sinatra had followed Dylan's lead in the 60s and become a serious folk singer instead of trying to impose his Vegas lounge aesthetic on the popular songs of the day (many of which weren't very good as-is). The title track is the sound of fall coming on. "Like The Rain" is the best Nilsson song he never wrote. Videos for all his tracks can be found at the Mute label's UK site -- check out "Born Under A Bad Sign" for sure.

2. Camera Obscura

Further north, Glasgow's Camera Obscura melds Wall of Sound-ish guitar pop with lead singer Tracyanne Campbell's wistful lyrics and Scottish brogue. The single "Lloyd, I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken" is an answer of sorts to Lloyd Cole's "Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken?" Yes, Lloyd. Tracyanne *is* ready to be heartbroken. Even better is the title track to the album, Let's Get Out of This Country. Retro yet completely fresh at the same time.

3. The Submarines

Closer to home, the story behind this L.A. duo is almost as good as the music itself, which is great. Boy meets girl. Boy and girl record some songs and tour together. Boy and girl break up and each write more songs about the breakup and how much they miss each other. Boy and girl get back together and (maybe) live happily ever after. The resulting album, Declare a New State!, gives both sides of the story through the couple's proto-folk tunes, with some crunchy beats thrown underneath. And I know I heard the opening riff from "How Soon Is Now?" sampled in there too.

4. Lucky Soul

Although only a band of singles thus far, London's Lucky Soul have also been mining the mod sound to great effect. "Lips Are Unhappy" maybe the best song I've heard this year, a shimmering perfect piece of Motown girl-group pop. Take a listen at their MySpace page if you have any doubts. The others there are a bit more downtempo but always soulful and evocative of the Carnaby Street era. Groovy, baby.

5. Lily Allen

Same city, different century, Lily Allen is the real future sound of London. Dub(step), rap, pop, and ska all get mashed up proper, topped off by Lilly's most decidedly not posh accent. Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" was the song of the summer here in the states but "LDN" was it across the pond. Where else are you going to hear some one rhyme "alfresco" and "bags from Tesco"? Equally good is "Smile." Cheeky fun.

6. Ladytron

Bit behind the times on this one (Witching Hour came out last fall apparently) but "Destroy Everything You Touch" is this Liverpool band at their icy electro best.

The gift that keeps on giving

2006-08-18T20:03:00.000-07:00

Prefaced by apologies to my former colleague in Baltimore, Stuart Levine, who blogs about tax law far more competently than I could ever aspire to, I did want to comment on this week's IRS announcement that Hollywood's ubiquitous "gift bags" are indeed subject to federal income tax. The agreement between the IRS and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences arose out of the ever-increasing amounts of free swag that presenters received from the Academy for doling out Oscars each March. Styled as an "outreach" to the entertainment industry, never let it be said that the Service does not have a sense of humor. For celebrities conditioned to getting freebies worth more than the average person makes in an entire year in consideration for about two minutes worth of teleprompter reading and envelope ripping, the biscuit wheels might be coming off the gravy train. For the rest of us, well somehow we'll have to soldier on.

On the off chance that there are any prospective Oscar presenters who regularly read this blog (the taxation will only apply to future gift bag offerings), I'll try and explain why the sudden change. After all, they're gift bags, right, so what gives with the tax? In the eyes of the Commissioner (the only ones that really count for tax purposes), income by any other name would still smell as taxable:

Q: If these are gifts, why do they have to be treated as income?

A: These gift bags are not gifts for federal income tax purposes because the organizations and merchants who participate in giving the gifts bags do not do so solely out of affection, respect, or similar impulses for the recipients of the gift bags.

In other words, the quid pro quo of stars filling the stage of the Oscars ceremony in exchange for a small token of appreciation from the Academy didn't quite fit the IRS's definition of a gift. And by "small token of appreciation," the Academy in 2006 meant:

stays at the Opus Hotel in Vancouver and the Wickaninnish Inn in Tofino

dinner at five restaurants: Elixir, West, Coast, Pointe, Shelter

yoga sessions, spa treatments

kayaking in Clayoquot Sound, a scenic flight to a remote lake

two Oxia Oxygen Personal Canisters

Gaiam Gift Certificate ($500)

Signature Days Gift Certificate ($500)

Krups XP4050 Premium Pump Espresso Machine and illy's Limited Edition Pistoletto Foundation Espresso Cup Collection (Value: $600)

Vonage, The VTech Expandable Broadband Phone System. (Value: $550)

Two Night Stay in a Suite at The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel in New York (Value: $2,300)

Frette cashmere leather trimmed Voyage travel blanket (Value: $1,495)

Firefly mobile phone for kids

The Cheese Impresario at-home artisanal cheese experience for six.

Moonstruck Chocolates: Twelve truffles within a custom hand-crafted Thai silk and teak wood box. (Value: $100+)

The Loved Dog: Personal Training gift card, 3-night stay at Doggie Daycare, and a Luxury Dog Bed.

Tara & Sons pearl and diamond necklace

Mr. Handyman gift certificate for one day of service

Four-night stay in the Vera Wang Suite at Halekulani Hotel, Waikiki Beach, a signature treatment at the famed SpaHalekulani, dinner for two at La Mer at Halekulani

Cornelia Day Resort "Unlimited Card" (worth $2,500), includes a $500 facial, massages, a whole range of beauty products and an entire day of beauty treatments

Dinner party in Morton's Private Boardroom at any of their 69 restaurants (Value: $1500)

Kay Unger vintage silk kimono ($500)

year’s supply of Manni olive oil

two nights (plus surfing lessons) at St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, CA ($5,700)

two nights (plus wine tasting) at Bernardus Lodge in Carmel Valley, CA ($2,500)

three nights at one of five Fairmont Hotel & Resorts ($2500)

A BRUGO Travel Mug (featuring the Perfect Temperature Zone)

I can't imagine what it was that tipped the revenuers off that the gift rules might be being taken advantage of.

Although the Academy is discontinuing their Oscars bag, other ceremonies plan to keep them for now. Many presenters, having drunk deeply from the gift bag well for far too long now, will likely just pay the taxes and keep the swag rolling in, though one hopes that some would follow George Clooney's lead and auction or donate them to charity. Not necessarily out of any overriding sense of altruism, although that may play a part, but the value of the charitable donation would then be tax deductible. Gift bags, we hardly knew ye.

Post-mortem

2006-08-13T23:12:00.000-07:00

With a bit of a lull in the writing currently (I'm outlining what I hope to be a quick-n-dirty horror exploitation spec before jumping back into something more substantial), it's as good a time as any to post my latest first-round piece for The Writer's Arc. Again, the deal is they give you the elements of: (1) two characters; (2) setting; and (3) a prop. The rest is up to you, the only limits being 5-10 pages.

The elements were:

Alex Mackenzie & Parker Lam
a yard
a card

"Prime Minister" is what I came up with.

I knew that with this exercise I wanted to vary it up in terms of scenes, dialog, and story, compared to the one continuous encounter between the two characters that I had done the first time around. For whatever reason, the first thing that the "yard" setting brought to my mind was Scotland Yard. I guess London is in my comfort zone for these things. So with that as my location I decided to make it a sort of political thriller, set against the backdrop of an assassination plot against the prime minister. And I liked the idea of the ringleader walking right through the front door of Scotland Yard to retrieve one of the plotters who had been picked up by the police. That would allow for enough of a dramatic situation to get ten pages out of anyway.

The next issue was who the characters were going to be. Alex Mackenzie I envisioned as the protagonist, a top antiterrorist detective with the city's force. Sort of a younger Helen Mirren's DCI Jane Tennison in the excellent Prime Suspect series. But with just a little bit more touch of Jack Bauer. Parker Lam would be the Jackal-esque assassin who must go into the belly of the beast to deal with the problem of an associate who has been taken into custody.

The prop -- a card -- allowed me to make Parker's associate a master forger who was picked up in the middle of delivering a fake security card that would get Lam into 10 Downing Street. Of course, Parker isn't really going in to rescue his partner as much as to find out how much information about the plot has been revealed and, ultimately, ensure that no more is discovered by Mackenzie. And then it's all just some exposition, interrogation, and Cockney rhyming slang.

Although I did some research, it was just enough to know that there are the Special Branch and SO13 anti-terrorism divisions of the Metropolitan Police. I have no idea if they actually detain suspects in the New Scotland Yard building or where the various divisons are located in relation to each other. If it had been an actual feature-length script, I would have done much more digging but I'm not an adherent to the Tom Clancy school of minutae. And especially for this short sample, plausibility and reasonableness were sufficient.

Steal my sunshine

2006-08-07T18:26:00.000-07:00

The hits just keep on coming this week on the fellowship front. Unlike the last go round with Amy & Ami, this time I didn't make the final round of The Writer's Arc. I'm not sure if things were simply more competitive as awareness of the program has grown or if this script just didn't connect with them but there it is. I took a risk in not re-submitting the political drama (now having taken another pass at it) that I sent in last fall. This script, a romantic comedy, was more personal and with a tone and point of view that I understand might not necessarily click with others on a broader level. Assuming there is a next time -- their e-mail indicated that there will be, so keep watching the site -- I will probably try a more conventional story in a different genre. Strangely, I had a dream last night about receiving the bad news e-mail, so take heart: your dreams really do come true in Hollywood!

Apropos of clinging to one's delusions in the face of all available evidence to the contrary, I caught Sundance festival fave, Little Miss Sunshine, this weekend. Sort of a post-modern, indie Vacation, "Sunshine" follows the Hoover family on the road from New Mexico to a child beauty pageant in California (and their collective collapses along the way). The first half is about as darkly funny as one could ask for. The family members' dysfunctional fault lines make for great comic tension as the group threatens to come apart at the seams at every turn. Unfortunately, that edge disappears somewhere around Scottsdale and the Hoovers end up just another happy family, albeit learning to love and accept their quirks rather than conquer them. But given how well the first act established the film's "unpretty" tone, its feel-good resolution without many reasons in the story for the characters' changes of heart left me flat. Overall, however, many laughs and word of mouth is likely to be very good as it rolls out slowly over the next few weeks into more and more markets.

Get me rewrite!

2006-08-01T17:33:00.000-07:00

The dreaded envelope from the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting arrived in the mail today. Unfortunately, of the 245 scripts out of 4899 entries moving on to the quarterfinals, mine will not be one of them. A little disappointing but not entirely unexpected. There are no doubt hundreds, if not thousands, of entrants who have been at this far longer than me. And although I liked some things more about this draft of the script, there is still work to be done. Which would have had to be done in any event, whether I advanced or not. Congrats to Scott the Reader, who did have one of his two submissions make the first cut. For the rest of us, there's always next year so get polishing.

Networking 90210

2006-07-27T16:05:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a heads up from Jeff Gund's invaluable resource, Infolist, I attended a Women In Film event in Beverly Hills. The speaker was screenwriter and director David Ward, winner of the Academy Award for The Sting. If you are in L.A., sign up for Jeff's list, which notes similar upcoming events, job openings, and other industry-related news. And, no, you do not actually have to be a woman to participate in the WIF's networking series.

David spoke not only about his own career in Hollywood but also where he saw the business going, for better or worse, in the future. Some highlights:

He started in an apartment in Venice writing out his first screenplay, Steelyard Blues in longhand. Across the street from his apartment was a vocational school, where he would take his pages to be typed by students learning typing skills. David got his first representation through an instructor at the school, whose wife had been involved in a fender bender with a literary agent. Before that, he would take his scripts to casting calls, pretending to be an actor. In the audition, he would give the script to the producer and director (all of whom promptly never called him back again). Not necessarily the most efficient or likely to succeed method for finding an agent.

The development system today more than ever encourages the screenwriter to be limited to a specific niche. David encouraged the writers to avoid limiting themselves to one type of film and not fall into the trap of thinking, for example, that only women can write "women's" movies or that only men can write action scripts. Not only because showing range is good career advice, but also because it forces you to be a better writer, break out of your comfort zone, and not trod over covered ground. Also, in case anybody still harbored illusions, don't try and time the spec market. By the time you come up with This Year's Wedding Crashers or The Next 40 Year-Old Virgin, it is probably too late. Which is not to say don't keep up on what is generally selling and what is not. But just to write something that you would like to see and in a unique voice that hasn't been heard before.

Stay current. Along the lines of breaking out of boxes, it was David's opinion that a writer today should have their ear to the ground of popular culture even if they are not targeting the youth demographic with their work. In his words, although he probably would not write or direct a teen comedy at this point in his career, neither would it be possible (or desirable) to fix his stories in the period of his own youth. And if there are things about "those kids today" that you just don't get, perhaps all the more reason to work out what you don't understand through your writing.

Although I didn't stick around to schmooze much with the other attendees (having no real schmooze material to foist on anyone at this point), I will be keeping an eye on the WIF and Infolist websites for details on the next event. The evening series is on hiatus for August but starts up again in September, I believe.

Reading is fundamental

2006-07-25T18:00:00.000-07:00

Unlike the hurried, late-night dash around Baltimore that was my previous Writer's Arc mailing, this time around was a sedate affair. Again, if you're in L.A., allow me to put in a good word for Maziar's Script Copier shop on Wilshire Boulevard. Fast and cheap (always an attractive combination). As for the script itself, who knows? For a first draft, I liked it. If Amy & Ami don't, I at least have another spec under the belt to get in shape and send out for representation inquiries. Also, should be getting the first word from Nicholl sometime next week.

Now having completed a second full screenplay, and being fairly comfortable with most of the style and formatting conventions, I find myself reading more and more scripts by other authors. Not as a template but to hear their "voice." How much do they put into their scene directions? How detailed are their character descriptions? But mostly how they use words and language to bring the visual aspects of a film to life on the written page. Especially coming from the background of legal writing, transitioning to a more "filmic" voice of my own has been challenging.

Although copies of many screenplays are available online, at sites such as IMSDB, Simply Scripts, and Drew's Script O'Rama, and for purchase in bookstores, most tend to be of more recent vintage and still only a fraction of all the movies ever made. One of the benefits to living in Los Angeles is the easy access to hard-copy screenplay collections at the several libraries around town.

The first is located at the Frances Howard Goldwyn branch of the Los Angeles Public Library (1623 N. Ivar Avenue). Although the special collection there includes much more than just scripts, the library has a number from both feature films and television. They did have one film script that I had been unable to locate online but there is a good deal of overlap with those on the websites. The television scripts I saw were mostly from the 1970s, the standout to me being the entire universe of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and Fernwood 2Nite shows. While the Goldwyn branch is open to the public at large, they do ask that you schedule your visit to the special collections room in advance.

A step up in the scope of its collection is the Writers Guild Foundation's Shavelson-Webb Library (3d St. and Fairfax). Home to more television and feature film scripts, the WGA's library not only has more than are generally available online but also the t.v. scripts are pretty current, i.e., within the immediately prior season. Additionally, the space has free wi-fi access in case you want to work while you read. They also offer a limited number of DVDs accompanying some of the better-known screenplays and screenwriting instruction videos for viewing in the library.

But the cream of the crop, in my experience, is the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science's Margaret Herrick Library (333 S. La Cienega Blvd., just north of Olympic). Though only open to the public four days of the week, the library's holdings of feature film scripts is unparalleled. Over 9000 in their Core Collection, they had the one that I had been looking high and low for out to me in a matter of minutes. Their special collection of documents, letters, and other materials related to the motion picture industry is similarly extensive and available for browsing at the Herrick's reading room.

Between these three locations, a writer in town should be able to get his or her hands on almost any screenplay they wanted to read. Both the Shavelson-Webb and the Herrick have online catalog searching available at their websites, just to be sure. And, best of all these days, they're all air conditioned and offer a cool refuge from the summer heat.

The Thomas Ince affair

2006-07-18T15:16:00.000-07:00

Received the congratulatory e-mail from Amy & Ami yesterday afternoon on making the next round of The Writer's Arc. So I'll be busy the next week knocking out the last twenty-some pages of the spec to be submitted by Monday.

From the files of the L.A. Times yesterday there was this glimpse into the life of an aspiring screenwriter in days gone by:

July 18, 1919: Two sheriff's deputies arrested an aspiring screenwriter, Clement d'Art, after he allegedly sent a letter to the assistant manager of the Thomas H. Ince studio requesting $20,000 for the screenplay "Jumping Jacks," which the studio had rejected. In the letter, the deputies said, D'Art told C.W. Thomas that he would kill him if the money wasn't delivered in 24 hours.

D'Art also reportedly said in the letter that after killing Thomas, he would kill himself "in order that his death and that of a man prominent in the motion-picture world would result in copyright laws which would protect scenario writers," The Times said.

D'Art was deemed insane and taken to County Hospital's psychopathic ward, The Times said.

As the French say, plus ça change. Except I guess they (disgruntled screenwriters, not the French) use lawyers now instead of death threats. All things being equal, the execs would probably prefer death threats.

Curiously, the studio head, Thomas Ince, himself would die under mysterious circumstances five years later. While on the yacht of William Randolph Hearst, along with guests such as Hearst's mistress, Marion Davies, Charlie Chaplin, and future gossip maven, Louella Parsons, Ince purportedly took ill. The yacht docked and Ince was taken off the boat, accompanied by a doctor who also just happened to be Hearst's film production manager. Ince died two days later, officially of a heart attack.

The true story will never be known, but legend has it that sometime during the voyage on his yacht, Hearst shot Ince. Possibly accidentally, possibly in a jealous rage after learning that Chaplin and Davies were having an affair. Other scenarios and variations thereon have been hinted at over the years as well. The rumors were given some credence by the fact that Parsons was given a lifetime contract with the Hearst company immediately following Ince's death. A version of the events was dramatized in the 2001 film, The Cat's Meow, directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Who knows if word ever reached Mr. d'Art in the pyschopathic ward.

Spare us the cutter

2006-07-11T19:26:00.000-07:00

Blogging light as I work on finishing the first draft of my next spec (in hopeful anticipation of needing it to submit to the next round of Writer's Arc on the 24th). But I was pleased to note the recent decision from the federal district court in Utah granting summary judgment in a suit by the Directors Guild of America and the major studios against the CleanFlicks company of Pleasant Grove, Utah.

It seems, several years ago while watching Titanic -- specifically the one brief moment of Kate Winslet nudity in the three and 1/2 hours of James Cameron disasterrific spectacle -- the proprietors of CleanFlicks were sufficiently offended as to take it upon themselves to scrub clean other Hollywood releases of any offensive content for the home rental market. According to their website, CleanFlicks removes all "profanity, nudity, graphic violence, sexual content." Then, Netflix-style, customers can request the sanitized-for-their-protection version of the latest films. And have a big, happy, white family like the one pictured on the CleanFlicks website, presumably.

All which might have been perfectly okay, but for the fact that all of the films receiving the CleanFlicks treatment were registered works under the Copyright Act. Because the company was making the world safe from offensive content without the consent or permission of the copyright holders, CleanFlicks's activities were alleged to have infringed on several of the exclusive rights provided for by the Act, i.e., reproduction, creation of derivative works, and distribution. CleanFlicks argued that under the fair use doctrine, their unauthorized copying was permitted as a form of criticism because, in the court's words:

"They seek to establish a public policy test that they are criticizing the objectionable content commonly found in current movies and that they are providing more socially acceptable alternatives to enable families to view the films together, without exposing children to the presumed harmful effects emanating from the objectionable content."

As CleanFlicks's motto states: "It's all about choice!"

The Utah court, however, wasn't buying. However objectionable, or purportedly harmful to the customers' children, the court found those arguments "inconsequential to copyright law and . . . addressed in the wrong forum. This Court is not free to determine the social value of copyrighted works. What is protected are the creator's rights to protect its creation in the form in which it was created." Of the several factors weighing against a finding of fair use, the most damning (as it usually is) was CleanFlicks's contention that there was no adverse effect from their use on the value of the copyrighted works to the studios. To the contrary, the court found, the bowdlerized versions were not only being sold as a substitute for the original works, but also that the unauthorized edits were themselves the sine qua non for CleanFlicks's customers.

A good result for the industry and one consistent with prior cases dealing with the fair use defense to infringement claims. It is interesting to note that the DGA, but not the WGA, was a party to the suit. Just another indication of the auteur perception of films as the sole creation of the director (someone had to write the dirty words and nude scenes before they could be filmed and, ultimately, censored). It is curious to me that the DGA and several individual directors would have been parties (as "defendants-in-intervention") at all, aside from the publicity value to the case. I'm not sure they have any more legal standing than the screenwriter to the extent that the studio is the sole owner of the copyrighted works.

Here in the United States, the statutory rights conferred to copyright owners by the Copyright Act are the exclusive grounds for an infringement suit. Unlike Europe and other jurisdictions, we have not generally adopted the concept of droit moral, or "moral rights," which provide the creator of artistic works with certain protections for their creations, irrespective of whether they are the actual holder of the copyright, e.g., prevent others from modifying, distorting, or otherwise interfering with the integrity of that work. Which, I suppose, avoids placing directors in the awkward position of having to separately enforce their moral rights against companies like CleanFlicks while complying with each and every suggested cut or change to come down from the studio after the latest round of test screenings.

[Postscript] While the CleanFlicks decision is a sort of vindication for Hollywood, in practice it is likely a pyrrhic victory. The Family Home Movie Act of 2005 expressly exempts from liability makers of technology that edits DVD content "on the fly." Companies such as ClearPlay cut out (heh) the CleanFlicks-type middleman with players that censor as you watch. So if thine DVD offends thee, pluck it out . . . and pop it in a ClearPlay machine. Although the happy white family on their website isn't quite as large as the one on CleanFlicks's, so I remain dubious of their claim to be "Better for your Family!"

Superman's returns

2006-07-03T17:30:00.000-07:00

The July 4th weekend traditionally represents something of a highwater mark in the summer box office season. A day off from work here in the United States to celebrate (ironcially, these days) our break from the monarchy. In the industry, it means only one month to open your big summer blockbusters before the dog days of August kick in, a/k/a the island of misfit movies. This year, however, with the Fourth falling on a Tuesday, there isn't really one weekend that can claim the date. The closer of the two was this past, which saw the opening of Superman Returns, director Bryan Singer's restart of the film franchise. Pretending, as most Superman fans who are old enough to remember them have for years now, that the third and fourth sequels to the original never happened.

Fun Joel already posted his thoughts on why it might suck. Scott the Reader breaks down the reasons that it didn't work for him. Bill Cunningham is not a fan of this version. Because the flaws have been thoroughly explored, I won't get into a detailed review myself. As a movie in the comic book genre, I thought it (mostly) worked. The tagline for the 1978 film was "you'll believe a man can fly" but only now with the full power of digital effects does that become completely true. The sense of scale, speed, and strength of Superman are perfectly rendered. Less successful are the romantic moments between Superman and Lois Lane. Brandon Routh fills out the cape adequately but there simply are no sparks between him and Kate Bosworth. She's slight in every sense of the word. And Lex Luthor's plot for world domination, aside from not breaking much new ground (okay, maybe some new ground), doesn't ever quite put Metropolis in enough jeopardy to make the payoff as satisfying as it probably could have been. But for summer escapism fare, there was enough fun to outweigh the heavy-handed Supes-as-Christ imagery, which bordered on ponderous by the third shot of him floating in space, arms outstretched. Okay, we get it, Bryan.

More interesting to me are the reactions and spins going around town in reaction to the film's box office performance since premiering Wednesday. With $84 million in ticket sales over its first five days, Superman Returns has outpaced last year's franchise restart, Batman Begins, by a good $12 million dollars. If it maintains a similar margin over the course of its theatrical run, it should end up with around $230 million. Although the eagerly-anticipated Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest could undercut those legs if it connects with audiences as well as the first one did.

But in Hollywood (as with Wall Street, I suppose) perception is reality and the game is one of managing expectations. Speculation as to what the $84 number really means is a hot topic. On one hand, Warner Brothers execs are touting it as the biggest five-day opening in that studio's history. That's kind of true, although I believe all of the the Harry Potter series and The Matrix Reloaded took in more (but opened on a *Thursday* which makes them four-day openers. savvy?). And War of the Worlds, opening in essentially the same slot last year, managed $69 million over the Friday to Sunday period. Which makes Supes's $52 million for the weekend look not as super. For a (strictly-speaking) non-sequel opener of this type, I would put Superman Returns in the sold but not spectacular column. Given the high costs of production, a large portion of which were incurred under pay-or-play deals with previously-attached talent such as Nicolas Cage, Warner's would probably have been happier with a higher number (who wouldn't?). Nonetheless, it should be strong enough to warrant another installment with Singer at the helm (which is good for the studio in the long term).

Others, however, are not quite as sanguine about the film's prospects. In her Deadline Hollywood column, Nikki Finke quotes unnamed rival studio sources as estimating that Superman Returns will struggle to break the $200 million dollar mark. Perhaps not surprisingly, the comparison that the anonymous "rival studio bigwig" based their analysis on was the crater job that X-Men: The Last Stand did last month after a strong Memorial Day weekend bow. When a quote from an unnamed rival studio source begins "It's not unfair to note . . . " you can be pretty sure that what's coming next will be completely unfair. Although I can see the argument, e.g., when compared against the original Spiderman's $100 million weekend, that $84 million is a disappointment, I don't know that it fully accounts for the kind of poormouthing coming out of some quarters.

Studio rivalries are one thing but my completely unsubstantiated theory is that "it would not be unfair to say" that the fact that the film's producer is former Columbia Pictures head, Jon Peters, has something to do with the negative press as well. An article in today's Los Angeles Times details Peters's return from his fall from Columbia in 1991 to shepherding the Superman project through development hell to the top of the box office. The article also makes clear, from similarly anonymous sources, that Peters's personality and prior dealings have not endeared him to many around town. It isn't beyond the realm of possibilities to think that some of the people he clashed with on the way up (and down) just might be willing to give a comment or two off the record at the first opportunity. But that's just a theory. It may be, as Lois writes in the movie, that the world really doesn't need a Superman.

Pencils down

2006-06-30T12:49:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder that today is the deadline for the first-round submissions to The Writer's Arc. Five to ten pages on Alex Mackenzie and Parker Lam, in the yard, with the card. Just like Clue. You can submit and pay the entry fee all online through the website, in case you tend to put things off until the last minute. I tend to myself, although this time I popped mine off in the mail earlier this week. With 45 pages in the can for the feature-length spec that I would submit in the second round (should I move on), now it's just a matter of coming up with another 75 or so in a little less than a month. The second round deadline is Monday, July 24, in case you tend to put things off until the last minute.

Platforming your way to interrogatories

2006-06-21T14:59:00.000-07:00

Warren Leonard, of The Screenwriting Life has an article in the May/June edition of scr(i)pt magazine on the use of other media platforms as a means for screenwriters to promote themselves and their work. With the rise of free video hosting sites, such as YouTube, cheap professional-grade content creation products, and technology like the iPod in more and more hands each day, the different avenues for standing out in the crowd has never been greater. But, as Cliff Robertson once told that jockey from Seabiscuit, with great power comes great responsibility.

Case in point: the copyright infringement suit filed by Paramount Pictures this week against Washington D.C. resident, Chris Moukarbel. It seems the self-starting Mr. Moukarbel obtained (illegally, it is alleged) a copy of the screenplay to World Trade Center, Oliver Stone's upcoming 9/11 dramatization of one New York Fire Department crew's experience at Ground Zero that day. Hot script in hand, Paramount contends, Moukarbel then created a 12-minute short film that dramatized . . . one New York Fire Department crew's experience at Ground Zero on 9/11. While imitation may indeed be the sincerest form of flattery, apparently Mr. Moukarbel took that to the extreme of copying the dialogue from the WTC script nearly verbatim. I don't know if Moukarbel made any money with his "homage" but one hopes he doesn't go wasting it on something frivolous like, say, an attorney to defend the suit. Just endorse the checks "Pay to the order of Brad Grey" and move on.

When T.S. Eliot said "bad poets borrow, good poets steal," I doubt this is quite what he meant.

Never tell me the odds

2006-06-20T22:56:00.000-07:00

In the confirmatory email recieved from the efficient Greg Beal at the AMPAS Nicholl Fellowships, he stated that the Academy has received "only" 4,898 submissions to date. Compared to the 6,048 received in 2003, that represents a significant drop. Maybe the Academy beginning its transition to an online application process this year raised some barriers to entry for those who were frustrated by the website's occasional technical difficulties. Or maybe the bloom is off the rose for aspiring screenwriters hoping to send in their one great spec and catch lightning in a bottle. Who can say?

Mr. Beal's e-mail further informs that those 4,898 will be reduced by about 95% with the first cut, to come somewhere around the end of July. Which works out to 245 or so entrants moving on to the quarterfinals. Although one presumes that some percentage of the initial pool are non-starters, those are still daunting numbers.

If you have applied and want to further bleaken your outlook, there is also the breakdown of past winners (1989-2002) by genre from the Nicholl website:

* Action/adventure 6
* Caper/thriller/crime 11
* Comedy 4
* Romantic comedy 3
* Comedy drama 9
* Romantic drama 3
* Drama 32
* Horror 2
* Western 3

Although these percentages may vary from year-to-year, e.g., comedy or action scripts may do better than drama in one year and vice versa the next, you can get a sense of the trends. My submission was a drama so maybe, if it could become one of the 245, it stands a better chance than others of going further. On the other hand, I really have no idea if it is even good enough at this point to even make that first cut. Anything that tells me I am at least in the ballpark is validation enough for the moment. I'm sure August 1 will be here before I know it.

Raiders of the lost Arc

2006-06-17T13:35:00.000-07:00

So with The Writer's Arc having posted the elements for the first round of the fall fellowship program, and because the doldrums of summer in Los Angeles (where all things can wait until Labor Day) have set in, I'll just link to this post from chilly December last. Wherein I explain the thoughts that went into crafting my previous (successful) first-round submission. Take it for what it's worth. I don't believe there are any hard, fast rules about how closely one is bound to the character, location, and prop elements. Although I chose to contain the action solely in the station location and the dialogue strictly between the two characters in that instance, I may not be quite as limiting this time around. Which is not to say that others will not advance if they are. Creative use of the elements, a demonstration of basic aptitude with the screenwriting style and format, and some ability to squeeze a little bit of storytelling out of your five to ten pages is what I think Amy & Ami are looking for at this stage. Note that the fall program has changed slightly -- $3,000 stipend for ten weeks of rewriting a fellow's second-round feature script, i.e., no starting from scratch on new screenplay ideas -- and good luck to all who enter.

Radio gaga

2006-06-10T14:21:00.000-07:00

Living in the center of the entertainment industry without a television can feel strange at times. Aside from the water-cooler aspect of not being completely up to date on Jack Bauer's body count (or Chloe O'Brien's mysterious past), a writer in this town sort of needs to stay current with the hot shows if they hope to be able to spec them properly for potential writing staff gigs. I'm not to that point yet, but between ABC's free streaming of Lost and the shows available for download at iTunes, it has been possible to fairly keep up with the Pams and Jims of the t.v. world. Eventually, as DVRs and alternative delivery methods become more commonplace, I imagine that watching shows when you want and where you want will probably be the norm and not the exception.

In the meantime, to fill the void, my trusty radio has been performing admirably. Santa Monica College's public radio station, KCRW, plays great new indie music on Morning Becomes Eclectic and other shows throughout the evening. And during weekends, This American Life and Harry Shearer's fabuleaux Le Show, wherein he applies his considerable voice talents and insight to all things political, keep things interesting.

One of the few shows that KCRW does not air (but which can be found in L.A. on KPCC) is the long-running A Prairie Home Companion, Garrison Keillor's weekly paean to Midwestern reserve, American music, and old-timey radio's "theater of the mind." A film version of sorts, directed by Robert Altman, is out this week. Which is how I found myself at the famed Hollywood Bowl last Friday night, where the show was in town for a live broadcast to coincide with the movie's release. The show can be listened to in its entirety here if you weren't at the Bowl yourself.

Three of the film's stars joined the regulars for the show: Virginia Madsen, John C. Reilly, and Meryl Streep (writ large on the video screen in the picture on the left). Befitting the Hollywood setting and their experiences in the business, the troupe did several long skits skewering the filmmaking process. Having only listened to PHC on the radio before, it was fun to see how loose the players actually are in the midst of the show. Keillor and Streep even went off-script when Meryl blew a line now and then (yes, Meryl Streep flubbed a few lines).

A writer first and foremost, Garrison seemed particularly attuned to the station that most screenwriters occupy in the town, i.e., low. The segment titled "Farewell" told the sad tale of an aspiring scribe who drives from Minnesota to California with only a spec in his hand and dreams in his head:

Farewell, Minnesota, I'm bound for L.A.
In a car with my girlfriend and a screenplay.
It's only a first draft and the opening is long
And the part where they blow up the truck is all wrong
It's about two lovers from the Midwest
Who come to LA cause they're under arrest
And they are on drugs and her hair is on fire
But I could make it a comedy if you desire.

You can see how it all ends here, though like all good radio it is best heard for full effect.

Turn around, Used Guys

2006-06-03T15:04:00.000-07:00

Although the prospect of ever shepherding a script through the development maze into actual production may seem to be remote, at best, to the aspiring screenwriter, he/she can perhpas take some small comfort in knowing that even the pros have the plug pulled on them now and then. Witness the recent reversal of fortunes for Jay Roach, who had Fox shut things down on his latest film, Used Guys, just as filming was set to begin on location in New Mexico.

This turnaround is raising more eyebrows than might normally be expected because the project seemed to have all the elements that studios appear to be looking for these days: Roach has directed two successful franchises (Meet The Parents and Austin Powers) and the two headliners, Jim Carrey and Ben Stiller, are as bankable as any comedy leads around. Unfortunately, that star power comes at a price and, with a sci-fi/comedy premise, the budget for Used Guys had creeped past the $100 million dollar mark when Fox said no mas. The story -- in a world where women rule the earth, two obsolete pleasure clones escape in search of a mythical "Mantopia" -- sounded rife with comic possibilites for all concerned.

But fear is the showkiller these days and, like the boss Remo in Casino, when given the choice of letting the made men who could testify against him keep their vow of omerta or letting them sleep with the fishes, the studio said "Look, why take a chance?" And in the end, the person to feel the most sympathy for is probably the screenwriter, Mickey Birnbaum. IMDB indicates that this was his first credited script and Fox's move could cost him financially as well:

"Mickey Birnbaum, the movie’s screenwriter, who stood to make millions of dollars if the movie became a success, was equally surprised. 'I’m shocked, like everybody else,” he said. “I’ve been told the party line: That budget issues are at the heart of it'"

Although presumably the movie didn't even have to become a success, just a movie. Ouch.

If any lesson can be learned from the story by those of us toiling away in obscurity, it's that costs matter and should be factored into spec writing if one has any intentions of ever selling the work. All things being equal, a character-driven drama that can be filmed with a minimum of locations or special effects will likely have more commercial appeal than a killer condensation of of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen down to 120 pages. At least for the screenwriter who is an unknown quantity to industry executives, agents, or managers. Though even proven talent with high concept in hand is apparently no sure thing anymore either.

Now I have a blog . . . ho ho ho

2006-05-28T14:48:00.000-07:00

Submitted without comment.

A tale of two Toms

2006-05-23T23:57:00.000-07:00

The summer blockbuster season is well under way heading into Memorial Day weekend. Ignoring Warner Brothers' Poseidon (everyone else did, apparently), the results of the first round are interesting. In one corner: Maverick, he of the $25 million-dollar smile and bulletproof opening draw. After the first two installments of the Mission: Impossible franchise grossed over a billion dollars worldwide, with initial weekends of $45 and $57 million respectively, Paramount must have believed that MI: III was a pretty safe bet to at least equal, if not surpass the series's past performance. Especially with wunderkind J.J. Abrams behind the helm and recent Oscar-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman as the, er, heavy.

In the other corner, Joe Banks himself: Mr. Everyman. Also a member of Hollywood's $25 million-per-picture club, the second Tom brought his neo-Jimmy Stewart persona to Sony's adaptation of The Da Vinci Code. Although his teaming with the Grazer/Howard combo worked well in the past, see Apollo 13, he was also the star of one of the biggest flops in moving a best-selling book to screen, see also The Bonfire of the Vanities. Factor in the religious controversy that surrounded the book (causing the Vatican to call on viewers to boycott the movie), some brutal early reviews at Cannes, and Da Vinci's prospects were far from clear, despite the built-in audience of the book's legions of fans.

What happened? One Tom's movie premiered to so-so reviews but a healthy $77 million first-weekend take. Right where a studio wants its summer tentpoles to be. Word-of-mouth seems favorable and it's a good bet to reach $200 million. The other Tom's movie, while generally praised for what it was, came up thirty million dollars shorter, opening at $47 and limping across the $100 million dollar mark three weeks into its U.S. run. Neither studio nor star will likely be hurting at the end of the day -- especially factoring in the film's international box office, which has performed much better than domestic -- but at least one of them is probably wishing there had been less jumping over chairs on Oprah, on-air meltdowns with Matt Lauer, and placenta-eating pledges. When the dust settles, one Tom will probably still be sitting atop the $25 million-dollar pyramid, but the other Tom could find himself in a seat next to Jim Carrey on slow road down to $20 million and box office mortality.

Mr. Bubble

2006-05-18T17:20:00.000-07:00

Occasionally, a vestige of my swiftly-receding east coast existence will intrude into the bubble that is life with (near) constant pleasant weather in a city built on a foundation of illusion as way-of-life. To wit, the Craftsman-style bungalow I noticed on a recent walk to the post office:

The structure itself is not particularly unusual -- you can hardly swing a dead project around southern California without hitting a Craftsman house -- but it is rare to see one completly decked out in good old Baltimore Formstone. Throughout the '50s and '60s, the concrete-like faux stone finish was de rigueur for any self-respecting rowhouse owner in Charm City. Barry Levinson's second film in his Baltimore trilogy, Tin Men, was originally about Formstone salesmen but the studio had him change their job titles because it was scared that nobody outside of Maryland would even know what Formstone was. Probably correctly. Alas, the city's gentrification over the past twenty years has resulted in the fake facades usually being the first thing that goes in any property renovation or rehab. Although, in truth, most residents aren't unhappy to see the underlying brick revealed. But lament the disappearing Formstone nonetheless as another sign that the city they grew up in has been lost along the way. Guess they'll always have Hollywood though.

For those who do live here in the bubble, local musical duo The Ditty Bops will be appearing in-store at Amoeba Music on Sunset next Tuesday (May 23) to promote the release of their new album, Moon Over the Freeway. Followed the next evening with a record release party at The Derby on Los Feliz. And if you don't live in the bubble, the Bops will be biking (literally) their way across the country on a tour in support. If you haven't heard them or seen their cabaret-style show, Amanda and Abby mix traditional folk with jazz, western swing, and skiffle to great and fun effect. For those so inclined, check out the site for details on joining the Bops in their cycling (which is supporting a few good causes, in addition to being good for you and our country's crack-like addiction to oil). Bop on.

Upgrades

2006-05-12T13:08:00.000-07:00

For users of Final Draft 7, especially anyone on the new Intel Macs, head over to the Final Draft website post haste for the 7.1.2 update. Nothing apparently new feature-wise but the upgrade does now make Final Draft universal. Which means that if you're current on either a PPC or Intel Mac, you'll be running the program at optimal performance. Just using it briefly this morning, I am glad to report that all of the crappy scrolling issues and screen refresh/redraw issues that made 7.1.1 so annoying on a MacBook Pro seem to be long gone. It feels stable, you can use two-fingered scrolling to your heart's content, and text stays where you put it after you put it there. Other than these noticeable differences, Final Draft also claims "many improvements to product stability." And if you for some reason use a Windows Tablet PC to write your screenplays on: "Final Draft Windows® now allows Windows Tablet PCs to set where the scroll bar is positioned (for left or right handed users)." So there's that. Which is nice.

The upgrade is free to registered users of version 7. If you've been holding on to Version 6, the cost of becoming current is now just $59, the advantage presumably being a much more stable program at 7.1.2 now. I love the feel on my MacBook but welcome any input from PPC Mac users that download the update (pro and con).

While waiting for this development, I have also been beta testing the pre-release version of Montage, the new Mac-only screenwriting suite from Mariner Software. Any Mac user who has been less than thrilled with Final Draft should contact them through their website to see if they can take a test drive as well. Although there are still some bugs to be worked out, I like the direction they are taking their program. The addition of dedicated outlining, synopsis, and research functions to the traditional word processing elements is a clear improvement. And the use of "Scenes" to construct a script scene-by-scene, rather than merely inputting text uninterrupted from start to finish, is in practice what the index card features of Final Draft and MMS aspire to be in theory. I'm interested to see how well the release version ultimately stacks up against the big hitters.

In between days

2006-05-10T17:15:00.000-07:00

On things musical, I was saddened to see the passing of Grant McLennan, founder and lead singer of the Australian band The Go-Betweens at only 48. Although the band had been inactive for several years, they had recently reformed and released Oceans Apart last fall to renewed acclaim. Sort of an R.E.M. but with even stranger, more poetic lyrics (if it can be believed), I first got into The Go-Betweens back in the late-80s with their album Tallulah. And even dusted the old cassette off to revisit on my drive across country. If you enjoy melodic pop with obscure literary references -- and really, who doesn't? -- then check them out.

Also flashing back to the 80's after picking up St. Elsewhere by Gnarls Barkley. Although having nothing to do with the best t.v. drama ever, the album pairs Danger Mouse (the beatmaker behind Gorillaz) with Cee-lo Green (from the Goodie MOb). At their best, Gnarls Barkley fuse the dirty beats and samplecentric production of the 21st century with the timeless soul sounds of 20th-century Motown. And they throw a cover of "Gone Daddy Gone" by the Violent Femmes in the mix just for fun. Some tracks work better than others -- "Crazy" became the first song in the U.K. to top the pop charts on the sole basis of online downloads -- but there's enough good stuff in there to make it well worth picking up.

And across the pond, Fundamental, the latest album from Pet Shop Boys, gets a U.K. release on May 22. Q's early review says:

"Fundamental is much like 1987's Actually or 1990's Behaviour (i.e. it sits right alongside the duo's very best work) . . . Britain's great pop group? Absolutely."

To be followed on June 20 by Under the Iron Sea, the new album from piano-rockers Keane. The former available only on import initially, while the latter to be released domestically in the States. Tours apparently to follow as well. Yippee.

Making it

2006-05-07T22:40:00.000-07:00

Variety notes today that DreamWorks has greenlit production on Things We Lost in the Fire, with Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro to topline, as they say. The screenplay, by Allan Loeb, did have the recent distinction around town of being the "best spec script not to have been produced." IMDB describes the story thusly:

"A recent widow invites her husband's troubled best friend to live with her and her two children. As he gradually turns his life around, he helps the family cope and confront their loss."

So with this one now apparently moving off the top of the pile, I'll throw it out to either the readers or the other scribes in L.A.: what is now the best spec to not yet make it to the screen?

Think different

2006-05-02T18:40:00.000-07:00

Why this deadline was better than my first deadline:

1. I worked more from an outline in rewriting my script this time. The value in knowing specifically where you want/need to go with a story, what you've said, and what remains to be said cannot be understated.

2. I had extensive notes in hand for the rewrite. Some of them identifying flaws I already knew were there, others giving me new directions in which to take the story. Don't try and fix everything yourself; get another set of (competent) eyes to take a look at your work.

3. I put the script down in January and didn't pick it up again until April, partially by the necessity of coordinating my move but also somewhat by design. It helped to gain some distance from the piece after spending about four months with it exclusively. Not that I wasn't thinking about it in the interim, but only letting those thoughts simmer on the back burner until I was ready to dive back in with both feet.

4. I purchased a dedicated screenwriting software package (see previous post) and a laptop, which freed me to write where I wanted when I wanted. No more fussing in WordPerfect with the format, but still able to maintain a regular routine that produced several pages a day over the month. I finished all the substantive drafting and editing the night before everything was due.

5. I also purchased a printer to go with the new computer and software. Attempting to proofread on a monitor screen is no substitute for printing something out and marking it up with a good red pen. I know I caught several egregious errors that I probably would not have if not for reading them on the page.

6. I used a proper script printing service for the final version. Double-sided, card-stock cover, and good brads. The works, and got a good-luck "no charge" for the job to boot. Plus, no running around at 9:00 on deadline eve, making desperate phone calls to colleagues for emergency printing assistance. I reached the post office to mail my submission with hours, not minutes, to spare (two versus ten).

7. I actually liked this draft. The first time around I mostly just wanted to get something out there to see if I was even in the ballpark. I thought the spine was solid but also knew it was still a first draft. This time, the changes -- I think -- improved the story, tightened up the pacing (down to a lean 122 pages now), and took it from "not completely hating" to "like." Still not at "love" or "LOVE love" but it's getting there. There is no good screenwriting, only good screen-rewriting. Unfortunately, the pudding containing the proof won't be ready until August 1, when the quarterfinalists are announced.

Joey Five-Cents!

2006-05-01T22:27:00.000-07:00

"He took the script and studied it with a sullen frown. Watching him, I realized what a ghastly job it must be writing plays. I mean, having to hand over your little effort to a hardfaced manager and stand shuffling your feet while he glares at it as if it hurt him in a tender spot, preparatory to pushing it back at you with a curt 'It stinks.'"

P.G. Wodehouse, The Mating Season (1949)

Here's hoping that any Nicholl submissions on their way to 1313 North Vine Street are received, and received better than poor Bertie Wooster's by the newt-loving Gussie Fink-Nottle (including my own).

OK computer

2006-04-24T19:12:00.000-07:00

Ever since my family's first PC, an Apple IIe, I have been a Mac person. Through the dark days of pizza boxes like the LC II and Performa 6300, to an iMac DV and my new MacBook Pro, I've always liked the way Apples "just work" as compared to Microslop-based products. Even now, as Macs make the move towards running OSX and Windows side-by-side, I can't think of any need that I would have for that capability.

Strictly for screenwriting purposes, though, I think most could get by with v 1.0-level technology. Yes, it's fantastic that the latest software package formats-as-we-go, allowing us to focus on the writing instead of whether the product conforms to some Platonic screenplay ideal. But I wrote the first draft of my first script in trusty old WordPerfect, using "center" and "double indent" keystroke commands, and came up with a fair approximation of the accepted form. Close enough for government work at the time anyway.

But, to streamline the writing process and feel like I was investing in screenwriting as a profession, I purchased the requisite copy of Final Draft before I left Baltimore. I could have just as easily gone with Movie Magic Screenwriter, the other widely-used program. My impression was that Final Draft was slightly more Mac-friendly and still a bit more the industry standard, although MMS has certainly made substantial inroads to the market. There is also the newer celtx package, which is free and open source but not a stand-alone package (it runs in your Firefox browser).

I can't speak to Final Draft's "tagger" breakdown functions (nothing I've written has even seen the light of California day yet), but for what it does in terms of auto-formatting, it does that reasonably well. The "Smart Type" autofills for locations, characters, parentheticals, etc. become intuitive fairly quickly, which translates into less time thinking and more time typing. (MORE)s and (CONT'D)s can be placed automatically both between page breaks and broken dialogue. Or not, if you don't use them. If you can suppress the knowledge that you're paying a tidy sum for a glorified word processor, it's not too bad.

At the same time, it's not all good either. Apparently, the initial release of FD 7.0 was buggy as heck and crashed frequently. I haven't run into anything fatal yet with mine but even version 7.1.1 still feels unfinished. Scrolling and redrawing is a nightmare. Just moving up or down a few lines on the screen is enough to make you lose track of the cursor or have you wondering where that line of dialogue you just wrote disappeared to. Most likely still there but often it's hard to tell. Additionally, features that are commonplace in many Mac apps, like Spotlight searching, a Dock-style toolbar and the use of unicode special characters, are conspicously absent in the current iteration. Final Draft has announced that a universal binary version will be released sometime this summer. Hopefully, many of the identified issues with version 7 are corrected at that time as well.

One glaring omission is the lack of comprehensive outlining features. Although there is some debate, I think most screenwriters will fall on the side of creating an outline of your story before attempting to write the first draft of a screenplay. So it would make sense that any screenwriting software package would include tools for creating said outline before writing said script. Apparently not. A basic outlining program, OmniOutliner, ships standard with new Macs. It's adequate for that task but another program that I've been demoing the past week does outlining and so much more: NoteBook. I think any Mac writers out there should take a serious look at it.

NoteBook allows you to create (obviously) a digital notebook for any project. Within any notebook, individual pages can be devoted not only to an outline but also to drafts of notes, storage of images, .pdf files, or anything else that can be clipped into your notebook's pages. To-do list pages or items can also be synced with your Mac's iCal. But, for me, it's the clipping service that makes NoteBook most appealing from the screenwriting perspective. Now, as I prepare an outline or rewrite, anything relevant to the script gets put into that project's notebook for future reference. A magazine article on my subject matter, a website that shows the exact location I'm using for a setting, the substance of an e-mail giving me feedback on the first draft for purposes of rewriting. If I can access it on my computer, I can put it in my notebook.

And to keep your notebook organized, Trapper Keeper style, you can place tabbed dividers between sections of materials. So outlines go in one section, notes in another section, media clippings, correspondence, etc. all in their own place. The total package. Version 2.0 is current at the moment, and version 2.1 is due out sometime in the next month or so. A 30-day demo is downloadable on the Circus Ponies website. And if, like me, you've spent your whole life hearing "Can you get that program on a Mac," you can turn the tables on the Windozers because NoteBook is Apple-only and will apparently remain so for the foreseeable future.

[UPDATE]
I am apprised of a new potential Mac-based alternative to Final Draft and MMS. Montage from Mariner Software promises to do all the usual script formatting but via universal binary and native Cocoa, i.e., made by and for Macs from the base up. And will import Final Draft documents, so nothing lost in switching. And synced to Address Book for easy mailing of files to all your contacts at once. And built-in outlining features apparently. And only $150 when it goes on sale. That's what is represented on the website at least. Unfortunately, it's still in beta and doesn't appear to be downloadable in a trial version anywhere that I could find on the website. But I will definitely keep my eye on this, especially if the universal binary update for Final Draft is not a significant step forward.

Ghosts in the machine

2006-04-17T18:11:00.000-07:00

I haven't done much exploring in the week since I arrived, but even my short walk over to Creative City is steeped in enough history to make me feel a part of the never-ending Hollywood story. Although the current mishmash of architectural styles in and around downtown Los Angeles can be overwhelming and seems to give little deference to the past, vestiges of the golden age remain here and there. Not to be melodramatic about it, but a few ghosts yet linger in a city that seems to pride itself on having no memory and being the place to come to reinvent one's self.

So it was that, walking up La Brea Avenue last week on a 7-Eleven run, I found myself staring up at a giant statue of Kermit the Frog atop some Tudor-style bungalows. I knew the place rang a bell and sure enough, I was unknowingly living behind the offices of The Jim Henson Company. As yet, however, I have not seen Fozzy Bear, Gonzo, or Sweetums wandering around the neighborhood.

But the familiarity was due more, I think, to its first incarnation as The Chaplin Studios, one of the original Hollywood lots. Opened in 1918, by The Little Tramp himself, some of Chaplin's most admired films were shot on the location. It's both humbling and exciting to think I'll be writing yards away from the place where The Kid, The Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times, and The Great Dictator all made. Would that even a touch of Chaplin's genius is still hanging around the lot for me to tap into.

South and west onto Santa Monica Boulevard is the Formosa Cafe, hangout for Hollywood types since 1939. Maybe it doesn't draw the caliber of stars past, but still fun to pass the joint where Officer Bud White calls out Johnny Stompanato in L.A. Confidential. And, bringing everything full circle, the Formosa sits across Formosa Avenue from the former Warner Hollywood Studio.

Now called simply the lot, it was here that Charlie Chaplin would eventually move from his studios on La Brea after joining with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith in 1919 to form United Artists. At this point I only dare to dream that anything I ever do here will endure one hundred years from now. But it is exciting to think, as I pass these places each day, that I might have a chance to contribute to this continuing endeavor of creation.

It looks fake . . . I like it!

2006-04-11T14:07:00.000-07:00

As the change to my profile location on the right indicates, I've finally arrived in Los Angeles, following an uneventful 3 and 1/2 days of driving straight through from Maryland. Getting settled in the new digs and firmly ensconced on a comfy couch at the Creative City Cafe on Santa Monica Boulevard working on the rewrite that I will be submitting for Nicholl. Hope to meet other fellow scribosphere members here in town now that I've made the move.

Solid

2006-04-10T12:39:00.000-07:00

Augusta National is going to have to rename the Butler Cabin the Leftorium if Phil keeps this up.

Mona Lisa smile

2006-04-09T14:45:00.000-07:00

As the May 17 release date for The Da Vinci Code draws near, Team Grazer is no doubt breathing a little easier now that a London judge has tossed a copyright infringement suit against the book's author, Dan Brown. Although I doubt even a loss in the English courts would have affected the United States release, the ruling is mostly good news for writers from an intellectual property perspective.

The authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail, a book purporting to show evidence that Jesus Christ did not actually die on the cross but survived to produce offspring with Mary Magdalene. Not having read "Da Vinci" myself, I can only rely on the reports that its subject matter deals with much the same theory. I did, however, read the earlier work about 20 years ago and seem to recall it was interesting in the way that JFK, RFK, and MLK conspiracy theories were interesting to me when I wanted to believe in the mysterious over the mundane.

Apparently, the theories were of some interest to Dan Brown as well. He admitted at trial that he relied on "Holy Blood" in researching the background for his own fictional work. The authors of that book, to the extent that its contents could be construed as historical facts, then sought to claim infringement on the grounds that Brown's use of their "facts" amounted to an improper copying of the book's central theme or "architecture" in his creating of "Da Vinci." Experts on both sides of the pond judged this "novel" theory of infringement a loser from the start and the dismissal did not come as a surprise to anyone following the case closely.

From the screenwriter's perspective, even if not controlling on American courts, the decision is to be applauded because it reinforces the well-settled rule that facts and ideas are not entitled to copyright protection. As Justice Peter Smith wrote for the High Court here: "It would be quite wrong if fictional writers were to have their writings pored over in the way 'The Da Vinci Code' has been pored over in this case by authors of pretend historical books to make an allegation of infringement of copyright." Especially where the diligent screenwriter will consult a variety of historical sources to research their subject matter and strive to be as accurate as possible, it would likely have a chilling effect for the authors of the consulted works to be able to then claim infringement. Not an unexpected result, but still good to know that some things in the legal world endure like Da Vinci's painting.

High fidelity

2006-04-08T01:13:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of Nick Hornby's list-obsessive novel, I note that the Writers Guild has published its 101 Greatest Screenplays. Nothing terribly surprising near the top, but it is interesting to note that of the first 25, only two (The Shawshank Redemption at 22 and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind at 24) were written in the past decade-ish -- Shawshank was 1994. I'm not sure if it is more a case of they really were better written in the "golden age" or just that there has not been enough distance between more recent, equally good scripts. But grist for the discussion mill nonetheless.

Faya

2006-04-07T09:47:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite quotes from "The English Patient" comes from the scene where Katherine Clifton attempts to engage Count Almásy in some flirty banter as they drive across the North African desert. Not allowing himself to engage her, he responds:

"I once traveled with a guide who was taking me to Faya. He didn't speak for nine hours. At the end of it he pointed to the horizon and said, 'Faya!' That was a good day."

That's also driving from Baltimore to Los Angeles solo.

Thirty days to Nicholl

2006-04-01T17:57:00.000-08:00

Not an April Fool's joke. May 1st is the deadline for entries in the 2006 Nicholl Fellowships program. Applications (print only at the moment) are at the AMPAS site and downloadable. All that's left is for the writing.

Ode to Mobtown, hon

2006-04-01T14:20:00.000-08:00

With my meager worldly possessions now on their way to Los Angeles, I finally have a moment to catch my breath. I've lived here in Baltimore for ten years now and it's strange to think that in only a few hours, I won't anymore. As exciting as the prospect of living in Los Angeles is, though, there are many things about The Land of Pleasant Living that I'll hate to leave behind.

Most non-Baltimorons receive their images of the city from one of three main sources: (1) Barry Levinson's tales of Baltmore in the 50's; (2) the television series of former Baltimore Sun police reporter, David Simon (Homicide: Life on the Streets, The Corner, and The Wire); and John Waters. All entertaining in their different ways, but tending to give the impression that Charm City is either a drug-war DMZ or quirky, blue-collar trashstravaganza. Okay, those stereotypes are actually true to some extent. But it's not all bad, and if you ever find yourself in town, nix the usual Inner Harbor tourist crap for some good ol' Bawlmer sights. Hon.

Theaters

For cinephiles, Baltimore has the bases covered in relative style. Current independent releases, foreign films, revivals, and even the occasional studio feature are all showcased at The Charles. Just around the corner from Penn Station, and next door to a fab tapas restaurant for pre or post-flick fare, The Charles also hosts the best reason to get out of bed early on a Sunday morning, the Cinema Sundays film series. Catch new or classic films, Q&A with the filmmakers or other guest speakers, and nosh on some bagels. Can't beat that with a stick.

If big-screen action and tentpole releases are more your speed, however, then head on up the JFX to Baltmore's historic Senator Theatre. A movie palace in the grand art deco tradition, The Senator is where the line forms for the latest superhero, sci-fi, or fantasy extravaganza. Even with classic houses like Mann's Chinese, The Egyptian, and El Capitan now within walking distance, The Senator is where I want to premiere any movie that I might ever be fortunate enough to have made.

Mmmmm . . . food

When most people think Baltimore and food they think crabs. But truthfully, locals don't eat them as much as others think. I never was any good at the cracking and picking necessary to get at all the meat myself. My local eatery of choice was (and remains) the SoBo Cafe. Smack dab in the middle of Federal Hill, the SoBo provides good food at a reasonable price and in a funky atmosphere that belies the otherwise upscale surroundings. Chicken pot pie and mac-n-cheese to die for. But mostly it was the great staff that brought me back every week. Cool, funny, and friendly, ask for Lisa, Carrie Ann, or Olivia and they'll take good care of you.

The one bad thing about city dining is that closing time comes early, usually round about 10 o'clock. Not good for the night owl. Thankfully, there is always the Papermoon Diner to save the evening. Breakfast anytime, veggie-friendly offerings such as "Hummuscide: Life on a Pita," and crazy decor (think Hollywood bungalow overrun by an army of mutilated Barbie dolls). Cheap and open 24/7.

Reading is fun and mental

For a time, Baltimore's slogan was "The City That Reads." Which everyone got an ironic chuckle out of, given what The City That Reads passed off as a public school system. But for those who actually do read, there are some typically Baltimore bibliothingies to be found. First and foremost being Atomic Books in the most Baltimore-y of Baltimore neighborhoods, Hampden. Self-described "literary finds for mutated minds," Atomic Books is the source for all manner of underground comics, graphic novels, zines, kitsch, and anything else too hip for the average person to likely imagine. Oh, and it's also the offical repository of John Waters's fan mail. So drop him a line at the shop and they'll be sure to get it to him! Oh, and the current slogan is "The Greatest City In America," which only makes us laugh even more.

No longer in Baltimore (anyone good at anything ends up leaving eventually), but certainly of it, Emily Flake writes and draws one of the funniest strips out there: Lulu Eightball. Four panels of wry social commentary, dark humor, and girls dressed up in bee costumes. Emily got her start writing and illustrating for the local alternative newsweekly, City Paper. Although she lives in Brooklyn now, the comic retains a definite Charm City vibe. And if you don't get it in your own city's free paper, the first year of Lulu Eightball has been collected in a handy volume you can order online from Atomic Books themselves. See how that works?

House music all night long

Although not quite the scene it was when I arrived ten years ago, Baltimore still loves to dance and the best place to do it is the venerable Paradox nightclub. Since the days of the Orbit and Fever parties, this warehouse space in an industrial area near the sports stadiums has been the place to groove until the sun comes up. No bottle service, no VIP noise, just a roomy hardwood dance floor with a 20,000 watt sound system for the bass in your face. Nothing like Scott Henry dropping one of those tracks from back in the day at about six in the morning when the front room is still rammed and you and that person dancing next to you just never want the song to end.

Some of those people who I used to hang out with at Paradox with took that love of the music and now operate the best concert venue in the city, Sonar. Owner Lonnie Fisher has made the nice transition from rave promoter having his civil liberties violated by the "po-po" to the bringer of new bands and djs to a town that historically has been more big-hair heavy metal than house. But his Ultraworld promotion venture still manages to throw down old skool once a year with Starscape, so the scene is still not quite ready to die just yet.

So that's what I'm leaving behind, along with many other great things too numerous to mention in detail (The Tinklers, American Visionary Art Museum, the ten-hole golf course at Carroll Park, the Miracle on 34th Street). It's been a (mostly) fun ride, but the open road beckons and now on to the hills of Hollywood and a new world of experiences. Believe, hon.