Happy 2013!

Ah, 2013...

I think it sounds like the most futuristic year I've ever lived to see.  Much better that 1984, 1994, 1997, 2000, 2001 ---  It's like the jumping off point for the great unknown future.    The new mellenium is now a teenager and I fear it might have a bit of an attitide. 

What Should I Study if I Want to be a Film Producer?

It’s a smart question that really stems from realization that a four year degree in film is probably not going to be worth the piece of paper it’s printed on, let alone the thousands of dollars a wide-eyed fledgling filmmaker might spend.  For an artist, the cost of college is the largest of many obstacles that can crush a young filmmaker.  It’s hard to pay loans and rent, buy gas, food, and clothing on just above minimum wage.   

If you are one of these people who asked the question above, congratulations you’re already starting to think about the bottom line.   You’ve already realized you shouldn’t get college degree for self-improvement, you should study to make yourself indispensable to others.  

Majoring in Business Degree’s such as Finance, Entrepreneurship, and Marketing are good ways to go.  But it doesn’t end there.  You need to study films as well.  It’s not the degree that makes you, it’s your accomplishments.  If you want to be a producer, a degree in business will help, but getting your hands dirty by making a short with a group of friends is better.  

Build yourself a reel of films and a sizable audience and you will be in a better position than most.  Find talented student directors and offer to produce their movies.  Learn as much about film as you can in your spare time.  Read as many scripts as you can in your spare time.  With every project, aim to make the best video in the genre.  

The line between amateur and professional is surprisingly small if you take time to ensure every shot is as good as possible.   Studio’s aim to make mediocre products, you don’t have to.  You can concentrate on the story and take your time to craft it well.   

Once you’ve graduated, there are two major kinds of producers job you can try to specialize in: Line Producers, and Creative Producers.  To have a shot at becoming an A list producer you need to understand both.  

Line Producers are the people during production making the budgets, calling product vendors, haggling deals, and generally greasing the wheels while the film is rolling though production.  It’s a thankless logistical occupation akin to a doctor working triage.  It doesn’t require an understanding of story or what makes a movie great.  This job is about squeezing every dollar, getting every deal, resolving every conflict so that the final image is of the best quality, delivered on time, and on budget.   

Creative Producers may never be involved with the actual making of a movie.  Their specialty is packaging movies and talent together and then selling it to a group of investors or a studio to get the movie made.  This is really an over simplification of what they do, but the key to being good at this job is: understanding what aspects of a movie will sell the most tickets and salesmanship.  Most creative producers come from a development executive background.  They read scripts constantly and have an understanding of what makes them emotionally satisfying to an audience.   

Here is a small reading list that may help on your journey:  The Visual Story by Bruce Block, What a Producer Does by Buck Houghton, I’ll be in my trailer by John Badham & Craig Modderno, Writing Movies for Fun and Profit by Thomas Lennon & Robert B. Garant, Making Movies by Sydney Lumet 

As I've gotten older, the likelihood of my watching a film more than once has significantly diminished.   It is a rare occasion for me to watch anything more than once.   If I do it, it really is to study a film.  I break it down find it's beats, turn off the audio to try to find how the visuals are working.  Gone are the days when I sat down, let the suspension of disbelief wash over me and really enjoy a film over and over.

A list of movies that I think define my childhood.  These are the movies that I can remember watching over and over again as a child.   I also think of these films as part of a primordial influence on a generation of children born from the late seventies through the 80's and into the early 90's.

ET
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Jurassic Park
The Dark Crystal
Batman
Terminator 2
The Never Ending Story
Flight of Dragons
Star Wars
Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
Battle for Endor
Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Kahn
Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock
Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home
Star Trek 5: The Final Frontier
Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country
Superman

The Adventures of Robin Hood
Rear Window
North By North West
The Man Who Knew Too Much


Disney: Sword in the Stone, Robin Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Oliver and Company, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin.

Back then blockbusters had story and the characters felt as if they had true emotion.  Maybe this is how it starts - once you start preferring movies of a certain time period, its a slippery slop to to being that "get off my lawn" kind of guy.

Luckily my parents instilled in me a love of movies and I had access to a huge collection of VHS tapes all of movies that we recorded off of television.  There were four different versions of A Christmas Carroll, entire collections of mini series that were long forgotten, a large collection of Hitchcock films (some of which I wasn't allowed to watch).  For the most part the entire collection was open.   

3 things that movies do wrong

There has been a lot of chatter about what is wrong with movies today.  So I thought I would make a list.


1 - Hollywood seems to hate adults.   Most of the movies made for gigantic budgets today are for the 14-25 age range.  If you are over 30 stay the fuck at home - is basically what they are saying.  Which is not really true, there are a handful of films throughout the year that are aimed at adults.  The article above makes an interesting point about baby boomers who are the most film educated generation and would probably turn out in droves if there was a little  more variety in the theater samplings.


A theater owner argued that why would I program a movie for adult when they only spend like $2 on concessions on average.


2 -  Attention Theater Owners theater food is crap.  At 16, a tub of popcorn, a day old hot dog, milk duds and a large soda, sounds like a meal.  If you are older than 25 it sounds like you want to give yourself dysentery.  How about upping the quality of the selections?  There are a number of theaters, such as the Alamo Draft House, that already offer better food options and (gasp) alcoholic beverages at the theater.  I'm pretty sure adults like those.    


3 - The idea of Diminishing Returns - It is absolutely insane that for a premium movie ticket in los angeles is 25 dollars (3D, IMAX).  The only thing that seems to be out pacing the price increases at the movie theaters is the price of gasoline.  I think the average movie ticket price in the US is somewhere around  8 dollars, but as a California resident I haven't paid that at a regular movie theater since 1998.  In any case making raising prices on tickets is not the answer.  Eventually the price will be so high that people won't come to the theater.  People go to the movies for cheap entertainment and to get away from their home and personal troubles.  When the price of a single ticket is about what the average person spends on food for a single day, that's adding to troubles. 

Just a quick one:  UPDATE

2012 is shaping up to be a pretty good year at the movies.

I already love more movies this year than in 2011.  Here's the quick list:

The Grey
Chronicle
Cabin in the Woods
Avengers - (I know I was surprised too)

We are approaching the fifth month of the year and there are still so many exciting movies still to be released.  I am so glad to actually be enjoying movies again.  Here's a quick list of movies I'm really excited for:

The Sound of My Voice -  Awesome first act - shits the bed the res of the movie.
Prometheus
Brave
People Like Us
The Dark Knight Rises
Premium Rush
Lawless
Looper
The Master
Lincoln
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Just a quick one:

2012 is shaping up to be a pretty good year at the movies.

I already love more movies this year than in 2011.  Here's the quick list:

The Grey
Chronicle
Cabin in the Woods

We are approaching the fifth month of the year and there are still so many exciting movies still to be released.  I am so glad to actually be enjoying movies again.  Here's a quick list of movies I'm really excited for:

The Sound of My Voice
Prometheus
Brave
People Like Us
The Dark Knight Rises
Premium Rush
Lawless
Looper
The Master
Lincoln
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

SIGH

I'm moderately excited about The Avengers, GI Joe Retaliation, Expendables 2, Total Recall, My sister's sister, skyfall, life of pi, Django unchained, the Great Gatsby and a bunch of others but for these I'm not holding my breath.  It is hollywood - land of expensive mediocrity after all.

So yeah, here's to going and seeing films in a theater in 2012.

On a side tangent I really wish I had a higher viewership.  I really would like to take a pole of 13-25 year-olds to find out if Reagal Cinema's plan to allow texting in the movie theater is a good idea.

Some say - It's a movie, you paid for a ticket -  should pay attention and not distract others around you with noise or light.

Others Say - It's so constricting--- so what if I want to text my friends, talk on the phone, check my stocks,  e-mail, and look up everything I can on that hot actress up on the screen.  I do it at home, why can't I do it in the theater?

I personally think it's stupid and annoying, but this just might be my "get off my lawn" moment come way too early.

Positive Thinking Doesn't Work

One of my favorite blogs to read in my down time is LifeHack.org.  I can't tell you how many story ideas I get come from bloggers.  Questions like: "Why is this person writing this right now?" and "Why is this resonating with me right now?" can lead in some really productive directions.  

In any case they posted an article on 4 Reasons Positive Thinking Doesn't Work (and What to do Instead).   In a related factoid, (I can't remember where I read it but)  there was a study done recently which basically confirmed this premise.  If you spend time imagining what you most desire, you will be less compelled to experience it in reality.  The research suggested that the fantasy is as good as reality in these cases.

But when reality finally rams its ugly phallus through your ears making you face the realization that the day dream is no longer attainable, you end up with shit like this:

In real life you have to work hard to attain any kind of success.  And now that only 1 our of every 2 graduates are getting decent jobs out of college it no longer just applies to the arts.  The really remarkable thing is that the harder you work for it the sweeter the success feels at the end.

Now, I like working hard --  I like picking my writing apart, figuring out why it sucks and moving forward.   I tend to be my harshest self critic.  A person with a "It'll turn out all right in the end" or "rainbows, unicorn farts, and prayer will fix it" kind of attitudes really piss me off.

"No you don't understand --  I have a draft due to that prospective manager or agent in a week and I need to get it done."  Is not a defeatist statement and it can't be fixed with positive / wishful thinking.    My first reaction to this is, "how dare you trivialize the mountain of work I have to do."

(SIGH) -- The loved ones mean well.  

And they do.

When you (and by you I'm really writing to myself here) spend too much time in critical mode, it can lead to a downward spiral of negativity through every aspect of your life.  There must always be a balance.  The positivity comes in the form of perspective.

Feelings Toward School

This was a letter I wrote to a friend of a friend who is about to graduate high school and wants to be an actress.  She is talented enough to get into AMDA, but couldn't afford to go.

So you can't afford to pay for your school.  As an actor you need to realize that this is the first in a long long line of disappointments and denials. even successful actors hear "No" or "You can't" a thousand times more than they hear "You got the part" - The hardest aspect of the job - isn't acting, it is withstanding rejection and other pitfalls.  When I first moved to LA someone told me that every "overnight success" is ten years in the making. 

Take heart there are always alternatives. 

The best part about school is that it is a relatively stress free environment that is structured to make you learn. Finding a play or film to act in is easier in an educational setting than the real world. Networking is easier. And there is Homework - Are you really going to read a biography of Bertolt Brecht on your own instead of watching TV? What if you have a paper due on said book? The point is that education sets up incentives that real life doesn't. And a degree from a good school will unlock doors and give you opportunities that will otherwise be closed to you.

And there are plenty of better places than AMDA. I would hate to break it to AMDA but studying only musical theater and dance is really limiting for someone trying to enter a contemporary entertainment industry. If you've got good grades USC, NYU, Cal Arts, UC Irvine, Southern Oregon Uni... all have good acting programs and have carry more academic weight than AMDA does. If you don't have good grades, there are community colleges that you can use to get into the better schools. 

The other alternative is not going to school - Speaking as someone about to finish a masters in screenwriting that will cost me over $100,000, sometimes the schooling can be a hinderance to success. I say will cost me because the majority of that 100 grand I borrowed (student loans). For the next 30 years, I will be paying about 800 dollars a month for this education. That is on top of rent and bills and everything else. This makes it hard to take time off do other things that could further a career in entertainment or other life goals for that matter. Despite all the great promotional material, and other things these schools say - No School (not even the best school in the world) guarantees a job or a the part of your life in a show that'll make you famous/rich/successful.

If you want to be an actor - move to LA or NYC get a job with a flexible schedule and start doing any jobs that will get you on set. (Production Assistant, Extra) you can find these online with a quick search. Volunteer at places where you will meet other actors, writers, producers, directors, and other creative folks. Buy some books (or better yet get a library card and borrow the books) on acting, improv, play scripts, tv scripts, movie scripts - read as much as you can. Take classes in improv (UCB, Second City, Groundlings) or acting (ask around - private teachers can be shady). There's nothing like practical experience. Stay away from credit cards, embrace a thrifty life style, and realize that success (whatever that word might mean to you) will take a longer than you think. 

And if you decide at some point you want to go back to school, or do something else- it will ALWAYS be an option. The time to take chances and make mistakes is when you are young. 

This is just my epic 2 cents. I wish you the best of broken legs as you decide your future. 

Writer’s Calisthenics

These are some tools to help exercise the writer’s brain and to help hone craft.  You can do any or all of these in no particular order.

1.  ACTIVELY READ (I know super obvious) - Read as much of the type of writing you want to do (Novels, Short Stories, Plays, Screenplays, etc).  If you want to do it all, read everything.  The trick here is to Actively read, don’t just let the suspension of disbelief take over.  Think about what each sentence, section of dialog paragraph, and slug line is good for in the grand whole.  Where is the story going and how does it take you there.

2.  FOLLOW ALONG  - Watch a movie with the screenplay in your lap.  Pause when you need to. The point is to see how a scene is describe on the page and how it actually turned out.  

3.  OUTLINE - Watch a film over and over to create a 70 beat outline from the finished product.  You can find out more about 70 beats here. This is a great exercise to learn how to structure a story. 

4.  SETUP & PAYOFF - While watching a movie make a list of all the setups and payoffs in the story.  They just introduced a teddy bear and you know it’s going to be important - That’s a set up.  What actually happens with the teddy bear is the payoff.  These can be big and small but always push action forward.  One of the best movies for this exercise is The Apartment with Jack Lemon and Shirley McClain.  Setup’s and Payoffs in screenplays are an elegant way to tie the scenes together into a cohesive whole.   This will show you how they work.  

5.  USE A TYPE WRITER for free form journaling.  I have a theory that word processors make people lazy.  (I’ll spell / grammar check it later.)  Learning to writing with a typewriter is like learning to ride a bike without training wheels.  It is physically harder to press the keys, make a mistake and you have to retype a whole page, formatting isn’t automatic, and if your unsure about how to spell a world or how to write a certain sentence stop and look up the rule.  I’m not saying do everything on a typewriter - but use it like a treadmill or weight machine.  

6.  GO BACK TO GRAMMAR SCHOOL - I’m not a grammar nazi, in fact I’m sure some of you are rolling your eyes at this blog’s egregious grammatical mistakes.  The point here is - grammar for writers is like paint to a painter.  You can’t teach creativity, but you can teach grammar.  It is a tool of the craft that must be mastered if you want to be taken seriously as a writer.  A great story and perfect spelling and grammar are not mutually exclusive.  There are some great books - Strunk and White, Woe is I, Eat Shoots and Leaves, etc.

 
7.  TRANSCRIBE - There was a director (I think it was William Wyler, not sure)  who would re-type the screenplay before going into production.  By doing this he would discover things in the screenplay that he would have otherwise grazed over.  Find a screenplay or a chapter in a favorite book and re-type it.  This one is kind of like putting your fingers in an idol’s brain.  It’s also a great ego buster.  Everyone can get used to writing stuff this good.  

Battleship is a Turning Point

According to deadline the new movie Battleship which has been getting massive amounts of negative buzz here in the states opened in a bunch of territories around the world almost a month ahead of the U.S. release.  And it is kicking ass apparently -- Read more at: http://www.deadline.com/2012/04/battleship-goes-to-war-overseas-1-almost-every-country-where-it-opened/#more-255810

Now it's not surprising that American blockbusters do well overseas.  Our movies are flashy, fun, and our special effects look better because we spend more on them.  For much of the last ten years the majority of a films proceeds has come from foreign box offices.   But  by releasing a movie a month ahead of the american release they make the film susceptible to piracy that will poach "meh, yeah, I'll check it out" crowd.  That combined with the "John Carter in gunmetal grey" buzz about the film will likely mean a flop for the Bismarck, I mean Battleship.

Now the buzz is bad because, come on - it looks like a transformers clone based on a board game with a generic 'must save the planet' plot and action figures for characters.   The lack of depth will make people who complain about the dumbing down of movies, point to this one and say, "See!!! Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!!!" until they are blue in the face.

Now films are expensive and Producers need to make their money back.  They like things that are safe - especially when they are spending more than the Gross State Product (GSP) of Louisiana ON ONE FILM.
Contrary to the popular believe that, "movies are stupider now because we americans are stupid," much of the simplification of plot has come from Producer pressure to make the film simpler so that they are easier to translate and / or don't require an audience to do a lot of reading to follow what's going on in a foreign market.

Now that the studios are releasing Battleship in the US last, this  strikes me as the first time a hollywood studio has basically said, we don't give a shit about the american box office.  Battleship's primary audience is not the US.  This strikes me as ironic and backwards.  Will this trend continue with hollywood making movies exclusively for foreign release? Will Hollywood start making movies in Mandarin or some other language?  As consumers of media do we americans no longer matter as much?   I might be wrong, I drive a car from a japanese auto maker that was manufactured in the US so maybe it does work.

I just think that some savvy Producer who knows deep down an audience just wants to be wowed by a story will see this as an opportunity to make something US market specific.  Some of the best movies ever made were because of some tricky budgeting.  In the Heat of the Night was one such movie.  It was green lit when the producers got the budget down low enough that they could afford to not play the film in the south.  Why they couldn't play the movie in the south is for another topic all together, but it is important to remember that there is more to making films than just stringing together a few explosions and collecting money.  Is it too much to ask for a little emotion and a more engaging / thought worthy level of conflict that is tailored to just the U.S.?   Something I can connect to that demands my attention and forces me to stop checking twitter in the movie theater.    

Netflix continues to shit the bed

To Mr. Reed Hastings:

I can understand your position.  Netflix looses money on every disc mail out to its subscribers,  the cost of acquiring media for the streaming service is expensive, and there are growing doubts over solvency of the United States Postal Service. 

But a streaming only Netflix service as it now stands is full of B level content, that is unstable.  A movie you may want to watch at some point may not be available when you finally have a chance to watch it.  One of the excuses for the price increase was to allow Netflix to pay more for its content and hopefully lengthen the contracts, but with many other services competing for exclusivity of content Netflix will never have everything you may want to watch.  The dvd/blu-ray que was the answer.  The depth of the library insured that if it wasn’t streaming it was only a couple of days away.  And if you put it in your dvd queue, it would automatically appear on the streaming queue if it happened to become available.  That has been a huge bonus for a cinephile such as myself.  

Dividing the service now means I have to have separate queues on two websites.  For a Netflix subscriber from 2001 that is extremely annoying.   You have basically doubled the bullshit I have to sort through in order to strategically plan my movie enjoyment.  This move seems more like added bureaucracy than convenience.  

If we look at the future of Netflix just as a streaming service a subscriber loses access to a host of films that are amazing but will never have enough viewers to justify streaming.  This also opens the door for Amazon, Block Buster, Hulu, and a host of others compete directly with your streaming service without having to worry about the depths of the mail library.

If you look just at Quickster.com as a business.  Which is merging the services of Gamefly.com and the original Netflix model. Offering disc based media by mail.  The flaw with games is that already we are seeing the growth of download ability of affordably priced games across all three major consuls.  With the video game industry trying it’s damnedest to destroy the rental market, the growth and price structure of downloadable video games will only continue to increase getting cheaper and more available.   

As far as the movie side goes, how can it not become a niche market for Cinephiles and Technophobes that will more than likely shrink as time goes on.  

For me and many other loyal Netflix subscribers the value was in the cheap and fast access to pretty much any film or TV show.  The instant access was deep enough to find something interesting on a whim and the library was there if a film wasn’t available streaming.  And now that this hard pivot of the company has alienated so many us, only time will tell which company I will go with for my streaming content.   

Compulsions

List of screenwriters I’ve met or head speak in the last year -

Tom Rickman         John August          Debra Granik
Mike Urban         Paul Tamasy          Andrew Kevin Walker
Steve Mazuer         Eric Johnson          Rick Jaffa
Dan Vining         Keith Dorrington  Amanda Silver
Karen Jansen         Lisa Cholodenko  Ben Ripley
Mike Ellis         Stuart Blumberg  David Seidler
Gill Dennis         John Sayles           Ashley Miller
Frank Pierson         Nicole Holofcener   Zack Stentz
Melissa Rosenberg Steve Kloves          J. Michael Straczynski
Katie Wech          Peter Craig          Mark Protosevich
Heather Hach          Paul Feig          Jon Lucas
Wesley Strick          David O. Russel  Scott Moore
Larry Karaszewski  Mark Fergus          Allen Estrin
Aaron Sorkin          Roberto Orci


I am marveling at the caliber of writers on this list.  I feel very lucky to have been in a position to listen to them speak and ask them questions.  Golden Age Hollywood writers to those just starting out all having sold multiple scrips.  Some having influenced the direction of a specific genre.  All bringing their own voice to movies.  They all write compulsively and most are incredibly insecure.

The question that they all get asked without fail is - how do you break in?  And the answer generally is I don’t have a clue.   They all worked hard, got their writing in front of someone who took a chance on them.   That’s about it.

I think the key component is the working hard, writing compulsively, and being willing to send out your stuff.  Being willing and actively seeking someone to rip your writing apart.  To get you to think in different ways.

The biggest challenge for me is the writing everyday part.  I procrastinate like you wouldn’t believe.  The reasons behind this procrastination is something that all writers deal with including the ones on the list.  They have just developed a compulsion to write.  I kind of equate the compulsion to alcoholism.

Imagine:  You wake up in the morning still drunk from the night before.  You get in the shower and crack open a beer.  As your day progresses you start to analyze what you are doing to yourself.    You think maybe I shouldn’t drink anymore.  But as night time rolls back around you just can’t stop yourself.   You don’t bother to count the number of drinks you’ve had because you know you’ll just forget before the night is over.

For a writer it seems to be more like this:  You wake up at 7am with an imprint of the keyboard on your face still exhausted and a little hungover from a long night of writing.   You think, “Jesus I only got 3 hours of sleep,” as you crack open that beer in the shower and start to feel guilty about having not written anything yet today. Just out of the shower you write for a couple of hours - not bothering to take the time to put on clothes.  At lunch you start to analyze what you’ve been writing.  You decide that you hate it. It all needs to be thrown away.  Fuck! I really suck at this.  The next few hours are spent surfing the internet.  But within a couple of hours you are back at that keyboard typing away, only getting up to get another drink. You don’t even bother looking at a clock because you know that time is going to fly.  It doesn’t matter anyway because you’re going to write until you pass out.

If you, like me, are having trouble developing that compulsion I suggest three things - all of which are incredibly hard to do.

 1. Drink less Alcohol
 2. Use the don’t break the chain calendar found here for free - http://www.writersstore.com/dont-break-the-chain-calendar
 3. Use the program Freedom a well spent ten dollars - http://macfreedom.com/

It seems to be working for me so far.

Still Images from my Cycle Two Film

For Cycle two I wrote a dark fantasy ghost story, that the korean director fucked up beyond belief.   Between key scenes not being shot, and the incompetence of someone who doesn't speak english, The Skull Cup ended up like most of the cycle films - horrible.   

But at least it looks pretty.  

Props to the Editor and Cinematographer who made the film at least coherent.  

My latest Comic Book Obsession - Morning Glories

I know I haven't been updating my blog as much as I should, but I thought I would quickly throw this up. 

This is still a relatively new indie book focusing on a group of super smart teenagers, all with the same birthday, who are invited to attend the Morning Glory Academy.   

Great Characters, smart writing with a sprinkling of playful WTF.

Here's a scene from the first issue.

An AFI grad. I don't want to admit why I love this short.

THAT's LIFE from Martin Wichmann Andersen on Vimeo.

Would you pay 50,000 dollars to make the mistakes that would ruin a normal career?

I once heard an explanation for why english has become the language of business throughout the world.  It had something to do with the amount of adjectives.  Adjectives....supposedly those of us that speak english have more ways to describe everything that any one who speaks a different language.  And yet, english fails most of us more than we’d like to admit.  

I was having dinner with my producer (who is Japanese) and my director (who is British) .  I am pretty sure that I intimidate my director, but he is such an egotistical bastard that he doesn’t back down. 

It is very hard to try to write something creative.  To then give it to a number of people and have it judged.  And then to have the judgements be so opposite that really the best solution is to ignore the comments.  But, sometimes the words fail me and the ideas I am trying to convey don’t materialize in the intended way.  But, if you happen to be giving anything to a british person it’s hard to not take it like some bizarre form of  chastisement. 

“It needs to feel more (hands waving indicating something bigger)....yeah.  You know what I mean?”

“That parts good... That’s good... (circling with a pen) What about this line?  It that real?”

“It’s a good first draft.  I can’t wait to the next one.”  Or more recently “It’s a good fourth draft, but it’s not the movie I want to direct, yet.”   

“You just need to work at it.”  

What the fuck do you think I have been doing?  

In any case... we were having dinner tonight. And I finally had enough.  I told the both of them that it’s done. This is the draft you are shooting.  My director last friday told me that he’s not going to do any preparation at all.  No story boards, no shot lists, nothing.  This is a guy who will obsesses about a single word in a paper and won’t turn it in until he gets it just right.  Meanwhile the paper gets no credit because it was late.  He starts to obsess about things that don’t matter.  

I think I scared them for about ten seconds. 

The whole group likes the fourth draft, including the director.  They just aren’t sure if it is film-able in the time alloted.  I asked the director to do some prep so that we know what needs to be cut for the shooting days.  And here is where communication is key.  He thought that I was stepping on his toes.  Of course I told him that I felt that he was “winging it.”  And being the obsessive person that he is, he didn’t like that very much.  

No film is ever perfected, the film-makers just ran out of time or money.   

But just in the blackest moment, I decided to talk to them about the outlines.  In reality at  this point, our Japanese producer couldn’t keep up with the rapid-fire english so I was really just talking to the director.  

I talked about how we hand three outlines that really did nothing for the story. I had 2 pages of writing that didn’t help me at all in the formation of the script.  And he wanted a third draft of the outline. It got to the point that the mentor had to say you can’t move forward with out a first draft of the script. The director wouldn’t have been happy with the 25th draft of the outline.  

This is where we were with the script.  The whole point of a film script is to have it filmed.  I write a blue print, or building blocks for something visual.  It’s time for the director to move forward in making the fucking movie.  And he finally agreed.

My mistake was to start to take it personally.  It I had made the allusion to the outlines in the first place I could have saved myself a huge headache.  And I probably wouldn’t have pissed anybody off.  To me this was one of those AH Ha moments that most of you have already learned.  Don’t take for granted that the director knows the usefulness of storyboards and shot-lists to a screenwriter with a contract through shooting. 

We are all trying to make the best movie that we can.  Isn’t it wise to test out a script in preproduction, with the screenwriter, before the actors have any ideas?  This is a medium that has evolved from the production line method to become more collaborative.  There is a gray line that a screenwriter can cross if you want to use him like an ally.  

"Someone will make it big in the first year."

I found out last night that one of the directors has dropped out of the program.  Not because it was too intense or they were having second thoughts.  It was because she was offered a feature deal.  She will be directing a feature sometime this year.  OF course she is super talented  and has worked hard to get where she was even to this point.  This is the short film she showed at the long night. 

Idiots with Zoe Saldana & Kate Bosworth from Zoe Saldana

For the screenwriting department there is always one person that will sell something and make it big in the first year.  At least, that is what one of the screenwriting heads said.  It is just a reminder that I need to push hard.  I am required to One Feature this year.  I know that I have to write two.  I also want to get an impression of my first two scripts.  Have them overhauled. If I can come out of here with 6 good finished scripts and a 1 hour drama pilot.  That would be awesome.  

Welcome to the Machine

Over the last few weeks we have had social gatherings to try and get to know one another.  For the most part I have been friendly but I don’t know how many people I would really say I feel comfortable with.  This has always been a struggle for me but I am pushing harder and I know progress is going to be slow.   Part of the issue is that I don’t really like to brag about myself or talk about myself at all and that might be seen as a barrier to friendship.

 Part of the process of making a better writer.

It was really funny how the personalities break down within each discipline.  The screenwriters all tend to be a bit shy – but like to drink too much, the production designers all look like they should be covered in paint all the time, the editors are the kindest, gentlest mole people you will ever meet, the directors are pretty much all narcissists, the cinematographers collect by themselves and tend to talk in a tech language no one can understand and the producers are out-going, friendly, and trying to figure out how best to use you. 

How does that joke go --- A narcissist, an alcoholic, and a Producer walk into a bar…. The Screenwriter says:  “I want to make this movie. “ The Director says, “I like your idea but we’re going to do mine okay?”  The Producer nods happily and says, “that sounds great, I know you can write it.”  And thus a team is born.

So anyway, I write the script and I think it is pretty good.  I invited the team over and they read the first seven pages.  There were laughs at all the jokes.  A look of worry disappears from the director’s face and we go down to the beach and have a great time.

I turned in the first draft and all hell breaks loose.  My team decided to not read it until just before the meeting with our mentor.  Which turns into the vague list of complaints.   The first session of this was about an hour and 15 minutes.  The next with the mentor was another 30 minutes.  So I was sitting there being critiqued poorly for about 1 hour: 45 minutes.  I left feeling self-conscious and down right shitty about my grammar, my script formatting, and general story-telling ability.  Needless to say I needed a beer.   And thus I fell into my own discipline’s cliché. 

Imagine taking two years to climb this hill.

Of course all of this is happening before classes officially start.  The opening ceremonies included a brief run down of who graduated from the school, a nice speech from the director of the board of trustees and a history lesson about beginnings of The AFI.  What was missing was the mortal combat theme song and someone yelling, “Let the games begin!”   In the afternoon of the opening day, alumnus Edward Zwick, (Oscar winner) screened his new film, Love and Other Drugs.  Turns out his whole production team (screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, and editor) all went to AFI within a few years of each other.   It made me feel better that when he turned to the audience and told them he cried himself to sleep for the first two months.  That anxiety is part of the business and you need to learn to control it.   It was exactly what I needed to hear.  

Screening and Pitching

So much has happened in the last two weeks I can’t even begin to focus.  The orientation was a blur of expected things: Papers being filled out, pictures taken, etc.  There are over 120 of us and it was very easy to pick out the personality differences between the different disciplines.   It was a great day of talking about movies, and introducing yourself, and hoping to go you remember everyone’s name.  (I didn’t. )  There are some people even now that I have been introduced to three times and I still don’t remember their name, but it is getting better.   What I do remember is the work.  On Friday August 20^th the entire class was sent to a screening room at about 12:30PM and we stayed there until 11pm watching each other’s reels. It was a really long day.  By the end of the night I was amazed at the quality of the work and also very intimidated.   I’m glad I didn’t show anything.  Abe Lincoln said something like - It’s better to remain quiet and be thought an idiot than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.  Yeah I was feeling a little bit of that on that Friday.

The following Monday was pitch day.  Being extremely nervous I was up until 1:30 in the morning refining and focusing my pitches.   The producers, directors, and screenwriters were divided into group and we each pitched two ideas.  I was surprised by how few people knew how to pitch or even attempted to.  In any case, I got up there and pitched my ideas, which were followed by a number of good questions and a round of clapping.  A few people came up to me afterwards and told me how much they liked my ideas.  Because of the way the teams form neither of my ideas were chosen, but I did end up on a really good team and I am two drafts into the cycle one project the director wanted to do. 

The Application, the Interview, and Walking through the Door.

I confess.  I did my application last minute.   I was up for three days writing my essay and getting together all the shit I needed.   Granted, I was applying for another school and producing a play at the same time.   I’m not sure if that is the greatest excuse. 

My mindset at the time was one of desperation.  I had just finished a screenplay that did extremely well in competition.   I had quit my job about the same time the recession started and was completely and whole-heartedly depressed.  My career was a loose affiliation of somewhat connected media jobs that to this day are not very impressive in resume format. 

During this time I was unemployed and going through what I can best describe as a crisis of self worth.  I was at my most pathetic point typing away my first full-length screenplay.  I can’t tell you how many short films, training films, corporate films and other bullshit films I have written in my life.  Many of which I am still embarrassed of. 

SIDE TANGENT – It is amazing that all of the film work that I wrote and directed in my bachelor film program never measured up to the first film I did in high school.  What I mean by that is this:  when I was 16 years old I finished a video approximate run time: 15 minutes.   This video was a spoof on my favorite show, The X-Files and heavily influenced by favorite director at the time David Lynch, entitled “The Y-Files.”   The Y-Files was more entertaining than any other film I did from 2000-2004 and to this day it seems pretty entertaining to the audiences still wanting to watch it.  I personally get too embarrassed to be in the room while it is playing.  To make a long story shorter, I was broke, unemployed, living with my parents in northern California and working on a screenplay. I had never written a feature length screenplay before.  The time had come. I was in a crisis of worth, like I said.  I was contemplating business school, but I love to tell stories.  I love the adrenaline rush of production.  I love the camaraderie of cast and crew.  I even got a devilish enjoyment of the drama that inevitably happens.  So there I was making a deal with myself.  I would write a feature and see what happens.  I struggled through not having any clue what I was doing, but I managed 109 pages.  I sent it in to a competition just to check how good it was.   If I had not received anything from the contest I probably would have given up and applied to a Business Masters Program. A few months later I found out the judges decided my first (and untrained) screenplay was better that 4000-plus other screenplays that had entered.  I was beside myself.  It was a reaffirmation of my love and I took it as a sign that I was supposed to be doing this. 

So back to applying to AFI… I finished my application to AFI, which is relatively simple compared to other schools.  (I don’t want to dignify the other school I applied to with a mention, so I won’t.  I’ll just say it also was in LA and it wasn’t UCLA or USC.  I was focusing on schools that used film production as an emphasis.)  I wrote my essay gave the first 30 pages to the script that did well in contest, and waited to see. In the mean time I was still writing as well as producing and directing for the northern California stage.  (I know how pretentious that sounds, just understand the theater was in a warehouse, which could have killed the audience. Not exactly to code.)

Months later I got a call to schedule an interview appointment.  LESSON NUMBER ONE:  To get an interview, your work has to show potential. There are limited spots and it is really competitive.  Here is how you gauge your work:  Have you tried putting your work in competition? Did it place?  Have you been professionally hired by a theater or film company?  If you answer no to any of these still apply but if you don’t get an interview keep trying  - age is not a huge factor.  Remember huge failures can be assets as long as you learn from them.  It’s never a bad idea to try to FAIL HARDER. 

THE INTERVIEW

I received the phone call right after a theater production meeting.  A good friend and mentor saw me receive the phone call.  I was so excited.  I was jumping up and down. He asked me what was going on.   I told him, I have an interview at AFI.  I could see the depression in his face.  He still told me good job and good luck.  Quickly I scheduled the interview as soon as I could. 

Being close enough to drive , with no money for a hotel (or anything else). I drove down the day of my interview, which I had scheduled in the afternoon.  I got up early, driving down, a pit in my stomach the entire way.  I parked at Griffith park for about a half an hour going over questions I thought they were going to ask. 

Arriving on campus I was feeling very intimidated and yet everyone was extremely nice.  In the industry, and even in film school, it seems as if everyone has an ego the size of the planet.  But, in my first impression of the Warner Brothers Building, that was not the case.

             

I arrive at the schedule time. (Tip: I don’t care how creative you are, it is always a good idea to arrive on time for something important.) I sit in the admissions office for a little while talking with the “Angel” behind the desk.  I could tell she knew I was nervous.  They took my picture and sent me up to a classroom.  As I was going up to the interview room, they told me who I was going interview with - I will leave them anonymous, but just know that my jaw dropped and my knees got weak after hearing a brief synopsis of their resume.

            

I walk in say hello and they proceed to ask me questions.  And as fate loves, none of the questions were what I prepared for.  The first question was: who is your favorite screenwriter?   I blanked.  I knew I had to say something, but I couldn’t think of anyone.  Finally I blurted out the most obscure screenwriter in my entire brain.  I said, ”Kogo Noda.” Who was the preferred screenwriter of Japanese director Ozu. “That is the most unique name to come up in any interview I’ve done.” I smiled and the interview continued for forty-five minutes.  I could tell you my exact questions but I’m not sure how much they would help.  But I will tell you this – They are looking for a talented filmmaker, who has a passion to become a better filmmaker.  They are looking for someone who isn’t afraid to work well with others.  Collaboration is the basis of the curriculum – theorists need not apply.  You don’t necessarily need to know a lot about filmmaker or have a golden resume, but all that helps.  The main point is this: they are looking for people that still believe they can transform and lead the film industry, who have lost the naivety of the avid film fan who wants to make movies.  AND you can’t be afraid of work.  If you just thought, “ I guess that’s not me.”  Let me tell you this – The moment you convince yourself to do it anyway, is the moment you are what I described above.   

            

If you are standing on top of a rock with a 30-foot drop into water, and it seems do-able, and you want the glory that comes with completing that jump.  Take a deep breath, a running leap, and scream all the way down.  The ripples and repercussions are well worth the fear.