Taking a break

I thought I should put a quick post up here. I’m going to be taking a break from posting for a little while. However, I will continue to answer any questions any of you have. If you post a reply to any of my blogs, it will trigger an alert to my email. I will always answer those. Thanks!

Back soon

Just a quick blog to say Happy Labor Day and that I should be back shortly. Between the holiday commitments and some work I have to get done asap – I’m a bit slammed to come with any sort of proper blog.

Also, I wanna keep throwing this out every now and then: if any one has any questions or topics they’d like me to talk about – please let me know.

See you all soon.

Movin’ on UP!

Okay…so I’m becoming obsessed with getting to the next level. As you may or may not know, there are all these invisible levels when you’re a screenwriter. I’m actually NOT an expert on this and undoubtedly have a warped view. BUT, as I see things…the levels are basically as follows…

Level 1 – Risking it all and getting to L.A. Yeah, I know we’re in the internet age and I know there are a million screenwriting contests, but I still think your best bet is to be here in order to get to the next level…

Level 2 – Getting an Agent. Finding someone that knows someone, that knows someone, that knows — an agent. Then, convincing all those people to pass your script along. Then, having the agent love it enough or rather, think that he can sell it – and sign you.

Level 3 – Getting a sale. You get your original script out there and someone buys it! Thus, starting the “meeting machine” where you meet with all sorts of producers and studios execs — making new friends and contacts around town.

Level 4 – Getting an assignment. Using the heat off your sale to get the opportunity to pitch for an assignment. Then, killing the pitch and getting the assignment. At this point, it will won’t be a very high profile assignment AND you’ll have to beat out 100 other writers, cattle call style, for the job…but hey — you’re getting paid to write – POW!

Level 5 – Getting better assignments. Getting projects people have actually heard about. Now, granted, you’re probably up against 5 or so writers and it’s probably been passed over by some A-list guy OR you’re being called in to rewrite a script they aren’t quite pleased with, but — these are still really, really great assignments. A huge step up from level 4.

Level 6 – A shade above level 5. Similar projects, only you are one of the first writers on the project after the A or A minus guys pass. And maybe the project is a notch better than level 5.

Level 7 – This level is a little ambiguous, but this is where your agent stops making outbound calls and starts receiving in-bound calls! This is huge. People either offer you a job outright OR they offer it to you with the provision that its yours if you all agree on a take. In other words, this is your job to lose. If it doesn’t work out, THEN we’ll move on. Normally you need something to happen to get to this level (ie: land a bunch of things at once…have a really huge spec sale…one of your scripts gets made and released and does well, etc. Lots of different ways to get here, none of them easy).

Level 8 – Getting to STACK JOBS. This is the level that makes myself and every other writer in town want to yank their pants down and work themselves over. This is where you get to say “yes” to multiple assignments and…the studios are okay with waiting in line. Much like an actor, you put the assignments in positions of your availability and then work them in that order. In other words, you know what your next 2,3, even 4 jobs are. They are locked and loaded. Pretty sweet.

Level 9 – I don’t know what to call this other than — Nirvana. There aren’t a lot of writers here and they oscillate in and out. This level is for people like David Keopp ( Jurassic Park, Spider Man, War of the Worlds, Mission Impossible, etc). This is where A-list actors and A-list directors come calling. Quite frankly I don’t know how you ever fall out of this level once you’re there, given the sheer amount of variables stacked in your favor (great actors, great directors, giant franchises, best selling novels to adapt, and on and on and on.).

And that’s it! Top of the mountain.

Again, all of this is silly to try and quantify, but this is sort of how I perceive the various levels. But as I said before, I’m getting obsessed with movin’ on up. Specifically to Level 7. And believe it or not – NOT because of the upgrade in paycheck. Yes, I’d love a little more breathing room. I’m entering the “buy a house, have a kid” phase, so I could definitely use the extra scratch.

But it’s really more about: a) getting cool projects b) having to hustle less to get them. The less I have to hustle, the more time I have to write, which truly makes me happy.

My agents are ecstatic about my career is and it’s current trajectory, so I’m definitely thankful for how things are going. When I think that I came out here not that long ago never having visited California and not knowing a single soul – things have gone pretty good.

But I wouldn’t mind movin’ another level up!!

One more thing…

One more quick announcement… THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER ARTICLE. Still recovering from the vacation, trying to get everything in order. Will promise to get back in the swing of things here on FIB. Truth be told, I envy the anonymous bloggers on the board. I’d love to have the freedom to unload the way they do. Be sure to check them out!

Back to the Grindstone

Just a short post to let you guys know that…I’m back! After a sweltering trip to the Florida Keys where I lost approximately 50 pounds in water weight – it’s back to the ol’ grindstone.
I got a small piece of good news while I was out…

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i7208006e0cd8646940a78734a60b592d

Will let you guys know how that pans out. Thanks for all the support and as usual, if you have any specific questions, I’ll do my best to answer!

I’ll be back!

Just a quick post to let you guys know that I’ll be on vacation till the second week in August. I would love to say that I’m going off to recharge my batteries, but I will no doubt be working in my head 24/7.

I’m off to the Florida Keys, perfect for relaxing. But…I’ve got a TV pitch that I’m putting together that needs to go out asap. I’ve also got a bunch of spec ideas I’m trying to work – trying to figure out which to write next.
So, while my body will be horizontal by the pool, my brain will be going full blast. One of the hazards of writing – you can do it any time, anywhere.

But hopefully I will come back a little tanner and a little more recharged.
Until then!

I need to refill my well!

Your boy’s worn out. Numb. I just pitched for 3 assignments in a row – two of which came down to me and one other writer. And I didn’t get either. My agent reassures me by telling me that I didn’t get the jobs for extraneous reasons. For instance, I was up for an animated job – it came down to me and the guys that wrote “Toy Story”. You can imagine which way they went on that one.

Sooo…I think I need to cleanse my pallet. Because, while chasing assignments can be fun, there are also three negatives:

1) It’s someone else’s idea. You are basically writing for someone else right off the bat. Getting notes right off the bat. Being steered right off the bat.
2) You get none of fun part. The fun part of writing (to me) is, well, writing. When you are chasing assignments – all you’re doing is the hard part – the planning, the outlining the strategizing, etc, etc. Unless you get the assignment, you don’t even get to write the script you’ve just killed yourself to conceive. Try tossing 3-5 weeks down the toilet a bunch of times in a row! Talk about soul sucking.
3) The odds are rarely great. You are always up against a handful or in some cases – a HUGE amount of writers. I ran into this issue on the third assignment I mentioned above. I gave a pitch on this assignment and as I was walking out of the room – I spotted a buddy of mine in the next room over. I told him what I was pitching for and he said (loud enough for the people I just pitched to hear), “Ahhhh Christ, you can forget about that one. Those guys don’t know what they want. They’ve had 30 writers in here already – changing their minds every day.”

All I could think of was — this was something I just worked 4 weeks to conceive.

The whole process of “writing assignments” just seems so flawed. The only thing the exec or producer is looking for is a “Take” they like. In fact, one of my good friends said to me, “I don’t care if I have to go through 100 writers. I’ll do what I gotta do to get the right take.” Well, here’s the problem with that – 90 of those writers either aren’t going to be very good, will have no idea how to execute that take, or simply aren’t right for the project. So you’ve got a neat take – BUT THE WRONG WRITER!!!

I’m baffled at the idea of choosing a writer based on a 10 minute take. That’s like picking a basketball player for your pick-up team that brought the nicest ball.

If I were an exec or producer – I would pick the WRITER I want. A guy that’s delivered similar material more than once. Then, instead of spending 3 months going through a 100 takes – I’d spend one month with one writer — working out a take I like.

THEN – I’d have a take I like AND a writer I had confidence in. ‘Course, I tried to explain this to my friend and smoke came out of his ears.

So, I think I’m going to use this industry lull (with the SAG stuff bringing most projects to a creep) to think up a spec idea. That way I have something that’s 100% mine and more importantly – I’ll have something that I can actually WRITE! Imagine that.

Sure, I’ll still chase assignments as they come. But at least I’ll always have something of my own, waiting for me at home. Waiting to be written.

Another strike? Ugggggh.

Well, seems we’re back in a familiar place. Another looming strike. Now, it’s the actor’s turn. I can tell you from a screenwriter’s perspective that most everything (assignments, rewrites, etc) have slowed to a crawl.

Sad thing is, I don’t know much about the actors struggle. I’m not sure what they want in addition to what we’ve already been given. Truth is, I just don’t have the heart for it. The WGA strike sapped me of all my strength. I don’t have any desire to read Nikki Finke’s blog 10 times a day, nor all the trades. I can’t walk in another picket line or watch people attack each other on message boards.

I’m done.

I will support the actors as best I can, but man…I sure hope they don’t strike. Not even for my sake – for the rest of the town. I read somewhere that the WGA strike cost the city 2 billion dollars. 2 billion? I don’t know about you – but I don’t have that much dough lying around.

Here’s hoping that everyone comes to their senses before it’s too late.

Selling a TV show

I thought I’d slip in an extra blog this week after getting the following:

“Would be great if you could a blog item on how you sold your pilot … What changes were … Assume they’re bringing on someone else as show-runner… ? Details, details … my writing partners and I are about embark on same process, and would sure appreciate knowing what you experienced. Thanks.”

Sure…the way it worked for me was that I came into the pitching season with a small head of steam on the feature side. My agents would talk up my feature accomplishments, and then have the studio/TV exec read one of my features scripts. Once they dug the writing, my agent would then hammer them with, “Hey, my guy’s gotta TV show he wants to pitch you.” That’s what basically got me into the room.

The normal process of pitching is kinda like the feature side in that you will pitch a producer and then take the project into the TV networks.

But here’s where things get a little strange — sometime the studios will act like a producer. In all honesty, I myself am still a little confused by the whole thing. But you might actually pitch someone at a studio (Sony, Universal, etc.) and if they like it, you’d THEN go in with them and pitch it to a network — that THE STUDIOS OWN.

Soooo…there are regular producers and then there are studios that act like a producing entity. Both pitch to the actual TV network.

With the project that I sold, I got into things really late and was up against the strike. So, we by-passed the producer and went directly to the TV networks. One of the last places I went into was the Sci-fi channel. They agreed to buy it and then – the strike hit.

Fast-forward, the strike ends and they still want it. Soooo…they THEN put me with a group from NBC/Universal to act as a producing entity. They will be the middle men between me and the Sci-fi network. This seems so backwards to me because NBC/Universal OWNS the Sci-fi Channel. Yet in my case, my NBC/Universal gang ultimately ANSWERS to the Sci-fi Channel as would any other producer.

So that was basically it. Because of the looming strike, I didn’t really pitch that many places. While Sci-fi ultimately bought it, I pitched to about 8 places and 3 of them wanted the project — the rest passed.

But the process can be much longer. You may have to go through a WHOLE round of pitching producers first. Once you do that and have your producers attached, then you have to go pitch all the networks.

You could be talking about 20+ pitches. OR, again, it might go much quicker than that. It’s all so much more nebulous than the feature world to me.

As far as a show-runner, no one has been discussed. I’m not sure who it will be. As I by-passed hooking up with any show-runners or producers when I went to pitch, I’m not connected to anyone in particular. Sci-Fi is waiting to see if they like the pilot script I turn in. If they like it and plan on shooting the pilot, they’ll assign someone then.

In terms of any changes to my project, I’m going through a little bit of that now. I’ve turned in my outline and received my first set of notes. They were a little challenging and hyper-specific (which makes things tough), but I’m working with my NBC/Universal gang to decipher them and figure out how best to proceed. As it always is – it’s about the “note behind the note.” As I wrote about in and earlier blog.

I’m trying to please Sci-fi while keeping the integrity of the project. Keeping my voice is even more important in TV because if the show runs for any length of time, I’ll be in charge of keeping the shows consistency and vision. So I have to make sure I address their issues, but make sure the ol’ ship is pointed in the right direction when we launch.

Anyway, hopefully that answers your questions. If you want to ask more specific things, I’ll try and hit those as best I can in the message section below. Thanks for reading!

Credit, anyone?

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is the body that determines who becomes a credited writer on a feature film. If this were simply left up to the studios, producers and directors – chances are, the writers would not fare well.

The general idea is that if you were the sole writer who worked on the film, you’d you get “Written by” credit. If another writer worked on the movie — who got credit would need to be determined by some person or some governing body.

Credit can end up being dividing up “Story by” and “Screenplay by” credit. You might take “Story by” while sharing the “Screenplay by” credit with the other writer, etc, etc. It’s all sort of vague and nebulous, but ultimately the process can end in arbitration. The Guild recruits three members (writers in the WGA) to read all relevant drafts and determine who should get what credit.

Anyway, this week, the joint credits review committee of the WGAw and WGAE has put forth three proposed rule changes to this wacky process. The letter from this committee is reprinted below if anyone is interested…

Fellow Writers:

Credit for authorship goes to the very heart of what we do. It is an emotional topic, and at times the debates over credits have created schisms where unity is desperately needed. The Credits Review Committee comprises writers like you, who are keenly aware that our system needs improving. How to improve it has always been the difficult question. In the past, some Credits Review Committees struggled to find common ground between disparate groups of writers.

This Credits Review Committee is different. Composed of WGAW and WGAE members, the Committee is a philosophically diverse group appointed to fairly represent all theatrical film writers with differing viewpoints on credits, the role of the first writer, the role of subsequent writers, the role of “production executives,” and the manner in which credit arbiters perform their duties.
We are happy to announce three proposed changes to our Screen Credits Manual. This Committee has approved each of these proposed changes unanimously. Final approval rests with you. These proposals certainly don’t solve all our credits issues, but we believe them to be a strong first step, and we’re resolved that with your counsel and participation there will be more improvements to come.

The first proposal requires arbiters to consult with each other via teleconference in all cases where a decision is not unanimous. Currently, arbiters are not allowed to discuss their views with each other or communicate in any way. The Committee feels that by talking over their decisions in an anonymous, Guild-hosted teleconference, the arbiters will have an opportunity to give the reasons for their decisions to their peers and consider other interpretations of the material and the rules.
The Committee believes this proposal will go a long way toward improving the quality of our arbitrations and decreasing the number of split decisions.

The second and third proposals may appear to deal solely with “production executives” (writers who are also directors or producers), but in many ways, these proposals are designed to fix rules that are, in practice, hurting the very writers they were intended to help.

Currently, if you are a first writer on an original screenplay, our guidelines afford you certain protections. You are entitled to an “irreducible shared story credit.” In addition, you are only required to demonstrate a contribution of more than 33% to the final screenplay to earn screenplay credit, whereas subsequent writers must reach a threshold of 50% in order to receive screenplay credit.

Unless…If, as the first writer, you also direct or produce your own original screenplay, you lose much of your first writer protection. In such a case, according to a rule most members have never heard of, subsequent writers no longer have to reach a 50% threshold or even a 33% threshold. Rather, the Arbitration Committee may accord any other writer screenplay credit for “any substantial contribution” to the final screenplay.

The Committee is proposing that we eliminate the “any substantial contribution” rule. Instead, we propose that writers receive screenplay credit only if they can show a contribution of more than 33% as a first writer or a writer of an adaptation, or 50% if they are a subsequent writer on an original screenplay. In this way, first writers—including those who take on an additional role on their project—will not lose their protection.

Similarly, we have a rule that states that where a subsequent writer is a production executive team (where one or more members of the team is a hyphenate), the team must meet a threshold of “substantially more than 60%” for screenplay credit—even if one of the writers isn’t a production executive at all. We propose changing this threshold for production executive teams to more than 50%. The Committee strongly feels that if any writer or team proves they contributed more than half of a final screenplay, they deserve credit.

Today, many writers are becoming increasingly entrepreneurial in order to gain greater control over their material. Nevertheless, the Committee believes in continuing to protect writers who are not hyphenates. Hyphenates (and teams that include a hyphenate) will still need to meet a more than 50% standard as subsequent writers on adaptations and originals. Similarly, hyphenates will continue to trigger automatic arbitrations so that independent arbiters can ensure that the final writing credit is fair and accurate. In short, these proposals still hold hyphenates to a higher standard while preserving the special privileges that recognize the unique efforts of the first writer.

We know you’ll have questions. Please come join us at one of the upcoming information meetings to discuss these proposals. The meetings will also be an excellent opportunity to pass along any and all suggestions for the future. Our committee’s work never stops. Your input is both welcome and necessary to bring about the credit system we all deserve.

Best,
Robert King, co-chair, WGAW Craig Mazin, co-chair, WGAW Stephen Schiff, co-chair, WGAE Peter Atkins Neil Cohen Gloria Katz-Huyck Brian Koppelman Eddie Pomerantz Phil Alden Robinson Bob Schneider Garner Simmons

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