screenwriting

The long and winding road ahead…

Maximum Z screenwriting, writing gigs

So I looked at the guy’s script.

Wow.

I will be as diplomatic and tactful as I can.  Let’s say he’s got his work cut out for him.  No matter what aspect you can think of with a screenplay, he had it, well, wrong.  Formatting, wide margins, dialogue, characters.  The list goes on and on.

If he’s taking a screenwriting course at the local junior college, then somebody needs to fire that instructor’s ass immediately.

Now, in his defense, English is not his primary language.  Based on the handful of phone conversations we’ve had, I’d go with German, or something from that region.

My usual way of editing/proofreading is to go through the document with a pen and make marks according to what needs to be fixed.

I got halfway through page 2 (out of eight) and gave up.  There was simply too much wrong.

So, once again being diplomatic and tactful, I dug deep into my brain’s storage of the basic rules of screenwriting and began explaining what was wrong and how it could be fixed.  At no point did I say “Oh my God this is awful!  Give up!  Give up now!”  Because that would be wrong.

I stayed closer to the ‘maybe you should try it THIS way’ and ‘something you might want to consider’ lines.  Honestly, it was something I would have loved to have received when I was starting out.

That’s something else I kept coming back to while I was writing this: when I started writing screenplays, I had one book (Syd Field’s SCREENPLAY), a 4th-generation copy of the first draft of something I got back at a book sale in college (ROGER RABBIT, I recall.  Based on the original book), and a simple program K got me for my birthday the year before (which took years to find because not one software store in the Bay Area had ever heard of such a thing.)

I only had a vague idea of what to do.  The internet was still in its infancy, so contacting writers and agents was limited to phone calls and mailing query letters.  Not being in LA was a definite hindrance.

But I worked at it.  And even when I thought I was making progress, which I was, someone with more knowledge than I had showed me my mistakes.  After getting over the initial “what do you mean my first draft isn’t a work of genius?” mode of thought, I worked more.

I wanted to learn how to do it right.  I went to the workshops and seminars, joined the writing group, wrote whenever I could, tested ideas out on the ever-patient K.

Even after I got back a draft covered in notes from my friend’s dreaded red pen, I buckled down and kept going.

I like to think that this is part of what has helped me continue to this day. I’ll be the first one to admit I don’t know everything about screenwriting.  But I won’t hesitate to say I know what I’m doing.

I give out the first draft and get comments back.  Some constructive, some oblivious.  I take the ones I think work, rather than just the ones I like, and make the appropriate changes.  I keep going until it’s good enough for me.  And sometimes that’s still not enough.

But I’m not giving up.  Not by a longshot.

I hope my advice to this guy helps steer him in the right direction.  I don’t know if what I said will help him or discourage him.  It’s up to him now.

He’s supposed to get back to me after the weekend, so for now, I wait.

No matter what happens, like I say to everybody who I offer to help and am told thanks but no thanks, I wish him the best of luck.

I’ve done what I could.

No Movie of the Moment tonight. Sorry.

Progress?

Maximum Z craigslist, jobs, screenwriting, video, writing gigs

So I signed an agreement with this guy at a local small college who’s taking a film class.  To sum it up, I’ve got my work cut out for me.

To say this is going to be an uphill battle is putting it mildly.  There are so many things he needs to learn.  And this is just after an initial glance at his pages.

Oy.

And it appears that I may have the Bollywood gig after all.  The person is slow in responding to emails, but seems interested in working with me. Today they asked about meeting later in the week, and I said when I was available.  I’ve yet to hear back.  We’ll see how this works out.

So getting back to the title of this post…

On one hand, it’s fantastic that I’m working so much on script-based stuff.  It’s like I’m getting the experience I need to move ahead, career-wise.

But on the other hand, I’ve been quite lax about getting my own stuff done.  I don’t like that.  But the whole keeping busy thing kind of offsets it.

I know I’ll get my own stuff done, but doing all this other work feels necessary.

There’s also that little fantasy about the people I’m working with spreading word about me, which eventually leads to real screenwriting work.  This will be staying in the realm of fantasy for the time being.

And since I’m on the subject of writing gigs, I’m a little surprised but also not surprised that some of the others have yet to respond.  The webseries, for example.  I suppose I consider it just common courtesy to at least write back to people saying “job’s filled,” rather than just leaving it open-ended.

Then again, this is craigslist, which is not exactly a shining example of reliabiity and trustworthiness.

But for now, I’ll take what I can get and build from there.

Good things are coming.  And I’m going to be ready.

No Movie of the Moment tonight, but I did watch BATMAN: UNDER THE RED HOOD earlier today.  It was good, even with Judd Winick writing it.  Different voices for all the characters, and some pretty good animation.  I gotta admit, there were some cool fanboy moments in it.  The next one – BATMAN/SUPERMAN: APOCALYPSE looks pretty cool.  That came out today, but I’ll probably see it in a month or two.

I can’t remember if I mentioned it, but last week I watched YOO-HOO MRS. GOLDBERG, a documentary about Gertrude Berg, the true first woman of radio and TV.  That was really good.

Ex. Haus. Ted.

Maximum Z craigslist, jobs, radio, screenwriting, writing gigs

It’s how I feel these days.  Which is odd because I didn’t think I was doing that much.

Apart from applying to writing gigs on craigslist left and right.  And looking into in-house jobs.  And working the same hours, but pushed back 30 minutes, resulting in a 4:30-9am shift, plus additional fill-in hours.  And hockey.  And exercising.

But I have to admit it’s kind of nice being able to apply to all of these gigs on craigslist.  I had no idea there were so many people looking for help with screenplays.  Yesterday there was a webseries looking for writers.  Check.  There was the Bollywood script.  Check (but still waiting to hear back).  There’s the guy looking for a story editor.  Check, and it looks like I got that one.  And it pays absolutely nothing, which surprises me not a whit.  But it’s something else to add to my resume.  And that’s cool.

Unfortunately, all of the aforementioned stuff has also been taking away from me working on BABY LIKES JAZZ.  Maybe it’s  a subconscious thing?  Since I’m not thrilled with how it’s developing, I’m looking to fill the void, as it were. Eh. Too much self-analysis.  I know I’ll finish it, but that end date keeps getting pushed further and further back.

A few minutes ago, I saw that the Nicholl finalists have been announced.  I bet there’s not one writer who sees that and feels just a bit, maybe even a slight pang of jealousy.  What writer doesn’t want that?  It also doesn’t do me any good to dwell on it.  It’s in the past, and I have to keep looking forward, etc., etc.  Will I enter next year?  Highly doubtful.  Again, I’d be happy to be done with BABY.  And there’s no way I’m entering that.

I think for now I’m happy to keep things going the way they have been, but with a little more me-writing time thrown in.

And sleep.  Definitely sleep.

He’s up! He’s down?

Maximum Z craigslist, screenwriting, writing gigs

I’ll start with the down part.

I didn’t get the mash-up genre gig, only because another writer offered to do it for free, which was ‘too good an offer to refuse.’  Can’t say that I blame him.  I was more interested in a co-writing credit, in case it advanced in any form or fashion.  Now I’ll have to look for it in the months to come.

And if it gets bought, or at least merits representation, I’ll kick myself.  Which isn’t as hard as you might think.

I suppose I’m a little disappointed.  It sounded like it would have been a fun project.  But I took the high road and offered the guy the best of luck and thanked him for what boiled down to a fun writing exercise.

Moving on…

Regarding the good portion, that applies to the fact that I have an outline for BABY LIKES JAZZ I was happy with.  Up to a point.

I think the story as it is solid, but something keeps nagging at me to punch it up.  Make it funnier. Have fun with it!

Part of that stems from the intro of the main character in the first scene.  He’s described as a ‘hotshot musician, ladies man and bad-boy rule-breaker.’  Or something like that.  I don’t have it right in front of me.  But you get the point.

So while the first act has been slightly reorganized, the rest of it has been trimmed down, but for the most part remains the same.  Do you see where I’m going with this?

I set up this character loaded with potential, and really didn’t change anything.  At least not drastically.  And that’s where I need to focus right now.

After seeing stuff like THE HANGOVER or HOT TUB TIME MACHINE, I really think I can make this kinda/sorta like those (but more PG-13); I just need to break this thing down and see how to put it back together in a funnier, more entertaining way.

But I’m also a firm believer in realism, more or less, and want to keep BABY pretty much along realistic lines.  No out-of-the-blue wackiness here.  Just funny situations based in what you’re seeing.

I can do that.  Of course I can.

I’m doing a lot of extra hours at work (which is nice, paycheck-wise), so my writing time may be a bit limited over the next couple of days.  If I can manage to squeeze in, say, 10 pages a day, then I should have an outline I’m really satisfied with by mid-to-late October, followed by steamrolling my way through actual pages, with a potential target date of December 31st.

What an awesome way to end the year.  Fingers are crossed, brain is percolating and I am ready to jump in.

And….go.

If only I could bottle this…

Maximum Z jobs, LinkedIn, Miyazaki, radio, screenwriting, writing gigs

I’m feeling pretty positive about things.  I’ve missed feeling this way.  Hopefully, it will last.  And even better, I can apply it to when I sit my lazy ass down and write.

About that…

I didn’t get a whole lot of writing done today.  Let’s be honest.  I got none done.  But I was thinking about it a lot.  And that does count for something.

I also started a new level of job search.  It was nice.  I don’t know what kind of chances I have, but it’s still exciting on a few levels.

Part of this involves becoming a part of LinkedIn, which seems like Facebook for working folks.  A lot more business-oriented material and not much personal.  Which I guess makes it more like a Bizarro Facebook.  Which would be a cool name for it, but I suppose not very professional.

There are a lot of people on it I wouldn’t have expected, such as people in the film industry.  Cool.

One of them, as discovered by K last night, is the former entertainment attorney I knew a few years ago in LA.  The last I heard from him he had left his law practice to teach (I think).  But apparently he now lists himself as a writing consultant.  Hmm.  How did that come about?

I joined a group for screenwriters and radio people.  I’m curious to see what develops out of those.

But getting back to the writing…

In theory, I’ve got time tomorrow to not only work on the job stuff, but also to finally crack down and work on a script.  Or at least pages.

As much as I’d like to finish BABY LIKES JAZZ, part of me wants to move on and start something new.  There’s the monster script, the mystery-comedy.  Both sound like they would be fun to write.  BABY almost sounds…tedious.

But it would seem almost foolish to stop, especially after having spent so much time on it.  I think my challenge is to make it fun to write.  It’s a comedy, for crying out loud!  Which leads to another challenge:  make it funny.  Which is hard.

It’s very important to me to get back into a groove of writing on a daily basis.  I feel like I’m really close to making some kind of breakthrough, and even getting a little writing done each day will help.  I suspect it will also be good for my self-confidence.

And I can use as much of that as I can get.

Movie of the Moment:  I watched HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE with V yesterday.  I’m always up to watch Miyazaki.  V, of course, was not interested at first, but within 5 minutes was completely hooked.  As I suspected.  Even better, there wasn’t much to explain to her.  That really is part of the charm of his work – each story is so universal that it doesn’t matter that it’s so influenced by Japanese culture.

We’ve talked about getting KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE and watching it in Japanese.  While I don’t know how effective that will be, it’s still fun to do.

And although she’d probably enjoy STEAMBOY, I think AKIRA is a little too much.

Make that a lot too much.