Posts Tagged ‘Partners’

Seriously.

I am amazed that yesterday’s entry was even coherent. I was so exhausted/falling asleep at the keys when I pounded it out last night. You should’ve seen me trying to write it out. Literally to just string those thoughts together. I think I had to take a nap on the couch at one point to rally and edit down the babble I had put down initially.

So, to recap on what I was trying to say and give anyone who’s curious a little insight into the cause of such exhaustion:

-Jacob and I decided not to go with the Culver City place we initially settled on. The one I blogged about earlier in the week. Instead we decided to raise our monthly limit a bit and broaden the area of our search and see what we came up with. That was yesterday. We took a look at several two bedrooms in the $1450 to $1600 a month range. We saw one that might work right down from Boardwalk 11 (Tiff!) Then today we conferred and decided to postpone our move out dates until August 1st, so that we can really look and find the right spot. We both have a bunch of writing type work to do and I need to look for employment of some kind, etc… So, it’s a relief to back off for a few weeks and come at it down the road.

-I was sooooo exhausted b/c I had another crazy, marathon dental appointment. Though this one caught me COMPLETELY by surprise. I was under the impression I was going to get the finishing touches on the work I had done two weeks, or so, ago. Usually that’s a quick one or two hour appointment. Your in, your out. Everything is paid already. It’s not new work –  just swapping the temporary work for the actual veneers or crown (or combination which is what I have this time.) So, I swung in for what I thought was a quick visit and was there for a little over five hours in the chair, straight. I didn’t eat before, which was my mistake. Big mistake. But the whole visit was painful like the last time, which is unusual for me. Something about my front, upper area – super sensitive all around. So there were many shots to numb the area down, through the whole process. I also had a tightly scheduled day – looking at apartments, a notes meeting with my professor, and a writer’s support group meeting that night – boom, boom, boom – all back to back. So, as soon as I realized what was happening at the dentist, I had to start texting to cancel this and move that – very stressful when you’re managing pain and quite hungry!  Then I had to race out of there when I was finally free (in another cruel twist – they took the temporaries out, showed me the permanents weren’t done to their satisfaction – I could put them in, but my Dentist wasn’t completely happy with them, then had to totally redo the temporary!) and get on with what was left of my day. Which meant when I finally got home at 11 p.m. and ate something substantial, I got very sleepy very quickly. BUT, in true doc fashion, refused to admit to myself I should go to bed, because I wanted to watch the season finale of JUSTIFIED and eat this (what turned out be awesome) slice graduation cake JJ had brought for me at the writer’s support group. Thus the world’s shortest blog post last night!

- Saw the wonderful John Sweet for notes – my final UCLA obligation. He loved the script from the quarter. That’s good because we’re using it as a sample!

-Lastly, our former manager-producer officially declared he’s not going to pay us, or rather claims he can’t pay Jason and I the money we are owed on the two pilot scripts we separately wrote for him last winter. We got some money up front, but not the money due upon completion. There’s a signed contract, plenty of emails in our favor – all sorts of stuff. We just need to evaluate what it will take to get our money from him. He lives in $9000 a month condo with his fiance who owns four luxury day spas (invitation only) and guests on the Rachel Ray Show. He’s an actor on All My Children. I think he can afford $8,500 dollars (total amount owed.) We even offered a payment plan. He claims he doesn’t have the money. We’ll see. Sadly, this is a part of the film business and has to be endured. You do your best to avoid these situations or deals that will lead to these situations, but it happens.

More, when I know it!

It SEEEMS to slow down.

The pressure appears to lift.

The too much to do crunch-crunch-crunch of sleeplessness, constant doing, phone vibrating, emails flooding in quiets.

But, you know. You just know that it’s just the eye that we’ve slipped into. A lull, if you will, before the next wave. In the corner with the Cut Man and Trainer, shaking off the last round, getting ready for the bell.

At least that’s how I feel today, which was an unexpected lost day. Sure, I pushed my play around like a young tyke pushes his carrots and peas around his plate, hoping they’ll just eat themselves.

Part of this stemmed from the late news today that I won’t be getting read on Tuesday with the actual MFA Playwrights in the final class. That was the current in the final push – to not be embarrassed in front of the Playwrights and the Theater Faculty as my full-length is read out loud. The stakes would’ve noticeably higher, basically. I’m actually good with not getting read. I feel strong about the play and I know its in an early developmental phase, still incubating essentially, subjecting it to the rigors of a harried workshop read with non-performers reading and no prep. This definitely encourage notes and opinions which most certainly would’ve clouded the forward progress of future rewrites. Instead, I’ll polish for clarity and continuity tomorrow and hand it in on Tuesday, or possibly before. Hanay will be happy with the effort throughout and the quality of the work. I will launch into a true rewrite later in the week.

With SKEET in the bag after Jason’s quick, excellent work with tightening the new version and emphasizing some key emotional turns I only glanced at in my draft, we now are looking at a TV pilot we’ve had to wait on a bit (for me to clear some head space and time) which we can attack and Jason’s take on a script of mine SUNGATE, which I’m really excited about and am trying real hard to remain patient for! From there we have the Serial Killer/Procedural and a rewrite of the CHINATOWN/INDIAN CASINO script and then….whatever we dream up next.

To be certain, we have quite a back catalog of scripts and ideas that need to be addressed, so there’s no real shortage here. I don’t mean to sound arrogant, but we’re both writers who don’t really heal to the idea of writer’s block. We’re sit down, roll up the sleeves, and chisel away until it starts working writers. Which adds to the strength of the partnership. I don’t believe writer’s block exists. I just don’t. You have to give yourself permission to fail (ah, there’s that word again.) You have to encourage yourself to write poorly, as much as you encourage yourself to write well.

And with that, I realize I’m getting off topic. Which means I’ll take this opportunity to reign it in a bit, and get to what I initially wanted to hit upon, which is we are entering a period where we’ll be writing for ourselves You always are to some degree, but the deadlines hovering over from the projects worked on will all be of our own making and policing. It’s a different sort of pressure, for sure. One that I’ve been five years removed from. Should be fun. Might actually get back to a more sane work load of only tackling one or two projects at a time.

Ahhh, who am I kidding?

So much to gab about, so little time tonight to gab about it. So, without further ado, let’s hit it:

-I’m hesitant to say anything about the Cardinals at the moment. (Did you see tonight’s box score, Dad? Not bad. Not bad at all.) Let’s just simply say: YAY! And leave it at that.

- Mouth? Still sore. But, starting to settle in. Body? Still discombobulated. Though I think that’s more from the 48 hour write-a-thon I found myself in, before the final 434 on Thursday. BTW, that script is looking quite sharp. It was a rewrite of one of Jason’s – a spare, dark psychological thriller. Near my sweet spot, so to speak. He did a pass, after I wrapped up on Thursday and the script sparkles in my opinion. Truly sparkles. I want to see this movie. See what a director could do with it.

- The delightful Ms. Antone is in town for the weekend from Prescott, AZ. Always a major league treat! We hustled out to see a play at the Pasadena Playhouse. It’s called boom by Furious Theater Company. It was not the best thing we’ve seen. A little annoying. Tough to say if it was the direction, though, or just the play itself. Overall, I’d say the production was quite well done – acting and set design. But the story turned on a rather trivial and tired joke at the end, with far too much wackiness before that to really hinge on something so – plain. One notable to the evening is that this production featured Julia Duffy, mostly known for her work as a series regular on the funny and endearing sitcom, Newhart .

-Tonight, my niece, Ellen, had her high school graduation party. I wish I could’ve been there, or, more importantly, there on Sunday when she graduates. She’ll be off to Saint Mary’s of Notre Dame, in South Bend, next fall. Congrats, Ellen!

- I’m just glad Ellen made it home, safe and sound from her senior trip – a mission trip to Guatemala that some students do as their senior project. All the students do some sort of aid work as their senior project. This particular trip took place this past week. Which meant that they were trapped in Guatemala after the volcanic eruption and then tropical storm. You can read about it here.

-Always makes me a little melancholy when someone I love, who’s heart is still full of wonder and isn’t hardened to the roughness and inexplicably tragic in the world quite only to get a random glimpse of it before they should. I made choices that I’m not so proud of when I was quite young, lead an extremely reckless and self-destructive life when I was in high school, college, and my 20s. This life brought me out into that rough and inexplicably tragic world far sooner than I should’ve been. When I look back on some of those things, string them together in their proper context, and look at them again in clear eyes, I wouldn’t wish that for anyone’s teenage years. Not what I saw. Not what I did. Not what I learned – about myself, about others, and about the world.

-I have three days to rewrite the play. Should actually be a mellow experience. A nice victory lap on my MFA career.

-I’ve made the decision to search for a 2bd/2ba apartment with my buddy Jacob Bursten-Stern, a fine playwright, former HS basketball star, and good guy. I’ve known Jacob for the full three years of school. We both worked together, as well, at the UCLA Film Archive during our first year. We go to lunch every few weeks, talk shop, etc.. He’s also a very good friend of Tiffany’s, a playwrights who plays poker, has good taste in TV shows and – with Tiffany – kept me in it to win it with playwriting this year. We’ve been discussing this, after Tiffany suggested it, for a couple of weeks. Kind of amiably considering it. Bottom line came down for both of us, at different times, this week and the fact of the matter is that we can find a place in Culver City that’s big and will go for $1300 to $1500. Split that in two, plus split the bills and all of a sudden, I cut my monthly by a third, which is nothing to sneeze at. So, for July 1st as the target date. I hate to give up living alone. But, I’ll have plenty of time for that later. Need to stay in the hunt and this will help that – tremendously.

-Been a frustrating week on the business side of things. That’s all I’ll say for now. It is what it is. Suffice to say, this business is not a very above board, say what you mean style of business. Deciphering the different layers of “I said this, but really meant this.” Or, “I agree to this, but what I really wanted was this.” Is a major pain, most all the time. But, it’s also par for the course, unfortunately, and you just have to grin and bear it. Best advice? Keep writing.

- YAY REDBIRDS!

-Coach John Wooden, The Wizard Of Westwood, passed today. He was considered not only one of, if not the, greatest basketball coach/es. More than that, though, he was a teacher, a mentor, a molder of men. As Vin Scully said: “He is a genius in his ability to inspire There are a few giants who walk among us. He was truly one of them.” Coach Wooden’s spirit pervades all of Westwood. Not just in a basketball sense, but in an inspirational success. One of my favorite Wooden quotes:

“Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts.”

Below is an brief video from UCLA’s tribute page for Coach Wooden. In it he talks further about failure:

“In life there will be peaks and valleys. The strength of a person’s character depends on their ability to accept both success and failure. Gonna have both.”

That is a lesson former Sony Pictures Head and famed Producer, Peter Guber, who will speak at graduation on Friday, taught quite eloquently in his opening lecture for his class ‘Navigating A Narrative World.” I believe he mentioned that he had learned it from Coach Wooden, but I’m not sure. It is, I feel, the core lesson that UCLA teaches and a resounding truth to life that is all too often overlooked. In all things and in all lives there will be peaks and valleys, you must reconcile that in your heart, have faith and learn to grow from both.

At the end of the tribute, Coach Wooden intones a beautiful poem on letting go of the fear of dying.

God Bless and Good Night.

Thanks for listening to me vent yesterday. I always appreciate the ear.

One thing that pops up in the experience is just how much, yet again, there’s such an obvious benefit to having a writing partner, or at the very least a tight knit community to plug into after an experience. So much of this business are moments like last night, or better versions of them. You would think it’s all writing, at home alone. Sadly, not true. Most of the time it is all about the strange, and always emotionally taxing dance of development that must happen before anything else does; well, that as well as endless, frustrating days – no, weeks – of waiting. If I were on my own and had no one to bounce these experiences off of, it would take days, and far too much emotional energy, to work through them on my own. Sure, it’s possible. But I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. Seriously.

Okay, enough shop talk. Tomorrow, my dear friends Brett and Jennifer are leaving for a surprise Paris trip to celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary. Mazeltov, both of you. Have the trip of your lives. Thank God Brett came looking for me at the Pontiac all those years ago! It’s wonderful to see one small, seemingly inconsequential event, in concert with a fantastic orchestra of events big and small, blossom into the beautiful family you have today.

That’s all I’ve got for tonight. Go hug someone you love. Let them know how special they are to you. Then do something nice for the both of you. It’s always worth it.

Oh, wait. forgot two things:

I promised a picture of Dave. He’s a tough one to take pictures of, so this is an older one from his owner. But it really captures Dave in all his Daveness. Love this dog. So easy going!

And of course, Dennis Hopper passed today. He had been, as we all knew, quite sick. Still sad, though. Here’s the post I wrote on it, awhile ago, AMERICAN RACONTEUR, if you’re so inclined.

Not a good day, by any stretch of means. Just got out of a notes session on the desert script. Let’s get right down to brass tacks. I’m tired and feel a little beat up. These days happen. This too shall pass. Doc shall rise again.

- The notes session. Overall, I guess we survived. There were definitely some good notes and the talking it out that happened around that notes will, most likely, prove quiet positive. That being said, it’s never fun, as a writer, to watch as work you were responsible for get completely shredded. Work that you invested in, stood by, and believed in. It happens. It’s happened plenty before and it’ll happen again; but going through that tonight was not fun. Especially when you felt those sequences (not even scenes – entire sequences!) were just called flat and “not doing it”, but had been misread. You flip open the script the exec/producer has written all over and across whole pages, multiple pages, are big red X’s from corner to corner. Sure, I’m venting here, because I couldn’t in the meeting. Sure, I know I have to take it and, hey, it’s clear I didn’t do my job. But, that doesn’t make the pill of it all easier to swallow. Not that the scenes need to be unanimously adored or loved, I guess it’s just that they were tossed completely out. It’s the worst kind of strike out. The one that makes you look foolish, most of all to yourself. Thank God Jason was there. Otherwise that would’ve gone much, much worse.

-For some reason, it’s like a sauna in my apartment. I checked the heater and it’s not on. I kind of don’t know what the deal is. It’s not all that hot out and it usually doesn’t get that hot in the apartment, ever. (No direct sunlight, really)

-I’ve got Dave, an awesome cocker spaniel, with me for the weekend. I’m watching him for a friend, who had a job in New York over the weekend. He’s about ten. Really happy go lucky. A super sweet dog and has taken quite a liking to his stay at Camp Doc where the treats flow steadily and the walks are plentiful, dinner’s always on time, and we sleep in late when the spirit moves us!

-Though I am looking down the barrel of a seventy-two hour lockdown in the apartment. Got a ton of writing and even more rewriting to do. Mainly for school this weekend. It is the final push.

-I’ve slowly become a Trader Joe’s shopper, for the most part, over other stores. I think it’s more cost effective, but I’m not so sure, yet. It’s keeping me out of Whole Foods, which is good.

- Finally watched the Lovely Bones last night. Didn’t I first mention it almost two weeks ago? I haven’t seen a movie that so thoroughly misunderstood the novel it was adapted from in a long, long time. I mean, we’re talking BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES missed the boat. It was rather stunning to watch. I don’t recommend it, though, for fans of the book. In addition, the film was so wildly self-aware of itself, it almost seemed like an exercise in Douglas Sirk styled melodrama.

-Early Tuesday morning, I’m to have a long procedure done on my teeth at the dentist. I won’t get into the cost, or what it is, it would probably bore most all of you. Suffice to say, it represents the end of the decade long endeavor to overcome a condition I was born with – a not uncommon problem, but still difficult to manage without extensive work on your teeth. Work that, in the end, costs as much as a nice mid-market sedan. I will be thrilled to be done. My gifted and talented dentist, Dr. Grace Ahn, will be thrilled as well. My amazing dentist in Chicago, Dr. Scott Stiffler, would be amazed if he knew. It’s been a long road. Especially with no dental insurance to speak of through most of it.

- Man, it’s hot in this apartment!

-Dave sure does love watching HGTV and his rawhide bone.

-Cards beat the Cubs. That helps. A lot.

That’s all I got. Have a safe and fun Memorial Day Weekend.

Didn’t get over here to Guided By Wire,  last night. As the world is aware, it was the LOST finale. Which clocked in at a whopping, and captivating 4 and a half hours. Right after, I sat down for what I thought would be a quick turn on the boards with the climatic scene for my play, KEPT. Alas, it was not a quick turn at all. Which meant another late, late night as I hammered and chiseled my way through the eleven page scene.

I will make this observation regarding writing for the screen versus writing for the stage, or at least how I write for them. When it’s for the screen, the drafting is primarily about execution. You are constructing something. It has a plan, intrinsic principles, mitigated by the intended medium, that must for all intents and purposes be adhered to, in some degree. You can subvert them, but you can’t completely ignore them. So, the oft used analogy of building a house becomes quite appropriate. You are constructing and at every turn is the question as to how you execute the plan and how you alter it to better construct, always working towards the intended final piece.

In playwriting, at least for me – playwrights if you’re out there, pipe up and join the discussion, or if you have a thought, one and all, please speak your mind – I find the its much more of a discovery. So, when writing for the stage, I find I am on a excavation. An archaeology dig of character, plot, theme and its understanding. I know what I hope will be there, or, let me amend that, what should be there; then I dig – slowly, methodically, always parsing the same patch. Eventually, I reveal and remove, then clean up, polish and present to the world what I’ve been fortunate through my diligence to recover. Where am I excavating? In my experience, not necessarily always my life, but rather my experience of the world and what I come into contact with. Does that make sense? I can extend beyond my immediate place, if I’m willing to do the brain work and legwork (even) to travel there. I don’t mean just to go there, but, rather, to inhabit it – to know it as if it were my own immediate place right now. This can be done for either stage or screen. It’s what “write what you know” means to me. You can know anything, if your willing and driven and daring enough to learn.

So, I was excavating last night. Moving back and forth of the lines. Teasing out points of view and reactions, truths and lies, in the space of a dinner. There’s a different magnetic pull to that kind of work. It’s much more sneaky and circular to me, than drafting on a screenplay or TV pilot, which always feels like forward momentum. Building it up, harnessing it, then driving on the power of it to FADE OUT.

Wow. This isn’t so much a brief update is it?! Ha! (Welcome to what I spend far too many of my days contemplating!)

What I had intended was to let you know, with thanks to quotes that Jason pulled  and posted on his blog, that the junior producer that we did the desert feature screenplay with/for read the first draft and responded in a series of texts:

“Holy f@ck the first 35 pages rock! Gallo is very very cool and shady.”

“You guys did a phenomenal job.”

“You boys write fantastically.  The language is loaded with image and expression yet its lean and my eyes blow down the page with ease. You guys did a beautiful job so far and I really believe this could play.”

“F%cking brilliant. Mother f%cking brilliant. Bravo. I loved it.”

Not bad, huh? Means, in the first of three steps, we’re doing pretty good. Always a huge relief to connect that first time up to the plate, makes the rest of the game seem so much smoother. We’ll meet with this producer Wednesday night. Those comments are over several reads that he did, not just one. So, that’s good as well. We’ll get his notes. Hopefully they won’t be involved. Then, we’ll go to his boss, the director of development who worked on the developing the story with us. If he’s on board, then we go up the ladder to the head of the company to see if it’s a go or no go. It’d be great if we sell the script at that juncture, but most likely it won’t quite go that way. At some point though, I’d say we have a decent shot at getting this one across, at least in terms of a sale. Well, actually, I always think that at this stage. We’ll see where it heads from here, after Wednesday.

Have A Beautiful Day….

We are closing in on finishing the script we’ve been working so hard on. Well, let me amend that, we’re basically done with the first draft. Finishing is not a fair word in screenwriting. Their really is no finishing that happens. I tend to see it as completing a phase. This next phase involves polishing. I need to do a polish – Jason’s already done a polishing pass. Then we’ll both read it and if it feels good enough to send along, we will send it. Then the first draft phase would be complete (We hope!) So far I’d say chances are quite high we’re sending it by Wednesday. From there, it all depends, but hopefully in a month or two at the most, we’ll get an answer.

The first big hurdle is to insure Alan and Seth are on board with the draft. I’d say (and I’m sure Jason would say) “this draft is fantastic. I can’t see why they wouldn’t be.” But, in this business, never take anything for granted. I think we’ll be just fine, but I’ll feel best when we know we’re fine. (One thing I’ve seen is that everyone’s fine and then when you take it up a level and that guy isn’t fine, all of a sudden your people aren’t fine either. It can be a trial!)  Then it goes up the ladder to the head of the company. Who gives it a read and makes the big decision – yea or nay. If “nay” we are free to take it out to the rest of the biz. At least that’s what we were promised. If “yea” supposedly he may write a check for it, right on the spot. Though I think that’s a bit of hype. Just a little. I would never expect that kind of treatment.

That’s one of the good things about the smaller size of the company. We can see all the way to the top of the ladder. The amount of people between us and a decision is at an extremely rare and unusually low number of people. Two of which (out of the three) are already involved in the project! So, I think we’re in good shape going in.

Welcome to the back half of the week.

A shout out, first of all, to my dear friend Monique, wife of my other dear friend Mike. Both hail back to the Marquette days and are two of my most favorite people on the planet. That have a beautiful family on the east coast. Monique was also in graduate school as well. We were mirrors of each other. That is until monday, when Monique graduated! So congrats, Mo!! And to all the Howley’s! I know we don’t quite celebrate like we used to at the Love Apt’s or Roseneath, but I’m sure you guys acknowledged the momentous occasion in fine style.

I’m do back, pounding away on the script Jason and I are working hard to finish as soon as possible. Initially, I thought I wouldn’t post, but then figured the warm-up would do me well before I dove back in for the final lap of the evening. It’s been a long forty-eight hours, with the brunt of the work coming today. Much as I mentioned last night, I faired the same today – no so hot. It was a game of inches when I was looking for a blow out. What can you do? Keep going, that’s what. It eventually turns around. Late tonight I started to feel it rumbling towards take-off, thus this last lap. Usually if I’m struggling and I put in the hours I did today, I’d drop it for the night, come back in the morning, attack it again. What I feel like the writer is always trying to conjure, induce, cultivate, amplify, stoke, cook, construct is a certain magnetism to the project at hand. A kind of low humming, constant gravitational pull. The bits, voices and scenes are flashing through your head, story knots are being unwound by the diligent, tireless fingers in your subconscious, and your mumbling under your breath – chasing the rhythm and cadence of your characters’ voices, trying them on, tailoring them as you go and then loading them into your hands and your mind’s eye.

That’s why it’s tough – this magnetism – to switch gears quickly from one project to another. That’s what I’ve been feeling a bit lately. Many writers will not switch gears between projects like that. It’s one at a time. Jason and I separately, and now together, have had a habit of juggling many projects at UCLA. But that’s more out of drive, wonder, and need, mostly. In time we became accustomed to it. I don’t know if I, or Jason for that matter, would prefer that the workload ease off a bit or calm down to a one project at a time kind of thing. I don’t think we could go back to that. I once said that without thinking to my Therapist – retiring to Italy and not writing. Her reaction? She laughed out loud. Like surprised laughter she found it so absurd. Not the Italy part. The not writing part.

Well I’ve gone off on a tangent and completely gotten away from my simple post. Oh, well. Suffice to say, the magnetism is hard to get going, but when it does, there’s nothing like it. If it’s not happening, all you can do it keep tending to the just planted crops, waiting for them to shoot up out of the ground. All work will be repaid, eventually!

So, here’s a few simple quotes I found on the internet. They’re for screenwriting, but I think they apply to any craftsman. Hope they’re at least enjoyable to mull over. They’re great reminders for me of some of the fundamentals.

“Writing really is a process of discovery. The biggest enemy is being satisfied. When I think, ‘Oh, this is so great. They can’t change a word. They’ve got to film it exactly like this,’ that’s when I know I’m not pushing hard enough. That’s when you have to be most suspicious.”

-William Broyles, Jr. (Apollo 13, Cast Away, The Polar Express)

“Guilt drives me. I know I have to write every day. During the story period, it’s so much harder, it’s much more fluid… When I start to write, I give myself a goal of five pages a day. I don’t stop until I get that done, whether it’s taken me two hours or twelve. Sometimes if I get rolling I can write more, I can write ten pages… It makes you push. Because otherwise, you’d come to the tough part two pages in and you’d go, I’m gonna give up. You have to push through. Because with every scene you come to, you know that the last scene was easy to write, but this scene is impossible. And you get through that, and you see the next scene, and you say, that last one was easy to write, but this one’s impossible. Every single scene is usually like that. Always, impossible. And then the characters start talking to you.”

Paul Haggis (Crash, Million Dollar Baby)

“One thing that has proven to be true for us [Kurtzman & Orci] over and over again is not to be married to our words, necessarily, but to be married to the spirit of the words. Because there’s a thousand ways you can express an idea.”

– Alex Kurtzman (Mission Impossible 3, Star Trek)

“The writing is the easiest part of it. The trying period is the period of conceptualization, followed by research. This prewriting time can take anywhere from six months to ten years. But once I know everything there is to know about my characters, the actual writing of the script switches to automatic pilot. It makes no difference whether the script is for TV or feature–the writing period is the same: five pages a day, seven days a week. That’s it. Nothing magical. You just sit there and keep typing.”

– Stirling Silliphant (In the Heat of the Night, Charly, The Poseidon Adventure)

“You must write everyday. Free yourself. Free association. An hour alone a day. Blind writing. Write in the dark. Don’t think about what it is you’re writing. Just put a piece of paper in the typewriter, take your clothes off and go! No destination… pay it no attention… it’s pure unconscious exercise. Pages of it. Keep it up until embarrassment disappears. Eliminate resistance. Look at it in the morning. Amazing sometimes. Most of it won’t make any sense. But there’ll always be a small kernel of truth that relates to what you’re working on at the time. You won’t even know you created it. It will appear, and it is yours. Pure gold, a product of that pure part of you that does not know how to resist.”

– Alvin Sargent (Paper Moon, Julia, Ordinary People)

“Forget every rule any screenwriting guru ever taught you. Except one: Never be boring.”

– David Mamet (The Verdict, The Untouchables, Hoffa)

Good Night. Good Day. God Speed. I hope you’re smiling wherever you are. I’ll be at the keyboard.

Some good news today.

Jason and I optioned our one-hour drama pilot script. It’s been a rocky couple of weeks as our manager and their V.P. of Development negotiated in true Hollywood style (two conversations on the phone, each twenty minutes long, that took three weeks to unfold and probably involved more small talk than business talk.) This is how it works. We trusted the process and our Manager is, as I’ve said before, an old hat at this whole dance. So, we were in pretty good hands overall.

If you click on “Jason,” up there, it’ll take you to Jason’s blog, where he does an excellent job of breaking down what it all means, where we are exactly in the process, and why our excitement seems a tad bit muted. The key, I think, is to do exactly as Jason suggests in his post – celebrate and acknowledge the achievement, but keep writing because that’s what we do.

I’ll run through this more in the coming days. It’s late tonight and I just got home from a marathon day on campus, that ended with a festival of excellent one acts that ran three hours. Key points to keep in mind: there are many walls left to scale, this is only the first. The nice thing is that this will put us on the “actual field of play” as our Manager likes to analogize. We’ll be live with this one, pitching with the production company who optioned it, to networks and that’s a first. We haven’t been paid anything, which means now Writer’s Guild – yet. That’s the nature of the beast in T.V. these days for the unestablished. Basically, when we go out pitching, we want a network or cable channel to get real excited and spend money on the idea – that’s when we get paid, or a promise to get paid. Lastly, we’re probably going to need some attachments – a showrunner would be really key, or a name actor never hurts. Hopefully, we’ll find that attachment before we go to the network, because it’ll really make the pitch a lot more appealing. Though, the production company who optioned the script is also a finance company and will be pitching as a co-financier of the show to the network (we’ll pay half if you pay half.) In today’s economic climate, that’s an ace up the sleeve. That and a respected showrunner would be hard for a network to pass up taking a flyer on.

I’m getting ahead of my self though. Jason and I have a screenplay due at the same company, plus a bunch of other stuff that needs to happen (writing wise) lickety split. So, we’ll put our heads down and keep working – which is the key overall. Keep moving forward. Also, once we got word the deal memo was in place and once the Lawyers had all taken a read, we received word that the Production Company’s principals (the VP of Development and the President) were jetting off to Cannes (for the film festival of course) and would be out of the country for three weeks. So, yes we took that first step. But we won’t get down to work until late May, at the earliest.

It’s a good start, though. A pretty good start.

Sort of….

Drifted away there for the past couple of days. Guess I needed a little bit of break. I’m not too sure. Been feeling a bit too overwhelmed the past few days in all honesty. Then today, I have to say, I hit a bit of a wall and have really not been feeling myself at all. Not to worry anyone. These things happen. Sometimes, with how hectic I can let things be, sometimes I think these moments are my mind (more than my body) saying, “Hey, slow it down a little! Even if it’s for a day!” So, though I lost the last two days, in particular, and I didn’t really have those days to lose; I did relax at night and not dwell on it. I let them go. Today was a little tough. I get antsy when this happens. Aware I should be driving forward, but also aware that driving forward will probably not happen when I’m this atypical state. Part of the deal, too, is that this past week I really locked into the new schedule and was adjusting to it well. Then I got out of it and there has been some dislocation because of it. So, starting tomorrow, I’ll lock back into the work and the schedule. Jason and I have many things we need to move forward; and I have to wrap up my school work. It is May First, so in thirty days, I will complete Grad School. That’s probably part of it, too.

Lots going on….

Things are still progressing on the pilot front. Maybe not as fast as we’d like, but this business is really not built for speed, from Spielberg on down to the Interns at any given production company or studio. So, we’ve been learning about “letting the process be the process” as the manager told us, and how to be the client and direct our team a little better. Both good lessons and part of the ultimate balancing act that I know we’ll get better with as we move through the minefield. I think this week’s been great, although it hasn’t yielded results yet, for Jason and I to grow as partners and to learn some lessons on both sides of that balancing act. We are definitely getting stronger as we get more and more experience in the real industry. That makes me quite excited to get established and really start the heavy lifting of building a career. Right now, I look at it as excavating the ground and then laying the foundation – tedious, dirty, back breaking work really that must be done meticulously and absolutely right, so we can build anything on top of it. I think we’re doing a pretty good job of it so far, but I know I can’t wait until we’re putting on the roof and painting the exterior!

There’s more, including Tiff’s visit – which meant lots of plays were seen over the past few days, always a blast. We saw one in particular on Thursday night that was incredible. Absolutely incredible. Perfectly cast. Great piece, well staged. Lots of inspiration for mine. More on that later.

As a last note, anyone that’s reading that’s of the mind and heart, please light a candle at Mass or say a prayer for a fellow Bruin Scribe, all around great guy and friend, David Radcliff, who was struck by a car last night. He is on the mend in the hospital after a scary twenty-four hours, but could use all the prayers and good thoughts to continue his recovery. Thanks.