Learning the craft of screenwriting and handling discouragement along the way

This line in the Chris Sparling interview I posted via ScriptShadow the other day:

SS: How many scripts had you written before Buried? Which script did you realize that maybe you were getting the hang of it?

CS: Before Buried, I think I'd written about nine or ten features and two TV specs. Truth be told, it didn't start to click for me until about my seventh feature script.

Reminded me of an observation from Nina Jacobson, former President of Disney:

"Most screenwriters, they write five to ten things that aren't any good before they're even ready to show something."

This goes along the lines of what Malcolm Gladwell says:

[Dustin] Hoffman famously did not land his career-making role in "The Graduate" until he was almost 30 years old. He spent the previous 10 years (the amount of time Gladwell says it takes to accumulate the 10,000 hours) struggling to make it in theater and film in New York City, but most of that period he actually wasn't working as an actor. "I know I've said it a million times, but it's not the worst thing in the world to be unemployed, because a writer can write, a painter can paint, but an actor can't act without a job. That's what's painful, you've got to have the job," says Hoffman.

When asked if 10 years primarily waiting tables or doing temp jobs counts in the quest for 10,000 hours, Gladwell, reached by phone, explains: "The question is not at what point you're capable of doing your job. The question is at what point you've mastered it."

The keys here are to generate lots of different story ideas, work them out one-by-one, then write the hell out of them. There's a chance you'll get lucky early on and sell something (K-9 was my 3rd script), but for most people, it just takes time and effort to learn the craft.

If you find this fact dismaying, here's another video snippet with Jacobson:



The key excerpt:

"It is a tough business. And there are moments of enormous discouragement along the way... I mean I got fired from my first two jobs for not having done anything wrong... so I got my heart broken twice in 18 months. And it was my first 18 months in the movie business. It would have been very easy to say, 'I should have been a veterinarian,' which was my other thought. But I love movies so much, I had to come back to it, I couldn't give up."

Fired from her first two gigs in Hwood. Now check this out. After this interview, Jacobson got fired again:

It was immediately after the birth of their [Jacobson and her partner] third child on 17 July 2006, while still in the delivery room, that Jacobson was fired over the telephone by Richard Cook, studio chief for The Walt Disney Company.

"While still in the delivery room"! Talk about low. But:

By the start of 2007, she was back at work, this time once again with DreamWorks SKG. She signed a three-year production deal with the company in December, 2006.

Jacobson is a producer on Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the screen adaptation of the hugely popular chidren's book series and currently has 6 other movies in development and/or production.

So yes, it takes time to learn the screenwriting craft. And yes, you will almost assuredly have "moment of enormous discouragement" along the way. But if you really love movies, the only person who can stop you from succeeding is you. Just like Dennis Foley says:

"Hollywood is the only town where you cannot fail. You can only quit trying."

Spec Script Sale: "Safe House"

In a bidding war, Universal Pictures snags thriller spec "Safe House" from first-timer David Guggenheim. Per the LA Times blog "24 Frames":

Talk to anyone in Hollywood and they'll tell you that the process of getting an original movie sold or made these days is about as easy as getting Sarah Palin to keep mum at a Tea Party convention.

Which is why it's eye-catching that David Guggenheim, an Us magazine editor with no previous screenwriting experience, has just stirred a bidding war with a spec script (that is, an original script and idea that was written unsolicited by a studio or producer and isn't based -- thank God -- on any prior piece of material) that he wrote in pretty much three months flat.

The movie is called "Safe House," and it's a story of a young U.S. intelligence agent in charge of a safe house in a tumultuous part of South America. Soon after a prisoner is brought in, the house is attacked, and the agent and the prisoner must go on the run across the treacherous Latin landscape -- think "Collateral" and 'The Bourne Identity" with a Che Guevara twist.

Guggenheim may technically be a first-timer, but...

Guggenheim comes from Hollywood royalty -- his brother Marc is writing "The Green Lantern' and his brother Eric was a writer on the Olympic hockey film "Miracle." But he's a senior editor based in New York with few prior Hollywood connections (he recently signed with the agency APA and the management company Madhouse Entertainment). In fact, he just picked up the pen in the fall, motivated to finish a screenplay before his wife gave birth to their first child (she's due next week -- so he made his deadline).

Set a deadline - and met it. Mid-six-figure deal should translate into a nice crib for the baby.

The GITS Club Logline Spotlight: "I.O.Lou" - Day 2

So as most of you surely know, longtime GITS reader Jeff Messerman approached me several weeks ago about starting a peer review adjunct to the blog, which has resulted in The GITS Club. When I drafted this post on Sunday afternoon, there were currently 117 members and a lot more activity and interest than either Jeff or I imagined would happen this quickly (less than a month online).

One of the things Jeff and I have discussed is to spotlight something from TGC here on the blog every other week or so (hopefully more frequently once my work schedule settles down a bit). So for the inaugural post, we're spotlighting this logline from writer Terrance Ellis:

Desperate for cash to save his family home, a slacker sets out to collect on all his childhood IOUs from his now adult debtors.

Yesterday we considered either movies that have already been produced or projects currently in development to see if the idea is 'similar but different' enough. If a story concept passes that hurdle, here are three more important questions to ask about its viability as a mainstream movie property.

The first question is: Who is the target audience for this story? This is an important question to ask for two reasons. (A) To define the core demo group the story can appeal to -- because at the end of the day, that's precisely what a buyer will ask: "Who is the audience for this movie?" In fact, I know a screenwriter who searches through magazines to find a photo of someone they feel represents the person who will want to see this movie, cuts out the photo, and tapes it up on their writing desk - to keep them laser focused on who they're writing the screenplay for. (B) Defining who you think the core audience is for your movie can also help you shape the way you approach it as a genre-piece, the story's tone, and your stylistic choices (which starts to get into developing your narrative voice).

The second question is this: Are there 10 million people who would be excited enough about this concept to get off their ass, drive down to the movie theater, and drop an average of $6 per ticket to see the movie? The form of that question is a paraphrase of what the current head of a major movie studio told me when he was involved in producing a Burg & Myers project. Obviously a buyer needs to be able to answer "yes" or else it makes no sense for them to acquire the script.

Third question: Will a person in The Biz (agent, manager, producer, studio exec) immediately get the idea? This speaks to the fact that nearly everyone in The Biz is so damn busy, they have the attention span of gnats. Your story has to grab them immediately or they're off to the next thing.

So re "I.O.Lou":

* Who is the target audience? The concept itself feels like a comedy. Kids? I don't think so because the story's characters would all figure to be adults. Besides, the core conceit -- trying to get repaid for I.O.U.s -- strikes me as a tough sell to children. Teens? It depends upon how you shape the material and what tone you take, but it's not inherently clear from the concept that it would appeal to teens. Young adults? Same thing. Date movie? Probably not. Anybody older than 30? Hollywood really doesn't care much about them. So per this question, I raise a yellow flag because the target audience is not clear to me.

* Is there a big enough audience to justify a studio buying this property? On the one hand, I do think the concept is pretty fresh and I suspect it could lend itself well to a marketing campaign. However the concept itself doesn't answer this question, therefore, it will depend upon the execution of the script.

* Will a buyer immediately get the idea? Here I feel a bit more confident. First, it is a high concept. Second, it does conjure up some sense of where the story might go (more on this tomorrow). And third, my guess is a buyer would probably be able to imagine a generic set of "and mayhem ensues" possibilities to think a script would be worth the read.

So after mulling over "I.O.Lou," if it was my idea and I was considering whether to write it on spec or not, I would say that I'm not convinced it's there yet. I really want to know if I'm dealing with a strong story concept or not. And so, one last set of questions tomorrow to drill down into the heart of the viability of this logline.

BTW, per an observation I made above, I can hear some of you grumbling, "Well, when isn't a story concept dependent upon how well it's executed? There can't be story ideas that sell themselves just based on the concept." Wrong! The Hangover is such a fantastic comedic conceit, it could've been written in crayon and in Aramaic -- and still sold. Hell, I was sold on it as far back as September 2008, so I'm not just piling on to what turned out the biggest grossing R-rate movie of all time.

More on what makes a strong story concept tomorrow. And please post your thoughts re "I.O.Lou" in comments.

Rod Serling: Writing to please an audience

GITS reader David A sent me a link to an amazing set of videos, a sit-down conversation with TV and screenwriter Rod Serling. Most well-known for the long-running TV anthology series "The Twilight Zone" (148 episodes, 1959-1964), has over 70 writing credits including the screenplays for movies such as Seven Days in May and the original Planet of the Apes.

This week and next, we'll feature Serling's thoughts on writing each day with short (1-2 minute) interview excerpts. Today Serling ruminates on the thought: Writing to please an audience:

"Isn't art a shared experience? Isn't the excellence of art dependent on a reaction from the outside to someone's work?"

Thanks again to David for finding these videos.

"How Writers Create Their Fiction": Jess Walter

I uncovered this month-long NPR series "How Writers Create Their Fiction", originally run in November 2006. I found many of the ideas presented by the various writers to be informative and inspirational, so we'll be featuring one writer from the series per day during February.

Today's writer is Jess Walter:

How He Writes: "My writing regimen is not very regimented. I tend to be a binge writer, working sometimes in the morning and sometimes all night. When I get going I like to hunch over the keyboard until I feel totally played out."

Writer's Block Remedies: "My cure for writer's block is to step away from the thing I'm stuck on, usually a novel, and write something totally different. Besides fiction, I write poetry, screenplays, essays and journalism. It's usually not the writing itself that I'm stuck on, but thing I'm trying to write. So I often have four or five things going at once."

Come back tomorrow at 9AM PST for more writing wisdom.

Hollywood Tales

"My single meeting with Hitch: Joan (series producer) told me the master was actually going to direct one of his TV shows--this one his very favorite story--"The Voice in the Night," to be the flagship episode for his one-hour Suspicion series. Joan drove me to his home up Bellagio Road, one of those canyon streets off Sunset Boulevard where you drive in through a gate.

"Hitch was charming. Congratulated me on the scripts I'd done for the half-hour Alfred Hitchcock Presents shows, personally made me a scotch and soda and sat me down with my yellow pad.

"I wouldn't trade the hour that followed for anything I can think of at the moment... The man was BRILLIANT. He fucking dictated the script to me--shot by shot, including camera movements and opticals. He actually had already SEEN the finished film. He'd say, for example, 'The camera's in the boat with the boy and the girl. The move in is very, very slow--while we see the mossy side of the wrecked schooner. Bump. Now the boy climbs the ladder. I tilt up. i see him look at his hand. Something strange seems to have attached itself. He disappears on deck. I'm shooting through this foreground of--of stuff--and I'm panning him to the cabin door. Something there makes him freeze. He waits. Now the camera's over here, and I see the girl come to him. Give me about this much dialogue, Stirling.' He holds up his hand, thumb and forefinger two inches apart. I jot down--'Dialogue, two inches.' As I say, the whole goddamned film--shot by shot, no dialogue--just the measurements of how much dialogue in the entire short story. It's all introspection and the memory of horror, and the writer didn't want to spoil it with dialogue. Lotsa luck, screenwriter. 'Give me two inches of dialogue right here.'"

-- screenwriter and TV writer Sterling Silliphant

Daily Dialogue -- February 9, 2010

"That was the day I stopped believing in the wild ardor of things. Perhaps in love, as well. That kind of love. The love in books and films. The love that tells us to abandon our lives and plans, all for one brief touch of Venus. So often we fail at that kind of love. The world just seems too fragile a place for it. And of every other kind, life remains full. Perhaps it's just we who are too fragile. "

Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore), Far From Heaven (2002), written and directed by Todd Haynes

Open Forum: Time for your questions

It's time for another Open Forum where any GITS reader can post any question they have about screenwriting, movies, the meaning of life, etc. Your humble servant will be happy to take a crack at answering them. Either post them in comments here or email me:

scottdistillery@gmail.com

"The Best Films of the 2000's Montage"

Awesome compilation!



Link here.

The GITS Club Logline Spotlight: "I.O.Lou"

So as most of you surely know, longtime GITS reader Jeff Messerman approached me several weeks ago about starting a peer review adjunct to the blog, which has resulted in The GITS Club. When I drafted this post on Sunday afternoon, there were currently 117 members and a lot more activity and interest than either Jeff or I imagined would happen this quickly (less than a month online).

One of the things Jeff and I have discussed is to spotlight something from TGC here on the blog every other week or so (hopefully more frequently once my work schedule settles down a bit). So for the inaugural post, we're spotlighting this logline called "I.O.Lou":

Desperate for cash to save his family home, a slacker sets out to collect on all his childhood IOUs from his now adult debtors.

TGC members responded very favorably to the idea. Here's an observation from brianhaas:

That's one of the better loglines I've seen on screenwriting message boards. You have the main conflict (losing the home), you've got the protagonist's goal and you've got how he hopes to achieve it. Nice.

The creator of the logline is Terrance Ellis and here's some background on him:

Not to sound cliché, but I’ve been writing all my life; mostly the inner toils of my mind and emotions (aka poetry), definitely nothing to book a nationwide signing tour on.

In 2003 with my wife’s encouragement, I self-published book of my poetry. She believed in my enough for us to uproot from Chicago and move out to Los Angeles to pursue writing for the silver screen.

While in Chicago, I took a screenwriting course taught by Dan Decker, author of “Anatomy of a Screenplay”. The class was a blast. I’ve written four crappy feature scripts and have started & stopped countless others. I’m currently developing a few of what I feel are my best ideas and plan on writing and actually finishing them.

I work at one of the major studios in town and feel that it gives me good access to the business of filmmaking. My goal, at this point, is to execute upon my ideas and complete more scripts. I’m not to focused on anything after that because my biggest obstacle is not getting past “FADE IN”.

GITS Club has become a great resource for me. It’s good to interact with other aspirants and receive their thoughts on my ideas.

I was never huge on forums or anything like that, but I became such a fan of Scott's GITS site, that I jumped at a chance to be a part of the forum. Thanks for everything that you guys do.

What I propose to do is start a thread with this post for GITS readers to weigh in with their initial reactions about the logline. So please go to comments and provide your feedback.

But I also have this in mind: What if I take you through my process of how I build up a story from the core story concept? I figure that, along with comments of GITS readers, will help Terrance. And hopefully, there may be some lessons to be learned in how to develop a story.

So here's my first step: I dredge through my memory banks to see how similar / different the idea is to pre-existing movies. The closest thing I could come up with for "I.O.Lou" is the TV series "My Name is Earl," starring Jason Lee. Here's that series premise:

A ne'er do well wins $100,000 in the lottery and decides to right all the wrongs from his past with his newfound realization.

There are two similar elements: (1) Slacker Protagonist; (2) Protagonist seeks out people from his past to even out things. Only per the latter, whereas Earl is trying to make up for mistakes he made in the past, the "I.O.Lou" P is trying to get paid up for loans he made in the past, so in essence a reverse dynamic - the former seeking to give, the latter seeking to take.

There have been a number of movies about adult characters reconnecting with childhood acquaintances including Big Bully: "A writer returns to his hometown where he faces the childhood nemesis whose life he ultimately ruined, only the bully wants to relive their painful past by torturing him once again."

More important there are some projects in development -- middle-age guys go back to relive their summer camp days; former members of a high school football team reunite to take on their former rivals -- which traffic with that similar narrative element. So at first blush, there doesn't seem to be a project that is too close to "I.O.Lou" -- thereby squashing the idea -- and there are a number of 'similar but different' projects, which is actually a good thing because of how timid the studios are at stepping out of their comfort zone.

So join me in comments - to post your reactions to the logline and any other movie associations (ala Big Bully and "My Name Is Earl") to help steer the discussion.

Tomorrow: I ask a few big questions to continue to determine the viability of the story concept. After that, we'll move into story development proper.