Fox Movie Channel's LIFE AFTER FILM SCHOOL and WRITER'S DRAFT

For behind-the-scenes video interviews with writers, check out Fox Movie Channel's LIFE AFTER FILM SCHOOL and WRITER'S DRAFT series.

In LIFE AFTER FILM SCHOOL, film school students interview filmmakers to learn about the reality of Hollywood.  Former USC student Lauren Gable, whose blog, DESTINATION HOLLYWOOD is listed in HU's Blogroll, is one of the hosts of LAFS.  Click here to read about her experiences on the series.  

WRITER'S DRAFT examines the screenwriter's process and emotional journey, from concept to screen.  Below is an interview with Graham Yost, Creator of JUSTFIED (currently my favorite show). 

Blogroll: Neely Swanson's NO MEANER PLACE

I used to (naively) think the key to selling a pilot was writing a good script.  I've since learned that a good script is only one of many, many things needed for a project to sell.

It's important for young writers looking to break in to learn why scripts either do or don't sell, but I've found it's hard to find out that information unless you're actively working in the business.

Not anymore.

Neely Swanson, former SVP of Development at David E. Kelley Productions and current adjunct faculty member at USC, authors NO MEANER PLACE, where she reviews unproduced scripts and interviews script writers about how they broke in, why some projects don't make it to the screen, and the industry at large.

No Meaner Place will highlight writers and writing that for one reason or another have been pushed aside, shoved to the curb, and abandoned; wonderful scripts that have never made it to the big screen or to the small screen in series form. Some of them were produced to pilot, poorly, some were entirely ignored, some were too original, some were, well who knows what they were… but all of them deserved better fates.

I encourage all aspiring writers to visit NO MEANER PLACE. And be sure to check out Neil Tolkin's recent interview where he discusses, among other things, breaking in to the industry and the differences between writing for television and film.

You can follow Neely's future posts in HU's blogroll, located on the right side of the page.

Ken Levine's Comedy 101

Check out Levine's free lessons in television scriptwriting.

How to Get an Agent

There are two ways to land an agent in Hollywood.  The first is through a connection.  If you, personally, know an agent, you can ask them to read your material.  If you have a friend who has an agent, that friend can pass along your spec for consideration.  (Please note, not everyone is comfortable passing along a script to their agent.  Don't be offended if your friend politely refuses your request.)

In addition, many aspiring writers make friends with agency assistants who become  agents around the same time the writer lands his or her first staff job, and the two subsequently form an agent/client relationship.

The second way to land an agent is by landing a writing job.  I know that seems backwards, but assistants who do not have representation are often promoted from within to staff writer.  If this is the case, many of the writers on staff, as well as other writers you know will recommend you to their agents.  Almost all agents are happy to meet with a writer who already has a job.  At that point, you will meet with various agents and pick the person who you believe is the best fit.

The process for landing a manager is similar, though some managers will read unsolicited scripts.

Hate the New IMDB Layout?

If you hate the new layout of IMDB, John August has the answer: LESS IMDB.

A Note On Food Allergies

As a PA, it is often your job to not only pick up lunch (and make sure you have the correct, complete order before leaving the restaurant) but to place the order over the phone.  It's also your job to stock the kitchen (writer's room kitchens are like gigantic vending machines) and wash the dishes.

Let's talk about ordering lunch for people with food allergies.

People who don't suffer from food allergies often think of allergy symptoms as itchy eyes or sneezing.  Food allergies are different.   Think of the food as poison to those who are allergic to it.  Food allergies kill people. 

I'm allergic to celery.  And avocado.  And spinach.  And tuna and salmon and blueberries... The list goes on.  If my club sandwich arrives with a slice of avocado on it or my salad arrives with a leaf of spinach in it and I spot it, I can simply pick it off.  If I miss it and accidentally eat the avocado or spinach, my lips will swell up, and for the rest of the day, I'll look like I just had collagen injections.  But I'll live.

If my salad dressing has celery or celery seed or celery salt in it, I will die.  If my chicken is marinated in chicken broth that was cooked with celery stock, I will die.  Within a matter of minutes, my throat will swell shut, and I will die.

If you're placing a lunch order for someone with food allergies, explain the severity of the situation to restaurant.  Don't just say, "Is there any celery in this salad?  Say, "The person I'm ordering this for is allergic to celery, so can you please check the ingredients in the salad dressing?  She's allergic to celery, celery salt, and celery seasoning.  If any of those ingredients are in the dressing, I need to order something else for her."

The fact is, shows tend to order from the same 10 restaurants over and over, and people tend to order the same meal over and over so by week four, you know which dishes the person can and can't eat.  I swear, I know the ingredients in every dish from every restaurant that delivers to Sunset Gower Studios. 

If you place an order for someone with allergies and realize you forgot to mention the allergy to the restaurant, TELL THEM.  They won't hate you, they'll love you.  It happens. When I was an assistant on According to Jim, our production coordinator was out of the office when we placed the lunch order, so I ordered for him.  He always ordered a Chinese chicken salad.  From every restaurant that had one.  So that's what I ordered for him.

He returned for lunch, opened his salad and said, "Does this have almonds on it?"  I said,  "I don't think so.  Who puts almonds in a Chinese chicken salad?"

Answer: This restaurant.  And he was allergic.  Thank god he took a closer look before taking a bite.  It was the day before his wedding.  If he had eaten the salad, he would have been married in a hospital.

Oops.

Let's talk about stocking the kitchen.

If a person in your office is allergic to peanuts, don't stock the kitchen with bags of peanuts and jars of peanut butter.  Unless, of course, it doesn't bother them.  Some people are "more allergic" than others.   My son, for instance, is allergic to peanuts, but has no reaction when others eat them in his presence.  As long as he doesn't shove a spoonful of peanut butter into his mouth, he's fine.  Other people can die simply from inhaling peanut dust.

I worked with a writer's assistant who was allergic to nuts, and some of the people in the office just refused to respect her allergy.  There were days when she had to leave the writers room and take a Benadryl to stop her allergic reaction.  Have you every tried to take notes while on Benadryl?

Be considerate.

Now let's talk about the doing the dishes. 

Make sure you thoroughly wash the dishes.  If someone sticks a knife into a jar of peanut butter and you return it to the drawer without thoroughly washing it,  someone with a peanut allergy may use it to cut an apple, and they could die. 

Why don't people with allergies just bring their lunch?   

Often times I do.  When I don't, I often call the restaurant myself and speak with chef before the PA places the order.  Until I get to know the PAs well, I don't like to burden them with my allergy issues; they have enough to worry about without the pressure of trying not to kill me.  But occasionally, I'll be stuck in the writer's room and we'll be ordering from a place I've never eaten, and I'll ask the PA to call for me.  (Thank you to Sam for always taking care of me on In Plain Sight.)

But the more important question is, why is it so hard for people to be patient with those suffering from allergies?  We're not being a pain in the ass.  We're not being picky.  It's a matter of life and death.

Thank you again to all the PAs I've worked with for not killing me.

Interview with SKYLINE Co-writer Liam O’Donnell

Via BU Today:

BU Alum Hits the Big Time with Skyline

Writer’s first feature film debuts tonight

By Amy Laskowski  

Skyline is in theaters today, November 12. Below, O'Donnell (second from left) poses with some of the cast and crew.

Before the release of his first film, Liam O’Donnell was already being asked about a sequel.

O’Donnell (CAS’04) is the coauthor of the sci-fi film Skyline, which rolls into theaters today.

“We brought the film trailer to the Berlin Film Festival, and they were asking about the sequel there,” he says. “We have a kernel of an idea, but we’ve developed a treatment and people are excited. When Skyline is released in theaters, I want to see what part the audience is most excited about, because we have a general idea what it might be.”

O’Donnell, a political science major at BU, moved out to Los Angeles shortly after graduation, with aspirations of going to law school, not becoming a screenwriter. While in LA, O’Donnell became friends with Colin and Greg Strause, the directors of Skyline and owners of visual effects company Hydraulx, which orchestrated the explosions and monsoons in the box office blockbusters Avatar, Iron Man 2, and The Day After Tomorrow. The Strauses also directed AVPR: Aliens vs. Predator—Requiem.

O’Donnell soon began working with the Strauses writing storylines for Fresca and Coke China commercials. He went on to write music video storylines for rappers 50 Cent and Usher. Just before Thanksgiving 2009, the three were having lunch with Joshua Cordes (Skyline cowriter) throwing around ideas for a project they could create together. “The brothers own all these great spaces,” O’Donnell says, “and we had these awesome cameras and wondered what we could do to take advantage of that.” The result was Skyline.

The film opens with alien ships cluttering the Los Angeles skyline. Soon, extraterrestrials begin swallowing humans, threatening their entire existence. The film, which stars actors Eric Balfour (24), Scottie Thompson (Star Trek), Donald Faison (Scrubs), and Brittany Daniel (Dawson’s Creek and Sweet Valley High), is being released by Universal Studios today, November 12.

O’Donnell, now the head of development for Hydraulx Entertainment, is at work on a sequel to Skyline. He says he drew on his BU experience in writing his first feature film. “They told me that I would learn on the job, and I had only written the first act of a script before I really started working,” O’Donnell says. “But the essay writing of political science definitely crossed over, like writing a proper introduction, theme, and organization.”

BU Today talked with O’Donnell about the making of Skyline.

BU Today: How did a BU political science major get into writing and producing?

O’Donnell: When I was at BU, I took a screenwriting course for one semester. I’d always been interested in writing and science fiction from writers like Michael Crichton, and writing was something I had always wanted to do. I thought I could become an entertainment lawyer. I was accepted into law school, but deferred for a year to go to Los Angeles. I went out to there in the summer of 2003 to take classes at UCLA.

Within six months I was working at smaller production companies, and I started writing treatments for commercials, which are basically mini-scripts. I began gaining confidence this way. I worked with the Strauses on a few projects, and we realized we wanted to do something independently. Films like District 9 and Paranormal Activity got to take risks because they had a low budget, and you can’t take those risks with a big-budget movie, because you have to send every idea up the corporate ladder.

How did you prepare to write the script?
As soon as we had the concept, we wanted a different take on the subject, like a siren or a mythological invasion. We thought of this blue light, a syndrome that makes you look, and then pulls you out and sucks you up into the ship. It’s a simple fire in the sky. We thought it would be interesting to suck up an entire metropolis, and that was the basis for the whole movie.

I wrote a three-page treatment in one night. My cowriter, Josh Cordes, did the same thing. The next morning we lined them up, and then we just took the best from both. We worked tirelessly for a month writing a 35-page treatment, and then we had the script.

What was it like working with a cowriter?
It really opened my eyes working with such a talented writing partner. We got all our fights out in the beginning. One of us was working on the script every 24 hours, because I’m a night guy, and my partner is a morning guy. We’d keep adding to what the other had done.

When it’s your own team, you’re not having a real conflict, because everyone wants the movie to be a success. If you disagree, at the end of the day you have the same goal, so you figure out how to get to there. Everyone has a different idea, but the best idea wins. We didn’t have any real major disagreements. Once rewriting begins, you try to make everything as tight as possible.

You had a low budget for this film. How did you deal with that challenge?
It was almost unbelievably low—the physical production was $500,000, and the budget was under $10 million. We shot it in Greg Strause’s apartment, which has a great view of Los Angeles. It’s a 20-story condo building in Marina del Ray. One of the codirectors lives in the penthouse. About two years ago I lived on the fourth floor because, hey, I’m just a writer, not a director.

We figured this would be the scene for the movie, and we had different settings, like the pool, the garage, the rooftop. It was extremely challenging to do. Every time you have boundaries like that, you focus on the story. The biggest advantage was that I had lived in that building. I knew the set when writing the story. That was almost like cheating—it was great—because we could walk through the set while writing the script. We would do blocking videos and act out scenes before we filmed them.

The most challenging part of the movie was seeking people’s advice. They can see things better than you, but I thought we did well in addressing those challenges each day, but not giving in to an easy fix.

Did the neighbors want to kill you?
Yes. It’s an upscale building. The neighbors are used to luxury. We had a crew of 20 people, mostly large males. The vocal minority are always the ones that complain, but there were a lot of people who were positive.

You’ve worked on music videos with rappers Usher and 50 Cent. Do tell.
Both were really cool. Usher is the consummate professional, doing dance moves take after take. I worked with him on the Moving Mountains video, where the stunt double couldn’t perform the stunt, and Usher ended up doing it at 4 a.m. I thought that the guy kicked ass.

50 Cent is crazy. We had fake glass that he was supposed to punch, but he ran through it. Dove through it, fell all over some of the crew, but no one was hurt. I loved the enthusiasm.

What advice do you have for people trying to get into the film business?
If you want to be a writer and do films out in Los Angeles, you have to take the jump. Get used to the rejection, and believe in this dream. Surround yourself with people that challenge you. If you’re the only one within your creative circle who’s trying to get there, it’s going to be hard. A movie is a team effort. Believe that you can all achieve this.

How was your time at BU?
I came from a really small town; there were something like 60 people at my high school graduation. At BU, I didn’t feel like I was being coddled, and it taught me to take responsibility. It taught me that life is not an idyllic campus, and you have to make your own way in life. I’m thankful for the way that prepared me for Los Angeles.

Skyline is in theaters today, November 12. Movie times are available here. 
 
Amy Laskowski can be reached at amlaskow@bu.edu.

What it Takes to Become a Writer

A reader asks:

What do YOU think it takes to be (or become) a good writer? And statistically speaking, what is the median age of a writer who lands their first writing gig?

I'm sure every writer would answer this question differently.  What do I think it takes to become a good writer?  Life experience and discipline, in that order.

Many recent graduates are frustrated to find that they are not immediately staffed on a show.  But the truth is, most producers don't consider 22-year-olds who have spent most of their lives in school to have enough life experience to be on staff.  Of course there are exceptions.  But it's important to understand the job of a writer on staff.  It's not just about writing dialogue.  It's about pitching ideas for 10 (or more) hours per day, five (or more) days per week.  It's about taking your own experience and turning it into a story.  It's not about how many independent films you've made or specs you've written.   It's about what your life experience adds to the story generating and breaking process. 

The most difficult part of writing is writing; forcing yourself to sit down and write.  Many people have the skills and talent, but not the discipline.  You need to generate a large body of material to demonstrate your ability.  One great script isn't enough.

And I don't know the median age of staff writers, but I can tell you I don't know of any staff writer younger than 26.

Copyrighting Question

What if your script is based off a real person and you're waiting for permission from their estate before submitting your script? Could you have your script dramatizing that person's life copyrighted BEFORE permission is obtained or AFTER?

The above contains two separate questions.  First:

Could you have your script dramatizing that person's life copyrighted BEFORE permission is obtained or AFTER?

You can copyright your script at any time regardless of the subject matter.  Click here for more information on how to copyright your spec. 

What if your script is based off a real person and you're waiting for permission from their estate before submitting your script?

That is a different question entirely.  You can write and submit any spec, regardless of subject matter, as a writing sample.  However, if you plan to submit a script based on a real person with the intention of having it produced, I advise speaking to an entertainment attorney regarding the legalities.  Writing a script based on a real person to use as a writing sample is one thing.  Selling/producing a script based on a real person is another; you can be sued.

Does Jessica Alba Adlib Her Lines?

Jessica Alba is Elle Magazine's December cover girl.  She's quoted as saying: 

“Good actors, never use the script unless it’s amazing writing. All the good actors I’ve worked with, they all say whatever they want to say.”

I'm an avid reader of Elle (which may tank my credibility with some readers, but so be it), and I intended to read the quote in context before commenting.  Levine and August, however, are already sounding off.   

Photo: Carter Smith

A Note On Query Letters

A great post from Alex Epstein:

I recently finished a film and I'm ready to put it out there. As it is a very specific niche film, I've done some research and I think there's a particular distributor that can best handle a project like this. I've acquired the contact information for their director of acquisitions and I'm ready to try and make contact.

The only problem is, reading through the distribution site's 'terms of use', it looks like they have a policy about not accepting outside materials (for fear of litigation for stealing ideas). I don't know if this is strictly for web submissions, or if it's the company rule throughout. Is this common? If I send an email should I not include any description for fear they'll simply delete it? How do I get them to look at my product if they're specifically saying the don't want a submission?

Generally companies that have policies about submissions mean they don't want you to wrap up your script or movie and send it to them. They don't mean you can't query them about submitting your script or movie. They are, after all, in the business of buying / optioning / licensing / repping scripts or movies.

You can't copyright an idea, only the execution of an idea. Therefore they can freely read your query (which is only long enough to contain an idea); they just don't want you to send them your script or movie (which is the execution of your idea).

Of course if you're unsure, you can always call them. I realize this is a shocking notion these days, but your phone can do so much more than text, give directions, and play music. You can actually use it to talk with your voice to another human being.

Why Does It Take Hollywood So Long to Respond to an Email?

Unfortunately, there's a growing trend among Hollywood professionals to ignore emails. Agents, executives, and the like receive hundreds of emails every day, and it's impossible to respond to each and every one. (I'm not exaggerating when I say hundreds. As an assistant at Touchstone Television, I received 200-300 emails per day.)

In addition to hundreds of emails, the phone rings constantly and when an agent must decide who to respond to first -- the person on the phone or the person on the other end of an email -- the caller wins.

In my experience, emails are responded to either immediately or two weeks after they are received. Everyone in Hollywood has a blackberry and if you ask a yes or no question, you'll often receive an answer within seconds. However, if you ask a question that requires decision making, research, or correspondence with other parties, be prepared to wait up to a week (or longer).

My point is, don't panic if you send an email and you don't received an immediate response.  Most of my emails begin "I apologize for the delay..." I have a habit of letting my inbox overflow before sitting down to respond to my messages. My response time is something I strive (and fail) to improve every day.

That said, if it's been two weeks, or if the subject matter requires immediate attention, feel free to follow up.

Pitch Festivals

I've received several emails asking my opinion on pitch festivals.

I've never attended a pitch festival, nor has anyone I know. If you have and would like to share your experience, please email me or comment on this post.