tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67821521567916211722024-03-05T01:12:17.126-08:00Scriptmag.comThe Craft and Business of ScreenwritingBronwen Akerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16067752927986230476noreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782152156791621172.post-83587776097619402342010-03-06T19:34:00.000-08:002010-03-06T19:37:16.826-08:00Live Blog: 82nd Annual Academy Awards®<iframe src="http://www.coveritlive.com/index2.php/option=com_altcaster/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=5e134e4905/height=550/width=470" scrolling="no" height="550px" width="470px" frameBorder ="0" ><a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=5e134e4905" >Script @ the 82nd Annual Academy Awards</a></iframe>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782152156791621172.post-62043119295155442622010-02-25T06:54:00.000-08:002010-02-25T07:12:52.863-08:002010 Writers Guild Award Winners<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">compiled by Ray Morton</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="text-transform:uppercase;color:black;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; text-transform: none; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="text-transform:uppercase;color:black;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; text-transform: none; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">On February 20, 2010, The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) and the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) announced the winners of the </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">2010 Writers Guild Awards</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> for outstanding achievement in writing for screen, television, radio, news, promotional, and videogame writing at simultaneous ceremonies at the Hudson Theatre at the Millennium Broadway Hotel in New York City and the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. Susie Essman of </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Curb Your Enthusiasm </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">hosted the East Coast show, and </span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Seth MacFarlane, creator and star of </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Family Guy, </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">h</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">osted the West Coast show.</span></span></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">SCREEN WINNERS</span></span></b><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The Hurt Locker,</span></span></i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Written by </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Mark Boa</span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">l</span></b></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">;</span></b><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Summit Entertainment<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">ADAPTED SCREENPLAY<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Up in the Air,</span></span></i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Screenplay by </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Jason Reitman</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> and </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Sheldon Turner;</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Based upon the novel by Walter Kirn; Paramount Pictures</span><b><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The Cove,</span></span></i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Written by </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Mark Monroe;</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">TELEVISION WINNERS<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">DRAMA SERIES<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Mad Men</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">,</span></b></span></i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Written by</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Lisa Albert, Andrew Colville, Kater Gordon, Cathryn Humphris, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Andre Jacquemetton, Maria Jacquemetton, Brett Johnson, Erin Levy, Marti Noxon, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Frank Pierson, Robin Veith, Dahvi Waller, Matthew Weiner; </span></span></b><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">AMC</span></span></span></span></b></span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">COMEDY SERIES<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">30 Rock,</span></span></i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Written by </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Jack Burditt, Kay Cannon, Robert Carlock, Tom Ceraulo, Vali Chandrasekaran, Tina Fey, Donald Glover, Steve Hely, Matt Hubbard, Dylan Morgan, Paula Pell, Jon Pollack, John Riggi, Tami Sagher, Josh Siegal, Ron Weiner, Tracey Wigfield; </span></b><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">NBC</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">NEW SERIES<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Modern Family,</span></span></i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Written by </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Paul Corrigan, Sameer Gardezi, Joe Lawson, Steven Levitan, Christopher Lloyd, Dan O'Shannon, Brad Walsh, Caroline Williams, Bill Wrubel, Danny Zuker;</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> ABC<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">EPISODIC DRAMA </span></span></u></b><b><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">– any length – one airing time</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></u></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“Broken, Part 1 and Part 2” </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(House),</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Written by </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Russel Friend </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">& </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Garrett Lerner </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">& </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">David Foster </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">& </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">David Shore;</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Fox<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">EPISODIC COMEDY</span></span></u></b><b><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> – any length – one airing time </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(**TIE**)</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“Apollo, Apollo” </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(30 Rock),</span></i></span><b><span style="color:red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></b><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Written by </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Robert Carlock;</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> NBC</span><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“Pilot” </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(Modern Family),</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Written by </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Steven Levitan</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> & </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Christopher Lloyd;</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> ABC<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-right:.1in;mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;mso-hyphenate:none;tab-stops:-1.0in -.5in 0in .25in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 3.75in 4.25in 4.75in 5.0in 6.0in"><b><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">LONG FORM – ORIGINAL – over one hour – one or two parts, one or two airing times <o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Georgia O’Keeffe,</span></span></i><b><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></b><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Written by </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Michael Cristofer;</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Lifetime<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-right:.1in;mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;mso-hyphenate:none;tab-stops:-1.0in -.5in 0in .25in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 3.75in 4.25in 4.75in 5.0in 6.0in"><b><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">LONG FORM – ADAPTATION – over one hour – one or two parts, one or two airing times <o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Taking Chance,</span></span></i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Teleplay by Lieutenant Colonel</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Michael R. Strobl,</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> USMC (Ret.) and </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Ross Katz,</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Based on the short story by Lieutenant Colonel Michael R. Strobl, USMC (Ret.); HBO<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">ANIMATION</span></span></u></b><b><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> – any length </span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">– one</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> airing time<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“Wedding for Disaster” </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(The Simpsons),</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Written by </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Joel H. Cohen;</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Fox<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <h6><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">COMEDY / VARIETY</span></span></u><u><span style="font-weight: normal;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> – </span></span></u><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(INCLUDING TALK) SERIES </span></span></u><u><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(**TIE**)</span></span></span></u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></h6> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Saturday Night Live,</span></span></i><b><span style="color:red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></b><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Head Writer: </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Seth Meyers,</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Writers </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Doug Abeles, James Anderson, Alex Baze, Jessica Conrad, James Downey, Steve Higgins, Colin Jost, Erik Kenward, Rob Klein, John Lutz, Lorne Michaels, John Mulaney, Paula Pell, Simon Rich, Marika Sawyer, Akiva Schaffer, John Solomon, Emily Spivey, Kent Sublette, Jorma Taccone, Bryan Tucker, </span></b><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Additional Sketch by</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Adam McKay, Andrew Steele;</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> NBC</span></span><b><span style="color:blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,</span></span></i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Head Writer: </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Steve Bodow, </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Writers </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Rory Albanese, Kevin Bleyer, Rich Blomquist, Tim Carvell, Wyatt Cenac, Hallie Haglund, JR Havlan, David Javerbaum, Elliott Kalan, Josh Lieb, Sam Means, Jo Miller, John Oliver, Daniel Radosh, Jason Ross, Jon Stewart; </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Comedy Central</span></span><b><span style="color:blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoHeader"><b><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">COMEDY / VARIETY – MUSIC, AWARDS, TRIBUTES – SPECIALS<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Film Independent’s 2009 Spirit Awards, </span></span></i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Written by </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Billy Kimball, Neil MacLennan;</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> IFC/AMC<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <h4><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">DAYTIME SERIAL<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></h4> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The Young and the Restless,</span></span></i><b><span style="color:red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></b><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Written by</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Amanda L. Beall, Tom Casiello, Lisa Connor, Janice Ferri Esser, Eric Freiwald, Jay Gibson, Scott Hamner, Marla Kanelos, Beth Milstein, Natalie Minardi Slater, Melissa Salmons, Linda Schreiber, James Stanley, Sandra Weintraub, Teresa Zimmerman;</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> CBS<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <h4><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">CHILDREN'S EPISODIC & SPECIALS<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></h4> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“Welcome to the Jungle” </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(The Troop),</span></i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Written by </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Max Burnett;</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Nickelodeon<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">CHILDREN’S SCRIPT – LONG FORM OR SPECIAL <o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Another Cinderella Story,</span></span></i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Written by </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Erik Patterson, Jessica Scott;</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> ABC Family <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <h6><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">DOCUMENTARY – CURRENT EVENTS<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></h6> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“The Madoff Affair” </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(Frontline),</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Written by </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Marcela Gaviria, Martin Smith;</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> PBS<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <h6><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">DOCUMENTARY – OTHER THAN CURRENT EVENTS<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></h6> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer” </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(American Experience),</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Written by </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">David Grubin;</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> PBS<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <h6><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">NEWS – REGULARLY SCHEDULED, BULLETIN OR BREAKING REPORT<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></h6> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">World News with Charles Gibson,</span></span></i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Written by </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Lee Kamlet, Julia Kathan, Joel Siegel;</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> ABC<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoHeader"><b><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">NEWS – ANALYSIS, FEATURE, OR COMMENTARY</span></span></u></b><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“A Private War: Expose: America’s Investigative Reports” </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(Bill Moyers Journal),</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Written by </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Thomas M. Jennings;</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> PBS</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><b><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><b><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">RADIO WINNERS</span></span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">DOCUMENTARY <o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">2008 Year in Review,</span></span></i><b><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></b><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Written by </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Gail Lee;</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> CBS<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <h4><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">NEWS – REGULARLY SCHEDULED OR BREAKING<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></h4> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">World News This Week − July 11, 2009,</span></span></i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Written by </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Darren Reynolds;</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> ABC Radio<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <h6><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">NEWS – ANALYSIS, FEATURE OR COMMENTARY<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></h6> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Paul Harvey: An American Life,</span></span></i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Written by </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Stu Chamberlain;</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> ABC Radio<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText" align="center" style="text-align: left;"><b><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">PROMOTIONAL WRITING AND GRAPHIC ANIMATION WINNERS<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">ON-AIR PROMOTION (RADIO OR TELEVISION)<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“Vegas” </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(Dateline),</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> “The Wanted” Promo, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">NBC Nightly News </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Promo</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">,</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> “Iran”</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> (Dateline),</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> “Cheat” </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(Dateline),</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Written by </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Barry Fitzsimmons;</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> NBC<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><b><u><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">TELEVISION GRAPHIC ANIMATION<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“Hudson Splashdown”</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> (CBS Evening News with Katie Couric),</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">David M. Rosen, Shannon L. Toma;</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> CBS</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><b><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><b><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">VIDEOGAME WRITING WINNER</span></span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Uncharted 2: Among Thieves</span></span></i><i><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">,</span></span></i><b><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></b><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Written by </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Amy Hennig</span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">;</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Sony Computer Entertainment</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><b><span style="color:black;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></b></span></o:p></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><b><span style="color:black;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">SPECIAL AWARDS</span></span></b></span></o:p></span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The Writers Guild of America, East presented special honors to: </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Alan Zweibel</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> - Ian McLellan Hunter Lifetime Achievement Award; </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Gary David Goldberg </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">– Herb Sargent Award for Comedy Excellence; </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Edward Albee </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">– Evelyn F. Burkey Award for contributions bringing honor and dignity to writers everywhere; </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">David Steven Cohen </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">- Jablow Award for devoted service to the Guild, and </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Philippa Leverman - </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">John Merriman Award for Study of Broadcast Journalism at American University. In addition, the Writers Guild of America, East Foundation presented the Michael Collyer Memorial Fellowship in Screenwriting to </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Antal Zambo</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> of Wayne State University.</span><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-family:";color:black;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> The Writers Guild of America, West presented special honors to: </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Larry David </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">– Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television for lifetime achievement; </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Barry Levinson</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> – Screen Laurel Award for lifetime achievement; </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Anthony Peckham</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(Invictus) </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">– Paul Selvin Award, recognizing written work which spotlights constitutional rights and civil liberties; </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Carl Gottlieb </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">– Morgan Cox Award, honoring longtime Guild service.</span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="color:black;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <!--EndFragment-->Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782152156791621172.post-55372565335226371712010-02-16T12:39:00.000-08:002010-02-16T13:03:46.449-08:00WGA News - Jan/Feb 2010by Ray Morton<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">iPHONE APPS GO UNION</span><br />In December 2009, the writers of iLarious became the first writers of content for an iPhone app to be represented by a labor union, the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE). Under this agreement, writers for apps such as This Just In (which delivers 10-15 jokes a day to the iPhone) will get to count their jokes written for the app towards WGAE health insurance and other benefits. Comedy writers covered by this new agreement hail from <span style="font-style:italic;">The Daily Show</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Onion</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">Human Giant</span> and <span style="font-style:italic;">Saturday Night Live</span> among other famous comedy programs.<br /><br />iLarious went union because company founder and comedy writer Fred Graver is himself a member of the WGAE and knows how important union representation is to writers. “iLarious was founded to be the leading entertainment and comedy brand on mobile, by a group of writers, producers and performers - many of whom are members of the WGA, ” said Graver. “In a couple of years, mobile will be one of the dominant forces in our industry. It's important to the founders of iLarious that we bring the best talent to the table, and that we put a stake in the ground in this newly developing territory. The new means of producing content allows us to be owners and creators at the same time - and in the future, we look forward to being able to picket ourselves every few years.”<br /><br />“Whatever the technology, writers will always benefit from membership in a creative community which is organized to advance their interests,” said WGAE Executive Director Lowell Peterson. “The job standards enjoyed by writers in film and broadcast TV were built over the years by creative people working together. Signing on with the WGAE is a very important step for creators of digital media to gain the standing and strength they deserve.”<br /><br />In the past six months, the WGAE has signed 20 new companies creating content for digital media. These digital media companies who are covered by Writers Guild agreements have produced more than twenty-five web series currently available online and have additional series in development. Writers at these companies will become WGAE members. These writers were organized as part of the WGAE’s Writers Guild 2.0 initiative and demonstrate that writers working in digital media are interested in union membership.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">WGA, EAST’S DIGITAL MEDIA SIGNATORIES TRIPLE IN 2009</span><br />Writers Guild of America, East, AFL-CIO (WGAE) added twenty-two digital media companies as signatories in 2009. Thirty writers have become guild members as a result of digital media work covered by guild contracts this year. The exponential increase in digital media projects covered by the WGAE is the result of the union’s focus on new organizing.<br /><br />"The business models, distribution structures, and creative opportunities in digital media are still being developed. The fundamental goal of the Writers Guild 2.0 initiative is to ensure that creators are at the table as decisions are made about these basic issues,” said WGAE Executive Director Lowell Peterson. “The enormous potential of digital media won't mean much if writers and other creators can't make a living, or if they must cede creative control."<br /><br />Rapid growth in signatories shows that digital media creators feel a strong need for guild representation. Digital media producers say they seek the same benefits in guild membership as any other writer, such as healthcare, credit for their work and a community willing to fight for their rights. New WGAE signatories announced in the last quarter of 2009 include: the original animated web series <span style="font-style:italic;">9am Meeting</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">Confirmed Bachelors</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">Undead New York</span>, and <span style="font-style:italic;">The Bear, the Cloud and God</span>; the live action series <span style="font-style:italic;">The Battery’s Down</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">Downsized</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">Duder</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">Gavin Lance</span>, and <span style="font-style:italic;">Alex Bloom</span> and <span style="font-style:italic;">Ben Zelevansky</span>; and production companies AGBK, Guy and Cut Films, Jamtown Films, and Respect Films.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">WGA, EAST SUPPORTS AN OPEN INTERNET</span><br />On January 5, 2009 the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) responded to a request from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for comments on net neutrality and an open Internet in response to its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Net Neutrality with the following comments:<br /><ul><li>The Writers Guild of America, East, AFL-CIO, supports the proposed codification of the six principles described in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking adopted October 22, 2009. We think it is critical that the extraordinary potential of the Internet not be stifled by corporate conglomerates that restrict access for their own commercial gain.</li><li>The WGAE represents people who write, edit, produce, and create graphics for television, film, radio, and digital media. Our members write television drama, comedy, news, and public interest programs; they write movies for major studios and for independents; they create original content for web television, for mobile applications, and for other digital platforms. Our members know first-hand how an open Internet permits them to create more innovative, informative content and to distribute it directly to the public. </li><li>While we support all six principles, the first (forbidding providers from blocking users’ access to lawful content of their choice) and fifth (requiring providers to treat lawful content, applications, and services in a nondiscriminatory manner) most directly address the interest of creators in maintaining meaningful access to the public. </li><li>The Internet and other digital media offer an unprecedented opportunity for creators to reach consumers and for people to watch and read what they want, when they want. This is very different from traditional media in which major studios, distributors, and television networks control the flow of movies and programs. We believe people would benefit from an Internet that offers a greater variety of options than what is currently available on television, radio, and the movie theater. Digital technology presents a vast range of possibilities to content creators and consumers alike, and it would be a tragedy to squeeze all of that into a narrow commercial band. Unless the Commission codifies the six principles, a relatively small number of major institutions might also come to control access to content on the Internet – big studios, network providers, or application and service providers. </li><li> The importance of the non-discrimination principle is highlighted by the proposed merger of NBC Universal into Comcast. One of the central purposes of the merger is to give Comcast better access to and control over the production of content. At the same time, Comcast will continue to expand its digital distribution business. Comcast will have a powerful incentive to use pricing to favor its own content [1]. </li><li>This is not the only type of discrimination that threatens a robust, diverse Internet. As a practical matter, major entities can easily outbid independent creators of digital content for preferred access to audiences. This would be addressed by the Commission’s understanding of the term “nondiscriminatory” to preclude service access providers from charging for enhanced or prioritized access. Otherwise it is almost certain that most of the content consumers view will be produced by a relative handful of major entities – just as it is now in television and film. The enormous creative potential of a distribution system without mega-gatekeepers will be squandered. </li><li>Of course, it is possible that the biggest, best-funded content producers (e.g., major studios) will attract the most viewers because of superior content. Nothing in the Internet principles would impede this. Instead, the fourth principle endorses competition of this nature. The Commission should, however, preclude providers from interposing their own limitations on what people can watch and read, or post. It is simply inappropriate to stifle the flow of content – whether for ideological or commercial reasons. </li><li>We recognize that some people believe an open Internet encourages digital piracy. The WGAE strongly opposes piracy; our members lose when their work is unlawfully copied and distributed. However, we do not think permitting major commercial entities to control the flow of data and to restrict access to certain programming is an appropriate or effective method of controlling piracy. Everyone opposes car theft but no one proposes that we restrict access to the highways. Fighting piracy is an important task for law enforcement agencies. It is not grounds for restricting content creators’ access to the Internet. For this reason we urge the Commission not to adopt a definition of “managed or specialized services” which ignores the very real possibility that many or most consumers will get their Internet access and their “television”, and perhaps telephone, services from a single provider. </li></ul><b>WGAW’S SHOWRUNNER TRAINING PROGRAM<br /></b>The fifth edition of The Writers Guild of America, West’s annual Showrunner Training Program got underway in January 2010. The six-week industry training program, a partnership between the WGAW and television networks and studios, is designed for senior-level writer-producers to develop the essential skills necessary to become successful showrunners.<div><br />Each year’s program features high-profile speakers from various areas of the industry. This year’s 45 speakers include Steve Levitan, Shawn Ryan, Joss Whedon, Bill Lawrence, Phil Rosenthal, David Shore, Jason Katims, Paris Barclay, Ian Maxtone-Graham, Matt Nix, Yvette Lee Bowser, Glen Mazzara, Lifetime Television President JoAnn Alfano, and actor Blair Underwood. Additional sessions include other industry professionals such as actors, directors, and teamsters, as well as a visit to a post production facility with presentations from editors and Alicia Hirsch, Senior VP of Post Production at Fox Television Studios.<div><br />SRTP sessions are all-day seminars on four Saturdays, running through February 20. Employing lecture and interactive test-case scenarios, as well as large and small group discussions, the program gives participants an intimate setting to interact with some of Hollywood’s most successful and experienced showrunners. The innovative program’s core curriculum includes the following topics:<br /><ul><li>Session #1: From Writer to Manager (held January 9th) </li><li>Session #2: Managing Writers & the Script Process (held January 16th) </li><li>Session #3: Managing Production & Directors (held January 23rd)</li><li>Session #4: Managing Executives & Actors (to be held January 30th) </li><li>Session #5: Managing Post-Production (to be held February 6th)</li><li>Session #6: Managing Your Career (to be held February 20th) </li></ul>The program also includes two half-day “break-out” sessions with WGA,West President and SRTP co-founder John Wells (<i>ER</i>, <i>The West Wing</i>) talking about “Budget & Scheduling,” and Stephen J. Cannell (<i>The Rockford Files</i>, <i>Wiseguy</i>) on “The Pilot Process.”</div><div><br />To select participants, writers on the Showrunner Training Program Committee considered more than 60 eligible applicants and accepted 21 writers and/or writing teams, all of whom were recommended by television showrunners and/or network and studio creative executives for the in-demand seminar slots covering both comedy and dramatic series. Participants in the WGAW’s 2010 Showrunner Training Program are: Jonathan Abrahams, Sally Bradford, Jill Cargerman, Chris Collins, Matt Corman, Adam Giaudrone, Jessica Goldstein, Peter Gould, Holly Henderson, Davey Holmes, Andre Jacquemetton, Maria Jacquemetton, David Lampson, Andrew Leeds, Amanda Lasher, Scott Marder, George Mastras, Bryan Oh, Chris Ord, Christine Pietrosh, Ron Rappaport, Rob Rosell, Far Shariat, Ben Watkins, Sarah Watson, Don Whitehead, and Alexander Woo.<br /></div><br /><br />--------------------------------------------------<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/Sh_rE3rBstI/AAAAAAAAAHg/D2TzQ_sgXAk/s1600-h/raymortoncorner.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 111px; height: 103px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/Sh_rE3rBstI/AAAAAAAAAHg/D2TzQ_sgXAk/s200/raymortoncorner.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341246151981118162" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.raymorton.com/"><span style="font-size:85%;">Ray Mort</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.raymorton.com/">on</a> is a writer and script consultant. His books <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Close-Encounters-Third-Kind-Spielbergs/dp/1557837104/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243605864&sr=1-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The Making of Steven Sp</span></a></span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Close-Encounters-Third-Kind-Spielbergs/dp/1557837104/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243605864&sr=1-1"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">ielberg</span></span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Close-Encounters-Third-Kind-Spielbergs/dp/1557837104/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243605864&sr=1-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">'s Classic Film</span></a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/King-Kong-History-Movie-Jackson/dp/1557836698/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243605864&sr=1-2"><span style="font-style: italic;">King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon from Fay Wray to Peter Jackson</span></a> are available </span><span style="font-size:85%;">in stor</span><span style="font-size:85%;">es a</span><span style="font-size:85%;">nd online. He analyzes screenplays for production companies, producers, and individual writers. Morton is ava</span><span style="font-size:85%;">ilable for consultation and can be reached at </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/ray@raymorton.com"><span style="font-size:85%;">ray@raymorton.com</span></a>.</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782152156791621172.post-6957920698165992762010-02-16T11:16:00.000-08:002010-02-16T11:32:53.447-08:00Before the Oscars®: Looking Back at '09by Ray Morton<br /><br />With one year ending, another one beginning, and awards season starting to ramp up, this is the time when those of us that write about movies present our lists of the Best and Worst cinematic achievements of the previous twelve months. Since my purview is screenwriting, I’m going to focus my attention on what I consider to be the best and the most dubious screenplays of 2009.<br /><br />For me, hands down the best script -- and the best film -- of 2009 is <span style="font-style:italic;">Up</span> (screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, and Thomas McCarthy). In this time of remakes and recycling, when originality and imagination are at a premium and movies have lost much of their sense of wonder, every frame of this gem from Pixar was terrifically fresh, clever, and bedazzling. The story is jam-packed with inventive concepts – so many that it is almost impossible to synopsize the narrative in any way that makes it sound coherent (“Y’see, it’s about this boy that meets a girl. They fall in love and spend fifty years together. Then she dies and he is sad and then he’s going to lose his house, so he hooks it up to a bunch of balloons and sails it away with an annoying Boy Scout in tow. The two travel to South America, where they befriend a goofy flightless bird and encounter a crazy explorer whose henchmen are a pack of squirrel-obsessed talking dogs…” Huh?) and yet the material is so impeccably structured and emotionally true that all of the outlandish ideas make complete sense and so are totally believable in context.<br /><br />I was also very impressed with <span style="font-style:italic;">The Hurt Locker</span> (screenplay by Mark Boal) which I felt was Hemingway-esqe in the best sense of the term – marvelously spare and simple on the surface, rich and complex underneath – and <span style="font-style:italic;">District 9</span> (screenplay by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell), which took an idea we’d seen before (in the film and television series <span style="font-style:italic;">Alien Nation</span>) and by treating it with depth and intelligence and by peopling it with relatable three-dimensional characters (both human and alien), transformed it into a fresh and exciting sci-fi adventure, as well as a really good movie. In addition, I was a fan of a film that, for reasons I don’t really understand, was cited by many critics as being one of the worst of the year -- <span style="font-style:italic;">The Men Who Stare at Goats</span>. I thought screenwriter Peter Straughan did a marvelous job of adapting some truly bizarre and seemingly improbable real-life material into a really smart and interesting fictional narrative that was both biting (in its savage view of the insanity of the military intelligence community) and sweet (in its depiction of the goofy-but-sincere higher-consciousness aspirations of the characters played by George Clooney and Jeff Bridges).<br /><br />These qualities aside, the main reason that I liked all of these films is that they made me feel something – <span style="font-style:italic;">Up</span> made me laugh and cry (continuously and often concurrently); <span style="font-style:italic;">The Hurt Locker</span> terrified me and I found the war between a desire for normality and the excitement of living on the edge that raged inside of Jeremy Renner’s Sergeant First Class William James to be both disturbing and compelling; <span style="font-style:italic;">District 9</span> was exciting, funny, and in the end quite moving (the site of Sharto Copely’s transformed protagonist crafting a metal flower on a garbage dump was both heartbreaking and uplifting); <span style="font-style:italic;">The Men Who Stare at Goats</span> found enormous heart and soul in the blackest of black comedy. I’ve said a number of times in this column that the primary factor that prompts me to recommend a script is if it provokes some sort of genuine emotional reaction in me. To put some words down on paper that move another human being is the hardest and rarest thing to do in writing and something that the authors of these scripts manage to accomplish in impressive ways. Bravo to them all.<br /><br />As for the year’s other notable releases:<br /><br />On the positive side, I feel about <span style="font-style:italic;">Inglorious Basterds</span> the way I feel about everything Quentin Tarantino does – I can’t help but admire its bold and furious inventiveness, while at the same time wishing that it was actually about something other than all of that bold and furious inventiveness. I enjoyed <span style="font-style:italic;">Star Trek</span> and <span style="font-style:italic;">Sherlock Holmes</span>, although I would have preferred if both of them had been less frenetic and had the courage to be as smart as they were clever. Likewise, I wish both <span style="font-style:italic;">Up in the Air</span> and <span style="font-style:italic;">(500) Days of Summer</span> had been as deep as they were smart (although I definitely enjoyed the smart). Despite claims to the contrary, I didn’t think <span style="font-style:italic;">The Hangover</span> was the funniest movie ever, but I laughed a lot and really admired its commitment to going as far as necessary for a joke. <span style="font-style:italic;">Where the Wild Things Are</span> was a bit raggedy as a story, but I was impressed by its effortless fantasy and its willingness to embrace the darker sides of childhood without making a big deal out of it. There were things to like in <span style="font-style:italic;">Away We Go</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">Sunshine Cleaning</span>, and <span style="font-style:italic;">Everybody’s Fine</span> that helped to balance out the more annoying and cloying elements in each.<br /><br />On the negative side, I thought that, while <span style="font-style:italic;">Avatar</span> had some appeal as a viewing experience, as a script it was a dud – ham-fisted, derivative, and silly. The same goes for <span style="font-style:italic;">2012</span> and <span style="font-style:italic;">Transformers 2</span>. The most disappointing film of the year for me was <span style="font-style:italic;">Pirate Radio</span> (The Boat that Rocked in the U.K.) – I am a big, big fan of screenwriter Richard Curtis’s work and while none of his scripts have been perfect, they have all been smart, witty, peopled with well-realized characters that are easy to care about, and full of heart. <span style="font-style:italic;">Pirate Radio</span> has none of these qualities – it is long, unfocused, not particularly funny, filled with frustratingly one-dimensional characters, and missing the sweet soul that has been at the center of the rest of Curtis’s oeuvre. Everyone’s entitled to a bad day, though, so I’m hoping that <span style="font-style:italic;">Pirate Radio</span> will turn out to be just a curious misfire in an otherwise stellar career. My vote for worst script of 2009 (or of mid-1970s, when it was allegedly written) is Woody Allen’s <span style="font-style:italic;">Whatever Works</span> – a bitter, mean-spirited, and terribly unfunny script about miserable characters (or, in most cases, caricatures) behaving horribly to one another for ninety minutes before finally arriving at insights and resolutions that were probably just as stale thirty-five years ago as they are today. It’s hard to believe that the man that once wrote that “You have to have a little faith in people,” could produce something so excruciatingly misanthropic, but the result is frustrating and sad not just because of that, but also because it is yet another sign of the decline of a once magnificent writer.<br /><br />In the end, 2009 was a mixed time for screenwriting and for movies. Still, any year that produce one great script, a few pretty good ones, and a number of okay ones has to be considered a pretty decent one. Let’s hope 2010 is even better.<br /><br />--------------------------------------------------<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/Sh_rE3rBstI/AAAAAAAAAHg/D2TzQ_sgXAk/s1600-h/raymortoncorner.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 111px; height: 103px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/Sh_rE3rBstI/AAAAAAAAAHg/D2TzQ_sgXAk/s200/raymortoncorner.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341246151981118162" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.raymorton.com/"><span style="font-size:85%;">Ray Mort</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.raymorton.com/">on</a> is a writer and script consultant. His books <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Close-Encounters-Third-Kind-Spielbergs/dp/1557837104/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243605864&sr=1-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The Making of Steven Sp</span></a></span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Close-Encounters-Third-Kind-Spielbergs/dp/1557837104/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243605864&sr=1-1"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">ielberg</span></span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Close-Encounters-Third-Kind-Spielbergs/dp/1557837104/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243605864&sr=1-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">'s Classic Film</span></a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/King-Kong-History-Movie-Jackson/dp/1557836698/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243605864&sr=1-2"><span style="font-style: italic;">King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon from Fay Wray to Peter Jackson</span></a> are available </span><span style="font-size:85%;">in stor</span><span style="font-size:85%;">es a</span><span style="font-size:85%;">nd online. He analyzes screenplays for production companies, producers, and individual writers. Morton is ava</span><span style="font-size:85%;">ilable for consultation and can be reached at </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/ray@raymorton.com"><span style="font-size:85%;">ray@raymorton.com</span></a>.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782152156791621172.post-19603446623269873522010-02-05T07:53:00.000-08:002010-02-05T08:09:48.766-08:00Discussing January/February 2010 Issue with Andrew Shearer, Pt. 2Wow, talk about contrary advice… I’m the kind of screenwriter, like most of my writer friends, who sits in a room or a coffee shop all day and writes, only speaking to humans to order caffeine or talk to my writing partner when I want to tell him how bad his stuff is (to make myself feel better about my own crap.) I’m always working on “the one.” <br /><br />So when I read Marvin Acuna’s article, “The Three Pillars,” which suggests that I better man up and get out there and start networking if I’m going to make it in this biz… I figured, I’m going to man up and get out there and start networking and make it in this biz. I can be likeable in real life. There is one friend of mine who seems to get projects off the ground in big part because he’s excellent at networking (and a great writer, which is the combo Acuna suggests). <br /><br />Acuna also says you should focus on market intelligence. I actually read <span style="font-style:italic;">Variety</span> every Sunday, but honestly, I forget most of it every time I sit back down to work on my “art” (except the part about the films that made a hundred million – man I’m broke!). <br /><br />Then I turned the page in <span style="font-style:italic;">Script</span> and read Wesley Rowe’s column, “Hitting the Boards.” He basically said screw that, don’t network, just tell people you have an award-winning script and they need to read it. Be the guy who doesn’t have to have the winning personality, believes in your script as art, and waits for it to speak for itself. Bold. It makes me feel good that sometimes a whole day goes by, and I literally never step outside. My feeling is, I think there’s good advice in both the Acuna and Rowe articles, but it really depends on your personality. <br /><br />I know I’ll never be the networker my buddy is because I’m just not the producing type – I think that’s part of understanding what you’re good at and what you’re not. I’m praying my reps can sell “the one” once I write it. But I also know you absolutely have to have a likeable personality once you get in the room with executives. Nobody wants to work with a pretentious asshole who considers his script a work of art that can’t be modified.<br /><br />Rowe says one can be satisfied that one’s script was better than the movie it was made into. I will admit that he’s right when he says you should really enjoy the script you’re writing. I’m having a hell of a good time writing the script I’m working on now. But I can’t agree that it will ever stand as a piece of art on its own. The finished movie is the art. If the movie turns out bad, the disappointment I would feel, would far outweigh the fun I’m having now while writing it. (I imagine anyway – I’ve never had a movie made.) So what do you think?<br /><br /><a href="http://scriptmag.blogspot.com/2010/01/discussing-januaryfebruary-2010-issue.html">Click here for Pt. 1<br /></a><br /><br />------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/Sf9gb7h9i1I/AAAAAAAAAGI/lYemPKq_JQE/s1600-h/AndrewShearer_headshot.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332086516782828370" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; width: 115px; cursor: pointer; height: 150px;" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/Sf9gb7h9i1I/AAAAAAAAAGI/lYemPKq_JQE/s200/AndrewShearer_headshot.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">A redneck from Small Town, North Carolina (population 8,000, high school drop-out rate 40%), one day decided to tackle the film industry. Andrew’s film-school short, <span style="font-style: italic;">Son Up</span>, based off his experience teaching at a juvenile hall, ended up winning seven festival awards and made the regionals for the Student Academy Awards. Andrew’s feature script version of <span style="font-style: italic;">Son Up</span>, co-written with Nick Sherman, went on to win first prize at Cinequest. Then one day, the screenwriting gods shined their rarely shown light down from the Heavens and awarded the Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship to Andrew and Nick for their feature script, <span style="font-style: italic;">Holy Irresistible</span>. The duo is now repped by Endeavor and Brillstein Entertainment. They have two projects in development and are lucky enough to be co-writing a spec with another writer they’ve admired for years.</span></span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782152156791621172.post-2082806521726452212010-01-31T15:02:00.000-08:002010-01-31T15:14:29.292-08:00Book Excerpt: Just Effing Entertain Me<span style="font-style:italic;">Script</span> magazine contributor, Julie Gray is packing her bags and setting off on a whirlwind, worldwide tour to teach you how to get your <a href="http://www.justeffing.com/">Ideas to the Page to the Screen</a>. She's off to NYC February 27-28 for an intensive two-day weekend workshop, then jetting across the Atlantic for UK workshops in London (March 6-7) and Oxford (March 13-14). After that, she's taking some much needed time off in Tel Aviv before heading back to the states to teach workshops in Chicago and Los Angeles in April and San Francisco in May. All workshops are $329 with deep discounts given to early-birds including a 10% discount at the Writer's Store and $50 off attendance at the Great American Pitch Fest in June. Sign up before February 12 to receive a free bundle of three podcasts from Julie's teleclass series Just Effing Do It!<br /><br />The following is an excerpt from her book,<span style="font-style:italic;"> Just Effing Entertain Me</span>, coming out in late 2010.<br /><blockquote><span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;">Origin Stories</span><br /></span><br />In the world of comic books, origin stories are the back stories for the superhero. How, why and when our superhero began his or her trajectory of internal pain and superhero-ness. You know - Batman and his murdered parents, Spiderman, the radioactive spider and his uncle's death for which he blames himself, Superman and his destroyed planet. Luke Skywalker and the loss of his aunt, uncle and very home. Wait - he's not a superhero. But this is still his origin story, isn't it? The beginnings of a lifelong adventure. A pivotal point in his life that changed him forever.<br /><br />What is your main character's origin story? Regardless of genre, your main character is on an arc of change, right? What was that moment that defined the hole your main character has been trying to fill ever since? What defined them long before your story began? If there was a moment of origin for your main character, your script is then going to be the second most defining moment of their lives, right? Because your script is in some ways the continuation of a story that already began long ago.<br /><br />Your main character's origin story doesn't have to be tragic - you might be writing a comedy - but the point is that something in your main character's life set them upon a path, positive or negative and now, because screenwriters get to play god, you are going to set a story in motion that will irrevocably change your main character once more. Change the direction of their orbit forever. And it's deeply satisfying, as a writer, because in real life while many do have defining moments, often it's more of a cumulative effect, right? Experiences pile up, one atop the other and slowly shape us, like a rock being battered by the sea. As we get older, we begin to soften and change.<br /><br />But movies are life writ large - there are defining moments, pivotal conversations, forced decisions and cathartic, satisfying changes. That that's why we like to go to the movies - to look for patterns, closure and exciting outcomes when in real life, things can seem to move at a glacial pace. Even so - look at your own life - do you have a moment that defined you? Or a period of time? Something about where you grew up, something that happened in your family? A bully at school? A teacher who believed in you? That jerk who fired you and led you to your career today? Were you lucky enough to find the love of your life and that person lifted you up to a whole new level because they love you so? Or did you lose someone and that profound loss lent you a whole new point of view?<br /><br />We writers have more in common with our main characters than we like to admit. Our main characters live out our fantasies - they get revenge when we were unable to. They speak the truth when we weren't heard. They overcome their fears. They have the perfect come back, romantic gesture or courageous response. They turn heartbreak into triumph, they take chances and they discover the truth about themselves. They overcome grief and find grace. They are us the way we wish we were.</blockquote><br /><br />--------------------------------------------------<br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Julie Gray is the founder of <a href="http://www.thescriptdepartment.com">The Script Department</a>, Hollywood’s premier script coverage service. She also directs the <a href="http://www.silverscreenwriting.com/">Silver Screenwriting Competition</a> and authors the popular screenwriting blog, <a href="http://www.justeffing.com/">Just Effing Entertain Me</a>. Julie consults privately with a wide variety of writers and teaches classes at Warner Bros., The Great American PitchFest, The Creative Screenwriting Expo and San Francisco University in Quito, Ecuador. Julie lives in Los Angeles, California; her book <span style="font-style:italic;">Just Effing Entertain Me </span> is slated for release in late 2010.</span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782152156791621172.post-77253104766566405972010-01-31T13:08:00.000-08:002010-01-31T14:36:45.548-08:00Meet the Reader - Book Review: The View from the Bridgeby Ray Morton<br /><br />Nicholas Meyer is one of Hollywood’s great, if-not-unsung-then-certainly-not-sung-nearly-enough talents. A self-described “storyteller,” Meyer has written novels, non-fiction books, stage plays, radio plays, liner notes, and reviews. He has also directed a number of excellent films, but is perhaps best known for being an expert screenwriter that crafts smart, entertaining, classically-constructed scripts filled with engaging characters and clever, literate dialogue. And now, with the publication of <span style="font-style:italic;">The View from the Bridge: Memories of Star Trek and a Life in Hollywood</span> (Viking Press / $25.95/ ISBN 9780670021307), Meyer has added memoirist to his considerable list of accomplishments. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/S2YFwbjJplI/AAAAAAAAAKw/mkOT9RItKo4/s1600-h/startrek_meyermemoir.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 134px; height: 200px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/S2YFwbjJplI/AAAAAAAAAKw/mkOT9RItKo4/s200/startrek_meyermemoir.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433036330056132178" /></a>The book traces Meyer’s journey from his Manhattan childhood to the Writers Workshop at the University of Iowa to a job in the publicity department of Paramount Pictures that had him writing press kits by day while penning spec scripts at night. A gig as a unit publicist on <span style="font-style:italic;">Love Story</span> led to Meyer’s first script sale (to Howard Minsky, <span style="font-style:italic;">Love Story</span>’s producer) and his first publishing deal (a “making of” book aptly called <span style="font-style:italic;">The Love Story Story</span>). The money earned from those transactions financed a move to Los Angeles, where Meyer began writing television movies and then, during the long WGA strike of 1972, his first novel – the Sherlock Holmes-meets-Sigmund Freud adventure <span style="font-style:italic;">The Seven-Percent Solution</span>, which became a smash-hit best-seller and which served as his springboard into the screenwriting big leagues when he refused to sell the screen rights unless he was also permitted to pen the script for its 1976 film adaptation, an assignment that eventually netted him an Academy Award nomination. After writing and directing (his debut) the classic H.G. Welles-meets-Jack the Ripper time-traveling adventure fantasy classic <span style="font-style:italic;">Time After Time</span> (1979), Meyer was drafted to write (sans credit) and direct <span style="font-style:italic;">Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan</span> (1982), an assignment that led to a decade-long association with the crew of the Starship Enterprise, during which he also co-wrote 1986’s <span style="font-style:italic;">Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home</span> and co-wrote and directed 1991’s <span style="font-style:italic;">Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country</span>. During and after his involvement with Trek, Meyer continued to direct films (<span style="font-style:italic;">The Day After</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">Volunteers</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Deceivers</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">Company Business</span>) and write screenplays (<span style="font-style:italic;">Sommersby</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Human Stain</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">Elegy</span>), while earning a solid reputation in Hollywood as an ace script doctor due to his (mostly uncredited) rewrites on films such as <span style="font-style:italic;">Fatal Attraction</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Prince of Egypt</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Count of Monte Cristo</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">Tomorrow Never Dies</span> and many, many others. <br /><br />This is a terrific book. Written in a warm, witty style, it is chock-full of intriguing and sometimes quite moving tales about Nick’s life; his experiences in the Hollywood trenches; his insightful observations about the art, craft, and business of making movies; and a few difficult personal experiences that serve to put the whole thing in proper perspective. As evidenced by its title, a significant portion of the book is devoted to Meyer’s time in Starfleet, which was probably something of a commercial decision, but also an entirely appropriate one given his (quite deserved) reputation as “the man who saved Star Trek.” Finally, the book is filled with a real generosity of spirit that reminds us that, while the movie business is filled with movers, shakers, sharks, and stars, it is also filled with a lot of really nice people, of which Nick Meyer seems to be one. If you’re interested in screenwriting, movies, Sherlock Holmes, or Star Trek, this book is pretty much indispensable.<br /><br />--------------------------------------------------<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/Sh_rE3rBstI/AAAAAAAAAHg/D2TzQ_sgXAk/s1600-h/raymortoncorner.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 111px; height: 103px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/Sh_rE3rBstI/AAAAAAAAAHg/D2TzQ_sgXAk/s200/raymortoncorner.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341246151981118162" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.raymorton.com/"><span style="font-size:85%;">Ray Mort</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.raymorton.com/">on</a> is a writer and script consultant. His books <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Close-Encounters-Third-Kind-Spielbergs/dp/1557837104/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243605864&sr=1-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The Making of Steven Sp</span></a></span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Close-Encounters-Third-Kind-Spielbergs/dp/1557837104/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243605864&sr=1-1"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">ielberg</span></span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Close-Encounters-Third-Kind-Spielbergs/dp/1557837104/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243605864&sr=1-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">'s Classic Film</span></a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/King-Kong-History-Movie-Jackson/dp/1557836698/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243605864&sr=1-2"><span style="font-style: italic;">King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon from Fay Wray to Peter Jackson</span></a> are available </span><span style="font-size:85%;">in stor</span><span style="font-size:85%;">es a</span><span style="font-size:85%;">nd online. He analyzes screenplays for production companies, producers, and individual writers. Morton is ava</span><span style="font-size:85%;">ilable for consultation and can be reached at </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/ray@raymorton.com"><span style="font-size:85%;">ray@raymorton.com</span></a>.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782152156791621172.post-2583650558977403432010-01-29T11:26:00.000-08:002010-01-29T11:40:03.050-08:00Tales from the Script: Advice for New Screenwriters<object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/YWbo_0Vcz_U&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/YWbo_0Vcz_U&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br /><br />In this entertaining video, celebrated A-listers share hard-won lessons about the pitfalls awaiting newcomers to screenwriting. <span style="font-weight:bold;">John August</span> (“Go”), <span style="font-weight:bold;">David Hayter</span> (“X-Men”), <span style="font-weight:bold;">Bruce Joel Rubin</span> (“Ghost”), <span style="font-weight:bold;">Ron Shelton</span> (“Bull Durham”), and <span style="font-weight:bold;">Joe Stillman</span> (“Shrek”) are just a few of the professionals offering priceless tips and inspiration. Their remarks are an exciting sneak preview of the book/film project <span style="font-style:italic;">Tales from the Script</span>, which is hitting the marketplace in a big way this year. <br /><br />Peter Hanson, a regular contributor to <span style="font-style:italic;">Script</span> magazine and the moderator of Final Draft’s screening series in Hollywood, put together this special video to let fans know about his project. The book <span style="font-style:italic;">Tales from the Script: 50 Hollywood Screenwriters Share Their Stories</span> (IT Books/HarperCollins) is available now from Amazon.com, and the feature-length companion movie, simply titled <span style="font-style:italic;">Tales from the Script</span>, will be released this spring in theaters and on DVD by First Run Features (pre-order the DVD at <a href="http://www.TalesFromTheScript.com">TalesFromTheScript.com</a>). To receive updates on this exciting project, become a fan on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tales-from-the-Script-BookMovie-Project/253635109900">Facebook</a>. <br /><br />Enjoy the video, and pass it along!<br /><br />Links:<br /><a href="http://www.talesfromthescript.com">Tales from the Script</a><br /><a href="http://www.grandriverfilms.com">Peter Hanson</a><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061855928/ref=s9_simi_gw_s0_p74_t2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=10W5CVKDRWSZW1VRJX2M&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846">Click here to order from Amazon</a> <br /><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tales-from-the-Script-BookMovie-Project/253635109900">Facebook</a>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782152156791621172.post-10255620106824134112010-01-28T13:12:00.000-08:002010-02-05T08:09:28.334-08:00Discussing January/February 2010 Issue with Andrew Shearer, Pt. 1Being a screenwriter in Hollywood, or rather, trying to become a legitimate screenwriter in Hollywood, is fucking hard. <br /><br />Lately for me, it’s been a soul-wrenching experience, testing my very ability to sustain Hollywood’s never ceasing lashings. That’s why I was refreshed to read the Jan/Feb 2010 edition of <span style="font-style:italic;">Script</span> magazine. Within it, I found comfort reading Peter Hanson’s article “The Agony of the Unproduced.” All of us un-produced screenwriters, despite our minor successes, need a pick-me-up here and there, and the pick-me-up in this article is the story of the guy who couldn’t take it anymore, so he quit. I know, it’s sort of sadistic, but that’s what’s making me feel good today. I’m still going. You’re still going. That guy quit. Hoorah – get to work – the next thing we write may be the one. <br /><br />Aaron Ginsburg made me laugh today in his article “How (Not) to Fire Your Rep.” It’s a useful article if you have a worthless manager, and you’re struggling over the decision of whether or not to fire him or her. My writing partner and I used to have a fairly crazy manager who told me all too much about her personal life and boyfriends and cats. We finally fired her in what was the most painful phone call in my life, but which now that I look back on it, like Ginsburg’s experiences, makes me laugh – again, I’m a sadistic bastard but these are dark times, and I need a pick-me-up. Ginsburg reminds me that although things are a little slow in my career now, they used to be a lot worse. <br /><br />“10 Things a Rep Will Never Tell You” is a great article by Jim Cirile, which isn’t exactly the trilogy of my pick-me-up, but it’s a necessary sobering splash of water after my brief high. Every time I think my manager is telling me all the answers to all my questions (because obviously we’re chums), I have to remind myself, he is my business partner. Here’s where I have to say, my manager is actually a really laidback guy who you can relax and have a beer with. But still, we’re business partners, so just like I don’t need to know about my former manager’s boyfriends’ medications, my current manager doesn’t feel like I need to know when someone thought our script really blew – just that they passed. <br /><br />So the good news is, it’s 2010, I haven’t quit yet, I don’t have to fire a manager today, and my manager hasn’t fired me yet. Time to get to work.<br /><br />------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/Sf9gb7h9i1I/AAAAAAAAAGI/lYemPKq_JQE/s1600-h/AndrewShearer_headshot.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332086516782828370" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; width: 115px; cursor: pointer; height: 150px;" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/Sf9gb7h9i1I/AAAAAAAAAGI/lYemPKq_JQE/s200/AndrewShearer_headshot.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">A redneck from Small Town, North Carolina (population 8,000, high school drop-out rate 40%), one day decided to tackle the film industry. Andrew’s film-school short, <span style="font-style: italic;">Son Up</span>, based off his experience teaching at a juvenile hall, ended up winning seven festival awards and made the regionals for the Student Academy Awards. Andrew’s feature script version of <span style="font-style: italic;">Son Up</span>, co-written with Nick Sherman, went on to win first prize at Cinequest. Then one day, the screenwriting gods shined their rarely shown light down from the Heavens and awarded the Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship to Andrew and Nick for their feature script, <span style="font-style: italic;">Holy Irresistible</span>. The duo is now repped by Endeavor and Brillstein Entertainment. They have two projects in development and are lucky enough to be co-writing a spec with another writer they’ve admired for years.</span></span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782152156791621172.post-71727288441348045742009-12-14T12:47:00.000-08:002009-12-14T12:56:49.917-08:00Steve Kaire: Writing Partnerships<o:p>Writing partnerships are like marriages. They can continue in bliss or end up in bitter divorce. Working with a writing partner can either reduce your workload by half or create twice the headaches.<br /><br />Any kind of partnership is fraught with peril. If it fails, not only does the project come to an immediate halt, but your friendship may be over as well.<br /><br />A well<span style="font-weight: bold;">-</span>chosen partner is a valuable lightning rod to create and bounce ideas off. That person’s strengths can balance your weaknesses. But there has to be a meeting of the minds on critical issues before a partnership is undertaken.<br /><br />There’s a list of questions that has to be answered before both parties make the final commitment to work together: Do your writing styles mesh rather than conflict? Do you have personalities that work well together under pressure? Can you both invest the amount of time required from inception of the script to the ultimate marketing of the material? How will major disagreements be resolved when you reach an impasse? Will you be doing an equal amount of work and splitting the money equally, or will there be some other kind of financial arrangement? And if the worst-case scenario occurs and you both decide to go your separate ways, who does the material belong to?<br /><br />All these questions and potential pitfalls should be discussed and solutions agreed upon in a written contract before any partnership is entered into. I’ve had my share of writing partners. In some cases the partnership worked very well, in other cases it failed miserably. The more you know and clear up in advance, the better your chances of having the partnership work out to the benefit of both parties involved.<br />-------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><p></p><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" ><b>Steve Kaire</b> is a screenwriter-pitchman who’s sold/optioned eight projects to the major studios without representation. He’s taught writing classes at the American Film Institute and has appeared on the <i>Tonight Show’s </i>“Pitching to America” with Jay Leno. His groundbreaking CD entitled, <i>High Concept: How to Create, Pitch & Sell to Hollywood</i> is a best-seller and is available on his website: <a href="http://www.scriptwritingcd.com/" target="_blank">ScriptwritingCD.com.</a></span></o:p>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782152156791621172.post-29798689032856392712009-12-07T11:00:00.000-08:002009-12-09T11:10:30.666-08:00Staton Rabin: Breaking In: Zen and the Art of Guerrilla Script MarketingWell, it’s the holiday season again: Time for all good screenwriters to start typing up those query letters addressed to the North Pole. Yes, many of you have already sent your “wish list” to Santa -- asking for a new BlackBerry or, better yet, “$100,000 against a cool million” for your latest spec script. After all, you’re writing directly to St. Nick because you know the secret of success. Contacts.<br /><br />We’ve all heard it before: “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” But I’m here to tell you that, when it comes to contacts, most of what you’ve heard about Hollywood is dead wrong. It’s not about the contacts you have. It’s about the contacts you make. And you make them based on the quality of your work, not on “who you know.” You want powerful advocates who admire your work, not people who are helping you simply because your second cousin knows Brad Pitt.<br /><br />When I was growing up, my father was vice president for a major corporation. Part of his job was to meet celebrities and organize charity events, or get their endorsements for his company’s products. One day he’d be talking to Eleanor Roosevelt on the telephone, the next he’d be having lunch with <span style="font-style: italic;">My Fair Lady</span> star Rex Harrison, or meeting Motown founder Berry Gordy. I was so jealous!<br /><br />But when it came to meeting famous people, my father couldn’t have been less impressed. It was like pulling teeth for me to find out which superstar he’d had lunch with that day. You see, my father’s a class act, and doesn’t “name drop” or exploit his contacts for personal gain. So when I grew up, after I graduated from NYU film school and was looking for my first job in the movie business, he wouldn’t let me use any of his contacts. In short, I was in exactly the same position you probably are (or have been). I didn’t know anyone in the film business. I was on my own.<br /><br />But that didn’t stop me. First, I did my homework. I learned everything I could about the movie stars and directors I most admired. Then I started writing letters to them. Letters to people like actor Jimmy Stewart, director Frank Capra, and dancer/choreographer Gene Kelly. And what happened?<br /><br />I got personal answers. Encouraging letters. From almost every celebrity I wrote to. In those days, it wasn’t easy to find contact addresses for famous people. It’s a heck of a lot easier now.<br /><br />Soon, I applied my letter-writing skills to my career. I started writing query letters to stars and directors asking if they’d read my screenplays or books. My ultimate purpose? To see if they might want to “attach” themselves to the project.<br /><br />What did I talk about in those letters? I showed that I had really done my homework about their life, films and careers. I never said just the obvious: that I admired their performance in their most famous film from a zillion years ago. Instead, I complimented them on things they don’t usually hear: a lesser-known film performance, or perhaps some specific aspect of an interview they gave in a newspaper. If I mentioned one of their famous films, I talked about their performance in it in a very specific way, instead of just saying it was “great."<br /><br />Of course, my business letters aren’t “gushing” fan mail. They are business-like, and contain my pitch, and I work very hard on my pitch. But I really think about who I’m writing to, and why. I think about what their needs are, and what’s important to them in their work and their life. There’s nothing “generic” about any letter I send to an actor, director, or film producer. And I never say things I don’t mean in order to “flatter” them. Neither should you.<br /><br />So. If you write the right kind of query letter to a star, you don’t necessarily need a personal referral (though it can help) in order to get noticed. Even if you have a friend who knows a major Hollywood player, do you really want to exploit that friendship by asking him or her to submit your script to them as a favor to you? If you value your friendships, maybe not.<br /><br />And even if your friend is happy to do you that favor, the star receiving the script probably knows it was sent over mostly as a favor -- rather than on the basis of the script’s merit. What would you rather have? Your script’s arriving on Tom Cruise’s desk simply because his dry cleaner did you a favor? Or the script being sent to Cruise because somebody powerful in the film business loves your screenplay, knows Tom Cruise, and tells him it’s something he ought to read? You may say it doesn’t matter how it gets there, as long as it does. I disagree.<br /><br />The truth is, it’s not really your “contacts” that lead to success as a screenwriter, it’s the quality of your work. It’s much better to have contacts and referrals that you earn, through the merits of your work, than ones that are handed to you merely as a “favor” or through happenstance. No matter who you are and no matter what your background, if you’re talented, you can make contacts for yourself. The right kind of contacts, for the right reasons.<br /><br />Keep pitching. See you next month.<br />--------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/StiNqOVVGTI/AAAAAAAAAJY/LV4lMzwvQiQ/s1600-h/staton.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 110px; height: 114px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/StiNqOVVGTI/AAAAAAAAAJY/LV4lMzwvQiQ/s200/staton.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393216310317750578" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Staton Rabin is a screenplay marketing consultant, script analyst, and “pitch coach” for screenwriters at all levels of experience. She is also a Senior Writer and story analyst for </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Script</span><span style="font-size:85%;">, has been a reader for Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema, and is a frequent guest lecturer at NYU. Staton’s novel </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Betsy and the Emperor</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> is in development as a movie with Al Pacino attached to star. Staton Rabin is available for consultations and can be reached at Cutebunion@aol.com</span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782152156791621172.post-75806666603286226522009-12-02T12:28:00.000-08:002009-12-02T12:31:43.312-08:00Discussing November/December with Andrew Shearer, Part 2Ah, the myriad of screenwriting advice we have to sift through in order to become masters of our craft -- it can drive you to drinking. William Martell’s article “Worldwide Cool” in the November/December edition of <span style="font-style: italic;">Script</span> magazine suggests we should be writing scripts that appeal to worldwide audiences. Sounds reasonable. More potential for international box office. But the part that rubs me the wrong way is when Martell basically suggests screenwriters not write a script that “focuses on culture or politics or social issues that are unique to America.” What happened to write what you know? Write it because you can execute it with flying colors. As a producer, would you rather read a really well written script about an American cultural issue, or a poorly written script with a bunch of “really cool stuff” in it as Martell suggests, that appeals to a foreign audience? My guess is the well written American-centric script is more likely to get you your next gig because you’ve proven your talent (God willing).<br /><br />Don’t get me wrong, I understand the realities of the business. I just don’t think it’s the best advice for new writers. My partner and I have an old script centered on a teenage, African-American kid in a juvenile-hall setting. It won screenwriting contests and had actors attached and still hasn’t been made. To put it bluntly, African-American-themed stories don’t have foreign appeal, so it’s tough to find funding. But should I not tell that very personal, important, moving story because, as Martell says, “people in Uganda watching the film on the wall of a building” don’t care about some U.S. issue? I care about the people in Chicago who do care about the issue.<br /><br />Another screenplay my partner and I wrote, which also received accolades and was well-received around town, focuses on another American-centric story. It’s a comedy set in the world of small town, Christian fundamentalism. Again, very little foreign appeal. However, this is the script that has basically launched my and my partner’s careers. Well, pseudo-careers -- we’re getting there. Either way, every deal we have in the works is due to that script. Had we set out in the beginning, attempting to write some movie based solely on international appeal with a bunch of action and twists and turns and without any personal stakes, I’m not sure we wouldn’t have fallen flat on our faces. But that’s our story. Like I said in the beginning, it’s about sifting through the advice.<br /><br />My partner and I are at the point now with some of the projects we’re writing where we certainly have to consider foreign box-office appeal, so I understand Martell’s advice. I just think depending on where you are in your career, that advice is not automatically the way to go. What do you think?<br /><br />------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/Sf9gb7h9i1I/AAAAAAAAAGI/lYemPKq_JQE/s1600-h/AndrewShearer_headshot.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332086516782828370" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; width: 115px; cursor: pointer; height: 150px;" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/Sf9gb7h9i1I/AAAAAAAAAGI/lYemPKq_JQE/s200/AndrewShearer_headshot.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">A redneck from Small Town, North Carolina (population 8,000, high school drop-out rate 40%), one day decided to tackle the film industry. Andrew’s film-school short, <span style="font-style: italic;">Son Up</span>, based off his experience teaching at a juvenile hall, ended up winning seven festival awards and made the regionals for the Student Academy Awards. Andrew’s feature script version of <span style="font-style: italic;">Son Up</span>, co-written with Nick Sherman, went on to win first prize at Cinequest. Then one day, the screenwriting gods shined their rarely shown light down from the Heavens and awarded the Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship to Andrew and Nick for their feature script, <span style="font-style: italic;">Holy Irresistible</span>. The duo is now repped by Endeavor and Brillstein Entertainment. They have two projects in development and are lucky enough to be co-writing a spec with another writer they’ve admired for years.</span></span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782152156791621172.post-105500205985628232009-11-25T08:06:00.000-08:002009-11-25T08:23:40.294-08:00Meet the Reader: FeedbackFeedback is a vitally important element of the screenwriting process -- without it, you will never know if your work is connecting with readers and audiences the way you want it to. For this reason, you should incorporate the obtaining of feedback into your writing process from the very beginning.<br /><br />Start by pitching your premise to a few trusted listeners before you start writing. A well-conceived concept should be able to be clearly explained in a few concise and tightly focused sentences. If you are unable to express your premise this succinctly, or if your listeners don’t understand your sentences, then you may have some fine-tuning to do before you begin scribbling.<br /><br />Once you have completed an initial draft, give your script to a few people to read and comment upon. It’s important that the people you choose are ones who will be able to read and analyze your piece with an objective eye and who will give you honest and constructive criticism. For this reason, I recommend that you seek out fellow writers and industry colleagues rather than simply handing your work over to friends and family members. Your dear aunt Sally may be a lovely person, but the odds are that she doesn’t have a solid grasp of the three-act structure, character arcs, or visual expository techniques. Also, she probably won’t tell you if there’s anything in your script that she doesn’t like because she loves you and doesn’t want to hurt your feelings. So, go to Sally for chocolate chip cookies, but go to your professional compatriots for creative input.<br /><br />(If you don’t happen to know any other writers or industry-types, trusted acquaintances who don’t mind being blunt will do.)<br /><br />Getting good feedback should be a proactive process. Don’t just hand your script to a few friends and then sit back and wait for general, generic responses such as “I liked it -- it was good,” or “I hated it -- it was bad.” These sort of responses are not helpful because they are not specific. Instead, you should direct the obtaining of feedback just as you direct every other phase of your writing.<br /><br />• To begin with, don’t prep your readers. Simply give them your script and ask them to read it cold, without you telling them what it’s about or what you’re trying to achieve. That way, their reactions will be completely pure and they won’t read anything into the piece that isn’t there or couch their responses to tell you what you are hoping to hear.<br /><br />• When your analysts have finished reading your piece, ask them to tell you your story. If the tale they tell is the one you thought you were writing, then you’re in good shape. If it bears little or no resemblance to your saga, then you may have some work to do. Then, ask your analysts some specific questions about your piece -- ask them to identify the main character and describe his or her arc; next ask them to identify the main theme of the piece as well as the highlights of the story -- the most exciting action set pieces, the funniest comedic bits, the tensest suspense sequences, the most horrific scares, and the weepiest emotional moments. If the elements your readers identify are the ones you planned for, then your script is working. If they’re not, then it’s back to the word processor.<br /><br />• Once your analysts have responded, analyze their analysis. If one person has a problem with some aspect of your script, then it could just be that person’s individual issue. However, if a number of people have the same problem, then it’s likely that the fault lies with the script and will need to be addressed.<br /><br />The most important thing to do with feedback is to listen to it. Writing is really hard and by the time an author finishes a draft, he or she is in no mood to hear that there’s a problem with their brainchild. Many tend to rationalize away criticism because they just can’t bear the thought of opening the whole story up and starting all over again. Avoid this impulse at all costs, because if you don’t, you may sabotage yourself in the long run.<br /><br />After you have made sense of your analysts’ assessments, revise your script based on them and then repeat this process each time you have completed a new draft so that you can make sure that you stay on track. When the script has been finished to your satisfaction, hold a table reading so that you can hear the dialogue spoken aloud to get a sense of how the scenes play and the characters interact when the piece is actually performed. You will discover that some of your material works much better than you ever could have dreamed when it is brought to life; and you will discover that some of your material doesn’t pop quite as well in 3-D as it did on the page.<br /><br />When you think you are finally ready to send your baby out to potential buyers, consider first submitting it to a professional script consultant or a reputable coverage service. This way you can get an industry-level assessment of your piece prior to exposing it to the scrutiny of the industry. Remember, you only get one chance to make a first impression and you want to be sure that you’ve caught and addressed any red flags before handing your script over to the people that will ultimately decide its fate.<br />--------------------------------------------------<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/Sh_rE3rBstI/AAAAAAAAAHg/D2TzQ_sgXAk/s1600-h/raymortoncorner.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 111px; height: 103px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/Sh_rE3rBstI/AAAAAAAAAHg/D2TzQ_sgXAk/s200/raymortoncorner.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341246151981118162" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.raymorton.com/"><span style="font-size:85%;">Ray Mort</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.raymorton.com/">on</a> is a writer and script consultant. His books <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Close-Encounters-Third-Kind-Spielbergs/dp/1557837104/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243605864&sr=1-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The Making of Steven Sp</span></a></span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Close-Encounters-Third-Kind-Spielbergs/dp/1557837104/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243605864&sr=1-1"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">ielberg</span></span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Close-Encounters-Third-Kind-Spielbergs/dp/1557837104/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243605864&sr=1-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">'s Classic Film</span></a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/King-Kong-History-Movie-Jackson/dp/1557836698/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243605864&sr=1-2"><span style="font-style: italic;">King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon from Fay Wray to Peter Jackson</span></a> are available </span><span style="font-size:85%;">in stor</span><span style="font-size:85%;">es a</span><span style="font-size:85%;">nd online. He analyzes screenplays for production companies, producers, and individual writers. Morton is ava</span><span style="font-size:85%;">ilable for consultation and can be reached at </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/ray@raymorton.com"><span style="font-size:85%;">ray@raymorton.com</span></a>.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782152156791621172.post-55504722604863964502009-11-19T11:31:00.000-08:002009-11-19T12:21:27.719-08:00Dwayne Alexander Smith: Screenwriting is Hard<span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Disclaimer: explicit language</span><br /><br />I have a dear friend who, one day, called me up and asked me the most outrageous and absurd question that I have ever been asked about my screenwriting career. When he first asked me this question it sounded innocent, just a typical question that any aspiring screenwriter would ask a working professional about the business. But the more I thought about his question the clearer it became that this dear friend had just insulted me.<br /><br />“How long does it take to get paid once you sell a screenplay?” That was it. That was his question. See what I mean? Doesn’t that sound innocent?<br /><br />So I answered him … “It depends on who you sell it to. Some studios take longer to pay than others. Smaller companies can take forever. It just depends.”<br /><br />My friend frowned. Not satisfied with my answer he decided to push further. “Does it take weeks? Months? What’s the average?”<br /><br />“From the time I make the sale about a month,” I said. I also added a few more details like the payments came in steps connected to rewrites and not in one lump sum.<br /><br />“And what’s the average amount a script could sell for?,” he then asked eagerly. “One hundred thousand? Two hundred grand? What?”<br /><br />Okay, it was at this point in our conversation that I began to suspect that this was more than just an innocent inquiry about my pay schedule. “Why?,” I finally asked. “Why do you want to know this?”<br /><br />My dear, dear pal looked at me with the most sincere expression ever and said oh so matter-of-factly … "Oh, I need to make some quick money so I figured I’d just write a horror film or a comedy or something and sell it real quick.”<br /><br />I must have just stared at this motherfucker for two minutes straight. No words, just an astounded stare. Like I said earlier everything he asked sounded innocent … but this asshole had just spit in my face and in the face of the craft that I love so dearly.<br /><br />You need to know a little more about this sucker to understand the scope of his insult.<br /><br />He graduated from an Ivy League university. He teaches part time at another Ivy League school. He’s a decent screenwriter but all of his specs are artsy high-minded dramas that in my opinion are unsellable. Now are you beginning to see it? Here’s a translation of what this asshole was really saying to me:<br /><br />“If Dwayne, a college dropout, can sell so many horror and comedy screenplays, then me, an Ivy Leaguer, can easily do the exact same thing any time I want. All I have to do is lower myself to his level and I’m in the money.”<br /><br />See, he’s under the same delusion that a lot of wanna-bee screenwriters are also under. Screenwriting is easy. It must be easy. Look at all the stupid movies that get made. Anybody can write that crap. Would my friend be asking me that dumb shit if I was a brain surgeon, or a composer, or even a plumber? NO!<br /><br />Here’s a tip: If you’re writing screenplays because you think it’s an easy way to get paid … YOU’RE AN IDIOT.<br /><br />Yes, yes, yes … anybody can write a screenplay but not just anybody can write a <span style="font-weight: bold;">good</span> screenplay. Not just anybody can write a screenplay that can sell. Want to know why?<br /><br />Because good screenwriting is a craft that takes years to learn and even longer to master … and even then you still might not sell shit if you don’t get lucky.<br /><br />So, finally I stopped staring at my dear friend and calmly said: “If you need quick money you better get yourself another plan because …<br /><br />SCREENWRITING IS HARD YOU DUMB FUCK!"<br /><br />Three months later my dear friend sold a horror spec for 750K and got signed to write Spielberg’s next movie. And if you believe that I have an artsy high-minded drama spec collecting dust in my desk drawer that I’m willing to sell you cheap.<br />------<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/SwWnshTOORI/AAAAAAAAAJo/u7l8HIQ9QzY/s1600/dwayne.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 101px; height: 162px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/SwWnshTOORI/AAAAAAAAAJo/u7l8HIQ9QzY/s200/dwayne.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5405911311023225106" border="0" /></a>-----------------------------------------------<br />Dwayne Alexander Smith is a professional screenwriter represented by Circle of Confusion. He's sold four spec screenplays and been hired by studios for numerous rewrites. In 2008 he was hired to adapt Jim Croce’s classic song “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” into an action comedy. Most recently he created a hidden camera show called <span style="font-style: italic;">True Colors</span> for Sony Television’s website Crackle.com.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782152156791621172.post-28415032877844487692009-11-12T09:17:00.000-08:002009-11-12T12:20:55.180-08:00Meet the Reader: Friday Nights With DadSeveral weeks ago, I posted a <a href="http://scriptmag.blogspot.com/2009/09/meet-reader-todays-special.html">blog entry</a> about how -- thanks to DVD and cable TV -- it’s so much easier these days for movie fans to view their favorite films than it was when many of us were young. The post prompted a lot of discussions with different people about their early movie-viewing experiences, which in turn prompted me to consider my own early encounters with the cinema. Like many things in my life, those encounters sprang out of my relationship with my father.<br /><br />My dad has been a movie fan for his entire life. Growing up in Queens, New York during the 1930s and 1940s, he was a fixture at his local neighborhood playhouse, The Corona Theatre, where he saw just about every movie Hollywood put out during its undisputed Golden Age. And he has retained great affection for film ever since (<span style="font-style: italic;">Gunga Din</span> is an all-time favorite). When I was a kid, he would revisit these Golden-Age masterpieces and near-masterpieces (and sometimes not-so-masterpieces) when they were on TV. I would often join him in viewing them and he would tell me about the actors and their backgrounds, and the impact each picture had on him when it first came out -- and it was there on that couch that I first began to fall in love with the movies.<br /><br />It was a frustrating romance, however, because, as anyone who was around in those pre-home- video days can tell you, watching movies on television could be a consternating experience. The screen was small and frequently fuzzy, the prints often dodgy, the story was interrupted constantly by an endless stream of commercials, and arbitrary cuts were made to the narrative in order to fit the picture into its allotted, always-too-short time slot (rendering the film sometimes impossible to follow).<br /><br />Things improved when my parents moved us to New Canaan, Connecticut in the mid-1970s. A small, quintessential New England town, New Canaan had an excellent local library that would screen 16mm (remember 16mm?) prints of classic movies on Friday evenings during the fall, winter and spring. Here, finally, was a chance to see these great films in a rough approximation of they way they were intended to be seen -- on a relatively large screen, uninterrupted, and with the narrative intact. Needless to say, my dad and I both loved the idea and so began a Friday night tradition that lasted (on and off) for several years.<br /><br />On designated evenings, I would eagerly wait until my dad arrived home from work on the 5:08 from Grand Central. He and my mom would indulge in their weekly treat of a Chinese dinner (with us kids having dined earlier on my mom’s patented race-car hot dogs and mac & cheese). Then my dad and I would put on our jackets (New England nights can be pretty chilly) and stroll the ¾ of a mile to the library, where we'd grab some good seats (of the folding-chair variety), settle in, and enjoy that week’s show.<br /><br />We saw quite a few classics over the years, but three really stand out in my memory:<br /><br />• The first was 1931’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde</span>, starring Frederic March in the title roles. Even then, I recognized how amazingly inventive the filmmaking in that picture was -- director Rouben Mamoulian’s delightful intoxication with the technical and artistic possibilities of cinema and his determination to push the creative envelope is evident in every frame of the film. Its effect on the audience that night was palpable. I also recall how racy the film (which was made in the years just before the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Production_Code">Production Code</a> was introduced) was, something that -- if the gasps coming from the audience were any indication -- the majority of that evening’s comfortably middle-class viewers were clearly unprepared for.<br /><br />• <span style="font-style: italic;">The Man Who Knew Too Much</span> (1934) -- one of the crown jewels of Alfred Hitchcock’s early British period -- was a thriller about an ordinary English couple whose child is kidnapped by villains seeking to silence them after the wife witnesses a murder. The film was dark and tense and chock-full of atmosphere and suspense and I was absolutely enthralled with it. Most critics and viewers prefer Hitchcock’s expansive, 1956 color remake starring James Stewart and Doris Day, but for me the much more modest and moodier version is the one to beat.<br /><br />• The film that I remember best from our bibliotheque cinema was 1939’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Goodbye, Mr. Chips</span>, starring Robert Donat in an Oscar-winning turn as a teacher at a British private school looking back on his long life and career. It’s a sweet, lovely, gloriously sentimental movie that I really enjoyed. What made my viewing of it so special was that it's one of my father’s all-time favorite movies. It had made a huge impression on him as a boy and he had told me about it many times, but this was the first opportunity I had to actually <span style="font-style: italic;">see</span> the film. I loved it, but I think knowing it meant so much to my dad and seeing him have chance to enjoy it again endeared it to me all the more.<br /><br />When the show was over, we would put our coats back on and talk about the picture all the way home. These were always grand times and, to tell the truth, I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed going to the movies quite as much as I did on those chilly Friday evenings so long ago.<br />--------------------------------------------------<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/Sh_rE3rBstI/AAAAAAAAAHg/D2TzQ_sgXAk/s1600-h/raymortoncorner.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 111px; height: 103px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/Sh_rE3rBstI/AAAAAAAAAHg/D2TzQ_sgXAk/s200/raymortoncorner.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341246151981118162" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.raymorton.com/"><span style="font-size:85%;">Ray Mort</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.raymorton.com/">on</a> is a writer and script consultant. His books <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Close-Encounters-Third-Kind-Spielbergs/dp/1557837104/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243605864&sr=1-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The Making of Steven Sp</span></a></span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Close-Encounters-Third-Kind-Spielbergs/dp/1557837104/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243605864&sr=1-1"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">ielberg</span></span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Close-Encounters-Third-Kind-Spielbergs/dp/1557837104/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243605864&sr=1-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">'s Classic Film</span></a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/King-Kong-History-Movie-Jackson/dp/1557836698/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243605864&sr=1-2"><span style="font-style: italic;">King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon from Fay Wray to Peter Jackson</span></a> are available </span><span style="font-size:85%;">in stor</span><span style="font-size:85%;">es a</span><span style="font-size:85%;">nd online. He analyzes screenplays for production companies, producers, and individual writers. Morton is ava</span><span style="font-size:85%;">ilable for consultation and can be reached at </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/ray@raymorton.com"><span style="font-size:85%;">ray@raymorton.com</span></a>.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782152156791621172.post-58575171249278589932009-11-10T09:43:00.000-08:002009-12-07T11:08:22.277-08:00Staton Rabin: Breaking In: Zen and the Art of Guerrilla Script Marketing<span style="font-style: italic;">“If you can keep your head when all about you</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; …</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">And treat those two impostors just the same …”</span><br /> --"If," by Rudyard Kipling<br /><br />Maybe, when he wasn’t writing classic short stories and novels like<span style="font-style: italic;"> The Jungle Book</span>, Kipling was secretly writing movie scripts. That might explain why his immortal poem, "If," is such useful advice for screenwriters. Trying to “keep your head” in this business is a never-ending challenge. But staying sane is critical to success. If you’re a movie star, producer, director, even an agent -- “crazy” might even be considered part of your job description. But if you’re a writer, it’s a luxury you can’t afford. If you want to succeed in this business, you need to be able to “keep your head when all about you are losing theirs …”<br /><br />Last month, I promised to tell you what I’ve learned during my long career as a writer and story analyst. I quoted one of my favorite philosophers, baseball great Yogi Berra. Well, I’m about to quote him again. In his inimitable style, Yogi once said about baseball, “Ninety percent of this game is half mental." The same can be said of finding success as a screenwriter.<br /><br />Sure, talent and knowing your craft are the most important factors in whether you win or lose this game. But the mental discipline you bring to the process of writing and selling your script -- your attitude, in other words -- is critical.<br /><br />Make no mistake: having a “zen” attitude to your career doesn’t mean being weak or passive. Quite the contrary. You must learn to apply your mental and physical energies in the right amounts, in the right way, and at the right time. You must be creative and assertive (but not obnoxious) in how you market yourself and your work. You do your homework, work hard, and, to use another baseball metaphor, you keep stepping up to the plate for another turn at bat -- even if you keep striking out. And when it’s the bottom of the ninth inning, with two outs and three men on base, and you’re up at bat, you can’t choke.<br /><br />Let’s apply this “zen” idea to a real-world script marketing situation. Here, as in baseball, the pitch is all-important.<br /><br />Whether you call it a pitch fest, a screenwriting expo, or a screenwriters’ conference, it boils down to this: a chance to pitch your story to producers. Unfortunately, for many writers, it’s also a situation tailor-made for getting a whopping case of the heebie-jeebies.<br /><br />There you are, at some big glitzy hotel, surrounded by thousands of other desperate screenwriters hopped-up on Starbucks lattes, waiting anxiously to pitch your script to CAA or Disney. I’m going to give you some tips here for sharpening up your mental game so that next time you go to one of these events, you’ll hit one out of the park.<br /><br />1) You have no competition. Really. I know it may seem like the entire cast of <span style="font-style: italic;">Ben-Hur</span> is competing with you at this humongous pitch fest or expo. But the truth is that if you have a great pitch, producers will want to read your screenplay -- no matter how many other pitches they heard that week. They don’t have a quota that, once met, forces them to turn away good story ideas. And, trust me, most of the other pitches aren’t that great.<br /><br />2) There are a lot of nervous, depressed writers at pitch conferences. They will want to bend your ear. If you let them, they will suck the life and spirit out of you like Edward in <span style="font-style: italic;">Twilight</span>. Don’t let them. Steer clear of these blood-sucking vamps and leeches. Leave them to their misery so you can keep your own spirits up.<br /><br />3) You know how they tell you that you will have five minutes to pitch your story to each producer? Well, you’ve really got only one minute. By the time you find your producer’s table, boot the seat’s previous occupant out of it, and exchange friendly small talk with the producer to ease into your pitch, you’ll have just one minute left. So plan for that, and make the most of it.<br /><br />4) Ladies, wear comfortable shoes. I’m not kidding. You will be doing a lot of standing and waiting around. If you wear shoes that don’t hurt your feet or back you will have a leg-up, so to speak, on half the writers in the room.<br /><br />5) Don’t overbook yourself. Instead of pitching to 10 producers before lunch, consider limiting appointments to no more than three or four, and resting between pitches.<br /><br />6) Expect last-minute changes and be flexible. You may book time with a film company that produces highbrow Oscar-caliber movies set on English country estates -- but they might be a no-show. So you get offered instead a chance to pitch to a producer of horror movies about man-eating washing machines. What to do? Grab the opportunity, and re-jigger your pitch to fit the replacement producer. (“You see, it’s kind of like <span style="font-style: italic;">Sense and Sensibility</span>, but set at a crazy Maytag factory in Hampshire …”)<br /><br />7) Stash your business cards and pitch appointment tickets in that clear plastic name-tag holder that is already hanging around your neck. That way, you won’t lose your tickets, and when producers ask for your business card after listening to your wildly successful pitch, you’ll be ready. You won’t have to frantically hunt around in your purse or wallet for your card while the next “pitcher” is breathing down your neck.<br /><br />8) If possible, learn everything you can about the companies you’ll be pitching to -- before you get to the pitch event. Know what movies they’ve made, and if you’re a fan it can’t hurt to single out one for praise when you meet each producer.<br /><br />9) Always remember to thank any producer who listens to your pitch. If you’re polite in this business, you will impress some people and astonish the rest.<br /><br />10) Know that if you fail to attract interest in your pitches at this event, this isn’t “the end” for your hopes of breaking in to the business. Yes, it might be a sign that your pitch or script needs work. But you can always rewrite it or start a new script, send out query letters, and go back to the pitch fest or expo again next year.<br /> <br />Keep pitching. See you next month.<br />--------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/StiNqOVVGTI/AAAAAAAAAJY/LV4lMzwvQiQ/s1600-h/staton.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 110px; height: 114px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/StiNqOVVGTI/AAAAAAAAAJY/LV4lMzwvQiQ/s200/staton.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393216310317750578" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Staton Rabin is a screenplay marketing consultant, script analyst, and “pitch coach” for screenwriters at all levels of experience. She is also a Senior Writer and story analyst for </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Script</span><span style="font-size:85%;">, has been a reader for Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema, and is a frequent guest lecturer at NYU. Staton’s novel </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Betsy and the Emporer</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> is in development as a movie with Al Pacino attached to star. Staton Rabin is available for consultations and can be reached at Cutebunion@aol.com</span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782152156791621172.post-74235187596758755662009-11-03T15:01:00.000-08:002009-12-22T12:34:58.998-08:00Mystery Man: Steven Soderbergh's Moneyball ScriptSoderbergh opens his script with this sobering bit of news:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"Billy Beane's minor and major league career will be shown via filmed interviews with scouts, coaches, managers, players, and family members who were with him at the time. These interviews will comprise approximately ten percent of the film.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br />"Another ten percent of the film will consist of re-enactments of real events as remembered by the people playing themselves. The purpose of these scenes will be to provide set-up and perspective for subjects, situations, or relationships which currently appear in the screenplay without the requisite/normal amount of context.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br />"All that is to say an importation portion of this film will be written in the editing room. This isn't a cop-out; it's just a fact and entirely by design."</span><br /><br />I will defend Soderbergh only this far: I'm guessing that he instinctively picked-up on the weaknesses of Zaillian's script, and he sought to, in an inventive way, make the experience more unique, emotional, personal, and generally, more realistic.<br /><br />For that, I applaud him.<br /><br />Having said that, Soderbergh should've retitled it 'FUBAR.' He re-shaped this fl<span style="font-family:georgia;">awed story into s</span>omething so unnecessarily convoluted. His script contains not only the same problems as Zaillian's but also piles on more problems with weak, flat, phony dialogue and mountains of verbal exposition. Oh, the mountains of insufferable exposition, so high and so vast, they should be called "Soderberghs Himalayas."<br /><br />Consider the differences between these two stories in how Billy met Paul DePodesta, a guy who is crucial in shaping Billy's new way of thinking about statistics. First, let's see Zaillian's scene. This starts on page 18. At this point, the team lost the division to the Yankees. They're about to lose their three best players. Their options are severely limited. You could cut the tension in Oakland with a knife. Billy had a heated discussion with his scouts and threw a chair. And now, Billy just had a very depressing meeting with the Indians' General Manager, who changed his mind about a deal after Paul, who worked for the Indians at the time, whispered something into the GM's ear. Billy has just left the office. He sees Paul.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:courier new;">Billy: You.</span> <span style="font-family:courier new;"><br /><br />Paul: Excuse me?</span><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;"><br />Billy: Come here.</span> <span style="font-family:courier new;">[Paul comes out into the hallway.]</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">Billy: Who the fuck are you?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">Paul: I'm Paul, Mr. Beane.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">Billy: I don't give a fuck about your name. What are you doing?</span> <span style="font-family:courier new;"><br /><br />Paul: Um... I'm doing my job.</span> <span style="font-family:courier new;"><br /><br />Billy: No, I'm doing my job. You - are fucking up my job. You just cost me a left-handed setup man.</span> <span style="font-family:courier new;"><br /><br />Paul: I like Rincon.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">Billy: You like Rincon. You like Rincon. Was I talking to you in there?</span> <span style="font-family:courier new;">[Billy leaves. Paul works up his courage.]</span> <span style="font-family:courier new;"><br /><br />Paul: Rincon has nothing to do with your problem. Your problem is you can't replace Giambi with another first baseman like him, because there isn't another one like him.</span> <span style="font-family:courier new;">[Billy stops walking.]</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">Following this moment, Paul and Billy eat at a Steakhouse. Paul enlightens Billy about what's wrong with current thinking about baseball statistics. Billy loves what he hears and hires Paul.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family:courier new;">Now, consider Soderbergh's approach. This moment starts on page 2 and PRECEDES the Inciting Incident of the Oakland A's losing the division to the Yankees.</span> <span style="font-family:courier new;"><br /><br />Billy: JP said you're the guy I should be talking to.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">Paul: JP is great.</span> <span style="font-family:courier new;"><br /><br />Billy: JP is great. He said you just got promoted.</span> <span style="font-family:courier new;"><br /><br />Paul: Yeah, I was advanced scouting and I just made Special Assistant to the GM.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">Billy: Well, Cleveland's a monster franchise. I think John Hart and Mark Shapiro are super smart. They got a good thing going.</span> <span style="font-family:courier new;"><br /><br />Paul: I have to say, it's nice knowing at the beginning of the year that you're probably going to the playoffs.</span> <span style="font-family:courier new;"><br /><br />Billy: I'll bet.</span> <span style="font-family:courier new;"><br /><br />Paul: I hear you extended.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">Billy: Yeah, four years. It's good, you know, I can watch things happen. And we're close to getting a new stadium.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">Paul: Which you need.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">Billy: Which we definitely need. So let me ask you: can you work spreadsheets and all that stuff, like Excel? Can you manage a payroll?</span> <span style="font-family:courier new;"><br /><br />Paul: Yeah.</span> <span style="font-family:courier new;"><br /><br />Billy: Great, because I suck at that. And you're totally up to speed on all the league rules? I need to make sure I don't accidentally put someone on waivers or something.</span> <span style="font-family:courier new;"><br /><br />Paul: I'm pretty familiar with all the league rules. Also, I used a software program to chart games when I was advancing. It might be worth buying. It's really helpful.</span> <span style="font-family:courier new;"><br /><br />Billy: Is it expensive?</span> <span style="font-family:courier new;"><br /><br />Paul: I know the guy who developed it, I'm sure we could work something out.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">Billy: Great.</span> <span style="font-family:courier new;"><br /><br />Paul: So let me ask you. Do you really think you can win with your payroll? No small market team has made the playoffs since the strike.</span> <span style="font-family:courier new;"><br /><br />Billy: I will never use payroll as an excuse. Look, being a small market team, we're constantly being pushed to the edge of extinction by the big market teams. We can't do it the way the Yankees do it. They've got guns, and we've got bows and arrows. We've got to find a way to adapt or we're going to disappear, and I like a lot of the ideas coming out of statistical analysis. It could be our edge.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">Paul: You know, I was playing blackjack once and a guy sitting next to me hit on seventeen and actually drew a four. And he's collecting his money, clearly thinking to himself: "This is a good strategy for playing blackjack." And that's when I realized: that's how most teams operate, they play like the guy walking into a casino, when they should be playing like the house.</span> <span style="font-family:courier new;"><br /><br />Billy: (excited) Right, exactly. That's what we have to do. We have to be the house.</span> <span style="font-family:courier new;"><br /><br />Paul: You've heard of Paul Drucker?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">Billy: The management guy.</span> <span style="font-family:courier new;"><br /><br />Paul: He's got a thing called the Naïve Question: "If we weren't already doing it this way, is this the way we would start?" And can I drop another name?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">Billy: Hey, you're the Harvard grad, not me.</span> <span style="font-family:courier new;"><br /><br />Paul: You've heard of him: Thomas Paine. "A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">Billy: That's fantastic. Look, Paul, you should do this. We should do this. Before somebody else does. Somebody with money.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">Paul: How comfortable are you looking crazy? I mean, people have dabbled in statistical analysis, but to run a whole team based on sabermetrics - no one's really done it before. Some of the decisions we make will look really strange.</span> <span style="font-family:courier new;"><br /><br />Billy: (trying to close him) That's our edge, them thinking we're crazy. The longer they think we're crazy, the better. By the time they figure out what we're doing, we'll have beaten them. So let's do this, right?</span></span><br /><br />Can you not see the huge difference between those two scenes? Zaillian's version crackles with energy. It's short, fast, and snappy. It exists in the context of a huge conflict, that is, the Oakland A's team is up shit's creek and Billy is driven to save the team. Soderbergh's scene lacked life because this came before the Inciting Incident and there's no conflict driving the story or Billy. Zaillian's exposition in the steakhouse scene isn't bad because it's in the context of a problem. We need this exposition to figure out how to save the team. Soderbergh's exposition feels false and flat and nearly puts you to sleep because there's no conflict yet. There's nothing driving what's happening between these characters.<br /><br />So let's come full circle back to the scandal. I'm inclined to believe (up to a point) the Brad Pitt theory. No star at his level would stay on a project when the dialogue has been butchered this badly. I do not for a minute blame the studio for pulling the plug on Soderbergh. I certainly would've done the same.<br /><br />However, I will not give one shit about this project unless someone tells me that Aaron Sorkin (and his team of writers) fixed the problems in Zaillian's script and focused on the character's journey.<br /><br />For An Intro to the <span style="font-style: italic;">Moneyball</span> Disaster, <a href="http://scriptmag.blogspot.com/2009/10/mystery-man-intro-to-moneyball-disaster.html">Click here</a>.<br />For Steven Zaillian's <span style="font-style: italic;">Moneyball</span> Script, Part 1, <a href="http://scriptmag.blogspot.com/2009/10/mystery-man-steven-zaillians-moneyball_29.html">Click here</a>.<br />For Steven Zaillian's <span style="font-style: italic;">Moneyball</span> Script, Part 2, <a href="http://scriptmag.blogspot.com/2009/11/mystery-man-steven-zaillians-moneyball.html">Click here</a>.<br />----------------------------------------------------------<br /><br /><a style="font-family: georgia;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/SjfK0HSvK7I/AAAAAAAAAHo/vPxpV_Gz_qI/s1600-h/mm.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 112px; height: 121px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/SjfK0HSvK7I/AAAAAAAAAHo/vPxpV_Gz_qI/s200/mm.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347966079185398706" border="0" /></a><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" >Mystery Man is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. He blogs at <a href="http://www.mysterymanonfilm.blogspot.com/">MysteryManOnFilm.blogspot.com</a> and tweets at <a href="http://twitter.com/mmonfilm">Twitter.com/MMonFilm</a>. And he has nice shoes.</span><br /><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:78%;" >A version of this post originally appeared on <a href="http://www.mysterymanonfilm.blogspot.com/">Mystery Man on Film</a>.<em></em><em></em><em></em></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><br /></span><p style="font-family: georgia;"></p>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782152156791621172.post-31259424576255499082009-11-03T12:58:00.000-08:002009-11-17T09:08:30.354-08:00Discussing November/December With Andrew ShearerAttention blossoming screenwriters who think screenwriting is a solitary art form: Read <span style="font-style: italic;">Script’s </span>article <span style="font-style: italic;">Anything but Elementary: </span>Sherlock Holmes by Ray Morton with additional reporting by Bob Verini, and realize, as Editor in Chief Shelly Mellott put it, “It is better when we all work together.” Morton’s article breaks down four different credited writers’ contributions on the new Sherlock Holmes movie, as well as how various directors contributed at different stages of the project and how much Robert Downey Jr. contributed on his own, too.<br /><br />I think it’s an illuminating exercise to see how one writer can be brought on to solve a particular problem another writer couldn’t. Sometimes, it takes more than one perspective, more than one brain. Sometimes four. I hear writers complain all the time about how scripts get “rewritten by other writers” and about how they could “never work with a partner” and sometimes it seems like any time they have to leave the confines of their room and their laptop, they might breakdown because they have to actually speak to another human. If you want to write solo, people, write a novel!<br /><br />Look, there’s nothing wrong with writing alone all day, huddled up in a room with the shades barely drawn -- we all do it. But my point is if you’re writing screenplays for the movies, you’re eventually going to have to collaborate. That means taking notes from directors, producers, maybe even working with another writer. Personally, I love getting rewritten! I get rewritten everyday by my writing partner. The best challenge in the world is to write something that doesn’t get sent back to me rewritten, but that comes back untouched. That’s when I know I’m on my game.<br /><br />I echo Derek Haas’ sentiments he shared in Script Girl’s column about writing with his partner, “Working together makes us better at collaborating …” Now, I’m not saying you have to have a partner to be a good screenwriter obviously, but I am saying you have to be a good collaborator to be successful in the screenwriting business. In order to fund my writing career, I worked as an editor for many years in Los Angeles, and nothing annoyed me more than other editors who said “I can’t stand when the director stands over your back giving notes.” But they’re the director! Of course they should be doing that! Personally, as an editor, that’s a lot more exciting to me than sitting in a room editing by myself.<br /><br />My point in all of this isn’t to say that we should all be happy when we get rewritten because I’m sure it burns really badly when you’re feeling wonderful about your work only to see it turned into a big, steaming pile of shit based on some seriously misguided studio notes -- handed down to the new writer who just replaced you. My point is you need to step out of the cave. Bounce your ideas off your peers, get notes, and practice collaboration. Because the people getting these jobs today are the ones who learned this a long time ago.<br />------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/Sf9gb7h9i1I/AAAAAAAAAGI/lYemPKq_JQE/s1600-h/AndrewShearer_headshot.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332086516782828370" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; width: 115px; cursor: pointer; height: 150px;" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/Sf9gb7h9i1I/AAAAAAAAAGI/lYemPKq_JQE/s200/AndrewShearer_headshot.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">A redneck from Small Town, North Carolina (population 8,000, high school drop-out rate 40%), one day decided to tackle the film industry. Andrew’s film-school short, <span style="font-style: italic;">Son Up</span>, based off his experience teaching at a juvenile hall, ended up winning seven festival awards and made the regionals for the Student Academy Awards. Andrew’s feature script version of <span style="font-style: italic;">Son Up</span>, co-written with Nick Sherman, went on to win first prize at Cinequest. Then one day, the screenwriting gods shined their rarely shown light down from the Heavens and awarded the Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship to Andrew and Nick for their feature script, <span style="font-style: italic;">Holy Irresistible</span>. The duo is now repped by Endeavor and Brillstein Entertainment. They have two projects in development and are lucky enough to be co-writing a spec with another writer they’ve admired for years.</span></span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782152156791621172.post-2501884030750651512009-11-02T12:03:00.000-08:002009-11-03T15:18:08.200-08:00Mystery Man: Steven Zaillian's Moneyball Script, Pt 2There is a lot of entertainment value in the story. You have a baseball team losing its best players. The A’s do not have enough money to buy solid replacements. You have a protagonist with a clear goal of getting this team out of the cellar and engineering a winning season, and interesting enough, he does so with “bad” players. You have a strong masculine physical lead role. You have fast scenes with fast, smart, snappy dialogue, which I’m sure Pitt couldn’t wait to rattle off in front of cameras.<br /><br />Those factors alone make the script passable, but the story as a whole gives me pause. Not only that, the idea of adapting this book, which was essentially about statistics and how scouts changed the way they viewed the statistical value of players, also gives me pause.<br /><br />Why? There’s no theme or strong emotional hook to this concept. There’s too much emphasis on statistics and not enough on characters. After its all over, when you think, “so what was that all about?” you realize that this story essentially amounts to the audience saying, “oh, isn’t it interesting how the Oakland A’s re-thought the statistical game and came up with a winning team with undervalued players on a tight budget.” That’s not a movie. That’s an article for <span style="font-style: italic;">Sports Illustrated</span>. That’s a made-for-TV-event targeted to the most hardcore-statistics-lovin’- baseball-fanatics. For a movie that’ll get distributed around the world, this kind of anecdote about a change in the way we view statistics is at best a side note for what should be a bigger story, for what should be a gripping theme and emotional hook, which should be centered on the character’s journey. We don’t have that here.<br /><br />What do we have? We have 128 pages of Billy Beane playing hardball with his scouts, with the owner, with the coach, with Paul the economist, and he’s doing what he can to change the way people think about statistics to create a winning team. We have flashbacks to Billy’s past that only serve to show how the emphasis on Billy’s personal statistics during his brief attempt at playing baseball shaped his thinking as an executive and helped bring about change to how the scouts view statistics. Okay, so what? That’s just exposition. Billy goes through women as often as he goes through baseball players, which never changes, and from what I’ve read isn’t historically accurate either. So I have to ask, “How does that serve the story?” We’re occasionally shown Billy hanging out with his daughter, which likewise does nothing to advance the story but only serves to show a different side of Billy. Of course, I’m all for character depth and I do not believe it essential that every character arcs.<br /><br />But in the end, you walk away feeling not as exhilarated as you had hoped because there’s an emphasis on the intellect over the emotion. That’s really evident toward the end when the story loses steam and fails to deliver the emotional goods as it should. The fact that there’s Bill James occasionally popping up to explain statistics to us only illustrates my point that there’s too much emphasis on things other than the character’s journey. James reminded me of the motivational coach in Jerry Maguire whose words had so much more heart and who existed solely to support the character’s journey.<br /><br />Consider the greatest baseball films ever made. <span style="font-style: italic;">Pride of the Yankees</span>, a favorite of mine about Lou Gehrig -- that’s a character’s journey. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Natural </span>-- character’s journey. <span style="font-style: italic;">Field of Dreams</span> -- character’s journey. <span style="font-style: italic;">Major League</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Bull Durham</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">A League of Their Own</span> -- all about the character’s journey.<br /><br />What’s my mantra? Characters come first.<br /><br />It’s so strange that throughout this script, various characters repeatedly talk about and watch <span style="font-style: italic;">The Natural</span>, which only made me prefer that story over this one and which also reminded me that the best stories stay focused on the character’s journey. We know the theme in <span style="font-style: italic;">The Natural</span> -- dreams deferred. Would you still pursue your dreams when the world thinks you’re past your prime? Great! I’m there rooting for Roy Hobbs like the rest of the world. But what’s the theme of <span style="font-style: italic;">Moneyball</span>? I’m not sure, but I can tell you that statistics is not a theme. That’s a intellectual argument. If it was up to me, I’d de-emphasize statistics and emphasize something entirely different that gives us a strong theme and an emotional hook. Say, a theme about failure. How often and how long can you endure failure before you give up your dreams? Thus, we’d be rooting for Billy to “never give up your dreams.”<br /><br />When you cannot easily articulate your theme, when the emphasis on a script is on something factual or on anything other than the character’s journey, it is an inevitability as sure as death and taxes that despite great scenes and snappy dialogue, the story will fall flat in the end.<br /><br />Tomorrow: Soderbergh's <span style="font-style: italic;">Moneyball</span> script<br />----------------------------------------------------------<br /><br /><a style="font-family: georgia;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/SjfK0HSvK7I/AAAAAAAAAHo/vPxpV_Gz_qI/s1600-h/mm.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 112px; height: 121px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/SjfK0HSvK7I/AAAAAAAAAHo/vPxpV_Gz_qI/s200/mm.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347966079185398706" border="0" /></a><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" >Mystery Man is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. He blogs at <a href="http://www.mysterymanonfilm.blogspot.com/">MysteryManOnFilm.blogspot.com</a> and tweets at <a href="http://twitter.com/mmonfilm">Twitter.com/MMonFilm</a>. And he has nice shoes.</span><br /><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:78%;" >A version of this post originally appeared on <a href="http://www.mysterymanonfilm.blogspot.com/">Mystery Man on Film</a>.<em></em><em></em><em></em></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><br /></span><p style="font-family: georgia;"></p>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782152156791621172.post-85770950318894926322009-10-29T09:43:00.001-07:002009-10-29T09:45:30.484-07:00Mystery Man: Steven Zaillian's Moneyball Script, Pt 1There is a character moment in the opening sequence that I loved, probably lost now forever. Fade In. We’re flying over the Oakland Coliseum at night, the floodlights on. We drift past the Oakland A’s three premier players painted on concrete, a good visual setup. These guys are essential to the story. We turn, dip, and float toward the A’s dugout. There’s the faint sound of crowds cheering. There’s the voice over of a sports announcer talking about an exciting game: “one out, nobody on, two on two to Saenz…” We descend into the dugout and over to the tunnel and into the “netherworld bowels of the Coliseum.” The cheering and the voices of the two sports announcers get louder.<br /><br />We continue to move down the cinder-block corridor “dimly lit with wire-encased lamps like in a coal mine.” The announcer’s growing voice continues: “a ground out to second, Thom, is not what the A’s were looking for from Saenz – down by two in the ninth.”<br /><br />We float into a room and see the solitary figure of protagonist Billy Beane bench-pressing “with the intensity of a soul expiating sins” as a nearby TV plays a game taking place somewhere else. Announcer: “- the A’s are down to their last strike and this Yankee crowd is on its feet. Rivera squints for the sign, gets it, delivers, and –“ Billy turns off the sound. He cannot bear this moment. He goes back to his bench pressing “like he’s trying to sweat out the impurities of deed or thought.” He sits up, switches the sound back on. Announcer: “it is bedlam in New York! The Yankees have done what no other team in MLB history has been able to do: come back after losing the first two games to win a Division Series!”<br /><br />Billy sits up. He walks out as the announcer continues: “This is historic not only for New York, Thom, but for Oakland. The A’s have just set a new record, too, but not the kind you want: no other team has ever lost a division series after winning the first two games…” The TV shows the Yankees constructing a human pyramid at home plate while the A’s, including the ones we saw painted on the concrete, sit glumly in the visitors’ dugout, cameras zooming into their shell-shocked faces.<br /><br />“Billy pulls himself up off the bench, walks over to an equipment area, selects a bat, regards his surroundings calmly… then suddenly swings the bat mightily at an open locker door, ripping it from its hinges… He attacks another locker, spreading its vents with a violent crash. He slams the bat into another locker… wood-splinters fly…”<br /><br />That, my friends, is how you open a screenplay that will be greenlit by a studio for millions and millions of dollars with a premium director and global star attached.<br /><br />A few thoughts about this sequence:<br /><br />* Zaillian, first of all, gives us an intriguing shot that pulls you in as we float over an empty Oakland Coliseum and into its bowels. So often we think of strong openings as plot-related, that is, something exciting happens in the plot within the first five pages that makes us want to keep reading. Many times, though, intriguing shots can tease us with visuals that make you curious and want to keep reading to see where the shot and the story will take us. This is a great reminder to let your imagination take flight and consider unique experiences and new ways of looking at subjects we’ve seen many times before in film. There’s no limit to screenwriting, and yet, too often, we confine our imaginations.<br /><br />* Zaillian also solves some tricky issues about the setting with this floating shot. This story is about the Oakland A’s, although this crucial, painful loss to the Yankees, which is the inciting incident, takes place in New York. You can’t change that. So we’re shown in this sequence the empty A’s stadium, how important these premier players are to thousands of Oakland fans by the fact that they’re painted on the concrete, which is contrasted later with their shell-shocked faces on TV after a stunning loss. Following this game, those players will become free agents, another huge loss to the organization.<br /><br />* I love the shift in values over the course of this one sequence. At first, the juxtaposition of these words and images in the context of the baseball genre usually implies that this is a “reliving the glory days” kind of moment. The bread and butter of baseball is a romantic sentimentalism about the game. Here, you assume you’re hearing the ghosts of a past game that took place in the stadium in which there will be the inevitable thrilling victory. But we find that this isn’t the case at all. This is a very haunting present, complemented visually with this night shot and the darkened cinder-block corridor “dimly lit with wire-encased lamps like in a coal mine.” This haunting present leads to a very painful conclusion of a very important game that will set this entire movie in motion.<br /><br />* I love how we’re first presented Billy Beane. He is so gripped by his turmoil about this game that he can’t watch it. He has to work-out while the game is being played. It’s a kind of manly expression of anxiety not seen in film before, I don’t believe, and without Billy saying a word, we understand his pain, not just because he’s bench pressing like his soul depends on it but also by seeing him turn off the sound of a moment he knew was coming that he cannot bear to hear. In that moment, we feel the sting of his loss. We know his obvious frustrations and goals for the Oakland A’s. We also get a sense of his past, too. He’s working out because he must’ve been a player. Or, at least, he aspired to be a player.<br /><br />* Every detail in your screenplay is important in terms of the information you’re passing along to the audience. What did Zaillian do? He hooked us with an imaginative opening shot that sets up expectations about what we’ll be seeing in the film. He makes us want to keep reading. We want to know where we’re being taken and who we’ll be seeing. We think we’re hearing a sentimental glory moment and that expectation is turned on its head. He also slyly establishes the setting, the inciting incident, the principal characters, the protagonist, the protagonist's goal, backstory, and inner turmoil about his team, and he does all of these things in under two pages.<br /><br />I dare you to do better.<br /><br /><a style="font-family: georgia;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/SjfK0HSvK7I/AAAAAAAAAHo/vPxpV_Gz_qI/s1600-h/mm.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 112px; height: 121px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/SjfK0HSvK7I/AAAAAAAAAHo/vPxpV_Gz_qI/s200/mm.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347966079185398706" border="0" /></a><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" >Mystery Man is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. He blogs at <a href="http://www.mysterymanonfilm.blogspot.com/">MysteryManOnFilm.blogspot.com</a> and tweets at <a href="http://twitter.com/mmonfilm">Twitter.com/MMonFilm</a>. And he has nice shoes.</span><br /><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:78%;" >A version of this post originally appeared on <a href="http://www.mysterymanonfilm.blogspot.com/">Mystery Man on Film</a>.<em></em><em></em><em></em></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><br /></span><p style="font-family: georgia;"></p>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782152156791621172.post-60393105066911519282009-10-27T09:34:00.000-07:002009-10-27T09:52:47.628-07:00Mystery Man: An Intro to the Moneyball DisasterLet’s talk scandal, baby!<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Moneyball</span> was in development a few years and championed by Columbia Pictures co-chair cutie Amy Pascal. It’s an adaptation of a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393324818?ie=UTF8&tag=mysmanonfil-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0393324818">popular book by Michael Lewis</a>.<br /><br />Whispering lips say the studio<a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jun/23/business/fi-ct-moneyball23"> spent roughly $10 million</a> to get this project off the ground. Steven Zaillian wrote a script. Everybody loved it. Soderbergh came onboard. Brad Pitt came onboard. The budget ballooned to around $57 million, which is quite risky. Baseball movies can be hit and miss. They rarely play well overseas, and you’re lucky to get $35 million domestic.<br /><br />Soderbergh <a href="http://myespn.go.com/blogs/sweetspot/0-2-7/Soderbergh-on-Moneyball.html">told ESPN</a>: "My clearly stated goal is to set a new standard for realism in that [sports] world." He proceeded to tinker with Steven Zaillian’s script.<br /><br />Just days before production was to begin, Amy Pascal gasped and <a href="http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118005208.html?categoryid=13&cs=1&query=moneyball">pulled the plug</a>.<br /><br />Soderbergh’s tinkering gave the studio a case of cold feet. The project was put into limited turnaround, which meant that other studios had the chance to pick it up. They all politely declined.<br /><br />According to <a href="http://weblogs.variety.com/bfdealmemo/2009/06/pascal-back-at-the-plate-on-moneyball.html">Michael Fleming</a>:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">“Soderbergh and Pascal had discussions about his vision when the director signed on, Soderbergh last Tuesday turned in a rewrite that sources said was substantially different from a Zaillian script that Pascal -- and Pitt -- loved. Soderbergh took the film from a classically structured drama to a hybrid that has a documentary feel, complete with footage of actual ballplayers who witnessed Beane’s metamorphosis from player to exec who fielded competitive teams by using statistics instead of paying big salaries. Pitt didn’t read the script until last Wednesday, but he continued to back Soderbergh.”</span><br /><br />Oh, but wait. There’s also the <a href="http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/archives/2009/06/more_moneyball.html">Brad Pitt theory</a>:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">“The new spin out of the Sony camp … is that Brad Pitt disliked the new script as much as Amy Pascal and that he is the one who secretly sunk the ship, though he didn't want to be seen as doing it.”</span><br /><br />But then <a href="http://weblogs.variety.com/thompsononhollywood/2009/06/moneyball-update.html">Anne Thompson wrote</a>:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">“That is not what I'm hearing from Pitt's camp. They say he was ready to make Soderbergh's movie. It's hard to imagine Pitt agreeing to make the movie with another director at this point. It would have to be Soderbergh or no one. Pascal was demanding certain changes that Pitt and Soderbergh refused to make and threw her foot down, perfectly willing to walk away. Point is, she would have made the movie a year ago. She can't afford for this movie to lose money right now, bottom line.”</span><br /><br />But, of course, Pitt’s camp would continue to publicly back Soderbergh, wouldn’t they?<br /><br />Then there was that <a href="http://theplaylist.blogspot.com/2009/06/funnyball-with-moneyball.html">infamous e-mail</a> that made the rounds and got removed.<br /><br />David Poland <a href="http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/archives/2009/07/_trying_to_clos.html">had many questions</a>, such as “How could Soderbergh be shooting interviews for the movie on the studio dime without the studio knowing what his plan was?”<br /><br />But no worries, <a href="http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118005824.html?categoryid=13&cs=1&query=moneyball">Aaron Sorkin’s on it now</a>. And, apparently, he has a whole <a href="http://complicationsensue.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-does-sorkin-write-so-much.html">team of writers</a>.<br /><br />And now Soderbergh has <a href="http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_movies_blog/2009/09/soderbergh-on-cleo-his-3d-cleopatra-musical-his-liberace-movie-and-moneyball.html">relaxed and joked</a> about the whole sad affair:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"There have been a couple of times in my career where I’ve been unceremoniously removed from projects. I don’t waste a lot of energy on it. It doesn’t get you anywhere. As soon as it became clear that there was no iteration of that movie that I was going to get to direct, I immediately started looking around for something else to do. I have a couple of other things in development that I had hoped to move up, but actors' schedules wouldn’t allow it. But I have something I can get to after the first of the year, and I’m supposed to do my Liberace movie next summer. So my attitude when something like that happens is, ‘What’s next?’ You can’t dwell on it.”</span><br /><br />Brad Pitt still <a href="http://theplaylist.blogspot.com/2009/08/brad-pitt-says-he-wants-to-get.html">sounds hopeful</a>, but as he said, “It’s a weird climate right now.”<br /><br />So let’s analyze the scripts, MM-style.<br /><br />Tomorrow: Zaillian's script.<br /><br />-----------------------------------------------------<br /><a style="font-family: georgia;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/SjfK0HSvK7I/AAAAAAAAAHo/vPxpV_Gz_qI/s1600-h/mm.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 112px; height: 121px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/SjfK0HSvK7I/AAAAAAAAAHo/vPxpV_Gz_qI/s200/mm.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347966079185398706" border="0" /></a><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" >Mystery Man is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. He blogs at <a href="http://www.mysterymanonfilm.blogspot.com/">MysteryManOnFilm.blogspot.com</a> and tweets at <a href="http://twitter.com/mmonfilm">Twitter.com/MMonFilm</a>. And he has nice shoes.</span><br /><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:78%;" >A version of this post originally appeared on <a href="http://www.mysterymanonfilm.blogspot.com/">Mystery Man on Film</a>.<em></em><em></em><em></em></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><br /></span><p style="font-family: georgia;"></p>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782152156791621172.post-53784917561901731722009-10-15T10:31:00.000-07:002009-10-19T13:42:18.765-07:00Staton Rabin: Breaking In: Zen and the Art of Guerrilla Script MarketingI don’t have to tell you that there are too many writers trying to break into the film business these days. When it comes to writers and “Hollywood," I’m reminded of what baseball great and part-time philosopher Yogi Berra oxymoronically said about his favorite restaurant: “Nobody goes there anymore; it’s too crowded.”<br /><br />Frankly, up till now, I’ve been hesitant to tell you all my secrets about how to break into the film industry. It feels a little like telling you about my favorite neighborhood restaurant -- a little hideaway with great food. If everyone knows about it, the place is going to get awfully crowded. Maybe I won’t even be able to find a seat at the table for myself anymore. Well, I’ve finally decided that the movie business can’t get much more crowded than it already is. I’ve had a seat at the table long enough. It’s time to give some other writers a chance.<br /><br />I’ve been a story analyst for over 25 years. During that time, I’ve also sold six books to major publishers, gotten a big film deal with a superstar attached, have been in the Hollywood trades over a dozen times, and been profiled in <span style="font-style: italic;">The New York Times</span>. I’ve even lectured about screenwriting aboard the greatest ocean liner in the world, the Queen Mary 2, where I became the only seasick screenwriting teacher on the Seven Seas.<br /><br />In this blog, I’m going to show you everything I know about how to break into the film industry as a writer. For those of you who don’t read <span style="font-style: italic;">Script</span>, I’ve noticed that a lot of what you’ve been told elsewhere is dead wrong -- designed to capitalize on writers’ anxieties.<br /><br />To quote the sage of the Yankees, Mr. Berra, again, “You can observe a lot just by watchin’.” Well, in my long career in the movie business, I’ve learned a lot just by watching. And by listening to other writers’ stories and helping them with their scripts, I’ve come to better understand why my approach to breaking into the business has worked for me and my clients -- and why, too often, other writers fail or give up too soon.<br /><br />You see, until I began teaching screenwriters about eight years ago, I didn’t realize that there was anything unusual about my approach to writing and marketing my own books and scripts, which explained my success. My approach was hard work, but it came naturally to me. I figured every writer used the same approach I did. But I was wrong.<br /><br />I’ve since learned that there are a boatload of myths and misconceptions out there about how to break into the business as a screenwriter. I also came to understand how my own attitude, personality, and method of doing work and business gave me certain advantages and explained my success. There were big differences, I discovered, between the way I saw the world and the way most other aspiring writers did. And it’s those differences that became the key to my understanding of why some writers succeed, and others fail.<br /><br />I spent some time picking out a name for this ongoing column. It’s no accident that the title seems almost as oxymoronic as any quote from Yogi Berra. After all, how can an approach to marketing a screenplay be both “zen” (peaceful, thoughtful, enlightened, restrained) and “guerrilla” (creatively aggressive and proactive) -- a seeming contradiction in terms?<br /><br />Well, it turns out that those two words aren’t contradictions at all. And learning how to use both qualities simultaneously is one of the secrets to writing and selling a screenplay. As for the rest, stay tuned. That’s what this blog is going to be all about.<br />----------<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/StiNqOVVGTI/AAAAAAAAAJY/LV4lMzwvQiQ/s1600-h/staton.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 110px; height: 114px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/StiNqOVVGTI/AAAAAAAAAJY/LV4lMzwvQiQ/s200/staton.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393216310317750578" border="0" /></a>----------------------------------------------------------------<br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Staton Rabin is a screenplay marketing consultant, script analyst, and “pitch coach” for screenwriters at all levels of experience. She is also a Senior Writer and story analyst for </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Script</span><span style="font-size:85%;">, has been a reader for Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema, and is a frequent guest lecturer at NYU. Staton’s novel <span style="font-style: italic;">Betsy and the Emporer</span> is in development as a movie with Al Pacino attached to star. She is available for consultations. Contact: Cutebunion@aol.com.<br /><br /></span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782152156791621172.post-39564203650206439222009-10-05T10:15:00.000-07:002009-10-05T10:31:35.679-07:00Discussing September/October With Andrew Shearer, Part 2As new writers, it’s always hard to know whose advice to listen to. In film school, when sulky students got feedback they didn’t like, they’d complain, “If the professor knows so much about making films, why is he teaching, instead of making them?” Well if we already knew so much about making films, we wouldn’t have had to go to film school in the first place. I find the best guidance comes when it’s oriented toward making your project the best based on your own vision, not someone else’s.<br /><br />Upon reading Staton Rabin’s article <span style="font-style: italic;">Screenwriting Snafus</span>, I think she offers some great tidbits of advice, particularly “A ‘Typical’ Script," “Prozac®, Anyone?,” and “Waitress #1, Thug #2.” But honestly, the rest of the advice seemed to suggest we’re writing scripts for contest readers alone, as if we’re honing them for their tastes. Don’t get me wrong, I get what she’s saying -- I’ve read for several contests, and I feel her pain. But advice requires a little more nuance.<br /><br />For instance, “Let It Be.” I agree, bad idea to fill your script with popular songs. But I think new writers will read other scripts and see examples of that and wonder why other writers do it. I recently read Judd Apatow’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Funny People</span>, and it’s filled with references to popular songs. Most of them didn’t make the final film, but it was about “the read.” He wanted to evoke a certain emotion for that scene. My advice is to follow Staton’s suggestion for the most part. However, if there’s that one scene in your script where you think there’s that perfect song for it, I say put it in there. It doesn’t really matter if it makes the final film, it’s about evoking emotion. Be specific in your choice, but not obscure.<br /><br />I also take issue with a few examples in the “Omit” section. New writers will see examples of “establishing shots,” “camera/editing directions,” and “This is John Jones” in professional scripts and wonder why they can’t use those techniques themselves. You can, you might just piss of Staton. My advice -- use them in extreme moderation.<br /><br />Finally -- and contest readers will KILL me for this one -- “<span style="font-style: italic;">War and Peace</span>.” Yes, the Hollywood standard for scripts is 120 pages or less. Yes, in general, if your script is less than a 120 pages, it gives you a better chance of winning a contest, so it’s probably good advice. However, out of the 40 contest scripts I read this summer, two that brought tears to my eyes (in a good way) were 136 pages and 126 pages. Two of the most awful scripts I’ve ever suffered through in my entire life, were 88 pages and 92 pages. So my advice is make your script read well! Make it a smooth, quick read. Have friends read it, get feedback before you submit it. The 136-page script was a character-driven script, filled with wonderful dialogue, and it read quicker than the 88-page script, which left me scarred for the rest of my life. Okay, that’s my humble take for the month. If my fellow contest-reading colleagues read this, I expect them to trash me.<br />------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/Sf9gb7h9i1I/AAAAAAAAAGI/lYemPKq_JQE/s1600-h/AndrewShearer_headshot.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332086516782828370" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; width: 115px; cursor: pointer; height: 150px;" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/Sf9gb7h9i1I/AAAAAAAAAGI/lYemPKq_JQE/s200/AndrewShearer_headshot.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">A redneck from Small Town, North Carolina (population 8,000, high school drop-out rate 40%), one day decided to tackle the film industry. Andrew’s film-school short, <span style="font-style: italic;">Son Up</span>, based off his experience teaching at a juvenile hall, ended up winning seven festival awards and made the regionals for the Student Academy Awards. Andrew’s feature script version of <span style="font-style: italic;">Son Up</span>, co-written with Nick Sherman, went on to win first prize at Cinequest. Then one day, the screenwriting gods shined their rarely shown light down from the Heavens and awarded the Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship to Andrew and Nick for their feature script, <span style="font-style: italic;">Holy Irresistible</span>. The duo is now repped by Endeavor and Brillstein Entertainment. They have two projects in development and are lucky enough to be co-writing a spec with another writer they’ve admired for years.</span></span><p></p>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782152156791621172.post-72113558941873805262009-10-01T13:16:00.000-07:002009-10-01T13:55:10.343-07:00Steve Kaire: 12 Brainstorming Techniques<span style="font-weight: bold;">Odd Couples </span><br />This is exactly what the title implies. Two people are thrown together in a situation in which they’re stuck. In the film and TV series of the same name, it was a slob and his obsessively neat roommate. In <span style="font-style: italic;">The Defiant Ones</span>, Sidney Poitier was an escaped convict chained to a racist played by Tony Curtis. War movies frequently had two enemies who found themselves in the same foxhole or building and have to cooperate with each other to survive. <span style="font-style: italic;">Enemy Mine</span> had a human and an alien facing a similar situation.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Blank From Hell</span><br />Here, you have to fill in the blank with a noun that hasn’t been done before. The <u>Affair</u> From Hell is the film <span style="font-style: italic;">Fatal Attraction</span>. The <u>Roommate</u> From Hell is the movie, <span style="font-style: italic;">Single White Female</span>. The <u>Patient</u> From Hell is <span style="font-style: italic;">What About Bob?</span> The <u>Doll</u> From Hell is <span style="font-style: italic;">Chucky</span>. And so on.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Fish Out of Water</span><br />This technique has been used in literature for a long time. You take a person out of their normal environment and place them in a radically different one. Examples would be <span style="font-style: italic;">Beverly Hills Cop</span>, where a Detroit cop investigates his partner’s murder in the city of Beverly Hills. Another is <span style="font-style: italic;">Crocodile Dundee</span>, where a crocodile hunter from the Australian outback encounters the urban jungle of New York City. There’s also the film <span style="font-style: italic;">Splash</span>, which is literally a fish out of water story.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Amateur Blank</span><br />Here again the challenge is to fill in the blank with a noun that we haven’t seen before. I’ve sold two stories that were Amateur Detectives. Illustrations of movies in this category are <span style="font-style: italic;">Critical Condition</span>, where Richard Pryor impersonates a doctor. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Couch Trip</span>, where Dan Aykroyd escapes from an asylum and pretends to be a psychiatrist. Also, <span style="font-style: italic;">Trial and Error</span>, in which actor Michael Richards passes himself off as an attorney.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Fairy Tales, Myths & Stories That Are Updated</span><br />Here you take an old classic and contemporize it. It’s the same structure, similar story, but occurs in the present time. <span style="font-style: italic;">Pretty Woman</span> is really <span style="font-style: italic;">Pygmalion</span>. <span style="font-style: italic;">Trading Places</span> is a modern version of <span style="font-style: italic;">The Prince and the Pauper</span>. The obsessive hunt for the great white shark in <span style="font-style: italic;">Jaws</span> is not much different than the search for the great white whale in <span style="font-style: italic;">Moby Dick</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Information No One Else Knows</span><br />I’ve sold three projects that I initially saw on the news that fall into this category. The information is unusual, sometimes amazing, and the general public is completely unaware of it. The movie <span style="font-style: italic;">Con Air</span> is based on the U.S. government's real airline that transports the nation’s most dangerous criminals from state-to-state. That was the basis for the film. The information revealed doesn’t always have to be true. In <span style="font-style: italic;">Men in Black</span>, what is fascinating is the notion that there’s a secret government agency that tracks the whereabouts of aliens that are living on earth and which also has strange alien life forms working for them.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">First Time</span><br />This refers to a situation which occurs for the very first time. There was a film in development that was supposed to star Michael J. Fox called <span style="font-style: italic;">Vassar</span>. It was about the first guy to attend Vassar, an all female college. The conflicts and romantic entanglements are obvious in a setup of this type. Another example is the comedy <span style="font-style: italic;">My Cousin Vinny</span>. A Brooklyn attorney who’s never tried a case before in his life is summoned to a southern town by his cousin, who’s charged with murder. The attorney, played by Joe Pesci, must win this case despite his inexperience and the fact that he’s totally out of his natural element.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Stumble Into</span><br />This technique has been around for a long time. It always involves an average person who by chance, is thrust into a monumental life-threatening situation they have no control of. James Stewart in Hitchcock’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Rear Window</span>, is a man confined to a wheelchair who believes he’s witnessed the murder of one of his neighbors. Whoopi Goldberg is a telephone operator who overhears what she thinks is a spy plot in<span style="font-style: italic;"> Jumping Jack Flash</span>. In <span style="font-style: italic;">Cellular</span>, a guy is mistakenly called on his cell phone by a total stranger who claims she’s being held hostage and pleads for him to help her.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Ultimate Blank</span><br />Again you must fill in the blank with a noun that hasn’t been done before. If you substitute the word "Shark" in the blank, we would get the movie<span style="font-style: italic;"> Jaws</span>. Plug in the word "Dog," and we have the movie <span style="font-style: italic;">Cujo</span>. Insert the noun "Cop," and we have the film <span style="font-style: italic;">Robocop</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Unintended Consequences</span><br />This method is almost always used in the science-fiction or adventure genre. An experiment is taking place and something goes terribly wrong. In <span style="font-style: italic;">The Fly</span>, Jeff Goldblum is a scientist performing a genetic experiment on himself in an isolation chamber when a housefly flies into the booth and he’s transformed into a half-man, half-fly. In <span style="font-style: italic;">Jurassic Park</span>, an amusement park has genetically engineered ancient dinosaurs for the public’s entertainment. The dinosaurs escape and wreak havoc on the guests. In the family film, <span style="font-style: italic;">Honey, I Shrunk the Kids</span>, a scientist who’s experimenting with miniaturization accidentally shrinks his children. His kids must then try to get from their yard back into their house and get the attention of their unsuspecting father to return them back to regular size.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Going to Extreme Measures</span><br />Here we start with a character who must take some extreme or outrageous action to reach his or her goal. In <span style="font-style: italic;">Tootsie</span>, Dustin Hoffman is an impossible actor to work with. He can’t find employment until he dresses up like a woman and lands a role in a soap opera. In that same vein is the movie <span style="font-style: italic;">Mrs. Doubtfire</span>. Robin Williams’ ex-wife has a new boyfriend and Williams is forced to don a nanny’s uniform in order to spend more time with his children and try to win his ex-wife back.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Fatal Character Flaws</span><br />This showcases a character who has a major weakness in his or her personality which causes them major complications. In <span style="font-style: italic;">Liar, Liar</span>, Jim Carrey is a lawyer defending a client in the most important case of his career. But because of a wish his son made that caused his father to have to tell the truth for 24 hours, Carrey is forced to do the opposite of what his profession normally entails: lying. Another example would be <span style="font-style: italic;">A Christmas Carol</span>. Here the character of Scrooge is an old, bitter miser who is given a chance at redemption when he is haunted by ghosts on Christmas Eve.<br /><o:p>------------------------------------------------------------------- </o:p><br /><p></p><span style="font-size:85%;"><b style="font-family: georgia;">Steve Kaire</b><span style="font-family: georgia;"> is a screenwriter-pitchman who’s sold/optioned eight projects to the major studios without representation. He’s taught writing classes at the American Film Institute and has appeared on the </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">Tonight Show’s </i><span style="font-family: georgia;">“Pitching to America” with Jay Leno. </span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;font-family:verdana,geneva;font-size:85%;" class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span">His groundbreaking CD entitled, <i>High Concept: How to Create,Pitch & Sell to Hollywood</i> is a best-seller and is available on his website: <span style="" class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://www.scriptwritingcd.com/" target="_blank">ScriptwritingCD.com.</a></span></span></span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6782152156791621172.post-41536416555804349112009-09-24T10:45:00.000-07:002009-09-24T11:59:02.775-07:00Ray Morton: Abyssinia, LarryWe lost one of the greats when Larry Gelbart passed away on Friday, September 11, 2009. Born in 1928, Gelbart was a truly gifted writer’s writer that refused to confine himself to a single format. He began his career as a teenager penning jokes and skits for the Danny Thomas radio show. He also worked for Jack Paar and Bob Hope and then became a staff writer on the classic radio sitcom <span style="font-style: italic;">Duffy’s Tavern</span>. In the 1950s, he made the transition to television, most notably joining the bullpen on <span style="font-style: italic;">Caesar’s Hour</span> alongside such other future notables as Neil Simon, Mel Brooks, and Woody Allen. In the 1960s he began writing both for the screen (his debut feature script was 1962’s <span style="font-style: italic;">The Notorious Landlady</span>. He also worked on the screenplays of <span style="font-style: italic;">The Thrill of It All</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Wrong Box</span>, and <span style="font-style: italic;">Not With My Wife You Don’t</span>, among others) and for the stage (most notably collaborating with Burt Shevelove on the book for <span style="font-style: italic;">A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum</span>) and continued to work in television (writing and producing <span style="font-style: italic;">The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine</span> and contributing to a number of other shows as well).<br /><br />The highest profile portion of Gelbart’s career began in 1972, when producer Gene Reynolds hired him to adapt the smash hit movie <span style="font-style: italic;">M*A*S*H</span> for television. Gelbart spent four years with the show, first as executive story consultant and then as co-executive producer, writing or rewriting most of the episodes and directing a bunch as well. After leaving the Korean War behind, Gelbart wrote more screenplays (<span style="font-style: italic;">Oh, God</span>,<span style="font-style: italic;"> Movie Movie</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Tootsie</span>), continued to work in television -- both in series (<span style="font-style: italic;">Roll Out</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">United States</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">After M*A*S*H</span>) and in MOWs (<span style="font-style: italic;">Barbarians at the Gate</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">… And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself</span>) -- and in the theater (<span style="font-style: italic;">Sly Fox</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">City of Angels</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Mastergate</span>). He also wrote a book (his 1997 autobiography <span style="font-style: italic;">Laughing Matters: On Writing M*A*S*H</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Tootsie, Oh, God!</span>, and a <span style="font-style: italic;">Few Other Funny Things</span>), articles, message board postings, blog entries, and even a few songs.<br /><br />Although Gelbart had a masterful sense of plot and characterization, he was best known for his biting wit. A passionate humanist that admired decency, correct behavior, and noble effort, Gelbart was moved to furious indignation by anything -- greed, hypocrisy, prejudice, chicanery, self-righteousness, willful ignorance, war-mongering, the bureaucratic and institutional mentality -- that sought to impinge on peoples’ rights, lives, or dignity. Gelbart took aim at such targets with gusto and would lacerate them with barbs that were as truthful and searing as they were funny (and they were damn funny).<br /><br />Gelbart obviously has a lot of really impressive work on his CV (the screenplay for <span style="font-style: italic;">Tootsie</span> -- which is one of the smartest, funniest scripts ever -- borders on the sublime), but for me his greatest achievement will always be those first four seasons of <span style="font-style: italic;">M*A*S*H</span>, which as far as I’m concerned are a virtual encyclopedia of really great writing.<br /><br />To begin with, the approach was groundbreaking. Gelbart stated many times that when he was first approached to adapt the film for television, he had no interest in turning Robert Altman’s anti-war black comedy into just another service sitcom in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Gomer Pyle</span>/<span style="font-style: italic;">McHale’s Navy</span> mode. At the time he was writing the pilot, America was still in the midst of the Vietnam War and Gelbart felt it would be immoral to trivialize combat and its horrors. So he made the primary focus of <span style="font-style: italic;">M*A*S*H</span> war itself and the show dealt with it unflinchingly -- the (often) dark comedy came out of the obscene situation that the show’s doctors found themselves in (repairing soldiers’ wounds so that they could be sent back to the front to be shot up all over again) and their struggle to maintain their dignity and their sanity in the midst of it. The operating room scenes were played straight (although often with a welcome gallows humor to cut the tension) and one of the show’s signature moments was the war-related death of one of its beloved regulars (McLean Stevenson’s Henry Blake in the classic episode "Abyssinia, Henry"). At the time, such a combination of comedy and drama was unheard of, but by insisting on it, Gelbart (along with Norman Lear and the writers at producers at MTM) helped make television comedy more smart, mature and sophisticated than it had ever been before (and, some might argue, has ever been since).<br /><br />It was also really clever. Aside from generating an unending string of brilliant one-liners, Gelbart had enormous fun playing with the storytelling -- the show had heavily plotted episodes and virtually plot-less episodes and even an episode that was totally improvised. The show had verbal gags, sight gags, non-linear narratives, and multiple plotlines that magically intertwined at the climax. It found ways to make serious subject matter funny and found the profound poignancy in even the silliest of conceits. The invention and innovation was constant and thrilling -- you can practically feel Gelbart’s enjoyment as he pushed the envelope in every possible direction -- and is something that I still marvel at after all these years.<br /><br />The characters in <span style="font-style: italic;">M*A*S*H</span> were all sharp and funny and very real, most especially Hawkeye Pierce, who Gelbart used as something of a surrogate for himself and through whom the writer channeled his passion, his intelligence, his anger and vulnerability, his silliness, his profound respect for humanity and his hatred of anything that conspired against it. Gelbart had a virtuoso dexterity with words that grew out of his passionate love for the English language and he used Hawkeye’s dialogue to playfully twist them, tease them, and send them aloft with soaring verbal arias of wit, passion, nonsense, outrage and humor.<br /><br />Gelbart left the 4077th after four years, feeling he had given it his all. The show continued without him for another seven seasons and morphed into something softer, preachier, and much more conventional. It was still entertaining and often quite good, but never again equaled the brilliance of the Gelbart era. I learned, and continue to learn, so much about screenwriting from those 96 episodes. And they still make me laugh.<br /><br />So now Larry Gelbart is gone. Luckily for us, he leaves behind a tremendous body of work for us to enjoy. That’s almost a consolation for having no new Larry Gelbart work to look forward to. Almost.<br />-------------------------------------------------------<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/Sh_rE3rBstI/AAAAAAAAAHg/D2TzQ_sgXAk/s1600-h/raymortoncorner.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 111px; height: 103px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hjPWRYD52iA/Sh_rE3rBstI/AAAAAAAAAHg/D2TzQ_sgXAk/s200/raymortoncorner.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341246151981118162" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.raymorton.com/"><span style="font-size:85%;">Ray Mort</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.raymorton.com/">on</a> is a writer and script consultant. His books <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Close-Encounters-Third-Kind-Spielbergs/dp/1557837104/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243605864&sr=1-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The Making of Steven Sp</span></a></span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Close-Encounters-Third-Kind-Spielbergs/dp/1557837104/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243605864&sr=1-1"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">ielberg</span></span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Close-Encounters-Third-Kind-Spielbergs/dp/1557837104/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243605864&sr=1-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">'s Classic Film</span></a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/King-Kong-History-Movie-Jackson/dp/1557836698/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243605864&sr=1-2"><span style="font-style: italic;">King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon from Fay Wray to Peter Jackson</span></a> are available </span><span style="font-size:85%;">in stor</span><span style="font-size:85%;">es a</span><span style="font-size:85%;">nd online. He analyzes screenplays for production companies, producers, and individual writers. Morton is ava</span><span style="font-size:85%;">ilable for consultation and can be reached at </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/ray@raymorton.com"><span style="font-size:85%;">ray@raymorton.com</span></a>.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1