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Like a Rolling Stone

9/3/2013

by Dave

Hair Metal, what a glorious time for Rock & Roll. The glamour, the rock, the hair, spandex, attitude, groupies, money and killer videos on MTV. Remember music video on MTV? Then there were those guitar solos. Who can forget those bitchin guitar solos that just HAD to go in every song? You couldn't even begin to consider yourself a legitimate rock and roller if you didn't have a shredding guitar solo. Yes, Hair Metal was a glorious time of sex, drugs and rock and roll... and then, suddenly, it wasn't. Proof? Pop quiz! Let's name all the Hair Metal bands. There's Guns N' Roses, Motley Crue... Poison.... uh... there's uh... Great White, they had that one song.... uh... I'm out.

Now let's name some classic rock bands. There's The Who, Led Zeppelin, Credence, Bruce Springsteen, Blue Oyster Cult, Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young, The Eagles, Bob Seger, Aerosmith, Deep Purple... I could go on, but I don't think I need to. Who I really want to talk about is The Rolling Stones. Why is it that Hair Metal came and went with the winds but The Rolling Stones have been making records and touring to sold out houses for over fifty years? Why is it that I can name more hit songs of theirs than I can name Hair Metal Bands in general? And, no, it's not because I am just harping on the music of my generation being the greatest. I was born long after all of these bands started playing together. I propose this simple answer. Harmony. Everything they do in their songs works in harmony. At no point does anyone of the other members overpower the other. They all work together to make a great song. Sure, there are musical interludes, but they are not bitchin guitar solos just to have a bitchin guitar solo. There are drums, horns, harmonicas, rhythm guitars, back-up singers and pianos. All of these elements are used to add to the whole and makes something even greater.

How does this relate to movies? Tell me, have you ever watched a movie and suddenly thought, "What the hell was that scene in there for?" An action scene that only seems to be in there because they wanted to have an action scene. A comedy scene just because it seemed like something funny to do. A musical interlude, just because one of the stars is a really good singer. Can you name the movie they were in? If so, would you rank that movie as one of your favorites? Just like the Rock and Roll songs that have stood the test of time, your movie must also work in harmony. Each scene needs to be in there for the specific reason of driving your story forward. There should be no comedy scenes because, "It was just too funny to leave out." No action scenes because just to blow something up and look cool. No musical interludes because, well... no musical interludes.

This means that if you ever find yourself saying, "I really need an action scene here." or, "This scene is just too funny to leave out." You need to stop, take a step back and really think about whether or not that scene will accomplish anything for your story. The last thing you want is to take the audience out of your story in the middle of the movie and leave them thinking, "What the heck did I just watch?"

Don't believe me? Then let me leave you with one final thought. The Rolling Stones just completed a sold out, multi-nation tour even though they are in their seventies. Bret Michaels does reality shows on VH1.

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5 Tips for Working With a Partner

6/27/2013

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by Dustin

Collaborative script writing is one of the most intense creative endeavors I've ever been a part of and I'm lucky enough to do it with one of my favorite people. I've known my partner since college and we were friends long before we worked together, so when I tell Dave to shut up and he tells me I've got a bad idea it's like water off a duck’s back. I know he respects my ideas and he knows I think he's got a boat load of talent. Getting the best project is our goal and we are pretty ruthless about getting that. Lately we've been getting some attention to our process and I thought I might jot down my thoughts about that.

Being a writer is nice and safe. I can sit in my house and type all day with only minor interaction with my pregnant wife (a blog topic I'm not quite ready to tackle) and my roommates. Maybe, IF I get the piece to a place where I'm happy with it, I'll show it to an editor or a friend and get some feedback. Collaboration is rarely the name of the game and only if I'm writing poetry or a song for someone else will it become necessary to "share" the work.

This was entirely new to me when I started working on my graphic novel. I came to film from animation, where nothing you do is your own, a place of re-making and do-overs. For instance: The first thing we practiced at animation school was how to copy things perfectly, so that the line weight of our pencil was the same as whoever was drawing the master drawings.

In traditional animation you have people doing master drawings and working out the timing sheet, lead animators making key frames, assistants drawing in-betweens, inkers tracing the final drawings onto acetate, and painters who paint the back side of each frame without going over the inked edges of the acetate drawing. Then you send it all to a camera man who shoots the frames (following the timing sheet, you hope) and in the end you have a cartoon.

This process requires a lot of skill at every position, and more importantly, communication between everyone involved. I found that to be the same on film sets, advertising agencies, and large corporate art departments throughout my career as a professional artist.

This main thing this background taught me was how to work with other creative people. Most importantly, how to keep my own feelings about the work under control, and how to speak about changes in others contributions to the work. The key is to do this without making collaborators feel bad. Most creatives, especially ones who haven't' spent a lot of time in a sharing environment, are very attached to the work on a personal level. Remember; when taking criticism about the work, what creatives hear is about themselves.

The key to talking openly about making a better product is a well-documented process and there are hundreds of people making books about that and I wouldn't want them to go hungry, so buy their books if you want to. You'll probably learn something.

I have found this short, FIVE step process really helpful when dealing with other artists:

Thank you: Your partner just spend a piece of their lifetime on this piece of work. Thank them. This is THE most important piece of advice I have ever been given and will ever give. Compliment them at the start of the process. Sometimes you'll forget, and jump straight to the criticism. See where that gets you and contrast against the compliment first method.
Compliment what works in the piece: You're not partnered with idiots, regardless of how you feel in the moment. This partner was chosen on purpose and they made a genuine contribution to the work. What's working, even if it's off topic? Nicely done!
Re-visit the theme and purpose of the project: Sometimes we artists get obsessed with a bit of the detail, and not the fairway of intention. When we look back at the main topic, we find ourselves lost in the weeds of detail, and have to work to get back to the green. It is often our contemporaries and partners who ask us to re-evaluate the purpose of our work. Be that guy for your team. Ask the questions that get you back on topic.
Question the work against the purpose and theme: This is the time to voice your criticism. Don't hold back, but keep your criticisms pointed back on topic. Always use the first person: "I don't like this or this" and try to keep away from generic "that sucks" or "it's no good" type statements. "I don't like it, it sucks." is perfectly reasonable, but be prepared to back up your assessment with reasons. *note: "I just don't like it." is a totally valid reason.
Come up with a better solution together: If the work is on topic and you just don't like the color, what color would you like it to be? How can a conversation between two characters be streamlined with less dialogue and more action? Staying on topic and focusing on the goal of the project will help move the conversation past hurt feelings. If your partner has run off into the weeds, help them get back into the green by asking leading questions that get their thoughts back on topic. Be sure to keep those notes from the weeds. You never know when that bit of detail is going to be handy later on!

Script writing as a group activity can be a real pain in the ass and at worst can lead to alienating friends and collaborators you've spent years trying to pull together. When fear of failure and self-doubt begin to creep in you may even alienate yourself. Take the time to remind everyone that we're having fun doing the thing we love, and we're not trying to hurt anyone's feelings. It sounds cheesy, but it will keep your team together. If only long enough to get the work out the door.

Remember the film you think you are making is not the film you are making. A film gets created Three times. Once on the page. Again during production. Finally in post. Because of the collaboration involved the film we write is rarely what we see on the screen.

If we’re lucky, it’s better.

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You Can't Hit a Five Run Homer

6/25/2013

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by Dave

When I used to coach my softball team there was one situation above all that would absolutely get under my skin. That would be when our team was losing by multiple runs and I had a hitter at the plate, with no one on base, and he was swinging from his heels like he was going to tie the game with one swing of the bat. Now, unless there is some obscure rule in baseball that I don't know about, I'm pretty sure that if you are down by five and hit a solo Home Run you're still losing. Instead of the Home Run, I preached the baby steps approach. Base hit after base hit after base hit. Keep inching your way towards victory. Put yourself in a position to win.

It's the same approach with trying to carve out a career in Hollywood. Dustin and I have been to multiple conferences, been on countless message boards and seen I don't know how many tweets where people are looking for the next big thing that will break their career. They have one script and they just know that they're going to sell it for a million dollars. They heard that someone won some contest and ended up selling the script for a lot of money, so they'll just enter that contest and sell their script as well. They heard that this guy did this or that gal did that. Whatever it was, they just know that id they do the same thing, they're in. They're doing exactly what those hitters swinging from their heels were doing. They're trying to hit a five run homer. They also end up meeting the same result as most of those hitters. They strike out.

As a screenwriter, or anyone trying to get into the film business, you cannot judge your forward progress by the amount of big moments you have, because those are few and far between. It's not how fast you are moving forward, it's just whether you are moving forward. Baby steps. I'll have people ask us about our win in the Industry Insider Contest and what that has brought us. They seem disappointed that it didn't land us a big time agent or film deal. We're not. Because you know what it has brought us? Cache and a whole lot of open doors from people who wouldn't have talked to us before. Baby step. We went to a pitch conference in October. We got a few script requests and a whole lot of flat out no's. We went to another conference last month and we got twice as many script requests. More importantly, the no's we did receive were incredibly polite, almost to point of being apologetic that the project didn't quite fit them, with more advice on who we could bring it to. Baby step. Two years ago we knew one person in the whole town. Last year we had cards to maybe five or six people. This year we have had dozens of meetings and our emails get returned as quickly as five minutes later (sometimes). Baby steps.

But it goes back farther than just our contest win. There was the first few contests we entered where we never even heard back from the judges. Then there was the first contest where we finally made it to the quarter finals and actually got to see our name in print. Next came the contest where we broke through to the semi-finals. That netted us our first ever call from a manager who wanted to meet with us. Then we entered the Industry Insider Contest... and didn't even make it to the next round. Then we waited for the next time the contest was offered and couldn't even come up with an idea. Then we waited for the next time... and that's the one that we won. From the first contest we entered to our win took about three years. Baby steps.

You can't always be out there looking for the bigger, better deal. You can't judge your success off of what you sold and what awards you won. Success comes in many forms. Sure, a contest win is really nice. I still remember the call when I heard "Randall Wallace chose you guys as the winners". It can also be just as gratifying when you send an email to a big time producer and he answers you back two minutes later. Baby steps. Because you can't hit a five run homer.

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Build it and They Will Come

6/21/2013

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by Dustin

A couple of weeks ago Dave and I went down to the Great American Pitchfest in Burbank. I was excited because we had tickets to listen to Luke Ryan, Executive Vice President of Disruption Entertainment, speak about world building. It was an early morning class and at first I thought I had spiked my coffee with something because for several hours he spoke about everything I had been believing for years. It was a tremendously validating moment. "Great", says Dave, "Now write about it."

World building
There are two reasons for building a world bible, one is artistic, the other financial. Artistically, a well-built world will let you tell your story easily and answer questions for you as they arise. This becomes more important as you delve into secondary characters, sequels, and "other" stories in general. From a financial standpoint this "world bible" will also help you change and adapt as the demographics of your audience become more apparent to the marketing firms who are looking at your product and trying to grow your intellectual property. I thought I'd write this article and show you, as an exercise, how easy it is to create a new and vibrant world that can be monetized in several ways.

Let’s pretend we have a story we want to tell about a boy who leaves home and finds adventure only to become the world’s greatest investigator. It's a fairly normal hero arc with an extra bit of growing up thrown in for good measure. Let’s do it in a steampunk universe, that's popular now. The first thing to do is build our world. We start this by defining a couple of large order things:

Social Hierarchy - Humans fold themselves into groups and most groups have some kind of social hierarchy. Much steampunk is set in a Victorian Era, and I think we'll twist ours to be more of a feudal japan state, with large houses reporting back to an emperor in the main city of... Dreamport. Where the emperor keeps their families hostage and maintains his grip on the kingdom.
How Money Works - Each world should have its own money exchange system, from the goblins of Gringotts to the Federal Reserve Notes in Die Hard, Money is a big deal. In many fantasy works, a convoluted change system much the same as the middle ages is used, with copper, silver and gold being currencies. In the world of Dreamport, money will be handled by large banks and identification punch cards are given out to the servant class who purchase things and move goods. The higher castes of people rarely have access to a card and are rarely in a position to use them.
Political Landscape - Just because the universe is ruled by a representative republic with senators convening on a planet somewhere, doesn't mean that there isn't someone in the background working on his own empire. The political landscape will determine how towns are structured, how police work, and how "normal" families are structured. Dreamport is headed by the Emperor, but run by his officials. They have enormous power, and each is trying to outwit his contemporaries to gain the Emperor’s favor. The Emperor himself cares only about expanding his empire and keeping the peace in Dreamport. The outlying cities and towns are not the Emperor’s care, making the officials kings of their cities and counties. At least one of these counties is in open rebellion to the empire, with the Emperor's official from that county held captive on house arrest in Dreamport.
Theological Landscape - But what of the gods? Many fantasy novels invoke the gods as powers that cannot be understood or have their own agendas. Sci-Fi often has a society that has given up on the idea of gods and embraced Science as their motivating force. Whichever way you look at it, people usually need a way to explain away the unexplainable, and you need all the motivational tropes you can get in order to create tension for your story. The main religion of Dreamport will be the worship of Nightmare, the god of dreams and transportation. All good ideas and inspiration are thought to come from Nightmare. Bad dreams are warnings. There should also be a pantheon of gods thought to be worshiped for different reasons; from taking a safe journey to having a late nightcap. All are minions, or versions, of Nightmare.
Technological Capabilities - Is it swords? Trains? Teleportation? What are the normal things that people in your world have access to? In many medieval fantasies the normal person does not have access to arms and armor, horses or etc... In some cyberpunk everyone has a gun, but not a television. Our story in Dreamport will start with a boy who has limited access to many things. Through his journey he'll gain access to different technologies, weapons, and transportation. Police have access to a certain level of gear, batons and stun gun type things. The military is sword based with large smashing devices and steam powered shooting devices.

Excellent! Now we have a story happening in a world that we can draw references from. Our hero can have dreams that lead him down the right path, create new devices, or warn him of impending danger. Does he believe in Nightmare? Is he being controlled by his dreams? He must learn to operate within the strict social confines of Dreamport and will probably make friends and enemies with assorted Emperor Officials throughout his adventures. Will the rebellion play a part in the mystery of our story or is it just backdrop? Now it's time to get to the big part,

World Timelines.
In the real world, historians use meaning to shape the cultural understanding of world events. As the writer, we can use this to our advantage by working in reverse. What is a thematic meaning we want to include? What world events happened to create this meaning and how did historians fold it into the context of our story structure? As you start thinking about this, draw a line on a piece of paper. The beginning of the line is the beginning of our world, and the end is, well, the end. Along this timeline, world events take place. For instance, the discovery of fire, literacy, the fall of Rome, World Wars, Famines, Etc... Whatever large world events are appropriate for the subtextual meanings in your world. See Fig 01.

Now box out where your story fits within the timeline. Our story about the boy who becomes Dreamport's lead investigator falls after the rise of the first emperor, shortly after the god "Nightmare" is revealed, takes us through the Rebellion and sees the discovery of monsters. How these large set pieces interact with our storyline is not yet decided (or maybe it has!) but knowing they are there provides the opportunity for a lively backdrop on which to set our stage. Why in the crap would you do this? Seems like a lot of work for just one story doesn't it? It is.

The truth of the matter is that as we aren’t building this world for just one story. We are opening up a new universe in which other people, who we've never met before, can participate in. As we lay down the rules for the universe, other opportunities begin to reveal themselves in the details. This is the crucible in which "Good for the Art" and "Good for Business" find themselves. As our product (the story) comes to market (as a book, or movie, or game etc...) there will be changes both in the response to our product, and to the market as a whole. Having the world bible on hand is essential for weathering and adapting to changes in the market. For instance:

As our first project comes to market, we will be guessing at who our target market will be. Let’s say our story is aimed at teenage males 11-17. During the marketing campaign leading to the release of our young adult novel we find that we have more traction with 26 year old women than our intended audience. Our next project will be aimed at those ladies. But how? By looking at marketing data we find that ladies in the 24-32 year old bracket are playing a lot of games on Facebook (or watching cooking shows, or whatever they may be obsessing with at the time) and we will create one of those. How? By looking at our timeline and finding the best place to let the media cross over. For Dreamport, focusing on the rise of the emperor, setting our story before our young adult novel we will see a slight crossover on the timeline. This might be a good transition to the first project, interlinking characters, or only sharing background with our first novel in order to build the brand. See Fig. 2.

Six months later our numbers on the first young adult book sales are doing terrific. (positive thinking ya'll) So good that a movie company comes along and wants a movie in our world. The smart thing is to have already outlined the second part of our hero's journey. Now we can incorporate both our slightly older teenage market, and our late twenties market, into a popular R rated film. In Dreamport terms, our hero from the book falls in love with the Emperor's concubine, or daughter or something from the second story, and uses their love to destroy the rest of the monster cult. Good job us.

The point of making a world bible on the creative front is to maximize our understanding of the world in which our characters will operate. From a financial standpoint the world bible allows us to operate quickly and efficiently to market changes, and provides a jumping off point for expansion projects when they come up.

For more information about Luke Ryan and his world building lessons, you can follow his world building Twitter feed as well as his world building website.

If you have more questions or thoughts about this article, you can email Dustin at [email protected]

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It Was a Dark and Stormy Night...

6/17/2013

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by Dave

Inspiration is all around us. As screenwriters we should have a pen and paper at all times to be able to jot down all of this inspiration to use in our stories. How many times has each of us heard that? It is one of the most common pieces of advice ever given to writers, new and old alike. It is also absolutely true.

Everywhere you look there is inspiration for a character, a scene, a set piece or even an entire story. Sometimes that inspiration can jump up and hit you right in the face (an "eccentric" person on the bus). Sometimes it depends on how you look at it. To emphasize this point, let me tell you the story of the time I realized that A) The world is really strange and B) The movies really aren't that far off the mark.

In my former government life, I had the pleasure of serving on our seizure destruction team. This involved delivering everything to an incinerator that was certified to reduce everything to white ash (due to a famous story of Supervisors in another state assuming their bonfire was "close enough for government work" and leaving for lunch before everything was burned. The seizures were stolen from the fire and ended up back on the street. Yay government!). Anyway, the closest facility was about a five hour drive away, leading to a long day of fun in the sun. Well, maybe not this day. On this particular day we were operating in one of the worst wind storms to ever hit the region.

Things started to go bad when we had to stop for gas on the way home. The wind was really picking up, but what the heck, all in a days work. Well at least until the cashier came out and said that the wind had knocked out their pumps and there was no gas to be had. Oh well, we still had a 1/4 tank, we'll just head down the road and get gas somewhere else. Except for that we kept driving, and driving, and driving... with no signs of any towns having power.

About 45 minutes later, I was starting to get worried. We were going to run out of gas on the side of the highway in the middle of cold winter's night windstorm. My supervisor tried to quell our fears by saying "Don't worry, the gas light hasn't even come on yet. And even then, we still have another 40 miles of gas left." DING, the gas light came on. Way to go boss.

Another 10 miles down the road and things were looking bleak. We were in the middle of the forest, it was pitch black, we were a few hours from home and we were about to run out of gas. Then, suddenly, a beacon of light in the middle of nowhere. Somehow, for no reason at all, there was a truck stop with full power. An oasis in a desert of blackened buildings. We pulled in and started counting our blessings and our luck. At least at first.

My two coworkers went in to grab snacks and a bathroom break while I stayed out to pump the gas (guess who the lowest rank was). I started to look around and something just seemed a little off. My first clue was the city light truck parked in the corner of the parking lot. You'd think they'd be a little busy on a night like this, what with a quarter of the state not having power and all. But they weren't busy. In fact there were two guys sitting in the cab of the truck eating sandwiches while they stared right at me. Not normal staring, mind you. We're talking hillbilly horror movie, "You don't belong here, boy" type of staring.

My coworker came out and asked me how it was going. I pointed out the guys in the truck. He agreed it was weird. Then I told him to look up at the gas station sign. You see, the SEL in Diesel had burned out. So the sign was repeatedly flashing, "DIE, DIE, DIE..." right at us. I looked at him and said, "Let's recap. We're at some type of magical gas station that is the only building with power for miles around, we have two hillbilly city light guys sizing us up for lamp shades and the gas station sign is going to to kill us. I'm pretty sure this is how horror movies start. If I here banjo music, I start shooting." We both laughed the nervous laugh of guys who wanted to be somewhere else and desperately waited for that gas gauge to say it was full again.

The tank did fill up without incident and I went to get in the driver's seat. My coworker reminded me that our boss was still inside. I said, "I'll do a slow roll by the front door and he can run out and dive through the back window as I speed away." Alas, my boss was not that athletic so I had to wait for him to walk out normally, but we were mercifully on our way. We didn't see another building with power for another 45 minutes.

I swear everything listed above is true. It's one of my favorite events that I am waiting to find the perfect movie to write it into. Except for the part where I will be told it is way too cliche and I need to look towards the real world for my inspiration. Even so, I am always watching the world around me for inspiration, even if I put my own spin on it.

The funny part of the story is that we tried to go back to that gas station again, only to find it had closed down years before. Okay, maybe I'm joking about that last one.

Or am I?

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Swimming With Sharks

6/15/2013

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by Dave

Ask any new screenwriter just getting into the business what their greatest fear is and you are bound to get the same answer. They are afraid of having their script stolen. I am not going to say this is an irrational fear, but it shouldn't be all paralyzing either. First, let's do some math to ease your mind. Let's say your movie is going to cost $20 million to produce. We will also need to then throw a minimum of $45 million on top of that for a proper marketing campaign. We are looking at a $65 million output. Compare that to the price of paying a new screenwriter, usually $150 thousand vs. $250 thousand. Do you really think a smart business person is going to risk possible legal and PR problems to save less than 1% (far less) of their budget? No, they're not.

That being said, you need to be careful. Where most people trip up is in innocent conversations. The ones where you sit down at lunch and start discussing a possible idea with someone and the next thing you know they took it and sold it on their own. Here are some tips to help you avoid these types of situations.

Register Your Work: I know, I'm starting with finished scripts but this one bears repeating over and over again (because people think they can ignore it). Before you even think about sending your script out you need to register it with the Writer's Guild and the US Copyright Office. There will be people who tell you that you don't need to do this because US law establishes copyright the moment you create something. Don't listen to them. If you end up going to court someday do you want to base your case on "No way, I'm the one who wrote it. Not him!"? Or do you want to base it on "Here is my US Copyright, registered on this date."? We're talking $20 for the WGA and $35 for a copyright. There is no reason not file for this extra protection. (PS: If you make changes to your script, you need to file for another copyright. So don't register until you think you are absolutely ready)

Use The Google on The Internet Machine: Call this a leftover from my law enforcement days. If I am given the opportunity, I want to know everything about anything about any person I am going to sit down and talk business with. Done Deal Pro and IMDB Pro are your friends. Google is your friend. With these two simple tools you can find out where someone has worked, any deals they may have made, what circles they travel in and who they have worked with. That seems like a better idea than just blindly sending your scripts out to people just because they have "Manager" or "Producer" after their name.

Follow Your Instincts: When I was a young officer, I received some of the best advice I have ever heard. A veteran officer took me aside and said "When you are interviewing someone and the hair on the back of your neck starts to stand up, you are always right. Every time. It may not be the thing you are originally thinking, but there is a reason the person in front of you is setting off your alarms." It's not just advice for law enforcement. If you are sitting across from a manager or producer and something in your mind is saying "This isn't right", there's a reason for that. Listen to those warnings.

Silence is Golden: You can not register an idea, therefor you cannot protect an idea. So if you are sitting on the next great thing, an idea so great it sells itself in one line, then keep your mouth shut. It's as simple as that. Keep your mouth shut until such time you have that idea on paper in the form of a screenplay. Sure, there are exceptions to this rule, but they have to do with points 2 and 3 above. If Steven Spielberg is interested in what you are going to do next, that might be a good time to open up. Someone who barely registered in your research and you have some doubts? Keep your mouth shut (tactfully).

Know When It's Time to Walk Away: I'll give you an example for this one. Last October, Dustin and I sat down with a manager to talk about one of our scripts. From the first second of the meeting it just didn't feel right. To say the vibe we got from him was creepy would be an understatement. He didn't even want to talk about the movie. All he wanted to know was "What is the budget and who would star in it" (Questions not typically in the screenwriter's area of expertise). Before we even got a full idea of how to answer he said "Send it to me. Send me all of your other scripts, synopsis, or ideas as well. Include cast lists and budget break downs for all of them.... and make sure to sign our legal release" We smiled, nodded our heads and then walked away. Sometimes it's just not worth it.

Are these foolproof ideas? No. You show me something that's foolproof and I'll find you a better fool. But in this case, an ounce of prevention really does go a long way. Do what you can, suck it up, smile, get out there and have some fun.

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Five Tips to Prepare for a Pitchfest

4/24/2013

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by Dave.

It's that time of year again, pitchfest season. Yay! Normally I wouldn't talk about events like this until we are much closer to them happening. Today is different though. I want to take a moment to help temper your expectations if you are planning on attending one of these events for the first time. Not in a hater type of way (I happen to really like pitchfests). I mean in a, "This is what you need to be thinking type of way". Because when it comes to pitchfests, an ounce of preparation really does go a long way.

Be Prepared: A lot of people are going to read this and think I'm talking about researching the companies you want to talk to. Yes, that is important. No, that is not what I am talking about. I am going to go even further back. You need to have your script done and ready to show. In a perfect world you should have at least two, but one is the bare minimum. You would be amazed how many people attend these events with just an idea and a dream. Do that and all it will be is a dream. If you have an exec ask to see your script, you have two weeks, MAX, to get the script to them. Anything after that and they have moved on and forgotten about you. You will not get your script done in that time, especially if you have never written one. Get your script done. It won't mean anything if you go before that, and there will be plenty of opportunities once you have completed it.

Be Yourself: Relax, take a deep breath, tell some jokes to other attendees, smile, hand out cards, learn from others, etc... That's what you're there to do. The last event Dustin and I went to was, well... it was an experience. People were nervous and strung out because they were so focused on the notion that they had to sell their script that day. It was like a compressed version of people packing up their hopes and dreams and letting them all ride on that one single event. Seriously, we saw people crying in the bathrooms. If desperation is a turnoff to execs then there were a lot of turned off execs that day. Take a breath. It will be OK.

Have a Realistic Goal: Dustin and I will be attending The Great American Pitchfest in a little over a month. I will tell you right now that we are not going to sell a screenplay there. We aren't even entertaining the dream of selling a screenplay there. Why? Because I know that no matter how brilliant our pitch, no exec is going to pull out a checkbook and say "That's genius. I'm going to get on the phone to Spielberg right away. How does a million dollars sound?" We are going to the pitchfest to meet people, make relationships, open up dialogues. Think of it as a first date (a speed date but still a date). Both sides are sitting across the table trying to decide if they want a second date.

Know How to Handle Objections: This goes back to having a realistic goal. When Dustin and I sat down with Benderspink, after our Industry Insider Contest win, our Story Specialist gave us the best advice we could ever get, "You are not going to sign tomorrow. That is not how this works. Your goal is to have them still interested in you when you walk out the door. A request to read another script is a win." Knowing that advice is what saved the meeting for us. If we had gone in with stars in our eyes and our special signing pen in our hand we would have been in way over our heads. Instead, we were able to handle all of their questions, steer the conversation at the right times and, in the end, they asked for another script. Win. Conversations are still on going as they have asked for us to send them our next finished script as well (That reminds me, there will be a blog post on Writer's Block coming soon). Remember, you are NOT going to sell your script there. You are answering questions in a way to keep them interested in you. You are not trying to get them to please, please, please buy your script.

Talk With the Other Attendees: There are two very good reasons for this. First, you are not in competition with each other. There is not a set number of people execs are allowed to be interested in. Just because the person next to me has a fantastic romantic comedy has no bearing what-so-ever on whether or not an exec will like my angry, revenge filled action/thriller. Hell, we probably aren't even going to talk to the same execs. So get to know them, have fun, learn something new, tell them good luck when their time to pitch comes. The second reason? Who knows who that person will become? You are not the only talented person there and everyone has to start somewhere. Who knows, maybe you are going to look up in five years and see that person being interviewed on TV and you're going to think, "That looks like the person I sat next to at pitchfest. I sure wished I had talked to them."

This all being said, please don't let this scare you. I am not trying to scare you. I'm just a rather blunt person. I am also a firm believer in pitch events. Here's why. I don't live in LA. I spent a good part of my post college life working Law Enforcement. When Dustin and I started our screenwriting venture we did not know a soul in the movie industry. The first time we sat down to send out query letters it was all foreign to us. It was like, "This guy sounds cool. Let's send it to him as well." Flash forward a couple of years. Last month I was getting ready for another round of queries. I opened up my exec directory and started flipping through. This time I was saying things like, "There's XXXX, we met him at the Screenwriter Conference last October, he's the one who wanted to know where we got our business cards. Or XXXX, that's the manager we had coffee with last August. Here's XXXX they requested our script when we pitched at XXXX, etc..." Know how we met all those people? Pitchfests and high contest placements. It is more than worth the time if you have the right mental state going in.

So, to sum it all up. Have a finished script before you try to sell that script. Take a breath and calm down. Don't be desperate to make it all happen at the table. Know that it won't all happen at the table so you can focus the conversation. Be nice to the other people. Don't cry in the bathroom.

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Screenwriting and Bacon, Not as Different as You Think

4/10/2013

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by Dave

I recently had a fun conversation with our immensely knowledgeable nerd consultant, Mr. Cody Dobbs. We were talking about the opportunities that social media provides to small business marketing and how we could learn from that. At one point Cody joked that if we could turn ourselves into a meme or tie ourselves to bacon and cats then we would be on easy street. I wasn't sure we wanted to be the first and I had no idea how we related to the second. But, rather than be discouraged by that fact, I joked to Cody that I thought we could do it. So here we are.

Before I get to that though, let's actually talk about screenwriting. I belong to a few screenwriting message boards. For the most part I find them to be very good tools. I have learned a lot from them and I have interacted with a lot of great professionals. That doesn't mean they don't provide endless sources of amusement and professional frustration. I'm talking about the posts I like to call, "What the (blank) were you thinking and please be quiet for your own sake." The latest example of one of these posts comes from a person who thinks they know a way to make a certain big name screenplay scouting service more fair and unbiased. When I'm talking fair and unbiased I mean that he took the time to come up with a multi-step process and mathematical computation to take all perceived bias out of script grading and reviewing. I'll let that take a moment to sink in as well as humbly suggest that maybe that time would have been better spent working on fixing his script that most obviously must not have received the best of reviews. The fatal flaw in his thinking is, of course, that writing is an art form. Just like any other art, a person's taste in writing is subjective. There is absolutely, positively, beyond a shadow of a doubt, no way that you can make judging them an unbiased and completely even science.

To prove this point, let me offer you an example... bacon. That's right, bacon. Bacon should be entirely non-subjective. It is a specific cut of meat from a specific animal. There should be no getting around it. Bacon is bacon. Ah, but how do you like your bacon? Do you like it baked, cooked on a skillet or breaded and deep fried? Do you like the strips or the fattier ends and pieces. Thick cut or regular cut? Maple bacon, pepper bacon or regular bacon? Do you even like bacon? What are your thoughts on turkey bacon? How well done do you like your bacon? Have you ever tried bacon on a doughnut? Do you like it charred and extra crisp or still greasy and barely cooked to just be able to call cooked? You can see where this is going. My mother-in-law and I disagree on this (shocker) every time we cook bacon for a family meal. She accuses me of liking it so under cooked that it still has botulism in it. I accuse her of cooking, nay burning it, to the point that it no longer has flavor. Are either of us right? Yes, we both are. We are also both wrong (her more than me). But bacon is not something you can take and say "It shall be cooked in medium sized, no extra flavoring strips on the skillet, turning twice, and only twice, until the internal temperature reaches 145 degrees." That won't make everyone happy. In fact, it will probably only make 6% of the people out there happy.

It is the same with a script. If there was a fair and objective way to attack each script in order to make sure they are all judged fairly, that would mean that each script would be of the same genre with the same plot points, characters and endings. It's not that way (thank goodness). We all like different things. We like different genres and we hate different genres. I've had scripts get perfect scores in competitions and get trashed by a different judge in the same competition. We had one script get blown out of the water one year. The next year we threw it back into the same competition without even making a single change (We were feeling cheeky on the final deadline day and threw it in because, "Why not?"). It placed in the top 100 and received multiple read requests and manager meetings. Was the first judge wrong? Was the second judge drunk? No. They just liked different things. I'm not going to change their minds. I'm not even going to try. I'm just going to move down the road to the next person. All of those rejections don't mean a thing when the right person says "yes".

And to thank you for taking the time to read this whole article, here is a picture of a cat typing what we can only assume is a screenplay better than ours. Boom! Two for two, Cody.

*Full disclosure: After seeing this picture multiple times over the internet we do not know the original source, nor do we pretend that this is our picture. If this is your picture please let us know. We would love to read your cat's screenplay.

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Writing Shorts to Improve Your Features

3/21/2013

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by Dave

One of the hardest aspects of screenwriting, for any writer, is the constant struggle to keep your story on target. Each scene offers new and exciting opportunities to wander off track, explore tangents that don't need to be explored, lay down some of the most earth shattering and thoughtful dialogue ever experienced on screen... you get the point. The tricky thing is, most writers don't even know when they start to get off track. OK, all of us. You're tracking A plots, B and C plots, character growth, sub character growth, humanizing the antagonist and on and on and on. The next thing you know, you're posting questions in screenwriter forums about whether or not it is OK to submit a screenplay that is 152 pages long.

There are many tools a writer has to combating this problem. I'm going to highlight the most surprising method I have found. Start writing short films. They don't even have to be intending for shooting. Just start writing shorts. Why does this work? Well, let me relay my first experience in writing a short. Dustin came to me and said he had some people down in New Mexico he could use to film a short piece and he wanted me to write the script. I was like "No problem, I'll bang it out over the weekend". Why the confidence? My thinking was, "I write feature length, 100 to 120 page scripts. How hard can five pages be?" I'll take a moment to let the laughter die down as the veteran writers in the audience can see where this is going. I sat down that night and started to write my little side project. I wrote the opening and it was awesome. Characters were introduced, snappy banter was thrown around, laughs were had... and I took up three pages of our five page script. Problem. Apparently no matter how short the story, it must still have a beginning, a middle and an end. That's a heck of a lot harder to do in five pages than it is in 105 pages.

How did my little weekend project fare? It turned into a two week passion project. By passion I mean a passion to beat the *goshdarn* thing into submission and show it who the boss was (I'm a little competitive). In the end, I was a better writer for it. It was a very quick lesson in making your writing as lean as possible. In making your story as lean as possible. In making sure you are only saying what you need to say and not taking too long to say it. So if you want to improve your feature writing, I wholeheartedly suggest you write some shorts.

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Weapons on Set

3/9/2013

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by Dave

As we begin pre-production on our next film, I am nagged with one small, but constant fear. I really, really don't want our production to be delayed by a SWAT team raid. I know, probably not the most realistic fear, but I'm also the guy who doesn't like being the first one in the water, even in fresh water lakes. It's also not that far-fetched when you think about how many concerned citizens would totally ignore the film equipment and camera crew when they tunnel vision on the men in tactical gear carrying big guns and call the police. So, as a public service, I am going to share some of the steps we are taking to make sure we are not standing against a brick wall, hands behind our head, waiting for the police to sort everything out.

No Real Weapons: Having real weapons firing blanks brings a whole host of problems to your set that you will have to contend with. It will be highly recommended that you take out an insurance policy if you are bringing real weapons onto set. One need look no further than what happened on the set of "The Crow" to see why. You will also need to have a firearms safety officer present to insure safety at all times. Do NOT trust yourself to do this. even if you are intimately familiar with firearms, you will have too much else to think about to be hovering near the weapons all the time, and when it comes to firearms it only takes one mistake. And since we are concerned with appearance if the police are called to set, the last thing you want to be holding is a real firearm.
Airsoft: The next best thing is going to be gas blowback airsoft weapons. The gas blowback means that you will have a working slide action every time the trigger is pulled. This provides a visual cue for your actors to react to as well as helps the effects team know where to add muzzle flashes and sound effects. The more expensive models will also add an impressive amount of recoil. To see more of how they work, check out our weapons tests here.
The Orange Blaze: It is obviously going to have to come off for filming, but I advise you to leave it on as long as possible before you take it off. It doesn't need to come off for pre-production tests, so why take on extra risk? I must also caution that the orange blaze is restricted differently in each state. I strongly recommend you check the laws in your area before just stripping that orange off.
Call the Police: I call it controlling the conversation. What is better than self reporting? Find the number to your local department's public affairs office or call the NON-emergency dispatch number. Tell them what you are doing, when you are filming, the address you are filming at and stress that you have no real weapons on set. Will it head everything off? No, but it sure does help of they can match the address of any potential 911 calls and know the backstory.
Talk to the Neighbors: If possible, start knocking on doors and let people know what is going on. It's unlikely you will be able to get to everyone (our shoot is next to a huge condo complex as well as high rises) but every bit helps.
Post Signs: And I mean everywhere. We did a walk through last week and I had signs posted on every door on the building, even the ones far away from where we were shooting. You never know what door police will go to if they are called. For your convenience, I posted a copy at the bottom of the page (apologies for the "I think I got it but can't tell because it's sunny" cut off to the photo).
Invest in a Duffel Bag: What will look better? Walking into the building carrying three AR-15 Rifles over your shoulder, or carrying a nondescript duffel bag?

In the end, an ounce of preparation really does go a long way when it comes to safely shooting any scenes with weapons. Please do not take it lightly just because you are shooting with "toy guns".

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