Introduction by Rich Wilson, webmaster, The Online Communicator website
Lawrence Gray, a writer and frequent participant in the misc.writing.screenplays newsgroup, spent several days at the 1998 Hollywood Writers Conference, attending seminars and taking extensive notes. He generously shared his notes with the m.w.s. Usenet discussion group in a series of messages posted there in September 1998.
With Lawrence's permission and encouragement, I've compiled, formatted and posted his series of messages here, as a public service to members of the m.w.s. newsgroup, and to all writers and interested parties. Included are a few brief exchanges with other members that brought out even more explanation of the wide-ranging topics. Credit and responsibility, as well as copyright for most message content, all belong to Mr. Gray. If you have further questions about the topics covered in this material, I strongly suggest that you do not contact him (or me) by e-mail; instead, simply sign onto the misc.writing.screenplays newsgroup and make your inquiry in a public message there. Alternatively, you can also find these same messages in the archives at www.dejanews.com, although not as conveniently. Meanwhile, please note that this web page also represents much effort and is copyrighted, too, and should not be reproduced in any form without permission. Thanks for your cooperation.
IMPORTANT NOTE August 2003: This document and other help files from the m.w.s. newsgroup originally contained e-mail addresses of the people who contributed to it. Those addresses have been removed for security purposes, due to the growth of viruses, worms and other malicious programs that harvest e-mail addresses from web pages like this. Sorry if any readers are inconvenienced by this change, but these steps are necessary. Meanwhile, you are strongly urged to check your computer for viruses, and help stop their spread.
Lawrence posted his notes on each seminar/presentation in separate messages. They are gathered here in the chronological sequence in which they were posted, and for efficiency I am presenting them just as they appeared in most newsreader programs, in ASCII text form, with the following changes: Some reply (Re:) messages have been edited to place the source message before the answer, for easier reading. All individual message subject headings are boldfaced for the same reason. I have necessarily translated angle brackets into other punctuation marks, to avoid interference with this web page's HTML code. Also, I have added navigational links within this page because of its size.
Subject: Re: Hollywood Writers Conference (Share your experience) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 10:24:15 +0800 From: "LWG" (e-mail address deleted) Organization: Netvigator Newsgroups: misc.writing.screenplays jake wrote in message ... :Has anyone been to any of the Hollywood Writers Conference (Hollywood :Conference) that took place at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel during August :5-10, 1998, and was sponsored by the Hollywood Film Festival? : :We would be most interested to hear of your experiences. : :Thanks : : :Jake :(e-mail address deleted) Yes, I'm gradually going through my notes and putting them on the newsgroup here. I've started a thread with my notes on the Robert Kosberg talk. I shall go through my notes on The Insiders View, Mythworks Creating The Next Mythology, Selling the Female Protagonist, Copyright Clearances, Hollywood 2000, The Hollywood Maze, Directors on Directing, Writing for Hollywood, Agents: The Hollywood Pipeline, Selling for TV and Cable. I'll boil down my scribblings to what I think were the more coherent points made. Over-all it was valuable though I felt most of the sessions lost sight of their agendas and merely resorted to throwing themselves open to questions from the floor that always turned out to be the same questions from the noisier more egocentric members. The main question was "How do I get an Agent when you guys tell me that you will not even look at a query letter!" The answer to this question, repeatedly, was either glib or arrogant and served only to spread general despondency among the audience who went onto the next seminar determined to ignore the title and ask the same question in the hope of a better answer. To be told that one needs to clean someone's pool, or lie one's way into a tennis club, or make friends with some mysterious "assistant", who apparently was supposedly the key to all access, seemed more of an urban myth than a reality. I couldn't help but think that a handout outlining the standard and usually succesful approach to agents was needed so that we could get on with the more interesting topics. (The answer to the question I'd give would be: join a writers group, write some decent spec scripts, attend a few conferences, courses, write business like query letters, use the competitions and screenings and conferences to get to know who is who, read the trades, take an interest in the business and be a part of it someway, be a reader, do bit parts, go to film school, and so on... Do as much as you can and eventually, if you are smart, interesting, hardworking, talented etc etc, you will have your breaks.) I'm afraid listening to agents telling people they had no interest in anyone who wasn't recommended by their attorney made me want to yell out, don't listen to these guys! They're just telling you to piss off. And you are just confirming their worst suspicions of wannabe writers. I put my hand up several times but couldn't get through the clamour from the few writers there with tiresome personal agendas... you know the type who have had some personal setback and wanted to share it with us all, dropping names as they went without formulating any specific question. I personally had flown into Hollywood a mere three days before the conference and had already walked into the office of a very respectable agent who was more than happy to read my scripts and set up meetings while I was in town. Lots of producers were quite accessible, though most had less clout than I did frankly. All of which made me wonder why the people on the panels were so determined to make it all seem so impossible. I also noted there was a lack of screenwriters on the panel. To be told by the directors that "Film is a collaborative medium and everyone collaborates with the director." And "The film is the director's vision, no matter where he got it from", "Try threading the script through the projector..." yawn yawn cliche cliche... without there being anyone substantial there to put in a word for the writers role in the proceedings seemed an oversight. The best, most informative, most focussed seminar was Selling for TV and Cable. There the chair carefully took us through their agenda, making sure everyone knew that the important questions would be answered. When the scrabble for questions at the end came, people had something more solid to base their questions on and the floor didn't fall to the same people with the rather lame complaints about the iniquities of the system. I felt that a number of people on the panel went in with some preconcieved ideas about the idiocy of writers and managed to create situations that proved their point to themselves. The number of people who complained about how busy they were and how they really did not need to be bothered with more writers, made one wonder why they were in the business at all, and certainly why they bothered to sit on the panels. Overall I thought there was a certain amount of schizophrenia about who this conference was aimed at. If it was aimed at Film School graduates showing their graduate films and looking for the next stage in their career, it had failed to attract them into the audience. If it was aimed at Producers of Independent movies, then once again, there seemed few in the audience even though there were a few useful seminars for such people. If it was aimed at Writers, it failed to have writers debating creative issues, rather resorting to those selling esoteric services that writers might pay for to help with "creativity". And it failed to seperate out the need of some of the audience to actually pitch ideas... very boring unless there really is a very structured approach either offering critical feedback on the pitch or offering access to people who might buy. The Breaking in issue should also have been done under some career guidance seminar so that the cliches and defensive arrogance from those who really do not understandthe writers' position, could have been avoided. And the meet the Agents session should have had Agents a little more open to queries, thus disarming the more chip laden members of the audience. There were a lot of unrealistic people in the audience who were there, quite rightly, to learn how to get real and I think all they did was get annoyed. The conspiracy was confirmed rather than disabused. If anything the point of these conferences should be to clarify situations and help people formulate realistic strategies. Lawrence. (Followup) Subject: Re: Hollywood Writers Conference (Share your experience) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 13:14:21 +0800 From: "LWG" (e-mail address deleted) Organization: Netvigator Newsgroups: misc.writing.screenplays MARY L ANDERSON wrote in message (01bde4ee$dc543f20$26239cd1@default:... :Lawrence-- :Thanks for taking time to share. : :All those newbies wouldn't ask such irritating questions if those of us :who earn money by writing would simply share THE SECRET with them. Maybe :we worked to get where we are, but that's no reason they have to do the :same. : :Today I received a reprimand from the man whose site will showcase writing :talent. He told me that writing comes from the heart --grammar and :spelling aren't important. : :Having judged in a dozen writing contests, I know too many people jot down :something and are so dazzled by their own brilliance, they post their :creation for public consumption without bothering to prune or parse or :proofread it. : :I'm sick of wannabe writers begging me for THE SECRET. They don't want to :turn off the television and plant their ass in a chair every day and write, :rewrite and rewrite some more. They don't want to read books that detail :writing basics. They don't want to bother with queries and rejection :letters and rough drafts. They only want to be the next Cameron or :Grisham. : :I see I'm ranting, and running way off topic. :Sorry, Lawrence. Thanks again for taking time to share info with the rest :of us. :Mary I must admit that coming from about as far away from the writing world as anyone can get, and nowadays, about as far geograhically as you can get, I always sympathise with the wannabe, since for the most part I always regard myself as not much different. But the answer is remarkable for its banality... you write, you join workshops, read the books, attend the conferences, make the queries, get the directories, and take the criticism and if you are a long way from the centre of things it will take you longer to get there than those who are closer to the centre of things. And life aint fair. Once that has been said, one should get on with the task of listening hard to what people with power in the industry say. You may not agree with it and you may think it corrupt and you may think how one day you will try and change it, but you have to deal with it from your own position of weakness and vulnerability and take a realistic look at your options. And you get real by listening. However, those you should listen to are sometimes complete ass holes and sometimes don't want to talk. Conferences like this, one assumes, are going to have people who are willing to talk, or at least willing to go some of the way to meet you. So you listen and don't put them on the defensive. But you need to organise an event where the participants somehow know the correct etiquette and that takes a tough chairman and a clear agenda. Not that that was always lacking here, but it could have been better. Lawrence. Return to Top Menu Subject: Hollywood Writers Conference: The Robert Kosberg Lecture on Pitching Date: Sun, 20 Sep 1998 17:12:34 +0800 From: "LWG" (e-mail address deleted) Organization: Netvigator Newsgroups: misc.writing.screenplays I attended the Hollywood Writers Conference this August and made various notes about what was said there. I think people on this news group might be interested in reading them, if only to see what happens at one of these conferences, let alone the information that comes out of them. This is the first set of notes that I've transcribed. I cannot guarantee that my note take is absolutely one hunderd per cent accurate but on the whole if I say someone said something then they said something pretty similar or were in close proximity to someone who did say it during the course of the event. Lawrence. THE ROBERT KOSBERG PITCHING SEMINAR:- Robert Kosberg is a Hollywood Producer who specialises in pitching ideas. He does not care where he gets his ideas from, so long as they are high concept, that is all he cares about. Every week he takes them around the studios, pitches them and then if they buy them he attaches himself as a producer. The buyers then contacts the original owner and make a deal . They might even offer them the chance to write the first draft if they believe they can write. They might give you a referral to an agent. All things are possible. But remember that possible does not mean probable. Robert Kosberg plays a numbers game. He gathers as many ideas as possible and filters and refines them, then pitches them in the hope that maybe one out of a hundred gathers some interest. He sometimes buys a $500 option for 6 months. He then pitches the idea with a promise of more money later. Kosberg says that if you have a great screenplay, good. But great ideas will get you into the system easier. He says a good idea, with attachments like star actors/writers etc. Will make a pitch easier. Treatments are boring and if the concept is strong it will transmit verbally. So it is the idea that sells. He says that pitching over the phone is dangerous. They forget who gave it to them and agents don't take ideas. Kosberg likes comedy, thrillers, action, contemporary stories He needs an SAE and promises that he calls back when he likes something. He says that you sell pitches on Monday because the weekend read has found nothing. High Concept ideas sound like they could be a good movie. You thus are selling hope. Robert Kosberg 9860 Wilshire Blvd CA 90210 Tel: 310 385 3165, and he will give you some further details of his operation. Fax: 310 385 3162 THIS IS WHAT HE SAYS ABOUT HIGH CONCEPTS: A high concept is a strong simple idea. Most writers make the mistake of thinking the screenwriting process is more important than the idea. You should spend 3 months coming up with a good idea first. If you can tell the executive something they've never heard, it is good. You should ask yourself: Is it simple? Is it different? You need to be able to see it on the poster. The Readers are looking initially for The Premise. High Concept Examples: " A Man meets a woman who turns out to be a mermaid. Complications ensue." "A man who lives in the Statue of Liberty... True Story." "A kid graduates from college, but then goes back to high school to retake his senior year... thus re-living it but as an A student who dates the cheerleaders." "A man dresses as a woman to get a job." "Men and dinosaurs in a contemporary setting." You have to decide if you have a high concept that will pitch in a room. Lots of good scripts do not pitch well. STYLE OF PITCHING... The secret is to have a good idea. The hype that goes around it is of no use. For Example: You go into the meeting and say "Goldie Hawn and Steve Martin go to a Marriage Counsellor. They try regression therapy. Therapist takes them back to 12 years and they fight. In the ensuing battle, the therapist dies of heart attack and they find themselves stuck as twelve year olds. It's called: "Young at Heart" The story develops with them flipping in and out of hypnosis so that at one time one of them is a child and the other an adult who has to deal with them. Don't know how it ends." What you must do is make sure that you have a brief high concept idea that is capable of being summarised in a pithy interesting manner. Give the main characters, the premise, the development, then the ending. Try not to say dialogue. Stick to the plot. Pretend it is a movie you just saw. Maybe you can mention one of the great scenes. Try and refer back to things they know, and tell them the difference. One way of doing it is to take a classic story and give it a contemporary twist: EG: Outlander: High noon in space. There are Studio VP's of development to sell to, but you need to have an agent. But there are other connections that you can use. Although he comes in with lots of pitches he recommends that Writers only come in with one pitch. TO SUM UP: talk of high concept. Then give Act 1, 2, 3. Then the set pieces. A one sentence theme. No visual aids unless you've got something really exciting. Use star names to describe the starring roles. Visualise movie first. The Set Up is most important and so if you have nothing else, tell them. Honesty doesn't hurt. No bullshit. (Followup) Subject: Re: Hollywood Writers Conference: The Robert Kosberg Lecture on Pitching Date: Sun, 20 Sep 1998 23:33:57 +0800 From: "LWG" (e-mail address deleted) Organization: Netvigator Newsgroups: misc.writing.screenplays Allridge wrote in message (19980920083215.17322.00002426@ng05.aol.com)... : :Great post! Thanks for sharing. :Couple of questions: :What is "set piece"? (You said, this comes after acts 1, 2, 3.) As that man Hydrakeen says, it's Hollywoodese for more or less any big scene, the main movie moment, the major turning point, you name it. There will be set pieces in any act, anywhere, but on the whole it's the major climaxes. My notes might have confused you a little here. What they mean is that when in a pitch meeting, after you've outlined the basic act development, you can mention how some of the set pieces go. You know, some clever gag, some great image, some great dramatic moment that you think will find a place in the movie. :The pitch example toward the end, where it ends with "Don't know how it ends." :This is what he's saying NOT to do? Or this is an example of being honest?? :If you have more notes--and some free time--please continue. Very helpful! :April It's an example of being honest. Kosberg seems to believe that if you give a good set up for a movie, you don't really need to worry about how it ends. You pay the writer to work that out. Of course, the sort of pitch meeting he is talking about is one where you are selling high concept ideas, and not the meeting where the scriptwriter has to come in and explain to everyone how he is going to tell the story. "Pitch Meeting" is a catch all term for all sorts of different kinds of situations. Some people loosely talk about having pitch meetings even when they're not actually pitching anything but just chatting about possible areas of co-operation. Terry Rossio's web page http://www.wordplayer.com/forums/welcome.html gives a very different image of a pitch meeting. Kosberg has one kind. Rossio has another. I'll post all my notes on the conference eventually. I just have to go through them and pull out what I think actually means anything out of the context of the event. Lawrence. Return to Top Menu Subject: The Hollywood Writers Conference: The Agents Session Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 12:13:52 +0800 From: "LWG" (e-mail address deleted) Organization: Netvigator Newsgroups: misc.writing.screenplays Here's the next instalment of my notes on the Hollywood Writers Conference. Once again I make no claim to absolute accuracy here. These were jotted down as the conference went along and I believe are for the most part accurate but I might have ascribed things to different people and I might have just plain got it wrong. There was a lot of verbiage in this seminar and a fair old amount of bitter questioning from people in the audience who felt somehow previously grieved, or felt there was a conspiracy against anyone who was not a personal friend of someone on the inside. None of this was really refuted by the panel, who seemed for the most part to confirm people's worst suspicions. What I wrote down was what I took to be their more positive statements though none of them said much that I did not already know, or even knew enough to feel I knew a little more about writers and scripts than they did. Defensiveness seemed to be the key word in describing their attitude. Though for the most part they really have very little to be defensive about and a more open attitude might well have quelled those in the audience who took them for being less the facilitators and more the enemy of any possible writing career. Lawrence. AGENTS: The Hollywood Pipeline MARC PARISER... Head of Literary Packaging at the Metropolitan Talent Agency Dan Ostroff... The Dan Ostroff Agency Ken Neisser... The Gersh Agency Joel Shire... ICM Alan Gasmer... William Morris Rob Gumer ... Kaplan, Stahler, Gumer Agency. This was a question and answer session with a number of Hollywood's Agents. Q: What do you do with Spec Scripts and how many do you sell? ALAN GASMER: There is no straight answer to this question. My assistant deals with Spec Scripts and gets 40 a week. Maybe reads between 15-20 a weekend. And rarely finds anything interesting. They have to come from someone he knows, or a reputable producer, or on the basis of a good query letter. If the story is good, a good idea... But who knows what those are? You never know what sells and you can get anything from $25000 to $1m as the fee. If there is any advice about what to write, it is to think what they haven't done for a long time. Q: Is there studio type material and independent type ideas? MARC PARISER: We don't make the distinction. We read the script and see if we can sell whatever it is. DAN OSTROF: If you have an independent film, you might find some agents that do work mainly on them. You have to do the homework. Q: How do you decide how to market? ALAN GASMER: Judgement. If we see a Wesley Snipe roll then we put that together. But some studios don't like us to cast their movies. Question from the Floor: "I sent a Query letter but it was sent back saying you don't accept unsolicited queries?" MARC PARISER: I need referrals. I don't take unsolicited letters. Most don't. KEN NEISSER: I seek TV writers. So I look for recommendations. It is useful to have Spec scripts as writing samples but as for the letter writing... so many draft terrible letters! Everyone gets five or six inquiries a day. But if a letter comes in that is well written and interesting it will attract someone. Question from the Floor: "How do you recruit those that have been pissed off and fucked about but who have finally got the hot work.?" BOB GUMER: Rejection isn't personal. Agents are just very busy. KEN NEISSER: The time factor is a problem. We have to service the clients we have. MARC PARISER: Everyone has different tastes as well. Q: What are your preferences? ALAN GASSER: All sorts. If you can sell it, that's all you need to do. They buy concepts. MARC PARISER: The issue of rejection.... we constantly suffer rejection for scripts we think are good. Q: What is The Process? ALAN GASSER: 95% of scripts are read by me. If I can't figure it out by page 50 I don't like it. My assistant also reads and we compare notes. Q: Is getting to the assistant good? Is there another route? KEN NEISSER: It is hard to answer how you get in. The assistant is a good contact. Spec episodes, half hour scripts are good because shorter. Persistence, imagination in getting referrals. BOB GUMER: Networking is the key. Living in LA is good. You have to be getting out into the business. ALAN GASSER: Write lots of scripts. Don't expect one script to do it. MARC PARISER: Even those on staff have to write specs to cover their next stage of career. Q: Is ageism a problem? DAN OSTROFF: Studios want to make money. If they make more targeting younger audiences then that might cause problems. ALAN GASSER: Studio Execs are 25-35 so you have to appeal to them. They target their peers. DAN OSTROF: One solution is that new technology is bringing in more niche audiences. BOB: For MOWs and MOVIES, no one cares much who the writer is. They just look at the script. Where ageism comes in is in TV hiring on staff. Most staff are in their 20's. And the execs are in their 30's. So anyone in their 50's seeking entry level situations is going to have a problem. Q: Do you evaluate books in much the same way as scripts? JOEL SHIRE: I don't read books. BOB GUMER: New York agents sell film rights of books. KEN NEISSER: If you have a book agent., the NY agency tends to liaise with agents in LA. Q: Who has the power not to be rejected? MARC PARISER: A very small number of people. But companies have departments that have to be dealt with and this network of people has the power. But anyone with a cheque has the power. DAN OSTROF: There are fewer people determining what car to make than what movie. But anyone with a cheque can make a movie. Q: Do you see and future trends? BOB GUMER: There's no real answer to this. One can't predict. Q: What are you personally looking for? MARC PARISER: I'm looking for writers, not necessarily scripts. Question from the floor: "Is it worth putting together a small trailer for a movie?" MARC PARISER: Trailers are not really selling tools for writers. Q: What about the inquiry letter? BOB GUMER: It is important to sell yourself. It is more important to do that than try sell your script to us. So a good interesting letter is a help. DAN OSTROF: Very rarely do query letters work. Referrals work. There are ways to get them. Seminars might help you meet someone. Attorneys make referrals. MARC PARISER: Read the trades to get a feel for what is going on. Q: Who reads the scripts? JOEL SHIRE: Large agents have a story department. They get readers reports from them. BOB GUMER: It is a good job to be a reader. They see what is selling and what is not. Question from the floor: "What are your qualifications to reject our work?" MARC PARISER: I started as a layout artist in animation. Went into the mail room and worked up thru ICM. I just read and developed my own taste. If one' s taste is compatible with the market place, you become a successful agent. BOB GUMER: We've all read thousands of scripts. I was an entertainment attorney originally. We have to choose what's great from what's merely good. JOEL SHIRE: I went to law school but then got into agenting. I started in the mail room at William Morris then got lucky by finding Fatal Attraction. But we're wrong everyday! It is a strange business. Bankers don't hold symposium about how to break into banking. KEN NEISSER: I grew up in LA. So I was obsessed with movies. Then College, Law School, and practiced law for a while but hated it. I went into the entertainment area and joined a small TV Agency. DAN OSTROF: I grew up in Washington DC. Went to college. Interned at the Kennedy Centre. Then moved to California and met a TV producer as a neighbour. He told me about a mail room job and so I took it. KEN NEISSER: It is an apprenticeship business. JOEL SHIRE: The new agents are looking for people. Return to Top Menu Subject: HOLLYWOOD WRITERS CONFERENCE... LONGFORM and MINISERIES OPPORTUNITIES Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 13:58:25 +0800 From: "LWG" (e-mail address deleted) Organization: Netvigator Newsgroups: misc.writing.screenplays Here are some more of my notes on the Hollywood Conference. I found this particular seminar very well organised without being beset with the problems of too many questioners asking people why some other producer/agent ignored their queries/phone calls regardless of the fact of them being the man's attorney's best friend etc etc. It was nice to find people declaring that this was a field looking for writers and that the field was wide open for people to create new genres and new audiences. The word "Passion" was also not used indiscriminately and was used only with reference to a persons passion for their writing rather than their passion for becoming rich and succesful. But then I always feel more at home among TV people than Film. Lawrence. SELLING FOR TV AND CABLE: Opportunities in the longform and miniseries market JOEL FIELDS... Executive producer, Hill/Fields Entertainment JEFF ALPERN... owner of Alpern Group Lit Agency specialising in TV SERIES/MINI SERIES TONY RUSSO... Senior VP, TV Longform, Paramount Pictures TODD KOERNER... AGENT Writers and Artists... TV MOVIES, MINI SERIES, SUSAN LYNE... Executive VP, ABC Network TV, Motion Pictures for TV and Miniseries. Started Premier... edited it for 8 years. BRIAN PIKE... Creative Artists Agency. ANDREW STERNBERG... Executive Vice Preseident, Television, Kushner-Locke Co. Q: Tell us about the the process? JEFF ALPERN: For movies, each network has different needs. So first we decide which network is appropriate. If a writer is well known you go direct to network. If not, you go to a producer and try package it that way. Q: What sort of package? BRIAN PIKE: New writers need a lot of packaging. You link it to producer, director etc. Though more typically you just take their script as a sample. It's hard to find material you really believe in. Q: What do you look for to show to Networks? TONY RUSSO: Quality and saleabiltiy. You need both. A border line script from an unknown attached to a producer that Paramount knows, will be treated with respect. They will spend time on this because they know the producer will help. JOEL FIELDS: As a producer I look for Quality and Saleability. It's tough to find good stuff. And Saleability shifts over time. Quality is important and eventually you'll sell it, but it can take a long time. ANDREW STERNBERG: I look for ideas that are different. Writers that are passionate etc. Q: What makes you buy? SUSAN LYNE: We don't have a regular MOW night any more. So everything I buy has to draw an audience. It must be an event of some sort. It must have good casting, a good title, a special topical story and so on. We are not interested in stuff best seen in a cinema. So we want a good strong narrative with an element that will pull in the TV audience. What draws good ratings is something that people think is a film made specially for them. BRIAN PIKE: We deal with one offs, and so there is no word of mouth to build an audience. That's why you need to make it bullet proof. If you have a difficult story such as a story about a lesbian in the army, then you need Glenn Close to open it. JEFF ALPERN: If you have a good story though, you might find other networks will consider the more difficult stories. BRIAN PIKE: What gets through to the network is a story that has something that distinguishes it. Networks don't want issue driven stuff. They want something that transcends the issue. You must never frighten advertisers. Q: Where is the MOW/mini series market going? JOEL FIELDS: The market is in a state of flux. There are lots of opportunities for different types of story. Though, the networks won't touch certain things. JEFF ALPERN: The bad news is that TV movies have hurt themselves over the years by becoming non-events. The good news is that there are so many new networks looking for TV movies that there are many more opportunities. TODD KOERNER: The long form business is changing because there are more places to sell these things. SUSAN LYNE: Cable has raised the bar for everyone. If you do really good movies then you are going to get big audiences. There is a movement away from making movies for an audience whose taste they don't like. BRIAN PIKE: TV movies are not liked though. They prefer series. The TV Movie was beaten to death in the past. Now we are going back to making them events again. ANDREW STEINBERG: It is a good time to get into this business. Everyone is looking for new ideas. Q: How about true stories? BRIAN PIKE: Lots of stories make great eight-minute pieces but do not make good movies! The new shows are stealing plots at the moment, but they will burn out and make room for more drama. ANDREW STEINBERG: People won't want to watch real stories that are filling the air waves on the news shows. Q: How about foreign sales? TONY RUSSOR: You can build a Movie Series audience over time and make a profit But movies have to make profit instantly. So you look at satellite, cable etc etc. ANDREW STEINBERG: The network license fee has risen three times. But producers keep theie ownerships and you now go out and sell to the world. Q: Who do you answer to? JOEL FIELDS: Network buyers, creative talent, and myself. Everyone wants quality and profit. JEFF ALPERN: We answer to everyone! We're salesmen! SUSAN LYNE: The president and chairman of Prime time. For the time being I have freedom. BRIAN PIKE: I'm responsible to my clients. ANDREW STEINBERG: I am responsibility for creating a good product. SUSAN LYNE: We have to learn how to take no well. We try and find out why. Is it the writing, the story, the casting? JOEL FIELDS: You learn how to graciously accept no and learn how to turn the no to yes. If you believe in your material then you might learn how to make it suitable. Q: What about Books? SUSAN LYNE: There are so few authors who will bring in a TV audience. The story, not the author, is what counts. Tom Clancy or Grisham might help but the story is the interesting thing. BRIAN PIKE: Books are important though. People are constantly buying the rights to them. JEFF ALPERN: True stories taken from newspaper articles had a vogue but there is less emphasis on them now. Q: How much does the writer get for a TV movie? How d'you get it made? JEFF ALPERN: Features deal with specs differently. You get paid what the market will bear. But in TV there's money restrictions because TV movies are made for much the same no matter what the script is. TONY RUSSO: So there's only so much the market will pay. SUSAN LYNE: Nothing is read without an agent or attorney. Q: Do you like Historical Subjects? BRIAN PIKE: The market for this is as good as ever. Small non-mainstream stories from US history can be made. But you must choose your company. Q: Do TV Movies become Pilots for series? SUSAN LYNE: TV movies rarely become a pilot. If you have something that might be a pilot, people prefer it as a sixty minute episode. Breaking into acts is not a worry. We'll re-work the act breaks. Q: Could a busted treatment make a TV movie? JOEL FIELDS: If there is a good role and you get a star then that's good. JEFF ALPERN: Sometimes a spec script just looks more like TV than film. It's good to think of the market place and ask is it TV or Film? TONY RUSSO: We will sometimes do sequels or remakes of features for TV. SUSAN LYNE: We get pitched lots of busted features scripts that went into turnaround. BRIAN PIKE: We don't worry about act breaks. Leave them to the editor. SUSAN LYNE: The demographic profile of the TV Movie audience is an 18-49 year old female. Guys do not on the whole watch TV Movies. So you sell Movies for women. TONY RUSSO: Comedy is best in a movie house. So drama is more the TV movie subject not comedy. Q: What sort of representation is best? BRIAN PIKE: Your first agent will not be CAA. It is the wrong place. It is best to go to a boutique with a specialty that you fit into. JEFF ALPERN: Even there it is difficult. The manpower is less, so referrals still get more attention. Referrals through another writer, producer, anyone they know and respect. TODD KOERNER: The assistant is the key. BRIAN PIKE: And watch TV! TONY RUSSO: Read the TV Times. BRIAN PIKE: See what's on and learn what we want! Learn what lawyers do! Learn what Doctors do! Learn what police do! Return to Top Menu Subject: HWC: FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 15:02:16 +0800 From: "LWG" (e-mail address deleted) Organization: Netvigator Newsgroups: misc.writing.screenplays More of my Hollywood Writers' Conference notes. This seminar went way off topic and deteriorated into a lack lustre questions from the floor session where mostly the same questioned that were answered better elsewhere were asked. John Briley's Ghandi story is always interesting, but he has much more interesting stories about his Pope Joan script and subsequent anonymous work and stories of producers running out of money and stranding casts in strange places. It is worth noting here that Nick Read says that Query Letters are worth writing, even though agents seem a little equivocal on the matter and rely mostly on referrals. Your script however is the deal maker. Lawrence. WRITING FOR HOLLYWOOD... Today's Market and the opportunities for the new millennium. NICK READ: Motion Pictures Literary Agent, ICM JOHN BRILEY: The writer of "Ghandi." Among other projects. GAYLE BAIGELMAN: Producer of "For richer, for Poorer". CHRIS VOGLER: Writer of The Writer's Journey. Q: What are the future trends? NICK READ: You can never write too much comedy. JOHN BRILEY: I've lived in the UK for most of my adult life. Then I came to LA and felt that at least you got the sense of what is wanted here. There is a smell in this town. You pick up the ideas of what people like. But if you don't live in LA then just ignore the trends and do your own thing. GAYLE BAIGELMAN: It's not the writer's job to follow trends. They should find their voice and let producers adapt them to the trends. NICK READ: There are more opportunities in TV. GAYLE BAIGELMAN: The old rules of no crossover between TV and Features don't apply now. People cross over all the time now. Q: Isn't it a great script that kicks off the trend? JOHN BRILEY: Yes. It has to be original and professional and so when it happens it starts a new trend. NICK READ: Low concepts are often well written, but high concepts are often badly written. But everyone wants good high concept. The easiest way to break in is to write a good script so that others think that by adding you to this project you will make it work better. CHRIS VOGLER: The only constant is to understand what is going on in an entire culture. There seems a constant value in movies with some kind of moral. GAYLE BAIGELMAN: It is hard to sell female protagonists even though young girls are the new audience trend. NICK READ: The numbers of women who will do the gutsy rolls are few. They want pure dramatic pieces but the studios do not want to make those. JOHN BRILEY: Young girls do not necessarily want to see young girls. They want Leo DiCaprio. Few women can take the lead and open a movie. NICK READ: In TV women rule though. CHRIS VOGLER: As for Kids, they want stories of age groups ahead of them. Q: Can you break in from the outside? NICK READ: If you want to be in the business you need to be here. But if you have a great script that's fine. Find the assistant and make friends with them. If you have a good script and get it thru the system then that is all that counts from wherever you live. Q: How did you get started? GAYLE BAIGELMAN: We all started as assistants. NICK READ: No-one will tell you you're crap. JOHN BRILEY: You only hear of the successes but there are millions that fail. And even great scripts fail. You can't put your life on one script. You have to write more great scripts. That helps... They make 1 in 25 of commissioned films. So you're in a high mortality industry. There are a dozen unpredictable reasons why scripts don't work. So you just got to have more than one great script. NICK READ: A lot of writers agonize over their scripts for too long. You have to finish and move on. JOHN BRILEY: It was a fluke that got me involved in Ghandi. Attenborough had been trying for 25 years. There were lots of scripts on Ghandi. Bolt's script was the latest but he had a stroke. So got I was brought in to do a re-write. I read Bolt's script and decided that the Brit writers couldn't see India in non-colonial terms. They were pro-British and Bolt's script even had an English hero. So I wanted to write Ghandi as a revolutionary force. Attenborough perhaps thought this would suit US market. But even then no studios would do it. He had to get the money from a UK pension fund's high-risk money. They put together a sample reel of what they could shoot of the movie and then had auctions in Manilla. The studios came hoping to pick up an award winning picture and so put in their bids. Q: How do you work with writers? GAYLE BAIGELMAN: Producers need to be writer friendly, open-minded. NICK READ: An agent has more clients than a producer. So he has no time to spend much time with a writer. He will give notes in a general way but it is the Producer who will work thru the script. There are a lot of really bad scripts that actually get bought. Which I suppose gives you hope. Determination and Passion is what it takes. JOHN BRILEY: All the cliche's are true about LA. It is a political community. It is money driven. Ego driven. And you have to remember it is just their opinion. Half of the people here have no literary background. They know little. They read summaries and pass opinions on it on that basis. People have little time to read. Q: What sort of relationship with an agent should a writer have? NICK READ: With writers I can make money. CHRIS VOGLER: You need someone who is realistic about where you are. Then you can move up. You need to study who does what. Q: Do Query Letters interest you? NICK: Yes. If you can make me interested in one page I will ask to see a sample. But be clever. Get someone hooked. And you only have one shot. Q: The relationship with a producer? JOHN BRILEY: Writers gave up copyright for money. So you will lose your script to the producer. They will rewrite you. Q: If someone asks to see another script of yours, is it good? JOHN BRILEY: Yes! It is not said lightly. Q: Rewrites for Free? CHRIS VOGLER: They will always try get free re-writes no matter who you are. NICK READ: When the notes are not to your liking that's the point to stop. But if everyone gives you the same note you have to fix it. CHRIS VOGLER: The biggest problem is that scripts are no longer an observation of life but an observation of what's on TV. Q: How do you write when you don't feel like writing? JOHN BRILEY: My solution was to have four hungry kids. A writer writes. That 's it. Eventually things happen. Writers who make a life of it share a discipline. Jack Travistock had a wild life and would have people lick him into his room on Thursday night till Sunday and refuse to let him out. That was the only way he could write. I use the 9-5 discipline. Some writers get up at 3am and write till others get up in the house. You just have to write no matter what. Q: Which is the best door opener? Tennis or golf? NICK READ: Golf! You can talk and walk. Q: How do you get the overnight success? NICK READ: Get to know the assistant! They will bring you to people's attentions. Q: Packaging? NICK READ: Packaging at the studio level doesn't really happen. Independent movies though often have to get together a collection of people who have more clout than just one. Q: What Genre should we write? NICK: Comedy is good. Dram is a hard sell. Genre is easier to sell. If you can put a new spin on it, is good. Q: What do you do if you are not in LA? NICK READ: You can get the directories and somehow make the system like you. If the script is good, and you figure out what's going on, then it can work. Q: Screenwriting courses? JOHN BRILEY: I hate courses! I went to a seminar and they taught a formula. That's not what writing's about. And worse, it's executives that get the message and they think they know how to write. GAYLE BAIGELMAN: Read screenplays. That's the best way to learn. CHRIS VOGLER: The only good courses are those that make you write! Return to Top Menu Subject: HWC: DIRECTORS ON DIRECTING Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 15:31:48 +0800 From: "LWG" (e-mail address deleted) Organization: Netvigator Newsgroups: misc.writing.screenplays More in the on going series of postings from my Hollywood Wrters Conference notes. Here the Directors chat. All the usual disclaimers about innacuracies and the like. Lawrence. DIRECTORS ON DIRECTING. MIMI LEDER... Directed Deep Impact and The Peacemaker. TED KOTCHEFF... directed First Blood, Weekend at Bernie's MARK RYDELL... Directed Ben Casey, Fugitive, Then moved to features: The Rose, Cowboys, On Golden Pond. BRETT RATNER... Came from Music Videos. Directed Money Talks, Rush Hour. Q: What do Director's Do? TED KOTCHEFF: You ask questions. You're more like a Quiz Host. Directors know more about the film than anyone else. He answers the questions. MARK RYDELL: An executive asks a Director are you a shooter or do you work with actors? In the past ten years, the visual sense has come to the fore at the expense of the other elements. Movies have become thrill rides. Whey you leave the theatre you go again for the thrill. There's something sad about that. The quick thrill at the expense of content. TED KOTCHEFF: Armageddon is all flash and no content. Deep Impact had more humanity. Q: What's the difference between TV and Movies? MIMI LEDER: It takes longer to do a movie than do a TV show. But it always begins with a script. So difference is only a matter of scale. I like TV's speed. The approach is: What is this scene about? What does this person want in this? In TV you have an hour to shoot a scene. So you follow instinct. In movie you have a day. But still you have to try keep that spontaneous feel. BRETT RATNER: I got into the business through Film School then into shooting MTV videos. Shooting features means there's little time to make experiments. In Video you can. Practice is essence. Q: Ageism? Sexism? Pace of movies today? MARK RYDAL: I had to beg to make On Golden Pond even in 1980. There was enormous resistance to making a picture about old people and death, using aged stars. So everyone in picture took a low salary except the Director. Fonda, Hepburn, took cuts. I said I'd take scale, but only if they gave me $500,000 for every Oscar nomination. This did the trick in making known my faith in this project. So I got the picture financed and he got my salary. Couldn't do it for less. My expenses then were too much. Now things are so expensive and the pressures are enormous. MIMI LEDER: I am looking forward to the day people don't ask me what it feels like being a female director? But there are more women directors now and so slowly things change. It has always been hard to make films that you want to make. Q: If you're not a writer, then what does a Director do next once they're out of school? BRETT RATNER: I sent my short film to forty people in the industry and got thirty nine nice rejections. You need a short film as a resume and there are many ways to get in now. You can be an assistant director. There are adverts, video. Q: How do you handle star actors? TED KOTCHEFF: It is hard to get respect and trust. You have to be a psychiatrist. BRETT RATNER: Do what you need to do. MARK RYDAL: I started as an actor so I have a deep affection for actors. I had the training as an actor. So I have few problems with them. Mind, I had problems with Steve McQueen. He was border line psychotic. We had to nurture him and create an environment where he could flourish. Q: What sort of relationship do you have with writers? MARK RYDAL: Never let go of them. I want them on set. MIMI LEDER: I haven't had them on the set. I like working with them in development. Writers are treated badly in Hollywood. Q: What do you feel about rewriting writers? MARK RYDAL: I prefer not to but sometimes it is necessary. Some writers have nothing new to add so you sometimes have to bring in a new one. Screenplays grow as the production develops. Changes of actors. Etc. TED KOTCHEFF: I tend to rewrite all the time. So have to have the writers available. Q: Who were your mentors? BRETT RATNER: In Film school there was a Professor who taught from personal experience rather than from a book. He was an old Polish director. He told me to go and direct a movie and not just take jobs. He said just make a movie. MIMI LEDER: My father made 23 low budget movies. I worked on them for him. So I learnt that way. MARK RYDAL: I was at first a musician. So I learned to respect craft and training. Then I went into the theatre. And was trained by lots of different people. All the best. They were Artists. It is not so easy to be an artist. You're aspiring to a very high level of skill and expression. I stayed close to genius and was Kazan's assistant. I see many people who have no understanding of what went before. You have to study and expose yourself to everything. Film is collaborative and everyone collaborates with the director. Q: What do you think of The Possessory Credit. TED KOTCHEFF: It is the director's film. It is their vision, no matter where they got it from. Q: What fees do Director's get? TED KOTCHEFF: Scale is $125,000 for a 1st time director. Some directors get $10,000,000 Q: Whose picture is it? MARK RYDAL: Frank Capra was the first who got the possessory credit. He worked with Morry Ryskin. Who got very angry about people talking about Capraesque movies when he'd written them. But you can't show the script. You need to have a director find what the script is really about. Return to Top Menu Subject: HWC: THE HOLLYWOOD MAZE Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 15:55:23 +0800 From: "LWG" (e-mail address deleted) Organization: Netvigator Newsgroups: misc.writing.screenplays More of my notes on the Hollywood Writers Conference. This one has some interesting inspirational stuff from Jeff Arch, who at one point help up his Conference Pass and pointed out that all the others on the panel had VIP PASSES whereas his was merely an ordinary pass. He, the point was, was the writer. Lawrence. THE HOLLYWOOD MAZE: How to make it in Hollywood. The filmmaking process from script to screen CHRIS VOGLER: The Writers' Journey JACQUELINE GEORGE: Producer at Curious George Productions – Richie Rich, Demolition Man DAVID GALE: Senior VP at MTV Films - Beavis and Butthead, Dead Man on Campus, Election HOWARD KOCH Jr: Produced "Waynes World" for The Koch Company JEFF ARCH: Writer: Sleepless in Seattle. Q: What is like to have made it? JACQUELINE GEORGE: A big part of the maze is that it is male dominated The Maze never ends. I did Die Hard, Demolition Man and am now independent. I learnt from the ground up. You put your nose to the grindstone and you find that it is a series of rooms. You get into one then you find a door and find another room and so on. You have to create your own way in. But having a Mentor is important. I was in Boston originally then moved to LA and got a job as bartender. One of my customers offered me a job on his production of Cheech and Chong. DAVID GALE: I was a lawyer in New York and fancied being a producer. I went from being an Entertainment Lawyer to working for Ridley Scott and then moved on through the system. At some point you just have to see your strengths and move with that. Most successful people have some talent and also worked their way up, often in round about ways. I can't go back to doing what I used to do. There is a point when you make a commitment and give up the safety net. As you get higher up you realise how much more difficult it gets. The wind blows harder at the top. The risks are greater. You are promoted to levels of your incompetence. HOWARD KOCH: My door was wide open because I grew up in the business. My father was a big studio chief. So I started very early and worked with Coppola, Redford etc. I became a 2nd AD at 18 so got into the Directors Guild. The minute I got in I had to prove that I deserved the job. It is hard to make your own name if your father is so famous. But I knew nothing else so had to make it work. Nowadays there's a lot of competition because the film schools are everywhere. So you have to be tougher or better or whatever. And 99.9% of time you will be told no. Even when you're at the top. The maze never ends. Right up to 1st day of shooting. You never know if your movie will go. A lot of social and political skills are needed. JEFF ARCH: The writer knows little about what happens in all these meetings. So assume everyone else is God and knows more than you. You can't afford to piss anyone off. I became a writer because I liked the Beatles on TV when I was 9. I decided that I wanted to work in the business. I wanted an audience. I didn't know that writing Movies was an option. But at college I came across a film camera. I called up a cinematographer that I admired and asked to see him and showed him some stuff. He told me that I was good but should write because cameramen are nothing in the system. So I started writing. I saw Breaking Away - a script about Bicycle racing. And I saw that the writer was on the Johnny carson. I thought writing was the only real way in. So I kept writing until I wrote Sleepless, which was the breakthrough. I was told that I was out of my mind writing a love story where people don't meet. So I thought I was thus onto something. I liked only movies that took ten years to get made. So I reckoned that out of your mind was the way to make something really good. Seeking a mentor gave me the focus. But if you don't have anything to fall back on then you have to succeed. I sold a karate school that I owned and gave myself one year and so there was nothing else to do. Q: What d'you want? JACQUELINE GEORGE: Story driven material that touches an emotion. Unsolicted scripts are not wanted. There would be too many of them. DAVID GALE: There is only so much time in the world. You cannot take everything. You try to establish a system. But no-one wants to keep you out. However, they have a life. I need agented stuff. I am looking for youth driven material but not necessarily teen movies. CHRIS VOGEL: There is a protocol for approaching producers. The reality is there are buyers who deal with agents who they know. If the material comes in any different way, the material is suspect. So educate yourself about who 's who and how it works. HOWARD KOCH: The legal problems create the need for the system. CHRIS VOGEL: You have to make allies. I had no connections when I came to LA with the airforce. I went to film school after it and did story analysis and read Joseph Campbells books. Then I wrote mine. Q: Do you want Scripts or Treatments? HOWARD KOCH: Scripts. CHRIS VOGEL: They are only interested in treatments from writers they know well. Q: Do agents make names in certain genres? HOWARD KOCH: Big agencies have many different guys who specialise in dealing with different studios. Q: How do you find a mentor? JEFF ARCH: You can find your mentor in a book. So anyone you admire can be a mentor. So if you have no personal connections, read about those who did have success! DAVID GALE: Finding entry level jobs in the business is a way of finding mentors. Q: Will actors/actresses accept material? JACQUELINE GEORGE: Not direct. You go through their agents. CHRIS VOGEL: There is a protocol for them as well. Return to Top Menu Subject: HWC: COPYRIGHT Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 16:31:03 +0800 From: "LWG" (e-mail address deleted) Organization: Netvigator Newsgroups: misc.writing.screenplays And yet another set of notes from the Hollywood Writers Conference. A surprisingly interesting seminar on Copyright, which is a yawn for most of us. But it is good to know that if you quote from the song "Happy Birthday" you are actually infringing a currently held copyright. It is not in the Public Domain. And surprisingly other things like the image of certain landmark buildings might be copyrighted. Perhaps all writers need to know is that registering their script only establishes date of creation, and that titles cannot be copyrighted, but just in case you decide to take the plunge, whip out the credit card, and make your own movie, perhaps you should get a copyright clearance certificate first. Lawrence. COPYRIGHT CLEARANCES FOR PRODUCERS AND WRITERS DON DISTEFANO... Writers Guild New Technologies Committee PATRICK MARKEY... Producer of The Horse Whisperer, The Natural, A River Runs Through It. SASHA FARRAH... Copyright Research. De Forrest Research. GREG VICTOROFF....Coipyright Attorney and Partner at Rohde & Victoroff COPYRIGHT DEFINITIONS:... (c) = copyright (r)= Federally registered trademark (u) = Kosher Meat Subject Matter: Things fixed in tangible medium of expression. There is no copyright on ideas or secret processes. Ideas can be covered by non-disclosure agreements. NDA Made up words are not copyrightable. Trademarks like Exxon etc. Are. Patents, not copyrights, cover inventions and secret processes. The moment of creation creates the copyright. Registration is not necessary. The moment you fix it, i.e. put it on paper, or film, then you have copyright. You don't even need to put (c) on it. But use it because it tells the world who to write the checque to. (Write (c) Date, Owner) Use roman numerals so that no one knows at a glance how old it is! Be careful about making assumptions of what is in the Public Domain. The song "Happy Birthday" by the way is still copyrighted! In the case of works made for hire, the employer owns the copyright. Artists should try and keep copyright unless you are happy with a buy out. Copyright can only be bought out before you start work. If the agreement is not signed before you start then the copyright is still yours. But only if you can prove that you did not really believe that they were going to take it. Moral rights do not apply to motion pictures in the US. But the do apply in France. There you cannot do anything without consent of director. SASHA FARRAH: Thompson and Thompson Deforrest Research provide script clearance reports. Before a script goes to production the Insurance Co. Requires a copyright clearance report. The report highlights areas of possible conflict. They identify quotes, use of trade names, use of paintings, images, props etc. And check that the producers have permission to use them. Trade names are usually OK because it is free advertising but often the company makes demands on how they are used. The check the names of the characters. EG if a name of a character is close to a real character and the attributes are similar, like there's an LA lawyer with the same name as an LA lawyer in your script, then there might be a problem. The Copyright Ownership report traces the ownership of (c) and looks for underlying and derivative works. Trademark reports similarly check who owns trademarks. The Title is not copyrightable. Script Clearance must take place before productions begin because it will stop a lot of problems later on because insurance will pay infringements not picked up by thorough searches by reputable companies. Some titles though can be a trademark if used for a series of films become a trademark through useage. The essence of Copyright infringement is copying. DAN DESTEFANO: New Media produce a nebulous copyright area. The Interactive program contract now gives guild coverage for interactive media. Registering your script with the writers guild is a good way of establishing the date of creation. But they only hold it for five years. You copyright with Washington if you want the registration to be in perpetuity. PATRICK MARKEY: I negotiate for books etc. As a producer I should know where the risks for infringement are and make my own judgement whether to risk it. So I get a search done as soon as I have a script that I intend to shoot. Product Placement now doesn't serve the movie because copyright gets so complicated. Anyone who wants to give you a bag of peanuts wants script approval. So now it is hardly worth doing since they want to protect the product not the movie. They want to have their products in for certain lengths of time in positive circumstances. If it doesn't end up like the way they want them then you can end up in dispute for years afterwards. JODY ZUCKER: In TV there is no product placement because the network doesn't like it. But you need verisimilitude so you will use products. So permission will be got. If you shoot in a private house you should be wary of Original Art contained there. You have to have a license to reproduce these. Copyright now covers certain architectural works so you can get in trouble using certain buildings in your sets. Also statues, sculptures, in cities might need licensing. Dead celebrity names and even animals like Trigger need clearing. GREG LAPIDUS: If people use an album cover in a film I don't mind. But now my album covers may be computer manipulations of other images. So you should use these products at your own risk. Storefronts, Passers By, can all claim privacy protection! Return to Top Menu Subject: HWC: New Technologies and Opportunities Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 17:01:48 +0800 From: "LWG" (e-mail address deleted) Organization: Netvigator Newsgroups: misc.writing.screenplays Another one for the collection of notes from the Hollywood Writers Conference. Perhaps this proves that as soon as you start talking about what might happen in the future, you start talking about something you really have no idea about. Some speculations here make some sense. Digital Delivery systems will most likely have a big impact on the business. Though what that means is anyone's guess. And well, does anyone seriously believe that we will get the actorless, cameraless do it yourself on a computer screen movie and be able to sell it to an audience? Lawrence. HOLLYWOOD 2000-The new millenium The future of Hollywood. New Technologies and opportunities ALEX BEN BLOCK... Editor of The Hollywood Reporter ARTHUR HILLER... Director of Love Story, Outrageous Fortune TED KOTCHEFF... Director of First Blood MEYER GOTTLIEB – President of The Samuel Goldwyn Co. DEBRA HILL - President, Debra Hill Productions-Escape from LA, The Fisher King MEYER GOTTLIEB: Too many films are released. 5-7 years ago there were 420 per year in the US. Today there are 550 per year in the US. The Studios used to do 150, but today it is 250. Big movies are squeezing small film out of business. You have to spend lots to promote the small films and on average films do worse, even though the audience is growing. In the future there will be less produced but the audience will be larger so there will be more money for individual films. TED KOTCHEFF: As a director I have made commercial films and small Canadian films using subsidies. I think the current situation is positive. You can make smaller personal films in the US now. I've found that by using computer graphics you can bring period films into the low budget end. All the big studios have now got small specialty companies. ARTHUR HILLER: The day is coming when one person can do the whole movie on Computer. What's lacking in this is the cooperative aspect of movies. That's the worry I have about the future. But no matter how technology changes it comes down to creative story telling. But collaboration is the good thing about movie making. DEBRA HILL: The challenges now are different to those of 20yrs ago. More people are making movies. Films are driven less by story than by marketing. It is becoming harder to make movies even though more are being made. Most are not getting distribution. The development of the script now ends up with marketing dictating casting, dictating release times and scheduling etc. TED KOTCHEFF: Spectacle is good but you need stories for them. MEYER GOTTLIEB: Film will always be used but there will be lots more delivery systems. TED KOTCHEFF: Editing has been revolutionized by computers. ARTHUR HILLER: You can recreate anyone on film now using computers. You can now do a film with Humphrey Bogart and you can make happy endings for Casablanca. Question from the audience: When is ability instead of nepotism going to get people into the industry? MEYER GOTTLIEB: There are legal reasons why it is necessary to have agents. We won't read a script without it having representation because it protects us. DEBRA HILL: There's a huge amount of material there. Agents legitimize material in some way. They filter it. TED KOTCHEFF: I've been sued. I made "Uncommon Valour" but I got sued because ten years earlier I received a similar script. Q: A recent conference in Canada said US films are market driven rather than quality. ARTHUR HILLER: They feared that the US was taking over parts of their culture. Maybe new tech will allow local films to play around the world. MEYER GOTTLIEB: I disagree. The reality is that the US does make artistic films. Not all are market driven. The US is 80% of box office globally. Globally there are lots of films made but people prefer US films. US does the business better. But in the US there is no government support. Q: How can writers keep involved with the project all the way thru? ARTHUR HILLER: I like writers on set because things change. But most writers get bored hanging around and have other things to do. By nature of the way film is made, the director has to be boss. Writers can direct if they want, but unless they are there they must recognize this. DEBRA HILL: It costs money to have writers on set. But it is sometimes helpful. It depends on the writer's relationship with the team. ARTHUR HILLER: It is the director's job to make everyone feel part of the process. Q: What will be the new opportunities? TED KOTCHEFF: It will be digital distribution. But who knows what will change? MEYER GOTTLIEB: The creativity will be the same. The process of getting it to the public will change. The script will stay the same. DEBRA HILL: The story is most important. Big event movies are fine but they only work if they have a story. ARTHUR HILLER: In the academy awards, 4 out of 6 nominations were small films. MEYER GOTTLIEB: We're never going to get rid of the artists because of technology. No one will go to see stuff they can make themselves at home. They will just have higher demands. Q: Whazt would you like to happen in the future? DEGBRA HILL: I would like to see salaries of actors come down. TED KOTCHEFF: Spending on actors cuts down shooting time. People used to care about the film but now I have to deal with businessmen who just see it as a product. ARTHUR HILLER: I hope we get back to movies being done by people who care about them. And I want more heart and soul movies where you can care about the people. Story and Relationships should be more important than mere spectacle. MEYER GOTTLIEB: I think they should split the studios in two. One lot doing Event movies and one dealing with the other movies. We need both sides but at studio level there is too much emphasis on producing these big films. Q: Does the failure of big films wake up studios? DEBRA HILL: Making movies used to be magic. But we now tell our secrets. So everyone knows the box office figures, salaries etc. So sometimes people just see the figures. MEYER GOTTLIEB: People want to know what people make in films. We need press collaboration. This is the way it is. Studios want to buy an audience. So to get a good opening they need a star. .And so on. Working backwards. If you need to spend that much for an opening, you have to have certain films. But in the end, after the opening it is the audience liking it that counts. ARTHUR HILLER: But studios want home runs each time. They could make smaller ones. MEYER GOTTLIEB: That's not their business. Small companies are in that business. Return to Top Menu Subject: HWC: SELLING FEMALE PROTAGONISTS Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 17:35:42 +0800 From: "LWG" (e-mail address deleted) Organization: Netvigator Newsgroups: misc.writing.screenplays Another posting from my Hollywoo Writers Conference Notes. Some interesting bits and pieces on the Chic Flick industry. All the usual disclaimers about accuracy. Though apart from the name of Cherry Norris's movie, I think most is pretty much accurate. Duty Dating? Dirty Dating? Doity Doiting? I couldn't work it out and was too shy to ask. Lawrence. SELLING FEMALE PROTAGONISTS LINDA SEGER: Author of Making a good script Great. LAURETTE HAYDEN: VP original movies for Lifetime TV. (TV for women.) CHERRY NORRIS: Writer/Director "Duty Dating" feature. AMANDA McHUGH: Director of Development, Blue Relief, Inc. ( Diana Keatons Co.) KAREN CRONER: Writer. One True Thing (Meryl Streep Movie.) Dexterity. STEPHANIE SAVAGE: Head of Development, Flower Films. (Drew Barrymore's co.) LINDA SEGER: The first film made by a woman was The Cabbage Fair in 1896 by Alice Key. In the early phases of the film industry it was the female star that opened the movie. This lasted into the 1940's. There is now a myth that Female Protagonists don't open movies. What has Lifetime TV Discovered? LAURETTE HAYDEN: It's more an issue in film. But Lifetime TV has done well out of using female protagonists. When I worked at HBO though, casting was a problem for women's roles because so few were accepted as bankable. But women like stories that move them and mix of genres. They want some level of poignancy. But we also find that we have a male audience as well. A Woman's Movie doesn't have to be about a Women's Issue. Q: A woman's movie is for a woman or about a woman? AMANDA McHUGH: I worked on Gena Davies' action movies. They failed. So I think people don't embrace women acting macho. But in Alien, Sigourney was accepted. But maybe because she was forced to be tough. Q: Aren't men forced? AMANDA McHUGH: Selling Diane Keaton is easy but no one would buy her doing big macho pieces. Women can be a lot of different things but roles are more limited in range. STEPHANIE SAVAGE: Drew Barrymore though only 23, has been in 30 movies so she is allowed a big say in casting and scripts. But there seems a backlash against the feisty women. If she's cute, people are happier than if she's more aggressive and challenging. KAREN CRONER: Ignore the business completely is the best way to survive as a writer so I write Chic Flics. AMANDA McHUGH: Most resistance comes out of the agencies. They feel women's films are smaller, thus you get less money. The studios are nervous about this because the Big budget movies are working well. But then Titanic did well and that was driven by a women's audience. So the trend might change. But agents fail to push the women's movies so much. So you have to fight. KAREN CRONER: Studios resist so you have to find people who are receptive. It isn't that all execs are against you. STEPHANIE SAVAGE: 50% of Fox 2000 are women. And they seem happy to make Drew Barrymore movies. So if you find a good home, make the best of it. So you have to network and find those you can do business with. LINDA SEGER: Pitching female projects to all men execs seems problematic. Is it important to have women in that room? LAURETTE HAYDEN: As we get into higher position it will make a difference. We do do business differently. Lifetime TV is largely women. There is a new young audience and the TV and Movie world are crossing over. Cable TV etc. Have opened up markets for a wider variety of types of films. E.G. Black comedy can be done on TV but not on features. LINDA SEGER: There is movement back and forth between TV and Movies. STEPHANIE SAVAGE: I've found little real difference between Male/Female execs response. Romantic Comedy if you like that , that's fine. And I found men and women who liked it, not just women. The story is the key thing. Q: Can women play traditional male provinces? AMANDA McHUGH: No problem getting women in Romantic Comedy. But they always want an equal male roll. And you get conflict between who is the star. LINDA SEGER: Can a woman drive a sci fi movie? Action adventure? LAURETTE HAYDEN: We try to appeal to the community of women. But action adventure does get made within this context. You cannot just put a woman in a man's role. You have to write it so it rings true. Prime Suspect is a successful because she solves her crime differently, her relationships work differently . Women in Sci Fi are harder because it is so traditionally male. STEPHANIE SAVAGE: Barrymore is developing film about female burglars. So although it is not an action film it has action. Another project is a true story about woman who lived as a man until she was killed. But this project has difficulties because the main character was unsympathetic. KAREN: Women's Period Pieces are the most difficult to sell. AMANDA McHUGH: Period pieces are difficult. Chick Frock Picks get a double strike against them. Since Thelma and Louise you've had the woman ensemble. So get if you can get Goldie, Dian, Bette etc. Together, then you can get things made. Studio will buy two chicks for one guy. Put three in it's better. This is a trend that works. CHERRY NORRIS: Duty Dating was written for a woman in her forties. The age proved problematic. If I got a studio in I was worried that the end result would be different so they advised the independent route if I wanted to get a film close to my vision. So I borrowed people's collateral and borrowed money from the bank. LAURETTE HAYDEN: It is hard to do two female leads ensemble because of the expense so we try to get one main lead so they have more money for the rest of film. But the audience is looking for easy viewing not difficult stories. We like different edgy surprising but not too odd. Q: Action genre tends to have reluctant hero whether Male or Female. AMANDA McHUGH: I agree. But people are more willing to let the male just go out and be tough. Q: Women are saving themselves but is it acceptable for them to save a man? LAURETTE HAYDEN: There is progress because women usually had to be saved by someone else. But women in the audience often do not choose things to watch without referring to what their men want. You just have to accept that audiences are conservative. They don't live in LA. Return to Top Menu Subject: HWC: Creating the next Mythology Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 18:04:33 +0800 From: "LWG" (e-mail address deleted) Organization: Netvigator Newsgroups: misc.writing.screenplays Notes from the Hollywood Writers Conference. This was one of those surreal events where I did not know whether I was being sold an exercise machine or a tub of snake oil. Capt Dale Dye... Dial? Dire?... was a comic turn in his own right, complete with string bracelets, one for each man who died under his command. One knew one had stepped into an alternative reality when a member of the audience stood to attention, soluted and er, grunted, as a grunt no doubt should. The man might have been talking rubbish but he at least was saying it very clearly. Apparently Spielbergs soldiers were meant to be Warriors, not mere soldiers, and therein probably lies all the problems of the film. Lawrence. CREATING THE NEXT MYTHOLOGY LINDA THURMAN... Hollywood Creative Directory. CAROLYN McDONALD ... Co Producer "Buffalo Soldiers" CAPT DALE DYE... Marine corp Rtd. Consultant to film companies on military issues. Bootcamp trainer for Spielberg's Saving Sgt Ryan. PAMELA JAYE-SMITH... founder of Mythworks. Consultant for films, Seminars on Creativity and myths for story tellers. LINDSAY SMITH ... Lit. Editor for Lucas films. PAMELA JAYE SMITH: Those who tell the stories rule the nation. Myths are the stereotypes that explain the world around and within us. Since the world has changed the myths should change. Originally Ulysses was Wise. Later he became Wily. New technologies create a different sense of good and evil. There are three stages of change. We move from the Tribal Consciousness. With its separatism, and exclusiveness. Then there comes Individual Consciousness. Where the individual steps out of the tribe and takes a new view of the world. Then he develops Group Consciousness. You fold yourself into the group. You do things with the others in mind. LINDA THURMAN: I believe there will be a new exploration of human consciousness. We used to have a passive media. Now it can be interactive. The language of dissolves/fades etc. Is changing to the media networks of many different people. We will have instant access to all information and lots of people. This will produce new ways of story telling, new media. Myth will be created as it goes along rather than used as a way of explaining the way it is. CAROLYN MCDONALD: We should be trying to create stories that reflect the world as it stands now. I want to show the different cultures throughout the world and help develop the individual voice and respect for others. CAPTAIN DIAL: Wars are inevitable. We're tribal. We can reduce it. We can make it less painful. Writers can help. War is drama. You run the gamut of emotions. Those stories are easy to tell but not well. Warriors are in the highest form of public service. You will lay down your life for the group. So you believe there is a greater good that the individual will subscribe to. This is noble. Nobility is lacking in this society. PAMELA JAYE SMITH: The task of the warrior is to defend the good and innocent. It is an archetype that should be studied to get this right. LINDSAY SMITH: There are so many themes in the media. Our lives are dominated by a lot more influences. So as a writer, how can you hold to your own sense of purpose? How do you get from all this the zeitgeist of the moment? How can you capture the imagination of the community? American Mythology... what is it? What images will stick? We must examine what we think we believe. If you get away from your gut level truth, you will lose sight of what is really true for you. You will get closer to the mythic source of the your influences. PAMELA JAYE SMITH: Robert Gould would say how a popular film has spun a new twist on an old myth. The Myth of Andromeda being sacrificed to save land from plague. Poseidon, the monster, is to eat her. Perseus sees Andromeda and kills the monster and takes her. This myth is used in Titanic. The change has the man die so that Andromeda can go off and have a life of her own. LINDSAY SMITH: These truths are so fundamental that they come bubbling up. CAPT DYE: How do we see war? We are now killing to see war with an unblinking eye. We used to use war to make a point. Political, social etc. Patriotic flag waving films of the forties have given way to seeing things more objectively. What is important is that humans were willing to die for their belief. And someone will get hurt. So we must learn that the decision for war should not be taken lightly. Audiences are willing to support that now. Cognitive Disconnect. If you are raised for a year believing black is black, then storytellers cannot get away calling it white. It causes cognitive disconnect. You are bombarded with lots of images and you must know what all these images are and their effect on the audience. What would a warrior look like now? What is a conscious warrior? The US produces thinking warriors not automaton. LINDSAY SMITH: The warrior can be a gentleman, a poet, a woman, having the courage to speak up when there is wrong being done. CAROLYN McDONALD: With new technology, the ways of doing battle are changing. For instance in on line attacks on data basis. Information is the weapon in the info age. Writers reflect the age., LINDA THURMAN: Games and real war are looking similar. This undermines Warriors. They must know the consequences in real terms. PAMELA JAYNE SMITH: Perhaps there will be more awareness of the truth that all religions deal with. So there will not be a new religion but the awareness of core values of diverse cultures. Return to Top Menu Subject: HKW: The Story Analysts Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 18:51:01 +0800 From: "LWG" (e-mail address deleted) Organization: Netvigator Newsgroups: misc.writing.screenplays The Final Instalment of my notes from the Hollywood Writers Conference. Some of the dialogue here has been attributed to the last person who spoke rather than to the person who actually spoke, because for some reason my notes omitted to says who spoke on all occassions. I think it was because from where I sat I couldn't see the name cards and they were wrong anyway. Interesting that here a story analyst says he doesn't care about format. Also not an aside from one saying that stories from magazine articles had been coming his way. Compare that with the statement in one of the other sessions from the TV executives saying they have little interest in those sort of stories. The analyst appears to live in a strangely frustrating world. On the one hand they have their own tastes but this has little bearing on the scripts they have to read or the tastes of the executives they have to feed. So when they state their preferences you might imagine that one should try write for their tastes. However, they read exactly what they are told to read. So if agents and executives have different tastes, the scripts filtering into their offices will never be ones they like... and their enthusiasm is what you count on. No wonder it became difficult to tell who was saying what. They are, apparently, people forced to constantly second guess the tastes of others. It is all so much more straight forward in the UK. Lawrence. THE INSIDER VIEW: The Story Analysts DONNIE NELSON: Career strategies for Writers. ANDREW DOBEY: Warner Bros. Story Analyst. JIM FULLER: Story Analyst. Viacom. Management of Development. JEFF GRODE: Story analyst. 20th C. Fox. DONNIE NELSON: The STORY DEPARTMENT reads and covers your scripts. It can be a one man affair or a large department with a manager. The big studios use union people. ANDREW DOBEY: To be in the union guarantees a forty-hour workweek etc. Free lancers get $50 a script. You start as a free lancer. Then get the job and join the union. JEFF GRODE: I started as free lancer for United Artist. There's now a roster system, so the union lets studios know who is available. And Studios must employ one of them. JIM FULLER: Being a story analyst is a good experience for those trying to break into other things. Q: What Excites Story Analysts? JEFF GRODE: Good scripts grab you. But you also must think in terms of commerciality, though at Fox there is an Art house place. JEFF GRODE: I like exotic places in the scripts. Over seas backgrounds. I looks for clever twists on older ideas. Also craftsmanship helps. ANDREW DOBEY: Twisting the genre is an important aspect. DONNIE NELSON: Coverage is supplied in a top sheet stating the scripts Title, Genre, a synopsis of the story, then Comments and Recommendations, which come in the form of Yes, Maybe, No... Sometimes there is a wider list of categories. The spec script has to be a reading script. No camera angles and details of clothing make up etc. Are not necessary. There are no union Readers in TV. The proposals in TV are often very short so readers need not do a synopsis. JIM FULLER: There are not a lot of spec TV pilots. We read samples of movies and versions of other shows looking for the New Young Writers. JEFF GRODE: The reader is the first stage of evaluation in the studios. The executive won't read unless coverage says they should. The level of enthusiasm of the reader is important. The story analyst has to read the full script. But agents will not read more than 10 pages, similarly the producer. But the reader will read it all. So even if you only get listed as good in the dialogue you may get on a list for dialogue polishes. DONNIE NELSON: The free lance does much the same. They are the guardians of the gate. Your job is to know what the company likes. So your own taste is not important. ANDREW DOBEY: Coverage is important. It is written down. Coverage exists forever. So you only get one hit. Q: Should writers routinely submit to story editors? ANDREW DOBEY: Bulk submissions come from Agents. The agents attach producers. So many scripts come to the studios with a producer and with an agent. So the readers look at stuff that has been vetted by others. I do not recommend sending to readers direct. Obviously you are low on their priority. JEFF GRODE: When there is a plagiarism suit, Readers sometimes have to compare the scripts. Significant borrowings from character and dialogue etc. are plagiarism. Q: What are the signs of an amateur? DONNIE NELSON: One asks does the script have an awkward mix of genres. Is there any unique twist on this? Does a character driven piece offer a new view of life? Most scripts have good ideas but how is the plot and character developing the idea? Amateurs won't have act breaks, will not build to big endings etc. They have to know how to move characters thru development arcs. Pacing is important. There should be 30 second scenes. So long scenes playing out are not good ideas. Feature films have longer scenes but TV has gone more for very short scenes. Amateurs repeat too much. They are always recounting what is known. You should enter late and leave as soon as the point is made. Q: How long should a script be? DONNIE NELSON: For established writers, long scripts are fine. But beginners should submit short scripts to make it easy. Don't cheat the pages too much. 120 pages is fine but if a teen movie is more than 90 pages there has to be a reason. You get so much bad stuff that anything good is really welcomed. ANDREW DOBEY: 1 in 10 have merit. 1% of 1% get made. Most scripts need more work. JIM FULLER: If the reader likes it then they have to do market analysis. Q: Who reads it next? DONNIE NELSON: You read for an executive. Then you pass up a script for their weekend reading. Heads of production put together a list of scripts that every exec must read. Then there's a meeting to discuss weekend reading. They decide if they want to make a bid for it. Q: What are you looking for? ANDREW DOBEY: Romantic Comedy with an Edge. Teen Comedy. Thriller. But that' s this week. So any good story done well is good. JIM FULLER: Hollywood doesn't know what it wants. It goes in cycles. These days TV quality is high so feature people are finding TV interesting. So there's a cross over nowadays. JEFF GRODE: By the time you spot a trend it is too late. Stay away from fads and trends. Well written is better than commercial. Q: Is it worth using a lawyer to submit scripts? DONNIE NELSON: Lawyers can submit scripts for you but CAA and ICM scripts have perceived value. Lawyers cannot act as an agent. Thought it might help in plagiarism problem. Q: Do you care much about the format? Continueds? Mores? ANDREW DOBEY: I don't care. As long as it looks like a script. Q: Will any actors attached help? ANDREW DOBEY: If they have big names but the script still has to be good. DONNIE NELSON: Story Analysts will evaluate Books and Plays for screen adaptations. JIM FULLER: It's a major part of the job. They trawl the industry for hot stuff. Books tend to have less action and be more interior. JEFF GRODE: There seems to be a number of films coming from magazine articles stories. Q: How about out of state lit agents? JEFF GRODE: As long as they have signed the agreement they can submit. But LA agents are better. Q: Do you recommend Re Submissions? JEFF GRODE: If you do a rewrite, change title, you may get a second read. But try a few studios. If it doesn't arouse interest it needs rewriting or abandoning. ANDREW DOBEY: Sales need you to play the numbers game. Just because someone passes on the script, it is not necessary the end of the project. Rethinking it might work. JIM FULLER: Peer review is needed. So that you can feel confident you are up to standard before going to an agent etc. Remember you can pay for a professional reading. And that can be a help. Also there are classes to take on story analysis and writers groups etc. Q: How important is the Title? JEFF GRODE: I ignore titles. It's of minimal interest. Some titles can identify a product. Q: If you've had a private analysis wouldn't it give value? JEFF GRODE: No. It might make a better script that's all. JUM FULLER: No one wants to be first to the party. Once you get a bite then doors open but the first bite is hard. JEFF GRODE: The Nicholas Screenwriting competition is a good way of getting noticed. So there are a number of good competitions worth trying. That might get the attention of an agent. Return to Top Menu
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