Holiday Short Scene Winner!

With a 73% vote, Ann Thurber is the winner of the Rouge Wave Holiday Short Scene competition! Congratulations, Ann, what a way to start the New Year! Please contact the Wave-inatrix to collect your fabulous prizes:

$25 gift certificate to AMC theaters

A copy of Michael Hague's Selling Your Story in 60 Seconds, courtesy of The Great American Pitch Fest

A three month pass to Pitch Perfect, courtesy of the Writer's Store and the Great American PitchFest. This pass allows you to upload your video pitch on their website, along with your contact information, logline, and other information, where it is watched by industry executives. To check it out, please visit Pitch Perfect.

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Happy New Year!

As the new year approaches – no, I can’t do it. I can’t even type that time-worn, clichéd sentence about making goals and resolutions, it just hurts my brain. But you know what I mean. January 1st feels like a starting line of some sort, doesn’t it? It demarcates the year.

Personally – and there’s not an actual date I abide by – Fall is the time of year when I feel inspired to rev up and set some goals. It was probably ingrained in me from so many years of school – clang went the bell, squeak went the corduroy pants and off we went with our peechee folders to make it through another year with a horrible hair cut and some new trauma to endure – oh sorry, I digress.

For the sake of thematic consistency and so Rouge Wavers can immediately grasp the Big Idea of this post, let’s stick with January 1st. The strike isn’t over, it's gotten nasty and nobody knows how long it will last.

But we do know that the more ready-to-go inventory you have as an aspiring screenwriter, the more attractive you will be to potential agents, managers or producers. After the last strike, there was a creative boom in Hollywood. And this time may be no different except that the landscape will have changed. Have you considered writing a Webisode like Marshall Herskovitz's Quarter Life? (Disclaimer: Herskovitz is my boss) What about a television pilot? An original HBO-type movie? The landscape is changing and it's changing fast. Will you be ready? I don't know about Rouge Wavers, but the Wave-inatrix is inspired and excited about the possibilities that may arise from this dark time.

We also know that all the big competitions are coming up with spring – Nicholl’s (a $30K fellowship, mondo publicity and tons of prestige) Disney ($50K fellowship, publicity and a jump-start on your career, potentially) Austin (cash prizes, prestige and publicity) The Blue Cat Competition (cash prizes, some publicity and great notes) Creative Screenwriting (cash prizes and publicity) and those are only the competitions off the top of my head.

So January is as good as any to look at the year going forward and ask yourself: how many scripts are in my arsenal? What kind of shape are they in? Which competitions shall I enter? What agents or managers will I query? What new ideas should I develop? In what way can I continue to network and to further my screenwriting education? How will this new landscape inspire and direct my strategy as a writer?

January is also a good time to look at the mirror and really ask yourself – do you want to do this be a writer thing? If so, what are you doing to further your career? Take stock, set goals and make the time to write. Treat yourself to a great book on screenwriting. Sign up now to go to a screenwriting conference or lecture at your local university. Check out some blogs you might not have heard of. And write. Because there’s no silver bullet, there’s no substitute. But there are opportunities. Don't miss them.

Happy New Year, everybody!

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This Just In: Internet Revenue Non-existent?

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All of us are in the gutter

Tis the season when the Wave-inatrix catches up on all things movie. I look forward to it every year. I decamp to my narco-couch and local theaters and take in every movie I have been hankering to see all year. I find that one cannot be disgruntled and elated properly while watching the Golden Globes or Academy Awards if one has not viewed the fare in question.

Today I saw THE SAVAGES, with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney. One word: WOW. It was sad and funny and meandering and complex. Just like life. But what a satisfying movie. And of course (as most things do) it led the Wave-inatrix to think about the way this nasty old industry works. THE SAVAGES (and its precursor, THE SLUMS OF BEVERLY HILLS) is the kind of movie that most deeply satisfies my movie-going urges. Yes, I take in the big action pictures and yes I do enjoy them - but they don't stick in my brain and they don't inspire me as a writer.



Most often, when I write about the art and craft of screenwriting in the Rouge Wave, I am referring to the rules and expectations that most mainstream production companies and agents would have of your average spec script. Scripts like JUNO, LARS AND THE REAL GIRL and THE SAVAGES - three of my favorite movies of 2007 - would not pass the litmus test that is applied to spec scripts floating around on the market. And yet they were all fantastic, complicated, entertaining movies which collectively have made less at the box office than NATIONAL TREASURE made in its opening weekend.

So what is an aspiring writer to do? Write based upon the template of selling scripts, or write from the heart and hope for the best? It's a cliche but still good advice to say just write a good story. Write the kind of movie you'd love to see; write from the heart and damn the torpedoes. And if you never find "success", i.e., a sale, you can still know that you wrote for the only reason to do so - because you had something to say.

In the same breath, it is important for aspiring writers to have a sense of what goes on in the corridors of production companies in Hollywood, where the deals are made. Mostly, what transpires is a bit heartbreaking and depressing - but what do we become as writers if we don't reach for the stars and write outside of the box? We have to be able to straddle reality and our aspirations as writers. What if Van Gogh had only painted what was popular at the time? What if Hemmingway wrote what he thought would sell? Make no mistake, writers need to eat and of course, every successful writer has taken paying the bills into consideration. It's pie-in-the-sky to think otherwise. But we can't be unbalanced in the way that we approach our writing; it's bread and circus and paying the bills, it's zeitgeist and heartfelt and everything in-between.

Yes, there a lot of terrible movies made and yes, scripts like JUNO outstrip the quality of writing in many box office giants. Know thine enemy and keep your eyes on the prize. The ability to write is a gift. Use it to support yourself, use it to express yourself and never forget the writers who came before you who took risks, money be damned.

All of us are in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars...
Oscar Wilde

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Does Size Matter?

Just earlier this evening, the Wave-inatrix dined with a dear, old friend. We discussed the Philip Seymour Hoffman movie BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD. I told my friend I didn't particularly enjoy the movie. Oh, she said, it must be because you saw it on dvd, not on the big screen. And the Wave-inatrix thought - no, I just didn't care for it. I thought the writing was superlative (almost too good) but the movie just didn't pick up any emotional traction for me. I didn't care, in other words. Rather, I went on, I loved EASTERN PROMISES, and thought it was a far superior movie.

But it got the Wave-inatrix to thinking - how much more (or less) impact does a movie make if you see it on the big screen? Can or does it affect the experience to the point of liking or disliking the material? The Wave-inatrix has been lucky enough to view a large number of screeners of current (and upcoming) movies, sparing the time, trouble and expense of the movie theater. Is that a bad thing? Of the dozen movies I have seen in the comfort of my own home lately, DEVIL has been the only one that didn't stick, per se.

So the Wave-inatrix throws it out there to Wavers to ponder: does size matter?

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New Year Reflections - in Haiku

Cold windy night out
Christmas tree a skeleton
Uncertainty reigns

Any Rouge Wavers want to give it a whirl?

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Clothes Make the (Wo)man

Tom Hanks in EW Magazine, discussing CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR: “Charlie walks in, and he’s wearing cowboy boots, a brown pair of slacks, a purple shirt, and mismatching suspenders with little Spitfire airplanes on them that he’s run under the epaulets of his shirt. Half my work was done right there.”

We’ve discussed describing what your character wears on the Rouge Wave before. The Wave-inatrix weighed in, essentially, warning writers not to be too detailed UNLESS the way your character dresses is crucial to understanding the character. Even then, if your character dresses in Sergeant Pepper get up on a daily basis – it’s not really necessary to describe each outfit in each scene. Readers are smart – we get it, he’s a crazy dresser.

Many new writers make the mistake of going into too much detail.

Example one - the right way:

Dressed to the nines, EVELYN’s scarlet dress rustled as she walked . Expensive jewelry hung around her neck and wrists and she smelled of seduction.

Example two - the wrong way:

EVELYN wore a red Vera Wang evening gown, with a sequined bodice, taupe hose and black shoes on which silver buckles shaped like flowers glinted. Her necklace, 24-karats of Bolivian emeralds, accented her emerald drop earrings and emerald ring. For perfume, she wore Magdelena by Profusio.

Now, Wavers know I make up these examples on the spot so they’re pretty goofy but I literally do see example number two quite often. No, I'm not kidding. I really wish I were but I'm not.

In essence, you want to paint a picture of your character as quickly as possible. Four little words – dressed to the nines - say more than a thousand additional words. And I don’t care if the designer is Vera Wang – if you’re lucky enough to get your movie produced – let the costume designer discuss what kind of red dress with the actor and director. But on the page – I get it – she’s classy, elegant and wearing red. Done.

Economy is the word, here – economy and capturing a character’s essence very quickly. More important than what color your character is wearing is how they are dressed. Sexily, neatly, staidly, sloppily, dirtily….now those are traits that carry over from the clothes to the human wearing them, aren’t they?

Of course, as you build your character, you should imagine what they wear on a day-to-day basis and how they look when they go out. Do they dress to impress? Or do they not care about their appearance? If so, is it in a free spirit, Woody Harrelson way or is it due to depression, self-loathing or even mental illness? Why does your character choose to wear what they wear?

But on the pages of your script, keep descriptions relatively minimal; resist the urge to catalogue garments ad infinitum. Use words that describe intention, social class and over-all demeanor – not just details.

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Viggo Cut to the Chase - Can You?

Cut to the chase. You’ve heard that phrase before, it’s definitely a movie-term but now it’s used colloquially to mean, in general – GET TO THE POINT ALREADY.

At the Creative Screenwriting Expo last November, I took a break and walked the exhibition hall with my friend and mentor, Lee Zahavi at Script Shark. As we marveled at all the gee-gaws available for writers, Lee looked at me and laughed - just write a good script, right?

With the strike going on, conjecture is going crazy - what will the market be like after the strike? What is like during the strike? Will the climate be harder or easier for writers looking to break in? The answer is simple. Just write a good script. And a huge determining factor of a good script is how fast you cut to the chase.

Sometimes I find myself reading a script with that growing feeling – what already?? What is this script about? Just the other day I read a script about a mother/daughter relationship and I was on page fifteen thinking, okay, enough set up already! Where is this story going? Now – if I were an executive in charge of reading or tossing that script, I would have tossed it for sure.

I have been watching a lot of movies lately - I mean A LOT - and I've noticed that in general, regardless of whether or not I liked the movie as a whole (okay, full disclaimer, I hated THE BUCKET LIST), the story does giddy-up within the first ten minutes or so.

Why, just this evening, I watched EASTERN PROMISES - oh Viggo - and sure enough the movie starts off with a murder and switches straight to a pregnant teen dying in childbirth. Boom. Giddyup. And so the story begins. In 3:10 to YUMA, Christian Bale's problems are apparent and writ large almost immediately.

Maybe we all have ADD these days - certainly our lives are busier and contain more stimulation than they used to, I think that's a given. And so current movies reflect that. Screenwriters have less time for set up - audiences like you to cut to the chase.

Make sure that the Big Idea of your script is introduced as quickly as possible. Remember, set up and backstory can happen simultaneously with moving the story forward. Prelude and backstory do not interesting script pages make. Scripts are terrific reading if you have ADD – but if your script can’t deliver on that and be more or less instantly compelling – you’re in trouble.

How do you know if you’re got too much prelude? Pull the first six (full) scenes from your opening pages and answer these questions:

Does this scene movie the story forward in a distinct way, i.e., does it have a BEAT?

Can this scene be combined with another scene?

Does this scene contain the DNA of the premise?

Another thing you might do is give your script the page ten test. Read over the first ten pages and then ask yourself:

Where is this story going?
What is the Big Idea of this story?
Have I met the main character yet?
Could I articulate what the main conflict is probably going to be?

Readers who read several scripts a week can answer those questions easily when a script is really working. Yeah sure, some genres and some scripts might need another few pages to really rev up…but it’s better to err on the side of revving up pretty quickly and elaborating and filling in along the way than to have too much prelude.

Not only audiences, but Hollywood has a serious case of ADD – reading, execs, agents – everybody. So take off your tweed jacket with leather elbow patches and set down that pipe. This is not a novel. This is blueprint for a movie. And this is an industry that can be quite brutally competitive. So – cut to the chase – why am I reading your script?

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Voting Guidelines

Happy almost Christmas, Rouge Wavers! A number of readers have emailed me about the great number of votes that one Holiday Short Scene is receiving compared to the others. It is unusual, I must admit. In order to ensure the integrity of our short scene competitions here on the Rouge Wave, the Wave-inatrix must ask that voters please use the following criteria:

Which entry has the most "voice" and individuality?
Does the entry you want to vote for have a beginning, middle and end?
Does it surprise you?
How masterfully and organically did it incorporate the key words?
(eggnog, latke and blizzard)
Does the writer write seamlessly and professionally?
Is the dialogue organic?
Do characters reveal who they are in the way they speak, move and dress?
Does the short scene have a message, theme and tone that is universal and timely?

These considerations are very important when ranking or judging script pages. If we all log on and vote for our friends, then we aren't really rewarding good screenwriting.

I like each submission but I of course have my own professional opinion as to which is the strongest based on the criteria above. Rouge Wave scene competitions are for fun but they are also to teach us all a little something about the craft. So vote carefully and have a Merry Christmas.

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Speechless Montage

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Holiday Scene FINALISTS

Well Wavers, forgive the Wave-inatrix for posting these finalists a little late. The Script Department has been massively overloaded with reading lately - what's with these holiday writers getting a jump start on the strike resolution??

But I digress. Choosing the top three was very tough. Entries for this competition were to a one quite good. The Wave-inatrix carefully read over forty submissions (!) and carefully chose these three scenes as those that rose to the top as far as story and execution. Remember the rules - one to two page scene, had to include the words blizzard, egg nog and latke.

Please vote on the poll in the right hand sidebar.

And so, for your consideration:

ZAIDE by Mae Blumenthal

FADE IN:

EXT. AN 18TH CENTURY ENGLISH VILLAGE - DAY

A blizzard obscures this quaint village; snow drifts over thatched roofs and chimneys. It swirls violently then grows smaller, blurred and distorted until we pull back and -

-the image is replaced by a distorted view of miles of hot desert and dusty palm trees.

We pull back into -

INT. A HOTEL ROOM - JERUSALEM - SIMULTANEOUS

FLOYD CRAMER (70) puts the snow globe down and gazes out at the desert landscape.

FLOYD
(to no one in particular)
Who’s idea was this again?

HELEN CRAMER (68), grey hair in a stylish cut, pours herself another glass of egg nog.

HELEN
You know they fly this in from England?

Floyd levels his eyes at the egg nog with disgust.

HELEN
It’s kosher, too.

FLOYD
Helluva time of year. Grandkids are gonna miss my latkes back in Jersey. And we’re never gonna pay this off.

HELEN
Floyd, Chaim paid for this, remember? It’s his gratitude.

FLOYD
Gratitude? Chaim brings his two old Jewish parents to the Middle East as gratitude? He wants us dead.

Helen laughs and swats at her husband.

HELEN
We’re going to be late. A first birthday party is a very big deal in their culture.

FLOYD
Their culture. Saleh doesn’t want us here.

Helen puts down her egg nog and sits on the bed next to her husband. She runs her fingers through his wiry white hair lovingly.

HELEN
Chaim loves her.

Floyd gazes out at the desert for a long beat.

FLOYD
Well. Let’s go then.

Helen picks up a gift, wrapped in blue and white wrapping paper. Floyd puts on a yarmulke and turns to Helen. The yarmulke has “welcome to Israel” embroidered on it.

FLOYD
How do I look?

HELEN
Like a Zaide.

Helen hands Floyd the gift and opens the door to leave.


NO PLACE LIKE HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS by Dane Lowrie

INT. NURSING HOME RECREATION ROOM - DAY

It’s Christmas Day and a group of elderly residents (80’s &
90’s) are sitting in a festively decorated recreation room.
An orderly enters the room.

ORDERLY
We’re snowed in by this blizzard.
I’m sorry, but none of you will
have Christmas visitors today.

MACK
That blows.

Orderly leaves room and Irving excitedly enters, feverishly
spinning the wheels on his wheelchair.

IRVING
There’s latkes in the dining room!

MABEL
Latkes?

MACK
It’s a Jew thing.

ELEANOR
I like vodka.

MACK
Not vodka, latkes.

ELEANOR
If it wasn’t for vodka, my first
son would never have been
conceived. It was right after the
war...

MACK
(Exasperated)
Ay yi yi yi.

MABEL
I guess the carolers won’t be
showing up either.

MACK
I won’t miss ‘em. Except that
blonde with the nice jugs.

MABEL
That’s the pastor.

MACK
I don’t care what she does for a
living... she’s got huge titties.

Mabel gets up from her chair and looks down the hallway.

MABEL
Looks like they’ve got eggnog.

BOB
I’m lactose intolerant.

MACK
I’m idiot intolerant.

BOB
You want a piece of me?

MACK
What’re you gonna do? Ram me with
your wheelchair?

MABEL
Boys, we’re family here... let’s
have a nice Christmas.

IRVING
I don’t celebrate Christmas. I’m
Jewish.

MACK
Jesus was a Jew.

BOB
I thought he was Catholic. What’s
Santa Claus?

MABEL
Would anyone like to join me for
some eggnog?

ELEANOR
I’d like some vodka. If it wasn’t
for vodka, my first son would never
have been conceived. It was...

Mack shakes his head.

HOLIDAY SCENE by Ann Thurber

INT. BOOK STORE - NIGHT
The book store is a three-story giant, complete with coffee
shop. The upbeat Christmas music is a sharp contrast to the
cranky last-minute shoppers.

ALEX (31) stands in front of LUCY (27) who mans her station
at the customer service desk. He wears a wool coat and a
frazzled expression. She’s cheerful and her book store apron
is adorned with jeweled Christmas pins.

LUCY
Did you try our complimentary
eggnog and latke?

ALEX
What? I just need to exchange this
book for one I have on reserve.

He pulls a piece of paper from his pocket and hands it to
her. She looks at it, then picks up the book.

LUCY
‘The Architecture of London,’ huh?
This thing is huge. Who did you buy
it for?

ALEX
My girlfriend, but it looks as if
she already has it, so I need to
buy the one on French architecture,
instead.

Lucy turns around and matches the piece of paper to a book on
the “reserved” shelf. She turns back to Alex and places the
new book on the counter.

LUCY
Why’d you buy your girlfriend a
book on architecture?

ALEX
Because she’s an architect.
Lucy laughs to herself. Alex looks indignant.

ALEX
Why is that funny?

LUCY
No reason...I mean it’s kind of
unromantic, though. That would be
like buying me a book about book
stores.

ALEX
Thankfully I don’t need to buy you
a present.

LUCY
You might need to for some reason,
next year, if I get to know you
before then, and I’m just saying
that I don’t want a book on book
stores.

Alex opens his mouth to say something, then closes it. He
impatiently taps his index finger on the counter as Lucy
finishes the exchange.

LUCY
You owe $7.40.

Alex’s eyes widen.

ALEX
What? It was an even exchange at
the last store. They sent me here
because it was out of stock!

LUCY
All of our stores are different.

ALEX
I don’t care! I shouldn’t--

LUCY
Your girlfriend isn’t worth the
extra money?

Alex sighs and plunks his credit card on the counter. Lucy
slowly wraps the book in tissue paper, places it in a
decorative bag and hands it to him.

LUCY
Be careful out there, I heard a
blizzard might be coming.

Alex begrudgingly takes the bag and walks away.

LUCY
Merry Christmas...

She looks at the piece of paper used to reserve his book and
pockets it, smiling.

LUCY
Alex Taylor.

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Do We NEED to Own Movies?

When I was a kid growing up - age hint spoiler alert - once a year, THE WIZARD OF OZ was on television, once a year at school, there was a gymnasium showing of OLIVER!, and at Halloween we gathered around our three-channel set and watched IT'S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN. Of course, Christmas would absolutely not have been the same without the much-anticipated Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer. To this day, Burl Ives is the voice of Christmas. Oh, oh and - you're a mean one, Mr. Grinch. I loved the Grinch's dog with the antlers strapped on his head.

This is not to mention of course, the Saturday evening family tradition of gathering round the set to watch Mary Tyler Moore and Bob Newhart. Of course, Sundays was Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. My life was grounded in the routine of this kind of entertainment. I have not seen OLIVER! the number of times I have seen some of the dvds I own today but that movie is indelibly etched in my mind. I have memories of watching it in a stuffy gym full of giggling, snuffling grade-schoolers. And in the end? When Nancy gets killed? You could have heard a pin drop.

These movies and television shows were special because they weren't available all the time. You had to wait. You had to be sat down with your kool aid and popcorn right on time. The whole family would watch. Nowadays, people make jokes about Marlon Perkin's assistant Jim and some charging rhino. At the time though - we were transfixed! And Rhoda. And Sanford and Son. Later, the Love Boat and Fantasy Island - and that's right around the time television changed and our family no longer gathered around the tv at the same time. And of course these days, dvds of entire seasons of television shows are easily available.

In the time before TiVo, a few refrains from the opening credits of Star Trek caused a stampede at my house. And of course Mary Tyler Moore - you couldn't miss those opening credits because you had to see her throw that beret up in the air. You're gonna make it after all!

I know many screenwriters and movie-lovers who collect dvds of their favorite movies. But honestly - do they watch them all? Repeatedly? When I mean collect, I mean I know people who own hundreds of movies. They buy them on dvd, they buy them on VHS in the discount bin - they devote entire rooms to these movies. In the same way that people used to collect records - made from vinyl - stay with me kids, those were those round, black things that music used to come on? Before iTunes and iPods? Anyone? Anyone get a visual on that?

But movies? Why collect movies? Is it a compulsion? An addiction? Do we need a 12-step program? So I got to thinking about it...

I own about 25 dvds - and I can honestly say, of that collection, there are about six that I watch from time to time, as a comfort food kind of thing. The others I own because I illogically feel one ought to own them. Here's an example: MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON. I own that. And I love it. And I've seen it a number of times. But - do I watch it more than once a year? No way. Every two years? No. It's sitting in my dvd drawer like that bottle of fish oil derived omega 12 that we all have because we bought it on a health-kick four years ago. I also own DONNIE DARKO. Why? I dunno. Because it's cool?

So - why do so many of us almost compulsively buy dvds? My theory is this - it's grasping. It's Kilroy was here. It's laying claim to a moment in time on our tiny planet hurtling through space. It's trying to recreate and reclaim that magical feeling the first time you saw a movie that you loved. And I'll cop to all of those things. I'm Irish - we're born with sentimental genes. It's been scientifically documented.

When I hear Jimmy Stewart's soft, ever-so-distinct voice in say, HARVEY (which I also own) I feel comforted. I feel as if life is okay with Jimmy Stewart in it. When I watch Gene Kelly dance in AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (yup, own it) to "I've Got Rhythm" I smile because you know what - old man trouble? He doesn't mind him. You won't find him. Round his door.

And that is the legacy of the movies and that is what Americans are grasping at when they buy them, hand-over-fist. It's comfort. It means we're alive. Because movies give shape and meaning to the rough and tumble of reality. Because at my house? Jimmy Stewart is still very much around. And so is Ratso Rizzo. And Gene Kelly and Doris Day. Come around anytime if you'd like to spend time with Jack Lemmon. Or Marilyn Monroe. Billy Wilder has a lot to say at my house. And so does Preston Sturges and Vincent Minelli.

Because when I watch Georges Guetary dance up steps that light up one at a time in AN AMERICAN IN PARIS....I'll build a stairway to paradise, with a new step everyday... I know that everything is going to be okay and that life, so often a challenge, so difficult and painful is fundamentally good because entertainment is salve for the soul.

And to give Wavers a hint of how wonderful that song is...here's Rufus Wainright covering it in THE AVIATOR:

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Is This a Comedy?

Recently, I heard on NPR, the tail end of a brief story about two adult men whose father went missing while canoeing five years ago. The boys no doubt went through a great deal of grief but recently found out that their father is quite alive and in Panama. And, it turns out, their mother knew it the whole time. Can you say a-w-k-w-a-r-d Christmas?

Instantly I thought – wow, that’s a story! But what kind of story? Ten writers would have ten different answers. What if William Goldman wrote it? Akiva Goldsman? P.T Anderson? And that's not even wondering what a director might do. Imagine this brief premise made into a movie by the Coen Brothers. Or Frank Darabont. Or Martin Scorsese.

The questions that immediately arise are – is this a comedy? Tragedy? What era is it set in? Who is the main character – the father? Or the sons? Which son? Is it a revenge story? Is it ineluctably sad like ORDINARY PEOPLE or is it CASTAWAY meets DUDE WHERE’S MY CAR with a canoe?

These types of decisions need to be predicated largely on three things: what turns you on most as a writer about the newsclipping, what your strengths are as a writer, and – most importantly, sorry to say – the market.

How do you know what kind of box office your idea would do? Well, we know that message movies and dramas are Oscar bait. We know that quirky comedies are lower budget and will attract cool, on-the-cusp actors like Ellen Page or Jason Schwartzman, we know that middle America loves a feel-good tearjerker with a universal message about the enduring power of love and family – but what movie do YOU want to write? What will keep you up late at night?

What is the first thing you felt, Wavers, when you read that first sentence about this particular event? Did you cringe? Laugh? Feel sad? What makes you curious about this story? Do you immediately wonder what kind of father would do this? Do you feel for him - is he a hero to you, is he like Harrison Ford in THE MOSQUITO COAST? Or is he a cold deadbeat? Do you picture a story set in Panama or do you picture the boys back in England, growing up without their dad and fantasizing, like TOTO THE HERO, that dad is a dashing adventurer?

So many movie ideas are out there waiting to make it into your writing mind. But once that snippet grabs your attention, then you get to take that wonderful literary license and craft a story out of it - predicated on what turns you on as a writer. What is your initial reaction to what you just read or heard? And how will that translate to the big screen?

Is this the next Reese Witherspoon movie? Is she the duplicitous mother telling her boys she has no idea where dad is? Nah. She's too young for that role. Is it bankable to center on the mother? Or is this a vehicle for Tom Cruise to play a father who lets down his boys? Can he play age 30 to 40? What if you make that father Bill Murray? Or Tommy Lee Jones? See how the story idea morphs slightly when you insert different actors into the role? Wait until you find exactly the right road in to the story and then start outlining.

It's all right if you find something about this story funny - comedy is just coping with tragedy. And maybe that's the less obvious way in. Or not. Isn't it fun being a writer?

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Lost in Translation Whisper REVEALED

SPOILER ALERT

Wavers - if you want to know what Bill Murray said to Scarlett Johansson at the end of LOST IN TRANSLATION - do NOT play this video.

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Gretchen Mol

In 3:10 to YUMA, Gretchen Mol plays Christian Bale’s pretty but hardworking wife. It’s a small role relative to Bale and of course Russel Crowe, but it is a necessary and a good one. But it struck me – Gretchen Mol is pretty and she most certainly can act – but she’s most definitely on the B-list. Probably that’s a combinations of things - she isn’t into the same embarrassing antics as Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears and she just hasn’t had that much big screen exposure. Maybe she's discerning. Maybe the box office doesn't love her as much as it loves say, Rene Zellwegger or Angelina Jolie. But - is that a bad thing?

Whatever the reason, her B-list status is exactly what made her perfectly cast in 3:10. She’s didn't cost the production several, absurdly inflated million dollars and her celebrity did not precede her and overshadow the part.*

It goes without saying that more and more as studios hedge their bets around a big opening weekend, A-list stars are in demand. But does that strategy always benefit the movie? No matter what movie I see, if Julia Roberts is in it, I think oh - that's Julia as Charlie Wilson's wife. That's Julia as that Brockovich lady. That's Julia as a hooker. Not going to say a bad word about Julia - she's a good actress. But I don't see the character. I see Julia. Or Reese. Or Angelina. I mean, seriously, who can watch anything with Angelina Jolie in it and not wonder about all those kids and what Brad's like to wake up to?

But as a writer breaking in, of course you want to write a part that is Big Star Aphrodisiac; it can be the slam dunk in packaging and therefore making your movie. But what if your script really is very character driven, and isn't Big Star bait? Will this prevent you from packaging or selling your project?

Not necessarily. A smallish part in your script can cut both ways – on the one hand, a less expensive actor can make your script more expedient to produce – but at the same time, a big name actor attached to the material is obviously a huge plus for the project if you're looking for a studio sale. A six-figure studio sale is what most aspiring writers imagine. But - what if you could get your movie made with a budget that did not include twenty million dollars for one role? What if there's a B-lister out there just dying to lay down some acting chops?

In a way, it’s sad that we no longer live in a world of understated performers like Mol, or say, in yesteryear, of Jean Arthur, Olivia De Havilland, Gene Tierney – actors willing to take supporting roles and subjugate their celebrity for the sake of the role. Gretchen Mol did a great job in 3:10 and the movie benefited by her presence – she didn’t overwhelm the part and she came at a great price. Kind of makes you miss the studio system.

*Irrelevant side story: My son was visiting a movie set with me once; Mol was one of the leads. She asked his name and said he was cute. Remember the scene from Amelie? When she melts/turns into water and hits the floor? That was my son. But you didn't just hear that story.

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Butt in Chair: But Where?

I was chatting with a writer friend who is vacationing in rural Oregon at the moment and he complained to me that he just can’t write. It’s too quiet. He’s bored. He thought a remote area populated by elk, tule and dark clouds would be perfect but he was wrong. In fact, the only work he has done is a puzzling page with “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” typed over and over.

I have a good friend in Germany who is a novelist. She frequently goes on media fasts and repairs to a small cottage in Greece for weeks at a time, only leaving the cottage to go to the market and buy wine and food. It sounds heavenly to the Wave-inatrix, and my friend certainly loves it and finds herself to be quite productive. But that kind of isolation is not for everyone.

I personally love to write in cafés because I like the white noise of other people chatting; it makes me feel alone and yet not alone. I need something going on in the background. If I write at home, I have the radio on softly in the background and make sure to walk and get coffee or a bagel each morning so I get out of the house.

Writers need focus so we can journey inward to that other-worldly place where stories are born and where characters speak through us. For some, a cabin by a lake is perfect and for others, well – you saw THE SECRET WINDOW, right?

Other writers love a café or otherwise bustling atmosphere where there is people watching and a sense of aloneness within the crowd. But then we’ve all seen TAXI DRIVER as well.

Finding the right atmosphere, time of day and location is crucial to maintaining a writing schedule. The Wave-inatrix is herself guilty of not doing that much writing lately. But it’s one of those things like exercising – you can rationalize to yourself that you just don’t have time, or you can fit it into your daily routine and be amazed how much you can accomplish in 30 to 60 minutes.

Take some time, as we approach the New Year, to examine your likes and dislikes when it comes to writing. This is one area where you get to spoil – and be honest – with yourself. Being a writer is a competitive, grueling, fantastic, strange way to make a living. But nobody is going to do it for you. Three words: Butt in chair. But where?

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Black List Ruminations

by Margaux Froley-Outhred

What does the Black List mean to you? If your first reaction is a cringe-inducing reminder of the Communist witch-hunt in Hollywood led by Joe McCarthy in the 50s - big history kudo points to you but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about today's Black List, an annual list put together by an industry insider who polled about 150 executives and high level assistants to find out which scripts they liked the most in 2007. It is noted that this isn’t necessarily a “Best of” list, but rather a “Most Liked” list. (Make of that differentiation what you will.)

Are you a first time reader of the Black List who pores over every script mentioned, trying to suck some of that writer’s mojo from the page? Or are you a seasoned cynic who thinks, really? That script? CAA must behind that hype.

For me, the annual Black List is my personal List of Despair. Every year it’s a fresh ulcer, digging a hole in my stomach. It’s the voice of my mother asking me why I want to be a screenwriter when so few actually succeed? It’s a List of How I’ve Failed For Yet Another Year to Make it in this Town. It’s a list of those writers who have somehow penetrated the ranks of executives and assistants and gotten noticed for a script that stands out from the pack.

From a development standpoint (i.e., the List’s origins), it makes sense. Development execs and their assistants have to trudge through so many bad scripts that suck their lives and weekends away. When the rare script arrives that is actually a good read, it’s understandable that they get excited and that rare script would get mentioned on this list. However, what also happens in the development world is that a good script gets mentioned on a tracking board of several similar minded and leveled execs. And then what happens? Hype. Once a script is deemed “ A great read!” “ Original voice”, who would dare challenge such opinions? The scales are tipped and a script or writer becomes commonly known as “great”. If an executive is told how great a script is once, often it will be read with that opinion in mind. Go with the flow becomes not just a suggestion, but a way of life. And if you’re an executive and your boss hears about a great writer, you bet that executive is scared to get caught without a meeting in the books with that writer.

Once the script is hyped, it’s a matter of hours or maybe days for word to get around town how “great”/ “original” this new script is. This is where agents and managers earn their money creating buzz. And buzz they do. These executives and assistants aren’t doing their jobs if they aren’t on top of the daily buzz. And then come the generals.

The writer is sent out to these companies to continue the buzz train, and if they can carry an engaging story, or tell tales of their time as a stripper, then, they are given the next level of buzz on the tracking boards and around town. “Oh, he’s awesome. We’re trying to find a project for him.” And if one guy is trying to find a project for him, you bet that another exec will try to beat him to the punch.

This really isn’t meant to be a bah-humbug, cynical writer perspective; it’s pretty much how this town works. “It only takes one yes”, couldn’t be more true. This town is like a high school game of telephone revolving around the new kid at school. Will he or she make it to the cool table and get asked to prom? Maybe. And if you’re lucky, maybe, you’ll be the prom king or queen next year. This year’s prom queen would have to be Diablo Cody for her return to the Black List, and the brilliant execution of last year’s Black List entry, JUNO.

However cynical I might sound here, there is something to be said for the writers on this list. Whatever they did, whether we agree with that script selection or not, these writers found a way to stick in the heads of a lot of influential people in this town. And really, when it comes to getting the next job, that’s huge! These writers deserve to be congratulated for working their magic on the page and in the room to make it to this list.

Regardless of how a script got there, The Black List is always an interesting lesson in development vs. box office. Last year 3:10 TO YUMA and JUNO were near the top of the list, both of which turned out terrific films, while the box office might not be huge. Also, THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE, which tanked at the box office. This year’s Black List seems heavy with political thrillers, which have been box office poison this season. (RENDITION, IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH, MICHAEL CLAYTON, THE KINGDOM). While creative writers are working with some amazing current stories and political tensions, audiences don’t seem to want to be reminded about what’s on their nightly news. These scripts might be great reads, but do audience’s care?

There were an astonishingly low number of comedies, and very few women represented on this list. In a year where Warner Brothers announced it would no longer make movies with female leads (which was later recanted) thanks to a handful of Nicole Kidman, Jodie Foster box office stinkers; no wonder female stories aren’t sitting at the popular table this year. Will there even be a Prom Queen next year?

I’m curious about what other writers think of the Black List. Is there a lesson to be learned or is just a strange industry practice that we observe annually? Recognizing what we think, maybe, could be the best, but we won’t say it’s the best, we’ll just say that we liked it so no one can question me about my personal opinion, because it’s OK to have one, right? Right? (When did this town get so scared to have opinions, btw?)

What if we polled 150 top writers and their assistants and made a list of which executives give the best Meeting? We’ll call it The Bucket List. Oh, no, sorry, just kidding, that’s a bad title reserved for something else. We’ll call it The Evian List. And next year the executives can get nervous to see if they’ve made the cut.

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A Brave New World for Writers

The article below, from the LA Times, is potentially one of the biggest shake-ups that entertainment may go through after the strike. Read it carefully and put it in your pipe and smoke it, Wavers. Things may change in a big way and you want to be ready with your material.

Striking Writers in talks to launch Web start-ups
by Joseph Menn

Dozens of striking film and TV writers are negotiating with venture capitalists to set up companies that would bypass the Hollywood studio system and reach consumers with video entertainment on the Web.

At least seven groups, composed of members of the striking Writers Guild of America, are planning to form Internet-based businesses that, if successful, could create an alternative economic model to the one at the heart of the walkout, now in its seventh week.

Three of the groups are working on ventures that would function much like United Artists, the production company created 80 years ago by Charlie Chaplin and other top stars who wanted to break free from the studios.

"It's in development and rapidly incubating," said Aaron Mendelsohn, a guild board member and co-creator of the "Air Bud" movies.

Writers walked off their jobs Nov. 5, virtually shutting down television production and throwing 10,000 people out of work. The Writers Guild is fighting the major studios over how much their members are paid when their work is distributed online.

Silicon Valley investors historically have been averse to backing entertainment start-ups, believing that such efforts were less likely to generate huge paydays than technology companies. But they began considering a broader range of entertainment investments after observing the enormous sums paid for popular Web video companies, including the $1.65 billion that Google Inc. plunked down last year for YouTube, a site where users post their own clips.

They also have been emboldened by major advertisers, which prefer supporting professionally created Web entertainment to backing user-generated content on sites such as MySpace that can be in poor taste.

"I'm 100% confident that you will see some companies get formed," said Todd Dagres, a Boston-based venture capitalist who has been flying to L.A. and meeting with top writers for weeks. "People have made up their minds."

What effect this would have on the strike is unclear. So far, the percentage of the guild's 10,000 striking writers who are in discussions with venture capitalists appears to be small. Any deal of this kind, however, could put pressure on the studios and help the writers' public relations campaign. Writers who are talking to venture investors say the studios would suffer a brain drain if high-profile talents received outside funding and were no longer beholden to them.

Mendelsohn and others said they would stick with their ventures after the strike ended.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios in negotiations, declined to comment on the issue, as did the Writers Guild.

Already this year, a handful of sites have received venture backing, including FunnyorDie.com, co-founded by comedic actor Will Ferrell, and MyDamnChannel.com, launched by former MTV executive Rob Barnett.

MyDamnChannel pays for the production of original content by a handful of artists and splits ad revenue with them.

Under the Hollywood system, writers, in most cases, are employed by the studios to create and manage TV shows and movies. The studios own the copyrights and pay writers for the initial use of the material and a small percentage of the licensing fees they collect when the work is rerun or sold on DVD.

With television viewership and DVD revenue declining in the digital age, writers have sought bigger rewards when their work is distributed online. There have been isolated successes, such as Viacom Inc.'s agreement in August to give the co-creators of "South Park" 50% of a new online entertainment venture based on the TV program.

For the most part, however, the studios have argued that Web economics are still too uncertain for them to give a larger share of the proceeds to writers.

Most writers who have been talking with venture capitalists declined to discuss their plans on the record, saying it was too early to provide details. Yet an array of strategies have emerged from interviews with writers, investors and others involved in the process.

The groups modeled after United Artists (which eventually was bought by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. and recently was revived with the help of Tom Cruise) envision creating and distributing programming for the Web and recouping their investments by selling rights to the most successful properties to TV networks or movie companies.

The initiative would change the career paths of many writers. They would be leaving well-paying jobs in television and film for the Internet, which often has been viewed as a steppingstone to Hollywood.

Some high-profile writers and technologists are trying to create a collaborative studio they hope would be officially sanctioned by the Writers Guild. They want to build on the popularity of strike-related videos on the guild-inspired blog UnitedHollywood, YouTube and elsewhere.

READ ON

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Ponies and Stuff

Well. New Rouge Wave ultra-favorite Monica has sent the Wave-inatrix a pony. That's right. And here she is. I call her Blanca. Muchos besos and cupcakes to you, Monica.

Now. As for the holiday short scene competition The Wave-inatrix mailbox is full to overflowing. I have received literally dozens of submissions and may struggle to read them all. The deadline was Friday, December 21st at 5pm Pacific but would those Wavers still planning to submit have a thrombosis if I moved the deadline up to Wednesday 5pm? This is a landslide of reading that I cannot keep up with. Submit now or forever hold your peace!

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Two Cool New Blogs

Only eight more shopping days until Christmas, you Christmas-celebrating Wavers. The Wave-inatrix shared my Christmas wish list last week and no pressure, but it's really time consuming to ship a pony. So. Little hint there.

But seriously, being that I have my two front teeth and all, here are two blogs that I recently became aware of, that I think ROCK THE FREE WORLD. Do people say that anymore? I think that's a Cold War remnant. Oops. Age showing.
The first is Comic Mummy written by an extremely funny Aussie who is a girl after the Wave-inatrix's own heart.

And the other is Miss Understood or, A Sideways Look at Womanhood from which I have copied this fantastic poem. Wavers, read, rejoice, cut, paste, share - attribute - and visit the blog from which it came.

Puppet on a String
After a while you learn
the subtle difference
between holding a hand
and chaining a soul.
And you learn that love doesn't mean leaning
and company doesn't always mean security.
And you begin to learn
that kisses aren't contracts
and presents aren't promises,
and you begin to accept your defeats
with your head up and your eyes ahead,
with the grace of a woman,
not the grief of a child.
And you learn to build all your roads on today
because tomorrow's ground is too uncertain...
for plans and futures
have a way of falling down in mid-flight.
After a while you learn
that even sunshine burns
if you get too much,so you plant a garden
and decorate your own soul
instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.
And you learn that you really can endure
you really are strong
you really do have worth,
and you learn...and you learn.
With every goodbye you learn.

Veronica A. Shoffstall

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Can Dialogue be TOO Good?

I was listening to a review of JUNO on NPR and one of the commentators said something interesting. She said that the dialogue in JUNO was so hip and witty that it felt inorganic, like a writer’s conceit of a character – not a real character. The commentator went on to give the movie a great review but her comment on overly-witty, self-conscious dialogue was first and foremost. Having just seen JUNO, I would have to agree, sort of. But the movie is so crazy-fabulous that Ellen Page’s impossibly amazing performance as a sixteen-year old with the vocabulary and thought-processes of a thirty year old wins a viewer over as the conceit of this movie. But I digress.

My daughter used to watch The Gilmore Girls. And that show drove me nuts for the same reason. Amy Sherman-Palladino is a gifted woman, there’s no doubt about that, and the show definitely took a turn for the worse when she moved on from the show – but during her tenure, I often cringed at the dialogue. Not because it was bad – it was so good – uber good, creepy good, resentfulness-inducing good – because nobody can be that witty all the damn time!

In The Gilmore Girls, every character was super witty and smart – all the bloody time. And worse – ultimately every character had the same voice – presumably, Palladino’s. So there was a grating sameness to the dialogue in the show and worse, a gratingly high level of witty! sharp! clever! Dialogue. In every. Damn. Scene. At least JUNO was limited to one story. Not thirty episodes a year for seven damn years. I may have those numbers wrong – but I don’t care! Self-conscious dialogue in which the character is clearly the writer’s alter-ego is grating.

When you watch a movie or a television show and literally every cast member is cooler and smarter than you – if they never stumble over their words, if they don’t say the wrong thing or the less-than-brilliant thing – it can distance a viewer from the material.

An extreme example of idiosyncratic dialogue strongly reflective of the writer’s voice is of course David Mamet’s dialogue. His trademark is herky-jerky, hiccupy dialogue. And when you watch a Mamet movie you just settle in for that experience because that’s the way it is and that’s what you signed up for and there you go. But that’s David Mamet. And surely – Palladino was quite successful so in a sense, my argument becomes just a personal rant. Or does it? Can dialogue be too good? Inorganically good?

If you are writing stylized dialogue as an affection of your story, as literally part of the delivery system, I give my stamp of approval – that’s very clever. But if you really want the story to be front and center, remember to watch out for dialogue that is too self-conscious.

Listen to how actual people talk, the next time you’re out. The silences in-between the words can mean more than the words themselves. Or sometimes the words can weigh a ton. This, overheard from a Wave-inatrix neighbor just the other day: Let’s have brunch at that place, remember that place? Yeah. And it’s in the ‘hood so it will be funny!

The Wave-inatrix was agape. What did it mean? These are nice neighbors. Gak.

Bad dialogue speaks for itself. (Ha). It is monochromatic, bland, on-the-nose and stilted. All the characters sound the same – like the writer, more or less. Characters sound either totally homogeneous or like stereotypes. There is no nuance or subtext to what they say.

Good dialogue is snappy, real-sounding, organic and specific to each character.

Great dialogue is all of the above and reveals everything you’ll ever need to know about that character; their world view, prejudices, social class and belief system. It will be idiosyncratic but imperfect. They won’t always say the right thing. And sometimes characters are silent.

In 3:10 to YUMA which was hands down one of my two favorite movies of 2007 (the other being JUNO so go figure) Christian Bale whispers one of the most memorable pieces of dialogue I have ever heard in my life. And he’s upset and he’s scared and what he says is so utterly courageous and heartbreaking at the same time that the scene moved me to tears.

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The 1st Anniversary of the Rouge Wave!

For the full effect: cue up "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" by Elton John and KiKi Dee (remember her?)

Ah, what a realization. Bittersweet. Funny. Amazing. Tussling with IM Anonymous (hello, darling), trading witty repartee with Jake Hollywood. Reading Christian Howell's long comments, smiling at lovely Emily's posts, laughing at the great haikus, and judging the Magnanimous Feet competition...Who can forget the talented MovieQuill? Or Dare Kent, winner of the Halloween competition? Good times.

The Rouge Wave has gone from three readers - me, my mom and my cousin Wayne to between 150 and 200 readers on a slow day and over 350 on a good one. Wavers are from all over the world, in dozens of countries and virtually every continent. Many, many more read the Rouge Wave than comment - we have lurkers. And a couple of trolls but the Wave-inatrix makes short work of them as we all know. Mostly, we are, as advertised, a happy little corner of the screenwriting universe and the Wave-inatrix has such fun flipping on the lights every morning to provide a little info-tainment.

There are so many guest bloggers to thank - most recently Billy Mernit, but so many others who took a few minutes to give Wavers their point of view. And the Mini-Wave-inatrix, for reviewing several movies last summer. And thank you to my partners Margaux, Dave and Andrew for gamely throwing in as well. My good friend Signe at the Great American Pitch Fest has been so good to the Rouge Wave and of course Christina Hamlett has been as well. And Casper, my web designer, my right arm and my good pal; I couldn't wake up in the morning and do one damn thing right without you. Oh, there are just so many of you who are the wind beneath my wings. Including you, Rouge Wavers.

Thank you Rouge Wavers - thank you for continuing to come back to see what's happening on the Rouge Wave. Thank you for your wit, your cantankerousness, your humor and your smarts. I've had a very good time being the mistress of the Rouge Wave and if it's all right with you guys, I'll continue doing so.

Cupcakes for all my friends!

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Caroling During the Strike by Andrew Zinnes

OK, Rouge Wavers! Grab some eggnog and sing! And a
one, and a two...

On the first day of Strike, the WGA/AMPTP gave to me -
a headache behind my eye.

On the second day of strike, the WGA/AMPTP gave to me
- two sources of lost income, and a headache behind my
eye.

On the third day of strike, the WGA/AMPTP gave to me -
three trips to unemployment, two sources of lost
income and a headache behind my eye.

On the fourth day of strike, the WGA/AMPTP gave to me
- four fights with my producing friends, three trips
to unemployment, two sources of lost income and a
headache behind my eye.

On the fifth day of Strike, the WGA/AMPTP gave to me -
five Golden Arches (where I'm working now), four
fights with my producing friends, three trips to
unemployment, two sources of lost income and a
headache behind my eye.

On the sixth day of Strike, the WGA/AMPTP gave to me,
a six pack of beer to ease the pain, five Golden
Arches (where I'm working now), four fights with my
producing friends, three trips to unemployment, two
sources of lost income and a headache behind my eye.

On the seventh day of Strike, the WGA/AMPTP gave to
me, seven days of hope last week, a six pack of beer
to ease the pain, five Golden Arches (where I'm
working now), four fights with my producing friends,
three trips to unemployment, two sources of lost
income and a headache behind my eye.

On the eight day of Strike, the WGA/AMPTP gave to me,
eight cents a DVD, seven days of hope last week, a six
pack of beer to ease the pain, five Golden Arches
(where I'm working now), four fights with my producing
friends, three trips to unemployment, two sources of
lost income and a headache behind my eye.

On the ninth day of Strike, the WGA/AMPTP gave to me,
nine more reasons to join the DGA, eight cents a DVD,
seven days of hope last week, a six pack of beer to
ease the pain, five Golden Arches (where I'm working
now), four fights with my producing friends, three
trips to unemployment, two sources of lost income and
a headache behind my eye.

On the tenth day of Strike, the WGA/AMPTP gave to me,
ten producer lords a leaping around what the writers
want, nine more reasons to join the DGA, eight cents a
DVD, seven days of hope last week, a six pack of beer
to ease the pain, five Golden Arches (where I'm
working now), four fights with my producing friends,
three trips to unemployment, two sources of lost
income and a headache behind my eye.

On the eleventh day of Strike, the WGA/AMPTP gave to
me, eleven pied pipers leading production to indie
land and abroad, ten producer lords a leaping around
what the writers want, nine more reasons to join the
DGA, eight cents a DVD, seven days of hope last week,
a six pack of beer to ease the pain, five Golden
Arches (where I'm working now), four fights with my
producing friends, three trips to unemployment, two
sources of lost income and a headache behind my eye.

On the twelveth day of Strike, the WGA/AMPTP gave to
me, twelve WGA negotiators drumming to the beat of
their own drum (and making no headway until the
Spring), eleven pied pipers leading production to
indie land and abroad, ten producer lords a leaping
around what the writers want, nine more reasons to
join the DGA, eight cents a DVD, seven days of hope
last week, a six pack of beer to ease the pain, five
Golden Arches (where I'm working now), four fights
with my producing friends, three trips to
unemployment, two sources of lost income and...

...A HEADACHE BEHIND MY EYE!!!!!!!!!

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Red Letter Day at Paramount

As promised, the Wave-intrix took not one, not two but ten dozen mini-cupcakes to Paramount today as she again hoisted a sign joined the picketers. I cannot express often enough what an honor it is to join in alongside writers, famous and un, who walk the picket line at various locations daily. I felt like an imposter at first, not being a member of the WGA but as have other volunteers, I have been on the receiving end of nothing but gratitude and friendliness. Today I even got a WGA baseball cap and a pin that says My words matter. There was another pin that said Suck my pencil but I wisely opted out of that one.

About an hour after I arrived, Sarah Silverman joined the growing crowd and by noon there were over a hundred picketers in a slow-moving mob. Later, a podium and microphone was set up and a handful of luminary writers took a few moments to speak including one who instructed us all to look at the brick and mortar of the Paramount Building and reminded us that every brick was paid for by ideas that began in the heads of writers. Harlan Ellison issued same sage, profanity-filled advice about exactly how one should negotiate with the producers. It involved a baseball bat.

By the time the Wave-inatrix left, the cupcakes had long ago been devoured and the sun was getting low. All right, not low - like, it was maybe 1 when I left. Zagat's report: the Paramount gate is definitely more populous and fun than CBS Television City (though today was a special event and the numbers were higher) but I missed my friends at CBS today and that is where I shall return. We don't get no stinkin' Sarah Silverman, we get Danny Bonaduce on a bike. But that's my favorite spot and I'm stickin' to it!

My Photo Album:



Here's John Augustwho's written movies like GO, THE NINES, CHARLIE'S ANGELS, CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, BIG FISH, TITAN A.E. and tons more.



Here's Josh Olsonwho's written INFESTED, HISTORY OF VIOLENCE and a bunch of other projects.



See that grey-haired guy down low in the middle? That's Harlan Ellison. Sorry Wavers, I didn't have a good spot. Harlan has written tons and tons of sci-fi including Star Trek, Babylon 5 and Outer Limits. Sorry, I'm not a dyed-in-the-wool fan girl so I can't go on much more about him except to say his speech today bordered on creepy-violent. He looks a little bit like Roger Ebert.



And here's my god daughter Ella, who's 17 and works in a French bakery in Berkeley and who I apparently caught between blinks. Say hi Ella! Ella speaks English, French and German fluently is a laugh riot and is one of the Wave-inatrix's top five favorite people in the world. She has nothing to do with the strike. Bye Ella!

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Speechless

For anyone who has not checked out United Hollywood, it is the place to get the latest update on the strike, picketing locations, etc. And it is at United Hollywood where you can find the brilliantly conceived Speechless. Check out Woody's contribution:

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Don't Mess with Writers

Hello, Wavers - I've posted the educational YouTube video below, for a thumbnail of the strike issues and you should of course enjoy the fantabulous new AMPTP website.

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Support the WGA

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Semantics is a Bitch

I'm no Betty Friedan or Germaine Greer but I feel I owe powerful, intelligent women a debt. Women like the aforementioned. Women like Susan Sontag, Madame Curie, George Sand, Susan B. Anthony, Madonna, Oprah Winfrey, Naomi Wolf, Hilary Clinton, Helen Keller - oh I must stop now because I'll offend someone, somehow with an inclusion or exclusion but you get my drift. In a world where the bodies of 40 women were recently found on the outskirts of Baghdad, in a ditch, with notes on their mutilated bodies explaining that they met their deaths for not wearing proper headscarves, powerful, influential trailblazers who just happen to be women pave the way for a better world.

When I was a kid, a bitch was a nasty, unpleasant woman. It was a pretty dirty word. It was also a female dog and that was the only way we kids could attempt snickering subterfuge. But today bitch has taken on a hyper ugly meaning of subjugation. Men can be bitches. Anyone can be a byotch, the ha-ha internet-censorship-free version of bitch which has taken on a life of its own.

I hear the word bitch used almost daily by Jon Stewart, by friends, by my daughter to her friends, on the radio - seemingly everywhere. One of my friends said it to me the other day on the phone and we both laughed an uneasy laugh before it trailed off into discomfort. I wonder - how have we come to this? How have we come to tolerate a word that could not possibly embody a deeper, uglier belief about the way in which women are esteemed in this world? We can have women senators and judges and television anchors but at the end of the day, in jest which burns in acidic truth - they're just bitches and Jennifer Love Hewitt, all (I'm guessing) a hundred eighteen pounds of her - has a fat ass.

Bitch is a lose-lose word. To call a man a bitch is to say he is being either snippy, needy or hysterical OR that the bitch label recipient is in some way owned by the speaker in the most final, definitive way possible. She's my bitch. Where's my beer - bitch? I slapped that bitch. That's what I said - bitch.

The use of bitch with this new, more keen, deeply misogynistic twist of total subjugation seems to have emerged from rap music. Nobody shoot me - that's just my anecdotal observation. And no, it's not pc. The Wave-inatrix, with her playful moniker which connotes domination knows that Rouge Wavers are smart enough to know that this is playful nickname that stuck and bears no relationship to my views or demeanor. So no pot calling kettle black comments about hair-splitting semantics, please. This discussion is important.

Regardless of the derivation of this new usage, I do wonder - is this okay, this new use of bitch? What does it say about us as a society? Do we accept a word as a joke but overlook it's deeper meaning because that's being over-analytical? Or is this something we should be paying attention to?

To paraphrase George Orwell, who understood deeply that language matters, it is my opinion that the use of the word bitch is double-plus ungood.

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Interview with Billy Mernit

The Wave-inatrix has been lucky enough to have known Billy Mernit, the King of Romcom, for some time. I first met Billy when I enrolled in his Writing the Romantic Comedy at the UCLA Writer's Studio almost 8 years ago. I spent several fantastic days absolutely immersed in the world of romantic comedy.

Later, Billy mentored me through a romcom I had written. I was struck then as I am still, by Billy's impressive, encyclopedic knowledge and frank love of the genre. This guy knows from romcom and he's a born romantic at heart. He also has a fabulous blog Living the Romantic Comedy which is a must for those Rouge Wavers in the midst of or even considering writing a romantic comedy. Heck, it's a must for anyone who likes a good blog, let's face it.

But I digress. Billy and I stayed in touch and he has continued to be the source of advice, support and friendship to me. So I exploited that friendship just for you, Rouge Wavers, and asked Billy if he'd be willing to answer a few questions here on the Rouge Wave. And of course, Billy agreed to generously give of his time. So here, for your entertainment and edification, is a Q&A with Mr. Romcom - Billy Mernit.

Wave-inatrix:
What is your favorite romantic comedy of the past three years and why?

Billy:
40 YEAR-OLD VIRGIN got my vote in 2005, and it only looks better on repeated viewings. Crude, lewd, and sometimes tacky in its geek/broad comedy aesthetic it nonetheless reveals, at moments between belly laughs, a tender lovelorn soul. It's got great comedic set-pieces (e.g. hapless Andy's drunk-driver date from hell, that excruciating hair-waxing, et al); the dialogue is consistently sharp and funny; the supports are strong and memorable (Seth Rogen and crew have since become a Preston Sturges-like repertory company for Judd Apatow). And the coupling of Steve Carell and Catherine Keener passes that ultimate rom-com test: as they literally sing and dance their way into the sunset, we believe that these two well-matched lovers will make it as a couple -- and they've earned a life for themselves in our imagination.

Wave-inatrix:
Do you think of KNOCKED UP as a romcom or romcom hybrid? Do you think Apatow has changed the face of modern romcom say compared the Farrelly Brothers with their SOMETHING ABOUT MARY take?

Billy:
I don't see it as a hybrid, unless you really consider the "A" story here to be protagonist Ben's coming-of-age -- which has been an integral through-line of many a male POV romantic comedy for over a decade or two. No, it's straight rom-com with a very strong concept (i.e. boy really "meets" girl after he's already gotten her pregnant). But sure, we've definitely just lived through the Year of Apatow (with SUPERBAD as well and the countless spec script imitations that deluged the studios after KNOCKED UP's success). There's no denying that he's codified -- and made his own -- a trend that's been coming on for some time: male point of view romantic comedies that are often as much about the love between guys as they are about guys getting the girl. Look, explicit sexual humor has been spicing up the genre (and making it more contemporary) for awhile now, with MARY a huge boundary-buster; just look at the phenomenal success of SEX AND THE CITY, which was in a sense a serial (ensemble) rom-com. What Apatow has brought to the equation is a wonderful sort of genuine innocence. What makes his movies work is the real sweetness at the core of his characters and their concerns; the more decent his protagonists are, the raunchier the humor can get. Even this is no reinvention of the genre wheel (see, for example, teen rom-coms like AMERICAN PIE), but Apatow's success with this formula has definitely pushed the genre firmly into the present-day. That said, I do agree with the astute question David Denby put to Apatow in his New Yorker piece on what I call such "macho chick flicks": now that we've wallowed in the world of boy-men for a few years, where are the new strong women -- i.e. the kind of roles that'll let some potential female rom-com stars shine?

Wave-inatrix:
I remember your once describing romcom as the "little black dress" of entertainment meaning that it is a Hollywood staple. But right now, is romcom a good genre for writers trying to break in with in the spec market? Everybody talks about horror being the best genre in terms of both domestic and international box office.

Billy:
So go write a great horror rom-com! Like say, SHAUN OF THE DEAD. That's the "little black dress" effect of this ever-hardy genre: you can combine it with just about anything, and if you do it well, it'll fly. I've seen a plethora of vampire romantic comedy projects over the past few years, and I'll wager one will break out and hit it big. But to answer your question re: the spec market more specifically, what I can tell you is: every studio in town is still looking for good romantic comedies. They're usually cheap to make, they have a built-in demographic (that's expandable), they attract talent -- and they're very good showcases for a fledgling writer's character-driven plot and dialogue chops.

Wave-inatrix:
I think you're addicted to love.

Billy:
Is this being recorded?



Author of the bestselling screenwriting book, Writing the Romantic Comedy (Harper/Collins), BILLY MERNIT teaches half a dozen courses at the UCLA Extension Writers' Program, where he was awarded 2001's Outstanding Screenwriting Instructor of the Year. He also teaches seminars around the country (such as the Santa Fe Screenwriting Conference and at the University of Hawaii) and is regularly a Star Speaker at the Creative Screenwriting Expo in L.A. He is currently a story analyst at Universal Studios, after stints with Sony and Paramount. Billy is currently negotiating with Harper/Collins a "revised and expanded" version of his must-have Writing the Romantic Comedy textbook. His novel "Imagine Me and You" will be published by Random House/Shaye Areheart in April.

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