The Script Department Group on Scribd

Well, Wavers, I've gotten off my lazy behind and begun to actually larn this interweb thing. I created a group on Scribd called The Script Department, where we can post discussions, etc. It's unmoderated (well, it is, by me, but less so than here) and somebody's posted an interesting question about structure already.

Just think, we can carry on our Rouge Wave discussions/arguments/hectoring unleashed on Scribd!

p.s. had lunch at the Dreamworks campus today - OH MY is it nice!

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Who Needs Sleep?

Having been laid off by dint of the strike, a friend of mine is working props on a major feature film starring Shia Labeouf. She's so glad to have the work but the shoot has been grueling. Long, long days, late nights, swing shifts, out in the rain - making a movie is a bitch when you're below the line.

What does "below the line" mean? Those are the jobs governed by IATSE (The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees). Simply put, IATSE is the union for the crew: gaffers, property masters, makeup, wardrobe, etc. and I'm leaving out dozens of specific jobs, but as IATSE puts it, these are the "technicians and artisans". Most people think about the "above the line" positions: directors, actors, writers, producers, but those jobs are outnumbered by far by the crew. If you ever get the chance to visit either a television set or the set of a major motion picture shoot, you'll be absolutely gobsmacked by the small army of crew present. Small army actually doesn't quite do the sight justice.

Recently, my friend loaned me her copy of WHO NEEDS SLEEP , a documentary by legendary cinematographer Haskell Wexler, which premiered at Sundance in 2006. The doc offers a fascinating, disturbing inside look at the way the Industry works, particularly below the line. Crew members work grueling, often dangerous hours in the name of producorial budgets and deadlines, i.e., the bottom line. Many crew members have lost their lives due to a lack of sleep, working 15 and 18 hour days. And yes, they get overtime, but it's not really a choice. The dominant attitude is - if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. There are hundreds of people standing in line who would love to work in "Hollywood". So it's a pretty serious situation. Sets are notoriously dangerous places, not to mention driving back home to your family after three successive 15 hour days.

It may be long time - if ever - when the ethos of being worked this hard changes in Hollywood. But what about the rest of us, who do have some control over our sleep hours?

I had dinner with a dear friend and Rouge Waver the other evening who was devastated by insomnia leaving him with 2 to 3 hours of sleep each night for some time. Sleep and how much we need versus how much we get, has been creeping into the media as a hot topic. Just look how many books come up at Amazon simply by searching for "sleep"

I am fascinated by the genesis of not sleeping enough - the advent of electricity combined with a macho sense that, well, who needs sleep? We can get more done, we can be more productive - we don't need to be a wuss and fall into a soft bed for - gasp - sleep! Untrue. The hours of sleep necessary to function fully are pretty much non-negotiable as far as your body is concerned. And what's really interesting is that sleep deprivation is cumulative over time. In other words, if you, for whatever reason, get 3 or 4 hours of sleep every night for three nights and then 12 hours for the next few nights to make up for it - you don't make up for it. You still have a sleep deficit.

The fact is, when you are rested, you are more productive during the day - leaving more time for sleep. So not getting enough sleep is a wicked cycle. You stay up late trying to get more done and start each new day with a sleep deficit leaving you much less productive - even if you are not cognizant of that fact - creating a need to stay up later to get more done.

Sleep is not lazy, sleep is restorative and necessary. As writers, our unconscious works while we sleep. We can dream up stories, ideas and solutions to something we're already working on.

Do you make time to sleep, Wavers? Or do you push the limits?

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Take. The note.

That's what one of my friends said to me the other day as she described a group script meeting in which she got, in her words, "hammered" on some of her material. And as the group circled around my friend like a pack of hyenas, snipping, sniping and drawing blood, it was all my friend could do to hold back the tears. It's not like I set out to write a bad script, she said. And then it came back to her - just take the note. Write it down and keep moving, don't argue, don't equivocate, don't explain, just take the notes.

This, Rouge Wavers, is how a professional writer acts in a script meeting. You will hear notes that make you want to laugh or have a Tourettes moment but no, you just scribble it down and take everything into consideration. Because here's the thing - some of the notes - SOME of them, mind you, have merit. But in the heat of the moment, it is very hard to hear that something you thought was crystal clear or very funny - was not. I read a script for a client recently and got an argument or lengthy explanation back for every major point I made. And then again, on follow-up notes. Not defensive, exactly, but certainly adamant notes.

It is times like that when I think so, why did you pay someone to give you notes if all the notes are, according to you, wrong? Just. Take. The Note. What you do with notes later is your own business. But if you're a smart writer and you really want to improve the script and your writing skills, you'll mull over the notes carefully - even the ones you disagree with, and find a way to use them to the script's advantage.

If you find yourself arguing against every note you got, finding some reason, some logic, some plain view page where it should be clear remember this: it doesn't matter how clear it is to YOU. If someone else can't figure something out - you didn't make it clear ENOUGH. So take a deep breath, save the defensiveness and just take the note.

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Valentines Day Short Scene Competition

Ah - the sweet smell of roses, the twelve-thousand calories of weird chocolates, the anxious checking of the mailbox - it's that time of year, Wavers - Valentines Day approaches. To some, a vile and loathsome holiday, for others, it is a romantic and cherished annual occurrence. And surely, for the majority of us, it brings back memories of red construction paper cards dripping of glue and glitter.

But here at the Rouge Wave - it's an excuse for another holiday short scene competition. Now, the last competition here at the Rouge Wave turned into quite a dust-up as there was a kerfuffle regarding voting procedures. This stemmed from my failure to be crystal clear about the voting guidelines and standards. This is not a popularity contest, this is a review of each writer's level of execution and ability to entertain us within the guidelines. So please, please, do not jeopardize the continuation of competitions here on the RW by asking all your friends and family to pour onto the blog and vote for you because they love you. We know they love you. We love you too. But this, ironically, isn't about love - it's about talent. So:

The Rules:

Write a 1 to 2 page scene thematically and dramatically connected to Valentines Day. Genre is your choice but the following three words/phrases must appear in the scene:

Verve
Writer's Strike
1-800 (as in the toll free prefix)

Writers are limited to two submissions each.

Submit to the Wave-inatrixin pdf or fd format.

The Deadline:

Monday, February 11th by 5pm Pacific Time.

The Prizes:

$25 gift certificate to AMC theaters
$25 gift certificate from 1-800-Flowers

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Sloppy is as Sloppy Does

Let me tell you a story - one of three little stories today. Some months ago, the Wave-inatrix went to the dentist who solemnly examined my x-rays, bibbed me and got out the novocaine. Several sharp jabs into my tender gums later, he paused. Looked at the x-ray again. Consulted hurriedly with the nurse. Oh dear - seems he numbed the wrong side of my mouth. Whoops. In fact, ah geez, let's look at this x-ray again - there's no cavity to fill! Ohhhh drat. Didn't proceed with care, caution and precision. What has this got to do with language? What are the tools of a writer? Hint: what's black and white and misspelled all over?

I find it a matter of great curiosity that in the Information Age, fewer and fewer people take the time and trouble to use the language well. More and more, computers are part of our lives, as are cell phones, Ipods and countless other gadgets. Why, I mentioned just the other day that the number one top selling novel in Japan right now was written on a cell phone. I’m all for change – without it we have ceased to evolve as a culture. I’ll even go out on a limb and posit - no it’s not even a posit, it’s a fact – that the consumption of literary novels is on the wane. Things move differently now, faster, more visually. We download, upload and scan information quickly.

In some ways, screenwriting, with its shorthand and use of imagery is a perfect compliment to these changing times. Screenwriting is about concept – high, preferably, more than execution. Some screenwriters are so gifted in this particular medium that they can elevate script pages to a kind of shorthand, cinematic poetry.

But no matter how truncated and evolved our methods of communication become, both at work and at play – who doesn’t know what lol means? – good communication skills are still the bedrock of a better life.

The other day, I took a coupon for 50% off up to two dozen bagels to a bagel shop in my neighborhood. I ordered one dozen bagels. The clerk looked at my coupon, puzzled. No, she said. You have to get two dozen to use this coupon. It says up to two dozen, I pointed out. She shook her head. No, that means you have to GET two dozen. No, it means I couldn’t get two and a half or three dozen, but I can get anything UNDER two dozen. The manager had to be called in to resolve the matter.

Another story: I had to go to the AT&T Wireless store. I phoned ahead. Is it on the same side of the street as the Beverly Center? No, the clerk answered, it’s across the street. Oh – by the Sofitel Hotel? Yes – well, no, it’s across from the Sofitel. Well, that would put it on the same side of the street as the Beverly Center. No, it’s not on the same side of the street as the – I gave up. It was near the Beverly Center-esque, how hard would it be to find it?

I figure I wasted about fifteen minutes circling the block at one of the busiest intersections in LA at the busiest time of day – rush hour – when I found the store. It was on the north east corner of Beverly and La Cienega, diagonally across from the Beverly Center. Isn’t that simple? That little sentence? But the clerk couldn’t muster the precision to just say that.

Rouge Wavers know how once in awhile I talk about the funny malaprops I find in scripts. In a script, it’s either funny, lame, or just sad, ending up with your script getting a PASS, dependent upon the number of occurrences, but in day-to-day life, as you discuss your feelings with your therapist, the directions with a clerk, the crime to a policeman or the flight you need to board at the airport, language and the proper use of it is your friend.

My uncle, god bless him because I love him very much, lives in a rural area where language usage has taken the ol’ back door slide. You know, things like “I don’t got none.” Or “It don’t matter.” A number of years ago, my son, now almost 17, began to pick up his speech patterns, much to my dismay. I swiftly put an end to it. My son imitated his great uncle out of admiration and probably thought this manner of speaking was an affectation. It may have begun an as affection or adaptation to the aw shucks, we ain’t no city folk attitude that many rural dwellers hold dear, but over time it became indelibly ingrained. Over time “I don’t got none” lost its grating foreignness and it became normal. But the problem, as I counseled my son, is that misuse like that – whether verbally or in writing – makes you sound dumb. It just does. Even if you’re not.

Maintaining a certain fastidiousness with your language pays dividends in many ways – you look and feel smart, you’ll be a better writer, and you’ll be able to negotiate that kitchen remodel with the contractor in an efficient and rewarding manner.

What are some ways you can improve upon or maintain your facility with language? Play Scrabble. Write in longhand in your journal. Make it legible. Read The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Utne Reader or The Paris Review. Do crossword puzzles. Be aware of your speech and writing patterns. I don’t mean to imply that we should all go around sounding like Kelsey Grammar in Frasier; I don’t recommend pretension, but rather accuracy, description, vividness and proper usage when you speak – and write.

Now get back to work.

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It's Art Day!

Well, Rouge Wavers, it's Friday, it's rainy, the regular teacher isn't here, so you know what that means! Throw on your smocks, everybody - it's art day!

What does it mean when a reader, manager or exec comments that your script is "overwritten"? On a message board recently, a member valiantly tried to connect that comment with the number of words that should appear per page in a script. No. This is not the direction in which to take that kind of note. In fact, it's absurd.

The comment overwritten translates to this - you could have used more brevity but you didn't.



Picture a Rembrandt. Rich, oil colors, tiny details which emerge and recede. Light and shadow dappled expertly. This is the work of a master. This is a NOVEL. Complex, detailed, layered.



Picture, if you will, a Jackson Pollack painting. Wild dashes and slashes of color. A crazy sense of chaos and imagination run riot. This is a BAD SCRIPT; nothing is holding it together.



Let's take Andy Warhol as our next example. Pop art. Familiar, even mundane images, in acid colors and repetitive patterns. The familiar becomes a work of art. This, Wavers, would be the predictable script. Color by numbers. It's written well, but I've read it a thousand times because it's very familiar to me.

And what about Jeff Koons? What ABOUT Jeff Koons? What is Jeff Koons about? Well, that is the question, isn't it? Is it art? Is it junk? Is it in jest? Who knows? Who can tell? What does it mean? This is the script that is so obtuse and intellectual that we don't know what to make of it and in all probability, either did the writer.







Now imagine one of those anatomy pictures from high school. Where the human body is shown in layers. Skin, muscles, veins, arteries, ligaments, bones, etc. Crazily detailed, right? This is an overwritten script.






Now picture if you will, a jaunty skeleton, in black and white, on paper. With the leg bone connected to the knee bone, and the knee bone connected to the thigh bone, and the thigh bone connected to the hip bone and the...okay musical interlude over. You've got this skeleton pictured, right? Now, you, as a screenwriter, are going to dip your paintbrush into some watercolor paint and gently, deftly, add color over the bones. All over the skeleton. Wash it with color, but it's watercolor, see? So the skeleton itself is still visible. Make the colors vivid and unique. Make the colors this skeleton is wearing very unique compared to the other skeletons.

And what do we have when we're done? A colorful, familiar and yet unique Keith Haring!



It's not about the number of words per page and it's not about writing something so spare that there is no detail - it's about getting it just right.
So if you get told your script is overwritten, don't despair. If the bones of your story are good, this just means going in with a little paint thinner. And yes, everybody has different tastes in art. One person's Pollock miracle is another person's barf bag. But remember what I said early on in today's Rouge Wave - screenwriting is singularly unique. Write a script that is familiar and yet utterly different. Recognizable, with good bones but WOW, dressed up and presented in a way that grabs the attention of your reader. Not overdressed (overwritten) but just right.

Brevity and simplicity is your friend. Less is more.

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Emancipation?

I usually avoid wholesale cut and paste, but this article, Wavers, is FANtastic.

By Sheldon Bull, from StoryLink

For all of you aspiring TV and screen writers out there, the 2007-2008 WGA strike - resolved by now, or sadly still grinding on – may turn out to be a moment of epiphany, a magical opportunity for you to halt your breathless pursuit of an old-fashioned Hollywood writing job, and suddenly realize to your amazement that, as a writer, you have been emancipated from Hollywood.

Emancipated? How have I, who has never even had a writing job, been emancipated from anything?!

Sit down. Relax. Take a breath. I’m going to tell you.

First, let me say that I’ve been a proud WGA member for thirty-two years. I’m on the side of the WGA and of every striking colleague. My heart goes out to anyone – except the suits - who has lost wages because of this necessary strike. I hope the members of the WGA will stand together and get what they are striking for because what they are striking for is fair and right. I do not write these words to make light of this strike. I have the greatest respect for what’s at stake. But like a lot of other people, I have taken the time to look beyond the strike. And what I see beyond, regardless of the outcome of this current dispute, is emancipation for writers.

Here’s why:

Beyond the issues dividing writers and producers, the most important thing for you, the aspiring screenwriter, to notice right now is that the movie and television industry is completely changing. It is changing forever. Strike or settlement, the business of movie and television production has already been turned permanently upside down. And that is precisely why you, as a writer, have already won.

The ‘07-‘08 Writers’ Strike offers all of us who write, for screens large and small, the chance to recognize that, even after the strike is over, nothing will ever be the same. Control is now in our hands, and we never have to give it back.

How can that possibly be?

Up until now, we were always working for somebody else, hired and fired willy-nilly at the whim of the studios, the networks, the producers, directors, and stars. No matter how the strike is finally resolved, all of that “working for others” is finished, whether you see it yet or not.

The four broadcast television networks – CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox – are dying. They had a great run there for half a century. They got rich and fat and lazy and stupid because they were the only game in town. Well, the game is over. And because the game is over, you don’t need to learn how to play it anymore.

As a professional writer and producer, I’ve known for a long time that the broadcast television networks want as few scripted series as possible. They hate scripted series. They have to deal with temperamental actors and producers, unpredictable ratings, and worst of all, writers who are smarter than they are. A few shows are hits. Most shows are flops. It’s all a big crap shoot. It’s a businessman’s nightmare. Strike or no strike, the networks and the giant media conglomerates that own and operate them would much rather fart out mindless, by-the-numbers stuff like Survivor, Deal or No Deal, and Dateline. Churning out those shows is like cranking out toasters, which is the business that GE is really in anyway.

The business of broadcast television, shoddily run as it has always been, counted on the fact that the audience had nowhere else to go. Then, underneath their giant transmission towers, came cable. Suddenly, smarter and richer viewers had access to non-broadcast networks such as HBO and Showtime, VH-1, Comedy Central, and dozens of others. Yes, the conglomerates created or bought up a lot of these networks, but they don’t own everything. Quietly and inexorably, the viewers who could think started defecting from the mass-audience spam on the broadcast networks to the more specialized programming available on cable. The remaining audience for broadcast programming was, as it always had been, the people who had nowhere else to go. These days that audience is older, less educated, and less demanding. The brighter, wealthier, and younger viewers are gone from broadcast TV, and they are never coming back. My eighteen-year-old daughter was raised on Nick, Animal Planet, and MTV. She doesn’t even know that the broadcast networks exist.

High-paying writer and producer jobs in broadcast TV are still there, but they are fewer and further between. Yes, the most talented, most aggressive, most politically savvy writers and producers will continue to come up with a few good ideas and land those porky jobs on broadcast series. But because so much of the core audience for broadcast TV will happily belch through Dancing with the Stars, there are fewer scripted series every year.

At the same time, however, scripted series have been popping up like dandelions on cable. Original scripted series are now a regular part of weekly programming, not only on HBO and Showtime, but on TBS, AMC, Lifetime, Comedy Central, Sci-Fi, Spike, and other networks.

Cable is already employing its own legion of writers who have never worked in broadcasting. Because cable will inevitably evolve an identity separate from broadcast, the tried-and-true spec script for a broadcast TV series, or even a spec pilot, is no longer the only vehicle, and may no longer even be the most efficient vehicle for demonstrating your fresh and unique talent and potential.

It’s time for all of us to stop looking back to broadcast TV as the only model upon which to base our careers. Cable has already outpaced broadcast television in innovation and in total audience. So, as you struggle to get your big break as a writer, it’s time to start imagining the future, rather than simply imitating the past.

As we imagine the future of TV, let’s imagine the future of movies as well.

Any shred of desire that the big Hollywood studios ever had to make anything interesting or significant – and it was a tiny shred of desire in its heyday fifty years ago - is gone forever. It has to be. The big Hollywood studios are not in the movie business anymore. They’re in the pre-sold, pre-packaged, cross-pollinated, product tie-in, happy meal business. Did anybody see the recent ad blitz for Bee Movie? Among the cereals and cell phones, you almost forgot that anyone had actually shot a picture. Hollywood movies are mere pieces of giant corporate agendas that have nothing to do with imagination or emotion. The audience for those movies has become almost entirely young, dumb, numb, and indifferent. Just blow something up while we drool into our popcorn. Why would any thinking, feeling, innovative writer want to be the least respected member of that?

Finally, as we re-imagine our career paths as writers, let’s zero in on the internet. The WGA strike is fundamentally about the web. Yes, it’s about DVD revenue, too. But since we’re looking into the future, let’s look a little further than just the next few years. Royalties from the sale of DVD’s is an important issue at this moment, but DVDs may not be around long enough to be worth striking over. The DVD or Blu-Ray disc that you buy today may, in just a few short years, be as obsolete as those LP-sized laser discs they were selling a few years ago, as antiquated by the next decade as video cassettes. That’s because the real future of entertainment is the coming interface between the internet and cable.

In a very few years, when your computer and your high-definition TV are both linked to the same digital delivery system, what purpose beyond supplying the hardware will the giant media conglomerates that now control everything even serve? If I can make my own movie and release it directly onto the internet, and you can watch it at home on a fifty-six-inch plasma screen, why do you or I need Paramount or Universal? If I can make my own TV series, and post new episodes on the web whenever I want, and you can download and watch my series whenever you feel like it, why do we need ABC or CBS? Why do we need Disney anymore, or Viacom, or News Corporation, or Sony? The truth is that we don’t.

And that is the paradigm shift that I am talking about.

The Writers Guild of America is on strike against companies that are already obsolete. It’s like walking out on Oldsmobile. The factory is rusting while we carry our cardboard signs.

Yes, it’s true that, at this moment, only the big media conglomerates have the cash to pay for the stars and the sets on Ugly Betty, or to finance the special effects for the next installment of Transformers. But so what? Let them make Spiderman 12 and Ocean’s Nineteen and Pirates of the Caribbean - the End of Our Interest. We have other things to do with our time and energy.

Right now today, with almost no money, you can take your own little video camera that you picked up at Best Buy, and go out and make the next Juno, the next South Park, or the next Lars and the Real Girl. And you can release it yourself, not onto TV or in a clunky movie theater, but directly onto the web. So why the heck are you fretting over that spec episode of 30 Rock?

This is what I mean when I say that you’ve already won. You’re the one person in the room with a brain that actually thinks. If an agent or an executive had a creative bone in his or her body, he or she wouldn’t be knotting a neck tie or pulling on heels. They’d put on a T-shirt and sneakers and go out and shoot a video. You’re the one with all the power because you’re the only one with the imaginative neurons.

The Writers’ Strike may be the best thing that ever happened to all of you aspiring screen writers out there who, up until November, were scrambling to finish your spec episode of Reaper, or desperately trying to rework your spec screenplay. You don’t have to do that anymore. You’re already free.

Take a deep breath and think for a minute. Maybe you don’t need to pen that spec or genuflect to that agent. Maybe what you need to do is bypass them all and just do it yourself.

Do I mean that you should make a short movie or three-minute TV series on your own and then post it on the web for free? Yes. That’s exactly what I mean. Can you think of a more effective way to introduce yourself to the world? If you get ten thousand hits on your video, don’t you suppose that people with money to invest will come looking for you?

The ’07-’08 Writers Strike could be the seminal moment in the collective lives of every screenwriter alive. This could be the beginning of the biggest tectonic shift in the history of entertainment.

This could be the moment when you realize that you don’t need those other people anymore: the gate keepers, the hot shots, the insiders. You don’t need an agent. You don’t need a producer. You don’t need Hollywood. You have everything that you need in your own apartment. You have a lap-top. You have software from Final Draft, Adobe, Apple, and Avid. You have a camera that you can hold in the palm of your hand. You have friends. You have your own imagination. You have the web. What else do you need?

Wake up, people. You’ve already won.

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Film Theory: Image Systems and Symbolism

What is an image system? Well, that’s fancy film theory-speak for a repeating pattern of colors, symbols or images in a movie. Easiest example: THE SIXTH SENSE. For most Rouge Wavers, this is old hat, but play along for a moment, not all of us have gone over this – in TSS, M. Night Shyamalan used the color red to indicate the supernatural. If you watch the movie again, aware of red as an image system, you will notice the color red – a balloon, a sweater, the tent, etc. – in every scene in which there is a supernatural event.

Another example of an image system used in a mainstream movie (for art house movies are usually chock-a-block, mainstream blockbusters less so) is WHAT LIES BENEATH. In WLB, water is the recurring image and theme throughout the movie. The lake, the girl drowning, the rain, the bathroom, the steam, the overflowing bathtub… Again and again, water surrounds us in the movie.

How important is film theory for a screenwriter? The Wave-inatrix is of two minds about it: I have good friends with degrees in film who can speak knowledgeably about Eisenstein's methods of montage or the genesis of the French New Wave but who have not written a great script. On the other hand, it always strikes me as a bit arrogant for writers to seek a well paid career in screenwriting but not find opportunities to learn about as many aspects of the history and theory of film as they can. Many community colleges offer great classes on film theory. You'll see tons of amazing movies and learn a bunch, I promise.

But back to image systems - for you as a writer, creating and integrating an image system into your script can be a great way to subtly add a thematic layer to your script. Warning: take it easy now, don’t be obvious or overdo. Are there a lot of scenes that take place in front of car headlights? At sunset? With water or fire present? How about smoke or even predominant colors…white living room, snowy exterior, white leather seats in the car – are you trying to denote sterility or coldness?

Image system should not be at the top of your list if you are a newer screenwriter. At that level, it is a nicety. But as you progress and grow more experienced and adept with the craft, image systems definitely add a layer of sophistication and mood.

Start by watching a few movies and look for an image system. Can you find one? Remember, it can be color, it can be seasons or elements or an object like fish or glass or mirrors. But it will be throughout the movie, subtly and in the background. Here are few movies to watch that should make this assignment easy and fun:

Breathless
The Battleship Potemkin
Badlands
Citizen Kane
North by Northwest
Chinatown
Repulsion
Brazil*

*extra points for Gilliam's brilliant homage to many famous images and moments in the movies that inspired him.




For more fun learning about film theory, click here or here

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Wherefore Art Thou, Boob Toob?

Just today, NBC announced they are scrapping their 2008 pilot season. CBS made the move first, a few days ago. Pundits wait for ABC to follow. What's going on?

With the DGA having made an agreement with the AMPTP recently, talk on the street is of two schools - yay the strike is almost over and holy crap, the AMPTP is running down a union busting playbook with great success. Wavers, things are changing and they are changing fast. It is said, in screenwriting lore, that the strike of 1988 opened the door to the million dollar spec - it was an exciting time for aspiring writers and careers were made. But what will this brave new world look like post this strike? Will the heretofore almost impenetrable system be opened up and democratized? Will it be easier for aspiring writers to get their work produced? There's no easy answer to that; the entertainment industry is intensely competitive and chances are it will stay that way. But more venues and less gatekeepers certainly must mean more opportunity.

With the announcement from NBC, that its pilot slate is perhaps permanently cancelled, the Wave-inatrix instantly thinks of the hundreds of below-the-line workers who will be affected by this move, not to mention the development deals necessarily scrapped as a result. But I am also a great believer that when a door closes, a window opens. Hollywood is content driven - content is king. And it always will be - whether that content is animated, reality or a serialized drama and whether that content is streamed online, played on a iPhone or watched on a home entertainment system. Storytelling is the oldest profession in the world and it isn't going away. In fact, it is my belief that new opportunities are presenting themselves here and aspiring writers should continue to WIPNILLon a daily basis.


Write
Promote
Network
Learn
Live well

WPNLL©
*side effects may include a robust feeling of creativity, increased imagination and sense of well-being, productivity and monetary gain.

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Soundtracks and Film Scores

What do BIG FISH, BATMAN, THE CORPSE BRIDE, GOOD WILL HUNTING, SPY KIDS, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE and a very long list of other titles have in common? Danny Elfman. From Gray Matter to major motion picture score composer. Who would have thunk it, back in 1983? Elfman’s scores are distinctive; his work goes nicely with Tim Burton’s strange cinematic visions and in all his compositions one can see how the playful, off-kilter music of Oingo Boingo morphed into Elfman’s motion picture compositions.

A few months ago, Elfman was interviewed on NPR on the subject of film scores. The interview was fascinating and Elfman said something that, for those of us unaccustomed to paying attention to movie scores, was quite interesting. He said that a score should enhance a movie – but not distract from it. Many movies have scores that made the movie even more famous – of course, the shrieking violins in PSYCHO or, arguably the most famous movie score (moment) ever – the droning cello in JAWS. Dun dun. Dun dun dun dun. It gives us all a more or less instant memory of the movie.

The Wave-inatrix is no expert on film scores or soundtracks but it is my belief that screenwriters should familiarize themselves with all aspects of filmmaking so that we are at least somewhat conversant in many areas. After all, don’t screenwriters, by default, love movies?

First of all, what’s the difference between a film score and a soundtrack? Well, in the most general terms, a film score is generally music composed especially for the movie and/or a musical composition used for the film. Versus a soundtrack – a compilation of songs either written for or used in the movie. The Academy Awards has a category for Best Original Score and Best Original Song each year. Last year, best original score went to BABEL and best original song went to “I Need to Wake Up” by Melissa Etheridge from AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH.

I recently saw what I think what should win Best Picture in 2007 – THERE WILL BE BLOOD. Talk about a movie with an interesting score. I noticed it even as I was watching the movie – which I really shouldn’t have – but it was interesting to say the least. Different styles, even different musical periods seemed to be represented. It definitely drew attention to itself. Later I leaned the movie was scored by Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead. But then, we are talking about PT Anderson here, one of my favorite directors. In fact, one day while on the picket line with the guild writers, I got into a conversation about Anderson with a writer who said: "Wes Anderson has vision but PT Anderson has genius." Interesting, and hard to say I disagree.

Rouge Wavers know that it is a very bad idea to indicate songs or music you’d like in your script – please don’t do that. Unless you are PT Anderson, it’s so not up to you that it’s beyond discussion. It makes a screenwriter look amateurish in the extreme.

How aware of the score are you when you watch movies? Right off the top of my head, because it stands out in my memory so much, THE CONSTANT GARDNER had a score that drove me nuts. It was so loud and intrusive, that it took me away from the movie. NOTES ON A SCANDAL is a movie I loved but I do recall being very aware of a very loud score. BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN had a luscious, beautiful score, without which the movie would not have been the same. THE PIANO had an unforgettably beautiful score, composed by Michael Nyman. How about CHARIOTS OF FIRE, with a score composed by Vangelis? You know it, it annoys you now but – can you forget it? How about the soundtrack to HAROLD AND MAUDE? Good stuff.

In fact, here are, just off the top of my head, a short list of movie soundtracks or scores that I loved so much that I added to my collection:

Rushmore
Juno
Into the Wild
Before Night Falls
Garden State
Buena Vista Social Club
The Piano
BrokeBack Mountain

How about you, Rouge Wavers? What film scores or soundtracks do you love? Hate?

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New Tools or New Excuses?

Most of us use good old Microsoft Word on our Macs or PCs. Or, of course, Final Draft. But if you are interested in writing prose with new and different software, there are a variety of new and interesting options.

For you Star Wars fans, there’s WriteRoom which the Wave-inatrix loyally tried out for you Wavers. It’s weird. You get a totally black screen with nothing but your cursor and green print. It is kind of fun. But I felt lost because I couldn’t find the menu to save the file. You can get a 30 day free download if you want to give it a try. Wavers should be warned to check to see if documents created in WriteRoom can easily be converted to Word or pdf files.

Scrivener looks like a terrific program particularly if you are working on a novel. It comes with a bulletin board, notes and all kinds of other nifty perks. It looks like a great program for novelists but may be problematic when it comes to translating or transferring your document into Final Draft. But then, I don’t know.

Or for those super hip, fast-of-thumb, there’s always your trusty cell phone. Yes indeed, these are crazy days; read it and weep.

But do writers need fancy gadgets to write pages? The Wave-inatrix is genetically predisposed, through generations of Irish/Scotch bootstrap upbringing to heartily say NO. However – that said, sometimes you have to find systems and solutions that work for you.

For example, the Wave-inatrix is a dyed-in-the-wool addict/user of post-its, teeny notes, crumpled papers and balled up candy wrappers. Greg Madore, my long-suffering tech consultant has been on the hunt for an organizational system that removes post-its from the equation and gets and keeps me organized. Any Wavers who want to send fruit baskets or sympathy cards to Greg, I’m sure he’d appreciate it. The point being that sometimes you have to find a system that works for you.

Is Scrivener the light at the end of the tunnel that will help you kick of 2008 in an organized way? Perhaps. Or perhaps the most challenging obstacle is simply making time to write and sticking to it.

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Beats Which Repeat Repeat Repeat

Do you have repeated beats in your script? Things which repeat? Which are just the same thing happening but put in another way? Repeating? In your script?

Well, how the heck do you know? First of all, what is a beat, exactly? As in we got the beat, thank you Go-Gos? As in beet soup or beat poets? As in beat a dead horse?

Simply put, a beat in a script is a moment in which something happens. I know, know, there are much headier ways of expressing it but the Rouge Wave is all about keeping it real for the people.

Do the Wave-inatrix a favor. Grab a highlighter, open your script to a scene and skim the scene looking for the beat. That’s what readers are doing when they read your script. Reading quickly looking for the beat.

Here’s a lame example, because we love lame examples at the Rouge Wave:

Louella puts down her cross stitch project and pokes the fire.

Louella: You want tea, Earl?

Earl: Yup. Take your time, darlin’. I ain’t in no hurry.

Louella smiles at her loving husband, walks to the kitchen and flicks on the light.

Louella: You sell the gun today?

Earl: Sure did, sweetie.

Earl watches after her and smiles. He shifts his pipe in his mouth, opens a drawer and gently removes a pistol.

Now: what is the beat in that scene? I know, I know, it’s obvious, right? Louella goes to get tea. No no no no no no. Earl lied about the gun.

Now, a repeated beat would be something like….two scenes later:

Louella takes her pills off her night table, drinks water and slips under the covers next to Earl. Earl smiles up at the ceiling.

Louella: So how much did you get for the gun?

Earl: Thirty nine fifty.

Louella: I’m so glad to be rid of that thing.

Earl: Me too.

So what is the beat in this scene? Earl lies about the gun. So we have two scenes doing the same damn thing. That, my friends, is a repeated beat and let me tell you something – readers hate them with a passion. As do execs. Because it says something about you as a writer – it says you are repeating yourself, thusly you are not the master of your material because you are not being effective or efficient.

So open your script and skim each scene, highlighting the beat in each scene. Just the essence of the beat. For example, as above, it does not work to say that the first beat is Earl lies about the gun while in the living room and the other beat is that Earl lies about the price of the gun. Nice try, slick.

Comb your script identifying each beat. If there is a repeated beat – search for and destroy it without mercy. Can the two scenes be combined? Is there a way to deliver this information in a shorter, more entertaining way? Is there a different beat that is needed?

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Eight Reasons the Hero's Journey Sucks

Unfortunately, the Wave-inatrix seems to be at the midpoint of a nasty cold. I've hidden it from you kids so far because nobody needs to see me suffer. But now the secret is out. And that - plus because this is super funny - is why I'm posting high on Nyquil and throwing out a single link to something hysterical instead of, necessarily, commenting on it other than to say I happen to agree.

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Cool Blog Alert

Wavers, I consider it my job to keep you tuned in, turned on and up to date. Here is a link to a blog by new Wave-inatrix friend and cupcake recipient, David Wells. David is a struck writer so we need to support him with our Wave-o-licious love and free cupcakes. Enjoy the blog.

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Rouge Waver Makes GREAT Short Film!

There are Rouge Wavers all over the world, from every walk of life. And the Wave-inatrix is lucky enough to correspond with many and learn that some of you are mad sick talented!

One such very talented Waver, Phil Dale, was kind enough to not only send me a link to his short film THE TREE, but to share that link here and tell us a little bit about the making of the movie.

So for your viewing pleasure, here is THE TREE 

username: tree
password: wave

(On some browsers you may have to enter the username and password in twice)

The Making of THE TREE - by Phil Dale, who has definitely scored a cupcake:

While out on a woodland walk one spring afternoon several years ago, I spotted some initials carved into the trunk of a large oak tree. It was not the first time I had seen such a thing, its a common place sight, but on this particular day it got me thinking: How could a landmark such as an old tree mean different things to different people? For instance, it could be a meeting place for lovers, a hiding place for thieves, a sign post for passing dogs, or just a familiar face on a woodland walk.

I began to wonder what would happen if two people with very different histories and backgrounds were to meet by a tree. A tree that had played very different roles in each of their pasts. How might their individual story's impact one another? And so the the story for a short film called Tree started to take root in my mind.

The core idea for the story came very quickly, but after the initial giddy rush of creativity had subsided, the struggling began. Obviously writing a short film script cannot be compared to the scale of writing a 90+ page screenplay entails, but the same discipline is needed to tell a good story as concisely as possible. After all, it can be argued that every scene in a feature film is a mini short film.

Anyway, after a long time wrestling with the story I realized I was over writing the idea, trying to be to clever. It wasn't until I decided to completely ditch all the talking and make the film a non dialog piece that the big breakthrough came. What had been the mid point in the story now slipped and became the films ending. This change in focus suddenly made the whole idea fall into place, it simplified the story, but at the same time made it stronger by concentrating on the more interesting visual narrative, and, without dialog, the characters became more mysterious, which in turn added a greater level intrigue to the story.

With the backing of producer Liz Chan we entered the script into one of funding schemes run annually by each of the local London Borough Councils. After some months of waiting our project was short-listed and then to our delight, awarded a very modest bursary. The funding was not in itself enough to get the film made, at least not to the standard we had in mind, but the mere support and involvement in the scheme was enough for Liz to attract additional funding to the project from Slinky Pictures, the production company we were making the film through, and in kind support from rental houses and post production facility's in London's media hub, Soho.

Another benefit the scheme offered, was access to a script mentor. This was great because she came up with suggestions and alternative ideas for us to think about, some of which we took on board, and a lot of which we didn't, but nonetheless, this questioning really helped us to focus on what the film was about. What became apparent was that Tree was in fact a sort of fairytale, in a warped modern kind of way. This one small insight then helped inform all the other decisions I made during production, from the choice of actors and costume, right through to the music and sound design.

On longer projects there is usually a ramp up period built into the schedule to allow cast and crew to get up to full production speed. On a short film you just don't have that luxury. You have to hit the ground running from the first hour of the first day! Add to that a crew that is new to each other, first day nerves, and a location out in the back of beyond, and you have all the making for a right little disaster. But, and this is one of the great things about film-making, as the crew arrived on the first day, the film stopped being my film, and instead it became our film, as everyone involved made a little piece of it their own. And when that happens its magical.

We had our fair share of problems making the film, which you can read about on the production blog I kept at www.tree.gb.com But it was a pleasure to make, and I think we succeeded in bringing to the screen everything we had set out to achieve, a simple, poetic, visually driven film, that seeks to explore how a place or object can unknowingly connect and bind us.

Phil Dale is an award winning animator/director who began his career back in 1992 animating on children's series for the BBC, ITV, and American Networks. He has worked on many high-end commercials, music videos, and features films, including Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. Currently he is one of the Animation Leads on The Tale of Despereaux which is being produced and directed by Gary Ross (Pleasantville, Seabiscuit) Phil was also responsible for the animation on the Oscar nominated short, 'The Periwig-Maker' back in 2001. That same year Phil began a parallel journey as a live action film-maker and has since made 3 short live action films as writer-director, and has just directed his fourth. He is now developing several feature length projects.

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Thank you for your order: Kick or Kiss?

What if I told you that my business, the Script Department, was in the business of taking money from writers, kissing their behinds, telling them their writing and their scripts were just great, and then sending them out into the writing world not knowing or caring what happened next? Sound pretty ethical?

Earlier this week, we had a very rare occurrence. So rare, in fact, that around the Script Department, the Disgruntled, Deluded Client is an endangered species. Which is how we like it. Once in a blue, blue moon, a client laboring under the delusion that the Script Department applies kisses to behinds and not truth to material, gets a bit upset when their notes aren't as complimentary as they ought to have been. In fact, he was pretty durned upset that the notes weren't stellar, and demanded a refund. Oh goodness, what to do?

Handling notes on material is very difficult for all writers, myself included. But the more you write, the more professional (read: arm's length) you get about your material. If you get negative comments, no matter how accomplished you feel you are or have been in your writing life, you need to take a deep breath and let those notes roll around in your head for a day two. You may decide to reject some. You may grudgingly accept others.

Here's an armchair diagnosis from a script doctor: if the first feeling you get after reading notes is white-hot anger and outrage? You have some issues to work out. You are, in all probability: 1) investing too much emotion and self-esteem in the material 2) have not been told the real truth in the past or 3) in serious danger of never becoming a real writer because...wait for it...this is the life of a writer.

If receiving notes you don't like puts you on the defensive immediately, there are several things you can do. But first you have to choose, because you've come to a fork in the road.

Option one: Do you want to be a real, produced/published writer as a profession?

Option two: Do you want writing to be for an audience of one - you?

If you choose Option two, then here's what you do: Find a consultant or editor or good friend who will always tell you that your writing is great. Or join a writing group the sole purpose of which is to make friends, chat about writing and books and what you had for dinner.

If you choose option one, then when you find notes upsetting, put the notes down and take a long walk. Breathe it out. Remember, it's not personal and that your dignity as a person and as a writer are still intact. Remember that you get to choose which notes you really will take to heart and which ones you will let slide. If you really, really disagree about a note - talk to the source of the notes. Is there something they didn't catch? Something that you didn't make clear? Maybe there is a dramatic tenet you aren't utilizing. Maybe you can learn something new from these notes - even if it's which direction you don't want your story to go.

I will tell you two things that I know for sure:

1) There is absolutely no way to grow as a writer if you don't receive honest feedback on your writing. And very often - it ain't pretty. You need thick skin.

2) I am not in the business of ass kissing. I've thought about adding it to the menu of services at the Script Department, but the price would be way too high - my integrity.

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Watch Your Language

Malapropalooza has had a disappointing past couple of months. Sure, writers make mistakes but lately, only boring ones. It’s MAY not CAN – things like that. Ho hum. Come on you guys! The Wave-inatrix needs a good laugh!

Oh, but no tears, Wavers. The Wave-inatrix can always find some usage boo-boo that drive me nuts. For example: Like William Safire, who ran a piece in last week’s Sunday New York Times, I also get an eye tic when I see a writer maltreating the word “of”. As in – I could of gone there. KIDS – memorize this – it’s could HAVE. Interestingly, Safire noted that the reason many have lazily adopted “could of” is that it is a phonetic pronunciation of the contraction could’ve. Go ahead. Said it. Could’ve. Get it? Sounds like – could OF. BUT IT’S NOT. All right, I think I’ve beaten that horse to death.

Now, just for fun, here are some words that sound similar but have very different meanings – can you correctly define them?

Brevity
Levity

Pathos
Bathos

All right – good job – nobody peeked!

Brevity: shortness of duration; especially : shortness or conciseness of expression.

Levity: excessive or unseemly frivolity.

Pathos: an element in experience or in artistic representation evoking pity or compassion.

Bathos: insincere or overdone pathos; sentimentalism.

Give yourself five points and a cupcake if you got those correct. Now, here’s another one that absolute cracks the Wave-inatrix up when I see it confused:

Etymology – the study of the origin of words
Entomology – the study of BUGS

So it’s ETY – words and ENTO – bugs. Commit that to memory.

Random Expressions and Definitions:

You raise “hue and cry” – not HEW and cry. To “hew” something is to cut it. Hue and cry actually dates back to Latin: hutesium et clamor, "a horn and shouting".

Language, as we have discussed many a time, bends, twists and changes over time – and it always has.

Colloquialisms (and I’m quoting Wiki here) denote a manner of speaking or writing that is characteristic of familiar "common" conversation; informal colloquialisms can include words (such as "y'all", "gonna" or "grouty"), phrases (such as "ain't nothin'", "dressed for bear" and "dead as a doornail"), or sometimes even an entire aphorism. ("There's more than one way to skin a cat").

So, as one example, to lose your religion means to lose your sh*t, basically.

Slang is a little different in that “it is sometimes regional in that it is used only in a particular territory. Slang terms are frequently particular to a certain subculture, such as musicians, and members of minority groups. Nevertheless, usage of slang expressions can spread outside their original arenas to become commonly used, such as "cool" and "jive". While some words eventually lose their status as slang, others continue to be considered as such by most speakers. In spite of this, the process tends to lead the original users to replace the words with other, less-recognized terms to maintain group identity."

Why, just today my wonderful computer genius King of the World Greg Madore proclaimed something on my computer “mad sick”. Let me translate for you geezers – that’s akin to, oh, maybe something we would have called “wicked” or “way cool”.

Idiom (and here again, I thank my pal, Wiki) is an expression, that is a term or phrase whose meaning cannot be deduced from the literal definitions and the arrangement of its parts, but refers instead to a figurative meaning that is known only through common use.

Hang on – here’s your daily dose of Big Rouge Wave Entertainment – the Wiki definition of Idiom goes on:

In the English expression to spank the monkey, for example, a listener knowing only the meaning of spank and monkey would be unable to deduce the expression's actual meaning (which is to masturbate vigorously). Although it can refer literally to the act of striking an actual monkey with a hand, native speakers rarely use it that way. It cannot be directly translated to other languages – for example, the same expression in German is den Affen schlagen (to strike the ape), with the ape being as detachable from its usual meaning as the monkey in the English phrase is. The same expression in Dutch is het loodje leggen (to lay the piece of lead), which is entirely different from the English expression, too. Other expressions include taking the pink canoe to tuna town and yummy touchy cheeky time. It is estimated that William Shakespeare coined over 2,000 idioms still in use today

And now, dear Wavers, I leave you with a hysterical and appropriately themed video from Funny or Die: Palatial Regalia

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Sundance or Bust

By Margaux Froley Outhred-

Once again, it’s Sundance time. Los Angeles industry types take their winter coats out of storage, strap on their best snotty attitudes, and head to Utah for a few days of the independent spirit.

Lately, Sundance couldn’t be further from the spirit it was a forefather of. The festival is packed with list-only parties, which keep lines of people in the snow just to look more crowded. The air of exclusivity continues inside where gifting suites only let recognizable celebrities or their fast-talking counterparts past. Tickets to screenings are sold out weeks in advance, and only a daring few have the balls to sneak into sold out screenings. And the alternative of getting available tickets early in the morning is not conducive when most people spend their nights drinking in high altitude.

I’ll admit it; I’m not a big fan of Sundance. The best description I’ve ever heard of it is that Sundance is just like Los Angeles, just with turtlenecks and attitude. This year might get back to that independent spirit since many companies are cutting out unnecessary Sundance trips and party expenses. This is a year that should find a feeding frenzy of buyers desperate for product. But, really, the last few years it seems that Sundance has become a parody of itself. (Anyone see the South Park where the Sundance Film Festival comes to town? I rest my case.)

Do I expect an independent film festival to just show movies for free at all times without any lines? I guess not. But, I would argue that the price of being popular is taking its toll. It just seems like Sundance is a teen movie gone awry. Like, Sundance was the nerdy festival wearing glasses in the corner, until someone gave it a makeover and Sundance became the popular girl in school. Now, she’s leaving all her other glasses-wearing nerd friends in the dirt. Because seriously, being a nerd at Sundance totally sucks. Not being on the list for the many clubs and parties leaves you out in the cold or cramped into a too-small restaurant bar. Not being able to get into screenings sucks, especially when they are movies everyone is buzzing about. But, there is also a strange question of, Why am I killing myself to see this movie at 9:30am across a snowy town, after an hour of waiting in line, when it will just be in theaters in 6 months or so?

The best Sundance experience I heard of was an old friend who decided to throw caution to the wind and just show up to the festival. She drove straight from LA, sleeping in her car that final night in Utah. She showed up at the volunteer office on the first day and got herself a volunteer job, and then proceeded to spend a week working at screenings, seeing new movies, and sleeping on the couches of random people she met. That sounds like an adventure, and a truly fun representation of what I imagine Sundance to be. Maybe that’s the best way to go, although, call me crazy; I’m partial to dinner reservations, and a bed I don’t have to share with strangers. But if you’re staying home this year, read a book about how to produce a digital film for $25, rent EASY RIDER and LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, get a little drunk, and you’ll be closer (and warmer) than many other people to the Sundance experience. Even the folks in Park City.

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The Inside Scoop

In the beginning was the word. The Rouge Wave word. This blog began as a source for writers to get an inside peek at the machinations of industry readers. Since then, the blog has grown and expanded to encompass all sorts of Interesting and Important topics. Things like Juno, cupcakes and brads. Things like writing great characters and what is going on with the guy who does Burn Notice and which Rouge Waver can write the funniest haiku.

The other day, on a message board, a writer unhappy with the fact that I stand tall and say outloud that THE BUCKET LIST is tripe, accused me angrily of being "a gatekeeper" and thank god the writer of TBL didn't have *me* cover his script. Yeah, he's glad all right. I have high standards. So sue me.

Inspired by that fiery accusation, today the Rouge Wave returns to its roots. Over a pitcher of beer, I asked two of my colleagues, Margauxand Andrewto weigh in about their experiences as readers. As the evening wore on, the social boundaries broke down. Here is what I can print:

What is your funniest reading story?

Andrew:
I read a spec script that had the score written into the margin - treble clef, bass clef, the whole works. Plus the author had decided to draw small, rudimentary storyboards throughout the script as well.

Margaux:
I read a soft-core porn thriller, only to find out it was written under a pseudonym, and the real author was the quiet girl working in our mailroom. Other than that...my theory is that people look like their scripts...and 95% of the time I'm correct. (That's pretty funny, right?)

Andrew:
Man you're weird.

Wave-inatrix:
Oh gosh, there are so many good stories to choose from. But there was the time an executive asked me to read a script and then return it to his office. That should have tipped me off right away that something was up. It was a terrible script. I walked into the exec's office and he asked me how it was. I began to answer at the exact moment that I noticed a figure sitting way over to the right in his office. The figure was his wife. She had written the script. And I couldn't back pedal fast enough - I was stuck. A-w-k-w-a-r-d. Oh, also I read a 500 page "script" which was a comedy about a vet. That was super funny. But not really "ha ha" funny if you know what I mean.

What is the best script you've ever read?

Andrew:
The best script I ever read, the one that moved me
emotionally in some way was THE SIXTH SENSE. I'm not
sure what happened to it.

The Wave-inatrix:
Oh like that's not bragging.

Andrew:
Oh yeah? Shut it.

Margaux:
Um, so my turn. When I was starting out as a development assistant, I immediately had to read 10-20 scripts a week (and see screenings), but..I basically got no instruction what to look for in a script. I would pay attention what the readers were marking "CONSIDER", reading the premise lines on the PASSES, and trying to read everything the company had currently in development. (This is leading somewhere...I promise.) I was also fresh out of film school and studying screenwriting in town, so, I read the scripts from a writer's point of view. Did they hit their plot beats, were the characters original, that kind of stuff. But, I read the script for TRUTH, JUSTICE, AND THE AMERICAN WAY. A noir thriller about the death of George Reeves. (Yes, it later became HOLLYWOODLAND.) This was the first script I felt in the pit of my stomach. I honestly couldn't tell you the specifics about why I loved it, but, it just got me. A story that touched me so much, I was physically affected. I felt like that script popped a cherry of sorts in terms of how I evaluate scripts.

Andrew:
Little long winded there, babe.

Margaux:
(evil glare)

The Wave-inatrix:
I've read a lot of great scripts but the best script I've been paid to read was SLANTED AND ENCHANTED by Ben Queen. The project is set up at Warner Brothers now. I loved that script so much, it had this definite John Irving feeling to it - that I wrote Ben a fan letter. In my letter I told Ben that I hadn't written a fan letter since the one I wrote to David Cassidy in 1971. He thought that sufficiently funny to write back and now we correspond. And if you're reading this, Ben, you still owe me that cup of coffee.

How many scripts do you think you've read over the years?

Andrew:
I have read somewhere around 6,000 scripts.

Margaux:
Man, oh man. Probably a tad under a thousand. Maybe 850?

The Wave-inatrix:
Wow Andrew, seriously? 6,000?

Andrew:
Don't make me hurt you.

Margaux:
You're doing that thing again, that picking on Andrew thing.

The Wave-inatrix:
All right, fine. Um, I have read, geez, this is tough....oh wow, this hurts my brain...I'm going to guess 2,000.

Andrew:
(snort)

Do you have a ritual when you sit down to read a script?

Andrew:
First, I put on my magic underwear...no...I have no reading ritual. I just find a comfortable place to sit that's somewhat quiet and go for it!

Margaux:
I make a cup of green tea and sit in the corner of the sofa, next to the space heater. A scented candle helps, but not critical. My black pen, a water bottle, and I'm good to go.
My cat, Charlie, often comes and sits right on top of the script while I'm trying to read. Or when I'm typing at our kitchen table, he needs to sit on the script up there too. Sorry if you ever get short black hairs back with your scripts....it's not personal.

The Wave-inatrix:
I sit at my table by the window with a cup of hot coffee, my purple pen -

Andrew:
What, are you Virginia Woolfe now?

The Wave-inatrix:
Can I put him on "ignore"?

Margaux:
No.

The Wave-inatrix:
...with my purple pen, a pencil and my highlighter. Oh and my letter opener which I use to pry the brads off. I like the radio on in the background, very softly and sometimes my dog is in my lap. Is that a ritual?

Margaux:
Not really.

The Wave-inatrix:
Yeah, okay then.

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A Cast of Thousands

A dear friend of mine, recently laid off from her usual job at an ABC hit show, was lucky enough to get a gig propping an action movie. Monday, she told me with some trepidation, 1,000 “background” (that’s extras to you and I) are needed on set for a huge crowd scene. It’s going to be one long day on that set.

Joseph L. Mankiewicz (CLEOPATRA) and Cecil B. DeMille (THE TEN COMMANDMENTS) were known for (among other things) casting literally thousands of extras for the crowd scenes in their epic movies. They had to – how else could deMille depict an Egyptian army racing after those crazy Red Sea pedestrians? How else could Mankiewicz capture the grandeur of Cleopatra’s arrival in Rome? Of course, we all know how well that movie did.



But these days, for the most part, crowd scenes are CGI. Computer generated. Sometimes it works, meaning the viewer is half-fooled and half too entertained to care – for me, that would be LORD OF THE RINGS. Other times, it’s just so obvious that it really takes away from the movie – for me that would be THE SCORPION KING. Of course, with the latter, my reaction, I think, was to the entire movie, and it was cumulatively negative.

300 had massive CGI, as do most epic movies today. GLADIATOR had a great deal of CGI but when it mattered – in the gladiator ring – the crowds were a mix of real and CGI and it was good enough for me.

It’s been interesting to note the modest box office returns for BEOWULF, a movie made with Image Capture, a confusing (to me) method in which actors are suited up with teeny little sensors and then act against a blue screen. Or something. POLAR EXPRESS was made using this methodology and apparently had some pretty disappointing box office returns to show for it.

I guess the Wave-inatrix is old school but the "we-wease Wogah" scene from THE LIFE OF BRIAN is funnier because of the several hundred extras assembled on the hot, dusty set. Perhaps for me it is a call back to being in high school plays and being one of the crowd in Brigadoon and Hello, Dolly! The makeup, the giggling, the costumes, the singing and shouting or moving as one - all as a backdrop to the larger story. Today, little of that is necessary. Budget constraints make it costly and difficult to have 1,000 extras on a set. CGI is the more dramatic, cheaper solution.

But what of the action movie I mentioned above? With their cast of 1,000 extras? Well, that was a scene shot in the "US Congress" so CGI wouldn't have captured the individual faces and personages voting and clamoring or whatever they had to do.

Do Rouge Wavers know that there are actually "background directors"? Just before a television scene begins to shoot - say, in a busy cafe or hospital - the background director shouts ACTION to the background (extras) and they start pouring coffee and opening envelopes or whatever they need to be doing a few seconds before the director of the episode shouts ACTION to the main cast. It's interesting to hang around and watch the extras saying "watermelon, watermelon, watermelon" to simulate real conversation. But I digress.

So I ask Rouge Wavers - can too much CGI or other technology in a movie (such as Motion Capture) distance audiences from the material? Does it distance you – or does it add to the magic of the movies?

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Simply Benazir

Hot off the presses, kids, here is the weekly update I receive from a Wave-o resource. I read these every week and it all goes in the great energy field of my mind for later reference but today my eyes stopped - on - SIMPLY BENAZIR - and my reaction is not printable. I mean, this is good - she was an interesting, controversial and powerful woman but a) what a dumb title and b) she's been dead approximately 34 days. And this is in development. Wow. So without further adieu, here is the Wave-o Hot List:


IN DEVELOPMENT THIS WEEK

Ranger’s Apprentice
Feature
United Artists Films
W: John Flanagan (source material)
Based on the series of children's novels about the adventures of Will, an orphan who becomes an apprentice Ranger striving to keep the mythical Kingdom of Araluen safe from invaders, traitors and threats.

Simply Benazir
Feature
Vox Vision, Sum Films Ltd.
P: Zaid Aziz, Henna Rai
Biopic based on the life of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated on Dec. 27, 2007 in a suicide bombing attack.

Speed Freaks
TV Pilot
Comedy Central
W: Zach Galifianakis, A.D. Miles
Hoping to put the competition out of business, a couple of marijuana dealers burn down their rivals' meth lab. When things do not go as planned, the two find themselves on the run.

Tabatha’s Salon Takeover
TV Pilot; ordered to series
Bravo, Reveille Prods.
EP: Mark Koops, Sarah Jane Cohen
Reality spin-off of Bravo’s “Shear Genius,” following former contestant Tabatha Coffey as she attempts to make-over beauty shops that are in trouble.


HOT PROPERTIES

The Best a Man Can Get
Feature
Paramount Pictures
Based on the novel, The Best a Man Can Get, written by John O'Farrell and published by Broadway Books in 2002. Karey Kirkpatrick directs.

Bleak History
Feature
New Regency Productions, 20th Century Fox
Based on the upcoming novel, Bleak History, written by John Shirley and to be published by Simon and Schuster.

Vicky the Viking
Feature
Rat Pack Filmproduktion, herbXfilm, Constantin Film
Based on the 1970s Japanese-German animated television series, "Vicky the Viking," based on the eponymous children's book by Runer Jonsson; published by World Publishing Company in 1968.
.................................................................................................................

ON THE SET

THIS WEEK IN PRODUCTION

The Lonely Maiden
wrap - 1/10/2008
A Yari Film Group crime comedy about three museum security guards who concoct a plan to steal artwork pieces they have grown attached to over the years. Starring Morgan Freeman, Christopher Walken and William H. Macy.

Quarantine
wrap - 01/03/2008
Screen Gems’ English-language remake of the 2007 Spanish horror film “Rec,” about a deadly strain of rabies that breaks out in an apartment complex.

Cheetah Girls: One World
start - 1/12/2008
The Cheetah Girls head to India to star in a Bollywood movie in this Disney Channel telefilm directed by Nisha Ganatra.

The Tenth Circle
start - 1/02/2008
Lifetime's adaptation of Jodi Picoult’s novel. Kelly Preston and Ron Eldard star as a couple whose lives are thrown into turmoil after their daughter accuses her boyfriend of rape and he then commits suicide.

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Writer? - or director?

By Andrew Zinnes

A friend of mine took a major plunge recently. He crossed the line from writer to - wait for it - writer/director! The film he made was in the vein of a CLERKS or SWINGERS and focused more on character than action or big plot devices. A good thing because he spent under $4,000 on it. God bless the digital era.

But what was interesting to see was that it was clear the screenplay was so much better than the film created. The story and characters were OK and the dialogue was actually pretty good, but it didn't look like a film. It looked like someone basically shot the script verbatim and it turned out looking like a stageplay. It was flat and uninteresting and it didn't have to be even at that microbudget.

Now clearly this is writing blog and not a directing forum, but many of us do have desires to get into the chair and yell "action." Or at the very least we often wonder what a director will do with our babies. What my friend never thought of when writing his script was how to make the scenes seem kinetic. He didn't think in pictures. Certainly not in moving pictures. He didn't think about ways that a director might interpret it so that the camera moves or that different lenses might be used or how little internal moments might be captured visually.

Some might say this is not the job of a screenwriter. And they would have a valid argument. But think about the montage in WHEN HARRY MET SALLY where Harry and Sally walk through Central Park and other parts of Manhattan as they are becoming friends. One portion of this is when Sally tells Harry about the dream when all her clothes fall off. Nora Ephron for sure wrote that they were WALKING along while they were talking. Writing that they are moving means that a director knows the camera will likely be moving with them and they love that. Another thing you sometimes see is the "ON," as in "ON INDIANA JONES as he..." That conveys a potential close up on a long lens so that the character looks cut out from the out of focus background. And putting things in like "tapping fingers" or "fiddling with a zipper" means the possibilities of cut ins or extreme close ups to convey tension. We could go on forever here.

So while camera directions and the like are generally taboo in your screenplay, there is a lot you can do to help your director out. Or you if you decides to become an, dare I say, arteur. A good tip - the next time you are at the bookstore or surfing Amazon you might want to pick up a directing tome or one on general filmmaking. May I suggest - get ready - shameless self-promotion coming - The Guerilla Film Makers Handbook by Genevieve Jolliffe and Chris Jones (I edited it and Gen's my wife, hee hee!) It will give you tons of tips such as a myriad of ways to move the camera without renting expensive track and dollies. Hell, maybe even for free!

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See You at the Box Office - Chart

I tried to read Variety once. Okay – I read it once in awhile if I have a meeting and it’s on the coffee table. Sure it’s okay to flip through, and sure I should make it a habit but that publication is just too dense for my head to wrap itself around. I do subscribe to Hollywood Wire Tap and get my bite-sized Hollywood news there.

But one thing about Variety or the Hollywood Reporter that does fascinate me in a weird way, are the box office return charts. Most of us just hear that something “has done well” at the box office. Or tanked at the box office. Of course, as with all aspects of life, you do have your Box Office Geeks who can quote weekly, yearly and all time box office numbers. These are the types that one generally inches away from slowly at cocktail parties. But they keep inching forward. And you notice they have deviled egg stuck in their teeth. And they try to get your phone number so you give them a fake – oh dear, I’ve gone off topic.



As a semi-occasional excursion, a visit to Box Office Mojo can be a totally fascinating experience. Holy moley – ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS has grossed $160,000,000?! That’s a whole lot of minivans cramming into malls with their eight kids each, folks. NATIONAL TREASURE has grossed $150,000,000 after only two weeks in theaters, while CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR has grossed $44,000,000 in the same time frame.

When you look at the box office, you have to be sure to look at the number of weeks the movie has been in release, and something very fun to note is the percentage up or down the box office has taken in on that movie. JUNO, a cute little indy which has been out for four weeks and grossed $35,000,000 so far, is up 65% from last week, for example. Publicity, media, Ellen Page’s performance…it’s called “word of mouth”. And word of mouth can leverage box office up – or down, dramatically.

That’s why executives, always happy with an opening weekend, bite their nails waiting for weekend number two – because that’s traditionally when a movie takes a word of mouth hit. Movies like JUNO don’t quite qualify as a sleeper – four weeks isn’t very long – but build up box office slowly as word of mouth spreads.

Critical reviews help build (or bust) box office, but the talk around the water cooler at work is extremely powerful, as execs know.

Movies like INTO THE WILD ($18,000,000 in 16 weeks of domestic release) just aren’t ever going to make it into the realm of say, I AM LEGEND ($228,000,000 in 4 weeks of release). But this doesn’t make the box office of INTO THE WILD a failure; comparable to the budget of the project, this adaptation by Sean Penn has probably already earned it’s money back. I could be wrong – I am not a box office/budget geek. But you get my point.

Box office charts can be a source of information gathering: trends, the impact of word of mouth, critical reviews and international grosses. It’s a fuzzy lot of numbers but the box office is ultimately your boss. Because it’s behinds in seats that dictate what gets made and what does not.

The all-time box office numbers are super entertaining. What’s the highest grossing box office hit? TITANIC, $600,000,000. Domestic only. You read that right. Six hundred million dollars. Worldwide, the king of the world raked in almost two billion dollars.

Adjusted for inflation, of course…anybody?...GONE WITH THE WIND, grossed 1.4 billion dollars domestically.

Of course, the all time flops are good jaw-dropping fun. How about ISHTAR? With a production budget of $55,000,000, that camel-sucking movie brought in only $14,000,000. Of course, everybody loves to kick around Heaven’s Gate (Michael Cimino, the Joyce Wildenstein of directors) – with a production budget of $44,000,000, the movie brought in only $3,400,000. Yeah. That’s a forty one million dollar loss. Ouch.

So curl up with a diet coke and a red vine, Wavers, and mosey on over to Box Office Mojo and find out what’s going on, past and present, at that most sacred of places where milkduds mingle with gum under the seats – the box office.

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Writing Buddy Plan '08!

By Margaux Froley Outhred

Happy 2008, Rouge Wavers. Hope you all had a relaxing holiday and somehow saved yourselves from eating as many cookies as I did. (Damn those Mexican Christmas cookies in all their powdered sugar glory.)

New Year, same strike. So what’s your plan? Like you, I am back to the writing grind. I actually didn’t stop writing over the holiday, but now I’m back at it with a fresh enthusiasm. And the thing that’s really giving me a kick in the ass is that this WGA strike is still on. It might be easy to put writing on hold for a few months to let this ride out, but for those of us not in the WGA just yet, this is a prime opportunity to generate and stockpile material. Particularly for those of us laid off due to the strike, we have no business doing anything but writing more material. That, and getting thin, but that’s another blog.

They are not kidding when they say that opportunity is when luck and preparation meet. Or, is it preparation and opportunity meeting? You know what I mean. When this strike blows over, boy oh boy, there is going to be a lot of material flooding the town. And it’s not about having a lucky moment like getting trapped in an elevator with Steven Spielberg; it’s about having the material ready to go.

It’s a great time to harness this New Year’s energy and put a Writing Game Plan together. The writers I’ve been talking to don’t seem to have a problem coming up with ideas; their problem is how to tackle the multiple projects they are excited about writing. I too have been excited by a handful of new ideas, but also somewhat stalled by figuring out how to devote the brainpower to various projects in various stages.

So, here are a few things I would write down to help plan for a productive and successful 2008. There’s always something satisfying and calming about making a nice clean To Do List, don’t you think? Don’t laugh….I’m doing this exercise too, and I’m not that much of a nut, I promise. (Seriously, after spending time with my family over the holidays, I’m the sanest one in the bunch.)

On a single sheet of paper (use something that you can stick near your desk to remind you and keep you on track rather than just burying it in your computer files):

Title and logline/ Premise line of the current project:
Status of Current Project:
When you expect to complete a 1st draft:
2nd draft:
(And if need be, a 3rd draft polish):
How many hours a week can you work on this project:
When are those hours:


It’s as easy as that. Do this for each project you have on your mind right now. Can you designate different days to work on different projects? Remember, not all of them need to be written this year, but a single catalogue of your script arsenal, or intended arsenal, can be a helpful guide during those months when the creativity is not flowing as well. Also, this is a good exercise to help you be able to discuss your arsenal of loglines with ease. Hey, with the strike, you never know who is sitting next to you at Starbucks these days.

Now the hard part: Sitting your butt in the chair and just getting it done. You’ve done one thing to make these goals happen, writing them down. The next thing, if you really want to insure success would be to assign a draft deadline with a friend to trade scripts so someone will hold you accountable.

And as a free new service, The Script Department will match you up with a reader who will hold you accountable. Nothing like someone to make you feel embarrassed and ashamed if you don’t meet your deadline to keep you in that chair. (Nah, just kidding, we won’t make you feel bad,..well, maybe just a little.) I am administrating this new program, so sign up for a writing buddy today! There's no strings attached. Just sign up with a Script Department writing buddy once you have set your goals, and guess what you're going to get right around your self-imposed deadline? A little reminder. Maybe we'll even look at a few pages. But we will for sure do one thing - kick your butt.

Now get back to work.

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Subvert the Dominant Paradigm!

Documentary film is the ultimate way to explore what you're passionate about and get your film made. Docs are inexpensive to make, take months as opposed to years, and have many lucrative venues for distribution. Don't let no stinkin' studio dictate what we can and cannot talk about. Doc films are the way to go if you really want to make a difference.

Script Department partner Andrew Zinnes and his lovely wife Genevieve are teaching a documentary film making course February 9th and 10th here in Los Angeles. Rouge Wavers are eligible for a $50 discount. Just enter DOCDISCOUNT when you are on the payment page.

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Learn how to get your documentary MADE, how to avoid the pitfalls of the industry and how to save time money and gray hairs with this intensive two day course.

Conducted by the authors of The Documentary Film Makers Handbook and the best seling The Guerilla Film Makers Handbook series: Genevieve Jolliffe and Andrew Zinnes. Genevieve and Andrew are working filmmakers who have worked in both the narrative and documentary world for nearly two decades! Their docs have been seen on the MTV, PBS, BBC, ITV and Channel 4.

Contact: Andrew Zinnes, 310-941-2168 or azinnes@sbcglobal.net.

NEXT SEMINAR: LOS ANGELES

When: February 9th-10th, 2008
Where: The Heart Touch Project, 3400 Airport Ave., Santa Monica, CA 90405

Day 1: Saturday, 9am to 6pm:

Introduction: Students introduce themselves and share what they hope to get from the course as well as their projects and passions.

Concept: We explore the different genres of documentaries and discuss the assets and liabilities of each. We offer tips on refining the your concept into a working plan. We discuss pitching and strategies to make your project more attractive to funders. We advise on treatments, proposals, budgeting, and targeted audiences.

Funding: We talk about the various kinds of funding (grants, private equity, etc.) both foreign and domestic. How to approach funders. Fiscal sponsorship,etc. We advise on professional organizations and resources, specific grantmakers and strategies.

Legal: permits, releases, agreements, Fair Use, archival and musical material, etc.

Preproduction: planning and coordination, partnerships, access to subject, logistics

Production - Interview techniques, shooting basics, pitfalls, HD vs. HDV vs. Film, how to get deals, addressing problematic situations, etc.

Day 2: Sunday, 9am to 6pm:

Post-Production - editing, music, clearances, etc.

Film Festivals: recommended festivals for emerging filmmakers, strategies for acceptance, case studies: what wins what doesn’t, publicity, what to do when you are there, etc.

Sales, Distribution, & Marketing: the sales agent, the producer's rep, agreements, what to watch out for, alternative methods, etc. markets: pbs, educational, institutional, foreign, self-distribution strategies

Surviving as a doc filmmaker: how to make $$$ on your documentary, revenue/career-building options: production jobs, promotional docs, events, gov. and non-profit sectors, life stories, etc.

Workshopping: Discuss and develop individual student's ideas using what they have learned in order to help to move their projects forward.

Price: $299. Payments can be made via Paypal (see below, most major credit cards available here) or check prior to the event. DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE to certain groups. Call 310-941-2168 for more information.

Checks should be made out to Crazee Pictures with The Documentary Film Makers Course written on the info line and sent to 9032 Hargis Street, Los Angeles, CA 90034. Please include your name, telephone number and e-mail address so a confirmation receipt can be sent to you! Contact us at 310-941-2168 if you have any further questions.

SIGN ME UP!

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Writing and Real Estate

by Script Department partner, Dave Sparling

Unquestionably, one of the golden rules of real estate is "location, location, location." That often translates into a strategy followed by many wise home buyers: better to buy the worst house in the best neighborhood than vice-versa. Why? Because the piece of land a house sits on is generally a much bigger determinant of a property's value than the particular arrangement of wood, glass, concrete, tile, paint, drywall, etc. that sits on that piece of land. And you can always renovate, expand, or tear down and rebuild altogether.

When it comes to screenwriting, this principle could roughly be translated as "concept, concept, concept." Which of the following is more likely to sell as a spec script: one where the concept is rock solid but the execution so-so, or one with a weak concept that's executed well? Clearly, it's the former. There's a term for the latter: a writing sample (see the second of my three-part reflection on concept, The Evian Tour, for more on that topic). It may be stating the obvious, but poorly executed scripts based on strong concepts don't usually incite frenzied bidding wars. The goal is strong concept and strong execution, colloquialized as "good story, well told."

Working from the position that, relatively speaking, concept is more important than execution, it's logical to put concept first. In other words, determine the "best neighborhood" in which to build your project, pick out the lot, and then plan to erect the structure itself. This is work that efficient writers realize should be done first, as these things determine how you'll go about executing the script.

Your lot chosen in the neighborhood you wish to build (analogous to identifying the genre, knowing your target audience, and having some sense of high v. low budget), you're ready to start the building process. But would you consider erecting a dwelling without a blueprint? Probably not, right? Unless you're prepared for that process to take twice as long and cost twice as much (or more) to translate into a habitable structure.

So if building a house without a blueprint is so obviously an asinine thing to do, why do so many of us fire up Final Draft and start writing scene description and dialogue (i.e. working in "draft mode") before we're clear on the various facets of our concept--even though doing so is akin to looking at paint swatches and window treatments before the foundation is poured and the framing, plumbing, and electrical are in place? Well, simple: it's more fun to write a crackling dialogue exchange, or a great bit of scene-level action, than it is to ponder what our story's actually about (thematically), and how--specifically--we're approaching the project in a manner that will set it apart from other romantic comedies, or thrillers, or action adventures.

It's looking like the WGA strike won't be resolved anytime soon. It's been mentioned here in the Rouge Wave and plenty of other places that this is the time to be busily pecking away at spec scripts. Use some of that time to assess your current project. How's your blueprint looking? There'll be no shortage of new material being shopped when the spec-script market re-opens for business. If you think of the buyers in that market as a collective of folks exploring various neighborhoods looking to purchase the best properties, you've got a much, much greater chance of selling yours if you've not only focused on maximizing curb appeal, but chose a great location to build in the first place.

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Vomit Happens

Writing isn't pretty. The first draft of anything is garbage. I'm unwittingly paraphrasing somebody or other but mainly, I'm making my own point because it's true. Some call this the vomit draft. The draft that contains everything in your psyche before it is vomitted up on the shore of the world for all to stare at and say ewwwww!

Writing a vomit draft takes courage, yes it does. Because you have, good Rouge Wavers, already tested your premise, and outlined your story into three acts, yes? You have already done your character work and research, too. You've already thought about your theme, and the dna of your material. You've watched other movies with anything in common. Then you let loose and you wrote. And you finally get to "fade to black" and read that sucker and - surprise - it sucks. What happened? Nothing. This is perfectly normal.

But here is a mistake that many writers make: still high from contact with the letters "fade to black", you excitedly show your script to the first person unlucky enough to stumble across your path. And they usually don't like what they read all too much. Which is soul-crushing. Believe me, this vomit draft happens to all writers. Sure, when you get more experienced, that first draft is a bit less vomity than that of a novice, but no script is birthed whole and beautiful, like Venus rising from the sea. It doesn't happen.

Here's what I recommend: when you finish that first draft, put it in a drawer. Then get away from it for a few days, maybe a week. Go about your life. Read books, see movies, work, cook and exercise. Then sit down with the draft and read it again. With a highlighter and a pen. The few days distance will do you a world of good.

And for the love of all things holy, especially writing groups - don't bring your vomit draft or vomit pages to the group. It's just not productive. All you'll get is uncomfortable smiles and averted eyes. Proclaiming that what everyone is about to read IS your vomit draft does nothing to mitigate the terribly uncomfortable experience you're about to put your friends through.

In my time in various writing groups, the Wave-inatrix has been privy to the vomit-draft-overstatement-disclaimer, in which a writer smilingly declares the pages as vomit, while in fact, he or she has spent a great deal of time on these pages. Doing so only sets you up for failure - you've set the bar low right out of the gate, now watch some in your group agree that the pages ARE indeed terrible. OR earn the ire of members of the group who see right through this disingenuous ploy to far exceed vomit with pages that are actually fairly well realized.

I recommend not showing anybody your first couple of drafts. Set your script aside, take a breather, then come back to it yourself. Professional WGA writers don't get committee feedback on every draft of their script or outline. If this were the model, writing entertainment would take light years to do. As you grow and mature as a writer, you will learn to critique your own work. I only show a draft of what I'm working on when I have at least three or sometimes four drafts done. When I start to feel so close to the material that it's becoming a blur, and I'm not seeing it clearly at all anymore. That's the time to get a read or pay someone for notes.

Writing a horrible first draft is so par for the course, that a writer who turns out a good first draft is a freakish anomaly.

Being a mother who gave horribly painful birth, at home, without medication or medical intervention because the Wave-inatrix is hard core, I later became aware of mothers who would say that their labor went on for two, three and four days. There's labor and then there's active labor. Active labor is the one that hurts like a sumbitch. And it can't go on for that long. It just physically can't. What some moms are doing is exaggerating their labor. They were in pre-labor for three days - that's the kind of labor that is uncomfortable, but the kind of labor during which you can still make eye contact and eat a cheeseburger between contractions. Active labor is the excruciatingly, star-spangled, white-hot pain that makes you weep, beg, curse and injure anybody within a twenty-five foot radius.

Ew - childbirth and labor stories - what has that got to do with writing?! Some writers will swear that the draft you've just read - they wrote in a month! Or is only the second draft! Bull pucky. Show me a writer with a great early draft and I'll show you a flying toaster.

There simply isn't a glamorous, pain-free, easy way around writing that first draft. The experience is by turns horrible, energizing and nightmarish. No wonder most writers have all manner of nervous tics and socially inappropriate behaviors. And unlike childbirth, there are absolutely no pain free alternatives with mauve birthing rooms, pulsating showers and free massages. There is no alternative to the agony of writing. And no newborn is cute.

Neither by surprised by nor disingenuous about your vomit draft. Vomit happens to everybody.

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Whatchoo Got in Your Drawers?

Rouge Wavers, it's sad. It's just sad that the Wave-inatrix increasingly has a mind like a sieve. But it's true. I cannot remember whether I already posted this on the Rouge Wave and I'm too lazy to find out. But it strikes me that whether it's a rerun or not, this is a great topic for this time of year:

Do you have a script in the drawer that you never quite finished? Or that you did but something was just not working? We all have skeletons in our closet – er, scripts in the drawer. Some we forget about – maybe we even take them out back and put them out of their misery in a trash bin with some gasoline and a match - or maybe that’s just me. But some scripts from our pasts we just can’t forget about. Every few months, they whisper softly, in a sexy siren call that they’d like to be resurrected. That they never had a chance. That you’re so much better as a writer now that surely, surely this time you can make those pages sing.

How do you know whether you really should resurrect a script or whether that voice in your head is just like the other voices and should be ignored at all costs, especially in public?

Nobody wants to waste time on a script. God knows it’s hard enough to find the time to write even on a good week. So what do you do – move onward, ever onward, or take stock of your older material to see if there’s a diamond in the rough that deserves another shot?

There is no sure-fire answer but it is the Wave-inatrix’s opinion that your decision-making process should largely be driven by your passion for the story. Sure, maybe the script is in bad shape, maybe the premise is not executed well and the structure sucks. But if there’s something essentially fascinating, moving, funny or nightmarish about the original idea that you just can’t shake – it might be worth another look.

So what do you do if you decide to get back to work on old material? What does that process look like? I’d suggest sitting down with the script in a quiet, focused environment and simply reading it through – don’t take notes, just read. What is your impression? Do you still connect with the material?

Make a list of what is working and not working. Now read the script again, this time with a highlighter in hand and take a few notes – are there distinct problem areas? Now make a list for the script. In order for it to reach it’s highest creative potential, what is the laundry list of issues, by element, that the script seems to need work in?

If this sounds a whole lot like you’re being a reader for your own script – you are. The one downside is that this is your baby and it’s hard to create and maintain objective distance. If you can afford to hire a consultant such as myself to do this process for you, that’s a great idea. If you’d rather do it yourself, for whatever set of reasons, just be sure to put that Objective Hat on – press it down hard, you’ll need it.

Now make a rewrite plan for your script beginning with the overarching premise and how that’s working. Go element by element in terms of that rewrite plan: premise, character/dialogue, structure/narrative, logic/world, craft/style, execution – where is the script lacking? How can your more developed skill set be brought to bear?

No one can afford to waste time, that’s for sure. But could it be that you have a script lying around that is deserving of your attention and that would otherwise become just a dusty experiment that never got its due? We can’t waste time but we can’t waste our stories, either. Take a look at your inventory. Anything with potential there?

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Matt Nix Exclusive!

The Rouge Wave and The Script Department's Dave Sparling recently had the chance to catch up with Matt Nix, creator and Executive Producer of USA Network's hit show "Burn Notice," which will go into production on Season 2 when the WGA strike is settled. Anyone with any interest in developing a TV series should be inspired by Matt's successful freshman effort in the medium.

DS/RW: "Burn Notice" is your first foray into television, quickly becoming a hit for USA while earning praise from critics. Can you talk a bit about the factors that led you, a longtime feature-centric writer with roots in the indie side of the spectrum, to the so-called "small screen?"

MN: I wish there was a more artistic-sounding reason for this, but really, it was because my agent called me up and said “you should pitch TV this season.” I said “I don’t have any experience in TV. Don’t you have to work on a staff for a few years before you pitch pilots?” He said “No, they like feature guys now.” I had a sort of vague idea for a spy show that had grown out of conversations I had with a friend who had worked in private intelligence. I talked to the head of TV at Fuse Entertainment, and we developed the idea into what eventually became "Burn Notice." We pitched that to USA, and they bought it.

I had always found TV interesting, though. I spent a long time as a feature writer without getting anything made. Movies are fragile, sickly creatures that can die from the slightest injury – an executive changes jobs, a star gets busy, a chill wind comes in from the North – literally anything will scuttle a film. In TV, on the other hand, they have to make stuff. The opportunity to have 13 hours of material actually made was thrilling. Ultimately, I’m not terribly picky about the form. I’ll write a sketch, a play, a puppet show… whatever. I just like getting to see stuff on its feet. And TV is great for that.

DS/RW: The WGA strike notwithstanding, has the success of the show stoked demand for you as a feature writer? Anything in the feature pipeline you'd like to tell us about?

MN: There’s not a lot of crossover between TV and features. I wouldn’t say the show has stoked demand, exactly. Perhaps there’s a comfort factor, in that there’s something I’ve done that has been reasonably successful. It’s good to be able to prove to people that your words can be used to expose film, and that the results are considered entertaining by some subset of the population. But the worlds are pretty separate.

I’m writing a few things. I had a comedy in development at Warner Brothers, and I’m doing another draft of that, for producers Jon Shestack (AIR FORCE ONE) and David Dobkin (director of THE WEDDING CRASHERS). I’m writing a kids film for Nickelodeon, sort of a paranoid thriller for children. And I’m writing the HOT WHEELS movie for Warner Brothers and producer Joel Silver, which is a big action movie. I’m pretty excited about all of them.
DS/RW: Any plans to direct an episode of the show? If so, do you think it'd be an episode you wrote?

MN: Yes, I’m planning on directing an episode this season. It will almost certainly be my own episode… it’s just a matter of making sure the show is running smoothly enough that I can take that time to devote to directing.

DS/RW: As Executive Producer/showrunner, have you found yourself in the tenuous position of being expected to continue the non-writing aspects of the show while you're on strike as a writer? (If so) how has that worked out in practice?

MN: Actually, I’ve been fortunate in that we were in writer prep for the show when the strike hit. There wasn’t really much producing to do. For this strike, the producers are really trying to hold the line and not produce OR write, and I’m standing with them on that. So I can’t really be involved with the DVD, which sucks, but other than that, there wasn’t anything to do except write.

DS/RW: Have the logistics of running the show made it impossible or difficult for you to keep current with feature releases and/or any favorite TV series of yours? If not, what's blown you away lately and why have you found it so compelling?

MN: I’ve watched some stuff. It’s more having three little kids at home that gets in the way of my movie viewing, but I haven’t gotten out much. I watch "Dexter," which is probably my favorite show. It’s intelligent but never pretentious, and it’s a great mix of character and plot. Plus, it’s another show with voice-over set in Miami, so it has that going for it. My favorite movie recently was SUPERBAD which I thought was fantastic.

DS/RW: You set up "Burn Notice" with no significant experience under your belt on the TV side of the industry. Any suggestions for writers looking to follow in your footsteps?

MN: I think the thing that served me best was keeping one eye on writing something that I cared about and another eye on the realities of what worked for the network, the studio, and the executives involved. It was less a matter of balancing the two than it was a matter of finding a way to do both at the same time - I worked really hard to make sure that I was always doing work I was proud of, while at the same time being really conscious of the fact that I was working in a specific context. There can be a temptation to regard the studio and the network as meddlers getting in the way of your vision. I think that’s counterproductive. They’re setting the parameters, and then it’s your job to succeed within those parameters. Sometimes that’s impossible, but more often than not you can find something that works for everyone. You have to fight the battles that matter, but you also have to make sure everyone’s always on the same team, moving forward toward the goal.

You have to listen to everyone. The minute you think you’ve got all the answers, you’re dead. I learned from everyone. I took notes from everyone – from the network, the studio, the writers, the actors, my assistant, my mom. I sought out criticism, and when something wasn’t working, I killed it, no matter how long I spent working on it. I was shameless about calling people and asking “how do you do this?” And when you come to people with that attitude, you’d be surprised how willing they are to help.

Matt Nix serves as executive producer, writer and creator of the new USA Network original series BURN NOTICE, which premieres Thursday, June 28 at 10pm/9c.
Nix has worked as a feature writer since 1997. He has written scripts for Warner Brothers, Columbia, Paramount, Universal, and New Line, as well as several independent companies. He has had the opportunity to write in a range of genres, including dramas, thrillers, light comedies, dark comedies and children's films.

Nix currently has several feature projects in active development - an adaptation of the bestselling young adult novel "Chasing Vermeer" with Warner Brothers, a workplace comedy for Warner Brothers, and a "paranoid thriller for children" for Paramount/ Nickelodeon Films. He is also an acclaimed director of several short films. His work has been featured on the SCI FI Channel, FX Movies Channel, PBS and in numerous film festivals around the world. He lives in Pasadena with his wife and three children.


ShowHype: hype it up!

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Matt Nix Exclusive!

The Rouge Wave and The Script Department's Dave Sparling recently had the chance to catch up with Matt Nix, creator and Executive Producer of USA Network's hit show "Burn Notice," which will go into production on Season 2 when the WGA strike is settled. Anyone with any interest in developing a TV series should be inspired by Matt's successful freshman effort in the medium.

DS/RW: "Burn Notice" is your first foray into television, quickly becoming a hit for USA while earning praise from critics. Can you talk a bit about the factors that led you, a longtime feature-centric writer with roots in the indie side of the spectrum, to the so-called "small screen?"

DS/RW: The WGA strike notwithstanding, has the success of the show stoked demand for you as a feature writer? Anything in the feature pipeline you'd like to tell us about?

MN: There’s not a lot of crossover between TV and features. I wouldn’t say the show has stoked demand, exactly. Perhaps there’s a comfort factor, in that there’s something I’ve done that has been reasonably successful. It’s good to be able to prove to people that your words can be used to expose film, and that the results are considered entertaining by some subset of the population. But the worlds are pretty separate.

I’m writing a few things. I had a comedy in development at Warner Brothers, and I’m doing another draft of that, for producers Jon Shestack (AIR FORCE ONE) and David Dobkin (director of THE WEDDING CRASHERS). I’m writing a kids film for Nickelodeon, sort of a paranoid thriller for children. And I’m writing the HOT WHEELS movie for Warner Brothers and producer Joel Silver, which is a big action movie. I’m pretty excited about all of them.
DS/RW: Any plans to direct an episode of the show? If so, do you think it'd be an episode you wrote?

MN: Yes, I’m planning on directing an episode this season. It will almost certainly be my own episode… it’s just a matter of making sure the show is running smoothly enough that I can take that time to devote to directing.

DS/RW: As Executive Producer/showrunner, have you found yourself in the tenuous position of being expected to continue the non-writing aspects of the show while you're on strike as a writer? (If so) how has that worked out in practice?

MN: Actually, I’ve been fortunate in that we were in writer prep for the show when the strike hit. There wasn’t really much producing to do. For this strike, the producers are really trying to hold the line and not produce OR write, and I’m standing with them on that. So I can’t really be involved with the DVD, which sucks, but other than that, there wasn’t anything to do except write.

DS/RW: Have the logistics of running the show made it impossible or difficult for you to keep current with feature releases and/or any favorite TV series of yours? If not, what's blown you away lately and why have you found it so compelling?

MN: I’ve watched some stuff. It’s more having three little kids at home that gets in the way of my movie viewing, but I haven’t gotten out much. I watch "Dexter," which is probably my favorite show. It’s intelligent but never pretentious, and it’s a great mix of character and plot. Plus, it’s another show with voice-over set in Miami, so it has that going for it. My favorite movie recently was SUPERBAD which I thought was fantastic.

DS/RW: You set up "Burn Notice" with no significant experience under your belt on the TV side of the industry. Any suggestions for writers looking to follow in your footsteps?

MN: I think the thing that served me best was keeping one eye on writing something that I cared about and another eye on the realities of what worked for the network, the studio, and the executives involved. It was less a matter of balancing the two than it was a matter of finding a way to do both at the same time - I worked really hard to make sure that I was always doing work I was proud of, while at the same time being really conscious of the fact that I was working in a specific context. There can be a temptation to regard the studio and the network as meddlers getting in the way of your vision. I think that’s counterproductive. They’re setting the parameters, and then it’s your job to succeed within those parameters. Sometimes that’s impossible, but more often than not you can find something that works for everyone. You have to fight the battles that matter, but you also have to make sure everyone’s always on the same team, moving forward toward the goal.

You have to listen to everyone. The minute you think you’ve got all the answers, you’re dead. I learned from everyone. I took notes from everyone – from the network, the studio, the writers, the actors, my assistant, my mom. I sought out criticism, and when something wasn’t working, I killed it, no matter how long I spent working on it. I was shameless about calling people and asking “how do you do this?” And when you come to people with that attitude, you’d be surprised how willing they are to help.

Matt Nix serves as executive producer, writer and creator of the new USA Network original series BURN NOTICE, which premieres Thursday, June 28 at 10pm/9c.
Nix has worked as a feature writer since 1997. He has written scripts for Warner Brothers, Columbia, Paramount, Universal, and New Line, as well as several independent companies. He has had the opportunity to write in a range of genres, including dramas, thrillers, light comedies, dark comedies and children's films.

Nix currently has several feature projects in active development - an adaptation of the bestselling young adult novel "Chasing Vermeer" with Warner Brothers, a workplace comedy for Warner Brothers, and a "paranoid thriller for children" for Paramount/ Nickelodeon Films. He is also an acclaimed director of several short films. His work has been featured on the SCI FI Channel, FX Movies Channel, PBS and in numerous film festivals around the world. He lives in Pasadena with his wife and three children.


ShowHype: hype it up!

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

Pull Pages and Mixed Metaphor Special

Pull pages. Probably not a term most Wavers commonly use. Unless you are a reader.

The other day I settled down comfortably on my couch with a script, a fishbowl, a letter opener, a highlighter and pen. Those the tools of my trade. I use the letter opener to pry the stubborn brads out, toss them into the fishbowl where they make a comic display, set the title page aside for summary notes, uncap my highlighter and begin to read and pull pages.

What do I highlight? Names. Dates. Significant relationships. And beats. And as I highlight - I pull pages, in order. I separate some of the cattle from the herd.

I use the highlighter for other reasons too - I use it to mark parts of the script that were problematic (typos, language usage, errors, poor logic or otherwise bad writing). Pull pages become an evidence room.

Pulled, marked up pages are my Rosetta Stone for the notes. And yes, Rouge Wavers, the Wave-inatrix just used three unrelated metaphors in the space of one printed inch. But that's what makes me special. Ahem. Shall we continue? You in the back ready to pipe down?

Right you are. It struck the Wave-inatrix like so: what if you, Rouge Wavers, were to print out your script, settle down comfortably with a highlighter and read each page the way a reader does - quickly - and as you go, highlight points on your page where significant characters are introduced and where turning point action or dialogue takes place? For advanced Rouge Wavers, you can also highlight moments, dialogue (whatever form it takes) in which your theme (the DNA) of your script is present.

Now at the end of the exercise, flip through your script again and pay special attention to the pages which contain highlights - those are the pages a reader would pull, synopsize or otherwise dwell on in assessing the script. Note the page numbers of the pulled pages. How'd you do? Can you cobble together the premise of the script by glancing at the highlighted passages?

Int. Grocery Store - pg 4
Mary Anne THROWS the soup mix - pg 5
BILL LUTZ, tall, handsome - pg 5
"I do" - pg 25
"What's this prescription?!" - pg 50
Int. Divorce Attorney - pg 60
Int. Bar - pg 75

Okay if this is the case, as above, Wavers, we have a problem. Sure, these pulled, highlighted passages tell a story but geez, look at those page numbers! What in the heck can possibly be entertaining between pages 25 and 50?

If you try this exercise, Rouge Wavers, you will find yourself on an archeological dig. There is evidence in every layer of a script - good and bad. Go ahead, give it a try. Just sit, read, highlight and pull turning point pages. Then go through the pile of those pages and have a look at the evidence. How'd you do?

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Can You Write a Hot Sex Scene?

How about a violent murder? How about a character cursing like a sailor? Believe it or not, many writers are too embarrassed to really go there in a scene. Before you shove back from your keyboard indignantly, swig from your beer and say $%&# this @#$%@, of course I can write that @#$%! - bear with me. Many writers hold back, men and women alike.

Now, ask any reader and you'll hear horrific and sometimes side-splittingly funny stories about screenwriters who do the opposite. Suddenly, in the middle of a script, an adeptly written porn scene appears. I mean - wow - if you can make a reader blush, you're in the zone, baby. Because we read it ALL. But in my experience, one of the hallmarks of novice writers is holding back because someone you know is going to read this and they don't know the things your imagination can muster about sex, violence or otherwise difficult topics.

The Wave-inatrix will cop to it - I've written a short story that got published, called Grace's Beauty. A story I'm very proud of. But it refers and flashes back to a very ugly and difficult experience for my main character. And I honestly don't ever want my mom to read it. And she hasn't. Because I don't want to hear - Honey, did that happen to you?! Because then, only one of two answers would be the case - yes - which would beget OH MY GOD YOU DIDN'T TELL ME. Or no. Which would beget - then WHY did you write THAT?

Writers channel humanity when they write. We do talk about difficult things. And intimate things. And scary, joyful and embarrassing things. But you cannot ever be a truly great writer if you are worried about what anyone else will make of what you wrote. A writer is an articulate funnel for the human experience. You may or may not have had the experience you're writing about but it doesn't matter. Because you can imagine having that experience. That's why we writers are essentially crazy. We can feel and imagine anything. And we do.

I have never put a shotgun in a deputy's chest and blown him off my porch and into the yard, then dragged his body through a cornfield and dumped it. But along with my partner, I wrote it and it's a pretty horrifying scene. I can imagine being on either side of that gun. I did my research - my partner and I knew which kind of shotgun is needed to blow someone back several feet. If I had to shop for a weapon, after all we've written, I imagine I'd be pretty informed.

Write what you know. And write what you can know, whether that fear, joy, erotic fantasy or sheer rage comes through the collective unconscious or, if you don't subscribe to that, out of the depths of your imagination. Because at the end of the day, there are only so many situations we humans can wind up in. And if you can't imagine RAGE, if you can't become that on the page, then you have no business being a writer.

And remember, you have to get up pretty early in the morning to shock a reader. If what you've written is organic to the story and not gratuitous or clumsy, we won't mind. If the scene works in context with the story and is tonally consistent, then go for it. Check in with yourself. Is this scene par for the course relative to the rest of the script? Does this character curse this intensely for a backstory/emotionally rooted reason? Would this sex be sexiest implied, or, like A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, does this sex scene need to be explicit? Serve the material before you worry about your pride, image or mom's opinion. Nobody said being a writer was easy.

But how do I know if I've gone too far?

But my script really does need a hot sex scene!

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