Networking in Los Angeles

Good morning, Wavers! A Rouge Waver (we'll call him Pete) wrote in and asked, having just moved to Los Angeles, how on earth to meet other screenwriters and get that networking and socializing started from the ground up.

One can't exactly walk into a cafe frequented by writers and stare meaningfully at those writers and make small clicking noises until they look up, catch your gaze and become your new best friend, mentor and super-connection. Well I mean, one could do that but then you'd wind up like my friend Bob, who got a restraining order and permanent ban from the cafe.

First of all, Pete, moving to Los Angeles to further your screenwriting career was a very smart move. So congratulations on your ability to make that happen. There's no silver bullet, of course, you are going to have to be very proactive if you want to meet and get to know other screenwriters and industry types. But here are some resources that might be helpful:

Find your local LA screenwriting Meetup Group.

Check out special screenings and events sponsored by the American Cinemateque.

Contact Marc Zicree's Super Mentor Group for classes and/or admission to Marc's renowned networking group, The Table, which meets each Thursday evening in Toluca Lake.

Check out the UCLA Extension Writers' Program. They have great classes, some of which might be right up your alley - a two day weekend intensive. Classes are always a great way to meet other writers.

The Script Department will be offering weekend classes in the next few weeks and months so stay tuned in to the Rouge Wave for those announcements - but in the interim, there are two back-to-back table reads coming up, April 1st and April 8th at the Attic Theater at 7:30pm.

And this last tip comes with a caveat. The Done Deal Message Board, largely populated by temperamental blow-hards but sometimes frequented by actual nice, intelligent people, does have members who live in the Los Angeles area so you might want to gingerly check there. Again, a caveat: Message boards are generally replete with Anonymous Hostility and Heartfelt Disinformation so go to there with great caution.

So there you go, Pete, that's about as much as I can tell you. Give it some time, put yourself out there, take some weekend classes and read the LA Weekly for events and screenings to attend.

If any Angeleno Wavers have other or more suggestions, please leave them in the comments section.

Good luck, Pete. And welcome to LA. If I find you making small clicking noises at a cafe I'm going to have to intervene. Just FYI.

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The Fresh Idea Race

A Rouge Waver wrote in with a two-part question:

One of the many problems I'm encountering as a novice is coming up with a good story idea. I imagine it's one that plagues screenwriters at every level, but as a novice it looms large, that's for sure.

Join the crowd. Coming up with fresh ideas is, in my opinion, the only REAL challenge of being an aspiring screenwriter. All the other stuff - execution, i.e. what I talk about on TRW almost every day in one form or another - is something that screenwriters eventually get right through practice and repetition. Writing great character and dialogue, nailing structure, understanding theme and tone, developing voice, writing cinematic, kinetic action lines. That's all accessible for most aspirants. Of course, there's that ineffable innate talent thing and that's just god-given but still, you get my point. Execution and craft can, for the most part, be learned.

But fresh ideas - that's tough. In this week's New Yorker, there is a really great article about Tony Gilroy (MICHAEL CLAYTON, DUPLICITY, etc.) and here is a section I thought fascinating and depressing:

Gilroy believes that the writer and the moviegoing public are engaged in a cognitive arms race. As the audience grows savvier, the screenwriter has to invent new reversals - madder music and stronger wine. Perhaps the most famous reversal in film was written by William Goldman...in MARATHON MAN. Laurence Olivier, a sadistic Nazi dentist, is drilling into Dustin Hoffman's mouth, trying to force him to disclose the location of a stash of diamonds. "Is it safe?" he keeps asking. Suddenly, William Devane sweeps in to rescue him and spirits Hoffman away. In the subsequent car ride, Devane starts asking questions; he wants to know where the diamonds are. After a few minutes, Hoffman's eyes grow wide: Devane and Olivier are in league! "Thirty years ago when Goldman wrote it, the reversal in MARATHON MAN was fresh," Gilroy says. "But it must have been used now 4000 times." This is the problem that new movies must solve. As Gilroy says, "How do you write a reversal that uses the audience's expectations in a new way? You have to write to their accumulated knowledge."

Now, in this passage, Gilroy is speaking specifically about reversals - but the same is true of coming up with fresh ideas - you must write to the audience's accumulated knowledge. Which is why the list of movies we were coming up with yesterday is important. Screenwriters need to be articulate in what has come before and what is going on now. Because audiences have literally seen every story that can be told at the movies already. They really have. But. Knowing that, it's not that you have to come up with an idea for something that has literally never been done (good luck with that, by the way) it's telling a story with your particular imprint, with your particular take on it - that is what you need to strive for. I believe there are infinite variations on each story and that's what keeps the doors open for you as you strive to come up with an original idea. You have to think about the meta story you want to tell - okay this is the story of a man needing to restore his pride and his dignity. Okay how about if that's a western? How about if we make the antagonist a wealthy landowner? Nah. How about we make the antagonist a dangerous outlaw? Yeah, okay - how about the story is not about the rancher trying to save his ranch but him accepting a job in order to save his ranch? What kind of job? How about if the job has to do with the outlaw? And we have 3:10 TO YUMA.

So it's being able to go from the meta to the details of your story. And it is in the details that you will find the specificity and the originality you are looking for. In FRENCH KISS the meta story is an uptight woman who falls for a rebel type. Yeah but he's a Frenchman. And the woman has to get on a plane and track down her fiance, who she thinks is cheating. And she sits right next to this crazy, stinky Frenchman - and they wind up falling in love. So the meta story is pretty familiar, yes, of course, but the specific details create a particularity we have not seen.

So when trying to come up with a good idea for a script, at first identify the meta. Then create details that have not been seen before. Use your store of knowledge about what has come before. If you're writing a romcom - you better have seen a truckload of romcoms so you are aware of what has been done. Ditto every other genre. This is why it is essential that screenwriters - woe are we - see a huge amount of movies. Pity the poor sucker who skips this step, thinking that he or she is just so brilliant that totally original ideas literally sprout from their brain regularly. No such luck. You have to do your homework. Identify which genre you'd like to write, noodle around with some ideas then test them - go through the mental files (if not physical files) of other movies in this genre and look for similarities and differences. How can your idea be the same but different?

And part two of this Waver's question:

I'm particularly attracted to movies like Babel, Traffic, and Syriana et al; those with multiple storylines and a common thread (although, I wasn't all that keen on Crash, too preachy I thought...okay, racism, I get it). But, how many scripts are you seeing that employ this technique? Would you tell me not to bother, it's been done to death? Or, would you say that it may be okay to pursue as a writing sample?

You know, for a while there, a couple years back, I saw TONS of scripts that were ensemble, braided storyline scripts just like BABEL, TRAFFIC and CRASH. A lot of writers got inspired by that. So on the one hand, I would say beware going for that - it's a very tough mini-genre to pull off and to pull off well, let me tell you that. The skill set involved is formidable. That said, because Hollywood is so counter-intuitive sometimes - I would always err on the side of writing what you are really, really passionate about. If that's what you want to write - go for it. If you can pull it off with excellence and originality, it will at minimum make a great sample. And who knows - it might just get you repped or even sold. An awareness that there was a spate of films of this nature relatively recently is of course key. I do not think writing this type of script is a slam dunk right now. I wouldn't do it, personally. That said, in my opinion, there is one truism in Hollywood that trumps them all and that is that nobody knows anything. So do what you will.

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The Page Count Clinic

Good morning, Wavers! I inexplicably slept for 10 hours last night. I have no idea why so I just count my blessings that my lifestyle gives me the latitude to do that and get on with my day.

Ahem. Onward.

A commenter on yesterday's post wondered why BENJAMIN BUTTON appears to have a very loose structure and, I assume, intimated that we should not be as concerned with getting structure right when there are (truly) so many exceptions. Yes, there are many exceptions to the rule. But until or unless you have made it - are repped, are pitching, are sold or selling - you MUST understand exactly how structure works and you must demonstrate this in your writing. Exceptions are no excuse not to know exactly what you're doing in the now. Aspiring screenwriters are like nascent cooks - you must stick to the recipe in order to learn. Once you've made it over the moat that separates aspiring writers from paid ones - then and only then can you begin to put the recipe book down and vary from it when it comes to things like structure. Yesterday's discussion of structure was a rudimentary one - of course there are all sorts of jumping off points.

Additionally, before we get to today's topic, one cannot know what went on in the production of a major motion picture unless one was there. The script may have been tightly structured but somewhere in development, decisions were made to add more and bigger set pieces that plumped the structure up until it is what it currently is - pretty free form. Or not. We have no way of knowing unless we can ask that question directly of the writer. One can spend all day every day finding exceptions. Aspiring screenwriters trying to break in don't have the luxury of stepping off with new and wacky structural techniques. You need to show a rep or producer that you have basic screenwriting craft down cold before you start popping wheelies.

So on to the topic of the day: The Page Count Clinic

Another commenter said: Do you have any suggestions for reining in runaway page count, other than the obvious of scene chopping solution?

Yeah, no, I dunno. Good luck with that.

Wait, I'm getting too cavalier lately. Forgive my insouciance. Yes, there are a few things you can do to cut down on page count. When I write, I never, ever worry about page count in the early stages. I don't care if my whole script, from fade in to fade out has 72 pages. That gives me room to expand and add more set pieces and more character development. I don't worry if my script has 132 pages either - that's an opportunity to take what I have and distill it into sharper, more powerful pages.

So when you have too many pages that's the opportunity begging to be had. Distilling 10 okay pages into five GREAT pages.

There are two fundamental ways to approach reducing your page count - reviewing each SCENE for relevance and then reviewing each and every PAGE to see where you can cut a line of dialogue, two lines of action, etc.

SCENEWORK
When it comes to each scene, do the scene test: Does this scene contain a relevant beat? Does this scene concurrently develop character? Does this scene contain the thematic undertones of your premise? Does this scene, in other words, absolutely carry its weight and earn its spot in the script? Think of yourself as the captain of a ship loading up to head out to sea - is this scene necessary? Does it earn the spot on the ship? Or is it ballast that can be tossed because it will only weigh the ship down?

PAGEWORK
Once you're confident that every scene is absolutely necessary, go over every single page and look for ANY opportunity to reduce your action lines from three lines to two. Are there entire action lines that break up dialogue between characters? Are you over-directing the characters, in other words? Is there another way your character can express his or her thoughts in half the dialogue? Is your character actually repeating him or herself? In the same way that grapes are stomped down into a pulp which will ferment into wine, pages can be s-q-u-e-e-z-e-d down into more powerful stuff too.

Something I like to do which seems a bit arbitrary is to say to a writer - okay lose 10 pages off this script. I don't care where, I don't care how, just do it. And to a one, the writer comes back aglow with accomplishment and sleeker, faster, more powerful pages.

Just given that marching order with no parameters is empowering because when it comes right down to it, it's not rocket science to look at your pages and see where the fat is.

So you may want to try that first - just take 10 pages out of your script. Open that sucker up and go. If that feels daunting or directionless, try reducing pages using the following steps:

Do a structure check: Are your act breaks falling on or about pages 10, 25, 50 and 75? How far off are they? Remember, this is a ratio based on the Golden 100 Page Script. Is the ratio about right? If there are 50 pages between act breaks, you have now pinpointed where the problem is in your script. So focus on that section.

Do a scene review: go through each and every scene and ask it these questions: What's your name and where are you from? Well, no, maybe like: What is the BEAT in this scene? Is there one? Does this scene absolutely and without question move the story forward? Does it develop and reveal more about your character? And ideally - does it do both? Does this scene jump in late and get out early? Could the scene move a long even a little faster?

Do a global page reduction: Go through every single page and find any and all lines that can be cut. Anything. Dialogue, action lines - nothing is safe. Go pithier. Use more powerful, evocative words. The sun shines down on this suburban neighborhood. Dogs bark, children play and the mailman makes his rounds - which is not bad - might then become: Another sunny day in this family neighborhood; kids play, dogs bark. - We lost seven words in the second example. Maybe we don't need the mailman. Or do we? Go through every single action and ask - what is really important to point out here? Is the word 'suburban' really critical? Or does 'family' do the job? That's your call. But I guarantee that you will find TONS of things you can reduce just slightly. Writers tend to overwrite and over direct scenes. Strip each scene down to the bare bones using words that deliver the feeling and imagery important to the scene but that literally take up less space.

Depending on where you are as a writer - the global page reduction method is probably the best way to cut down on pages. You'd be surprised - even the most advanced writer can always find extraneous stuff on his or her pages. Newer writers are more likely to have scenes that are not necessary at all. If you're not sure where to begin, I'd follow the steps above in that order without worrying about what your total page count should then be. Just follow the steps and then check in again. Did you lose 10 pages or so?

If you have to lose more than 10 pages you either have a problem with the structure full stop or you have a major issue with overwriting pages.

If you have 10 pages or less to lose, you probably just need to trim action and dialogue on your pages.

Writing IS rewriting. I love trimming pages because it's not a punishment, it's a challenge. How can I make what's here work BETTER than ever before? It's like chipping away at the marble to reveal a finer, more beautiful image. It is making wine from grapes, it is squeezing the - okay I've run out of weird metaphors but you get it.

In general, as a rule of thumb*, I always like to shoot for the Golden 100 Page Script. If you're writing comedy, romcom, thriller or horror, this page count is actually pretty sweet. If you're writing scifi, fantasy or drama, you might wind up with 110 pages. If your script has over 115 pages, you need to pull the car over and see what's going on. It might be fine but it also might be your clarion call to write sleeker, more powerful pages. No matter what your page count, you can always produce better pages than the ones you currently have. I guarantee that. In fact, that's a whole other blog post - when to STOP tweaking!

*stuff it, Anonymous.*

*This seems like a good time to explain my "stuff it, Anonymous" disclaimers. A couple or three times a week I get comments or emails from disgruntled Have-to-be-Righters who tell me how WRONG I am. Everything on the Rouge Wave is from MY perspective and MY experience. Anyone who takes what I say as gospel should have his head examined. These are all suggestions and advice. Do what you will. Do what works for you.

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From the Mailbag

Dear Wave-inatrix: I was wondering if it was possible for you to explain on the RW how movie budgeting works. I don't quite know how to figure out if my script is a low-budget or a high budget one. What budgeting factors should I take into consideration when developing my idea before I dive into writing the script?
Thanks,
Languishing in Lillehammer

Dear Lillehammer:

Andrew Zinnes here. As the sort of production person at TSD, Julie asked me to answer your budgeting questions.

What makes a script expensive are the following - lots of locations (especially exotic), lots of characters, huge movie stars, animals, lots of stunts, visual effects, pyrotechnics, children, rain & snow and large set pieces. All of these things require a huge crew, multiple cameras, lots of travel, long post-production phases, long pre-production phases (for testing things) and lots of insurance! Movie star salaries and fees for the producers eat up a lot of a budget too. Due to this you can see why something like Batman would be in the $150-$200 million range. And I'm not even including marketing, advertising, etc.

So the cheapest film would be one with 1-3 main characters in one or two locations with very little special effects or stunts. If the characters aren't stars, you can save money too. But the only way that will work is if you go with something like horror or a thriller where the genre attracts viewers by itself. You can do a small drama or comedy too as they don't require any of the expensive stuff. These tend to be more film festival films though. So something like Little Miss Sunshine or Half Nelson might come under this heading. I believe those films were made for under $10 million.

A good thing to do to get an idea of what the budget range of films are is to go to IMDB (The Internet Movie Database) and enter in some of your most recent favorite films. Then go to the business/boxoffice section and see what the budget is.

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From the Mailbag

Dear Mistress of Coolness -

- Okay you guys were never going to buy that, were you? Fine.-

Dear Wave-inatrix:

I just started reading your web site a few weeks ago and really appreciate it. I'm still working through the coolestfilmsites. I really enjoyed your essay on rhythm (Music in Writing) with your example from David Mamet. While you are on this topic, I'm wondering about the difference between dialogue on the page versus actually being spoken. When I read what I've written, it always sounds great in my head, and also when I read it aloud, but I have a feeling that's like having your mother tell you how talented you are. I'm hoping you can write a few words on this topic. Thanks for your great web site.
-Wondering in Williamsburg

Dear Wondering -

You need a table read, my friend! If you don't have access to my free SAG all volunteer table read, do this - get some of your friends together and have an impromptu table read to see how your dialogue sounds. Choose a pivotal scene and give your friends the upshot of the scene and the script itself. Give each person a quick bio of the character he or she will be reading. Young, old, bitter, excited, upset - whatever. One person needs to be the narrator (the one reading the action lines). That can be you but it might be harder to focus on hearing the how the dialogue sounds and also, hearing how the action lines sound can be illuminating too.

Make sure the friends you ask are hep cats - hep to movies and screenwriting - somewhat. Sometimes even well meaning friends can sound pretty wooden because they are self-conscious. You don't want that. You want people to take it seriously and to go for it. Don't feel bad if your dialogue is not the greatest right now - good dialogue takes time to get a feel for. Bribe some good friends with beer and hotwings and host yourself a table read party. It does wonders.

Oh and thank you for the compliment on the Rouge Wave. The Wave-inatrix, she tries real darn hard to make it a fun place to be. Rock on, Wondering!

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From the Mailbag

Dear Wave-inatrix:

This idea of screenwriting is relatively new for me, although I have always loved to write. It's a little daunting trying to simultaneously learn a little about everything--the creative part, the technical requirements, trying to decide between television scripts and movie scripts, the realities of those businesses, the nuts and bolts of pulling a script together--and still pay attention to my family and my job (which is, thankfully, flexible). Do you recommend just starting to get script ideas down while reading up on all that other stuff, including produced scripts, or do you have a more useful way to manage things? How interchangeable are writing skills for television and movies?

-Overwhelmed in Ohio

Dear Overwhelmed:

PJ McIlvaine here, tag-teaming with the Wave-inatrix. First of all - WHOA! I had no idea that I was supposed to do all this, what meme did I miss? If I stopped to think about all these things, I'd be paralyzed not to mention DOA. My suggestion? Take a deep breath and put that "Dummies for Screenwriting" book down. Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day. I mean, God took at least seven to create us, didn't he? At this point, if you're really a total and complete newbie, just....write. Every day. Jot down ideas, whatever, that great bit of conversation you heard at the 7-11, that teary cell phone confab that everyone in the movie theatre could hear and commiserate with. Don't worry about the biz or getting an agent or manager or if you should write for TV or the movies. Just write. Read scripts, sure, but in between writing and working on your own stuff. Network with other writers, read their stuff. Do this even if it's only an hour, a half hour or day, fifteen minutes. Make it known to your family and friends that this is YOUR time. I used to write when my kids were playing on the floor beside me, I wrote at work during my lunch hour, breaks and down time...write that first script, put it away, write a second script, put that away, when you finish some more, then go revisit the first one and so forth....but quite simply, write.

Dear Overwhelmed:
I agree with PJ completely and would add that if you really want to learn to screenwrite, focus on that first and then absorb the other information (agents, managers, the nuts and bolts) incrementally and over time. You have plenty of time because those other things are meaningless until you have a good script anyway. So focus on the art and craft of screenwriting. Pick up a book or two, not a whole library of them, save your money. I recommend: Save the Cat by Blake Snyder, Screenwriting: The Sequence Approach by Paul Joseph Gulino and Inside Story: The Power of the Transformative Arc by Dara Marks. And I highly recommend taking a beginning level online screenwriting class through UCLA Extension Writers Program while you're at it. In fact, that's where I would start, if I were you.

In-between writing every day and taking a couple of courses, cruise the internet and slowly absorb tips while networking with other writers. Go to a screenwriting conference and take a few workshops. The Creative Screenwriting Expo is a really good event for that. This year's expo will be held in November 12th through the 16th at the LA Convention Center. That's a good use of your time. Do the 14 Scripts in 14 Days program suggested, brilliantly, by Scott Myers. Take your vitamins, read the Rouge Wave daily and get plenty of rest.

As for your question about whether writing skills are interchangeable for television and movies, I'm not sure whether you mean interchangeable directly between the two (answer: completely) or whether you mean other writing skills like first person, short fiction, etc. Wavers can answer that one for you because they know what I'll say: COMPLETELY. Good writing is good writing. Screenwriting is a very distinct kind of writing, a mixture of poetry and mathematical equation but a facility with language and imagery is imperative in all writing and it won't ever let you down. Now have a cupcake and get to work, young lady!

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