Well, it took me some time to finally land on what project I’m going to work on next. This was a first time true struggle for me — usually I only have the one or two ideas and know what I want to write next. This time, I had about 4 vague feature ideas, 3 TV ideas, and a couple that honestly could’ve been pressed into either mold. I’d say it took me about 2 weeks of hard thinking (or trying to avoid over-thinking) where I should go: which would be most sell-able, which format I should add to my portfolio, which I would write the best in this moment, etc. etc. Each filter has its own pros and cons. Today I really just sat down and made a list of every possible idea that’d make sense to pursue. Then I forced myself to meditate on what it’d really be like to see each one through. I found that some were just not possible, others I wasn’t as excited about as I thought. I finally landed on a feature. A drama. Character study. One inspired by a real life person. The research aspect of it really hooked me, I think. There’s already somewhat of a story there, which comforts me. We’ll see where it goes!
End of a Film - End of a Dream
Thought-errant: that your reaction to the intentionally ambiguous end of a film is akin to your recalling a dream just after you’ve woken up. In both cases, your emotional and intellectual thought processes are sort of blurred together along with your memory — so, in my opinion, whatever you interpret to have happened (along with its intended meaning) is entirely, legitimately up to you. Is the ending of the film optimistic or pessimistic? Was the end of the dream foreboding or celebratory? Your emotional and intellectual journey to that moment determines what you think, and that process is entirely unique to you. In the case of the dream, it’s your own imagination that’s led you there. In the case of the film, it’s someone else’s imagination.
Show Update #2
Well, that was a whirlwind day. The writers have about three and a half days to apply revisions before sending off to the showrunner - who in turn has about two days to apply his passes to all four scripts and send to the production company before he flies off to another country, very far away, for set. I’ll be off on my own for a little while now, working on my own projects… I’m sure I’ll be writing many posts as a form of procrastination, about procrastination, as I struggle to decide on my next project.
Show Update
After a little over two week of no writers’ room, wherein every writer was off to script (EP5-8) and the showrunner worked on everything else happening with the show (EP1-2 in production, revisions to EP3-4, trying to cast up and fill out the rest of the show), we are finally back! But it’s only for a day. One marathon day to review four scripts, talk about the writing calendar (and the showrunner’s travel schedule, I imagine). He flies out to set next week, so it’s likely we’ll try to get revisions done over the weekend and get them to the production company before he flies out. Very TBD if we’ll get the notes back in time and even when we do, and he’s gone to set for a month, I truly don’t know what’s supposed to happen then. Perhaps the whole rest of the writing process will be put on pause while the showrunner is on set. Perhaps the writers will be able to continue working their drafts in the meantime. It’s hard to say. But, I’ll report back tomorrow!
Cataloging Inspiration
Something that’s occurred to me in recent weeks, having witnessed the dialogue of a very well-read writers’ room as well as the TV Summit panels, is that a writer needs to be a catalog of their own sources of creative inspiration. This goes back to my previous post about using culture / movie / TV / book references like currency in the writers’ room. It’s the general notion that, as a writer, I shouldn’t just be reading to enjoy something - I should also keep a part of my brain on that stores those brilliant moments of enjoyment away, new tools in the toolbox. Whether it’s a quote for an opening page, a character quirk (or entire arc), a visual terror, all potential moments to conscientiously savor and record. The trick for me now is getting my brain to do that…
Alice's Last Adventure - Ligotti
I’ve been making my way through Thomas Ligotti’s collection of short stories “Songs of a Dead Dreamer” and his other collection “Grimscribe.” He’s a hero of the weird horror community and generally a cult figure in modern literature. I’ve only read a handful of his stories so far, but he reminds me a lot of Laird Barron — though I believe Ligotti was on the scene well before him. He messes with reality as comfortably as Denis Johnson but, like Barron, he keeps it from getting too lyrical and fever-dream ish. Things always seem to be horrifically clear, as to the visuals and situations, even if you don’t really know what’s happening beneath the surface. So far, it seems, Ligotti also pulls no punches. Things don’t end happily, and they don’t end the way you’d expect either. I originally was drawn to him when he came up in a conversation in the writers’ room I work in, in regards to True Detective. Allegedly, Pizzolato lifted integral sections from Ligotti’s non-fiction work and dumped them right into the mouths of his characters (Rust Cohle especially) — there’s been controversy over whether it qualifies as plagiarism ever since. But what more drew me to Ligotti was that our showrunner was so horrified (in a good way) of his work — that he “can’t even bring himself to read a lot of his work now that he has kids, and now that the world is so fucked up.” Well, that was enough for me!
So far, my favorite story has been “Alice’s Last Adventure” which is about an ageing, alcoholic author who came to fame (and perhaps is entirely defined by) a series of children’s books she wrote — and the odd things she starts to experience. It is indeed creepy and treads the uncanny valley and delivers some awesome horror. But it is also a totally brilliant character study. And to me, the horror was a nice reflection of her psyche but I only enjoyed the scares because they reflected her character. The woman’s voice, as narrator, is so entirely authentic its almost unsettling — that an author can create this character so wholly and then torture her in the unique way that he does. I’m beginning to think that this is why Ligotti is known as an underground great. Because, to him, the character and voice of the story is the source of any horror the story may later come to be known for…
Reflections on the TV Summit
Well, we finally did it! From 2:30PM-6:30PM yesterday my friend and co-organizer, Noah Rosen, and I hosted a series of entertainment industry panels geared towards assistants who want to work in television and transition to writing full time. Per the previous posts, we had a panel with execs, a manager, and an agent —- “Navigating Your Writing Career” which I moderated. Next we had Noah’s panel, “Writers’ Room Support Staff” with script coordinators, writers’ assistants, and showrunner’s assistants. Finally, we had “Running the Show” aka the showrunner’s panel moderated by writer Julia Prescott.
I’ll be working on the recordings of the panels to share here and elsewhere. But in the meantime, I wanted to get my thoughts down fresh from the event. Things I learned… Showrunners have a total love-hate relationship with their job. There are so many challenges and difficulties and philosophical dilemmas (creatively driven) for them day in and day out. Our audience Q&A finally pulled out of them what they loved about their jobs, and once they got talking about it, it was like a whole new side of them opened up. Clearly they have thick personal shields and years of cynic-making experience though.
Nuggets of wisdom: (Courtney Kemp - Showrunner of Power) there are three things that come into play in this industry if you want to succeed, and you need at least two of them. First, great personality. Second, talent. Third, insane work ethic. If you have great work ethic and talent but a terrible personality, you will be successful enough that people will want to collaborate with you regardless. If you are a pleasure to work with and work extremely hard and reliably, but aren’t inherently a massively talented writer, they will want to help get you there, and so on.
From Henry Luehrmann, a drama executive at Amazon, he said at every meeting RE: a submitted project, they ask a certain set of questions. Why this story? Why are you the best writer for this story? And is this the best time in your career as a writer to tell this story?
From the writers’ room support staff: be bold. Find creative ways to get jobs. Then, find bold ways to pitch your stuff to the writers, and if the showrunner doesn’t want to hear your pitch - wait till he or she is out of the room and make it known to the writers that you want to help them. And make it known that you’re always writing. This was totally supported by the showrunners panel too. Also, always be asking questions — good creative questions that make you a better writer and make it clear that you are eager.
Personal lessons, it’s fun to moderate! Moderate every panel that you can. Also, the universe works in mysterious ways. We originally had three showrunners lined up, when it turned out that Courtney Kemp was working in her office across the street and heard about the panel from a showrunner buddy, Kelly Souders, (and also that her writers’ assistant Charles was participating on a previous panel) - and she straight up volunteered to join the panel 5 minutes before. And to be honest, she became the soul of the panel. She clearly cares a lot about mentorship and helping those below her to break in. More boring personal lessons: give yourself more time for clean-up, more volunteers is better than less volunteers, always have snacks for security and building managers the day-of as a thank you, an hour is the perfect max length for a panel (especially with a 10 min audience Q&A included after 50 minutes of conversation).
More to come soon!
A Hilarious Scam
I am relaying here a very silly experience I had today. The context: a long time ago I posted my resume to Mandy.com which supposedly helps connect production staff to jobs. Maybe it does? It certainly never helped me in any capacity. Until today, when it helped facilitate some entertainment in my life.
At around 7:00AM I received a text that, in mildly broken English, told me I am being considered for an opportunity to work on a project for Sir Alan Parker. You know, Alan Parker! Evita, Midnight Express, the list goes on - and you know, he’s been officially retired for over a decade. What’s more, they’d need me on set throughout the production and are willing to pay $1500 a day. Wow, good rates.
After a quick Google search, I found that apparently this is a rampant (and strange) scam on Mandy. They’ve apparently co-opted the names of tons of retired but living filmmakers for it. The idea being, you email them and get into a dialogue - and then it devolves into the usual crap. They send you a check, get your information, ask you to purchase something for them. By the time it’s done, the check has bounced, etc. etc. But I just find it so hilarious that this has become a niche scam. It’s as if they know how desperate people are to work in the industry that they’ll succumb to any modicum of hope that this is a real thing. What’s more, it kind of makes sense because there are no totally usual pathways in this industry. Weird people behave weirdly but then make great films. So, I guess it makes sense that someone might fall for this. Anyways, beware. And, have a good laugh.
TV Summit
Today is unfortunately not going to be a super creatively focused day. Lots of errands, reading a friend’s script, and mostly preparing for the TV Summit we have going on Saturday afternoon. I will say, just by way of reflection, that it seems every “fire” that threatens an event comes up in the week leading up to it! Insurance questions, badly timed fire alarm schedules, people trying to get in without having purchased tickets, panelists dropping out, etc. etc. I’ve learned a lot in the process of organizing these panels, and will probably learn twice as much during the day-of. But I’m still really excited. And at the end of the day, every person I talk to who is attending this event is thankful and excited too, and that’s all I could ask for. Will be excited to post the recordings here afterwards!
Barton Fink
I admit I saw Barton Fink a long time ago, but it was so hazy in my memory (other than the line, “I’m a writer, don’t you understand?!”) that I might as well have been watching it for the first time when I saw it last night. What a terrifying film, honestly. And brilliant of course. It felt like one of the Coen brothers most raw films — a visceral and intellectual attack on everything they do as professional creators in Hollywood. It’s like The Shining meets Adaptation or something. Not to mention it has some of the funniest monologues I’ve ever seen. As far as a film about writer’s block goes, it’s probably the best there is — it feels like beneath all the rage at the superficial, absurd nature of the entertainment industry, there is an even more powerful anger at the writer himself, the writer who wants to create something so powerful that they disregard the audience, and the inspiration of the story, and just about everything else outside their mind in order to concern themselves with creation.
