Curse of the Pop-In
Josh Friedman, whose purported screenwriting blog is actually just an excuse to make up pseudonyms for our mutual acquaintances, recently wrote about almost bailing on an assignment because he didn’t want to drive to Santa Monica.
While that may sound ridiculous to most readers, I can relate. I increasingly share his Life’s Too Short principle, particularly when it comes to dealing with westside traffic.
His attempted solution is smart, but runs into a vexing problem:
Agent’s Assistant calls Producer Friend’s Assistant and says I want to convert Santa Monica meeting to a lunch. The assistant explains that this is not possible as Producer Friend’s Fancy Boss wants to “pop his head in the meeting.”
As far as I know, “pop-ins” are strictly a Hollywood phenomenon. Basically, the powerful boss who is too busy and important to have a sit-down meeting with you has several goals with this maneuver:
- Confirm that you are an actual person who appears sane.
- Establish dominance over the junior executive.
- Be able to say, “I met with Josh Friedman last week…”
Just this morning, I survived a pop-in. They’re not always bad.
But what can be very frustrating is the Pop-In That Never Comes. Here’s how it happens.
The meeting starts. You talk about the weekend’s movies. Executive says, “Fancy Boss will be popping in at some point.” You say, “Great.” You talk about the project. You make decisions. Someone takes notes. Everything is going well.
And at just the moment the meeting should be over, Executive realizes that Fancy Boss has never popped in. She goes to check on Fancy Boss, to see if he’s going to be able to stop in. Yes? No? Two minutes? How soon will he get here?
(You hear this conversation while you’re sitting in the Executive’s office, wondering why every single person in Hollywood has that big fat CENTURY book on her shelf.)
Executive comes back and apologizes, saying “Fancy Boss is running late, but he really wanted to meet you.” At this point, you’re officially screwed. You could demur and say that you have to get back to feed the baby (note: babies are handy excuses), but there’s no question that all the positive mojo has now been lost in a sea of awkwardness.
What usually happens is that just as you come up with your excuse, Fancy Boss swoops in, shakes your hand and then hurries away. The total encounter takes less than 30 seconds. And then you get a call later from your agent saying, “Fancy Boss said he really liked you…”
Sigh.
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September 19th, 2005 at 6:35 pm
Interesting. But don’t you think that as opposed to the pop-in being a Hollywood exclusive thing, that this specific situation is a “Hollywood Pop-In” (or a Hop-In) and not the existing definition of a pop-in as described in the Seinfeld episode, “The Letter”? Or are you implying they’re the same?
If I say pp-n one more time I’m gonna kill myself.
September 19th, 2005 at 8:45 pm
Is a Pop-In metting with a prostitute called a Pop-Tart?
September 19th, 2005 at 8:45 pm
Is a Pop-In meeting with a prostitute called a Pop-Tart?
September 19th, 2005 at 11:58 pm
Seinfeld has an answer for everything.
And hey John, if you ever fall flat with your screenwriting, you can always open a Leftorium. Put on a happy face.
September 20th, 2005 at 4:44 am
“Fancy Boss said he really liked youâ€?, in the end that’s all that matters, .5 micromilliseconds, 30 seconds or 4 hours. Life’s too short? Too short, to go to a meeting that might potentially lead to a 6-figure gig? I’d be camping out. I guess you know you have arrived when you can complain about meetings, as everyone else is worried sick about not getting them.
September 20th, 2005 at 5:33 am
Ah, to have these problems.
September 20th, 2005 at 8:22 am
I know — these are high-class problems. But the reality of projects at this level is that there’s usually three or four you’re circling at any given moment, and most of them go away. So you’re often looking for reasons not to invest emotionally early on.
September 20th, 2005 at 9:02 am
Pop-ins are hardly limited to Hollywood. Sometimes the big boss can show up at the beginning to remark on how everyone is here to play nice and authorized the manager designee to work out the details. But yeah, the worst thing is the delayed Pop-in or the one that never happens.
September 20th, 2005 at 11:34 am
There’s also the dread “ambush pop-in” where you’ve really connected with the Senior VP and, just as you’ve started showing each other pictures of your kids, the Fancy Boss comes in to find out what all the laughing is about. He (or she) sits down like a wet bag of sand and proceeds to tell you the same things the underling told you in a less exciting way while you try to feign shock and awe as if you’re hearing everything for the first time.
September 20th, 2005 at 12:39 pm
Sounds like the “Seagull Strategy.” Swoop in, make alot of noise, shit on everything, then swoop out.
September 20th, 2005 at 12:59 pm
It’s worse at the lower-writer-level. Sometimes you’ve had a meeting with CE and VP of Nameless Studio scheduled for weeks. You get there the day-of to find VP of Nameless Studio is dealing with an “unforeseen emergency” on the set of “Monster Film,” and that CE is actually a glorified assistant, younger than you, with whom you spend the majority of the meeting talking about mutual acquaintances from Fancy East Coast College. The meeting ends. VP never “pops in.” Glorified assistant goes back to rolling calls and making coffee.
I have to disagree with Jeb. I have lots of friends in many different businesses and in none of them is it acceptable behavior to not show up for, or pawn off a meeting the day-of. Josh’s blog should be called “I find your lack of courtesy disturbing.”
September 20th, 2005 at 2:52 pm
Good comments Dara.
September 20th, 2005 at 7:41 pm
Derek –
I laughed really hard at the “Seagull Strategy” thing. I’ve known some seagulls in my lifetime!
September 21st, 2005 at 5:12 am
Yes, I liked the seagull simile too.
September 21st, 2005 at 6:54 am
Thanks! How the truth can make us laugh!
September 21st, 2005 at 11:39 am
Yes, I like to laugh.
September 21st, 2005 at 1:01 pm
Pop-ins happen in most any office environment. All with varying degrees of ego-stroking involved. I’ve been tempted on more than one occassion to ask someone “Why doesn’t Fancy Boss just lock himself in his office and jack off? The end results are the same and we don’t have to get involved.”
September 22nd, 2005 at 4:03 am
Pop-in’s happen internally in other companies (Big Boss for a 5 minute pep talk to the troops), but Fortune 500 pop-in’s externally are rare. Playing that type of game with vendors and suppliers is very bad form — it kills markets, irritates key customers and can easily ruin supply-chain relationships. I think the unique nature of Hollywood (and centralized geography) accounts for the phenomenon. You have 10 times more supply than demand, it all stands to reason. Even if they take you on, it can get passed to how many differing writers. It’s not always your baby. Now if more demand than supply, they’d charter a helicopter to pick you up.
September 22nd, 2005 at 5:46 pm
Do you think it’s possible for a boss to pop in while on the helicopter? I think that’d prove your worth. Also it’d prove that the boss is obviously quite gift in the vertical arts.
September 25th, 2005 at 11:42 am
Hehehe… Great little tidbit of info. Conversely, as a 7-year resident of the People’s Republic of Santa Monica (a.k.a. Santa Moscow, a.k.a. Santa Monica) I’ve had my share of friends who consider a trip East of the 405 akin to hiking to the Serengeti — barefoot. Even had one friend who had a shirt made that said “AWOL: Always West Of Lincoln.”
As for the pop-ins… I think there’s a fourth reason for these: To be able to flake without feeling guilty. It’s kind of like saying “I’ll try to make it, but…”