Archive for the 'First Person' Category

• 07.06.08 Self-distributing an indie feature

  Todd Sklar, who I know from his work up at the Sundance Labs, wrote in to agree with a lot of the points I raised in my post-mortem of The Nines. His experience with the indie film he made and self-released is alternately inspiring and exhausting, but worth careful attention for anyone considering making [...]

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• 09.10.07 Moving to LA (via NYC)

  At the Nuart last weekend for The Nines, Kris Galuska re-introduced himself. He’s a writer I had met at the Austin Film Festival last year. On a short elevator ride, I had tried to convince him that he really needed to move to Los Angeles if he was serious about working as a screenwriter. [...]

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• 08.17.07 Starting out in Hollywood

  I met Adam Davis last year. He was a student at Drake University, my alma mater, and came with the high recommendation of a mutual mentor. Adam wrote and directed a lot of short films while he was at Drake, and movies were clearly his calling. He was wondering whether he should bite [...]

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• 06.15.07 Cannon fodder

  I’ve previously written about my little World of Warcraft problem, which cost me a summer. My latest, greatest productivity killer is called Tower Defense. It’s not one game really, but rather a genre of videogames in which the objective is to place and upgrade a series of automated kill-bots (towers) in order to obliterate [...]

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• 11.02.06 On floating jets

  I arrived in Chicago yesterday for a few days’ work on the next thing I’m writing. In the cab leaving the airport, I saw a giant jet landing. Something about our relative speeds and angles created the illusion that the plane wasn’t moving forward at all. Rather, it was gracefully floating straight down. [...]

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• 10.13.06 As it turns out, I could care less

  I fired an eight-year old girl. It was the third day of production on The Movie, which had already endured freak rains, poison oak, rattlesnakes, bee swarms and a mountain lion. None of which could compare to this little girl. The soon-to-be-fired pre-teen was a stand-in for our eight-year old actress. As a stand-in, her [...]

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• 09.13.06 Does anyone actually use long division?

  I was working on a scene today in which an adult admitted to a grade-schooler that in the real world, you’ll never need to use long division. It’s just something they force on kids to keep them from getting cocky after multiplication. I nixed the joke because it felt kinda Full House. But [...]

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• 07.28.06 Turns out, he was busy reconsidering Tyra Banks

  You know how you can go months without seeing someone, then suddenly, they’re everywhere? This morning as I was getting into my little Prius, screenwriter/neighbor/inconstant blogger Josh Friedman rolled up in the Death Star Escalade to discuss our respective children’s nap schedules in anticipation of a playdate. Yeah, I said playdate. This is how [...]

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• 07.15.06 Monovision

  About halfway through shooting The Movie, the propmaster asked, “Hey, where are your glasses?” I had taken them off to check my email, and left them sitting on the dining room table. It’s part of his job to recognize continuity issues, so it’s natural he noticed something was off. But it was [...]

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• 07.08.06 Who’s that mumbling screenwriter on NPR?

  Barring some sort of Actual News Event, I’ll be one of the guests on Airtalk this Tuesday, July 11th at 11:30 a.m. (At least, that’s the time for Los Angeles listeners.) Host Judy Muller will be talking with Chris Brancato and me about the book Doing It for Money: The Agony and Ecstasy of [...]

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• 05.05.06 Are you somebody?

  The Writers Guild Foundation has a new book out, Doing It For Money, in which working screenwriters contribute short pieces about the pleasures and pitfalls of working in Hollywood. I’d feel bad about giving my essay away for free, except that pretty much every entry in the book is at least its equal. [...]

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• 04.10.06 MyAmbivalence

  I’ve had a MySpace profile for a long time, but never really did anything with it. At the time I registered, I remember thinking that MySpace felt like a lame Friendster knock-off. But as we all know, MySpace is now the Google of social networking, a billion dollar eye-magnet. The difference is, [...]

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• 04.03.06 TV staffing season

  Jane Espenson has a good post up about TV staffing season, answering everything you’d want to know about the schedule for how shows hire their writing staffs. She would know; she’s been involved with some great shows, from Buffy to Gilmore Girls. Also, she had Quizno’s for lunch. In case you were curious.

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• 03.27.06 10 things I hate about me

  Kevin Arbouet tagged me to answer 10 questions about mistakes and bad practices. Taken the wrong way, the whole exercise could be kind of negative and bleak. But one (hopefully) learns from one’s errors, so it’s in that spirit that I further the meme. 1) WHAT’S THE WORST THING YOU’VE EVER WRITTEN? With hindsight being [...]

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• 03.01.06 Professional Writing and the Rise of the Amateur

  Last night, I had the pleasure of giving a guest lecture at Trinity University in San Antonio. While I speak at various screenwriter-oriented functions fairly often, this was unusual in that the event was university-wide, and the focus wasn’t specifically on film. Part of the deal was that I had to announce the title of [...]

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• 02.16.06 Write-up of my recent WGA Foundation Q&A

  Screenblogger Devon DeLapp was generous enough to type up his notes of my recent Q&A at the Writers Guild Foundation. He did a good job keeping up with a rambling conversation. I only have a few real corrections/clarificatons: Go really didn’t change that much from the first draft. Charlie’s Angels was a positive [...]

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• 02.09.06 In which I attend the Grammy Awards

  As I might have mentioned, I got nominated for a Grammy Award (along with Danny Elfman) in the Best Song TV/Movie/Visual Media category for “Wonka’s Welcome Song” from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The nomination came as a surprise, in that (a) I didn’t realize the Grammys were coming up, (b) I didn’t know [...]

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• 01.18.06 Because not all screenwriters live in Wisconsin

  I recently did an e-mail interview with the good folks at the Wisconsin Screenwriters Forum, only to realize that a significant percentage of my readership base (aspiring screenwriters, confused Christians, web-surfing office drones) lives outside of our 30th state, and therefore might not receive the newsletter. So with WSF’s kind permission, I’m reprinting it here. Could [...]

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• 12.12.05 Readers write in: Don’t put gum behind your ear

  Dear John, I am a big fan, since GO. We finally got a DVD of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and showed it at my 8/9 year old daughter’s birthday sleepover. Great movie, great time. When the time comes for your baby to have a sleepover don’t fret it. It was fully successful and not bad [...]

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• 10.24.05 I am a white male of European descent

  My last normal job — the 9-to-5 kind — was as an assistant at Oliver Stone’s production company. At the time, he was in post-production on Natural Born Killers, and developing future projects, one of which was a remake of Planet of the Apes. Any version of Apes must tackle the basic question of, “How [...]

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• 09.13.05 The Constant Gardener, infant edition

  Yesterday, I saw The Constant Gardener. My quick review: I respected the filmmaking, but I can’t say I loved the movie. Throughout the entire film, I was so far ahead of the Ralph Fiennes character that I found myself thinking more about African theatre, diplomatic passports and shallow-focus lenses than what exactly had [...]

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• 08.30.05 Abolish the states, mate

  In an article published today, one of the other John Augusts argues persuasively that the states should be abolished. Before you take up arms against him, you should know that he’s Australian, and he’s talking about “states” like New South Wales and Queensland. Which sound like made-up Risk territories, if you ask me. It’s [...]

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• 06.16.05 Hey look! err..Listen! John’s on NPR. Briefly.

  After meeting a friend-of-a-friend at a birthday party over the weekend, I ended up getting pressed into service for a story on NPR’s Day to Day. Reporter Mike Pesca wanted to talk about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s challenges converting his action-movie persona into a consensus-building governor, and wanted to talk to a screenwriter about it. [...]

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• 05.28.05 Good advice from agents

  Reader and fellow screenwriter-blogger David Anaxagoras is taking a class from the estimable Mike Werb, who recently brought in David Lubliner and Ken Friemann of the William Morris Agency to talk about agents, managers, and the business of representation. Mr. Anaxagoras was generous enough to share his notes from class. Since “How Do I [...]

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• 12.30.04 Other interests and hobbies

  Do you play guitar, or do some other type of hobby in order to get inspiration for your writing? – Jesse Leal I don’t play guitar, though I’ve always wanted to learn. I tried to teach myself on my father’s guitar, but never even mastered tuning it, which made the rest of the process painful to [...]

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• 08.13.04 Finished a short film: Now what?

  One of my most frequent pieces of advice to would-be writer/directors is to make a short film. After all, with the wonders of digital technology, any monkey with a good idea and a long weekend should be able come up with something watchable. Right?

  The next step is getting someone to see your miniature masterpiece. That’s where my knowledge comes up a little lacking. Fortunately, my assistant Chad Creasey has just been through the process. He and director Dara Resnik recently made a charming short film called “Great Lengths.” You can read all about it at their website.

  Pretty much every weekend this spring, either he or Dara were flying to some festival across the country. With this in mind, I asked Chad to write up advice about short films and festivals. He was gracious enough to reply at, well, great length:

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• 04.17.04 David Dean Bottrell on How I Write

  A few months ago, I asked several screenwriters to write a bit about their process for the First Person section. The first one to email me back with an answer was David Dean Bottrell. While I waited for the others answers to come in, I promptly misfiled his response. This week, David [...]

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• 03.08.04 Jessica Bendinger on How I Write

  I think of myself as a very non-linear, intuitive writer. I have discipline and focus when I need it, but I allow myself to be very messy and unfocused and all-over-the-place, and I find both ends of the spectrum very useful (as you’ll see from this response)! I find balance through exploring the two extremes, [...]

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• 03.08.04 How I Write

  Since I was asking other screenwriters to explain their process, I thought it was only fair to explain my own. I wrote my first real script — or at least my first attempt at a script — on Microsoft Word on an Macintosh SE30. This was probably 1991. I don’t know if there even [...]

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• 03.08.04 Tyger Williams on How I Write

  The process of finding my way into a story is different each time. It depends on the subject matter, how innate the material is to me and my sensibilities, or just depending on where I am in my own headspace at the time. I usually try to find my way into the [...]

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• 03.08.04 Todd Graff on How I Write

  The first thing you need to know is that I write longhand, on legal pads, which makes me either a romantic or a dinosaur or both. When an idea starts percolating in my head, I jot notes everywhere: matchbook covers, snaking around all the white areas in a magazine ad, etc.Bad movies [...]

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• 09.10.03 Being a writer’s assistant

  I am interested in becoming an assistant to a TV or Film writer. I have experience in the industry as an assistant to a Producer/CEO of a Production company, but I’m not sure what the qualifications are to be a writer’s assistant or how to apply for the job. –Beth I’m passing off the question to my [...]

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• 09.08.03 Naomi Foner on How I Got My Agent

  I was a producer at Sesame Street. And then The Electric Company. And then I spent a year in the UK researching an American version of Upstairs Downstairs. It got funded but they dumped me for a more experienced producer. (In those days age meant wisdom. Now it means dinosaur.) I spent a [...]

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• 09.08.03 Tom Smith on How I Got My Agent

  ACT I I went to a book signing at Samuel French, a Hollywood bookstore. Three writers were there with their screenwriting books. I had them sign my books and I talked to all of them. I read their books and wrote a fawning fan letter to two of them, Linda Seger and Carl [...]

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• 09.07.03 David Steinberg on How I Got My Agent

  When I finished my first script, I sent out query letters to agents to try to get them to read it. A few requested it, but they never seemed to actually read it. This went on for months. One day, a classmate of mine at film school read the script and really [...]

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• 09.07.03 Howard Rodman on How I Got My Agent

  I was eating Thai noodles with a friend and we ran out of things to talk about and then he said "Are you looking for an agent?" and I’d at that point written three unproduced and perhaps unproduceable screenplays, but did not want to appear overly eager, so I said, "Yes," instead of what I [...]

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• 09.07.03 Derick Martini on How I Got My Agent

  The film my brother and I made, SMILING FISH AND GOAT ON FIRE, got into the Toronto Film Festival. At that point, when it was in the trades that it was in the festival, agents started hovering. I can’t imagine how I would have gotten an agent if that didn’t happen. I would imagine it’s easier [...]

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• 09.07.03 James LaRosa on How I Got My Agent

  I just moved to L.A., spec scripts in hand, and knowing not a soul immediately started sending query letters to only the top agents in town. I would read that they represented Chris Carter or Lydia Woodward and think, sounds good to me. Of course, I had no credits and thus no chance in hell. [...]

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• 09.07.03 Doug McGrath on How I Got My Agent

  I got my first agent through my lawyer. I had written a play which he had read and liked and offered to give it to her. She liked it, took me on, never did a single thing and eventually I fired her. (Soon all your readers will be writing in, "How do I get my [...]

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• 09.07.03 How I Got My Agent

  Since I started writing this coluumn three years ago, the most commonly asked question by far has been some variation on "How Do I Get an Agent?" Although I’ve touched on the issue obliquely, I’ve avoided answering the question directly for one simple reason: I have no idea. Some of my most talented writer friends have [...]

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