Archive for the 'First Person' Category

• e  15 Tales from the script

  I’m interviewed in a new book about screenwriters’ experiences.

• e  41 Sitting in on the Prop 8 trial

  Yesterday, I flew up to San Francisco to watch the federal trial regarding Proposition 8.

• e  43 What does a showrunner’s assistant do?

  Jonny Sommers has a job many readers want — or at least, think they want: the assistant to a successful and busy TV showrunner.

• e  18 Jerome Schwartz, first person

  I met Jerome Schwartz during the WGA strike. Afterwards, I asked him to keep me apprised of how his career was going.

• e  25 Adam Davis, year two

  I asked Adam Davis, a young alum from Drake University, to write about his first year starting out in Hollywood. He’s back with a follow-up.

• e  31 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 [...]

• e  32 Moving to LA (via NYC)

  Sage advice from a fresh transplant who took the plunge.

• e  51 Starting out in Hollywood

  First person account of the glorious drudgery of starting at the bottom in Hollywood.

• e  16 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 wave after [...]

• e  19 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.

  It was [...]

• e  51 As it turns out, I could care less

  And both the film and I were better for it.

• e  60 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 [...]

• e  20 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 [...]

• e  24 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 only his [...]

• e  10 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 Writing and [...]

• e  45 Are you somebody?

  Awkward dances with public recognition.

• e  52 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, I like [...]

• e  15 TV staffing season

  Mysteries of the staffing process revealed.

• e  35 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 20/20, probably [...]

• e  55 Professional Writing and the Rise of the Amateur

  A lecture to Trinity University on authorship and authority in the internet age.

• e  6 Write-up of my recent WGA Foundation Q&A

  Corrections to notes on my Q&A at the WGA.

• e  22 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 the song [...]

• e  12 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 you [...]

• e  11 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 [...]

• e  19 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 [...]

• e  22 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 happened to [...]

• e  23 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 important that [...]

• e  3 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. So I [...]

• e  33 Good advice from agents

  The single most asked question (How do I get an agent?) answered directly by the source and amended by me.

• e  1 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 [...]

• e  3 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:

• e  3 David Dean Bottrell on How I Write

  KINGDOME COME writer talks candidly about his process.

• e  6 Jessica Bendinger on How I Write

  BRING IT ON writer on setting goals and taking advantage of fear.

• e  2 How I Write

  Avoiding the early edit and other ways I get my story down on paper.

• e  Comments Off Tyger Williams on How I Write

  FOXY BROWN writer on coloring his beats to visualize the structure, and other methods.

• e  Comments Off Todd Graff on How I Write

  CAMP writer uses bad movies as a muse and motivator.

• e  10 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 [...]

• e  1 Naomi Foner on How I Got My Agent

  RUNNING ON EMPTY screenwriter on going from Sesame Street to Hollywood.

• e  4 Tom Smith on How I Got My Agent

  A case of paid script analysis paying off for an aspiring writer.

• e  1 David Steinberg on How I Got My Agent

  Someone (anyone) else saying your script is great is infinitely better than you doing it yourself.

• e  1 Howard Rodman on How I Got My Agent

  Thai noodles led a baby writer to a baby agent. This is more likely to happen in LA.

• e  Comments Off Derick Martini on How I Got My Agent

  Using a short to lure agents to your script.

• e  Comments Off James LaRosa on How I Got My Agent

  A good example of why impressing assistants matters.

• e  6 Doug McGrath on How I Got My Agent

  Oscar nominee for BULLETS OVER BROADWAY tells his story.

• e  1 How I Got My Agent

  My personal answer to the most asked question of young writers.