John August

Archives for 2009

How to handle a meeting

Film Industry, Follow Up

questionmarkI’m a twenty-five year old aspiring TV writer living in LA. After a friend of mine sent my spec pilot to a few people, one (who works at a cable channel) said she’d like to set a general meeting with me to discuss my writing and the upcoming pilot season.

This will be the first time someone is acknowledging me as a writer rather than as an assistant (my boss is kind enough to let me take off work for the meeting). Do you have any advice for how one should conduct oneself in such a meeting? They’ve already passed on picking up the pilot, and staffing season hasn’t started yet, so it appears that this is just a “get to know you” meeting. Should I prepare pitches for alternate projects? Do I dress casual or professional? What should I do as far as follow-up goes?

— James

I have much more extensive answers to your questions in two previous posts, [How to Meet](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2008/how-to-meet) and
[What to do in a general meeting](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2009/what-should-i-do-in-a-general-meeting). But for newcomers, I can offer a bit of a summary.

Your goal in a general meeting is to figure out what they might be able to hire you to write — if not now, then at some point in the future. They want to put a face with the name with the words they’ve read.

At a certain point, they’ll talk about the kinds of projects they have in development, and the things they’re looking for. If anything sparks, pursue it. Talk about it in the room, then follow up the next day, and the next week. You’ll be chasing a lot of half-baked projects, most of which will never come to be. But one or two might. And that’s what you need.

Your advantage at this point is that you’re cheap and available. A producer could likely hire you with discretionary funds to rewrite a mediocre project she has sitting on the shelf. A show might bring you on at the lowest level of staff writer. And if that opportunity comes up, take it. Do an amazing job, then let that momentum carry you into your next assignment. And your next.

You don’t have to put on a suit. In fact, it’s better to be [the worst-dressed person in the room](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2004/the-not-so-well-dressed-screenwriter).

My overall advice is to not freak out over any given meeting. Pretend it’s just having coffee with somebody who went to your same school. Unless you’re pitching a specific project, don’t approach it with any particular expectation — simply enthusiasm — and it’s likely to go fine.

Every villain is a hero

Story and Plot

A helpful thing to remember when plotting out stories with a clear antagonist: he probably doesn’t know he’s the bad guy.

* Alan Rickman’s character from Die Hard likely sees himself as George Clooney’s character from Ocean’s 11.

* In Michael Clayton, Tilda Swinton is struggling to protect herself and her company. She sees it as a survival story, with herself cast as the heroic victim.

* Even monsters, like the shark in Jaws or the velociraptors of Jurassic Park, can be heroes of their own story. In Aliens, the Queen is defending her brood. Once we understand that, the conflict is even stronger.

Whether you’re writing a thriller, a comedy or an action movie, always look at the story from the villain’s point of view. What is he trying to do? Besides the hero, what other obstacles are in the way?

Too often, we come up with the villain’s motivation (revenge, greed) and stop. Rather, look for what the journey is. We might only see a small part of it from the hero’s perspective, but knowing the whole arc gives us more to push against.

Have a little sympathy. Let your villain win a few times, but make him work for it.

Narcopalabras

International, Words on the page

Like English, Spanish has a knack for neologism. Ken Ellingwood’s article in the LA Times provides a [glossary of new words and phrases](http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-narco-glossary28-2009oct28,0,1009690.story) related to Mexican drug violence.

My favorite is *encajuelado*:

> **Encajuelado:** Based on the word for “trunk,” a body dumped in the trunk of a car. This is a common method for disposing of victims of a drug hit. Often, the bodies are bound and gagged with packing tape or are *encobijados*, wrapped in blankets.

When something is happening enough that *they made a word for it*, you know there’s a problem.

Ellingwood’s glossary explains that an encajuelado is sometimes accompanied by a handwritten *narcomensaje,* a scrawled drug message meant to threaten rival drug cartels or government security forces. Messages sometimes take the form of banners, known as *narcomantas,* and are hung from bridges or in other public places to demonstrate a gang’s audacity.

As a screenwriter, you have to be careful how much of this esoterica you try to use in your script. Particularly if characters are speaking English, trying to wedge a “narcomensaje” into dialogue is going to feel forced. Yet a reference to a character being encajuelado, once explained, is chilling.