Screenwriter and author John August

Being a reader

September 23, 2005 Film Industry

I’ve [written before](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2004/getting-a-reader-job) about being a freelance reader in Hollywood — it was my first job in the industry, as it was for many screenwriters. It’s been almost ten years since I’ve written coverage, but looking through Scott the Reader’s [own explanation](http://alligatorsinahelicopter.blogspot.com/2005/09/mailbag.html) of his job, it seems that not much has changed.

Not even the pay: $50 a script. Adjusting for inflation, that sucks.

You can read Scott’s recap [here](http://alligatorsinahelicopter.blogspot.com/2005/09/mailbag.html).

Metablogging

September 22, 2005 Geek Alert, Meta

Now that there are several screenwriter-oriented blogs, I thought I’d take a moment to examine the six-degrees of separation quality among them.

Or perhaps I just want to revel in the fact that I’m the Kevin Bacon of screenbloggers.

**★ [I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing](http://hucksblog.blogspot.com/)**

This is how I met [Josh Friedman](http://imdb.com/name/nm0295264/): When I bought my house, my agent said, “Oh, hey, Josh Friedman lives down the street. You should knock on his door or something.” Like’s it’s Mayberry. But one day while I was walking my dog, I said what the hell, and introduced myself.

As it turns out, Josh and I grew up in the same town: Boulder, Colorado. He went to the cool high school downtown, while I went to the preppy high school up on a giant hill, literally looking down on the town.

Josh and I had the same agent starting out, sort of. Mine was an actual agent. His was the young woman who [answered the actual agent’s phones](http://hucksblog.blogspot.com/2005/08/one-day-at-time.html).

Josh lives in a bigger, fancier house than mine, covered with vines. (Like Madeline!) Actual famous people grew up in Josh’s house. Honest. Meanwhile, I sold my house to [Michael Rappaport](http://imdb.com/name/nm0001650/).

My moving had almost nothing to do with Josh and his monkeys.

I suspect Josh’s blogname for me will be some derivation of Ned Flanders, pesky do-gooding neighbor. Although it’s pretty egotistical to think he’ll ever write about me. (bashfully twisting foot.)

**★ [The Artful Writer](http://artfulwriter.com/)**

[Craig Mazin](http://imdb.com/name/nm0563301/) and I have the same agent. One day, my agent says, “One of my other clients has some questions about your website. Is it okay if I give him your number?” I say sure.

Craig calls. He asks about how I set up my site. He really wants to know how I got the brad graphic to float over on the right-hand side. (Answer: voodoo.) It’s only after a few minutes of conversation that he mentions that he’s at the hospital, because *his wife is in labor.*

Now that’s dedication. Or avoidance. It’s something.

To this day, I’ve never met Craig in person.

**★ [Man Bytes Hollywood](http://www.davidanaxagoras.com/)**

I first encountered David Anaxagoras’s site through a comment he’d left on a post. Apparently, he was significantly influenced by my site, but his layout and such is actually quite a bit smarter.

In fact, I stole these quotation marks from him. I have not poached his progress bars, but that’s only because I haven’t thought of anything worth charting.

I ended up meeting David when I spoke at his screenwriting class. He’s a good guy.

As for the other screenbloggers, I have no juicy dirt to spill. I only know them by their URLs.

As good as the Good Book?

September 21, 2005 Adaptation, QandA

Regarding [Charlie and the Chocolate Factory](http://imdb.com/title/tt0367594/), do you believe that the new version, the 1971
original, and the book should all be separated into different levels,
free from critique of each other? They all have their uniqueness, just
based on the same story.

I’ve never heard someone say “Oh yes, [Passion of the Christ](http://imdb.com/title/tt0335345/) was great, but it wasn’t as good as the Bible.”

— Caleb Aaron Osment
Tasmania, Australia

I don’t have an answer — it’s not really a question — but I like your analogy.

Curse of the Pop-In

September 19, 2005 Film Industry

flanders Josh Friedman, whose purported [screenwriting blog](http://hucksblog.blogspot.com/) is actually just an excuse to make up pseudonyms for our mutual acquaintances, recently [wrote](http://hucksblog.blogspot.com/2005/09/swimming-with-shrimps.html) 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:

1. Confirm that you are an actual person who appears sane.
2. Establish dominance over the junior executive.
3. 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](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0714838489/) 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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