John August

QandA

Strike, day 29

Strike, Television

As I’ve noted earlier, picket signs are surprisingly light. However, the large surface area makes them an attractive target to even the slightest breeze, which was the main problem this morning on the picket line. It wasn’t windy enough to rip them out of your hands, but I found myself constantly fighting the air, my sign an ill-designed rudder against a tedious current.

  • SAT QUESTION:
  • “An ill-designed rudder against a tedious current,” is a reference to…
  • (a) the strike
  • (b) Nikki Finke
  • (c) the “New Economic Partnership”
  • (d) friend-of-the-blog Paul Rudd

Three hours gives one a lot of time to contemplate these answers, along with the Perforated Picket, which I hope to have in production by the SAG strike. I wouldn’t want Mila Kunis knocked over by a gust.

*

On the line today, I met blog reader Deanna, who’s working as a post-production PA while half-finishing TV specs. I shared with her my ultimate TV spec idea, which I invite her and all readers to run with, because I certainly won’t.

“Desperate Heroes.” You insert the characters of Heroes into Wisteria Lane. Bree takes over for HRG, with Claire as her daughter. Matt is married to Lynette. Gabrielle is having an affair with Sylar, who is trying to figure out why men keep throwing themselves at her, and whether it’s the kind of power that merits brain-eating. Edie has a super-strong alter-ego. The two best eye-scrunchers — Susan and Hiro — flirt and meddle, ultimately making things much worse. Through it all, Mary Alice continues as narrator. ((Honestly, Suresh, your voice-over is my least favorite part of the show.))

Yes, pulling this off would be very difficult; you’re trying to showcase two very different styles simultaneously. But I’ve had to staff TV shows, and a well-executed version of this would get my attention.

*

While writers have the picket line and rallies for mutual support, the strike has taken a toll on people throughout the industry. A group of friends are putting together an event for families affected by the strike.

To that end, if you are not a writer and are out of work because of the strike, you and your kids are invited to a free afternoon of mini-golf and arcade games at the Sherman Oaks Castle Park. Pizza, ice cream and the works included.

WGA writers thank our community
December 11, 2007
4pm-7pm
Sherman Oaks Castle Park

Interested? More info after the jump.
[Read more…] about Strike, day 29

The History Boys

Genres, Words on the page

I saw Alan Bennett’s The History Boys yesterday at the Ahmanson, and liked it quite a lot.

I think it’s important for a screenwriter to keep up with current plays, because the two art forms continue to influence each other. For example, at least in this staging, many pieces of connective tissue were pre-shot on video as montages, letting the story get off the stage for brief moments. There was also a flash-forward that would seem familiar to anyone who saw the third season finale of Lost.

A writer can get away with quite a few things on stage that are tough to pull off in movies. In the second act, a character remarks to the audience that since things seem to be going so well for everyone, the rules of dramatic irony dictate a sudden reversal. Which of course comes. ((In script jargon, this is called “hanging a lantern on it.” You address the plausibility problem by highlighting it.))

A more clever use of dramatic liberty is a scene in which one teacher tells another about a conversation he just had with a student. The conversation and the re-telling of the conversation take place simultaneously. It makes sense on the stage. It would be a mess on film. ((The big problem isn’t with continuity of time — film viewers have gotten quite a bit more sophisticated in that regard. The challenge is that a scene in a movie takes place in a distinct location: you’re either in the classroom or the teachers’ lounge. On stage, the scene can be in both places at once because the audience is creating the environments internally.))

Perhaps because they’re not photographed, plays take place in less naturalistic universes. They’re impressionist. So you forgive — barely — a scene in which students enter class, take their seats, have a heated discuss, and are then dismissed by the class bell. I don’t know much about the British school system, but I feel certain that their class periods are longer than five minutes.

The class bell rings a lot, frankly. I suppose that’s because the stage relies on entrances and exits, but it gets repetitious. But it’s a minor complaint, and a play worth checking out.

Should I change my name?

Film Industry, QandA

questionmarkI’m Italian (and living in Italy). I’ve written my two first screenplays in Italian, basically ’cause they were college assignments, but my true goal is to have a career in the U.S.

My English is pretty good, so that’s not the problem. According to my teacher, the problem is gonna be my name. My name is Pierluigi Bellini. He says that with my way-too-Italian-to-be-understood name there’s no way someone’s gonna read my screenplays outside Italy (or Europe).

Is that really that important? Should I change my real name for a nickname? He suggests that if I wanna get my scripts read in US I should at least sign them as “written by PJ Bellini.” It sounds really stupid to me to change my name ’cause of that, but he says that it’s a pretty common thing for foreign writers. What do you think ’bout that?

— Pierluigi Bellini
Rome, Italy

As a writer who legally changed his difficult-to-pronounce German name to the calendrical moniker August, I gotta say your teacher is right.

(I can’t just throw out that bombshell without answering the obvious question: my family name is “Meise.” In German, you’d pronounce it MY-zuh. My family pronounced it MY-zee. But for my entire life, every stranger, every restaurant hostess, every telephone salesperson has pronounced it Meez (or occasionally, MEE-see). And I can’t blame them. It’s a name that doesn’t particularly announce its ethnicity, or give you any clue what to do with it. I didn’t envy another 70 years of correcting how people pronounced my name — it’s a terrible first 15 seconds of conversation — so I legally swapped it for my father’s middle name before moving to Los Angeles. The last time I heard myself called “John Meez” was when the court clerk called my case before the judge.)

You’re in a much better spot, my Italian friend. There’s no need for you to legally change your name. If I were you, I’d just trim off the “luigi” part when you write professionally. “Pier Bellini” is an awesome writer’s name. It sounds like an apéritif you’d be offered on a yacht in Cannes.

Five years from now, when you have a movie in theaters, we’ll see your name and remember you wrote in to the site. That’s the mark of a cool name.

In other news

Education

Hugh Hefner is [giving $2 million](http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117976032.html?categoryid=13&cs=1) to the USC School of Cinematic Arts, funding an exhibition area in the [new complex](http://cinema.usc.edu/facilities/complex.cfm) currently under construction, along with an archive. I’m on the alumni board for the school, so I’ve had a chance to see a lot of the plans for much-improved facility, and take a hard-hat tour.

Between you and me, I’m sick with jealousy for the students who get the new building. Not only is it finally big enough, but it manages to capture the feeling of a studio lot, with all the California Mediterranean details and great attention to the hidden infrastructure — physical and digital.