John August

QandA

More on becoming a co-producer

Go, Producers, QandA

How did you come to be a co-producer on GO?

–David Demchuk

Although Columbia Pictures ultimately released GO, they weren’t the original
buyer of the script (in fact, every studio in town had passed on it, feeling
the subject matter was too dark). A tiny company called Banner Entertainment
read the script and wanted to make the movie, but since they didn’t have a
lot of money to put up front, they offered a few things a studio normally wouldn’t.

First, they guaranteed I would be the first, last and only writer on the project.
Second, they would give me the right to buy the script back if the movie hadn’t
gone into production within 18 months. Finally, they would keep me on board
as co-producer.

The various flavors of producer credit (executive
producer, associate producer,
co-producer) are tossed around a bit too easily in Hollywood, and all too often
they’re given to people who don’t really deserve them, such as an actor’s mananger.
In my case, I actually earned my masters degree in the film producer’s program
at USC, so I was weirdly well qualified for the job.

For the first week or two, I just sat quietly in meetings, happy to be there.
But ultimately I got highly involved in every aspect of the production, from
hiring Doug Liman to direct it to scrambling for funds when our foreign financing
fell apart (I had just made a deal with Columbia’s sister studio, Tri-Star,
which is a large reason why the movie ended up there). During production, I
was on-set from call to wrap, and sat in on five months of editing. It was
an amazing experience.

In total, there were five producers on GO. The three "full" producers
were Paul Rosenberg, who had set up the script and given me my first two jobs
in the business; Mickey Liddell, who ran Banner Entertainment; and Matt Freeman,
who worked with Mickey and brought him the script. The other co-producer was
Paddy Cullen, who oversaw the physical production, including the budget, schedule
and insurance.

Looking back, it’s hard to imagine making the movie without all those people
doing their part. While GO had some unique challenges, every production needs
its good cops and bad cops, peacemakers and war-bringers. A writer can go off
and work by himself, but a producer needs to lead dozens of other people. It’s
a very different set of skills.

Since GO, I have co-executive produced a television series, and signed on
to produce a big-budget monster movie that I’m writing at Columbia. But even
on projects where I’m "just" a writer, the experience of having produced
is a tremendous advantage in anticipating the needs of the filmmakers.

Finding confidence

Psych 101, QandA

As a fledgling screenwriter/English major in college I
often feel insecure about my work. How did you get over this as a writer
and any advice for the
rest of us?

–Jeff

Alas, the flip side of Insecurity tends to be Arrogance. I highly recommend
the former over the latter.

Ideally of course, you’d find a middle ground called Confidence. Maybe you’ll
be lucky, and that will come early in your career. Until then, here are a few
pointers in no particular order of importance:

  • Remember that you’ll never please everyone with your work.
  • Seek out the opinions of people you trust and respect.
  • Don’t make changes based on opinions of those you neither trust nor respect.
  • Remember that first drafts are never perfect.
  • Strive to make every sentence as good as it can be, even if it’s just a
    character walking through a door.
  • Just because someone is more successful than you, doesn’t mean they’re
    more talented.
  • Role models are fine, but remember you’re only seeing their successes and
    not their failures.
  • Patience is a virtue, but impatience might make you work harder.
  • Most good writers weren’t popular growing up.
  • You will fail and succeed at various times for various reasons you can’t
    predict. Know this going in, and you’ll roll with it when it happens.

Writing for VFX

QandA, Words on the page

questionmark
The visual effects in CHARLIE’S ANGELS are dazzling. Did you write this into the script, or was it the work of the director? Could you please advise on how to write those slow motion shots?

–Lawrence

answer icon
The writer’s job is to communicate whatever is seen or heard on screen, and that includes effects. The best way to do this is usually to visualize the scene in your head, and do the best job you can describing it efficiently and compellingly.

Obviously, the director, along with the cinematographer and visual effects supervisor, are going to have the final say about what the effects look like. But until these people come along, the writer is all those jobs, so you need to do what you can.

Regarding slow motion, we’ll start with a lesson in cinematography. To achieve slow-motion, the camera runs at a speed faster than the usual 24 frames per second, often at an even increment like 48 or 96 frames per second. Then, when the film is played back at normal speed (24 fps), the action appears to be slowed down. More than that: it often has a somewhat dreamy, sexy quality that makes car crashes and pretty-girls-getting-out-of-pools extra appealing.

In order to achieve this effect in a screenplay, I add extra vowels and consonants to words. So instead of writing:

The Thug fires four rounds at Maxwell.

I write:

Thheee Thhhuugg ffiirrees fooouurr rrrounds attt Maxxxxwweelllll.

I’m kidding. Please don’t do this.

Instead, at the start of a scene that really, really needs to be slow-motion to make sense, I’ll add the phrase, “in SLOW-MOTION,” to one of the action sentences. So the sentence might read, “In SLOW-MOTION, the Thug fires off four rounds at Maxwell, whose fingers just reach the button in time.”

In the CHARLIE’S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE, I wrote:

Handing off an UNCONSCIOUS MAN to PARAMEDICS, firefighter Alex pulls off her helmet to set loose a slow-motion cascade of black hair.

That time I didn’t capitalize “slow-motion,” because there were already a lot of words in all-caps. And I’ve been known to write, “in super bad-ass slow-motion” if that’s really the feeling I’m going for.

More LA relocating

Film Industry, QandA

How important is it to be in Los Angeles to truly make it
as a successful screenwriter? Is it possible to make it outside the City of
Angels, or should
one realistically think about relocating?

–T. Sexton

You don’t need to live in Los Angeles to write a screenplay, although the reverse
sometimes seems true. Everyone in L.A. eventually writes one, though usually
they shouldn’t.

Writers move to Hollywood for the same reason long-distance runners move to
high-altitude. By making things more difficult for yourself, you hopefully
improve. And let’s face it, there’s something romantic about being a struggling
screenwriter in the big city, living from ramen noodle to ramen noodle, doing
your laundry with other aspiring filmmakers, complaining about Jerry Bruckheimer
movies while finishing your spec script about terrorists.

After a year or two the romance fades, and if you haven’t had any success,
you become bitter. That’s not to say you wouldn’t have become bitter wherever
you came from, but in L.A., it’s more expensive. (On the plus side, the weather’s
better.)

Do you need to move to L.A. to become successful? Probably. While there are
major screenwriters who don’t live here, most of them did at some point in
their careers. Part of the job of a beginning screenwriter is to take 1000
meetings with 1000 young development executives, listening to them spout on
about their pet projects which will never get made, and that means living in
town.

Should you, T. Sexton, move to Los Angeles? Only if you’re really serious
about making it as a writer. Just as nine out of ten actors who move here don’t
succeed, probably a greater proportion of writers strike out. The difference
is, actors have to go out and audition, while writers can fail in private.

But some writers, including many of my best friends, do succeed. And truth
be told, it can be a great job. Don’t let the fear of failure keep you from
trying. Pack up the U-Haul if that’s your goal. Just make sure you have a script
or two finished first.