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March 2002 - Issue 35
Writing for Hollywood Script writing, pitching the producer, ALSO... Visit EmporiumGazette.com We have our guidelines available for your convenience and have posted our planned monthly themes so you can submit your writing to us. Even our back issues are available. Sign up to receive the Emporium Gazette monthly.
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HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD TIPPING THE HOLLYWOOD SALE SCALES ARE AGENTS REALLY NECESSARY? SCRIPTS FROM ANOTHER ANGLE POETRY WORLD WHO WILL SCARE ME NOW?
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Visit Cool Well! You'll find articles on writing, short stories, 3D art, and free web pages that you can use to build your own site. Go to: http://www.CoolWell.org to take part in the fun.
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Hooray For Hollywood It has been remarked many times that writers are
strange people. People who write screenplays are even stranger. In
fact, the word masochistic comes to mind. Getting a book published
is extremely difficult. Getting a script produced is a thousand time
more so. My brilliant idea for the 'movie of the year' was
conceived and given birth to when I was nine years old. The masterpiece,
written in pencil on a Big Chief tablet, was a three-page, one single
paragraph script. Once finished, the pages were folded and jammed into
a small envelope. Across the front I scrawled Hollywood USA. Since I
had neglected to use my return address and the script didn't bounce
back to me, I assumed it was in Hollywood and Van Johnson was begging
for the lead role. For a long time afterward, at the movies, I watched
Previews Of Coming Attractions with hope and excitement. Several decades have passed since then, my craft
has greatly improved, but much of the childish hope and excitement of
"my movie" remains. Though hope is essential for any writer,
in screenplays the operative word is FORMAT. This main factor is truly hard to nail down, since
there are so many people offering to share their knowledge of screenplay
writing. I know. I had at least twelve books on How-To, when I sat down
to write my first script. The more I read, the more confused I became.
It seemed that each author had a set of rules for writing the script
that sells. As I usually do in a situation like this, I threw up my
hands and played it by ear. Each book had a number of do's and don'ts that made
sense. I like common sense, so I chose things from every book and integrated
them into what I was trying to do. If I had to choose one book, it would
be How to Format your Screenplay, by Rick Reichman. This is available
through Writer's Digest Books. I have not been a success in selling, but I have
won several competitions, and I have managed to get scripts read by
production companies. Almost always, the rejection letter begins by
complimenting my format. Format should be plain and simple. Tell the story
and leave the directing to the director. He/she will not appreciate
being told how to photograph a scene, especially since everyone sees
things differently. Besides, it's an ego thing. Also, it is not a good
thing to depend on CUTS to advance your story. It's another way of telling
the director how to do his business. A simple slug line informing the
reader of a change of scene, location, time, etc., will suffice. The writer should set up each scene with brief,
concise narrative, all done in present tense. No purple prose needed,
and you cannot tell what a character hopes or thinks. The narrative
must show and tell the story with sight and sound. If a sound or sight
is important to the scene or the character, put it in CAPS. The lightning
CRASHES. The dog HOWLS. The BLONDE WOMAN. The crowd ROARS. A MUFFLED
GUNSHOT. The length varies in a screenplay. If you happen
to be Robert Towne, you might get by with150 pages. If not, you'd better
keep it 120 or less. If more, the chances are your script will not be
read. As a rule, one page should equal one minute of filming. Dialogue is another tricky area. Too much can be
termed "talking heads." Also, too much narrative and too little
dialogue can be a writer's undoing. One of the first things a script
reader may do is to riffle the pages of the screenplay, back to front,
and judge the balance of narrative and dialogue. If they determine a
lack of either, the script may be set aside unread. Dialogue should be written in a manner natural to the way that you perceive the character. Dialogue should be written simply. Dialect is hard to read. The actor or actress will put their own flavor to it. I read once where John Wayne read a script and demanded it be rewritten. The writer had dropped all "g's" on "ing" words. He said he played in westerns, but he was not illiterate. This is a business where a writer must tread softly lest he/she offend the sensitivities of the powers that be. Even the submission of a script is tricky. Not only must the margins adhere to those set up by WGA (Writer's Guild of America), but how the script is packaged can mean the difference in it being read, or unread. The script should be on three-hole paper. Always.
But, the cardstock cover is to have only two holes. Then, the thing
is held together by two paper fasteners, one and half inches in length.
One agent wrote that if there were twenty scripts on her desk, nineteen
had three brads in it and one had two, she would read the one with two. Another picky thing is with the cardstock itself.
For some reason, manila cardstock is the chosen one. The same agent
above made the statement that any script that came in with white cardstock
went unread. Some new writers make the mistake of binding their scripts
with fancy artwork, elaborate title font and fancy screw fasteners.
This screams "amateur" to agents and development directors.
This is Hollywood, where a book, or script, is not judged by its cover,
but by what's inside. My scripts may never be produced, but the same hope I had at nine is alive and well today. I'll keep submitting, but what's more important I'll keep reading, improving my work. * * * * * Jo Anne Horn: When asked for a trailer Samantha Horn told us the following: "I neither knit nor crochet, so I dabble in writing--poetry, novels and screenplays." I think you'll agree she knits together some nice sentences. She has had poetry published in "Red Clay Magazine." She also writes novels and screenplays, won semi-finalist in Nicholl Fellowship Screenplay Competition and America's Best several times. Last year her animated screenplay was finalist in the Austin Film Festival Screenplay competition.
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TAX - FINANCIAL WOES? Have your income taxes given your checkbook the financial equivalent of writer's block? E-mail your tax questions to James G. Rogers, C.P.A., a 26-year veteran of the tax code and an author himself. Mr. Rogers knows the problems authors and others face dealing with this annual chore. For a $5.00 fee, all of which goes to support the Gazette, you can have your answers e-mailed back to you promptly so you can get back to writing. You can even pay by credit card at our secure server. Go to: http://www.23house.com to leave your question.
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Tipping the Hollywood Sale
Scales A few years ago, my "Ty Merrick" series was optioned by a producer at Hyperfilms, Inc., of Universal City, California. Until that time, I thought anyone who had ever sold to Hollywood automatically waltzed off with a million dollar contract and his name rolling in the movie credits. I, like most working writers, didn't have a clue what happens before the director yells, "Action!" So, you have a fabulous manuscript that would make Mel Gibson drool. What do you do to get it in front of the man with the blue eyes? TIP 1: Learn the terminology that flies around Hollywood like Ben Hur on his chariot. Here's a quick glossary that you should learn: Log lines: Two to three exciting sentences that tell the reader the gist of your story or film idea. These are important, so learn to condense your ideas to a minimum. Option: An option on a manuscript or screen play is like placing your work in layaway. The producer will purchase exclusive rights for a specific period of time. You will not be able to market your manuscript to any other companies or studios. Pitch: This is a term that refers to selling your manuscript or screen play to a buyer. A screen agent will have a few minutes to pitch your idea to the producer and if he likes it, he will ask to see the entire work. Producer: Producers look for manuscripts and screen plays. Often, they have their own production companies and sometimes they work directly for the studios. Proposal: A proposal is a three to five page synopsis that grabs the reader's attention. It needs to have voice, plot, and action--especially action. Remember, you are creating a story for a visual medium. Long paragraphs concerning thoughts and feelings don't translate to the big screen. Screen Agent: Screen agents often work with literary agents and share manuscripts. A screen agent's sole purpose is to sell your work to Hollywood. Screen Play: Hollywood requires a specific format for film production and it must be presented properly. A screen play is the guide that the studio follows to shoot the movie's story. Please see the article about screen plays in this issue of the Gazette. Studio: A studio is the major player. These are the people who buy the material from the producers and create the film or television show. Studios have all the money.
TIP 3: Make sure you have a completed story that is copyrighted. A published novel is always better than an unpublished one. Why? Because Hollywood is notorious for borrowing ideas. Protect yourself. TIP 4: Hollywood studios work with or own the big publishers in New York City. If you sell a novel with NYC publishers, you will often have a better chance of attracting attention on the West Coast. TIP 5: There is a difference between writing for television and writing for the movies. Television pays less because the studios don't invest as much money into the production. Writing for networks pays more than writing for cable tv stations such as the Sci-Fi Channel. TIP 6: Be prepared to wait. It can take several months to find a producer and then several more months before they buy/option your manuscript. Depending on the length of time it takes to sell to a studio, the process could be years, but once that sale is made, it's lettuce all the way!
* * * * * Denise Vitola is the author of 12 sci-fi novels for Berkley, ACE, and TSR. Her Ty Merrick Series was optioned by Hyperfilms, Inc., of Universal City, California, for television development. Denise is also a 3D artist specializing in fantasy art and Editor in Chief of the Emporium Gazette.
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Are Agents Really Necssary? One of the best qualities about the Emporium Gazette
is the diverse staff. We all have different levels of experience, education,
and opinions. We offer you many contrasting ideas. It is then up to
you to make an informed decision as to what's best for you and your
situation. All the how-to writing books you have undoubtedly read have probably outlined the basic publishing steps. Write a manuscript, query agents, sign for representation, then allow the agent to use his or her contacts to find the right publisher for your work. Or . . . you can do it yourself. Although I've been writing for over fifteen years,
I really got serious around six years ago. I started attending every
writer's conference I could. I pitched my ideas to agents and publishers.
Three years ago, I finally found an agent who wanted to represent me.
Boy, did I feel good about myself. All my hard work was finally going
to pay off. I signed the contract, and worked exclusively with this
one agent for close to ten months. One day I received a registered letter
stating that they had closed their doors due to financial constraints.
Did you ever have the feeling that the whole world was a tuxedo, and
you were a pair of brown shoes? That did it for me. I figured that it
was again time to start marketing myself. Then, something interesting
happened. By the time I made my eighth face-to-face pitch to a potential
agent, I realized that they were all telling me the same thing - "You
don't need an agent. Go directly to publishers yourself. It'll save
you time and money." Now I was really confused and frustrated.
These agents, some who have been in the business over twenty years,
were telling me the exact opposite of everything I had ever read about
getting published. I finally realized that the reason they told me this,
was because of my marketing background. For example, the marketing section
in one of my book proposals has 32 separate sections - fairly extensive.
I was told by some of the most experienced agents that there are only
three ingredients to the publishing mix that they offer -- finding a
publisher for your work, negotiating complicated publishing contracts,
and helping with marketing. Let's break this down by first talking about how to
find a publisher. Granted, there are lots of agents who have wonderful
contacts with the big boys, but with all the acquisitions and almost
overnight changes in the publishing world, there are less and less "big
boys." It was just as easy for me to study Writers Market, create
a list of publishers, review their web sites, look at their calendars
(while getting a feel for what they work with), and approach them myself.
I've talked with dozens of editors at publishing houses and believe
it or not, they are not literary ogres who live for sending out the
infamous form rejection letter with a nasty personal note attached.
They WANT their job to be as easy as possible, just as we all do. Reading
your query and proposal, and deciding that your work will perfectly
fit within their current editorial calendar would make their job much
easier. They don't like going through thousands of proposals each year
and returning rejections any more than you like receiving them. They
want you to be good. They want your manuscript to be their next project.
The main asset a literary agent brings to the table is their relationship
with a publishing house. That's the only advantage he or she has over
you. You can do the rest, can't you? This isn't rocket science were
talking about. It is however, a process that takes education, experience,
time, persistence, a thick skin, and a passion. I'll say it again -
a passion! If you don't have the "spark" about what you're
doing, there's no super-agent that can or will take your entire project
from beginning to end. Let's talk about contracts. Throughout my past four
writer's conferences, I met four literary attorneys from around the
country. Many of these attorneys are writers themselves. I've found
that the average cost for reviewing a literary contract, and doing what's
best for the author runs around $150. Why give an agent a percentage
of all your sales for doing this one task? Finally, let's spend a minute on marketing. Do you
believe, truly believe, in your project? Do you have the spark needed
to convince others that you have a product worth buying and talking
about? If you do, and you should - do it yourself! There are some great
marketing books for the beginner. If you read my article on writing
in last months Emporium Gazette, I kept repeating, and will continue
repeating this one word - read. In January's issue, my formidable editorial peer Susan
Long Turner wrote an article entitled From Another Angle. Her article
would suggest that looking for, and waiting for the right agent is a
good way to go. For many writers, I don't doubt that it very well may
be. For others, doing it yourself may be the best approach. The decision
is yours. Maybe you wish to try one approach for one project, and another
for a second project. Someone once said, "My decision is maybe
- and that's final." Decide what's best for you, and go for it! * * * * * Mark Vass is the author of "The I’m Going in the Hospital Handbook," which is published in e-book format by 23 House Publishing (www.23house.com), and in paperback by 1st Books Library (www.1stbooks.com). Until last year, he worked in marketing in the computer field for over twenty years. Although he began his part-time writing career fifteen years ago, he now writes non-fiction full time.
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Scripts Years ago a speaker at a writers' conference stated that screenwriters have the hardest job in the literary world since they are limited to dialogue to impress their audience. To make matters worse, the writer has little control over the expertise of the actor who will deliver his precious lines: That is, unless, the quality of his work attracts talent that the producer can afford. While this speaker made other valid points like not being able to use first person, and the inability to explain his character's innermost feelings, I find it incredulous that anyone has more difficulty at making a living from their art than poets. Having written more than one screenplay, I know for a fact that a novelist can create a quality product. A writer must, however, realize these limitations before rooting his tail in the fertile soil of his chair. If first person is unavailable, you'll need to manipulate a scene to expose your main character's flaws. This is the equivalent of a carpenter choosing a router, over a wood gouge, or a contoured edge plane. While all three can produce spectacular results when used by skilled craftsmen, they require different techniques, time (in your case, word count), and above all skill. Samantha Horn has given you some excellent advice about taking anyone's format advice as gospel, but I'll add a drop or two to her rain barrel. From experience I can tell you that each studio prefers a slightly different form and some don't remotely resemble the Screen Writers Guild's suggested format. Know the producer/director's product and which studio is likely to purchase your work. Then request their submission guidelines and follow those. Make sure you get submission guidelines, not a detailed shooting script that includes camera angles, stage direction, and all the details needed to shoot the movie or TV episode. Those contain so much detail it may obscure your product, the story. Movie execs, like publishers, have no shortage of demands for their time. Like a novel or short story, that first paragraph, page and pages are what will keep them reading long enough to reach your final twist. Creating a compelling plot, characters, and emotion, is required in both an action/adventure flick like Romancing the Stone and the romance novel it was plucked from. Who can forget the introduction and those three versions of the closing scene of the heroine's romance novel? I was in tears laughing as Joan Wilder grabbed facial tissues and sobbed, having finished her latest manuscript. Emotion, however, is shown differently on screen than in a book. The screenwriter cuts much of the sentimental detail when a book is adapted to a movie. In film you may be left with admiring glances, an embrace, a glistening tear from an off-screen eyedropper, or something less obvious like a tremor in the actor's voice. It's how you use them that gives your characters depth. Romancing the Stone leads us to another point. The best screenplays hook the viewer from that opening scene. Look at Harry Potter. If you've read The Sorcerer's Stone, you know that J. K. Rowling's first chapter describes the kid's room in the closet under the stairs. Despite this writer's insistence that the movie remain true to her book, the studio opened the movie with the head master lighting Hogwarts' lamps with magical fire and a bear of a man riding a flying bicycle. This magical tease kept the viewers in their seats while Harry remained shackled within the world of muggles. Despite the number of books optioned for movies, think of what is involved adapting such a work. Assuming an hour and a half for a feature film, imagine your novel cut to ninety pages from over four hundred. (I might add that much of a script's space is either margin or blank due to format.) Like any short story author, you must weed your Victorian mansion's garden of flowers until only vegetables remain, then weed the salad from that. Writing a quality screenplay takes a writer who'll weave dialogue that parries and thrusts like a Musketeer in a life and death struggle with the Cardinal's guard. The Gazette has discussed this before, but it's worth repeating. One excellent way to do this is to answer one character's question with another. (Harry) Would you like me to call room service for
a Pizza? Neither character is willing to give the other the satisfaction of answering without tossing their comment back in the other's face. We've discussed the skillful use of dialogue, gestures, and setting in more than one article in the Gazette over the past years and how they apply to writing in general. This is no less applicable to screenplays. In fact, movies utilize both sound and visuals to set a mood for a scene. While similar moods can be produced in a book, it might take pages of prose to create the feeling accomplished in a few seconds of film. When writing a novel, I make liberal use of tag-lines to give the reader a glimpse of my character's body language and his emotions. A tag-line not only identifies the speaker, but describes his posture, actions, thoughts, or expression. This, my favorite writing tool, is yanked from my gun belt when writing screenplays. Still, that doesn't mean I can't note the cat-burglar's fluid stride as she pads across the dance floor toward the heroine, or her envious gaze as she studies her hostess's emerald and diamond necklace. Both details may be critical to the plot, so instead of tag-lines I note these details for the actors in stage directions. Neither can the author take pages to detail a scene. Instead the writer must give the director a thumbnail overview at the beginning of each shot. The director will then choose the location or set for your scene based not only on your description, but his budget. Avoid scenes that require extra costs like night lighting, special effects, major stunts, lightning, rain, foreign settings or that cast of thousands. All the above cost enough gold pressed latinum to impress the greediest Ferengi. Your director may not have a sufficient budget if he's working for a producer who can't raise enough funds. (Although computer technology allows a director to transform a dozen characters into a cast of thousands when multiple shots on a green background are combined, this still costs extra.) While writing a screenplay is challenging, it can also be rewarding. With the emergence of Fox and Warner Brothers as TV networks, not to mention the Spanish stations, demand for programming has doubled. Why do you think America is stuck watching people stranded on an island or those other "reality" TV episodes? I also grin when I notice another small but nimble movie studio pop up to take the place of a mega-studio mired in the La Brea tar pits of their equally gigantic overhead. It seems I've been grinning a lot lately. Never let anyone discourage you from writing something you love. Take the time necessary to mold memorable characters you'd like to meet. This may be as close as the world will come to shaking your hand. Remember, the third-person eye of the movie camera has molded generations of watchers unwilling to get involved in a traffic accident for fear of a gas tank exploding in a fireball. Your goal as a writer must be not only to mold believable characters but to form character in your audience. * * * * * Ronald Wayne Jones is the Managing Editor for Emporium Gazette and autor of "Black Breath of the Lutron" and "The Dwarf and the Demon Tongue" which are available through 23 House.
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From Another Angle
TURN SCREAM WRITING INTO SCREENWRITING Thomas Edison was afraid of the dark. You can use your creative energy to invent ways to stop writing or you can use the same energy to go forward and shed light on the darkness, Viki King advises in "How to Write a Movie in 21 Days." I had the opportunity to put this idea to a test with this month's column. My first brainchild crumbled due to a mix-up that even the Universe couldn't fix. My first impulse was to forget it and not write March's few words related to the Hollywood scene. Then I remembered Dwight Swain's solution to all writing problems: Interest follows action. Hmmm. After all, the words FROM ANOTHER ANGLE head the column. Without another thought, I allowed my mind to poke around for a new approach. Found it! Then came the search of my inner self and books for material to fit "Turn Scream Writing into Screenwriting." Joel Saltzman in "If You Can Talk, You can Write" tells about the first cut of Woody Allen's "Annie Hall." According to Saltzman, the film editor called it a "chaotic collection of bits and pieces that seemed to defy continuity." Eventually, however, the story came together and "Annie Hall" went on to win four Academy Awards, including Best Screenplay. Read Jo Anne 'Sam' Horn's "Hooray for Hollywood" in this issue of Emporium Gazette for the nuts and bolts of screen writing. Here is a writer who emerged from creative darkness and is shedding light into dark corners for other writers with her continuing efforts to crash the Hollywood Scene. Sam's work has won a number of awards. Her screenplay "The Rain Serpent" placed First against stiff competition at Oklahoma's Writing Federation Inc. Writer's Conference and was included among the finalists at the Austin Screenwriter's Festival. "Goodbye, Peter Pan" advanced to semi-finals in the Nicholl Fellowship Competition and America's Best. Sam has also optioned "She Who Remembers" twice. Take a note concerning these ideas on creativity. You can jumpstart the creative process by buttoning yourself to your office chair and scream anger, joy, grief; any words of emotion into Word, Word Perfect, or whatever program you use. List all the reasons you can't write and keep the drivel going. What about that man you met on the elevator yesterday? Turn the incident into a scene. How would it look on the big screen? First thing you know you'll come up with a word, a phrase, or a piece of dialogue that will spark your imagination. Interest follows action. In his book, "Story," Robert McKee says, "Story is born in that place where the subjective and objective realms touch." No matter what you write in the first try, it's the last cut that counts. Keep working until the subjective and objective touch and one day, perhaps the title of your screenplay will light up theater marquees because you overcame the fear of the darkness in your writing world. * * * * * Susan Long Turner is co-author with Russ Turner of "Wings Born Out of Dust" which is available now from 23 House Publishing and is also available in trade paperbacks and hardback at other major online bookstores. Visit my Website
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IS YOUR WRITING ILL? Would you like a second opinion about POV, dialogue, selling non-fiction, or submitting multiple submissions? For a mere $5 diagnosis fee... You can even pay by credit card at our secure server. Go to: http://www.23house.com to leave your questions. No ache or pain is too big or too small for this veteran freelance editor and author of numerous books and magazine articles. If you have more than one question, please check out her site: http://www.coolwell.org/robyn/index.html
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Poetry World What every poet dreams: a favorite actor reciting their poem on the silver screen. NOT! Exactly what are the possibilities for today's poets in Hollywood? Slim? Lean? Non-existent? Perhaps. Then again, hope springs eternal. Let's look at the record. Name a movie that has poetry in it. "Out of Africa" and a handful of others come quickly to mind. That could open the way for a good poet to get his/her poem in the public eye. Name a movie based on a poem. That's right! BASED on a poem. Did I catch your interest? Do you have any idea how many movies there are? I did a relatively small amount of research and found some very interesting facts. Gunga Din by Rudyard Kipling (1939 movie) These are directly based movies with the same title that were obvious. Some of the others available aren't quite that easily seen. I'm reminded of "Clueless" and how it is based on the book "Pride and Prejudice" which I never realized. Of course, it appears that most of the movies listed are pretty old and Hollywood has moved to the action adventure films and comedies. Shakespeare's poetry has been done over and over. A Mid-Summer's
Night Dream and Romeo and Juliet, even Leonardo deCappio starred in
one version just a few years back. Many of If you scrutinize the movies listed you'll perhaps see the pattern: epic, but not always. The Odyssey was an epic poem by Homer and surprisingly, an adaptation for the 2001 movie of "O Brother Where Art Thou" starring George Clooney. Comedy in poetry. A recent movie would be "The Grinch" which was based on Dr. Seuss' poem. In fact, many of Dr. Seuss' poems that kids have loved over the years have been made into animations and televised. Just another avenue in Hollywood that you might want to spend some time visiting. Earlier, action adventure was mentioned. Did you get to see the movie "The Man from Snowy River" that was released in 1982? That was based on the poem under the same name by the poet, A. B. (Banjo) Paterson. Have you read "Blind Harry's Wallace" by William Hamilton of Gilbertfield? That extremely bloody and vulgar epic was the direct base for a multi-million dollar movie: Braveheart starring Mel Gibson. Write yourself an epic with depth and feeling. It could become the next box office hit. Or you could just settle back and be comfortable with a walk-on quote of your poem. * * * * * Robert Nailor is the Poetry Editor and Production Manager for The Emporium Gazette. He is the author of the soon to be published, "Three Steps to Reality." Visit his homepage, Lore's Webs, at: Rolian.com
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Need something unique to listen to? Ten (10) completely original pieces that span and combine the genres of music with nteresting twists: Ireland Down Under: Ireland with a touch of Australia
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Who Will Scare Me Now?
I peeked in the closet * * * * * Syd Dunne has contributed before to the Emporium Gazette. She offered this humorous piece as something to read to the kids in the family. You can visit her homepage.
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Ron Jones-- Managing Editor Robert Nailor--Poetry Editor and Production Manager Elyse Salpeter--Fiction Editor Mitchel Whitington--Non-Fiction Editor James Rogers--Business Editor Terrie Murray--Travel Editor & Editorial Assistant Sue Long Turner--The Writing Answer Lady Mark Vass - Marketing Editor & Denise Vitola--Editor-in-Chief
© Copyright 2002 by the Emporium Gazette No portion of any article or other writing in this electronic publication may be copied, used or otherwise taken by any person or organization for any purpose or reason whatsoever without the express written permission of the Emporium Gazette.
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