Tarantino's Development Exec

This one was a brilliant meeting. We met in a cafe - the fantastically authentic Cafe 101 - which gave it a casual, friendly edge. She'd read a sample and liked it, wanted to talk about what made me want to write, what stories I wanted to tell and why. She was well informed and generous with her knowledge and asked to read something else to get an idea of what other genres I could write. I left not with anything concrete but a real sense that she loved movies and that we'd keep in touch..

paramount

I left the Script Shark meeting and set off to my first one-to-one at Robert Evans on the Paramount Lot. A fabulous place, it feels like walking into a 50's movie set with sets being shifted and circus props hanging about, folk carrying piles of scripts, actresses huddled in groups, comparing tan lines...under the glitz though I'm sure it's just a sunnier version of Elstree!
Sitting outside on a bench I tried to gather my thoughts and not be too phased, but I shouldn't have worried as once in there, it was like every other meeting you might have in London. And these guys are so good at it. A few jokes, pleasentries and it's 'so what are you working on at the minute..' and you're away... I was asked if they could read the script of my Rom Com and the treatment of another which I happily left. Mind you; don't do what I did and have a script that's been copied on recycled paper... I was straight down to the printers after that and had a box of five pristine, three brad, scripts printed for only $20. Bargain if you ask me. My mission is now to get rid of them all...
So on to Odd Lot over at Culver City. More difficult to find I arrived stressed and hot only to find that with Yom Kippur the office was almost empty. Eventually the exec arrived and I was taken into the conference room. He was delightful but pretty realistic about the state of the business. Low low budgets - under $5 million are still being made and the top budget biggies - the Transformers etc are getting the financing but there is definately a desert inbetween. Even though cinema going is on the rise, it's for a particular type of film and ones with huge stars are going straight to video which has never happened before. That said he liked one of my ideas, saying he'd ike to see the script when I've written it, so it wasn't a wasted meeting.

LA catch up

hi all - sorry it's taken so long t get to this but it's been mental dashing from meeting to meeting. Arrived in LA and treated myself to the soft top motor on the assumption that if the meetings go shite; least I'll have a bit of fun getting there...


Excellent start to the trip organised by Kelly Marshall a fellow writer and course director at the London College of Communications (an excellent screenwriting MA with a great hit rate of professional writers coming out the other side). First meeting was with Lee Zahavi Jessup of Script shark http://www.scriptshark.com/ aat the fabulous Literati Cafe. A must for writers with all the decor relating to writing and screen plays and the best hot oatmeal and blueberries...



Her chat was an introduction to the industry. Script shark offer a suport base for the writer, running script coveage services and acting as a conduit for strong scripts to get read by the indutry. Lee was witty, engaging, extremely informative and realistic about the business at the minute. Saying the days of selling a spec script right off the bat are gone whilst also qualifying that with the tale of a bored insurance guy who wrote a script at his desk to aleviate boredom only to the sell it for several figures. She talked about the importance of entering script comps to get your script noticed and read by decision makers, suggesting you enter one big one - Final Draft or Scriptalooza with four entries into some of the smaller ones - either using a friends' US address or appying as a Brit, taking the vew that if you get high enough up the pile for it to be noticed, it won't matter that you might be disqualified; you got read. This exact thing happened to an alumni of the LCC and the writing team are now on to their second US script commission. She also suggested you don't go for the csh prize comps but the ones with the most impressive panel of readers. She also said that the industry is now more about nurturing a relationship with a writer in the ong term rather than just buying their script and bye-bye.

A day at the coal face filming a new ad for sainsburys - I don't want to see a joint of pork for quite some time thanks - and read this Hope DL posted on Facebook.
The guru Phil Parker ( ex head of the MA Screenwriting at LCC) tries to explain why original ideas aren't getting through..
http://www.screendaily.com/5006085.article

Also check out the Cambridge Short Film Festival - some awesome talent including the one and only Deborah Haywood...

pitching

read a few websites that might help when you're trying to get your feature down to a coulpe of paragraphs... This is much easier when you've written it. Trying to get a treatment into a sentance is much harder. You don't know the world or more importantly; the tone..

http://www.moviepitch.com/ is good site - especially if you're pretty new. He'll take your idea and pitch it for you... not sur ewhat the hit rate is but some interestiung advise.

the American Dream...

sat here wondering if it's a good idea.... The University of the Arts (where I did my MA) has invited me to join them on their Writers Talent Camp. Three months ago it seemed like a good idea, now with my writing partner grounded with a doctors note and all my ideas feeling rubbish I'm pretty ner vous.. Managing expectations is the way forward... if nothing come sof it; that is all I expect! I'll be keeping a regular blog of the trip - the do's and ond't of how to get meetings; what to say; what not to say so keep tuned in...