OCTOBERFEST
October has been an extraordinarily busy month. Work, extracurricular activities and some personal business made this a taxing few weeks. I haven’t had much time to go through all the e-mails, but I’ll get back to answering questions once I settle in to normality.
Earlier this month, I visited the SCREENPLAY
I sort of fell into this at the Beverly Hills Library a few years ago with the creation of “Story Conference” – a workshop where I critiqued scripts and answered questions. The Q&A often revolved around writers bouncing their ideas off me. This evolved and I took the show on the road (with former co-worker-turned-screenwriter Jack d’Annibale) to the defunct TAKE
On the other hand, unexpected silence says a lot too. When I hear an idea that simply doesn’t click with me, I ask the audience if it clicks with them. When 200 people fail to respond to the idea, it seems probable that the writer will have a tough time marketing it in the real world.
I was not a fan of the proposed adaptation (from a bestselling book) about a young girl who turns into a chimpanzee and finds herself the romantic interest of a janitor. The unintentional notion of pedophilia and bestiality left a lot to be desired. I told the writer I thought the idea was dopey. Most of the crowd felt the same way. But she handled the bad news well. Who knows? It could sell and become a smash hit with zoologists and sex fiends worldwide.
One man in a nice suit (looking a lot like an accountant) pitched the true story of a black teen who risked his life to get a message to General Grant – that helped win the Civil War. The story has definite intrigue but the writer was more interesting, as it was difficult to tell if he was a defender of the African American race or an Imperial Wizard in the Ku Klux Klan.
A raucous comedian got up and offered an extemporaneous pitch about an asshole creative executive who got off on ripping writers apart. It was funny at first – but like any pitch that goes on too long, it started to nosedive. “Quit while you’re ahead” is a mantra worth remembering when pitching story ideas. It wasn’t clear why he would attend only to improvise a story. Perhaps it was a diversion – avoiding the fact that an imminent evisceration awaited his real pitch.
The best pitch of the night (according to the majority of the audience) came from the writing team of Jeph and Brian. The story deals with a former rock-n-roller who reunites his old band to create a children’s musical group – a la “The Wiggles” – called LITTLE
The writing team was entertaining and delivered their concept quickly. One of the scribes even brought along his guitar to sing. (Below: Jeph and Brian are second and third from right flanked by me and the runners-up.)
I’ll be meeting with the ALAMEDA WRITERS’ GROUP in early December to listen to pitches once again.
I was one of six judges to select the winner of the BIG BREAK! SCREENWRITING CONTEST sponsored by Final Draft. The top prize is $15,000 and swag that includes a laptop computer. Some of the other judges were Oscar winner Bobby “Crash” Moresco, Simon “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” Kinberg, and Stuart “Collateral” Beattie. We were all given ten of the same scripts (the finalists) and asked to judge using a scoring system of 0 – 100 and five basic criteria that included story, dialogue, and structure. The highest possible score was 500.
My top three picks were BUFFALO SPEEDWAY by Yehudi Mercado (which I scored with a 450), ATOMIC
BUFFALO SPEEDWAY is a sort of slacker comedy involving a group of pizza delivery drivers who struggle to make deliveries on the busiest night of the year. The writing here is as crisp as any good
ATOMIC
As an addendum to my judging experience, Final Draft announced the top three winners of the BIG BREAK! CONTEST on October 26th. I had hoped to attend the awards ceremony at Hollywood & Highland but had to change my plans.
The winner of the $15,000 top prize is THE SEA DEVILS by Tom Cosgrove of Ireland.
Clearly, I was out of step with the other judges, since this script didn't make my top three. However, the deftly written screenplay is a very atmospheric monster movie that's heavy on character.
I must admit that the point spread between my #1 choice and my score for THE SEA DEVILS was considerable. I still stand behind my winner.
Regardless, congratulations, Tom!
BUFFALO SPEEDWAY and ANAIAS took second and third place, respectively.
On Thursday the 19th, I flew into
Not only was he in town but he was attending the Film Festival. There was a party he was en route to and he asked if I’d meet him there.
Most of the events were sponsored by BOMBAY GIN or DOS EQUIS
Quite a few people thought the hat was some sort of swag, and there were some monetary offers for it.
Yehudi approached and introduced himself. We had a good chat. Some of his other friends were there too – director and producer Scott Rice and his creative partner Austin. These two were responsible for creating a series of festival trailers called SCRIPT COPS – which spoofed the longevity of Fox’s show COPS – by arresting writers with bad scripts. Naturally that sentiment was right up my alley, and we all got along like old friends.
The three of them were going out to eat. I think they felt sorry for me. I was, after all, an orphan who planned on returning to my hotel room for an early night’s sleep. But the hometown triumvirate took me under its wing and fed me some Tex Mex as we chatted about film and filmmakers.
Later, we went to an opening night party, where I had the opportunity to meet many writers who were competing for top slot in the festival’s screenwriting contest. Everyone I spoke to was extremely nice and we all had a great time. Yehudi, Scott and Austin remained my buddies through the duration of the festival – always checking up on me to insure I was being entertained. Our trip down 6
I heard many pitches in
There was a team from Washington – two screenwriting professors – who proved that teachers CAN do. They pitched a handful of ideas – all of which were concise, lucid and sounded like moves.
There was a father who took his teenage daughter to
My favorite writer of all was a woman originally from
I met Heather Zicko from GUY WALKS INTO A BAR (a NY based prodco). Heather is smart, friendly and approachable – the kind of exec I wish were on the west coast. (She may never talk to me again, but she’s looking for fantasy comedies – in the vein of LIAR, LIAR.)
While staggering through the streets looking for a shuttle to take me to a barbeque, I met Chris Vogler and his wife Alice. They too were looking for this mysterious shuttle – which we eventually found.
Chris is the author of THE WRITER’S JOURNEY, his well-known filmic interpretation of Joseph Campbell’s seminal work on mythology. After the barbeque, we went back to the Driskill Hotel (where I was staying) and hung out in the bar for a few hours discussing movies, scripts and story structure. I had never met Chris Vogler before, and he seemed more like an earthy blue collar worker rather than a worldly dramaturg. His wife is a gregarious and successful realtor on the Westside.
Work took a backseat to family (which it so rarely does in
Since it was believed she would slip fast, I never considered returning to the
But for a 94-year old woman, it all seemed organic and natural.
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Send questions and comments to: theinsidepitch@sbcglobal.net
This month would have been impossible to navigate without all the help from the rest of my professional team: A special thanks to Ana and Gina.
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