Saw You At Expo!

I survived Expo! Actually, this Expo was easy for me thanks to two things:

1) Last year, every other class was in the other hotel, so I was constantly running from hotel to hotel. And constantly setting up. And constantly dealing with small rooms. And constantly dealing with bad a/c.

This year I was in the exact same room for all of my classes. No running. I set up once, never had to dig through my bag for my notes - they were already out. And being in one room also helped my CD sales - I dragged a table from the front of the room to the back and laid out my CDs. Last year, they were in my bag and I had to dig them out... plus, nobody really knew they were in my bag, so I hardly sold any.

The downside of being in one room all day - you never get out. I usually run over with my classes - they’re supposed to be 90 minutes and they often end up closer to 110. The last one on Sunday went *way* over, because there was nothing else on the schedule. The problem is, class is over and people have those individual questions they want to ask, which is okay, but I’m not getting a real break between classes. And I’m usually talking when I’m not talking... which makes the voice really ragged on that last class on Sunday. But I’d rather be in the same room all day than have to run to the next class. The other thing that really helped was...

2) Emily from WHITE BOARD MARKERS was my assistant. I owe her a million thanks. Originally the plan was to get her in as my assistant just to get her in. She was a volunteer for the Expo last year, and this year Expo wanted volunteers to work full time for 2 days with no time to go to any of the events. That sucks. I figured she’d get in free, and maybe spend a few minutes helping me here and there, then have the run of the Expo... but it didn’t work out that way. What happened is, there were almost no volunteers this year, so Emily ended up working full time 2 days for me with no time to go to any of the events. And she didn’t complain. And she sold my CDs as if her life depended on it... which meant I actually sold out of almost everything!

So, Emily is the greatest person in the world.

WILL YOU BUY MY PITCH?

So I picked up my badge and lanyard on Friday, so that I could get into the Networking Party that night and drink. There’s a greenroom upstairs where the drinks are free to speakers, but if all of the guest speakers and guests of honor are upstairs drinking, who the hell is there downstairs to network with? I always think that part of my “job” at events like this is to talk to the folks who paid to be there.

I check out the greenroom, basically looking for the handout with the hotel room maps and class room assignments. Hang out and talk with some folks, including Guest Of Honor Tina Anderson (WHY DO FOOLS FALL IN LOVE starring Lorenz Tate) and a guy I talked with at Austin a couple of years ago who has since won the Disney Fellowship (I think) and is on staff on a TV show now. That’s cool when someone you talked to a couple of years ago is trying to break in... and now they have broken in and is a working pro. It’s so difficult to break in, that when someone not only breaks in, but is a success story, that proves good writing pays off.

I left the greenroom when the Networking Party began, went downstairs and paid for my beers.

Last week I was at the Final Draft Big Break Party that had loud music you could not talk over, and now I’m at Expo where they have obnoxious stand up comics so loud you can not talk over them. You have to scream to be heard, and that’s not good on the throat if you have to speak all day the next two days.

As I’m sipping my beer, this guy comes up to me and just pitches his script. I try to ask him why he’s pitching to me, but he just keeps going. When he finishes, he asks what I thought. I, um, am polite and probably a little evasive. Then he says, “So, you wouldn’t be interested?” “No. I have my own projects,” I reply.

As soon as he lives, some other guy comes up and pitches me *his* script*. I’m polite to him, too... but after the fourth or fifth person pitches me their script, I’m wondering what kind of networking party this is... did someone encourage these folks to just pitch their scripts to other people at the party? Is that in the program I haven’t looked at yet?

When the next person starts pitching me, I try to stop him... but he just keeps going. I keep trying to stop him, he talks over me. When he finishes, I ask why everyone is pitching to me. “Well, you’re a producer, right?” “Wrong. I’m a screenwriter.” “But you *are* here to hear pitches.” “No... I’m teaching classes.” “But your lanyard is red, teachers have green lanyards.” Okay, now this is all making sense... sort of... they gave me the wrong colored lanyard and people think I’m part of the pitch fest.

I’m so glad I’m *not* here to hear pitches, because this last guy who pitched me had the worst pitch I have ever heard in my entire life... and I’ve heard some really awful ones. It’s like he took the top three Google search things for the day and tried to combine them into the most topical script ever written. No heart. No soul. Not even a story.

Eventually they turn up the lights and kick us out... kicking out the bad comics, too.

A group of us ends up in the hotel bar, until they turn up the lights and kick us out.

NO TIME FOR STARBUCKS

I’m staying at the hotel. No way I’m going to fight traffic on the 405 every morning, then try to teach a class. I’d rather roll out of bed, shower, take the elevator down and teach my class. This also allows me to hang out after the networking parties instead of zooming home just to sleep for a while and then have to zoom back to the Expo.

Saturday I have 4 classes - basically 8 hours of teaching. The full day. The night before I bought a couple of bottles of water from the Liquor store near the hotel (the hotel’s water is almost as expensive as their beer). I brought some instant coffee packets in case of emergency... and the Starbucks line was so long in the morning (imagine 2,000 writers awake before 9 am... and one Starbucks) - I used the instant coffee to make a bottle of iced coffee. Got to my room and set up. Did a full day of classes. Got sidetracked and didn’t have dinner... then went to the Networking Party.

So, the guy with the awful pitch comes up to me and does the pitch all over again. The same pitch. Word for word. I keep trying to stop him - remind him that I have the wrong color lanyard - but he will not stop his pitch. When he finishes, I go through the exact same conversation we had the night before.

They turn up the lights, I go back up to my room... I really need to sleep, I’m exhausted.

But this is Halloween weekend (sort of) and the people in the room next to me are having a loud party that doesn’t end until 4am. I catch half a night of sleep, get up to teach classes... but my instant coffee packets are gone, and the Starbucks line is snaking around the hotel lobby a few times. But I have great luck this day - my “stalker” Matt is close to the front of the line and I offer to buy his coffee if he’ll order mine. I get my coffee, make it to my room and do 2 classes... then there’s a break and the closing ceremonies begin. I sit on a chair in the lobby, half asleep... waiting for Fun Joel’s annual Bloggers Meeting.

BLOOGERS UNITE!

Every Year Fun Joel organizes a meeting in the hotel’s sports bar of all the screenwriting bloggers in town for the Expo. I meet Red Right Hand, spent a lot of time talking to Rouge Wave, and talk to all kinds of other people. Emily (White Board Markers) talks about her short film, which sounds cool, and Joel manages to say nothing about his recent trip to Africa. Man, I want to know all of the details! Guess I’ll have to read about it in his blog.

Eventually, I realize I’ve been drinking all weekend and not doing much sleeping, and I’d better head home. I take a final trip through the hotel to pick up any postcards still on the tables, go upstairs to the greenroom and hang out for a while *not* drinking, but talking to Heather Hale who did *12* classes over 4 days! They asked what she wanted to teach, she sent a list of 12 potential classes, they put all 12 on the schedule! I felt like a wimp - I only did half the classes she did! I said goodbye to Bill, the new owner of the Expo, who is a nice guy and did a pretty good job considering this was his first time running the Expo... then I headed home.

Thanks to everyone who took one of my classes, and if you have a question about the class or a comment, you can click *here* and post it along with any class discussion.

- Bill

PS: The guy I talked to on Sunday - man, I wish I could remember your name - you’re an animal lover and disagree with me on THE RING.... e-mail me!

I'm At Expo....

The Screenwriting Expo is on now. 3,000 - 4,000 screenwriters from all over the world at one event... along with pretty much all of the famous screenwriters in Hollywood. Oh, and I’ll be there, too.

Last year I taught 6 classes, which was a pain in the butt because all of the classes were at the other hotel. Before, when it was at the Convention Center, I might have to dash from one room to the next, but at the two airport hotels you have to dash down the street. There’s a shuttle, but it’s always just left. So I get to do a lot of running at Expo.

The plan for this year was to do 4 new classes and two old standbys. I had done two of the new classes at the Raindance Film Fest in 2006... just before last year’s Expo. The other two new classes were in the works at that time. Two reasons for doing new classes: Hey, *you* don’t want to go to the same old class, and I have audio versions of some of the old classes available, so I’d rather do something new.

But the Expo is under new management, and due to a glitch they had to go to press with the catalogue before they got my new classes... and went with the old ones.

Okay, here is my problem in a nutshell: If you took McKee’s class in 2000 and then again in 2007... it’s word-for-word the same class. He has it memorized. I hate that. I want to try to add something new all the time. The reason why the big 2 day class now has 5 different versions is so that if you were to take the class again, even though the underlying information is basically the same, you’d get a different perspective and different examples and now different film clips illustrating the points. I worry that someone who took the class before will take it again and feel like they didn’t get anything out of it the second time.

So, the big plan was to completely rework all 6 classes, starting with the Naked Character Class, which I thought had some problems last year. The problem was - I have, like, a million pages on character development (actually, well over 2 books worth) and when I set up my class notes, I duplicated some information. That had me stumbling a little bit trying to revise the class as I was teaching it.

So I did an inventory of all of my character articles, I wrote a logline kind of thing for each article on a 3x5 card, and I figured out what the class was supposed to be like... Then all I had to do was organize those 3x5s then organize the articles, then cut out any duplicate info from each individual article, then print a version for me to use in the class. Well, that was the plan. Unfortunately, it’s boring work. So... The 3x5s are still waiting for me to put them in order. Instead, I did a little more work on SLEEPER and wrote a couple of magazine articles and a couple of new Script Tips. I avoid writing by writing something else.

The other 5 classes were going to get new material - I outlined new articles for each... and I’m bringing those outlines with me. Never got around to writing the new material, but maybe I can incorporate it on the fly. That kind of depends on the amount of sleep I get and the amount of caffeine in my blood.

This may sound like I’m a lazy bastard, but the weeks leading up to Expo when I was supposed to do all of this stuff became really crowded. The staff of Script Magazine met for dinner and drinks, to discuss the course for the magazine. I ended up having more drinks than planned - I had put all the info into my phone’s calendar, and purposely put the time of the dinner a half hour early, to remind me to get my butt over the hill. The dinner was at Cat & Fiddle, a cool bar & restaurant with California-British cuisine. Huh? Well, they have fish & chips and other Brit food, plus designer burgers and things that require someone to sun dry a tomato. There’s patio dining, plus a large indoor section... and even dart boards. And they serve Guinness on tap. Well, I look at my phone, see the time of the event, and arrive a half hour before when I had it listed on my phone. That’s a full hour before the actual dinner... but I thought it was just a half hour. So I had some of that Guinness on tap. And then some more. And then I wondered where everyone was, and had another Guinness. By the time people arrived close to an hour later, I’d had 4 Guinness (or Guinnii). And I had a few more with dinner.

The weird thing is - I was fine. I think the tension of all of these deadlines and problems and, well, the fact that I need to sell a script and we’re about to go into a strike, just balanced out the beer.

Anyway, we had an interesting discussion of what we can do to make the magazine better next year - new features and new focus on the writing part of screenwriting.

And a few days later, I went to the Final Draft Big Break Party in this nightclub in Hollywood. Loud music. Disco lights. Screenwriters. Which of those things does not belong? Oliver Stone was the guest of honor and was supposed to make an inspiring speech... he ended up just saying “Be inspired!” They gave out awards to the top 3 screenwriters in the contest, and the cool thing is - pro screenwriter judges each spoke about how much they loved this writer’s script before they presented the award. So Ray Gideon (STAND BY ME) gave an award, Bruce Feirstien (GOLDENEYE) gave and award and Antoine Fisher gave an award. I wanted to track down Bruce afterwards, we have a friend in common... but he got swept outside and I lost him. Antoine was standing about 5 feet away from me. Oliver Stone was probably long gone. Lots of people I know, some I don’t know. A woman gave me a hug and said hello... I *think* I know her from a message board. My friend Robin was there, and we talked for a while. I talked with Michael Taab about the strike vote - while we were trying to hear each other over the loud music, they were counting ballots down at the WGA. I joked they should have a live counter on the video monitor behind the bar like on election night.

Then, Sunday, I went to ScreamFest horror movie festival to see my friend Anthony’s new film HEADLESS, which you can all watch on Saturday night on the Sci Fi Channel. I actually raced to get there, was running late, and when I got to the ticket window there were two guys in front of me tring to decide what movie they wanted to see... at the head of the line! They finally figured it out, I bought my ticket and ran upstairs... just as the movie was about to begin. Afterwards, there was a Q&A, and after that everyone was hanging out in the lobby. The next film at the festival was produced by a guy I know, Morris Ruskin, and he asked me if I was there for his movie... Um, no. He asked me if I was going to stay for his movie.... Um, I’m kind of with these guys, and we may go someplace after the film. Then he walked away. I feel like I pissed him off, but I can’t be everywhere. And I shouldn’t even be here... I should be working on those Expo classes.

After that I was in panic mode over the post cards for a while, but they were delivered without problem. I also had other things to do to prepare for Expo. Somewhere on the list was buy new shoes. My shoes are at that perfect place - completely broken in... and that means they’re kind of scuffed up and ugly. Time for new shoes. I haven’t gotten around to that, yet, so I may be at Expo in my scuffed up old shoes. Probably better than nice new shoes if I’m going to spend a lot of time running between hotels.

So the classes may be the same this year as last year. Sorry. Next year, 4 new classes... maybe even 6 new classes.

See you at Expo!

PS: If you aren’t coming to Expo, you can still take some of my classes... on CD. I’m taking $2 off on my CDs for this Expo weekend only. Click below for more info:

CDs On Sale!

- Bill


IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Establishing relationships, using a couple of horror films (‘tis the season).

Yesterday’s Dinner: Anderson’s Split Pea Soup & a fresh Western onion bagel at home while organizing stuff for Expo.

MOVIES: HEADLINESS - um, a friend made it... I can’t really talk about it objectively. 7 white kids who all look alike and act alike and seem to be interchangeable are on their way to a Halloween party, take a short cut, van breaks down... in Headless Horseman country. Then they lose their heads one-by-one. Anthony told me one of the big problems making the film is that Sci Fi Channel has all of these rules. No more than 40% of the script can take place at night. And they actually analyze the script and if it’s 41% night, make you change it! No brothers and sisters, No dogs, No alligators, No hallway scenes, No... well, the list goes on and on. My guess is that the things on the list can be traced back to some film that sucked. Well, that film with the brother & sister sucked - so no more brothers & sisters in Sci Fi Channel movies! All of this stuff makes for one strange film. Anthony inherited the script, which had all kinds of problems, and he tried to fix them. I don’t think they got fixed. But that brings up another question - why is Sci Fi Channel buying scripts that suck this bad in the first place? Seriously. There are much much better scripts out there. I’ve read them. There are much much better writers out there - you write better than this crap. Sci Fi Channel movies will *always* be crap unless they start looking for better scripts.

MOVIES: WE OWN THE NIGHT. I liked the idea of two brothers on opposite sides of the law, reminded me of MANHATTAN MELODRAMA from the 1930s. But this film was bland. Unemotional. And when there was some big emotional scene, the *audience* didn’t feel anything. That was due to the choices by writer-director. They never establish that these brothers care about each other - or have ever cared about each other. So when one gets in big trouble and the other suddenly shows emotions about his brother... we wonder where all of those emotions came from. All they had to do was show us that these two were once close, but drifted apart. Establish that they once loved each other. Okay, they’re brothers, so maybe we’re just supposed to assume that... but I didn’t. So when one brother suddenly has this big emotional scene, it just rings false. You have to establish this stuff! Hey, all it takes are a couple of photos of the two of them as teenagers, arms around each other. Give each brother that same photo. Make the relationship between the brothers the center of the story. Instead, we have kind of a bland, gritty, cop movie. A car chase that tries to be FRENCH CONNECTION in the rain, but ends up kind of blah. Good to see Tony Musante on screen again.

DVDS: DOUBLE INDEMNITY again... and the relationship between Robinson and McMurray really is amazing in the film. It shows you how a simple thing like lighting someone’s cigar can be used to symbolize a friendship.

PAGES: Are you kidding me? A couple of new magazine articles. Nothing on the script (except some touch up work).

Nothing But Brown Skies

You may have heard we have a couple of wildfires here in California. There might have been something on the news about it. Mel Gibson and James Cameron and many other famous people were forced to evacuate their expensive Malibu homes... yes, they are technically homeless now. There are a dozen wildfires burning all over SoCal - and the day before the Malibu fire started we had a “red flag warning” - high fire danger. What that means is that it’s hot, it’s dry, and it’s windy. The Malibu fire was caused by downed power lines...

We’ve had freakin’ gale force winds down here!

A couple of days ago I was sitting in Starbucks, watching the *metal* outdoor furniture blow away. Chairs, tables... blowing toward the parking lot. People were diving out of the way. Some security guards grabbed some of the stuff before any cars were damaged. People were having trouble walking. Hats and toupees were flying!

So, I come home after a hard day of splitting infinitives and...

My block is dark. In fact, several blocks are dark.

It’s strange to see part of a city with no lights at all. No street lights, no stop lights, no lights in windows, no store lights.... nothing but darkness. You think Los Angeles drivers have no idea what they’re doing in daylight? Wait until the traffic lights go out.

This also sucks, because I had been working on battery in Starbucks and my ;aptop is now dead... and the plan was to finish this article for Script at home. Well, that’s not going to happen. I also planned on doing some work on my Expo classes, and that isn’t going to happen either. The good news is, I spot a power company truck down the street doing something. My guess is the wind blew down a power pole, and they were working on it. That means it would probably be fixed by morning. How many cars would smash into each other while the traffic lights were dark?

I make it into the parking lot without getting hit and use what little moonlight there is to find my way to my front door... where my body blocks the key hole and I have to get the key in by touch. I open the door - and it is absolutely black within. Great! A chance to break a leg.

I have a big heavy duty flashlight under my bed - earthquake preparedness. During the big Northridge quake, I was living in Van Nuys (close to Northridge) and my building was quaked. It happened in the middle of the night, and knocked out the power. I found clothes and shoes by feeling around, and walked out of my 2nd story apartment, picking the stairway I never use... which was good, because the stairway I usually use was *gone*. I could have been killed... so now I keep a flashlight nearby.

Well, the problem was getting to the flashlight using only the light from my open front door. The further I get from the door, the more absolute the darkness. By the time I get to my bed, it’s pitch black. I feel around under the bed, hand coating with dust bunnies, and find the flashlight. Click it on, and everything is okay.

There’s this cool little film written and directed by David Koepp, who wrote the first SPIDER-MAN and almsot every other big Hollywood blockbuster, that takes place in Sacramento, CA during a power outage. All power, all TV, all radio, everything... dead. Food rotting in freezers. People go to the store for supplies... and the cash registers don’t work (they’re all electric, now). So people begin looting stores. Nice people, good people, honest people... looting. Hey, they would pay if they could, but the need this stuff *now*, no time to wait until the power returns... if it ever returns.

When darkness falls, people grab guns to protect their property from looters. And it doesn’t take long for flare ups, arguments, fights to break out. Eventually people get shot. After the world descends into chaos.... the lights come back on.

So I’m hoping the power guys get this thing fixed pretty soon.

For now, I have no TV and I don’t want to kill the flashlight battery by leaving it on. Problem is, it isn’t late enough to go to sleep... That’s when I remember that I own a portable DVD player - a Christmas gift from my parents last year. I had ran down the battery the last time I used it... but *the night before* I had plugged it in to recharge the battery. Hey! I had a DVD player! I also have hundreds of DVDs, including DOUBLE INDEMNITY double disk, brand new still in the shrink wrap. Okay, I would turn off the flashlight, turn on the DVD player, crawl into bed and watch a great Billy Wilder movie. I wish I could sip hot cocoa, too... but that would require power. So I had some grape juice.

I watched the film on the 7 inch screen, getting sleepy...

When the film ended, I was ready to fall asleep... but the power came on. I had flipped the light switch just inside the front door, so I got out of bed to turn it off...

And realized that I had left my front door open.

Could have been worse. I could have woke up the next morning and walked in to discover the open front door in my underpants with my neighbors walking down the hallway.

The fires are far away, but the smoke is right here. Everything is hazy, and they're warning us to stay indoors and try not to breathe any of this crap. The sunsets are orange, and even the moon is orange. Kind of pretty... but hard on the lungs.

I hope all of you who live in areas affected by the fires are safe, and your homes are okay. And I hope Mel Gibson and James Cameron aren’t wandering the streets with shopping carts full of their stuff.

- Bill

Why Me?

A couple of months ago, I realized that the postcards I made for last Expo were almost gone and I hated the design... so I decided to redesign the cards and get some printed for Expo. I gave myself plenty of time, because the last design was a rush job. These cards are nothing special - but Expo has thousands of screenwriters, and my hits have been falling off lately. This would be a great way to get the word out that I have a free script tip every day, and maybe increase my website traffic.

Card designs were sent to a printer on the East Coast with good rates and nice samples. Cards were printed, and to be delivered by UPS ground. I should have had them within 5 days...

But when I checked the tracking page online the day after Columbus Day (about a week after they shipped) I discovered that UPS had made an attempt to deliver to my biz address on Columbus Day... and since it was closed, they sent the cards back to the sender that same day. No second attempt at delivery. No door tag. Nothing.

According to their tracking page, the cards arrived in LA on Monday (Columbus Day), they made one attempt to deliver, then by 9pm that same day (Columbus Day) they were on a truck to the sender.

So, I called UPS. Asked why they didn’t attempt a delivery on a non-holiday? Why they were shipped back the same day?

They said: We don’t deliver to Military Bases.

This confused me, because the nearest military base has got to be at least 40 miles away.

After a great deal of time convincing them that the address was not a military base, I asked - you know, even if it was a military base, why ship it back to the sender on the same day? Why not hold it for a couple of days and door tag it? Well, policy is to ship it back - to make sure the package is promptly delivered. I brought it to their attention that if the package had been delivered, I’d have it. They asked what I wanted them to do, and I said: Deliver the package that is addressed to me. This got me bumped up to a supervisor.

After giving her the tracking number, she tells me that package has been delivered... to the original shipper.

So, I said all of the same stuff. The supervisor admits that a mistake was made, someone ticked the Military Base box by mistake. (I wonder how often that box gets ticked when the driver is running behind and just wants to get rid of a package?) They said they will cover the costs of reshipping - the sender just needs to reship the package and then fill out some refund forms and....

I asked why the shipper should fill out any forms - they didn’t tick the wrong box. She tells me that the package has been delivered - completed - and that we need to start from scratch. I ask if they have a category called UNDELIVERED or MISDELIVERED? She says “No, only DELIVERED.” At this point, I’m probably becoming a jerk... but I’m holding my temper and remaining calm. I’m just trying to figure out how to solve this problem within the rules of their system. So I ask if the package can be retrieved for a second delivery attempt? She tells me someone will call me back within an hour.

Two hours later, I call them again. Go through all of this all over again with new people. And they say again “Someone will call you within an hour.”

Two hours later, my phone actually rings. It’s someone who is going to resolve my problem! I explain everything again... and they tell me they don’t deliver to military bases... and I have to convince them this isn’t a military base, and they say they will take care of it. Problem solved!

Not.

A week later, nothing has happened.

So I call, and go through all of the same stuff with new people again, who all tell me they don’t deliver to military bases, and eventually I get to a supervisor who tells me they have a note that it has been taken care of. I say that’s nice, but do they have a note that says where my package is? No. They have no info that it was ever retrieved and reshipped, or that the anything was done other that the person in charge saying that they have taken care of it. There is no “not taken care of” problems at UPS.

Nice, but I don’t have my package and I want it.

“Well, we don’t deliver to military bases.”

Okay, there was a moment where I almost went UPStal. Instead I remained calm and asked how I am supposed to get my stuff. They said - the printer will have to reship it and fill out a form for the refund...

Fine. I call the printer. I explain what happened. They try to track down the returned package - can not find it. Swell. But they will reprint the cards for free and reship them. UPS Ground. I should have them within 5 days of when they are printed.... and my big fear is that they will arrive on the Monday *after* Expo. I will have thousands of postcards and no one to give them to.

And I’m just waiting for them to get shipped back to the sender because UPS doesn’t ship to military bases....

- Bill

IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: A new one about 30 DAYS OF NIGHT and Vampires.
Yesterday’s Dinner: Brocolli Beef @ CityWok.

The Zombie Threat

Accidental Experiment

A while back I posted about the new spec script I had started, SLEEPER AGENT, and over that weekend I posted a link to a pdf of the rough draft opening of the screenplay. At the end of the weekend I removed the link...

I figured a few people would get a chance to read the opening of the script... about a dozen people e-mailed me about it or mentioned it in replies.

Without any announcement, I continued to add rough draft pages to that same URL address. Not on a regular basis, every once in a while I’d add a bunch of fresh pages. And a handful of people noticed, and have sent me e-mails. This has been kind of interesting.

Harlan Ellison once wrote a short story in a bookstore window. You could walk past the bookstore and watch him work.

I think this has been an interesting accidental experiment, and I think sometime in the future I will do the experiment on purpose. Next time I land an assignment, or have a new spec that I plan on writing on a self-imposed deadline, I think I may let you guys look over my shoulder. I may post my pages for the day somewhere on my website.

Might be fun.

- Bill


IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: When people Blow Up (Tuesday was a new tip about the WGA strike - hope you remembered to check the Tip Of The Day and didn't miss it.)
Yesterday’s Dinner: BBQ Pork & brown rice at CityWok.
Pages: Preparing for my Expo Classes - trying to figure out a new version of the Naked Character class.

The Thing I Hate Most...

Some people hate when they are halfway through a new script and read in the trades that someone has just sold a script with a similar idea for big bucks... making their script into a retread... a seeming rip-off.

*I* hate when someone sells a script for big bucks that has a similar idea to... a film of mine that has been sitting on the shelves at Blockbuster for 3 years.


My script GRID RUNNERS was the story of a cop in the future trained in a VR simulator against the mega-villain Dante... and when Dante is cloned into reality, the cop must face the one opponent he knows he can not beat. A producer liked the script, thought it might make a great big budget theatrical. He had a connection at Paramount, so we had a meeting. The guy at Paramount told us sci-fi was dead at Paramount, except for STAR TREK movies. So the project got set up as an HBO World Premiere Movie and I was paid, well, okay money. Sci Fi Entertainment Magazine came out on set, wrote an article (I was even mentioned!) and a couple of months after that issue hit the news stands... Paramount bought this script called VIRTUOSITY for a whole bunch of money.

VIRTUOSITY was the story of a cop in the future who trained in a VR simulator against a mega-villain named SID... and when SID is made real by nanotechnology, the cop must face the one opponent he knows he can not beat.

Produced by Paramount, by the way.

The same thing happened on NIGHT HUNTER - three years before BLADE but with many of the same *scenes*. And I mean the same scenes. Vampires in a rave? Vampires having a meeting around an executive board table? Vampire hunter rides a motorcycle? Vampire hunter uses cool weapons and uses martial arts?


Back in 1992 I wrote (and registered with WGA) this 30 page treatment called SPLICERS about gene splicing dogs and scorpions to create the ultimate tunnel dog / weapon. I scripted it about 7 years ago, with the dog-scorpions designed to go after Osama Bin Laden (hiding in a cave somewhere). Since then, I've had all kinds of producers read the script. At one point, it was almost made. Another time it landed me an assignment. There is one D-gal in town who loves it, and tries to get everyone she works for to make it.

Now, from today's Hollywood Reporter...

CREATURE FEATURE FOR POLLEY, BRODY
"Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody have been cast in "Splice," a science fiction thriller being directed by Vincenzo Natali. The story explores a dark vision of the world of genetic engineering in which two young scientists (Polley and Brody) become superstars by splicing different animal DNA to create fantastical new creatures. Production is slated to begin in November in Toronto."

Can't wait to see it in the cinema.

- Bill

IMPORTANT UPDATE:Yesterday’s Dinner: Salad at Fuddruckers.
MOVIES: Saw THE KINGDOM... and wished it had more investigation. It was always too easy to find the clues. When Chris Cooper finds a clue, it leads *directly* to a suspect. Later in the film, a major clue is *literally* handed to Jennifer Garner at a crime scene by a bad guy. Kind of an "I did it!" moment. Lots of stuff that was too easy. And I hate shaky cam. There will be a post on that.
DVD: Watched HARD BOILED again - a great John Woo film. Real characters. Real moments... and babies.
Pages: Only a couple of pages on SLEEPER when I'm supposed to be doing *more* than 5 pages to make up for a couple of days.

Frustration

All of my sales, all of my produced films... no agent or manager was involved in any of those deals. My career is based on query letters and people passing my scripts around town because they liked them. Basically, every sale is the result of some accident - a script left somewhere gets passed around town for *3 years* and ends up at Paramount... and they *buy it*! Since firing the world’s worst agent when I came to town, I haven’t had another agent. I had a manager for a short period of time, and sold nothing. I always wonder what kind of career I’d have if I had some sort of representation. Someone *trying* to sell my scripts... and someone who could get them to the right places.

So, every few years I decide to try to find an agent or manager.

And after a short period of time I get so frustrated, my head almost explodes.

My recent frustration: I don’t really believe in referrals. I think that turns the biz into who you know rather than what you know, and results in crappy scripts written by Tom Cruise’s poolboy getting made while really great scripts from someone who doesn’t have connections becoming landfill. There was a time when it was all about the scripts, and agents were the screeners. They discovered the talent. Now, agents don’t want to discover talent, they want someone to bring it to them.

I know all kinds of people in the biz, I never ask them for a referral.

Maybe I should... but part of me thinks that a guy who continues to sell scripts that get made into films (bad films, but still films) shouldn’t need someone else to vouch for them. I can pour a sack full of DVDs with my name on them onto any agent’s desk. Surely I’m past the point where I might be a one trick pony or someone who got lucky once and sold something. This may make me sound egotistical, but I think my movies should be my reference. And I think agents and managers should just sign me.

But that doesn’t seem to be how it works.

So, I asked one person I know - on the other side of the desk - to refer me to a manager. And that manager eventually got back to me and asked me to send him a script. And when I sent it, nothing happened. So I talked to the manager, and he said “Are you still writing?” Which I tried not to take as an insult. He requested a second script. I sent a second script from my stockpile of virgin scripts that no one has ever read... well, these two aren’t virgins anymore... and I never heard from him again... I *did* send him an e-mail when I had 2 films on the Top Ten DVD Charts a couple of weeks later. I also looked up his client list, and he has two people who have each sold one script to a cable net... um, I think I got that beat. Now, maybe the two scripts *he requested* weren’t things he thought he could sell - but he picked ‘em! He looked over the list of virgin scripts and selected the two loglines he liked best. So if he didn’t like the *concepts* that was his fault. Well, that leaves the writing... I may not be Steve Zaillian, but I can put together a sentence or two... and *the people who buy scripts* like my scripts. And I’ve read many many scripts from writers represented by major agencies... that suck. Obviously, they had a referral. I can’t figure out this manager’s problem.

I’m so pissed off, I send out a stack of query letters to other agents and managers - even some big ones. I’m gonna show this guy! I’m gonna sign with a big agency! Weeks later - no responses to any of those queries. I might as well have thrown them directly into the trash, rather than mail them to an agency where an assistant threw them into the trash. No chance to show that freakin’ manager that he missed out on signing me.

Due to the small world we work in, I actually bump into this manager a couple of weeks ago, and ask what happened. He says he hadn’t read *the* script from me. I said “That’s nice, but since you read the last script, I’ve had meetings all over town on other projects” - in fact, we had bumped into each other as a result of a meeting. He says that maybe he needs to read another script in order to decide. I say, fine - I’ll send you another list of scripts, pick one. I send him the list... and haven’t heard back from him.

Now, I think I’m better off without this guy... but WTF?

This gets me frustrated. I can sell a script that gets made by Sony, but I can’t seem to get a really low level manager to sign me. Can someone explain this to me?

And this is the reason why I don’t have an agent or manager - because at this point I usually say Ef It! And stop the agent quest and set something up with a producer somewhere. Why sit on this stockpile of virgin high concept scripts when I can sell them?

Add to this - all of that chumming I did a while back has me playing phone tag with the producer. He actually called me one day to tell me that he’d call me on Tuesday. That made no sense to me - you have me on the phone *now*, why not tell me what you’re gonna tell me? Tuesday, no phone call. A week later, I call him... get his secretary (he’s in a meeting). He calls me a couple of days later - goes to voice mail. Back and forth. End result? Well, nothing that I know of... but today’s Tuesday, so maybe he’ll call. He never said *which* Tuesday - and there are 52 of them every year.

After a while, you wonder why you go to all of the trouble. Sure, I like writing. Sure, I’m writing for me. But it’s nice to have someone read this stuff sometimes. Especially the people who request it. Most of my stockpiled scripts have been read by no one... and I forget that I’ve written them! I seriously forgot that I had written one of the scripts - it’s a tree that fell in the forest and nobody heard it.

If I write a script and no one reads it, does the script really exist?

I mean, why am I even writing a new spec? No one’s gonna read it!

I’m sure that all of you know exactly what I’m feeling. You feel it. In fact, you think I’m just whining right now, because I’ve had all kinds of scripts read by all kinds of people... and nobody’s read your scripts at all. Look, I feel your pain! I know what that is like. I know that I have no room to complain... But complaining is free, so I’m going to do as much of it as I can!

Eventually I realized that this frustration was pointless. If I don’t write new specs, I have *no chance* of anything happening. If I don’t keep turning out new work, I’ll never get another meeting or sell another script. All of this is frustration is just wasting time. Time for another Dr Phil moment where I realized you gotta stop complaining and actually do something. I need to get off my ever-growing-ass and get some pages written.

So I did that.

Somebody, probably Preston Sturges, said that if his career goes to hell he can just sit down and write his way out of it. Think about that. We’re probably in the only business where you can just make up some crazy story... and that crazy story might sell! You never know what crazy story will sell and what crazy story is just a crazy story. But every crazy story may be the one. You can really write yourself out of trouble. Your career stalls - write a spec script! Sometimes Fry’s Electronics sells a ream of paper for 99 cents - you can change your entire life by writing some crazy story and printing it out... and still have 390 pieces of paper left over!

And Friday the phone rang - one of the agents I sent a query letter to would like to read a script. And even if this agency doesn’t sign me, someone will, right? I have to learn to be less frustrated and keep plugging away until someone signs me... and they will.

Good thing I didn't send out all of those virgin specs to producers...

- Bill


IMPORTANT UPDATE:Yesterday’s Dinner: Pork Fried Rice @ CityWok.
DVD: Watched DEATH WISH again as background for a new script tip comparing DEATH SENTENCE (the sequel) to THE BRAVE ONE (the rip-off).
Pages: No pages on SLEEPER, I had to do an magazine article for MovieScope... and stand in line at the post office. But I did some notes on the next scene and hope to do an extra page a day to get this sucker finished by the end of the week.

I've Been Avoiding You

For a while, I was writing like a madman - 5 pages a day on the new spec, plus all of my usual stuff like putting up a script tip every day and writing articles and posting answers to screenwriting questions on message boards - and just didn’t have time to put up a new blog entry. I had things to say, I just didn’t have time to say them. I was doing a couple of scenes a day on SLEEPER AGENT. Piling up the pages. In the groove. It was great!

Then, I wasn’t piling up the pages... and I began avoiding you. I didn’t want to post that I had fallen off the wagon. I wanted to be, you know, a good example for you. I didn’t want to be the kind of slacker screw up who talks the talk but fails to walk the walk. Plus, that Scott The Reader guy keeps bragging over on his blog about his 45th day in a row of turning out pages. He was managing to pile up the pages while I was failing!

The set crashing post was fun, but it was something written years ago. The post about HARD EVIDENCE playing on UK TV (which ended up not being so) was work avoidance.

Things went wrong because other writing responsibilities got in the way. A producer called about a project, plus I’m gearing up for my Expo classes, and I had to write up a couple of synopsis to chum the waters, then I went to a couple of parties... and there were a couple of nights where I had trouble sleeping... you see, I’m a really light sleeper, and sometimes a noise wakes me up and I have trouble falling asleep again, and sometimes I just have trouble falling asleep in the first place, plus...

I have all kinds of excuses. And that’s really what they are - excuses.

If I had been writing on a producer’s deadline, none of those things would have gotten in the way. Even if I hadn’t gotten enough sleep I just would have forced myself to write 5 pages, then rewritten them later. I’ve done it before - many times. I’ve written hung over. I’ve written without sleep. I’ve written on bad days. I’ve written with a toothache. I’ve written with a broken heart. If I’m on a deadline, I can probably write on my deathbed.

But this is a spec. No deadline. The excuses can kick in.

Though all of those excuses were the reason why I stopped turning out pages, the reason why I continued to not turn out pages is probably a frustration issue - but I’ll save that for tomorrow’s blog entry. You see, even that ends up being just an excuse.

I realized that only one person could get me back to turning out pages... that’s me. So I “Dr. Phil”ed myself - I called myself a slacker, a goof off, and worse. I realized that I was letting myself get away with doing nothing. That if I wanted to start turning out pages again, I’d have to just... write! No more excuses. No more bullshit.

So, I forced myself to just sit at the keyboard and write.

And yesterday I wrote 5 pages... And the day before that I wrote 5 pages. And today I’m working on my 5 pages.

No excuses.

The first day back at 5 pages? I just reread them - they are 5 damned fine pages. Yes, it’s a first draft and I’m going to have to rewrite them, but I don’t have to throw any of them away. Same with yesterday’s. So far, same with today’s. None of it looks like forced writing - and it really *isn’t* forced. It’s not the writing that is forced, it’s the activity of writing. The butt in the seat part. The writing itself had moments of flow of joy and wild invenion and just plain fun, once I forced myself to just put my butt in the seat and do it.

So, now that it isn’t just a fluke day of 5 pages, but I’m back at it, I thought I’d show my face again.

- Bill

IMPORTANT UPDATE:Yesterday’s Dinner: Bacon Cheddar Burger at Fudruckers... ER nurses were standing by.
DVDs: GOTCHA! - one of my guilty pleasure films - for an upcoming project. I also watched my robot hooker from outer space film - haven't seen it in years - to see if the FOR SCREENING PURPOSES ONLY thing gets in the way of the handful of scenes that didn't make it into the release print. Not that I would ever make any illegal duplicates of the full version of that film or anything...
Pages: 5 pages on SLEEPER! Made my quota again. Did a cool thing where a car is surrounded by bad guys on motorcyles, "like a swarm of angry bees". I'm closing in on Act 3, and will soon be in the home stretch.

More Movies On UK TV...

It seems like all of my movies are popping up on TV in the UK. A strange second life for them, a decade after they were made.

Latest is HARD EVIDENCE, which ends up being my favorite of all the things that got slapped on film by default. It's poorly directed, the director also added a bunch of sex scenes (which may or may not be in the UK TV print) and shooting in Vancouver kind of screwed up the hell-hole Mexican prison angle in the script (being thrown in a Canadian prison doesn't sound nearly as bad), but they filmed what I wrote. When the characters open their mouths, my words come out. Though it's filmed in the least exciting way possible, the actors do what the characters did in the script. The twists are all there. Though nobody ever got any of the film refs - they are in the movie! The mistress lives at #17... the title of a Hitchcock film!

This film is from Warner Bros, but *not* available on DVD in the USA. I have no idea why. It was a huge rental hit on VHS, #7 in the USA when it was released.

Anyway - here's when to see it if you like in the UK. Any questions about the film will be gladly answered.

Hard Evidence (Film)
Starting: 18:30 on Wednesday 26th September. Duration: 2 hours
Showing on True Movies.

Hard Evidence (Film)
Starting: 12:30 on Friday 28th September. Duration: 2 hours
Showing on True Movies.

Hard Evidence (Film)
Starting: 12:00 on Saturday 29th September. Duration: 2 hours
Showing on True Movies 2.

Hard Evidence (Film)
Starting: 16:00 on Sunday 30th September. Duration: 2 hours
Showing on True Movies 2.


By the way, the film is not based on a true story, so I have no idea why it's on True Movies. Maybe it was part of some package of TV movies sold to them?

- Bill

Keeps On Ticking...

Five pages. Five pages. Five pages.

Okay, I stumbled a couple of days, but I'm at page 67 today... when I'd planned on being at page 75. But I'm not that far behind - I just won't finish by the end of the week, as planned.

- Bill

Osama Bin Laden: Just For Men user!

In the old photo of Osama, his beard is gray. No play for Mr. Gray! So he used Just For Men, to take that gray away!



In the recent photo (a couple of days ago) the gray is GONE!

He looks years younger!


- Bill

Las Vegas Wrap Up!

I need a vacation!

The problem with Vegas is that it is a city of excess. You indulge in all of these behaviors that you know are not good for you - and you keep doing them. Hell, everybody else is! So the casinos are open 24 hours, and they serve drinks 24 hours. I am not a morning person... but I usually am not still up and having a beer at 6am. I love to eat - and it shows - but I usually don’t eat until I feel like I’m going to explode (“It’s wafer thin!”) every day. You go to a buffet at the Rio and it’s all you can eat and the food is good and you want to get your money’s worth and... well, next thing you know you feel like you’re going to pop and you aren’t sure you can walk. Now, if you did that once a week it would probably not be good for you... but once a day? Every day? And one a couple of those days I did an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet where I think I may have ate my weight in bacon. I love bacon. I never eat bacon. When I have a massive heart attack next week, it was probably the bacon.

So my vacation was eating too much and not sleeping enough.

Now I need to sleep and fast (or, at least eat smaller portions of foods that are better for me for a while).

And it’s hot as hell in Los Angeles. I expected to come back from hot Las Vegas (where everything is air conditioned up the wazoo - and you know having a cool wazoo is the key) to about 10' cooler weather. No such luck. It’s so hot, it takes about 2 hours to turn my apartment from Oven to Can Sustain Human Life. I could just keep my A/C on all day, and hand over my next script check to the DWP, but it doesn’t make any sense to me to pay for a cool home when I’m somewhere else...

In Vegas, I was hardly ever outside. Sure, you take the elevated walkway from one casino to the next - but that’s just a couple of minutes. Earlier today it took me longer to get from vehicle to Starbucks... in a freakin’ oven of an underground garage,

Okay, okay... I can stay here as long as I don’t talk about the heat.

One night I was awakened by cannon fire and explosions. Lots of them. I thought that maybe the terrorists had gone after Vegas. Bright flashes from the curtained hotel window. I throw open the shades, expecting to see the Stratosphere in flames... but instead I’m treated to a *wild* lightning storm. Hundreds of bright strikes. Loud thunder. For a second, night turns to day... then BOOOOM! Lasted for about 2 hours. It was too loud to sleep through, so I just watched the show. Went back to bed after it was over. Next day, I caught the news - sections of Vegas (residential) had flooded. They called it a 100 year storm. A whole lotta inches of rainfall in those 2 hours. People’s homes - ruined. Some people plan on suing the city, others wonder why they didn’t have flood insurance.

The next day I’m in a really nice casino on the strip, starts with Bel, ends with Lagio, and I’m playing a slot machine near the hotel elevators, and the doors open and out comes the skankiest whore I have ever seen in my life. I felt sorry for the security guard gripping her arm - I would have worn rubber gloves. Then burned them afterwards. What was strange to me - anyone staying in this hotel could afford a much better looking, smelling, etc hooker. So this unclean thing had to be a *choice*. Weird. Someday a real rain will come and wash away all of the scum and... oh, sorry, I Bickled for a moment.

I had a day where I left the casinos with almost exactly what I started out with for that day... but managed to drink 8 free beers at a variety of casinos. That was my most successful day, under the Bill “Gambling Is All About Free Beers” theory.

One thing that often amazes me is how well people remember me. I was in one casino a couple of times, and the cocktail waitress actually brought me the brand of beer I would have ordered *before I ordered*. She saw me, put the beer on her tray for me. This was strange - and kind of like the Starbucks out in the butt end of the Valley that I go to maybe a half dozen times a year when I have to pick up a package at the UPS warehouse near Van Nuys Airport... and they remember my name and what I drink. How can people I never see remember my name... and why *me*? Now, maybe it was because I tip cocktail waitresses (but doesn’t everybody?) Or maybe it’s because I always say Thank You (and mean it) (but don’t most people?) Or maybe it’s because I just have a friendly and memorable face. Who knows? Anyway, they also remembered my drink at a Vegas Starbucks I worked in every other day.

And this was a working vacation. I actually managed to do my 5 page a day quota on SLEEPER two days in a row, and did some okay work on other days. I finished Act 1. Sure, there were days when I didn’t really do much, but it was still a vacation. There were days were I goofed off.

Now I’m back and I need a vacation... But I have pages to write.

- Bill

Bill At Screenwriting Expo 2007

Okay, here is my final schedule for the Screenwriting Expo October 25-28, 2007. Here is the Expo's home page: Screenwriting Expo 2007

You may notice these are the exact same classes I did last year - that wasn't the original plan, but the Expo changed management this year and there was a bit of a SNAFU. So I hope to actually bring something new to these classes... and *next year* I'll do Noir and High Adventure and Subversive Cinema and some of the other classes I've developed. Actually, anyone who reads this and has a "What I'd like to know about this subject is...." can post it here and that will help me redesign the classes.

Discount code is:

2007Expo_Martell

Registration page:

http://csorders.com/store/2007expo.html

After the individual chooses either Option 1, The Gold Pass, or Option 2, the Basic 4-Day Pass, that person would enter the above coupon code onto the first Shopping Cart page and click “Apply Coupon.” The coupon will give a $10 discount on either the Gold Pass or Basic until September 14, and on September 15 until the Expo, it will discount the price $30.


William C. Martell -*- (Rated a star speaker in 2005, 2006)

Guerrilla Marketing Your Script -*- Saturday 9:00-10:30am

Course Description: No agent? No problem! How to make your own connections, find producers interested in your script, get readings and studio meetings, sell without an agent or manager. Instructor has sold over 20 scripts without an agent, 17 were filmed. You don't need an agent to sell, just a great script!

Elements of Horror -*- Saturday 11:00-12:30pm

Course Description: From The Ring to Saw and Hostel, horror is hot! You'll learn everything you need to know to write in this genre, from creating dread, loss of free will, fear of the unknown, classic horror (like The Others) vs. Stalk & Slash and Modern Horror. How to create a monster. What do Rosemary's Baby, Night of the Living Dead, The Exorcist, Bride of Frankenstein, The Others, and Open Water have in common? This class will tell you! All of the critical elements necessary to write a script that scares the pants off the audience.

The Naked Character -*- Saturday 3:00-4:30pm

Course Description: How to create original characters that come alive on the page. Story is character, but how do you create those amazing memorable characters? Roles that attract stars? Starting with nothing, you'll learn about active protagonists, visual characterization, distinctive dialogue, and character moments. Dozens of character creation techniques!

Action & Suspense Scenes -*- Saturday 5:00-6:30pm

Course Description: Become a master of suspense! Creating action scenes that show character and suspense scenes that keep the audience on the edge of their seats! Proper use of violence. The 15 iconic suspense scenes and why they work. Instructor has many *produced* action and thriller scripts.

High Concept Hollywood -*- Sunday 11:00-12:30pm

Course Description: How to find and develop ideas that Hollywood is looking for and you are passionate about. A great script with a dull idea is a dull script. Learn tools like Magnification, Flipping, Substitution, Cousins, Word Association, why High Concept is *Your* Concept, finding your personal themes in high concept ideas.

Description & Visual Storytelling -*- Sunday 3:00-4:30pm

Course Description: Sure, your dialogue's great, but description is 50% of your screenplay and film is a visual medium. Is half your script in trouble? Technique-based class with 25 ways to improve description, create hidden camera angles, tell your story visually. Decisions, metaphors, symbolism, why pictures are worth a thousand words.

So that is what I'm doing at the Expo. Come hear my classes live, and make sure you say hello.

- Bill

Ahead & Down, Behind & Up

A few days ago, I had a good day writing, headed to the casino... and lost some money. I ended up dragging myself back to my hotel late, went up to my room... and my mag-key did not work. This meant going all the way down to the front desk, when I really wanted to remove some beers and go to sleep. And, for some strange reason at that hour of the night... or, actually, morning... there was a line at the front desk. Figuring this will only take a minute, instead of going to a restroom to remove the beers, I waited in line. Where it took longer than expected. Because they told me they needed to do some routine maintenance on my room and would need to move me somewhere else for the rest of my stay... would a suite be okay?

Sure. Free upgrade. Cool.

Problem is, I would have to pak and unpack again. Not a big deal, but I wanted to just sleep. I have no idea what was wrong with my old room, and even when I got into it to pack up my stuff (after removing the beers) I could see nothing wrong. But I ended up in a really nice suite several floors up. Some high roller probably canceled, and the room was available for me... the low roller.

The next day I had a terrible day of writing - I think the sleep-to-caffeine ratio was off - and after banging my head against the story wall without much to show for it, packed up and hit the casinos... and won $360. Now, I’m ahead for my stay at that point..

But not by much.

My theory on gambling in Vegas: it’s all about free drinks. If I were back home in Studio City, I might wander across the street to Residuals and have a few beers with friends. A Guiness over there costs $5, add a buck tip per beer and by the end of the night I have probably spent $25. And if I buy a round or two for my friends? Well, I know that I’ve dropped $100 before in one night.

Now, when you gamble in Vegas they *give* you drinks. Free. You still tip, but the costs of the drinks themselves are paid for by the casino. They want you to drink so that you’ll keep playing. So, I figure if I lose $25-$40 by the end of the night, that’s not much different than going to Residuals. The free beers cover the cost of playing for a night. If I lose $100, well, that’s not gonna make me happy, but I’ve spent $100 on drinks before. So what I lose on gambling I gain in free drinks. Once I lose more than I can drink, I quit.

So, it’s all about free drinks - the gambling is entertainment.

My theory on the writing and losing thing is that when the writing goes well I get cocky and take risks that I shouldn’t... and when the writing hasn’t gone well I play more conservatively. Or maybe there’s just some God Of Gamblers that takes care of screenwriting (a major gamble) and fools who wander into casinos? If there is a God Of Gamblers, can there be sequels and can they all star Chow Yun Fat?

Anyway, now I’m in an excellent suite for the rest of my stay - looking out over the lights of Vegas.

And by the end of today, I should have finished all of the CableNet projects. A bunch of synopsis to throw against the wall. Some will miss completely, some will hit and slide off... but I hope that one of these suckers will stick so that I’ll have a deal. I’m going to work on the second studio sequel project when I get back... and focus the rest of my stay either on the spec I’m in the middle of writing or another project.

It seems that every day the writing goes well, I lose money. Every day the writing doesn’t go well, I win. Winning $360 is covering the loses at this point, but Vegas is set up so that they make money from you. I guess the good news is: that means I’m going to have some more days of good writing!

- Bill

Working Vacation

So I'm in Vegas on vacation. Or shoukd I say "vacation", since yesterday I pounded out a bunch of spec synopsis for a CableNet producer. A couple I really like - and hope something happens with. One is kind of Antonioni's THE PASSENGER meets BOURNE IDENTITY - but with a female lead.

Today - same story, different CableNet. For the next 3 days it looks like that's what I will be doing. I'm actually doing more than originally pitched, because I've had some other ideas along the way. I live for cool ideas like "Planet To Go" - a terraform kit that you can drop on any planet, press a button, and it figures out how to take whatever's on the planet and turn it into an atmosphere that can sustain human life. I'm wrapping a story around that. I've got 9 other ideas like that that I'm fleshing out into stories with characters and plot twists and cliff hanger's for commercial breaks and all the other stuff that will hopefully turn this talk into a paying gig.

Meanwhile - I have not won money. I'm down and hope I can turn that around tonight.

- Bill

10 Secrets About Bill

I was tagged by jen and UNK and M. Arthur and...

The rules to the game -- once you have been tagged, you must write a blog with ten weird, random things, little known facts or habits about yourself. At the end choose at least 5 people to be tagged, list their names and why you picked them. Don't forget to leave a comment that says 'you've been tagged' and tell them to read your latest blog.

1) I know 57 ways to kill a man with my bare hands, but my enemies can rest easy because I always wear gloves.

2) I still work on a Commodore 64 with 5.25 inch floppy drive, but thanks to the latest laser printer, my work looks as good as someone who writes on some fancy, expensive computer.

3) For maximum efficiency, I always wear adult diapers. I am easily able to write for a couple of days before I have no choice but to change myself.

4) I worked my way through film school as a male stripper... mostly furniture.

5) The first movie that really touched me was Spielberg’s E.T.... and it touched me inappropriately.

6) I own 7 powder blue leisure suits... one for every day of the week.

7) I once wrestled a naked man in Reno... I was also naked - if you ever see me in person, ask me about this.

8) I never carry money, preferring to barter... I’ve done dishes in some of LA’s trendier restaurants... and my hands are still soft and delicate!

9) I was once bitten by a radioactive dung beetle... and now I have super powers that I can not discuss in public.

10) Just as a ship's captain can marry people at sea, I have married over a dozen couples who have taken a ride in the back seat of my Toyota Celica on the 405.

I think the problem is that everyone has already done this, so if you are one of the handful of people in the world who have yet to be tagged, please tag yourself.

- Bill

Whole Lotta Shakin Going On

EARTHQUAKE

No, not the cheesy 70s film with Chuckles Heston... we had an earthquake here at 12:58am (a 4.6 on the other side of the valley). Did it wake me up? No - I was still awake. It did remind me of the Northridge quake over a decade ago, that struck in the early morning when I was asleep - and trashed my old apartment building, not to mention knocked out water and power for a few days. We had to go to a public park to get water... and nobody in my neighborhood bathed for about a week. We were ripe. I was one of the lucky ones - I didn’t have a job in public. During the aftershocks of the quake I got a phone call from Ashok Amritraj that he was buying my script THE VICTIM'S WIFE. Thank God the water was fixed before I had to go to my first meeting! But that script sale started a domino run of sales that accounted for most of my produced material. Strange, because those sales were not all to the same company. That year I sold three scripts to three different companies... all in the same couple of months after the quake.

But this quake was just a little shaking - no buildings pancaked, nobody died.
No big change in my career.
Just another day in sunny Los Angeles.

THIS BLOG IS MURDER

You may have noticed some new blog links have popped up on the right (I finally got around to adding a group, and now I have a new group to add). One that you may not know about is The Homicide Report...

Los Angeles Times reporter Jill Leovy wondered who all of those people getting killed in the city were. One day they were a name in the paper, the next day they were old news. So she decided to devote a blog to the murder victims of Los Angeles. She lists their names and as much information as she can find, and often follows up with interviews and articles about the families with profiles of the victims.

There is no discrimination in her blog. It doesn’t matter whether the person killed was an innocent victim, a police officer, or a criminal. All of them have a story. All of them are died violently. All of them left behind friends and family. She tells their story. She turns crime stats into people.

You may cry when you read these stories. You may get angry. But you will come to know these people whose lives came to an abrupt end.

- Bill



IMPORTANT UPDATE:Yesterday’s Lunch: Nothing... and Del Taco chicken burrito for dinner.
DVDs GET CARTER - the original good version. I saw this ages ago on the big screen, probably at some revival house in Berkeley. Bought it on DVD... and I can't believe how much I've cribbed from this film. A toast from this film ends up a toast in one of mine. The idea of sudden and unexpected action is something I use. This film is both brutally violent and nostalgic. The idea of going home and hanging out with people who were childhood friends... and now may be your enemy... is just an amazing concept. And the film has twists that knock you off your feet. One that is so powerful... and Caine's acting is so amazing... that you gasp. At it's core, this film is *emotional* even though Caine usually holds his emotions in check. By the way, if you like the BOURNE movies, you should check this out. Very realistic, and Hodges does some interesting framing and composition.
Pages: Fell off the train on SLEEPER, wrote half a page yesterday... but I also wrote a 10 page article for Script Magazine, so it wasn't like I was doing nothing. Actually I did 5 pages on the article yesterday and 5 pages the day before. That's kind of the probem with maintaining that 5 pages a day now - I always seem to have a zillion other things to do. There's always a deadline for me to make.

Writing In Starbucks

IMPORTANT UPDATE:Yesterday’s Lunch: Some danged thing in Starbucks.
Movies: BOURNE ULTIMATUM... more on that later.
DVDs THE TIN STAR... more on that later.
Pages: 5 pages on SLEEPER! Made my quota. Some good stuff, made up jargon: "Snatch Point" - the best location to kidnap someone off the streets of a major city in broad daylight. When I Googled Snatch Point I discovered it was a soccer term.

Bourne Again Screenwriter

Today is my big day. The day my movie is opening. No, not a script I wrote... a script I wish I had written. I always tell people to write the kind of film you regularly pay to see - especially the type of film you can’t wait to see. For some of you reading this, that might have been SPIDER-MAN 3, I know I was interested in seeing it. For others it may have been PIRATES 3 or TRANSFORMERS or OCEANS 13 or KNOCKED UP or any of the other films that came out this summer. Every weekend at least one big film, and judging by the lines for THE SIMPSONS MOVIE many of you couldn’t wait to see it. I had to wait through most of the summer for my movie, BOURNE ULTIMATUM.

Now, the BOURNE movies aren’t perfect - no movie is. But they are my kind of movie, and I can easily overlook all of the problems in the first two films because for me, the good outweighs the bad. I love the gritty, realistic, *clever* action scenes. I love that the movies focus on character as well as amazing stunts. And I think Matt Damon is kind of the new Bruce Willis - a regular guy who you believe can kick ass. I needed to be convinced of that by the first film, because I though Damon was a pretty boy. He proved me wrong. I love action movies, but had no real expectations with the first BOURNE movie. Now, I hope this one lives up to the last two.

Often, the movies we can’t wait to see disappoint us. They either have too many flaws, and tip the balance far enough that we can’t really enjoy them... or they have built up our expectations to an impossible level - no way any film could be that good. In a way, movies are like love stories - as long as we end with a "happily ever after" title card then fade out, it’s the greatest love story ever told. It’s when we hang around for the arguments about leaving the cap off the toothpaste that we realize there’s no such thing as 100% happiness ever after.

So when your movie comes out, and you stand in line for an hour before seeing it - fantasizing about how great the movie is going to be - and it ends up disappointing you, don’t get angry and decide to write junk. Instead, write the kind of movie you wish it had been. Write the honeymoon, not the bitter divorce. Part of our job as screenwriters is to create that fantasy and desire and excited anticipation for the audience... then try to make sure our scripts do their best to fulfill those expectations.

I’m hoping this BOURNE movie will be the best of the three, but even if it’s not - right now I’m really excited about the film - enjoying it before I’ve seen it.

- Bill


IMPORTANT UPDATE:Yesterday’s Lunch: Some sort of multi-grain roll at Starbucks that looked like it exploded in the oven.
DVDs THUNDERBALL - gearing up for Bourne.
Pages: 3 more pages on SLEEPER! Sure, it's less than the 5 I'd planned on, but I'm making progress. Also wrote a line that I think people will quote after they come out of the cinema.