Death Race

This from Variety.com:

Charles B. Griffith, known for melding black humor in his screenplays for Roger Corman including “Little Shop of Horrors,” died Sept. 28 in San Diego. He was 77.

Griffith, to whom Quentin Tarantino dedicated his recent film “Death Proof,” also wrote exploitation classics including “Death Race 2000,” directed by Paul Bartel“Eat My Dust,” starring Ron Howard, which Griffith also directed. and

“Little Shop of Horrors” later became a musical by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, which was then made into a feature directed by Frank Oz.

Griffith’s grandmother Myrtle Vail was a vaudevillian who created one of radio’s earliest soap operas, “Myrt & Marge.” Born in Chicago, he came to Hollywood to help Vail break into television. After an actor friend introduced him to Corman, he received his first feature writing credit on Corman’s “It Conquered the World.”

He went on to write screenplays for sci-fi, girlie and action pics including “Gunslinger,” “Naked Paradise,” “Attack of the Crab Monsters,” “Bucket of Blood,”“Forbidden Island” and “Beast from Haunted Cave,” directed by Monte Hellman. “Teenage Doll,” “Rock All Night,”

Griffith played a centrol role in 1960s and ’70s film and pop culture — his motorcycle pics “The Wild Angels,” starring Peter Fonda, and “The Devil’s Angels,” with John Cassavetes, served as forerunners to “Easy Rider,” and his original script for psychedelic fable “The Trip” was rejected by Corman rejected for glorifying drugs, leaving Jack Nicholson to write the final version. He also contributed uncredited scenes to Roger Vadim‘s “Barbarella.”

Griffith retired in the 1980s to write books, travel and cook.

He is survived by his wife Marmory, a daughter and four grandchildren.

REWRITERS IN HELL

Here is a very abbreviated version of a question by Rick from Scottsdale:

When you (or anyone) are hired to rewrite a script, is it industry practice to mimic the voice of the previous writer(s)?

In his full question, Rick explains that he was hired by a writer/producer to rewrite two of her scripts. Despite explaining to her what he would be doing to the scripts, at the end of the process, she was incredibly unhappy that he changed her tone and feel. (His full original question is set out below.)

Well, Rick, you got screwed. You had the worst of all possible worlds, being hired to rewrite the work of your employer. How could you possibly have passed that test? All writers know, we hate being rewritten.

To answer your question, there is no standard. In studio circles, writers are ordinarily hired to rewrite based upon their existing work, so the employer knows somewhat what kind of voice they can expect on the rewrite. However, that in no way guarantees the employer will be happy. Development executives really don’t know what they want until they see it. They give notes, but their notes are just a guess about what will work. As every writer also knows, outlines are just outlines and notes are just notes. Something happens in the process of execution that is different from notes and outlines. If you slavishly follow the executives’ notes, you are no more likely to satisfy them than if you simply nod nicely while they give you the notes, then write whatever you think will work.

At the end of the day, you listen diligently, work hard to understand the executive’s point of view, consider the rewrite work you intend to do carefully in light of the employer’s goals for the piece, then execute in whatever manner you think will turn out the best story for the intended audience. Your own ultimate judgment is your best guide.

By the way, congratulations on being hired for rewrite work. That is the meat and potatoes of the motion picture screenplay industry.

For more on rewriting, you may want to check out the Artful Writer.

Enough. Now go rewrite….
Continue reading “REWRITERS IN HELL”

THE WAITING PLACE

Carolyn from Los Angeles asks:

I submitted a revision 12 days ago, with agent’s permission. What is a reasonable time to follow through?

There is no standard time, but a couple of weeks is usually not unreasonable for a follow up call. I have had revisions considered immediately, i.e. I got a call back hours after submitting them, and I have had revisions languish for months, which is an unmistakable signal that there was no real interest in the first place and my work revising the material was a waste of effort. I recommend that you ask your agent what he or she thinks.

Also, if your agent submitted the material and you do not personally have a working relationship with the producer, make the agent do the follow up. If you do follow up directly and your revised version has not been covered yet, ask the producer (or whoever you submitted it to) when you should follow up next. Always be professional and courteous in your communications, but do not hesitate to ask when you should follow up again.

READING ABOUT WRITING

Seeing into the minds of actively working successful screenwriters is often insightful. Two such screenwriters currently have books out in which they discuss their theory and process of screenwriting.

Blake Snyder, whose credits include “Blank Check” and “Stop or My Mom Will Shoot”, is still actively writing and selling specs to Hollywood. His book, Save The Cat: The Last Book On Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need, is a breezy, feel-good how-to-write-scripts-any-studio-executive-must-buy book. At 195 pages, it is a quick and painless read. And it has a few good ideas. Anyone who actually regularly sells scripts to Hollywood must have a few of them. His forte is conceptualizing the story through title and log lines, the so-called “high concept” theory. He distinguishes the principal with complete clarity and leaves the reader feeling he or she can also come up with these crisp, saleable ideas, and thereby have a writing career. He then breezes us through his story theory, from his ideas on structure to building dramatic tension to resolution. This material is less convincing, in part because he could easily have spent three times the pages discussing it – he barely touches on most areas – and in part because his theory feels as if it has enormous holes in it. If you match it up to your most respected mainstream box-office successes, you may feel it just does not hold up. On the other hand, if you look at Snyder’ body of work, his forte is definitely clean, crisp conceptualizations, not depth. Based upon his strong explanations about how he achieves this clarity, the book is worth adding to your arsenal. However, it should be but one of many arrows in your quiver – and not “The Last Book On Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need.” (He also has companion software, discussed below.)

Writing Drama: a comprehensive guide for playwrights and scriptwriters comes from European television and motion picture screenwriter Yves Lavandier. His book (translated nicely from French to English by Bernard Besserglik) is, in a sense, the antidote for Snyder’s. It is thoughtful and detailed, rethinking traditional Aristotelean story theory in modern terms, fully updated with loads of contemporary examples from both American and European cinema. Most Americans will be unfamiliar with some of the foreign examples, but the concepts are sufficiently laid out that this should not be a hindrance. Lavandier covers all of the key areas of story theory – including act structure, dramatic irony (a key element missing from the work of many beginning writers), how to build proper obstacles, characterization, dialogue and more. It is a complete course in writing. His ideas on the purpose and uses of the third act differ somewhat from most American theorists and the book does have a broader perspective on film that the strictly Hollywood point-of-view, but different perspectives are important and the basis for doing what you must ultimately do, namely painstakingly develop your own clear and effective story theory, something that happens only with experience and a strong drive to perfect your craft. Lavandier’s work is a fine addition to your writer’s library and a terrific tool towards developing your own craft. The book can be hard to come by in the United States, but can be ordered from the publishers, Le Clown & l’enfant, who were kind enough to send me a review copy.

As mentioned above, Blake Snyder has companion Save The Cat story development software, which includes templates to force you to conceive a title and logline, the “Blake Snyder Beat Sheet” which includes a series of preliminary beats he believes every story must have, and a story board where you fill in the rest of the beats and play around with your story. I spent several days conceiving a story using his software just to get a feel for it. I enjoyed the exercise and might press it further. If you have sixty bucks to spare and enjoy computer toys (as I do), it’s worth playing with. If you’re a starving writer, buy index cards instead.

Enough. Now go write….

R.I.P. THINKING WRITER?

Jeff from Austin asks:

Is this blog dead? I hope not.

No way. Just on “hiatus.” This has been a very, very busy year for the Thinking Writer. I plan to return to blogging shortly with a review of two books and software. Until then, my apologies to everyone for the lengthy absence. If you sign up for the RSS feed, you will get notified automatically when the next column is posted.

KURT VONNEGUT (1922-2007)

In his book Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction, Kurt Vonnegut offered the following advice on writing:

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things — reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them — in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

Goodbye, Mr. Vonnegut….

THE LAWYER THING

R.D. from Texas asks:

A producer told me (at the Austin Film Festival) that if I can’t get an agent, I should get a lawyer, so I won’t be an unsolicited writer. I have found some verification for this, but I’m not exactly sure how it works.

Do I still represent myself, or does the lawyer do it?

What are some guidelines for narrowing down the very long list of attorneys?

All of my work has placed in contests, and I have done a lot of work on it since then. I would like to approach producers without the routine snub (assuming that loglines, synopses, etc. are up to high standards).

So how does the “lawyer” thing work? — Thanks!

There are a number of myths floated by Hollywood insiders in order to stem the overwhelming deluge of unqualified (i.e. crappy) scripts. One is that producers do not accept unsolicited scripts because they fear potential liability. The other is that producers do accept unsolicited scripts from lawyers. The truth is, liability has nothing to do with it and producers do not accept unsolicited material from lawyers any more than from anyone else. Most producers only accept material based upon some indicia that considering it is worth there time.

Here’s how lawyers sometimes fit in. There are some lawyers in the entertainment field who build contacts and reputation just the way agents do. These lawyers can send scripts to companies because the companies know they will not ordinarily send crap. Even they do not send the material unsolicited. Rather, they attorney picks up the telephone and make a call to a development executive he or she knows. The attorney discusses your material and, if requested, sends it over. This is no different than what an agent does. Like an agent, this kind of submission is based upon personal relationships. By virtue of the attorney’s reputation, he or she has contacts in the industry. The trick for the writer is finding one of these lawyers as opposed to the many lawyers who are willing to “submit” your script, but still never get it read. Just having any attorney send an unsolicited script is essentially no more likely to get it read than sending it in yourself.

Because you have won some contests, some attorneys who do submit material may be willing to speak with you. Some of them tend to be a little more accessible than most agents. You will need to query them just as you would an agent. Or, better yet, get a referral. If you have the email of the producer you met in Austin, ask him for the names of some lawyers you should speak to. See if he will actually refer you. (It is much easier for a producer to refer a writer than to actually read a script.) Even if he will not, when you approach the lawyer, use the producer’s name as the basis for your contact.

Here’s where to be careful: you should not pay a lawyer to send in your script any more than you should pay an agent. Lawyers that actually do submit scripts charge in the same way agents do – that is, only if the script sells. The going rate is the same as an agent’s rate – 10%, although some attorneys charge more because they are acting as agent and lawyer for the writer. You should be careful to select a lawyer in the same way you would be careful to select an agent. (Producers do not accept scripts from unknown agents, either.)

The only exception to all of the above is in the occasional circumstance where a producer actually requests your material. The “liability” myth is so often repeated that even some producers believe it and, even when they agree to see your material (which happens because of some other connection – a recommendation from a film professor, a mutual acquaintance, a chance meeting at a film festival, etc.), they want a lawyer to submit it if you don’t have an agent. In that occasional circumstance, you can have any attorney that regularly represents writers send it in, even if the attorney is not known for submitting material.

Enough. Now go write….