Breakfast with Sharks Read online

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  You can get professional coverage of your work for as little as $50. Simply call any literary agency like CAA, ICM, William Morris, UTA, Endeavor, etc. and tell that you are a producer looking for freelance readers. Ninety-five percent of all professional readers in Hollywood are freelance and competition for this work is fierce, so extra work is always welcome. Upon request, you will be given a list of names and contact info. Be sure to use a fictitious writer name and script title when submitting the project. Note that professional readers are known for their brutal honesty. However, should you receive glowing coverage, you can submit the coverage to the agency where the reader works and solicit their interest in the project which they have essentially already “covered.”

  It’s crucial to be honest with yourself about any professional criticism you do get from a producer on your script. Kind, polite words delivered like a verbal fortune cookie are not the same thing as detailed, specific comments or notes. Contrary to popular belief, most decision-makers are nonconfrontational. As a very general rule, people in Hollywood hate to be overly critical because they never know when their comments will come back to bite their backsides. Producer and former studio head Paul Lazarus III tells the story of granting a courtesy meeting to a bedraggled but earnestly passionate young man who had cobbled together a scruffy, unformatted story about a boxer. The man in question was Sylvester Stallone, and the script was an early version of Rocky. Years later, when Stallone was STALLONE, he reappeared, smiling, at Lazarus’s office. Paul’s kindness and not the rejection he had delivered was what was recalled. “Nicely written. Unfortunately this isn’t what we are looking for at the present time. Please keep us in mind for your next project.” This is a common response from a producer to a director’s reel or a writer’s script. Again, if a producer or exec “responds” to your work, they will be crystal clear about specific elements they liked.

  PRODUCERS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO STUDIOS

  At the top of the food chain are producers who function pretty much like studios: Joel Silver, Rob Reiner, Brian Grazer and Jerry Bruckheimer. These are producers with long-standing deals with a studio. Next, are producers who bring promising projects they discover to the studio for purchase, and these are jointly developed into a film. The producer will give input and sometimes have crucial relationships (with financing, talent, or a notable director) to offer, but final decisions are ultimately made by the studio.

  Producers can be freelance, i.e., in business for themselves, or they can have development deals or commitments with a studio. There are two major types of development deals with studios: exclusive and first look. Exclusive means that a production company or individual develops material exclusively for one studio; first look is an arrangement that either a production company or, in some cases, an individual producer has with a studio, in which they must allow the studio the first right of refusal on purchasing a project the individual or company is interested in. If the studio passes, the project can then be shopped around to other interested parties. A third studio group, independent producers, develops projects outside of the Hollywood system, usually for movies with budgets far less than anything made by the studio.

  Writers looking to sign on with a producer should be looking for the following elements:

  Access. This is the necessary momentum to get a script moving along the development process. A good producer must have access to the studios, in the form of ongoing projects or recently concluded projects. In addition to or in lieu of studio connections, a producer must have sources for financing or casting (i.e., a relationship with a coveted actor or casting agent), or a director willing to attach or join the producer’s prospective project.

  Enthusiasm. There are many bumps in the development road. You should seek out the producer who is bound and determined, burning with passion to see your project realized on the Big Screen. All producers pay lip service to this quality, but the knowledgeable writer can read between the lines. Did the producer offer at least $500 to $1,000 for the option, or were you given take-it-or-leave-it terms for a free option? Did the producer read your work within three weeks and contact you promptly to set up a meeting? A producer may have considerable clout, but if meetings don’t occur for months at a time, it’s hard for a project to gain any kind of traction. Finally, does the producer respond to your questions, comments, or suggestions? Succinct e-mail or phone messages from you that go unreturned are a strong indicator of where a producer’s priorities lie, and where your project stands on his or her development slate.

  Tales from the Producer’s Trench

  During preproduction and production of the upcoming film Hard Scrambled, which I co-produced, everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Problems ranged from last-minute scrambles for financing, locations becoming unavailable days before shooting, and actors having conflicting schedules. In one case, a star who wanted to appear in the movie was unavailable in Canada at the last minute because his movie production there was two weeks behind schedule. All battle-hardened producers know that these situations are more the norm than the exception.

  On the same film, final changes to the script’s third act needed to be made in a matter of days. However, writer/director David Hay was already well into rehearsal with actors, preparing his shot lists and shooting schedule with the director of photography, and approving last-minute art department details on the four major locations used for the film. We producers huddled through the night to give bullet-point suggestions for the necessary script revisions. We then ran interference for David while he was sequestered away on the rewrite during a very tense sixteen-hour schedule. It was a lot to ask of our writer/director. However, we rewarded him with a ninety-nine-seat theater just off Sunset Boulevard as his rehearsal space, instead of the usual office space or sound stage (David Hay comes from a theater background, and all actors, even movie stars, love the “feel” of a stage). We then made the space off limits to all of us producers. End result: Although exhausted and preoccupied, David bulled his way through the rewrite so that he could get back to the beloved theater where his actors were so comfortable that they stayed extra hours to nail down the changed pages of the script.

  A FINAL WORD

  If creatives like the writer and director guard the artistic integrity of the work, and studio execs, often referred to as “suits,” guard the budget and bottom line, then producers straddle the middle space, oscillating between the two camps. The producer is usually looking for ways to cut costs while fighting to give the director more time and money to make the best possible movie. Sometimes the producer is accused of favoring one side over the other, and has to do a spider’s dance to earn both camps’ trust. That’s because a director who doesn’t trust a producer can shut him or her out of the creative process. Remember that the project has already been green-lighted, so money is flowing. In this case, despite the studio’s apparent affinity with the producer who is leaning toward their camp, the studio will almost always side with the director. Changing directors is expensive and gives out the industry perception that the project is in trouble. For these reasons, it’s almost never done. Usually it’s the producer who gets canned if tensions impede production schedules. It’s just easier. If the studio smells out that a producer is too “tight” with a director, they will bypass that producer in favor of dealing directly with the director.

  Finally, tact, passion, and persuasiveness are hallmarks of the best producers. They must recognize the merit of your work, then put a logical battle plan in place. The best producers are often natural storytellers who beguile others into involvement by selling the merits of the project, all the while exhorting you to do your best work in the rewrites. And like the very best salesmen, they don’t take no for an answer, which is where their reputation as sharks comes from. They turn negatives into positives (“Less money for the production? That means we can beef some of those character-driven scenes I love so much in the second act!”). The
best producers are always looking for ways to squeeze every dollar and get it onto the screen, all the while protecting the “vision” that drew everyone to the project in the first place. Like a championship-winning coach, these producers push their team past their endurance to create something that may be beyond any single individual’s ability.

  11

  SECTION 326: DIRECTORS

  Who Are Directors?

  The Relationship Between Directors and Writers

  Dealing with Director’s Notes

  EXTRA CREDIT READING:

  I think too many screenwriters try to be commercial as opposed to being accessible. Find that material which speaks to you and has a certain truth. Forget about whether it’s commercial. “Dracula” took me fifteen years. “Hook” took me ten years.

  —JIM HART (HOOK, BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA, MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN)

  WHO ARE DIRECTORS?

  A movie script is essentially a two-dimensional chess game without players. You have the flat board, which is the plot structure, and then the chess pieces, which are the words that form characters, dialogue, and themes. A lot of people refer to screenplays as blueprints, with directors as the architects. Most writers find this model constricting, not to mention inaccurate, but that doesn’t seem to stop Hollywood auteurs from talking about the Pygmalion-like process of “shaping the material.” Since the mid-fifties, film has been a director’s medium. Why? To truly understand just how pivotal the role of the director is, it’s important to consider the flow of power that accompanies a script’s journey to the screen.

  A writer controls a script until the day he or she submits it to the producer. The producer will give a writer notes for changes to be made until such time as the producer deems the project ready for studio executives. In turn, the studio will give more notes in the quest to attract a suitable director. When the studio sends out the word that a project has reached a certain level of development (i.e., when CEs and VPs deem that it feels like more of a movie and less of simply a good concept), various directors are then brought in to offer their take on the project. The take is a director’s vision of how the movie might look and feel. They may also discuss various aspects of the story, such as characters and dialogue that work particularly well or may require more attention. Producers may have input concerning choice of a director, but it is the studio that has ultimate power. In fact, a studio will sometimes hire a director over the producer’s objections.

  When a director does comes on board, the flow of power and direction of the movie flows to him or, less often, her.

  Flow of Power in the Life of a Film

  Sometimes a movie star of sufficient stature may vie for control of the project. Such a battle can be highly contentious, with the project often losing valuable heat shields along the way that protect it through the development process. Several years ago, John Travolta clashed with auteur-director Roman Polanski on the set of The Double. Production screeched to a halt, lawsuits were threatened, and when the studio couldn’t resolve the situation, despite having already spent millions of dollars, the project was abandoned.

  Good directors inspire confidence. They command not only the actors and raw equipment of filmmaking, but also the entire vision of the project. Good directors have gone to acting classes and have tried their hands at writing scripts. In other words, they understand creative processes other than their own, and recognize the fluid and collaborative nature of production. Good directors understand that large egos are sometimes part of the process, but they never allow personality issues to derail completion of the project. Sometimes such give-and-take gets the most out of the writer/director development process. Finally, good directors use the producer as a buffer between the movie they are making and the studio, which is often more concerned about the cost than the result. Successful check-mate of the movie comes when the director or “king” uses all the pieces in an orchestrated fashion.

  THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DIRECTORS AND WRITERS

  To be sure, short of a finished film, working with a director is the most valuable experience of all for a screenwriter. The process doesn’t get any more real until you yourself become a director. In the best of all possible worlds, you will add important elements to your writing through working with a director. For example, most writers will come into a scene in linear fashion, that is, master shot, followed by inserts. Meanwhile, directors are unencumbered by the process of making words into images. Instead they search for visual metaphors to lock the scene in place. Say you write a scene involving a fire, as I did on a Miramax Studios project titled The Hellseeker. My scene was written in master shot to convey the main action. However, the director saw an exploding furnace reflecting off the hero flame-jumper’s visor. He then spun the camera to the shell-shocked man next to the hero. Suddenly the scene, which was initially pro forma, jumped with immediacy and style. Often the director will reveal to the writer how he intends to get that magical shot. While you don’t want to go overboard and start directing your own script as you write it, by adding just a touch of such elements, a scene can really feel “in the moment,” while enhancing the overall point of view.

  If you’re dealing with a director, then your project is already pretty far along the development track. Depending on circumstances, your focus on the script will shift from striving to “get it right” to the pressure not to “screw it up.” First-time meetings with a director, usually taking place in a producer or studio exec’s office or conference room, are crucial in that regard. You should be enthusiastic, even though advance word coming from your agent may make you feel otherwise, as in, “I heard from the studio that Director X thinks the whole second act needs to be rethought, along with the love story.” Suddenly, four months of your work may be up for grabs, but you must still arrive open-minded, ready to generate the necessary energy to get everybody excited about the project, and to warrant your continued involvement.

  Five Keys to Working Successfully with a Director

  1. Show mutual respect. Appreciate what strengths the director brings to the project.

  2. Demonstrate informed understanding of the director’s visual priorities.

  3. Be a good listener.

  4. Be as detached as possible from your work, and thus open to new ideas.

  5. Express enthusiasm. Look for ways to end every conversation or meeting on a high note.

  A director who is good at development uses the writer and the development process to clarify the story. A bad director is like a barber armed with a blowtorch and a Weedwacker pillaging scene after scene. Early on, expect a full read of your script using professional actors. If one isn’t offered, ask for it. The reason for the full read has to do with notes, which can be delineated as either arbitrary or constructive. Arbitrary notes come from the “perfect movie” floating around in the director’s mind’s eye. Such notes from the director will have little to do with the movie you’ve actually written, but a full read might stop a director from trying to superimpose one over the other. You want the director to be aware of what the script is before he begins to strip it for parts to build his own vision.

  DEALING WITH DIRECTOR’S NOTES

  Development with directors inevitably results in notes. That’s normal, but when addressing any rewrite, the physician’s ancient injunction, “First do no harm,” always applies. Unfortunately, our craft has developed in inverse proportion to development notes and the development process. The closer you get to production, the more the notes. While you and the director must be on the same page about the theme of the script and the spine of the story, all else is negotiable. During story meetings, where you hear many ideas kicked around, use this simple guideline: Do these suggestions clarify the story line and increase the emotional resonance of the characters? If not, then they’re outside of the box, and it’s your unspoken job to get back into the structure already laid out in the script.

  Good directors respect impassioned and informed arguments from writers
on the major issues of the script. But usually they react to challenges on little disagreements with the W.C. Fields edict, “Get away, kid, you bother me!” In general, don’t count on the studio for help, since it will side with the director approximately 85 percent of the time. The studio or producers can end any disagreement simply by saying something like “The director writes,” or “The director has a writer he’s comfortable with.” This nuclear-winter scenario means that if you don’t pony up with the desired changes, the director can send you to the showers at any second. Someone else will come in for the pass while your seat is still warm. So choose your battles carefully. Most of the little ones aren’t worth fighting. If you don’t feel comfortable with your writer-director relationship but want to keep the gig, sometimes the best strategy for dealing with arbitrary comments is simply to ignore them. Smile, say something like, “That’s an excellent idea. I’m going to address it ASAP.” Satisfied, everyone in the room will move on. Nine times out of ten they will go away between the time the note is taken and when it is executed. If you’re cornered during a story meeting with a director note like, “So what do you think about the native girl befriending a telepathic monkey?” simply look out of the window or off into the distance and imagine whooping cranes taking flight in the Himalayas. “Yes . . . yes!”you should respond brightly. “Exactly!” Weeks later, if pressed on the matter, you can mumble something about the monkey interfering with the big love scene, and you will be let off the hook. Of course, I’m kidding here, but you get the point.

  While engaged in the rewrite, expect to be put through more paces and positions than the Kama Sutra. Again, this is what is called Development Hell. During heated debates, you may feel the overwhelming desire to blurt out, “I’m not a stenographer!” Stifle it. Such an unburdening will only invite others to sit around waiting for you to exit the project. Copping an attitude works fine for auteurs and stars, but will only hasten a writer’s return to sandwich making at Blimpie’s.