ScriptFaze

Setting Priorities

ScriptFaze returns!

After a month in exile, I am finally able to return to ScriptFaze full-force! Sometimes, you gotta practice what you preach, and for the last month I’ve had to focus on a few writing gigs that unfortunately bumped ScriptFaze to the bottom of my priority list. But no longer!

Establishing priorities—and knowing when to step away from projects that aren’t—is an essentially skill for screenwriters. Sure—if you’ve just sold a pitch to Paramount and are now on a fixed schedule for delivery of script drafts, your priority is pretty obvious. Get the drafts in on time and don’t screw it up! But what about those times when you’re freelancing? Or balancing non-film work with your writing, and can only focus on one or two creative projects at a time? How do you set priorities when life GETS BUSY?

Certainly, learning how to use your time efficiently is a first step, and getting yourself on a fixed writing schedule will help you do that. But if you’re like me, and have 6-10 projects happening at any one time, it’s important to ask yourself a few specific questions, and gauge your answers to these questions in deciding which projects need to happen RIGHT NOW and which can wait a few weeks.

Here are the questions I ask myself when choosing which projects to focus on FIRST:


1) How Broke Am I?   This is the essential question. If money is no object in your life, and/or you're pulling in plenty of dough working a non-screenwriting job, then you are in the driver's seat on the development of your writing career. Honestly, if you don’t NEED to worry about selling a script in the near future—DON’T. Skip to the other questions on this list, and use THEM to decide what project to delve into first. If you ARE worried about money, then ask yourself—which of my projects am I most likely to be paid for in the NEAR FUTURE? If you’re close to completion or have a deadline (that can mean two different things), then put away that outline for the epic animated cat movie you’ve always wanted to write, and complete the near-sale FIRST.
 

2) Which Project(s) Most Define the Type of Writer I Want to Be? This is the question all writers should ask themselves every day. If you’re in a position where your decisions don’t need to be driven by your personal finances, don’t let them be! Shelf that big commercial idea that you just KNOW would make the next great Rob Reiner movie, and write the project that most speaks to your tastes and interests as a writer. If you reach any degree of success in the industry, there will come a point when people want to see a script that DEFINES you as a writer. This will be your opportunity to point your career in the direction that YOU want it to go, and you should be prepared for this moment. Also—you’d be surprised how often the un-commercial, totally idiosyncratic idea that you’re SURE no one would ever want to read becomes the script that EVERYONE wants to read. If possible, this should be the project at the top of your priority list.
 

3) Which Projects Will Take the Most Amount of Time to Finish? Writers are creative people brimming with good ideas, and sometimes you will have SEVERAL projects that fulfill the criteria of Question #2. In that case, you need to focus on which projects should be dropped to the BOTTOM of your priority list. To do this, you’ll need to ask yourself which projects currently on your slate will take the MOST amount of time to complete in relation to the potential for FORWARD MOVEMENT each of these projects might provide. You may have a great George Washington thriller up your sleeve, but let’s face it—a period piece about America’s first president is not going to be the easiest script to sell, and on top of that it may takes MANY MONTHS to research and get right. If you run this project through an old-fashioned ECON 101 cost/benefit analysis, it may become clear that despite the potential, George probably belongs on the bottom of your priority list.

 
Your list is done! Honestly—it’s as simple as that. There may be other questions you ask yourself when defining your writing priorities, but I have found that MOST of the important questions fall under the three umbrella questions above.


First—the money: What do I NEED to write?

Then—the passion: What do I WANT to write?

Then—the reality: What makes the LEAST SENSE for me to write?

Follow these steps to organize your time and set goals, and you’ll get a lot more done in a lot less time!

Choose... But Choose Wisely

One of the most important decisions screenwriters must make is WHICH PROJECT TO WRITE. Great characters and great dialogue can overcome most any obstacle -- but not a broken concept. New writers in particular often get excited about a great scene, or a great hero, then charge ahead into a story only to find themselves at a figurative dead-end. Experienced writers too make the mistake of thinking they can "write their way out" of story trouble-spots, but choosing a weak, faulty or woefully cliché concept is a problem much better fixed UP FRONT, before the first word of a new screenplay is written.

Picking the "right" concept for your next script is never easy -- it's a constantly moving target, and one that will require some serious soul-searching and a little research. The most important rule of thumb is NOT to go with the very first idea you have. It may be great. It may even be the best idea anyone has ever thought up for a script. Even then, you should WRITE IT DOWN on a list and tuck it away for a few days until you can review it with some perspective (see the post: Midnight Genius). Use these days in waiting to BRAINSTORM other ideas, and see what else spills out of you. Some ideas will suck, and some will be damn good. Other ideas might STRENGTHEN your original concept, or change it into something else entirely. That's OK-this up-front work is worth the effort, and will save you WEEKS of agony down the road when you have to start dealing with the shortfalls of your initial outline. While brainstorming, let the DAM FALL--challenge yourself to think up the WORST film you've ever heard, or to outline a storyline in a NEW GENRE, or area of difficulty for you. Brainstorming is a wonderful exercise, and a hugely important step in crafting a compelling script.

Once you've narrowed your list of likely ideas down to just a couple, consider each one carefully. You may have thought up a whole new twist on Indiana Jones-but is this really a script you want to spend the next two months or two years focusing on? This is important. In the past, I've thought up and even beat-sheeted projects for scripts that I know others would love to read-action films with exciting twists and marketable characters. But in the end, I had to ask myself: Is this really something I will ENJOY writing? Or am I drawn to this idea simply because it has commercial appeal? Sell-ability can be a consideration, but must never be the main consideration in choosing your next project. The story must ignite your passion, or else you risk losing your momentum for the project early-on. Yes --writing is fun, but it's also A LOT OF WORK. Never embark upon a project that doesn't tickle you deep down, or you'll waste time, and ultimately end up with an un-finished or uninspired screenplay.

After picking a story that EXCITES you, you need to ask yourself a few questions: First, is this a screenplay concept with enough inherent conflict to support a feature script? If not, go back to the brainstorming session. If the answer is yes, ask yourself: Is this also a project in which my main character will be allowed to substantially CHANGE? A changing hero is the backbone of any good movie, and you don't want to start into a script with a main-character that is stuck in one place. Third: Is this a concept that will work ON-SCREEN? Many times, new writers will get excited about a story that is better suited to novel or short-story writing. Close your eyes and try to VISUALIZE your movie. What do you think? Will it work as a film, or should you save this particular idea for next Spring's New Yorker submission? Finally (and perhaps most annoyingly), you need to ask yourself: Is this a concept that is right for the times?

Picking a project that is right for the times may seem counter to the "go with your gut" model for choosing your next screenplay, but filmmaking is a BUSINESS, and you don't want to spend months of your life working on a script that will NEVER GET MADE. To decide if your project is right for the times, start by asking yourself: Does this feel like a project that could play in theatres THIS YEAR and attract a modern audience. A modern-day Casablanca may sound pretty cool, but I'm not so sure that a 2008 audience will have attention span for a expatriote World War II club-owner that they did in 1942. You may need to UPDATE your concept, or cast it aside altogether if it is wholly mismatched to the contemporary market.

If you feel your concept is indeed right for the times, you now need to do a little RESEARCH. Get on IMDB, wikipedia, or other film databases, and double check that: a) a film with your EXACT concept has not been made within the last three years, and b) a film with a SIMILAR concept has not been released to the public that LOST a substantial amount of money. Surprising, step-B here is more important. Remakes are making up a greater and greater share of release schedules these days, but NO ONE wants to make a movie that reminds viewers of a recent flop. It doesn't matter if your script about a firey-skeleton biker is the freshest, coolest twist on this concept anyone has ever read-they already made Ghost Rider, and it was a disaster. Any forays into similar subject-matter will not be read, and passing out a script with obvious parallels to a box office wipe-out will make you appear amateurishly out of step with industry trends.

So, there you are -- go forth and conquer, but be sure to start your screenplay off on the right foundation. A poorly thought-out, weak or generic concept cannot be overwhelmed by good writing-it will always be there, lurking below your well-shaped characters and witty dialogue. Spend some extra time BEFORE YOU START, and you'll not only wrap up your next script sooner, but the process itself will be a far more joyful ride...

Write What You DON'T Know

The rule of thumb for beginning screenwriters has become a cliché:

WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW.

And in a lot of important ways, this phrase makes sense. If you’re just digging into your first or second screenplay, you may not want to take on a story about Pakistani teens rebelling against their orthodox culture if you’re an Irish Catholic living in Orange County. Writing what you’re familiar with makes drafting characters and filling in the details of their world a much easier task. And there are some amazing examples of people who wrote what they knew, and TOTALLY hit it out of the ballpark. Just look at David Simon’s super-awesome TV series The Wire, or Woody Allen’s Manhattan, and you’ll see the potential of the “write what you know” theory.

But let’s face it—if everyone only wrote exactly what they knew and nothing else, we’d have a whole helluva lot of movies and TV shows about mid-30s struggling writers from Los Angeles. Yuck. NOBODY wants to see THAT movie.

“Write what you know” is a misleading statement, and should really be rearranged to read: “find what you know in what you write.” Seriously—THAT’S the trick, folks. Every year, great movies are released on subjects ranging from world wars, to dead historical figures and alien invasions. And come on—who really KNOWS about the emotional capacity of extra terrestrials? Or what it felt like to be John Addams?

NOBODY.

What the writers of these films are able to do, however, is to delve into unfamiliar territory, but to fill the worlds they create with events, characters and situations that they DO know, and CAN write for. You may not know what it felt like to be Napolean, but many of us know what it’s like to be short—and understand some of the feelings of inadequacy that may be inspired by this physicality. You may not know what it was like to be a soldier in the civil war, but many writers can certainly identify with the feelings of isolation and stress that may arise in this situation, and can then SHAPE their script to focus on these areas of familiarity.

By focusing on people or experiences with SIMILARITIES to people or experiences in your own life, you’ll be surprised by how quickly you’re able to move into unchartered waters, and to undertake screenplays about things YOU DO NOT KNOW.

Well. That… Plus a WHOLE LOTTA RESEARCH.

Yes, I lied.

Focusing on the familiar will open doorways into foreign worlds, but to REALLY sell it, you’re also gonna need to hit the books.

Seriously. Get on Amazon, go to your library, or shack up with gramma for a couple weeks… Whatever your methodology, collecting and digesting source material on the time period, circumstances, and people you are writing about is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL.

A few months ago, I started researching a new script that takes place in Afghanistan during the 1980s. This was a script I dreamt up a year ago, but shelved for fear of how difficult the research process would be. And I was totally right. It WAS difficult. Especially during the first couple of weeks, I felt totally overwhelmed by everything I didn’t know. But I gotta say—after a full month of reading, re-reading, watching documentaries on the region, and tracking down a couple of Afghanis who lived through it, my script now feels totally doable.

Of course—I’ve also drafted an outline for this script that includes a double-crossing love affair, characters with parental insecurities, and a healthy fear of the U.S. government—all things with which I’m somewhat familiar in my own life. And it’s this balance—between finding what I know in what I write and learning as much as possible about an unknown world—that is allowing me to write about a place and a culture to which I am a born outsider.

So, there you have it. Don’t be afraid to expand beyond the realm of what you know. But be smart about it—utilize details from your life, and do your homework—and in no time at all, you’ll be wrapping up the next great galaxy-hopping pre-teen alien adventure movie!

(Wait—was there a first one?)

(Oh, yes... Who could forget Explorers?!)

Politics in Screenwriting

Politics are on the brain. With eight days to go before the presidential election, I’ve been thinking a lot about the role of politics in screenwriting. And I don’t mean the “politics of Hollywood,” or the politics of getting ahead... I mean real donkey-and-elephant-type, flag-pin and Roe-v-Wade politics. With the whole world assuming that Hollywood is a bastion of radical left wing thought, and more-and-more Iraq war and generally political films on the horizon, I thought I’d take a minute to ask:

 

To what degree should politics play a part in your next script?

 

If you ask an agent that question, their answer will probably be NONE. As a general rule of thumb, the more political a film is, the more narrow the project’s audience will be, and this equation does not bode well for maximum box office success--or the likelihood that your script will sell in the first place.

And yet, more and more production companies are popping up with expressly political goals, including Participant Media, Groundswell Production, and George Clooney’s Smoke House shingle. Many of these companies have first-look deals with major studios, and have been very successful in bringing politically-conscious fare to mainstream media outlets and venues. So does that mean screenwriters should eschew the mass-market model, and start in on their next great political drama or thriller?

Maybe. When you dig a little deeper, it turns out that MOST of the political films made in the last ten years have been adapted from books—and that’s something you might want to take into account. Because political films will generally have a more narrow audience, producers are more comfortable banking on a “franchise” film—one that is based on a pre-existing book, video-game, or older film—that already has built-in name recognition and/or an adoring audience. This takes some of the risk out of producing an inherently risky picture, since producers can count on a higher likelihood of financial return.

But that doesn’t mean you need to write a novel and wait for it to hit the NY Times bestseller list before turning your project into a screenplay. In same cases, films that go REALLY far in either political direction are so made-to-fit for a particular audience, that they do surprisingly well at the box office. Think of Michael Moore’s films, or The Passion of the Christ, for instance (although one could argue The Passion was the biggest franchise film ever made).

On top of that, I also think we’re living in a time period in which politics has once again become, well… Sexy. We are living in “serious times,” as the pundits like to say, and this seriousness lends itself toward a new interest in screenplays which effectively take-on the political issues of our day, whether in heart-pounding thrillers (Traitor) or comedies (W).

As far as whether politics SHOULD affect one’s screenwriting, that’s a question on which their will always be disagreement. Historically, American films have tended to be rather non-political, especially when compared with their European or Eastern-European counterparts.

Personally, though, I say go for it. The bottom line for all screenwriters in picking a project is to choose a subject and storyline that FASCINATES and EXCITES you. If you pick a project based on its relative chances at commercial success, you’ll probably end up hating your script, and may very well fall short before ever reaping the benefits of that commerciality. Choose a project you LOVE—and if it happens to be political, embrace it. As a general rule, screenwriters tend to be more successful when they are writing from their heart, and focusing on projects that continually ignite their own passions.

So—the bottom line here, I’d say, is that if you haven’t any interest in writing political scripts, there is really no advantage in heading down that path—they’re probably still a bit harder to sell and to get made. But if you DO want to write political movies, there’s a silver lining here as well—the time is ripe for them, and more and more production companies are looking for those politically conscious stories.

The last thing I’d add is that if you do choose to write a political script, pick a topic that will still be relevant 2-4 years from now. In the best-case scenario, your script will be bought six months from now, hit a final draft a year from now, wrap production in a year and a half, and hit theatres six months after that. THAT’S TWO YEARS AWAY--MINIMUM. So don’t write a script on the inherent injustice in California’s Prop 8, or the travails of a bungling president from Texas… Political scripts must be timely—so choose a theme that will still be in the headlines two or more years from now.