Winning the Lottery

The likelihood of someone selling a screenplay has been compared to winning the lottery. In Los Angeles though, the odds are a little bit better and I met two winners a few night ago.

On Tuesday I went to Cinespace for a screening of a short film my girlfriend produced. Cinespace is a spot in Hollywood that is a combination screening room/restaurant/bar/etc. etc.. If you’re under aged it’s the spot to hit up because you can get in without showing ID by just nodding at them whenever they ask if you’re there for whatever event is happening that night. That doesn’t really help me out now, but whatever.

Anyway it turned out to be a solid night even though I wasn’t really in the mood to go to begin with. I’d seen the short about 100 times already in about 50 different cuts, and on top of that I just didn’t really feel like being social. I had to go so I mustered up the energy and decided to make it work.

The turnout was pretty solid although it was filled with a lot of USC film school kids. I ran into this writer I know through one of my friends that’s an exec at a production company. I’m usually horrible with names when it comes to meeting Hollywood types, but I can’t be that way anymore. This time though he came up to my girlfriend and I and I actually remembered his name so I didn’t have to bust out with the tried and true “hey man”, or “what’s up dude” that must be utilized when I forget someone’s name.

It turns out that this guy is doing pretty well for himself. One of his screenplays just got optioned and another one is being packaged with some heavy hitters. He was very modest about it though and might not have even brought it up if we hadn’t asked him about his writing. He and I pretty much talked most of the night and he introduced me to another one of his friends. This dude had a screenplay that was bought by one of the Disney companies and we basically just talked about random shit, which always seemed to connect back to movies. Now at first I was a little intimidated, but after awhile I realized that I could hang in discussion with film nerds. I often forget that my cinema knowledge is actually pretty impressive and whenever they referenced something I had seen it and could chime in with something. It was also the first time I had mentioned that I was doing the writing thing to anyone other than my girlfriend so that was weird. I always fear coming off like a poser, but it didn’t feel that way at all. I think I needed to get over that hurdle and from now on it won’t be a problem. He and I made plans to visit the set of a big movie my girlfriend is working on. I won’t mention what it is, but it’s last installment sucked and people will be surprised another one is being made.

The rest of the night was cool too. Red Stripe was handing out free beers, and since I’m a huge Red Stripe fan I took full advantage. I also snagged two free Zippo lighters that Marlboro was handing out. I love free shit and these can possible be used as gifts if needed. So I got about 4 free beers, 2 free Zippos, I found street parking and avoided being raped by the valet, and had a cool conversation with a couple of writers. Not a bad night.