The Man Next To The Man

I haven’t mentioned this before but I’m involved in an animation project that is being pitched to a few high profile music artists. You may ask how I even got involved in something like this seeing as how I’m a rookie writer without a track record. It’s who you know and how much of a hustler you can be. I was able to get into the mix and after it was all said and done a huge chunk of the project has my fingerprints all over it. Here’s how it all went down.

My friend is a former head of development at an indie production company and he’s gone into business with my girlfriend who used to work with him a few years back. He got linked up with a lawyer friend of ours who used to work at one of the studios and who represents some animators. They got the idea to pitch an animation project because they met with the manager of a high profile figure in the music biz who was looking to develop something in the animation arena. My girlfriend was kicking around ideas for the project and she had asked for my opinion a few times and liked my take on it. Eventually I just wrote out a treatment of sorts and after we put our heads together she sent it to the other folks. They dug it and the bulk of what I came up with ended up forming the backbone of the project. After some tweaking we had everything put together and the animators sketched the main characters. It was a trip actually seeing the characters I helped develop come to life like that.

The project was finally submitted to the music industry guy’s manager, but in short these guys were bullshitting and taking forever to get back to us. If someone’s taking forever to get back with you they either aren’t really that motivated, or they don’t like your shit. Either way we had to keep it moving and we’re going to try and pitch it to someone else. The artists aren’t too similar and are from different areas of the country, but fortunately both artists have similar outside business interests/ties and things can be easily tweaked to where it will appeal to the second person we’re going to try and pitch it to just as much.

I used to work at the company where our Plan B is signed. I actually dealt with his right hand guy a few times so I’m going to try and get a hold of him and get a meeting. Now we could try to go through traditional channels and try and get it to him through his TV/Film reps but if we can skip all of that it makes much more sense. Now hopefully I can actually touch base with Plan B’s right hand and get a step closer to making something happen. I actually think Plan B is a better fit for the project anyway and he’s had more TV experience as well.

I’m a little nervous, but I don’t have anything to lose. You’ve got to have balls in this town and you can’t get anywhere without putting yourself out there. Also, you’ve always have to make sure to get your fair share of the credit. If I hadn’t I would have been getting a cut of my girlfriend's cut, but now I’ve got the opportunity to get a producer’s credit. We'll see how it goes.

I've Got an Idea for a Movie

I write down things. In fact I write down tons of things. If I hear someone say something funny, I tend to put it in the memory bank and write it down as soon as possible. I carry around a notepad and jot things down that I find ironic, interesting, or even mildly amusing. I do this because I must have read it in some screenwriting book and found it to be worthwhile. Of course sometimes I look like some old school cub reporter on the beat, but who cares what I look like if I’m writing down a hot idea.

Everyone has ideas that they think would make a great movie. We all know that most of these ideas suck, but if you have 50 ideas one of them will probably be decent. I tend to come up with at least one movie idea a week, and I keep a log of them all. I’m going through a 2^nd draft on my first screenplay, but I won’t have a problem with coming up with my next spec idea for at least a few years because I have a solid list of stories I want to explore already.

A lot of times my girlfriend asks me for advice on projects she’s developing and I can come up with stories at the drop of a hat. I don’t think coming up with stories is very hard. Maybe I have a gift or maybe I’m just overly confident, but I can petty much spit out a movie idea like it’s nothing. Last night my girlfriend asked me for advice about a script she has one of her clients working on. I spit out the first thing that came to my head and she ended up discussing it on a conference call with her partner an their client. They didn’t end up going with my concept, but they all thought it was a great idea and I’m sure my girlfriend took full credit. This has happened a few times.

Now if I do in fact have a knack for story all I need to do is get my writing skills up to par and then it will smooth sailing. If I ever do then I won’t necessarily have to write all of the stories that come to my head. I could just move into producing and have other writers do the dirty work. To me that’s the smartest thing to do. I love to write, but Hollywood is a business and the production hustle is much more lucrative. But for now, I’ll concentrate on honing my writing skills and getting my foot in the door first. Is that weird to want to produce, yet not direct?

My Girlfriend, My Friend, and The Producer

Earlier this year my girlfriend told me that a producer she was working with was looking to branch out and start developing and shopping material on his own. This guy has done a lot of movies over the years, including one of my favorite comedies ever, in addition to most recently one of the bigger movies of the year so far. I told my girlfriend that my boy “Lance” had a screenplay and I hooked them up. She brought it in to the producer and he liked it, but had a few things he wanted to change.

Now that was in April or May I believe. Along the way the script has changed dramatically, but definitely for the better. The problem is that this process appears to be taking forever. You see the producer is never too quick to read, and in turn my boy has been taking forever to churn out drafts as well. He’s not getting paid for this, but my boy has no credits and this would be his big break. This particular script was optioned for like two or three grand by some company, and he passed up another option payment to work on it with said producer. Throughout this whole process I’ve pretty much stayed out of it because my girlfriend vents and tells me everything, but on the other hand it’s my boy she’s dealing with so I’m in a tough spot. I choose to not really discuss the project with him because I figure I should stay out of it since I know people on both sides of the table. It’s a really odd situation because while he’s not signed with my girlfriend, she’s given him advice on his career and he has introduced her to people as his manager. But she’s working with the producer, so it’s a bit of a conflict of interest to a certain extent although like I said, he isn’t signed.

Lance was hoping to have the script ready to go out for this past spec season, but the script was not ready. I think he was under the impression that it was, but I know he could do better and so did the producer and my girlfriend. If had been sent out, he would have shot himself in the foot with an AK-47. Since it didn’t go out, I think he soured on the situation a bit, and it appears to have affected his writing because it has taken him two months to do the latest draft. Personally I think he’s really fucking up, but I’m not really discussing the situation with him. I don’t want to get in the middle of it because that’s not my style and plus he’s a grown man and he’s doing his thing.

So now the script, if ready, will go out during the next spec season in a few months. Part of me fears that it won’t be ready and this whole thing is just going to fizzle out because of my boy’s slow writing and inability to effectively incorporate notes. This would be wack because not only will have Lance really dropped the ball on a huge opportunity, my girl will have also lost an opportunity to work with the producer, who may be weary of working with her in the future because of it. I mean this is Hollywood. A lot of times you only get one shot and if that first shot turns to shit your calls may unanswered the next time. I’m crossing my fingers and I hope this all straightens out. All I can do from this is learn what not to do when I’m in a similar situation in the future.

Is It Really Wrong To Download a Movie You Wouldn’t Pay To See In The Theater or Rent?

I’m not one to ever speak bad about downloading. In fact I think it’s just an inevitable part of the technological evolution of our society. It’s human nature to get something for nothing and there are people out there downloading movies like there’s no tomorrow. If a movie comes out on Friday, you can best believe that you can find a torrent of it on Saturday. The question is, who’s really hurt of you download a movie that you were not going to pay to see or rent anyway? For example, let’s say I don't have any Netflix out and I want to check out Duece Bigalow: European Gigolo because a friend of mine said it was horrible beyond belief. Now there’s little chance I’d ever hand over 10 bills to see this movie, or even waste precious real estate on my Netflix queue. But if I download it and watch it one of those days when there’s nothing on TV, my writing isn’t hitting, and all my Netflix are in transit then what’s the harm?

Support Black Cinema and Go See "Get Rich Or Die Tryin' "?

Last week my literary manager and aspiring producer girlfriend said something to the effect that we should go see Get Rich or Die Tryin' in order to help open more doors for Black movies to be made. She wasn’t completely serious, but she was to a certain extent. You see my girlfriend is the type of person that is always playing devil’s advocate. A lot of times I’ll have an opinion on something, but even if she agrees or sees my point of view she morphs into the captain of the debate team and a battle ensues. She doesn’t just play devil’s advocate, she embraces the role completely.

Now when she said that we should see Get Rich.., I knew where she was coming from. If it did well then all the studio drones will be looking for the next hot urban film. I think that’s bs though. If it were to do well it’s because it starred 50 Cent and he supposedly brings a built in fanbase. Hollywood isn’t particularly interested in Black films that aren’t comedies, and if the comedies don’t have one of a handful of bankable Black stars they aren’t interested in those either. Hustle and Flow opened earlier this year and Paramount tried to make it into something it wasn’t. It was a small indie pic that they tried to sell to the MTV audience as a mainstream flick. After that one came out and did shitty numbers, Black suddenly went back to being undesirable.

Needless to say I’m not rushing to buy a ticket or 50’s movie. My old job involved marketing his records and I’ve had enough of 50 Cent in my life. I was able to see the movie for free though, and I thought it was wack as hell. It’s slow, 50’s performance is stiff, and it’s a huge waste of 2 hours. I was baffled at how bad they screwed this movie up, and seeing as how it only did $12.5m in it’s opening weekend I wasn’t the only one who thought it was lame. How can you only do $12.5m with 50 Cent?

Lion's Gate Is Kicking Ass

Lion's Gate is blowing the fuck up. The cats over there are far into the black already with Saw II, which has grossed $36 million and some change in just 4 days. Apparently the production budget was only $4m, so you don't need a Wharton degree to figure out that things are looking good for them. I plan on checking out out Saw 2 in the next couple of days, and hopefully I'll dig it. I'm usually not into these types of flicks, but I thought the first one was great.

In addition to Saw 2, their other recent hits include Farenheit 911, Crash, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, and Saw. All of these brought in over $50m at the box office with production budgets not exceeding $6.5m. These numbers are sick, and of course when something indie is doing well that means the big dogs will definitely want to scoop them up and put them under the studio system. That of course will probably screw up the whole operation and soon they'll be spending $50m on movies and their formula will be shot to hell.

I actually just sent in my resume for a gig over there. That'd be a good spot to be at right about now.