Another Meeting
It's something Hollywood mass produces. The meeting. And the town is never at a loss for them. Many are unimportant, though as they say in sports, you never know when you can turn nothing into something. So every opportunity is always that, an opportunity.
As you go up the meeting chain cycle you get the meet and greet, the conceptual pitch, the full out pitch, meeting with producer, meeting with talent, meeting with director, meeting with VP's of production, meeting with president of production. (And it seems like more meetings are required than ever before for the same jobs. There are more variations of course. A friend of mine has met with the President and production exec of a big independent company, has a deal to direct a film for this A list company, has been involved in months of development on the re-write of the script and was just informed he has to take a new meeting with the pres. of the studio this company resides at to see if he still has the job. How do you categorize that?")
Anyway, I just returned a few days ago from a third meeting on a studio project, before a room full of top people, getting to the top tier as far as I could go before they actually decide on me this weekend. It was the "money meeting" so to speak - the one in which, or whereafter they decide to pull the trigger on the job, so to speak, or not. Full out hour pitch to a roomful of executives, as it's a co-venutre, studio and producing partner splitting the bill. An adaptation of a yet to be published book they have high hopes for.
First thing I do? Tell them to throw out half the book as it doesn't make a good movie.
Something I love about that. Aside from it being neccessary, it's a good lesson in not trying to pander to second-thought. I don't know how married they are to this project or not, but the inspiration - my own thrill of the story has to lead me to the words 'the end" not my hope or "idea of what "they" want. That is instant death.
Sure, they may say - stupid pitch Jacko, and toss me. But I know I came out of the gate with the rigth story for this project.
Years ago on a Paramount project of a script I had re-written several times, a director was then assigned. He came in with new notes and revisions that the studio was excited about. I worked with him for months on a new draft. I delivered it and the studio wasn't happy. We had a long conference call with all the involved parties - and it was filled with frustration on both sides. Finally the exasperated director said:"Just tell me what you want." And there was silence on the phone.
And I realized he'd just committed project suicide.
And he was off the project a week later.
Because no one in Hollywood knows what they want. They only know what they don't want. So never ask them what they want, tell them what they'll get. (The caveat, of course, which is the important question on any re-write or adaptation is "have you been down the road with this at all?" to find out what they've already discovered they don't want.)
But the bottom line is they have to keep hiring the creators to keep creating - because the money side is incapable of doing it.
I'll see if I'll be the creator for this project, hopefully next week.
As you go up the meeting chain cycle you get the meet and greet, the conceptual pitch, the full out pitch, meeting with producer, meeting with talent, meeting with director, meeting with VP's of production, meeting with president of production. (And it seems like more meetings are required than ever before for the same jobs. There are more variations of course. A friend of mine has met with the President and production exec of a big independent company, has a deal to direct a film for this A list company, has been involved in months of development on the re-write of the script and was just informed he has to take a new meeting with the pres. of the studio this company resides at to see if he still has the job. How do you categorize that?")
Anyway, I just returned a few days ago from a third meeting on a studio project, before a room full of top people, getting to the top tier as far as I could go before they actually decide on me this weekend. It was the "money meeting" so to speak - the one in which, or whereafter they decide to pull the trigger on the job, so to speak, or not. Full out hour pitch to a roomful of executives, as it's a co-venutre, studio and producing partner splitting the bill. An adaptation of a yet to be published book they have high hopes for.
First thing I do? Tell them to throw out half the book as it doesn't make a good movie.
Something I love about that. Aside from it being neccessary, it's a good lesson in not trying to pander to second-thought. I don't know how married they are to this project or not, but the inspiration - my own thrill of the story has to lead me to the words 'the end" not my hope or "idea of what "they" want. That is instant death.
Sure, they may say - stupid pitch Jacko, and toss me. But I know I came out of the gate with the rigth story for this project.
Years ago on a Paramount project of a script I had re-written several times, a director was then assigned. He came in with new notes and revisions that the studio was excited about. I worked with him for months on a new draft. I delivered it and the studio wasn't happy. We had a long conference call with all the involved parties - and it was filled with frustration on both sides. Finally the exasperated director said:"Just tell me what you want." And there was silence on the phone.
And I realized he'd just committed project suicide.
And he was off the project a week later.
Because no one in Hollywood knows what they want. They only know what they don't want. So never ask them what they want, tell them what they'll get. (The caveat, of course, which is the important question on any re-write or adaptation is "have you been down the road with this at all?" to find out what they've already discovered they don't want.)
But the bottom line is they have to keep hiring the creators to keep creating - because the money side is incapable of doing it.
I'll see if I'll be the creator for this project, hopefully next week.
posted by Phil | 11:58 AM
9 Comments:
The famous William Goldman line: "Nobody knows anything"... but I'd like to add: "except for the writer"
What a crazy world, where all we want to do is create and the idea of creation is so pure until, I guess, we drive head first into the meetings and then the roadblocks appear where the writer is supposed to know everything and nothing at the same time!
Good luck with the latest!
pd boy: Yes, well put, I like that. we have to know everything and nothing. Oddly zen. Yes the purity of writing and creation is a sweet experience. One could also choose to sit and write a book and not be bothered by anyone else (I may do that soon, actually). But to play on the public stage, in the big show, so to speak, with volumes of money equal to the GNP of small countries, comes with all the trappings, back room deals, power broking, people managing and ego issues of the courts of kings.
Best of luck with this!
Sounds like you may need it, even if you DO get the job!
I always call these meet and greets "idea poker". They don't want to tell you their ideas, your agents have warned you against giving your spec ideas away...so, you try to bluff each other into revealing something...
chris: yes, exactly. Never give the spec. idea away for two reasons. If it's very stealable it's bad business. And if the exec. in the room is excited to see it - he will ask your agent to make sure he does - and you've potentially screwed up your agent's release pattern as your agent may not want to go to that exec, but maybe someone else at the same company, and now has to deal with the person politics of that. However it doesn't mean you can't turn it into businss. You're there because they like your writing. They may toss ideas out that they're interested in but need work/lots of work. If you spark to one, you may be able to return with a pitch that excites them (I did this at Warners years ago and set up re-write) however you may work up a brilliant take and write a treatment and then have it tank (this has happened to me too, more recently than not).
ls&ass: Well, that's the kind of unabashed confidence you need to get anywhere in this business anyway. But FYI, screenwriters don't cast unless they're producers as well and have some pull with the director. Film directors, bingo, they have all the power unless the studio sits on their head and refuses (Ridley Scott was told he had to cast Orlando Bloom in his crusade movie or have no movie, for example). Tv writers who are producers are a much more powerful casting lobby as well. Tv directors, not nearly as much. Odd, nay?
Most TV directors are hired guns who usually do a few of the several episodes produced in any given season. The man responsible for the look and feel of the show is the showrunner, who is almost never a director, but a producer with writing credits.
jlw: Excellent point James, thanks for the crystal clarity. I have friends who do both, one runs NUMB3RS and one is a director who shoots on multiple shows (CSI, HOUSE) it is exactly as you describe.
Thanks for this post.
You hit the nail on the head.
I attribute whatever success I have had in this business so far to simply knowing what I want. In the long run you are respected as a creator to the extent you respect yourself and your own ideas.
Best of luck to you!
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