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Why Teaching Is Good For Business

One of the biggest challenges I face as an entrepreneur is deciding which way to take my business whenever I begin a project I haven’t mastered yet. Every single day is an unknown, until you’ve gone through it, or you enlist the mentorship of someone who has.

We live in a world of constantly changing variables and fast-paced iterations in technology, customers and trends. As an entrepreneur, sometimes I feel like I’m figuring things out for the first time every day. As much as I try to plan my day, it feels like whenever I walk in the office or open my inbox, something unexpected shows up. How do I get through it? How do I find a path through the unknown every day? The reality is most days I don’t have the answer. Most of the time, I haven’t yet been down the path I’m walking, it’s a brand new experience in an ever changing world. And it gets pretty intimidating if you don’t have a place to turn to for guidance.

Thank goodness for the internet, right? There’s answers for everything, from how to tie a full windsor knot to where to buy fireworks in Tijuana. But seriously, sifting through all that information can be just as intimidating as trying to figure things out on your own. I taught myself how to sew once because I was too lazy to read how to do it, but I made a lot of mistakes and eventually gave up. I later taught myself Visual Effects for video, and religiously studied and practiced countless online tutorials and training videos. I’m certainly not a master yet, but I get better every day and am able to confidently make all kinds of stuff blow up (on screen of course).

Through the years of running my companies, I’ve been blessed to have a number of bright-eyed and talented interns come to study with me. Through taking the time to distill what I’ve learned carving out my path in the video arts and in business, I’ve been able to help these interns hone and develop their skills to become rockstars at what they do. And every single one of them teaches me, while helping to deepen my understanding of what it is I do on a daily basis. To be brutally honest, occasionally it isn’t until I actually explain to my interns what our plan for a project is, I don’t fully understand all the levels or nuances of it. It’s as if they are helping me figure out in real-time what it really means to run a company. Because they are there to learn, you bet they are going to ask those really insightful questions that sometimes we skip over as business owners or project managers.

But why is teaching important anyway? Wouldn’t it make more sense if I used that time to just get better at what I do instead of teaching someone else? Aside from the satisfaction of helping people learn new skills and save time figuring things out on their own, there’s a few reasons I believe teaching is the greatest gift we can give to ourselves.

Teaching allows you to position yourself as an authority figure so that more opportunities come your way. If you’re like me, trying to do “outbound sales” is a frustrating and intimidating process. I would much rather have sales and opportunities come to me. I heard a story about an agent at a top firm once, and although I forgot who told it to me, the story still resonates with me. My friend was looking for representation and got a referral to this top agent. The agent looked at him and said, “Look, I can tell you’re talented and you’ve got a big future with a young agent who can pick up the phone and promote you. But I’m not that guy. I don’t want to pick up the phone to call people anymore. I just want to be the guy who takes calls now.” If we take the time to establish ourselves as a teacher, we’ll begin to create opportunities instead of chasing them. With every lesson that we teach, course we produce, or article we write on our subject we are leaving a legacy for people to find and trace back to us.

Teaching coupled with intentional practice is the fastest way to mastery. I tend to procrastinate or make mistakes whenever I do something I haven’t built a routine for. If I have outlined a clear roadmap, with a plan and a predetermined outcome, I am equipped to fly through my tasks without distraction, because I’ve been here before! Because I know what to expect! Now sometimes, I may have done a task before, but not taken the time to create a system or a blueprint for how to do that task… and guess what! It’s even harder than the first time! It’s hard to find the initiative and the inspiration to carry through. But if I am forced to teach someone how to do said task, suddenly I am required to figure out a systematized roadmap to help them succeed at the task. Furthermore, if they have questions along the way, it will help me wrap my head around how to do that task even better. And then suppose that I am required to teach another student the same task? That system gets more refined, more clear, more foolproof. Pretty soon, in helping the students understand the path, I have become a master at the task. And because I’ve taken the time to create the system, if ever I forget how to do the task, I can always refer back to my manual I’ve created. As Aristotle puts it, “Those who know, do. Those who understand, teach.”

However, in my opinion, the real king of benefits comes from this incredible ability for the act of teaching to scale. With investing the time to distill our knowledge, workflow, insights, pitfalls, and best practices, we’re able to create… you guessed it, a product that can be leveraged and scaled. Whether you write your expertise down in a series of operating manuals and white sheets, or record them as video tutorials, once you record that information you can use it again and again to train future employees, interns, students. You’ve suddenly multiplied your time and reach. Now that you’ve prepared your training materials, your students can hear your voice and learn your process while you can be sipping mojitos on a hammock in Playa del Carmen. If you invest the time to teach effectively, and then create a scalable product out of your teaching, you will begin to “multiply” your time, and as Rory Vaden eloquently states, “You multiply your time by spending time on things today that will give you more time tomorrow.” Whether you intend to sell your teaching as a product, or simply improve the operations of your company and staff, investing the time to permanently record the information will save you countless hours down the road.

To sum it all up, I’ll refer to Dr. Maya Angelou: “When you get, give. When you learn, teach.”

 Project Spaghetti Wall

Noah Scott Director, LA REELS

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LIVE November 4th 2PM PST on Periscope. We’ll be providing a free Career Coaching Session and taking questions. @LA_REELS on the app.

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A dynamic team at your disposal, 2nd only to the Avengers. 

Have no fear.......

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On Reading For the Role

You’ve got the sides. Those two pages upon which your dreams rest. And they are bad. So bad. The character motivations difficult to discern, the writing stilted. How do you craft a character from what is on the page? The most effective tool for dealing with sub-par, or confusingly incomplete, sides is to create backstory. Unless you are reading for the role of Juliet in the Shakespearean tragedy, the chances are you won’t know anything about the role other than “Rachel gets out of the shower. She is upset.” Who is this “Bill” guy she’s talking to? Father? Lover? Casting directors aren’t looking for you to correctly guess the plot of the story. They want to see what you will come up with, given the admittedly sparse amount of lines. They want to see you make a choice. When you act upon Bill as if he is your lover, when he is really your brother, you are making a choice. If you make it powerfully, if you make it convincingly, that is all that matters. Obviously, if any information is furnished (BECKY SPEAKS WITH A LISP) you would do well to regard it, but the audition, just like your actor reel, is meant to highlight your skill in the context of the role itself.If you own the role, and really make it yours, no one can take it away from you. If, in your mind, Rachel is getting out of the shower because she just finished her shift at the hospital, embody that context and drive it home. You want to leave any audition feeling as if you’ve created a solid, believable character given the tools (or lack thereof) that you have been given. And you want to leave believing that you were so powerful that the only reason you might not get the role was because they were looking for a blonde, not a brunette. Acting is a funny business, but the actors that we remember are the ones who can make any line, no matter how cheesy, seem full of meaning. Even throwaway lines like “I’m going to walk my dog,” or “I think I twisted my ankle” turn into beautiful things when delivered by Meryl Streep or Al Pacino. So own your character, whatever it is, by delving deep into who they may be, rather than simply taking your cue from the lines on the page.

Author: Amanda Glassman - LA REELS

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On Reading For the Role

You’ve got the sides. Those two pages upon which your dreams rest. And they are bad. So bad. The character motivations difficult to discern, the writing stilted. How do you craft a character from what is on the page? The most effective tool for dealing with sub-par, or confusingly incomplete, sides is to create backstory. Unless you are reading for the role of Juliet in the Shakespearean tragedy, the chances are you won’t know anything about the role other than “Rachel gets out of the shower. She is upset.” Who is this “Bill” guy she’s talking to? Father? Lover? Casting directors aren’t looking for you to correctly guess the plot of the story. They want to see what you will come up with, given the admittedly sparse amount of lines. They want to see you make a choice. When you act upon Bill as if he is your lover, when he is really your brother, you are making a choice. If you make it powerfully, if you make it convincingly, that is all that matters. Obviously, if any information is furnished (BECKY SPEAKS WITH A LISP) you would do well to regard it, but the audition, just like your actor reel, is meant to highlight your skill in the context of the role itself.If you own the role, and really make it yours, no one can take it away from you. If, in your mind, Rachel is getting out of the shower because she just finished her shift at the hospital, embody that context and drive it home. You want to leave any audition feeling as if you’ve created a solid, believable character given the tools (or lack thereof) that you have been given. And you want to leave believing that you were so powerful that the only reason you might not get the role was because they were looking for a blonde, not a brunette. Acting is a funny business, but the actors that we remember are the ones who can make any line, no matter how cheesy, seem full of meaning. Even throwaway lines like “I’m going to walk my dog,” or “I think I twisted my ankle” turn into beautiful things when delivered by Meryl Streep or Al Pacino. So own your character, whatever it is, by delving deep into who they may be, rather than simply taking your cue from the lines on the page.

Author: Amanda Glassman - LA REELS

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The Art of Reading

“Reading is the creative center of a writer’s life” says Stephen King, in his book On Writing. “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time to write. Simple as that.” As a writer myself, and sometime script developer, I can’t tell you how many bad scripts I’ve read over the years. Lazy, poorly-written scripts that demonstrated an author who was not even familiar with the craft. If you don’t know how the hell a screenplay works, or never read books by strong writers, it is a farce to say that you have what it takes to actually emulate them. Screenwriting is different than the prose that Stephen King talks about: plot is paramount, and the characters have only a certain amount of time to develop their stories. The writer becomes seemingly nonexistent, simply the vein through which the story unfolds. There is no use of the word “I,” no room for explaining things that are unclear, like backstory. Unlike prose, the dialogue can make or break a script. Even if you’ve got a world-class idea, if you can’t convey character, action and dialogue, you might as well tell it to your dog. At best, you can hope to sell the idea itself, but the script will be entirely rewritten before you can say “ankle.” Even good scripts get rewritten. It’s a fact of life. Amanda Silver, co-writer of the Planet of the Apes reboot, said “to be a writer is to be fired.” Unless you’re looking to make a quick buck in the industry (which is nearly impossible) no writer wants to have another’s name on their movie.

The only, and I mean the only hedge against being rewritten is to have so strong a voice, so strong a conveyance of character, that no one else can possibly tell the story as well as you can. If your writing is shoddy, no great concept can save it. There are plenty of scripts out there with cool ideas and good writing, and those are the screenwriters that get the jobs. If you want to get ahead of the gang, you need to READ. Forget those people sitting at Starbucks, typing away on their laptops, believing that “if only someone would see my work, they would understand my brilliance.” Get yourself a book or script and, before you even sit down for the day to write, skim the pages. Even for a short while. It’s a great way to get you in the mood for writing. On my first feature, I took a screenplay of a writer that I admired and broke down the entire thing, page by page. Then, I got to writing my own movie. With the author’s snappy dialogue still in my mind, my script began to reflect this wittiness, and allowed the story to pop.

  Author: Amanda Glassman - LA REELS

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Cold Reading - LA REELS TV Episode 2

Auditions can sometimes be SCARY, but never FEAR, Brett and Noah are HERE, to give you tips on cold reads.

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How to Cultivate a Winning Image and Build an Uplifting Network

In Hollywood, the old adage, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know” is often given more weight than other industries. Showbiz is an industry of networks and cliques. You’re either in with the red-carpet-strutting-popular crowd (successful and working), or you’re ostracized (out of work) and hanging out with career waiters and professional Uber drivers. Sure, those are two extreme points on the Hollywood social meter, but if you want to build your network and grow your caliber and career, consider each decision you make as a fork in the road leading to one of these two alternatives. You’re either building and cultivating a superior network, or you’re slamming on the brakes to your own progress by surrounding yourself with negative influences.

It’s very easy to look at the gap between your current network and the George Clooney level networks… BUT it’s also very easy to start boosting your network. With 5 simple principles, applied consistently and expanded upon daily, you will discover that the only one holding you back from mingling with highly successful people is you.

Principle 1: Show Up Smiling

Get out there. Whenever anyone is doing something that is proactive and challenging - out of the box - get out there and join them! Volunteer. Dedicate your time, give your gift. Tell the leader of the project how much you appreciate them taking a chance and doing something extraordinary, and how grateful you are to be able to be involved! Quit whining! Whining won’t get you anywhere but kicked off a project and never invited to the next one. Be the person people want to invite back to their next project. Be dependable. Be the person who is there giving positive support even when times are tough.

"Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want are people who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down."  -- Peter Voogd, 6 months to 6 figures

Tip for Actors: find a friend producing a web series or short film and volunteer to PA on set.

Principle 2: Reach

Once you’ve established a consistent habit of being grateful and pleasant to work with, and you’ve started to build a reputation of this, start swimming in deeper ponds. Pick up the phone and start making calls to people in your network who can connect you with people playing the game on the next level. Find a guru, expert, mentor, or someone you consider successful and reach out to them. Don’t ask for a “favor” and do respect their time. Keep your initial contact short and sweet. Successful people are busy and appreciate when someone can be clear and articulate. Start small, and respect the other person’s time. As you practice and calibrate your approach, it will become more natural and effective. Your goal is to establish a relationship with this person. Ask them for advice, show them that you practice the things they teach and appreciate the results of their teachings.

You’ll also want to continuously “level up” - Keep reaching for wider networks and more elusive celebrities. Remember to not get discouraged and to keep at it. It’s important to look at this all as an exercise. You’re growing, building muscles and new skills - if you’re not facing rejection, you’re not reaching hard enough! Lick your wounds and learn from your experience. How can you make the next approach smoother, how can you make a deeper connection, how can you get them to be excited when you call?

Finally, don’t overstep your welcome. Be persistent, but not needy. Be respectful, but not timid. Let people know what your goals are and how they can help, but don’t get bitter or resentful if the other party is not interested. Simply put, know when to call it quits. There are other opportunities just beyond this one, if it’s not going anywhere, wash your hands and move forward (with a smile, of course).

Principle 3: Provide Value

If you wanna hang out with superstars, you gotta be a little super yourself.

Here are two great ways to provide value: either be the one who does it, or make an introduction to the person or service who can. Both will create a lasting impression to whomever you helped and will earn you some brownie points (aka “mad respect”) for future interactions.

It goes without saying that the more skills you have at your disposal, the more value you can provide for people without those skills. We all have things we’re good at, and in leveraging those skills to others who might not have the time or energy to apply these skills we are now providing value. And there are always more skills we can learn. Every day is a chance to learn a new skill and hone existing skills - even if you’re only putting 10 minutes a day towards it, don’t skip your personal development. Whether it’s Chinese literature translation or accounting, understand what the people playing the game at the next level need and pivot your skill-set to cater to those needs and you will be unstoppable. If you yourself can’t do a skill, connect with someone who can and be the person who makes the introduction to the people who need that skill. Both parties will feel indebted to you for making the introduction.

Highly successful people often don’t have the time for extensive research when they encounter a problem, and will go for a working solution when it presents itself with minimal decision making involved. Be the person who makes solving problems easy and effective. As you start to connect with successful people, start asking questions about problems they are facing. If Johnny Joe the restaurant owner says, “Man, I never have time to do laundry…” volunteer to research local laundry services and send him a report of the costs and customer reviews. Or if Alicia the fashion designer is encountering difficulty keeping financial records, refer her to a reliable and affordable bookkeeper in your network. The possibilities are endless. The more skilled people in your network, the more value you can provide simply by making introductions. You don’t have to be the one to provide the service if you can make the introduction.

"Relationships take time, getting to know folks requires patience, and people are generally cautious - if not fearful - of Johnny come lately that is asking, rather than giving. "  -- Jeremiah Owyang

Be irreplaceable. As people begin to recognize your ability to solve their problems, they will feel obligated to do the same for you! This isn’t the goal, but it’s a nice perk. The goal you’re aiming for is to be irreplaceable - to find and then to provide the solution to help as many people in your tribe as possible.

Principle 4: Market Your Personal Brand

Whether you’re an actor or a freelance plumber, you’ve got a brand to market and that brand is you! Even if you work for a corporate gig, you still want to package your image and skills in a way that others around you can vibe with and respect. It’s not just about the clothes you wear or how you hold your posture, your brand is a presentation of your assets and personality. Your personal brand is a representation of the things you can deliver to others. As you grow and learn new skills, you’ll want to update your personal image. As you begin to expand your social circles, you’ll find the same old practices don’t cut it any more. If you’re not going back and reflecting on the effectiveness presentation, you might be burning more opportunities than if you took some active time improving your image and branding.

A word I have been obsessed with lately is calibration. So much of effective branding is getting noticed, and to get noticed you need to do things other people don’t do. You’ve got to take risks, and here’s the important part: reflect on those risks and calibrate your approach next time to find the sweet spot. Put yourself in situations where you can experiment with how your personal brand resonates with others in different social circles. Go strike up conversations with people, ask for feedback, video tape yourself and the way you interact with others. (I’ve learned so much about little quirks I do that make me look like a goofball by watching video of myself.) Whether you’re an airforce pilot or an actor on Broadway, we can significantly improve how other people view us simply by reflecting on our own behaviors and calibrating to something more effective.

Principle 5: Teach

I remember the time I saw my mentor, Randal Kleiser, after directing one of my very first film projects. He asked how it went, I replied, “It was the greatest thrill of my life.” Making movies is still an amazing thrill, but I’ve come to find an even greater thrill that seems to trump all others. It’s the thrill I get every time I teach a workshop or help someone find a solution to a problem they’re having. The thrill of giving back. Why is that? And what does teaching have to do with building a network?

It’s not until we start giving back that we realize how much experience and value we have acquired and are able to give. If we truly wish to build a legacy, we need to filter our knowledge and experience back to others. But more importantly, putting yourself in a position where other people are depending on you and looking to you for an answer ignites some inner drive to become better, to learn more, to finish harder. Teaching also solidifies your own understanding of a concept and improves your ability to relate with others, both of which are invaluable tools in networking I might add. It’s great to learn how to build a better image and network smarter, but it’s epic to teach others to do the same.

  Author: Noah Edward Scott - LA REELS

Have a topic you want to read about? Post a comment and let us know!

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KEEPING YOUR EYE ON THE PRIZE

I always say there are two LA’s: the city that never sleeps, with the cocaine parties and models, and the city that grinds itself to the bone with passion. What do I mean by this? People associate Hollywood with glamour and quick wealth, and it is easy to get caught up in the façade of it all: living the movie star lifestyle without the bank account. But the people that make it in this field are, with few exceptions, the ones that skip out on those parties, at least early in their careers, and put their heads down and grind.

Stephen King, in his book On Writing (a must read for any aspiring writer, whether of prose or of the screen) says he writes 10 pages a day, even on holidays. Depending on how fast you write, that’s a lot of hours. It’s a job, and don’t let anyone tell you anything different. King started writing at a young age, and in the days where he held a full-time job as a teacher, he would come home and write at night. The craft takes dedication, and the struggle before you become a full-time writer is full of long nights and sacrifice.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t be out on the town, enjoying yourself. Meeting people is paramount to this business. After all, who are you going to give your completed script or actor reel to if you don’t know anyone in the business? But when it is time to make the decision about whether to stay out past 2 am, sucking the dregs out of a Hollywood Hills party, or head home and prepare for the next days’ work, the decisions you make will have a greater impact on your career and productivity than you’d think.

Let’s talk about meeting people. Don’t be afraid to reach out to your alumni network, or to people in acting class and casting sessions. You should be eager to have coffee with everyone and anyone you can. Just be prepared for the caffeine buzz. A healthy balance of social interaction and head to the grindstone is the recipe for success out here. You need to remember why you came to the City of Lights in the first place: was it to rub shoulders with the rich and famous, or become one? The only one who can get you there is you, and standing 50 feet away from stardom isn’t the same as stardom itself.

Author: Amanda Glassman - LA REELS

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How To Self Tape Auditions at Home - LA REELS TV Episode 1

Filming your own auditions can be FUN and EASY! Brett and Noah give you some pointers to start self taping your auditions today!

WHAT TO REMEMBER:

1. FILM YOUR VIDEO HORIZONTALLY! Never film an audition tape in the vertical position - Think "widescreen" 2. Make sure the camera phone is steady - use a tripod or some books! 3. Use a reader (Have the reader stay off screen) 4. Unless SPECIFICALLY directed: keep your eyeline to the reader and never directly to the camera. 5. You can upload your finished video directly to YouTube as "unlisted" and send the link to the casting director.

RESOURCES: Iphone Tripod mount: http://www.amazon.com/Black-Sidekic-I... iPhone Tripod: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/eforcity-... -Lighting http://www.ebay.com/itm/Photography-V... -Audio Cheap small lavaliere: http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Hands-Fre... If possible use another phone with an omni-directional mic to record audio: http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/38096463...

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Habit Hacking for the LA Actor

If you don’t brush your teeth tonight, your teeth aren’t going to crack and fall out of your gums while you sleep. If you do 20 pushups before bed, without skipping a day for a year, you’re going to be in much better shape than if you do nothing. It’s not rocket science, it’s common knowledge, but why is it so hard for us to build and maintain good habits?

The key word is maintain. How do we maintain the momentum once we get started building a habit? The results aren’t always instant and life will come and distract us with the allure of a fancy party, or a fun night out. We stay out a little too late, and now we don’t feel like waking up early. So we’re late. We’re too late to cook a healthy breakfast at home, so we spend three times what we ought to on an instant meal that doesn’t keep us healthy. Where’s the harm? It’s just one meal. Add that shit up across a month and you’re just shy on the funds to enroll in an informative class or seminar that will help your career. So you feel underachieved and alienated, the world is too tough. If only that class was cheaper, then you’d be able to go. Then you would be able to land that gig with the big payoff that’s going to solve all your problems. It feels better when you start making excuses, it’s everyone else’s fault. You deserve to be a star, it’ll happen sooner or later. You just need to be discovered, then everything will be alright.

You tell yourself this while some buddies of yours, who are also feeling dejected and insecure because their bad habits aren’t moving their dreams forward, call you up to come out and have some drinks. Together, you complain about how the auditions you went to are so unfair, how the casting director has a thing for blondes. “If only I were blonde, everything would be better,” and it all feels okay. You’re surrounded by people who make you feel like you deserve that star on the walk of fame, even though you’re not doing anything to earn it. You all tell yourselves that this is your year, “this pilot season, we’re going to land that guest-star role, we’re going to book that national commercial!” You make a bold plan to start calling agents in the morning. “This time, this year, it’s going to be different…” It feels good… Until the next morning. When you’re late because you drank too much and stayed up too late. Your bad habits of pushing snooze and sleeping to the very last minute because you’re really afraid of what the day has in store for you keep you from facing the day. You lie in bed until you absolutely cannot anymore. You make more excuses. It’s okay if I don’t call the agents today. I’ll do it later, when I’m more awake in the afternoon. I’ll do it on my lunch break.

That time never comes. That break never comes. That leading role never comes. That national commercial never comes. That agent who is magically going to send you out to every coveted audition like some kind of fairy godmother pulling golden chariots out of pumpkin patches ain’t gonna be there for you. UNLESS you start to do something different. What is it? It’s simple. Form good habits. Let your own momentum carry you through the finish line. It all starts with a good habit. Read, Exercise, Invest.

As an actor in LA, it’s critical to remember that distractions can pull you off track every day, and results RARELY appear overnight. Fill your head with inspiring information by reading stuff like our blog or some quality podcasts and surround yourself with focused and career minded friends and you’ll start to feel a pull in the right direction. It all starts with being aware of where your habits are leading you and then doing something to course correct if you’re not seeing the results you want. We’ll keep posting tips and strategies here, but of course, please feel free to drop us a comment or just email if you have a specific question or want some advice. We’re here for you!

Author: Noah Edward Scott - LA REELS

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DIY FILM SCHOOL

LA Confidential. Shawshank Redemption. The Shining. For aspiring writers, these titles might as well constitute the first page of the filmmaking Bible. Well-written stories are rare, and rarer still are the stories that are somehow able to remain timeless. That resonate through generations. For Hollywood hopefuls, nothing can be more inspiring than witnessing those masterpieces that blend plot, character and dialogue in such a way as to leave us speechless. It can also be daunting. But instead of staring fearfully up at the Goliath armed only with a sling, let Goliath be a stepping-stone. Study these masterpieces. Build a classroom around them. Watch your favorites three times. Once for plot. Once for character. Once for dialogue. And you will begin to unlock the puzzles, the formula of this art.

Movies are cheap to watch. But the screenplays of those movies? They’re even cheaper. Often public and free. So read. Read, read, read. Read every script you can get your hands on, from Taxi Driver to Psycho to the Breaking Bad pilot from 2008. Watch the film play out on the page. From the cadence of dialogue, to how jokes are delivered, or the exact moment that Act One breaks into Two. And not just screenplays. Many of our favorite films were birthed from novels. Even short stories. (Ahem, Shawshank Redemption). Intellectual property is the name of the game, and book adaptations have the potential to be highly valuable and successful onscreen. What about poetry? Stage plays? From Whitman to Sam Shepard, the written word may take on a different form, but it is cut from the same cloth. Mamet and McDonagh both play in the spheres of stage and film.

The problem with Hollywood is that no one reads anymore. That’s how bad movies are made, and how good ones slip through the cracks. That’s why I have a job, reading for producers and movie studios who want to know: “is this good?” before they dare turn the first page. If you choose the path of a writer, it is your duty to read. To understand the mechanics of the written word, not just the way lines are delivered onscreen. Watch an episode of Friends and then read the transcript, and watch how the written word and the performance interact with each other. Like a precise tango. As a writer, the story lives and dies by what is on the page. No matter how good the actors may be, bad dialogue is bad dialogue. And when your calling card is those 120 pages of white sheet paper with various words on it, you’d better be proud of them.

Stephen King says it best: “While it is impossible to make a competent writer out of a bad writer, and while it is equally impossible to make a great writer out of a good one, it is possible, with lots of hard work, dedication, and timely help, to make a good writer out of a merely competent one.” So become dedicated to the art form. Do yourself a service by not only watching film, but reading it, turning it around in your mind and exploring it in a way that only you—with your individual experiences and individual perspective—can. Embarrassing riches have been made by people purporting to “teach” writers how to write. No one can teach you to write. But you can learn to write. Don’t pay someone to stand in front of you and tell you how it should be done. Your classroom is all around you: in the films you watch, the books and poems you read. And you know what? It’s nearly free. So watch. And read. And watch. And read. And then, of course, write.

Written by Amanda Glassman

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"Look more closely"

[lareels]

Looking great there @thebrettnewton !!! 👍👆👊😱🙌😎👌💪 #lareels #action #comedy #sexy

[lareels]

Acting workshop begins now! #LaReels #gogolareels #fun #workshop

[lareels]

PRODUCTION HAS BEGUN! #scramble #movie #lareels