This Is Not My World

Building a successful filmmaking career as a writer / director. A memoir in the making.

[memoirinthemaking]

And That Was That

And That Was That

I t was a brief encounter. The first time I sat down with my literary manager. It’s also been the only time we’ve ever met face to face.

It was at a film festival. An opulent hotel lobby. A bustling hotel lobby. His hotel. I was couch surfing my stay.

We spoke for no more than twenty minutes. As we did I noticed Manager’s propensity to not make a lot of direct eye contact. I didn’t mind. In fact…

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Do You Even Want To Be a Screenwriter? (part 2/2)

Do You Even Want To Be a Screenwriter? (part 2/2)

M y professional life has gotten a bit complex over the past year.

Over a year ago I actually gave up trying to make a go of screenwriting. For a couple years prior, it was all I did however. That and querying the scripts I’d written. But by the end of 2013 I’d vowed to end my effort at screenwriting for Hollywood.

(Continued from part 1 of 2)

This wasn’t the same as giving up on a dream. My…

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Do You Even Want To Be a Screenwriter? (part 1/2)

Do You Even Want To Be a Screenwriter? (part 1/2)

G roan…

I’m behind on reporting what’s been going on with Script #1. Gonna try to make up for that right now. But it’s gonna be in two parts. And not for brevity’s sake. But because I’m just swamped right now. And I want to be a semi-reliable blogger.

In fact the reason I’m behind on blogging is fast becoming much more interesting than the story of my option. It’s actually turned the volume waydo…

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The Talking Cat

Y eah, I knew that good feeling wouldn’t last.

Not a day had gone by after delivering my emphatic refute of one of Producer’s notes that Co-Manager returned their decision. Of over 99% of their (mostly unfortunate) suggestions, I open-heartedly declared I would make it work. It was just this one note, I explained, that would topple everything like a house of cards. One note – like removing the…

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The Literary Manager Finally Shows Up

The Literary Manager Finally Shows Up

T here is so much going on right now that it’s turned me into a terrible blogger. Gonna do my best to keep up with updates but if they lack a little finesse, I apologize.

The great majority of what’s going on actually has very little to do with my screenwriting career. It’s all kinds of other stuff. Good stuff actually.

See, when I set my sight on Hollywood I chose screenwriting as the tool that…

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Going To War

F ew years back I teamed up with another writer on a screenplay. (My policy is try anything once). Together we wrote a treatment. We submitted it to one of the Canadian government film financing agencies.

Per the bleak and ineffectual bureaucratic mandate of the agency, what came next was a conference call. On the call were; me and my buddy (the writers), an evaluator working for the agency and…

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The Worst Place This Could Have Gone

The Worst Place This Could Have Gone

L et’s recap: I optioned a script to a producer. My manager will also be a producer on the project. I was asked to do a small unpaid rewrite to bring the script up to where the producer thought it ought to be in order to court a director or a star (the second step in finding money for any film project).

The results are in on my little unpaid rewrite.

And they’re not good. Beyond not good, the…

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First Hollywood General Meeting

First Hollywood General Meeting

I  think I just had my first Hollywood general.

A meeting about nothing in particular.

I didn’t get a lot of info from Co-Manager going in. Just that he’d shared Script #1 with a producer and said producer wanted to meet me.

I’m still getting used to this general meeting thing. The concept itself. I’m used to meeting with people for a purpose. One of us wants something from the other. But these…

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The Producer Doesn't Want the Script to Crash Either

The Producer Doesn’t Want the Script to Crash Either

B eing a Hollywood outsider it seems likely that at some point I’m going to have to get on a plane.

Here’s the thing: I don’t know how to fly a plane.

It’s not that I wouldn’t care to learn. Just never been high on my list of priorities. As a result, I’m not super comfortable flying. Not because I’m worried the wings are going to fall off. Not because “it just doesn’t make sense that something so…

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Oh Good, More Production Executives

Oh Good, More Production Executives

R emember group assignments in school?

Because I’m getting flashbacks.

With the fully executed option agreement (and some cold hard cash) on its way, the unpaid rewrite is about to get underway. I mentioned this before. That before the agreement-mandated paid rewrites, I’m expected to “implement” some of the optioning producer’s notes for free.

I’ve held off doing any such thing until I at least…

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My Incredibly Anticlimactic Option Agreement Signing

My Incredibly Anticlimactic Option Agreement Signing

O ver seven months later and the agreement to option my screenplay is finally, irrefutably complete! About three months ago, this document had officially taken longer to write than the script itself. Negotiation, haggling over deal points, arguing over language… Seven months.

Done.

Lawyer sent me the documents this week. Finally. In my hands. The dotted line begging for my throbbing John Hancock.

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Stakes vs Motivation in Screenwriting

Stakes vs Motivation in Screenwriting

S takes, it turns out, are everything.

When I think about what’s at stake in my life. What I could lose that would just devastate me. It’s the simplest things: Health, love and home. None of the other details really, truly matter.

No accident that those are always the stakes in any big movie.

Previously I posted about Writing For Americans. Thoughts on trying to overcome my passive Canadian…

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Conversation With Literary Manager

Conversation With Literary Manager

W hen I started this blog my situation was pretty clear cut. I liked that. It was easy to post about. I was a flyover writer who’d just found an LA manager. My action thriller script was about to be optioned and things were becoming very exciting.

Nearly a year later all that is still ongoing. But there’s so much more in the mix now too. It’s gotten tougher to blog about without getting bogged…

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The May That Was

The May That Was http://wp.me/s3UIbu-may

N othing’s worse than following a blog that suddenly goes dark for no apparent reason. Am I right?

Sorry about that.

May was a particularly busy month. Which you’d think would be good fodder for this blog thing. Except being very busy also means far less time to collect one’s thoughts. Much less put them into coherent bite-sized paragraphs for public consumption. Much much less make those…

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Are You Sure You're Talking About Me?

Are You Sure You’re Talking About Me?

I  attended university for some reason. While there I had a very strange experience. First semester, first week, a professor was doing attendance. That was strange enough at the university level, but what happened next was statistically nothing short of incredible.

I could feel the kid next to me turn and stare as my name was called. Then his name was called. And it was my turn to twist my neck…

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I'm Still My Own Best Manager

I’m Still My Own Best Manager

B een almost a year now. A year since I first got the call that set me on this course. When Script #1 landed in Manager’s hands and he called me up. I haven’t sent another query letter since.

It’s been almost a year and a lot’s happened. Slightly less than Manager optimistically forecast would happen. But still quite a lot. In theory.

Until the option agreement for Script #1 is signed, this is…

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I Stopped Listening After "Unpaid"

I Stopped Listening After “Unpaid”

T here it is. That side of Hollywood I’ve heard so much about. Somehow I’d avoided seeing it until now, but there it is.

A few weeks back I had my first call with the producer optioning my script. We talked notes on the script. Talked about the next steps. For me the next step would be a rewrite to implement said notes.

Little bit about an option agreement: The option agreement (if you’ve done it…

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