Getting Ahead of Yourself

Q. I created a series, wrote the template, pilot, and came up with a dozen springboards for episodes. After submitting my show concept to two actors/producers (I checked them out IMDB) they optioned the idea for eight months. If the show gets picked up, how much control will I have ? Would it be rude for me to ask the Network for permission to hire the writers?

No, certainly not rude. It's understood that a newbie creator would like to work with an experienced showrunner who's on the same wavelength, who's going to try to bring the newbie up rather than sidelining her. Whether the network lets you interview potential showrunners depends on how you come across to them. If they think you're a sensible person, and they believe that part of what they're buying is your unique vision -- and not just a concept you happened to trip over -- then they'll want to keep you involved. The showrunner will probably not consult you much on the other writers, but if you're on the same page about what the show is, he'll have your vision in mind.

However, you need to go back and read your option agreement, which I am going to guess you signed without showing it to an agent or entertainment lawyer. Your contract determines what rights you have, including your right to continued involvement on your show. It should say that you'll have meaningful consultation on the showrunner; if you had a great negotiator it might even say you had veto over the showrunner. The contract should also say how many scripts you are guaranteed per season, that you have a guaranteed staff job with a guaranteed credit, that you keep the Created By credit, or a minimum of a shared Created By credit if the showrunner rewrites the pilot. It should contain a per-episode creative royalty, which could be a percentage of budget or a flat fee. It should include travel and living expenses if you're required to work away from home. And so on.

See, the option agreement is supposed to say "we have the right to buy your show, and if we do, here's what you get at that point." That's why option agreements take so ungodly long to negotiate. Long before a show I create is a real thing, before anyone is making money on it, my agent has to negotiate every detail of my package of compensation and credit. Because until I've signed the option, I have total control of my project. If they want it, they have to make me happy. After I've signed it, they may still want to keep me happy, but they don't have to.

All this is why you never, ever, ever negotiate your deal yourself.

Forgot to mention, I'm currently writing episode 5. The guys who optioned really liked my writing and told me to just keep on writing. I figure I'd write 13 and stop. If the show gets picked up, I was thinking, because of the economy, the order would be 6 episodes, 13 if were lucky , and 22 if we're extremely lucky

Stop writing scripts. Please.

Unless, that is, you're getting paid to write them. And I doubt you are, since they told you to " just keep on writing."

Getting a show made is striking the jackpot. It doesn't happen that often. Professional writers wax fat on staff jobs, but we survive on development deals. I spent all last year developing my pay cable show, writing draft after draft, running a story room, revising the season arcs, etc. If it doesn't go, I'll mourn, but my agent will still be very, very pleased with me.

You should not do any more new scripts until you are getting paid to write scripts.

Writing additional scripts also doesn't make sense creatively. No one at the network is going to read past episode 3 when they're deciding to pick up the show or not. In fact, most of them won't read past the pilot.

Moreover, the network may have different ideas about your show. TV development is collaborative. On NAKED JOSH, we started with a show about a freshman in college. The network asked us to age it up. We wound up with a show about a young professor. Imagine if we'd written five scripts about a freshman in college! Writing TV is a process of sending something to the network, getting feedback, and rewriting. For my pay cable series, I've written dozens of drafts of the first three scripts trying to nail "what the show is." The network hated one script (my bad) and I had to throw the entire thing out.

Don't get ahead of where your project is.

I would put all your energies into writing and rewriting the pilot. Make sure it is brilliant. Examine each line in it. Can you make that line smarter, more distinctive? Can you make the action sing? Writing is rewriting. Get real actors to read the script out loud at a table reading. (Maybe your actor producers can help there.)

Also, keep trying to improve the springboards, without actually writing the scripts. A great pilot with a great season arc document is all you need to sell a show to a network.

Michael Arpin Doesn't Like You

DMc blogs about Michael Arpin, Vice Chair for Broadcasting of the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), who said:

Playback:Will Canadian drama on our television screens be an issue again at hearings in 2009?

Arpin: The decline in Canadian drama is an issue that the unions regularly put on the table. It's documented. I'm sure they will bring it to the top of the pile at the hearings.

Playback:What are your favorite television programs?

Arpin: I'm a news and documentary consumer. I'm not that interested in televised fiction or even feature films. I would prefer to read a novel.

McGrath wonders if the guy in charge of broadcasting ought to be a little more excited about, y'know, broadcasting. You wouldn't have a Hockey Commissioner who'd skip a Habs-Leafs game to catch up on the latest Joan Didion. Would you? He proposes various ways we can try to bring Mr. Arpin around, and otherwise work around and through his contempt for our industry. Including, cleverly, to send Mr. Arpin some boxed sets of the best Canadian broadcast TV.

I volunteer for one boxed set, Mr. McGrath. Can I send the first season of SLINGS AND ARROWS? (Pay cable to start with, but it aired second window on broadcast.)

If Arpin is anything like my parents (and it sounds like he is), he's probably more familiar with his DVD player than his cable remote. Assuming he has cable.

It occurs to me that all the CRTC commissioners might appreciate what we're trying to do here if they got some boxed sets. If you work for the CBC, Global or CTV, please bring this up through the proper channels.

Everyone likes a freebie. The broadcast companies have the right to inform the government agencies regulating them what they're up to. And the best way to do that is, I think, boxed sets.

I'm Critiquing Scripts Again, For Now

I'm waiting on answers on a couple of projects, and that's driving me crazy. So I am temporarily opening up my script-reading service again. If you'd like my feedback on your script, outline, or even just your query letter or hook, check it out..

It's expensive, but I have never had an unsatisfied customer.

Can Agents Send Your Script to People They Don't Know?

Q. Am I limited to sending scripts to people my agent knows, or can I target anyone?

This is a conversation to have with your agent. Generally, though, agents love it when you scare up people who want to read your material. I often tell my agent, "please send such and such script to Mr. So and So, whom I just had coffee with."

You can also ask your agent to go after people that neither you nor they know, but they'll have to decide if that's a good use of their time.

Q. Are some showrunners pickier than others in terms of what agency they will accept submissions from?

Showrunners have agents they know and trust, agents they know and don't trust, and agents they don't really know. They might take submissions from lots of agents, but they're much more likely to read a script, and hire a writer, coming from an agent they trust. It's a people business.

And everybody's at a level. A bigshot showrunner is likely to have relationships with bigshot agents. A new showrunner might not have so many relationships with agents, and therefore might be open to scripts from agents he doesn't know.

This is all why enthusiasm is so important. (Value of an agent = enthusiasm x enthusiasm x clout.) If your agent feels passionately about your material and you, she'll work harder to get your scripts to people she doesn't know well, and she'll put her reputation on the line to sell you to them. If an agent I don't know says, "This guy is amazing, I promise, read him," then I'll probably read the script anyway. But if the script isn't impressive, then I won't take that agent seriously ever again.

John Rogers recently pointed out that showbiz runs on whuffie. Reputation is the commodity that gets you read and hired. When you're starting out, your agent lends you her reputation hoping to reap financial dividends. Your agent's reputation consists of a portfolio of her own personality and shares in the reputations of all her clients. What you do reflects on her; what she does reflects on you. So do your best to earn your whuffie; and spend it wisely.

More Podcasts

Timothy Wearing writes in:

I just wanted to shoot you a note about the Creative Screenwriting podcasts. I don't know if you've ever listened to them, but they are interviews of screenwriters, after a screening of their recent movie. They're usually pretty entertaining and informative. The latest one I listened to was with Christopher McQuarrie talking about, among many other things, Valkyrie. It's two hours long, but is the most fascinating interview I think I've ever heard with a screenwriter. If you have some time, I highly recommend listening.
Here's the link...

I think I mentioned these a ways back, but definitely worth a listen. Thanks, Tim!

Oh, My Gods, She's Right

Kay sez Harry Potter is Mary Sue. And so is Bella, of TWILIGHT.

I knew there was a reason I didn't like the little twit.

TV Writing Consultants

Y'all have been asking me for recommendations for a TV writing consultant, since Victoria Lucas only does features. I just noticed that my friend Sara Dodd is coaching and consulting for TV writers at The Story Spot. Sarah is an accomplished pro TV writer with a deep credit list. Their prices are quite reasonable for professional advice; they give a lot of it for a few hundred bucks. Compared to what Sarah gets paid as a story consultant in the business, that's a ridiculous bargain.

Oh, and they're running a sale right now. So look'em up and tell'em Alex sent ya!

Think Globally, Shoot Locally

A fellow wants to shoot and air a drama locally in Tucson:

actual quality programming the cast and crew of which are your neighbors, coworkers, and friends

There's a long tradition of self-funded feature films, and with HD prosumer cameras and Final Cut, it's getting easier and easier to make them. Some people have had minor or even major successes. Of course, the vast majority of these films don't get distribution, and the producer/director/writer/editor/stars of them lose their shirts. But you have a shot.

I see a few problems with this project. The first is, obviously, that your neighbors, coworkers and friends have no idea what they're doing. They don't know how to run the camera, they don't know where to put it or move it, they don't know how to light a room, they don't know what constitutes good sound or how to get it on a noisy set, etc. I mean, for heaven's sake, each of those things is a job description if not a calling, and people spend years if not their whole lives learning how to do those things. A professionally-made show has a crew of forty or sixty or more people, all of whom have been trained to do their job.

And then there are actors. Actors are special people. They have not only learned their craft. They are actually built differently from most people. You know how dancers can see a choreographer show them ten or fifteen steps, and then they can instantly do them? Actors can imagine emotions and then inhabit them and then project them. They can change those emotions when they're asked to. It is not something your neighbor can do.

So your locally produced show will probably not be very good.

Beyond that, a TV series is a different animal. TV writing is technically much more difficult than film writing. You're not telling one story. You have to develop a template which allows you to bang out fresh yet consistent stories. Your episodes have to feel self-contained yet forward the overall story arc. That's why TV shows have writing rooms. That's why no one gets their own TV show until they've written on other people's TV shows and worked in other people's writing rooms.

Moreover, on a film you can get people to work for free. Most people will do you one favor. You can raise money from your uncle. You can get Larry at the car wash to hump cables for you. You can shoot on weekends. You can ask Mom to cook for the cast and crew.

On a TV series, though, you're doing multiple episodes. A season might take professionals three to six months to shoot, depending on the number of episodes; and then there's prep, and post. No one can work for free for six months.

If you want to do something yourself, I would stick to something smaller in scope. A series of two minute spots for the Internet. I suspect more work went into the LonelyGirl15 series than is obvious, but that's at least the sort of thing that you could do well. And if it takes off, you can monetize it with sponsorship or advertising or even DVD sales, as Têtes à Claques did.

I applaud your desire to do something yourself. But there is a reason we do things the way we do in our business. To be successful you need to be working on something that you can make as well as anyone else working in the field. You can't make a narrative TV show as well as Fox can. But there is no reason you can't make a clever Web series that doesn't depend on production value. So I'd concentrate on that.