The Trotsky, Notsky

Courtesy of Telefilm I'm in a seminar full of idealicious goodies, one of which was getting to hear a slew of distribution execs talk about what makes movies work. The consensus seems to be that THE TROTSKY is a funny movie with lovely performances, beautifully directed, which should attract kids ... and the title hurt it in the market. Kids, the natural audience, don't hear "THE TROTSKY" and think, "I should go see that!" or even "I wonder what that's about?"

As opposed to, say, KNOCKED UP or THE HANGOVER. Or even GET HIM TO THE GREEK.

Your title is the most important few words in your entire script or movie. It can make a movie -- YOUNG PEOPLE F***ING practically sold itself. ("Everyone thought it was porn. We should put the word "f***ing" in every title," said the panel.) It can hold a great movie back -- think of THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, which is possibly the worst title ever given to a feel-good movie. And it can sink a small release.

Unless you have an absolutely awesome title already, spend a few days doing nothing but coming up with titles. You won't regret it.

SONY Has No Serial Number Mojo

So a while back Hunter's Xbox 360 did a face plant. So I called up Microsoft. Much as I hate to say a kind word about Microsoft, they checked the serial number and said, yep, your unit is under warranty.

A couple of weeks ago, I took my Macbook into the shop to get the fan fixed. The tech called back to say, by the way, your case is cracked, and that's under warranty, so I'm ordering you a new case. Because according to Apple, that unit, with that serial number, is under warranty.

A month ago, Hunter's PS3 got the Red Screen of Death. Safe Mode does not recover. So I call up SONY, and they say they are "unable to populate a date of purchase," which is SONY for, "If you don't have the receipt, it's $156."

Gee, thanks a lot, SONY. It's nice that your unit is a Blu-Ray player and has wireless, except right now it isn't and it doesn't because it is broken. And even though it's under a year old, you won't fix it, because it's a gift, and it didn't come with a receipt.

It certainly would be very easy for SONY to have a database of serial numbers and when those units shipped. They probably do have one. They just don't care enough about their consumers -- or they care too much about their repair profit centers -- to use it.

Boo SONY!

James Manos at Banff, Part Two

Manos got to write DEXTER because he was one of a few lucky writers asked to read the underlying book, DARKLY DREAMING DEXTER, and give Showtime his “take.” He’d never adapted someone else’s material before – and he swears he never will again. But he thinks he was the writer the network wanted in the first place, because he’d written black comedy called “The Slow and Complete Decompensation of Jim Manos” which was about a writer named James Manos and his terrible marriage. (Moral: write something close to your heart, and even if it doesn’t get made, it may get you the job. Lisa has a strangely compelling pilot about growing up in California in the 70’s. Hard to set up, particularly in Canada, but close to her heart.)

His questions were: how do you give a serial killer series legs? How do you make it not predictable? He was interested in Dexter’s efforts to try to be a “real boy” – the Pinocchio story if you will. He liked Dexter’s relationship with his stepfather, who knew he was a psychopath but chose not to separate him from the world. He “taught his kid how to live with the way he’s broken.” Manos calls that “a Christian act,” even if he was teaching his son how to get away with murder:

Because who wouldn’t kill a pedophile, a rapist, a murder? Because I do believe in violence. Look at IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE. Jimmy Stewart is pissed off throughout the movie. He can’t do what he wants to do. And Jesus was angry. Anger initiates some very positive things. I have a friend who’s a Buddhist, and I told him: name me a Buddhist who’s invented something.

Anger is a great fuel for writing scripts. If you can tap into that, it will give you something to write about.

No Discrimination Against Directors!

Q. Members of the Writers Guild of America's West and East branches strongly approved an overhaul to the way in which adapted screenplay credits are awarded, the union announced Friday.

Under the new rules, producers or directors who co-write a film have to make a 33 percent contribution to receive credit on an adapted screenplay. Previously, they had to make a 50 percent contribution to earn credit.

Via.

What's a One Sheet?

Q. What's a one-sheet?

As far as I know, this term means two things. The term "one-sheet" means a 27" by 40" movie poster, the kind you see in a movie theater. Billboards have things like 20-sheets and 40-sheets.

But I've also heard "one sheet" used to mean an 8 1/2" x 11" glossy with the promotional art for the movie (i.e. a mockup of the poster art), with a synopsis on the flip side, with the bankable elements (director, stars) prominently displayed.

If someone is asking you for a "one-sheet" of a film, that's probably what they mean.

PS Writeups of my Banff master classes are coming. Really, they are.

Where Angels Fear to Tread

Q. What should I do, if I'm a young Russian screenwriter? How could I move to Hollywood or Canada at least? My screenwriting skills are sharp, but I can write only in Russian.

I would think the best choice is to tough it out in the Russian film industry.

Second best choice, turn yourself into a Russian director or editor. They are entirely different jobs but they are all storytellers.

You could also team up with an American co-writer. You could be the story and structure guy, she could be the dialogue gal.

It is not impossible to turn yourself into an American screenwriter yourself, but you have to spend a few years developing flawless fluent American. It is rare, and it is hard, but it is not impossible. Vladimir Nabokov wrote a couple of pretty good books in English. And Billy Wilder grew up speaking German, and he wrote a few good lines of dialogue.

Looking Good in Shorts

If you are a young or youngish Quebec-based screenwriter, whether you write in English or French, check out SODEC's "Cours Après Ton Court" aka "Sprint for Your Script." It's a program for writers 18-35 who are "pursuing a professional writing career," that is, no currently enrolled students. There's mentorship, and nifty prizes. Deadline is August 9. Check it out at the official SODEC site.

James Manos at Banff, Part One

I sat in on James Manos’s “master class” at the Banff Worldwide Television Festival. Manos, the creator of DEXTER, talks a mile a minute, but I was able to scribble down some of the most important points.

Backstory

Manos avoided a career in pro basketball when he realized that at 5’ 10” he was going to have to work too hard to keep up with the other players. He went into acting, did summer stock, and wound up at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London.

He says he “wasn’t intending to be an actor,” but “it’s imperative to know what you’re asking someone to do.” (I found the same thing: one of the most useful writing and directing classes I took was two years at the Joanne Baron Studio studying Meisner Technique acting. I didn’t want to act either, but it taught me a lot about how scenes work, and it helps me listen to my characters.)

I would not necessarily be surprised if he was eliding a few fits and starts here – no one likes to talk about things that didn’t work – but soon he read about a Texas mom who allegedly tried to help her daughter get on the cheerleading squad by hiring a hit man to kill her daughter’s rival’s mom. Figuring he was never going to get into Hollywood unless he had something that everyone else wanted, he “borrowed $150,000 from a friend” and went down to Channelview Texas, wondering if there was something in the air that made everyone down there nuts. He was surprised to discover the town flooded with limousines – Hollywood producers who were also down there to buy the story. But he got the rights.

If I scribbled this down correctly, he wrote up a 20 page treatment and took it to Bob Cooper at HBO, who immediately optioned it, and they hired a writer, and Manos was off to the races – as a producer.

To be continued...