Inspirational

I've been reading John Gaspard's Fast, Cheap and Under Control lately. It's a flock of interviews with directors who made low budget features, from arty (Eraserhead) to exploitative (Grand Theft Auto) to indie (sex, lies and videotape). Gaspard draws an assortment of morals from the stories that you may find useful if you're planning to perpetrate your own low budget feature. Worth the read.

Fresh Hell

Watched Sopranos, "The Fleshy Part of the Thigh," last night, to see if I want to get back into watching the show.

I'd forgotten how unhappy that show makes me. It makes the world feel dirty.

Not saying it's not an excellent show. It just has a profoundly sick view of the world. After an episode of The Sopranos, I'm a little more afraid.

After an episode of Slings and Arrows, by contrast, I feel thrilled about love, the world, and theatre. It makes me delighted at what I'm doing for a living.

I think we'll keep The Movie Network for Slings and Arrows's sake. But I'm going to skip getting back into Tony Soprano's life. It's just not an existence I want to hang out in.

And yet, weirdly, I love Rome. I guess the difference is that the violence in Rome is part of the sweep of history. Octavian's cold-hearted clawing his way to absolute power creates the Roman Empire as we know it. (And what did the Romans ever do for us? Well, aqueducts...) I don't mind slaughter. I just want there to be a point to it.

I guess I'd rather see immoral acts committed by moral people than by immoral ones. And I want people to finish an episode with a feeling that there are more possibilities in the world than they might have guessed. (More things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio...) Rather than feeling that no matter what you achieve, someone will screw you out of it.

What feeling does your spec pilot leave your audience with?

The pilot I'm working on now is pretty dark. Or at least it is when I step back and think about it. When I'm in it, it just feels like life and metaphysics. I wonder what David Chase thinks about his creations, and if he's ready to write a musical comedy about mistaken identities?

UPDATE: Not so much. Via DMc

What's a Spec Pilot For?

Q. When writing a spec pilot should I spend a lot of time on the bible or, as a writing sample, is it more important to prove I can write an original five-act script that conforms to television parameters? I would, of course, set up relationships and introduce conflict that would continue throughout the series but how important is it to know where the show is going? What are the chances the spec pilot would ever function as anything other than a writing sample?

You wouldn't be the first writer to write a spec without knowing where the show is going. Just look at J. J. Abrams and LOST. Or Aaron Sorkin and STUDIO 60. Many big showrunners sell the pilot and then arc out the show when they have staff.

(That's not how I do it. But up here in Canada you can option a bible and get paid to write a pilot. In fact, that's what's paying my mortgage right now.)

When you circulate a spec pilot, you're not circulating the bible with it. You're sending around an excellent half hour or hour of television that tells a single story and introduces an arc of future stories. You want people to finish the script and think, "Wow. That was great. I'm dying to find out what happens next."

Usually the pilot asks the driving question. "How can we get off this damn island?" (LOST, GILLIGAN'S ISLAND) "Who do I want to be when I grow up?" (FELICITY, etc.) "Will Sam and Diane ever get along?" (CHEERS)

I think you probably want to know where your series is headed. It's a good idea to know where Season One is going to end. It's a good idea to have an answer for "What's the 100th episode of this series?" But more specific than that, I don't think you need to be.

What are the odds of selling your pilot? Tiny. It's mostly a writing sample. So take risks. It's more important to write a memorable pilot than one that would make it easy for you to write the season. If your pilot gets set up, you'll have help solving the problems you set yourself. If your pilot is not memorable, it won't get set up anyway, no matter how "well wrought" it is in the abstract.

Finding an Individual Agent

Q. Many of the agencies do not list literary agents, but President or VP only (in the case of Above the Line Agency). Should I phone and get a name of an agent within the company or send it to one of them? Also, many agencies have a listing of several agents. What is the best way to determine which agent to send to?

If you can get an answer over the phone, great. Many agents won't tell you who's the young, hungry agent. They figure if you don't know, they don't want you.

You could also Google the agency and see whose names pop up. Or, write to the VP. The assistant may forward your query to a young, hungry agent. Or he may read the script himself. (The assistant, not the VP.) Either way you're better off than querying the agency itself.

UPDATE: As Tenspeed and Brownshoe points out, the best way to find out an individual agent is through the IMDBPro.

How to Skip DVD Intros

A while back I complained about being forced to watch the same dumb FBI and Interpol warnings.

This handy website explains some neat tricks for avoiding the un-fastforwardable warnings.

Homework

My recent post on spec scripts prompted the usual slew of questions about whether one should spec this or that show.

I don't know.. I am not currently trying to write a spec script, so I haven't done the research. Which means I'm just guessing. Shows go in and out of favor as a spec. As Shawn noted in an earlier post, Cold Case is out. Criminal Minds is in. Go figure why.

So I would like to ask those blog readers who have agents to do a bit of homework for us. Please ask your agent's assistant what the hot specs are these days, in general. And post the answer in the comments.

Thanks!

PS There is the ongoing question whether you should spec an episode or a pilot. My feeling is you need one of each these days. I wouldn't hire someone if they couldn't show me at least one kickass spec episode, no matter how good their pilot was. Writing a spec episode is also better practice; and writing a great spec episode is a hell of a lot easier than writing a great spec pilot.

What Was That Movie...?

I'm watching La Grande Séduction, an utterly charming Québecois movie about a small town that must persuade a doctor to come and stay in order to get a factory that will save them from oblivion.

It's the sort of movie that isn't a brilliantly new idea, but is done with heart and charm and lovely characters. Québec seems to make a lot of successful movies like these. You couldn't accuse Les Boys of being a particularly original sports movie. Horloge Biologique showed three guys freaking out about their girlfriends' fertility -- nothing super new there. It's all in the execution. And the execution here is lovely.

But it's bugging me, O Hive Mind, that I can't remember the movie from the 80's where some Tom Hanks-like executive who works for some Gregory Peck-like rich guy is scouting a small town because he wants to buy it to build a factory there is planning to install some kind of factory that will destroy a small Scottish fishing town, and he comes, and the village charms him, and the magnate decides not to build the factory, and the exec decides to settle down in the town...?

UPDATE: Bill Cunningham nailed it: Local Hero, starring Burt Lancaster and Peter Riegert!

Short Advice

In about eight weeks, we plan to be shooting my short, Twelve Ways to Say 'I'm Sorry', on a budget of about $20K.

What books do y'all recommend on shooting a low-budget film and/or a short? What are the most useful books you've read on the specifics of do-it-yourself production? Of nuts and bolts directing?