writer Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Hey! It's your old friend Patrick Walsh! Remember me? I used to run a writing column here with the ingenious title "The Write Stuff?" (Check out all 25 previous posts here.) I answered your screenwriting questions, offered advice, and conducted interviews with film and television writers? I look like Brad Pitt, but with better abs? There you go. You remember. Anyhoo, when last we spoke I had been staffed on the FX comedy It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and I'm still there. It's a dream job, and I intend to share my experiences on the show with you closer to the season premiere in September. But for now I want to tell you about a great way for you (yes, you!) to break in to the big time: NBC's Writers on the Verge program.

If this seems like a shameless advertisement, know that it's only because I myself am a graduate of the program and I absolutely loved it. I am NOT doing this because I am receiving money from anyone at NBC. (Though Lord knows if NBC would like to give me some money, I will gladly accept it. You hear me, Zucker? GLADLY.)

Now then. You've got questions. I've got answers.

Welcome back to The Write Stuff, where I've been attempting to answer a question that dates back to the beginning of time:

How do writers get jobs on TV writing staffs? Do they have to write spec scripts?

For Part One of this answer, please refer to last week's Write Stuff, where we talked about putting together a portfolio of writing samples. Once you have a good mix of spec scripts and original material, that's the time to start the process of getting an agent. I've covered agent hunting in this column before, so I won't get too deeply into the specifics, but the key is not to give up. If you think you've got talent, stick to your guns. The people who make it in this business are the ones who face countless rejections, but don't throw in the towel. Just the fact that you have completed scripts will make you more enticing to agencies. So many people in Los Angeles walk around telling everyone "I'm a writer, I'm hilarious, look at me, love me!" but they've never finished a script! So many people! People out here think they're so wonderful and talented that big cheeses should be begging for their services. That attitude will get you into trouble. Perfect your material before you even consider heading out. You want to be rich and famous immediately, you're excited, but don't start selling yourself until you've got the genuine goods to sell.

When you do have your portfolio together and land that agent, the agent will send your material to network executives and development people. If these execs like your stuff, they will call you in for a general staffing meeting. These meetings are to make sure that they like you as a person, and that you would fit in on the writing staff of one of the network's programs. If an executive digs your writing and likes you as a human being, he or she may send your material to a show runner. The show runner reads your stuff, and if he or she likes the material, he or she will call you in for a...show runner meeting. These are very exciting, because they're generally the last step before you find out if you landed on a show or if it's back to turning tricks on Santa Monica Boulevard.

Must...block out...painful memories...

Welcome to the Thanksgiving edition of The Write Stuff!

Thanksgiving is always rough on a screenwriter. You're usually seeing a lot of friends and family, and while they (candied) yammer on about their accomplishments, you have to start all of your sentences with: "We're still waiting to hear on that one..." and "Our agent says we're really close..." and "Grandma, let me explain the WGA strike to you one more time..."

But there is a great deal to be thankful for this year. On Monday, still happy and groggy from a weekend of gorging, representatives from the WGA and the AMPTP will resume talks. Ideally, each side will come away happy and we can end this strike. From a personal note, my writing career was right on the verge of kicking into high gear when the strike was announced, and I certainly don't want to lose that upward momentum. And looking at the bigger picture, we're a month away from Christmas here. Who wants to see not just writers but everyone who works in and around the entertainment industry desperately struggling to pay the bills? The grips, the gaffers, the assistants, the dry cleaners...these people are out of work, too.

So send your good vibes to the negotiating table on Monday. And if you think there's nothing you can do, you're wrong. You can electronically sign this petition to the AMPTP, which starts: "We, the undersigned, fully support the strike of the Writers Guild of America, and agree with the WGA's stated goals of obtaining just and fair compensation regarding revenues generated through "new media". The petition currently has 57, 695 signatures, which is extremely impressive. Won't you add yours?

It's Write Stuff time again, and what a crazy time to be a writer! As I'm sure you've heard, on Cinematical and everywhere else, the Writers Guild of America has officially gone on strike. There's not much I can say on the subject that hasn't been better said already-- check out great statements from writers Judd Apatow (Knocked Up), Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Shawn Ryan (The Shield) -- but I am in complete and total support of the strike.

This isn't rich people trying to get richer, as it may seem to a casual observer. Only a handful of writers command the incredible salaries you read about on sites like this one. This strike is about writers wanting only what is fair, now and into the future. Writers get no respect these days. Even a casual film fan can name hundreds of actors and 20 or 30 directors with ease, but how many screenwriters can they name? Plain and simple, without screenwriters those actors have nothing to say. Those directors have nothing to direct. Movies and television would cease to exist, unless The Bachelor 38 is your idea of quality entertainment. These are working people just like anyone else, a Hollywood area code doesn't change that. Their demands are far from outrageous, and it's time to give these talented men and women the respect they deserve. You can find me on the picket lines this week.

Moving on to less stressful matters, let me pop open the old mail bag for three questions from commenter Jim...

Pictured: My writing partner and I at the 1997 Academy Awards.

Last week, I recommended taking on a writing partner to someone having trouble with story ideas. You can check that entry out here. I received a lot of comments and questions about the ins and outs of writing partnerships, so I'm devoting today's post entirely to that subject. I speak from experience here, I have had a writing partner for two years. I'd like to give you a completely honest look at how the two of us write, warts and all, and the pros and cons of being in a partnership.

My writing partner Sonny and I met while Pages at NBC. As a Page, I wrote a play that I was really happy with. I did a read-through with my friends that went really well, and I nearly got the show produced in New York. And then Garden State came out, and had roughly the same premise. Damn you, Braff! Months later, Sonny was unhappy at his job, called me at 3AM, and asked if I'd like to write a television pilot about our experiences as Pages with him. We embarked on a lot of hung-over Saturday morning writing sessions with no pressure, no deadlines, and frequent breaks for pizza and episodes of Undeclared on DVD.

That lack of stress changed pretty quickly once our script was enthusiastically received. The next thing we knew, we were flying out to Los Angeles a couple of times a month and signing with agents. Once agents entered the fray, we quit our (well) paying gigs in New York and made the trip to La La Land. Now, we weren't writing for fun, we were writing to survive. This put a lot more pressure on us as a writing partnership and even as friends. We worked through it fairly quickly, but this is why it is a good idea to discuss details and "rules" of your partnership early on, even if you're good pals and it's an awkward conversation. Sonny and I never did this, so when we had to bring up issues down the line, things got strained. Below are five major points I learned from the issues (formerly) in my partnership:

When I reported on Steven Spielberg's re-ignited passion with video games, I had commented on his ability to multitask. But, it looks like writing is not going to be one of those tasks any time soon. Variety has reported that Paramount has hired Jonah Nolan (brother of Christopher) to script Spielberg's upcoming project Interstellar. To be fair, Spielberg is going to be pretty busy with Indiana Jones 4, Tintin, and that Abraham Lincoln project that seems to be forever being pushed back (Liam Neeson recently told us that its still in the earliest stages of development.) So, it's not surprising that Spielberg would look for a little help with Interstellar.

The film was inspired by the worm-hole theories of Caltech physicist Kip S. Thorne, an expert on theories of relativity. The story will follow explorers that travel into other dimensions. The film is still awhile off, since the script has not even been started, and it's not like Spielberg is the only one with prior commitments. Nolan will be working his brother Christopher again on The Dark Knight and he has to finish the script for The Chicago Fire for Warner Bros. before he can start work on Interstellar. Spielberg is going to have his hands full, so I doubt he's going to be in a rush.

To be honest, in all the rush of the holidays I never got around to watching Night At The Museum, granted I'm not a huge Ben Stiller fan, but I got the occasional chuckle out of the trailer. Well, in the end it looks like I didn't really miss out on anything unforgettable. I never really thought Stiller would be a good fit for family films; I always thought his comedy worked best when it could get a little more "adult". If you've seen the SNL digital short by Adam McKay about a one night stand with Glen Frey then you know what I mean.

Production Weekly announced that Stiller and writing partner Justin Theroux are set to begin production on their comedy Tropic Thunder. The story would follow a film crew besieged by problems, including being mistaken for commandos in a local war on location, all while trying to make a big budget epic war movie. So I can only assume the plot is Stiller's nod to his humble beginnings in Steven Spielberg's Empire of The Sun. Stiller is set to direct the film with principal photography scheduled to begin this July. Hopefully the laughs will be kept PG-13 at the very least.