The "Others"

The "Others"

A week or so ago I received email from the Writer's Guild (WGA) of which I am a member. For the record I'm also in the Canadian writer's guild, WGC. I get emails from both but this time it came close to home, from WGA.

Once a year, WGA arranges to possibly find work for the following under the category of the following people;
Minority writers
Writers with disabilities
Women writers
Writers age 55 and over
LBGT writers.


In plain speak, this is the WGA's way of saying they're helping the above categories. And where do I come in?

Writers age 55 and over.

Or as my woman writer friend says, "older men are now in with women writers."

So what am I going to do? Well, go for it, eh. I am over 55, I think maybe 98 but that's more like I feel.

So what is it all about?

It means that all of the above can send in a TV script and or a spec script and maybe a screenplay, I'm not sure of all of it.

Who do they/me send it to?

To current showrunners, people who are writer/producers. They're the people who make decisions as to who to hire and who to fire and who deals with the networks and other stuff. 

But first it goes thru WGA biz and then the showrunners will read all of the submissions, maybe a few thousand, maybe less. Then they pick the ones that might have the chops, as they say.

And what happens?

You, me and anyone else of the group can get to meet the showrunners and even maybe get a script deal out of them. Or stay with them forever.

So I sent my S.O.B. script to them. By the way, there are no names on the script, so as to make sure that the showrunners don't know who sent a script and friends don't sneak in.

This is a difficult thing to deal with in another way. Everyone on that list above is valid for this kind of deal. But most of them are unhappy about one category.

Writers over 55.

Why? Because we're the majority group - men - old men. 

So is it fair? Remember there are no names on the scripts so showrunners don't know if the script they read is from an LGBT writer or an old man or an angry woman. And they are angry. 

There's a great article in last weeks LA Weekly about it and I'm going to try to post it on my blog later.

What do I think? I think I have a greater chance being a man since there's more of us than the other groups. Having said that I will now realize I have lost my chances. A Catholic thing. Don't brag.

But I am a good writer for women's roles, and I can verify it. Jody Foster's company, Smart Egg called me in because they didn't believe a man wrote a screenplay they were contemplating. If you want more, I can send that too.

It's a tough one, and I really wouldn't want to be in any of the other groups, I like where I am. 

But whomever wins a shot with some showrunners, we're a lot better than DGA aka Director's Guild of America. 

They're not doing anything like WGA at all. My director friend over 60 is very angry because nobody hires him anymore.

But he's done well for himself, and doesn't really need the money. Just a movie now and then.

So should I take a potential writing job from a woman because the majority of writers over 55 are probably twenty times as many as women. Maybe forty or fifty times?
First of all, there is no guarantee for me to get a job.

And since the scripts have no names, it's pretty hard to see who gets a job.

One story; I was working on a series in Vancouver with two male writers and a female intern writer. I was there for 2 weeks and noticed immediately that the two male writers had the girl running for coffee and errands.  On the third day I took her aside and told her to tell them to get their own coffee and all the other crap.

She slowly did that, with my help and ended up in my office learning a few things here and there. I left after the 2 weeks and she thanked me for the help. Ten years later I saw her at a studio and she was now a showrunner herself. And she did remember me, very much.

So you can't say that I was one of those jerks.   

But I've said this more than once and I repeat it;

The best thing about writers is that they can write. They don't need actors or crews or directors! Everyone else on the crew has to be hired, the actors, the camera "people" and the director. Writers however, depending on how much money they have or need, can always write and sell something.

I've sold five spec scripts and have about twenty more hanging on "the shelf."

Content, as Machio Kaku says, will always be needed a hundred years from now. 

Writers don't need anyone in order to write a story. Just a reasonably working laptop or whatever.

Remember, they need us more than we need them.

New screenplay to try...

Finally decided on my next spec script. Haven't really written one since S.O.B., the pilot that's running around looking for a home.

In case you forgot, it's about two women who had married the same man, not at the same time. One was in her 50's, the other was 22. And they have inherited their ex husband's a falling apart Private Investigation company. Actually a store-front on Ventura Boulevard.

And the S.O.B. isn't what you think. Rather it is a real estate term referring to homes being on the south side of Ventura Boulevard have more esteem than the south side. 

Thus S.O.B. South of the Boulevard. 

It's already been registered so I'm not worried. 

So my new one is a TV movie, of which I spoke of in the last few blogs. While the old TV movies ended around 2008, I am going for the new "TV movies" which can still connect with some networks like Hallmark (yes, the Hallmark company makes lots of them) and also Lifetime and SyFy networks.

True, there isn't the amount of TV movies around. But there are series all over the place and new networks I haven't even seen yet have short series. TV is certainly taken over theatrical movies and I don't really think that the Oscar lot isn't all that great. In fact the last few oscar players weren't all that good either.

So my new movie, also registered, is a flashback movie, a young girl getting married falls down just about when she is to get married and is suddenly back in the 1960's searching for a lost family heirloom that her grandmother lost when she was to marry. And to make it even a little more I'm throwing in the moon landing.

The moon landing?

Well, it was the 60's, after all. Why not? 1969!!

I'm just starting to play with the story, using my favorite software, Power Structure. No sales here, I just like it.

And finally, I'm going to show you a script that has been hanging along since 1985. 

Before  Strange Things.

Before Walking Dead.

Two words: Burger Zombies.

 
 Beware.

Survival list for screenwriters

Survival list for screenwriters

There's probably a lot of writers who have posted their particular ways of surviving the craft or at least hanging on. Here's my suggestions;

1. Just because someone wants to read your script, they probably will say it was nice and if you have anything else.

2. When you get two or three or even six people interested in your script, they'll probably disappear within a week.

3. If you only have one script, you might as well quit. 

4. If you have ten specs on your shelf, you might have a career. And your writing will have improved.

5. If you have thirty-two specs on your shelf, you have a career. And you'll be really good at this writing game.

6. Buy a guitar and learn how to impress everyone with your version of Stairway To Heaven.

7. Find a favorite place to go to when your deal falls through. I go to the Reel Inn on Ocean hwy near Topanga and then to Serra Retreat in Malibu where you get the best view of Malibu there is, and you can contemplate. I don't, but it's a nice place to hang out for an hour or two.

8. Listen to Creedence Clearwater Revival's best hits.

9. Consider reading Gone Girl but don't do it. It'll just make you more unhappy.

10. Encourage your friend who just sold a script as much as you can, not because you are happy for them, but maybe he'll take one of your scripts in to his contact.

11. When you're out of ideas, watch as many episodes of Twilight Zone because almost every idea was done and you can copy it.

12. When you have a lot of ideas, find the one you like the least.

13. Make sure you get a 310 area code, and 818 and 323 because the others will show that you're an amateur.

14. Avoid writing at Starbucks, no script ever written there was ever made. Instead watch the people.

15.  When someone calls you on the phone to buy a script you forgot about, ask them why they chose that script.

Or just ignore me, it's Wednesday and I'm way behind everything.

Now What

Sorry for stretching something to keep you interest while having to understand what the hell all of we are trying to deal what or why has our lovely planet is. I'm going to pick some from the past for a while why I'll try to find some stories that were interesting.

And I'll probably find something, maybe how about stories from my book  How Not To Get Beat-up In A Small Town Bar. Also some notes from my UCLA courses. And some from my other book called The Working Writer's Screenplay. And my novel about my life in 1960, called Emperor of Mars.

And you don't have to buy anything.

But you can see my books on Amazon. And you don't have to buy anything.

And if I dare --- photos?

Sort of like starting a new life?

I think all of us should.

But always hang around just to remember.

And my "blog" on Ghostkeeper which I write more stories as well as my screenwriter book where we get people talk about it and them.

Okay, I promise to stop here.

Okay, I'm getting back to what was going before what happened. My producer wanted me to do some stuff for him to look at it. But I really didn't want to change it much. However he said he'd do it so I said okay, okay.

I don't really know if anything started with me, and with my age unlikely to help me, it might not happen. I'm up here in Canada and much less to worry. California has more people than all of Canada. The whole Canada!!

So my producer guy is going to do his changes and we'll all be happy.

And now, I have the French people who were supposed to make our movie around May or so. But it's not gonna happen that close. And maybe later than fall. Maybe. If we really make the movie in the fall I'll stay in Canada because of one thing. As mentioned before, Euro's taxes are 31% while Canada and U.S. are far lower.

And another point is that I really wouldn't have much fun as my french is not all that great even though I learned French in high school. I would hope to my producer, now changing some things will be U.S. and I can hang with my friends from Sherman Oaks.

I also will try to get a screenplay I wrote that has a director who wants to make it, but he still hasn't found money. And of course there's a lot of problems for our little old planet.

And I've got around 40 screenplays hanging around when I was a hot guy and a hot agency. But that may not be as hot as now. I also have to find a horror company took my film without paying. And the movie Ghostkeeper is selling by him. And he doesn't have any money for me. So, fighting might be a problem because the former company ended in 2015!

And by the way, you can see Ghostkeeper on imdb and Wikipedia (which has more info).

Okay we're back again. It consisted that my blog went blog-crazy and I couldn't find the guy who fixed it in the first place. So by now I've become one of those who hang on to doing their way and I didn't like that way.

Now, where the hell are we? What is going on? I'm considering some of the material I've run for years and formerly since I began this thing I still have hours and hours for 10 years and coming up in 2010, as it is now. 

But there's a glitch. What do we want to know now. What can we do to write and read and make stories for what now is The Past. Yes, the past. This is the big break with what we knew then and what we don't know what.

Well, where will you read me and where will I will read. I'l figure on bringing up a fair amount of what you haven't seen, coming from the past. So I'm still writing and looking for for stuff to bring back some things that could be played with.

This is a different world now, one can think that it's finally the World War 3 we've been waiting for but not by humans. They got the book right now, they know our weakness and so it goes. 

But we can still write.