What not to do

I've talked a lot about what I've done well, or mostly in terms of getting jobs for companies. But I didn't get jobs for one reason or another. When I was doing a lot of work I began to get "meets" with producers at the various studios. I was really excited about meeting people who's names were on the big screen as producers. 

Me? Meeting those big guys and girls. I remember meeting Steve Tisch at Paramount where he made Forrest Gump for those who remember it. With Tom Hanks. And now I was going to meet Tisch myself. Just me and him.

Well, not quite me and him. His guy was there to take me to Tisch in his offices near Paramount. I drove in and parked my SUV in a special spot. After I entered his person walked me to his office.

We walked in and Tisch stood up from his desk in a huge desk and walked up to me, saying "Mr. Emperor of Mars". That was the screenplay that my agent had sent to him before. I sat down and we talked about half an hour, Tisch was very friendly and likeable. Then I left, confident I had a job. After a week, nothing happened. 

I began to learn that meeting and doing is not very often. In fact most of the time. But, hey, I got into the big boys offices. And big girls too. I had a meet with a woman director who came from TV and made a feature. I met her female assistant who talked with me for about 20 minutes until the woman director came into the room, we talked a little, us three and then I asked what she wanted. She looked coldly into my eyes and said "A 5 million opening."

So much for being friends.

I was learning that meeting isn't always a meeting.

I also had a meeting with two writers of whom I sort of knew and also didn't really like them. I knew that because I worked on a TV show bigger than their new series and didn't like me to be better than them.  They interviewed me, I showed them Emperor of Mars again and they said it wasn't very good.

Then they told me they were doing a 3 Musketeers version with, get this... they would talk like hipsters. It was an idiotic idea. And at that time, I just stood up and walked out. Maybe not a good thing but I knew they wouldn't use me. A few months later the series lasted two weeks. I smiled.

Okay, I'm saving the big one.

I had a meeting at Universal with two people working for Stephen Spielberg and I was excited. I drove in again, and parked in their parking lot. By this time I was pretty good in talking about my screenplays and felt confident.

We talked for almost an hour and I talked probably too much. But when I left I was full with lots of the things we talked about. But when I got home, my agent said they weren't able to work with me.

Ouch.

Yes, they didn't want to work with me because I was too hard to work with. This was the biggest hit at me I've ever seen. They were right. I was too hard to deal with, as I thought later.

I still remember that day. Killer.

A few years later I met one of them working with Spielberg's company and we talked a little more, he said the woman didn't quite like me and that she held the power. Goes to show you. Power is everything and it can go any direction.

A few years later I got a job on a series in Canada, I mentioned this some time back in the blog. I was to meet those two writers, one of which never wrote anything, but got a producer credit. We were at a hotel in Vancouver and they didn't seem to like me or my writing. They called me into one room and said I'm out. They read my script and didn't think it was good.

Well, I prepped to go back to LA next morning, the real writer of the two said they were taking me on for the season. As I mentioned before, it turned out that the studio in Toronto insisted on me. Or maybe they would have to pay me 4 months at $2000 wk.

It's interesting that I somehow made a batch of movies and series and stayed on the shows. Those above were pretty much the only ones.

But the worst one was in Spielberg's office with the two people would turn me down because I didn't want to change scenes because I taught I knew. I guess I didn't. It follows me for the rest of my life.

I could have written a screenplay from one of the most biggest directors there is. 



Director post was in Venice Beach. Not mine

Ghostkeeper keeps going today

Okay, this is Ghostkeeper on the day I had to get rid of it. And yes, it's actually in 16 mm film. This was for films that were sent around for distribution for video. Remember the movie was made in 35 mm and quite good while the distribution by 16mm, was run probably over a hundred times 

You can see a full copy framed to the right.

Most of you have probably seen enough about Ghostkeeper but I still more information as it grows.  So here's what I filmed in 1980 in the winter of the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

 Here's a few photos, with Murray and Riva and below, me with my touque standing with snow falling for real.


 

So that's where we were in 1980. I actually fell asleep one time and was covered with snow while waiting for the crew to finish.

But Ghostkeeper did get it made and then ---

We got an distributor to spread the word. But unfortunately, he took most of the money he got for us and kept it for him. So we had a movie but could not get an distrib who was honest. The first time we sold a print to an agent who actually did make sales. 

But again, we hardly made money.

Then our "distributor"newly sent out a whole lot of prints abroad and we got some really crazy covers. I like the one on the previous blog with the south American tone, with pyramids and crazy creatures.

At least we got a little bit of money. But those odd movies became videos for the first time by an American company that now has been gone for 20 years.

Then a distributor appeard. Bill Wilsen.

He really wanted to use the 35mm prints we already had but nobody was interested in the movie and would pay for it. As well as distribute. That was just the beginning of DVD's and that was what he wanted. Bill was an honest distributor and is still working with us. Today he also has created really good Blu-ray movies out of our hold 35mm prints.

We even got our video version from Trash Palace in Toronto, since our film was already getting more and more people buying DVD's and especially Blu-ray. Basically the idea is to watch older prints and since Gkpr was 1980, and discovered by someone else, it was the perfect thing. I flew to Toronto and arrived at the Palace and had a lot of fun making jokes in the movie. 

Here's one of the odd posters that were made, I heard that horror fans manage to find ever stranger posts. I like the previous one last week with the desert somewhere in Africa.

Funny how a movie can be made and be lost and bigger than video and DVD and now up to Blu-ray. And a lot of articles following from people I've never known. I've wanted to do a sequel, and already but haven't talked to the hotel that worked so well.

But my favorite screenplay was Betrayal of Silence (Lifetime Channel changed title) about young street people being grabbed by a religious group. I got the idea as I was driving through Colorado and heard a radio station talking about a young girl who was taken by the group. I'm not particular about religion, sort of Ukrainian Catholic. Try and find it, it might be in youtube.


  

Ghostkeeper

Going out to see the beautiful Rocky Mountains and will be back Monday. I'll hopefully drop by the Deer Lodge where I wrote and directed Ghostkeeper, my first real 35mm movie. 

See you Monday with more on this.





  

Boys & Girls

 

I've had different producers, both male and female. Some are great to work with and others aren't. I do know that women have a harder time, but from my point of view I've seen a lot of waste. I've never really put anybody down, male or female. I don't like writers who want to make it a contest nor do I not like drinkers. Yeah, you see them now and then. Mostly because of pressure although that's mostly that they're not that good.

On one series, I was fired before I was to join. It was with 2 male writers from Toronto and one of them had never written. How did that happen? He talked himself into being a producer-writer. Never had written anything!

The other one was a man who drank a lot on the job. They both didn't like me. I packed my bags and was ready to go. Next morning they "decided" to keep me for a while. I unpacked and stayed for about four months. I found out that the head producer in Toronto wanted me.

It was a hell of a job as the three of us were not fun. The head writer and I had to rewrite every page. And then the bad one would tell everyone he had written it.

There's probably a lot more women working in the film industry, line producers, A.D.'s and others. And again, they seem to become stronger just through practice.

I've never written movies or TV with women as far as I know, but I had one story that might be of interest. I was working in Vancouver on a action TV series with 3 male writer/producers (basically fake credits).  The network wanted me in for a 2-story episode. I had done more work on two episodes than they did.

I had been given a small office, enough for me to work in. The other three were working in "the big room" while I worked in my little office. I knew one writer, and h wasn't really very good but managed to keep working. The other two were people I didn't know.

There was also a young woman there and she seemed to get coffee and do errands for the other three. She passed me a couple of times, said "hi". I finally asked her what she did. She said she was a writer-in-training.

I asked her why she wasn't doing anything except coffee and lunch and anything they wanted.  She said that's all they tell me to do. It wasn't very long for me to work with her, she didn't have to bring coffee, rather she watched me write and what I wrote. We did this until I had to leave and she thanked me. 

It was a long time before I saw her on another Vancouver series when I was visiting a friend of mine, also writing. Then a voice came and I turned to see her. She was now writing and was also a writer producer. She even told the others that I helped her.

So that's basically how it can work, not always, sometimes never, but this time it did.

On the other hand I was working for a woman producer who didn't like anyone, not writers or anyone. She would be playing some kind of digital games all day long. We got into an argument over a scene that I had to fix but she didn't think it had to fix, I said yes, the actors had it down and a director, but she kept at me until I really got mad and finally hurled the phone book (which was handy) past her. This show had a lot of arguments in the "writer's department", which consisted of a large bedroom fixed up with a few desks. 

The odd thing was that I was the only one working in the room. The "writer" who didn't know anything was also being a producer. He and the woman producer were always arguing.  The head writer was rarely seen until someone brought me his writing. He'd show up at the bar.

I had one woman who was 2nd in costumes and other areas with a man as head. I found out the hard way when I heard 2nd was going to take over the 1st. I mentioned that the 1st head let her do the work.

She glared at me and wanted to know if she was good enough.

I had mentioned that she was taking over for a while - that I wondered if she could handle it. But I said that it was great she can do it. Not "you can't do it", but "you can do it." She managed a smile.

From what I see now on TV is a lot of women writing in both countries. But I also saw women head writers really feel pressure but that goes to men writers as much as to younger men writers. There are more women writers now, certainly in Canada and I've watched their shows and they're not bad. Never hired me though.

By the way, the woman I helped didn't hire me!

One last story. I was working in Luxembourg re-writing three screenplays. It was a great gig, working close to France and Belgium and Germany. These screenplays were originally written by other writers. It's quite common. I had a car and an office in a studio and life was great. 

Then a producer with very little experience but somehow managed getting a gig. I had met him in L.A. and a few people told me he's more trouble then help. He came around the last month and found a young guy to be his helper. He was instantly trying to change the script but I managed to keep it going. I also had the help of the director and actors.

Then one morning I saw the lead actress coming up to me and asking me why the script was changed. I didn't know, but knew who it was. She and I had worked about 6 pages for her to read.  I realized it was the producer, using his kid to help. He cut the words down to a page and a half.

I couldn't do anything but I had one thing that would change it.

The lead actress was called Kate Mulgrew. You might know of her - Kathryn Janeway. Yes. Kate was the first woman Captain on Star Trek. And she was still working and found some time to get a gig for a character story between series.

You know what happens. Kate (I had a few dinners with her) was furious. That one thing is this -- you don't tell the lead actor in a huge TV series. So she and I brought the script back again. Maybe a few changes of his... but completely what it was before.  

She even took my original script and walked out on set and told everybody what scene we are going to use, Jim's script.  Ouch.

Producer did not like it. But I managed to stay but I had two screenplays that I had written back in L.A. I decided to go back because they were going to shoot my first film in Winnipeg and I think I did some fixing up on another script there. 

By accident both of my scripts where filmed about a hundred miles away from where I grew up and lived up to twelve years before going to Ontario. 

Funny how movies pop up and down. I did the Belgium movies, two movies of mine in Canada and one in Mexico. One year.

Okay, maybe we're a little bit older.

The Best Time

So I landed back in Toronto. I got another cheap movie for Lionel and looked for something bigger and real. I had written a few scripts, some people looked at it but nothing big. Always felt that Toronto was there to kill me. 

I met Phil again, at the Toronto Film Festival. He had two movies already and we talked about some of the scripts I wrote and that he would pass them around. He also liked one in particular. I didn't mention it before, but Phil shot his film about the same time as mine. However his was a classic western and was a big movie. It was good to see him again and we spent the evening talking scripts. He had someone who wanted a hockey movie, based on a true story about hockey in 1911. I would write it.

Then, I met someone else who changed my life that same night. I had a friend in Vancouver who was also Phil's writer's friend. Phil mentioned that I was a good writer. So I met a few more people at the festival and one of them introduced himself, saying that we both had mutual friends. His name was Paul Lynch, an English director who was raised in Canada. 

Paul had just finished a horror film also, Prom Night, which was a hit. I lamented about my not finding any work as usual in Toronto and that even agents here didn't want me. Paul said that wouldn't be a problem. He had an agent already. In L.A. He would send me to L.A. to meet him. All I had to do is get there.

This time I drove across Canada again and stayed with some friends in Vancouver before the big leap. Finally I drove down I-95 hoping for the agent.

I arrived in L.A. and stayed with my Ghostkeeper distributor and his wife, who was the lead in Ghostkeeper. But Ghostkeeper wasn't big enough. Still, a start. I called the agent, Barry, and ask to meet. He said "my friend is your friend", or something Hollywood-ish.

I met Barry and figured that I will be rolling in money. But as the days went back and the months I began to realize that Paul's agent wasn't that good. I would meet two gangster producers who lived in a house with only one sofa and a few chairs.  I was realizing that Paul's agent wouldn't help me much.

By now I learned that I was "working up" as they say in that I dropped Barry to another agency and started to meet real producers. That lasted for about a year with no meetings. 
Then I got a good agent, or at least he thought he was. He did get meetings for me, but he thought he was the best agent ever. But, like I said, he did intro me to people who liked me and who would get recalls.  Then I got a young agent who liked me and was going to land in a mid-size agency. He called me and said he would want to take me with him.

It began again, and I was getting closer to big agencies. But not yet. I began to get jobs in both U.S. and Canada and also fixing screenplays for movies to shoot. They were mostly TV but also a few features. I was making money. I flew to Luxembourg to rewrite three screenplays and one in Mexico and even wrote two Paramount movies and rewrote two movies in Canada. This was mid-90's.

I still got rewrites from producers which was a lot of fun and I liked doing rewrites. When 2000 came I had continued with TV movies and a few features. Then my agent left his mid-size agency and brought me along. I was now with Paradigm, one of the biggest. But 2000 was going to drown me and to anyone who was in the same case as me. 

It was a little TV show called Survivor. A dozen young people trying to survive with cameras all around them. It took off like a rocket and everyone was watching it. Everyone.

And this was the beginning of what we called "the end of TV movies". I had a few theatricals but mostly TV. As belonging to WGA, we had a party at the Roosevelt Hotel across from the Chinese Theatre to watch our industry change. 

Around 2002 I also taught screenwriting at UCLA online and really enjoyed it. I taught four years and am considering teaching again. I also wrote a book on screenwriting, you can see it on Amazon.
  
Who would have killed TV movies by a bunch of young people on an island trying to beat the other young people. 

There were DVDs but you had to go to them in your car or bike or whatever.

It was pretty slack after that. But it always comes back.

Netflix.

It began with a guy who figured out that if he could slip a DVD into an envelope, well, maybe a lot of people might. And that started it all over again. And now, new fresh movies are being shown by so many companies I can't keep who's who?

So TV movies are still there, new and fresh every week. 

And for me, I have two features hanging on and a new one.

Just gotta clean them up and they just might get sold.  

I've finished my latest screenplay, inspired by my ex who suggested the idea as a road trip for us. We both agreed that a roadtrip we took in 1971 was probably the best time we ever had. So of course I sat down last November and wrote it. 


I also wrote two other books; Emperor of Mars and How To Not Get Beat Up In A Small Town Bar. All three are on Amazon. 

Emperor of Mars features a 12-year old boy in a small town who believes that a Martian is coming to Earth and he has to save the world and his new hot teacher and close his friends. It's based, of course, from my life in a small town. The book has been optioned 8 times and still hasn't been made. The last option had me directing. Still waiting. 

The other book is basically what I love secondly. The highways. It's a collection of real stories that I came upon including road trips to every part of the American west and most of Canada. The title came from a small town in western North Dakota where I got into trouble in a local bar where the town and barely made it out. There's stories about Roswell, small towns, animals, palaces, and movie stories.  

But, basically we can still write stories from a crayon or pen or scratched on a building, they were always done with someone who had an idea. Go out there. 

My First Hollywood Sale

Okay, let's begin again. I have to start over again after a little bit. You've wondering about my ex, we decided to end our marriage. It was quiet and we went our ways. I've left behind almost everything I have but I felt good, moving across America.

There's another part of what I'm doing and why I write,

I don't know if any of you have read Jack Kerouac. If you haven't, you should. His book turned me around as to what I want in life. Jack was part of what was a group of authors whose work and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The most of their work was published and popularized. 

The Beat Generation was a literary movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized throughout the 1950s. Along with that it was called The Beat Generation as well as San Francisco Renaissance.

I found a copy of the biggest book that ever came from them. It was called The Beat Generation. And Kerouac was their leader among others. The book took cross-country drives across America in the early 50's in crazy, mad places and the beginning of what would change writing differently. Buy one.

It slammed into me like a rock. I loved travel since I could remember. Mostly where of my father, whose gift of driving eight hours a day and then find a cheap motel for them, my younger brother and me. I had the sickness that Kerouac had, and I think I knew so was my farther.

And if you really want to see how bad I had to write about it, have a look at my book "How To Not Get Beat Up In Small Town Bar." My newest car today is a 1996 Ford Explorer with over 277,000 miles. And she looks beautiful. I now had the Camaro. Good shape.   cs

Okay, I leave Ontario where my parents and x live. I was going to Hollywood, or L.A. Most people wouldn't enjoy long rides but I love it. I even have a map of dozens of freeways, small roads, anything I could look at. 

I had driven a car from a Detroit sale and gave me 4 days to reach Seattle, bouncing up to Vancouver. But now I was going to L.A. with hopes of writing other screenplays besides Blood Games. I drove the roads that Kerouac drove with his crazy friends. I stopped outside of Amarillo I took some time to see Cadillac Ranch, a bunch of old Cadillac nose up in a field. And on the same day I stopped in "Winslow Arizona" where the Eagles rockers created the song.

So I arrived in L.A. having some Canadian friends who owned a condo. With room for me. I stayed with them for a few weeks after exploring the town and settled with an American friend in a nice area of west LA. I was there.

I had written a screenplay that was running around my head, what with now two women behind me. It's not an easy thing, but I had to have a chance to sell it. Naive as hell. I also had two friends from Canada also and I spent a lot of time with Leo. Thru the weeks I looked for an agent, having no real idea of what I need to do and why.

This was so different than Canada, it was warm for one thing, but also it was "so American". It didn't take long to tell me that I'm not going to get anywhere. I talked to some weird agents and my money was getting low. 

Then I found a woman who had an agency on Hollywood Boulevard, she was nice, friendly and smart. She liked me and I liked her and then I showed her my screenplay. It was a very odd story for me but it was something I wanted to get off.

The story was about a girl's baseball team that go into the redneck territory and when someone gets hurt, the girl's team tries to get out of town. I don't know why or how I wrote it but I thought it was something interesting because the women fought back with the rednecks and in the end... they win (the girls).

My agent liked it, sold it for about $2000 which at that time was non-guild and you take what you get. I was still realizing I had to go back because I couldn't work here and I needed some of Lionel's cheap video movies to make.

While I was hoping to sell the girls script I was more interested in Hollywood. I moved around with other Canadians but I began to realize that I needed a better script than the girls, actually I didn't even want my name on it.

So, after about eight months, I departed with the Camaro. I had car problems in New Mexico and my dad had to pay the repairs over the phone.

I still had the $2000 mostly and managed to see a lot of Kerouac country and hoped one day to write a screenplay like what Kerouac wrote. Small towns, cafes, strange parks, everything I could consume. Some day.

Finally I returned safe and sound. But the movie took a long time and there were changes by a bunch of cheap producers and a fairly good cast for that type of movie. I suppose that became Blood Games and the ballgirls win, although lots of violence. They used what they had and knew it well. I had a really good title but can't remember it.

You can see it on youtube. It's awful. The "other writers" basically made it even worse than I might have done over.

See my Christmas film. I've gotten better.

"It's a girl my lord, in a flat bed Ford..."

Winslow, Arizona