HOLY CRAP! SPECS ARE SELLING!

It was doom and gloom there for a while -- not just because of the strike, but because the feeding frenzy everyone hoped for post-strike never materialized… until now! All of a sudden, two or three specs and pitches are selling every day! Just pick up the trades
for the last week or so and you may have flashbacks to 1996.

“Lots of deals are happening right now,” says Energy Entertainment’s Jake Wagner. “A, All the studios have new full development funds to buy material because its technically the beginning of the year (because the strike went into Feb) and B, there's a lot of great material out there probably because writers had time to roll up there sleeves and write specs during the strike.”

This is great news for EVERYBODY. So if you’ve been poised all catlike to pounce, well, meow, baby! Get those scripts polished up and get ‘em out there while the damn fish are bitin’. Ahhh.

Slack Like U Mean It: Top PC Games for Writers

by Jim Cirile

Hold on thar, Babalouie. This isn’t going to be one of those articles that talk about the great writing that’s going on in video games, or about how some screenwriters are transitioning into game writing and how cool that all is. Yeah, whatever. While some of that is true, by and large, games still can’t really tell a story as well as a movie or TV show. Sure, there have been plenty of games that are well-written, going all the way back to the ground-breaking Infocom and Trillium text adventures, most notably the HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY game, written by Douglas Adams and Steve Meretzky, (a free version of which -- now with graphics -- can be found HERE, and the amazing ancient Commodore 64/Amiga game FAHRENHEIT 451, cowritten by Ray Bradbury himself.

But this is about kicking back and letting off a little steam. I’ve been a gamer for over 20 years, and as a writer/gamer, I have certain benchmarks that I demand of a game for me to waste my time on. First -- it needs to be smart. Doesn’t mean it needs to be literature, but it does need to be captivating and not an insult to my intelligence. Second, it needs to be easy to learn. I do not have the time to slog through a 100-page manual or learn a million different attack combinations. The best games have built-in tutorials or are intuitive. Third, they need to be FUN. That means ***Save Anywhere***. Any game that forces you to go back and do the same thing over and over until you execute a certain jump or figure out the trick to defeating the monster, yer outta there! (I’m lookin’ at you, GRAND THEFT AUTO series.) Fourth, we’re talking computer games only, not console, since while yes, GEARS OF WAR kicks serious butt, many console games still can’t Save Anywhere; plus many writers don’t own a console, but we all have a computer. And lastly, they need to be self-contained. I can’t stand massively multiplayer online role-playing games. Too demanding of my time. No offense to all you W.O.W. & STAR WARS GALAXIES fans, but the time commitment necessary to play MMORPGs, not to mention the monthly subscription cost, eliminates them from consideration. The games I return to are single-player only. Plus, as a writer, I like to isolate in my little stalagmite-encrusted cave and play against AI, not against unpredictable and irritating real-life human beings!

As I got to thinking about some current and past favorite time-wasters, I realized they fell into two categories -- big budget A-list titles with a real story and state of the art graphics -- and casual games, suitable for playing just before bed for a half hour to wind down. And so I present a wildly biased and incomplete list of games, my favorites, that could be of interest to fellow writers.

(Oh, and sorry, Mac owners, most of these are not available on the Mac -- which is why I bailed on Apple 4 years ago. OS X is great, but what the heck good is it if you can’t play TITAN QUEST on it?)

8) SCRABBLE by Hasbro Intercative. The classic game with well-executed computer AI. Plus available on Mac! You can pick this up used for about 5 bucks on eBay. You can play against up to 3 other AI opponents and set the skill level for each. Indispensible! No writer should be without this one. Improve your vocabulary; free your mind – the rest will follow.

6 and 7) THE ORANGE BOX by Valve Software. The best deal in PC gaming history, developer Valve includes not one but THREE amazing games in one box—cartoony but fun online role-playing game TEAM FORTRESS, and the real stars of the show -- HALF-LIFE 2 episodes 1 and 2, and PORTAL.

HALF-LIFE is the most successful PC game ever, and HALF-LIFE 2 won more Game of the Year awards than any other game in PC history. The two sequels included in this package are story-driven first person shooters where you play a freedom fighter who teams with a cute AI-controlled female sidekick and a robotic dog to take out an alien invasion. Easy to learn and challenging but not frustrating, the Half-Life series is well-written and about as good as it gets. Even better, the graphics engine delivers fantastic cinematic visuals even on mid-range computers. You ARE playing a movie.

To ice the deal, Valve blew everyone’s minds by including PORTAL as a freebie in The Orange Box. A fiendishly clever and unexpectedly hilarious puzzle game, you play a gal trapped like a rat in a maze, your only tool -- a gun that can shoot dimensional gateways in the walls. This game will change the way you think about space and get you thinking in three dimensions -- a real blast. Pay attention to the snarky and delightfully unhelpful voiceovers throughout. Wonderful!

Oh, did I mention this box also includes the butt-kicking Game of the Year HALF-LIFE 2? Check it out HERE: http://orange.half-life2.com/


5) BOOKWORM by Popcap Games. I have been playing Bookworm for 4 frickin’ years. It is the crown jewel in Popcap’s casual game crown. Gameplay is as simple as it gets. You are presented with a grid of letters. Spell words to get points -- the longer the word, the more points you get. But beware the burning tiles! There is nothing quite like the feeling of spending six bloody months playing the game, building up a score of 28 million or so, only to suddenly have a blizzard or burning Q’s rain down on you and realize that you are done for, your championship game doomed. Yet you will find yourself starting all over again regardless. Curse you, BOOKWORM! Cheap, fun, and can run on any computer. If you’re a writer and don’t have BOOKWORM, you’re missing a great way to build your vocabulary and while away your life. www.popcap.com

4) BIOSHOCK by 2K Games. Gripping and well-written, BIOSHOCK casts you as a survivor of a futuristic art deco underwater city from the ‘50s on its last legs and overrun by splicers -- former humans who have mutated themselves rather unpleasantly through genetic manipulation. BIOSHOCK features an enthralling, twisting, well-written story that sucks you in, but what really gets you about this game is the art direction, about the Best Ever in a game. You WILL believe you really are in this flooding, dying city. It’s creepy and sick and scary. And it has adventure game components that keeps the gameplay interesting -- you’re not just shooting stuff. But you’ll need a pretty beefy computer to run this one will all the visual bells and whistles. http://www.2kgames.com/bioshock/


3) SAM & MAX SEASON ONE by Telltale Games. An old school Lucas Arts-style graphic adventure game. Sam is a gumshoe private eye dog, and Max is his insane rabbitty-thing companion. Both are packin’. Do you like wacky cartoon humor with a slight infusion of implied (but not actually seen) extreme violence? (Fear not -- the game stays solidly in the PG realm. Mostly.) The colorful, cartoony graphics and bizarre logic percolating here make this series a hilarious choice suitable for (almost) the whole family. Sort of. Don’t be put off and think this one’s a kiddie game. There’s fantastically funny, demented writing at work and some fiendish puzzles. Play an entire episode for free here: http://www.telltalegames.com/community/blogs/id-268

2) BOOKWORM ADVENTURES by Popcap Games. The people behind the insanely addictive BOOKWORM strike back with a game that in many ways improves on the original by adding an adventure game component and a silly (but very amusing) story. As Lex the Bookworm, you go on a series of quests fighting mythological creatures by spelling words. As in BOOKWORM, the bigger the word, the more powerful your fu. A truly great game for writers, the only letdown here is the actual game is kinda short. You can finish it in about 15-20 hours. But there is replay value here, because you unlock minigames (one of which is just like GSN’s “Lingo”) and you’ll likely finding yourself playing through the whole thing again from scratch when you complete it. www.popcap.com

1)PUZZLE QUEST by Infinite Interactive. Greatest game ever? Probably not, but certainly the greatest match-3 game ever. Just try to stop playing. The execution of PUZZLE QUEST is genius. On the surface, it’s a simple match-3 game. We’ve all played these to death (you probably have BEJEWELED on your cell phone.) But unlike BEJEWELED, which quickly gets L-A-M-E, this one leaves the ‘suck’ out in the mudroom by implementing an actual storyline and mini quests in a fantasy role playing game context. All the combat in the game is done by matching 3 or more tokens on the battle grid, but you win gold and experience points from your battles which you can use to buy spells, weapons, fortresses and level up your character. A match-3 game where you can siege enemy cities? Believe it. Best of all, the depth is amazing. I’ve been playing it for 2 months now and there’s no end in sight. At $20 and playable on even the puniest PC, this one is a solid choice for pretty much anyone. www.bigfishgames.com

Last but not least, here are 9 Honorable mentions.

BIG KAHUNA REEF and BIG KAHUNA WORDS. BIG KAHUNA REEF is another match-3 game but is notable for its co-op mode and virtual fishtank. Plug in a second mouse and have at it with a friend. BIG KAHUNA WORDS is the word game version. Fun but not as compelling as either BOOKWORM or BOOKWORM DELUXE. http://www.reflexive.com/BigKahunaReef.html

WORD WHOMP. A fairly weak entry but fun for word puzzle enthusiasts. You’re given 6 letters and have to spell as many words from them as you can before you run out of time. More addictive than it should be and great if you only have 5 minutes. www.bigfishgames.com

PREY. A big-budget shooter now available as a download on Steam.com for $20, this game features great dialogue, a Native American protagonist and some of the creepiest alien environments I’ve ever seen. But the game’s real special sauce is your ability to walk up walls and on ceilings, which is a trip and a half. http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php?area=game&AppId=3970

SYSTEM SHOCK 2. The original bad-ass sci-fi horror role-playing game. The graphics are kind of dated now, but this one set the standard few have lived up to. Truly creepy and addictive. BIOSHOCK is a “spiritual sequel” to this one. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Shock_2

DREAMFALL. A wonderful time-traveling adventure with a female protagonist. Great graphics and a compelling story. A great entree into gaming especially for ass-kicking adventure-loving gals. www.dreamfall.com

THE INDIGO PROPHECY (FAHRENHEIT in Europe.) Notable for voice work by our pal David Gasman, star of SHOWDOWN OF THE GODZ, this is a cinematic action game unfairly overlooked by many but remains a gripping and well-written action/adventure story worth your time. You can find this one for 10 bucks on Amazon. http://www.atari.com/indigo/

POSTAL 2. Most Messed-Up Game Ever. This game infamously received a 0 Stars rating from Computer Gaming World magazine, who completely missed the point. This game features sick, dark, laugh-out-loud humor and completely over-the-top violence. If the idea of trampling Gary Coleman to death with a herd of elephants and attacking innocent people with a diseased cow’s head is not your idea of fun, stay away! All others, check your ethics at the door and have a blast. www.runningwithscissors.com

TITAN QUEST by THQ. Notable for its script written by none other than BRAVEHEART writer Randall Wallace, TITAN QUEST casts you as a male or female warrior or magic user in ancient Greece and sets you off on a series of, well, quests, to save the world from the scourge of the Gods. While the story and mythology are well-handled, this one’s all about the action. Huge battles, great graphics and easy point & click gameplay make this a wonderfully fun black hole which dutifully sucks your life away. Make sure you buy TQ packaged with the Immortal Throne expansion pack, which fixes some of the niggles from the original game and adds a ton of cool new features. www.titanquestgame.com

Give Your Writing a Swift Kick

Writers on the Storm partner Writers Boot Camp is currently accepting applicants for their Spring/Summer Sessions. We recommend WBC to our clients all the time for one very simple reason: it is the fastest and most effective way to improve your screenwriting craft. Period. Here's a few of the 2007 releases written by WBC grads: BLADES OF GLORY, OCEAN'S THIRTEEN, THE OFFICE, WHO'S YOUR CADDY?, THE STARTER WIFE, GREY'S ANATOMY... Are you getting the picture? We knew that you would.

The next Basic Training Session begins April 24th. In Basic, you try to hammer out a single rough draft, with notes for further development. This is for people who don't want to dive too deeply into the process -- a great start for novices.

The next Think Tank Session begins Thursday, May 1st and it is already filling up. Think Tank is a lifetime professional membership with a one-time cost that begins with 24 months of part-time coursework in which we arm the writer with an initial arsenal of 3 to 5 FULLY DEVELOPED projects and provide ongoing benefits with continuity. In Think Tank, the focus is on Full Development and an empowered rewrite process.

Think Tank (or Professional) Membership has a lot of exclusive benefits, including parties, readings and Speaker Events. Just in the past year we've had Barry Levinson, Nancy Meyers and Paul Haggis speak to our Membership. We have speaker events for our members already scheduled this month, if you enroll for the May 1st session, you can attend those events and get started with immediate preclass creative support.

We find it helpful for writers to revisit these two links on our website. One explains, in detail: the distinctions of Writers Boot Camp, and the other deals with common misconceptions about the screenwriting business that many people have -- including industry professionals.

Sessions are filling up -- don't let another year go by without getting the Tools of Full Development so you can confidently practice the science of screenwriting.

Please contact Robert at 310/998-1199 ext. 310 (rfisher@writersbootcamp.com) for more details and to discuss eligibility requirements. Check out the WBC website for details on our success stories. You can also submit a Career Survey (http://www.writersbootcamp.com/eligibility_form.asp). Make sure you mention that you heard about them from Coverage, Ink!

THE STORM IS ABOUT TO HIT

WRITERS ON THE STORM 3
call for submissions
Regular entry: 4/21-7/11/08

Batton down the hatches--the STORM is about to hit! Writers on the Storm Screenplay Competition is back for its third year and is bigger and badder than ever. WOTS is run by #1 independent screenplay analysis service Coverage, Ink -- by writers, for writers. And this year we're pulling out ALL the stops to make WOTS one of the top 5 screenwriting contests.

*** $10,000 CASH GRAND PRIZE ***
Over $20,000 value cash and prizes for our top ten
Top ten screenplays developed by Coverage, Ink
Top Ten loglines submitted to 140+ companies
Every submission receives feedback
$40 entry fee OR...
FREE entry with any Coverage, Ink screenplay analysis

But that's not all. Entries are $40, or submit TWO copies of the same script--which will be evaluated by two different readers--for $75 (only the higher score will count.) Plus WOTS is the ONLY screenplay competition that gives your a second -- or third or fourth -- chance!

Here's how it works: any script submitted to CI for analysis during the contest period is automatically entered into the contest. Scripts that receive a consider with reservations or better for script (roughly top 10%) advance to the quarterfinals. Writer has the option of polishing the script and resubmitting the new draft--theoretically upping you chances--either to CI (as many times as you want) or to WOTS until the end of the contest. No other contest gives you this opportunity!

And our prize package has to be seen to be believed, with sponsors including Writers Boot Camp, Starbucks, trackingB.com, inkTip, David S. Freeman Seminars, Jim Mercurio's Killer Screenwriting, Blake Snyder's Save the Cat!, The Writers Store, Screenwriters Initial Draft Pad, Scriptblaster, Coverage, Ink, Creative Screenwriting, Great American Pitchfest, Alameda Writers Group and more, NO other contest offers such a development-heavy prize package!

"I appreciate how professionally Writers on the Storm was run, the seriousness of their feedback, and the level of involvement of the contest organizer. Great communication between the Contest and participants. My emails were always responded and deadlines well-met... something very rare with screenwriting competitions." -- Juan Sebastian Jacome, 2007 Runner-Up, Algo Por Mi

"I just wanted to thank you for the extensive notes on the AAA Grand Prize winning script Felix the Flyer. I was so impressed that I contacted several writers who have asked me to recommend a coverage service to say you are the tops." -- Chris Canole, AAA winner
ENTER ONLINE at www.coverageink.com or www.writerstorm.com

PROSTATE CANCER SURVIVOR ACKERMAN'S PLAY OPENS IN L.A.

Hal Ackerman, co-chair of the UCLA Screenwriting Department, has a play opening in Santa Monica. Check out this article from Yahoo News:

Actor-playwright Hal Ackerman takes a frank look at his own mortality in his poignant, humor-laced, autobiographical play, Testosterone: How Prostate Cancer Made a Man of Me, April 18-May 10 at The Powerhouse Theatre in Santa Monica, CA.

Ackerman - co-chair of the screenwriting program at the U.C.L.A. School of Theater, Film and Television - completed his treatment for prostrate cancer in 2001.

"I underwent a non-traditional hormone treatment that turned me into a chemical eunuch," he laughs. "The play is about how we define masculinity when the very thing that defines manhood is taken away. I look at all the relationships that define maleness: father, son, husband, friend and lover. It opens with what I jokingly call a 'manologue.'"

"Testosterone: How Prostate Cancer Made a Man of Me" was originally written as a long prose piece that was published in AARP magazine. After adapting it into a play, Ackerman has presented it at numerous prostate cancer conventions around the country including, most recently, the IMPAcT convention sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense and the Michael Milken Foundation.

Anyone who's ever attended screenwriting classes at UCLA knows Ackerman to be inspiring, insightful and wise. His book "Writing Screenplays That Sell - The Ackerman Way" is one of the best screenwriting books out there and one we recommend constantly. We look forward to what we're sure will be a great evening of theater. Good on ya, Hal!

SHOWDOWN OF THE GODZ WORLD PREMIERE

SHOWDOWN OF THE GODZ HONORED AT 2008 BIG ISLAND FILM FESTIVAL

Big Island Film Festival, which celebrates independent narrative filmmakers and their movies, has selected Coverage, Ink's first production, SHOWDOWN OF THE GODZ, as part of its slate of films. Only 47 short and feature films from around the world were chosen.

A monsterous comedy with heart, SHOWDOWN OF THE GODZ demonstrates what devotion to Japanese monster movies can do to a marriage and a career. Jesse, the world’s biggest monster movie fan, is challenged to a trivia showdown with the soon-to-retire 84-year-old archivist and keeper of all knowledge for a major Japanese movie studio. But can Jesse keep his family and his job intact as he trains for the big event? Directed by Julien Calderbank, SHOWDOWN OF THE GODZ stars David Gasman (RAYMAN series, THE BOURNE IDENTITY,) Alixx Schottland, Craig “mUMS” Grant (OZ, BOSTON LEGAL,) adorable newcomer Ayla Guttman and the legendary George Takei (STAR TREK, HEROES) and features music by Blue Oyster Cult.


The Big Island Film Festival runs May 15–18 at Waikoloa Beach Resort on the famed Kohala Coast of the Big Island of Hawaii. The movies are shown at two outdoor venues and one indoor venue. The festival also includes food and beverage events, an awards brunch, filmmaker panels, Hawaiian music and culture.

For information about SHOWDOWN OF THE GODZ, please contact Coverage Ink at info@coverageink.com. The website www.showdownofthegodz.com should be up by the end of March. For information about Big Island Film Festival visit www.bigislandfilmfestival.com or contact Leo W. Sears at 808-883-0394. Grab yer muu-muus and ukeleles and join us there!

Click HERE to check out the SHOWDOWN OF THE GODZ Facebook photo page.

R.I.P., NEW LINE CINEMA

Holy Crap! 40-year-old New Line Cinema, the studio that has given us spectacular films such as "Lord of the Rings" (and more than a few unspectacular ones, too) is no more. Warner Bros., who acquired it a few years back, today announced they were absorbing New Line into its vast corporate bloat. New Line as a separate studio will cease to exist, and the New Line label will only be used for urban, horror and genre pictures, hearkening back to NL's early days.

Approximately 600 New Line staffers are jobless.

This is stunningly bad news on many levels. Firstly, the continued media consolidation means less buyers, which means less chances to sell spec scripts, less films being developed, less chance of real cutting-edge filmmaking taking place. And then there's the job losses -- with this announcement, a huge chunk of the town is now out of work; projects that were in development there (and there are many) are likely to go into turnaround, which means, hot on the heels of the writers' strike, yet again a lot of wordsmiths will be unemployed. It means less income for agents and managers and simply makes it even tougher, period, to break in.

And the dreaded big media consolidation machine rolls on.

The only bright spot here is that certainly some NL executives will start new companies, and as happened with the Weinsteins leaving Miramax, phoenixes do emerge from the ashes. But for now, this just flat-out sucks.

Variety has the scoop HERE.

Writers on the Storm 3 - $10,000 GRAND PRIZE

We're nuts.

A 10 grand first prize? Believe it. Because we want to say loud and clear to everyone that Writers on the Storm is one of the top 5 contests out there. And so while some other contests are fumbling, we're stepping up.

10 grand.

Whew. That's a lot of dough. But your script is worth it? Or... IS it? ;)

Writers on the Storm 3 begins 4/21/08. Here's the lowdown:

$40 entry fee
$10,000 first prize
Every submission gets feedback
And of course... FREE entry with any script submission to Coverage, Ink during the contest period (4/21/08 - 7/11/08.)

So, gentlemen (and ladies,) start your engines... let's get those scripts ready because the STORM is about to hit!

Jim Cirile

Challenging the Unchallengable

Interview with Jarek Kupsc
Writer/Director, "The Reflecting Pool"

By Jim Cirile

“The Reflecting Pool” may just be the “All the President’s Men” of our time. No, it doesn’t have Hoffman and Redford. But it is a chilling and important fact-based investigative drama.

Writer/director Jarek Kupsc (“Slumberland”) stars as Alex Prokop, a successful hard-hitting Russian/American journalist. As a last gasp before corporate takeover, his editor (Lisa Black) hands Prokop a bombshell assignment -- investigate the official version of 9-11. Prokop, dismissive of 9-11 skeptics, reluctantly teams with grieving father Paul Cooper (the outstanding Joseph Culp) to investigate. After losing his daughter in the attacks, Cooper transformed himself into a 9-11 expert -- at the expense of his marriage. As Prokop and Cooper kick at the hornets’ nest, a sickening, carefully orchestrated pattern of deceit emerges – and Prokop finds publishing the story may mean curtains on his career.

The well-researched (and exhaustively documented on the DVD) thriller ultimately proves more compelling than 9-11-themed documentaries such as “Loose Change” by taking a narrative approach and by personalizing the story. Disbelieving investigative reporter Prokop is an effective audience surrogate, while the passionate, fragile and self-destructive Cooper grounds the story with heart and soul -- a constant reminder of the human cost of the “war on terror.” The script is solid, the characterizations moving. If the film has a flaw, it’s in trying to document so much evidence in a narrative structure. Yet by and large, it pulls it off to deliver a chilling and effective message -– maybe it CAN happen here.

“The Reflecting Pool” will open eyes, anger some and test the faith of others. But it also finally gives voice to the 48% of Americans distrustful the official 9-11 story, according to a recent Zogby poll. And it’s a tour de force from writer/director/actor Jarek Kupsc. With the 9-11 Truth movement gaining steam by the day (this week alone, Willie Nelson “came out,” joining a growing list of celebrities to question 9-11; Dario Fo & Gore Vidal’s 9-11 documentary “Zero” is dropping jaws and creating buzz in Berlin at the European Film Market; and NY Times reporter Philip Swenon's expose "The Commission" hit bookstores) we believe this is an important topic worthy of serious discussion, and thus we are proud to bring you this interview with the courageous Mr. Kupsc.

Coverage Ink: Tell us a little about your background.

Jarek Kupsc: I’m over forty, so the background is pretty vast and littered with a lot of debris. But, in telegraphic terms, here it comes. Born and raised in Warsaw, Poland. Art and History major in high-school. Participated in juvenile delinquency politics during martial law with mild consequences. Escaped military service by becoming a political refugee in Greece. Emigrated to the U.S. in 1987 (after an unsuccessful attempt to enter Australia and Canada). Worked my way through college and state university in San Francisco, studying acting and film directing. Wrote a book on film history as a way of financing first feature film (didn’t work out). Subsequently, went bankrupt making two movies.

CI: Wow. What was the genesis of “The Reflecting Pool”?

JK: The movie came as a direct result of my personal interest in 9/11, which began on 9/11 at 9:03 a.m., the moment the second tower got hit. As a born skeptic fed totalitarian propaganda in my native Poland, I never bought the official story of nineteen hijackers. After three years of research, I amassed enough information to believe that this tragic event was orchestrated within the U.S. government circles. I never intended to make a movie about 9/11. I was absolutely positive someone else would. Sure enough, some excellent (and some outlandish) documentaries started to
(emerge). I thought it would be a matter of short time before the notoriously “liberal” Hollywood or some independent producer would tackle the subject in a dramatic form. By 2005, that didn’t happen. So I decided to do it on my own. I was simply driven by anger and disbelief that the narrative sector of the movie industry would not deal with this issue. Since I am trained in the narrative form, it was only natural to develop a character-driven fictitious film based on actual events.

CI: The idea of turning all that research into a narrative investigative drama sounds pretty daunting. What was your writing process?

JK: From my personal research, I had all the facts. And by “facts,” I mean sources that came directly from mainstream media – New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, even Fox News, believe it or not. All these outlets reported some pretty damning information. Granted, it was never front-page news. Those articles were buried deep. Luckily, as a grad student, my wife (“The Reflecting Pool” producer) Jodie Baltazar had access to an online library that rivals the Library of Congress, so I could cross-reference any officially published 9/11 topic. I also looked at some of the best 9/11 Truth websites to find links to mainstream articles. They are very thorough in indexing their sources to avoid any suspicion of fabricating or distorting the facts. Having had these facts at my disposal, I then begun a truly arduous process of selecting what should stay in the script and what should go. It was an editorial process of elimination of those facts that were still questionable, less relevant, or could be misconstrued as misinformation. I ended up with a short-list, which I then trimmed to what a two-hour movie could support without overwhelming the audience. The facts you hear about in “The Reflecting
Pool” were ultimately chosen to give a solid foundation for the narrative of two guys who go after the truth. The fiction part of the script is what gives the movie human dimension, real drama, as opposed to a fact-driven documentary.

CI: I noticed the DVD is meticulously sourced. These are facts, and the picture they paint is inarguable. Yet many will dismiss them because the concept of government and media complicity is just too horrifying for some folks to handle.

JK: If you dismiss the facts of “The Reflecting Pool,” you have to dismiss every source we used, including Fox News and the most prominent newspapers in the country. So you have to ask yourself, if Fox News is telling me that every intelligence service in the world sent us warnings about the attacks, what does it mean? Now, Fox News, for all intents and purposes, is a propaganda channel for the Bush administration. They are not apologetic about it -– they provided the President with a Fox News spokesperson for heaven’s sake! But now and then, even Fox has to report some truth just to give us an illusion of objectivity. In this case, reporting on the foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks, they got it right. Of course, they didn’t break this story – they wouldn’t dare. But once they saw it being reported on the other networks, they were forced to pick it up in fear of not falling behind. The worst form of censorship is self-censorship. Not reporting something you know is true is far more damaging than burning a few library books. What we have in this corporate media-driven society is a combination of self-censorship and marginalizing the inconvenient truth. If you bury it by the obituary page, nobody will read it. If you listen to our commentary on “The Reflecting Pool” DVD, you’ll hear all these quotes from corporate media, and you may think, wait a minute, they DID report this! They must be on our side! What you don’t realize is that none of the facts we quote were ever front-page, or even back-page news. They were meticulously marginalized and, obviously, nobody came out in the mainstream media to connect all the dots. Which is what “The Reflecting Pool” attempts to do -- to paint a larger picture based on marginalized reports.

CI: I understand the film was at least partially financed by credit cards. How did you go about raising the money?

JK: We didn’t. We, Jodie and I, and (producer/actor) Joseph Culp, combined our meager personal resources to make this film. There was no time to wait for outside money, which could take years to raise. It had to be done in the moment. For the same reason we are self-distributing the DVD on www.reflectingpoolfilm.com. A lot of people don’t realize that even if you do secure a distribution deal, the so-called turnaround time for the movie to see the light of day would take twelve to eighteen
months. By then, Cheney and Co. will (hopefully) be way out of the office, laughing all the way to the bank.

CI: You have a few key cast members from Corman's original "Fantastic Four" (Joseph Culp and Alex Hyde-White) in your cast ;) Hyde-White's Bill O'Reilly-esque host was chillingly accurate.

JK: I met Joseph Culp about three years ago through an actor friend. Joe is an accomplished drama teacher, in addition to his other skills. I took his Walking Theatre Workshop for several years. About a year into my acting training with Joe, I began working on the “Reflecting Pool” script. We ended up workshopping the material in the theatre on weekly basis. In fact, the script really took shape thanks to the acting workshop with Joe.

Now, through Joe and his workshop we had access to some amazing actors. In the early nineties, Joe had been cast in the Roger Corman original “The Fantastic Four” movie as Dr. Doom. He befriended Mr. Fantastic, the outstanding Alex Hyde-White, and during “The Reflecting Pool” casting process, he immediately thought of Alex for the part of our TV host, who is clearly modeled after Bill O’Reilly. The only directorial suggestion I made to Alex Hyde-White in preparation for his role was not to think of it as parody. He really played it straight. When you know what O’Reilly is capable of on the air, you can almost say Alex is underplaying a bit. But
in all honesty, the character of Mahoney, the TV show host, in “The Reflecting Pool” is a sad commentary on reality, not on O’Reilly specifically. You have these so-called “news shows” on any network, and they are cast, scripted, and directed as pure entertainment. There is no real news on television, period. Unless you’re into traffic reports and weather.

CI: One thing that jumped out when I saw the film was that I wish there was one brave editor somewhere who'd take on this story, as happened in the film. And yet even Rolling Stone, American Prospect, Mother Jones and The Nation are inexplicably silent on the issue. What do you think is going on?

JK: Vanity Fair did a fairly decent piece on 9/11 and "Loose Change" in 2006. But even they had to beat around the bush, if you excuse the pun. On a good day, I believe they are not educated enough on the facts of 9/11 and still consider it another “nutty conspiracy” case. On a bad day, I think the pressure from the top, meaning the ownership, is just too dangerous to risk a 9/11 expose for the major publications. It’s a make-or-break issue, and most likely they would be broken. Look what happened to Dan Rather with his 60-minutes report on Bush’s National Guard service. Look at how (“The View”) dealt with Rosie O’Donnell after the Building Seven episode. This is the message they are sending to other prominent figures – you risk having your career shattered. The issue of spin and damage-control by corporate media features prominently in “The Reflecting Pool.”

CI: What sort of reaction is the film getting? I would imagine there's praise and also some hostility.

JK: I would have to honestly say that most people who have seen “The Reflecting Pool” so far are firm believers in the government complicity in 9/11. So, by default, they nearly uniformly praise the film. We are getting applause at every show and the Q&As. Personally, I’m very flattered by that. But the real trick is to find a larger, skeptical audience. We have gotten a terrific support from various political groups in spreading the word about the movie. What we need is a fund-raiser to
place a full-page color ad in LA Times and book a nice theatre for a week-long run. Then, the papers would have to review the movie, and people not involved in politics would see the ad and hopefully come to the screenings. We have to cross-over to the mainstream if this message is going to be heard loud and clear. That takes the kind of money we simply don’t have. What we do have, however, is grass-roots support, which is a beautiful beginning of a long journey. I’m sure we will encounter real
hostility if we show the movie to a larger audience. We are prepared and ready to face it.

CI: What's next for you?

JK: In terms of a next film project, I would like to continue making small-scale independent films for the rest of my life. I made three so far. Realistically, the next project will need outside financing – I’m tapped out. I have about five projects of varying budgets lined up. What I do next depends on how much money I can get. I’m not a player in the film industry, so my prospects are grim. For now, I’m fully committed to take “The Reflecting Pool” as far as we can take it, domestically and internationally.

CI: Tell us where can folks see “The Reflecting Pool”?

JK: "The Reflecting Pool" screens EVERY Saturday and Sunday at 11AM at the Laemmele Monica 4-plex. Followed by Filmmakers Q & A after each show.

1332 2nd Street, Santa Monica, CA
Special screening on Monday, February 18
Come celebrate President's Day with us!
11AM at the Laemmele Monica 4-plex. Filmmaker Q & A

You can also check for additional screenings
on our website.

CI: And you can also order DVDs off the website. Thanks for your time, Jarek, and best of luck with the movie and your career.

JK: Thank you, Jim.

Character Counts!

Yes, character does count. No, we're not talking about honesty or humanitarianism or giving back or consideration of your fellow man or any of that silliness. We're talking about screenplays. So here are a couple quick tips that a lot of folks don't think about when it comes to presenting characters in their scripts.

NAMES

There are two schools of thought on this. The first is never use boring, typical names throughout your script or you'll never be able to tell the characters apart. For example, which of these groups of pals will be easiest to remember and tell apart: Pete, Bill, Mike and Rob -- or Lazlo, Murph, Fuaz and Pyro? The last thing you want is anybody going back to page 14 trying to remember, "Which one was Pete again? Oh, yeah." Which can happen if the names are average and the characterizations lean.

The other school of thought is to NOT do that, because some people get put off by unusual names. And indeed, it is possible to go over the top on this. But a writer needs to do everything he or she can to make the characterizations distinctive. The character's name is important. So the next time you're about to name your character Generic Name #11B, instead consider reaching for the baby names book and looking up something a bit more distinctive. Would Homer Simpson be as funny if his name was Bill? Think about that.

PRESENTATION

For features, the rule is: CAPITALIZE character name (and put age in parenthesis) the first time they appear; thereafter, character name should be in regular mixed case in descriptions. Don’t be the guy who capitalizes your character names every single time. This is terribly annoying, and worse, makes it less clear when a new character arrives in the script.

Now some people get confused on this, because they see character names capitalized in SLUG LINES. And that is okay, because a slug line is the way we writers cheat and tell the director what to shoot without camera direction. So if you’re using a slug line to specify a particular shot, yes, capitalize the name—then switch back to mixed case when the description resumes. Like this...


Mad Dog levels the shotgun at Julio.

JULIO

He’s done, and he knows it. He lowers the rake.

Mad Dog swats it away and brutally kicks Julio to the floor.


And remember to include at least a brief (1-word is okay!) description of every character you mention who speaks. Try to make these descriptions succinct and emblematic. We don’t need tons of detail about what someone is wearing or their mental state or what have you. Find a concise way to get at the kernel of what you’re trying to say. The director and costumer and actor will fill in the blanks...


NAZIR (22,) a walrus of a man
MARTHA (67,) frazzled, way too much makeup
WILLY SAN PIETRO (55) – Perpetually cheery in bathrobe and oxygen mask
LUNA (19) World’s most confused waitress
MARGIE-LYNN (40), sequined cowboy boots and a 10-gallon Stetson


We’re writers, so use this forced economy as an excuse to let your creativity shine! The snappier and tighter your character intros, the more readers will relax, feeling their in the arms of a sure-handed storyteller.

CAN YOUR DEPTH OF CHARACTER BE MEASURED IN MILLIMETERS?

Great actors will fight to play someone who is complex, richly detailed and interesting. Giving the character back story, family, friends, hobbies, quirks, peccadilloes, idiosyncrasies, etc., goes a long way towards building a multidimensional person that we want to watch a movie about. Does he or she have a dramatic flaw or a goal? What personal problem does this character need to solve? How does he arc or change? What does he learn during the course of the story, and how does it enable him to resolve his internal AND external issues? Keep in mind: if your script is under 95 pages, that should be an immediate red flag -- what’s likely missing is depth of character, which needs to be established in the form of *character-defining scenes* in your first ten pages (establishing the character(s) in his/her known world.)

Yay, the Strike is Over.

We were all pretty tired of it, weren't we? Finally things can get back to normal in town and the tens of thousands of folks who depend on business as usual in this town might be able to pay their rent by April.

Now onto more important matters. Behold these newly leaked photos of the reimagined starship "Enterprise."
Click to embiggen! High-rez pix!

And here's another one:

What do you guys think? Me, I like that they kept the same basic shape and, interestingly, some of the exact details from the original design--yet radically changed the warp nacelles. Hmm. I don't think it's a home run like the way the refit for the movies way back in 1978 was. It may not even be a base hit. Watching the remastered original Star Trek episodes with the redone all-CGI "Enterprise" proves how well the original design holds up when shot in high rez. This version just looks a little like changes for the sake of changes, but not actually improved.

--Jim C.

THE AMAZING SCRIPT DIET

The one class no one wants to take is actually the secret formula to kicking your writing into overdrive.

By Jim Cirile

1,500 words. That’s how long my Agent’s Hot Sheet columns for “Creative Screenwriting” must be. No longer, no shorter. May not sound like much, and indeed, it isn’t. The industry bigwigs on my panel are all characters with colorful stories. And so the first draft of each column always comes in around 2,500 words. Inevitably I am faced with a conundrum—how to crunch all this agenty goodness so it will fit—and here’s the key—*without actually losing any of the content?*

It used to be much harder to do than it is now. Because I took a copy editing class at UCLA.

A few years back, when I found myself doing more and more magazine and internet articles, I enrolled in UCLA’s certificate in journalism program. I had never actually learned to write in proper newspaper and magazine style, how to source stories, how to write copy for broadcast, etc. All useful stuff and surprisingly all useful for screenwriting, too.

But then came Karre Jacobs’ copy editing class.

My first reaction: yecch. It was all about grammar and punctuation and proofreading and “AP Style Guide” rules. But it was Required. So somewhat painfully, I bought the dry-as-Gobi textbooks and dragged myself to class. Little did I know I was entering a chrysalis, soon to emerge a lean, mean editing machine.

We started out by proofreading old news stories written by former students. This was pretty easy. It’s always easier to spot excess verbosity on others’ work (streamlining your own work is something else.) Then we learned the Associated Press style rules. These are important for newspaper and magazine stories, since most publications go by AP style. AP governs things like whether to capitalize President or not, whether you should write out “twenty three” or use the digits, when to use a comma and when to use an em-dash, and on and on. Borrrring. But I came to realize — heck, these same rules apply to a well-formatted screenplay. And screenplays became a lot less confusing when people actually did follow the direct address rule (always use a comma before and after any direct address—right, bub?)

But most importantly, we learned to be concise — get the point across in the *fewest possible words.* I became aghast as I looked back on my scripts. They were all clunky, overwritten wordathons. Agh! So much of my writing was just filler.

Light bulb now ablaze and grafted to my skull, I changed things like Paco yawns, still half asleep, gets out of bed, covers spilling to the floor, reaches over to turn off the lights and sleepily heads into the bathroom to... Paco yawns, jumps out of bed, trudges to the bathroom. All the other action is either implied (something the actor will likely add automatically, therefore, no need to write it) or just unnecessary. An overwritten 27-word sentence becomes a tight 10-word one without losing anything. Amazing! Scripts that I’d thought were tight enough to bounce quarters off of dropped 5 pages of dead weight without losing a single scene or line of dialogue. It was as if my scripts had all undergone the most amazing and painless diet ever, with no risk of the weight ever coming back!

So here I am with this 2,472-word column, two hours till deadline and almost 1,000 words to cut. I always allow my first drafts to go long to make sure I get everything in. And then—it’s copy editing time. EVERY sentence, every word gets scrutinized. 10-word sentences are reduced to five. First to go? Unnecessary asides like, “Yeah, well, it’s like I always say,” and “In my mind, generally speaking, I would say...” All that verbal chaff we tack on in our day-to-day speech—out the window. Next I take a hard look at the quotes. Inevitably the panelists reiterate themselves. They state their premise, make their point, then reiterate the premise. We all do it when we speak. But in an article—out. (Hint: watch for this in your dialogue, too.)


Now down to about 2,000 words. In the zone. This is where it gets tricky. Everything gets scrutinized again. Adjectives—generally not needed. Out they go. My snide commentary (sniff, sniff) gets cut to the bone. I cut and cut, but—and here’s the thing—never excise substance. The key points must remain. Suddenly and miraculously, that column will hit the magic 1,500-word mark, and it will be much tighter than if it had run in its original form.

Do the same thing with your scripts.

If I had to identify one thing that writers in general need to work on, it’s not structure or characterization, although obviously those things are important. But most everyone who’s written a script has read a few books or taken a class or two and has a decent idea. But many of us forget the importance of the presentation. If the writing is tight, lean, punchy, it will grab the reader by the throat from page one. It will tell the reader, “you’re in good hands, this guy’s a pro.” And they will read on. But if the script is overwritten, your script will soon be on the pass pile.

So if you only take one class this year, pause for a second. Enrolling in a good screenwriting program WILL help. But what you might REALLY need is to learn how to ruthlessly edit your own writing. And one inexpensive, seemingly tedious copy editing class at your local university might be the weight loss plan that will turn it into a decathlete.

The Deal's on the Table

Is it almost over? Is the town finally going to get back to work? Could be. We may know by Sunday night. Here's the latest:

LOS ANGELES — Hollywood writers got their first look Saturday at details of a tentative agreement with studios that could put the strike-crippled entertainment industry back to work.

A summary of the proposed deal was posted on the Writers Guild of America's Web site hours before members were to attend meetings on the East and West Coasts to voice their opinions. The writers planned to gather behind closed doors Saturday afternoon in New York and later in Los Angeles to consider the deal that guild leaders said "protects a future in which the Internet becomes the primary means of both content creation and delivery."

Compensation for projects delivered via digital media was the central issue in the 3-month-old walkout, which idled thousands of workers, disrupted the TV season and moviemaking and took the shine off Hollywood's awards season.

If guild members react favorably to the proposed deal, the guild's board could vote Sunday to lift the strike order and the industry could be up and running Monday. This month's Oscars ceremony, which has been under the cloud of a union and actors boycott, also would be a winner.

Sunday's Grammy Awards ceremony has a picket-free pass from the union.

An outline of the three-year deal was reached in recent talks between media executives and the guild, with lawyers then drafting the contract language that was concluded Friday.

According to the guild's summary, the deal provides union jurisdiction over projects created for the Internet based on certain guidelines, sets compensation for streamed, ad-supported programs and increases residuals for downloaded movies and TV programs.

The writers deal is similar to one reached last month by the Directors Guild of America, including a provision that compensation for ad-supported streaming doesn't kick in until after a window of between 17 to 24 days deemed "promotional" by the studios.

Writers would get a maximum $1,200 flat fee for streamed programs in the deal's first two years and then get a percentage of a distributor's gross in year three _ the last point an improvement on the directors deal, which remains at the flat payment rate.

"Much has been achieved, and while this agreement is neither perfect nor perhaps all that we deserve for the countless hours of hard work and sacrifice, our strike has been a success," guild leaders Patric Verrone and Michael Winship said in an e-mailed message to members.

Verrone is president of the Writers Guild of America, West, while Winship heads the smaller Writers Guild of America, East, which together represent 12,000 members. About 10,000 have been affected by the strike.

The guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents studios, have not publicly commented on the proposed contract because of a joint media blackout.

One observer said the guild gained ground in the deal but not as much as it wanted.

"It's a mixed deal but far better than the writers would have been able to get three months ago. The strike was a qualified success," said Jonathan Handel, an entertainment attorney with the TroyGould firm and a former associate counsel for the writers guild.

The walkout "paved the way for the directors to get a better deal than they would otherwise have gotten. That in turn became the foundation for further improvements the writers achieved," Handel said.

MOVEMENT!

This was about the best e-mail I could have received today. Some have speculated that the settling of the DGA strike so quickly would put pressure on all sides to conclude the WGA strike. So it is with profound joy that I read Patric Verrone's latest strike update mail today (1/22/08.) The AMPTP is FINALLY ready, it seems, to sit back down and negotiate. Brother, let's hope so.

To Our Fellow Members,

We have responded favorably to the invitation from the AMPTP to enter into informal talks that will help establish a reasonable basis for returning to negotiations. During this period, we have agreed to a complete news blackout. We are grateful for this opportunity to engage in meaningful discussion with industry leaders that we hope will lead to a contract. We ask that all members exercise restraint in their public statements during this critical period.

In order to make absolutely clear our commitment to bringing a speedy conclusion to negotiations, we have decided to withdraw our proposals on reality and animation. Our organizing efforts to achieve Guild representation in these genres for writers will continue. You will hear more about this in the next two weeks.

On another issue, the Writers Guild, West Board of Directors has voted not to picket the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. Members of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) face many of the same issues concerning compensation in new media that we do. In the interest of advancing our goal of achieving a fair contract, the WGAW Board felt that this gesture should be made on behalf our brothers and sisters in AFM and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA).

Best,

Patric M. Verrone

Strike Update

This just in from the WGA (1/18/08.) Could this mean possible forward movement on a settlement? We'll see...

To Our Fellow Members,

As you know, the Directors Guild announced yesterday that it has reached a tentative agreement with the AMPTP. We are waiting for the full terms of the deal to be made available so that we can carefully analyze and evaluate the language and numbers. Until then, members can review the DGA's press release (found here:

For more than a month we have been urging the conglomerates to return to the table and bargain in good faith. Now that negotiations with the DGA are finished, the AMPTP has reached out to us to begin informal talks. We are committed to moving the process forward to achieve the best contract possible.

Know, too, that we have signed four more agreements with important, independent feature producers. They are Mandate Pictures, Bob Yari's Sixth Floor Literary Properties, Overt Operations/Anonymous Content, and Sidney Kimmel Entertainment. These deals return more people to work and provide further incentive to the media conglomerates to settle our contract soon.

We invite all our members to a consolidated picket line next Tuesday at Paramount studios. As always, picketing information can be found at:

http://www.wga.org/subpage_member.aspx?id=2536.

We look forward to working for you and with you as we move towards a successful resolution. We are all in this together.

Best,

John F. Bowman
Chair, WGA Negotiating Committee

Patric M. Verrone
President, WGA West

Michael Winship
President, WGA East

Strike Me Down

Recapping our WGA strike coverage with more analysis and commentary

by Jim Cirile

Let me say up front that Coverage, Ink supports the WGA 100%. The things the Guild is asking for are a pittance to the industry conglomerates. Of course writers should make more than 4 cents on a DVD. Of course writers should get paid when their work is viewed online. Duh. Under the Guild’s proposal, Paramount and CBS would each pay $4.66 million per year while MGM would pay only $320,000/year. Seriously, that’s it. So for the AMPTP (producers) to be shutting them down and refusing to budge (as they have for months) is reprehensible and frankly seems flat-out bananas. Unless they’re planning on replacing all scripted entertainment with 24/7 Paris and Britney coverage in ‘08. (Agh!)

That said, did the Guild really have to put the entire town out of work for the last two months of the year? I have a lot of friends who are out of work now – not just writers, but photographers, UPMs, drivers, on and on. Was there a better way this could have been handled? IATSE president Tom Short seems to think so, and he blasted the WGA brass on the front page of the 11/15 Hollywood Reporter, saying that WGA management’s failure to engage AMPTP earlier has resulted in ‘devastation’ and that their ‘incompetence’ and ‘inexperience’ has put 50,000 IATSE members out of work. The flip side is that the WGA pretty much *had* to strike now – the AMPTP wasn’t budging, and if they’d waited into next year, they’d lose their scant leverage and possibly wind up drowned in a trifecta of potential strikes – WGA, SAG and the Director’s Guild all at the same time, after the studios had a chance to stock up on product. Okay, I get it.

But there are other things. When I first joined the Guild, it baffled me to learn that a writer could work on a project for months, only to not receive any credit at all in the finished film. Nothing, zip. Because when the WGA does its arbitration, it decides who gets the credit. They pick one or two names, and then the other 11 writers who worked on the project? S.O.L. I think this is a flaming wagon of dung.

So I wrote the WGA to tell them so. Why is it a PA can work on a film for one day and get rolling screen credit (which I have done,) yet a writer could work on a film for months, have their ideas or dialogue or even whole scenes in the finished film and get none? Outrageous. The solution is simple. The WGA should keep the arbitration system to award credit and residuals and profit participation, and those writers credited should be, as always, get credits in the titles just before the director. Fine. But then there should ALSO be a “Contributing Writers” credit in the crawl listing every writer who worked on the project, whether any of their effort made it to screen or not. These writers receive no additional compensation -- they simply get a screen credit because they worked on the damn film.

“Written By,” the WGA magazine, actually printed my letter, and I spent a year or so trying to get traction on this idea. I was finally told by a friend with close ties to the board to give it up -- the WGA *likes* maintaining the illusion that only one writer (or a team) wrote a movie. They will never do anything to officially acknowledge all the other writers. WTF?

All these years later, nothing has changed, and I still think I’m right and the WGA is full of it. So maybe I’m carrying a grudge? Not really. But it makes it hard to accept that they really have all the membership’s best interests in mind, when it’s the Guild themselves who is first discriminates against writers with their arbitration process.

On Monday Dec. 10, the Writers Guild of America sent an official communiqué to the entire WGA West membership plugging a spoof site ridiculing the AMPTP. The site, http://www.amptp.com, lampoons the AMPTP's poor judgment and is entertaining satire to be sure. But at a time when thousands of people are out of work heading into the holidays, most of whom will never see any benefit from any WGA deal -- only lost income – should the Guild really be antagonizing producers whom writers will have to work with again?

I mailed my concerns to the WGA. WGA President Patric Verrone responded promptly:

Jim,

Thanks for writing. So you know, this web site was done without Guild knowledge or input but, when we saw it, we thought members would be interested. We remain committed to resolving this contract as soon as humanly possible. Remember, the AMPTP walked away from the table on Friday, not us. We are ready and willing to bargain at a moment's notice.

Seriously.

Best,

Patric

Great response, and indeed, the AMPTP did just up and walk away, the bastards! But still, shouldn’t this be something you let spread virally, not sanction via a Guild mailing? Maybe not. Reader Jerry Monaco, a former union organizer and veteran of many strikes, commented in a fascinating response on the Coverage Ink blog, “The truth is that the WGA alone is neither big enough nor powerful enough to be what Galbraith once called a counter-veiling power. But to slag on the union for doing something successfully, something that we non-writers that support you admire greatly is not seeing the reality of the situation.” Fair enough. “When your bosses complain about how upset they are about the tactics and antics of your union, it is because your union is getting under their skin.”

So here we are at the end of the year with no negotiations scheduled and no end in sight. Yeah, the picture’s a bit bleak, and there’s certainly going to be plenty of second-guessing. Maybe I’m guilty of that. But at the end of the day, what the writers are asking for is fair, and the producers are being A-holes. End of story. Let’s all hope that this puppy ends SOON so the town can get back to work.

UPDATE 12/26: A high-level writer friend tells me a reporter from the “New York Times” just called him asking if there’s any truth to the rumor that 8 or so A-list feature screenwriters are preparing to ankle the Guild and resume work! Holy crap! My friend knew nothing about this and couldn’t comment. But if this is true, it could well break the Guild’s spine. But -- my guess is this is a load, disinformation put out by AMPTP to create unrest. I can’t imagine these writers would jeopardize their health benefits, huge pensions and residuals to do such a thing, but hey, this is “The Times” calling, the supposed paper of record (their shameless, uncritical stumping for the Iraq occupation and ignoring of many other critical issues notwithstanding.)

THE INSIDE PITCH

If you’re looking for an amazing blog written by a true industry pro, do check out high-level WMA executive Christopher Lockhart’s fantastic The Inside Pitch. Every single person reading this needs to spend ten minutes absorbing the wisdom imparted upon us by the wise Master Lockhart, who answers many questions from screenwriters and truly is the insider.

Click HERE to read The Inside Pitch!

Here's an example of what you will find on Chris' blog:

(a reader writes:)Does the title really matter (when it comes to a spec)? I opted for (the provisory title) “4 and ½” to perfectly support the insanely smart hook in my logline (that can be seen at www.nu4m.com). If the logline is as important as you say (and I decided it is before I opened your twoadverbs.com site) I guess it worth the risk. And I’m saying that cuz I have better titles up my sleeves.

CL responds: Yes. I think a title really matters. Producers think about how they are going to sell the movie to audiences, and that process begins with the title. Yes, studios change titles all the time, but you want to consider the perfect title for your screenplay.

THE FAMILY STONE, which was released late in 2005, was originally titled THEY F**KING HATE HER and then retitled HATING HER before ending up with the final result. But the original title helped to increase an awareness of the script and prodded people to read it. Of course, the title SNAKES ON A PLANE gave that project a massive amount of attention.

I’m not a fan of your title, because it doesn’t give me a hint as to what the script might be about.

Is 4 and ½ a comedy about an ugly woman?
Or a tragedy about a man with a small penis?
Or a heartwarming MR. HOLLAND’S OPUS with math instead of music?

I have journeyed to your website to check out the “insanely smart hook” in your logline – which is more insane than smart.

The notion of a script that is a “fast-paced fantasy comedy with horror and parody elements set against a background of high adventure” doesn’t help me – in the slightest – to nail down the tone.

Furthermore, you chose a group of protagonists made up of screenwriters, which is an automatic “pass.”

Sadly, Chris folded the blog in April ’07, but it is still well worth your time. Check it out!

Popular Films' logline Worksheet

DO YOUR LOGLINES LIE THERE (ER, LIKE A LOG)?

Tim Albaugh, cofounder of Popular Films, and an instructor in the UCLA Professional Program in Screenwriting, was kind enough to share his insights on loglines with us. Loglines are in many ways more important than the script itself, since if your one-liner isn’t compelling, the script won’t get in the door. Albaugh teaches this material in his UCLA Professional Program in Screenwriting class, and we’re pleased to present it to you here.

LOGLINE WORKSHEET

By Tim Albaugh

Loglines are many times more difficult to write than a screenplay. But if you can’t tell your story in a few sentences, you’ll never be able to do it in 120 pages.

Loglines are a condensed version of your story, usually 50 words or less. It’s the “trailer” for the reader or development executive. It should give the essence of the story and most importantly, hook the reader.

Loglines should reveal the protagonist’s PERSONALITY and SITUATION; the important COMPLICATIONS; describe the ACTION the protagonist takes; and hint at the CLIMAX and the potential TRANSFORMATION of the protagonist.

Everything needs to be distilled down to the essentials. Forget the small stuff; no details. Make them have to read the script.

Focus on WHO your story is about and WHAT the CONFLICT is.

Make sure you include the human story (emotional conflict) in your logline.
Start with the protagonist, then give the emotional conflict that has to be overcome in order to solve the external conflict.

Don’t forget, your script has to be about a person with a problem -- and the person LEAST able to solve the problems usually gets stuck with it.

Use strong, action words. Case in point:

TOOTSIE

Michael is an arrogant, unemployed actor who has no respect for women. Unable to find work, Michael dresses up as a woman and lands a job on a soap opera. Forced to be a woman 24/7, Michael learns to respect the opposite sex and ultimately becomes a better man.

First sentence is character and his emotional problem. Second sentence is his “plot” problem and his reaction to it; the action he takes. The third sentence suggests the transformation the protagonist will experience.

Just like a movie has three acts, your logline should have those three beats mentioned above. Beginning, middle, end.

+++++++++++

To get Popular Films to work for you, schedule a consultation! Popular will read your script and set up a 2-hour face-to-face meeting with you. Popular has projects set up all over the town. We know of no other working production company that does this, so take advantage of this amazing opportunity. For more on Popular, check out their Coverage, Ink web page.

Letter of the Month

We LOVE this! Go, Javier!

Hi Jim,

I thought (now that I have plenty of free time due to the strike) I'd share a short success story of mine with you, as you were part of it.

You gave a favorable response for The Heretic, which, boy... came at the right time. It felt like I'd been losing a little bit of hope as a writer, but your coverage was not only a booster shot for my confidence, it helped me refine the script further. Because of that, I went on to land a great manager, some relationships at great companies.

To make a long story short, after working with a development exec at Phoenix Pictures for a few months, getting The Heretic just right, Mike Medavoy optioned the script in September! Granted... it's now parked because of the strike... but we got the option anyway!

Thought I'd share, and thank you personally once again for your help in getting me to where I am.

Javier Rodriguez

Mission accomplished! That just makes our day. Any time one of our own finds a crack in the fortress walls and slips in, it's cause for celebration. In Javier's case, he took a tough piece of material -- a middle ages period piece -- and made it commercial by adding a complex protagonist in a gritty, action-filled setting. Great work, dude, and continued good luck on your ascending career! -- Jim C.

WGA Management Officially on Crack

Monday Dec. 10 -- In a staggering display of poor judgment, the Writers Guild of America, currently neck-deep in a strike effort against the AMPTP (film producers), either deliberately or inadvertently sent an official WGA communique to the entire WGA West membership plugging a spoof site ridiculing the AMPTP. The site, www.amptp.com, lampoons the AMPTP's poor judgment and is entertaining satire to be sure. But at a time when thousands of people are out of work heading into the holidays, most of whom will never see any benefit from any WGA deal, only lost income, the industry is getting more and more nervous, and key industry figures like Thomas Short, president of Hollywood union IATSE, are publicly criticizing guild management for incompetence on the front page of The Hollywood Reporter, in my opinion the Guild should have exercised some sensitivity here. To be sure, this comes across as a childish move--certainly not the deft and professional negotiations many of us were hoping for.

To be clear, Coverage Ink supports the issues the WGA is going for here. But boneheaded moves like this can't possibly help the Guild or the strikers. Goof sites are fine, and I've written a few myself. But when they're officially sanctioned by one side, it makes the sanctioner look like a complete jack-ass. Brilliant tactical maneuver, WGA.

UPDATE 12/11: WGA President Patric Verrone responds thusly:

Jim,

Thanks for writing. So you know, this web site was done without Guild knowledge or input but, when we saw it, we thought members would be interested. We remain committed to resolving this contract as soon as humanly possible. Remember, the AMPTP walked away from the table on Friday, not us. We are ready and willing to bargain at a moment's notice.

Seriously.

Best,
Patric

***********

So this confirms that no less than WGA President Patric Verrone signed off on this mail. God help us all. I defer to the first post below from "anonymous" as to a few more reasons why this WGA mailing was a serious shot in the foot. --JC

The Short That Took A Year

Hard to believe it, but it was one year ago that my cowriter Aaron Schnore and I put the finishing touches on our comedy short screenplay SHOWDOWN OF THE GODZ. Back then our budget was $8,000, largely put up by our director Julien Calderbank, and we planned to shoot in February in NYC and have the film out to festivals in the Spring. That would be Spring... 2007.

Er, well, we DID shoot in NYC in February. As for the rest of it...

We are finishing the film TODAY (December 7, 2007.)

WTF? How could Coverage Ink's first co production, a 16-minute short, take so long? Folks, there is no short answer, but suffice it to say, many lessons were learned along the way. The good news is the film looks great. We're all proud of it and I'm fairly confident it rocks.

However, it took us $50,000 (I've worked on FEATURES with smaller budgets...) and a year to make it so.

There wasn't just one delay or issue, there were multitudes, both large and small. Most of them had to do with fixing mistakes. For example, due to some, shall we say, spectacular ineptitude on the part of our camera operator, certain scenes shot on certain days had dirt on the lens. We had two choices: leave it be or spend the money to have the film fixed. This process (called dustbusting) is the same painstaking process old films undergo when they are restored. Each frame is analyzed, and the debris, scratches, hairs caught in the gate, etc., are digitally painted out.

This took a lot of time and two separate CG artists (Tom Haney, and Lisa Yimm & David Bell of HDR-FX.) And then there were the compatibility issues--making the dustbusted footage integrate back into the original. This alone took weeks to resolve. But the end result is the film looks as pristine as, er, well, as it would have been had it been shot properly in the first place. Ahem.

Then there was the "Super X." This supposed rare monster toy is the Macguffin, the subject of our protagonist's quest. Yet on camera, the Japanese monster toy selected by our props guy looked the opposite of awe-inspiring. It sucked. Enter CG artist Tom Haney, who rotoscoped out the original weak-ass prop frame by frame and replaced it with a new one that just rocks, complete with dynamic lighting and proper sense of majesty.

Yeah, that took some time and a few bucks. Are you starting to get the picture?

Then there was music licensing... some more F/X work (including miniatures and more CGI) a key member of the team freaking out and bailing midway through, only to return months later; a few normal, healthy creative disagreements, and some flat-out attitude issues from a few key post personnel, all of which slowed down the works immeasurably.

And this is the tip of the iceberg. Suffice it to say, the Godz producer team--myself, Aaron Schnore and Robert Troch--often felt like we were battling a gigantic mutated Japanese monster with a broom, yet we forded on and stuck to our creative vision.

And today, we did it. Finally the film is mastered and ready for festivals.

Whew.

In the coming months, www.showdownofthegodz.com will be up (not yet) and the film will be rolling out to selected Festivals in '08. We are also setting up screenings in LA and NYC for February/March and will eventually have DVDs available for sale, too. Thanks, everyone, for your patience. Will it have been worth all the time, money and effort? We'll see!

--Jim C.

You Say You Want A Revolution...

Sigh.

Of course I support the strike... in theory. It's nice to see the WGA rising up against The Man. They are revolutionaries, and that are just saying NO to being handed crap by the corporations that control us. Would that our political parties might do the same against the corporatists who have taken them over.

But here's the thing. A lot of people are being hurt by this thing. And every day that goes by it gets worse. All the agents and managers I know, well, no deals means no business. I spoke with my motion picture lit attorney yesterday, and he painted a gloomy picture as to having any income anytime soon. Now obviously the big agencies can handle this, but the smaller companies do not have the reserves to weather a protracted strike.

And of course there are the writers themselves. The Guild's decision to strike NOW means thousands of writers have no income for *two months heading into the holidays.* This is horrible.

Worse, the studios don't care, since most of the execs take off for blue unbrella drinks and breezy tropical isles from now through Sundance. And while the Governator is personally trying to bring the two sides together, and I applaud his efforts, the truth is the big media conglomerates have little incentive to resume talks until January. And why should they? Their bottom lines will look much nicer if they can close out the year without paying anyone.From my perspective, the timing here was just plain stupid on the part of the WGA.

For writers' kids this year, Christmas ain't gonna be very merry.

There's one more thing folks generally forget about--all the TV production people in town. These thousands of folks work on a contractor basis; when their show is not in production, they don't get paid. I was in production for many years and left it for precisely that reason--financial uncertainty. But many have made a career as gaffers, grips, photographers, working job to job, simply because there is no alternative. All of them are now screwed. None of them gets any residuals or DVD revenues for the shows they work on. They get a flat fee and that's it. And yet they are part of the creation of the work, too.

And right now a great many of my friends are about to be out of work.

I read somewhere that the hit to the state's economy of the last strike was $500 million. That was in '88. Again, the studios feel little of this pinch and in fact are happy to not have to pay anyone.

Let's hope Arnold is able to get the two sides talking again. Soon.

****

This is the latest e-mail from WGA president Patric Verrone:


To My Fellow Members:

Day eleven. Good morning. You have stood up to the corporations and made it clear that we won’t quit until we reach a fair deal.

The public supports us. One small example: yesterday, a middle-aged man who had come all the way from Michigan with his wife and children showed up at Paramount studios for the day. But when he saw the writers, he told them he was a member of a mechanics union and has never crossed a picket line in his life. They refused to go in.

As many of you may have seen in the press yesterday, a new poll from Pepperdine University shows that 63% of the American people support us and only four percent support the conglomerates.

But what the poll numbers can’t show is the reason. That reason is you. It is your hard work on the picket lines, your long hours, your rallies, the actors you have reached out to, and the energy you have brought to bear that has created this overwhelming support.

We are all in this together.

Best,

Patric M. Verrone
President, WGA West

The Strike is On! Probably.

Today 3,000 writers flooded the Los Angeles Convention Center to vote on whether to strike or not. The vote came down 90% in favor. The strike could be announced as early as Friday. However talks are ongoing, and any strike could vaporize as soon as it begins... depending on how obstinate all the parties feel like being.

The main issue here is that writers want a nice cut of the studios' DVD profits. They have smartly figured out that while theatrical performance is a crap shoot, many films attain profitability on DVD--even ones that tanked in theaters. This DVD revenue has been keeping the lights on at the studios for years. So now writers want the huge media conglomerates to fork it over. Will the studios do so? Stay tuned.

What does the strike mean to you? Well, unless you're in the guild, or have a spec about to go out through a big agency, not much. But what it does mean is that if the strike goes on a while, all those writers will be writing specs. That's very bad news indeed for everyone trying to break in, because it means that the market will be flooded with material from the big boys, crowding out the little guys for a while.

For everyone's sake, let's hope a deal is struck quickly!

This from the WGA web site as of 11-01-07:

Contact: Gregg Mitchell (323) 782-4574
Sherry Goldman (718) 224-4133

News Release: November 2, 2007

WGA Negotiating Committee Recommends Call for Strike
Membership Meeting Draws 3,000

LOS ANGELES -- Before a standing-room-only audience of 3,000 Writers Guild members in the Los Angeles Convention Center’s West Hall in downtown L.A. Thursday night, the Writers Guild of America Negotiating Committee, on behalf of the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), announced its unanimous recommendation to call a strike against the film studios and television networks that make up the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). Screen Actors Guild President Alan Rosenberg joined the Negotiating Committee onstage to voice his union’s support of writers.

During the largest membership meeting in WGAW history, the Negotiating Committee reported that the AMPTP had called a halt to talks by demanding that the Guild accept the extension of the current DVD formula to new media. The committee also informed the audience that in three months of negotiations, the AMPTP has not responded in any serious manner to its initial proposals.

Members spent three hours in frank discussion of the report and recommendation. From microphones on the floor, WGA members expressed their anger at the Companies’ refusal to bargain seriously, reiterating their overwhelming support for the Negotiating Committee, Guild leadership, and for the bargaining agenda of the WGA.

The WGAW Board and the WGAE Council will meet Friday to consider the recommendation of the Negotiating Committee and to decide the next steps.

For more information about the Writers Guild of America, West, please visit www.wga.org. For more information about the Writers Guild of America, East, please visit: www.wgaeast.org.

The Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) represent writers in the motion picture, broadcast, cable, and new media industries in both entertainment and news. The unions conduct numerous programs, seminars, and events throughout the world on issues of interest to, and on behalf of, writers.