Mu Satach
Sep 26th, 2012, 09:59:42 PM
disclaimer - this is just a long rambling post while I work out my thought process regarding a writing assignment that has gone south. For some reason sometimes I can only really work out my thoughts by typing... here.
Something about posting with you ragamuffins for over a decade has warped me. So feel free to chime in, ignore or hijack. While I have made a decision regarding the debacle, it won't leave my head. It feels unfinished and keeps rolling about my brain.. I need to get this out so I can focus on more productive matters I've got going on. I'm hoping that while I write this out I'll find the internal resolution and then move on.
cue the back drop...
summer, 2011 - it's been years since I was involved with any filmmaking type endeavor. Life is beyond crazy, but not doing anything creative and collaborative is adding to the daily stress. I need to find something small, something simple, something I can care about. So I start slumming with the locals again.
Enter Julie - a young ambitious woman with a vision, more than a vision she has a plan and the impressive vocabulary to go with it. Julie has dreams of creating an edgy web series that explores various aspects of life all based on true stories.
We meet, we talk, she tells me her plan and her need to find writers who can adapt interviews she's done for her series. I go over my credentials and offer to send her a writing sample. She jumps right past that and brings me on board.
I go away thinking "that was easy." Too easy. Dun dun duuuuunnnnn... I go over the interviews, none all that great, no probing questions, nothing there... just poorly written run on sentences of people saying junk about junk. I find a couple that interest me a bit and I ask if I can re-interview the individuals. To which the reply is "yeah yeah of course."
Great! Give me their contact information. "ummm... let me contact them first and ask them if it would be ok for you to contact them."
Ok. Awesome, give them my contact information.
Time goes by and I begin meeting with the other writers on the team and we start workshopping the episodes/stories already being written. After a few meetings I bring up the interviewees again. "Oh yeah right... I need to do that."
Ok... so that doesn't seem to be going anywhere and after working with the other writers and seeing the overall passion of the group I start pondering developing my own story. Cut to a few more writers meetings and Julie indicating to the group that those of us writing will not only have input, but will be a part of the production of our episodes.
Call me suckered.
I pitch an idea at one of the meetings. One I was already working on prior to meeting Julie. One that not only fit the style of the series, but was also based somewhat on my own experiences and that of a close friend of mine.
The idea rocks the casbah, tickles the elmo and so on and so forth. I begin in earnest outlining and writing the episode. However, even though young Julie has stated on more than one occasion she wants to write up contracts with us, the contracts have yet to be written out and signed. Every time I go to print out a draft there's a gnawing in my gut. So, I keep my writing to myself.
We continue to workshop the other scripts from writers less worried about a contract, together we outline 12 episodes and interweave them. For my section, I go over the outline, theme and character profiles with the group, while waiting for a contract to be written up before turning over any writing.
I read sections of it out loud to get feedback, but I don't go against my gut. And I'm not the only one who's not turning over their stuff just yet. A fellow screenwriter from the U who is doing the same as I am, we're waiting for the contract.
Jump to spring/summer 2012 - the writers are restless, we're waiting on the fearless leader to give us direction, to get us the contracts, to do anything... so the writer's hatch a plan, let's launch a website, film a trailer, get the buzz going, let's do a sizzle reel or something. We've all poured our hearts into this thing, it could be... it should be... it WILL BE! We're committed, we're energized, this could go from thought to form before our very eyes. We begin speculating about other ideas, a second set of episodes, we start listing out resources we have access to. A camera, equipment, people, locations...
This scares the fearless one as she puts a yes but NO to our plans. Time passes, our writer's meetings become group therapy sessions. I'm beginning to feel pretty damn good about not offering up my writing without a contract. I'm starting to wonder if there's a way I can gracefully bow out.
Low and behold it comes to me in the form of a five page impersonal email and an equally impersonal long post in our writer's group blog at the start of this month from Julie to all the writers. In short, it's her idea, her series, her company, her name, hers all hers, and she has the paper trail to prove it.
No contract will be coming, but if I and the other writers choose to, we can submit completed scripts on spec to be considered for possible production as part of the series and our potential re-insertion as a staff writer for the show.
Hello door, happy to walk through you and out of this mess.
I'm not really surprised. As I wrote this it became clear that all the warning signs were there that young Julie is too young, inexperienced, fearful of losing control and terrified of others to do this well.
Over the year the writers dwindled, and the reaction to the email from those of us who remain is similar to mine. Perhaps not as happy and relieved, but still now released into the fresh night air after being trapped for too long in a stuffy house.
I have until Sunday to give a response to the email & blog post. And right now I'm think of just rollerskating on out that door leaving only a smile in her mind.
Something about posting with you ragamuffins for over a decade has warped me. So feel free to chime in, ignore or hijack. While I have made a decision regarding the debacle, it won't leave my head. It feels unfinished and keeps rolling about my brain.. I need to get this out so I can focus on more productive matters I've got going on. I'm hoping that while I write this out I'll find the internal resolution and then move on.
cue the back drop...
summer, 2011 - it's been years since I was involved with any filmmaking type endeavor. Life is beyond crazy, but not doing anything creative and collaborative is adding to the daily stress. I need to find something small, something simple, something I can care about. So I start slumming with the locals again.
Enter Julie - a young ambitious woman with a vision, more than a vision she has a plan and the impressive vocabulary to go with it. Julie has dreams of creating an edgy web series that explores various aspects of life all based on true stories.
We meet, we talk, she tells me her plan and her need to find writers who can adapt interviews she's done for her series. I go over my credentials and offer to send her a writing sample. She jumps right past that and brings me on board.
I go away thinking "that was easy." Too easy. Dun dun duuuuunnnnn... I go over the interviews, none all that great, no probing questions, nothing there... just poorly written run on sentences of people saying junk about junk. I find a couple that interest me a bit and I ask if I can re-interview the individuals. To which the reply is "yeah yeah of course."
Great! Give me their contact information. "ummm... let me contact them first and ask them if it would be ok for you to contact them."
Ok. Awesome, give them my contact information.
Time goes by and I begin meeting with the other writers on the team and we start workshopping the episodes/stories already being written. After a few meetings I bring up the interviewees again. "Oh yeah right... I need to do that."
Ok... so that doesn't seem to be going anywhere and after working with the other writers and seeing the overall passion of the group I start pondering developing my own story. Cut to a few more writers meetings and Julie indicating to the group that those of us writing will not only have input, but will be a part of the production of our episodes.
Call me suckered.
I pitch an idea at one of the meetings. One I was already working on prior to meeting Julie. One that not only fit the style of the series, but was also based somewhat on my own experiences and that of a close friend of mine.
The idea rocks the casbah, tickles the elmo and so on and so forth. I begin in earnest outlining and writing the episode. However, even though young Julie has stated on more than one occasion she wants to write up contracts with us, the contracts have yet to be written out and signed. Every time I go to print out a draft there's a gnawing in my gut. So, I keep my writing to myself.
We continue to workshop the other scripts from writers less worried about a contract, together we outline 12 episodes and interweave them. For my section, I go over the outline, theme and character profiles with the group, while waiting for a contract to be written up before turning over any writing.
I read sections of it out loud to get feedback, but I don't go against my gut. And I'm not the only one who's not turning over their stuff just yet. A fellow screenwriter from the U who is doing the same as I am, we're waiting for the contract.
Jump to spring/summer 2012 - the writers are restless, we're waiting on the fearless leader to give us direction, to get us the contracts, to do anything... so the writer's hatch a plan, let's launch a website, film a trailer, get the buzz going, let's do a sizzle reel or something. We've all poured our hearts into this thing, it could be... it should be... it WILL BE! We're committed, we're energized, this could go from thought to form before our very eyes. We begin speculating about other ideas, a second set of episodes, we start listing out resources we have access to. A camera, equipment, people, locations...
This scares the fearless one as she puts a yes but NO to our plans. Time passes, our writer's meetings become group therapy sessions. I'm beginning to feel pretty damn good about not offering up my writing without a contract. I'm starting to wonder if there's a way I can gracefully bow out.
Low and behold it comes to me in the form of a five page impersonal email and an equally impersonal long post in our writer's group blog at the start of this month from Julie to all the writers. In short, it's her idea, her series, her company, her name, hers all hers, and she has the paper trail to prove it.
No contract will be coming, but if I and the other writers choose to, we can submit completed scripts on spec to be considered for possible production as part of the series and our potential re-insertion as a staff writer for the show.
Hello door, happy to walk through you and out of this mess.
I'm not really surprised. As I wrote this it became clear that all the warning signs were there that young Julie is too young, inexperienced, fearful of losing control and terrified of others to do this well.
Over the year the writers dwindled, and the reaction to the email from those of us who remain is similar to mine. Perhaps not as happy and relieved, but still now released into the fresh night air after being trapped for too long in a stuffy house.
I have until Sunday to give a response to the email & blog post. And right now I'm think of just rollerskating on out that door leaving only a smile in her mind.