[IN THE TRENCHES] Talking Shop with Harry Elfont

Posted on November 16, 2016 by [TEXTSMITH]
Two writers at a Broadway show about writers.  This is where the universe begins to fold in on itself.

Two writers at a Broadway show about writers.  This is where the universe begins to fold in on itself.

As an aspiring Hollywood hyphenate, the first network you have coming out of college (provided you even went to college), is your fellow alumni.

Screenwriter and director Harry Elfont was part of that NYU network for me, and we spent some of our early professional years struggling side-by-side to make something happen.

And then for Harry, it did.  Hard.

Harry and his writing partner, Deb Kaplan, were part of the spec script frenzy of the nineties, leading to a very exciting start to their careers.

And although their spec was never produced, they went on to write a series of movies, including “A Very Brady Sequel,” “Surviving Christmas,” and “Leap Year,” as well as their feature directorial debut, “Can’t Hardly Wait.”

His latest project is the series, “Mary + Jane,” which just wrapped up its first season on MTV.  I dug in a little to find out the “hows” behind Harry’s success, and it went a little something like this…

What’s the first thing you remember writing that wasn’t a school assignment?

In third grade I wrote a comic strip called Grampa Fuzzy (that spelling was a strong creative choice) which was basically a character that looked like Cousin It from the Addams Family with a top hat and a basic face.  I got super annoyed when some other kids in the class started doodling the character in their notebooks.  My teacher tried to explain that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and all that, but I wasn’t having it.  I was clearly very concerned with intellectual property rights at a young age.  I actually submitted the strips to the local Philadelphia papers.  They sent a very nice rejection letter.  Which is understandable because one of the strips was literally ripped off from a Ziggy (way before Seinfeld did it).

Can't Hardly Wait... For walking-around goggles to come back into style.

Can’t Hardly Wait… For walking-around goggles to come back into style.

What do you consider your professional “big break,” and how did it come about?

Definitely when Deb Kaplan and I sold our spec screenplay “The Family Way” to Paramount and The Ladd Company in the mid 90’s.

It led directly to our first produced credit (A Very Brady Sequel) and opened all kinds of doors for us in the movie business.  It’s also how we met producer Jenno Topping, who would later produce Can’t Hardly Wait.

It came about when Deb called me when she was on location working as an assistant to a producer, but feeling the urge to do something more creative.  She had an idea for a romantic comedy and suggested we write it together.  So we did.

What’s your writing process as a team?  Do you work together over the computer, split a script into sections, take turns on consecutive drafts, etc.?

We outline together, then split up scenes to write separately.  We usually write a couple of scenes at a time (enough for one or two day’s worth of work), then read each other’s pages and keep moving forward.  We tend to not go back and makes changes in the first rough draft.  We just keep going until we get to the end.  It’s the fastest way to power though a first draft.  Then we can read it through and see what we’ve really got.  We get together and discuss our notes on the draft.  If there are scenes that need to be re-written from scratch, we’ll split those up.  Then we sit in the same room and polish the draft together.

What do you like most about writing features?

Typing THE END.  Kidding.  Kind of.  Because there is a limited amount of time and a definite ending, movies tend to be more story driven.  So I like the ability to just tell a good story start to finish.  Deb and I spend a lot of time talking about structure when writing a feature.  We talk in terms of the traditional three act structure as a guide (though, depending on the project, deviate as desired).  A big studio comedy might call for large scale set-pieces which can be fun to invent, but a small character driven film can be pages of very dense dialogue.  Each can be fun to write in their own way.

What do you like most about writing television?

What’s great about TV is that there is no ending!  At least not one we’re planning for…  I’ve been enjoying the ability to keep telling new stories each week for the same characters and not really worrying where it’s going in the end.  Obviously each episode has it’s own structure, but our show isn’t serialized, so each week we do a pretty full reset, which has been liberating.  I do think it’d be great to do a serialized show as well.  And tell one huge over-arcing story over many episodes, but there’s definitely a creative freedom to knowing each episode you can reinvent and try something new.

Deb Kaplan "Mary" "Jane" Harry Elfont

Deb Kaplan and Harry Elfont flanking “Mary + Jane” stars Scout Durwood and Jessica Rothe

It’s also been interesting to write for the same characters and the same performers over ten episodes.

It’s been fun to dig deeper into who these characters are, how their relationship changes, and how to write towards the strengths of our very talented performers.

The real truth is, after spending a lot of time writing features that wind up in development hell, or pilots that never make it to air, the real thing I like about movies or TV is finally getting the work in front of an audience.  That’s the whole point of all of this, but it’s actually a rare occurrence.

What was the genesis of “Mary + Jane?”  Did someone come to you to develop the idea or did you two create it from scratch and pitch it around town?

It was our original idea and we had started to pitch it — nothing formal, we just mentioned the idea to people in meetings — and we kept getting the same response: “So it’s like a younger version of Weeds.”  We knew our show should feel very different from Weeds tonally, so we decided we’d be better off if we just wrote the pilot on spec.  We’d also been through some rough development experiences with TV pilots, so we were eager to just write something that we liked.  And not really worry about making sure there’s enough exposition in the opening scenes, and be as out there as we wanted to with language, or comedy or tone.  It was actually the first pilot script we ever wrote on spec.  And turned out to be the first series we ever had picked up to air.

Mary + Jane on MTV. If I didn't know any better, I'd this this show was ab out pot.

If I didn’t know any better, I’d think this show had something to do with pot.

What’s it like to produce a television series with Snoop Dogg?

There is nobody cooler than Snoop Dogg.  He actually joined the project after we went into production, but he’s been an incredibly supportive partner in promoting the show and being our resident weed expert.  He also ended up writing a theme song for us.  It’s pretty staggering when you hear that iconic Snoop Dogg voice singing about your show.

Other than “Mary + Jane,” what was your favorite project to work on?

Probably Can’t Hardly Wait.  It was the first movie we directed and basically the whole movie is set at a party, so every day we went to “work” at a party.

The cast was all young and unknown for the most part and the budget was pretty low, so there wasn’t a lot of pressure on the set.  Everyone on the crew (who’d been doing this for years) kept telling us, “It’s never like this.  Enjoy it!”

It’s also been nice to see that movie find an audience after it was released and be one of those touchstone high school movies for people who were teenagers at the time.

If you could get your hands on any property to develop – books, plays, toys, previously produced movies or series, etc. – what would it be?

After having written sequels, TV show-to movies, and comic adaptations, I’d personally rather work on original material.  That said, I wouldn’t turn down a Star Wars movie if they were offering!

Scout Durwood and Harry Elfont in front of the Richard Rodgers Theater, bringing this post full-circle 22 years later.

Scout Durwood and Harry Elfont in front of the Richard Rodgers Theater, bringing this post full-circle 22 years later.

Now that you’ve been working in this business for a while, what are you better at today than you were when you started out?

Time management.  But that’s mostly because now I have a family.  I like to think my taste has gotten better and that my writing has evolved, but that’s tough for me to judge.

What kind of advice would you give to writers looking to follow in your footsteps?

Obviously, write as much as you can.  Not just on that one screenplay or pilot.  Finish one and come up with the next one.  Keep generating material.  You’ll keep getting better with each draft.

The other thing is to make sure you’re working on something you would actually like to see as a viewer.  Otherwise you’re just trying to play the market.

THE SHORT ATTENTION SPAN ROUND

Star Wars or Star Trek?

Star Wars

Coffee or Tea?

Both

Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton?

Keaton

 

Other than “Both” (the correct answer is “Coffee”), Harry had almost a perfect score!  You can check out any episodes that you missed of his show, “Mary + Jane,” on Amazon right this very second.  

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[IN THE TRENCHES] Do You Really Want to do This?

Posted on November 3, 2016 by [TEXTSMITH]
Hollywood. It's harder than it looks.

Hollywood.  It’s harder than it looks.  No, harder.

Everybody and their cousin has an idea for a movie or television show.  Some of them have a lot (of ideas, that is, not cousins).

Well, sure they do, ideas are the easy part (a dime a dozen used to be the going rate, not really sure where we are now with inflation, Brexit, and the presidential election).  The hard part, of course, is writing them down.  Even harder?  Writing them well.

But let’s say you’ve done all that.  You’ve written three acts in the proper format.  You’ve gone all-in with a beginning, middle, and an end.  Skillfully executed from “Fade In” to “Fade Out.”

Are you ready to be the next Lawrence Kasdan, Shonda Rhimes, or J.J. Abrams?

Don’t be ridiculous.  If you’re looking to pursue a career as a screenwriter, you’ve only just begun to fight.

Let’s be honest for a moment (just a moment, though, this is the entertainment industry after all).  Being a professional screenwriter is not easy.  It’s not easy to do the job, and most of the time it’s even harder to get it in the first place.

Even in the best-case-scenario, you don’t get to just dream up stories, collect a check, and have somebody produce and distribute your “masterpiece” to the world.  There are filters.  A lot of filters.

The thirtieth draft is the charm...

The thirtieth draft is the charm…

Let’s start with notes.

Your “finished” draft is never going to be the one that gets shot.  Not before a small army of other people chime in with their two cents first.

What’s it like to run the notes gauntlet?

For one, a lot of people who give them don’t take into consideration the feelings of the writer on the receiving end.  Some of them are downright – and unnecessarily – mean.  Some notes are kind of dumb.  Of course, there are nice, thoughtful, insightful notes too.  But the majority of them are not.

On the balance, the notes you get will be someone’s subjective opinions of what they think would be better.  And if they’re paying, it’s up to you to not only implement them, but to make them work well and seamlessly.  You can push back here and there, but if you push back too frequently, or too vehemently, that job is not likely to end well.

Okay, let’s say you’ve gotten a paying job, weathered the development storm and got your first professional credit.  From here on in, the phone just starts ringing, and all you have to do is sift through the lucrative offers, right?

I think you know the answer to that already.

If getting your first professional gig is tough, continuing to get others and make a living at it is tough plus.  To even have a chance, you obviously need to be a decent writer (ideally much better than that), but you also need to be a good person to work with – friendly and personable, and generally hygienic – if you want those people to consider hiring you again (this also comes back to how well you dealt with/incorporated their notes).

You also have to pray that the people who do come to regularly hire you don’t leave the business, get fired, become your competition, or – the most difficult to overcome – die (this has really happened to me and my partners on more than one occasion.  Tragic, of course, but also a bit of a career letdown).

Imagine now, that you’ve succeeded in building a network and you’re getting jobs here and there.  Even then you might not get the volume you need to make a living.  Can you still be a working screenwriter?  There’s no reason why not, but it requires that much more drive.

For much of my career, I’ve had to supplement my writing income with income from somewhere else.  The classic “day job.”  In fact, it’s often the reverse, with my writing work supplementing my full-time salary.

In that scenario, you need to find the energy to work that primary job while also managing the rest of your “free” time so that you can be creative while still meeting deadlines.  Not easy.

So, the question now, is – can you do that?  Can you survive and thrive, and not go on a ten state killing spree while dealing with all these obstacles (not to mention the alarming amount of toxic people this business seems to attract)?

Again.  Do you really want to do this?

Do you have what it takes to get here?

A journey to a thousand Klieg lights begins with a single script.

If it’s something you’re desperate to do…  If you can’t imagine going through life without at least taking a chance…  Then maybe this is the business for you.

Are you tough, smart, creative and hardworking?  Or at least willing to strive toward those goals?

Do you get excited about the stories you write?  Are you driven by the idea of sharing them with the world?  Getting a laugh?  Drawing a tear?  Having that first credit glow to life onscreen, and that IMDb page fill up with titles?

During the dark times of my career (and there have been more than I care to remember, thanks a lot for bringing it up), I’ve considered quitting.  Then I’d think about what my life would be like without writing and…  I just couldn’t.  I knew I’d feel disappointed in myself and regret “giving up.”  It would haunt me.

The bottom line here, and the important thing to think about, is whether or not you’re up for an ongoing struggle.  Because if this isn’t something that you really want to do, that you’re willing to take quite a beating for, then save yourself the trouble and do something else that you are passionate and driven to do.

The rest of us will be happy with just a little less competition.

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[SPOTLIGHT] Kuu Kuu Harajuku

Posted on October 3, 2016 by [TEXTSMITH]
kkh-and-gwen-3

Clockwise from bottom left:  Angel, Love, Gwen, Music, Baby, and G.  As if you didn’t know that already…

Let me get this out of the way right at the top.  I’ve never met Gwen Stefani.

Nevertheless, Rhonda Smiley and I have been writing on her show for a while now, and it premieres in the U.S. on Nickelodeon today at four (featuring one of our episodes, “Angel’s Flight”).

This is not insignificant, as I’ve written on international co-productions before that didn’t air in the U.S. until years after they were out of production, or sometimes not at all.  That’s the global marketplace, of course, and one of the things you contend with as a freelancer.

Still, being a working writer can feel a little less rewarding when people think of you like that kid in Junior High who always talked about his “girlfriend in Canada” that no one ever met.

Sure you’ve written four episodes of a show for Disney Channel France.  Wink wink.

Sigh.

Rhonda and I discuss some episode notes with a wax figure of Gwen in Las Vegas. About as productive as you might imagine.

Rhonda and I discuss some episode notes with a wax figure of Gwen in Las Vegas.  About as productive as you might imagine.

Kuu Kuu Harajuku started life abroad as well.  The show is a joint production of an Australian company – Moody Street Kids – and a Malaysian one – Vision Animation.

But animation production takes significantly more time than recording a six second Vine with your phone and uploading it to the web.

In fact, it can take years between the moment you type “fade out” on a script and that episode finally hits the airwaves.  And in the meantime, you’re stuck in a sort of industry limbo.

A strongly-worded NDA can throw a pretty hefty-sized wrench into your ability to milk some self-promotional magic in the social media world while you’re waiting too.  In fact, the words “Gwen” and “Stefani” were actually verboten for me up until a couple of weeks ago.

“I know half my IMDb page looks like it’s filled with made-up titles, but I’m huge in Germany.  Huge, I tell you!”

But the day has come at last thanks to the hard work of distribution staff I don’t even know.  I can finally talk about a show I’m working on and listeners will actually understand what I’m referring to.

LoliRock. Band by day, Magical Princesses by... well... actually also by day.

LoliRock.  Band by day, Magical Princesses by… well… actually also by day.

Jokes aside, perception is important in this business, and a list of unfamiliar credits can make it that much harder to impress potential employers.  So landing on a major U.S. Network like Nickelodeon is a big deal.

Oddly enough, Kuu Kuu Harajuku is my second show in a row that revolves around a girl band, following Marathon Media’s LoliRock (though the Kuu Kuu kids aren’t magical princesses.  Yet, anyway.  Who knows what might happen in seasons ten and eleven).

To quote the press release…

“Kuu Kuu Harajuku follows the adventures of the musical group HJ5: Love, Angel, Music, Baby and their inspirational leader, G.  Despite their superstar talent, HJ5′s manager Rudie, angry aliens, NoFun politicians, hungry monster pets and other obstacles are constantly interrupting their gigs, and they never get to finish a concert — but G and her friends never give up!”

After this week’s daily episodes at four, the show will move to its regular slot Saturday mornings at 8:30.

Remember, the only thing better than a name-brand show is a name-brand show that’s also a monster hit.  So get on it, people.  Watch early, and often.  And don’t forget to spread the word.

Tick tock.  What you waiting for?

 

FULL DISCLOSURE: My girlfriend actually is from Canada.  But she’s totally real.  You can even ask my mom.

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[THE MAKING OF] Drawing Conclusions. And Comics.

Posted on September 28, 2016 by [TEXTSMITH]

Before movie and television writing became my focus, my creative outlet of choice was drawing.  Like most kids, I guess.  It’s kind of mandatory coursework in the early schooling phases, alongside Introduction to Napping and Paste Eating 101.

The semi-serious comic strip instructional manual.

The semi-serious comic strip instructional manual.

For me, though, it became sort of a “thing.”  I liked it, I was pretty good at it, and it was something I identified myself by.  As the years went on, I gradually advanced beyond finger-painting and macaroni collage, though I still never thought of myself as a fine artist – the italicized arteest.  Rather, I was a “cartoonist.”

And I didn’t just love drawing them, I loved reading them too.

On Sunday mornings, I excitedly looked forward to diving into the comics section of the New York Daily News (even Dondi and Brenda Starr, Reporter).  I thought to myself, I could do that.  I want to do that.  Maybe that’s what I was gonna do when I grew up. 

This idea was further reinforced when I got the Mort Walker autobiography, “Backstage at the Strips,” along with his how-to book, “The Lexicon of Comicana.”

Walker was the creator of Beetle Bailey and Boner’s Ark, as well as Hi and Louis with Dik Brown.  Backstage at the Strips told the story of his journey to becoming a successful comic strip artist, and working in a barn behind his house alongside several colleagues.

Man, that sounded so cool.

All I had to do was dream up a comic of my own, and maybe I could work in that barn too.

Somewhere in there is a decent joke just trying to come out. Just needs ten or twelve more passes to realize its full potential.

Somewhere in there is a decent joke just trying to come out.  Just needs ten or twelve more passes to realize its full potential.

Not surprisingly, it wasn’t as easy as I thought it might be, and I never generated much finished material.  I created a lot of character line-ups and concepts, sure, but few actual strips.

Where my muse ended up being found, was in the somewhat longer form of comic books.

At the time, my parents were regulars at any garage sale or flea market within a hundred and fifty mile radius.  When my sisters and I would tag along, we’d inevitably pick up assorted secondhand superhero books, along with numerous Richie Rich issues and Archie digests.

I even got my first ever comic book subscription, in the form of the Star Wars continuing adventures, which always arrived via mail wrapped in a brown paper sleeve like a miniature Playboy magazine.

After I’d gone through those, I’d periodically sift through the stacks at the local library for Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon compilations.

All of this rich inspirational material eventually led to my magnum opus, Space Wars.

Space Wars

Space Wars “classic.”  In its original legal-sized format.

Surely you’ve heard of it.  My wholly unique and not-at-all-derivative sci-fi masterpiece combining all the best features of Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, and maybe just a soupçon of Jason of Star Command.

I drew these ongoing adventures on various shades of colored legal paper (which were ubiquitous in our house, thanks to my parents’ printing side business).  Or at least, I did until I hit the big time.

In the fifth or sixth grade I was lucky enough to be invited to participate in my elementary school’s “Gifted and Talented” program (obviously, this was before I stopped doing homework in later high school with the accompanying decline in academic status).

My comic book debut.

The Space Wars reboot.  My public comic book debut as both writer and artist.  Oddly, now out of print.  

I don’t remember if this was my idea or theirs, but the program offered to “publish” a comic of mine – written and drawn specifically for the occasion – and distribute it to my fellow students.

Once I completed my twenty-page Space Wars masterpiece, it was Xeroxed on 8½ x 11 paper, stapled together, and the copies handed out to my class.

If that wasn’t awesome enough already, one kid even paid me five bucks to color his copy with magic markers.

I was a professional.

Despite these epic successes, however, I sort of drifted away from the art world after high school and into the scripting one.

Still, the skill remained useful.  While writing screenplays with elaborate action scenes, I’d periodically draw out the intended choreography to see if it made sense (or maybe even led to something better).  Other times, I’d diagram a complicated location or just doodle my characters in scripted situations for inspiration.

Writing animation professionally, I’ve even supplemented a script delivery with a drawing or diagram for clarification (do not do this in specs, though.  Very frowned upon).

A sneak peek behind the scenes of the yet-to-be-purchased million-dollar spec, “Deep Trouble.”

A sneak peek behind the scenes of the yet-to-be-purchased spec, “Deep Trouble.”

Recently, however, I found myself intrigued by comics all over again.  Drawn back by the escalating trend of comic source material across every platform of the entertainment industry, and the rise of the geek world to mainstream prominence.

So I dipped my toe back in, and eventually the entire foot.  Sought out both iconic and trending books, like The Dark Knight Returns, The Killing Joke, Saga, and The Walking Dead.  Checked out work by friends and associates, including Adam Beechen’s Hench, and Andi Ewington’s 45 (Forty-five).

I wanted to be a part of this world.  I wanted to go back to my roots and tell a story in the form of a graphic novel.  Bring my imagination to life in sequential art.

To make that dream come true, Rhonda Smiley and I have adapted Blowback, a script of ours that seems like a natural for the medium, and we’re going to publish it ourselves.

I’m not going to draw this one, of course.  High School amateur is not the style sense we’re shooting for.  This time I’ll stick to words and leave the artwork to a veteran pro.

As of right now, Rhonda and I have agreed in principle with an awesome artist and if all goes well in the contract stage, they should be putting pencil to paper (both metaphorically and literally) within a month.

If you’re interested, you’re cordially invited to join me on this journey.  Read along as I share the ups, downs, blood, sweat, and tears (hopefully more “ups” than “tears”).

Brace yourself, though, I’ve got a feeling it’s gonna be a pretty bumpy ride between here and Comic-Con.  But we’ll press on, regardless.

Excelsior!

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[THE NETWORK] The Stinky & Dirty Show

Posted on September 6, 2016 by [TEXTSMITH]

“Mowgli: The New Adventures of the Jungle Book” with Costa Rica playing the part of India

Fellow screenwriter, Guy Toubes, and I both went to NYU together. But as far as I know we never met there.  We had a lot of mutual friends, though, which is how we eventually connected out in Los Angeles after we both graduated.

Working together at the independent production company, Wolfcrest Entertainment, we collaborated on lots of different projects.  All brilliant, of course, but with varying levels of success.

Our crowning achievement there was undoubtedly the live-action series, “Mowgli: The New Adventures of the Jungle Book,” which we created along with Tim Bogart for the Fox Kids Network (that experience itself will fill many a post moving forward, but that’s not what this one’s about).

"The Adventures of Chuck and Friends"

“The Adventures of Chuck and Friends”

Since Wolfcrest, Guy and I have had the opportunity to work together again a few times.  Most recently, Rhonda Smiley and I wrote six episodes of the Hub’s “The Adventures of Chuck and Friends,” for Guy, who was the show’s Story Editor at the time.

Clearly, we’re partial to shows with “Adventures” in the title.

Anyway, Guy’s latest creation is a brand new talking truck series, “The Stinky & Dirty Show,” an Amazon Original.  He developed the kids’ show based on the book series by Jim and Kate McMullan (who are real people, apparently, though we’ve never met).

"The Stinky & Dirty Show," and Amazon Original Series

“The Stinky & Dirty Show,” an Amazon Original Series created by Guy Toubes

Here’s the official pitch:

The adventures of best friends and unlikely heroes, Stinky the garbage truck and Dirty the backhoe loader, a dynamic and hilarious duo of resourcefulness that learn that when things don’t go as expected, asking “what if” can lead to success.

Good advice for all ages, really.

In addition to the show’s up-and-coming voice talent stars, they’ve got some cool celebrity contributions as well, including Jane Lynch, Joan Cusack, Wallace Shawn, Andy Richter, and Whoopi Goldberg.

(When you’re writing for an animated show, cool celebrity voices are always a plus)

Anyway, if you’ve got some young kids in the house (or maybe you’re just one at heart), click on over and check it out.

The season premiered just last week on September 2nd, so it’s not too late to get up-to-date and avoid any spoilers before all the water cooler talk at the office.

You’ll need to be an Amazon Prime member, but you can always try their 30-day free trial in case you aren’t ready to commit.

Tell ’em Jim sent you, and enjoy!

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[IN THE TRENCHES] Shut Up Already and Do Something

Posted on August 29, 2016 by [TEXTSMITH]
My fellow filmmakers and the Duffer Brothers. Great minds...

My fellow film students and the Duffer Brothers.  Great minds…

I was watching “Stranger Things” last week, when I heard the opening notes to New Order’s “Elegia” trickle in behind the mourning scene in “The Acrobat and the Flea” episode (I won’t elaborate any more on that, because, you know…  spoilers).

I was jolted back to my freshman year at college, when my friends and I made a short film called “Welcome to the Machine,” utilizing that exact same song behind our mourning scene.

That year, a larger than anticipated number of people enrolled in the Tisch film program.  And due to the limited amount of equipment, not all of those incoming students could participate in freshman production classes.  As fate would have it, my friends and I were part of that group of pseudo-outsiders, designated as “Alternate Curriculum” students.

Naturally, that kind of sucked.  But we all came to NYU to make movies, so holding off until we were sophomores wasn’t going to fly.  Instead, we decided to make them anyway.  Outside of class.

That fall, many nights, weekends, and free days were devoted to shooting and editing our 25-minute digital opus.  Although my primary role in that project was as an actor, I’m pretty proud of what we were able to pull off together.

Sadly, the story doesn’t end with us becoming the darlings of that year’s Sundance Film Festival (though that would’ve been awesome, right?  Remind me when my biopic is produced to make that happen for dramatic effect).  Instead it just serves as a reminder of what’s possible once you decide you don’t need permission to pursue your goals.

Still frame from “Welcome to the Machine.” I do all my best acting in the wide shot.

In the professional world, screenwriters shouldn’t just spend all their time chained behind the keyboard, waiting for the million-dollar spec sale or put pilot commitment to fall into their lap.  Because, let’s be honest, the odds are not in your favor there.  They’re not in anyone’s, really.

Sure, back in the 90’s it was all about the spec script.  You wrote one after another and hoped you’d win the “lottery.”  Those days are gone, however, and devoting all your time to churning out a pile of specs – even a really tall, charismatic pile, with the good brads – might not be the best way to get your foot in the door anymore.

We can complain about the circumstances.  Writers are good at that kind of thing. Probably a bit too good.  It’s not fair.  We don’t have enough opportunities to get read. Too many sequels and not enough new ideas. How can we build a track record if no one gives us a chance in the first place?  When I ask for room for cream, I don’t mean give me half a cup of coffee.  Blah blah waaah.

It’s time to stop griping and time to start taking action.  Get out there and make something happen.  More specifically – make something.

This is the age of DIY.  Professional grade cameras are incredibly affordable and editing software can be installed in a laptop.  Digital publishing is no longer seen as automatically tainted or illegitimate.  Web series have their own award shows and festivals.

Just within the past few years, there’s been stunning success stories to prove the point.

The self-published book, “The Martian,” became a blockbuster Matt Damon movie directed by Ridley Scott.  The Twitter account, “$#*! my Dad Says,” was developed into a sitcom starring William Shatner.  The Web series, “Drunk History,” was recently picked up for its fourth season on Comedy Central, while “Broad City” was renewed for its fourth and fifth.

Granted, these are the home runs, but there are infinite levels of success that can be mined that flat-out didn’t exist before.  Which is not to say you should stop writing screenplays altogether, but instead, diversify your output and your opportunities.

All around me, my creative peers are exploring and exploiting these very possibilities.  My friend Doug Stark made the web pilots, “Shining City” and “GROOMer.”  The multi-talented Ungers created the animated franchise, “The Punky Pets.”  Madellaine Paxson and Eddie Guzelian produced an indie horror film called, “Blood Punch.”  And writer Mike Katz self-published his latest novel, “Dearly Befuddled.”

The Action Adventure Graphic Novel you’ll want to buy a lot of copies of.  Coming Soon.

Like them, my frequent partner, Rhonda Smiley, and I decided to try something else.  Something new for us.

We recently finished the script for our first graphic novel, “Blowback,” and are searching for the right artist to bring it to life.  Rhonda is also getting close to finishing her debut novel, “Asper.”  We’re widening the net.  Increasing the odds of something happening.

Maybe you should too.

Do you have a contained feature you could fund yourself or through Kickstarter?  Maybe you have an idea that could make an excellent short film or web series.  Perhaps a print-on-demand book.

Those projects might just lead to something else.  Sure, there’s a chance they don’t come out the way you envisioned.  Maybe some of them are downright awful.  But that only helps you learn what to do differently next time.  And just the feeling that you’ve created a final product, and not just the blueprint for something that may never come to life, can make it all worthwhile.

It feels pretty good.

So don’t wait for anyone’s permission.  Give yourself the green light you’ve been desperately seeking and make some magic.

Seriously, why are you still reading this?  Get off the internet and make it happen, dammit.

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[IN THE TRENCHES] Industry Peers: Mortal Enemies?

Posted on August 16, 2016 by [TEXTSMITH]

Back in my first few days at NYU, all of us freshman Film & Television majors naturally gravitated toward other like-minded students, forming the inevitable cliques.  This was great for hanging out, making the most of a single believable fake I.D., and, of course, deep conversations on the subtext within Battleship Potemkin, Un Chien Andalou, and The Lost Boys.

New York University's Tisch School of the Arts

NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts

But when it came time to work on projects (whether school assignments or self-started masterpieces), there became job issues.  If your clique had one aspiring director, writer, actor, and D.P., you were golden.  You’d just recruit a few more kids to fill out your crew and away you went.

The only problem, was that kind of serendipity was rare.  Vaporeon rare.

What you had instead, was a huge amount of redundant ambitions.  As a result, on any single project, one of those aspiring directors was going to have to be an assistant director, one of the three future D.P.s was going to have to be the camera operator and the other one was probably going to be forced to do sound (yes, you had to force people to do sound.  Why was it so hard to find someone who actually wanted to do sound?).

As a writer, I worked on a lot of other people’s films not as a wordsmith, but as a producer, production manager, coordinator, and – yes – even sound man.

Of course, we were at school, and wearing lots of different hats was a healthy part of the learning process.  Not to mention, there were enough different projects that a certain amount of responsibility-rotating allowed most kids to take the reins of their coveted gig at least every once in a while.

In the professional world, however, things are less Kumbaya-y.  Learning is no longer a primary goal (though still an ancillary one, ideally), replaced instead by building a career and scraping enough cash together for rent and Starbucks.

Author Somerset Maugham working on some pithy quotes for the internet

Author Somerset Maugham working on some pithy quotes for the internet

So, if you and your best friends are all writers, then there’s a good chance you’re all vying for the very same jobs.  And those jobs are limited.  As a result, it can sometimes feel like success for anyone you know is equivalent with failure for you.

There’s a quote from Somerset Maugham I’ve always found darkly funny (attribution research props go to Quote Investigator)…

 

“it is not enough to have achieved personal success. One’s best friend must also have failed.”

-Somerset Maugham.

That’s terrible of course, but I think we can all understand the emotion it’s borne from.

So when your best buddy and sometimes writing partner sells a spec screenplay, do you actively wish them ill?  Cut their brake lines?  Or perhaps something less cliché (you are a writer, after all).

The problem with that particular plan is

1.) That’s the kind of thing that could ruin your career as well.

and

2.) How well do you know cars, really?  Are you sure you have the right kind of gloves?  You’re probably just as likely to lose a finger in the process, and then how’re you going to flip the bird or type a “Q” when either of those things becomes necessary?

No, I’m familiar with the feeling, but you can’t linger in that homicidal place.  The truth is, you want your friends to succeed.  You just want to be succeeding at the very same time.

It can help to remind yourself that these people are your peers and hopefully it’s only a matter of time before you get your next opportunity/job/success.

In the world of television writers, it’s actually kind of beneficial if one of you succeeds a little bit ahead of the others.  That means the “succeeder leader” may soon end up in a hiring position themselves and be able to reach out to offer their fellow writers opportunities.

That should be enough for everyone

Yeah, I think that should be enough for everyone

Producers can hire story editors, story editors can hire writing staff, and someone on the writing staff might be able to suggest a freelancer or two.  Everybody wins.

Of course, if your peers aren’t in the same specialty as you, the success doesn’t really even take away any opportunities.  Your friend is producing their second season of a reality show?  Fantastic.  Actor buddy just got a recurring role in a new Hulu series?  Sweetness.  Maybe you can all split an Uber to the Emmys.

Oh yeah, there’s also the highly dubious moral issue of wishing your friends ill.  If there is such a thing as karma, that’s not gonna fall in your plus column.  And even if there isn’t, how is feeling that way going to help you, the people you care about, or your career?

Support.  Encourage.  Congratulate and wish well.  Genuinely.  It’s what you’d want them to do for you.

You know, once you get past how much better you’d be in that job you should’ve gotten instead of them.  

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[THE MAKING OF] Origin Story

Posted on August 1, 2016 by [TEXTSMITH]
Crayons on paper at age 8. Cliché, perhaps. Classic, absolutely.

Crayons on paper at age 8. Cliché, perhaps.  Classic, absolutely.

So here it is at last.  My first blog post.

Should probably be some sort of an intro. Appetizer.  An amuse-bouche, for all you Food Network addicts out there.

Which reminds me.  I didn’t have breakfast yet. I’ll just be a minute.

Okay, I’m back.  What were we talking about again?  Ah, yes…  Me.

So who is this Jim Hereth guy anyway?

Well, at my core, I’ve always considered myself a creative person – drawing, acting, writing, filmmaking…  Making up excuses for why I didn’t have my homework or somehow missed class entirely.  That kind of thing.

Directing the Super 8 masterpiece, “Mega Men,” in junior high.

Directing the Super 8 science fiction comedy masterpiece, “Mega Men,” in junior high.

As a kid I drew comics, shot short movies on film and video, even starred in a PSA that aired across the country in which I pretended to cry (act-ing!).

It was pretty clear early on that I wasn’t likely to become a doctor or a lawyer when – and if – I finally grew up.

So what would I do instead?

Despite my fevered imaginings, it seemed pretty unlikely that anyone was going to pay me to sleep in and watch television all day.

At least, not a lot.

The answer, it appeared, would be somewhere in the world of entertainment.  Turns out you can even get a diploma for that.  And thanks to what I can only assume was some sort of clerical error in the admissions office, this veteran underachiever managed to get himself accepted into the Film and Television program at NYU.

Working on my first feature screenplay at NYU. On a typewriter. It’s like a laptop with a paper screen.

Still, there were problems that remained unsolved.  When I actually arrived at school for my freshman year, I had no idea what particular discipline I was going to pursue.

After all, I intended to do it all eventually.

Meanwhile, other kids around me hit campus with their career goals clearly mapped out on day one.

They were going to be Directors, Actors, Cinematographers, Producers, Editors, Gaffers…

A few were even carving their niche in sound (very few, actually.  This probably needs to be more encouraged).

  Non-stop action as Creator on the set of “Mowgli: The New Adventures of the Jungle Book” in Costa Rica.

Eventually, though, I realized that a day would rarely go by without an idea for something popping into my head.  Movies.  Series.  Books.  The occasional puppet show.

I finally discovered my primary superpower lay in writing.

From there it was just a matter of working toward doing it more and doing it better.  And, of course, getting paid for it.

Creativity alone ain’t gonna cover the cable bill.

Thankfully, as an adult, I’ve managed to make a living in the entertainment business.  Not exclusively from writing, of course, but it’s all helped to keep the dream machine churning along.

And as it does, I continue to undertake my slow-moving, but inevitable (benevolent) domination of the industry.  It’s only a matter of time, really.

Flexing a few long-dormant acting muscles for the web pilot, “GROOMer.”

Maybe you’re like me.  Maybe I can share some thoughts and experiences I’ve gleaned over the years that you might find helpful.

Maybe you’re just curious about what I had for breakfast (it was Raisin Bran, if you must know.  With some Corn Flakes mixed in).

Regardless, I’ll try to at least share some thoughts every few weeks or so, and hopefully keep it entertaining.

Let’s see how this goes…

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