Screenwriting Expo - Be a Writer, or Deduct Like One
Screenwriting Expo IV was held this past weekend in L.A. I went and had a reasonably good time despite a rather demoralizing experience in the writing tournament and three days of cheap, disgusting, overpriced convention center food. I went to a bunch of the seminars, some of which were useful, others not so much. I think the organizers are sincere in their desire to use the expo to build a supportive community of writers, but I couldn't help thinking that many of the 4000 attendees, most of whom haven't a snowball's chance in a Hotpoint of ever selling anything, are being exploited by the constant onslaught of sales pitches for books, CDs, DVDs, software, and consulting services. Is there any other profession that has spawned such a remora-like "how-to" subculture?
Of course, that just might be the sour grapes talking...
I didn't do any of the pitch sessions, and I'll write about the writing tournament in another post, but here's a rundown of some of the seminar's I attended.
Friday:
I'm working on a script based on a family-member's true story, so I went to a couple of classes on adaptation and the current state of the market for true stories. The first teacher was mostly about self-promotion ("work real hard and maybe one day you'll be lucky enough to be just like me!"), but made some good points about developing your story and about obtaining life rights. The second class was an interesting rundown on the popularity of true-stories in made-for-cable movies. The teacher listed the various cable channels and what kind of movies they look for. She then took a dump all over my project, so screw her and her advice. (Sour grapes, yummy, yummy).
The highpoint of the expo was a seminar that had nothing to do with writing. Accountant Scott Rubenstein did a session called "How to Deduct Your Writing Career From Your Taxes." It was a revelation. Like many, I thought one had to have writing-related income before one could deduct writing expenses. Not true! All you need to do is declare yourself a writer and keep track of your reasonable expenses in a journal and, where possible, with receipts. He provided a sample tax return and detailed which expenses are deductible.
Saturday:
I started out with a self-help session on dealing with one's criticial inner-voice. The teacher's advice was interesting: be more like the Donald Kaufman character in "Adaptation" and less like the Charlie Kaufman character - people will like your project more if they sense your enthusiam for it, but the class was mostly a sales-pitch for life coaching services at $200 an hour. Forget the Donald Kaufman, maybe I should be more like that guy!
I also went to two of Pilar Allesandra's classes on Dynamic Dialog and Story Brainstorming, which were very helpful. She's a very engaging speaker and presented her material in a fun way. True, she also spent time pitching her classes and consulting services, but she had the grace to be somewhat apologetic about it.
Linda Aronson's class on Flashback structure was probably the most academic and fascinating class I attended. She shed new light (for me anyway) on the structures of movies like Shine, The Usual Suspects, and Memento. Good class.
I finished the day at Bill Martell's class on theme. Theme is one of those subjects I have trouble with, so I found this class to be very useful, and Bill's an entertaining speaker. (I heard his horror class was SRO). The lesson here is that it's important for you to be able to articulate your theme in order to write a great script. Just don't hit the audience over the head with it, and don't expect the producers to get it.
Sunday:
Linda Cowgill's class on common script problems was informative, but I was pretty burned out at this point, so I don't have much more to say on that. I also went to a panel of TV writers whose main advice was to write great spec scripts. Duh. One of the panelists was a writer on "Andy Richter Controls the Universe", but I resisted the urge to go up to her afterwards and gush.
I was at the conference with my writing group, and we went to the closing ceremonies together. Unless I'm a finalist in one of the contests, I'll skip it in the future. It was two more hours of self-congratulatory bullshit. Hey, Mercurio, shut the fuck up already and give out the awards. Some of us have a plane to catch.
Of course, that just might be the sour grapes talking...
I didn't do any of the pitch sessions, and I'll write about the writing tournament in another post, but here's a rundown of some of the seminar's I attended.
Friday:
I'm working on a script based on a family-member's true story, so I went to a couple of classes on adaptation and the current state of the market for true stories. The first teacher was mostly about self-promotion ("work real hard and maybe one day you'll be lucky enough to be just like me!"), but made some good points about developing your story and about obtaining life rights. The second class was an interesting rundown on the popularity of true-stories in made-for-cable movies. The teacher listed the various cable channels and what kind of movies they look for. She then took a dump all over my project, so screw her and her advice. (Sour grapes, yummy, yummy).
The highpoint of the expo was a seminar that had nothing to do with writing. Accountant Scott Rubenstein did a session called "How to Deduct Your Writing Career From Your Taxes." It was a revelation. Like many, I thought one had to have writing-related income before one could deduct writing expenses. Not true! All you need to do is declare yourself a writer and keep track of your reasonable expenses in a journal and, where possible, with receipts. He provided a sample tax return and detailed which expenses are deductible.
Saturday:
I started out with a self-help session on dealing with one's criticial inner-voice. The teacher's advice was interesting: be more like the Donald Kaufman character in "Adaptation" and less like the Charlie Kaufman character - people will like your project more if they sense your enthusiam for it, but the class was mostly a sales-pitch for life coaching services at $200 an hour. Forget the Donald Kaufman, maybe I should be more like that guy!
I also went to two of Pilar Allesandra's classes on Dynamic Dialog and Story Brainstorming, which were very helpful. She's a very engaging speaker and presented her material in a fun way. True, she also spent time pitching her classes and consulting services, but she had the grace to be somewhat apologetic about it.
Linda Aronson's class on Flashback structure was probably the most academic and fascinating class I attended. She shed new light (for me anyway) on the structures of movies like Shine, The Usual Suspects, and Memento. Good class.
I finished the day at Bill Martell's class on theme. Theme is one of those subjects I have trouble with, so I found this class to be very useful, and Bill's an entertaining speaker. (I heard his horror class was SRO). The lesson here is that it's important for you to be able to articulate your theme in order to write a great script. Just don't hit the audience over the head with it, and don't expect the producers to get it.
Sunday:
Linda Cowgill's class on common script problems was informative, but I was pretty burned out at this point, so I don't have much more to say on that. I also went to a panel of TV writers whose main advice was to write great spec scripts. Duh. One of the panelists was a writer on "Andy Richter Controls the Universe", but I resisted the urge to go up to her afterwards and gush.
I was at the conference with my writing group, and we went to the closing ceremonies together. Unless I'm a finalist in one of the contests, I'll skip it in the future. It was two more hours of self-congratulatory bullshit. Hey, Mercurio, shut the fuck up already and give out the awards. Some of us have a plane to catch.
posted by Ken Sharp at 4:14 PM
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