Notes From a Screeny Weekend

THINGS GLEANED from a couple of solid days & one wonderful, lingering dinner with screenwriters & smartypants at the 2010 Toronto Screenwriting Conference.

1)  Ted Danson is apparently a Mensch.

2)  According to the Simpsons' Tim Long, who hails from the fine Ontario town of Exeter -- "the rule of thumb about how stupid Homer can be is that Homer Simpson should never be dumber than a dog, and cannot forget his own name."

Long also sounds like he's scored a coup with the opening episode of the Fall 2010 Simpsons' -- a musical ep featuring Flight of the Conchords & the cast of Glee; and he proved that in a wingman situation, he can get one about 40% of the way there without even breaking a sweat. The follow through, alas... is up to you.

And the Magazine geek in me will be forever in awe of Long just because he worked for a time at the great, storied, legendary SPY Magazine.

3) Rhett Reese understands EXACTLY how lucky he is that he and his writing partner Paul Wernick (who he's known since high school) were with Zombieland.  The movie started life as a TV pilot.  The first half of the movie is basically the TV pilot. The movie changed very, very little from their initial draft, except when it walked over from Sony DVD/TV Movie land to Sony Pictures (and when does THAT happen?) the director suggested the amusement park ending, now that they had a bigger budget.

Oh and apparently the scene that was written most was the Bill Murray scene -- for Patrick Swayze, Jean Claude Van Damme, The Rock, and about seven other people. And in the end, at the last minute... they come up with Bill Murray.

Ladies and gentlemen, THAT is lucky.

4) My interview with Robert Zotnowski (fmr. Sr. VP of CBS Drama Series Development, now Head of Development at Stars Road Entertainment (with Josh Donen & Sam Raimi) revealed much wisdom for the aspiring writer about how to effectively manage your relationship with the network.  When it comes to notes, always remember to "take the spirit of the note," and remember that your biggest friend is, "we'll take a look at it."  The sweet spot for getting your pilot script into the network isn't Thanksgiving, and isn't to play the "get in late after New Years'" game (by then you better have sheer genius, cause there's no time to fix anything.)   But I think one of the best things he had to say was about how a writer needs to approach that pilot script. “A pilot is not a show – is is an opportunity to have a show." he said. “The pilot process should be looked at as an audition for the people we are going to want to work with on a series.” 

How often writers forget that the first product they're trying to sell...is themselves! Oh, and one more from Mr. Zotnowski:  "the best series bible in the world won't help a weak pilot script get made."

5) Robert C. Cooper (co-creator of SGU Stargate Universe) had this pithy quote, "A writer is not someone who's got a script in their back pocket.  A writer is someone who writes."  Chuck Tatham, co-Executive Producer of "How I Met Your Mother" also praised the value of steady work.  "Even if you only write a page a day, that's still a script every six months."  Tenacity & perseverance is the key.  Tatham also praised journalism and advertising as places to start because "they teach you that you have to write fast."  Learning that skill is everything.

6) Sheldon Bull's warm & winning 90 minute presentation on the comedy script was the session I got the most out of in the conference. If you haven't read his wonderful book on comedy writing, Elephant Bucks, well, I'd advise buying it right now.  Bull's advice in that room probably launched a hundred Modern Family specs, that will all be much better than they otherwise would have been.

7) Both Tim Long, and Sheldon Bull (M*A*S*H, Coach, Newhart, Sabrina The Teenage Witch) said the same thing about jokes: that they're easy. Long says that there's no shortage of people who can write good jokes for The Simpsons -- the person who can nail a good story is much more valuable.  

Bull, in fact, says this about your sitcom story -- write it as a drama first.  Get the story working, and the comedy will take care of itself.  He had a much more lovely way of expressing it, and I'm sure it's in the book -- but he said the key to good comedy is just removing the self- editor. The comic character takes what you and I would think in a situation,  pushes it to the extreme -- and vocalizes that.   All the complex stuff about half hour plotting I've read over the years, and Bull really reduces it to something much more simple.  It was an exciting classroom to be in. 

 8) I missed the session by Dara Marks, (would love anybody's notes, if you took'em.) but everyone came out of it raving about how great it was, and her book sold out within a few minutes.  Because of our small populations, Canadians are going to increasingly be wedded to telling stories that can appeal across cultures, and tap into international, powerful myths & archetypes  -- and that's what Marks' book is all about.  

I can't wait to read it.

So ... that's it then.  The venue was really great (Ryerson's new Ted Rogers Business School Building) and the Volunteers & organizers all worked hard to make sure that there were no hitches.

This was a great, smooth inaugural event.  Hopefully it will build in years to come to an even stronger gathering of talent to network & share business tips and tricks on process.  There are already whispers about maybe some "Master Class" sessions that go beyond the level one kind of stuff, and plumb the depths of what it's really like day to day.  But I think if you were listening, you got plenty of that kind of unvarnished craft advice from people like Robert Zotnowski, and Rhett Reese & Chuck Tatham.

Nice work, much to think about, and I'm inspired on a couple new projects. What more can you ask for than that?