No one knows anything....

"Writing is finally about one thing: going into a room alone and doing it. Putting words on paper that have never been there in quite that way before. And although you are physically by yourself, the haunting Demon never leaves you, that Demon being the knowledge of your own terrible limitations, your hopeless inadequacy, the impossibility of ever getting it right. No matter how diamond-bright your ideas are dancing in your brain, on paper they are earthbound."
William Goldman quote

Wow! And this from the master. If you have never read William Goldman's books - pick them up now. Adventures in the screen trade and Hello! He lied... are two great reads. And this from the guy who wrote Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and the Princess Bride.

I have a friend. Great guy. He lived in Virginia when we lived there - he was a great musician. When I produced my first Discovery Channel series - he did the music. When I started doing commercials - I had him do the score. He was awesome. We were both little more than kids. He grew up and moved to LA with a big music deal with Sony.

He calls me and says - Greg. You gotta move out here. These people are idiots!

And that's the thing. No one knows anything.

There is always someone telling you something about something. There is a cottage industry that has sprung up around struggling screenwriters. Everyone has their hands out - and everyone is trying to get a break. Everyone has their piece of advice - but the truth is - no one makes it the same way. Just like a good script - every story has originality.

One of the first times I went to LA to color correct a commercial - I went to a meeting with my now manager that was a talk given by the writers of the upcoming BATMAN movie. They said the only way to make it out here is to be so excellent - that Hollywood can't ignore you. At the time I thought they were really arrogant - because they were really saying - like me... we were so excellent - that is why we made it.. And then I thought they might be right...But the truth is, I know better.

Right now, there are probably a 100 guitarists hiding in their closets that are better on any given day than the best guitarist out there. They will never leave their house, their tens of thousands of dollars of equipment, and their little safety bubble - because that is their thing. Their talent may be undisputed, their excellence unquestioned - but they have plenty of other reasons why they won't ever be heard.

When I got out of Grad School - I had a little 30 minute film I did. Like most student films - it doesn't hold up well over the years. It was cheap - like $6000 - but I won about 15 awards with it - and it played all over the world. But - I didn't get hired to direct anything for 2 years. I thought I was "excellent" -delusion starts at home, trust me - and someone had to think I was excellent - cause no one else did... - but that really didn't matter. I was untested.

I have run many auditions over the years. If there is a group of people more insecure than screenwriters - it has to be actors. While we at least get to control what people do and say on paper - they get no control. Everything is spelled out for them - and then the director tells them how to do it - and why what they are doing is wrong. Everything about their craft is to be scrutinized by others and judged. Well - maybe we have more in common than I thought...

As an actor comes in - they are trying to get a part. And - if logic had any bearing on what happens - the best actor would always win. But the truth is - that rarely happens. A new face. A pretty face. A taller face. A different color face. Little things that have little or nothing to do with talent creep in. And then you look at experience...

My manager - who works for a really big PRODUCER/DIRECTOR - tells me that scripts get bought all the time for the idea - even if the script sucks. I have a really good friend - let's call him RYAN - who is a good writer - but his last idea is so limiting - SMALL - that it is destined to be someone's first film - but not a script that will sell to any place that will get him noticed. Everyone tells you to be excellent - but if an idea can sell a bad script - what does excellence have to do with that?

Take my newest take. I have said already that the company bought this script 5 years ago and have gone through 3 writers and at least 10 rewrites. And the best they came up with was to bastardize 3 or four other films and copy a sequence from Silence of the Lambs verbatim... And this is a script that was bought! Now they give it to me and tell me to throw everything out - but the characters and the idea.

All that money - thrown on the table - and for what? Not excellence - the idea...

NO ONE KNOWS ANYTHING...

I leave you with this. There is no "one way" in.

My script that opened all these doors - got me a manager and an agent - attached two big stars - didn't make it past the first round of the Virginia Governors Screenwriting contest. They stopped reading it after 10 pages and offered me some formatting advice.

Everything that you do - you do for yourself and your career. I look at every book I read or buy - I can learn one thing. Every film I watch - I can learn one thing. Every time I do something else in the business - from producing and directing - to being a PA or an assistant - I can learn one thing. Every person I meet in the industry - I can learn one thing. Everytime I go to the coffee shop and sit to write - I can get one more thing done.

So does that mean you have to move to LA? No. But it helps. Does that mean you have to have the perfect script? No. But it helps. Does that mean you should sleep your way to the top? No. But it helps. Especially if you're pretty...

This is a business where if your dad is a star - you can be a star. If you dad is a director - you can be a director..The doors open. Hell - Tori Spelling can talk about how her dad never helped her all she wants - but we all know the truth.

It is a process. For some of us - it is very very long. For some - its a home run first time at the plate. There is no rhyme or reason - just like life. You just put your head down - and try any way you can with the gifts, contacts and experience that you have to do what you do...

And if you give up early? Well... in theory - that just opens up one more slot for the rest of us... :)

But if you are willing to keep going, to give it your all...

Then come on out...Trust me...The ice can hold all of us.....