The Oyster

Had my phone call with the LA production company. It went really well I think but also leaves me with that blank canvas. They said "We want you to do what you want to do." What?! This is Hollywood dammit! You're supposed to order me around. This isn't me with my DVX100 and a couple of friends running around NYC looking to steal shots. But of course that's a great thing; I'm in a bit of a post call haze as far as what I should do. What kind of show do I want to write? When the world is your oyster sometimes its hard to shuck. What does that mean? I don't know- I told you this blog would be a bit free form.

Anyway, so I gotta get specific about my hour long idea and figure it out. Hopefully, I'll come up with something halfway comprehensible by Friday.

24 Hour Plays

Spent last night at the 24 Hour Plays- what a blast! I hope to be able to do them one day. Great writing, great casts and a nice little shwag bag to go along with it all. I got a bit hammered to be frank. Got in a few words with David Cross and laughed it up with Craig Grant aka Mums. Good times.

Tomorrow I got a phone call with an LA production company regarding some TV development so hopefully that will go well and we can come up with something we both like.

Hello- This is Me.

Who am I? I’m a writer who is about to graduate from Columbia with an MFA in Film. I’m also an assistant to a playwright- that pays the bills believe it or not. I’m in the beginning stages of my own writing career- one which will hopefully encompass a variety of genres and mediums. I have ideas and sometimes those ideas are best for the stage and sometimes they are best for the screen and sometimes the end up in the trash. Okay, rarely in the trash but somewhere deep in my hard drive.

In regards to television I don’t write specs any more- they seem silly to me. I’m going on the perhaps naïve assumption that producers, studios and networks are looking for good writers- period- not writers who can imitate a writing style. I think that can be taught and also depends entirely on who you are working for. My agent (who is great) seems to agree or at least has never asked me to write a spec. Great also applies to my writer/boss who is incredibly supportive of me and my work. I go to Los Angeles every few months for “generals” as I’ve learned they’re called. Where I talk to executives and we contemplate ways to get me in the system and developing shows for them. I can be cynical; I can be jaded. BUT generally I am optimistic because those other two states of mind just kind of blow. I don’t live in LA (NYC baby!) and refuse to move (actually move back) unless I have a writing gig- actually LA's okay. :) So that’s an incredibly small slice of my pie but perhaps I will reveal more moving forward…I guess that's the point of this blog.