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Friday, October 23, 2009
Panel highlights: Write What You Know: Comedy
Judging by the dozens of high school students in attendance (as part of the Young Filmmakers Program) at the “Write What You Know: Comedy” panel, there will be no shortage of comedy writers or YouTube videos anytime soon. The Stephen F. Austin ballroom was packed for the 1:45 p.m. panel Friday, with a strong representation of both young people and local Austin comedians and performers such as Kerri Lendo, Asaf Ronen and Jason Neulander.
The panel was moderated by writer/funnyman Owen Egerton and featured writer-director-actor-producers Mike Feig (“The Office,” “Nurse Jackie,” “Freak and Geeks”) and AFF panel virgin Mike White (“School of Rock,” “Freaks and Geeks”).
Egerton was as affable and prepared as any moderator you will see at an AFF panel, and what he lacked in concision he made up for with energy and earnestness. While the discussion did not have a laser focus on the writing process, it was informative and enjoyable thanks to Feig’s generosity and garrulous nature and White’s oddball humor and struggle to express himself.
What follows are a few of the highlights:
- Feig on what interests him regarding characters and material: “Comedy comes from vulnerability … I like to concentrate on characters who don’t normally get served by Hollywood.”
- White said he likes ambiguity and not pre-digested material, a move that allows audiences to have their own, unqiue reactions. Feig follwed by saying that he and Mike, “both like making audiences uncomfortable … that is where the comedy comes from.”
- White humorously admitted that he gets very emotionally involved in his writing, which generally precludes him from writing in public. The visceral reaction is such that when he is writing about a character crying, he will cry while he is typing. It definitely painted an intriguing picture.
- Feig said that anyone who wanted to be a screenwriter or director should take acting and improv lessons to learn the rhythms of the way other people speak and to better understand what actors are going through when they work with them. He said the role of a director is to provide a safe place for actors to work, and that writers and directors should therefore not force an actor to deliver a line the way they would want them to necessarily.
- “The scariest thing about comedy is you have to trust the people you’re collaborating with,” Feig said.
- Regarding his writing style, White said that “overpreparing before (he writes) is probably the key to getting a lot if stuff I’ve written made.” Discussing his outlining and planning before writing, White said that you have to have an understanding of where you are going and the route that will take you there, as trying to improvise a script can be a very perilous and unproductive method of screenwriting.
- Regarding work he wished got more attention versus fan favorites, White said, “You want the unloved babies to be loved, and the loved ones don’t need any more love.”
- As for his golden rule of writing, Feig says he follows the words of George Bernard Shaw, “All men mean well.” By this he said he meant that if you can understand why a character is doing or saying something — no matter how bizarre or heinous — then you are free to develop a fully realized character that won’t feel like a caricature.
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Panel highlights: Breaking Into the Business
If there was a perfect, fail-proof way to break into the film and television industry, this panel would have to be held in the Erwin Center. As there is not, the panel was held in the Driskill Ballroom to a respectable crowd (given the early start on the conference’s opening day) of about 50 folks, who listened to industry vets rep Bryan Brucks, local Pat Hazell and Dan Petrie Jr. engage with moderator Aadip Desai in a humorous and insightful conversation that likely gave hope to many burgeoning writers in the room.
What follows are some of the highlights:
- Unlike years ago when one had to find film stock and a way to process it, Petrie spoke to the fact that there is now a huge democratization of making and showcasing films. But, as in the past, there is “always a hunger for new material.” There are people whose job it is to go out and find those new voices, but writers can’t be satisfied with themselves if they have one good script. “A great spec script is the premier ticket into the business … that is the most direct way. But you have to be willing to try several times. It’s not enough to have a good script,” he said. “It has to be a great script.” Petrie also made it clear that patting one’s self on the back for writing something that is better than half of the stuff out there in Hollywood is not a very remarkable accomplishment. This got a good laugh.
- “You have to have one thing that people want and will look for,” Brucks said about agents and producers looking for “the next big thing.” He went on to say that he signed a guy two years ago off of a three-minute short. But once you are discovered, Brucks said, “You have to have your next idea” ready. It doesn’t have to be an entire script, but a writer should at least have a page or two of his next idea or his next two ideas. And beyond having good ideas, a writer must be “good in the room.” Writing good material is one challenge, getting into a room and selling your ideas to people is an equally important step in getting something picked up.
- All the men made it clear that doing one great thing is not enough in an industry that is always looking for people’s next project. “You have to break in constantly,” Petrie said, which Hazell reinforced by saying that “heat on one project only lasts a certain amount of time.”
- One of the most important points Petrie hammered was that you don’t want to be in a position of asking people if they will read your script; a writer wants people to be asking if they can read his script. A good way to generate that interest, Hazell said, is by creating a showcase of your work that can serve as a calling card, whether that be a short film, or in his case a three-man play that he produced at a small theater in Hollywood that drove interest of executives.
- Brucks stated that chasing trends is a fool’s errand. With trends shifting so fast, it is impossible to keep up with them. In a prescient comment, he went on to suggest it is pointless for a writer to try and create the next “Paranormal Activity.” If studios wanted something in that vein, it would be more likely they would just go to the people who wrote that movie instead of hiring a new face to produce a derivative. In the case of a stinker, the executives could then say, ‘Hey, we went with a proven winner. How was I to know?’ But if they hire someone to make a knock-off of a successful picture, the executive would take the heat if it failed.
- For those who feel there is no way to get noticed, Brucks was insistent. “Believe me, if you have a great script, someone will find it,” he said. Speaking to that, Petrie said, “It’s a tremendous feather in people’s caps to discover good material.” Brucks confirmed that often that is how people get promoted at studios. To wit, a guy in the mailroom discovered “Paranormal Activity,” and there is little doubt he is no longer shuffling mail.
- There is no certainty in getting a gig, but pretty much everyone is going to face rejection. That’s just the nature of the beast. The key is to get used to rejection and don’t take it personally, Brucks said. And if you are lucky enough to get a job writing in Hollywood, get used to notes and get used to the fact that you are going to get re-written. It happens to everyone, and how you respond to both of those inevitabilities will go a long way in shaping the relationships you make in the business.
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