Ethan Marrell - Notes from LA Screenwriting Expo

"I have typed up a few of my hand written notes to share with you, my fellow Perth filmmakers, receivers of E-vent, and those who read the blogs... 

Here is some of the information circulating in this brain of mine about my experiences at the 2009 Screenwriting Expo @ Wilshire Grand Hotel, LA, from October 16th - 18th. Between Guest of Honour speakers, the seminars, workshops, and the pitch festival my brain is feeling jam packed with information. 

Day 1: I attended seminars such as 'Make It Funny From The Ground Up', 'Pitching To Sell', and 'The Outline For Your Feature Film'. I found each of these sessions informative, but have copious notes from 'Pitching To Sell' in particular. Karl Iglesias was the speaker and it genuinely felt like he was there to help new writers - which was good! He stressed points such as: Don't be boring, Engage the listener, and Avoid telling the story scene by scene.

Day 2: I joined in on the festivity and mayhem of 'The Golden Pitch.' A pitch festival where new and wannabe writers have the opportunity to pitch their screenplays to production companies. You have 5 minutes with each company and move through about 3 different waiting rooms. It's fast, hectic, and when you look around the waiting rooms some writers are mingling and others prefer to wear their F%$# Off Face.

 

Here's how my pitches went for my feature screenplay 'Dead End Love'. 

Rat Entertainment @ 9:40 AM - Pitch finished early, 4 mins 30, but that's OK, using the rules of stand up comedy it's never too early to get off. Representative accepted first 10 pages of script. 

Mad Chance Productions @ 10:40 AM - Pitch took up all 5 mins. Rep asked a lot of questions and was very enthusiastic and interested to know more about the story. Said awesome stuff like 'really intrigued by this' and 'never heard anything like it before'. Accepted first 10 pgs. 

Lin Pictures @ 1:30 PM - Liked the pitch and said it was 'solid'. Couldn't accept unsolicited material. Needed time to think if this would suit the company and took my contact details. 

Village Roadshow @ 4:05 PM - Liked the idea and wanted a one page synopsis...Didn't have one...first 10 pgs is how I roll... Rep. couldn't accept unsolicited material. Gave contact details and a list of 5 American competitions in which the screenplay has placed in varying rounds of finals. Great lil' meeting overall. 

Lionsgate @ 4:50 PM - Lots of questions after my 2 min pitch. Wanted a better understanding of the screenplays genre. Asked for the first 10 pgs. I gave them to him. Went good for the end of the day as we were probably both ready to go have a beer by this time.  

I left a gap from pitching between 2 PM and 4 PM on this day, as Shane Black (writer of Leathal Weapon, Long Kiss Goodnight, writer/director Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) was speaking as a Guest of Honour . 

This was a fantastic interview. Shane was extremely funny and also very informative. He spoke of certain techniques that he misses in alot of modern screenplays e.g. reversals, twists & turns, set ups and payoffs. He recommended when writing characters that the aim is not necessarily to make them less like you, but more like you, take traits from yourself and build on them in your characters, care about and inhabit your characters. He also smashed in the face the stereotype of writing dialogue that's 'natural' and 'real'. BORING! Keep it playful and fun. Dialogue is not easy, but it should fun. 

Day 3: More pitching + Guests of Honour. Scott Free Entertainment, Warner Bros, and Imagine all wanted the first 10 pgs of Dead End Love. Misher Films and Darkwoods took my contact details. That brings an end to my American pitching experience. 10 companies in total and I enjoyed the experience immensely. There was not one person I pitched to who had a 'Hollywood Hard Ass Executive' vibe about them. Everyone I met from the companies was very human, and very nice. 

Between pitching I saw 2 more Guests of Honour interviews. The first was Franklin Leonard. In 2008, Franklin began his tenure as the director of development and production at Universal. This dude is switched on! I'm really glad I made it to this session as I found it hugely informative. Franklin spoke about both the commerce and creativity of the industry in a very balanced fashion. The second Guest of Honour session for the day was William Goldman and John Cleese together (two absolute legends of the screen industry - imdb them if you're not familiar with their work). The session was basically a Q & A with the audience for close to 2 hours. Of course the big questions came flooding in 'What makes a hit movie?' 'How do I get a big break?' etc etc. To which Goldman and Cleese could only shrug at times and say they honestly don't know. Luck. Timing. Nobody knows!

Goldman's philosophy in short was 'write something of interest that will keep the reader turning the page. One day someone will give you money'. Cleese spoke on how tricky it is these days because budgets are so high. When the budgets get high, tension/anxiety creeps in and creativity can become stifled by control. He spoke of the early Monty Python days when there was less at stake and they had the freedom to be original. Nobody knew if it would hit or miss!  

Overall it was worth the journey and money to attend this event. I spent another 11 days in L.A. after the expo and if you have any interest in filmmaking what so ever it's definitely a town worth checking out.  Bring on the credit card debt! Cheers, Ethan M."