Writers Audition Too (017)

The writing schedule for the PT script is officially defunct. Wednesday was meant to be the deadline for the 2nd draft. Unfortunately, I only have a first draft of the first act complete. It isn’t for lack of writing. In fact, WriterGal and I have been very busy of late. In my previous entry, I mentioned that we would be meeting with a company as a writing team. That meeting led to a very busy (albeit unpaid) week of writing.

We’d had meetings about our pilot(SP1) before, but those were very specific, having to do with that particular project. This meeting was to be more of a “meet and greet.” The company we met with has some projects in development and they are looking for writers for those projects. Our pilot impressed them enough to want to meet us and see if we were possibly right for one of their projects.

The offices of this production company are in a historic, art deco building in the heart of Hollywood, a block away from the famous Capitol Records building. The lobby alone may have been a bit intimidating if we had time to stop and take it in. We were on the verge of being late, so we signed in and sprinted to the elevator. In the offices, the receptionist offered us water, which we accepted. Moments later, the director of development greeted us and brought us into an open office space featuring picture windows that looked down on all of Hollywood.

Our interview as a writing team went as well as can be expected. The director of development praised the pilot that we wrote and asked a bit more about our process. Having never actually sat down and written a script together, I think we did a pretty good job convincing her that we are a well oiled writing machine. She told us about a couple of projects they had and were looking to find writers for. Two in particular she thought might be up our alley. She pitched us these projects and asked if we would be interested in giving our “take” on the projects. We said we certainly would.

Our "take” may sound simple, but it is in fact, our “audition” for the writing job. This company isn’t going to pay a writing team without a reputation, (just like a film isn’t going to cast an unknown actress) unless we can prove to them that they will get their money’s worth. So, our "take” translated to a detailed treatment of the film we would write if given the opportunity. We spent all of last week coming up with our concept for the film and turning it into a concise and entertaining ten-page document. We submitted that document on Friday and hope to hear back soon. This week we will do the same thing for the second project.

Writing as a team presented some challenges. I’ve been writing alone for a long time now and I have a way of doing things that isn’t always conducive to collaboration. We hit certain roadblocks in the process that made me seriously question whether or not we would be able to pull it off. Thankfully, we addressed our problems as they arose and powered through our frustrations. In the end, I found that a writing partner made me work harder and faster. I was forced to defend my decisions and I was able to more quickly let go of my bad ideas. WriterGal and I are happy with the results and are looking forward to the next project.