The beginning of the year is a great time to look back on the previous year and, also, look forward to what’s coming up; so let’s start with where we are on the project. 

The last time I gave an update, I had just started to collaborate with the second writer on the story I had been writing.  I recently received the third draft of the treatment she wrote based on my outline and script pages and I have to say it is looking really good.  Can I dare say I’m getting really excited about this story?  Okay, I admit it, I am.  I’m really starting to fall in love with this story, which is important because a producer stays with a project for many, many years…far longer than anyone else who works on a film project.  

Structure had been the biggest problem with the story.  I threw everything and the kitchen sink into the story and I really needed another eye to pare it down for me.  The writer did a fabulous job doing just that.  The structure now works and the story flows very nicely.  Some of her choices surprised me, but for the most part they worked.  All my notes have been mostly about minor changes.  The big stuff works.  The writer also threw in a lot of her own ideas, which made the story even better.  I’ve got to say it’s awesome to get a story to the point where most of it is working instead of not working.  It feels great!

So now the treatment is on hold for a couple of weeks while I finish writing the reference guide.  What’s that?  Well, it’s probably not a term you’ll ever see in a screenwriting book, but I decided that because there is so much history and pseudoscience behind this project, I better get all the information into one place instead of the emails that have flown back and forth.  We’re probably going to be needing to consult the guide as we develop the script and movie.  So what kind of information will be in the guide?  It will include (and this is not a complete list): 

• A bit of the real science that the pseudoscience is based on
• The pseudoscience and how it works
• Character bios
• Organization bios
• The mythology used by the story
• The history used by the story
• A short synopsis
• A log line

That’s just to start with.  I may be adding more information later if needed.  So, as you can see, I’m going to be very busy writing for the next couple of weeks.  The goal is to get most of the reference guide done before I send the treatment to the story analyst.  I see the reference guide as a document that may continue to grow and evolve as the project develops; and that’s fine.  The important thing is to have a single source for all the story information so that those involved with the project have the information they need to do their jobs.  As I complete sections I’ll be sending them to the writer for review and comment; and we’ll be comparing the information to the treatment to see if we need to do any tweaking.

After we’ve gotten the treatment as good as we can get it, I’ll be sending it on for story analysis.  The story analyst will be my last check to make sure we didn’t miss anything.  Depending on what kind of feedback we get, the treatment will either need some revising (hopefully minor) or it will be ready to send on to the cast.

I’m hoping that the cast loves it as much as I do.  If so, I’ll instruct the writer to begin writing the script.  If not (and I hate to even think of this scenario happening), I’m back at square one.  I’m hoping that the cast will love the treatment enough to give me LOIs (Letters of Intent), because then I’ll be able to start looking for money, get the PR going that we will need for a successful movie, and put a qualified crew together while the writer is writing the screenplay.  If I have to wait until the script is finished before I get LOIs, it will push all of that back even further.  Frankly, I’d rather see things start to move sooner than later, but we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

I want to thank all of you so much for your support.  So many of you have been around since the beginning of this project and have waited patiently through this maddingly slow process of script development.  My hope is to make your wait well worth it with a quality movie featuring our beloved cast that you will find entertaining and enjoyable.  I want this movie to be something that all of us—cast, crew, and fans—can be proud of.

I was looking back on this blog to check when I last gave a progress report and, to my chagrin, I found out it was back in December of last year.  Talk about an overdue report!

When I gave my last report I had finished up a mentorship program where I had worked on the story that I am writing, the first writer had finished the second draft of the treatment and I was getting ready to write producer notes, and I was expecting the first draft of the second writer’s treatment any day.  So where are we now?

The story by the first writer ended up going through a few more revisions until, after a few months, we came to the end of our agreement.  The story wasn’t where it needed to be and in order to get the story into the proper shape, the agreement would have to be renewed and more time and money would have to be spent on it.  At this point I needed to make a decision.  This was not an easy decision to make (and this is the sucky part of being a producer), but in the end I decided not to continue developing the story.   

That meant that there were two stories left:  the one I was writing and the one by the second writer.  I would work on my story in fits and starts between working with the writers on their stories.  But even when I wasn’t physically writing, I was constantly thinking about the story and how it could be improved.  I really like the direction the story is going, but it still has a ways to go.

Around the beginning of the year, I spent some time refinancing my condo.  Wait a minute, didn’t I refinance my condo last year?  Yes, I did.  But interest rates had dropped and it was my last chance to take advantage of those rates before property values plummeted.  I’m glad I refinanced when I did because shortly thereafter property values took a nosedive in our area, leaving me with a home that is “underwater.”  It’s a good thing I don’t have a need to move or sell right now.  So why am I telling you all this?  Well, as I explained the last time I refinanced, I’m putting my own money into developing the script.  Far from being a wealthy woman, I have to try to find any way I can to cut my costs so that I can continue to pay my attorney, story analysts, writers, and other costs.  So it was not only a good financial move for me to make personally but, also, it benefited the film project.

Shortly after making the decision to stop developing the first writer’s story, I turned my attention to the second writer’s story.  Her treatment had been through a couple of revisions over the months and I received some nice feedback on it from the story analyst.  He said that “it was fun to read” and that the words “jump off the page.”  I have to agree.  Her writing is very entertaining and I thought she had nailed much of the tone and humor that we love in I-Man.  This, however, doesn’t mean that the treatment was perfect.  The biggest problem with the story was the concept.  All the other problems could be fixed, but if the concept isn’t right, it doesn’t matter.   So, I again made a difficult decision and decided to discontinue developing this story.

That just leaves me with one story left—the one I’m writing.  But now I’m not writing it alone.  I was so impressed with the talent of the second writer that I invited her to collaborate with me on the story.  Happily, she said yes and new agreements were drawn up and signed.

Now that my parent’s anniversary/family reunion is over, we’re just getting started.  I sent her the outline and the pages of script I had written and she’s been bombarding me with questions.  Already she has caught a couple of things and I look forward to getting more of her opinion and suggestions.  Having another person to bounce ideas off of is very helpful when working on a story.  I think the two of us putting our heads together will be able to work out the kinks and write a really good story.

So, we’ve gone from three stories to one.  We all knew that only one story was going to be produced and it would have been nice to give the cast a few stories to choose from but, if a story isn’t working, it’s my job to make the tough decisions and cut my losses.  The upside is that now my focus is on only one story instead of three.  I’ve got to tell you, I’m really looking forward to getting this story finished.

If I’ve been rather quiet lately it’s because I’ve had my nose to the grind writing, writing and more writing.  After four rather intense weeks, the mentorship program came to an end Tuesday.  It’s been an interesting experience to work one on one with such an accomplished writer and author.

As I’ve said before, he was very tough about pointing out flaws that needed to be fixed and he really pushed me to make the story better.  Looking back over the story, I’m amazed how much it has evolved from what it was originally. 

He gave me some nice compliments and told me I was a good writer.  For someone who is a beginner at this that was nice to hear.  He also said that he liked that I was strong about my piece and that I stick to my guns, but that I’m also willing to change.  That was one of the nicest compliments he could have given me because I’m a big believer in standing up for myself when appropriate, but also yielding when the situation warrants it.

So what did I fight for?  And what did I concede on?

Structure was a big issue.  The structure of my story needed work and he quickly pointed it out.  I was introducing the main character (Vince’s character) way too late in the story.  Even though I really loved how I started the story, it just wasn’t working.  As a writer, you learn that nothing is “precious” and sometimes you have to be willing to let go of really good scenes if they’re just not working.  That can be very painful.  Fortunately, I was able to figure out a way to pull Vince’s character into the story earlier and still keep a lot of what I loved about the opening scenes. 

It really improved the story but, unfortunately, didn’t fully please my mentor.  Here’s where we had a difference of opinion.  You see, I, in my admittedly limited writing experience, learned to write using the traditional three-act structure.  For those of you unfamiliar with that structure, the first act basically sets up the characters and their world, the second act usually starts when the main character is confronted with a conflict, and the third act is the resolution of that conflict.  That’s how I learned it.  That’s how most people learn it.

However, it turns out that my mentor is a bit of a maverick when it comes to story structure.  He doesn’t teach the traditional three-act structure.  He wanted me to start with the event that changed Vince’s character’s life.  No introduction.  No set up.  Just have the event happen and go. (Hmm…did I just give out too much info and you were able to guess who he is?)

Problem was I just couldn’t see how to make that work.  For one, we are asking you, the I-Man (Invisible Man) audience, to take actors that you’ve seen before on a TV show that you love and get used to them playing different characters.  It’s not that I don’t think you’re capable of doing that, not at all.  It’s just that I feel you need to have a chance to get to know these new characters a bit.  Otherwise, why would you even care about what happens to them?

Also, doing it his way would mean that I would have had to get rid of the introduction of Paul, Shannon, Eddie, and Mike’s characters in the opening.  Umm…Last time I checked I was doing a film that features an entire cast, not just one actor.  I feel strongly about giving each cast member a vital role, even with Vince being the lead.  So while I was trying to explain about how great the cast’s chemistry is and how I want to make sure that that was played up, he was trying to get me to focus more on Vince’s character to the detriment of the other characters.  I stuck to my guns on this issue. 

As a fan who has been around the I-Man fandom since the beginning, I think I have a pretty good idea of a lot of the qualities that we fans loved about I-Man.  Obviously, and unfortunately, I can’t copy the story of I-Man.  But I can use some of the those qualities as inspiration for this new story.  One of the things that I think we can all agree on was the great chemistry the cast had together.  I think it would be a mistake to write a story that didn’t play that up.  Don’t you?

I, also, want to make sure there is a mixture of both humor and drama in the movie…what is often called a dramedy.  But for some reason, my mentor seemed to always pick on the humor.  I wonder if he dislikes comedy?

Another issue we disagreed on was the main character’s arc.  I’m a big believer that characters need some kind of inner conflict.  Just think how ordinary I-Man would have been if it had focused only on the invisibility and the “mission” of the week.  What if Darien didn’t have to struggle with  Quicksilver Madness?  Or the threat of becoming immune to the Counteragent?  Or being forced to work for the Agency when all he really wanted was his freedom?  Well, then the show would have turned into one of those bad generic sci-fi shows that are quickly cancelled (Jake 2.0 anyone?).  But because Matt Greenberg gave the character such a compelling inner struggle, we cared about Darien. 

So I didn’t agree when he wanted me to focus on the outer conflict and strip away all the character’s inner conflicts.  Too many sci-fi films and TV shows tend to focus on the cool visual effects, the sci-fi “world,” and saving the day and forget that what we are really doing is following a character through his or her adventures.  If we don’t care about what happens to the character, then the story just becomes a series of events.  And who cares about that?

One of the challenges when writing sci-fi is the new “world” that is created and how to explain all the rules and “science.”  And I’m not just talking about sci-fi that takes place on other planets and involves interplanetary travel and aliens.  No, sci-fi is much broader in scope than that.  I-Man, for example, had rules about the invisibility, the gland, the Quicksilver Madness, etc. that had to be explained in order for us viewers to be able to understand the story.  Likewise, with the story I’m writing there are all kinds of rules and “science” that the audience needs to learn in order to understand what is going on. 

Where I fell short was in explaining the “science” behind the story.  Upon reading my first outline, my mentor had a ton of questions.  I didn’t explain it well enough.  But because my mentor doesn’t like a lot of exposition, he also didn’t like it when I tried to put those explanations into the dialog.  The challenge has been how to show it instead of tell it and I’m still working on that problem.

So while the story has come a long ways, it still has a ways to go.  I’m taking a bit of a break from it because I received the second draft of the first writer’s treatment on Thursday.  Now I need to go through it again with a fine toothcomb.  But this time I have coverage from two story analysts to help me.

A couple of weeks ago I traveled to Emeryville and sat down with the former Pixar story analyst and a local executive producer and we discussed the story.  Getting this kind of feedback is a great check for me.  It helps me to see if my newly-honed instincts are correct about the story or if they are off.  For the most part, most of the issues I saw with the story, he saw.  And, not surprisingly, he saw some things that I missed.  So now, armed with feedback from two analysts, I need to get busy and write my notes.  They are due by the first of January.

Also due around the same time is the first draft of the second writer’s treatment.  After I receive it and look it over, I’ll be sending it on to the analysts for coverage.  I also hope to have my treatment ready for coverage at the same time.  So I need to get busy and get back to writing.  Break time is over!

Right now I feel like a plate spinner.  I’ve got three treatments that I need to keep moving so that they don’t slow down and fall off the sticks they are spinning on.  Keeping them going at the same time is the trick.  So how am I doing so far?

Treatment One

Treatment one is the farthest along.  I finished writing the first round of notes last week and now the writer is working on the revisions.  If I had to do one thing over again I would have given myself more time for this first round.  Why?  Because I spent a great deal of my time lining up story analysts instead of writing notes and I didn’t allow enough time to get the analysts’ coverage back in this first round.  This means that there is a possibility that the second round of notes could require more changes than the first.  That’s not an ideal situation, but we’ll play it by ear and make the best of whatever happens and, thankfully, the writer is very cool about working with me on this.

I’ve got one of the analyst’s coverage back already and expect the second analyst’s coverage in about a week.  The first analyst did a good job and I agree with most of his notes, but I’m especially looking forward to hearing what the second analyst has to say about the story.  He is a former Pixar story analyst who teaches screenwriting at a local university.  He’s excited to be helping me out and I’m just as excited to have someone with his credentials helping me out.

Treatment Two

The producer/writer agreement for this treatment has been signed by the writer and I expect to receive it next week.  I’ll then sign the copies and mail the writer back copies for her records.  The writing and reading period for this treatment has been compressed into two months.  That has me a bit worried because that’s not a lot of time, but we’re going to try to make it work.

Treatment Three

I’m almost two weeks into my four-week mentorship program with the screenwriter/author.  Let me tell you, this guy is tough.  Nothing gets by him.  Everything gets questioned.  And I’ve had to justify a lot of my decisions.  I’ve, also, had to scrap some of my ideas and try new ones.  But he’s pushing me to make it better and that’s what I need…to make the story the best it can possibly be.  Because, truth be told, I think I was starting to fall into the trap a lot of writers fall into…falling in love with a story.  So getting the flaws pointed out and then having to fix them…while being a somewhat painful process, is also a very necessary process.  And the story keeps getting better because of it.

Really, all three stories need to be great.  I want to feel good about taking on the task of producing any of them, so I’m going to be pushing to make sure they all are in top shape before I show them to the cast.  I won’t submit a story before its time.  Doing otherwise would be a mistake.

Yesterday marked the end of several months of negotiation between a writer and myself.  Today, I’m happy to say, I placed the hard copies of the agreement and the COA (Certificate of Authorship) into the mail for her signature.  It’s almost finished.

What a long, drawn out process it has proven to be.  I can’t believe that we started this back in June, and here we are in October just finishing up.  I never expected negotiations to go on for so long.  I figured it would take two to three weeks at the most and then we’d be done and able to meet to my original deadline.  Now I need to contact the cast and let them know that they won’t be receiving the treatments this month after all.  Instead, it looks like they will have to wait until January to get them.  

So, you may be wondering, do negotiations for producer/writer agreements normally take this long?  For studio deals, yes.  But not in the independent world, according to my lawyer.  This was highly unusual.  Part of the reason for the delay was because the writer’s lawyer had jury duty and then promptly left on vacation, leaving us hanging for a while.  The rest of the time was spent going back and forth with emails and having our lawyers advise and review each step of the way. 

I’m a fairly patient person, but I have to admit that even my patience was tested with the length of this negotiation.  Fortunately, I had my entertainment attorney to guide me every step of the way.  I had recently changed lawyers from one in the LA area to one that is closer to me (San Francisco) and this was our first time working together.  What sold me on him was his experience working with independent filmmakers.  I had heard him give a couple of talks about legal issues for filmmakers and I was impressed with how in tune he was to the needs of independent filmmakers.  He knows that independents don’t have the deep pockets that the studios have and his advice reflected that knowledge.  So far I have to say that I’ve felt that he has truly had my best interests at heart; and that’s one of the most important qualities, next to competence, that is needed in a good lawyer.  The fact that, before coming to the Bay Area, he worked in LA and has done the big studio deals really makes him well-rounded and a good fit for my needs.  If things continue going this well, I’ll definitely keep using his services.

Now that this negotiation is coming to a close, I really need to turn my attention to the other story submissions I’ve received.  If I don’t get things moving with those stories, they won’t be ready by January.  So I spent some time today giving long overdue feedback.  One story looks promising and two others could be, but they need to be fleshed out more.

Hopefully all this work will pay off and I’ll have several good treatments to present to the cast in January.  If they like one of them, we’ll be able to go to the next step and start writing the screenplay!