Part VII: Finally, a meeting with some producers:

In addition to waiting out the reality checks against my intuition (Marvin: "Otherwise known as 'Listening to Marvin'."), I was also primed for dealing with the trap of circular logic that those who claim to be Metaphysical and Spiritual are particularly good at. The defense I was lagging on was the fact that--after years of promoting this script--I'd gotten a little comfortable with my faith in both it and my writing ability. In other words: I know I'm good. And: this has been confirmed, many many times for me over the years. So I wasn't expecting to hear any different. For instance, there's this ridiculous thing in the business that the more powerful you get, the less you have to make or return phonecalls. People who know how to play this game won't make or return phonecalls so that you WILL begin to think they are important and powerful. Then there's the nonsense of not actually reading good, recommended scripts. Why? Because the Powerful Important Ones don't NEED to read recommended scripts precisely BECAUSE they have been recommended. To THEM. People who know how to play this game can say, "Oh, I don't need to read the script. I already know it's good." Now then. Those of us who actually are gifted and creative and talented? We already know the vibe, and it's a supportive one. Likewise: we already know that no matter how Important one may get, if one is truly gifted and talented and creative, one is going to stay involved in the vibe. This is as much to say; if you are both artistic and successful, you are going to pick up the phone and you will actually read scripts, because that's how the living in the vibe is. So, we have game-playing up against truly creative artistic success. Often it's hard to distinguish between the two, as the lines become blurred. But, for me, I have to believe those people are out there: the All Important Powerful Ones living in the vibe who will actually read my script. Here's an example of a blur between Meta-Circular Logic and Hollywood Babble; HER: "I don't return messages. It's a selection process. I figure if the project is good enough to get my attention, then it's up to those people to reach me." ME: "So I need to arrange with you when to reach you." HER: "Yes. And I'm terribly busy. So if the project is good enough, and God wants me to be involved with it, I'll be here at the precise time the phone rings." Phone rings. HER: "It's you! Isn't that interesting? I just got home and the phone rings, and it's you! So see, the Divine brought together this connection of being in the right time at the right place, so therefore it is Meant To Be." ME: "Yes, isn't it interesting. As for business..." What I WANT to say is: you picked up the phone because you don't have an answering machine so that you don't have to return messages, and because I'm agreeing (for now) to play along, this means I've been calling you every fifteen minutes for the past two hours, and THAT is the definition of 'precise timing'. But persistence is too practical. Practicality is a direct challenge to the belief system of Meta-circular Logic. If I had said the above, I would have heard in response, "See? So it IS Meant to Be, because it happened." And the circle goes round, and round, and round again. When you challenge a belief system, you typically get attacked. Sometimes that challenge merely means you just have to be alive, with the ability to disagree. Isn't this being played out on an international level, oh, right about now? I became disagreeable during our two days of meetings. The first day I was shown around to 'film industry' friends of hers in that city who all turned out to be deceased, missing or retired. Or with Public Television--which doesn't help me find a studio-level producer for an $80m science-fiction/fantasy global extravaganza. Yet, before we started out, she wanted me to agree to write in a scene that takes place in Texas, in order to appeal to her local people. I said no; the film takes place in Ireland and the Pacific Northwest, and nowhere in TEXas is like either of those places! It's rather pointless to recount the many blunders of those few days. I'm highlighting the above episode because it's the real-life version of the Urban Myth wherein a Hollywood Producer tells a Writer; "I think the story needs a dancing elephant in a pink tutu, because nowadays people want to see dancing elephants in pink tutus." (And the writer says, "No they don't." Because we, the writers, KNOW what stories the public wants to hear and see, because we are the ones with our fingertips first on the pulse of emergent expression.) On our second day, we met with the fledgling producer I had connected with at the film festival earlier. By then she had nearly finished reading the script. She had a new production company with two other people, a financial backer, and lots of industry experience and connections. She had described their business model and introduced me to one of the other two 'co-workers': a dotcom mini-millionaire with a few left over to spend after the crash and who now wanted to make movies. They claimed to have five million dollars in capital and were ready to purchase three scripts. This was their first festival. She had read most of the winning scripts in the reader's room, and didn't want any of them. She wanted something good.

I didn't like the reception when I first arrived at our meeting. The mini-millionaire was just leaving (in a new Porsche. Good cars do tend to confirm the presence of spendable cash.) I pulled up with a big smile, and his reaction was to act like he'd been rudely interrupted during the terribly important task of getting into his car. Well. I've already dealt with one of these computer guy mini-millionaires with no social skills who want to play producer. Likewise I was not impressed. Especially when he said he was leaving and wasn't going to be at our meeting. Read: You are not important enough yet to merit my expensive attention, even if you've written the only script we've liked so far. (That's called a mixed message. And it's unprofessional, too.) I have the meeting with both of these women. The one who is playing at being a producer starts off with how impressed she is with the concept. And how she  really WANTS to LIKE the story. But the script has serious problems." Wait a minute. After it's first rewrite, I have never heard this since. I have not heard anything about it having 'problems' for six years. This script has been at levels so way over her head that she could only hope to have a name like theirs at some point in her career. Yet, this is how she started off the meeting: serious problems. And since the other woman was playing at Being Important, she hadn't read the script (because she didn't need to: it had been recommended to her, see.)The part I am still smarting over is how, suddenly, I got cast in this game as being the Belligerent Writer. Simply because I opened my mouth a couple of times to refute their "suggestions". And because every time they went off into tangents of who they knew, I'd bring it back to business: I'm here because of the script. I eventually explained it this way to Producer Wannabe; "I am looking for someone who BELIEVES in this story. Who is creatively called TO it. I am looking for those people who feel they can contribute their talents to bringing it about, whether it's a producer, or the actors and actresses, the costume designer, the cinematographer. Those who believe in it and want to contribute their skills. You say your skills are in producing and marketing. Whether you think the script has problems or not, I want to know if you believe in the story enough, AS IT IS, to bring your skills to it." "So what you are basically saying to me is, 'Show me the money.'" "That's damn right." Her view is: there's too many problems to bring the script to her financiers just yet. I'd have to rewrite it her specifications before she could do this. My attitude is: no way. The script is fine as it is. I'm not disagreeing that it doesn't need to be refined and streamlined, but there is no way I am going to do this without: an option. And, realistically, an option is just a few $10,000 coins from the big money jar of $5m in capital. Suddenly I am defined by the pair of them as "feeling defensive and attacked." I disagreed with that, too. This is a business meeting: about the script. I got extremely close to mouthing off an "Okay. Try this: go write your own. Go ahead and write your own fucking flawless script. And then try this: go meet with people like you for seven years straight. Be my guest." (I got so close to saying this, that the next time? I will.) This is a business meeting with people I don't even know from Adam and Eve...I haven't a clue what they can or can not do for me...so: prove it. Either way. With Producer Wannabe, this is where it got proven; She then offered an example of a serious problem: the script challenges the audience's Suspension of Disbelief in too places and therefore cannot be a financial or critical success. Right here she immediately lost her credibility. I'm professionally trained; I learned at age fifteen, in private drama school, that Suspension of Disbelief happens in the first three-to five minutes of any story, whether it's a stage presentation or a movie. The audience goes in AGREEING to Suspend their Disbelief. If we didn't have this mental conditioning, even stories around the cave fire could never have happened eons ago. So: Suspension of Disbelief has to happen in the first three to five minutes, and it has to be credible, because in that time-frame the audience is deciding whether to leave or stay. And as we all know, most of them stay...especially in cinemas, all around the world, no matter how terrible the film! In the first five minutes of this particular script of mine, an event happens that is truly incredible. At which point, all my readers (representative of upcoming ticket-paying audiences) have decided to sit back and enjoy the ride. Lastly, Wannabe Producer expressed a keen interest in my upcoming script. She really really likes the concept. She wants me to know she is really interested in this one. I reminded her of what we had talked about earlier at the festival; this story takes place in Russia, and in order to go get the rest of the story, I have to do that IN Russia. "Yes, but.", she reminds me, "Yes but, don't you have ANYthing you can show me now? I'm really interested in this." "Then that's called: a development option." As for the Wannabe Important One, the defining proof came a couple of days later. She wasn't feeling secure enough with our friendship and this project, and stated her terms of involvement: I had to agree to give her final say. Answer? Absolutely not. cheers--Hilary