Winning, Losing and Little Miss Sunshine

“A number of people who know my story have been quick to seize upon it as a rewards-of-virtue narrative–all that effort and persistence, they tell me, was bound to pay off. In this view of the world, character is destiny and success is the logical–almost inevitable–consequence of hard work, patience, and a shrewdly applied intelligence.

That is not how I see things.

From my perspective, the difference between success and failure was razor-thin and depended–to a terrifying degree–upon chance, serendipity, and all manner of things beyond my control. A thousand things could have gone wrong in the five years it took to turn Little Miss Sunshine into a movie, any one of which could have destroyed the project.

Yet at every turn the script was met with good fortune; every setback was revealed to be a blessing in disguise. I was lucky to stumble upon the right agents, who got it to the right producers, who chose the right directors, who cast (perfectly) the right actor and hired the right crew. A single misstep in this concatenation and the film would have been made badly or, more likely, not at all.

Which brings me–in a roundabout way–to Richard Hoover, Winning and Losing, and the underlying concerns of Little Miss Sunshine.

All of us lead two lives–our public lives, which are visible to others, and our private lives, which are not. Richard is obsessed with the values of public life–status, rank, ‘success.’ His view of the world, divided into Winners and Losers, judges everyone–including himself–accordingly. These values have become seemingly inescapable–including himself–accordingly. These values have become seemingly inescapable in our media-saturated culture–from American Idol, to professional sports, to the weekend box office reports. Everything, it seems, has become a contest.

The problem with this worldview is that it neglects and devalues the realm of the private–family, friendship, romance, childhood, pleasure, imagination, and the concerns of the spirit. Our private lives–invisible to the outside world–tend to be far richer and more gratifying than the rewards of public life. We would do well, as poets and philosophers have long advised, to turn away from the bustle of the world and cultivate the gardens of our souls.”
Michael Arndt
Little Miss Sunshine: The Shooting Script (Newmarket Shooting Script)
From the Introduction Winning, Losing and Little Miss Sunshine

Somebody say amen.

Scott W. Smith

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Do You Have To Live In L.A. To Make It As A Screenwriter?

“You write your first draft with your heart. And you rewrite with your head.”
William Forrester (Sean Connery) in Finding Forrester
Written by Mike Rich and directed by Gus Van Sant (both who are based in Portland, Oregon)

“It helps to live in LA, but it’s not imperative.  I was living in Portland, Oregon when I got my first break (“Finding Forrester”), and given the fact we had three kids, my wife and I really wanted to stay here.  We’ve made it work ever since, though it’s certainly a double-edged knife.  On the plus side, we get to live in Portland, a city I’ve loved since my college days.  On the minus side of things, general meetings and pitch sessions require a trip to LA; sometimes lasting several days.  Oftentimes, the general meetings outnumber the pitches, simply because there’s so much turnover within the industry.  Familiar faces you’ve worked with in the past don’t always stick around, and I find myself constantly meeting new folks who will make the decision on whether a project moves forward.
Screenwriter Mike Rich (Finding Forrester, Secretariat)
Do You Have To Live In L.A. To Make It As A Screenwriter? by Alfredo

P.S. That Mike Rich quote is the perfect way to celebrate the 1,400th post today on Screenwriting from Iowa…and Other Unlikely Places. As I’ve said before on this blog, Iowa is a metaphor. A place far from the core. It could be Iowa or Ojai . West Des Moines, West Africa, West Covina—or West Portland. Most importantly, it’s not where you live but what you write. Rich got his first break when he won a Nichol Fellowship in 1998 for his script Finding Forrester. 

Below is a WordPress summary map that shows where readers of this blog are located. And while I only have one view in places like Kyrgyzstan, Mozambique, and Gambia—it almost covers the globe. And these are just the 2012 numbers. Thanks for reading, and may you keep on writing wherever you live.

Related Post:

Mike Rich & Hobby Screenwriting
Screenwriting Quote #145 (Mike Rich)
Why You Should Move to L.A.
Why You Shouldn’t Move to L.A.

Scott W. Smith

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Garry Marshall—Survivor

“Kindness is free.”
Garry Marshall

Garry Marshall survived bad health as a child. He survived long cold winters in Chicago as a college student. He survived a tour of duty in Korea as an Army soldier. He survived producing stressful TV shows. He survived bad investments that almost forced him into bankruptcy. He survived making a few bad films to make a few more good ones. He survived critics, cancer, and canned laughter.

He did all of that and lived to tell about it. In two books actually (Wake Me When It’s Funny, My Happy Days in Hollywood).

Garry Marshall is a survivor.

I’m not sure why of all of filmmakers in the last 100 plus years Marshall became the first one that I spent an entire month writing about on this blog, but I suspect it has something to do with his incredibly long run as a producer, director, writer, and actor spanning stand-up, radio, television, books and theater. (What no blog? Garry call me—we can play some basketball and then grab lunch at Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank and talk blogging.)

If you look at the peaks (The Odd Couple, Pretty Woman, Happy Days, Fonzie, Julia Roberts, Robin Williams) and the longevity of his career—it’s been an amazing run. Factor in how he was able to balance all of that with his personal and family life and you have one amazing life well lived. A true Hollywood survivor.

“The truth is that I always wanted a more stable life than my intellectual idols had. People like Arthur Miller, Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, Sylvia Path, Anton Chekov and Albert Camus all had unconventional family life. I was a product of the 50s and was charmed by The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Father Knows Best, and the drawings of Norman Rockwell. Whether they were true or not didn’t matter. I wanted to come home to a wife, children, and a sane family dinner hour. This is probably why I have been married for forty-nine years and have three children and six grandchildren.“
Garry Marshall
My Happy Days in Hollywood (written with Lori Marshall)

And he’s not done yet, he just sold a new TV show. As I was looking for a fitting way to end a Month of Marshall (technically started these posts last month) with an exclamation point, I came across the clip below where Marshall is brilliant—though less than kind—as a TV executive giving Louis C.K. a little Hollywood pep talk.

P.S. In light of the Frankenstorm damage to Marshall’s hometown of New York City (and the surrounding areas) it is a good time to be reminded that “kindness is free.”

Halloween P.S.—Here’s a scary picture for you. This is an old Nikon lens that’s older than two of my interns this semester. It had been in retirement for many years until I had a need for it last year when shooting a video project. I originally bought it in Miami or L.A. back in the ’80s. It’s seen its share of battles, but it still captures sweet images. Talk about a survivor…

Related links:

Flaming Rejection
Screenwriting Quote #171 (Garry Marshall)
Garry Marshall’s Directing Tips (Part 1)
Writing & Rewriting “Pretty Woman” (Part 1)

Scott W. Smith

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Flaming Rejection

“Be prepared at all times for rejection, even after you break in. One night I was backstage at Jack Silberman’s International Nightclub in New York City. I nervously handed a page of jokes I had written to a famous veteran comedian. He read my jokes without laughing or even cracking a smile, removed a silver monogrammed cigarette lighter from his coat pocket, and set my page of jokes on fire. He then very nonchalantly tossed the burning page into a small metal trash can and walked away. Unable to speak, I simply stood there staring at the can as the bright red flames turned my jokes into ashes. It was my first flaming rejection. I went home that night to my apartment feeling like quitting the business.”
Garry Marshall
Wake Me When It’s Funny (written with Lori Marshall)

Of course, Garry Marshall didn’t quit the business, though he did eventually leave New York and head to Hollywood. There he would write and produce some of the most watched TV in the decade of the 70s, including The Odd Couple, Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy, and Happy Days. In the 80s he starred directing feature films including Pretty Women, Runaway Bride, and mostly recently New Year’s Eve.

Hang in there folks.

P.S. I found Marshall’s book at a used bookstore last week when I was in Texas for shoot and will be pulling a lot of quotes from it—good stuff from somebody with six decades of entertainment experience.

Scott W. Smith

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The World Outside of Hollywood

This is the kind of quote you expect to find on a blog titled Screenwriting from Iowa…and Other Unlikely Places:

“I think all writers should have a voyeur nature. You have to look and listen. That’s why some writers might run out of material; they’re not looking, they’re not listening. I think the problem is that, if you live in California—and especially if you live in Hollywood—you aren’t connected to what the rest of the world thinks of as the real life. Your observations are based on what you see on television and not what you see going on in reality. If you ride in limos for too long, you tend to forget what cabs, buses, and subways are like. You lose contact. I think it’s important to stay in contact with the outside world.”
Screenwriter Buck Henry (The Graduate) 
And Here’s the Kicker/Mike Sacks  

Of course, there are writers in California who’ve never ridden in a limo and there is even a world beyond yellow cabs and subways—but you know what Henry means. 

My little Kickstarter campaign is in need of a little Kick this weekend. So if you’d like to help this blog become a book please click here.

P.S. The very first post on this blog back in January 2008 was Life Beyond Hollywood.

Scott W. Smith
 

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Sawing Your Way Into Hollywood

As I approach my 1,000th post on Screenwriting from Iowa, I find myself wondering if I should just stop at 1,000. But then I stumble upon something fresh, new and different and it inspires me to take my car a little further down the road. See what’s in the next village.

Today that comes in the form of a quote from the director Darren Lynn Bousman, who made many of the SAW movies. Darren was born and raised in Kansas, and after making several short films at Full Sail in Orlando he spent a few years kicking around L.A. before things fell into place for him:

“I was fired from every job I had in Los Angeles… I became Tara Reid’s assistant (on the movie Van Wilder).  And it was always like ‘Darrell, Derrick, Devin,’ — she never knew my name, and my job was to like hold her cigarettes and Pepsi at all times. Eventually I was fired from that job.  I was at the point when I had no money. I took a side job at J-Crew doing sh*t—I hated my life. I’m like, ‘you know what, I’m going to write a script and I’m not going to stop until this thing gets made.’  And so I wrote this script called The Desperate.  I sent it out, no one would read it.  Because you get in that Catch 22 in Hollywood, where you have to have an agent or no one’s going to read it.

“My way to circumvent that catch 22 was, I made up a fake management company. I had letterhead made, and I had a friend of mine answer the phones. And so, I was an assistant at the time at an agency, and my job was to read the scripts that came in.  And what I did was change the title of my screenplay and made it by a different person.  Then I had it come through this fake agency that I had created and I put a message out to all the other assistants, ‘This is the best f*cking thing I’ve ever read…’

“And by that point, I had heat, because all the other people were like, ‘Oh, Darren read this thing, he thinks it’s great.’ And long story short, this screenplay ended up getting bought by the people who made the Saw film.”
Darren Lynn Bousman 
(Director of Saw II, III & IV)
Adam Carolla’s podscast
Via FilmDrunk
via a Tweet by UNKScreenwriter        

Note: The Desperate didn’t get made, but it opened the door for Darren to talk his way into directing SAW II.

Scott W. Smith 

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Nourish Yourself

“If you just define yourself as a screenwriter, and you have a bad day as a screenwriter, then that’s your whole world. You’re building your life on this very singular pylon. It’s important to remember that you’re a brother, or a father or a boyfriend, and also that you have interests and hobbies that feed you and nourish you, and bring ideas in and balance you out. If I have a bad day screenwriting, I can come out to my studio, and I can paint and connect with myself. It’s important to build a broad life that feeds you, that nourishes you, that gives you stability.”
Screenwriter  & Visual Artist Joe Forte (Firewall starring Harrison Ford)
Tales from the Script
page 285

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Coppola, Castro & Capitalism

“As a schoolgirl, my suspiciousness about those who attack American ‘materialism’ was first aroused by the refugees from Hitler who so often contrasted their ‘culture’ with our ‘vulgar materialism’ when I discovered that their ‘culture’ consisted of their having servants in Europe…”
Pauline Kael
For Keeps, 30 years at the Movies

One of the interesting things about visiting your favorite films over the years is how different the films feels because you have changed over the years. A film that meant so much to you when you were nine might seem meaningless 25 years later when you sit down and watch it with your own nine-year old child.

It’s probably been 25 years since I first saw The Godfather. While I can’t recall my exact original impressions of seeing the film I’m sure they were in line with being impressed by the acting and the production values. (After all, I was in film school and in acting workshops at this time). I also remember wishing I were Italian.

Having the name Smith seemed rather bland in school compared to my Italian friends. Even before I saw The Godfather movies its impression was felt—all Italians were cool, and some how connected to the Mafia. Over the years I discovered those both weren’t true. That’s what time does. It allows you to add data and experience as you form your own views of life.

One thing I know I didn’t think about The Godfather on that first viewing is that it was a critical look at capitalism and materialism in the United States. But apparently that was what Coppola had in mind when he made The Godfather movies;

“Ultimately it’s all about money in the end. But ultimately so much of America is about money in the end so that theme is of the Mafia really finding fertile soil when it came to America. Both the Mafia and America have, you know, the earning of money as the main purpose.”
Francis Ford Coppola
The Godfather Part II DVD Commentary

That’s an interesting thought when you piece that together with the letter Coppola reportedly wrote to Fidel Castro when he wanted to shoot Apocalypse Now in Cuba, “Dear Fidel, I love you…. We have the same initials. We both have beards. We both have power and want to use it for good purposes….” I don’t know the context of the letter so I’ll try not read too much into it. (Maybe Coppola was just being a director hustling a dictator for a location where he wanted to shoot his film.)

But Hollywood does have a long history of creatives who are not only critical of America and capitalism at times, but step over the line into at least flirting with socialism and communism. The United States is not perfect and, yes, we have a love affair with materialism. But let’s not lose site of what a great country this is.

To paraphrase film critic Pauline Kael, I am suspicious of those Hollywood-types who question American materialism while they are not only living in grand homes, but often have second and third homes. I can speak all day about the problems of American capitalism/materialism and the souless lives that it can produce, but history tells me that socialism and communism are not the answer.

Perhaps my views are shaded from spending a year in Miami and hearing the stories of exiled Cubans talk about Castro. (Yes, Castro helped raise the literacy rate and provided universal health care, but food, free speech and economic opportunity are harder to come by.) Dissenters either escaped the country (sometimes with pennies in their pockets), are in jail, or were executed. (Where does that leave most artists who enjoy questioning authority?)

Perhaps my views are shaded by the fact that I grew up in a house in Florida without air conditioning.(Working hard for a better life seemed like a good trade off.)  But I always find it interesting that some of the wealthiest people in this county are the most outspoken about the system that made them wealthy. Surley they could give all their money and property to the poor and move to a socialist or communist country—but for some reason they never do.

I don’t know what Coppola at age 70 thinks of Castro, Cuba, socialism, communism or materialism, but I do know that he has turned into quite a successful entrepreneur and capitalist with his winery. He’s increased his land ownership & wealth, created jobs, raised a family and along the way had the freedom to create art. He’s lived the American dream.

I’m thankful that when both Coppola and Mario Puzo were talented and struggling artists that they set out to make a commercial success. Because in writing and making The Godfather they not only became wealthy men, they created an artistic masterpiece.

PS. A fun fact about Detroit born Francis Ford Coppola is the Ford part of his name came from the respect his father had for uber-capitalist Henry Ford.

Scott W. Smith

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Coppola, Criticism & the Internet

“Criticism is often wrong, as we know through history. Carmen, which is now the most popular opera in the repertoire, was a tremendous flop [when it premiered]. Why did they hate it?”
Francis Ford Coppola

“What I look for with critics is more that they’re going to write about something I did and I’m gonna read it and not make those mistakes again, I’m gonna learn something from it. Often, though, they don’t do that: they say, “It’s a muddled mess.” “It’s pretentious.” I can’t learn a lot from someone saying “It’s pretentious.”
Francis Ford Coppola
Movieline interview with Kyle Buchann

Being a big name film writer/director must feel somewhat like being the head of a Mafia family.Someone is always gunning for you. I don’t know if they have a class in film school these days to equipment young people with the down side of success, but they should. After a week of blogging about the movie The Godfather and Francis Ford Coppola I’ve learned a lot about Coppola and his 40 year career.

And perhaps the thing I’ve learned most is my conformation that if you’re looking for respect, the Internet isn’t the best place to look for it. (Even if you have a handful of Oscars.) Since Saturday’s are my slowest days, I’ve decided to try something a little different and write a little Internet drama loosely based on some of the conversations I’ve read as people discussed Coppola and his work.

Blogger Post: Francis Ford Coppola is the greatest writer/director in the history of cinema.

Reply 1: Really? Are you nuts? Take away The Godfather I & II and what did Coppola really do over the last forty years?

Reply 2: REALLY? R U SERIOUS?

Reply 3: Yeah, it’s like that Orson Wells guy who everyone makes a big deal about just because of Citizen Kane.

Reply 4: Coppola is exactly like Orson Wells, fat and hocking wine in his later years.

Reply 5: Shut up.  Coppola rocks.

Reply 6: Coppola isn’t even the greatest writer/director in the greater Bay area.

Reply 7: The Godfather Part II is really just self-indulgent crap. The Godfather is his only masterpiece.

Reply 8: Yeah, and what did Neil Armstrong really do after he walked on the moon?

Reply 9: Aren’t you guys forgetting Coppola did Apocalypse Now?

Reply 10: Overrated.

Reply 11: Rumblefish, The Outsiders, The Conversation?

Reply 12: Overrated, overrated, overrated.

Reply 13: Who cares? (And for the record it’s Rumble Fish)

Reply 14: I loved Dracula.

Reply 15: Dracula bites.

Reply 16: U SUCK

Reply 17: Are you guys forgetting that Coppola has won five Oscars?

Reply 18: Yeah, but what has he done this week?

Reply 19: Besides the Oscars are meaningless and just the product of  a misogynistic, racist, capitalistic society.

Reply 20: Still The Godfather is pretty good.

Reply 21: The Godfather would have been better with Danny Thomas instead of Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone.

Reply 22: Who’s Danny Thomas?

Reply 23: Who’s Francis Ford Coppola?

—

Spend five minutes on the Internet and you’ll find that kind of uplifting conversation. Better to spend five minutes working on your script. But all that to say that if you’re looking to write the great American screenplay so that the world will love you and your work, think again. If you’re looking for unconditional love get a golden retriever.

From a perspective of increasing views The Godfather posts this week have been popular and I’ll compare them tomorrow with the spike I got from writing out Kevin Smith a while back. Coppola vs. Smith, tomorrow on Screenwriting from Iowa. And Monday we’ll look at Coppola, Castro and Capitalism.

Scott W. Smith

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Breaking Up & Breaking In—(500) Days of Summer

Yesterday, love was such an easy game to play.
Now I need a place to hide away.
Yesterday (Written by Lennon/McCartney, performed by The Beatles)

So you can wipe off that grin, I know where you’ve been
It’s all been a pack of lies
In the Air Tonight
Phil Collins

This week I’ve been touching on Oscar-nominated screenwriters leading up to the Academy Awards Sunday. And while (500) Days of Summer didn’t get an Oscar nomination I wanted to give it a special mention. Last night it did win the best screenplay at Independent Spirit Awards. (Only films made for $20 million or less are eligible.) Congrats to screenwriter Scott Neustader and Michael Weber for the win.

I wasn’t one of the people who saw (500) Days of Summer multiple times, but I did enjoy the fresh angle on the romantic comedy genre. I remember someone telling me when I was a teenager that when some people break up with someone they’re dating they turn to drinking and waste away, and some people write a hit song about the break up. No one told me I could write a screenplay about it.

That would have come in handy when I was a senior in college and my girlfriend of a several years told me (after three margaritas) that she had been seeing someone else. But when Scott Nuestader was frustrated with the dating relationships in his life he did write a screenplay about it. Less as a calling card and more as therapy. And Michael Weber was there as his friend to help him through that time–and to help him write what would become their first produced screenplay, (500) Days of Summer.

“The truth is this: the script wasn’t written to be made. It was barely written to be read. We wrote this thing because I was downhearted and needed somewhere to channel my exasperation with relationships. Months later, when I finally decided to let it be seen, I expected to be mocked, jeered, taken by the shoulders and violently shook while someone screamed ‘snap out of it, man’ in my face. I never thought people would relate to it. I never thought someone would buy it, and I certainly never thought it would be filmed. so, yeah, I’m pretty darn surprised.
Scott Nuestader
Interview with A.D. Amorsi

“At the time I was trying to be there for him as a friend, first and foremost, but then soon after I was like, ‘You know, we should be writing that down. I think that’s happened to a lot of people.’ It’s interesting for me in that I feel like I felt for him, what he was going through at the time and have since personally gone through some of that afterwards. So my relationship to it has changed in that way which has been interesting. We always like when people come up to us and they can sort of relate to it or some girl messed them up. We feel for them but it’s also kind of awesome because we know that they’re going to get it.”
Michael Weber
Interview with Dave Gonzales

You may not write a hit song or an award-winning screenplay if you write about your big break-up…but it doesn’t hurt to try. I think the message at the end of the movie (500) Days of Summer is these things have a way of working themselves out in time. That’s certainly true in my case. Three months after my big college break-up I met the women who would become my wife.

But love relationships in general are ripe for screenwriters because they have built-in conflict. Perhaps down the road I’ll look at great break-up scenes. That scene between Tom Hanks and Helen Hunt near the end of Cast Away jumps to mind. What are some of your favorite movie break-up scenes?

Scott W. Smith

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