Two Years! (Part Two: Successes and Failures)

When pursuing a creative career, it’s difficult to define success and failure… just getting into a known person’s network is actually a great accomplishment, but not one that registers on anyone’s radar but your own. Selling a screenplay or making a film is obviously a success, but then if they bomb, you might have been better off if no one had ever seen them.

In school, it’s easier to define success – they give you grades. On your own, in life, you set your own benchmarks and have to honestly grade yourself.

In my not-so-unbiased opinion, I consider my No MFA Project a success. Of course, though, there are things I would have done differently. So here we go, part 2 of my two-year summary: what was great, and what I would have done differently.

What Was Great:

I feel short and sweet bullet points suffice for this section. The things that worked well speak for themselves. One thing I do want to especially point out though, for anyone pursuing a career in this industry – and that includes actors, who have a harder time than anyone else getting work – learn filmmaking skills. Being able to produce yourself is the key to showing yourself, getting attention, and having a real conversation starter with other people in this business.

That being said, here’s my list of "great":

-The amount of writing I got done

-The contacts I made (best found attending a film festival and taking a few one-off courses)

-The films I completed, and winning two awards for my first short film

-Learning filmmaking.

-Getting paid filming jobs (another place to meet people)

-Now being brought on to a few major writing projects 

What I would have done differently:

1. I pushed myself a lot, but would have pushed myself even more, particularly with completing more short films this past year. My issue was indecisiveness in choosing the script for my next short. A producer gave me the advice that, with two shorts under my belt, I was ready to do a short version of a would-be feature-length film, and to find a “name” person to star. His reasoning was that the piece could then be shopped around to studios, who would pay attention because of the star, and quite possibly opt to make the feature. This was great advice. However, I got so hung up on finding the “perfect project,” I stalled and didn’t make a third short. Looking back, I should have just kept on filming whatever I wanted to film so that I had ever more on my reel and learned more about the craft.

2. Maybe this sounds presumptuous, but I would have quit my job even sooner. I was there for more than three years and the last year and a half contributed very little to (or perhaps even took away from) my personal growth, development, and confidence. The sooner I got out, the sooner I felt like I found myself, started churning out more and more projects, and learned the things I needed to learn.

3. Networked more. It’s only been in the past three months that my networking has really exploded – and in the past three months I’ve been brought on to a TV series, asked to do the script for an independent feature film, and found interest in some of my stage play ideas. My recent status as social butterfly is owing to several factors: meeting people at the film festival; being lucky enough to connect with a supportive producer who then introduced me to a wide variety of film and broadway professionals; the fact that there have been a ton of industry holiday parties I was lucky enough to hear about, and the decision not to miss a single one. If I was starting all over, I would have sought out networking opportunities every week.

4. Overall, being more structured. The challenge to working at home and not being in school is the fact that no one is giving you structure and no one is checking up on you. It’s easy to procrastinate by running errands, watching TV, etc. While I was actually rigid about working every day, I still feel there was more time that could have been used productively. I would actually write myself out a daily schedule with weekly goals in the future.

The good news is, even though I’ve passed the two year mark (the length of an MFA program and technical end of the No MFA Project), my progress isn’t going to stop. I can take all of the above and apply it to my future. Which brings me to…

No MFA Project for Life.

Education shouldn’t stop with the end of school, and of course, it’s not going to stop for me at this point in my life. Doing this project has opened my eyes to all the possibilities for making a creative career a reality. The career is creative – the approach needs to be, too.

I’m going to keep going, keep learning, keep meeting people, and most importantly… keep writing. And sharing all my progress with you, up to the moment when, finally, I see my work on the big screen and my books in a bookstore.

Hope you’ll stick around for what’s to come.  :) 

Two Years! (Part One: Four Original Goals)

Well, actually, two years and a week… on December 1^st, 2012, I hit the two-year mark with the No MFA Project (which, in theory, means it's completed, since a typical MFA program is two years long.)

I’m willing to argue that in the past two years and one week, I’ve made as much progress as I would have if I’d been in an MFA program – if not more.

I want to look waaay back at the four key goals I set for myself in December 2010 to see how I’ve stacked up.

1. LEARN FILMMAKING SKILLS. 

Done! Nowadays, if you’re aspiring to be a screenwriter, this is essential - you need a calling card. Top dramatic writing MFA programs agree, which is why they give screenwriting students the option to take filmmaking courses and require short films (often by partnering them with film students) to be completed before graduation.

I learned about filmmaking in a course at the Digital Film Academy that cost $3,000. An added bonus was being able to use their film equipment for free for the next year. I used it for paid film gigs and personal projects alike.

I had hoped to finish a short film in the first year of the No MFA Project, which didn’t happen, because I did need at least minimal training first. Once I took this inexpensive and fabulous class, I completed two shorts within the second year of my self-made program.

2. CONNECTIONS WITH ALUMNI AND OTHER INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS.

Even people who think school is stupid will often cave and apply when they decide they need an alumni network to get ahead in life.

What I found is that, just by attending networking events and taking several one-off courses, I’ve amassed a network that’s as helpful if not more so than what I would have expected of an MFA program. I hold an MA in publishing – and after $50k left that school without any real community to speak of. I now have passionate people wanting to collaborate on projects and move our careers forward. Earlier today, I attended a table reading of a sizzle reel for a TV series. (I wrote the sizzle reel script.) A producer I met through the DFA created the series and is working to get it picked up by a network. He brought me onto the project as lead writer.

3. PITCHING SCRIPTS.

This was something the Tisch MFA career center claimed to do for students.

Granted, the school has connections, but isn’t the best person to present your idea you? I tried to get practice doing this by attending the Screenwriter’s World Conference last January and pitching to different production and management companies. Four out of four went ahead and requested my screenplays, so I’m confident in my pitching skills. (I’ve been planning to do a post on how to pitch for a long while, and promise it’s coming soon!)

4. SHEER TIME TO WRITE/COMPLETE PROJECTS.

A huge plus of going back to school is that your time will be devoted to writing and not sucked away by a crappy job. In my first year doing No MFA, I completed one screenplay while also working full-time. Things sped up in the second year when I left that job. I’ve now completed a second screenplay, a novella, a bunch of articles and short scripts, and a major revision of a screenplay I’d written years earlier. (Also, the two short films.) Yes, I had to quit my job to get all that done… but I would have had to quit to do an MFA anyway, and then I would have been buying time - literally.

This past week, I was offered a job at a cool film, art, and fashion publishing house. I’m grappling with whether or not to take it since, now that I’m doing so much writing, I don’t want to screw it up by having to re-adjust to a fifty-hour work week and, essentially, be too exhausted to write. (Of course, it would be nice to have the extra income for buying film equipment, since my DFA membership will expire in two and a half months!)

More on this crossroads to come, but if I do wind up taking the job, that ‘sheer time’ element will be out of my equation, and I’ll be blogging on how to strike a balance between pursuing a creative career and having a day job.

Check back soon for Part Two of this post, where I’ll talk about the No MFA Project’s greatest successes and failures, what I would have done differently, and what’s yet to be accomplished!

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So, tomorrow, it will have been an official two years since starting the No MFA Project - and this past month has been the busiest yet in terms of who I've met and deals that are in the works. I fully plan on giving all readers the total low-down on the No MFA Project, what it has been from start to finish, and what lies ahead...

But first, friends - it's been a busy, busy week, so the two-year update will actually be coming in on 'two years and two days.' In the meantime, enjoy the weekend, and remember - there's no excuse for excuses! Get out there and follow your dreams, MFA or No MFA.

Documentary Encounters

It was a fast and furious five days, but I was able to edit down hours’ worth of footage into a 13 minute, 33 second ‘ghost-umentary.’ At least, a ghost-umentary is what I’m calling it… ‘Otherworldly Encounters’ started as a collection of true ghost stories and ended as more of an argument that an ‘otherworld’ does exist all around us.

I loved every minute of working on this project, despite the time crunch. During the month of October, I interviewed real New Yorkers – including one professional medium – about supernatural experiences they’d had within the five boroughs. Despite not sleeping much this past month, I was thrilled with how sincere (and sincerely bone-chilling) these interviews were. Rather than simply present a series of ‘ghost stories,’ as had been my original intention, I instead wound up piecing together a mini-documentary whose goal, really, was to convince viewers that experiencing something supernatural is actually pretty natural in the grand scheme of things.

My aim had been to finish this video right before Halloween, which, incidentally, also wound up being right before Hurricane Sandy struck New York. That being said, the focus this week definitely shifted away from releasing this short under the most perfect possible conditions.

I’ll be doing what I can to try and drive up the number of views in the coming weeks, though, and while I’m at it – feel free to watch, comment, share, like, and enjoy:

http://vimeo.com/52363683

A few final notes on the experience of making something in the documentary style…

This was my first time doing something in this genre, and right off the bat, I can tell you that in the battle of documentary vs. narrative, they both have their pros and cons. With documentary, it’s ok for the editing to be a little choppy. You don’t have to stick to a perfectly planned-out script. You also have an easier time filming, since setting up one chair with lighting for the interviewee is typically sufficient.

On the flip side, though, without a script, a documentary can be very hard to nail down. The ending of ‘Otherworldly Encounters,’ in particular, gave me a lot of trouble. The ending I finally used was the third one I created. Likewise, there were a lot of great stories and one-liners that didn’t make the final cut simply because there was no good way to include them without going off on big tangents.

Overall, though, I learned that I loved working in the documentary style. It’s amazing the kind of emotion and history people will give you when talking about their real lives. I loved feeling how I used to feel when I was working on a paper in college and had a ton of great sources to pull from: like I had the power to piece their most valuable insights into one, super-valuable final product. 

I definitely see more documentary in my future.

The Perils of Filming Ghost Stories (...Right Before Spending a Long Weekend Alone)

Fresh off the glory of WilliFest, I was feeling extra-inspired to get more filming done. I was particularly inspired by an article I read about how to score a high number of viewings on Vimeo… the article detailed the exact right time to post your film, among other things, to help it get a lot of hits. (See article here.)

So I started to think… what short could I make within the next few weeks that I could post to get a lot of hits? What might be happening this month that would interest people?

HALLOWEEN.

Ok, brilliant – I decided I would interview people with ghost stories and put a segment together for Halloween. Interviewing people on camera, as opposed to orchestrating the filming of a narrative short, is comparatively easy. I would just need to book a room at the DFA, set up some creepy lighting, and rattle off a list of questions to my interviewees about their supernatural experiences.

It went great. I was thrilled with how my lighting turned out. The interviewee I had on my first night of filming was super generous with the details he was willing to discuss… the interview itself was juicy. I went home thinking I had gold.

One problem.

The next morning, I had to head to Pennsylvania to do four overnight stays with a dog. (Yeah, remember when I bought that pet care business back in May?) Said dog’s house is set back from the road, surrounded by woods, and ‘my’ bedroom when I stay there is in the basement.

I stayed there once before over the summer, with no problems whatsoever. But this time was different. This time, every time I had to go to bed, I was faced with absolute terror.

All because my interviewee’s story, about how as a teenager he had seen a demon in the woods near his house, had gotten under my skin… and I kept expecting to see one myself around every corner in this dark, silent mansion. (‘Mansion’ is not an exaggeration.)

It didn’t help that the house’s plumbing routinely made noises that sounded like doors opening and closing in other parts of the house.

And it really, REALLY didn’t help that, on my last night there, by which time I was desperate for sleep, the dog (who never EVER barks) began barking hysterically inside her crate up in the kitchen at exactly midnight, begging to go into the yard where she proceeded to flip out even more, and then taking over an hour to calm herself back down.

I returned to NYC yesterday and was as grateful as I’ve ever been to fall into a deep, peaceful sleep, feeling ‘safe’ in my own apartment and with my husband by my side. Now I just hope that I can manage to edit my footage, alone in my apartment during the day, in time for Halloween… and that the end product is worth it!

Also, of course… I hope I can get through the remaining interviews I still have to film!

WilliFest!

Just over a week ago, the Williamsburg International Film Festival was in full swing, and yours truly was in attendance! It was an amazing event, and more than your typical film festival since it also included a concert series, street fair/block party, and more.

It was the first film festival I ever attended, and I was so honored to be there on the strength of my film. Going made me wish I had attended film festivals long ago, even before I had any movie to show. I feel like I learned more about networking, financing, and actually making a film HAPPEN in four days at the festival than I could have from any book, lecture, or class.

To quickly recap the events, I went to opening night and was automatically thrown into a world of people who love story and film as much as I do. I had worried about meeting others, since I was entourage-less, and making the most out of the opportunity to network.

I didn’t need to worry.

Each person was so excited to talk about both their project and my project that starting conversations was easy. What’s more, everyone was there to network, so making connections was far simpler than I had thought. By the end of opening night, I had watched the first few movies with two new film-maker friends from Minnesota, then went out to dinner with three others who had come all the way from Australia. (Industry Magazine was also present and I’m pictured twice on their website at the opening gala, http://industrym.com/willifest-2012-press-gala/, third one in on the second row and second one in on the bottom row.)

The second day, I hunkered down to watch six straight hours of short films in three two-hour blocks, of which my film was in the second block. As the student film category got under way, I quickly felt my confidence and excitement take a hit. Student films? I couldn’t tell them apart from the regular short films which had screened just before. They were so sleek, so polished and professional… I knew that my short had a strong story and that the actors had delivered amazing performances, but still… by the time mine came on and I heard how rough and ragged the sound was compared to the others, I wanted to melt into the floor.

I had noticed that on other student films, there were long lists of crew members, whereas in my case, there were just three other folks helping me. Also, during the filmmaker Q&As, I quickly realized that every other filmmaker had had a budget ranging from a few hundred dollars up to about ten thousand. When it was time for my own Q&A, I had to report into the microphone that I had spent a grand total of $0 on my film.

Despite being slightly embarrassed by this, it was also an inspiration… what an amazing chance to find out exactly how people went about financing and organizing these teams of people to put together these great films! I used the opportunity over the next few days to find out as much as I could about how to do this myself.

My story has a very happy ending. Two days, two panel discussions, one big party, and countless screenings later, it was time for the awards ceremony. I was thrilled to find out that my short actually took one of the prizes, the Certificate for Achievement in Short Film.

Being accepted into Willifest and then having also received one of the prizes has been so encouraging… while I was starting to stall a bit on the filmmaking side of things, I now have huge incentive (and enthusiasm) for tackling another project!

 

The Speed of Write

How Fast Do You Write?

I was reading a chapter in William Goldman’s Adventures in the Screentrade (which, by the way, is a great book on screenwriting by one of the all-time great screenwriters… also the man I heard was secretly responsible for Good Will Hunting, but you can draw your own conclusions on that) about the speed of writing and it prompted me to do this post.

Every writer seems to have his or her own thoughts about how quickly writing should happen. Some sit every day and force the words while other wait for inspiration to hit and, when it does, write for hours or even days straight. Personally, I’ve tried approaching writing every which way, but have found that if I break with a project I’m writing – that is, if I wind up having to take more than a day or two away from it for whatever reason – it most likely goes off the rails. Once I’m onto a book or a screenplay, I have to basically commit to working on it each and every day until it’s finished. For short stories and short scripts, I have to do them in one sitting.

Goldman says in his book that there’s a certain energy to starting and then getting through the work as quickly as possible and that the energy translates into the finished product. I would agree with that, especially when it comes to screenwriting.

I’ve always done a good amount of preparation before starting a new screenplay. I’ll have character bios and a decent outline ready to go.

Now, I’m in the outlining module of the ProSeries, and we are on our 6^th draft of our outlines. I’ll repeat, 6^th draft! It makes what I used to do to ‘prepare’ look as professional as a gorilla in a tie. For each pass, we’ve focused specifically on one element of our screenplays, until we’ve been as thorough as possible.

There is something to be said for the ‘just start with a loose idea and inspiration will come approach’… but what I’m finding is that inspiration will strike even in the outlining phase, and in the outlining phase, it’s easy to revise. Things can be moved around, reworked, or flat-out changed at little cost to your time. This doesn’t mean that you might not be struck by some new idea to add in later, when you’re writing, but it does mean that the overall foundation of your story is going to be solid enough that A) You’ll have a better chance of finishing and B) It’s going to have a sound storyline that won’t take years of revision to fix.

I think the real benefit of all the outlining, though, is that by the time I get to the writing phase, I’m going to be able to get through all the writing quickly, with a completed screenplay in a matter of weeks. And I agree with Goldman in that there’s an energy, once you start writing, that you don’t want to lose. Stepping away for days or weeks at a time pretty much guarantees that you will lose that energy. The more prepared you are before beginning, the less likely that is to happen, because you always know what’s coming next in your story, how you want to handle it, and how you want the audience to feel.

***Now for a few quick, exciting updates! This past week I had two great pieces of news. First, my short story ‘Not There’ was accepted for publication in the January 2013 edition of All Things Girl, an online literary magazine and print anthology series (www.allthingsgirl.com). Second, my short film, Chance, is an official selection of the Williamsburg International Film Festival, which is taking place in Brooklyn from Sept. 20-23!

I’ll keep you all posted on both the scheduled show-times and the release of the short story!