Luck

I believe in luck, but not in the way people usually mean it.

I don’t believe luck determines whether or not you’ll be successful. I think talent, hard work, and generally being nice to work with makes you successful.

It’s in timing where the luck comes in.

I knew a kid fresh out of film school (media studies school, actually, not even a real film school like UCLA or AFI), with no experience, none whatsoever, and his first job upon moving to Los Angeles was a writers’ PA.

A writers’ PA! I’ve been trying to get that job for years. I know dozens of people who would kill for that position. And here’s the thing– he wasn’t even a good PA. Like most film students, he didn’t know shit about shit. Which is fine, really; I didn’t know anything either. But I didn’t start as a writers’ PA.

Later, I applied for a writers’ PA job. Upon following up, they told me they’d filled the position with someone who had more experience. The next day, this PA quit, because he was the one they’d hired.

Argh!

Obviously, there’s a certain amount of luck in getting that first job.  Usually it takes a few years, but for every guy who gets the job right out of non-film school, there’s a guy who has to wait even longer, just to even out the bell curve.

If I had gotten the position, it might have lead to something, and to something else, and so on, and that would’ve been great, but it didn’t happen. It’s a coin toss; it came up tails this time, but it can’t keep landing on tails forever.

I’ll get the next writers’ PA gig (or the one after that), and then I’ll be a writers’ assistant, then a writer, then a producer, then a show runner, then Lord High Master of All He Surveys, and, eventually, a director.

At least, I hope so.

What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

Yesterday, the writers’ assistant asked me if I wanted to be a production coordinator.

The question puzzled me. Who actually wants to be a coordinator? I can’t imagine anyone stepping off the bus in L.A., and thinking to themselves, “I can’t wait to coordinate some productions!”

I know some people roll off the turnip truck wanting to be actors, and, thanks to the cult of the auteur, others want to be directors. I get those (sorta)

People’s interests vary, so I can even understand someone wanting to be a DP, a costume designer, or any of the creative department heads. (On a side note, I am a little confused as to why they would want to work in movies, rather than in their own unique field. Why not just become a photographer or a clothing designer?)

Personally, I always knew I wanted to be some kind of writer. It took me a while to figure out I wanted to be a screenwriter, but once I did, I’ve focussed on nothing else.

But I really can’t imagine someone devoting themselves to becoming, say, a UPM or an AD. It doesn’t seem like a dream. It strikes me more as something you fall into, when you realize you’re organized, and not much good in any other department.

Do people really want to be coordinators, or do they just become them?

Maybe I’m just prejudiced. I don’t know.

Where It’s At

Yesterday, Nathan wrote, “You want to write… write!” This is the best, most important advice any aspiring writer can get. But if you’re sitting at a desk in Nome, Alaska, typing away on an Underwood by candlelight, filing your scripts in a drawer, you’re not going to have a writing career.

There’s an old saying that goes, “You’re the average of the people closest to you.” This is why I stopped working on shitty cable shows and direct-to-video movies. I took both a pay cut and a lower position so I could be on a real network show with real writers.

No, the show runner isn’t going to ask the office PA to write an episode. However, WGA rules dictate that he has to ask someone who’s not on staff at least twice a season.  (The number is something like that, anyway; I can’t find the exact rule, because when I google “WGA Rules,” I get a bunch of old crap about the strike.)

Often, this means hiring the writers’ PA, script coordinator, or even the executive producer’s assistant.  Basically, if they’re going to hire someone, they want to hire someone who’s sitting in the writers’ room with them every day.

So, how do you get to be a writers’ PA? Well, one way is to be an office PA, and hang out with the producer/writers down the hall.  When the script coordinator becomes a real writer, the writers’ assistant moves up to coordinator, the writers’ PA moves up to assistant, and all of a sudden, there’s an opening at the bottom.

That’s my plan, anyway.