Reports | Screenwriting

Go West, Young Screenwriter!

1 Apr , 2005  

Written by Randy Steinberg | Posted by:

Screenwriter Randy Steinberg journeys to the wild west of Los Angeles.

I’m at a cocktail party, and I tell someone I write screenplays. Almost always, the first question is, "Have you been to Los Angeles?" or, sometimes more declaratively, "What are you doing here [in Boston] then?!" The implicit suggestion is that I should be in Hollywood. The debate rages among aspiring screenwriters who don’t reside in LA: as a writer trying to break into show biz, is there an advantage to living in Los Angeles? In the age of PDFs and overnight mail, the answer really is no. Once a sale is made or assignments offered the dynamic may change and residence in Los Angeles might become more necessary, but until that happy dilemma occurs the writer need not relocate.

However, in order to get noticed and to be taken seriously by many, my writing partner and I decided bi-annual trips to the left coast could be worthwhile. So in mid-February we boarded a plane, bound for Hollywood.

It was my first trip ever to California, let alone Los Angeles, and my introduction to LA was not auspicious: we promptly became lost driving to our hotel, which was in the Downtown area near the Staples Center and on the outskirts of Koreatown. But a good night’s rest at the Feng Shui-style Quality Inn in which we were staying cured all woes.

The object of our trip was not to stargaze in the least, but, exiting our hotel the next morning, we stumbled upon James Earl Jones who was filming something (we never did find out what) in a ramshackle barbershop across the street. "This is CNN" he seemed to say without saying a word, sitting on a milk crate until the cameras were ready to role.

Day One

Wednesday morning, sunny and clear: if I thought getting lost at night on the mean, vacant streets of the Downtown area was aggravating, I was ill prepared for daylight and streets that are choked with capitalism. Los Angeles is overdeveloped, and to a Bostonian’s eye, row after row of strip mall, fast food joint, and shopping centers is decidedly disconcerting. Through the ‘asphalt jungle’ we pressed on in our sporty rental car to Beverly Hills for our first meeting, at EKP Productions. Housed in the Flynt Building (yes, Larry Flynt), we met with Eddie Kritzer, a Revere native and our one-time manager.

From there, we headed up Olympic Boulevard to the MGM tower in Century City. The building is a magnificent structure, and the studio offices did not fail to impress. Lining one wall in the main reception area are Oscars MGM has won over the years. I was particularly smitten with the "Ben Hur" Best Picture Academy Award which seemed to smile at me from behind glass. At MGM, we met with fellow Boston University alum Eric Paquette [and Vice-President of Production at MGM] who agreed to read a writing sample of ours.

Done for the day, we returned to our redoubt at the Quality Inn and enjoyed some of the finest cuisine an El Pollo Loco (Crazy Chicken) across the street had to offer; as I observed during our time in LA, the fast food fowl joint seemed to be as ubiquitous in La-La land as Red Sox hats in Boston.

Day Two

A sunny start but rain forecasted and all Los Angelinos dreading it as if the plague was coming. Our first destination was Samuel Goldwyn Productions, a leading independent distributor. Julie Huey, our host at Samuel Goldwyn, is an Emerson College graduate responsible for acquiring and distributing the locally produced film "Passionada." We were surprised to learn that the octogenarian Samuel Goldwyn Jr. still comes into the shop every day and pilots the company with the vigor of a young Turk.

We departed Samuel Goldwyn to take our most scenic drive yet. We crossed through Beverly Hills and picked up Coldwater Canyon Avenue to get over to Ventura Boulevard and Burbank. On Coldwater Canyon Avenue, the greenery increased (at long last), the homes spread out and, of course, went up in property value. We marveled at the homes on stilts that jutted from the Hollywood Hills. Hollywood hubris we surmised, for wouldn’t an earthquake bring these homes down in a flash?

Despite our rubbernecking on the winding road, we emerged unscathed and picked up Ventura Boulevard to meet Bill Ferguson of Paia Pictures. Ferguson mans the production wing of Boston Screen Partners, a local finance group headed by Harvey Avidon of Stoughton, Mass. Paia Pictures set up shop in Los Angeles about five years back and is set to breakthrough with a strong slate of film and television productions.

After chatting with Ferguson, we saddled up again bound for Disney/ABC in Burbank proper. At Disney, we met with Donna Ebbs who heads up the company’s Family Division. Ebbs is another Emerson College alum and has a job that many would envy. She wings from LA to Salt Lake City to New Orleans, greenlighting and overseeing projects for the Mouse. During our meeting with her, a writer popped his head into the office to consult her on a problem; a day in the life of a busy producer no doubt. We left several scripts with her, noted the containers of golden script fasteners that graced every desk (only in LA) in the office, and got in our car to drive back Downtown.

At this point, it began to sprinkle. Over the course of our four-day visit, we were warned repeatedly to watch ourselves on the roads. Drivers in LA are so unaccustomed to rain, they don’t know how to drive defensively — if they ever did — when the streets become slick. Their downpour (our sprinkle) did transform a 10-mile trip into a two hour stop-and-go affair that tested my nerves. Nevertheless, we returned to our hotel pleased with the day and nervously excited for an even bigger day on the morrow.

Day Three

After our customary (and complimentary) continental breakfast, we made our way to West Hollywood for a meeting with Peter Meyer, a well-heeled writers’ and directors’ manager. To meet Meyer, we picked up Santa Monica Boulevard where I was struck by the overwhelming number of small theaters and actors workshops that lined the road. These are the Thespian proving grounds for Hollywood’s next generation of actors. For some reason, Hogarth and his sketches of Gin Lane and Beer Street sprang to mind.

After sharing a bagel and coffee with Meyer, we drove to the Paramount Lot for a meeting at Lakeshore Entertainment. Another BU alum, Ilsa Berg, was our host at Lakeshore, a company flying high at the time for all the Oscar nominations sent its way for the film it produced, "Million Dollar Baby." Berg took us to lunch in the Paramount commissary.

One thing to note about LA is its casual style. As visitors and aspirants, we decided to err on the side of caution in our dress: blazers, pressed shirts, and dress shoes comprised our ensembles. But we were more duded up, by far, than anyone with whom we met. In the Paramount commissary, we turned a few heads. "Who are those well-dressed strangers? Big executives from out of town?" seemed to be the buzz spreading through the lunch room as we made our way toward a table. We enjoyed a nice lunch with Berg, Joe (my writing partner) especially who had "The best damn hamburger of my life" at the commissary.

After lunch, we bolted for our car for the lengthy trip to Culver City to meet with Craig Anderson of Craig Anderson Productions. And then it was all the way back to West Hollywood to rendez-vous with Julian Krainin of Krainin Productions.

Krainin began his career as a documentary filmmaker in the 1970s and won an Academy Award for his short subject film on Princeton University. He then went on to direct and to produce many films, most notably "Quiz Show" directed by Robert Redford. Most recently, Krainin won an Emmy Award for producing the HBO film "Something the Lord Made," which also received a Golden Globe nomination.

We met Krainin at the Mary Pickford theater on Vine Street where he was attending viewings for the upcoming Academy Awards (as an Academy member, he votes in all major awards categories). We had dinner and a beer at a Cuban restaurant across the street. As a Bostonian, I don’t think I’d ever had Cuban food, but in Los Angeles Hispanic cuisine is none too hard to find. Over dinner with Krainin and his wife Marty, we discussed a script of ours that he might soon pitch to studios.

Saturday was a much needed light day. We met our attorney Neal Tabachnick (a Newton, Mass. native) who is also a screenwriter on the outskirts of Culver City. With time to kill before our flight, we (what else?) went to the movies to see "Ong Bak" the Thai martial arts film. All I can say is, watch out Jackie Chan there’s a new kid on the block in the high-flying Muay-Thai star Tony Jaa.

We caught the red eye home and touched down to clear but cold weather. Back in Los Angeles, rain storms that even I could not shrug off were causing mudslides and flooding. Some said it was the worst weather Los Angeles had experienced in 100 years, and, strangely, it had been the week we chose to visit.

What were my overall impressions? A little culture shock, yes. Certainly spending an hour and a half driving somewhere for a 20-minute meeting was aggravating. I’ve never had so much water, coffee, and diet soda in such a short period of time: everyone offers you something when you step into their office. There wasn’t as much attitude, posturing, or spin as I expected. Certainly, it was no more evident to me than anywhere and in any walk of life. Everyone we met was pleasant and enthusiastic.

Coming back to the original question: should aspiring screenwriters from Boston and New England move to Los Angeles? Not necessarily, but wherever you are, be prepared to do more than just write. If you can’t or aren’t willing to raise the money to film your own script, be prepared to get your butt on a plane and make meaningful connections.

Boston and Los Angeles may be worlds apart, but that gap is nothing that a 6-hour plane ride twice a year can’t help to narrow.