In Los Angeles, everyone's a writer. Everyone's got a screenplay they're writing, or have written, or want to "get in front of" an agent or director, etc. So when I meet writers who actually make their living by writing - on a regular basis - and do nothing else but write as a profession, I regard them with a lot of respect. A respect I work to earn from other writers, as I make my move from dilettante to full-fledged professional scribe.
I've been a blogger, online journalist, contributor to several collaborative weblogs over the years, but so far, 2006 has been the year where my writings turned pro.
- My colleague, Heather, offered me an opportunity to be a paid blogger on the blog, Dailymantra.com
- I co-wrote the screenplay for the film Ang Pamana - The Inheritance, (you can see my name on the bottom right hand corner of the movie poster!) which had it's world premiere at the Hawaiian International Film Festival last month, and which opens nationwide in the Philippines this month.
- Check out our review for the film in Variety - wooo! Not bad for our first film, and my first shot at ever writing a screenplay.
- My article: Seven Reasons Why You Should Be Singing - appeared in the new San Francisco periodical The Messenger, Independent Arts & Media's quarterly magazine.
- I was interviewed by author/screenwriter John Scott Lewinski for an article that appears in the November 2006 issue of Scr(i)pt Magazine, for my work on mobile content and mobisodes.
Recently, I attended AFM, or American Film Market, in Santa Monica. Here's how AFM describes itself:
Over 8,000 industry leaders converge in Santa Monica for eight days of deal-making, screenings, seminars, red carpet premieres, networking and parties. Participants come from over 70 countries and include acquisition and development executives, agents, attorneys, directors, distributors, festival directors, financiers, film commissioners, producers, writers, the world’s press all those who provide services to the motion picture industry.
Here's my description:
AFM: 8 floors of the Loews Hotel in Santa Monica, 4 floors of the adjacent Le Merigot Hotel. Each floor with open doors to suites and rooms full of movie posters, light snacks, movie one-sheets and men and women in suits, all looking to buy or sell the latest crop of films from all over the world.
As a first-time screenwriter, I've got ideas scratching the inside of my head for new films I can write. A ton of zany ideas of "movies I'd like to watch." But ah, at the AFM, I was confronted with the sometimes bleak reality that filmmaking is really more about financing and distribution than it is the film as art. Feature films are products, like toys, and as I walked around and listened to the conversations of the suits, inevitably the formulas began to emerge. Proven formulaic storyline + well-conditioned visible target market + a few attached "big name" talents = Guaranteed Financial Backing. Financial Backing + Good Creative Team (director, dir. of photography, kickass line producer, sfx, etc.) = Quality Production Value. Production Value + Good Marketing Team + Good Distribution Team/Strategy = Hit Movie.
Am I missing something? Although AFM was a bit of a vibekill to my creative spirit, thankfully, the marketing/advertising side of me appreciated the rather pragmatic approach to filmmaking.
However, these teams can't even get started without the creative vision. Creative visions begin with the writers. Hooray for writers, hail to the scribes, who create entire Universes where only a blank page or a blank screen once were.
Thank you for everyone who has encouraged, supported, recognized, facilitated and helped to guide me in my endeavours as a writer. Why wait until I've got my Oscar to thank you? You know who you are. Bless you.
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