A Chance to Own A Piece of Oscar History

The Oscars are tonight, and we at AFF are so proud to have a slew of 2011 AFF films like THE ARTIST, THE DESCENDANTS, ALBERT NOBBS, PUSS IN BOOTS, THE FANTASTIC FLYING BOOKS OF MR. MORRIS LESSMORE, HELL AND BACK AGAIN, and RAJU represented at the Oscars. We can't wait to watch the ceremony on the 26th, and we've got our hands on some pretty exciting Oscar swag to make the event even more exciting!


Last week, we announced that everyone who has purchased a Producers Badge to the 2012 Austin Film Festival & Conference by Wednesday, February 29th will be entered for a chance to win a copy of the screenplay of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, signed by Academy Award®-winning writer Steven Zaillian!

Now, we're thrilled to announce we have not one but two copies of the screenplay of EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE, signed by Academy Award® winning screenwriter Eric Roth!
Roth has been nominated for four Oscars, winning in 1994 for FORREST GUMP. The 2011 film EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE, for which Roth wrote the adapted screenplay, is nominated for two Oscars.


Now you have three chances to win a signed Oscar nominated script and a piece of Oscar history. And to make the deal a little sweeter, everyone who has purchased a Badge by the end of February will be entered to win an upgrade to a Producers Badge! Your last chance to enter the contest is midnight, Wednesday, February 29th, so grab one before it's too late!


Tonight, make sure to check out the blog or follow us on twitter @austinfilmfest as AFF Marketing Director Taylor Cumbie live-blogs the Oscars!

Austin Film Festival's 2012 Film Poster Competition

The Austin Film Festival is excited to announce their first ever Film Poster Competition! AFF has chosen a series of five films from their 2012 year-round programming to feature the art of Austin's local artists. Interested designers can choose one of the films in the series and create an original film poster. AFF will choose one winner for each film, and a limited number of each winning poster will be displayed and sold at the screenings.

In addition, audience members and online voters will have a chance to vote on their favorite film poster in the series. The artist of the winning poster will receive a Producer's Badge to the 2012 Austin Film Festival & Conference ($695 value) and their poster on display at the Festival. This showcase is an invaluable opportunity to have your artwork seen by tens of thousands of people and viewed by an audience of filmmakers eager to find their next poster artist!

The Films:

The Silence of the Lambs
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
Party Down (TV Pilot)
The Iron Giant
The Black Stallion

To submit your film poster, please send a high-res PDF to taylor@austinfilmfestival.com by March 12th, 2012. Winners will be announced March 15th, 2012.

Questions?
Contact Taylor Cumbie
taylor@austinfilmfestival.com
512.478.4795

Guest Post: An interview with screenwriter Amy Talkington

Eilis Mernagh is a screenwriter whose latest short script, TIGER, is set to be produced this year, directed by award-winning director Cathal Nally. Eilis heard Amy Talkington speak at the 2011 Austin Film Festival and followed up with her for an interview. She generously shared her subsequent blog post with us. For more from Eilis, visit her blog, Dublin to Hollywood.

When you’re embarking on a venture it’s always good to hear from someone who’s been there and done that. So if you want to be a screenwriter, why not talk to an established writer?

One of the sessions at this year’s Austin Film Festival featured an interview with screenwriter Amy Talkington and her agent, talking about their working relationship. It was one of the most informative and interesting panels of the festival. I contacted Amy afterwards and she kindly agreed to answer some questions for this blog about her career to date and life as a working writer in Hollywood.

Amy Talkington

Amy is a writer and director based in Los Angeles. Originally from Texas, she graduated from Barnard College with a degree in art history and went on to achieve an MFA in film from Columbia University’s film division. Amy’s short films “Our Very First Sex Tape” (2003), “The New Arrival” (2000), “Bust” (1999), “Second Skin” (1998) and “Number One Fan” (1997) were selected for numerous distinguished festivals including Sundance. Second Skin earned her the New Line Cinema award for Best Director. She wrote and directed the feature film, “The Night of the White Pants,” released in 2008, which starred Tom Wilkinson, Nick Stahl and Selma Blair.

Amy has written screenplays for several major studios, including Fox 2000, 20th Century Fox, MGM, Summit Entertainment, Disney and New Line Cinema. She penned the remake of the Eighties teen movie “Valley Girl” for MGM and the remake of “Private Benjamin” for New Line Cinema with Anna Faris set to star. Most recently she worked on “Kicked, Bitten and Scratched” for Summit Entertainment and sold an original pitch to Disney, which she is currently writing.

 In TV, Amy wrote “Avalon High” for the Disney Channel (for which she won a 2010 WGA award) and the ABC family movie “Brave New Girl” which starred Virginia Madsen and Lindsay Haun.

While Amy’s primary focus has been on traditional narratives for film and television, she is also accomplished as an interactive, new media filmmaker, where she strives to experiment with new kinds of storytelling. She co-wrote and directed the world’s first 360-degree movie, “The New Arrival,” for which The New York Times named her “one of the few women to break out on the internet.” She also wrote and directed “Confessions,” an interactive web project which was released on atomfilms.com in August, 2007.

Thanks for giving this interview! Can you give some details about how your interest in film developed and in particular your interest in writing for film? 

In my teens, I was a painter but I also loved to write fiction and I loved music. I wasn’t quite sure how to choose between them. But then, during college, I saw some inspiring art films and suddenly realized that writing and directing film would encompass all the things I things I loved.  

You wrote and directed five short movies at the start of your career – how did these develop? How did you approach the process of making what were (presumably!) low budget films?

I made my first two shorts while I was a graduate student in the Film Division at Columbia University. The film school setting provides a community to help develop and make a short. But, from the very first film, I strived to make the films as professional as possible and reached out to the independent film community in New York for my key crew and cast. I always encourage students not to settle and to reach for that composer or cinematographer or actor who you admire. You never know, if they like your script and they’re available, they might work on your film!

 Would you regard Second Skin as having been your “big break” and can you talk a little about how it arrived at New Line?

Yes, “Second Skin” was my entrée into both the independent film community and Hollywood. I traveled with that film to many film festivals and, through those festivals, got to know many people in the NYC indie scene. And then, when Columbia screened it in Los Angeles (because I’d won the award for “Best Director”), a young agent from United Talent Agency saw it and contacted me. She is still my agent today. As for the New Line Cinema Awards, New Line had a relationship with Columbia’s Film Division at the time and they sponsored two awards that “Second Skin” won. 

Night of the White Pants has an amazing cast. Can you talk about how you attracted actors like Tom Wilkinson and what it was like directing your first feature film? 

Tom just really loved the script. He also liked the idea of working with Nick Stahl again (they’d done “In The Bedroom” together some years before). I was really lucky that he happened to have a window of time and hadn’t done an indie in a while. Then, once Tom and Nick were in, the project was very attractive to many actors who wanted to work with them. It was 100 degrees in Dallas and every day was hard as hell but we had a great time making that movie.  

Is the finished movie very similar to the script or did you have to change a lot during production? 

We definitely had to make a lot of compromises due to the small budget and short shooting schedule but the movie is pretty close to the original script. The voice over was added in post, that’s one of the biggest changes from the shooting script. 

Can you talk a little about the process of “pitching” to the studios and how do you approach this?

Pitching is hell. And the way I approach it is by being as prepared as possible. I have a rock solid set of notes and I pitch “off” of them. I know a lot of people say you shouldn’t pitch off of notes, but it works for me. I practice a lot beforehand so that it doesn’t seem like I’m reading notes. I try to make it feel as casual as possible. 

Private Benjamin is a beloved film for a lot of people – it’s certainly one of my favourites! How do you approach writing a remake of a well-known movie? 

That was tough. I love the original too!! I kind of had forget about people’s expectations and just try to write the best script possible and one that felt as fresh as the original. It’s currently being rewritten by someone else so… we’ll see how it turns out! 

What’s your writing process like? Do you outline/write a treatment before starting? 

Yes, I do write a fairly detailed treatment and I work off of that. On the studio assignments you kind of have to. When I’m writing something for “myself” I usually have an outline but it’s less developed.  

What’s your writing schedule like – do you write everyday at a set time, for example?

I write five days a week, five to seven hours a day, depending on how much I have going on. I usually like to write in the mornings, maybe 8am – 2 or 3pm. 

The issue of “movies for women” often comes up at festivals. Do you feel that as a female writer, you can do a better job of telling a woman’s story? And do you feel that there are differences in the industry working as a female writer? 

Oh boy, that’s a pretty complicated issue. Not sure I can really tackle it here. I feel very capable of writing male and female characters. And, as far as the industry goes, I try not to think about the dismally low percentages of working female writers and directors. I choose not to focus on it and just keep working hard.  

You write for film and TV but also for the internet – what are your favourite things about writing for these different mediums? 

I am very interested in interactive storytelling. We are at an exciting time when a new kind of storytelling might emerge. I love to explore that.  

I saw an interview with you and your agent Rebecca Ewing at AFF and you seem to have a very good working relationship. Do you have any tips for young writers on a. finding a representative and b. working effectively with an agent once you get one? 

I really lucked out in terms of getting a representative so quickly and easily. But, I think the best way to find a good representative is to write a great script.  And as far as working effectively with an agent… I don’t know, I guess it’s the same as any working relationship — don’t be a jerk! 

Lastly, do you have any practical advice in general for writers starting out in their careers? 

Be prepared to work hard and face a lot of rejection. If you can’t handle either of those things than it’s probably not the right line of work. 

Big thanks to Amy for taking the time to do this interview!

Box Office Recovery

A few weeks ago, I wrote that 2012 might be a great year for film marketing.  So far, someone is definitely doing something right. Ticket sales have been soaring, breaking records and dragging the industry out of the minor slump that was 2011. Previously unknown directors and screenwriters have been spinning low-budget films into box office gold, establishing themselves as new voices and signing on to major new projects. But who or what is responsible for this 2012 uptick? 

It’s very difficult to say.  It’s always going to be hard to read a culture and understand why one film catches on while others fail. I stand by my argument that film marketing is becoming increasingly thoughtful and clever, doing more with less, and studios have become much smarter about targeting their efforts and marketing to the right demographics at the right time. But even these strategies won’t help sell an unsellable film, which suggests that the quality of product being released is better than usual. 

In recent years, studios have tended to dump their worst movies into theaters during January and February.  These months are essentially the “Oscar season doldrums,” when the films being considered for Academy Awards stick around in theaters as more and more people want to see what everyone is talking about.  This doesn’t leave much room in cinemas for additional thought-provoking fare, so studios counter-program with the kind of action film or romantic drama that isn’t likely to win over the critics, hoping to scrounge up a few million dollars in an empty marketplace. 

This year, it seems like studios have been mixing things up a bit, releasing films like The Grey, Safe House, and Chronicle that are as dependent on solid writing and assured direction as they are on Liam Neeson, Denzel Washington, and the superhero trend. These are films that could’ve held their own in the slightly more competitive months of March and April, yet here they are in January and February, cashing in their jackpots.  

Additionally, the studios have truly made an art out of not stepping on each other’s toes.  Generally, when two films that are similar in theme or feature the same star suddenly find themselves scheduled to open on the same Friday, one of the studios will budge and move to another date.  This ultimately is best for everyone involved, as each weekend brings a new option for different types of moviegoers without overcrowding the marketplace. There could be no better example than this past weekend, which saw four movies open with more than $20 million in ticket sales (The Vow, Safe House, Journey 2, Star Wars: Episode I 3D). This is a truly staggering testament to the benefits of studios playing it smart and counter-programming each other.  

For example, This Means War, the romantic-action-comedy starring Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine, and Tom Hardy, abandoned its original plan to open on Valentine’s Day after realizing that it would have to directly compete with The Vow, which proved to be a wise decision. The Vow sold more tickets yesterday than any film ever has on a Valentine’s weekday. Now, This Means War can make its entrance this Friday with some of the excitement over The Vow having already died down.  If the studios continue to play it safe, and play nice, 2012 could be a particularly great year for the film industry.

- Stephen Jannise, Film Program Director

Kids Who Write Good

Proper grammer and speling is important for writers of all ages and levels if they want to be more better writers.  If you aspire to be a professional writer and didn’t notice the errors in the previous sentence, you’ve got a problem (or you better have a good copy editor).  This week’s blog entry is not so much a lesson in grammar and dusting off your copy of Strunk & White; it is more about the importance of proofing your work before turning it in to someone who can either make or break your script.

I gained some perspective on this topic when I was asked to help teach the basics of screenwriting to an English class at a local high school as part of our Young Filmmakers Program.  The students were required to write a short screenplay for us to review and narrow down to one script which the kids would later produce.  The goal for the program is not only to help improve the students’ writing skills but to also provide them a real world experience similar to that of a working screenwriter in the industry (of course on a much smaller scale, not as ruthless, and without illegal substances).  Many of the kids submitted brilliant stories that were unfortunately marred by distractingly bad grammar, punctuation, spelling, and not to mention poor use of present progressive.  What we asked the kids to think about was: “Would you feel confident submitting this script to a studio?”  We gave the kids another opportunity to proof and refine their scripts before making our final decision.  In the studio system or a screenplay competition, there are no second chances like this once you’ve submitted a script.

 

Even in this age of text messaging and auto-correct, this is something not unique to today’s youth but to amateur writers in general.  I’ve come across many scripts in the competition with great stories but with poor grammar and spelling.  This is not necessarily a deal breaker for a script to advance in our competition; the quality of the story and writing always come first but the last thing you want to do is annoy your reader.  Your words should flow easily for the reader as if they’re going to fly off the page.  There is such a thing as spell check but it’s always best to have a new set of eyes copy edit your work before submitting it somewhere.  So just like those kids in class, ask yourself, “Do I feel confident submitting this script to a studio?”

Bad grammar may or may not make or break your script but, in an industry where thousands of scripts are passed around, why not make yours the most polished it can be?  The last thing you want is for your first impression to be the last impression.  Even though some Hollywood producers may still act like they’re in high school, it doesn’t mean you have to.

--Matt Dy, Screenplay & Teleplay Competition Director

David Milch on his mentor, Robert Penn Warren

We're thrilled that 2006 Outstanding Television Writer Award recipient David Milch has another terrific show on the air, LUCK, which airs on HBO Sunday nights. The show premiered this month and has already been picked up for a second season. Check out this clip of David taking about the influence of his mentor, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Robert Penn Warren.

Should I Stay or Should I Go: The Rise of Cinema-on-Demand

As you have no doubt noticed in recent years, there are more ways than ever to experience films.  Want to watch in the comfort of your own home? You can stream on Netflix, rent from iTunes, or order Video-on-Demand from your cable provider or video game system. Prefer the old fashioned method of going to the theater? You can choose the optical trickery of 3D, the pulse rattling grandeur of IMAX, or the pure insanity of motion seats. There truly is a wealth of options for movie lovers today, with more to come in the near future. 

This also means there are more options for studios and distributors to determine how they can maximize profits on a film’s potential, leading to a debate about whether or not indie filmmakers are being given golden opportunities or the short end of the stick.  On the one hand, you can now see films in Austin, TX, through VOD or iTunes that would, in past years, have only been exhibited in a handful of theaters in New York or Los Angeles, opening more eyes to new filmmakers and fresh ideas than ever before.  

On the other hand, this means that fewer indie filmmakers will experience the exquisite feeling of screening their film in a movie theater.  As far as we have come with on-demand movies, and as comfortable as most people have become with viewing films at home, the allure of the movie theater is still not lost on a majority of filmmakers.  Playing in an actual cinema remains the ultimate dream, but the low costs and accessibility of VOD are so appealing to studios and distributors that this dream is even less likely to come true. 

Not that most filmmakers are likely to complain if a VOD deal comes knocking on their film’s door.  In this economy, an indie filmmaker with a walletful of maxed-out credit cards will be more than happy to take any opportunity to get their movie watched and their debts erased. Luckily, these opportunities abound, with Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, and others offering a multitude of channels through which a film could find an audience. 

Unfortunately, these opportunities also eliminate the risk-taking that sparked the independent film scene into vibrant life.  Would “Reservoir Dogs” have been given a chance on the big screen? Would “Sex, Lies, and Videotape” have been labeled a “small screen movie” and gone straight to iTunes?  It’s hard to say, but one thing is certain right now: if you don’t have James Cameron’s cameras or Peter Jackson’s special FX units or the Fox Searchlight/Weinstein Company/Sony Pictures Classics logos on your poster, you’re going to have a difficult time getting your film on the big screen. 

What does this mean for those of us who can appreciate the potential of VOD but ultimately still enjoy the rush of discovering indie films at the local arthouse? It means we should go, and go as often as we can.

-Stephen Jannise, AFF Film Program Director

Conversations in Film: Writing Action!

We will be kicking off our 2012 Conversation in Film Series this month with a bang. Derek Haas (3:10 TO YUMAS, WANTED, 2 FAST 2 FURIOUS) and Ric Roman Waugh (ex-stuntman, FELON, the upcoming SNITCH and EVEL) will join us Tuesday, February 21st for a discussion on Writing Action. Using film clips and scenes from their scripts, Ric and Derek will talk about how to craft effective action scenes on the page that both further your story and convey the tension and energy that will translate to the screen.

Derek Haas is the author of several novels and co-wrote the screenplays for 3:10 TO YUMA, WANTED, 2 FAST 2 FURIOUS and THE DOUBLE. In 2008 he published his novel THE SILVER BEAR about the young contract killer Columbus. The sequel, COLUMBUS, was released in 2009. Derek is also the creator and editor of popcornfiction.com, where he publishes short stories by various authors. Haas explains that the site "grew out of a love for pulpy short fiction that used to dominate popular magazines in the mid-20th Century. I wanted to create a place where new popular short fiction could flourish, and Hollywood could have a new resource for cultivating great ideas."

Ric Roman Waugh began his career as a stuntman and became one of the youngest stunt coordinators at the age of eighteen. Gaining success as a writer, Waugh has developed, written, and rewritten over 20 studio-based feature film screenplays for producers such as Jerry Bruckheimer, Mark Gordon, Neil Moritz, Barry Josephson, Todd Garner, Mark Canton, Jim Sheridan and Nick Wechsler.  His latest screenplay, titled THE BRAND, is a dramatic thriller about the rise of the Aryan brotherhood with Leonardo DiCaprio set to star and Marc Foster to direct. His next feature film to start this fall will be EVEL, a biopic on the legendary daredevil, Evel Knievel. You can read more about EVEL in this article written for The Hollywood Reporter.

The event will take place at the Harry Ransom Center, and to kick off the series, we'll be having a reception in the lobby at 5pm prior to the Conversation. Take in the incredible exhibit created for the occasion from the amazing film collection at the Harry Ransom Center, including the storyboard panels from the burning of Atlanta scene in GONE WITH THE WIND (below), as well as storyboards from REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, TOP GUN, and more.

 Storyboards from GONE WITH THE WIND

  

Conversations in Film: Writing Action! takes place at 6pm on Tuesday, February 21st at the Harry Ransom Center. Tickets are $10 for general admission, $8 for AFF members, and can be purchased online here.

Admission to the opening reception and exhibit is free! Doors open at 5pm.

“How To Get your Groove Back…”

 
 It’s funny what we’ll do to find inspiration.  When it comes to the creative process, it seems like all of us will do what we can to find that “a-ha!” moment.  Maybe it’s exercising, or visiting your favorite place.  Maybe it’s praying, or chanting, or turning to a higher power for help.  We focus so much on finding that one thing that will help us write that story, or paint that picture, or sing that song that we’ve been dying to get out.  As artists (and really also, as humans), that’s what we live for.

But, what happens when that moment hasn’t quite hit you yet?  When you haven’t found that creative spark in your life?

As a novice writer, I can tell you that inspiration doesn’t come easy.  I have one set of friends who say, “Just sit down and write, something will come to you.  What’s the big deal?” On the flip side, there is the other set who say, “No, you have to wait until something hits you.  It might take time, but it’ll happen when you’re ready.”  So the question is: which side do you choose?  

For a whole year, I have struggled with these sides, teetering back and forth, ultimately just settling on not writing anything because it became such a creative battle.  And, at the end of the day, it was easier to use the excuse of “I’m just waiting for some inspiration to hit.”

I labored under this thought until I attended our 2011 festival.  It was my first year both as a writer and as an employee of AFF.  Although I did not get to sit in on as many panels as I would have liked, I noticed that one common element seemed to stand out amongst all of the panelists: they each spoke of at least one person in their lives who was interested in what they had to say.

There, on that final sleep-deprived Sunday afternoon of the Festival, did I finally have a pivotal realization: inspiration comes from the support of those around you.  This realization came further into play when our Marketing Director, Taylor, asked if anyone wanted to contribute to our blog, read by thousands of writers, attendees, and panelists alike.  I hesitated to throw my name into the hat because I wasn’t sure what an Office Manager could say that would be of use to people.  Once again, I used the fall back of “not writing is easier”.  But it wasn’t until she said that it didn’t matter what my title was or what I do at the office every day, but that my voice is just as important as everyone else’s – that I have thoughts and ideas that should be shared.  I knew that that was exactly what I needed to hear, if even for this small project, to get my creative juices flowing again.  And thus, I landed myself a spot on this lovely little blog!

My advice to you, dear reader/writer, is this: surround yourself with the people who know what you truly want to do.  You may not have that “a-ha!” moment today, or tomorrow, or even 5 years from now.  But it will happen.  Because of her, as well as an equally supportive staff, I can now pass that same encouragement along to all of you.  Sure, maybe what you have to say won’t appeal to everyone... but I promise you that there will always be one person who believes in and wants to hear what you have to say. I hope that you, too, can find your inspiration through them.

-- Marcie Mayhorn, AFF Office Manager

LIVING RECORD: The Music Documentaries of DA Pennebaker

We will kick off the year on Wednesday, February 1 at 7:00pm, with our new series, Living Record: The Music Docs of DA Pennebaker. Partnering with Jo's Hot Coffee, we will be offering free screenings of this legendary documentarian's films at the downtown 2nd Street Jo's location the first Wednesday of every month. 

Pennebaker is renowned for his verite approach, replacing talking heads and intrusive voiceover with a simple record of seminal music events as they happened. After capturing hundreds of hours of footage at concerts, hotel rooms, and press interviews, Pennebaker told his story in the editing room, finding the moments that would resonate most with audiences. His films offer those who lived through these events a chance to recapture those memories while giving those who didn't an opportunity to feel intimately connected to our musical history.

The first film in the series is THIS WEDNESDAY - Don't Look Back, covering Bob Dylan's 1965 concert tour in the United Kingdom.

Pennebaker captures a young Dylan at the beginning of his ascent to superstardom - confident if not arrogant, confrontational and contrary, but also charismatic and charming. Along with transcendental performances by Dylan, the film also features Joan Baez, Donovan, Alan Price (who had just left The Animals), Marianne Faithfull, John Mayall, Ginger Baker, and Allen Ginsberg.

In 1998, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Jo's will also be offering drinks specials - $3 premium drafts, $3 house wine.

 

Don't miss these pivotal moments in music history:

February 1 | Music Docs of D. A. Pennebaker...DON'T LOOK BACK, @7pm, Jo's Downtown, FREE!

March 7 | Music Docs of D. A. Pennebaker...MONTEREY POP, @7pm, Jo's Downtown, FREE!

April 4 | Music Docs of D. A. Pennebaker...ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS, @7pm, Jo's Downtown, FREE!

May 2 | Music Docs of D. A. Pennebaker...ONLY THE STRONG SURVIVE, @7pm, Jo's Downtown, FREE! 

And don't forget, AFF Members recieve a 10% discount at both Jo's Coffee locations! Interested in signing up? There will be a table at the events for more information, or visit our website.

Writers on Screenwriting - Herschel Weingrod

Herschel Weingrod at the 2011 Austin Film Festival & Conference
Photo credit: Jack Plunkett

We know how valuable it can be to hear another writer, especially a successful one, discuss their craft. It can inspire renewed commitment to one's work, give ideas for different ways to approach a story and remind us that we are not alone with our frustrations - and joys - in the writing process.

We've asked some friends of Austin Film Festival to share some of their thoughts on aspects of the writing process with us. Below, our good friend Herschel Weingrod shares some advice on preparing to tell your story.

Ray Bradbury once said, "Find out what your hero wants, then follow him." He didn't say lead him, he said follow him. If you've created your protagonists well enough, they'll take you where your story needs to go and, in doing so, you'll discover your theme rather than start with one and then hammer us over the head with it - the theme needs to be invoked rather than imposed. The trick is to get rid of all the facile cliches that are the first things you go for, the easy solutions to scenes and plot and character. Good writing can only begin after a lot of heavy lifting - a mountain of false starts and stops and what used to be crumpled paper. And then, if you're lucky, and talented, in return for your labor and humiliation you might wake up in the morning and know more about the scene you're about to write than when you went to sleep the night before...and, if you're really lucky, your characters will start to take you where they would go and do what they would do...and you'll experience the writer's equivalent of what athletes call being "in the zone".

- Herschel Weingrod, screenwriter Trading Places, Brewster’s Millions, producer Falling Down

18 Days of Austin Film Festival Membership

Do you want to see a bunch of free movies year-round? Do you want discount prices on film related events or to this year's festival? Do you want to look cool? Well, an AFF year-round membership can do all of those for you.

And guess what? If you sign up for a membership from now until August 1st, you could win a daily giveaway from Violet Crown Cinemas, Yoga Yoga, Texas Tribune Festival, Uchi/Uchiko, Pearl Brewery, Fun Fun Fun Fest...the list goes on and on. Free stuff is cool!

You can't get an opportunity like this with any other membership in Austin, so take advantage of it while you have the chance.

Upcoming Member Events:
Fright Night (1985)
How to Eat Fried Worms
Friday Night Lights Membership Happy Hour Event
Friday Night Lights (TV Series)
The Debt - Advance Screening
Piranha (1978)

Season Finale of On Story This Saturday

The Season Finale of On Story is this Saturday, July 16th. The episode features two shorts, EULOGY MAKER by Leslie Langee and WEIGHT OF THE WORLD by Jenny Goddard.

On Story is a new series which takes a look at the creative process of filmmaking through the eyes of some of the entertainment industry's most prolific writers, directors and producers. Each episode will also showcase short films from the region's most promising filmmakers. Visit the On Story website to view this week's episode and others from the series. http://video.klru.tv/program/1879120997/

2010 Austin Film Festival Commercial

AFF Filmmaker Follow Up with Bill True

Bill’s feature script debut, RUNAWAY, was hailed by critics as "Brilliant" and "Hitchcockian" and premiered to universal accolades at the Tribeca and Toronto film festivals.  It went on to screen worldwide at Avignon, Woodstock, Vail, Tel Aviv and other fests.  Bill also took the top prize at the prestigious Austin Film Festival and Screenwriters Conference for his work on RUNAWAY, which is set for release in Summer, 2009.

His follow-up, the supernatural drama, "Incarnation", is projected to shoot in late 2009/early 2010.  He is also hard at work on a new spec script, "Lightseekers", and a new TV procedural drama, The Blender.

Bill is also a rising star on the professional speaking circuit as screenwriter-in-residence for SagePresence, a consortium of working filmmakers who teach professionals Hollywood methods to bring dynamic "stage presence" to make-or-break moments.  In addition, he teaches and speaks around the country about screenwriting and breaking into the movie business.  He's received rave notices for talks in Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis, and other cities, and he has been a both a featured panelist, moderator, and favorite pitch competition jurist at the Austin Film Festival’s screenwriters conference four years running.  He is currently an artist-in-residence at IFP Minnesota, where he teaches beginning and advanced screenwriting.

AFF spoke with Bill about the rollercoaster ride that was "Runaway" and the connection between the business and film worlds. 

AFF: Tell me about your film that screened at the 2005 festival and won the Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature.

Bill: "Runaway" is a psychological thriller starring Aaron Stanford as Michael Adler, a young man on the run with his eight year-old brother, Dylan (Zach Savage), whom Michael is trying to keep safe from what we come to believe is some pretty unsavory stuff at the hands of their father (Michael Gaston) and mother (Melissa Leo). 

Michael takes up refuge in a small town and hides Dylan in a flea-bag motel room as he works at a local convenience store.  There, he meets Carly (Robin Tunney), an acid-tongued high school dropout who’s trying to dig her way out of the hole that is her life.

As the two grow closer, it becomes increasingly difficult for Michael to hide his secret past.  And eventually, past and present crash together with—how shall I say..?  Devastating results.

The movie also features Peter Gerety and Terry Kinney, to round out an amazing cast.  It was directed by award-winning indie filmmaker Tim McCann and produced by Al Klingenstein and David Viola.

It was the first feature script I’d written.

I had taken a stab at TV writing in the mid-90s and almost got a show launched on one of the cable networks, but the deal fell through and I was broke.  I had a family to support, so I took a job in Corporate America and moved up the ladder very quickly.  I liked what I did, and I certainly liked the money.  And for the first five or six years I was in my corporate job, I figured that I would just continue to do that for the rest of my life.

But my friends wouldn’t let me forget.  They’d keep asking me, “When are you gonna face the facts?  You’re not a corporate guy…you’re a film guy!  Why aren’t you doing that?”  Eventually, I listened, and I decided that maybe I’d shoot a micro-budget feature on mini-DV and see if I could get it into a festival or two.  And so I wrote "Runaway".

Along the way, I had started to meet some folks in the film industry, and a few of them were nice enough to read the script.  The feedback I got was very positive.  The only warnings I got were, “You’ve really got something here.  Don’t shoot it yourself.  You’ll ruin it.”

At the same time, I had entered a draft (of which I was none too fond) of the script the Nicholl Fellowship competition.  Turns out that it made it to the semi-finals and placed in the top 1% out of something like 6,000 scripts.  After that, I started getting a few calls and emails from production companies interested in the script.  One of those companies was Filbert Steps Productions (which had won the Sundance Audience Award and Austin Film Festival Audience Award in 2000 for "Two Family House") out of New York.  As soon as I took a look at the Filbert Steps website, I knew I wanted to work with them.

After a little finagling (and a little white lie), I got them to read the script (they wanted me to just send a logline).  They all loved it, I guess, and a week later I was on the phone with Al (who headed up Filbert Steps) talking about optioning the script.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Melissa Leo in "Runaway"

AFF: Were there any major challenges in making this film? 

Bill: I certainly don’t want to characterize the process of getting from script, to option, to production as easy.  There were plenty of bumps along they way…

Like what I have affectionately come to call “the revolving wheel of Carlys”, where over the course of preproduction we had, at one time or the other, Anna Paquin, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Bethany Joi Lenz, Natasha Leone, and Rachel Lee Cook (just to name a few) interested or attached to the project.  A month of so before our scheduled start of production, in fact, the production company struck a deal with Rachel, and we announced her as Carly.

A week before start of production, she apparently had some concerns and dropped out of the movie.  Thank God for Bob Gosse (who co-founded the ‘90s indie powerhouse, The Shooting Gallery), who raised Robin Tunney and got her to read the script overnight.  She called the next morning, saying she was in.  We had to push production back a week, but we still had a movie!

But for all purposes, the production, itself, came together relatively smoothly.  We got all these amazing people—at the top of their game in their respective fields—on board to work on the movie.  Personally, I felt really good—like I’d done my job well—because most everyone, at some point during production, came up to me and said something like, “I had my choice of several projects to work on, but I am working on this movie because your script moved me.”  That was quite the thing for a first-time screenwriter to hear.  Very cool.  And very humbling.

The biggest problem with this movie has been getting it released.  The story of how this movie will eventually see the light of day could be a chapter straight out of Peter Biskind’s book, “Down and Dirty Pictures.”

"Runaway" was on all of the big “movies to watch” lists leading up to its premiere at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival, and it played to sell-out crowds and got great reviews.  At the premiere party, I remember the producer walking up to me, putting his arm around me, and asking, “How does it feel to have your first movie picked up by Warner Brothers?”

It felt pretty good.

But then something happened.  I won’t go into it all here, but suffice to say that a month after I left Tribeca we still didn’t have a deal.  Even worse, somehow, something slipped through the cracks, and eventually the interest faded.  When Warner’s interest went away, so did everyone else’s.

It was an interesting and painful thing to witness—how this movie that had everything going for it, and that everyone was certain would play well in art houses and cineplexes alike, was suddenly DOA.  Even getting accepted into (and playing to more packed houses and great reviews at) the Toronto Film Festival couldn't save it.  Even winning AFF.

The movie languished for about a year-and-a-half as the producers went on to make another movie.  Then, I met this exec named Brent Emery at—of all places—the Austin Film Festival.  He watched "Runaway", loved it, and put the company that held the rights (the producers shut down Filbert Steps at the end of 2007) in touch with Starz Home Entertainment.  They wanted to release it, but suddenly there were rights issues (foreign rights had been contracted out, and the movie was already released in certain territories).  Nearly a year went by, and eventually Starz fell off the map, too.

Finally!  At the beginning of this year, a great distributor saw the movie and liked it.  I am also guessing they liked the idea that Robin Tunney is co-starring in one of the highest-rated series on network TV, and that Melissa Leo got nominated for an Oscar this past year.  Regardless, I am happy to say that a deal is currently being finalized, and it looks like "Runaway" will finally hit the streets sometime later this year.

Aaron Standord and Robin Tunney in "Runaway"

AFF: You have attended the festival several times since "Runaway" won. Do you have any favorite memories of your time at the festival?

Bill: Man…so many cool things have happened at the past four AFFs I’ve attended, it’s hard to choose.  I’ve really enjoyed judging the pitch competition, being a panelist, and, of course…the Driskill Bar.

But the highlight of the festival for me would have to be the day I won…and nearly didn’t make it to the awards luncheon.

After the Friday night screening of "Shop Girl" at the Paramount Theatre, I somehow ended up chatting over beers for hours with director Anand Tucker and stars Jason Schwartzman and Claire Danes.  I kept pinching myself.  I mean, whoulda thunk?  As I recall, I finally landed in bed around 2 AM.

I woke up feeling slightly hungover.  I also woke up feeling completely LATE!  I was scheduled to be on a panel at 10:15, and a quick peek at my cell phone informed me that said panel would start in exactly 25 minutes.  I didn't shower.  I barely splashed water on my face.  I think I brushed my teeth.  I threw on jeans and a T-shirt, and tossed a sport coat on for good measure.  I wanted to at least look, you know, somewhat “professional”.

Right as the panel was beginning, Kelly Williams, the film program director walks in and taps me on the shoulder.

"Hey, Bill.  You're going to the awards luncheon today, right?"

Now...when a film festival director asks you a question like that, how are you supposed to answer?  "Absolutely!"  ...Right?

Not me.

"No...I'm heading out for a run and a shower after this panel."

Kelly got this look on his face.

"You sure?  It would be great to have you there in support of your movie."

"One of our producers, David Viola, is the guy with the actual 'film credentials',” I told him.  “I'm here on a panelist's badge.  I don't think I can get in.  Maybe David should go."

I grabbed my cell phone.  "You want me to call him?"

"No, no, no," Kelly insisted.  "David can do what he wants.  We'd love to have the writers from all the competition movies at the luncheon.  I’ll get you in.  Just show up."

All right, I thought.  I sighed.  The shower would have to wait.

After the panel, I got my run...sprinting across downtown to get to the Austin Club in time for the luncheon, that is.

I get to the door, and a very nice person working security informs me that my name is not on the list.  I try on a "Kelly Williams told me..."  No go.  After five minutes or so of trying to wrangle my way into the place, I turn and start heading down the steps.  It’s not gonna work.  Just then…

"Bill True..?  RUNAWAY..?"

Next thing I know, a very official-looking person holding a clipboard is grabbing my arm.  She's literally dragging me back up the steps and into the main ballroom.

A minute later, I find myself seated at this table right in front of the stage.  Across from me is the cast and crew from one of the other movies in competition.  These are the folks that were going to win, I thought, because they were sitting at the table closest to the stage.  I was very happy for them.

And then a strange thought occurred to me.  I was also sitting at the table closest to the stage.  And Kelly Williams had been acting very strangely when I said that I wasn't planning to...  Could it be?

Naaaaaaaaaah!

I put the thought out of my mind completely.  I sat back and enjoyed the free meal.  I had a glass of wine.  I chatted.  I got to listen to Harold Ramis talk about how some of my favorite movies of all time came to be.  I got to see Karl Williams win his legendary screenplay hat trick (I am convinced the guy can't write a bad script!).

And then someone got up on the stage.  And then they were talking about the "Narrative Feature Award."  And I was taking a swig of pinot.  And then, all of a sudden, I heard the title of my movie.

And then I heard nothing.  Because no one was talking.  It was like a bomb went off.

I scan the room, waiting for someone to rise.  Everyone else is scanning the room, too.  It felt like hours were passing.  Dawn was breaking quite slowly in the molasses of my conscious mind. 

I eventually turn to the guy sitting next to me and chuckle: "I think we won."

He grabs the wine glass out of my hand and starts slapping me on the back.  "Dude!  YOU WON!"

Oh, my god!!!  He was right!

I spring to my feet.  Now I feel like a real fool because everyone was staring at me.  But I dare not move, lest I be wrong.  I wait for some other screenwriter to head toward the stage to accept an award.  'Cause I don't win stuff like this, I reminded myself.

There are no takers, and the people at my(?) table, like, pushing me toward the stage.  I still don't know what I am doing, but I decide it's safe to mount the stairs.  And then people are shaking my hand.  And then they put this thing in my hands that weighs about 15 pounds.  And then I'm in front of the microphone.

And as I scan the expectant faces of Hollywood's best and brightest, about to open my mouth and wing my first-ever acceptance speech, a profound thought occurs to me: I really wish I had taken that shower this morning.

Jurist Michael Barlow, Bill True holding the award for Best Narrative Feature, and jurist Alex Smith after the awards luncheon

AFF: You work as a consultant and business director as well. How have these experiences helped you in film? Are they related in certain ways?

Bill: That’s a good question.  More accurately, I’ve done a lot of business consulting in the past, and before I quit my “day job” I held a senior director-level position in a pretty large health care company.  Today, I am writing and producing full time, and I have also somewhat fallen into this really cool life where people are also asking me to speak professionally.

But to answer your question…they are absolutely related.

Back in the mid-90s I tried and failed at launching a career in writing and producing in TV.  Now, there’s nothing wrong with failure—it’s life’s great teacher of lessons.  But…

A little background…My partner at the time and I were trying to launch a kind of “Entertainment Tonight” for science fiction.  We’d somehow convinced the publisher of the biggest sci-fi fanzine, “Starlog”, to give us exclusive rights to use the logo and logline for TV, and we’d gotten commitments from James Doohan and George Takei (Scotty and Sulu from the original STAR TREK, respectively) that one or the other would be the host of the series.  As if that wasn’t enough, we had one of the big video game companies committed to putting up $40,000 toward a pilot.  And E! network was interested.

Yet, somehow it fell apart.  It’s not that we were stupid people; it’s that we were inexperienced business people.  We didn’t know how to leverage what we had—and we had a lot!  In the end, we were broke and lost, and the whole thing just kind of fell apart.

I treasure my time in Corporate America because it was my MBA.  I learned how to be a businessperson there, and I got hands-on, sink-or-swim experience managing projects with budgets in the tens of millions of dollars and affecting millions of people around the world.  I learned how to apply the same creativity and resourcefulness that I brought to artistic endeavors to commercial ones.

That was, I believe, the critical difference as I ventured back into the entertainment industry.  Because now I knew why they called it show business.  Even better, I knew how to operate in the business side, so when problems presented themselves I was more equipped to handle them and turn them into opportunities.

AFF: Your new film “Incarnation” is set to shoot this summer. Any specific plans for the film?

Bill: Well, I wish we were set to shoot this summer.  As you know, the movie biz is like the weather in my home state of Minnesota—wait an hour and everything’s gonna change.

We’re still hopeful, however, that we will be in a position to shoot sometime late ’09 or early ’10.

We’ve had a commitment to fund half the film from a great production company in LA headed up by a longstanding manager/producer who’s been a terrific cheerleader and supporter of mine for years—even flew out to New York to see the premiere of my first movie.  He’s an amazing and passionate Renaissance man that is plain brilliant at everything he pursues.

We had another investor group involved to provide the other half of the financing, and, thanks to our great casting director, Eve Battaglia, we were getting the script to topnotch actors.  About the time we put an offer letter out to our male lead, the investor group opportunity dried up.  Actually, "Incarnation" was to be part of a larger film slate, and the whole thing sort of fell apart in early spring.

We decided, though, that this was a great time to take one more look at the script and see what we could do to make it even better and an even more attractive proposition for new potential investors.  In the end, we moved on from our original choice for the male lead, so we also wanted to take a moment to check the tone of the script against our current understanding of the tone and vision for the movie.

We’re about ready to take it out again and see what happens.  Luckily, we have two other production companies that are at least interested in the project, like the script, and are equally intrigued to see what we come up with next in terms of the script and cast attachment.  Hopefully, that leads to more tangible involvement (read: money) to complete our financing package, and we’ll be announcing a production start date!

AFF: What are you working on now?

Bill: I’m currently finishing the next draft of "Incarnation", as I mentioned above.

I am also working on another spec script called "Lightseekers", which is about a guy who’s trying to keep his garage band alive long enough enjoy fame and fortune.  Problem is, the world has been overrun with flesh-eating monsters.  Kind of like (though I hate it when other people do this, so forgive me) "I Am Legend" meets "The Commitments".  But with strong accents on the satirical syllables.  It’s my comment on all things American Idol and Swine Flu.  I’ve pitched it to a few producer friends of mine in Hollywood, and they all seem to think it’s got legs.  One producer with one of the major studios keeps asking me when it’s gonna be done, so I guess I better finish it.

Otherwise, I was sought out by a guy who is tied to a pretty solid investment group to develop a procedural drama for TV based on the private investigator who took down, among others, the company that put out the Dalkon Shield years ago.  He’s quite the character, which is wonderful, as my initial thought was that I wanted to work on a procedural drama like I wanted a hole in me head.  These folks seem really committed to making it work dramatically, though, and they’re not only being very cooperative, but they’re allowing me a lot of creative leeway.  I am having a ton of fun working with this guy, and there are already two TV production companies chomping at the bit to get a look at the series bible.  We’ll see what happens.

I am also developing a feature based on one of my favorite science fiction books ever.  I had been working with a development executive at one of the larger management/production companies on the project, but in a  Hollywood moment, he left the company and the project lost its traction.  Now I am back hitting the pavement.  I can’t say any more on that right now, but I think it would make a movie that’s cool and funny and meaningful all at the same time.

Finally, I’ve had a number of people ask me if I was interested in producing someone else’s work other than my own.  I guess with all the development work I’ve done over the past few years, I am sort of getting a name out there.  Of course, I don’t know whether that’s exactly a good thing or not…  Okay…kidding aside…at first I shied away from the idea.  I’ve since had a shift in my thinking, and I am also in the process of scouting for a project to shepherd though as a producer.  So we’ll see what happens.   There have been a couple of near misses—properties that caught my attention—but nothing that’s really grabbed me yet.

For more on Bill, please visit www.billtrue.net.

Its not too late to enter your film!

Very late deadline: July 15th

Just one more you reason you should be at the Austin Film Festival & Conference in October...

The 2009 AFF Conference

This year's panel discussions will feature case studies of the writing and script-to-screen production process with the writers and creators for such films and shows as Twilight, "Lost", Valkyrie, Watchmen, The Secret Life of Bees, "Mad Men" and the HBO hit series "Entourage".