OLD YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS

I've been watching quite a few people chat about New Year's resolutions over on Facebook. Some people are proud that their only resolution will be to make no New Year's resolutions. Many seem to assume that New Year's resolutions are synonymous with diet and exercise. And many others think it's a waste of time because who keeps New Year's resolutions, anyway?

I do.

Not always, of course, but if you've been around for a while, you know that this blog was the result of a New Year's resolution. And I've kept many, many other resolutions: The resolution to cook "real" food for my family. To make a reading list and actually read my way through it. And more.

Here's the secret to a successful New Year's resolution: Instead of resolving to do something you *don't* want to do, instead, resolve to do something you *do* want to do, something you've been meaning to do, something you'd like to find time for. Then (and possibly only then) will you see the power of a good New Year's resolution made manifest.

I try to get my resolutions lined up by the end of January, but this year I am way ahead of the game. I'm ready to state my resolutions now.... But it seems just wrong to do it before New Year's Day, so first, let's look at the state of last year's resolutions.

Resolution #1: Knowing that we were about to move into a house that just begs to be used for entertaining, I resolved to entertain on a weekly basis (on average). By "entertain," I didn't just mean throwing parties, but was including in that all sorts of playdates, meetings... just basically people coming over.

Well, we have been here for 39 weeks, and as of New Year's Day, we will have opened our doors to folks 44 times. So let's check that one off!

Resolution #2: Urged by Cory, I resolved to get myself onto Facebook. I think we can safely say that resolution was successful. (So successful that it has affected my blogging here somewhat negatively at times... but that's another issue.)

Resolution #3: I resolved to pray for the forgiveness of a couple of specific people who had caused real damage to me and my family over the last few years. This one felt very difficult while I was in the process, but now that it's more or less over, it feels as if it was very easy indeed (sort of like childbirth). I think I can truly say I have put those episodes and people, and my own attitudes toward them, in the past. And I'm both glad and sad about it.

So 2009 was, as far as resolutions go, a pretty good year....

2010 is just around the corner.

'TWAS THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS

I don't know what came over me this morning.... My house really isn't quite this bad... and hope yours isn't either!

'TWAS THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS

‘Twas the day after Christmas, and all through the house

All the fam’ly was sleeping, yes, even my spouse.

The stockings were tossed by the chimney with flair

Some turned inside out, to make sure nothing’s there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

Nintendo DSes tucked under their heads;

And I in my bathrobe, MacBook on my lap,

Was happy to know there were no gifts to wrap.

When out from the kitchen there rose such a clatter,

I sprang from the couch to see what was the matter.

I waded my way ‘cross a floor filled with trash

To a kitchen heaped high from our Christmas Eve bash.

The sun through the window, it gave quite a glow:

(Los Angeles Christmas: We never have snow),

It shone on the remains of the Christmas day cheer,

The leftover cheese ball, the dregs of the beer.

The un-put-away brownies as hard as a fossil,

And o’er on the stove, it shone down on the wassail.

I blinked as the sun blasted straight to my eye

And just in time glimpsed a brown streak passing by.

Four-footed and furry and dragging a ham,

Dodging around me and trying to scram.

And as he ran off with a peppermint cluster

I knew in a moment, it was my dog Buster.

More rapid than eagles he streaked ‘cross the floor

Buster grabbed what he wanted, and came back for more:

More cheesecake, more truffles, more bagels and lox,

More chocolate chip cookies, more scotch on the rocks.

He smashed and he scrambled, bumped into the wall,

Then dashed away, dashed away, dashed away all.

“I should have cleaned up when the guests said good-bye,”

I moaned to myself with a pretty big sigh.

After two days of feasting, the kitchen looked grubby

I scrounged in the sink, tried to dig up the scrubby--

I searched quite in vain for a halfway clean towel

When out from the living room came quite a howl.

I set down the saucepan all caked thick with goo,

The glaze for the ham which had now turned to glue.

I skipped to the living room, limber of foot

And inched past the fireplace, dripping with soot.

Unraveling ribbons clung fast to my shin

As I looked round the post-Christmas scene with chagrin.

A mountain of presents all covered the floor

They looked so appealing when bought at the store.

Now gift wrap was ripped and the tissue was crumpled,

The new shoes abandoned, the new tank tops rumpled.

I picked my way round all the presents caloric,

The baskets of chocolate to make me euphoric,

Strange foods so exotic that no one would try it

(And don’t my friends know, New Year’s Day starts the diet?)

And just then I heard from the top of the spruce

The pitiful cry of a dog on the loose

I lifted my eyes from amidst the debris --

Old Buster had climbed to the top of the tree.

The angel crashed down as the Christmas tree swayed,

The ornaments flew in a sparkling cascade--

The puppy leapt on me, I felt his claws rip,

And then right behind, the tree started to tip--

The lights all exploded as down the tree crashed--

The pine needles shredded, the presents were smashed--

And I said as I landed on top of the pup,

“Happy Christmas to all-- Someone else can clean up!”

A (DOWNSIZED) MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

I am so sorry I haven't been blogging. Part of it is, I'm afraid, the lure of Facebook. Part of it is the season, though this year hasn't been as busy as some. Part of it is that I'm doing some writing, and the more I'm writing other things, the less I'm writing on my blog.

But here I am, back again, just in time to wish you all a Merry Christmas.

Christmas feels very different this year. Not just at our house, but all around. We were at a party recently where a friend who has had her "keeping up with the Joneses" episodes was exclaiming about how great it was to downsize her Christmas, how she wasn't sending cards at all, how she wasn't sending gifts to family out of town. It left me wondering if downsizing is the new "keeping up with the Joneses."

We are downsizing, too. Fewer gifts under the tree, and most cost under $10. And where we used to give gifts to all and sundry, just a very few are leaving the house this year. (And we will receive just a few in exchange.)

No big Christmas party for 200 people this year. And our friends who usually host a Christmas Eve gathering have moved to a tiny house and can't do it this year. Fewer parties overall, in fact, this year.

I slashed my Christmas card list (in part as of a result of changing schools) from about 250 to just over 150. Instead of staging a photo shoot for the Christmas card, I just grabbed a snapshot at our church's Christmas tea.

We didn't go to our usual Christmas tree lot in Orange County. We did still do the cut-your-own thing, at a closer lot, but we got a lesser tree this year. And no decorations on the house. (Though that is perhaps because of a son who doesn't understand why that should be his job.)

But Christmas is still happening. No, we're not having the huge 200-person open house, but we are taking over the Christmas Eve tradition of our friends, and having folks over between the 5:00 and 10:00 services at Bel Air. Ham and cream cheese-mashed potatoes and sweet potato/pecan casserole with a Grand Marnier sauce and macadamia nut-encrusted Brie and chocolate silk pie and strawberry fool.... And two dozen wonderful friends.

We'll still do our Christmas morning tradition of everyone getting what they want for breakfast. This year, thankfully, the kids have moved past their all-chocolate breakfast desires (though Sabrina is still having chocolate chip pancakes). And Cory agreed to settle for frozen yogurt when we couldn't find pomegranate ice cream anywhere.

But one little difference... My mom always wanted lox and bagels for Christmas breakfast. Sometimes I joined her, sometimes I didn't. But I think now, in her honor, my Christmas breakfast will always be lox and bagels.

We will still open one present on Christmas Eve, per our tradition, and we will open the rest Christmas morning, one at a time, even if it takes less time than usual. A dear family friend is joining us for Christmas Day, so maybe that's a new tradition.

We will still watch "White Christmas" (probably tonight), and Lee will marvel at the work of God that is Vera Ellen. We will still bake and decorate a birthday cake for Jesus and light the candles on Christmas Eve. (This year Jesus is downsizing, too -- He wants brownies as his birthday cake. I have this on good authority from Sabrina, who has that special connection to know what He wants every year. Thank God He didn't want a carrot cake this year again!)

So, all in all, a downsized Christmas isn't that bad. We have no idea what the New Year will bring, only that it will be really good or really scary, with not much in between. But for now, it's Christmas.

Every Who down in Who-ville, the tall and the small,
Was singing! Without any presents at all!
He HADN'T stopped Christmas from coming!
IT CAME!
Somehow or other, it came just the same!
And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so?
It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
"It came without packages, boxes or bags!"
And he puzzled three hours, `till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!
"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store.
"Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!"

Merry Christmas, all!

APPARENTLY BATMAN IS FOREVER...

It's been a loooong time since we were involved in the world of Batman... but it seems that world never leaves you.

I was recently interviewed by Ben Yip, a USC film school student who's a huge Batman fan. It was quite the blast to the past thinking all the way back to those days, but fun.

Here's the interview, if you're interested.... (And that poster of Nicole Kidman as Chase Meridian? Lee has had that in his office ever since we did the movie. I wonder why...)

HOW DOES A WRITER GET PAID?

I was approached for advice and information recently by an aspiring writer visiting Hollywood to get the lay of the land. He particularly wanted to know how "writers' fees," as he put it, work out here.

I don't normally post about industry business dealings here, but I spent a good amount of thought on the answers to his questions, and wondered if they might be helpful to others as well.

So here are Andrew's questions... and my answers. (Anyone with more Business Affairs experience than I is more than welcome to correct me!)

Question #1: How does a writer determine the fee s/he charges before taking on certain writing jobs?

My answer:

Before I can answer this, you have to realize that there are two kinds of writing jobs: WGA and non-WGA.

WGA-covered jobs are jobs in which the writer writes for a WGA signatory; i.e., a company which has signed a contract with the WGA. A non-WGA writer can, and most cases must, become a WGA writer upon accepting one of these jobs. And WGA-covered jobs must abide by the rules, including payment rules, set forth in the WGA's Minimum Basic Agreement.

Here's the MBA.

If it's a WGA job, the minimum to be paid is based on the length of the finished product (on screen, not number of pages) and on the market for which it's intended. And, if it's a WGA job, pension and health benefits must also be paid by the producer (upping his total cost), and, if/when the piece is made and marketed, residuals must be paid (eventually) for all uses *other* than the primary intended use. (E.g., if it's a theatrical motion picture, there are no residuals paid for the theatrical run, but residuals are paid for all after-market run.)

If it's a non-WGA job, there are no rules. A non-WGA writer can use the MBA as a starting place to try to get a fair deal, but is at the mercy of whatever deal he can strike. It is very rare for a non-WGA company to be willing to pay WGA rates.

Now, beyond this, writers have what are known as their quotes. Your "quote" is either (a) the highest price you were ever paid to do a certain task (e.g., "a draft and a set" -- or a first draft with a set of revisions), or (b) the price you were most recently paid to do that task. The anticipation is that you will be paid the same amount or a bit more for the next job. However, in this economy, writers are being forced to cut their quotes drastically -- usually 50% or more.

If you have never been paid to write, you have no quote, and have negotiate in a vacuum.

Question #2: If the writer doesn't have a track record of producing substantial box office results, should s/he just write at the minimum award wage [sic], or, on the opposite end of the scale, do writers often charge a percentage of the film's budget?

My answer:

I don't know what "minimum award wage" means. If you are referring to WGA minimum, it's usually called writing for scale.

A writer's track record at the box office only affects his quote tangentially -- i.e., after a hit, his agent/manager can demand a big bump up in his quote. But given that a writer has probably written several projects since he wrote the one that produced the big box office, his quote is somewhat independent.

The only time writers charge a percentage of the film's budget is when the producer has no money to pay them to write, and offers them what amounts to a production bonus under another name. Whatever they choose to call it, it's really a production bonus because the budget will not be finally determined until the show is in pre-production.

What this means is that the writer is essentially writing on spec. Sure, maybe the producer will pay anywhere from $500 to $5000 to hold the option on the project, but when these "percentage of the budget" deals are made, the writer is not being fairly compensated for his services. What the writer has to decide then is whether it is to his advantage to write on spec for this particular producer, as opposed to writing the same project on spec for himself.

Question #3: Do all contracts differ in the sense of what can be expected in return for the writer -- royalties, etc., or just a fee up front before shooting begins?

My answer:

Again, we run into the difference between WGA and non-WGA contracts. All WGA contracts start at essentially the same place in terms of "after-market" income -- and they are called residuals, not royalties (there's a technical legal difference; ask a tax attorney, not me).

Writers are guaranteed certain residuals for certain forms of aftermarket use (pay TV, network TV, DVD, etc.). Writers are also guaranteed, depending on the credit they receive, a small percentage of net profits. These are called "monkey points," and it is extraordinarily rare for a writer to ever see them. (I wrote a movie that cost under $100 million to make; it has made over a billion dollars in all markets; it is not yet in profits, officially, and we have seen no points.)

Note that all these aftermarket returns *only* apply to writers who receive on-screen credit on a produced movie. If you work on a movie and are not credited, all you get is what you were paid up front.

In addition, a writer can negotiate for production bonuses. There are all types: first writer bonus, last writer bonus, bonuses tied to the size of the budget or the salary of the lead actor, etc. These are up to the writer's agent/manager to negotiate.

Bonuses are often offered flamboyantly in the non-WGA world because they're all the producers have to offer. E.g., "I can only pay you $5000 to write the movie, but if it gets made, you'll get a million bucks!" While it's nice to have big bonuses in your contract, most scripts never become movies, so the "bonuses" are usually ego-flattering but meaningless.

One other thing: You mention a "fee up front." Writers are paid separately for each draft they write (except for "free rewrites," which are currently a huge plague the WGA is wishing it could eradicate). Each payment comes in 2 parts: 50% upon commencement of the draft, 50% upon delivery. A writers' contract will specify payment for each draft to be written, and drafts come in two types: Required and optional.

Traditionally, a producer would contract to pay for and receive two drafts on a screenplay, with an option to keep the writer on board for several possible drafts (rewrites and/or polishes) after the 2nd draft. The payment for each of those optional drafts is specified in advance in the contract. The option to keep the writer on board is always the producer's, never the writer's.

Nowadays, however, many (if not most) producers are actually making what are called "trick deals" or "one-draft deals" where only the first draft is required, and the second is optional. These are nasty deals, never to the writer's benefit.

There are (rare) times when a "normal" 2-draft deal goes south and the producer abandons the project (or the writer) after the first draft -- in this case, the producer must pay for the 2nd draft even though the writer never writes it; this is called a "pay-or-play" deal, and it is increasingly rare (though I have enjoyed "pay-or-play" a couple of times)... If a writer walks away from a 2-draft deal after the first draft (something I've also done), then the writer and producer typically agree to forego the 2nd draft payments.

And some bonus advice:

I am speaking mostly of how things are done in the WGA-covered world, of course, because that is my world. In the non-WGA world, there are three basic rules to remember:

(a) The writer generally gets taken advantage of. Sometimes very badly. (And if you are writing in the Christian-parallel-universe world of entertainment, do not expect that people deal more fairly and honestly there. If anything, writers are taken advantage of more badly in that world than in the mainstream studio world.)

(b) Credit is as important to negotiate as money. Again, writers are at the mercy of producers who will take credit for themselves, give it to investors, etc. Lock in your credit as much as you can. (In the WGA world, credit is determined by arbitration per the MBA, which I hope you have downloaded and read by now).

(c) Never never never negotiate your own deal. Never even discuss compensation with a producer. If you don't have an agent or manager, get an attorney who will handle the negotiations.

....Hope this is helpful, even if some fans of this blog are all now saying, "...Huh?"