SWF: Doug Chamberlain – Hollywood or Bust
International Screenwriters Festival: 26th October 2009
The first thing you notice about Doug is that his profile picture is a couple of years, possibly decades, out of date. The second thing you notice, soon as he’s opened his mouth, is his complete affability. Like everyone who took to the stage over the four days of the SWF, on a roll call that includes some of the most successful writers and producers working in the UK today, success has not detracted from their qualities as basically fabulous mere mortals.
There’s also something in the American accent though, isn’t there? That sheer Can Do confidence that spills over and although the dude next to me met it with stubborn British cynicism, I was quickly caught up in Doug’s enthusiasm as he explained that mad as it may appear, Hollywood does run to a certain logic, albeit a twisted one of all its own. All a budding writer/actor/director has to be able to do is understand and play that logic off to their own advantage.
Doug structured his talk around Hollywood Myths and their true explanations. Staring out with William Goldman’s infamous nobody knows anything, he countered that with perception is reality. It’s about ‘heat’ – the number of people talking about you determines how ‘hot’ you are at any one time. Once one pace-maker gives you the nod, that nod becomes reality to everyone else. Hollywood, it seems, operates like an unholy sheep herd. The trick – and difficulty – is to find that initial head to turn, that person who will lead the rest of the herd by championing you. It’s dangerous for that person if they’re wrong – if the reality undermines the initial perception – but they’ll gain great kudos if they were right, and you really are the next hot thing.
So how do you use perception is reality to your advantage? Doug insists you focus less on selling your script than making a friend/fan/champion who will ensure you have Tinseltown begging to look at your work. Doug’s first fan let him write on Duckman – and voila, suddenly everyone wanted him to write animation. This led to a 6 hour meeting with Pixar, one which literally consisted of riding up and down the length of the studio on scooters and playing with toys. That resulted in his writing on Toy Story 2 – and a knock on the door from Steven Spielberg, and that made him into a platinum visa card in Hollywood.
So that’s all well and good, but how do you find your fan in the first place? Its about building a critical mass of awareness. The advertising industry understands this, and so must writers. You don’t decide to see Up because you’ve seen one banner on the side of a bus. You do it because you see it advertised on buses, billboards, telephone boxes, the underground, the paper and because every second person is talking about it. All of these references build a critical mass of awareness. It’s on your mind – so you go to satisfy your curiosity. Doug cited just a few ways of starting to generate your own advertising:
- contests
- query letters
- personal recommendations
- interviewing studio green-lighters
- pre-approval of your work (as a novel, graphic novel, webisode etc)
The important thing is not to have one of these things, but as many as you can. This will start to put your name out there and build a critical mass of awareness about you which will eventually raise the interest of someone who might just be your first champion.
Myth 2 was that Hollywood people only hire friends/family. If it looks like that, Doug argues, it’s only because the film world is all about relationships. On huge, stressful, expensive processes like film making, those at the top only want to work with people they know will get along with the team. Therefore it’s critical to build and maintain a network. Never burn bridges, never bag anyone out (they might be the next Steven Spielberg) and don’t depend on your agent – you have to work too.
The bottom line always remains though that although contacts will get you in, only talent will keep you in.
Myth 3 was that everyone in Hollywood is crazy. Well, yes, and no. What is important to realize is that Hollywood has its own particular logic, one which is entirely divorced from Real World logic. Understand this, and the whole crazy world makes a whole lot more sense. Doug explained all of this with a couple of very entertaining examples:
Real World Logic says: dress for success!
Hollywood Logic says: dress like a slob to get that job!
The key here is that studio types aren’t looking for an executive. They’re looking for a twisted creative genius, and that person is not expected to come in a suit fresh from the shower. They don’t understand creativity, but they do have an idea of what it should ‘look like’.
Real World Logic says: send a Family Guy spec script to the Family Guy studio.
Hollywood Logic says: send a Family Guy script to the Simpsons folks.
Why? Because the Family Guy crew know that show and its characters inside, outside and upside down. You can’t know as much as they do, so you’re more likely to make a mistake which they can spot a mile off. The Simpsons people though are more likely to be able to read it as a good script and think ‘well this dude can write Family Guy, let’s try ‘em out on Simpsons’.
Real World Logic says: tell the execs how hard that script was, how many hours you had to put into it etc.
Hollywood Logic says: tell the execs it was a cinch because you’re just a genius.
Never, ever make the creative process look hard. Execs don’t understand creativity. Make it look like you’re just a mad twisted genius and they’ll love you for it.
Doug has an upcoming London workshop called Mastering Hollywood, which I would absolutely link to here except that it must have the worst SEO known to man, as I can’t find it through Google to save my life. It’s probably absolutely excellent though, if you have the patience to find it.