My 2022 as a Working Screenwriter
/Or; How I Vowed to Stop Chasing Writing Assignments and Make 2022 “The Year of Doing It Yourself.”
I LOVE THE MOVIES!
Last year I wrote a piece detailing my year as a working screenwriter — 2021 for me was “The Year of Trying to Land an Open Writing Assignment” — and my takeaway from that year was… I don’t like OWA’s!
With that in mind I was a lot more selective about the opportunities that did come my way, and I put most of my energy towards projects I’m writing “on spec” (speculating that I’ll someday be paid for them) — and with the overall goal of SELF GENERATED GROWTH.
More about my thought process and plans below. Here’s what I did and why I did it in 2022 as a working screenwriter…
JANUARY
I am still waiting on a notes call with producers about an outlined SHORT STORY ADAPTATION I turned in back in November ‘21.
While I’ve been waiting on this call which has taken forever to schedule I’ve written the entire first draft of the script (took me about 5 weeks). I haven’t been paid my “Commencement” yet, but I don’t want another few months to go by between hearing I can start writing and the next time we all talk.
Our call finally happens at the end of the month and their notes all basically align with what I’ve already been working on cracking in the draft, shouldn’t be too tough to fold those in.
In 2021 I had a PASSION PROJECT feature spec I wrote years ago that finally attached a director and producer and we made a sizzle reel together. At the very end of the year we’d attached one key actor, and this month the director/producer have since brought all of the above to a studio to see if they’re interested. There’s definitely interest… Waiting to hear more! Also means we pause trying to find any other casting elements to keep the film as clean as possible for a potential studio.
Early on in the year I tell my agents — I am not especially interested in OWA’s this year. If there is something really exciting or big let me know but I think I’d be better served trying to finish what I have on my plate and writing more originals.
FEBRUARY
Dug through old projects and stumbled upon a half-hour pilot I’d written years ago that I never really showed to anyone. Half-hour live action space comedy called STARSHIP INFINITY. Some of the mechanics aren’t great, and some of the jokes feel dated, but I can quickly polish over a few days and then send to my manager.
He thinks it’s worth trying to take it out to market, so I start working on some notes he has (nothing major) and also putting together a deck for the series. First I’ll do the text for it, get his sign off on the content, then design the creative.
I’m also working for about a week on a final pass of the first draft of the Short Story Adaptation before sending it along to producers. I‘m finally paid this month (first paycheck of the year) for delivering the treatment (Nov 21).
Did ADR (additional dialogue recording) for my short film LEAD/FOLLOW (which we shot Oct ‘21). [More about making this film in another post!]
Last year I spoke with a playwright pal about adapting a stage play of his. I have a free week so I sit down and convert the play into a feature script. Could be interesting but definitely would make a very strange debut feature film for me. It’s a really small story, and there’s still some heavy lifting to do to get it to work on screen rather than on stage. Leave it to rest in this sort of semi-written state.
MARCH
Went to SXSW with my wife’s film WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND. She and the director win two awards. Whirlwind experience — their year has been incredible, you can watch the film now on Netflix.
Back in 2021 I had started puzzling together adapting a HORROR NOVELLA for a production company my agents matched me with, and we attached a director to it. Director had been busy finishing another feature, but now everyone’s finally available to pitch it to financiers. Strategy is to go to independent financiers rather than studios with the potential upside of more ownership of the finished product.
We pitch to three or four financiers over Zoom.
Finish up the deck for Starship and send along to my team. Zoom with TV Agent & Manager to talk through if there’s anyone we specifically want to target with it. We put together a big list of potential comedy / sci-fi producers.
Commenced on the short story adaptation and get paid to start. This career is not for the faint of heart (or the low of bank account).
APRIL
I send the finished first draft of the screenplay a few days later.
Starship is very slowly trickling its way to producers. Some with a direct — this is for you to consider, and some with a more — this is a sample from a writer you haven’t met. Getting very nice notes back but not connecting for various reasons. Setting a couple meetings of interest in the coming month.
Manager sends me an old book of short stories by an established genre writer he knows is available. It’s repped by my agency. I love it and weirdly know immediately how it might be a TV series (which never happens for me). I call UTA and pitch them my enthusiasm and they agree to let me develop a take on the material without an option and to tell me if anyone contacts them about the rights. I write a pitch for this very quickly — cracking a rough take in like… a day. Now I have a GENRE SERIES to pitch.
The team on the SCI-FI YA pilot I’d drafted and revised in 2021 all resurface and we set a zoom for “What do we do with this now?” We still all have notes about how to fix it, which brings us to… maybe cracking the perfect pilot is less important than cracking a very good pitch for the show. The idea is hooky (and serialized) enough that we can maybe find producers invested in cracking the pilot with us. And sometimes (it especially seems this way with TV) an IDEA can be more appealing than a SCRIPT. An idea gives people room to imagine their own show whereas a script generally needs to feel bulletproof. We decide to try to craft a killer pitch and materials for a deck. I work on a first draft of the text for that for a week or so.
Still working whenever I can towards my 3–5 year plan to get a feature film debut as a writer/director. There’s a feature I started in 2020 that I never quite figured out — a contained darkly absurd movie about a Late Night talk show host. This month I mess around with revisions. Excited about it, but it’s definitely very weird. Maybe if I can get it figured out this is the Feature Directing Debut for me?
MAY
I’ve been slowly collecting rejections from film festivals all year with Lead/Follow but get the nice news we’ve been invited to premiere at deadCenter Film Festival in June. It’s a cool festival (Oscar qualifying for shorts) and seems like a good time so we say yes! Also gives us an opportunity to write to other fests and check in on our submission status. [I am going to write a post about the entire short film process, from development to distribution, because it’s too much to get into here, stay tuned for that.]
Pitch Starship to a few companies over Zoom. Just a handful — three or four — and they all seem interested in me as a writer but not interested in this specific show (too expensive, space is too saturated, they’ve already tried and failed their own versions). A good intro to more execs but the project is basically shelved at this point. [I’ll link to the pilot and the deck here, why not?]
Continue work on the YA Sci-fi pitch deck, it’s reading well and looking cool. We finally send it to our reps with: okay here’s the show we wanna sell.
The Horror Novella we pitched to financiers in March gets one offer out of the four companies we’d taken it to. Not a great position to be in from a negotiating standpoint. The director / producer are not excited about the offer. I’d love to do it but also everyone needs to make money on it (myself included).
The project would be a mid-budget movie and the margins on that kind of production weirdly leave everyone earning close to the minimums (especially the up-and-coming screenwriter) and this becomes a long conversation with my reps about the future of Hollywood, and the fact that the films and projects I’m most interested are mid-size movies. Current film economics mean that when those movies are for hire they’re not particularly lucrative — which makes sense — but I’m kind of left feeling stuck. I don’t actually know what the profitable jobs even are right now, and I’m almost always artistically most interested in these mid-size movies. These are my favorite movies. But it’s not necessarily going to shape up into a profitable / sustainable career to keep working in this budget size. Negotiations on this deal take months but it basically stalls out because nobody is going to earn enough.
I start writing another SPEC FEATURE. An old idea that could hopefully be a four quadrant action adventure comedy. Maybe I can write something commercial and fun and sale-able, and even if it doesn’t sell, it would prove to be a good sample of a kind of thing I can do that I haven’t really done yet. The kind of movie that might actually be a little more profitable as a writer? Maybe???
Studio has finally come to the conclusion that the Passion Project (which was a spec, mind you) our director/producer pitched to them is indeed of interest. They want to do it! But! They have some notes on the script. UH OH.
We set a kick-off team call with them even though we have no deals, to try to get the ball moving, and hear their notes. They’re in alignment with the movie we all want to make and it actually seems like this crazy, long-gestating passion project may have found a home?
JUNE
The short story adaptation (which I’d sent in April) finally gets a response and notes from the producers. Notes, questions, pitches, we should set a time to talk soon. I get paid for delivery.
Meanwhile I’m writing the first draft of my Spec Feature this month.
Premiere the short at deadCenter. Great festival, very fun, my family comes. Nice time!
Talk with sci-fi YA team about who we can try to package it with — potential directors to send it to, potential producers for it. We come up with a big list of who to send it to and reps start going for it.
JULY
We finally have our call to discuss notes on the Short Story Adaptation. Every time we do talk I’m excited and everyone’s smart and so I write a new proposed outline for what a revised version would look like. I only have a First Draft and a Revision in my deal, so I want to make sure my revised draft lands as close to a finished product as possible — to keep them from hiring anyone else to re-write it. I propose writing an outline of what I intend the revised draft to look like so we can all be on the same page. This is not a step in my deal, but I’m trying to think strategically here. I write it up and send it over.
Call to discuss soon after. They want me to send another proposed outline. Again, not a step, but I agree. I want us all in agreement as to what we want the next (and hopefully final) draft to look like. I only get one shot before I’m technically done.
Have my first meeting about the Genre Series with a producer I know personally who I reached out to personally — I’m getting tired of agents taking forever to get answers to and from people and I like the idea of just emailing someone I like. And hey! He’s interested in developing it! But it would be unlike other projects he’s had and I have another meeting on the books with another producer (from the fizzling horror novella film) which feels like it might be a better fit. So I’m holding for now.
Send a rough first draft of the Spec Feature to my manager who says it’s just not tonally working. If I’m aiming for a slam dunk spec this is not it yet. Needs some thought.
AUGUST
Second meeting about the Genre Series feels like a better fit. And it’s with a GENRE producer. He has some thoughts on tweaking the deck I’ve created and then wants to take it to some high-level director/producers to EP and potentially direct the series.
Start talking with my team about the deal with the studio for the Passion Project, and it is hardly the huge spec sale we all dream of, but, with this film especially, my primary concern is not getting paid the most I can possibly be paid, it’s actually to retain some creative control, and to be guaranteed that I can be on set throughout. One, that’ll let me stay in contact with the film team itself which I think will make for a better product than if they were to jettison the writer (which happens, often). Two, I think it’ll teach me a lot. These are more important to me right now than fighting tooth and nail for more money.
My wife and I hear from friends about a kind of Quirky Class that my wife thinks might be something she’d want to direct a short documentary about, and I sign up to help produce. She knows a lot more about documentary than me but here’s another chance to learn something by doing. We start having preliminary conversations with the people involved.
General meeting with a director I really like who just wrapped a new feature and looking to do something more sci-fi adjacent. We hit it off but don’t have a clear like… let’s work on this! Hopefully someday!
I’m revising the Spec Feature this month to clarify, simplify, and make it more fun. It’s starting to work better. Not perfect, but better.
SEPTEMBER
We begin casting for the Quirky Short Doc. Talking on the phone with prospective subjects and seeing who’s game to be on camera.
Another couple rounds of small notes and fixes and calls on the Genre Series before we agree to send it out to our #1 directing choice. With submissions you get stuck doing one or two at a time exclusive and it can drag on for months and months. At least we’re starting.
Team meeting with my agents and a new TV person who’s taking over within my agency for me. We hit it off (thank goodness) and also this becomes a larger “State of the Colby” conversation. They ask if I feel like I have time / bandwidth for any new assignments before end of year and I say… No. I’m working on a Spec Feature and the LATE NIGHT idea to potentially direct. Sounds good. “Finish that spec so we can sell it!”
More film festivals for the short: Woodstock, Charlotte, SF Indie Shorts.
OCTOBER
Call about revised outline for the Short Story Adaptation. They still want changes to the outline before I go into writing the Final Draft. I fear I may have played myself by opening a can of worms in which I revise the outline over and over and don’t go to draft.
A couple higher-profile opportunities for IP / Writing Assignments… bigger material than I’ve been up for before… and I really think about whether to engage. I decide not to.
Originally the time frame for the Passion Project shoot had been end of year, but we’re still finalizing deals with the studio and pushing to next spring. We’re also trying to cast it still. More time is good!
My wife and I go shoot the Quirky Short Doc for a week. Really fun and cool. Now we have to find an editor (and an Assistant Editor to organize the hours of footage).
More film festivals for the short: Highland Park Independent, Newport Beach, Austin Film Festival.
Another general with another director — this is someone who’d reached out to me directly! He wants to do a project that sounds cool to me but is very nascent and I’m not sure I have the bandwidth to figure it out. But we keep checking in on it every once in a while.
NOVEMBER
Go scene by scene through the Passion Project script with the director to plan revisions per our studio notes. Already learning a lot and having fun working on this one. Back and forth on cuts and tweaks for the next month.
A few generals with execs.
Catching up on the Genre Series outreach. Took a while to get a no from director #1. In the meantime we put together who would be directors 2–6 to hopefully keep moving through end of year.
I set up a reading of the Late Night feature with some smart writer and actor friends to hear what’s working and what’s not working. Productive and a good reminder that making movies is fun.
I’m approached about story consulting on a hybrid doc. Interesting opportunity to expand again into another type of work I know a little about but could stand to learn more.
DECEMBER
Manager gives me what I can only describe as THE JERRY MAGUIRE CALL. He is leaving the management company he’s at and going to a new spot and asking me to come with him. Heck yes, sign me up! He has a new email address now and this feels like a promising new home for me as I’m trying to build up into the next phase of my career.
Sign the deal with the studio for the Passion Project and supposedly will be paid before end of year. This will be my big paycheck for the year — it’s enough get me through another six months to a year of juggling possible projects with the hope one pays out again before next summer.
Send an old play out to publishers to see if there’s renewed interest in my theater work now that I’m starting to get some film work. Would be great to have royalties from anything I’ve written.
I hear word from one of the producers about the Short Story Adaptation that they’re feeling very bullish on the latest (3rd) revised outline I’d sent them, but we have yet to set a call about it and I have yet to start my Final Draft.
Mere days before the end of year I get the first check for the Passion Project. And that’s the year!
Additional milestones this year that aren’t really date specific:
— I launched a production company NOT IMPOSSIBLE PRODUCTIONS, which produced my first short Lead/Follow, is producing a second short I co-directed and co-wrote, and will also be producing my wife’s short doc along with her company Marcona Media. Longer-term I’d like Not Impossible to expand into producing my first feature, television, theater, and eventually financing and producing other creative projects that push the boundaries of the medium. And doing so in a way where the company can be financially transparent and distribute its earnings more equitably between the company and the creators. I have a whole schpiel about why I think this is important over on my company’s website.
— Started selling MERCH! In talking about the company my wife came up with our mission statement which is to “Make art, not content.” We now sell hats and sweatshirts with this visionary idea embroidered onto them. All sales of the merch go back into the company, which goes back into making more art. So if you want to buy a hat, and you support artists making art… maybe buy this hat?
— I got married! Pretty cool! 10/10 Would recommend!
— We got a dog! Also cool!
— My first produced feature Spaceman will be released timing TBD in 2023!
— This got announced! My second produced feature is set to go into production in 2023!
MY TAKEAWAYS:
Big year of betting on myself. I had the financial cushion from 2021 to be able to do so, but it’s definitely risky financially and creatively to do your own thing. It’s felt better to me than pursuing OWA’s, and one of these projects did finally puzzle together, but it has meant getting to the end of the year without a clear sense of what’s coming in 2023. I wrote a spec feature that still needs some work before taking it out, I wrote a feature for me to direct that still needs some work, and I’ve got a couple TV series I’m still trying to sell.
A lot of what I’ve been reckoning with the past few years has been around how powerless The Business makes artists feel, and I’m very consciously trying to view decisions I make through the lens of what will long-term make me feel more empowered. That can be… directing my own work (which I’m planning to do more), producing work for others (see: Not Impossible Productions), or generating my own material which then enables me to hopefully control the property. I’d prefer to be running a small business rather than going door to door to big businesses with a song and dance about how they should hire me. And I’d rather feel more in control of my destiny if at all possible.
I’m still spinning a lot of plates as a writer (and as an aspiring first-time feature director, and as a producer), but this year I at least felt some agency in doing the song and dance of trying to make and sell work.
This kind of decision-making, geared around bigger-picture creative goals (and I think longer-term financial planning) is only possible because of financial privilege. Which is a big part of what feels broken about Hollywood’s conversation around Diversity Equity and Inclusion. To really succeed you must have some form of safety net to fall back on that can allow you to gamble in the way that I’m choosing to do currently. If a company isn’t fundamentally addressing how it pays its artists (writers should be paid to pitch!) and how to build some form of safety net for emerging artists, then its DEI efforts are lip service and not serious change.
I believe this sort of long-term investment in my own work and my own agency will pay off in the long run, but the economics of the industry at the moment definitely feel turbulent and bizarre.
WE SHALL SEE what’s to come in 2023.
What do you think? Was this as interesting / helpful to other writers as my year in review 2021? Do you like hearing why I’m doing what I’m doing? Or did you prefer last year’s shorter diary?