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Shutting Down Dec 23, 2010

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This town shuts down for the holidays, someone told me years ago, around the end of October. Which isn't really the holidays – unless you've got a thing for Columbus Day, but the point was this: get your pilot scripts in early, because the town shuts down...

MyFriendsPlace.org Dec 16, 2010

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Everyone in this business knows someone who's had a close call. I don't mean crossing the street and almost getting hit by a bus, I mean a career close call. I can think of two people right now that a couple of years ago were seriously thinking about packing it in and doing something else, and who are now probably listening to this while driving a very expensive new car on the way to a very expensive dinner. Life, and fortunes, change – especially in this business.

Pitching Problems Dec 09, 2010

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Haz Mat Dec 02, 2010

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A friend of mine who lives at the beach once woke up at dawn to discover that the house next door was surrounded by brightly colored yellow tape emblazoned with the words, "DANGER! HAZARDOUS MATERIALS! DO NOT CROSS!" Alarmed, he headed out to see what was going on...

Bad Idea Nov 25, 2010

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One of the least meaningful words in the English language is the word "creative," because it implies that there's something else, something “non-creative” and that the two things need to be separated somehow. As if creative people are just all walking around, thinking creative thoughts while the other half, are, I don't know, data entry drones...

The Comments Nov 18, 2010

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It wasn’t too long ago that you could walk through a hotel or some other kind of breakfast spot, and everyone you saw was buried in a copy of Variety, or its scappier cousin, The Hollywood Reporter..

Late Nov 11, 2010

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I was late to a meeting recently – really late, I mean, like 25 minutes late – and I'm aware, of course, that even five minutes late is late, and that part of the problem with doing business in this business is that a lot of people, like me, don't think of five minutes late as being really late – we think of it as a cushion, as a mulligan we take throughout the day. I'm not saying we're right to do it, but we've all, occasionally, done it...

George Hickenlooper Nov 03, 2010

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It's a storytelling axiom in Hollywood – and it's good business, too – to remember that whenever it's at all possible to deliver a happy ending, deliver one. If at all plausible – and even if it's a real stretch of the imagination and credulity and sometimes sheer forgetfulness of an audience – make sure the guy and the girl end up together. Make sure the house doesn't burn down. Make sure that earth is saved, the hero triumphs, the marriage comes off, the warring partners are reconciled, and the dog comes home, dirty but happy...

Big Pot of Coffee Oct 27, 2010

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Once, when I was thinking about renting a small office to write in, I looked at a space being vacated by another writer. He had already moved out, and the place was bare and bright and perfect, except for an index card, taped solidly to the wall at about the height where the writer's desk was...

In Search Of Oct 20, 2010

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In olden times – or back in the day, as the kids say – as if they have any idea what that day was even like – but back in the olden day, if you were writing a television comedy, you'd gather the writing staff into a room, and they'd talk out --- sometimes yell out – the rewrite, with each word or joke pitch copied down in furious shorthand, mostly, or something called "fast notes" or even, as the people in the world who knew shorthand were gathered up by the Reaper himself, there appeared a bunch of enterprising young assistants who could type really fast, and so computers began to appear in the writer's room, which meant computer screens, which meant, eventually, large computer screens for everyone to in the room to look at, which to my mind anyway was not progress. Was not an improvement...

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