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"Hollywood Networking"
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"Hollywood Networking"
by
Donald L. Vasicek (credits: Warriors of Virtue, The Crown, The Sand Creek Massacre, Born to Win, The Lost Heart, Born to Kill)
Olympus Films+, LLC
Writing/Filmmaking/Consulting
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
The first time I raised my game to a higher level in my screenwriting career it scared the shit out of me.
As part of my networking scheme a few years ago, I went to the Sundance Producer's Conference in Sundance, Utah. Even though I live in Colorado and the majestic Rockies are always visible from my window, Sundance was equally as beautiful. Three days and three nights there was more than anyone could wish for even though it's damn safer here than in the wilds of networking in the film industry. Osama Bin Laden, you never know who means what. It's all subtextual, you know, like reading between the lines.
It was solid meetings, workshops, panels, screenings and parties. I met a multitude of people who work in independents and mainstream Hollywood folk. Many of them chaired workshops and led meetings. I learned a great deal about producing movies from some of the top people in the film industry.
Just like layering your scripts with subtextual material, the Sundance Producer's Conference was also layered with subtextual material. Besides the business at hand, people showed an interest in meeting each other. And there were over 300 of them at the conference.
I focused my attention on mainstream Hollywood people. The reason for this is that I believed at the time and still do that in order to succeed in this business, I have to continue to move deeper into Hollywood even though my heart beats for the independents. We need each other if all of us are to succeed.
This movement, if it is that, is to meet and link up with as many people as possible. I want to get to know them and I want them to get to know me even though it causes me to sweat in the dead of winter and lose weight even though I stuffing myself with fat.
So, even though I am basically shy and quiet, I sucked it up and pushed myself into introducing myself to everyone. I knew this was it, I either did it, or I had to go back to sitting with dead bodies and writing (I still haven't decided whether funeral homes or cemeteries are quieter. I do know both places are excellent places to write. Dead bodies don't move, or make any noise or want anything. They just repose like logs in a forest. They recycle.)
I met several top Hollywood executives, but none from a major studio. I even helped one exec who presently is one of the power kings in Hollywood use the pickle fork at our buffet dinner (best way I know of to meet others since the suits and the peasants dine together with this arrangement). He was trying to stab these small sweet pickles with his dinner fork to put on his plate, and they keep hopping away, and a couple of times, jumped to the floor.
I said (my heart beating wildly), gawking at his name tag, "Here, Skeezix, use this pickle fork." He looked up at me (he has eyebrows looked like Groucho Marx's, you know, big, dark and bushy). He took the fork and successfully stabbed about a dozen and put them on his plate.
He said, "Thanks, my name is Skeezix." He held out his hand to shake. His plate tipped and a couple of pickles rolled off his plate and plunked on the floor.
I said, "Yes, I know, I saw it on your name tag." He glanced at mine. It was amazing how fast his eyes moved.
"Don Vahsicheck?"
"No, Don Vasicek. Nice to meet you, Skeezix."
"I don't know why they make these damn pickles so small."
"You don't suppose whoever makes them is a small person?"
He looked at me; puzzled. I thought, oh, shit, he took me wrong, no sense of humor, and no writer's imagination either. "I've always been impressed with your movies, Skeezix," I said in an attempt to divert him.
"I don't blame you, even if I have to say so for myself. What films have you produced?"
"Well, actually, I'm a writer/filmmaker. I just finished writing, directing and producing "Faces."
The rest of the pickles tumbled to the floor like minature logs rolling down a hill. Both of us watched them fall. It was like slow motion. We scrambled and picked them up.
"I have some projects that just might fit you." I handed him my business card.
He looked at the pickles in the palm of his hand, then at the card. "Wasn't "Faces" a John Cassavettes film?"
I slipped the card in his shirt pocket (another daring move and my heart told me so as it leaped into my throat). "I'm sure he'd embrace my "Faces", Skeezix. I'll be in touch." I took off like a comet.
Well, life went on after that in spite of the pickles and the fact that I had overlooked Mr. Cassavettes' "Faces" when I titled my film in addition that my 100% white cotton banded collar shirt was stuck to me like a wet towel. However, I was relieved. I had interacted with a big boy and had gotten away with it.
I even mixed with Samuel Goldwyn, Paramount, New Line Cinema, Miramax, October Films, Good Machine, Killer Films, 20th Century Fox, Polygram, Universal, and banking and investmenet people at a party the next night. I approached others always trying to find them alone so I could give them my best shot, and the most successful way I did that was to talk with them about their interests before I plugged my interests in. I learned that these people were people, just like I was a person.
A couple of weeks after the conference, I sent Skeezix a letter and pitched him several scripts of mine. I never heard back from him.
Time passed. I kept him updated with holiday greetings and blurbs on what I had accomplished in each past year. He moved on from the company he was with to a major studio and become a co-president of a newly created division. I sent him a congratulatory letter and a jar of Cosmic dill pickles.
The next holiday season I sent him my usual holiday greeting with the usual blurb on what I had accomplished during the past year. A couple of weeks later, his assistant, Archie, called me and asked to see a script I had mentioned in the holiday greeting. This was the first time I had heard back from him even though it was indirectly.
Bear in mind this was right in the middle of the holiday season. And nobody, particularly studio executives, do any business from November until the third week in January. I think they ride ballons over the Serengeti or something like that even though I know for a fact some of them go to the Hamptons. I told Archie that I was right in the middle of a rewrite on it and would get it to them as soon as I finished it. Archie asked me how long that would be, that he had to give Skeezix a timeline.
I swallowed. My throat was very dry and my water bottle was in another part of the house, about a thousand miles away. "About a month," I said dryly (literally). I was damned if I was going to send Skeezix or Archie or anyone else any other copy of the script. What in the hell was I rewriting it for?
Archie said matter-of-factly that would be fine. I bet to myself at the time he was snacking on Palmetto caramels and washing them down with cola.
I hustled after that, but not really. You know, it was like, okay, so Skeezix wants to see my script. He had Archie call me. So, I thought, let them wait. Why in the hell should I cancel my vacation plans?
My wife and I travelled to Ecuador and rode in a truck. The Chevrolet logo was on the odometer, but the steering wheel had the Ford logo, (go figure) over a mountain pass returning from the Cloud Forest with Hector. I taught Hector how to say cow in English. He taught me how to say tree in Spanish although I already knew that and I'll bet he already knew how to say cow in English.
I gave him some Cliff bars for a tip since he was thin. He laughed and told me about how he and his brothers get drunk every Saturday night as he rounded a precipitous and precarious curve on a dirt road about 10,000 feet up. He pounded and pounded on the horn. As we rounded the curve, a bus made in the 1950's full of people, chickens, pigs and dogs and that included on top, the sides and the hood of the bus as well as inside of the bus, stopped. It backed up until it found a small place off the road so that we could get by. When we drove by, several people spit at us.
I did finish the script even though no one told me to wear long pants in the Cloud Forest. I counted 43 mosquito bites on my legs and had to scratch and write and write and scratch. And it didn't help any when I went to bed at night. We had a wool blanket, compliments of the cool nights.
I got the script off to Veronica, Skeezix's story editor. About eight days later, Archie called me.
He told me that Veronica thought the story was a good story and it was a fine read. He said it wasn't quite right for them, that they're passing on it. I asked him why. He said they had trouble with a couple of the subplots. I asked him what it would take to bring the script back to them. He said, "attachments, strong attachments." I said okay, give my best to Skeezix and Veronica, and I'll be back.
So, I had my agent call Skeezix. He pushed her off onto Archie. Archie told her to bring back strong attachments and they'll talk. So, we're still working on that even though I had gotten rid of the mosquito bites by then. And the more I expose the script to others, the more I hear about how much they like it and they aren't giving me any shit about my wanting to direct the movie.
Well, suffice to say, I did write a couple of dozen more scripts. I worked on another major studio picture as a writer/consultant and sold another screenplay which was produced. And I still send Skeezix updates on what I am doing along with Archie and Veronica. And I just heard that Skeezix was made president of one of the major studios. My, my and I taught him how to use a pickle fork.
The fine point of all this is that raising your game to a higher level gets you places even if it scares the shit out of you, but you're the one who has to do it. See, Kobe Bryant.
About the Author
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Award-winning writer/filmmaker Donald L. Vasicek studied producing, directing and line producing at the Hollywood Film Institute under the renowed Dov Simens and at Robert Redford's Sundance Institute. He studied screenwriting at The Complete Screenplay, Inc., with Sally Merlin, daughter of the famed Hollywood Merlin family of screenwriters and writers, as his mentor. He has taught, mentored, and is a script consultant for over 300 writers, directors, producers, and production companies. He has also acted in NBC's Mystery of Flight 1501, ABC's Father Dowling starring Thomas Bosley, and Red-Handed Productions' Summer Reunion. These activities have resulted in his involvement in over 100 movies during the past 23 years, from major studios to independent films including MGM's $56 million Warriors of Virtue, Paramount Classic's Racing Lucifer, American Picture's The Lost Heart and Born To Kill starring the Charles Bronson of Korea, Bobby Kim, and his internationally-known brother, Richard, who directed, Incline Productions, Inc.'s Born To Win starring, directed, and produced by Connie Martin, 20th Century Fox's Die Hard II starring Bruce Willis with Rennie Harlan as director, and Joel Silver as producer, Olympus Films+, LLC and Griffen Films Production's Haunted World with Emmy-nominated PBS Producer Alison Hill, and Olympus Films+, LLC's Faces, Oh, The Places You Can Go and award-winning The Sand Creek Massacre documentary short.
Don also has written and published over 500 books, short stories and articles. His books include How To Write, Sell, And Get Your Screenplays Produced and The Write Focus. He has been a guest screenwriting and filmmaking columnist for Hollywood Lit. Sales, Moondance International Film Festival's e-zine, Screenwriter's Forum, Screenplace, Screenplayers.Net, Screenwriters.Net, Screenwriters Utopia, and Spraka & Kinsla (Swedish) and Ink On the Brain. Writing recognition includes Houston's WolrdFest International Film Festival, Chesterfield's Writer's Film Project, Writer's Digest, The Sundance Institute, The Writer's Network, and the Rocky Mountain Writer's Guild, Inc.
Don is presently writing, directing and producing The Sand Creek Massacre, a documentary film project that includes the completed and award-winning documentary short, a book, a classroom video, Interactive Media, a study guide, and a lesson plan. His short,The Sand Creek Massacre, was awarded Best Short Film of 2004 by the Philip S. Miller Library's Bull Theatre Film Project. The same film has also been screened in Los Angeles at the Paxico Projection Series 05, in New York at Staten Island's Muddy Cup, Tribeca's Monday Night Shorts, Stars in the Desert Film Festival, Denver's Bug Theatre, Duke University's Center for Documentary Studies, The Happening Film Festival, the Colorado Filmmaker's Showcase and won best documentary short at The Indie Gathering Film Festival and the American Indian Film Festival.
Don is on the board of directors of the American Indian Genocide Museum in Houston. He also is the founder and owner of Olympus Films+, LLC, a global writing and filmmaking company. He is also a screenwriting volunteer on AllExperts.com.
Representation
Robin Kaver
Robert Freedman Dramatic Agency, Inc.
1501 Broadway, Suite 2301
New York, NY 10036
212-840-5751
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An Early Halloween Celebration
This is a long blog, but it is well worth the read if you love horror, food, drinks, friends and a good story. I was searching the DISH Network channel guide to see what suspenseful movies will be on for the remainder of September. Now that October is just around the corner after a very short summer, it is time to prepare for fall festivities and scary movies. I look forward to going apple picking and attending fall fairs, going to the Christmas Tree Shoppe to stock up on fall decor and, of course, curling up on cold weekend nights for some good horror movies!
I started to think about how I can start the Halloween experience early, so I decided that I'm going to invite a few friends over this weekend for a fun night of horror! I'm not going crazy on creepy decorations just yet, but we'll certainly light a few candles to set the ambiance. I was thinking of preparing a delicious dinner, followed by two horror movies then a little good night story for my friends before they leave for the evening. I should mention that my daughter is going to be at her grandmother's house while this is happening! So far, I have found some great recipes from Food Network to share with you for the dinner and treats.
Appetizers
To add some Halloween color into the mix, I'm going to make this appetizer that includes a witch green color.
Roasted Chile Guacamole with Baked Tortilla Chips
Baked Tortilla Chips:
• Cooking spray
• 3 sun-dried tomato basil tortilla wraps
• 3 garden spinach herb tortilla wraps
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
Guacamole:
• 1/2 cup frozen chopped onion, thawed
• 2 cups frozen no-salt added petite peas, thawed
• 1/3 cup water
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 (1-ounce) packet guacamole seasoning mix
• 1 teaspoon chopped garlic
• 1/2 cup diced tomatoes with no-salt added
• 1 cup chopped avocado
• 1 (7-ounce) can fire roasted diced green chiles
For tortillas chips:
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray; set aside.
On a cutting board, stack 3 tortillas and using a sharp knife, cut into 8 wedges (like a pie). Repeat with remaining tortillas. Separate any that may stick together. Place on baking sheet, evenly spaced. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden. Remove and let cool.
For Guacamole:
In a medium saucepan combine onions, peas, water, lemon juice, guacamole seasoning, and garlic. Cook for 10 minutes until ingredients are soft.
Remove from heat and let cool.
Pour cooled pea mixture into a large bowl. Add avocado and mash with a fork or potato masher. Strain tomatoes and add to bowl with green chilies. Mix until blended.
Serve with baked chips.
Since my good little doobie will be at her grandmother's house, I can also make a few drinks to accompany our appetizers!
I'm thinking I'll go with Emeril's Tin Can Margaritas
Ingredients:
• 1 lime, cut in wedges
• Coarse salt, for glasses
• 1 large can frozen limeade
• 1 full can good-quality tequila
• 1/2 can triple-sec
• 1/2 can lemon juice
• Ice
Directions:
Rub rims of glasses with a lime wedge; place salt in a saucer and dip rims. In a pitcher combine remaining ingredients, stir well and fill up with ice. Serve in salt-rimmed glasses with lime wedges.
And now...for the main course...Pumpkin-Peanut Curry Noodles with Five-Spice Seared Scallops and Shrimp, which only takes 20 minutes to cook (believe it or not)!
Ingredients:
• 1 pound spaghetti
• Salt
• 5 tablespoons vegetable oil or peanut oil
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 inches ginger root, minced or grated
• 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup tamari dark soy sauce, eyeball it
• 1 (15-ounce) can cooked pumpkin
• 2 rounded tablespoonfuls mild or hot curry paste (recommended: Patak's) found on international foods aisle
• 3 tablespoons five-spice powder
• 12 jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 12 diver scallops, trimmed and patted dry
• 4 scallions, cut into 2-inch pieces, then thinly sliced lengthwise into matchsticks
Directions:
Heat a large pot of water for noodles. When water boils, salt it and add pasta to cook to al dente or with a bite to it.
While pasta cooks, heat a large, deep skillet over medium heat with 2 tablespoons vegetable or peanut oil. Add garlic, ginger, red bell pepper, and pepper flakes to the pan and cook together a couple of minutes, then add peanut butter and melt it. Whisk soy into peanut butter, then stir in pumpkin and curry paste. The sauce will be very thick. Turn down the heat to low. Add a ladle or 2 of pasta cooking water to thin sauce a bit and simmer over low heat. Adjust salt, to taste.
Heat a small to medium skillet over high heat. Pour the five-spice powder onto a plate with some salt. Press both sides of the shrimp and scallops into the powder. Add 3 tablespoons of remaining oil to hot skillet. Place the shrimp in the pan and cook 1 minute, flip and sear the other side until just opaque. Remove shrimp to a plate and set aside. Add another 3 tablespoons of oil to the skillet and heat back up to smoking. Add the scallops and sear on both sides until opaque. Remove scallops and add to the plate of shrimp.
Drain pasta and return pasta to the pot. Add the curry-pumpkin sauce and toss thoroughly. Serve noodles on 4 plated and top with scallions and seafood.
All I have to say is YUM!
And now for dessert...Dirt Pudding! This literally takes 5 minutes!
Have some pudding prepared from the night before, crack open a package of Oreos and crumble the cookies into the pudding. It's delectable and easy.
It is now time for the feature presentation:
Movie number 1: Scream
Intermission: Coffee with Baileys Irish Cream, Amaretto and Frangelico
Movie number 2: From Dusk Till Dawn
Good night story:
This woman was doing laundry on a Saturday morning while her husband was at work. For some reason every time she pushes her clothes into the washing machine, she gets the feeling that someone is behind her, but she keeps going, admitting the thought is ridiculous. The basement never bothered her before. It isn't musty as there's a dehumidifier down there. It hasn't been emptied for a while but the air is still dry. The cobwebs are always dusted and swept away as she is not fond of spiders, so the basement is fairly clean minus a few bags and it's bright enough so there are no unlit corners. She hears her son rummaging through something in the living room upstairs, so she quickly goes back upstairs to be sure he is being safe.
Her son decided to try out his new roller-skates while mom was downstairs. The lady reminded her son that he needs to wear a helmet and kneepads if he wants to roller-skate then he can join her in the basement while she washes clothes. There is more room to skate in the large space downstairs. The husband had just recently finished ripping the rug off the basement stairs so he can replace it and there are small nails sticking out of the front of a few of the stairs. The mom tells her son that she'll carry him downstairs because he's already wearing his skates and she doesn't want him to get hurt on the nails. The son complies.
Once the son's helmet and kneepads are on, the mom sets him free to skate about the basement. Then she gets this horrible chill down her spine and a sick feeling in her stomach so she takes a minute to lean up against the table where she folds her clean clothes. She can't figure out what the problem is, but her father is in the hospital so she decides to call her mom from the cell phone she has in her sweatshirt pocket to be sure everything is okay with him. Her mom said that everything is good and that her dad will be coming home the next day. Her dad fell and one of his toenails was caught on something and had been ripped off completely. He is a heavy man and any fall he takes is sure to cause some damage, but hooking his toenail on something made it even worse.
"He's fine", she thought, "so what can this horrible feeling be?" Her son is skating as fast as he can while holding onto the basement wall. She covers her face with her hands trying to think of what the problem could be. All of a sudden her son catches one of his skates in the grate of the basement drain. His skate stays there and his body goes flying forward. He luckily landed on a trash bag that was full of clothes the mom put down there a week ago for the Salvation Army.
She dashes to her son who is crying out of shock from falling with his new skates. She comforts him and walks over to retrieve his skate, still stuck in the grate of the drain. "These crazy plastic roller-skates. We'll get you a new pair today, baby". She looks back down at the skate and notices something hairy sticking out of the drain along with a foul odor.
She calls her husband to come home from work on his break to check this out. She puts on a movie upstairs for her son who is ready for a nap. Her husband gets home shortly after and hurries with her to the basement to see what she was talking about. He grabs a crow bar that was stashed behind the dryer and pries open the drain, catching a bunch of hair along the way and flinging the object across the room once the grate breaks free. It thumps against the wall and falls behind the trash bags full of clothes. They notice that whatever it is, it's bleeding because there is a splat of blood on the wall. "I wish I had my father check that drain when he was down here last weekend. You know how I like to keep that clean".
They tiptoe over to where the object had thumped to the ground and peeked behind the bags. They scream and jump back when they realize it's a human head with skin that is falling off from spending so much time in the drain water. They panic and the husband takes a good look to make sure they didn't miss anything else down there. He noticed her father's pocketknife under the basement stairs with blood on it. He does not pick it up. As he examines the stairs for further evidence, he sees what he originally thought was a leftover piece of the carpet he had ripped up and notices that it's a toenail. "Get upstairs and call the police!"
The wife calls the police who eventually get there and investigate her basement. They observe the head and ask them what is in the bags that are on the floor. The lady tells them that they're stuffed with clothes. They open the bag and notice body parts that have been hacked up and stuffed in quilts. They take the toenail as evidence.
Goodie Bags to Take Home:
Some fun trinkets from iParty along with some cool Halloween lollipops!
Ingredients:
• 6 or 8-inch wooden pop sticks
• Gummy worms, as needed
• 2 cups sugar
• 2/3 cup corn syrup
• 2/3 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon orange, lemon or cherry extract
• Few drops orange food coloring
Directions
Lay a silicone sheet on a baking pan, place the sticks on the pan and place 3 pieces of gummy Worms above the tip of each stick to form a gummy worm triangle.
Combine the sugar, corn syrup, and water in a clean, dry small saucepan. (It is best to use a heavy gauge pan and preferably with a pour spout.) Bring to a boil over high heat and cook without stirring until the mixture reaches 305 degrees F or "hard crack" stage on a candy thermometer. Occasionally wash down the sides of the pan with a clean pastry brush dipped in water to remove any sugar crystals that are clinging to the sides of the pan.
When the mixture reaches 305 degrees F, remove the pan from heat and dip the bottom of the pan into an ice bath for a few seconds to stop the candy from cooking. Add the extracts and food coloring and stir very gently with a wooden spoon so the color is evenly distributed.
Pour the syrup over the gummy worms and just over the stick. Cool the candy for at least 20 minutes.
Lift the lollipops off the silicone and either serve immediately or wrap in an airtight container.
Now, tell me I can't plan an awesome night of fun with a few close friends!
About the Author
I was searching the Dish Network channel guide to see what suspenseful movies will be on for the remainder of September.
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