« …Not to Be | Main | Online Dating »

Line-Jumping

The past month should have been agonizing, but frankly, both of my shitty jobs kept me too busy for me to stay in suspense about my imminent career launch. Also, I made a conscious effort not to think of it, on account of knowing (a) I did not submit my absolute best work, and (b) I could generously estimate the chances of success at one in a million. At the end of the day, I have no qualifications other than scripts, and scripts aren’t enough.

Mitch Michaels called last night. Sounding thoroughly nonplussed, he said, “There’s a lot to like, but it’s just too fucking dark.” I can’t say it surprised me, considering he had the exact same reaction to the feature script based on this character. I’ve always had a particular fondness for entertainment that seamlessly combines raucous comedy with brutal drama, and I thought maybe a fringe cable outlet would be more willing to embrace this than the Big Four. Of course, maybe they would, but I’ll never know because the production company rejected it without anyone at the channel knowing of its existence.

Mitch brought up other factors. He didn’t have any hard numbers — why bother, since he was rejecting me — but just from reading it, he decided it’d cost too much. He’s probably not wrong, but remember I didn’t write this with a budget in mind. Hell, I didn’t write it with an audience in mind, other than myself. These scripts were really… I don’t even know what they were anymore. If I really doubted their commercial prospects, I would have continued writing them as publicly accessible blog posts instead of private teleplays. I could call them an exercise or a pipe dream, but if I look a little deeper, I can’t deny it: I hoped that, someday, I’d gain enough respect/clout to make my depraved vision of rock-star decadence a reality.

At best, I can say now’s not the time. I have no clout or respect — hell, I couldn’t even get Mitch to say this stuff was good enough for him to consider me for the staff of whatever show he does try to get on the air. He’s just given me the world’s softest “no,” three times in a row. I guess it’s time to take the hint. Especially when he pointed out a few easy-to-remedy problems but made no suggestion that we take time to develop the material into something this channel would buy.

There is one plus side, though. It’s partly the reason for this post (the other part is to update you on the tragic conclusion to last month’s misguided optimism). I think people — both in and out of the business — spend far too much time terrifying newbies into thinking one false move will get them blacklisted for all eternity. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve read panic-stricken accounts of meeting executives and blowing their One Big Shot. Hell, I even wrote one.

I won’t say it’s not true that you can screw yourself, quite easily, with false moves and misguided statements. I know the movie business is built on passive-aggressive behavior, but I sincerely believe two things: (1) if my writing really sucked, Mitch would have told me not to send him anything else, and (2) if he was too much of a puss to do that, he would have simply stopped e-mailing me. People have done both to me, so the fact that he kept coming back, and that he’s welcomed me to continue coming back (even after I practically begged him for a job and he turned me down)… It’s gotta mean something.

At the very least, it means you can send something that isn’t your best work, or isn’t a person’s cup of tea, and the world won’t crumble around you if they reject it. Like anything else, it’s a business of relationships. Mitch and I, despite a shaky past, have developed a good relationship, so I could probably fling shit at him until the day I die, and he’ll always read it. Maybe I’m off-base, but I really think that’s what it’s all about.

(Trivia: Mitch Michaels — not his real name — knows all about the blog. Even more mysteriously, he’s known about it since I worked for him in 2005, when I stupidly accessed it from a company computer. I don’t think he — or anyone else who has stumbled across this dung pile — would consider himself an “avid reader,” but I honestly think keeping this blog has a little something to do with his willingness to talk to me after a three-year communication lapse. He can feel free to correct me if I’m wrong in the comments. Ironically, I’ve spent years trying to keep this blog as secret as possible for fear of offending and alienating people I know in the real world. Despite this suspiciously positive result, this blog will remain as secret as possible.)

Tags: commercial, disappointment, Mitch Michaels, passive-aggressive, rejection, TV

Posted by Stan on June 5, 2009 5:56 PM  | Permalink  | Print-Friendly  | Career-Based Rambling, How Not to Write a Screenplay | Digg It