Writer Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential, Mystic River) explains what it feels like to win an Oscar an a Razzie on the same weekend, why he thinks writer’s block is a myth, and reveals Clint Eastwood’s unique powers of persuasion.
Brought to us by BAFTA Guru, a service the British Academy of Film and Television Arts…for which TVWriter™ is mucho thankful!
The mother and father of all showbiz trade maags, Variety.Com comes up with a winner for writers. In other words, this is about writing because that’s how we and our viewers win, yeah?
Here’s what Variety has to say about this vid:
Variety recently sat down with some of our 2016 Writers to Watch, including the scribes behind “Moana” and “Sully,” at the Whistler Film Festival where they gave us a few tips on how to become a successful screenwriter in Hollywood.
What are YOUR resolutions this year? How did yours last year shape up? Let me know, and here’s to at least a pretty ok 2019!
High level: this was an incredibly busy year, just not in the ways I’d planned back in January 2018.
Produce 2 new projects I write to completion- COMPLETE!
Back in January I filmed my latest short film, co-written and co-produced by my buddy Colin Hinckley.
We also shot season 2 of Sam and Pat Are Depressed! It’s mid-edit and we hope to release it early 2019.
Write a feature-length screenplay- lol nah
My workload for producing and for my day job just didn’t allow for this. There were multiple months in a row where I had maybe two days off, total, which is including weekends.
Post a blog twice a month and a personal YouTube video once a month.- PARTIAL FAILURE
Didn’t do either, though I stuck with blogging for most of the year! See above for my other excuses. I was in a play for two months, also! Literally every weekend and several weeknights that whole period were taken up by hours-long rehearsals or performances!
Write 2 new TV scripts- one original pilot, one spec script.- lol nah
Mid-year I wrote: “I’ll definitely have a new original pilot written unless I do nothing from now until January 2019” which is ADORABLE. At the time of writing that, I was a week away from filming Sam and Pat season 2, then less than two months later (mid-editing for that project and the short film I did) I was in that play, and then I continued to need to edit and also take a dang break once in a while, and no writing got done. I basically haven’t written anything new since last winter, which is a bummer and which will be heavily emphasized in 2019.
Close caption all previous (and new 2018) projects – COMPLETE
Done! Pain in the ass, but done!
Save $1500 – COMPLETE
Done! I really needed the padding, because last year I burnt through everything I’d been saving diligently for like two years prior.
Leave New York City at least twice.– COMPLETE
Trip #1: New Jersey to speak on a panel/ participate web series screening!
Eat out less than three times a week and do something active every day.- lol nah
Yeah. Nah.
Take a photo every day- lol nah
Mid-January my phone shattered and the new one I purchased made the camera sound every time I took a photo and I couldn’t turn it off. So I largely just stopped taking photos. Then I shattered THAT phone and got one without that issue, but by then it was September and too late to really get back into the swing of things.
Talk less, listen more – COMPLETE (I guess?)
I like to think I completed this one. If you disagree, I don’t want to hear it. I need this.
Final tally…
5 COMPLETE!
5 FAILURES/PARTIAL FAILURES!
Given all the other things not on this list that got completed, plus stepping up significantly at my day job, I’m not upset by this outcome. But I do have a lot of new ideas for 2019…
EDITOR’S NOTE: For Bri’s original version, which includes a lot more pix and cute captions, you’ll want to click your way HERE
Last year, I:
This year, I:
“I am dedicated to making this year my most creatively fulfilling one yet, and so far, I’m as on track as possible.” -Bri, January 2018
Last year, the only new thing I created was Sam and Pat, a show I love and that continues to bring me joy. But I made it late in the year, after a year of professional and financial setbacks that nearly overtook me. Yes, my short film and a Brains EU project came out last year, but both were already completed and just needed releasing, so they don’t count as “new.”
Last year, I was miserable. Trump was newly elected, I was newly laid off, and I was floundering. I wasn’t creating, I didn’t feel productive, and everything sucked.
This year, whatever the opposite of that happened. As you can see from that list, I was building something every month, whether it was a film project for me, a film project for someone else, a podcast, or a major work event. I traveled all over to speak at festivals and film schools, was hired as an adjunct, and despite that, I still only completed half of my New Years Resolutions. I wanted a busy 2018, and I got it, but I’m looking forward to calming the hell down next year.
I’ve never been great at balance. Some (much) of this years’ busy schedule was out of my control, but plenty came from choices I made. I am… exhausted. Yes, I feel better about this year than last year, but I am so, so tired. I need a break. I need a vacation! I haven’t had a vacation all year- every day I took off of work was spent working on something else. Half my weekends (probably more) were overtaken by meetings, being on set, traveling to speak somewhere, or post production. Not again.
Since Brains came out in 2015, I like to think I’ve proven myself in the indie production arena. I’ve made two seasons of Brains, two extended universe projects, two seasons of Sam and Pat, and two short films, all in three years. And that’s not counting the projects I’ve personally produced (Relativity, the first two episodes of Vloggers, History, The Mother Lode, Stray). But I think that that phase of my life is coming rapidly to an end, for two reasons:
I don’t want to continue to make no-budget work, begging friends to volunteer their services, and go further into debt every time I do. That’s not getting me to the next stage of my career, and makes me a shitty friend. With very few exceptions, unless my means to pay people (including marketing people) increase, I’m taking off my producer hat for a while.
So what does this mean for 2019? You’ll see in more detail when I publish my new New Years Resolutions on the 1st, but as a teaser:
2019 will hopefully be defined by boundaries and balance, two things I’m The Worst At. Since there is no finish line in sight, I’m going to try not to put so much pressure on myself to become a household name by 30. I am enough as I am right now, and killing myself to hit a “more impressive” level of success by a “more impressive” age is short-sighted and dangerous.
I’m an adult. And I need to start acting like one.
