Drawing Pictures For Screenplays: IMPS

When I was in college, it never occurred to me that I would be a professional writer.  I majored in art and in mathematics, but what I secretly dreamed of being was a simple illustrator or cartoonist.  Now, when I come up with movie ideas, they appear to me, not as loglines or one-sheets or even cinematic images. They pop into my head as drawings. So when I'm trying to get my head around a movie idea, I draw pictures.

For example...

Many years ago, I kept imagining creatures that I called "imps." An imp is defined as "a little devil or demon; an evil spirit," but I saw them as the size of forest sprites, covered in bundled twigs, with wings like dry leaves.

 I imagined them infesting suburban backyards like termites or bees.  They didn't strike me as "evil" so must as mischievous, ill-behaved and playfully destructive.  They looked like the manifestation of every child's id, and I could see them coming by the thousands to wreak havoc on family homes.

This ultimately became a story about a group of children whose old house had become overrun with the creatures.  The kids try to drive the imps out, but when there are two-year-old sister is abducted, they have to venture into the Imps' hive to rescue her.

At the time I had just finished writing assignments adapting novels about serial killers, madmen, and demonic possession.  I think I was just in the mood to do something more playful lighthearted.










But the Imps kept changing form...

















Suddenly, I was imagining them not covered in bundles of sticks, but actually composed of tangled vines and roots.

The tone of the story along with the pictures became less childish and playful, and more uncanny and complex.

Now the story seemed to be about the brooding discontent of adults. The Imps seemed to represent the unacknowledged emotions and desires of the middle-aged.  These creatures would erupt in a swarm from the mud and tangled roots to wreak havoc on our safe, technology-driven lives.

But the Imps didn't stop changing. The kept getting more and more disturbing.  They took the form of grotesque human-wasps.  So, the stories that these new pictures evoked kept changing too, becoming darker and more perverse.  Now, I imagined sociopathic entomologists breeding sick mutations in test tubes and terrariums, only to have them break out (as our creatures always seem to do) to take revenge on their creators.

However, just when I had this version of the Imps down in treatment form, the image unexpectedly morphed again - transforming into something altogether different.

Out of nowhere, the imps were suddenly playful, mischievous, and "impish" again.  They looked more like little devils, and they were bright red.

 Now, I imagined a group of girls, young witches, who cast spells to invoke the imps.  Each Imp could perform a task, sometimes simple, like finding a lost iPhone, sometimes more complicated, like making a boy fall madly in love, and sometimes extremely dangerous, like raising the dead.









The girls loved their Imps like unicorns - if unicorns look like horned gargoyles.

I pitched all these versions of imps and more to various production companies, producers, comic book publishers, and networks.  None of the imps, in any of their various incarnations, were ever sold.  For years I hadn't thought about them,  but this morning I stumbled on the sketchpad packed with all the different drawings I have made over the years, trying to pin the imps down.  

Alas, I could never quite get a handle on the little fuckers.  Perhaps it's just not in an Imp's nature to be pinned down.

My favorite imp of all the imps I found the sketchpad, was drawn by my six-year-old daughter (she's thirteen now) - the most mischievous, playful, unpredictable imp of all:

I write this blog in order to connect with intelligent, ambitious, and creative people. If you leave a comment, you will inspire me to write more. If you liked the article, please share it.

Filmmakers and Music Rights

As a filmmaker you may well understand the complexities of lighting, editing, mise en scene, and the casting couch, but one element that seems to perpetually confuse us all is the proper handling of Music Rights. Songs dropped into your film without the necessary licenses can kill distribution deals, eject you from festivals, and ultimately get you sued.

I had the opportunity to interview Micki Stern, a music industry veteran, expert in music licencing for all media, and all-around red-hot babe. I asked her some of the most common questions posed by baffled filmmakers. (Disclaimer: Micki Stern also happens to be my wife.)

1. My short film just got accepted to Sundance, but it has a Radiohead song in it. Does it matter if I don't have the rights? Will anyone notice or care?

MS: Actually while you may have gotten away with this in the past, most festivals now require that you show you have cleared the music in your film. This is one of those cases in which "nobody cares" until they find out, and they always find out. When this happens the label or publisher and could stop you from showing your film with an injunction. Often "festival rights" can be obtained for a reasonable fee. Ultimately, it's best to clear the music or not use it.

2. I have a bunch of songs in my feature film that I need to get cleared. Why do I need a music supervisor and/or a clearance person? Can't I just get the songs cleared myself? How hard could that be?

MS: Well you don't need a supervisor or clearance person any more than you need any crew member who works on a film. You could do it all - lighting, camera work, editing, props, and craft service - yourself, but with a specialist you know that you will get the job done in the most efficient, most economical and most stress-free way possible. A supervisor/clearance person can help you navigate the very complicated system of finding, researching and licensing music. If you go it on your own you are likely to end up in what is known as "the bottom of the pile," the dark dungeon on a music industry executive's desk where requests go when they are not properly worded or when the request doesn't actually contain all the necessary information to license a piece of music. Also, there are long standing relationships in this rather small, music licencing community, and connections always help.

3. What are publishing rights? What are master rights? Why does each song need to be cleared twice?

MS: Every song has two "sides" - the publishing rights which are the rights to the actual musical composition(the written music) and the master rights which is the actual sound recording that you wish to use. Also, depending on the number of songwriters involved, there could be multiple publishers who each control a percentage of the composition. Even if you plan to record the "master" yourself, you still need to clear the publishing. In fact, you ALWAYS need to clear the publishing unless the composition falls within the Public Domain, and in that case you still must make sure the "arrangement" of that public domain composition does not need to be licensed.

4. My movie has a bunch of songs written and performed by my friend's band. Is that okay?

MS: This is GREAT as long as your friend's band is not signed to a publisher or record label. Also, even if the music is completely owned by your friend, you should still have a licensing document in place stating that you are allowed to use the music in your film. If they are not charging you a fee, this is called a gratis license.

5. Why can't I put Beck's "Loser" or Arcade Fire's "Wake Up" in my film. I LOVE those songs.

MS: Many people love those songs, but some bands simply do NOT license their music. Not for you, not for anyone. As they have created the songs, they get to decide whether or not their songs can be used - just as you get to decide if someone else can use clips of your film in their - let's say music video - just because they like your footage. A pretty good way to gauge whether or not a band commonly licenses their music is whether or not you've seen it used in other films or TV. Have you ever heard Beck's "Loser"  in a commercial, promo, movie, or episode? It is very rare that you think of using a popular song that nobody else has ever thought to use before.

6. Can I just tell my music supervisor to find me a song that sounds just like Beck's "Loser"?

MS: There are a couple problems with this. If you are talking about licensing the composition Loser and then re-recording it to sound just like Beck, you could be sued for creating a "soundalike." When you create your own master it has to be different enough from the original that the average person can tell the difference. If you are talking about finding something that is not "Loser" but sounds just like it (a common request) you are asking for the nearly impossible. Nothing sounds like Beck's "Loser." That's why Beck's "Loser" is... Beck's "Loser."  Sometimes you are better off to just give up a song and move on to something else.

7. Why is it a bad idea to write specific song titles into my script, or have a character sing a Lady GaGa song in the shower?

MS: When you write a song into the script you need to clear that song (get approval to use it) PRIOR to shooting the scene or make sure that you shoot it two ways - one with the song and one without. You do this because if your character is singing the song and you cannot get approval for that song, you will then have to pull the whole scene.

8. How long does it take to get a song cleared? My final mix is in three days... oh, I mean three hours.

MS: Here's what filmmakers don't like to hear - it could take anywhere from a day to a month depending on the song. Some songs have numerous approval parties and those parties could be all over the world. Or there could be a song which doesn't need any outside approvals and you could hear back right away. As a rough "guestimate" I would advise you to give yourself as long as possible to allow for clearances, but at least four weeks to be safe.

9. How much money does it cost? If I have 5 grand set aside for music, what is the best way to use that money?

MS: Music can cost a lot or a little depending on what songs you are going after, how long the term is, the media you are placing it in, the timing of the song, and whether the song used as a background song, a title or a visual vocal. If you hire a professional clearance person she or he could tell you what all those terms mean, help you set a budget and give you a ballpark fee of what it all will cost.

10. Why do record companies, publishers and/or artists ask to see a script or a clip before agreeing to let me use their song?

MS: Labels, publishers and/or artists ask to see script pages or clips because they want to know exactly what is going on in a scene where their song is being used. They will also ask for a synopsis of the film. Here are a couple of examples of why: Let's say the song plays over a scene in which a person is slowly tortured (remember this SCENE from Reservoir Dogs?) The artist may not want to be associated with this type of violence. Or maybe the song plays on the radio and one of your characters quips, "I hate this song - this band sucks". The songwriters and musicians may not be so eager to be the band that "sucks".

11. Why do we need to get clearance rights from 7 different people on this rap song. How can somebody own 7% of a song?

MS: This actually is quite common. It can happen a couple of different ways -- you can have numerous writers on a song and each one controls a different percentage of the song and gets paid based on their percentage, all of which together equal 100% of the song. Or there are songs which contain samples of other songs in them. So the new writer of the song gets a certain % of the publishing rights, but the writers of the original song that was sampled also get a %. All of which still add up to 100%. In order to use the song you need to obtain approval on 100% of the composition no matter how many writers or samples -- and yes, someone who owns 1% of a song can hang up the deal for everyone.

12. In my documentary, you can sort of hear a rolling stones song playing on a car radio. Does it matter?

MS: I don't really feel comfortable answering this because there is a lot of debate over what can be done and what can't in a documentary. There are actually some court cases going on right now over just this question. In general, when in doubt, its best to obtain the rights to cover yourself.

Related articles

• What you Need to Know to License Music for Film (musicbusinessheretic.wordpress.com)
• obtaining synch rights Feb 14 update (thedistricts.wordpress.com)
• Wondering Why Music Licensing Is The Way It Is (trulyfreefilm.hopeforfilm.com)

Why YOU Should Write "Stigmata 3"

“Why the Hell does THAT guy keep getting work?”

I know that’s what you’re thinking. You read my past credits (Halloween 8, Cube 2, The Crow 4) and you say to yourself, “Those movies were CRAP. I could do better than that.” Maybe you have a horror script in your drawer right now that is you think is pure gold. Maybe you’ve read in the blogs that I wrote a script called Hercules for Millennium films, or that I will be re-writing Subterranean for Beacon, or that I’ve handed in a draft of Stigmata 2 for MGM and your rolling your eyes with indignation and disgust.

Well I’m going to explain to you why I keep getting work, why self-respecting writers and filmmaker’s like me would ever do straight-to-video sequels like Stigmata 2, and why when you are offered the job to write Stigmata 3, you should take it.

First off, when movie executives decide to hire me as a writer, let’s say on Stigmata 2, they do it because they have read screenplays I’ve written for movies that never got made. That screenplay in your drawer? Yeah, I’ve got a dozen of those, and the primary reason I get work is that mine are better.

Secondly, one of the first hard lessons of screenwriting is that a good script is no guarantee of a good movie, and that when the movie doesn’t turn out well, very few people will know or care that your well-written screenplay didn’t make it through the process.

In 2002, the original script for Cube 2 was good enough to land me a multi-picture deal at Dimension Films. Afterwards however, my Cube 2 script was completely re-written by two other writers, one of whom was the producer. The movie that came out contained virtually nothing from my original script. That’s how it goes on most films. It’s just the nature of the film production.

And, I shouldn’t complain about being rewritten. On both Halloween 8 and Crow 4, I was hired as a script doctor to “polish” other writers’ scripts. I did the rewrites on the eve of production, and tried my best to make improvements. Again very little of my work made it to the screen, but the money was good, and enjoyed collaborating with the people involved.

You see, that’s what screenwriters do. They work on films, both high and low. Before he wrote Lone Star, John Sayles wrote Alligator. Before he wrote award winners like Eastern Promises and A History of Violence, David Cronenberg did movies like Rabid and Parasite.

Take the example of the purest, film-artist I know, Jacques Thelemaque. His films have won awards in European Festivals from the kind of judges who only like movies by Ingmar Bergman and Andrei Tarkovsky. He’s president of Filmmaker’s Alliance, a grassroots organization dedicated to supporting film artists outside the studio system. You’re not going to find an artist more dedicated to his personal vision (read his excellent blog, A Filmmaker’s Life). But do you want to know what he does as his day job? He produces little straight-to-video horror films with titles like “Within,” “Midnight Movie,” and “Augie and the Wolf.”

The fact is that you CAN do both.

But what’s that? You say you can’t possibly compromise your vision? Then finance your films yourself. Join a group like Filmmaker’s Alliance. Learn the perils of independent filmmaking and self-distribution. That’s just what I did. And as a result, I won a contest and a grant at the DGA given by FA, Kodac, and Panivision to make a short film just the way I want to, with no rewrites and no compromises.

Meanwhile, I make my living writing little genre movies. I write action. I write horror. I write thrillers. I do it because it’s fun. I do it because it’s a lot easier than loading trucks and more interesting than making lattes. I do it because I love the thrill of writing “the car explodes” and then watching, months later, a REAL CAR EXPLODE.

How can I stand having my name on movies that some people mock and despise? It’s part of the job. No matter what movie you work on you must be prepared for the possibility that it could turn out to be an embarrassing disaster. You have to be prepared to take the heat, or worse yet, the complete… unmitigated… indifference.

That’s the risk I’m taking writing Stigmata 2, and so far it’s worth the risk. People are telling me, in mildly shocked tones, that the first draft is “actually, really good.” As rewrites continue I will continue to throw all my passion into the project, and I remain optimistic that this time, against the odds, my work will make it to the screen, and that this time... it will turn out really, REALLY well.

So, maybe that horror screenplay in your drawer really is pure gold. Maybe it will win screenwriting contests and score you an agent. Maybe movie executives will read it and be so impressed they will offer you the opportunity to write Stigmata 3, the follow up to the surprise straight-to-video hit Stigmata 2. If that happens, don’t be a jackass…

… take the job.