must i move to LA/NY??

[TravisBickle]

i know everyone likes to throw out huge scary numbers... but i gotta believe it is possible to sell a script, and begin a career outside LA. I live in Austin, TX and moving to LA would be a nightmare, but i will if i have to. i heard a strategy that said to buy a LA area cell phone, and put that # as your number when you send off queries and such. is that viable or just naive? thanks for any input.

[GirlinGray]

It is possible to sell a script and start a career from out of state. I know three people who did that. There is more to it than just selling a script though. Once you sell, you also have to maintain a career. And that is easier to do in state. But the answer, bottom line, is yes, you can sell from out of state. It's harder but can be done.

Re a 310 cell phone, do you mean get a 310 number and pretend you live in L.A.? I would not do that unless I was willing to pay last minute air fare for coffee.

[DesireeB]

Travis,
I thought Austin was supposed to be one of the cool new places to be. What with Richard Linklatter, Mike Judge and others I can't think of now, residing and working out of there. I have heard about using the cell phone ploy. But, I have a question, what address would you use on your stationary? I haven't figured out how people pull that one off. I think if you end up with a great script it will not matter one bit where you are from especially if you place well in a competition or write a compelling query.
Desi

[TravisBickle]

the whole address question is why i was asking... i read that in a book and heard it as well, never heard that part explained. ya, its true, there is a filmmaking hotbed out here, but barely nothing at all as far as representation and prodcos. all but a couple of the prodcos here are strictly for commercials. there is linklater, judge, and matt mcCaughnehey has a prodco, and it is staffed with a bunch of his UT frat brothers. also sandra bullock lives out here but i am pretty sure her prodco is based out of LA or NY. most of the features that come through here are low/no pay indy flicks, save for miss congeniality and a few others. most studio flicks that would have come out here for scenery/hills/countryside are all going up to canada now anyway.

long story short, it is sparse as far as agents and ent. management goes.

[GirlinGray]

Well it is not a bad idea to have a 310 cell number. I do have a 310 cell. It is not to pretend I live in L.A. though. It is just easier to use when I am in L.A. and I had it anyway when I did live in L.A. and just didn't change it when I moved out. So people know, when I'm up here, use the 206 number, when I'm down there, use the 310 number. There are no roaming charges on that line so it doesn't make a difference to me where I am calling from. And no one down south has to pay long distance to call me when I am next door which would be kind of a pain for them, probably.

[CRASH]

Yes.

[Nemesis Unbound]

No.

[TonyRob]

Maybe.

[TravisBickle]

fascinating.

[Meltdown]

I'd say ...Eventually.

My current agent sez selling a script from where I am is a reality, but if I do go somewhere with my writing I will have to spend time in the city of angels...

[DesireeB]

One of my brothers lives on Mercer Island. I can understand why you would move up there. It seems to be a very writerly city. When I was at Elliot Bay Bookstore I couldn't believe what a great line-up of author readings and signings they had scheduled. I also went to the Bumbershoot festival one year and attended a pre-release screening of LA Confidential then a writers panel with Curtis Hanson, James Ellroy, Michael Ondaatje and Dorothy Allison. And a big plus - the air smells sweet up there (well it does when you're coming from L.A.) - and my favorite coffee place, Torrefazione.

[PteranoDon]

Travis; do you know Couchguy?

[TravisBickle]

nope... only been logged on as a user since oct 18. why?

[GirlinGray]

Des, there's stuff I really like up here. I don't know if I'm staying but hey it is nice for a while. Other stuff is very odd. Like, they protest all the time up here. About everything. Jeez. But there is water everywhere and I really like living by the water. And the city is really beautiful. It's the prettiest place I've ever lived.

[scriptreader]

Check out home.mindspring.com/~bdwriter (http://home.mindspring.com/~bdwriter) for a local L.A. Mail service for screenwriters/filmmakers (or see the banner ad on the prodcos & agents & managers areas of Done Deal).

What was previously said about maintaining a career is true... Even if you don't SELL your script (keep in mind the odds against this), if people read your work and like it, they will expect you to take meetings--in L.A. In the meantime, a local mail service or phone number can help you avoid out-of-town prejudice by readers, or whomever.

Take a look.

[wcmartell]

Coincidentally, my Article Of The Week for this very week is on that subject.

www.scriptsecrets.com/art...ackyrd.htm (http://www.scriptsecrets.com/articles/backyrd.htm)

(I think that will take you direectly to the article)

The answer may surprise you.

- Bill

[TravisBickle]

i dont quite know what to call you... wc i guess. thanks so much for the link. it was informative. living in austin i am probably in the best spot in the country to be around the industry outside of NY/LA, etc... trouble is, i dont have an interest in writing about the place i live. i like to write REALISTIC scifi and drama, and i dont like to write to the limitations of location and the local area. but dont get me wrong, i am not missing the point. start small, start local, then build your career was the gist of your article. besides, i really posed the question originally about breaking in. i know that to have a career in the biz i would have to go west, but as far as breaking in, it's tough. i went to a crappy college in texas, got a film degree, i am 25 yrs old and wont be able to afford going there any time soon. i really appreciate your attention to my question... everyones' attention, that is.

btw, i know there is a stereotype to scifi writers. i have seen 1 star trek movie and not a single episode of the series other than a couple of reruns from the shatner era. not that there's anything wrong with that... i just find that realistic scifi writing is a great challenge. greater than something utterly ridiculous... dont mean to rant here... i mean who am i anyway... i'm just starting out.

[wannabe]

...because Africa is a long way further from LA/NY than Austin,

[sarumu1]

Is there really any reason to move to NY? I was under the impression that one should move to LA to make oneself available for consideration for rewrite opportunities (when one gets sought after after selling a spec or circulating an awesome writing sample)...I don't think there is a similar amount of similar opportunities in NY?

My own two cents: A move to NY would be far more desirable than going to LAla land.

[Hollywoodkid]

Go take a trip and meet a fuel people,would not hurt.

[ksk2]

What a weird, strange (yet pleasantly so) past 72 hours. Things from the past are coming out of the woodwork like the Hissers in a happy version of the film "Bug". Case in point: the article link you gave us above.

I just went to it, and had the greatest sense of deja-vu and "circular-completion/snake eating its own tail", because...

Before I got on the net, before my own characters were published, before I'd started this damn toon, THAT was the first screen-writing article I'd ever read that put the following thought into my head: "I can do this, dammit."

I'd first read it in a hardcopy screenwriting magazine, before I owned this i-mac. Bought the mag in a tobacconist's joint just off Telegraph Ave. in Berkely, CA.

What a trip.

Bless ya man. Three times and always.

Best, kosk

[wcmartell]

There have been 2 incarnations of that article - the version linked was printed in Script Magazine a couple of years ago, and a version without the lovely Brinke Stevens' quotes was printed about a decade ago in a newsletter (that would eventually grow up to be Script Magazine).

What's strange is that our production office on NINJA BUSTERS was in Berkeley (but up in the industrial section on Parker St.) I saw a bunch of flicks at the UC theater, the Rialto, the Telegraph, etc... but I never smoked tobacco, so I wouldn't know where any shops are.

I think that if a poor, stupid kid from Concord can make it in the business, just about anyone can.

- Bill

[ksk2]

Providing us with the dreaded Willow Pass Road, and all that goes along with it...

Not as bad as other segments of the Tri-City Area though... (wink)

You're a wonder, Bill!

Any way to see the vid or read the script of that tale you wrote at 19? For the sake of inspiration?

[lillybet]

Meester Martell,

You are a treasure. Well stated advice. Tolerance for answering dumb or more sophisticated questions. Lack of arrogance and a sense of humor.

Oh, just having one of those weak moments I am prone to on occasion.

Your legacy, if you care about such things, may be your sharing with others at all levels. Right after that big blockbuster, critical success, of course.

Thanks,

lil

[OLI]

I guess my only option is to move to LA because I live in NYC.
To be honest, I think I'll stay here. ;)

[wcmartell]

I have a couple of coffee shops I hang out at with my laptop... mostly I'm at Priscillas. The employees know me, I've had producers call me there, I'm a regular.

There are other regulars, and I know them. Some I only know to wave to, others are friends. Most of the other writers are friends, I also know some of the actresses, some nurses from St. Joe's Hospital, and 70s movie star Robert Hooks (his son Kevin directed PASSENGER 57).

What does that have to do with screenwriting?

Well, there's an ex-actress turned producer who hangs out there - she's a friend of Robert's. She askeed to read a couple of scripts recently, so I gave her two that my manager didn't seem to want to send out (even though fellow writers think they are my best work). She read one script, loved it, and was halfway through the other script today...

When she rushed to my table.
It seems a VP of production for a BIG company (Spielberg has made films for them) stopped in for a cup of coffee to go... and she grabbed him, told him about the script of mine she was reading. He wanted to meet with me - right there at the coffee shop! He was at an outside table waiting. So, I had a meeting today. Saturday. With a guy I had no chance of meeting through normal channels. He took my script - he's going to read it himself tomorrow.

This was complete chance. Luck, maybe. But like Glenn Ford in GILDA, I like to make my own luck.

That couldn't have happened if I were still living in Concord.

- Bill

[TravisBickle]

i appreciate everyones feedback. to anyone who lives in LA, i have another question. i know the cost of living is incredibly high out there, or so i have heard, but what about available space? are most apt complexes in decent to pretty good parts of town always booked up, in other words, would i have to rent blindly like i do here in Austin? i again appreciate all the responses...

[GirlinGray]

When I was renting in '96 there were scads of listings just about everywhere. I have two big dogs which sort of limited my options (landlords hate dogs, sigh) but if you don't it ought to be easy to find a place wherever you want. Oh, they hate smokers too. So if you smoke, that'll slow you down, but not as much.

[TravisBickle]

thanks for the input GiG. another question. i have heard it is not too difficult to live without a car in NYC, does the same hold true for LA? after looking online at some apt listings in LA, i think i may have to cut even more bills out. losing the auto paymt would be great. any input on the public transpo system in LA would help. thanks again for taking time to answer my questions.

also, i have no pets and i am a non smoker. my biggest limitation is that i want to be able to afford a place where i dont have to worry about getting my face shot off every time i step outside.

[GirlinGray]

You have to have a car in L.A. It is not like New York, it is huge and sprawling, taxis are scarce, subways are non-existent, and buses are slow.

Also your auto insurance will skyrocket, if you move to L.A. So will your phone bill because of all the toll zones.

Have you ever been to L.A., Travis?

[TravisBickle]

i was in LA in '91 but purely as a tourist. i was 16 at the time and we got a little taste of the "405" freeway. it wasnt even peak time, but it was a friggin parking lot.

i dont even know what the hell "toll zones" are, and i moved here from houston in '99 where they have some of the worst insurance rates in the country, so that wont be too hard to get used to.

[wannabe]

Bill!!

Frigging marvellous!! Damn, what a thrill us non-USAians get by living vicariously through you local guys' stories.

Good luck, hope you and Steve become buddies of the highest order.

All aboard...whooo-hooo...train to Megasuccessfulville now boarding.

[SCRYPTREADER]

living here is secondary to writing well. i wouldn't uproot myself or my family unless i was sure i had mastered the craft and you can master the craft where you are.

if it is your intention to work in the business however, to make friends and meet contacts, this obviously is the place to be... you can intern or work as a writer's assistant and get invaluable information.

all in all, i wouldn't move out here unless i was a really good writer or really eager to work in the biz.

[Geevie]

First I'll direct you to the following article:

http://wordplayer.com/columns/wp33.I.Love.LA.html

Since I transplanted from Texas to LA, I'll give you my experiences in The City of Angels.

If you're on your own, or don't have kids, and you have a good "day" job you can swing a pretty decent place to live. I lived in Torrance (South Bay) and paid $1300 a month, but only because I needed a three bedroom apartment. I started out in a two bedroom in Eagle Rock (right next to Glendale, which is right next to Burbank) for $550 a month. We moved because of gang shooting at my kid's elementary school. So we got into a nicer town with a much bigger price tag. We had to live with my mom. I don't recommend it.

Finding a one bedroom apartment in a nice city closer to the action (I think my sister's place in Burbank was about $800) isn't that difficult. I prefered to live near the ocean, and would live in a beach city again before I moved in-land. (I hate the valley, it's frickin hot and smoggy and blech). Orange County is pretty nice too, it reminds me a lot of the south for some weird reason.

You probably will want a car. My sister depended on a bus, going from Glendale/Burbank to downtown LA for a good seven years. But I prefered the independence of having my own car. Only because a good 1/3 of your life is spent commuting, might as well be in your own ride where you control the company, air conditioning and radio. (holla to Jamie and Danny)

Even though I'm not convinced that you have to live in LA to make an initial sale, I do believe that you should live in LA at least once in your life if you aspire to make the entertainment industry your chosen profession. It's charged in the air out there. Everyone knows somebody - your six degrees of separation are cut basically in half.

I decided to write screenplays after I moved away from LA. Had I known beforehand, I would have probably made a much bigger effort to stay because you just stumble onto things out there. I worked for a celebrity photographer (another thing I don't recommend) and at one point worked out of her home there in Burbank in a pretty nice complex. So nice, her neighbor was Jennifer Love Hewitt. It wasn't unusual for her Fed Ex packages to come to us and she would come pick it up. I shared many an elevator with her, her mother and her brother.

While working for the celebrity photographer I also met another screenwriter, who actually had placed in the Nicholl. She tried her best to convince me to try my hand at it but the whole process intimidated me.

If I knew then what I know now...

Anyway, I've decided that I'll do as much as I can here from Texas, but if that day comes I have to move back, I would.

[postalpictures]

Just don't go to New York. It's dullsville.

[Ravenlocks]

Wow, this is a really really old thread.

[Inkdaub]

I lived in LA without a car for a couple of years. I made it work but I can't say as I'd recommend it. If I were to live in NYC I wouldn't want a car...I prefer the pedestrian lifestyle. LA is harder in that area.