Represent - #7

DEAR CHANEL:

So I’ve been working at this prodco – which consists of one man, BM #1 and his ‘actress’ girlfriend… that’s how all the prodcos in LA are…  “We” are a production company – cut to: One dude in his studio apartment with interns sitting at his alcove kitchen table on their own laptops sucking off his free streaming internet from his apt bldg.

I’ve recently been ‘promoted’ which means I didn’t quit after the first month and I’m working more on development.  What does that mean?  He has ideas and what I do is translate them into legible and composed words on paper for treatments, one pagers, show bibles and the like.  Sometimes I even get asked for my input or get used as a sounding board to challenge and poke holes in his story like a Red Team… have you seen Newsroom?  I love that show, anyway I’m his one (wo)man red team and sometimes I win and others I just end up writing what he wants.

It got me thinking… while the activity of development with BM#1 is basically what I’d like to do (aside from directing… which I’m actually excited about but that’ll be for another letter) only on a much smaller scale, more on spec and most importantly for projects that I don’t care about.  He makes no qualms about selling TV as a commodity (which it undoubtedly is) you won’t get any arguments from me about art vs. business.  I am one of the first to say that show business is exactly that: a business.  If it ain’t making money it’s not worth anyone’s time, at least in Hollywood.  Indie projects are a different animal.  But what that means for me is… if I’m doing this for some guy for minimal pay and little to no autonomy… why don’t I just look for a manager myself and work on my own writing and do what I want to do which is get staffed on a sitcom next year?  Why am I starting here at this point with this dude?  Is it because I think I need to pay my dues for crappy work and chump change pay?  Particularly when BM #1 disputes hours that I legitimately log?  He’ll ask me what he owes me and when I tell him he still pays but not after a few hem and haws like I’m taking the shirt off his back for the 10 hours I worked.

I have an MFA, I have transferrable skills and I completely understand the format and structure of screenwriting.  I’m not some hack who woke up one morning and THINKS she can write. Yes, the urban myth is very true – because I’ve met these people – more to follow but yes there are people who seriously wake up in middle America, quit their steady job pack it all up and chase their dream to Hollywood – without a plan or skills.  

But I’m different; I actually have a POV that is unique and distinct.  Based on the DGA article: http://www.studiodaily.com/2013/10/dga-to-women-minorities-in-tv-its-not-getting-better/ - I’m a commodity myself.  In fact one that many shows would love to have because I’m not only a female and a minority but also gay which is a triple threat!  Which is something that this industry needs.

Thoughts? 

--Row

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DEAR ROW (a.k.a Triple Threat):
I don’t have many words in response to your letter, mainly because I do feel as if you have done the therapy thing in your five hundred words. You came to the conclusion at the end. You solved the puzzle, girl.  

But I will ask: Do you want to be a commodity? Because the late/great Janis Joplin says, “you are what you settle for.” And I don’t want you settling as a commodity. You are a gift. (Here Chanel goes being spiritual again.) But you are. You bring diversity of race, gender and sexuality to the writing world. Your touch isn’t to be sold like a Chiquita banana. It’s to be gifted to the world like one of Oprah’s favorite things. Now another Seth Macfarlane spin off show about Brian the dog or Stewie, that is a commodity. He is a commodity.

Because you are bringing something new and what the world NEEDS—a different effing perspective, so we can stop hearing about WPP—I don’t see that as being commodifiable. Maybe my logic is skewed. I need apples, and they are commodified crops on the stock market. But just because things are commodified, doesn’t mean they should be. (For the record, I do not believe homes and crops should be traded on the stock market. You hear that, Janet Yellen, newbie Fed Reserve chief?)

I guess I’m an outlier. I am an outlier. I know this. Because I’m horrible at self-branding, quite possibly because I don’t believe in it. Not as I understand it to be. If I do any type of marketing—and I struggle to type that word—it’s out of sincere belief that there is a higher purpose that could perhaps save a child from getting shot. (A little too dramatic, I’m sure.)

Alls I’m saying is that I don’t believe a gift can be commodified. And you have a gift and needed perspective. THEY will commodify it, sure, but I hope that you’ll have some artistic license in how. Can one even maintain artistic integrity and still be a commodity? I don’t know. But if you do want to be a commodified, I’ll shut the eff up. (I’m running in circles anyway.)

Write me back, 

Chanel 
the non-commodity (maybe)