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Interview with Jim Vines
You did a lot of things before screenwriting--stunts, still photography, I used to put on little plays in my front yard when I was seven or eight. When I was eleven (1974), I picked up a Super-8 movie camera for the first time and started putting my ideas onto film. In high school, I wrote, produced, directed, and acted in my own television productions and films. (I attended Beverly Hills High School and they had a great film/TV department.) I churned out a lot of written material back then. I still have those scripts, and I’m amazed how coherent and well formatted they are. I mean, who knew anything about proper formatting back in the late ‘70s? After high school, I wrote and performed in some plays. Mostly one-acts. Got some good reviews, too. So I guess I’ve always been somewhat of a storyteller. In 1985 I got married, and a year later we had a daughter. I was working at a restaurant at the time and needed to make some extra cash. I was pretty good with a 35mm Nikon, so I managed to get a handful of jobs as a still photographer on some very low-budget movies and student films. I also finagled some work as a grip and even did a bit of stunt work. I never made much money, and I worked on some truly dismal movies, but I had a lot of fun and learned quite a bit. In 1989, sort of by accident, I co-wrote a public service announcement for a northeastern electric company. It got me really thinking about getting back into writing. Soon afterward, a friend approached me about working on a script. He supposedly had contacts in the business, and they were looking for projects. We collaborated on a feature screenplay. Nothing ever came of it, but I realized how much I enjoyed writing. I also liked the solitude and the fact that I could write at two o’clock in the morning (I’m a confirmed night owl). By the early '90s I had been through a divorce and was in the middle of a very nasty child custody fight. It really wore me out. It was nice to be able to sit alone and write until the early morning hours. How did you study the craft of screenwriting? Back when I started taking it all seriously, there weren’t all the screenwriting books, magazines, Internet sites, and weekend seminars there are today. In fact, there was relatively very little. Sure, I read the Syd Field book, but that was pretty much it. Luckily, I worked at a big talent agency in Beverly Hills at the time and was able to get my hands on, quite literally, a library of scripts. I read a couple of dozen. I studied them. Then I sat down and wrote and wrote and wrote. I got feedback on my work and then kept on writing. That’s really the best way to learn. The books and seminars will only take you so far, and we all know how expensive it can get. Just start cranking out script pages. It doesn’t matter if it all stinks. It will. But it’s how you learn. There’s no excuse for not reading professional screenplays. They’re readily available to you, if you just look. It’s all about relationships. What’s the famous quote? “It’s not who you know, but who knows you.” It’s true. People like to work with people they know and trust. Get out there and meet people. Get to know them and let them get to know you. Let them read your work. Be professional, be likeable, and impress them. Make them remember you. You can’t just sit around answering those dopey “Screenplays Wanted” ads you see on the Internet. A vast majority of them are a complete waste of your time and talent. Not to say you can’t get a writing job via the
'net, because it’s definitely possible. I actually did get one rewrite job through the Internet. Just one. Any other job I got was because the person knew me and knew my work and, of course, because I got out and hustled. I’ve never been a big proponent of query letters. Sure, they can work, but you need to send out huge mailings and the letter you send better be pretty darn solid. I once received a query letter (not sure why, but I did) and it was rambling and contained more than a few spelling errors. On top of all that, my address on the envelope was written with a black Sharpie! C’mon, be professional. None of them really got off the ground. We came close a couple times, but the deals eventually went south. But those scripts are still on my shelf and maybe one day I’ll sell one. That’s the beautiful thing about a screenplay – if you don’t sell it one year, there’s always next year. They don’t necessarily have expiration dates. Last October, I optioned a script I’ve had sitting around for a few years. I’m hopeful something will eventually happen with it. If not, well, that’s the way it goes. But hey, if nothing else, at least I know people liked my writing enough to option my work and that’s always a good thing. I’ve seen writers get so wrapped up in just one script. They pin all their hopes and dreams on it. When it fails to generate interest, they get discouraged and give up. Big mistake. Just keep coming up with ideas and keep writing good scripts. Stick with it, and eventually, positive things will start happening. The old adage about patience and persistence is so very true. Yeah, it was Mark’s idea. He had another writer on the script, but it just wasn’t coming together. I had known Mark for about a year. He called me and said, “I’ve got this script that needs a rewrite. Are you interested?” He couldn’t pay anything, but told me he had connections at a production company here in town and was fairly certain it was something they’d be interested in. I had nothing to lose, so I did the rewrite. It was a complete rewrite. I guess I worked on it for about five weeks, and then Mark sent it off to the prodco. I figured I’d heard the last of it. Anyway, not too long afterward, Mark called me and said, “They want the script!” To be honest, you don’t make a whole heck of a lot of money selling to these smaller production companies. But hey, it’s a few dollars in your pocket and a credit on a legit movie and it’s excellent in-the-trenches experience. And I’ve got a nice little poster from the film hanging over my desk. No complaints. That’s mostly up to how a director directs the scene, isn’t it? I mean, on the page it might be very suspenseful, but the director might end up turning it into a snooze-a-thon. That’s not really the writer’s fault, is it? The writer only needs to make it work on the page and keep his fingers crossed that the filmmakers are talented enough to translate it properly. Then again, that’s true of the entire script, whether it’s a thriller, comedy or drama. A few years back, a development executive read a horror script of mine. She took it home for the weekend. Monday morning she e-mailed me, letting me know she got pretty freaked out the night before while reading the script. She said she couldn’t get to sleep afterward! The reason for this wasn’t because there was lots of blood or guts or a crazy guy with a mask and butcher knife. No, it was the creepy silence in one particular scene. It was the character suddenly hearing a creepy sound out in the hallway and not knowing who or what it was. It was the character not knowing what to expect. Don’t be afraid to be subtle or to use silence and mood. Perfect examples are “Wait Until Dark” and “Rosemary’s Baby.” Creepy stuff. I’m glad they’re finally doing movies like “The Others” and “Signs.” Plenty of good, old-fashioned suspense! I know you’re asking about THE PERFECT TENANT, but I’d like to discuss development in general for a moment. It’s all about notes. Lots of notes. You go into the producer’s office and they tell you what they like and what they don’t like, and you discuss ways of changing things. Sometimes the changes are big and sometimes the changes are minor. Sometimes the changes make no sense to you, but you talk it out and come to some sort of a compromise. It’s an interesting process. I truly love the whole collaborative process. That’s something new screenwriters need to understand. Chances are excellent the “baby” you’ve been working on for so long will get ripped apart and put back together again, and you may or may not be part of the process. That’s the way it is. If you don’t like it, write a novel. Or produce your script yourself. Anyway, you take these notes and go off and rewrite, then you let them read the new draft, and you get more notes. With regards to THE PERFECT TENANT, I did three additional drafts of the script over a period of about three months. Then I left the project and director Doug Campbell came in to work on the script. Everything came to an abrupt stop when producer Pierre David and his team left the production company. It took Pierre roughly a year to wrangle the script away from the old prodco and take it to the new prodco. Mark and I didn’t hear anything for so long. We thought the project was pretty much dead. I was in the middle of a cross-country road trip when I got a voice mail message that Pierre wanted to have a meeting at the new company. After I returned home, I went up to the production office and the first thing Pierre said to me was, “Looks like we’re finally going to make your movie!” It all went pretty quickly from that point. I think it turned out to be a good little thriller. The cast (Maxwell Caulfield Linda Purl, Tracy Nelson and Earl Holliman) was top notch, and I think Pierre and Doug did a heck of a job. It was released on video all around the world and played virtually non-stop on HBO and Cinemax for almost two years. Not bad. Well, we’re not talking about a big studio feature, but yeah, having a produced credit – even on a relatively small movie – gives you a certain amount of legitimacy. I find people are more apt to pay attention to you and listen to what you have to say when you’ve actually got your name on a movie, even if it’s a small one. But, obviously, what sells you most as a screenwriter is your knowledge and execution of the craft. Even if you don’t have a produced credit, make sure you have a couple solid of scripts to show as samples. If they don’t like Script A, have Script B ready to show. If they don’t like Script B, have Script C ready. Show them you can do the work and do it well. You sold another spec in 2001. What's happening with that script? Oh, the story I could tell about that one. What a tale! In a nutshell, I wrote the script for a particular producer. His company rejected it a couple of times over a period of about a year. But I didn’t give up. By a fluke, I was able to re-submit through another avenue. Sort of through a back door. Anyway, the company re-read it and suddenly wanted it. (Remember what I said about persistence?) Anyway, I met with the producers a handful of times, took lots of notes and did a rewrite. Other circumstances arose, but I won’t go into it. Let’s just say it’s in limbo right now. I’m hoping it goes into development at some point soon. It might happen. It might not. I think it would be a good, creepy little thriller. We’ll see. Every job is different. Sometimes you get a massive amount of notes and sometimes they give you one page of notes and let you figure it all out on your own. I’ve found that about six weeks is typical for a complete rewrite. It depends on who you’re dealing with. Actually, I just wrapped a rewrite assignment last week. The production company gave me some vague notes on the changes they wanted. I think they trusted me enough to let me do what I needed to do in order to (hopefully) bring the script to a level where they can take it around and try to secure financing. I usually work pretty quickly, so this particular rewrite came in at 3 ½ weeks. I did a rewrite for an up-and-coming producer in New York a few years ago. We e-mailed back and forth almost on a daily basis. He was a very nice man, but he fought me on virtually every change I wanted to make. He was also under the impression that a lackluster script could be brought up to snuff with just one quick rewrite. He was wrong, of course, and I eventually did three drafts. It was still far from perfect, but at least it was something he could show around town without getting laughed at. When all was said and done, he told me he really loved the script. It was a fairly agonizing assignment, but I got through it and learned a lot. What's your best advice for new screenwriters? You hear this all the time, but it’s very true: Sit your rear end in a chair and write. Write every day. Write for fifteen minutes or write for eight hours. But get something on paper every single day. Stop looking for excuses not to write. I mean, unless you’re lying in a hospital bed with a hatchet in your forehead, there is no excuse. Read a lot of professional screenplays. Not just recent scripts, but classics like ROSEMARY'S BABY, BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID, JAWS, MIDNIGHT COWBOY, and SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS. The list is endless. Just read everything you can get your hands on. Watch a lot of movies. Really watch them. Pick them apart. See what works and what doesn’t. See how they’re structured, how they flow. When possible, read the script and watch the movie. See how the final movie changed from the script. Immerse yourself! Another thing most new writers don’t do is outline before they start on the script. I know they’re eager and excited and want to jump right in and start on actual script pages, but they’re really doing themselves a major disservice if they don’t write a fairly detailed outline. The outline is where the real work comes in. I’m not talking three or four pages, either. Go for at least fifteen pages, single spaced. Get in as much detail as you can. Work out the twists and turns; make sure it all flows. I’ll tell ya, it’s a lot easier making changes to a twenty-page outline than a 110 page script. I’ve done many script critiques/evaluations over the last few years. I always see the same mistakes from new writers: rambling dialogue, wordy descriptive passages, scenes that say nothing important and don’t push the story forward, a story with no spine, no central focus. I was at a screenwriter gathering not long ago and heard a writer pitch her script. It was all over the place. She had five separate stories going on in one script. She hadn’t determined who or what her story was about. Also, if you’re writing a first, second or third screenplay, don’t get all wrapped up in scriptwriting programs, literary agents and query letters. Chances are excellent you’re just not ready for all that yet. Concentrate on learning how to write a saleable, interesting and compelling story with equally interesting and compelling characters. Learn this first and then worry about what type of card stock to put on your script. Another thing: know the difference between
“there,” “their,” and “they’re,” “here” and “hear,” “it’s and
“its,” and “your and “you’re.” Its, uh, I mean, it’s amazing how often I see these errors! I’m up and out every day. I roam around from one place to another, have an enjoyable time and get in a lot of writing over the course of eight or ten hours. I write on planes, cruise ships, rest stops in the middle of nowhere, libraries, the beach, coffee houses... I gotta tell ya, I really enjoy myself. (But my Starbucks bill is HUGE!) I know this doesn’t work for everybody since most writers need total peace and quiet when they work. Personally, I like the distraction and I like being out, experiencing the world around me. If you haven’t done so already, give it a try and see if it works for you. If you want to write screenplays and eventually make some sort of a career out of it, don’t let anybody tell you it can’t be done. Writers sell scripts every day, and if I can make a buck writing, certainly you can too. Write every day, learn the craft, and keep improving your skills. If you don’t live in Los Angeles, give serious thought to moving here (but only after you’ve sharpened your writing skills and have a couple of solid scripts in your briefcase). There’s only so much you can do via e-mail and telephone calls. This is where the action is, and this is where the deals are made. Not in Iowa, not in Nebraska, not in Pennsylvania. It’s right here in La-La Land. One last thing: Don’t jump into screenwriting because you think you’re going to impress that cute blonde next door or you think it’s an easy path to a fat paycheck. Write because you love movies and love telling stories and because you MUST put your ideas down on paper. As for myself, if I never make a million dollars, that’s okay because I’m doing what I want to do in a business I truly love. For me, that’s what it’s all about. Anything else you'd like to add? I’ve recently completed a short film with a good friend. We made films together as kids. Anyway, we did this one to exercise our filmmaking muscles a bit, and we really had a lot of fun putting it together. The title is “That Darn Bill!” and it’s a comedy shot in the style of a 1920s Charlie Chaplin film. Black and white, sped up, lots of slapstick. It’s actually kinda cute and it’ll make you chuckle. We’ll eventually show it on an Internet site like Ifilm. Watch for it! You can reach Jim at jimmyvee1000@yahoo.com.
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Jim's screenwriting career began around 1990. He started with a bit of rewrite assignment work for low-rent producers in
L.A. and even optioned a few things. He sold his first spec in 1997. The movie was ultimately produced in 1999 (THE PERFECT TENANT, a thriller, starred Linda Purl, Maxwell
Caulfied, Tracy Nelson and Earl Holliman). In 2001, he sold another spec. In addition to recently completing a small experimental comedy film, he's currently writing specs and doing assignment work for a production company in Los Angeles. And he's mentored newbie screenwriters for the past four years via the Internet. 
