Interview with
Michael Steven Gregory
Interview by Jenna Glatzer
Filmmaker Michael Steven Gregory is president of San Diego-based Random Cove,
LLC, an independent producer of original entertainment. A screenwriter of film
and television, Gregory began directing in 1990 with his acclaimed drama,
"blood," telling the story of a boy who unwittingly kills his brother
in a drive-by shooting, and boasting a soundtrack provided in part by Prince.
He is also executive director of the Southern California Writers' Conference,
now in its 17th year. This privately financed annual event addresses the craft
and business of writing professionally. It is widely considered one of the
premier events of its kind in the U.S., having facilitated nearly $3 million in
first-time author book and screen deals.
Bringing his literary and cinematic sensibilities to the comic book field, under
his pseudonym of "Caucus de Bourbon" Gregory has also scripted some of
the biographical genre's most popular titles. His books include the life-stories
of Muhammad Ali, Yogi Berra, Gordy Howe, Sandy Koufax, Joe Louis, David Lynch,
Willie Mays, Satchel Paige, Ross Perot and others.
Marrying his duel insight into publishing and film to one definitive
endeavor, Gregory made the feature documentary "We, The Writer."
Called "Possibly the greatest conversation about writing ever
overheard!" this inspiring film united 25 authors, including Joseph
Wambaugh, David Brin, Sharon Ihle, Quincy Troupe and Alan Russell to provide
candid insight into the Byzantine and often bittersweet world of writing like no
other. Two of its follow-ups, "We, The Screenwriter" and "We, The
Mystery Writer," are now underway, while two others, "Me, The
Agent" and "I, The Actor," are slated for production.
Gregory's recent scriptwriting duties include the "Silver Surfer" and
"Spider-Man Unlimited" series for Fox. His feature-length historical
drama "'Long Came Charlie" was optioned by actor Dustin Hoffman's
company, and with writing partner Anna Gilson their romantic-comedy
"Wish" has been picked up by Pendle View. "Armageddon
Jones," an ensemble drama, was bought outright by Mnemosyne Pictures (with
Gregory slated to direct), and another drama, "Valentine Carol," is
due shortly.
A member of the Writers Guild of America, west, Gregory also teaches at the
University of California, San Diego, Extension, is the Filmmaker in Residence at
Alliant University (Scripps Ranch campus), and will have his first nonfiction
book released in fall, 2003: Disc Golf: All You Need to Know About the Game
You Want to Play.
What sparked your interest in screenwriting?
Before becoming consciously aware that I was a screenwriter, I'd set out to be a
conceptual artist and model builder for movies. Because of "2001: A
Space Odyssey," "Silent Running," "Star Wars" and
"Close Encounters," I wanted to work in special effects. One
day, I'm watching this old Hammer movie on TV, with these ghost riders on
horseback charging through the gloomy Moors of England, and the music they were
using was all wrong. I thought, "Eleanor Rigby" by the Beatles
is what they should be playing. And at that moment I figured I could write
this and write it better.
How did you hook up with TV writer/producer Larry
Brody?
Larry was living in Santa Fe and heading back to L.A. at the time I was running
FAVAA -- the Film and Video Artists Association -- which was a non-profit
devoted to bolstering the opportunities for indie filmmakers in San Diego in the
early nineties. One of his people contacted me to see if we'd be
interested in sponsoring a weekend seminar of his on writing for television and
I said "yes." I went down on the second day to sit in and see
what he was about, liked what I heard, then afterwards asked if he'd be
interested in doing some workshops at the Southern
California Writers' Conference, which I run. He said he would and we
shook on it. Come conference staff scheduling time, I can't find the guy.
Nobody's got the right phone number because of the move and all that, so I
figure that's pretty much that.
Flash forward a couple-three years and I trip across his Web sit, TVwriter.com.
I e-mail him, say who I am, and remind him that he shook hands on the deal to
participate in the SC-- handshakes are sacrosanct with me. He e-mails back
instantly that he remembered that handshake and committed to participating.
He's been with the conference ever since, and, as it turns out, we found we're a
good writing team and have worked together often in TV shows and movies.
I understand that you didn't know anything about the
"Silver Surfer" comic before you started writing for the animated
series. Did that help you or hurt you?
Although I've worked in comic books, I didn't follow comics at all when I was a
kid. The "Silver Surfer" was completely alien to me, until Larry
approached me to be on staff with the team he was putting together. I
didn't know that the "Silver Surfer" was very much an adult-oriented
story dealing with such mature, complicated themes. Larry was assembling a
staff of live-action writers for an animated show, mostly from television, and
very much set on writing a series that would appeal to adults, and retain the
integrity of the source material by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. He wanted to
have a feature writer on board to handle certain themes and arcs which he
thought would appeal to my sensibilities, and that's how it came about. My
job was primarily the love arc.
Not having been knowledgeable at the time about the "Silver Surfer"
helped me a great deal in that, because Larry was the producer, he shaped the
show to his singular vision. In TV, it's not about the baggage or
preconceptions the writer brings aboard, but instead what the showrunner's
vision is and how we, as writers, can best realize it. Larry had very
clear ideas of what the show should be. My not being contaminated by
preconceptions allowed me to be faithful to the integrity of his vision and his
only.
What's it like to write for a television series?
How does it differ from writing feature scripts?
Writing for TV can be fun and it can be tortuous, or it can be both at the
same time-- this kind of excruciating ecstasy. What it all ultimately
comes down to is the quality of the people you're working with. I've been
on staff for four shows, and the people you're writing with invariably make the
difference on the day-to-day. But the distinctions between writing TV
versus writing features are severe-- both good and bad on either side.
The battle with TV writing is the commercial break. You build up a
sequence that is instantly rendered moot by the inevitable suspension of its
tempo by the commercial break. Come back from commercial, and you start
all over again at the beginning. With features, of course, you don't have
that. But what you also don't have is the familiarity of characters to
explain away conduct because a trait had been established last season and
everybody who knows the show can relate. You've got 90 minutes, two hours,
to establish a complete world populated with characters who's motives, conduct
are fully understood. It's essentially squeezing the density of a good
book into one fifth of the verbiage and visuals.
Another difference between writing for TV and writing for features is the power
pecking order. In TV, the writer wields power over what goes on screen.
In features, it's the director, and the writer, as well as his or her work, is
too often expendable.
You've often been employed as a script doctor.
How are your skills suited to that kind of work?
I like to think that my innate sense of what constitutes good storytelling
applies more than any other skill I possess, but the reality is my experience as
a director comes into play equally, if not more so. The ability to work
with people, to understand what they're trying to say when they may not really
know themselves, or may not be able to adequately communicate. Certainly,
the ability to identify problematic aspects of a script and find solutions while
retaining the integrity of the story is vital. I think respecting the
intent of the original author is essential, but these things sometime become so
malshaped that it's easy to get lost.
The fact is that you're working for the producers or director in order to fix
or improve what they've hired you to do that they're so excited about. If
you're excited enough for the right reasons, then it can be a good thing.
How do you start writing a new script? Do you
outline? Write character sketches? Is there any particular method to
your madness?
Yeah! You name it, I'm sure I do everything now and again, on this project
or another. It depends on where the story's originating from. Most
often, I start with the concept, the premise, why it's essential to write this
particular story and determine if it warrants the commitment and perseverance.
The biggest question is always whether or not I can stay as excited about a
script all the way to the end as I was in the beginning.
Once that's figured, I sketch out the broad strokes and major beats, so that
I at least have a vague idea of where I'm going. Once the beginning is
figured out, we're off and running. Other times I beat it out thoroughly,
top to bottom, so it becomes all about the dialogue.
In documentary, like with the "We,
The Writer" and "We, The Screenwriter" films, I start only
with the dialogue, and allow it alone to shape the course of the story that
wants to be told.
What do you think of common screenwriting
"rules" like the three-act structure?
The traditional three-act structure scares me, only because it's so stifling and
predictable. It's a racket to some degree because everybody wants to think
there's this simple formula you follow for success. There's a Lotto ticket
mentality now in the screenwriting business where everybody thinks if they can
just come up with this amazing concept they'll win the six-figure deal.
They turn to Sid Field-- who is directly responsible for this whole
"how-to-write-screenplays" cottage industry-- glance over his books,
and figure they'll whip a simple script out and land the million dollar deal.
I don't buy it. You have to know the rules to break them successfully.
And unless you respect the purpose of those rules, then you can't expect to
break them successfully, which is what it takes to do anything that warrants
doing. Traditional three-act provides a great template, certainly, but I'm
opposed to being nailed strictly to it. It's far more fun to try new
things out and present something in a way that invigorates the mind and stirs
the soul. However, story should dictate the structure.
Over and over, writers hear the advice "just tell
a great story." How do you know when you've got a great story?
What are some of the elements of a great story?
You know you've written a 'great' story when you read it for the final time
after the upteenth rewrite and find yourself forgetting you wrote it because
you're so engaged by this world on these pages; when you put the script down and
smile. What elements does it require to accomplish that wholly confidant,
satisfied feeling? Densely defined characters. Unpredictable paths.
Surprises. Dialogue I haven't heard before. Things I hadn't
expected. Payoff of expectations to be completely entertained. For
me, what a great story comes down to is keeping me guessing what's going to
happen next and landing me logically someplace unexpected, whether emotionally
or cerebrally.
You've optioned two scripts and sold a third in just a
matter of a few months. How did you make these deals?
"Long Came Charlie," a spec I wrote based on the true life accounts of
a former slave once recognized as the World's Oldest Man, was picked up by
Dustin Hoffman's company. My manager, Brian Overland of Overland Literary
Management, handled the deal. The other two properties, with my writing
partner, Anna Gilson, were handled
independently and out of the blue. The first, a romantic comedy called
"Wish," we'd just finished and were sitting on while writing our
second team project, a drama called "Valentine Carol."
We didn't want "Wish" put out until we were well underway with
"Carol," but I hate a script sitting idly so put it up on www.WritersScriptNetwork.com,
thinking if anybody was actually looking for such a property at least they could
find it. It was up, I think, two days before we got the call to acquire
it.
The other project, an ensemble drama called "Armageddon
Jones," was sold outright on pitch to a new company, Mnemosyne
Pictures. That's the one Anna and I are writing now, which I'm directing
late summer, in between the writers' conferences in San Diego and L.A. The
producers approached me at Random Cove,
my company, and asked if there was a project I'd be interested in doing that
might fit in their budget parameters. "Jones" was the top
choice, a story we'd very much been wanting to do. Fortunately for us,
they
felt as passionately about it as we do and that was that. So we
miraculously scored deals in September, October and November, which I'm beyond
grateful for. Although we did fumble in December, I like to think it was
'cause of the holidays and not us!
People have made some tremendous deals at your writing
conference. Tell us about that. How are deals made at conferences?
A variety of ways. Most often, emerging writers come in with their
material and win the support of working, professional writers who embrace it,
help shepherd their manuscript to where it needs to, then assist in getting it
in front of those that can recognize its commercial potential. While many
writers make contacts with the agents and editors who are panelists at the
conference, I think even more have been discovered through read and critique
sessions. The SCWC is unique in that its emphasis is the critique of
manuscripts and addressing the individual needs of writers' specific work.
Many an agent, editor, acquisitions person have sat in on sessions unannounced
and discovered material simply by listening.
The Southern California Writers' Conference is all about addressing the issues
and answering the questions so many of us never thought to ask, when first
starting out. It's our way of giving back to the writing community.
It's very much about the conferees and their needs, not those of us putting on
the show. When one new writer succeeds, we all do.
What's your best advice to pre-professional
screenwriters?
Respect the craft. Read scripts. Write scripts. Re-write
scripts.
Anything else you'd like to add?
Write because you have something to say.
