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Interview With Paul
Chitlik Paul Chitlik is a television and film writer and producer, a novelist, and a publisher. Among his TV writing credits: "Amen," "V.I.P.," "The Twilight Zone," "Who's The Boss," "Small Wonder," and "They Came From Outer Space." His producing credits: "Real Stories of the Highway Patrol," "Alien Abduction," and "US Customs Classified." After working as an English professor, translator, journalist, dance theatre director, etc., how did you make the giant leap to writing for TV? I had always wanted to be a writer, and had tried writing novels but with no success (by my own determination). I’d published a few stories and hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles, but it wasn’t enough. One day I was substituting for one of my instructors (I was an administrator at Long Beach City College in the Indo-Chinese Refugee Assistance Program) and I had an epiphany: "This is not the plan." I made the decision to go back to writing then. After doing a little research, I realized that novelists, except the top ones, don’t make any money to speak of. I decided to take a course in TV writing at UCLA extension taught by Mal Wald (co-writer of "The Naked City"). That opened my eyes. Then another course, taught by Al Brenner who wrote extensively in the Golden Age of TV up until the seventies, really energized me. I saved up enough for what I thought would be my break-in time, but of course it wasn’t enough. Regardless, I made a half hour dramatic program (producing and stage managing, too) on tape with some people I convinced to direct and fund, and I was off to the races. Unfortunately, I didn’t earn a living at it for two years, but then I was finally on the way. Can you tell us a bit of the process of writing for a series? How many writers are involved, what's the 'chain of command,' how long does a writing team have to write each episode, etc.? This is complicated because each series is different. I’ve worked on series (i.e. "The New Twilight Zone") where there was an executive producer who was not a writer, and my writing partner at the time, Jeremy Finch, and I, and another story editor. That was it, and we pretty much had control of the writing. Other series, such as a sit-com ("Brothers" for example) had seven or eight writers on staff, ranging from executive producer to supervising producer to producer to executive story editor to story editor to staff writer (that’s the supposed chain of command). I’ve seen staffs of fifteen or more on shows. A writing team has the same amount of time a solo writer has to write an episode, meaning whatever is necessary. Sometimes it could be doing an episode in a few days, sometimes weeks. Sometimes it means writing the first act while another writer writes the second act, and meeting over dinner to make them work. Most of the time in series TV it’s "get it to me good and fast." How did you hook up with your writing partner? What are some of the advantages/disadvantages of collaborating? My agent in the early 80’s, Arthur Dreifuss, was a real character. He looked like the stereotypical German silents director, bald head and goatee and accent. He was, in fact, a prolific B-movie director who, in his seventies, couldn’t get any work so he went into agenting. He met a guy who was putting together a series and they wanted me to be the executive story editor. I agreed. Arthur suggested Jeremy Finch to be on staff. We met in a Cuban coffee place in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles and discovered we had a lot in common. After working closely on over a hundred episodes of this nameless program without arguing, even when we had a difference of opinion, we figured we got along well enough to work on something together. We wrote together for the better part of ten years. One of the disadvantages is obvious – you earn half the money. That’s fine when you’re flying high, but not so fine when you’re not. Another is, if one is having a hard time getting started on a given day, the other becomes frustrated. On the other hand, it’s really great for comedy, you can really see if something is funny to someone other than yourself. You also have some comradeship when you’re in the trenches and writing is tough. And it’s often tough. We’ll still great friends and still have some projects together. What are the differences between writing for TV versus writing for film? Film takes longer, gets produced less, has more executives fucking with it, pays more, has much longer deadlines, doesn’t have such strict act break needs, has fewer language and situation restrictions, is harder to get. TV is immediate, you have your executive producer and the network only to give you notes, gets done quickly, and you move on. I prefer it. If a writer is trying to land a staff assignment for a TV series, what does he or she need before approaching a potential employer? A: Lots of luck B: A good spec script C: An agent D: Lots of luck E: Right place, right time kind of luck F: A good spec script in the right genre G: Persistence H: Luck and persistence I: Talent J: More luck You've written for several successful shows. Of what are you most proud in this area of your career? "The New Twilight Zone" remains the most fulfilling artistic experience of my life. We came up with the ideas, we wrote the shows, no one rewrote them, we explored ideas and characters any way we wanted, we determined what got on the air. My partner and I got a Writers Guild Award nomination on one episode, we supervised another that got a Scot Newman Award, and one that the other story editor supervised got a WGA award nom. A helluva season. You produced "Real Stories of the Highway Patrol," "US Customs Classified," and "Alien Abduction." What made you decide to produce?At "Real Stories" I was a coordinating producer, field producer, and director. It all came from wanting to see the story through the way I saw it in my head. They gave me a start, which I continued on "US Customs Classified" with Stephen Cannell. But I didn’t really have control until my MOW, "Alien Abduction" for UPN. Then I made the decisions and could shape the program with my producing partner and director, Dean Alioto. From then on I made it a part of my writing contracts to have some additional capacity on a film whether it was producing or directing. Pretend you had never moved from Cleveland in your adolescence. What would you suggest for a writer who is STILL living in Cleveland and has no Hollywood contacts? Is it smart to try to make contacts via the Internet, submissions, etc. before moving, or is a leap of faith necessary? It’s probably a good idea to take some classes in your area, at a university extension or even one of the commercial classes, to get an idea what the reality of the situation is. Read "Written By," the monthly WGAw magazine, available in libraries. Write a spec script. Write another one. Write another one. When you get to where you think you’ve captured one show, write a spec for another. And rewrite it. Then get the list of WGA sanctioned agents from the guild and write a query letter. It may take awhile to get an agent, but if you live outside of LA there’s no other way. If you live in LA, do the same, only go to as many WGA and ATAS and Women in Film and any other organization’s open meetings and seminars. Network. Write. Network some more. Write some more. Go to tapings. Network. Write some more. What is something you wish you'd learned earlier in your career? How to kiss up properly without losing my own self respect. Still can’t do it right. Kiss up, that is. I also wish I’d begun earlier. Tell us about the Dime Novel Co.'s unique approach to publishing. One day I was riding my bike with a friend of mine and we were talking about my difficulty in getting a literary agent in New York to handle a mystery novel I’d written. My agent in LA doesn’t handle books, just film and TV, and she doesn’t have a contact in New York, so I was in the same position that thousands of other writers find themselves in. My friend suggested that I sell ads and print the novel like a magazine, then distribute it free like the LA Weekly. I thought that was a great idea, so I went to all the businesses I did business with, and visited over a hundred other businesses, until I’d sold enough ads to make the thing pay. Then I printed 10,000 copies, ran a PR campaign with help of a friend who was an expert, and gave them all away. Got some good press in LA, some in a few national mags, even the cover in the local paper. It got me some name recognition, which is important in Hollywood, but not much else. Still, I occasionally get a fan letter, which I dig. I published a sci fi novel, too, which was even more successful financially. I’m writing a follow-up to the first one, "Berns with an ‘E’", to be called "Rug Berns." I think I’ll go the traditional route on it, though. It takes a helluva lot of time to sell ads, and I have a lot more respect for small business owners now that I’ve been a publisher. What are some common mistakes you see pre-pro writers making? Mistake number one: talking about your story before writing it. Pre-pro writers talk it out, then there’s no need or compulsion to write it. Mistake number two: writing a pilot before writing spec scripts of existing shows. Really, you don’t know shit until you’ve written a score of existing shows. And, in reality, you haven’t got a hope in hell of selling that pilot until you’ve been working in television a few years. Mistake number three: saying you’re a writer before you’ve finished something. If you haven’t finished, you haven’t written. So finish the damn thing. Mistake number four: quitting your day job too soon. Believe me, it’s tough out there. Mistake number five: believing you can do it from Cleveland. You really can’t. Okay, maybe someone has done it, but there are 8500 members of the WGAw. How many live in Cleveland do you suppose? Anything else you'd like to add? Writers write. Then they rewrite. Then they write some more. Don’t talk about writing, write. Read as many film/TV scripts as you can. Check your library. If you live in LA, go to the WGAw or the ATAS library or AFI for scripts. Read only the best scripts. Learn structure; it’s more important than you think. Be ready to abandon structure, but only if you really dominate it first. Concentrate on your characters. Make them different. Make them speak differently. Please don’t do the same themes as you see in sitcoms ("Ya gotta be yourself," or "Everything is all right so long as we’re together in the end" – the two main sitcom themes). Write some more. |
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