But before I get to that, let me tell you about the first "spec script" I ever wrote! It was an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation I pecked out while I was in college (and the show was still on the air, you do the math if you care to figure out how old I am). After that I didn't write a script for 5 years.
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Thinking about it now for the first time in many years, I recall the STTNG script was pretty solid in concept if not execution. The Enterprise was tasked with transporting the most valuable work of art in the galaxy (too delicate to be transported, natch). Mid journey they get a distress signal from a damaged ship that is under the command of Riker's best pal from the Academy. They allow the crew on board and things go swell until it turns out that Riker's pal is actually the leader of a band of space pirates and they steal the sculpture and the Enterprise has to get it back. There was a big set piece in the third act where Worf has to make some incredible sacrifice (I don't remember the details) to save the sculpture even though Klingons have no time for that artsy shit. Riker feels like an idiot for trusting his pal, but Picard says something wise about the nature of friendship that I don't recall to make him feel better. The B-Story involved Data frying his circuits trying to understand why art was meaningful to humans. I have never written anything even remotely Sci-fi since then but it was fun
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After college (University of Texas at Austin, yee-haw) I moved to New York City (get a rope) and got a job as an advertising copywriter. I liked being an ad man. It was great fun, going to loft parties with photographers and directors and producers who pretended to like me in the hopes of getting me to convince my agency to give them work.
In my 20's I was a heavy drinker. I have never been a day-drinker and while the older guys at the firm would catch a drink or two during lunch, I prided myself on keeping my inebriation out of the office. The hangovers I brought with work to me 4 out of 5 days a week are another story for a post of their own. Mistakes were made.
But I digress.
While I was working in advertising, the spec boom of the early/mid 90's was REALLY taking off. It seemed very do-able. I got a copy of final draft 2.04 (I think this was the last necessary update of the software by the way) bought a couple of books on the subject and started writing. At first I was just farting around, but by 96 or so I got pretty serious about it. I was working on the craft and following the industry. When I would read about sales I would feel physically unwell. Why that guy and not me? Who thought that was a good idea for a movie? That antipathy fuelled me to keep writing.
(I don't feel that way about sales and writers these days. I chalk that weird anger up to youth and immaturity. But it motivated me to stick with it and get better.)
I'll talk about the first few specs I wrote in a later post and I will go into great depth about the few years I worked with a great writing partner doing live sketch comedy and making a nice go of it in animation in a separate post(s). For now I'm trying to get to this first sale very quickly. (Too late!)
In 1999 I wrote a spec script called KINGDOM COME UNDONE. Another project I will talk about at length at a later date. That script found its way through my agent to Steve, a young development exec/producer at Alcon entertainment and I got a general meeting (At LA Farm, one of the most meeting-y places in the thirty mile zone) and began a relationship with him.
Kingdom Come Undone didn't sell, but Steve liked my writing and after I quit my job in advertising to move to LA he gave me a job reading and doing coverage on scripts for Alcon. Another subject that deserves its own post. Also Steve is one of the best people I've ever met, in the industry or otherwise. A true friend to this day and a genuniely stand up guy.
While I was covering scripts for Steve I was writing specs and decided that instead of writing a script to sell, I'd write a script I could just go out and shoot myself. It would star people I knew, be set in a couple of locations. The entire goal was to be cheap and easy to shoot because I thought NO ONE would want to buy this little thing.
The concept for the film came from a single dialogue exchange I had typed while writing a sketch.
A: I'm on to you!
B: No you're not.
Doesn't seem like much, but out of that tiny antagonistic moment I spun what became THE WHOLE PEMBERTON THING (TWPT). Pembs is the story about a formerly successful dude who takes an entry level job in an office and gets terrorized by his new cubemate. It was by design very much a character driven film, not what's known as "high concept." I wrote Pemberton to be a wholly memorable antagonist, a bad guy you love to hate. A mad genius in a sweater vest. Someone you can dress up for on Halloween. An unrepentant dilletante. So while the "log line" of the film may not sound like much the characters and relationships were doing all the heavy lifting.
I showed the script to Steve asking for input and he flipped for it. We developed it a bit and after several months he was able to convince his bosses to buy it for a decent price.
Based on that sale, I got representation at one of the big agencies and my script became the hot one for that season. Everyone read it. This predated The Black List but I'm confident that had that list existed then I would have been near the top. That all went down right before the Christmas break in 02 and beginning the first week of January 2003 I had 12 general meetings a week lined up with some of the biggest names in the biz.
I should mention here that the first week of January 2003 was also when my son was born. Having a new child and new career at the exact same time is a source of a great many stories for future posts. This one is about as long as I want these things to run, so I'll leave it at that.
Quick summary of how I sold my first big spec script:
- Wrote spec scripts in between work and drinking
- Got agent
- Agent got spec script to young, hungry producer
- Established relationship with producer
- Worked for producer
- Showed him a different script
- Developed it with him
- Bought by his company
I'd probably been writing specs in earnest for 5 years at that point. I'd picked up work in animation along the way which gave me the momentum to continue pursuing it.
Ta-da.
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