Research:

Nothing is more important. Watch a lot of current movies or at least track them. Find out what kind of story is making money and what isn’t. What actor is hot and what they are looking for, or well suited for. If the screens are crammed with a slew of sci-fi flicks, avoid them like the plague, by the time you are done, it will be a cold trail to nowhere. Look for a genre that has done well in the past and has been under-represented of late.

Better still, find a staple. Certain genres work over and over. Specially for first timers, a good thriller with a brain teaser of a plot, some action and subtle sex, tends to work. I never heard of an executive saying they were "not" looking for a good one of those. Also, the good thing about this genre is, that if you strike out with the studios with a big budget version, it is always easy to tone the project down and get it made by an indie for a lot less money. So at least you are not left in the cold.

Be careful with comedies. Whilst everyone thinks they are funny, there are only a handful of writers, directors and actors who can do them well (James Brooks, Baballoo Mandel & Lowell Ganz, Adam Sandler…). What may crack you up will leave the guy the next door catatonic. If I had a buck for every script I read where the scribe thought he was a Monty Python, I’d be rich, retired and counting votes in Florida. Unless you have a major track record in making people laugh- don’t do it!

Do not think that because you watched 10 back to back episodes of "NYPD Blue" you know anything about police procedural in NYC. You don’t! Do not fake it. You want to write about cops in New York, hang out with them. Don’t hang out with LA cops if you want to write New York! Different experience.

I was talking to Michael Cimino a while back, he had just spent the night hanging out with Oliver Stone in the back of a black and white in downtown L.A. And that’s guys with that level of experience! Cops are full of great stories, plus they like to show off some, call’em! Same with district attorneys, psychiatrists…. There’s a former lawyer by the name of David Kelly making a lot of money.

Try to find something you feel will become topical. When I represented Andrew Niccol he was getting into genetic engineering, "people playing God". It wasn’t a major topic back then, but he gambled that by the time he was finished with the script it would be, and that gave us GATTACA. The same line of research, dealing with the god complex in a more metaphoric sense, also led him to write and produce THE TRUMAN SHOW.

If you have hit a creative dry spell, surf the net! Read newspapers till it hurts, see if some event that went down in, let’s say South Africa, cannot be transposed into New Orleans. But be careful, do not violate any other writer’s copyright! There are paragraphs in Shakespeare with enough story and conflict to make a dozen movies. That old cliché about writing about what you know about, does hold up. But then again, how many of us lead exciting enough lives that will make some studio put down $80 Million to put it on the screen!? We have to research!

My advice is, find a visually striking setting, something we have not seen before, create some novel characters and then ask some serious, topical questions. For instance some years ago I represented a very talented writer with a serious background in politics as a campaign manager. This guy really knew his stuff. The question that intrigued him was, if you had a lot of money, a LOT, could you go about "purchasing the US presidency?" . His answer was: "yes". So he came up with this plot about the Chinese buying their way into the White House. Sound familiar? Trouble is, all those enlightened individuals at the studios thought "it would never happen". We peaked too soon!

If your research involves interviewing people, using stories they have told you… ALWAYS get either a release from them (i.e. their consent for you to do this without any compensation) or do a brief contract, basically one or two pages, in which you clearly set out what they are "giving you" and what they are getting in return.

If in doubt, surf the net, go to a bookstore. If rich, contact a lawyer. This is CRUCIAL. Whenever you sign an option or sales contract, you are required to guarantee the studio etc. that you own all rights to the story, that there are no leans on it, no litigation pending etc. And if you lie (or make a mistake) they will hold you liable for any consequences.

If a law suit against you has legs, in that there is reasonable doubt about your honesty, it can wipe you out and put you in bankruptcy.

You have no idea how many people will come out of the woodwork once you have written a successful movie. They guy you sat next to in the library! There are legions of shyster lawyers who know that studios often tend to settle law suits rather than let them drag out and pile up the legal fees they have to fork out. Having been involved in a few of these (defending the good guys!), I have seen it happen.

So create a well documented, detailed paper trail. Note what books you have consulted, what articles you read, who you spoke to and when… It’s like an insurance policy. The cliché about two things being certain, death and paying taxes, needs to be amended. If you are successful in Hollywood, you will get sued. So do the studio legal department a favor and do your homework.

Next week’s topic: "Creating great characters and then setting them free, versus creating a great story, then finding characters that will play it out".

The other usual suspects at WriteMovies.com and I, will cover other subjects in the following weeks, including: "Must know legalese: from registering your script, to what to look for in a lawyer and contract loopholes"." Why the system is dominated by scared people looking for a reason to say: "no!" ". And other wonderful topics to arm you in fighting the good fight and winning it.

Fraternally,

Alex Ross.