#72 An Unlikely White Knight

I was new at DIC. I’d written some scripts, hired on as an assistant story editor, moved up to story editor shortly after, and now Howard was figuratively and literally blocking my path. I’ve never allowed anyone to intimidate me. So after Howard asked “How was your little meeting?” I said, “What’s your problem?”

He snarled, “My problem is you threatening to blacklist writers unless they show up for a meeting.”

I defended, “We’re behind schedule. We need to get back on track.”

Lori walked up behind Howard and said, “Let’s not get into a pissing contest, boys.”

We turned as Andy approached next, with, “Who’s in a pissing contest?”

Howard replied, “No pissing contest, Andy. I just don’t like it when someone gets too big for his britches.”

Andy leveled a gaze at Howard. “Neither do I. Or maybe you’ve forgotten where you were at when I brought you to DIC…”

Howard frowned. I watched him deflate and slink off.

People say Andy’s a tough businessman. Some say he’s ruthless; a few say heartless. Well, you have to be tough in this business, and at times ruthless and maybe even heartless.

But I know at least two times when Andy showed empathy, compassion and generosity. I became aware of one after Lori told me Howard’s story, and what Andy had done about it. Another was years later when he demonstrated ‘empathy, compassion and generosity’ at a time when I badly needed it. But that’s another story.

Who would have thought Andy Heyward would turn out to be a White Knight?

#71 A Big Fish out of Water

With all two hundred and fifty-odd pounds of him standing in front of me, Howard Cohen seemed too big for the DIC studio hallway. I suspect he liked it that way.

Howard was an enigma. As he stood half-blocking my way, I understood why Lori trailed off when she mentioned Howard’s name to me. He was tough to describe.

Chilon of Sparta, one of the circa 600 B.C. Seven Sages of Greece, advised, “Don’t speak ill of the dead,” the humanist position being that while deceased aren’t here to defend themselves, there might be karmic repercussions if you trash talk them. W

ell, Howard has long left this earthly plane, but I don’t think he’d mind me talking about him. He was, I’m sure Howard would agree, one of the most pompous people I’d ever know, often to the point of it being amusing. I think Howard liked being pompous.

Webster’s defines ‘pompous’ as “having a feeling of superiority.” Howard didn’t have a “feeling” of superiority. He was convinced he was superior. And in some ways he was.

He had more entertainment industry credentials than anyone at DIC when the studio was launched. Beginning in 1972, Howard carved a career as a writer-director, directing nine films, three with low budget genius producer Roger Corman. His writing credits included screenplays for the shoestring budget films Saturday the 14th, Space Raiders, Cover Girls Model, The Young Nurses and the ‘immortal’ Vampire Hookers.

Laugh, but in Hollywood selling a screenplay, let alone getting the film made, is like parting the Red Sea, which, of course, was why Howard was sneering at me, flabby arms folded over his chest, asking “How did your little meeting go?”

#70 Getting the full treatment…

A treatment is a detailed outline for an entire episode in television or an entire film in the motion picture industry. It includes every scene, lots of action descriptions and camera angles and, depending on the writer, quite a bit of dialog.

It’s the hardest part of writing for television or motion pictures. But having a fully developed treatment makes writing a script go much faster and more cohesively because you have a map and a blueprint of where you’re going and how to get there

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Many new writers make a critical mistake in skipping the treatment phase of writing, instead rushing from writing a springboard right into writing the script in the vain hope they can flush a short springboard into an entire script.

While I’m not going to go into it here, all – I mean all – successful television and movie scripts have to follow the classic three act structure. It’s a structure that goes back to Greek plays right up to episodes of Heathcliff & The Catillac Cats, Hello Kitty’s Furry Tale Theater, Friends, Seinfeld, Harry Potter and – yes – The Velvet Queen and Beavis and Butt-head Do the Universe. And that three-act structure needs to be a part of the treatment.

But along with following the classic three-act structure, every once in a while when writers are alone and staring at a blank page, something special happens. We pick up a magic wand and pixie dust flies. Taking a two or three sentence springboard and somehow expanding it to a ten or fifteen or twenty page full treatment is like that.

It’s wonderful. It’s also draining.