BPS 058: Confessions of a Hollywood Script Doctor with Peter Douglas Russell

Alex Ferrari 0:36
I'd like to welcome to the show Peter Russell. Man, thank you so much for being on the show my friend.

Peter Douglas Russell 3:55
Thank you, Alex. Big fan. I think that you've got the whole Joe Rogan thing going. I really think I see great things ahead.

Alex Ferrari 4:05
I appreciate it, sir. I appreciate it. Now, how did you get started in the business?

Peter Douglas Russell 4:11
Well, I was a theater director in New York, in New York City. And I was doing really well. And then I went to a Broadway show and I saw what the directors were making even though they were on Broadway but they didn't have hits and I realized I was going to be poor my whole life and so and I was getting married and my wife wanted to move to LA she's from LA I said well let's let's go out to LA because I don't think theater is gonna ever make I'm never gonna be able to buy a house

Alex Ferrari 4:43
so then so then you said screenwriting that's that's where the money is.

Peter Douglas Russell 4:49
To get rich quick scheme is screenwriting yet rich in 30 years. Yeah, exactly. Or get rich never and live off security. Yeah, that's You know that but yes, you're right. But that but of course, and then I'm an idiot like every other idiot and decided to go out here and then I I lied my way into a job for CBS working closer into into Kupo, who was a brilliant, brilliant producer of what back in the 90s was what was saving CVS, which were the movies of the week that they had, which was the thing that and CBS was completely in the toilet. And this suit was she's an amazing genius of music. We made 80 movies a year close to it. And which is more than all the studios made? Granted, they were $3 million movies. And still, yeah, it may take six weeks. But I learned from her what commercial story was and how powerful commercial cinematic story is. And of course, it was a genre who was called the it's called the men are no damn good. Movie. That's that's what we call those stories. Men are no damn good movies. So like,

Alex Ferrari 6:05
it's a lifetime, basically. So lifetime. Yeah,

Peter Douglas Russell 6:07
yeah, it was, in fact, lifetime. They took away the business eventually. And a lot of the execs hopped from CBS to lifetime. But by then, Les Moonves was there. And CBS is really coming back. But I learned just how to quickly I was a script reader. And I learned how to quickly assess story. And I learned a lot about what makes great film story, because movies were everything then. And then I started doing these notes. And then these notes, I did script coverage, and then people would read it. And then the people were making a movie would read it, the director and they say, Hey, you know, this is really good. These notes are great. So what we got this problem you said and third acts, so what should we do? And I just started calmly, confidently telling them what to do. I didn't know. But I sort of got a knack for it. So then I started getting paid for my notes. And then I decided this is better than working at Costco. And if I can get paid for these notes, Damn, that's fantastic. And so I started doing notes for directors and writers. I'm doing film. And within about me, it wasn't quick. It took me like five years. And I worked as a script reader while I was doing this too. So I worked as a script reader for imagine, I worked for Brian Grazer, and Ron Howard. They were amazing, amazing teachers, an amazing just geniuses at what they do. And I worked for Brian doing Pete and Brian was an amazing guy. He, he if he's interested in something, he'll just buy all the books on it. You want to Einstein series, and eventually he did, right. But one of the things he decided he wanted to learn about was was quantum physics. So he got me to read several books on quantum physics now I'm an English major, right? So, you know, I'm basic math at Ralph's. You know, that's it, I can't even do that. So but I had to boil down these quantum physics books into into coverage. And I learned a lot. But he would, he would commission, and I learned a lot about movie story from him and TV surfing, remember he, he was an omnivore he would he would learn everything about a subject that he was interested in. And he had a Ron bass was going to do the movie script on onset. And eventually his thing became what's now on, I think, National Geographic, which is a series of television series, Einstein. But it was a long process. And I just got to watch, and also participate in his creation machine, which is an amazing thing to see. Because he was just, he's a, he wants to learn everything about anything that interests him. And then it eventually comes out in the story. So it was a great lesson in how you want to how your story gets informed by every piece of information about it that you can find. And I think it's why later on I got interested in historical stories in this miniseries that I just did on jack Johnson was also a historical figure, jack Johnson was the first African American heavyweight champion of the world. And I read everything I could get my hands on about him. Because, you know, Brian Grazer was sort of the guy who showed me, this is what you do, and your story will be so much more interesting if you know, all this information. So anyway, so long story even way longer. I started doing that and then eventually about, I guess, 12 years ago, I started going Writing for film for screenwriters, and I no credit and, and that's often still how I work. I get paid, I get money, I don't get credit. I'm not even in the W GA, although I want to be. And that's going to be a stipulation, I think of a couple of jobs I have coming up. I'd like to actually get in the W ga instead. And there's no real easy way to do that if you don't have your name on the scripts. But so for the last 10 or 12 years, I've done a lot of ghosting for a lot of screenwriters want help?

Alex Ferrari 10:38
So let me let me stop there for a second that I I've heard of, I mean, obviously ghost writers in novels. And I've heard of, you know, script doctors, which we're going to go a little bit deeper into script codes in a second. But I've never actually heard of a script doctor screenwriters script, a ghostwriter script, a screenwriter, like, like, are you writing full blown scripts? Or are you just taking other people's scripts and then really doing the bulk of the writing and then they get to put their name on it?

Peter Douglas Russell 11:06
It's all all of that. Sometimes. Yeah, sometimes it's someone who's gotten three drafts of a big screenplay or television now, which is, obviously a lot of my work now is TV. But they haven't, they'll have three drafts, they've done a lot of work on it, but they want it to be better. So I'll come in, and I'm essentially in those situations. I'm giving a lot of notes. And I'm actually helping them realize their vision. I don't go Okay. Well, I think this character ought to do this, this, this and this, and he's not getting I think we need storyline here. That's something I've learned that often, screenwriters, especially fairly successful ones don't really want you to do. They've got their own vision and use or you sort of, are there to, to deepen their vision and to really understand what they want. Now at the same time, often what happens is, I'll say, Well, what if we had them do this? And then they'll say, Yeah, that's great. And I love that idea for a scene. And I love this idea for a scene. And then sometimes you find yourself writing complete new storylines, but it's always in service to their vision. And if you lose that idea, you can run into trouble because they don't want you to create a whole nother story. It's not like you guys are writing partners, they want their vision, but better. But then there's also and this happens a lot with beginning writers and I work with beginning writers to, especially if they if they hire me, I'm you know, I'm, I will work for money. And often, people that are beginning, they do want to really sort of be shown what works. And they they really want my ideas. But there's all sorts of variations in that as well. Sometimes. They really want their vision still on the screen, but then I'm teaching them because I am a teacher. You know, I've been a teacher at UCLA since 2003. So I do and I'm a very good teacher, I'm probably a better teacher than writer To tell you the truth. I'm still feel like my writing is, it's certainly not the equal of great screenwriters. I have sold projects in the last several years under my own name. But and that's a great advance for me, but I don't feel like I'm anywhere near the kind of writer that, you know, like, Craig Mazin just did this Chernobyl. I mean, you watch Chernobyl, and you just go, Wow, I you know, that guy's on a different level. He's just, he's just amazing. So I, I'm very humble about my writing talents. It's taken me a very long time to sell. And I, I also, I also know, and it's always difficult to to tell people this or not, this is always a dance I do when I've got a, someone who's interested in doing this. What do you tell them? You tell them? do you encourage them? Or do you tell them the Absolute Truth? It's, it's a dance, because, you know, I've done this for 20 years, and I'm only now really getting some success as a writer myself. You know, john wells said that he wished when he started out and of course, john was probably one of the greatest show runners of all time. You know, does all kinds of fantastic stuff. Just I just saw his last season of animal kingdom, which he just pinned a lot of episodes himself. She's unbelievable. Uh, he taught he said he wished somebody told him when he started out how long it was going to take. Yeah, because I get people and you don't really want when you got total newbies, and they said, Well, you know, I'm gonna in six months I'm going to have this done. So I would go Yeah, that's fantastic. Yes, yes, you got to aim for that. You got to go for that. But the truth is that most of the time, it takes many, many years. before you're any good. And obviously, if you're a super Shakespeare genius, that's not true. But I only know one guy who sat down in a coffee shop, he was a comic. He sat down in a coffee shop and the first thing he wrote got sold. I know one guy who did that. And I don't know, and then I know a lot of writers and none of them did that.

Alex Ferrari 15:35
Okay, so it's rare on both sides of the camera like it's you know, it's on on for for actors to be a blowout success right away or for a director to be a blowout success or producer. It's those are called lottery tickets. It happens once in a while, like I had john August on the show the other day, and john doesn't look so how was it? Were you know, was it really tough? It was, you know, it was lucky my first script got sold. And it but it doesn't happen. It just generally doesn't happen. I think you're completely right. I I fall into the same world with independent filmmakers and even screenwriters would where I tell them this is a long game, you cannot think this is gonna, I've got a five year plan. I'm like, you're done. Like that. That's not enough time.

Peter Douglas Russell 16:20
Yeah, that's a five year plan to get me one place, but not all the way. Well, yeah. I mean, it's mean, you mentioned john August. I mean, he's, you know, he and Craig Mazin have an amazing podcast. And, um, yeah, he's super talented. I mean, I direct my students to him for just last week for some of his dialogue lessons. I mean, so yeah, a guy like that, you know, I don't put myself in that league. at all, as a writer, it was a painful, long process for me to even get where I am now, as a writer, and I just think I'm still a baby. I really am. Especially when it comes to TV. Because TV is a complex beast. And it's, it's where so much of my work is now it's so much more most of Hollywood's work is now although movies are coming back. But um, so when you're doing television, and you're handling four or five, six storylines. Yeah, I just my head explodes. It's such a complex form. So I yeah, it's, it's, I guess, if you're a super genius, like john Auguste, or this guy that I'm not going to mention, because I have, he hasn't told me I could tell him anybody about this, this comic guy who sold this, and he's very successful. And he just sat down and wrote it, but 99% of the very successful writers that I know, took a long time to do it. But yeah, there's exceptions. You know, Nancy pimental, who's an amazing writer on shameless. You know, Nancy was a comic and, and she just, you know, she heard her rise, you know, she doesn't sweat it, she just sort of writes it out. And the other thing I've noticed about people and I don't think Nancy would mind me telling the story about her. Nancy was a comic and but she's a stand up comic. And those guys always are super talented, super genius people they're just to do that requires so much. But she she got she sold a movie off of I think it was off of a pitch. And it was and it sold for an astonishing amount of money. This is before the big crash in 2008. And and sold for like a lot of money because that's when movie specs were just flying off the shelf people would enormous amount. And then these three brilliant actresses top named actresses, you know them all. They all they even moved into Nancy's house because they were all going to be in the script. And they hung out with her and they did and, and the script had insanely great buzz. And when they were filming, it was like, This is the next thing and you know, fantastic is going to be amazing. And all these actresses were talking about interviewing about and then the movie came out. And it was a huge bomb. And, and the critics were were just vicious about it. Now me I would have crawled into my bathroom with you know, with a bunch of heroin I wouldn't have come out for you.

Unknown Speaker 19:19
Right.

Peter Douglas Russell 19:20
Nancy had a party. And she invited everybody over to her house and the end to read these reviews and to watch movies and she just laughed about them. And and then she went and you know and then she she just started writing her next thing the next day

Alex Ferrari 19:35
because she's a stand up comic. She stand up comics has a diff they have a different resiliency. to that because it day and I know a lot of stand up comics. I've worked with a lot of high high profile stand up comics in my career. And they, they there's a there's a special kind of animal like to get up on stage with a microphone and basically have to you're very voice, your ability is the only thing that's going to make them laugh. And things even the biggest, most successful comics of all time. All have bomb nights. They've all had bomb situations that day. But they get used to it because it's day in day out every night and that made that makes perfect sense makes perfect. That's a great,

Peter Douglas Russell 20:20
you're absolutely right. I hadn't thought about that. But you're right. They they're in the fire. They're in the fire every night. And yes, they get they get humiliated horribly where Yeah, actors, writers, and we think humiliation to second hand or whatever, they don't really get scalded?

Alex Ferrari 20:35
It's not in their face. It's not in their face, like like a crack. Right?

Peter Douglas Russell 20:38
That's right. I have never done stand up. And you know, I think everybody who hasn't done stand up who thinks they're funny? They have that fantasy that Yeah, they say it's really hard. But I know if I got up there, I know. And I think that I that is the siren song of disaster. Right? And I still have that in my head. I gotta secretly admit I do. It's like, Well, you know what, I'd be different. I'd get up there. I'd be the one guy who I've never done before I would kill I just know I would kill. And you know, what would happen if I got out? It would be the biggest fucking sorry, the biggest disaster in history. It would be I'd be humiliated. Oh, yeah, my face would be made fun of like, all my secret horrible embarrassments. People would shout them out, you know, you know, that's what would happen. But you

Alex Ferrari 21:25
know, the funny thing is, I was directing a comedy special for a comic friend of mine. And we were doing rehearsals before the audience came in. And I stood up on stage and grabbed the mic so we can get some lighting. You know, I was doing a stand in. And I was I was looking out at empty seats, empty seats. And I'm like, Oh, hell no, like this. This is terrifying. Like, and I'm a I'm an outgoing guy. I can I can spit ball. I'm great. In a room, you get me in front, you know, at a party, get me a corner with five or 10 people. I'll have them on the floor crying. But this is I've worked with enough stand up to understand the technical aspects of their storytelling, how they do it, how they deliver the timing of it. It is it is such a brutal, brutal, and you've got to be kind of nuts to do it as a general statement.

Peter Douglas Russell 22:18
Oh, I think I'm fascinated by them. I think they're great. And I'm going to have to do it someday, just so I get that full, horrible experience that I know is coming to me that I dare to have the secret tiny little snuggery hope you know, the

Alex Ferrari 22:32
audacity Sir,

Peter Douglas Russell 22:33
you have the audacity, I know I'd be punished horribly for it. You know, I've always thought it'd be fun to just have 20 guys like me, these arrogant twits who think they can do it. Just get up there and give them three minutes and film it. I think the humiliation level might be compelling to watch. But you know, no.

Alex Ferrari 22:52
Do you know how much three minutes is that? Oh,

Peter Douglas Russell 22:57
yeah, one minute, you know, and yeah, I think that would be all you'd need. Yeah, maybe all you could stand me add to stay out three minutes that might be part of the horrible fun of it is they had to stay out there even if you were being eviscerated. But yeah, I think that comics. And the thing about Nancy is that she's so funny, and she's such a brilliant writer, and she's done so much great stuff on shameless. But she just didn't. I mean, I admired the balls of someone who, who could just get those kinds of horrible reviews and go forward I don't even like I can't even stand table reads I have to take tranquilizers to have somebody you know I I'm even when I've got the final draft, you know, voice up where they do the dog. I don't even want to hear that. So I can't stand being having my stuff bomb. I can't even stand watching it at a table read. So I've got some work to do on myself.

Alex Ferrari 23:57
Now, you obviously are a script doctor and you've done a lot of script doctoring. Can you kind of really explain to the audience specifically what a script doctor does and and in China kind of shine a light on the whole sub like this not sub genre. But the the, the there's a there's a very cultural subculture of script doctors that run throughout Hollywood that do a lot of a lot of heavy lifting that people just don't really know about. I know personally, multiple big names screenwriters, who have big scripts under their belt, but they have maybe three that been pop that have been produced, but they never stopped working. Like they're always script doctoring or taking this assignment constantly. So can you kind of touch upon that a little bit so people understand.

Peter Douglas Russell 24:49
Yeah, underworld. Yeah, the best way to describe it as I talked to the can't think of his name, but he's really good guy over at the W GA. About a year ago, I ran into any and we taught. And he goes, Oh, yeah, I said, he said, we don't, you know, we don't really have an official category for you guys. And he was kind of laughing. And I said, Well, you should I mean, if you want more dues, you know, we should be able to be in the WETA story doctors. And he goes, the problem he says, is that the writers wouldn't like it. He says, because you know that and they don't want. Sometimes they don't want to acknowledge that, you know, they didn't write the script. And even if just a story by credit it you know, it can rankle them. And so we there aren't enough for you guys to to put up that new category, compared to the source we'd get from the writers about it. Now, most a lot of writers aren't antagonistic about it, but they can be insecure about it and not wanting to share credit. So what they tend not to shocking, sir

Alex Ferrari 25:51
shocking.

Peter Douglas Russell 25:52
Yeah, shocking. insecurity in Hollywood, but what they tend to want to do then is pay you. And so what you get into is a bit of a Faustian bargain. Well, it's not really bostian, because it's actually pleasurable. And I don't think you sell your soul, maybe you do, maybe it is fosston, because it does delay your development as a as a screenwriter yourself, because you don't get credit, but they pay it tend to pay you a good amount of money to help them. And then but you don't get a credit, you don't get your name on the thing. So

Alex Ferrari 26:25
any, any residuals or any benefits or any of the spotlight,

Peter Douglas Russell 26:29
you don't even have, you know, no health insurance, because none of the W GA. So what I'm going to do in the next couple of years is I am going to take less money for what I do, just so I can get a credit so I can actually get on the books somewhere. So there isn't sort of a surreptitious, furtive quality to script doctoring. It's a little bit shameful in a way.

Alex Ferrari 26:53
It's like a dirty, it's like Hollywood's dirty little secret in a lot of ways. Well, it's

Peter Douglas Russell 26:57
it's one of the cleanest dirty secrets.

Alex Ferrari 26:59
Very true, sir. Very true.

Peter Douglas Russell 27:01
But yeah, but yes, in a sense, we are kind of a horse in that sense. Come in, you get a and we leave, and we leave. And you know, no strings attached. No acknowledgement May, which I think keeps it underground. But it scores, doctors are fine with that, again, because the money can be very good. But it is when you if you want me to talk about what I actually do. It's really as varied as let's say you have a regular doctor, and he sees 10 people in a day. Well, he's going to do something different for every one of those persons, because they're all sick. But they all have different things wrong with them. But then of course, you can begin to see patterns there too. So there are things that are usually wrong with scripts. And you do look for symptoms. It's almost like you are a doctor, you can sometimes someone just walks in and the way they walk, you know, okay, well, I think I know what that is. or then you have to do X rays or CAT scans. And I have several tools for that as well. So I will, I will, I often asked, I often put the screenplay into a synopsis form, because I like to see the bone structure of the story. And often the bone structure of the story is wrong. And if the bone structure is wrong, then everything else is wrong. But bone structure, I mean, things like

storyline structure, what the characters do, it's often not right. So how do I know that? It's not right? What am I comparing this cat scan to? What's the ideal script? ideal story? Well, there are wonderful, wonderful scripts, and I've read probably 5000 to 6000 features. I counted it up last year, I think about 6500 features I've read in synopsize because I was just I was a script reader for 10 years, which is way longer than you should do it. Most people do it for a year or two and then they go into the business. Well, I was too stupid to do that. I just just kept reading more scripts. And then I've read several 1000 television scripts two of those. I've sort of distilled what what is what's good and what's bad. And believe it that the best scripts share certain traits almost always, no matter what the genre, no matter what the subject, and I'm not talking about French movies that don't follow Hollywood structure. Those are obviously out of my purview. You know, I love Godard, but he's doesn't follow commercial structure. You know, and and though that's great that he doesn't, but Hollywood does. Because Hollywood has to sell Hollywood has to sell to people all around the world. Hollywood doesn't have to ingratiate itself with film festivals, or have political connections like so many European countries have so that it isn't real whether or not you can sell tickets that gets you your movie. It's You know, on a film commission or who, or who you can get the money from politically, you know, those are, those are great models for filmmaking. But Hollywood is commercial. And so you have to sell tickets. So there, there are models that help you sell tickets. And by the way, I think selling tickets is the ultimate test of a great story. I mean, Shakespeare had to sell tickets. I think the reason Hollywood is so great, frankly, and I think Hollywood is great, the best movies are great. The best in the world is that we have to sell tickets, we are not just trying to please a group of judges or a literary committee or a political committee, we have to sell tickets. And yes, you can say, Well, that makes you a whore of China, whatever. And it does, but it also creates the very best movies, I think, the very best movies in the world. A lot of them are Hollywood, commercial films. So I've studied what those structures are. And they're fascinating, because they're not things that amateurs understand. These structures are actually really cool. And when I was just a professor at UCLA, starting 2003, I started showing these structures in class. And, and, and I became pretty successful. I was teacher a year there, I'm really proud of that, because I had these, I would. And that's all I really did is I showed these patterns that I'd found in film and television. Now, I thought that was really cool back then. But I was still approaching things academically. When I started applying all these patterns to my work, or to the work that I've started to get hired to do. I found that some of them were brilliant, and helped me a lot to actually create story. Some of them were more film theory and academic. So that was fascinating to see as well. So anyway, as a story, Doctor, I've got these ideas of what makes a healthy, great body of story. And then I take an X ray of your body or story, and I go, Oh, you know, your bones out of alignment, you know, your femur doesn't hook up with your buba you know, and that can be you know, if you don't have a core wound for your hero, you don't have proper reflector characters in your story. You don't have a good theme, you don't know where you're going in two of your storylines. They don't pay off, you know, 1000s of things like that, where I diagnosed those.

Alex Ferrari 32:24
Can you actually can you actually put to rest because I think a lot of variable especially first time screenwriters and even people who've been trying to get their stuff made for a long time, they fall into this camp of like, well, structure is going to take all the creativity out of this and it's going to be very formulaic, and I'm not gonna write like that. And I've yelled at screenwriters, often I'm like, Dude, it's just, it's like a frame of a house. All houses have frames, but not all houses are the same. But you still need framing, you still need a structure.

Peter Douglas Russell 33:02
I like the frame metaphor. I have one too, which is that Hollywood commercial structure is like a vanity license plate. Okay. When when you see a vanity license plate. The reason it's funny is that it's a limited form. It's a limited Canvas, right. But the canvas actually dictates the humor. In other words, you see a guy driving a Porsche around and his license plate. I think you get a words

Alex Ferrari 33:33
in letters. Yeah.

Peter Douglas Russell 33:35
And his license plate says three inches. Okay. So that's, that's funny, right?

Unknown Speaker 33:41
That's hilarious.

Peter Douglas Russell 33:42
It's funny. Now imagine that the license plate could be 10 feet long. And it says instead of three inches, it says, I'm driving this portion because I don't have a large penis. Right? That's not funny. Right? So you actually had more room to write something? But there's no entertainment to it. Yeah. Commercial form is a limiting form. You must in a movie. It's got can't be longer than two hours unless you James Cameron or Scorsese, or Peter Jackson. Yeah, right, Peter Jackson. But the exceptions prove the rule. And it can't be. It's got to have three acts. It's got to please the audience at certain points. It has to do those things. The genius of it really is figuring out how to write within that very limited form. Something that delights people almost precisely because it's limited.

Alex Ferrari 34:40
Like a high school like almost like a haiku.

Peter Douglas Russell 34:41
Yes, just like a hike. So commercial form is necessarily limited. But within those limits is where you show your genius. It's like I made a ship in a bottle, right? Well, if you made the ship out of the bottle, big deal, you know, anybody can do that. So you've got to follow This commercial form, but I find that sort of a delightful puzzle. Now having said that, you know, I used to be friends with Blake Snyder, who wrote save the cat and Blake was a genius. But Blake knew God bless him that his book save the cat was not sufficient to make to write a great movie, because he didn't have any say about character. He didn't have anything to say about huge portions of what it takes to make a great movie. He had a structure. Yeah, and you can follow a structure exactly, I have something called the bmrc structure, which all my students know about. But it's it's sort of like the 30 6090. But but I think it's cool. But anyway, you can do all that you can follow a structure and, and like your folks say, Oh, my God, you can make such a boring movie, you can have a perfect VMO you can have a perfect structure and make a terrible, terrible movie, you see it all the time. But most of the time, you don't. If you eat most of the time, you have a lousy structure, and it makes a lousy movie. But I tell people if they're starting to write, don't worry too much about structure at all. Do a vomit draft, right exactly out what you think you want your story to be about. Just write it all out. Write it out, don't worry about Oh my God, I've got 30 pages for the end of the first act, I've got to have a cliffhanger here. I've got to do this. write it all out. Write it a couple of times, I'll forget about anything. Don't write from a rulebook, you'll kill yourself. And then when you're sort of run out of steam, and your your movie or your TV show is on the page, one or two things will happen. One, you'll be that one in a million. Who goes oh, well, it's perfect. Here I go. You'll be john August, or you'll be this guy. I was talking about Craig Wright, but 99.9% of you. And by the way, these are the people that are going to make it these are these are really smart, talented people. 99.9% of them will be like, Oh, well, this is really just a heap of shit. And I've gone now I've got to make it better. And that's when you start looking at it and going okay, well, I'm going to ask you some questions. And the question is going to lead you to maybe make get excited about this guy, or get excited about this setting or get excited about this portion of it? Well, you did a really good job. These people are really funny in this scene, so let's explore who they were and what they are. And then you'll start going okay, yeah, yeah, then, and you'll get really excited about the story by my questions, or by the questions of anybody, you collaborate with her the reactions you get from them, and then you start going, Okay, wow, well, I want this to happen here. And that's going to have consequences here. And by the way, then you're doing structure, then you're then you're working on structure. And but here's, here's the truth, you're going to be rewriting this thing 4050 6070 times. And that's another sort of hard truth that it can be hard to tell the beginner about, because every beginner me included wanted to be john August, we all want to be the guy who just sits down, writes it out, you know, you buy a book, like one of those great books you can get in the bookstore on Amazon. Now it says things like, you know, write your screenplay, you know, while you masturbate, you know, write

Alex Ferrari 38:31
a screenplay in 30 days, or something like that.

Peter Douglas Russell 38:33
Yeah. Or you're in 15 minutes, I saw one that said something that you can write your they implied, you can write your script, while you are on a break at the office, right? Get get getting a drink from a cooler. And it's very attractive. And some of these people have a lot of really valuable things to tell you once you get that book. But the book title is bullshit. I'm sorry. Sorry. The book title is Bs, right? It's it just, you know, unless you're the one and literally 20 million, you're gonna have to work hard to get your script in shape. And you're gonna have to write it a whole bunch of times. And that's when structure comes in. That's when storyline when character when premise when all this stuff that I make a living doing comes into play. But yes, start from inspiration. Don't start from a rulebook, I think you'd kill yourself, and it doesn't work. So many of the tools I use won't work for you. You have to, I've got like 50 tools, and I see people come in and pick them up, and they'll go, Okay, I really love this one. I think this will happen and that doesn't really help. And then there'll be another one that they pick up like, Oh my God, this has helped me so much. So everybody's different, but you are gonna have to eventually structure your story whether it's instinctive or not. You will have to structure your story because it is a commercial art form.

Alex Ferrari 40:00
Now what is the biggest mistake? You see first time screenwriters make? I mean, you have read 6500 screenplays, I'm assuming you've seen a couple of patterns of mistakes.

Peter Douglas Russell 40:11
Well, the beginning script writer has a completely different problem than the professional. The biggest problem beginning screenwriters have doesn't have anything to do with what's what's on the page, it has to do what's in their head. And it is what we just said, they, they, I often feel like I'm more of a psychotherapist, than I am a writing guide for sometimes people that start out, because when they get that crushing realization that this is not going to happen in two months. That the story that they are, we're pretty sure And believe me, I sympathize with this enormously. I had it too when I was a young guy. The idea that in two months, I'm going to sell this and I'm going to be in Malibu, you know, and that and that motivates you. And I love that it motivates you. And you know, maybe that one in 20 million, you're gonna win that lottery ticket, and you're gonna be that guy or that girl. But it's managing the disappointment of my clients or students. learning that this process will take years that I find is the biggest mistake that beginning screenwriters make. They don't they underestimate how long it's going to take. And then when they get a glimpse of how long it's going to take. They crumble. Oh, and maybe they and by the way, that can be a really wise move. Okay, they're like, you know what, I don't want to spend the next 10 years of my life, you know, with four roommates, who are all you know, doing Chinese gone at four in the morning, and, you know, and I'm here, because I got to work my messenger job, I don't want to do that. I'm going to go be a CPA, I'm going to have a nice life. I'm gonna have a house in Toronto. And and, you know,

Alex Ferrari 41:59
there'll be but there'll be miserable, I promise you.

Peter Douglas Russell 42:02
Yeah, well, you know, maybe they will I always open to wanting people to take the right path. But they gotta know that it's a warrior path. It's a path of Machito it is. It's tough. This is not, yeah, this is a path of Bushido, this is not your standard issue. This is like going to med school. This is like, this is like particle physics. You know, and people say people in Hollywood. And it's a cliche, that they're that they're there's a lot of dumb people in Hollywood who lucked into their success, and they just do a few lines and they have a meeting and then, you know, then they go to their house, and they're done for the day. I never run into smarter people than I have. And they're just as smart. As you know, I was in academia for a little while. They're very much smart as university professors are very much as smart as Wall Street guys. They're very much as smart as all the typical stud occupations that brag about how smart they are around the world. Hollywood is full of insanely smart people that to succeed. So it's its path of Bushido. Yeah, you're you're committing to a path where some of the most competitive people in the world are trying to do exactly what you're doing. And you've got to compete with them, and you got to compete with their product.

Alex Ferrari 43:24
Now, what I find funny too, is that unlike the doctors, the lawyers, the CPAs, you can go down a certain path and and when you graduate, most of the time you'll be able to find a job, you know, your doctors are pretty much set up to get a job, lawyers, you know, it might be a little harder, but generally speaking, if you're even halfway decent, you're gonna get you're gonna get a job somewhere. CPAs there's, God knows we need more CPAs in the world. So there's always always I mean, we always work but you can go to you can get a PhD in screenwriting story and mythology. It means absolutely nothing in this business.

Peter Douglas Russell 44:04
Because it's a commercial business look, right? Hollywood doesn't give a shit. I just sorry, doesn't give a crap about your credentials. Right, right. Is it not a crap. And when people say because I teach at UCLA and I love UCLA, where I teach because the school I teach at, you've got to be working in your field right now to teach screenwriting or story development. You have to be working now. You know, you can't have done it. 10 years ago, you can't just have an MFA from film school and you decided you're going to teach at UCLA entertainment division Extension School, you've got to be working in your field right now to teach how to make a movie or television show and for me, that is great. That's why I love UCLA. Because you're actually getting it from people who have to do it. And so I think it's a people that is often asked me Should I go to film school and that That's, of course, a loaded question. Sometimes you should, if you've got rich parents or you're wealthy, and you want to learn a lot about film and maybe meet some people you're going to work with in the future. Absolutely, you can go to film school, it's going to cost you probably a couple $100,000. To do so, unless you're very lucky and give us a full scholarship. And that can be extraordinary. And I know that USC is great, UCLA is great. Right? If you are ordinary, middle class person, it's, it's a tougher question to answer, because so much of what you do is gonna be what you've learned, just doing it. And it's easy, do you want to be $200,000 in debt, and then coming out, and then you're still in the same place, or a similar place to somebody who hasn't gone to school at all, but who's really hustling it as a as a assistant, you know, in Hollywood. And obviously, if you've got, you know, hollywood parents and all bets are off, you've got a, you've got a smooth ticket in but most of us, you know, you gotta you got to think about that are is school really going to give you that much of an edge, I get a lot of people at my school, that have gone to film school, and they didn't learn what they thought they were gonna learn. And I think, I think if it's a third or fourth rate film school, that costs a lot of money, and there are a lot of them out there. I'd be very careful about going to a school like that,

Alex Ferrari 46:35
for screenwriting or for filmmaking there and but I do feel truly that there is so much information that you can self educate, you can take workshops, you can take extension classes, you can you can do what you need to do to learn the basics, and no matter all that stuff that they teach you until you're in the fire, when you're in the fire when you're when the bullets are swinging by with flying by your head. That is when you learn in my right.

Peter Douglas Russell 47:04
Eye. Most of the people I work with, a lot of them didn't go to film school, and they're very successful. I mean, the classic example everyone's faces. Spielberg, you know, didn't didn't get into USC, although they claim him as one now, but I was confused about that. But I really realized he didn't he didn't go they turned him down.

Alex Ferrari 47:22
No, he didn't. He went to a community college for a little bit dropped out of that.

Peter Douglas Russell 47:25
And by the way, community colleges are fantastic ways to learn your craft.

Alex Ferrari 47:30
Yes,

Peter Douglas Russell 47:31
I you know, I went to an Ivy League school. And, and I gotta say, it was no better than for actually what you're learning practically. I think community colleges are often better.

Alex Ferrari 47:46
So better ROI, better ROI without question.

Peter Douglas Russell 47:49
I think they are. And I think the apprentice system, by the way, is a system that worked well for 1000 years. And I think being an apprentice, if you can get a gig in Hollywood, in an actual production company, I think that is just as valuable as going to film school or more. The other thing that I'd realized about film school is that I don't know if it's because it's just the nature of institutions. But they took a long time to pivot to television story. They were teaching film story exclusively up till just, you know, a few years ago, even when the industry had really pivoted to television after 2007. The bottom fell out of my business. By the way, when we had that big crash in 2007, all the independent film companies went away because the financing wasn't there anymore. We all had to pivot to television story.

Alex Ferrari 48:45
So yeah, I was gonna I was gonna ask you about that there has been an absolute explosion in long format streaming series, and there's such a need for content. Do you really believe that that is where a lot of screenwriters and writers in general can actually there's a lot more opportunity in those areas than trying to be a feature film screenwriter in Hollywood.

Peter Douglas Russell 49:05
Well, I'm sort of going to be a contrarian because yes, I agree with all of that. But having said all that, Apple is buying movies, Amazon's buying movies again. So these guys, these IPS, these internet platforms, they're pivoting and buying movies again, but yes, of course you're right. For the last six years, I think we've gone from like 200 scripted shows, and Hollywood delays.

Alex Ferrari 49:29
It's it's a lot. It's a logical,

Peter Douglas Russell 49:31
it's a ton of them. And but yes, so a television story has exploded. And it's kind of like the Russian novel I mean, as the longer they get, it's a sign of the of the absolute. The, the, the the the the idealization of the form, right, the television, long form television has become really a Russian novel and it's I'm so amazed and happy to be able to To be in a business at a time when there's such a boom, in that store, and then that stuff I've sold under my own name, they both been television story. So yes, obviously the market is way bigger than it used to be.

Alex Ferrari 50:16
But do you think but do you think there's that this is a bubble? Like, do you? I mean, you know

Peter Douglas Russell 50:21
what everybody says, No, it's not a bubble. And that means it's a bubble. But I'll say it too. Because I think television is just getting started. And it is because the means of distribution, right? It's just, it's just all internet now. And so those, those classical distribution channels of the networks and theater, they're over. So people have an enormous thirst for story. I've got students all over the world. Now, because i a lot of my I teach international students as much as national now because, because hell because the zoom because I, I can let her anywhere. And in fact, most of the work I do is at my laptop. Now even when I'm contracted for story doctoring, you know, I sit in my house, and I do the work, I don't even come in to, to Hollywood much anymore. So and that sort of reflects what I think has happened to the entertainment business. It's a pipeline now that's infinite. It's is it has no, you know, the old pipes were like, let's say the three inch pipes that carry so much water per hour, you know, those of your networks that your movie theaters? Well, the pipes now can be 800 feet wide, because that's the internet. It's just how much data you can pack in. So people's appetite for entertainment is insane. And it's getting bigger, and we've barely scratched the surface. I've got a Nigerian client now who's they're starting a new television network in Nigeria. So Africa is almost untouched. I have a client coming up a film client that's in South Africa doing a show and they're and they're they're building a studio in, in a in a city in Africa that that has never had production before. I don't think obviously things are going to crash and there'll be a crash. Obviously, this bubble will pop, probably because our financial markets will pop. And they're the ones that that fund a lot of Hollywood now. And that's what happened in 2007, I think, is when the stock market crashed, all the indie money fell out of film development, that'll probably happen again, you know, but it'll come back because we are thirsty for entertainment in our world. And so yeah, I think I think it's going to get bigger and bigger. Having said that, just let me caution. Again, this is an insanely difficult business to get your story even in front of people who matter. It's if anything, Hollywood's gotten more closed off in the last few years than ever, I used to tell my students Hey, you know, when you want because I teach a class on how to become a script reader. On Peter Russell script doctor.com it's one of my most popular classes. And I used to tell people at the end Okay, so now here's how you get in script reader job. You know, you go on IMDB Pro, you get a it's 20 bucks a month. And then you look, you look up all the production companies, you see what they've got greenlit. So that means they've got money. If they're making movies, they can't lie about it. They're making movies, that means they've got money, and they're the people are going to hire. So just find those companies. And then you look and you say, Okay, how are they going to direct your development? Here's the email. Well, guess what, a couple of years ago, they stopped putting their emails up on IMDB. And now either not even phone numbers there. I tried. I was trying to pitch a an exec I used to work for and I couldn't even find out what building he was in anymore. And I couldn't find his email, his old email. And I couldn't I still haven't gotten a hold of Arturo because I don't know what buildings I don't know, the company he works for. I know, I know where the building is physically. I can't I literally can't contact Dr. O. Because I don't have any way to do it. So they they sort of shut down. And I don't know why this is. But they've sort of even more recently shut down always to get in touch with them. So you've got a lot of frustrated creators out there that I have to tell every day like I'm sorry, it's really tough.

Alex Ferrari 54:34
would you would you recommend that? You know, like I always tell people that if you're a screenwriter, you should try to start, you know, developing your own projects and producing your own work. Because that's a great way to get seen because you're stepping yourself out of the crowd because not everybody does that. Yes. Yeah, yes and yes, right.

Peter Douglas Russell 54:57
Yeah, look, I was in a big film. Recently, and I noticed that the way people sold their work if they're new, they have a three minute trailer on their iPad and they go up to the sales agent or the manager or the agent. And they shove it under their nose and go look, here's here's what we did. They don't even give them a logline that even pitch them a script, they thrust this image under their nose. And so for two minutes, this guy will watch their sample reel. And it isn't a sizzle deck. It's an actual excerpt of their show. Let's say it's for women, they want to make the new friends. They shot it in their apartment in New York City, they're in Bed Stuy and they, they spent maybe five grand total on a on an eight minute webisode, which is a great way to, to pitch now to Netflix and stuff. And then they take it to the sales agent, and they just thrust it under their nose of the managers to go here. Here's what we did. Here's, we've already got it on, we've already got it down in the can. That's how people were selling at this mark. That's how that's who that's who Netflix was interested in. And they weren't interested in many of those, but they were in some of them. But if that's the way people are doing it now, not Oh, I'm going to take my logline and my script sample and I'm going to do a pitch, a verbal pitch for you know, four minutes in front of a manager an agent, they want to see that trailer, they want to see it. And it otherwise you're and that's if you can get a hold of them. I mean, just getting in front of a Netflix person. We were we did that a few months ago for them. For this jack Johnson mini series that we sold and the guy listen to the pitch. And he said, Well, where's your trailer? He's not we don't have a trailer. I've got this little picture of jack Johnson you want to see it? And then he any? And then he said, Okay, so how much are you going to ask? What do you want to um, how much are you going to ask for? If I was going to buy this? What What would you What would you tell me the price was, and we were so done. We hadn't even thought of that. And so finally, my partner is a sweet, wonderful guide. You said, Well, what do you think? And the guy gave us the finger. And he said, here's what you here's what Jasper never asked for less than that. So it but it's it was just it was fascinating to see, you know, the selling end of this? How how difficult it is just get in front of one of the people that can that can get your project done. It's very tough.

Alex Ferrari 57:31
I'll tell I'll tell you, I'll tell you what I actually got. I was reached out by Amazon Studios reached out to me about a project like out of the blue. Which is, which is insane, right? So I get a call out of the blue. And they're like, it's Amazon Studios. We'd like to set up an appointment all this stuff. And I'm like, great. This is insane. Right? Wow. And the project never happened. But, but I did have multiple calls with them. And then I spoke to some high level executives at Amazon. But every time they called me the phone number was different. Every I'm not kidding. Every time I got called their phone numbers were different. And I and then to the point was when this whole you know, we went through this whole pap project and it didn't go through. I can't get anybody back on the phone. Yeah, exactly.

Unknown Speaker 58:15
Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 58:16
I you know, I can't it's always

Peter Douglas Russell 58:18
the way it is a it they're very super paranoid. I'm sure they have to be

Alex Ferrari 58:22
Yeah, because everybody's trying to pitch them and even if they approach you they still like you're still not part of the team yet.

Peter Douglas Russell 58:29
Yeah, you know, Hey, watch out Be careful. Don't Don't get too close to me. I'm standing here but I could go away at any moment.

Alex Ferrari 58:36
It's It's, it's, it's hilarious. But you know, but what I find that, that i a lot of a lot of people are still teaching the old ways of doing things, which is that logline the elevator pitch and and that's fine, and there's still pitch fests and all of that kind of good stuff. But what sets people apart is what you just said, if you have a trailer, if you have a reel, a sizzle reel, something that a producer or a production company or somebody can see. And you have a good story, and you have a good script. That's almost I feel that that is the new norm. And that's where we're all going like if you don't have a sizzle reel, if you don't have four minutes of a scene, if you don't have a trailer, you won't even walk in the door, even if you can find the door.

Peter Douglas Russell 59:25
Yeah, and I've got a class in how to make a webisode. And I always urge people to take this class because the webisode form is an ideal way to show off your skills to a TV producer. It's a very short form, you've got to do a lot of things in it, you got to do what I call a BM OC, a sequence set. There's all these things you need to do in your webinar. And you really should study it. Because as you said, this is how you get the job. Now you don't do it with a pitch off a three by five card and maybe next year. That'll Change again. But this is the current market. And yes, you, you, you. And by the way, you only learn that by going to these markets and seeing how it actually works. I don't think too many people are teaching that because just the nature of the beast is that they are there behind the times. The other things you can do is, is obviously, you can put your shit up on YouTube. And I have to say that the one of the main reasons I have that I get my jobs is word of mouth. But also, I've done a lot of interviews now, up, and I get people contacting me, I go, I got my current manager, because she saw me on on YouTube. And, and of course, she hates me, I hate her. You know, she tells me I'm horrible. I tell her she's horrible. We have a classic dysfunctional manager relationship. It's just, you know, it, that's just kind of what it is. I mean, if this business is so full of, I don't mean, she really hates me, and I don't really hate her. But there's an antagonistic relationship you have with the people that that are supposed to help you sell. Because their job is so difficult, because you don't know so many things they know about the business, and you don't want to know. So you've you've, you're always, it's always an interesting day. This is never there's never a dull day. I've never had a dull day in Hollywood. always exciting. It's full of shouting and anger. And, and but also greatness. So I don't have great advice on how to get a manager an agent. It, it seems, it's almost like you almost have to it's like a real estate agent. You almost have to have a beautiful big house and they'll come knocking, right? It's

Alex Ferrari 1:01:47
exactly it. That's exactly it. Because if if you don't it's like that's a great analogy. Imagine if you're gonna go get a real estate agent, like I need a real estate agent or a real estate agent. When you finally get one. They're like, Well, what do you have? I'm like, I have this idea for a house. Yeah,

Peter Douglas Russell 1:02:02
exactly. And, you know, I often people always say, you know, to me, when I do seminars and stuff, they go well, you know, okay, just assume I've got a great script, how do I get an agent or manager? And I said, That's like saying, Okay, look, let's assume I'm a great brain surgeon. So am I going to do your surgery on you? How am I going to you that that assumption is insane? I mean, I have a great project. If you Why not be why not have a great project before you think about an agent or manager? Because I think some people think that Hollywood is a place where once you get in the door, everybody's the same and I okay, I love your project, all you need to see it, Here's your money. But the first thing I will tell you is what, what, okay, I'm a big agent, you're meeting me, what do you have to sell me? And people don't want to think about that. Sometimes they just want to think, Well, once I get that agent, I'll be able to write something great. We gotta write something great. You really do. And it can take you years before you even ought to think about an agent or manager. I know people don't want to hear that. They want to shortcut it. And there's some people in Hollywood, by the way, who will help you with that delusion, they'll say, well, we're gonna get you in a room with a bunch of famous agents and managers, that's, that's what we offer we offer access to you. And and people will pay money to get into that room. But then they don't have anything to sell. They're just, they're not gonna just like the person the agents not gonna go, you know what I like the cut of your jib Boy, you know.

Alex Ferrari 1:03:33
But that's the myth that Hollywood has been selling since you know, what's her name was found at that, at that ice cream bar back in the 30s?

Peter Douglas Russell 1:03:41
Actually, by the way, and yes, actors do advertise themselves on their bodies. I mean, if you're gorgeous, then that's sometimes all you need to be for an agent or fascinating looking, because that's a product that's a product that they can sell the product right there. And they'll take you, a writers that don't have that most writers aren't gorgeous. A few of them are actually my friend, Nancy Gordon, how

Alex Ferrari 1:04:04
dare you, sir? How dare

Peter Douglas Russell 1:04:06
you, oh, believe me, I'm not going to. But even if we were, then we might want to be actors. And that's fine. But our product is internal, or it's on a page. So we, we have to have that product, our equivalent of a beautiful face is our story. And and you got to realize you're not going to get an agent or a manager on the short run a force of your personality or your charm, or even your hustle. You know, I had a I had a manager telling me the other day, she said, Look, she said, I don't ever accept any manuscripts from anybody, unless they're a friend of a client. And she said, The reason is, if you're talented, you have talented friends. And you're and so that's, that's the only that's my filter is if I've already employed you, if you're already an actor or writer who's working for me, then if you Got a Friend, they'll be talented too. So that is, I guess the good news for someone who's a networker. Maybe Don't try to meet major managers or agents, but maybe try to meet talented people and befriend them. That can be a way to use networking to your advantage in Hollywood if you're a writer, have talented friends

Alex Ferrari 1:05:22
now, would you would you? would you suggest and I know this is a very out there concept. But how about spending instead of spending the time chasing a manager agent? How about spending that time on the craft and becoming a better craftsmen?

Peter Douglas Russell 1:05:37
Oh, yeah, that's the obvious answer. I always give that and that's correct. Yeah. People are thirsty for so many jobs are about who you know, they really are. And Hollywood can be of course, too. If you're a rich kid and your dad's the head of a studio, then your your, your path is, is smooth. It won't be easy, but it will be smooth. But for people who really want to say, Well, I'm a hustler, I want to be able to hustle. How do I hustle in Hollywood? I would say yeah, don't try to hustle and hustle up some friends, some talented friends you think are going places? If they get representation, then you can say hey, Dale, you know, here's my script, give it to her. And this manager told me that the other day, she said, I do believe if you're talented, you've got talented friends. So I just I'll read a script. If If one of my existing clients has a friend that has a good script, and they say it's good to read the script. But yeah, otherwise, it's very difficult to come into this town as a writer and network your way into

Alex Ferrari 1:06:39
gig. It doesn't, it doesn't work. Because at the end of the day, you have to have the goods, you have to have the goods, whether it's a product that you've already created, or multiple products you've already created to prove that you have the goods, they're not going to take you on the word that just because you're a nice guy, then I gotta go, you know, I'm going to give you that first shot on the next Marvel movie, because you were able to get to me and I like you that doesn't work that way.

Peter Douglas Russell 1:07:02
Doesn't work. And by the way, there is a slot for those people. But it's your it's your brother or it's your cousin or it's your son or daughter. I mean, nepotism in Hollywood is huge. So you're not going to get in there anyway, even if they do like you there that slots already full. It's the nepotism slot, you know, and and yes, that that's that's not going to work either. But hey, having said all that, you know, the business is bigger than it used to be. It's a really actually a really good time to to be entering as a writer. You just have to realize that it's also still insanely hard. It's the doors slightly ajar. But actually the door is not ajar anymore. It's just inside the roof. The house is bigger, but the door is still really hard to open.

Alex Ferrari 1:07:51
More people are trying to go through that door to

Peter Douglas Russell 1:07:54
I am maybe Yeah, maybe Yeah, you're right. I think I think you're right. You know what, I'm at UCLA in the coffee shop. And I'm sitting there and the entire university is all there, right? It isn't just filming. Everybody's talking about their television show or their screenplay. They're all you know, even if they're pre med or pre law. Everyone's got a show. And yeah, I think entertainment has become just overwhelming. It's exciting. I mean, I love it. I love I love what the business we're in. I think it's an amazing, fun, wonderful business. And yeah, it's so a lot of people want to do it for sure. But 90% of those 90% of those people won't really be your competitors because they'll they'll either stop when it gets really hard. Or they're too sane to take the take the notion that they're going to do something for five or six or 10 years that may completely not pay off. No, you sane people who think about their IRAs and retirement and you know and kids you know, sane people don't really enter this business. We're all insane. Without question,

Alex Ferrari 1:09:11
you have to have a little work carnies as I always say we're carnies. Yes,

Peter Douglas Russell 1:09:14
that's exactly what I say do yeah, we're comfortable. You know where those guys you saw you know, smoking next to the tilta world you know, when you were in high school would pop I tattoo on their arm it looks like they take your wallet. That's

Alex Ferrari 1:09:28
us. That's basically what we are. And and you've got to be a little insane to be in this business. There's no way I mean, I've been in it 25 years. And I've seen a lot and the one thing that's common is that everyone's nuts and diverse. There's very smart nuts, but you've got to have a little bit of insanity to to do this because like you just said, if you just sell the pitch of you're going to work for 10 years on something that you have absolutely no guarantee that you'll ever be successful at It has nothing to do particularly with you possibly, you might be a genius. But the breaks might not happen.

Peter Douglas Russell 1:10:07
Yeah, but chances are that the genius parts important. But look, I deal with this as a professor all the time, I have to tell, and I don't tell people this, but I should tell people this, I wrestled with it all the time. And in any fine art, this is probably the case. But one to 2% of you are going to succeed one to 2%, right? of a class, maybe not even that. Now, how do you palpably tell people that it's very difficult, but the fine arts have always been that way. They're very demanding, there's not many jobs. So you have to go into it with the idea that it's going to make you a better person. And also, you couldn't not do it. You know, and this is cliched advice that everybody Gibbs but it's true. If you cannot do it, don't do it. If you can, if you can avoid a career in show business, avoid it. Because you'll you'll probably be more content, at least in the short run. But if you can avoid it, those are the people who should do it. Because you're you're never going to be happy. Being a CPA. And if you've got that burning desire, you're just not you'd rather be, you'd rather wonder, hey, I might end up being an Uber driver. I mean, I don't know. You know, I've sold some stuff but but only in the last couple years. I did this for 20 years, without really having my name on anything that's sold. And, you know, I made enough money to live on thank God and most people don't even do that. But you because you do need a side hustle, usually. But and that's why screen. That's why script writing by the way can be a good good thing because you can do it at home in your jammies and eat but you can't you got to live a really small life. And by the way, why all your friends are having their kids in there. And they're by their driving the Mercedes and they got their big homes and they're and they're going to France in the summer and and they're doing this and doing that you're going to be in your rent controlled apartment in West Hollywood eating peanut butter. You know, I just always like to lay out the most dire so

Alex Ferrari 1:12:15
so peanut butter, what do we what are we? What are we the rock the raw Rockefellers peanut butter? Exactly. It's ramen, sir. It is ramen,

Peter Douglas Russell 1:12:23
Top Ramen, whatever. Yeah, it's that's what it is. But, you know, a Jerry Seinfeld said, you know, he was interviewing the South African comic. Oh,

Alex Ferrari 1:12:35
yeah. Real Africans? Yeah.

Peter Douglas Russell 1:12:37
Yeah. And, and in the guy said, he said when you get up and, and he said, I get up at, I get up around 11pm. And then I go to clubs, I go to five clubs. And then I get home at eight in the morning. And Seinfeld said to him, oh, you're you're you're a classic, you're going to be just fine. You're gonna This is going to be your, your your life, and you're going to do really well. And of course he has. But that's the sort of pure dedication that this sort of thing requires. Did you?

Alex Ferrari 1:13:14
Did you ever see the documentary Jiro dreams of sushi? No, but I heard of it. It's a fantastic documentary about this master sushi chef, who's whose restaurants in a subway. He's the only sushi chef ever to get a Michelin star. That's how good he is. Wow. And when he got away in Japan, he's like in a subway somewhere in Japan and like takes three months to get a get get a reservation. And basically you walk in you don't you say nothing. And whatever JIRA gives you you eat, and that's basically it. But But your life will change once you do it. But what the reason I'm saying is if you want to be an apprentice with him, it's a seven year apprenticeship. And you have to agree to seven years. I think it's seven or 10 years. I'm not sure. I don't remember exactly. But what I found really fascinating is because you know, this is exactly what happens with screenwriters and filmmakers. is they want to jump in. They're like, Oh, I want to I want to jump on that techno crane and let's let's start moving the camera. I want to be like Scorsese and everything like I gotta calm down. Calm down. Sorkin just calm down for a second there apprentice in order to touch fish. Because if you're a sushi apprentice, you you're assuming that you're going to touch a fish, right?

Unknown Speaker 1:14:29
Yeah.

Alex Ferrari 1:14:31
You don't touch fish for three years.

You're all you're No, no, no,

you're cooking rice.

Peter Douglas Russell 1:14:38
Oh my god.

Alex Ferrari 1:14:39
You have to cook the rice you have to master rice first, before you're ever allowed to touch a fish. And that is what we hear in our business need more of and the more understanding of that. You're going to have to write and write a lot A lot. That's true. And you

Peter Douglas Russell 1:15:03
know that my, what I see a lot, and I did this myself is, I would think about writing more than I wrote. And I think they're, they're six months or a year I'd go by I, you know, that's a fantastic idea. I just have to write it down. And there's a lot of that in the biz, which is that, you know, you don't actually get to the on the page, you don't do that much writing. And that's a really bad thing. And a lot of, I think a lot of people when they feel I haven't gotten anywhere, you say, Well, how much have you actually written? Do you write every day? No, I write once a week I write when the spirit moves me. Then, you know, it's they're not cooking that rice, right? They're just not cooking the rice. And, and, and so Yeah, and I think I also had a person that a lot of money that I trust fund, and they'd wanted to be a screenwriter for like, 20 years, but they actually only written one script in that entire 20 years. So there wasn't that urgency. Yes, you got to write you got to do your thing. And that's why I think it's great to apprentice with someone, and really just start doing scenes and start and pick up the camera and make something, you know, make a tic tock, you know, even even these commercial forms, that are, are are now prevalent in social media where you have 30 seconds to make your movie, or 45 seconds to make your movie, or Tick Tock I don't think that's 15 or 20. Those impose discipline on you and they make you need to tell a story in that form. And it's all about that discipline. So yeah, cook the rice man. that's a that's a good metaphor.

Alex Ferrari 1:16:41
Now, I'm gonna ask you a few questions. Ask all my guests. What are three screenplays every screenwriter should read?

Peter Douglas Russell 1:16:48
Oh, wow. Um, well,

um,

okay. Are we talking film? Are we talking television?

Alex Ferrari 1:16:56
I mean, give me give me a couple of film and one television one.

Peter Douglas Russell 1:17:00
Okay.

Unknown Speaker 1:17:02
Well,

Peter Douglas Russell 1:17:03
I think one of the greatest Okay, so so there's I have to go to with TV. That's one is the wire. And I I think you should read the wires entire first season, which I guess is cheating because yes, one script but and also read the wire story Bible. Because Simon is and I don't know if you've seen the deuce the his newest one on the deuce. Simon is one of the most brilliant journalistic writers there are, he creates worlds and his dialogue is extraordinary. It's so naturalistic, it almost feels like a document, documentary. And that's true of all of his work. But if you want the most sort of brilliant, naturalistic storytelling, you can find around I think he and and then also, Chase. So in television, I really think there are three great guys you want to you want to want to study? Yes, one of them is, is Simon the other one's David Chase and the sopranos. Because again, the writing is extraordinary. And then I think that Matthew whiner also is a brilliant teller of television story. I think that I'm sorry, I'm going to go to Vince Gilligan course, if you want to study the our form to television form. Vince Gilligan is just the greatest at what he does, I still teach the pilot of

Unknown Speaker 1:18:57
Breaking Bad,

Peter Douglas Russell 1:18:58
breaking bad because it just, it just shows you what an amazing writer was. Now, I will also tell you that I think for network television. I think you can study john wells, I think the way that wells writes is amazing. And it's a sort of a different kind of, of storytelling on network. So so those are the guys that I would, I would really recommend. They're the sort of the classics, okay. And then I think, by the way, Phoebe Waller bridge. Also television writer of fleabag Phoebe bridge is an extraordinary writer. She's just she's probably the best new television writer we've got comes out of playwriting as a lot of these guys do.

Unknown Speaker 1:19:51
And then for

Peter Douglas Russell 1:19:55
for screenplays, gosh there's

Unknown Speaker 1:19:59
almost no To

Alex Ferrari 1:20:00
three to come to mind three to come to mind.

Peter Douglas Russell 1:20:02
Okay, well, I this is one that I don't know how much he's gonna help you. It's Charlie Kaufman. I love Charlie. Love. But she's he's so he's such a singular genius. He doesn't follow structure really, although we really kind of does. But it's difficult. But I love him. I can read his stuff all the time. And, and so I also Well, I think that so many I think that probably Yeah, that's really true. Okay, so in I think that Robert Towne I do think that the the the mystery thriller is such a potent vision so I would, I would say town as classic. And and then I would I think the cones I think Joel and Ethan Coen are probably the greatest filmmakers that we have right now to write television to. And if you like action, I think Christopher McQuarrie I often use his stuff for modeling action, Allen ball, anything. I almost go more by writers than by by word. Sure, because it's what helps me an Allen bolt has been enormous help for me in a drama that I'm I'm writing right now. Steven Zaillian is amazing. I'm sort of a classic. I've been I've been reading William Goldman's scripts, who was a 60 screenwriter, and he's his world building and his, his cinematic style is, is just amazing. I love Brian Helgeland.

Alex Ferrari 1:21:56
There was 33 sir three, there's three.

Peter Douglas Russell 1:22:01
I went nuts. I was thought that way. That's there's like 40 more that are just about as good so bad. But yes. But you know, I think that Yeah, that'll do. Okay, so

Alex Ferrari 1:22:12
Okay, good. Now, what is the lesson that took you the longest to learn whether in the film business or in life?

Peter Douglas Russell 1:22:22
How hard I have to work. I I'm kind of lazy. And I think it's probably the reason that took me so long to succeed. I'm kind of lazy. And I have delusions of grandeur. So I kind of, I kind of want to be a big deal. But I when I see the work involved, I'm like, Oh, God, damn, let's just, let's have a, let's have a join. I think learning how to work super hard. Was was the toughest lesson for me in life. And also, as a writer, you know, the first thing I ever wrote, won a big prize. And I thought that was really cool. I was 20 years old. And I thought that I was home free man, my life was going to be fantastic. And, and it was the worst thing that could have ever happened to me because I didn't have a good work ethic. And I thought I was a genius. And I see a lot of people with that who want to go into Hollywood. They they think they're a genius. And that's gonna be more important than their work ethic. And the appalling truth is it's not. And and a work ethic is everything that your boy scout master and all those nasty adults that were so boring with all the things they told you about. That life was about that you sneered at if you were a little rebel like me. Turns out they were right. That that hard work is an enormous important part of success. And yeah,

Alex Ferrari 1:23:52
now what is what did you learn from your biggest failure? Oh,

Unknown Speaker 1:23:57
okay.

Peter Douglas Russell 1:23:58
Well, I wrote a book that I wrote three quarters of a book, when I wanted to be a novelist, because that was my first big love. And it was picked up by probably the most prestigious publisher in New York, even when it was even just halfway done. I got a big agent. I just sent her the first chapter. And she was, oh my god, you're the next whatever. And then she sent it to this press, and they said, Oh, my God, you're amazing. We had a meeting about you. We want it we want you to come to New York, blah, blah, all this wet dream crap that you never imagined going to happen to you happened to me. And then I couldn't finish the book. Even though the publisher flew me out to New York and said, Hey, we're gonna sit down with you and walk you through the outline something my man, my agent said, it never happened in our old career. This guy here. That's how much he he loved my vision and said, I could never finish the book. But why? Well, and this goes to structure and what we talked about earlier, what You were saying about structure and what people think about structure. I think what happened is, I had written the first half of the book purely on instinct, and adrenaline and pleasure. I didn't have a clue in my head, what was gonna happen next. And then I got halfway done. And I should have just finished. But I got halfway done and, and I thought, Oh, well, you know, I got to get an agent. But we got enough here, I read it in a book, you've you got a couple of chapters, you send it out. So I sent it out, I sent half the book out, and got the agent got the publisher got it all. And then they said, This is fantastic. We can't wait. I got an advance. Then I went back, I was living in Topanga and I went back to my little cabin. And for the next six months, everything I wrote was shit. Because sorry, crap, because I have this structure. Now in my head, now you've got to do this. And this, now your hero has to do this, this and this. And I couldn't get my hero to do any of that stuff, all the entertaining, effervescent tone, because it was a comic novel was gone. And nothing he did, it was all LED. And it was my It was awful. And, and three times the publisher tried came in with a new plan. Oh, that's terrible, Peter, but you're always gonna, you're gonna do it. Here's another plan. Here's another, you did. So structure can sometimes kill you. And that's why I imagine I say when you're writing your script, and you're cooking, don't quit. Just get it all out on the page, write your excitement, as long as you can, maybe you'll be done. And even if you're not done, you'll have this whole work on the page that have a piece that isn't about Oh, got a plug in column A got to do B got to do see, because that can kill your creativity.

Unknown Speaker 1:26:59
So yeah,

Peter Douglas Russell 1:27:01
I that's my that's what I learned from my biggest failure. So don't try to rely on books and structure and stuff you read. Just ride your own excitement as long as you can. And then you'll have to go to structure and stuff. And by the way, Hollywood Story is such a complicated form, that the chances are, you're not going to get the whole thing out. And you are going to have to and this is the last thing I'd say, if you can have a collaborator, have a collaborator. This is such a lonely business. And it's so hard. If you have somebody who helps you who you're co writing with, I've seen it many times, because that's kind of what I get hired to do. Sometimes I'm professional friend, I'm your screenwriter, but I'm also your friend in this business. You know, I'll help you at this moment. If you can have a collaborator, so many people do. And the reason is, this is so hard, and doing it by yourself can feel terribly lonely. So having a it's not till I got partners, by the way that I really sort of started having some success under my own name.

Alex Ferrari 1:28:09
Now, where can people find out more about you and the work you do?

Peter Douglas Russell 1:28:12
Okay, well, it's just this simple. It's my last my first and last name, Peter Russell, script doctor.com. That's it. Peter Russell script doctor.com. That is where if you go to Peter Russell, script doctor.com. That's where all my classes are my lectures. I've studied most genres, and I have lectures in every genre on my site. And they talk about all the things I've observed that the greatest writers in this genre, whatever the genre is, love stories, ROM coms, action, whatever the common patterns are, that these guys and girls, us, I show you those patterns. And I've noticed that when I give a writer these patterns, when they get stuck in their story, if they're writing a rom com, or they go and they look, and they see Oh, that's what this guy did at this point. Oh my god. And this is how this guy created this character. And this is how these lovers fell in love. And this is how they, this is when they fell out of love. And this is why and this is what almost every great romantic comedy character has in them every time so and some of those things will, in my experience, they will set your heart at glow and they'll fire you up again and you will be excited about your project. Because, you know, like Picasso said, you know, talented people borrow geniuses steal. And I do think that and this These aren't structural patterns, although those are in some of them. These are tricks. These are tricks that The greatest people like Tarantino use in his story, their tricks, their tricks with guns, their tricks, with knives, their tricks with the suspense, their tricks with the way you enter a scene and get out. He stole so much of what he did from 1970s drive in film directors, a whole bag of tricks that that he uses and all of his work. He stole from classics too, but you want to steal stuff, and you can't patent suspense devices. You can't patent what Hitchcock did, you can't patent What lowen? Does, you can't patent what tintina does. They're there for you to steal. And I just show you the big glass case of things I've stolen. Hey, would you like to try this? You know, here's a plot device, man, I think you'd love it. And you go, Okay, I'll

Unknown Speaker 1:30:50
try that. Let

Peter Douglas Russell 1:30:50
me have one of those. And two of those. It's like when john wick goes into get his guns, you know. So that's kind of what I've got there on that side. It's a glass cabinet full of tricks you can steal,

Alex Ferrari 1:31:00
Peter, we can keep talking for at least another two or three hours. I know for sure, for sure. But I do appreciate you taking the time and dropping knowledge bombs on the tribe today. And it's been very educational, without question. So thank you so much for being on the show, my friend.

Peter Douglas Russell 1:31:16
Dude, I love your show. And I think you're performing a real service. And it's been really entertaining and fun. So yeah, I I've been really appreciative. Thanks for your intelligent questions.

Alex Ferrari 1:31:30
I want to thank Peter for coming on the show. I really appreciate all the insights that you brought to the tribe today. So thank you, Peter. If you want to get links to Peters work his his little tricks of the trade that he offers on his website for you guys to take a look at and steal as he puts it, head over to the show notes at indie film, hustle, calm forward slash bps 058. And guys, if you haven't already checked out I have done a complete revamp of indie film, hustle TV, and I added a ton of new trainings series Doc's about the screen writing process. It has become a treasure trove for not only screenwriters, but for filmmakers as well. If you want to check that out, please head over to eye f. h. tv.com, available on Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, as well as iPhone, iOS and Android apps. Thank you for listening. I really appreciate all the support. I hope this episode was a value to you on your journey. As always, keep on writing, no matter what. I'll talk to you soon.