English 280: The Journalistic Essay

By Tiffany Bagby 

            Jeff Bagby’s palms are sweating; his mouth is dry.  Sitting next to him, his writing partner, Chuck Moore, feels exactly the same. Today could potentially become one of the greatest, if not the greatest, day of their lives.  Today is the day they have a chance to pitch their script to Miramax. After winning an amateur screenwriting contest a few years before, they have finally won the lottery (so to speak) and gotten the chance to pitch their script in Los Angeles.  Jeff and Chuck glance around nervously at the men in the room. Jeff and Chuck shake hands with them; they recognize a few of the men, a few of them they have never seen before.  “Let’s hear it” one of the men says. Jeff takes a deep breath and begins the pitch.   

      Getting a chance to pitch your screenplay is sometimes a stroke of pure luck if one does not have contacts in the film-making industry.  It can take a person their entire life to get their screenplay read and their shot to pitch. Aside from writing the actual screenplay, this is the first step to creating a film, and is probably the most gripping moment for a screenwriter. It is the point when a major motion picture company confirms that your work, in fact, is not crap and could potentially be the next award-winning film.

      After Jeff and Chuck’s pitch, the Miramax people say they will be in touch. Jeff and Chuck thank them for their time and return to their hotel. Their emotions are bittersweet; both men are happy they had the opportunity to pitch their screenplay, but are a little disappointed that the Miramax people weren’t jumping up and down in their chairs.  On the flight home the next day, both men agree that all they can do is hope and pray.

      About a week after the Miramax meeting, Jeff is sitting at home on his tan leather couch, petting his cat Sneakers and aimlessly flipping through channels when his cell phone vibrates on the coffee table. Jeff picks up the phone. It is his contact from Miramax.

“We have decided to go ahead and option your script,” he says. 

“We are optioning yours along with twelve other projects. The budget for yours will be about $10 million.”

Jeff is speechless. “Thank you” he manages to stammer out.

“We’ll be in touch,” says his contact.

Jeff closes his phone and sits back on the couch in complete shock.  The first thing he does is take a moment and comprehend what just happened.  Then he picks up the phone to dial Chuck and then his kids.

      Once a motion picture company picks up the film, it will receive a budget.  This budget includes director, assistant director, actors, actresses, living arrangements, crew, film, set design, etc. Anything under the sun that needs to be present on a movie set must be obtained while remaining in the budget.  Sometimes this can create a serious issue as oftentimes screenwriters have their own ideas about how the movie should look, while the director has different ideas.

      Once the movie is optioned, meetings begin to cast actors and actresses to play the roles of the characters. Simultaneously, filming locations are found, arrangements are made, town halls are contacted, local crews are put together, and everyone flies out to the designated shooting location. Once they get there, it becomes a zoo. When the local townspeople find out about the filming, everyone wants a piece of the action.  A movie called The Surrogates, starring Bruce Willis was recently filmed in Lynn, Massachusetts. Lynn native, Jacqueline Dixon, 21, states: “all the residents of Lynn wanted to be a part of it, for they have never really seen anything like this. Huge cameras all over the place, crew people running around busy, and actors so close you could touch them. It was something I had never seen before.”

      Filming generally takes about a month and everyday is jam-packed with scene filming, errands that need to be run, make up, hair, changes in set design, setting the equipment up, taking it down…you name it. Matthew Milhomme, a production assistant who just wrapped an as yet untitled film in Martha’s Vineyard, claims it was an unbelievable experience for him. He states: “I started as a production assistant, worked my butt off cooking, and making coffee; I basically got anything any of the actors or crew wanted. I carried things for departments. I even had to go to the local police department for props. Then they asked me to be an actor; I filled in as a cop chasing zombies. The coolest part was when I had to die. They put fake blood packets on my chest; they exploded and I pretended to die.  It was pretty easy to do because all of the zombies looked so real. It was easy for me to get caught up in the script. I actually thought I was a cop and that I was really being chased by these zombies.”

      After all of the scenes are shot, the film wraps. The crew dismantles the set, and the actors fly off to their next location or home to await the next project.  The crew from California returns home after extending a few job offers (maybe) to exceptional workers of the local crew.  For some, it is just completing another project like hundreds of others they have done before; for others, it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that become the launching point of their career; for still others, it was an experience that turned their little town upside-down and gave the local newspapers something to write about.

      Unfortunately for many screenwriters, they never see their scripts make it through filming. Such is the case for Jeff and Chuck.  About a month after the call saying that they would option the film, Miramax began casting for their script and the other projects involved, when they discovered they didn’t have enough money available to fund these projects. 

      Jeff was home again sitting on his tan leather couch, this time eating pizza with his son. They were watching an episode of Family Guy when his phone rang. It was his Miramax contact.

“I’ve got some bad news for you Jeff,” he said.

“Miramax is cutting the new projects…and me. They just don’t have enough available funds for everything. I promise you this movie will get made one day though. It is one of the best scripts I have ever read; I want to see it on the big screen.”

“I hope so,” Jeff said. There was nothing else to say. Jeff thanked him for the opportunity and asked him to please remember him in future endeavors.

      Having their film cut was a huge disappointment for Jeff and Chuck. More often than not, this situation happens a lot in the film industry.  A script can be optioned, cut, and then re-optioned for years and turned into a film ten years later, or never at all. Jeff and Chuck continue to work on other projects and hope that one day their script will not only be optioned, but made into a movie.

      Tiffany Bagby grew up south of Boston and currently attends Bridgewater State College, where she works as a freelance writer. She can be reached at tbagby@bridgew.edu.