June 4, 2021

Yesterday, after writing how I wanted to be punctual. I was late picking people up to go skating in Venice. Argh. I will keep trying. 

Signed up for a 6-week webinar on writing half hour comedies, put on and taught by Brent Forrester. Will be doing this concurrently with my screenwriting class. Hopefully I will not regret it. I'm pretty far ahead in the screenwriting class, so I think I can handle it. The class might be similar to watching a master class, except that it is synchronous and comes with homework assignments. (That are not graded, I don't think, but maybe other people in the class can read and give feedback.) Forrester talks about breaking into TV being a three- to five-year commitment. As someone in their seventh year of living in LA -- yikes. The information is exciting and interesting though. A lot of it is stuff I've heard before, but it bears repeating. And some stuff will be different, added on. I'm looking for further inspiration, for whatever guidance/mentorship I can find. Trying to get an edge. I don't know, it's fun. 

What else? 

I was looking over my idea file yesterday. It'll be fun to start new projects, maybe picking up old ideas. I feel more confident in starting something that I don't know quite where it's going. Writing so much more consistently over the past few years has boosted my confidence. I feel more assurance that I'll find stuff once I start in on it. It feels like playing in the mud. 

I put some killer ant bait outside yesterday. The ant stream was very close to the apartment door, and a few ants had started making their way inside. I probably shouldn't poison the ants while they're minding their business outside. But I didn't want to deal with the inside situation, which happens almost every year. This was a confession. 

Blog Time! 

**SPOILERS**

Ovitz, Michael – WHO IS MICHAEL OVITZ?

Published: 2018

Read: 06/2021

This is a memoir by the co-founder of CAA. Ovitz talks about starting the agency, convincing architect I.M. Pei to design the building, taking on big clients, helping movies get made, moving on to corporate deals, making lots of enemies, working and failing at Disney, and finally moving up into the Bay Area to join Silicon Valley. Oh yeah, and he says he doesn’t think it’s lying if the person saying the untruth has a reason for saying it. Dubious! 

I liked this book. It’s an interesting picture of mostly-90s Hollywood. Of insecurity, workaholism, ambition, passion, doggedness. I like how Ovitz describes throwing himself into his work. How he lets it consume him. I appreciated his appreciation of art and artists. I don’t think I would want to be him. At one point, after he’s talked over and over about accomplishing the near impossible, he says something along the lines of “there were very few female directors in that day, which is a shame.” Hello? He clearly could have done a lot to have changed that. That was basically his whole job – connecting people who had talent and ambition. There have been plenty of women with talent and ambition for the whole of human history. I think the takeaway lesson from reading this book, for me, is: do the work, come prepared, play to win. It’s energizing. 

Rating: ★★★