A Dutch Fugue of Meetings

All transactions in the film business are conducted through meetings.

And yet there seems to be no universal protocol for them. The agenda for a meeting may or may not match the one agreed upon beforehand. Sometimes someone will buy you dinner. Sometimes they won't even offer you water. Maybe there will be small talk, maybe there won't. The meeting might last two hours. Or it might last eight minutes (I clocked it!). There is no correlation between the length of a meeting and its success.

There are no rules.

Except: you should be ready to tell the entire story of your movie, including act breaks, at the drop of a hat.

And: You must always wait for someone to get back to you, regardless of whether they actually will. Waiting can be very difficult.

At the moment, we seem to be doing surprisingly well. People are taking us seriously - I surmise this by the specificity and directness of the questions they're asking, and the fact that they are following up with us, and not the other way around.

Mainly, it's the look in their eyes - they're actually paying attention to the things we say. And thinking about them! And responding appropriately!

When I ponder the past week, I'm a bit amazed that we're are experiencing all this rambunction over an idea that popped into my head while attending a punk rock concert at a comic book store. These are practical, serious meetings, well beyond the initial meet-and-greet gauntlet that fells so many would-be screenwriters, including ourselves. We entered the game in a fit of pure whimsy, declaring not to give a fuck, and miraculously, we've gotten further than most. We've certainly scrambled and scrabbled with this project - and we will continue to do so - but I think not giving a fuck has been our secret.

The two of us - Huili and myself - are surprising each other with our ability to improvise under pressure. I've negotiated a few difficult moments with bargaining skills I acquired in the video game industry, and Huili is, of course, quick to be blunt and firm when necessary.

We're having a lot of fun.