Tweetstorm: Daniel Kunka on OWAs (Open Writing Assignments)

“A lot of time is wasted by young writers chasing the holy grail of OWAs and it’s just not statistically a good idea. I want to control my product. I don’t want to have to boil it down to 15 mins.”

There are occasions when Twitter has a harmonic convergence of goodness… like on the evening of May 10, 2014 when screenwriter Daniel Kunka (@unikunka) crafted a litany of tweets which provided insight from Hollywood’s front lines about the mysteries of OWAs: Open Writing Assignments. I asked Daniel if I could post his twitter rant on the blog and he kindly said yes. Here it is:

So I want to talk about the world of Open Writing Assignments and the working writer. Gather round.

OWAs are sort of the holy grail for the professional writer. The studios will pay you to write before you actually write…

It’s great. For those not familiar, OWAs cover rewrites, internal ideas the studio likes or most likely, some sort of IP that the studio has

Problem with OWAs nowadays is buyers aren’t developing as much as they used to. Even studios have a very “we buy what we make” attitude.

What that means is a lot of OWAs are jobs you or I will never see. Sequels to SPIDERMAN. GONE GIRL. Basically shit they have to make.

And if they have to make it, they go straight to the A Team. These are the 30 writers who Make Movies at Studios.

Bomback, Morgan, Kingsberg, Wimmer, Goyer, etc. Or possibly some guys who have written successful smaller movies. Trevorrow and Connolly.

The reason why they might not be familiar to bloggers on the Internet is cause these scripts don’t get passed around. They get made.

So what’s left for working writers? Smaller IPs, scripts they actually do develop, stuff the execs like… but a considerably SMALL POOL.

So you get the call to go in and meet with a producer. Usually it’s a junior. Then there’s a senior person for the next meeting….

Then the guy who’s name is on the door. Then the studio junior. Then the studio VP. Then the studio president….

What I’m saying is, there’s a lot of people. But you start working near the bottom. You bullshit, you think about the idea, you get a take.

And that take takes time… I mean if you want it to be good. And they don’t want just basics. They want/expect a FULL PITCH.

But guess what? You ain’t exclusive. There are anywhere from 2 to 10 writers working on a take as well. Which means the awful truth…

NOBODY NEEDS YOU.

They have no reason to hire you cause there’s 12 writers behind you.

Even if 20 writers crap out before you, there’s always the guy who sold the script last week. THERE’S ALWAYS MORE TAKES!

So as anyone who watched WOLF OF WALL STREET knows, this is bad for selling. There’s no urgency!

Your take can sometimes be bad. It can deserved to be passed on. That happens… I’ve had shitty takes before. This isn’t about that.

This is about percentages and time spent. The amount of people that have to say yes (with no reason to), is astronomical.

And the reasons to say no are numerous. Bosses and juniors don’t communicate on a direction. They can be influenced by other takes.

You can have a bad day in the room. It happens!

This isn’t George and Steven doing INDY anymore. There’s no 2 years of development….

This is “I got stuck in a traffic on the way here so I’m not paying attention to your first 10 mins of your pitch and I’m confused so PASS.”

The rant is because passes happen based on WHIMS. They don’t like your shoes. They’re having a bad day. They have NO REASON TO SAY YES.

What do these whims mean? For them? Nothing. They get paid either way.

For you? You don’t get anything.

You are a writer. You are a BUSINESS. Your job is to produce ideas. I don’t like the sale of that idea being based on a WHIM.

I’ve even had a pitch where the producers and studio said my take made them realize they didn’t want to do the project anymore…

At the end of the day, they do hire writers for those jobs, and they’re great when you get them.

And if you can break into that A category, writing movies is awesome and lucrative.

But a lot of time is wasted by young writers chasing the holy grail of OWAs and it’s just not statistically a good idea.

I want to control my product. I don’t want to have to boil it down to 15 mins.

I want to give you a script that’s too noisy to ignore. People can’t ignore the page, people. You write the script, they have to listen.

Yes, it’s hard. And people can pass on a whim there, too. But you’ve got an entire market now working for you.

Like I said earlier this week, [Max] Landis gets a lot of shit but dude writes scripts, gets people to star in them, then makes movies.

Time and time again — when you write, you win. When you write, you win.

And fuck that guy’s whim. You write the script, he’ll be begging to take it in somewhere. You have the power.

So please be cautious, and please know what you’re up against. It is an uphill battle until you get yourself to the top of the mountain.

And that I believe is the end.

So I’m out. WB has this great remake I’m pitching on on Monday and I need to work it out…. just kidding. I’m going to bed.

You write, you win. Control your own destiny. And don’t ever wait for that shit to come to you.

Then an addendum from Daniel:

So reading this back, I want to be clear — people do land those jobs. There’s money to be made. But know every OWA the odds are against you.

Another addendum — if you do get the call for an OWA, do give it your best. It’s the only way to work. Again it’s just about expectations

And you can’t take passes on a personal level. It’s a business. You don’t get an OWA, take that and write a better next script.

And yes, thanks to those that have added, very important to go to these meetings. Make fans. And a pass is just a pass. It happens.

We’re all just trying to make movies. But you need to manage yourself and your business. Be proactive. And make new ideas.

I resonate with Daniel’s take almost point for point:

• Screenwriting is competitive as hell.
• This is especially so in the world of OWAs (I wrote about this in a Business of Screenwriting post here).
• Working up pitches for OWAs is a lot of damn work.
• The fact you go up against multiple other writers for an assignment is called ‘sweepstakes pitching’ which you can read more about here.

As Daniel says, there are good reasons to go up for writing assignments, not all of them about the possibility of landing a gig. But the main point Daniel makes here is something every writer not named Sorkin, Zallian or the like should take to heart:

“I want to control my product… I want to give you a script that’s too noisy to ignore. People can’t ignore the page, people. You write the script, they have to listen… Yes, it’s hard. And people can pass on a whim there, too. But you’ve got an entire market now working for you… Time and time again — when you write, you win… Control your own destiny. And don’t ever wait for that shit to come to you… Be proactive. And make new ideas.”

In other words, always be working on a spec script. You can’t control their “whims,” but you can control your writing. And if you want proof to the value of this strategy, you need look no further than Daniel Kunka himself who has sold three big ticket spec scripts in the last couple of years: Agent Ox, Bermuda Triangle and Yellowstone Falls.

If you’re not on Twitter following the likes of @unikunka,@HIGHzurrer, @DrGMLaTulippe, @WriterLe, @BrianKoppelman, and others who are known to drop wisdom there in the form of a series of 280 character tweetstorms, you’re missing out on an education.

Meanwhile, why not take a second and thank Daniel Kunka for laying some wisdom on us all in his recent foray on Twitter. Hit Reply and tell him what you think in comments.

To read my June 2013 interview with Daniel, go here.

Comment Archive

For more screenwriter tweetstorms, go here.