Michael Palmieri On Writing in Hollywood

by Rita Cook

Getting a script read in Hollywood can oftentimes be as hard as doing a triple-loop cartwheel with one hand, but luckily there are professionals in the industry who are willing to give writers a chance at the elusive gold ring. Michael Palmieri is one such professional. His first job was at Chestnut Hill Productions where he worked on such films as "Sweetheart's Dance" and "I Love You to Death." Palmieri's next job was at Open City Entertainment, there he worked on "Leolo." 

Following that, he worked as a production executive at La Luna Films where he was involved in "Drop Zone" and "Dream Lover." Before venturing into the development of his own company, where he is an independent producer and writing consultant, he was Senior Vice-President of Production at Summers Entertainment. 

After working in the studio system for eleven years, Palmieri was most recently the Associate Producer of "Six Days Seven Nights." He now enjoys working with writers, helping them understand the delicate process of getting their work read and produced. Assuming the writer has a tight, polished and refined script that is ready to be sent out to the powers that be, Palmieri warns: "Remember, very rarely do scripts sale and remain the same throughout the process. Eventually things have to change and there is the incorporation of other hands that touch it [the script] along the way in the process of getting it made."

In other words, a writer's script will probably never make it to the big screen the way it was actually written. Even so, the written script must be good, actually great, to even be considered by a producer in Hollywood. Palmieri says the first step a writer must take to achieve success with a script is to pay attention to characterization. "Every single story has been done and the audience needs something to get into the story, so the vehicle for that is the characters that they like or dislike. With this, the retelling of a familiar story becomes completely new based on the voyage of the character. The writer must make sure that they themselves know who the characters are and then enhance and refine them," Palmieri says.

His consulting business has taken off recently and he's known for his outstanding track record promoting his writers. Over half of them have gone on to sell their material. "There are three kinds of scripts that a writer has to write," Palmieri says. "First is a script that sells, a fast-paced page-turner that interests the attention of a 24-year-old reader at a studio and has them excited enough to leave their office and go to the executive's office to say 'You should buy this!' "

To Palmieri, the second type of script a writer has to write is the kind where the writer assimilates, not only the thoughts of the producer, but also the thoughts of the studio. The studios are usually developing the script with an eye to attaching a director or actor and the writer has to have an understanding of that. 

"The third type of script is the one that is the production draft," Palmieri concludes. As a development executive, Palmieri learned early what writers and executives have to do to get their projects sold because he knew what he had been trained to look for in a script. But there's also an unspoken rule of protocol that writers should adhere to after their script is in development. "The mistake writers make during the development process could be eliminated if they would just follow directions and learn to be professional," Palmieri says.

"Writers' mistakes range from purposely choosing not to follow studio notes, to saying they can make something happen when they know they can't, to not being politically savvy. By politically savvy I mean being able to keep everyone happy and realizing this is just one of many projects you want to be working on in the future," Palmieri warns.

The more a writer can facilitate notes and thoughts from the team that's responsible for the project, the better off the writer is. Of course, as far as development goes, the term "development hell" did come into being for a reason. Palmieri agrees that for every good development experience, there are many bad ones. 

"The term development hell comes into play," Palmieri explains, "when a writer comes in and is given specific sets of notes on a material by a studio. And then the writer assimilates the material and then for some reason or another the thoughts and ideas of where to take the story change." In order to survive during this uncertain time, a writer must understand that it is rarely anything they've done to facilitate this behavior. 

"It may be because the star a studio had in mind for the project changes their mind or no longer wants to do that kind of a project so the studio has to reconfigure the story. It could be when the executive in charge of the project turns over and a whole new team comes aboard. That is one of the most precarious times for a project," Palmieri warns. 

The odds of a screenwriter selling a script in Hollywood?

"Well," Palmieri chuckles, "There are better odds in Vegas in some aspects. But at the same time I'm a believer that Hollywood consistently needs great product so I believe that talent wins out."

The biggest mistake a writer can make, Palmieri concludes, is when they suppress their own progress. "It's what I call perfection versus progress. Most writers really, really get stuck trying to make something perfect and there is no such thing."Even when the film is done and on the big screen the film is never going to be as perfect as it could have been if just one dialogue might have been different, just one scene had been re-manipulated. 

In a town where perfection seems to be what is most visible to the eye, Palmieri says, "It's progress that builds success."

And for writers, that's the key to getting their script through the maze. 

Michael Palmieri can be reached for individual writing consultation at 310-203-1516, or email him at MikePalmi@aol.com. (Tell him you read about him in Writer On Line).
 

   -- RC
  ©1999 Rita Cook

Rita Cook is the Editorial Director of Insider Magazine and Editor-in-Chief of The Creative Alliance Monthly Newsletter. She is involved in the film and television industry in Los Angeles where she calls home and she has written 14 screenplays. Cook is currently on the Steering Committee of Cinewomen and is writing a book called Screenwriters: From Inspiration to Action.