New Address

Hey all. as you can tell, this site hasn't been updated for a while. For regular HSS updates, make sure you refer to http://home.comcast.net/~hssw

Our meeting place has also been changed for the 07-08 season. we are now at:

Calderwood Pavillion
527 Tremont Street in Boston's South End
Arts Resource Room, 3rd floor

Monday,s 7 PM

The New HSSW Meeting Space.

As HSSW members already know there is a new meeting place, provided by HSS veteran Dave Wheeler. If the photos are any indication, we're about to become very, very spoiled.

10 Bowdoin Street, Boston, MA . View a map of the location here.

Note that Resident Parking begins at 6 PM on Beacon Hill, so READ THE SIGNS CAREFULLY if you are parking on the street. Even the metered spaces are resident parking spaces once the clock strikes 6.

This is probably the most accessible location in years, at least by public transportation. It's Accessible by T via the Green and Blue lines at Government Center station. Also directly across the street from Bowdoin station, but Bowdoin closes at 6 each nite. Within easy walking distance of Park Street, Haymarket and Charles St. station (assuming the weather is suitable)

Lots of places to go for post –meeting drinks.

• The 21st Amendment atop the Hill on Bowdoin (but can be crowded, depending on what's going on across the street at the State House)

• The Kinsale (down the road on Cambridge St) Big place, big bar, lots of nooks and long tables inside the bar area. Probly the ideal place for out needs. BONUS: outdoor seating, if we’re still meeting here in the spring.

• The Red Hat, directly across the street. Dark, divey, small bar.

Below is Scotts’ message announcing the move. The directions on how to access the room read like a scene from the Da Vinci code, so read carefully.

"There's nothing like starting the new year than starting with a new meeting place - and we'll be starting off the new year on 1/8/07 in stylish new digs.

David Wheeler has arranged for us to meet in the 4th floor library at 10 Bowdoin Street Boston. This the Bowdoin street entrance near the corner of Cambridge and Bowdoin Streets near government center and Beacon Hill.

You can park in the building from 5 PM (have an early dinner) until 6 AM for only $9. (It's better than the $75 ticket for parking in a Beacon Hill Resident parking place. Be sure you read the Parking signs nicely erected by the city.)

The room itself is near 60 feet long and 15 or so feet wide - with 30 foot ceilings. Pics of the room/hallway (courtesy of DW) are attached.

This isn't the hallowed halls of academia but it isn't an art house basement either - it is in the heart of the hallowed homes of the wealthy.

So we'll have to make arrangements to arrive as promptly - and in groups if possible.

We'll have the room from 7 to 9. The entrance doors are locked and you'll
have to 'page' David Wheeler via the numeric keypad (refer to the HSSW mailing list email for the number) This will ring to David's cell phone and he'll then buzz you in.

Take the elevator to the 4th floor. In the hallway bear to the right and watch the room numbers on your left. Between room numbers 413 and 414 you'll see sets of glass doors and an elegant room - that's our meeting place.

David will be at the door for the first meeting or so until we work the kinks out.

This is one of the most elegant meeting places in the city and of course we'll be reviewing some of the best scripts - so come enjoy it!"

web www.hssw.info

Winter HSSW info now online

The latest HSSW schedule, member updates, directions to our new meeting place at 10 Bowdoin St Boston - and more.

Go to www.hssw.info and check it out.

How the sausage is made

In this case, a television show.

Anyone interested in writing for TV will find this to be a Godsend. It's a look inside the writing room and how an episode comes about:

"But if you really want to understand what makes Battlestar Galactica great, scroll through the iTunes list to the podcasts called "Battlestar Galactica Writers Meeting." These are four hours of unedited recordings from the writers' room, and they're fascinating, even for the uninitiated. The podcasts are like a master class in how to make good television."

Via slate.com Link to the podcast available here.

Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

The screenwriters of the new Transformers movie convened a small group review of other screenwriters to review the final draft. From the LA Times:

“A few weeks before production started on the Michael Bay-directed sci-fi blockbuster about a war between dueling machine races on Earth (due in theaters next Independence Day), Kurtzman and Orci compiled a wish list of writers they admire who also happen to be fans of the Transformers brand. Their mission was to look over Kurtzman and Orci's latest draft — the last before shooting would begin — and punch it up one final time.

Kurtzman and Orci's dream team included David Ayer ("Training Day," "Harsh Times"), Rawson Marshall Thurber ("Dodgeball"), stand-up comedian Patton Oswalt ("MADtv"), Jon Hurwitz ("Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle"), Lona Williams ("Drop Dead Gorgeous"), Jeff Nathanson ("Catch Me If You Can") and Don D. Scott ("Barbershop"). While all of the screenplay's major elements — structure, plot, characters — were locked down, these writers were asked to double check its logic and help squeeze whatever additional humor they could from potentially comedic moments.”

Just like an HSSW meeting. Except that all these participants received a $2,500 consulting fee and a catered lunch. (No word if Michael Bay brought the Cape Cod potato chips.)

Saw Borat Last Week.

We thought it was as funny as advertised, but we still had some nagging probolems. Our full take on it is located here.

Good Jobs at Good Wages.

Screenwriter gets $4 million to write the Da Vinci Code sequel, Angels and Demons.

A new high for a screenwriter. That's right, $4 million for an adaptation. Of a book that was deliberately written to be commerically successful .

"... Akiva Goldsman, who adapted Dan Brown's worldwide bestseller into a $755.6 mil hit pic, is receiving $4 million for the Da Vinci Code sequel in the works by both Imagine Entertainment and Sony Pictures. Not only is that major moola, but agents are telling me this represents a new $$$ high for hiring a screenwriter (not buying a spec script) -- and not even an original screenplay, but an adaptation of a book. And, no, Goldsman isn't getting a producer credit, so this is for straight scribbling. "That would be a lot for a pure writer's credit," one agent gushed. "It puts Akiva in the absolute top of his profession." Via Deadline Hollywood Daily.com

Good for him. A rising tide lifts all boats, as they say.

Thanks to Defamer.com for pointing us to the story. Photo via corbis.com

December 4 Review

The script for the Monday, December 4th review is now available. Wendy Lebron's "1st Love Last Chance." If you have not yet received it, contact Scott via www.hssw.info so he can get you a copy

A reminder that meetings are held every Monday from 7-9 PM at the new HSSW Compound located at The Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, 10 Howard St, Cambridge.

One Man's Thoughts on Theme and Structure

via the Artful Writer blog comes a rumination on the relationship between the three act structure, theme, and character:

"To summarize (and please forgive the dogma of acts…it’s just a shorthand…)

Act One: The Hero is ignorant of the truth of the Theme, and demonstrates this ignorance clearly.

Act Two: The Hero faces tests that begin to slowly reveal the truth of the Theme (and the non-truth of the Hero’s current belief system). At the end of the act, the truth of the Theme is fully revealed, and the Hero is faced with the tragic fact that he’s been living an ignorant life.

Act Three: The Hero attempts to do that which believers-of-the-Theme would do, but only in the moment when he actually believes is he finally able to triumph."

By Craig Mazin, writer of the more recent movies in the Scary Movie franchise.