MOVING TO LA

Every screenwriter, at some point or another, faces one, perplexing, inevitable question:

"Should I move to LA?"

Check into any message board on the craft, google it, eavesdrop on a group of eccentric drama students at a coffee shop, and the topic will come up, more than a few times.

Successful screenwriters usually do live in LA, Terry Rossio lives up the hill from the studios because he often finds himself in pitches, in front of Spielberg and the like. He has a funny story of when he lived in Orange County and would have to drive over an hour to studio meetings. He, and writing partner Ted Elliot, came up with the whole treatment for "Godzilla" during these commutes. Eventually, he had to give in and make the move.

John August has a much different story, of how he arrived, unknown, with a dinged-up vehicle, feeling very unimportant and as if he didn't belong there. But, he felt he was a good writer, and as it turns out, he was.

Just the other day, on a message board, a lady was ranting along about how she is a screenwriter and lives in LA, and that the town isn't full of scribes, as she claimed people were being led to believe. In her words, she lived her whole life in LA and never met another screenwriter--

she should get out more.

So, apparently, living there, or in her case, being born and raised there, doesn't guarantee success, especially if you never get out, aren't invited for a pitch, don't send out tens of tons of query letters and scripts, like we all have to, in an attempt to get a foot in the studio door.

This lady might as well live in, well, anywhere else in the world, as most of us do.

So, for now, enjoy the mountains, if that is where you live. If your town has brick buildings and bookstores, according to Rossio, that's one up on LA. If there are seasons where you live, with trees that have actual leaves, changing color and falling to the ground, you're not in LA.

Enjoy it for now.