Hero's Journey: Returning with the Elixir
And Why I'm Building a Bay Area Movie Studio
When I was 21, I stood on the stage of The Smith Rafael Theater and gave a speech, asking my friends and family for $10k to fund my first short film.
My promise, twenty years ago on that stage, was to head down to LA to learn the film/TV business, then come back to The Bay to create jobs for their kids and their kids’ kids.
And I got more than enough money to make my first film.
Soon after that event, I spent the next two decades working in the trenches of Hollywood/Mordor/King’s Landing (whatever you want to call it).
Started as production assistant on set while teaching myself how to write on the weekends. In my 20’s, I built out a big talent network by producing comedy shows, then teamed up with the right crew and borrowed $7,000 to shoot a web series.
That web series became Workaholics and we had an insane 7 season run.
Over the next 7 years (2017-2024), I continued to sell shows and scripts, but I grew increasingly disillusioned with the development process in Hollywood.
I will dig into this topic thoroughly on this account, but will keep it brief for now.
The barriers to entry are getting smaller (minus a few of the top writing fellowships), the budgets are getting bigger and it’s no longer a priority to develop original ideas and voices. When I started pitching around 2008, anyone with a decent script and a referral could get an agent or manager to take a chance on them. That no longer exists.
And with the new streaming model, rapidly shrinking writers rooms and upfront licensing buyouts (no royalties), it’s getting harder to make a living as TV writer.
On my second show, I was only given a budget to hire four staff writers for four weeks to break all of the episodes, yet there were eight other executive producers collecting checks. Most of those EP’s I never met or spoke to.
This is what happens when risk-averse bureaucrats control the culture and mandates:
Severely watered down stories that lack emotional impact.
Understaffed, expedited and exploitative mini-rooms that don’t have enough time or resources to make something great (though some networks like HBO/FX still treat their writers well and have the shows to prove it).
An endless era of factory assembled content marketing reboots. According to Matt Belloni’s newsletter, only 10% of the projects being developed at studios and streamers are original ideas (meaning it’s not a piece of pre-existing IP). *Development Executives don’t want to put their careers on the line to fight for your new idea when there are still plenty of member berries to mine.
To sum up, most writers can no longer get our original ideas made and we don’t get paid that much to work on their shitty ideas.
How many times can they fuck us over, break our hearts and betray our trust with these reboots before we band together and build our own IP incubator & sandbox?
Even though the creative and economic system of Hollywood is breaking down, I still remain a belligerent idealist (SO to my friend, Mushi Woosesong for that term).
It does not have to be this way.
Fear-based decision making and trend chasing where content replaces story.
Hollywood accounting that turns millions of dollars of revenue into a tiny payout.
Working hard to write good scripts only to get a job fixing their bad scripts.
I’ve worked for Apple, Warner/HBO, CBS, Paramount, Viacom, Comedy Central and have pitched just about everyone.
Like a double agent, I’ve been collecting trade secrets for two decades.
Mostly on how to not to do things or treat people.
I’ve been fucked over, cut out, sued, double crossed, bought out, and rejected so many times in Hollywood that I’ve lost count. Numb to it at this point. Almost expect it.
But again, that’s the old way and it does not have to be that way for you.
As a grizzled 42 year old girl dad now, I feel a strong pull to return home to protect and inspire the next generation of storytellers. Like a fierce California Grizzly.
So I left Hollywood and moved back to The Bay last year, where people actually like to be disruptive and absurd for the fuck of it. Every week, I strap my daughter into a hiking backpack and we go explore a neighborhood in SF. It feels so good to be back in the land of fog, microdosing weirdos and beautifully diverse neighborhoods. Fuck what everyone says about us in the news. This city still… hella rocks.
But like SF and it’s ever present cycles of innovation, I’m on a full circle hero’s journey that is about to reset with a new saga: building a low budget movie studio in The Bay. That’s right. The next Blumhouse or A24. Right here.
And we do that by starting with bottle movies/chamber pieces/stage plays.
1-2 location movies that can be shot for 1-2 million dollars or less.
I’ll be writing endlessly about why The Era of No Budget Movies is here to stay.
Back to it. I had some wins and a lot of losses in Hollywood, but it’s time to deliver on my promise from 20 years ago: creating new film/TV jobs in The Bay.
Our land is too beautiful and our people are too weird to ignore this dream.
If I’m going down swinging as a struggling and mostly ignored screenwriter, I’m going down while throwing haymakers at my dream goal. Not someone else’s goals.
We’ve got plenty of investors up here. Just need to find one who is as crazy as me.
I have access to tons of recognizable acting talent through my management company. Big actors and actresses who are not working regularly and not being compensated well and will jump at the chance to join a cool indie and help promote it on social.
Because I've run the big TV fellowships and have coached hundreds of storytellers, I know how to train a new crop of storytellers with online courses and IRL workshops.
But I’m done with Hollywood.
However, I refuse to give up on telling meaningful stories and treating people well.
I remain a belligerent idealist from The Bay. I think you might feel that way, too.
We can build a cool counter culture up here. We have everything we need.
And Substack is the place to do it. They have a great community, bold leadership and they’re just starting to produce and distribute originals. If Substack cracks this model and I think they will, it removes a HUGE problem for filmmakers: distribution.
In summary, Hollywood is breaking apart, but I still believe the next generation of writers can fix it. If they choose to do so. They might want to build their own thing.
How to Build a Movie Studio is day one look into building a new culture of writers.
I’m going to be radically transparent about my career while tackling the big questions.
What makes a story great?
Why are there so many bad movies and shows these days?
What do you really need to make your own bottle movies?
Even if you’re not from The Bay, I encourage you to apply these insights to your screenwriting career. Trust me. It is very hard to get picked out of a submission pile and you’ll have a much better chance at breaking in with a finished product to show that you can execute a vision.
That’s it for now. Think of me like a crazed barbarian version of Mr Rodgers and I’m going to make a variety show Substack account for screenwriters and storytellers.
This is week 1 of big… but not impossible goal. My daughter is probably going to be a writer some day and I want her to be able to start here and work with people like you. Not the ego driven mall shopping desperate star fuckers down south.
Thanks for reading,
Connor
PS: I don’t hate Hollywood and there are great people working down there, it just started to feel like a toxic relationship for me. I likely won’t ever work down there again, but if one of those little shivering scared mice execs called me with an offer to run a show, I would ruin their shitty idea twice as hard for half as much!
PSS: Final Argument for Building a Movie Studio in The Bay
Hollywood keeps throwing toys, games and recycled spandex superhero reboots at us because they think it’s good IP that will bring eyeballs and ticket sales. But their well is over mined and running dry.
Now think about our IP well: The Gold Rush, WWII sailors being jettisoned at port, beatniks, psychedelics, The Grateful Dead, Hitchcock, Harvey Milk, Burning Man and almost every piece of tech you are using right now. Our well is untapped.