Interview: Ryan Condal
Who’s Ryan Condal? If you look on IMDB.com, you’ll see that he has no writing credits. But if you look on IMDBpro.com, it’s another story altogether as Condal is writing three projects in development: Ocean (2010), Galahad (2010), and Hercules: The Thracian Wars (2011). So clearly Condal is a writer we’ll be reading and hearing a lot about in the future.
In this Done Deal Pro.com interview, Condal goes into great length about how he got started as a screenwriter. Here are a couple of notable excerpts:
While waiting to hear whether you were officially hired to adapt Ocean, you worked on other jobs, including an extensive treatment for one project. What advice would you give to other writers waiting to hear back about deals or assignments? I assume always keep writing, yes?
You always need to be writing something. Even now as I wait a few days between submitting drafts and having a meeting about them, I work on other things. Whether it’s a spec, an outline, a treatment — always be writing something, even if you’re working. With little exception, I work 7 days a week. This industry is extremely competitive and I know that the first 3–5 years are the most important in establishing a long-term career for myself. So I just work, work, work whenever I can. Thankfully, having written at night and on the weekends for so long while I had a “real job” has given me the necessary stamina to be able to do this.
I’m always working on something, but it’s no fun talking about it yet, right?
Can you discuss a little about the process of selling a script or getting hired for an assignment? Briefly, what are the stages? Who is talking to whom? Is there a lot of back and forth? Does your representation keep you updated at every step or just tell you when the deal is done?
The spec sale was the easiest one for me — I just wrote the script and my reps took care of the rest.
The assignments are a lot of work. As with every other area of writing, you really do have to love this to be able to succeed at it. I did a big round of meetings and my reps helped me weed through the potential projects that were being shared with me for the ones that were the best fit for me and also the most “real” in terms of having a paycheck on the other end of the pitch. We selected three (Ocean and Hercules were two of them) and registered interest with the buyers. I then came up with an initial “take,” sort of a “here’s what I’d like to do.” I’d pitch that (15 minutes or so) to the junior development folks and get their feedback. If they liked it (which they did in all three cases), I’d take down their feedback and go in and pitch the more senior people. Sometimes, as it was for me, this is more than one meeting. But you just keep polishing the pitch and giving it again and again with enthusiasm until they stop calling you in.
With assignments, we’re living in a world of reduced overhead and increasing budget scrutiny, so there is a lot of work done by writers up front to win jobs. It’s just the nature of the beast. As I try to put a positive spin on everything in life, I will do so to this, as well — in the end, if you win the job, you already have a killer outline/pitch/treatment to work off that is hugely detailed. You should be ready to go on the script!
For instance, with Hercules, there were four pitch meetings before I won the job. Four. And it all culminated with a 45-minute verbal pitch. Screenwriting is not for the writer with high blood pressure or anxiety.
Luckily, I only suffer from anxiety.