Fall 2005 PDF - Milton Academy

Post ScriptPost Script is a department that opens windows into the lives and experiences of your fellow Milton alumni.Graduates may author the pieces, or they may react to our interview questions. Opinions, memories,explorations, reactions to political or educational issues are all fair game. We believe you will find yourMilton peers informative, provocative and entertaining. Please email us with your reactions and yourideas—cathy_everett@milton.edu.Milton is far from Hollywood:The making of a screenwriterHadley Davis Rierson ’89Milton is far from Hollywood. I know this becauseI have traveled from Logan to LAX with my infant son intow (six hours, 19 minutes). Los Angeles, however, is notjust far in the literal sense. People look different here. OnRodeo Drive, I have yet to spot an authentically rumpledoxford shirt—the I-just-rolled-out-of-bed-and-picked-thisup-off-the-floortimeless fashion statement that Miltonianshave long and effortlessly sported crossing Centre Street.Furthermore, last I checked, most Milton teachers can stillmove their eyebrows. But what struck me most when Imoved to Southern California and went to work in theentertainment business—and what still strikes me today—is the flagrant disregard for the correct use of the object ofthe preposition. “Between you and I” (as they say), variouswho-and-whom violations are as rampant as car chases onthe 10 o’clock news. To be a bit more blunt: what counts isnot how well you are educated (or if you are educated atall), but rather whether the movie or television programyou have acted in, directed, written or produced is a success.As I said before, Milton is far from Hollywood. Howis it then that I attribute my screenwriting career toMilton?For one, you can’t be a Hollywood screenwriter if you can’tpitch your movie, and in order to pitch your movie youhave to be able to communicate well. That DreamWorksexecutive may have just returned from a languorous lunchat the Palm. He may have chomped one too many bites offilet mignon and he may have downed one too many martinisat the Tom Cruise premiere the night before. Not tomention he may have more than a touch of “SesameStreet” generation ADD. You must grab him—immediately.You must help him focus by giving him an overview ofyour movie. And then you must, for 10 minutes, tell himyour story. Your story has to be thoughtfully structured; ithas to have a beginning, a middle and an end; that endneeds to leave an impression (big finish) and you, thescreenwriter, have to be animated (remember the languorouslunch) and convincing (notice the Harvard diplomaon his wall). Yes, it helps to be poised and to appearconfident. This is, after all, a performance. Sound familiar?It should. The Hollywood Pitch is, essentially, the MiltonAcademy Fourth Class Talk.Every time I pitch I think of my Fourth Class Talk—because every time I pitch I am scared. I was especiallyscared when I had to pitch my first movie, Ice Princess, tothe president of Walt Disney Pictures. The stakes werehigh. If I impressed her, I would officially become a workingscreenwriter. If not, it would be back to square one.But, scared as I was, I was not—and could never be—asterrified as I was at age 14, in braces, standing sweatypalmedbefore the boy I prayed would ask me to “slowdance” and the rest of the Fourth Class. This is the geniusof the Fourth Class Talk. You are made to speak publicly atyour most awkward and at your most insecure. Public48 Milton Magazine