Film Courage: In the beginning of your writing career how are you
green on the business side of being a TV writer?
Niceole R. Levy, Screenwriter/Author: Oh my God, I was so green about the whole thing. When you first
break in The Writer's Guild one of the main things that they do for us is negotiate the
MBA which is our minimum basic agreement with the studios, so there's set amounts that staff writers
will make. It's written down it's like they're in a piece of paper so you don't have to there's not
a ton of negotiation. When you're a staff writer but as you go on like all of this stuff gets
very complicated and there's issues of how long a studio can hold you and how much more they have to
pay you to hold you and it gets very complicated, which is why having a rep that you can communicate
with is so important because I have literally just had to say to my agent my manager sometimes like
what does this mean I don't understand this what does this mean. Just in terms of how how
your career is going to build it's sort of like an idea in the beginning but it really is sort of
one job at a time one project at a time because my reps would tell you every time a project ends
I'm like “You're going to be able to find me another job right?” and they're like “Girl of
course you're going to find another job,” but I can't believe my own press so I'm always like am
I going to want another job though but it's paying attention to the business paying attention to all
this consolidation that's going on are the people that you knew who worked at Netflix getting laid
off or did they survive the layoffs because sometimes you're reaching out to the people
to say like hey I have this project and I'm looking for someone who might be interested
in it does it seem to you like one of your overall people might be interested in this or something to
your friends and if your friends are in these mass layoffs now they're off looking for different work
how systems change having worked at Marvel TV in its old incarnation and then that whole
thing going away so everybody I knew who worked for Marvel didn't work for Marvel anymore in a
matter of a year so the whole marble TV landscape has changed and so it's like okay who who does
work over there do I know anyone there so you're you're constantly having to pay attention to the
evolution of this business there are people who choose not to there are people who are like that's
just too much for me I don't want to deal with it I like to be informed about all those things I
think it's really important to me so that when my agent sends me something from a particular studio
or a producing pod that I am like oh they're connected to this place I don't really love
maybe I don't want to look at this or oh I love that place so yes let's definitely work there so
it I just think that edge you're always educating yourself not just about your skill set that you
need as a writer but about how to be how to be a show runner in the future about how this business
works about what good representation looks like I constantly have younger writers saying to me like
having this problem with my agent but I don't want to say anything and I'm like no no your
agent works for you they work for you you want to have a good partnership with them but they
get paid because you get paid so it's fine to go to them and say hey I'm a little concerned about
X can we talk about it and it's it's fascinating how many younger writers are scared to have those
conversations so we're we're all encouraging them to go do that there's a there's a lot about it I
still don't know if you ask me to explain to you half the stuff in my feature contract I
would tell you I would need to talk to my future agent again because she explained it all to me
and I remember half of it but a whole bunch of it I'm like oh I don't actually remember how
that bonus gets triggered I would have to ask my feature agent so it's a lot and it's really
important to work with people that you feel like you can trust who are giving you the best advice.
Film Courage: And a younger writer would be scared to ask or push the
envelope because they feel like I'm finally in the door I don't want to jeopardize it?
Niceole: That's it absolutely. Sometimes it takes so long to get wrapped it's so hard to get
representation and they get scared of rocking the boat because they don't want to be without a rep
I had a conversation with a writer who gave me really wonderful advice and it was that it is
honestly better to be unrepresented than to have the wrong rep because the wrong rep is holding you
back like it sucks to not be represented because there's stuff it's harder to submit for you have
to try to like can your lawyer submit you if you have a lawyer it all gets very tricky but if you
have a rep who isn't doing the work isn't sending you out on general meetings so that you can build
a reputation amongst executives and amongst producers of someone they want to work with
they're not helping you build your career and so it's fine to say look I totally get that
you're super busy could you maybe put someone more junior on my team who can help me set up
more general meetings because I really want to get to co-EP [executive produce] in the
next five years and so I need to get out there and meet these people and be on that path it's
perfectly fine to say that because you can frame it in a way that's not you're not doing your job
it's I totally get that you have bigger clients than me so would it be okay if we tried this
and if they say no they're not the right rep for you they're just not.
Film Courage: Tips for the TV writer's room, like things that a new writer
might not think of in terms of maybe where to sit what if they're fidgety?
Niceole: Yes there there are so many things that I feel like I talk about in the Writer’s Survival
Guide [Niceole’s book, THE WRITER'S ROOM SURVIVAL GUIDE: Don’t Screw up the lunch order and other
keys to a happy Writers' Room from Michael Wiese Production] that will seem silly to people who
have never worked in a writer's room but they're so important and so for instance the the first
day you get there and it's sort of like where does everybody sit if it's a returning show there are
probably people who already have seats that they like so kind of like hang back and see what's
going on or you can say does anybody sit here and they'll tell you if someone does or not right
if it's if you're the kind of writer who is very fidgety and like you like to draw
constantly or you're like a leg bouncer and you need to be bouncing your leg or you take
pens apart I've worked with writers who do that don't sit by your show runner because your show
runner's attention is going to constantly be pulled to you and that might be a problem for
you so sit across the room just sit across the room and do your thing you got to do to feel
comfortable but it won't be right in your show runner's face if you are the kind of writer who
has to go to the bathroom every hour sit closer to the door so you can just get up and slip out
and come back in and it won't be any big drama because no one wants to be the person who has
to walk across the entire writer's room every hour it's like it's you don't nobody wants to
do it so just save yourself the problem when it comes to lunch orders this is a big one so
in a lot of rooms the studio will provide lunch for the writers when you're meeting in person
and there's limits to how much you can spend and so there's usually like a an assembly of menus
of places that you can go to right if it's your day to pick and you don't want to pick just pass
it on just be like I don't want to pick today someone else pick if it's your day to pick and
that the place you want to go is a place that everybody hates please do not pick that place
because they're all going to be mad at you if you notice that your show runner's a little grumpy
today and what his favorite place is pick his favorite place because it's like he's going to
be real happy when he's like oh we're going there today great and suddenly his mood gets better
so it's just it's a lot of silly kind of little things but because it's a room full of
personalities that have to find a way to coexist together those things can be really important
so I I hopefully people will think about those things when they walk in there for the first time.
Film Courage: Are writing credits your ticket to getting better and better work?
Niceole: They can be for sure. There are people in this business and I will just say that who
are what we refer to as credit snobs right so for example when I was coming up and I had done
four broadcast shows in a row there were people at some of the streamers and stuff who were like well
but she's only done broadcast well then I went and did Cloak and Dagger and I wrote a movie and
suddenly I was really cool right because I had a cool credit and I had written a movie and I'm like
what I did in those procedural rooms is harder than any of the stuff that you're
like oh she's so cool for because when you have to break a crime 16,18, 22 times with the same
character solving it but you have to find a way to make it cool and different every week trust me
that's harder than anything you're going to ask me to write in any of your snobby rooms
certainly say that once I transition to more streaming content and that kind of stuff
the stuff that was offered to me definitely changed a little bit
so the fancy credits can definitely help you get to that place you want to go
what I always tell newer writers is it used to be that you couldn't get jobs on the fancy shows
but now you can because there's so many shows right and they sometimes still hire staff writers
but think about your career long term so it's great that you did a couple of streaming shows
and you got fancy credits but you probably didn't go to set you probably don't barely saw any cuts
of the show or you definitely didn't get to go to post so your career needs those skills so that's
why I tell them like if you did a couple of fancy shows go do a season a broadcast
and first of all you're going to make better money because you just make better money in
broadcast and second you're going to get a chance to do all that stuff you didn't get to do
and people broadcast is its own animal and it's a different energy and there's
something really pleasing about breaking a story writing a story going to see it shot
and it making it on the air in a reasonable amount of time it's just really joyful for
your friends to not constantly be like when is your show coming out you're like I don't know so
the fancy credits will help you get some of the cooler jobs but they will not necessarily
build the skill set that you need to become a show runner and run your own show so I just tell people
to always think about that when they're looking at the jobs that are getting offered to them.