Film Courage: Dan, how was it to get your first job as a script reader and (if you can)
paint a little bit [of a picture] of your life at that time?
Daniel Calvisi: Well, I’d gotten out of NYU film school and I definitely was interested
in screenwriting.
That was kind of my focus coming out of film school.
I really wanted to get into script reading and I had been interning at the Tribeca Film
Center in New York for a company that was co-owned by Robert De Niro’s production
company and in the same building was Miramax Films.
And so I just kind of got to know some people there.
And it’s funny, my first reading job for them was for their genre division called Dimension
films.
I remember getting a referral but the guy said that they were not hiring now “Don’t
bother calling them.”
And because I had a lot of initiative, I called anyway.
The first thing the supervisor said to me when he picked up the phone was “Oh…we
have a reader job open.
Do you want to test for it?”
So I did a test coverage which is they give you a script that they’ve already had coverage
on.
I did coverage on it and they evaluate you on that coverage because they already know
the script really well.
And so that’s how I got working for them.
Then I transferred over to the Miramax division which was their parent company and I had also
been freelancing for a number of other companies in New York City (other production companies
and studios).
Film Courage: When you came to New York to attend NYU do you remember some of the scripts
in your mind that you thought “This is the genre I want to write in.
This is what I want to create”?
Daniel Calvisi: It’s funny because growing up I was more into Spielberg’s work or more
action stuff like RAMBO and that kind of stuff.
Then before I went to NYU (I transferred in as a junior), I started getting into Scorsese
and I was watching TAXI DRIVER, GOODFELLAS and those kind of movies…and Oliver Stone.
And I knew that Scorsese and Oliver Stone and Spike Lee had gone to NYU so I really
wanted to go there.
I applied and I got in just on the waitlist and then they called really late in the summer
before my junior year and said “We have an opening on the waitlist.”
So that’s why I went to NYU.
That’s how I was able to get in.
And it was just really cool to be in New York where these filmmakers that I really admired
had gone.
So Scorsese, Oliver Stone, Spike Lee, The Coen Brothers, these were all filmmakers that
I wanted to emulate.
Film Courage: So going back to what your jobs or tasks were, you finally get in.
You were told “Sorry…don’t even bother.”
You give it a shot anyway, it turns out (as luck would have it), the do have a slot.
Do you remember what your first few weeks were as this script reader?
Daniel Calvisi: I remember that I got scripts and books because I was in New York and that
was the literary capital, so I would read a lot of books ahead of publication.
The agents and book editors would send a book out to the studios to see if any studios or
production companies wanted to option the movie rights.
And so I would be the first reader at the production company or studio to read that
unpublished galley version and that was hard to do because a lot of times they would literally
give you a 600-page book to read overnight and you had to write up a 3-5 page report
about it by Noon the next day.
That was hard to do.
I actually got let go from one of my jobs early on because I just couldn’t turn over
the material that fast.
So I had to learn on the job, trial-by-fire and just learned to read really fast and to
intuit that movie structure.
As I am reading this book, I’m asking myself “Will this transfer over to a movie?
Does it have that potential for that 3-4 act structure that 95% of great movies use.
Film Courage: And so it was all about structure?
There wasn’t also dialogue?
Daniel Calvisi: No…well it was evaluating the whole thing.
As a script reader I was evaluating the whole script, structure, dialogue, character development,
all that stuff.
But if you’re reading something like a novel or a graphic novel or a piece from The New
Yorker or Rolling Stone [Magazine] or any kind of article that they’re interested
in making a movie of, you have to evaluate it as a potential movie, so you’re asking
yourself “Does it have the 3 or 4 act structure of a commercial film?”
Film Courage: That interesting because it sounds actually fairly intimidating because
I know I’ve been in situations like this where no one really tells you what the rules
are.
You kind of (as you said) intuit or watch other people [their actions].
So how was that?
Were people actually giving you tips on how to deal with all that?
Or no, was it was every man for himself?
Daniel Calvisi: Not a whole lot.
You didn’t get a whole lot of feedback.
When I was first starting out, maybe a few supervisors might have given me a few little
tips about coverage.
But after awhile they don’t really give you any feedback.
You don’t even know where this script goes after you send in your coverage report.
So I would really have to ask afterward like “Hey, that script that I really loved…did
anything happen with it?”
And so they would tell me “Oh, we didn’t buy it but Fox bought it” or something like
that.
As a reader, you’re not told anything [laughs], so you have to inquire.
You have to have the initiative to see what happens after that.
And you’re not part of the process of development or purchasing or bidding on it or anything
like that.
After you read it once, maybe twice, it’s out of your hands and then your supervisors,
the coordinators, the execs, the VPs, they’re the ones who are going to be deciding whether
the company is going to option it or not.
Film Courage: And that’s fascinating…I wonder were there certain scripts that you
would read just the first 10 pages of and you just knew right away that this was not
going to go anywhere?
Daniel Calvisi: Yeah…
Film Courage: So why?Daniel Calvisi: I mean as crazy as it sounds, it could be the first
paragraph.
It could be the first line.
I mean if there are two typos in the first line…like…it’s probably not going to
go anywhere, you know?
It’s very rare (incredibly rare) that the first 10, 20, 30 pages will be weak and then
the script gets a whole lot better later, you know?
If a writer doesn’t know how to write a great Act 1, they’re not going to learn
later and suddenly turn it around and have a great Act 2(a) or Act 2(b).
Question for the Viewers: Are you friends with anyone who is or was a Hollywood script
reader?