Day 5 and 6 - Amsterdam to Brussels

The last two days were incredibly hectic. I'll try and summarize them quickly.

Day 5 - Amsterdam

A full day of meetings in Amsterdam. Luckily, the city is pretty easy to get around.

I started out the day by going down to the breakfast buffet. In my mind, it was overpriced at 20 Euros for a basic buffet of cold cuts and croissants. I learned my lesson it wasn't worth it. Usually I try to only do the breakfast buffet if it's included in the price of the hotel room, like in Iceland.

I took the tram up to meet with SBS. It was a very nice meeting then I took a taxi over to the train station in preparation for my trip out to Hilversum. The irony is that the taxi to the train station cost more than the round trip ticket to Hilversum.

I was originally going to meet with the buyer from RTL at a restaurant for lunch. But as I was walking, I passed their offices and it was starting to rain. So I figured I would stop in at their offices and see if he wanted to walk over to the restaurant together. I was a little early, but it was fine. I got to sit in the lobby with a cup of coffee and watch RTL while I waited for him.

We borrowed a couple of umbrellas from reception and left to walk to the restaurant. The walk to the restaurant was a lot longer than I expected. But it was nice because the path went through the woods behind their office. It reminded me of growing up in the Santa Cruz mountains.

We got to the restaurant, which was a lovely Indonesian place. I'd never had Indonesian food so I had no idea what to expect. It was verry good and had elements of Thai and Chinese cuisine, but was it's own unique cuisine. They had a set menu for lunch, which involved several smaller dishes that we could share. The name of the restaurant is Spandershoeve.

After that, I took a taxi on to meet with Disney Channel. They are in a small media complex there along with companies like EOne and Endemol. I would have met with EOne while I was there, but the buyers were both in London this week. They have a lot of big movies such as Red, Machete, and Fair Game, and they have bought a couple of ours. There were standess from some of their movies in the lobby.

Coming into the lobby, the stairs leading up to Disney channel, had a huge standee for Toy Story 3 that arched over the stairway. Upstairs, there were a ton of toys and the place had an open layout, similar to the MTV building in North Amsterdam. Had a nice meeting with the buyer, then took a taxi back to the train station.

Unfortunately, the driver took me to the Hilversum train station instead of the Hilversum North train station, which my ticket was for. I got on the train and hoped that I didn't get caught or kicked off the train. Luckily, I made it back to Amsterdam in one piece. However, by the time I got there it was pouring rain. I tried to buy an umbrella from one of the shops there, but they wouldn't take credit cards, only cash. And I was out of cash. Instead I figured I would just take a taxi instead. This was a big mistake. I got in the taxi line and waited for a taxi. I was wary of the taxi from the beginning. It was a plain white van with only a small taxi sign atop.

So we get back to the hotel, and instead of the usual 10 Euro fare, he charges me 20 Euro. And on top of that he wouldn't take a credit card. So we had to drive to a nearby ATM, which wasn't working. We went back to the hotel to see if I could get cash from them. But of course they couldn't help me. But they pointed me to a different ATM. I ran over to that ATM and got cash and paid the guy. I've learned to always ask before stepping into a cab. I don't like carrying a ton of cash around on me and prefer to charge things when I can. It helps me to track my expenses easier.

So I got back to the hotel, showered and changed. I called a friend of mine who lives in Amsterdam to come over and meet me. We'd arranged to meet for beers that evening. I met him through the UCLA screenwriting program, it's just by coincidence that he happens to be Dutch. So we had 3 or 4 beers each and chatted about screenwriting and his post UCLA life. He's living here with his fiance, looking for a job. It was nice to catch up with him. Then I headed back to the room and fell asleep.

Day 6 - Amsterdam to Brussels

I woke up early as always, packed up my things and got ready to head out. I headed out in search of breakfast, since I didn't want to pay 20 Euros for the breakfast buffet. I walked around the city at 7 AM in search of anything that was open. But all of the shops were closed. But it was an interesting experience to see the empty streets of Amsterdam. The streets were littered with garbage bags, waiting to be picked up. It was like seeing the aftermath of a party before it was cleaned up. Finally, I found a Starbucks and grabbed a muffin and coffee.

I checked out and grabbed a taxi to the train station. I got there 45 minutes early because I didn't want to miss my train. I grabbed a sandwich and soda for the trip because they don't feed you in coach class and I would need something for the 2 hour train ride. The only issue is that they don't announce which platform ahead of time so you have to wait until 15 minutes beforehand and rush over to the platform. So I stood in front of the monitors with all the other tourists, waiting for the platform to be announced. Finally, we got our announcement and headed over.

Got settled into the train and enjoyed the Dutch countryside. It was still a bit cold and drizzly so the sky was a muted gray color. It was not exactly postcard picture weather. About an hour into the trip, the train stops for no reason. An announcement came on telling us that there was a problem with the signal and they would be about 20 minutes late.

Eventually, they got the train started again and we made our way into Brussels. Got out of the train station and hopped into a cab. Luckily, I had cash just in case. The traffic in Brussels is crazy! At one point we were going down a one way street and several cars were coming at us from the wrong direction. The driver had to swerve to avoid getting hit and scraped the front of the car against the curb. He had to stop and check the damage to make sure it wasn't too bad. But eventually I made it to my hotel.

Got to the hotel and of course, they have the wrong dates for me. They had me arriving on Saturday instead of Thursday. The woman at the reception sorted it all out, but she didn't have a room that was ready for check in. So she said to come back in a couple of hours. I checked my bags at reception and rushed off to my next meeting.

Hopped the tram off to my meeting with VRT. For some reason Google maps had me getting off at the next stop over and then walking all the way back. So I was about 10 minutes late. I walked all the way back to their address. VRT has a huge, industrial campus. The building is secure so I had to check in with a receptionist that didn't speak English. Finally, I got my little sticker pass and headed into the campus.

Walked over to the main building and headed up to the seventh floor. Luckily, I had his office number so I walked over to him. He was surprised to see me because the receptionist never called him to let him know I was there.

We went to one of the conference rooms and started talking. About halfway through, another group came and had to use the conference room. So we had to move to a different one. We finished up my meeting and I headed off to Central Station for my meeting in Mechelen.

So I get my ticket and the man at the ticket counter tells me to take the train on platform 3. So I head down there and get on the train. It's a lovely train with old 50's style train compartments. I felt like I was in some sort of spy movie.

Now the train keeps going and there's no sign of Mechelen. So I start to get worried. So I ask the ticket taker and he says I am on the wrong train. So I get off at the next stop. By now, I am 20 minutes outside of Brussels in the middle of nowhere. It's cold and rainy and I have no idea where I am.

One of the station attendents tells me which train to take back to Brussels. I barely miss the train and have to wait for the next one. Then the sign changes to indicate that it is running 15 minutes late. I emailed my meeting to tell him I was going to be late. Unfortunately, he is only going to be there for another hour. If the return train had been on time, I could have made it. But it was not to be. So I had to reschedule for tomorrow.

So I had to email another of my meetings to reschedule to a breakfast meeting. I took the train back to Brussels Central station, bought an umbrella and walked back to my hotel. Got into my room, took a shower and headed off in search of a bite for dinner. While I was coming back, I stopped at a corner store and got some water and some chocolate for the room. While I was waiting to check out, I spied their beers. They were selling Belgian beer for about a Euro per beer. And we're talking quality stuff like Chimay which is ridiculously expensive in the US. So I grabbed a beer as well. I went back to the room, enjoyed my beer and my chocolates and tried to forget the troubles of the day.

My last day is Friday and it's a full day of meetings. Let's see if I can pull off 5 meetings in one day in a city like Brussels with the horrible traffic.

Day 3 and 4 - Reykjavik to Amsterdam - Meetings

The last two days have been so hectic. This is where I earn my salary. It can be a lot of work running around a foreign city, meeting with different clients. But it's an important part of my job. There's nothing that can replace going to see them in their office and getting a better sense of their programming and their needs.

Here's a quick rundown of the past two days. It should give you an idea of the kind of schedule we face on sales trips.


Day 3 - Reykjavik


My first full day of meetings. In a small town like Reykjavik, there are only a handful of people to meet so it's difficult to schedule more than 3-4 meetings while there.

My morning begain with a meeting with ITC Skjarinn, a local broadcaster that recently switched from free TV to a pay TV service. After the financial crisis in the country, they were forced to switch to a pay service in order to survive. They previously aired our miniseries Bollywood Hero with Chris Kattan and were quite pleased with how it perrformed. They have about four channels, including a channel devoted soley to golf. Their main channel is SkjarEinn (Screen One). Some of their shows include The Good Wife, Survivor, and CSI. Their channel tends to be more female focused.

After that, I took a taxi to downtown Reykjavik to meet the buyer from 365 media for lunch. 365 is the main commercial broadcaster in Iceland. They have several channels and radio stations in the country. Their biggest shows are shows like NCIS and Ghost Whisperer. We went to a really nice Italian restaurant. The food was delicious. Apparently the owner is good friends with Jamie Oliver. But the weird thing is that the restaurant was completely empty but for the two of us. So it was a bit awkward.

After that, I called my next meeting to see when he would be available. I had some free time, so I went to a local coffee shop and made notes on my previous meetings. Then I walked around the town for a bit and wound up at the statue of Leif Eriksson, along with the beautiful church Hallgrimskirkja, that sits atop the hill. The national religion is Lutheran. So almost all the large churches are Lutheran.

Then I got a taxi out to my meeting with Samfilm. They are the largest theatrical distributor in Iceland and have output deals with Warner Brothers, Paramount and Disney. Apparently their offices are actually inside one of their theater complexes. It's a family business and the owner runs it with his sons. After our meeting, I met with his son Thor, who handles the theatrical acquisitions. He had just come back from seeing the new Transformers movie. He raved about it and said it was much better than the second one. His only complaint was that at over two hours it was too long. As distributors, they don't like movies over two hours long because they can only schedule so many screenings in one day. They also told me about a huge megascreen they recently built that is verging on being an IMAX sized screen.

One of his sons Bjorn drove me back to my hotel. During the drive we had an interesting conversation about piracy and the future of film content in the country. It's gotten so bad that there is no market for non theatrical movies in the country. They make all their money in theatrical and their DVD revenues have been plumeting. It's a common story I hear in every country around the world. Piracy is killing the DVD business. Of course this means there will be less and less opportunities for independent filmmakers as they can't rely on DVD revenue and VOD is only bringing in about a tenth of what DVD used to bring in.


Day 4 - Reykjavik to Amsterdam


Got up early and took the 5AM bus to the airport. Thankfully, Reykjavik buses are very clean and reliable. Made it to the airport and it was a madhouse, swarming with people. Luckily, I was flying business class, so I got the shorter line. I was checked in and through security in no time.
Had a cup of coffee and a croissant. Then spent the remaining Kroner I had on another souvenir. Iceland is in the process of joining the EU. It will be so much more convenient if they do. That was I can just use Euros, instead of having to get specific currency just for Iceland. The same problem is there in Scandinavia as well. A Danish Kroner and a Swedish Kroner are two seperate things and you have to constantly convert your currency while travelling through Scandinavia.
Icelandair is so nice and clean. It's so much better than Delta. If I come out here again, I will definitely fly them again.

Landed in Amsterdam around 1pm. I assumed that would be enough time before my next meeting at 2:15pm. Unfortunately, we had to wait about 20 minutes for our baggage. Apparently, there was some sort of snafu with the baggage, which caused the delay. I had intended to take the train when I got there. But seeing as it was about 1:45pm when I got out of there, I ran and grabbed a taxi to the hotel. Got to the hotel at 2:10pm, quickly checked in and got my key cards. The hotel is a beautiful historic hotel dating from the 1900s. They have me staying on the second floor at the end of a labyrinthian hallway up several small flights of stairs. Struggled to my room, sweaty and flustered. Had just enough time to set my bags down when I got a call from my next meeting. He was down in the lobby waiting for me.

I took a moment to compose myself then headed down for my meeting. I met with one of the buyers from Npo, the Dutch public broadcaster. They have three channels they are buying for. The first channel is the mainstream channel similar to BBC 1. Their second channel is news and sports and the third is more irreverent and younger skewed. As a public broadcaster, they don't buy a lot of American programming as it is too commercial for their tastes. The American shows that they do acquire are shows like Dexter or Boardwalk Empire. We walked to a nearby cafe. I just had a Coke because I couldn't imagine having a coffee since I was all sweaty from running around.

After that, I had a meeting with Comedy Central at the MTV building. I had to take a taxi to the building as they are across the river from Amsterdam. It took me about 45 minutes to get there. I emailed my buyer to let them know I was running late. I always love meeting the buyer from Comedy Central. Their channel is small, maybe 2% of the market. Their biggest shows are old American sitcoms like Dharma and Greg and Married With Children. They also have shows like 30 Rock and South Park, but they don't perform that well.

Their offices are in the old shipyards. The area is being converted into a media area. There are offices from other broadcasters such as Discovery and Red Bull. He showed me around their offices. They share the same offices with Nickelodeon and MTV. The building is all wood and exposed beams. It's got a very open feel as there are just desks with no cubicles or private offices. In a way, it's nice. It has a very egalitarian feel to it. He also showed me the free water taxi that will take me directly to Amsterdam Centraal Station. So I saved myself the 45 minute taxi ride.

Got back to Amsterdam, walked back to my hotel room and set off my bag. I took a shower which felt so good. Then went off and grabbed some Chinese takeaway for dinner, which was delicious.

Today will be interesting as I have to meet with SBS before taking the train off to Hilversum to meet with RTL and Disney.

Reykjavik - Day 2

Day 2 was all about doing the "Golden Circle" tour of Iceland. It's an 8 hour trip through the beautiful countryside of this country. Normally I am against doing tours because I prefer to go at my own pace. But seeing as I only had one day to do the touristy stuff, I felt like it was the best option.

I booked my ticket online, since you get a discount. I think it wound up costing about $68 for the ticket. The bus picked me up in front of the hotel at 8am, then took me to the central terminal. At the central terminal, I had to pick up my actual ticket, which is kind of weird. This also meant I lost my seat, so by the time I got to the bus, the only window seat available was way in the back.

Eventually the bus lurched off and we headed up into the mountains. As we drove, the tour guide gave information but I couldn't hear a word she was saying. She spoke in a low, monotonous, heavily-accented voice. It's just as well. I didn't care what she was saying. I just wanted to see the sights.

The first stop was a picture spot overlooking the valley. It wasn't much to see. But it was nice. We all got out, took pictures then left. The bus turned around and we headed to the first real stop.

The first stop was Thingvellir, a national park and the site of the original Parliament in 930. It also sits atop the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, so you can see where Europe and North America are separating from each other. It wasn't much to look at. But it was interesting. I guess it's more important from a historical perspective.

The next stop was the most impressive and definitely a must see, the Gullfoss waterfalls. That's me in the picture in front of them up above. The waterfalls are actually three steps where the river above falls to the river canyon below. As jaded as I am, I found this a truly spectacular sight. Pictures just don't do it justice. It's something you have to see for yourself. We also had a break to grab lunch, so I grabbed an overpriced sandwich from the shop there.

Next we saw the geysers known as The Great Geysir and Strokkur. Apparently the Great Geysir is no longer that active. But Strokkur goes off every couple of minutes. It's an impressive thing to see. At first. By the fourth or fifth time, it loses its interest. The interesting thing is that you can also see several other hot springs in the area, with the telltale smell of sulfur along with the incredibly hot water. I did stop and buy a few souvenirs for friends/coworkers/family. There are souvenir shops at all the major stops, selling overpriced, cheaply-made crap with "Iceland" emblazoned on them.

We also stopped at another smaller waterfall which wasn't nearly as impressive in comparison to Gullfoss.

After that, everything else was anticlimactic. We stopped at Skalholt, a cathedral. Frankly, it was pretty unimpressive as cathedrals go. By this point I was tired from walking around all day and couldn't wait to get back on the bus.

Lastly, we stopped at some tourist trap/local greenhouse. I assume they must have some sort of arrangement with the owners to get the tour buses to stop so they could sell ice cream and sodas to the tourists.

Overall the geysers and the waterfalls were worth seeing. I could have done without the cathedral and the tourist trap at the end.

I tried to exercise a lot of patience during the day as I have a natural loathing towards tourists. I managed to make it through. But by the end I had a massive headache and couldn't wait to get back to the hotel. The bus let most of the people off back at the terminal then drove the rest of us to our respective hotels. Naturally, I was the last stop. As the massive bus lurched around the corners of Reykjavik, I cringed every time we passed a street lamp or signal light, narrowly missing by inches.

I was thankful to finally get back into my room, where I quickly passed out from exhaustion and fell asleep. Now today is all about meetings before I head to Amsterdam Tuesday morning.

PS - If it sounds like I am not having fun, it's not true. I am enjoying my time here. It's just some of the touristy things aren't all that impressive.

Reykjavik - Day 1

Greetings from Reykjavik!

The journey here was quite an adventure. First, I was talking with the driver taking me to the airport and it turns out he is an actor. So we talked a bit about the film business. But mostly we talked about the horrible traffic in LA.

Then I got on the plane and found out that Delta's business class is anything but. It was an old Boeing 767, with none of the amenities you get on other business class flights. Most business class plaes have the in seat monitor in back of the seat in front of you. But instead, they had a tiny flip up monitor. In addition, there was no under seat storage so everything had to go in the overhead compartments. On top of everything, we took off 30 minutes late due to "weather" in New York.

I was halfway through the flight to JFK when I look over and see that the woman next to me is working on something for My Little Pony. It turns out that she works for an advertising and marketing firm that does a lot of business with The Hub, who are in the same building where I work. So I told her that I work in international distribution and we started talking about foreign adaptations of American TV series.

Got to JFK, had an hour layover. So I went over to the business class lounge and grabbed a cup of coffee and a cookie before heading down to the gate.

The flight to Iceland was pretty uneventful. At least with this flight they gave you a glass of champagne upon boarding. It's a nice touch that airlines give to business class passengers. But it was still the old model airplane that hadn't been remodeled, so still the tiny monitor and no under seat storage. Got maybe an hour or two of sleep before we landed.

We got into Iceland around 10AM. A group of us coming off the plane made a wrong turn and somehow managed to get back into the boarding area. They escorted us back down to the immigration area. After a long line for immigration, I went and got my bus ticket to take me into Reykjavik proper. It wasn't nearly as cold as I thought it was going to be. The temperature was in the mid 50s. Cold enough to need a coat but that's about it.

The bus ride took about 90 minutes, even though it's only about 40 miles away, because the speed limit here in Iceland is 50 kph (30 mph). Got to the airport and it was close to noon. Unfortunately, my room wasn't ready so I had a couple of hours to kill.

Thoughts on Reykjavik:

So I walked around Reykjavik for a couple hours. I walked down Laugavegur, which is the main street here in town. The town itself is pretty small, population is 120,000 for the city proper, with approximately 200,000 people in the greater Reykjavik area. It has a weird, artsy vibe to it from what I saw. There were a lot of museums and craft stores. There was also a lot of graffiti and street art. It felt like a combimnation of Vail and Santa Cruz, with a touch of Helsinki. The architecture here is very minimalist and unpretentious. It's got a very Scandinavian feel to it. Scandinavians love their minimalism, as anyone who has been to Ikea can attest.

I did stop in at their equivalent to the 7-11, a small Video store/diner comination and had a hamburger and fries. I did some research by looking to see which distributor had which titles. Visiting other countries is not just about meeting the broadcasters, it's also about doing research, finding out what movies are in the theaters, who distributes the different DVD titles, and what's on the different TV channels.

Finally got back to the hotel and my room still wasn't ready, so I grabbed a coffee and sat down in the lobby, reading my book. Finally, the woman came over and gave me my room keycard. By that point I was so exhausted, I was glad to be in the room. I struggled to stay awake as long as possible. I watched some documentary on Joe Strummer that was on TV, took a shower, then went to bed around 3pm.

It's about 3AM now here in Reykjavik. It's still light out. I don't think the sun ever fully goes down at this time of the year. Today I'll probably dome some more touristy things like check out the Golden Circle, which includes waterfalls and other sights to see. There's also a geothermal blue lagoon that is supposed to be a must see.

There you have it. Tried and failed not to be too verbose. I'll keep you updated on my sales trip through Europe over the next week.

Finished!

Last night we reviewed Act 3 of my second script for the UCLA Professional Screenwriting Program. Then afterward a bunch of us went out for beers.

It was nice to be done with the program and done with both scripts. We will be getting our certificates on June 14th.

Here are some initial reflections on the program.

Even though the program is only a year program. I still learned a great deal. I can honestly say that I am a much better writer having gone through it. Before I started, I had completed about 3 scripts. Although I had started probably about 20 scripts that I never finished. It was nice to have that time constraint that forces you to sit down and write every week. Probably the best thing I gained was the daily routine and habit of constantly writing. It has become so ingrained into my system that it feels weird not to write.

In terms of the program itself, a lot of the basics were review, stuff we already knew. But it was nice to go over it again, since these are important building blocks that can take years, perhaps even decades, to master.

The students in the program varied in skill level. In my workshop of six students there were people who were fresh out of college, writing their first or second script. And then there were people like me who have been writing for a good 10-15 years and have several scripts under their belt. It was beneficial to have a varied level of experience, especially in getting feedback. Since everyone has different levels of opinions. I'm also personally biased towards the younger members, simply since they are closer to the average movie goer. People under 25 are much more likely to watch movies and television. And they are much bigger consumers of entertainment.

The structure itself was interesting. We had two classes a week. The first class would be a lecture covering one aspect of writing. Then the second class would be a workshop of 6-8 people. Each week we would bring in pages and get reactions from the members of the class. Of course, you always have to take notes with a grain of salt. First drafts are usually pretty bad and unfocused. I know for myself, during first draft I'm usually trying to break the story and figure out what it is really about.

The first two quarters are spent writing a script. This averages out to about 10 pages a week. The third quarter you write another script. It's a race to get the script completed in time. Of course everyone complains about having to write a script in such a short time frame. The studios might give you ten weeks to a first draft. But if you work in the independent world or for TV, you will have to write a first draft in a few weeks. So this is good discipline to learn for your writing career, depending on where you work.

Of course, both of the scripts that I finished are nowhere near ready to send out. It will take probably 5-6 rewrites before I'm ready to send to anyone in the industry. But the key is to have a network of people that you can show your scripts that will give you valuable feedback. There's nothing worse than showing a draft to someone too early.You have to figure out where in the chain you can show it to someone. There's this idea that on your first draft, you want to send it to the people who are least critical. And with each subsequent draft, you send it to people who are more and more critical. It also seems best to only get notes from 2-3 people before doing another draft. More than that and you are wasting resources.

Those are my thoughts for now. I can easily go on. But I don't want to bore people.

Good luck and keep writing!