Friends and mercenaries — and mercenary friends.
[If looking for fluff, please refer to previous entry. Thank you. — Ed.]
So I got this e-mail from BoyHollywood…this is the guy who wrote the play(s) about the two of us when we were kids. He’s since written or worked on screenplays for a couple of movies, has published various plays, etc. Basically, he’s doing pretty well.Here’s our e-mail exchange:
From: BoyHollywood
1:19pm Feb 11th
Hey dood,
I’m cooking up an idea for a Young Adult novel based on a screenplay I was thinking of writing. Kind of a concoction of a werewolf thing mixed with Ladyhawke, Star Wars, King Arthur, X-men thingy maboober… could be real cool, sell a million copies and a picture deal. I’ve a wrier friend that seems to think I might be able to get it published with an outline and a sample chapter. So I’ve started tooling around on this… but what I was thinking was to include 3-5 illustrations with this package/pitch… just to shine it up, dazzle them a bit, you know? Maybe it’ll work out real good for both of us?
From: Me
5:15pm Feb 11th
What did you have in mind? (I want royalties on the action figures…)
From: BoyHollywood
Today at 11:43am
Well, this project is heavy on movie deal and action figure potential… I’m thinking maybe we could do a mockup book cover… or a couple of character illustrations… computer style… the kind that look like photographs. Maybe this’d go with a movie package or the book package when it goes out to publishers… or I don’t know what.
From: Me
Today at 6:27pm
I hate to sound mercenary, but I don’t think there’d be a lot in it for me. I’ll have to think about it.
J.
So. Yeah.
Here’s my thought process.
First, there’d be nothing in this for me — seriously. If he was to get a book deal, the cover art would be arranged by the publishing house.
Second, if he were to get a movie deal, the character design/concept art would be done by the studio.
Third, and I wouldn’t necessarily tell him this, he doesn’t want my “help”. He wants me to do something for him. There’s a difference.
Fourth, (and did I mention this already?) there’s nothing in this for me. Yes, that’s a selfish and mercenary attitude. But I don’t feel like assisting someone make millions if I’m not going to see sweet fuck all of that profit. If anything, I’m going to continue to build, write, and illustrate my own creation, Persephone’s Three. *shrug*
Fifth, I feel like I would have to protect myself (perhaps legally?) if I were to enter into this sort of project with BoyHollywood. This is what my gut is telling me. My Spidey Sense is tingling. Something ain’t right with this. Paranoid? Maybe. But I do not have, nor do I feel like arranging, those self-protective resources. Meh.
Surprisingly, I feel good about this decision. (Despite how I left my last e-mail, I don’t have to do a lot more thinking about it.)
It does occur to me that I could in some way be shooting myself in the foot. He is potentially (perhaps only in another space-time continuum) a link to my own ambitions of publication/movies, etc. But I feel that doing some illustrations for BoyHollywood brings me no closer to my own goals.
And that’s that. Any opinions, via notes or e-mail, are welcome.
PS: If you want to see some of my 3D artwork, go to james_r.carbonmade.com.
February 18th, 2008 at 12:34 am
heh. A friend of mine, she calls this kind of thing… NIGYYSOB.
“NOW, I’ve got you, …you son of a bitch….”
This is her explanation..
“”…When I think of her I think of this anagram “NIGYYSOB” - Now I’ve got you, you son of a bitch. it was made up by my family pertaining to my family as my Granny never gave anything just to give. It was always with the intent on getting something back. “”"
Me? Ive fallin’ in love. NIGYYSOB baby.
How’d the fallout go from our last convo BTW?
Jen