Movie Screenwriter

Could a child of divorced parents, who never knew his father and realized that his first career path was too boring, jump into a completely different career path, experience many rejections, and ultimately find success? For anyone with the perseverance of GH, the answer could be ‘yes.’

FAMILY BACKGROUND

Gregory Allen Howard (GH) was raised by his mother, a homemaker, and his stepfather, a chief petty officer in the Navy. Due to his stepfather’s career, the family moved 10 times when GH was between ages 5 and 15. 

CHILDHOOD THOUGHTS OF AN ADULT CAREER

Looking back from his adult perspective, GH recalls liking school and his teachers, so he thought about becoming a teacher when he grew up. He enjoyed attending movies and writing stories, never imagining those two early interests might someday combine for an adult career.

EDUCATION

A smart lad who worked hard in his classes from elementary through high school, GH was accepted at a prestigious Ivy League school on an academic scholarship, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in American history. 

In addition to academics, GH liked to participate in sports, playing high school football as an offensive lineman. 

In later years, GH frequently referred to his studies in college as inspiring the historical subject matter of his screenplays.

FIRST CAREER NEVER A BINDING COMMITMENT

Based on his academic resume and personal interview during a ‘Career Fair’ at his university, GH received an offer from a Wall Street firm to commence his adult employment career as a financial analyst. His job duties were focused on review of financial reports and then justifying – in writing – his recommendations among available options for investing client funds. The goal of GH’s on-the-job training was for him to eventually understand enough about the business to advise the firm’s clients about investment strategies to preserve and grow their money toward a secure retirement. 

While GH’s Wall Street job was stable, with a promising earnings future if he continued to learn the nuances of the business, GH remained interested in writing and history, wondering if he could somehow combine those passions within a completely different career. 

NEXT CAREER CHOICE REQUIRES PERSEVERANCE 

Not yet married or a parent, GH decided to take a major career risk and move to Los Angeles to try to become a writer of movie scripts: a ‘screenwriter.’ 

CHALLENGE – MULTIPLE REJECTIONS

GH had saved some money to cover his living expenses for a few months while he tried to find employment as a screenwriter but those savings weren’t going to last forever; he would soon need a paycheck to pay for his rent, food, transportation and hope he wouldn’t become seriously ill since he couldn’t afford his own health insurance and his family had no health insurance policy coverage available to him, now that he was (trying to be) independent. 

While experiencing multiple rejections in his efforts to break into the screenwriting business, a friend mentioned his own pleasant growing up experience back on the East Coast, in Alexandria, Virginia. 

“When you hear ‘NO’ so much, you just begin to think, ‘I guess they’re right.’ “said GH later. 

So, still single with no obligation to take care of or support anyone else, GH decided to visit Alexandria, which he immediately recognized would be a change of pace and a change in scenery which might help him find a new direction, possibly toward a career in teaching. 

By ‘luck’ (Editor – “Luck” as used within this collection of career stories, is defined as ‘experience and/or interest meets opportunity’), GH had moved to a town which had just racially integrated its high school and boys’ football team. 

GH found himself emotionally struck by a prevailing atmosphere of racial harmony within his new town. When he asked around about its source, he was continually told about the local football team, composed of Black and White players, coached by a Black man. GH immediately thought that telling this story of successful racial integration would be an inspiration to people, young and old, across the country if he could create a movie story about it. 

While GH had not to this point been able to persuade anyone he had contacted in California to employ him as an entry level screenwriter using someone else’s idea for a future movie production, GH had learned that one of the requirements to produce a successful movie based on a story involving living people, was to create a written agreement (also known as a ‘contract’) with each of the living people to be portrayed in the eventual movie’s story. 

(Editor – “Living Rights” contracts avoid later problems with potential claims for invasion of privacy. A movie contract involving ‘living rights’ may be structured in different ways, depending on the financial ability and profit projection of the movie studio or independent screenwriter and the desire of the living person to be portrayed to earn money now for signing the contract or being paid later depending on the success of the movie at the box-office, or a combination of those approaches. This is a sophisticated transaction which is best accomplished by a lawyer with some experience in such matters.)

Using a contract form which he had obtained during his days trying to get involved in the movie industry in California, GH approached the football coach and several others involved with the school district and the football team, to buy their ‘life rights’ so he could begin writing a screenplay about the team. The story of each person in the movie would be based on their lives and GH had the right to use their actual names.  

GH’s journey through the process of movie production began with the first draft of a screenplay (movie script), followed by several edits, finding a producer willing to spend money to hire actors (lead, supporting and extras) and production crew and pay for use of any required equipment and sites where the filming would take place – all this before final editing of the film and negotiating its distribution and advertising. This process took the usual several years. 

The movie, entitled “Remembering the Titans” starred Denzel Washington as Herman Boone, a Black coach leading a high school football team in Virginia during its first season after racial integration. With the help of a White assistant coach along with Black and White players who become devoted to one another, the coach launched the team on a glorious season. 

The movie was an immediate sensation, premiering at the Rose Bowl and the White House. The President at the time invited the production crew to D.C., where he led those involved in a school chant. 

(Editor – The President should have had his staff try to locate the original football team members and invite them to participate in the ceremony honoring their successful integration, without which the movie could not have been based on actual history.)

GH attributed a significant portion of the success of “The Titans” to the popularity of the sport being portrayed and its place in the memories of American men. “You’re talking about millions of guys. It’s a bonding experience like you can’t believe, and for a lot of men it was the last time they were important or heroic. It touches a nerve of a time when I was last innocent.”

While the NYTimes film critic described “Remember the Titans” as “corny”, the movie was widely reported to have earned more than $100 million worldwide, over its roughly $30 million cost to produce. 

CHALLENGE – NOT ALL SUCCESS LEADS PROMPTLY TO MORE SUCCESS

On the heels of his first success as a movie screenwriter, GH was inspired to continue working to produce movies involving inspirational Black history. He wrote the story for “Ali” which had four credited screenwriters and starred Will Smith as Muhammad Ali. Another NYTimes film critic called the movie “Ali” a “near great movie.” Despite much hype, it lost money at the box-office.

GH’s next career project was to get a movie made from a screenplay he wrote about the life of Harriet Tubman, the famed abolitionist who escaped slavery in an earlier century. A NYTimes film critic described the final product, movie named “Harriet” as “accessible, emotionally direct and artfully simplified.” Trying to get the movie from screenplay to distribution was a 25 (yes, a quarter of a century!) journey; in movie terms, a story covering 25 years is often called an ‘Epic.’ 

Looking back, GH could not possibly count “the number of doors slammed in my face, the number of passes, the number of unreturned phone calls, canceled meetings, abandonments, racist rejections, the number of producing partners who bailed.” But over time, the movie industry became more interested in a film about Tubman after the movie industry was pushed by protests for inclusion and diversity storytelling to reflect the actual history of our country. 

CHALLENGE – CAREER SEEMS TO STALL

Although GH could count several screenplay successes within his career, he also experienced years of frustration in trying to launch other movie projects. One may never know the reason a career, on an apparent direct line of success, seems to stall: was it the overall economy or a subject of interest to the screenwriter which didn’t seem like a profitable venture to producers responsible for advancing substantial money toward a hopeful, eventual profit (recall $30 million invested to produce “Remember the Titans” which means the producers are making a significant bet on any movie’s financial profitability). 

CAREER SATISFACTION

A movie screenwriter is in a unique position to hatch an idea for an interesting story, create a storyline filled with people and events to bring the idea to life and then persevere through the movie production process until critics rave about opening night and recommend your efforts to audiences literally across the globe. 

GH was able to achieve career satisfaction just like a gardener: find an interesting seed, plant it, water it and watch it grow to attract the attention of the neighbors. But unlike mere local appreciation for a rose or a tomato, GH’s career in developing scripts for movies spread his message of the social significance of sports triumphs and the pursuit of freedom to the neighborhood of the world.  

This career story is based on an obituary written by Alex Traub, published within the NY Times on 1/29/23 and 2/3/23.