Saturday, October 2, 2021

Noah Evslin - TV writer and Producer, and his journey there

Noah Evslin has a resume that would impress just about anyone. Someone I've been following on Twitter for quite some time, and now a huge fan of his screenwriting podcast he does with his friend Dan Rutstein, Screaming Into The Hollywood Abyss; I knew I had to reach out and see if Noah could take some time to chat with me about his career and how he started. Luckily, for me and for you, he actually said yes! 

Currently writing on NCIS: Hawai'i, Noah's also worked on shows such as Hawaii Five-O, Colony, The Catch, Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, How To Get Away With Murder, Scandal: The Secret is Out, and Private Practice. Impressed? I thought so. So keep reading on to hear how he got into writing and tips for writers looking to follow in his footsteps. 

How did he start writing?

He comes from a family of writers. His grandfather was a mythologist who wrote 70 books of Greek mythology, some Broadway plays, he was also a TV and film writer in Hollywood in the 1950's and 60's. His wife, Noah's grandmother, was also a writer. His great uncle was a U.S. Poet Laureate. Writing was extremely important on that side of the family. So he also wrote his entire life. Growing up, in Hawai'i, he'd visit his grandparents in New York every year and hear them typing or hear his grandfather talking into his audio cassette to dictate to himself. His study impressed him too and he thought, that's a great life, not realizing how financially risky being a writer is. He saw that there was sometimes lots of wealth in his grandfather's life and then sometimes nothing, but he didn't put the two together that writing and instability go hand-in-hand. 

The writing torch was passed onto him

Noah's grandparents flew to Hawai'i for his High School graduation. Then one day, his grandfather dove into a pool and passed away. It became Noah's job to tell his grandma what happened to his grandfather. So he went with his grandma to visit the morgue, as one does in this situation. And his grandmother said, "It's your turn now to be the writer in the family." And so he did. 

What type of writing did he start with 

He started writing a lot of poetry, even though he doesn't write a lot now. But from 18-25 years old he wrote hundreds of poems. He loved he was able to create snapshots of life in a clear and clean way. Then after that, he wrote three novels (that he says are bad, but do we really know?), during college and right after, plus one book of non-fiction. But that kind of prose didn't feel right to him. He started to publish some poems, but he knew there wasn't a career in that. 

When did he write his first screenplay?

He was 27-year-old when he started screenwriting. It felt like the perfect pairing of poetry and prose for him. He could create the types of scenes he wanted to. So he got a hold of every screenplay book he could find. And he wrote ten screenplays before he even moved to Hollywood. 

He really began earlier than that 

At 22, his brother-in-law at the time who loved movies, and was a writer, asked him one day, "Do you want to try writing a screenplay together?" He and his brother-in-law loved Brother's McMullen, which are the types of movies they liked back then, family stories, that were popular at the time. But they didn't even know how to start, they didn't even know there was a screenplay format. So they wrote part of a screenplay, but never even finished. 5 years later, that's when he tried again. Around the time of the TV show Lost, is when he realized people were writing TV shows and movies, and that it was a thing you could. 

What did he write first, TV scripts or movies? 

He started writing movies, because he wanted to write things about Hawai'i and where he was from. He also did admit, (embarrassingly) that he wrote a spec Entourage script, that placed in some contests. (I will admit that I did like watching it, even if he's embarrassed by it!) Then he also did an adaption of one of his grandfather's books. The combination of both of these scripts got him an agent. Hurrah! 

What made him make the move to LA? 

His wife was very instrumental in helping him make that decision. She felt after he had written a few screenplays, he had to see if he could give Hollywood a chance. And turns out his older sister had a close friend that was a staff writer on Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip for Aaron Sorkin, and his aunt's best friend's daughter was a mid-level writer on Gilmore Girls. His aunt said, reach out to Jennie and send a screenplay and she gave him her email. When he emailed Jennie he asked, what are my odds of making it as a writer? And he did the same with the writer on Studio 60. Both said after reading his scripts, they felt he should come to Hollywood. That Jennie turned out to be Jennie Snyder Urman, who is the writer and creator of Jane The Virgin and went onto be very successful. They're still in touch. His sister's friend ended up giving his two scripts to her manager who signed him and a week later had all his stuff sent out to agents and he was signed. Just as he was moving to Hollywood he thought, this isn't very difficult. But then cut to two years later and he still hadn't booked a job and left his agent. It was eye-opening. 

What did it take to make it? 

At the same time he was getting agents and managers, he had friends who were just as talented and didn't have the same momentum as he did. He attributes it to that same old adage we hear about time and time again: luck. He felt it was good fortune that these two people were able to help him and were willing to help him in a way, that he later learned was unusual. 

How do you know when you're ready?

Many newbie writers compare their writing to the worst writing they see out there. But Noah's advice is to compare your writing to the top in the industry. The Shonda Rhimes, Aaron Sorkins of the world. LIke it or not, you're in competition with the best. He knew early on that was the line he had to cross. Even if now he doesn't think he's as good as an Aaron Sorkin, he says you still have to be in a sphere where it makes people lean in, and it makes them love your work. 

How did he know he was ready for the industry?

He has really mixed feelings about contests. They can be helpful as a gauge. But they're really expensive. And so many contests don't really help someone with their career. Even early in Noah's career once he had become a professional writer, and he would put those contests on his resume, people in the industry would say, you can take those off. He said once you've sold something, it won't matter once you've moved forward. What it did for him, when he was a finalist, top 3, it showed enough people liked his script. 

How long did it take to get into the WGA? 

It took him from 32-36 years of age to get into the WGA. Even though his Greek mythology project was very commercial and got him 80 meetings around town. Yes, 80! Two of his projects that he thought would make his career take off, they eventually fell through. (Oh, I know that feeling!) He can either say it took him 4 years from when he got to Hollywood to get a sale. Or he can say it took him 9 years from when he wrote his first screenplay. 

How soon after was the next sale? 

It was still a couple more years till the next sale. He tells me, you realize there is no roller coaster you get on, and that moment you make that first sale, and it takes you up and that's your career. It doesn't happen like that. You're only on your own clock and you have to break in all over again, and again, and again. 

How did you land your first industry job? 

His writer friend was friends with a high-level writer, who worked with Shonda Rhimes, and he told Noah he could bring him in as a Writer's Assistant (WA). This friend a year later became the Showrunner on Private Practice and asked Noah if he wanted to be the WA. It was a Writer's PA, there were three of them doing this job because there were multiple rooms at a time. He was 35 years old at the time, he had been a lecturer at University at Hawai'i for 7 years, he had a production/promotion company, they DJd and did live concerts, he had 130 employees, and 7 fullt-ime employees, they had a record company where they put out Hawai'i records. So he and his wife had to leave ALL of that and go to LA and try the writing thing. Wow! 

Saying good-bye to your roots

They owned a house on Kuaui and they felt they could go to LA and could always go back if they needed to. He felt all of that was still there waiting for him. Even 15 years later, he could always go back and continue on with that career if he needed. He was giving up a lot but it was always still there. Knowing he left that all behind, as a Writers Assistant, he's left being a boss and being in charge to get coffee for people. 

What would he tell other people wanting to be a Writers Assistant

Every Writer's Assistant that's been on a Shondaland project have all gone on to do well. Most of them were about his age, they weren't in their 20's, which is something we hear. They were all a little bit older and everyone who worked with them liked that that they were actually a bit older. Someone told him, "Take joy in serving coffee and just do a good job. Everyone knows you're a writer, they know you can write well, that's why you're here, just do a good job as an assistant." Within three months the Medical Researcher left the show and they gave the job to Noah. As a Medical Researcher on a medical show, he was in the room all the time, doing research, giving writers stories. 

What did he do well to get noticed for that promotion

He thinks because his father was a doctor, and his sister was a Phd Therapist, he understood the language of medicine. They wanted to promote internally and knew he could handle the job. 

The next job was a staff job 

From there his got his first staff writing job which was a freelance script. Then the show was ending and his mentor left the show. He thought that was it. So he went back to Hawai'i for vacation. And he got a call and the person said, "Please hold for Shonda Rhimes". (OMG that's the call we all want right?) She offered him a job to be one of her producers. He still doesn't know why out of 900 people, 3 shows, why would he fit that role out of everyone else. He said there were times before that they did work closely together, so whatever he did to impress her, it worked. 

His role as a Creative Producer 

He handled all the things Shonda didn't want to handle on the day-to-day stuff on her shows. He directed shorts, interstitial stuff, a lot of producing, some writing. They needed someone to handle all the rest; product integration, marketing, promo shoots. Then he also was in charge of their social media. And at the time, that's right when social media was starting. Kerry Washington mixed with Shonda Rhimes on Scandal, decided to live-tweet a show with actors. It ended up being the biggest social media in the industry. He came in at the right time. But it just wasn't where he wanted to be. He loved it but it wasn't what he really wanted to do. He wanted to be a writer on a show. 

How he turned that into being a staff writer 

Everyone on his shows knew he was a writer and knew he wanted to write. So when there was down time he kept working on his own scripts. But it taught him he could write anywhere, any time. He feels many assistants have this skill. He sold three pilots before he left Shonda Rhimes. His agent and manager told him stay as long as you can till you're staffed. (Good point, right writers?) He waited till he had so much work till it wasn't fair to his producing job. Then when that moment came, he went on staff. That was when he started as a writer on Colony. His job got much more fulfilling because it's what he wanted to do. But also was scarier cause there was no longer a steady paycheck. Once you're a staff writer, shows come and go and you have to keep finding work. 

Are there opportunities there for emerging/newbie writers? 

He does think there are. There's at least 500 scripted TV shows. (Maybe even 700). So if there are anywhere from 4 or 5 writers to 10-15 writers per show, that's upwards of 5000 jobs in play every year. That's all TV. Features, maybe a 300-1000 feature writers a year, not as many. There's still cache in TV about being a feature writer. If you're a good one, you can get on a TV show. But in the last five years good dramatic writing is in TV. There just aren't as many indie movies. The industry is looking more towards TV writers, they work fast, they have a style that can work for film as well, they're used to taking notes. His advice, come in on the TV side and you can always branch off into the movie side. Learn to write on a deadline, how to write to various bosses, learn how to work fast and get things to screen, and getting to production. 

What's the advice you'd give to writers entering this field 

"Make sure you love what you do because it's a hard journey. You don't get fired in Hollywood in a traditional sense. You might lose a job. There might be years in between jobs. But the only person that makes you stop this journey is you. The only way you lose is if metaphorically you take off those boxing gloves, or take off those skates. If you love it and you're determined, whether you're an aspiring writer or have one foot in the game, or are completely in. The length of your career depends on your ability to stay motivated, stay excited and stay in the game. There are very few short term wins. There are very few people that sell a big project. It takes a long time. If you can't wait it out, this might not be the right field for you. This is a 5, 10, 15, 20 year journey. If you have another job to sustain yourself as a writer, you're better suited to success in this business. Assuming everyone has the same amount of talent, luck. One thing that separates those from success is perseverance. You have to keep moving forward. There's also nothing wrong with stopping. Some people decide this isn't for me. I was surrounded by talented people that gave up. They had the talent. They gave it 2 or 3 years and realized it wasn't easy. But if you love it and stay in it, and have the right amount of talent. Which a lot of people have. Then it's just a matter of time. Wait it out. Put yourself in a position financially with another job, or living simply that allows you to wait it out or stay in the game." 

So much amazing advice from Noah Evslin. I could have kept talking to him forever. If you want to listen to his podcast, please check it out. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/screaming-into-the-hollywood-abyss/id1542533659





No comments:

Post a Comment