Paola Lázaro-Muñoz has been a friend of
mine since kindergarten. Throughout our high school years I got to spend time
with her, but I got to admit it was not as much as I did when we were younger.
By the time we graduated and went to college our communication had reached
zero. We still talk and see each other from time to time, but the distance has
not been helping either. I always knew she would do well in whatever she wanted
to do with her life; and it so turns out that she wanted to become a writer.
She graduated with a screenplay writer degree from Purchase College, State
University of New York and finished her Master’s Degree in the same line of
work at Columbia University in the City of New York. She is currently working
in writing different kinds of plays to producers for the New York’s Public
Theater. I bring forward this interview I conducted to her because she is into
the entertainment business just as much as I am and she is already making
something out of her name.
The main reason I chose her for this
interview is because I always knew she would be amazing at her job and guess
what? She is fantastic at writing and specially at demonstrating it visually,
like in plays. What does this have to do with the visual and graphical arts,
you ask? Let me explain things a little bit. What she particularly does has
nothing to do with computerized imaging or motion special effects, but she does
work on the genesis of where all visual concepts did really begin to cause
movements towards these, further in the future. The foundation of creating good
and attractive special effects come from the base platform of having a great
writer who can imagine and construct a story and how that story is presented.
That is the origin for others to interpret what they are seeing and putting into
perspective what they spectate.
1. What
was your first negotiation deal like? Can you explain the process you went
through the first time you ever negotiated with another person for the
development of a project?
“The first big deal project I ever worked
on was my Master’s Degree graduation play. The requirements for graduation at
Columbia University were that i had to write a play and presented to an
audience at a public theater. I was extremely excited to start working out
there in the real world, rather than just turning work in for grades. This was
my first opportunity to express and represent my work outside a school
environment and personally see how people and audiences reacted to my work.
During the contract deal negotiation I can say that there were many things that
worried me. For example, during our first agreement discussion the producer and
I sat down to talk about the play that I was writing and it’s components. The
producer, which I will call “Sonia” to conceal her identity proposed a fabulous
contract. By the time we got to discuss the play arrangements she had something
else in mind. I had already selected the play scenario with a specifically
chosen characters and actors to play the parts. But on the other hand she
wanted to work with other appointed actors that she had on contracts also. She
tried convincing me that they had done plays already and were experienced, so
we should have no problems working with them. Then, like if it was not enough,
she did not agree with the environmental location scenario that I had chosen to
write the play; she was meaning to change it to something where her contracted
actors would fit in better.
I had no intentions in changing my
work, specially my graduation piece. We came to understanding terms and came up
with a mutual benefit deal, in which she would not interfere with the play
elements but she would get to proof-read the work before the show, and decided
if something was going or not on the project. I though she has separated the
people from the problem, but instead of dealing with it and working towards
resolving it, she simply decided to eliminate the problem completely and take
matter into her own hands in a different way. This did not sit very well with
me, since it was nothing more than my first work and first impression I would
be able to give to an audience. So unfortunately I had to turn down the offer.
At the same time that I had done that, Columbia University’s graduation program
representative approached me and said they had a heck of a deal to offer me
that could not turn down. I thought about it and decided to go with my own
university’s opportunity.”
2. Were
there any positional bargaining (haggling) tactics involved? How would you
explain this particular negotiation’s encounter and situation?
“In this first negotiation that I just
explained to you there was positional bargaining since the producer arrived and
not even the discussion had begun. She had a very strong attitude and
confronted situations very aggressively. This also led me to the impression
that she only fought for what she wanted not considering my position and much
less my interests. This is another reason why I was not particularly convinced
with her offer. The haggling was directly and specifically about the
actors of the characters we were to use in the play. That did level up the
tension during the discussion and I even had to standup and take a couple of
minutes away just refreshing my mind. I found myself trying to be played by
this producer and since her dirty tricks had not worked by convincing me with
her charm at first and with the condition that she had already worked with this
actors and that they would not fail at their jobs, she then tried to trick me
into another deal, which only made her situation look worse and actually helped
me definitely to make my decision.”
3. How
did you work towards mutual benefit? Were objective criteria included?
“Well literally the win-win situation
was not eligible with the producer, Sonia. Even after all that happened I had
hoped that some rumors and commentaries from faculty members turned out to be
false. Unfortunately, they were not false at all. She would try to get her way
no matter what. This objective criteria, plus what I had experience that day
while discussing the terms, were enough for me to turn down the offer. In
effect the universe did not turned it’s back on me, on the contrary it gave me
a new chance. When the university’s representative came up with the offer I
felt heavenly, and it definitely was worked with mutual benefits in mind. They
got to see my work and fruits of their own education and I got to develop my
own personal and untouched and unchanged play.”
4. What
was your and their position in the negotiation? What would you say were your
interests vs. theirs?
“First my position was simple, by
letting me do what I do best, to write. I wanted my piece to be exactly as I
had delivered it. Fortunately for me, their position was right up the alley
too. The university wished to see my most honest piece written down and in
effect visually prepared for a show in the theater. My interests were more
leaning towards the actors and scenarios to be shown in the play. I really
wanted them to be perfect and according to how I perceived them in the play.
Their interests relied more on the results at the end of it all. Of course,
they wanted a successful piece of work and something to give people to talk about.”
