Frank D. Gilroy is a compulsive diarist who wrote "I Wake Up Screening "while he made four independent feature filmseach accorded three stars in Leonard Maltin s "TV Movies and Video Guide"with" "a total investment of two million dollars (for all four films ).

These intimate logs of the making of "Desperate Characters, Once in Paris, The Gig, "and "The Luckiest Man in the World "show clearly that a film school that doesn t include in its curriculum discussions of negotiating with the Teamsters and of raising money as independent producers is leaving out vital parts of the filmmaking...