Goodbye $$$

This morning I found this tweet from John August on my Twitter feed:


http://johnaugust.com/archives/2010/on-dogfooding

I can’t say I’m a loyal reader because frankly he bores me most of the time, but the following really hit me hard, even though I already knew it deep down.

“Looking at successful filmmakers — in particular, writer-directors — it’s pretty clear who is doing this. Tarantino makes movies to fill a special shelf at his fantasy video store. Wes Anderson makes movies his own characters would dissect over canapés.

If you have more mainstream taste, great. Embrace that. Scratch your own itch. But forget about “commercial” or “high concept.” If you’re writing a movie you yourself wouldn’t buy a ticket to see, you’re wasting everyone’s time.”

I’ve said many times that I don’t write for the market and that I write what I want. That is not to say that I’m not trying to come up with high concept premises that a wide audience might wan to see and that I want to write. Do I stress over it? No, but I still think about it. That is, until this morning after I read the gem above. That’s the nut, the nutshell and the squirrel right there.

If you’re writing a movie you yourself wouldn’t buy a ticket to see, you’re wasting everyone’s time. If you’re writing a movie you yourself wouldn’t buy a ticket to see, you’re wasting everyone’s time. If you’re writing a movie you yourself wouldn’t buy a ticket to see, you’re wasting everyone’s time….

So, allow me to take this time to say good bye to all that imaginary money I thought I was going to earn from a spec sale. Au revoir imaginary money! I feel so liberated now.

And now, excuse me, I have to go tell Pepa (below) that she’s not getting the house on the lake I promised her.