tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9540261.post1860499943171249440..comments2023-03-24T03:08:07.138-07:00Comments on Life, with the dull bits cut out.: Screenwriter, don’t be a sourpuss party-pooper.dizzydenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14346013529127682931noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9540261.post-66037942229619825042011-03-21T12:10:37.494-07:002011-03-21T12:10:37.494-07:00My 2 cents...
If you love every line you write an...My 2 cents...<br /><br />If you love every line you write and you want to marry it, then you should be a novelist and not a screenwriter. And you have to edit your own novel and may as well just self publish too.<br /><br />Filmmaking is a colaborative effort. Making a movie is, at best, organized chaos. You assemble a team of talented people who share a similar vision and you hope for the best. A lighting guy may say "look at this light, let's try this" a DP may say "lets put the actors here and the camera there" an actor may say "I'm feeling these emotions thinking about this character and I want to try this" The director yells "action" and "cut" but is really only hearding cats, both in front of, beside, and behind the camera. It all really comes down to editing. The best written lines can be glorified or destroyed by a few mis-timed frames here or there in the cutting room.<br /><br />As a screenwriter you really have to accept that you are only planting a seed. That seed can grow into a magical creative achievent with help and input from a lot of talented, dedicated people. You can't control the way or direction that every branch will grow or the shape of every leaf or flower blossom. That is the magic of movie making.ByronDesignProdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04587977352944917194noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9540261.post-63754699131519840842011-03-21T11:22:38.205-07:002011-03-21T11:22:38.205-07:00My point was this: why make yourself miserable ov...My point was this: why make yourself miserable over something that you cannot change and will never change, when you can get involved, first by understanding the process and then by embracing it?<br /><br />I know you’ve been involved in filmmaking, but most aspiring screenwriters have not and don’t really know the reality of filmmaking. But I guess we all have to learn the hard way. I sure did.dizzydenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14346013529127682931noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9540261.post-82847692109420027302011-03-19T13:43:44.315-07:002011-03-19T13:43:44.315-07:00If anything, this post strikes me less as an argum...If anything, this post strikes me less as an argument for the screenwriter "sucking it up" than as an argument for the screenwriter becoming a writer-director -- protecting your vision from start to finish, like Billy Wilder learned to do.<br /><br />In fact, I think the examples cited in this blog completely undermine the thesis. What really jumps out at me here are not those little touches the actors added, or the last-minute changes from script to screen, but the fact that the writer got a chance to guide that process from start to finish. The screenwriter didn't simply "suck it up" and "learn his place," he stepped up and protected his work.Insomniacdeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06086196066492463721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9540261.post-2664430932703021262011-03-17T21:31:26.038-07:002011-03-17T21:31:26.038-07:00I'll tell you what I think and I'm always ...I'll tell you what I think and I'm always right.<br /><br />First. It's hard to pour yourself into something and then not only not be credited, but to feel like in some way your desrie [sic] for some recognition is seen as a pitiful cry for attention.<br /><br />Second. Suck it up.beingbradhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15070947117618925747noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9540261.post-65904629463260900712011-03-17T18:44:26.911-07:002011-03-17T18:44:26.911-07:00I think there's one big disconnect here, thoug...I think there's one big disconnect here, though. And that's that the lack of respect for the screenwriter, the lack of respect for STORYTELLING, dooms so many Hollywood films and turns them into schlock. We've all heard those nightmare tales of projects that take on 3, 4, 5, sometimes upwards of 10 or 20 writers and as many rewrites, leaving the final product a hollow shell of its former self. I've read a couple of screenplays now that apparently got completely gutted - when the original material was solid.<br /><br />No, the screenwriter is not the final author of the film, but the highest respect you can pay a writer is creating a film that reflects the best of the written word, hides the flaws, and adds a few beautiful grace notes.Insomniacdeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06086196066492463721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9540261.post-73791454134038279502011-03-17T18:33:09.078-07:002011-03-17T18:33:09.078-07:00Yes, the reality is that the business is cruel at ...Yes, the reality is that the business is cruel at its worst and rude at its best. All you need to do is read what Faulkner, Parker, Fitzgerald have to say about their experiences in Hollywood. <br /><br />But this post is not about that. It's about screenwriters realizing there is more to filmmaking than sitting in front of the computer crafting dramatic masterpieces. It's about learning to embrace the process, and knowing what their place is in it.dizzydenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14346013529127682931noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9540261.post-59794366200996136002011-03-17T18:24:55.032-07:002011-03-17T18:24:55.032-07:00Not going to name names.
Also not going to argue...Not going to name names. <br /><br />Also not going to argue the reality. If you want to be a screenwriter, expect to work in the dark, in the background, with little reward. (Except the paycheck, if you're higher up the food chain.)<br /><br />But even if I must accept that reality, I don't necessarily have to agree with it. Either everyone in the biz needs to get over themselves or no one does. What we do is not critical--to most people anyway. The world will not end if we go away, stop writing, stop directing, stop playing dress-up. None of this is really that important to anyone but us.Insomniacdeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06086196066492463721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9540261.post-63344816868467139212011-03-17T18:15:14.596-07:002011-03-17T18:15:14.596-07:00Great post... absolutely agree. Screenwriters over...Great post... absolutely agree. Screenwriters overall are pretty damn big pansies.<br /><br />I'm embarrassed to say I've never even heard of 'Minnie & Moskowitz.' That scene is ridiculous...<br /><br />... and I'll be heading over to Netflix now.Kim Nunleyhttp://www.kimnunley.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9540261.post-22141408669923523712011-03-17T17:59:03.274-07:002011-03-17T17:59:03.274-07:00I know exactly which professionals you are talking...I know exactly which professionals you are talking about. It doesn't matter. Screenwriters are always complaining, at the highest levels. The highest paid. Just go to any WGA event. That doc, Tales from the Script, is a PSA for not becoming a screenwriter.<br /><br />But I've also heard plenty of the great ones echo what I've said here. If you want to be adulated for your writing, then write plays, novels, poems...anything but screenplays.dizzydenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14346013529127682931noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9540261.post-45595751774121160502011-03-17T17:54:27.978-07:002011-03-17T17:54:27.978-07:00Funny that you think the attitude is amateurish, b...Funny that you think the attitude is amateurish, because the people I heard proposing the idea were professionals. <br /><br />The thing is, it all starts with the script. Even if the finished movie bears little resemblance to it, the script is what gets everyone to buy into this painful, often tedious, ulcer-inducing process. Without the writer, nothing else happens. So if we're going to make a show of thanking everyone from the director to the milkman, why not include the writer? (And the editor?)<br /><br />That said, when I was doing student films, I enjoyed working with the actors and treated them as collaborators. I even enjoyed the casting process. I also did quite a bit of "rewriting" in the editing room. I never considered myself, as the writer or director, the final "author" of the film.Insomniacdeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06086196066492463721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9540261.post-90231827927141885122011-03-17T16:36:34.918-07:002011-03-17T16:36:34.918-07:00Ha ha. You have to see the movie. It has a happy e...Ha ha. You have to see the movie. It has a happy ending. Well, you have to figure out if it's happy or not.dizzydenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14346013529127682931noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9540261.post-54140157218173974432011-03-17T16:27:01.015-07:002011-03-17T16:27:01.015-07:00That scene is poignant. It feels like it can get m...That scene is poignant. It feels like it can get more meaningful at each re-watch, a few years from one another, till the age arc drawn by Minnie and Florence is covered.Lizhttp://www.twitter.com/lizzisidenoreply@blogger.com