photo by Endemoniada
"I have seen more writers destroyed by praise, than I have seen destroyed by criticism."I've just come back from a week of meetings in the UK about the new TV project. They were good meetings. The pilot script continues to get universal and substantial amounts of praise from everyone who reads it. Which should be a comforting and affirming experience, but isn't. It is a sad but true, if you put enough scripts in front of enough people, eventually you will reach the point where you derive almost no pleasure at all from people saying nice things about your scripts. One of the things that very rarely gets talked about by writers struggling to find a foothold in the industry, is how often and easily they are manipulated by flattery. This is because until someone turns up with a pay cheque , quite often writers substitute praise for cash, as a way of judging their progress. On one level this is understandable, it is lovely to have people say nice things about your writing. It is at least some evidence that you are progressing and it keeps at bay every unknown screenwriter’s secret fear that they are deluding themselves. However, my experience is that when it comes down to it, getting praise is far easier than it should be… and that often the motivation for giving the praise is dubious. The first time I figured out that praise for a script needed to be taken with a pinch of salt was fairly early days. I think it was my second attempt at writing a feature script. We had organised a table reading of the new script with some actors. I sat there for about two hours, listening to the reading. It was a painful experience. The script was beyond dreadful. All the stuff I had thought brilliant when it was on the page and in my head, sounded fuck-awful when read out loud. I literally cringed for the vast majority of the experience. Both myself and the producer involved knew that the script needed a massive rewrite. The funny thing is, at the end of the reading ALL of the actors came up to me and told me what an fantastic script it was and they hoped that we’d call them when we were ready to go into production. I remember being pretty dumbstruck by this at the time. I knew the script was fuck-awful, the producer knew the script was fuck-awful, yet, despite this, the actors either couldn’t tell it is was fuck-awful or were prepared to blow smoke up my ass in the hope of getting work in a film, even when the script was fuck-awful. Personally I think it was the latter. As the years have rolled over, I have run into any number of actors in the street, who have just come from auditions and had the following conversation…“How was the audition?”
“Not bad, I think I’ll get a call back”
“How was the script?”
“Oh, it’s dreadful, completely fuck-awful.”Yeap, actors often can tell a bad script from a good one, but because they are political beings at heart, I have never ever heard an actor tell a writer the script needed work… well, until they’re hired, then they all become bloody writers. But that is another story, for another day. The thing is, false praise isn’t just the domain of actors, Independent movie producers are just the same. I can not tell you how many times in my career I have been told that my script is “incredible” by indie producers. Of course, this is always rapidly followed by “We’d like to make it, but we haven’t any money in the budget for the option.” On one level you’d think that because indie producers are going to invest time and energy into production, that their praise is valuable on some level. Personally, I have come to learn that the vast majority of independent producers can’t tell the difference between a good script and a bad one. They are almost universally hopeless and worse than that, they are often frustrated writers who work out this neurosis by giving spurious and meaningless notes and screenwriting advice. Pretty much every bullshit notion I have unlearned, about how scripts are written, I learnt from indie producers. The truth of the matter is, every script I have written, good, bad or indifferent has been praised by someone, at some point. The same is true of my movies. At the premiere of “No Place” people praised it to the heights and then slagged it off as they were walking out of the door, when they were unaware that I could hear them. For a million reasons, whether it be good manners, desire to procure future work or the desire to manipulate free writing from you… people lie. My experience is that 90% of the praise I will be given on any script will be bankrupt or worthless. On the other hand, pretty much all the criticism I have received, even when it was wrong, has been useful. Funny and sad, but true… writers grow in the harsh flinty chippings of criticism, rather than the warm comforting funk of bullshit. This is the harsh reality of learning to write screenplays. It will take a considerable amount of time to learn your craft; people will ignore you until you present them with a script so incredible it warrants their attention; if you write long enough you will grow weary of praise, unless it is backed up by a cheque; eventually, you will learn to trust the people who work with you to improve your scripts, over the people who just want to pat you on your back; and, sadly, you’ll also reach the point where everyone you meet will be viewed with a degree of suspicion, until they earned their place at the table. The good news, is that most of the people I met last week, were people I have known for many years. They have earned their place at the table, simply by being consistently honest and trust-worthy. What they say they will do, they do. In all my years of doing this, you’d be amazed at how short that list is. After fourteen years the list of people in the industry who I trust, runs to about four people… plus another six who are currently undergoing a probationary period. The time when I watch people, to see whether what they do even remotely matches with what they say. You’d be astounded how many people fail even such a simple test of loyalty and competence. Quite often people will write about how new technology is transforming the industry. It is. I am sure of that. However, those changes are nothing in comparison with the overnight transformation that would happen, if everyone simply started being honest with each other. How different would the industry be if everyone stopped bigging themselves up? There is no shame in being an unknown and struggling screenwriter. There is no shame in being a media hobo or film-maker. There is no shame in failure. However, there is real shame in puffing yourself up or in blowing smoke up other people’s asses, in the hope that the smoke and mirrors will hold together long enough to get you through the in door. As well as a list of people who I trust, I also have a list of people who wasted my time by trying to maintain the illusion/delusion that they were something that they were not. It should be no surprise at all to people, that these have been the people who have given me the most praise and the largest doses of false hope. In the film and TV industry, there most certainly is smoke without fire… most of it will end up aimed towards your ass, if even for a second people believe they can enhance their careers, by riding your coat tails. The irony of all this is that when, like this week, you do put an astounding script in front of people and they can barely contain their praise, it isn’t the joyful event that perhaps it should be. Somewhere in the all lies and bullshit of the previous years, I have lost the capacity to appreciate praise… which I am aware is a sad and dreadful loss. This is a dreadful industry though. That is something that I am painfully aware of. keep writing and viva la revolutionBy the way… the money people are still dealing with other unrelated issues, so our decision is still twisting in the wind. I’m not too worried, we are asking for a staggering amount of money. In the meantime, all we can do is keep working on the new TV project.
Posted via email from Filmutopia's Sunday Morning Movie Blog
