Film Utopia

Sunday Movie Blog: The Last Post

Thanks for reading.

Now go find something else to read... because there isn't any more of this to be read. I need to use the time I spend doing this, writing screenplays and learning to play the banjo.

(I am not really learning to play the banjo)

Clive x

Posted via email from Filmutopia's Sunday Morning Movie Blog

Sunday Movie Blog: Why We Should Destroy the Spec Script Market

photo by walter parenteau

I was reading an article by Ted Hope this week, called Ten Things to Do Before You Submit a Script 

It was reading it because I wanted a producer’s perspective on the spec screenplay market. Recently, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the working relationship between producers and writers. My take: the traditional relationship between writers and producers, the spec script market, that particular method for developing projects, just isn’t working.

Ted Hope’s article supported and confirmed my overall view of how things stand at the moment. His company receives in excess of three-thousand spec scripts a year. A process he tries to filter by preferring agent submitted scripts. Just in terms of time management, three-thousand scripts a year means that either his staff would each have to constantly devote a couple of hours in every working day to reading specs, or they have to rapidly weed that pile of three-thousand down to a manageable size.

Although Ted doesn’t describe how his team handles that problem in his article, I would put good money on those piles of scripts getting a rapid and efficient filtering.

Given the same problem, I would skim the first ten pages from the pile of scripts and toss every script that obviously wasn’t well written and which didn’t immediately draw me into the story. The remaining scripts I would then filter based on the loglines. I would even bother to read anything where the core premise didn’t fascinate me and which also hit areas and genres I knew worked for my business; unless I was reading it as a calling card script. Now, this method of filtering is designed to firstly identify who can write and then looks at ideas... it's a writer's approach. My guess is that most producers approach this the other way around: they filter ideas and then filter writing, a process that is more likely to filter out good writers. On top of that, I'm also going to suggest that in most production companies the filtering process is delegated to the office junior.

However, the core of what I'm saying is that, given the same problem, it wouldn’t be that hard for me to reduce that pile of three-thousand scripts to thirty. Thirty scripts a year that were worth reading properly. Thirty scripts that I would be prepared to give two hours reading time to. Sixty hours a year seems about the right amount of time a year to put into looking for new projects, as opposed to six-thousand. And, I can pretty much guarantee that most of the slots in that pile of thirty scripts, would be filled by writers I already had an interest in. I may be wrong about this, but I believe this is a fairly accurate snapshot of the gritty day-to-day realities of the spec script market. Producers, swamped by material, streamline the process down to 1% of submissions and largely read scripts from people they know or have been referred to them by a trusted contact. Actually, I suspect that very few producers read anywhere near as much as 1% of the spec scripts they are sent. 

It seems to me that this way of working doesn’t really serve anyone well. Every producer I have ever met sees spec scripts as a burden. And every year writers are committing thousands of hours to projects that will only be given cursory reads, at best. It is a process that the industry seem locked into, which really only causes frustration for everyone and which generates huge amounts of unproductive work. 

Every spec script written represents about one-hundred-and-fifty hours of work. Which means that the three-thousand specs submitted to Ted Hope alone, represent in excess of at least four-hundred-and-fifty-thousand hours of labour. And, lets be honest, in terms of putting movies into production, the vast majority of that time is wasted time. Any way you look at it, the spec market as a project development process is insane.

So, the real question is, how can we alter this?

Well, personally I believe writers need to stop writing spec scripts... and producers need to stop reading them. Instead of writers using scripts as their preferred method of slinging ideas at producers, we need to build an industry that revolves around relationships. Writers and producers have to start thinking in terms of collaborating on the development of scripts, where the producer provides a clear brief about what they need for their business, and the writer then writes to that brief. Sure, the writing can still be speculative, but at least by entering into a working relationship with a writer, the producer knows that they only have to read scripts that meet their specific brief, and writers know they’re only writing scripts that will be read.

In order to get to this point, writers and producers need to interrupt the spec script market. Writers, in particular, need to get out of their knee-jerk desire to pitch ideas, in the hope that an idea will stick, and instead they need to ask producers for a clear explanation of what they need before developing ideas. Basically, the producer/writer relationship needs to grow up. No sane or profitable business in the world develops products or talent in the puerile way the movie industry does.

These days, I just won’t pitch to a producer unless they can tell me what the buying profile of their distributor is. I won’t do it, because any producer who can’t tell me their distributor profile isn’t going to be able to secure pre-sales, and therefore isn’t going to get production investment, and therefore isn’t going to be able to pay me. Any producer who’d rather have me guess at what they really need, instead of talking to me about their business, is actually telling me that they’re quite happy for me to commit to one-hundred-and-fifty hours of unpaid work, to produce a script, that they’ll more than likely reject or want rewritten, because it doesn’t meet their current needs. There is a word for that kind of person... wanker. There really isn't any point at all in writing for producers who don't understand, value or appreciate the labour that goes into writing a script. And, unfortunately what the spec script market has created, is a industry full of producers who believe that writers should be prepared to parade endless ideas and scripts in front of them, until they stumble across one that takes their fancy... well, providing they can delegate the filtering process to other people: agents, unpaid interns, their PA etc etc. 

However, the only way we’ll ever change the way producers work, is if writers are prepared to stop feeding the spec script market. Yes, every writer needs a calling card script. But beyond that, I strongly believe the way forward is to form relationships with producers, find out what they really need and then offer to develop the concept with them. If we've got project we just have to write regardless... well, in that case we should also have the stones to self-produce. 

I know I keep on banging on about this, but if you bring together a producer who knows what they want to take to the market, a screenwriter capable of developing creative cinematic ideas, and a good script editor... that is the way to develop movies. A team of people getting the core idea right, before the actual scripting process takes place... instead of asking writer to develop and write a script, which the development team then re-writes to fix all the problems that could have been avoided by a proper brief.

I have never submitted a script to Ted Hope’s company, even though he is a producer I admire and would love to work with. But, I respect his time and the value of my own work too much, to ever add my script to a pile of three-thousand others. 

And, actually, that is the real point of this week’s article. Screenwriters need to have a hell of a lot more respect for the work that we do. That one-hundred-and-fifty hours of labour has to treated with respect by ourselves in the first place, if we are ever to expect producers to do the same. 

I have one more thing to add to Ted Hope's list of things to do before you submit a script

11) DON'T. Just say No to spec scripts.

keep writing, respect the work, and viva la revolution

Posted via email from Filmutopia's Sunday Morning Movie Blog

Sunday Movie Blog: The Holy Grail of the Perfect, Commercial Script

There is a commonly held myth that "a good script will always sell."

This is not even remotely true.

A good script will NOT always sell

And...

a bad script will NOT always fail.

In reality there is a genuine schism between being a good screenwriter
and being a successful one. Actually, it's more of a chasm than a
schism. A gaping chasm. Not the sort to be leapt in a single bound by
a brave lad and his dog. Oh, no! This is more of the "Oh, no, oh, no,
I'm falling to my impending and eternal doom" kind of chasm.

Of course it could be argued, by definition, that a good screenwriter
is one who gets paid. I know a lot of people who believe that. And,
when I say people, of course I mean idiots. I've read many scripts
written by writers whose screenplays were so amateurish and
unaccomplished they defied belief, despite the fact that their
previous movies had done good business, to know that it's not even
remotely true that sales are made on the quality of the script. It's a
sad fact, but there is and always has been a viable market for badly
written, badly directed films. A market that has flourished since the
digital revolution, simply because it is now possible to shoot a
distributable movie for less than a fifth of what it would have cost
twelve years ago. The entry level for a professional movie is now
somewhere near the £200K mark.

However, what is less understood, is that the market in which badly
written movies turn a profit, do not turn a profit because the movies
are badly written, they turn a profit despite the fact that they are
badly written. This is an important distinction. A distinction I want
to write about today.

So, why do these badly written, badly produced movies perform so well
in the market?

Well, they perform because they are supported by an existing
distribution infrastructure that knows it can turn a profit on
concepts which tick the right boxes. Yes, despite the constant moaning
about the death of distribution and the minuscule ember of hope that
is self-distribution, there are still a lot of legitimate distributors
out there, with existing, profitable markets... and, a growing number
of producers who are servicing those markets. What is important to
these distributors is that they can sell DVD's solely on the
information they can stuff onto a cover and into a poster. In this
market, it is the core concept and the artwork that are the key
components. The quality of the product is a secondary component.

As a screenwriter, I see these markets as soft markets. Basically, all
it would take would be a few smart producers working with a few smart
screenwriters, to obliterate the teams who are currently profiting
because of the hunger for product rather than any particular skills as
film-makers. However, the difficulty for any screenwriter in taking on
these markets, is finding producers who are smart enough to see the
wisdom of producing high-quality movies which still tick the all the
boxes, as opposed to films that just tick the boxes.

There is another issue... and that is the screenwriters themselves. At
the moment, far too many screenwriters tell the story they want to
tell, the way they want to tell it, and only then start to consider
what the market is for that script. And, unfortunately this is a trend
that most producers tend to support. Many producers are simply too
lazy and opportunistic when it comes to project development. So, if a
good idea lands on their desk, on the right day, and they're in the
right mood, and their intern has some time to read it, and it ticks
all the boxes, then that becomes a go project. Contact them with the
same project on the wrong day, the day the intern is at the dentist,
and the silence will be deafening. Fundamentally, most of the
producers you meet are passive script developers, in that they wait
for projects to come to them... and, if the truth be known, most
producers also resent the time and effort it takes to read spec
scripts. All in all, the odds are always stacked against a writer
making a spec script sale.

What this means for screenwriters is that we can either continue to
play the spec lottery: write a script, and then tout a script until it
hits the right desk, on the right day. Or, alternatively, we can
develop a network of producers who have specific needs and then be
prepared to write to those needs. Where the real skill comes in, is
in understanding the needs of the producer and the distributor... but
then being able to write something wonderful to those requirements.

Ultimately, screenwriters need to ask themselves whether they really
need complete and absolute freedom to do whatever they want on the
page... or, whether they have the skills and the humility to make
great movies to a specific commercial brief?

At the same time, producers need to ask themselves whether they really
can work with writers to create great products, based on the
producer's understanding of the market, by actually collaborating with
writers, as opposed to just trawling through random spec scripts,
looking for a winner and acquiring the first dog which has the roughly
the right spots.

What is true is that regardless of how well written spec scripts are,
they rarely meet the precise needs of any particular producer or
market at that precise moment in time. Which is the reason great
scripts often remain unsold and crap scripts continue to turn a
profit.

However, what really concerns me, is that far too many writers have
decided either that "ticking the right boxes means writing shit, and
therefore I'll not tick the right boxes" or "ticking the right boxes
means writing shit and therefore I will write shit." Those are not the
only two choices. The other choice is to both tick the right boxes,
but in doing so to create something you feel proud to stand behind as
an artist.

From a business point of view, the primary advantage of getting a
great script crafted as opposed to going with a naff-script, is that
great scripts really do attach great actors. If a producer wants to
make their project stand out from the competition, they really need to
start working with writers who have a track record of attaching high
quality talent to their scripts. However to get to that point, the
point where good writing meets commercially viable movies, producers
need to rethink their approach to project development. Rather than
thinking in terms of single scripts, producers need to start thinking
in terms of ongoing relationships with writers... and about creating
proper, professional development teams. Independent producers need to
start acting like producers, instead of acting out their fantasies of
being script editors or development executives. As I've said many
times before, a producer's role should be to act as an advocate for
the product as a commercial entity; the script editor's job is to act
as an advocate for clarity of communication (to speak for the
audience); and the screenwriter's job is to write something inspiring.
Both writers and producers need to take a step back and look at the
seriously flawed nature of the spec script market, at how poorly it
performs as a vehicle for project development, and to make some
positive changes in that process.

This coming year, I have decided to not write any spec scripts for the
film market. Instead, on top of my ongoing development work for TV,
I'm going to collaborate on projects with three independent film
producers. One of whom I've already committed too. To fill the other
two slots I'm talking to four other companies, trying to figure out
who is a good fit and who is most likely to benefit from working with
me. My criteria for this audition process are: that they have to have
relationships with investors and distributors; they have to know
precisely what they want from a script, in terms of the market; and
they have to understand that I'm not doing this for laughs or for
credits. This is about chasing the holy grail... the well written,
high-quality, low budget but profitable movie. This is about bringing
to life the very thing the digital revolution promised and is only now
starting to deliver. I feel very positive about this. Mainly because
I'm talking to some genuinely interesting and productive film-makers.

I believe low-budget movies can also be both astounding and
profitable, as opposed to just exploitive and profitiable. And, that
there is actually more profit in an astounding movie, because
astounding movies generate word of mouth sales, rather than just
selling off the DVD cover or the poster. I also believe that it is
time for low budget movie making to live up to its potential as a
force to challenge international cinema. That's it's entirely possible
to have a film selling well in a traditional direct to DVD market and
still have the same film on the festival circuit.

What I'm hoping is that more good writers will do the same. Stop
writing specs scripts, and instead get out into a market that needs
servicing. Do something incredible with the available budget and the
opportunity presented by that market. That is the real future of
screenwriting in the digital age... and the sooner everyone adjusts to
that instead of trying to work outside the industry, the better.

keep writing and viva la revolution

Posted via email from Filmutopia's Sunday Morning Movie Blog

Sunday Movie Blog: The Day a Duck Made Love to a Pig

photo by diwan

A duck is a duck and a pig is a pig. 

But, the question is... are you a duck or a pig?

Ducks quack and fly; pigs make bacon.

So... do you quack and fly, or are you making bacon?

That analogy shouldn't need explaining... but, just in case, here's the extended version.

Some writers identify themselves as artists. And their understanding of what it means to be an artist is that it is all about quacking and flying. Make your kind of noise, fly-free creatively. Yeah, baby, it's great to be a duck! And the best thing about being a duck is you never have to make worry about making bacon. Anybody asks you to make bacon and you can just call them a fool. Hell, I don't make bacon, I'm a duck, fool! Duck is an acquired taste. Some people like duck. If you are a duck, the fewer people who like your flavour the better you think you are. Ducks like to be exotic... and the best thing about being a duck is you can survive as a duck on whatever bread people throw at you, out of the kindness of their hearts.

Some writers identify themselves as purely commercial. And their understanding of what it means to be commercial is that you have to be a pig. Pigs eat shit, but they make bacon. Everyone likes bacon. So, providing the pig is prepared to eat enough shit and make enough bacon, everyone in the business loves a pig. Pigs can't see the point in being a duck, all they care about is making bacon... and the thing about bacon is that it doesn't matter how bad the bacon is, you'll always find someone who'll buy that bacon, providing it actually is bacon.

Then one day science came along and said, Hey, we just rewrote the genetic rules... we created the possibility of a hybrid.

In the film industry that rule rewriting was the digital revolution. By cutting the costs of production it created the space for writers to be both a duck and pig at the same time. However, the problem is, both producers and screenwriters are still acting like they have to be either a pig or a duck. They are still clinging to the idea that they have to choose between being artistic and being commercial, when actually those rules no longer apply. If production costs are low enough, being a duck can be commercial, providing the duck isn't getting off on being obscure.

Once writers and producers finally get a grip on what the real opportunities are in these changes, what cheaper production really means...then we'll see something miraculous. We might see pigs that fly, or ducks that get paid. Either of those two miracles would amuse the fuck out of me right now.

keep writing and viva la revolution

 

 

Posted via email from Filmutopia's Sunday Morning Movie Blog

Sunday Movie Blog: Good Screenwriter/Successful Screenwriter/Bad Screenwriter

photo by fireflythegreat

When I was in my teens I used to play in bands. I played bass guitar, but really I wanted to be a singer. When I was a child I had been a choirboy. I had been a good singer, but when my voice broke it broke badly, and I lost confidence in my ability to sing, so I never even tried to be the singer in a band. It was just easier to learn to play bass guitar than to make a fool of myself. Twenty years later, I rediscovered my singing voice and fronted my first and probably last band. I enjoyed it. Not only that, I was good at it. Sometimes our lack of faith in ourselves prevents us from putting ourselves out there.

Of course, there is a flip side to that. 

Every year "X Factor" parades the deluded in front of us for our amusement. These are people who genuinely believe they have talent as singers, but who really, really don't. We just love laughing at them and their obvious lack of talent. It's HILARIOUS, if you're both cruel and sadistic, to watch sad people's laughable dreams shattered to dust in public. Personally, I won't watch shows like that. I've never found robbing people of their dreams and showing them in their follies to be entertaining. I've always found the whole thing rather tasteless, sad and tragic. And, if I'm honest I find the contestant's delusions frightening. They believe so passionately they are talented and deserving of success, whilst everyone else clearly sees them as rather lost and pathetic.  

Which brings us to screenwriting. 

The dilemma which faces every unknown screenwriter is this: Am I an undiscovered talent, or am I the script writing equivalent of a deluded X Factor contestant?

Of course, we are all undiscovered talents.

But, of course, the nagging suspicion is that we're not. Or at least I hope it is. I genuinely fear for people who have no doubts about their talents.

I have never managed to let go of the core and nagging fear that I am both talentless and deluded. I am mind numbingly insecure as a writer... and yet, at the same time, I also have a great deal of confidence in my scripts. A confidence I've gained by putting my writing out into the industry and having people say nice things about it. If nothing else, my scripts have a small and appreciative fan base in the industry. A fan base which has kept me writing and working at this, on the very many occasions where my insecurities have loudly urged me to quit.

I seem to need my insecurities, even though they plague me, simply because they are often the fuel that drives me to make my writing better. Basically, I am so terrified of being bad, that I work harder than any writer I know to be good. Not only that, I reality check my opinions about my own work. I don't trust my own opinions about it. I put my scripts out to industry professionals, to professional actors, to script editors, to other working writers. Even when I think a script is good, I don't believe it until other people say that it is.

And, in reality that is where screenwriters answer that question... we find out if we're any good by putting our scripts out into the industry. We don't discover it in online screenwriting groups, where collections of bad screenwriters all pat each other on the back and tell each other how brilliant they are, we don't discover it giving our scripts to our mates; who are your mates, so therefore are obliged to tell you that you are good. Fundamentally, we discover whether we are any good by putting our work into the industry, or by self-producing and putting it out to audiences.

However, there is a problem with this. Script reading is subjective and audiences lie. So, for instance, the same script that attached seven international name actors and which got rave reviews from three commissioning editors, was described as "hopeless" by one industry professional and "too slow" by another. I've experienced this on everything I've ever written... contradictory feedback. 

I honestly still don't have an answer to how to deal with those kinds of contradictions. They certainly don't balance each other out. You'd think having people who you admire saying nice things about your work would wipe out the negatives... but they don't. Deep down, I still fear my inner X Factor contestant.

Ultimately, worrying about whether we're any good or not is meaningless. Being good isn't relevant. People who write bad scripts are successful. Some of the worst writers I know are in almost constant employment. Every year TV shows and movies are released, where the writing is so fuck-awful it's hard to comprehend how it ever made it to the screen. As writers we need to reconcile the fact that being good as a screenwriter is something that only matters to us. The industry certainly doesn't demand it, or reward writers for achieving it.

The desire to be a good writer and the desire to be successful writer is not the same thing. Which is a pity really, because I'm a good writer.

keep writing and viva la revolution 

Posted via email from Filmutopia's Sunday Morning Movie Blog

Sunday Movie Blog: Why Screenwriters Should Blog.

photo by j paxton reyes

Like so much written about screenwriting, the angle usually taken by people talking about why a screenwriter should blog is that a screenwriter's blog should be viewed as a marketing device. Writers are persuaded the main benefit of blogging is to establish a brand in the social network. I'm sure there are some benefits to being out there and being known, but I think this kind of approach leads to cynical blogging. The kind of blogging where all the writer cares about are the number of people who are reading each week. Personally, I think there are other more interesting reasons to knock out an article once a week. This week, I want to write about some of them.

Finding an audience is one of the better reasons to blog. But, I don't mean that in a wanky marketing way. The way one might put fish into a barrel for future shooting with some kind of exploitative product, (although that is fun too). I mean there are advantages to having a physical and possibly appreciative audience for at least part of the writing you do. That is a really good reason for a screenwriter to blog. Even a good screenwriter, one who is being read and optioned, is really only presenting their labour to a very small and uncommunicative audience. At best, a spec script's audience is going to consist of someone who woke up that morning with a sense of intense dread at the fresh hell to be presented to them on paper that day.  Unless the writer is known and well loved, a script's appearance on a reader's desk isn't going to be cause for celebration. Even when a script is appreciated, its chances of making it from "Yes, we like this" to the screen and a real audience, is remote. If you write screenplays for long enough, eventually you will start to wonder what the point of it is, even if you're making a living from doing it. Simply because, if your reason for writing was to put your ideas in front of an audience, screenwriting remains on of the most frustrating ways to do that. Not so with your blog, these days you can sit there and actually watch the numbers of hits for each article as they creep ever upwards. Even if it's only a handful of readers, chances are your last blog article was read by more people, and appreciated more, than your last screenplay. I think that kind of appreciation is massively important for anyone who is intending to stay in screenwriting for the long haul... it's a cold, hard world out there for any writer hoping to keep some semblance of self-esteem and self-belief, whilst hurling spec scripts into the frigid, relentless void that is the entertainment industry.

There is also a lot to be said for the practise of writing sentences outside of the screenplay format. Using the blog as a place to work at the craft of writing, separate from the craft of screenwriting. Screenwriting is a bitch of an art-form: technical, proscriptive, terse and devoid of any literary grace. It's too complex a craft for a writer to be able to concentrate purely on the form of the actual words on the page. And yet, I think screenplays move up a level when the writer has a sense of the potential anatomies of a sentence. A pure understanding of the sentence can only really be acquired when the pressure is off, and the words on the page are less important. I guess prior to the blog, this was the role of the writer's notebook or diary. I believe a writer needs somewhere to do the equivalent of piano scales... the banging out of words. A place to play with sentences. A piece of writing that doesn't really matter. If nothing else, a blog can be that, especially if you don't take it too seriously. Which I think is yet another reason not to see the blog as a marketing device. It's hard to be indulgent, if you're constantly worried about the affect of each article on your numbers. Better, I think, it is just commit to writing some prose once a week and just enjoy the process of doing that.

If having a small audience for your writing and at the same time creating a space to play with words isn't enough, I have two more reasons that a screenwriter might blog. These are more personal to me, I guess. But the primary reason I blog, is because both screenwriting and the entertainment industries are difficult to comprehend, when you're an outsider. I've always found it difficult to keep a clear idea of what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. This is because as a writer and as a producer I am constantly learning and revising what I know, based on what I've read and what I've experienced. I am not the same writer I was twelve years ago. Hell, I'm not even the same writer I was this time last year. The advantage to committing to a weekly, published article, is that it has forced me to focus on and distill what I'm thinking in any given week. Then I try to write about it, coherently if I'm lucky. The mere process of doing this week in, week out forces me to understand my own learning process. Basically, I understand myself as a writer much better than I used to do. Not only that, I can also skip back six months, or a year, and see what's changed... and more importantly, what are the constants. Blogging, and by that I mean the commitment to write an article every week, is the best way I know for a writer to keep their understanding of their craft and of the industry straight in their head.

The final reason I think screenwriter's should write a blog is to do with understanding my own voice. One of the real challenges of writing a screenplay is to find distinct voices for all the characters. It's a challenge that the vast majority of screenwriters fail to meet. My take on why that is, is that most screenwriters naturally default to their own voice when writing. In terms of dialogue, it's vital for a writer is to be able to recognise when their own natural speech pattern is being imposed on a character for whom it is inappropriate. I see this a lot. Scripts where all the characters have the same linguistic quirks and patterns. Where all the characters are speaking with one voice, the author's natural voice. One of the things that is interesting about writing articles is that it allows a writer to see their own voice. Like many writers, I write the way I talk. It think it's massively important for a writer to be able to recognise their own voice on the page. And, as articles are written with one voice, the voice of the author, they help the writer to see who they are when they speak. By doing that, it makes it easier to spot your own voice in the dialogue of your own screenplays.

There are, of course, many other good reasons for a screenwriter to blog: to form links in the screenwriting community, to make friends with other screenwriters and support each other, to help you draw up a revenge list for when you have real power (anyone who criticises you goes on that list)... and so that when people in the industry are interested in your scripts they have something to Google. If nothing else a writer should at least attempt to have their own IMBD page and their blog as the top two entries on a Google search of their name. To have anything else is reckless.

So, why should a screenwriter blog, well basically:

To write for an audience who say thank-you and who appreciate what you're doing (moral support)

To have a place to play with language away from screenplays (a place to play)

To help with our personal understanding of our own journey (keeping our heads straight)

To see our own natural writing style isolated on the page so we can avoid imposing it on our dialogue (not writing like a dick)

and

To have something for producers to read that we have control over (spin control)

All good reasons, I believe... so

keep blogging and viva la revolution 

Posted via email from Filmutopia's Sunday Morning Movie Blog

Sunday Blog: Screenwriting and Personal Honesty

photo by Thomas Hawk

It's Sunday morning and for the first time in the three year history of the blog I don't have a topic I want to write about. Sure, I've had weeks where because of time pressures, I've had to write the blog on a Sunday morning... but, I've never been without a topic. I've always had a rough idea about what I wanted to talk about. Not this week. This week I've had time to write, I've sat down to write, and nothing has happened. But, I'm not panicking because I know that presented with a looming and impending deadline, the only option is to sit down and write something honest. 

And, as if by magic, there you go. That's what I want to write about this week. Honesty. Of all the values that are underrated. Of all the values that are least talked about. And yet, at the same time, most valuable, honesty in a writer should be top of the list.

I also think it is one of the rarest commodities, because it is demanding and dreadfully difficult to be honest. Especially in the film and television industries, where it is more common for people to present an image, to maintain a front or to build a brand. And we all know that the word "brand" is just a fancy advertising term for the word "lies." 

Of course, some people would make a distinction between the kind of honesty a writer needs and personal honesty. On one level I guess that would be a fair distinction. The kind of honesty a writer or actor talks about, are the moments created on the page or on the screen that resonate with people. Where the simple truth of a situation touches the audience. What's interesting is how difficult it is to actually get that level of truth onto a page. It ought to be simple. It ought to be as simple as observing, understanding, writing. However, my experience is that telling the truth isn't that easy. Our natural instincts as human being within a community is to hide ourselves, to avoid vulnerability, to use lies and evasions in our everyday life. This act of continuous avoidance of the truth in our everyday lives, decreases our ability to see and then write down simple truths. Or in other words... if we spend our whole life avoiding the simple truths, we will find it impossible to put them on the page.

One of the fascinating things about the industry is how afraid of the truth everyone seems to be. The vast majority of the people you meet feel the need to big themselves up. This is an industry in which people are deathly afraid of being honesty. Especially if the honest truth is "I've done nothing you would have heard of." It becomes increasingly difficult to hang onto any kind of vulnerability and integrity in that kind of environment. I remember a couple of years back talking to an actors' agent about Smoke, and her first sentence to me was "but I've never heard of you." I can't tell you how shocked I was that she said that. That it mattered to her that much. It wasn't about whether the script was good for her client, it wasn't whether the script had any merit, it simply came down to whether she'd heard of me or not. That's kind of shocking, don't you think?

The temptation for unknown screenwriters is to attack this lack of recognition with bullshit. Not outright lies, but spinning the truth so that it looks better than it is. I'm terribly guilty of this sin. I'll quite happy mention my Royal Television Society award as a writer/director, but forget to mention that it was a commendation, and that it was a regional award. So, in fact, my award for directing should really read "2nd least worst piece of drama created in the North East of England in 1999, in a year where there was very little drama created in that region." That doesn't have the same ring as "award winning writer/director."

I happen to believe that there is a definite connection between personal honesty and creative honesty. And that one of the reasons people need to spend so much time learning screenwriting technique, networking technique and marketing techniques, is because those are the tools the industry reaches for when they are unable to put a simple truth onto the page. It really is that simple. When it comes to seeing where a scene fails to work, 99% of the time it will be because there is no honesty in it. If you understand your characters and you can see where their personal vulnerabilities are being exposed by the world in that scene, then most of the job of writing that scene is done. 

I have an analogy. Writing a scene from the core truths and vulnerabilities is like being God: you create life in your scene organically and naturally. Writing a scene from a set of rules about how to create drama is like being Dr Frankenstein; you create life in your scene by attempting to simulate reality by stitching together a lot of lumps of dead meat.

For the last six months I've had more success in the industry than ever before. Mainly because of good and honest friends providing me with wonderful opportunities. People have opened doors for me. However, somewhere in that process I've lost something, I've allowed my fears and my ambitions to disconnect me from my simple truths. And, that is something I'm going to address before I lose my ability to write. Which is how I ended up on a Sunday morning with nothing to talk about. When all I've ever needed to do is to turn up and tell the truth.

keep writing honestly and viva la revolution

Posted via email from Filmutopia's Sunday Morning Movie Blog

Sunday Blog: The Screenwriter's Bucket List #scriptchat

I got a lovely email this week from a commissioning editor. He likes how I write and how I put together a show bible. That's another item on my screenwriter's bucket list crossed off:

Find a high level commissioning editor who loves my work - Tick! My bucket list is my primary motivational tool. And, today I want to share it with you.

A regular bucket list is the list of things a person wants to do before they die. You know the kind of thing: raft up the Amazon, eat at Heston Blumenthal's restaurant, sky dive naked. A screenwriter's bucket list is the list of achievements they want to hit in their career. However, this isn't just the wish list a screenwriter may have about having a big TV series, or a blockbuster movie to their name. This list is more comprehensive than that. It's a dissection of what an individual writer wants from writing, some of which can be the big ticket, dream items. Some of which need to be things the writer can completely control.

When I first started out screenwriting, one of the items on my bucket list was to write the script for a feature film. Another was to get a script onto a producer's desk. Another was to get a writer's credit on the IMDB.

Basically my list went like this:

Earn a living as a writer Win an award as a writer Complete a feature script Direct a short film Write and direct a feature film Get option offers on a film script
Write a screenplay other people believe is good
Go the the Cannes Film Festival

As I developed as a writer my list started to get more ambitious and specific:

Pitch a TV series to HBO in Los Angeles Attach a major name to a script Write a novel
Show run a TV series
Write an episode of Dr Who
Create a set of characters who resonate with people
Write a blog post every week without fail

The funny thing is, with all the good news recently, there are now very few items on that list that I haven't achieved. Recently I've had to start adding to it again. So, for instance, wanting to write an episode of Dr Who is a recent addition. However, what's more important is that simply by always having items on the list which are in my own hands, I have always been able to sustain my belief in what I do. I have hung in longer than many of my peers, simply because I have always known what it was I wanted from screenwriting, and it wasn't only something as amorphous as "making it." I knew that going to Cannes, directing a short film and writing a novel, were just as important as getting options and being a showrunner. I think a lot of screenwriters struggle with what they do because they don't recognise the milestones on the journey as achievements... and, more importantly, they don't have a personal way to measure their success. I really believe in the bucket list. If nothing else it tells us why we are writers and what our path is.

I also believe it's good for us to see our naked ambition on the page. If your ambition is to be a top Hollywood screenwriter, or a great auteur, then we have no excuse for not pushing ourselves. Nothing is worse than a screenwriter who acts like they only have modest ambitions, when really they yearn to be outstanding. The other thing I would say to writers is this... there are more items on our list that are in our own control than we may imagine. I got my IMDB credit, my feature credits and my directorial credits on independent movies. I didn't wait for a producer to discover me... I became my own producer. A trend that I still believe in... a writer should produces until another producer can see the value in the product. But that's a story for a different day

keep writing and viva la revolution

(I'm in Venice this weekend and may not be able to moderate comments - apologies)

Posted via email from Filmutopia's Sunday Morning Movie Blog

Sunday Blog: Your Scripts are Your Real Estate; They Do Have Value

photo by fhartha

I treat every screenplay like it is a piece of real estate. It has value in terms of my growth as a writer, as an original concept and as a developed set of characters. It is an investment.

If I was ever invited to speak on a screenwriting panel, which seems unlikely, this would be the main thing I'd want to tell people.

One of the problems screenwriters seem to face is loss of heart. A loss of self belief which happens simply because writers start to see the cycle of writing and rejection as endless and the possibility of creating a home in the industry as improbable. A process that leads many screenwriters to quit to do other things, and others go off the rails. A good example of which would be the screenwriting in America who recently tried to sue two major agencies for prejudice. 

By the time a screenwriter has written five or six screenplays he has, in all probability, faced the following: being rejected by many producers; being ignored by many more producers; being rejected by many agents; being ignored by many more agents; being rejected by many screenwriting competitions/fellowships/foundations; either being ripped off by a bogus agent/producer, or coming close to being ripped off; being rejected by the talentless, overpaid hacks at their local film board, many, many times... 

... basically, a lot of rejection. Far too much rejection for regular people to cope with or understand.

All this time, despite all the perceived negativity, this period of "failure" is precisely when a writer is building a body of work, their five or six scripts. Scripts that are sitting on their hard-drive, because they remain unsold. Scripts, many writers consider to be worthless because, after all, they failed when touted around the market. In fact, many writers develop a mentality where it is only their next script that is important. And, in the process, they tend to forget about the work they have already done. They see their back catalogue of work as either wasted time, or merely as part of the learning process. They don't understand the true value of what they have done... or, often, why they have failed to sell these projects. They tend see their old scripts and time spent working on them as dead and beyond redemption. And, seeing that time as wasted and those projects as dead is definitely disheartening.

Personally, I know that abandoning your past projects is mistake... because, whilst it is true that earlier scripts may have been rejected because they weren't good enough, work was still been done on them. Ideas were formed and characters were developed. Regardless of how those scripts were received at the time, there can still be value in them for several reasons:

1) Sometimes scripts get rejected because the person who you sent it to was wrong in their beliefs.

Eight years ago I created a screenplay idea, as my application for a screenwriting fellowship. Both my idea and my application for the fellowship were rejected because, and I quote, "Nobody is interested in making anything related to this subject anymore, it's passe. We're only taking on projects capable of commercial success." Of course, shortly after that a Hollywood director created a monstrous blockbuster with his movie on this very topic, and more recently another writer has created a very successful TV show whose premise is almost identical to my original idea. Obviously, the guy who rejected my idea was very, very wrong about the lack commercial success. 

Of course, at the time, pretty much everyone in the business believed the same as the guy who rejected my idea as passe. Sometimes, even when we're right about something, the timing isn't right for the part of the industry we have access to. Regardless of whether we're are able to resurrect the project or not, the fact that our instincts were good is of value. And, sometimes the rejection of an early version of an idea, leads to a better interpretation of best parts of the concept. Or, in other words... sometimes a project needs an early rejection to force the rewrites down the right path. Although I couldn't see it at the time, that particular rejection was the best thing that could have happened. But, only because I kept on rewriting and reevaluating why I was drawn to that particular project. In that script, it was the back story of a minor character I was drawn to. A minor character who I then chose to be my new protagonist. This in turn lead to the concept, which has proven to be my break-through project.

2) Sometimes the new project is only the key to the door and not the sale itself

Just over a month ago, the big TV project I've been working on for the last year was knocked back by a major UK TV company. However, what the rejection said was "We love this, it's a great a idea, but it just doesn't fit in with the kind of drama we're making at the moment, which is drama like this (after which he named three well known TV series)." 

Once a screenwriter gets to the point where they are competent, this is the most common cause of rejection... this is the wrong idea for this company. However, because I have existing scripts sitting on my hard-drive, I did have a project that fitted this company's profile, perfectly. So, instead of slinking off into the night, with my tail between my legs, I was able to immediately offer them that project. They're reading it right now. Sometimes a rejection is really a request to see what else you've got for them... and that's when your real estate scripts become paramount. 

Now, what's really interesting, is that I probably couldn't have got the second project read, at this level, if it had been the first one through the door. My main project has a lot of attached talent and is getting a lot of heat in the TV industry, internationally. That's what got that one in through the door. Even though, the script they are reading now is a much better fit for their needs.

Now, and this is the key point... the breakthrough moment for a screenwriter happens when they suddenly develop credibility. What's strange about this, is it's almost impossible to predict the tipping point. The moment you go from struggling, to being welcomed in with open arms. I know it took me by surprise, when the shift happened. However, the real question, at that point, isn't so much whether you're worth reading, but is whether you have anything else to read. A writer with only one project may fail to capitalise on that breakthrough moment, simply because their new project either isn't a fit, or the timing is wrong. A writer with a slate of projects is more secure, because once they are through the door, they're not trying to survive on one project, they have their slate to fall back on. And, on top of that, the slate of concepts demonstrates that the writer is creative... they have more than one idea. Even if they don't have anything that is perfect, they're still worth talking to. Multiple ideas keep doors open. SIngle ideas, don't.

3) It's not a movie, it's a TV series... or visa versa

Sometimes we start with an idea and through force of habit we create a script in the medium we are most comfortable or knowledgeable about. So, writers who are interested in movies tend to see their ideas in terms of movie scripts. TV writers tend to see their ideas in terms of TV.  Sometimes, regardless of how good a TV series something may make in an ideal world, it's primary market may really be as a low budget movie. Sometimes we have to take a step back and look at the doors offered to us. We have to see what may fit through that door, rather than hoping that if we write something brilliant it will find the right desk. I happen to believe that 80% of the movie scripts currently being written by unknowns would be better off rewritten as novels, graphic novels or web-series. Simply because the spec movie script market is the meanest, hardest, most soul destroying, shark-riddled market in the world. 

Of the six film scripts I've written and developed over the past eight years, FIVE OF THEM are now getting interest from major TV companies, both in the UK and in America. And, ironically, ever since the TV interest started, some film companies are now talking  to me, as well... go figure.

So, what does this all mean?

Well, I think the lesson to be learned from all this, is that even when we can't get a script away at the time, we developed the idea and the characters for a reason. Even if we've moved on in terms of skill level, even if those scripts look rough to us in comparison with what we're doing now, it's massively important to go back to them and to look at what potential they still have. Do they need a rewrite, based on what we now know as writers. How do they look as real estate? Is the idea a good one, but is it just poorly executed? Is the idea actually pretty poor or cliched, but the characters are splendid? If so, what other scenarios could they be put into? And, finally, is the idea I am working on going to find a home in the industry I am targeting? Does it really fit better somewhere else?

Finally, if you go back though your last six scripts and they have nothing redeemable in them. If there are no characters who deserve a life in a different project, if there are no concepts that just need reworking or rewriting, then maybe you shouldn't be doing this. Yes, it does take time to learn how to be a screenwriter. Yes, we will sometimes put time into projects that are wrong headed. But, right from the very start, the least we should bring to the table are half decent ideas and interesting characters, if we are to have any hope at all of making it in this business. 

Ultimately, the years we spend developing our slate of projects isn't a waste, it's an investment... and we shouldn't lose heart if our early scripts don't open doors for us. That time isn't squandered, those projects are not dead. Their rejection by people at the bottom end of the industry, or by self-proclaimed screenwriting gurus doesn't make them valueless. Ultimately, any time we have a script completed, regardless of how it's received at the time, providing we treat it like it's valuable. It's an investment, a property waiting for the right door to open. Our old scripts retain their value to us as products, providing we continue to work on and reevaluate the best parts of them, as our skills and industry knowledge increase. Because, when our break-through moment comes, and we suddenly have people who want to read what we've written, it maybe the project we thought would never find a home, that ends up being our biggest asset.

keep rewriting and viva la revolution

Posted via email from Filmutopia's Sunday Morning Movie Blog

Sunday Movie Blog: Finding The Voice on The Page

photo by Miikka Skaffari

My most significant professional work, prior to screenwriting, was writing radio commercials. I was good at it. Did it for twelve odd years; odd in both senses of the word. Along the way, I won a serious number of international awards. If they gave out Oscars for selling beer on the radio, I'd have a dozen of them. Oscars that is.

I've been lucky, because screenwriting and radio advertising are both forms of writing which have one distinct quality. In both cases, you are writing for the voice. 

It's hard to express just how important being able to write for the voice is for screenwriters. And, when I talk about writing "an actor's script," it is exactly that ability, the ability to write sentences that are easy on the tongue, which flow naturally from the mouth, that I am talking about. 

And, surprisingly, this is the point at which I need to mention my dyslexia. I am dyslexic. Not as badly as my youngest brother, who is chronic, and not as badly as my Mother... but, for a person who writes all day, everyday, and who has done for years, my ability to spell simple words is retarded. And, before someone yelps about my use of the word "retarded," I'm using it in the technical sense, that I am well behind where I naturally should be, were I not disabled. Which is also the reason both my grammatical sense and my usage of punctuation colour well outside of the lines of acceptable usage. My writing would not win me any spelling bees, or any ribbons for English composition. I write sentences that infuriate school-teachers, and I always have done.

And yet, it is exactly because I was unable to take in the rules of the game whilst at school, where I was too busy trying to spell "adequate" to pay attention to the niceties of subject and predicate, that has defined my writing style. Just like Daredevil in the comic books, my inability to see it on the page as a child, heightened my ability to listen. I learned to be eloquent, long before I learned to spell "participle." (by the way, I spelled "adequate" wrong four times just now, before I hit the right combination. That part just doesn't get any better).

According to the educators, I shouldn't be a writer. By their standards, I am poorly equipped to succeed... and without a spell checker, I would be unemployable.

At the same time, the very thing that makes me a retarded English student, makes me a phenomenal radio copywriter and a gifted screenwriter. By forcing me to understand language by the way people speak, my disability provided me with the perfect opportunity to develop a distinctive voice as a writer.

However, the purpose of this week's article isn't "aren't I wonderful" (just for a change)... nope, this week's article is a sincere attempt to persuade those people who want to write screenplays, to forget about writing in the conventional, educated sense... and to somehow develop an ability to hear the patterns... to sense the rhythms... to feel the cadences... to sense the lyrical qualities of the spoken word. And to then bring that sense to the page... not just in dialogue, but with every hit of the keyboard.

The message this week is, find your voice... throw away Lynn Truss, take her book from the shelf next to the loo and find a suitable use for the paper.  Screenwriting, in fact any kind of creative writing, is never about colouring within the lines and showing our grammatical competence, it's very simply about selling our ideas... and selling ideas happens best, when we talk from the page. 

keep writing and viva the revolution

Posted via email from Filmutopia's Sunday Morning Movie Blog