This Savage Art

The short answer; everything.

Everyone has a take on this or at least everyone who has sat down and tried to sweat out a full-length feature screenplay. We know that the screenplay written, for the most part, is not exactly what we will see on the screen. Politics, ego and money can all come into play to shape this blueprint. New factors are defining the shape of the screenplay too, namely distribution. Writing for the small screen instead of the big, writing to that specific budget. These are all factors. These are all relative to your writing.

But the first question I think you should ask yourself before you raise any of those pressing issues is who are you? This is not some question to throw you into some existential tailspin. It’s a valid question. Are you a screenwriter or are you a filmmaker? In the user-generated You Tube world titles mean less and less except for those who want them but you still need to be recognized as something.

If you are striving to be a work-for-hire screenwriter your approach will be different. You are a team player and you must be willing to change what you might consider some of your best work at the whim of the peers above you. That’s the gig. It doesn’t always mean forever though. Scott Frank, a very successful (and happy – via MBH) screenwriter just made the turn to the infamous hyphenate writer-director with The Lookout. That said though, screenwriters are screenwriters. They are the craftsmen and women. Spec or assignment, they are where it all begins.

The other side of that coin is the filmmaker. You are more concerned with the film as a whole and you are willing to work within certain certain budgetary restrictions to get the sentiment of what you are trying to say on the screen. You are not writing for someone else, you are writing for you. Audience is the ultimate destination but not before you have hand-crafted and personalized the story. The filmmaker’s M.O. is to get the film made. Period. The recognized ones are the ones whom you can’t separate the artist with the film. They are the film. David Lynch is a prime example of this. His films are intense in authorship to the point that he has chosen to self-distribute. There are many examples like him that challenge the way we watch films.

So who are you?

[I would like this to be an ongoing "series" as I work out my own project. Think of it as talk therapy hopefully without the neuroses. Promises, promises.]