This Savage Art

I occasionally check out the Criterion site just to salivate over what will be coming out soon. Now that I have a Blu-ray player it really takes this fetishism to another level. Admittedly, I am buying less DVDs than I have in the past even though I do have a pretty impressive collection.  But since the whole delivery system is in flux I’ll stick with Netflix, my collection and the occasional buy. I was pretty happy to see a couple of interesting choices added to their coming soon list. Resnais’ Last Year At Marienbad, a film that I haven’t seen because a good print is so hard to come by and I missed the last Film Forum run. A big surprise was Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Looking forward to seeing that on Blu-ray.

Now all we need is a decent version of Rocco and His Brothers.

Added: The most recent Coming Soon list.

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A “new” film movement gets some attention.

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Never underestimate the power of shameless opportunistic palm pressing.

The IFP Script To Screen Conference weekend two weeks ago started out dismally. I kept asking myself “Am I really at another one of these things?” It was all wrong. A couple of hundred wannabe writer/directors sitting, stumbling through a stifling room with no ventilation about to be told that it sucks out there to get a film made. Oh joy! I had to bail out of the second  panel, I was choking on the air it was so thick with desperation and duct filth. All is not lost though.

I got lucky. No not that way. As long as I’ve been going to these conferences/panels/punches in the arm I tend to walk away with something. Some piece of information that I didn’t know before or some pep talk that gets me inspired all over again. I mean, after all, that is why I went – to get back in the game after a year of sitting on the bench taking care of my boy. It paid off. Maybe.

I happened to come in contact with a producer, who shall remain nameless, who wants to read the Dyre Avenue screenplay. You know his body of work and he’s the right guy for the job too. After a couple of weeks passed by I had given up on getting a reply to the e-mail I sent him but yesterday he contacted me with the agency, agent’s name, number and assistant’s name. So there it is.

The plan, I take another full on pass then it goes out into the ether. I haven’t touched Dyre Avenue in a while and I need to get reacquainted. The window is small. You want to stay fresh in their minds before they move on to something else. I am realistic about how this can and cannot go. It’s something that comes with age. You do the work and what’s out of your hands is just that. But still…

The. Time. Is. Now.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

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The screenwriter/director speaks about surprising audience expectations in the current New Yorker [hat tip: John August]

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Go to Hammer To Nail and check out producer Ted Hope’s series of posts on what makes a film better than another film. Read it, learn it, live it.

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After reading about all the studio development news (or shall I say anti-development news) it’s easy to get depressed. Remakes, preexisting material (adaptations, sitcoms, board games?) and franchises are and will remain king. It seems that original specs are having a hard time seeing the light of day. The numbers would have you believe that in these hard economic times everyone is still going to the movies. Maybe they are but what is getting them there is a prior relationship with the material before seeing the film. Or maybe it’s just a new spin on an old show with current talent that makes it all seem so fresh. Whatever it is, Hollywood is betting on it.

I haven’t written a book or a franchise or a screenplay based on a soft drink. Now what?

Where does that leave me and everyone else like me? Back to the beginning. I think a big part of being in the film industry is being flexible. Adaptability is everything. This actually couldn’t come at a better time. I needed to change my game up. I was feeling a staleness coming to my writing. I felt myself reaching a point in my writing and never going beyond that point. Having a son forced me to step back a little and assess why after all this time I still want to put myself through this agony. I find myself caring less about the industry and the numbers and more about writing a better screenplay than my last one. I was in dire need of a new approach.

Part of this new approach is having a plan. Like writing a screenplay you need to figure out some of the moving parts before you get there. I’m still writing specs with no intention at this point to develop preexisting theme park material. Here is my plan, as in, this is directed towards me (your approach might be different):

• Make a list of my top ten writing projects with a little one-liner. Written, partial-written and unwritten projects. From that list deduct what to work on next. What will I have the endurance for? What is going to benefit me creatively? Will this help or hurt me in the long run?

• Get a HUGE cork board that can hold an entire screenplay of scenes. Approximately 40-60 index cards. Map it out all over again. Take a step back.

• Make a list the tools and techniques that work for me. I tend to lean on techniques used in literature – theme, allegory, blah, blah, blah. With all the moving parts it’s good to have some things laid out in front of you.

• Relax. Don’t write for the industry, it only leads to alcoholism. We all saw Barton Fink and what the industry does to writers. Seriously. Writing can be such a mind fuck that unless you are really in love with your ideas it can be a long, long painful haul.

That’s the plan for now. I’m sure I’ll add along the way.

So as I try to revitalize myself as a filmmaker by going to the IFP Script To Screen Conference this weekend maybe I can come up with some hard hitting questions for the panelists like, oh I don’t know, now what do we do? I’m sure I won’t be the only one asking.

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Notes from a panel that discusses what the next oh, twenty years or so will look like regarding studios, marketing and the development of original material. Note: Hide all sharp objects before reading [via John August.]

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