A passage from the 2011 Hollywood Writer’s Report states:
“...since 2007, the last year covered in the previous Hollywood Writers Report, the
nation’s economic fortunes have taken a serious turn for the worse. The Great Recession
of 2008, triggered by the “bursting of the bubble” in the nation’s housing markets, was
marked by a collapse of the financial markets, a tightening of credit, millions of housing
foreclosures, millions of lost jobs1, and significant declines in consumer spending. The
impact on the Hollywood industry seems to have been felt most acutely in the film sector.
Whereas television production was more or less flat between 2007 and 20092, the number
of theatrical films produced in the United States declined 25.5 percent, from 909 to just
677.3 Meanwhile, the WGA unemployment rate increased 2.6 percentage points since
the last report, from 45.8 percent in 2007 to 48.4 percent to 2009 — which was driven by
a 5.9 percent decline in the number of employed writers (from 4501 in 2007 to 4236 in
2009).
4236! Painful, right? A 7th Armored Division of writers trying to make it, and only 4,236 are actually doing it. Makes you want to cut up your Starbucks cash card and give up writing that live action-animation script about the young grilled cheese sandwich that dared to dream big…
But don’t despair. Those 4,236 writers might be the only ones making it in 2011, but they aren’t the only ones making movies. Plenty of writers are making smaller independent movies. Lots more make low-budget and micro-budget movies. Stories are being told, and will be, shitty economy or not.
In this environment you just need to be sure of what it is you’re going for when you start a project. Here are the five things I’d nail down before starting to write a movie…
I’m convinced the reason I’m not one of those 4,236 winners is that every script I’ve ever started writing was something I had to write. This is terrific for the artistic temperament but doesn’t always pay the bills. Nevertheless, you really should know what it is, exactly, you’re trying to say. Why is what you’re about to write important to you? They say write what you know…that’s probably because what you know is what you care about. Thus, you can write about it with conviction. Know why you’re writing the movie.
What’s new about your idea? What in it haven’t I seen before? Why will folks pay $10+ to sit in a theater and see it? For spec scripts, if it’s non-remake or sequel, it better have a monster concept behind it. For the Independent level, you’re still looking to raise millions, thus the need for a dazzling hook that will draw an audience remains. On a micro-budget, sure, you can write a script just because you’re interested in the subject of, say, baking bread. You still should have a compelling story behind that baking bread, something to draw an audience, something we’ve seen before but maybe never like this. Otherwise, what’s the point?
Please know your genre before you write page 1. Sounds obvious, but sometimes it’s not. Example: I had a student wanted to write about a recent divorce. The movie would be a drama and she made no bones about wanting to eviscerate her ex-husband. Week after week she’d come in with fresh pages that made our Writing Group howl with laughter. Somewhere about week 4 she realized: “Hey, I guess I’m writing a comedy.” Once you know the genre, know the sub-genre. What kind of comedy? The Hangover or Welcome to the Dollhouse? Horrible Bosses or Best In Show?
Single Protagonist? Dual Protagonist? Ensemble? Big difference between two protagonists and a single with a strong secondary lead. Ensemble movies like Crash, Lifeboat, Nashville or Airplane! all have great characters but not a single one that dominates more than others. Sure, in Crash the Matt Dillon character might have twice the number of scenes of, say, the Sandra Bullock character. It doesn’t make him the protagonist. Screen time is one way to recognize your protagonist (the protagonist will rarely disappear from the action) but it’s not the only measure. A protagonist is the POV character for the movie. He can share time with secondary characters but the main journey is his. Example: Goodfellas is Henry Hill’s story. Sure, the Deniro and Pesci characters are huge, not to mention his wife (who actually shares the V.O.)…while the screen time might be close, it’s still clearly Henry Hill’s (Ray Liotta) movie. All the subplot characters exist to further his story. Definitely know the protagonist model before you start.
“Style is the answer to everything.
A fresh way to approach a dull or dangerous thing.
To do a dull thing with style is preferable to doing a dangerous thing without style.
To do a dangerous thing with style, is what I call art.
Bullfighting can be an art.
Boxing can be an art.
Loving can be an art.
Opening a can of sardines can be an art.
Not many have style.
Not many can keep style.”--Charles Bukowski
Style is voice. It’s you, coming through on the pages of the script. Not an easy thing to do. It’s been said you need to write a million words to develop a style. Absurd to put a number on it but the point is made: It takes a long time to develop as a writer. When we think of movie stylists we often think of directors: Tarantino has style. So does Lynch. So, too, does Woody Allen, Darren Aronofsky, and Orson Wells. But writers, too, can have style. Shane Black is notorious. Old school guys like William Goldman or Paul Schrader. Charlie Kauffman is recognizable on the page, and in his choice of projects. It could be argued that the writer is just a conduit to story, that they should blend in and not stand out on the page. I disagree. True voice is rare. Good writing makes a sound and the best writing grabs you by the throat and never let’s you go. So, keep working at it, get to the million words as soon as possible, and find that voice.
