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A Screenwriter’s Map of the Unmappable: P
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BY ROBERT GOETHALS
In the past, there was a widespread and mistaken belief that
creative
writing
was
something that couldn’t be taught. The skill was mystical, inherited, God-given. Just as a Medievalist biker-author named John Gardner (The Art of Fiction) dispelled that myth
for literary buds like John Cheever, a Los Angeles writer named Syd Field debunked the same myth for screenwriters. PHOTOS TOP AND BOTTOM RIGHT: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, written by James Cameron & Gale Anne Hurd (characters), John D. Brancato (as John Brancato) & Michael Ferris and Tedi Sarafian (story), and John D. Brancato & Michael Ferris (screenplay) ©2003 IMF und Film GmbH & Co. 3 Produktions KG ABOVE RIGHT: RIGHT: The Matrix Reloaded, written by The Wachowski Brothers ©2003 Warner Bros. All Rights Reserved. 72
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n 1982, when Syd Field’s Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting was published, filling out those dreary law school and med school applications—the customary middle-class ticket to respectability if not paradise—suddenly became about as appealing as moving pianos. If going to the movies felt escapist, Field made Hollywood—the Grand Bazaar so far removed from anything resembling real life—seem like a normal career path. If you could write a cohesive and dramatic plot, create living and breathing characters who swept your readers along a wild rollercoaster of a tale and rewarded them with emotional release that didn’t feel like some crummy cliché, you were halfway home. An entire generation of literarily-inclined students and slackers all took Field’s insights to heart. Yet in 2003, screenwriters might do well to take a step back from Syd Field and his successors’ professional counsel to size up with cooler detachment how Hollywood’s landscape has changed since back in the day. In a business as seductive, unmappable and perilous as the movie industry, popular paradigms designed to help writers understand Hollywood’s topographical maze have limited value.
A NEW ERA As multi-national conglomerates began taking over studios back in the 80s, the revenues generated by movie divisions struck the new breed of international business tycoons as fiscal air balls. These new global media entities wanted their studio chiefs to raise movie profits to theatrically unheard-of heights—employing their brand of neomercantile economics, innovative marketing theories and a whole host of “scientific” methods to research, develop, test, revise and publicize their “product.” “product.” Artistic considerations, often emblematic of the industry’s prestige, simply fell by the wayside. This change was the beginning of the blockbuster era—a time, most observers will tell you, when studio chiefs became money managers, and the enthusiasm for making money eclipsed the importance of what any pious film critic might say. One of the godfathers of the blockbuster era was Peter Guber, the former studio chief of Columbia Pictures and former chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures. The pragmatic Guber holds both a law and business degree from New York University. Recently, journalist Kurt Andersen interviewed Guber on Face Time . Guber’s war stories are theatrical and deeply felt. His scriptmag.com
( development ) operative business paradigm reflects how there’s the second downside of the blockmuch the movie industry has changed since buster sales pitch. When rolling so much the days of Hal Ashby’s Shampoo and Robert money on a single production, executives Altman’s McCabe and Mrs. Miller . prefer making safe decisions even if they are “The [economic] forces that are at work creatively lifeless ones. today are gigantic,” enthuses Guber. “The budget of Midnight Midnight Express was $1.8 million. LOOKING FOR ANSWERS That was the price of the catering bill on At the Union Square Barnes & Noble®, Seven Years in Tibet .” .” I look to see if there are proponents of the That mentality concisely reveals the men- blockbuster represented on the shelves: new tality that has the movie industry rear-viewing instructional works on how a young screenold hits. When things get this expensive, you writer might land some Burger King® tie-ins can’t afford to take a creative chance, so you or tips on packing a script with Pentagon-style repeat last year’s success. Looking backwards shock-and-awe special effects that you also starts passing for being modern. might merchandise as a videogame. “When I was at Sony,” Guber later Flipping through books’ pages, I see how recounts, “I told the president of the com- these new screenwriting coaches cut through pany we want hits. The search for the block- the tedious stuff about constructing plots and buster—the desire to have that mega-hit—is character. The marketing guides are packed so compelling. It is the devil’s candy. It is the with tour-de-force concepts like sales strategy, strategy, reason why people stay in the business. It is presentation presentation packets, media kits, press junkets the jackpot. It is Las Vegas.” and some cherry publicity stunts to help you go Hollywood. THE FEW, THE A-LIST Guber’s cool and mesmerizing charm WHAT’S ON THE SHELF? might prevent the young, romantically After the bookstore, I had the opportunity inclined screenwriter embarking on his new to chat with Janet Jeffries at A Band Apart, the professional life from recognizing a couple of Los Angeles-based production company owned downsides to the studio head’s philosophy of by Lawrence Bender and Quentin Tarantino. moviemaking. My investigatory journalism—how The first downside is that when you throw in with Guber’s blockbuster paradigm, you forget that fewer movies will actually be made. In other words, instead of making, say, 25 $20 million movies, you only make five $100 million movies instead. Twenty-five screenwriters, directors and producers would be working now instead of five precious ones. On Face Time , Guber champions his blockbuster approach. “Most large films that are made,” confides the former Sony CEO, “have to gather around people who are enormously successful. No one wants to really let anyone in that club. We get the writer who did Minority Report . We get the director who did Taxi Driver . We get … Brad Pitt.” This jaded journalist was an original participating screenwriter on Minority Report: a romantically inclined no-name who first brought the project to the attention of the movie’s executive producers. Yet after working on Minority Report for a year, I was told by my employer that the script would be better realized as a sequel to Total Recall . Because I had no avalanche of boxoffice grosses to my credit, both the employer and the studio no longer felt comfortable with someone as statistically unproven as myself. So, ( 2003 )
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money managers and marketing mavens seem to be determining the kinds of movies being produced in 2003—was leaving me a little blue. I was hoping the savvy woman who serves as the head of development for these two original and legendary filmmakers might pick up this screenwriter’s spirits. “There’s no question the power of studio marketing machines is overwhelming, even eclipsing the content of the movies they advertise,” Janet explains, corroborating my fears. “Good marketing can make horrible movies look appealing.” “Do marketing divisions have a dominant voice in choosing the kinds of pictures being made today?” I ask. “No question,” says Janet, “except with Quentin [Tarantino]. Quentin makes the movies he wants to make.” “Do you have beautiful scripts on your shelves—movies Lawrence Bender wants to produce—but just can’t? Because of the corporate climate?” I ask. “Yes, we do,” Janet says. “Everybody relies on the studios for financing—even Lawrence Bender. Sometimes the best you can hope for is—with some deft compromise—you’ll produce the film with at least the vision it aspired to.”
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( development )
in American History X, written Edward Norton in American by David McKenna
VOODOO ECONOMICS Later, I phone Steve Tisch, the famous and prolific producer whose diverse filmography includes Risky Business , Forrest Gump and American History X . Tisch won an Academy Award® for producing the monstrously popular Forrest Gump. Given the current popular Hollywood paradigm, who can resist admiring a man, attaining all that success and the ability to shake hands on any seven-figure deal, who instead rolls the dice on a dark killer of a film called American History X? “Yes,” concedes Tisch, responding to my question about whether the business interests of a few media giants were having an adverse effect on the kinds of movies being made. “I think we’ll see fewer humanly complex, original and risky films coming out of the majors.” “How much of this is due to the increased power and sophistication of their marketing divisions?” I ask. “A lot,” says Tisch. “They have a tremendous amount of power. There’s no question—especially when you’re talking about a movie north of $75 million—that you’re not going to pull the trigger without the blessing of the marketing division. A studio president can greenlight a film, but a marketing president can make it disappear. Burger King tie-ins are more attractive to a studio than John Malkovich.” “What is it with these marketing divisions?” I ask Tisch. (Not one marketing president returned my calls.) Tisch chuckles. 74
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“I mean,” I say, “you read a piece like the “Disney gives us immense autonomy,” one by [University of Michigan Business says Osher. “We’ve been uniquely successSchool professor] Kathleen Sutcliffe in last ful at making movies that are different from month’s Harvard Business Review , and you everyone else—like Frida—like the films we’re discover that the sophisticated decision mod- producing today—including the adaptation of els companies use to collect and make sense of Charles Frazier’s classy novel Cold Mountain. data often break down due to informational These movies speak for themselves.” overload, especially in industries as complex “So there’s still a feeling of loyalty to the and volatile as the movie industry.” edgy, outsider company Bob and Harvey “It’s voodoo economics,” says Tisch good- Weinstein created in 1979?” I ask. naturedly. “A demographics sleight-of-hand. “Absolutely,” says Osher. “We make movMost marketing heads, for all their postur- ies at reasonable budgets and expect modest ing, are wrong as often as they’re right.” profits. What’s most important to us is artistic Then, as if by afterthought, Tisch adds, integrity—not necessarily a happy ending.” “To be fair, not everyone comes in from the “Like Chicago?” I ask. mainstream. Look at the risk Universal’s tak“Precisely. It’s not the kind of material ing with Ang Lee, a heady guy who did The you’d associate with the mainstream—but it .” finds its way into the mainstream.” Ice Storm and Sense and Sensibility .” “Still,” I say, “you don’t see many studios “So, interestingly, you see Miramax influtaking risks like that. And movies like The Ice encing the majors—more than the majors Storm are as rare as diamonds.” influencing you,” I say. say. “The independents will have to remain “I do,” states Osher. creative. That is, in creating new kinds of “If you split the moviemaking world into opportunities,” Tisch responds. “After all, it’s two camps,” I say, “one that’s composed of in their nature.” screenwriters and filmmakers who want to Steve Tisch is exuding his own charismatic make clear-sighted movies about what it is to brand of ying-yangy appeal. “In moviemak- be human, and the other composed of making, like affairs of the heart, everything is ing movies that are fantastic, special-effectsproblematic.” driven spectaculars like the ones coming out My turn to chortle. this summer ... ” “And mind you,” continues Tisch, “I’m Osher knows well the debate I’m refernot suggesting every independent film is encing. worth seeing. That’s hardly the case. The “... which side does Miramax come down Dancer Upstairs , Blue Car , Bend It Like on?” I ask. “You can’t be a snob about these things,” Beckham—these are the exceptions.” replies Osher thoughtfully. “Making movies that are full of mindless pleasures—escapist INFLUENCING THE MAJORS Bob Osher resides at the summit of one and fun—you can’t attack them. They repreof the most well-known and deeply admired sent a perfectly acceptable way to go.” movie production companies in the world, Osher pauses for significance. Miramax Pictures. “But, basically, at Miramax we’re concerned Like my experience with Tisch, the fact the with more serious-minded films, like you say, Miramax’s co-president of production pulled that are about the human condition.” over from the high-speed racetrack he navi“That’s cool,” I say, signing off. gates to give this hitchhiking journalist a ride “Talk to you later,” says Osher, unaware picked my spirits up immeasurably. of the events by which he’s edged a jaded My theory that studio executives are risk screenwriter closer to a belief that a capacaverse—at least to taking a stranger’s ques- ity for artistic arti stic merit still sti ll lives in Hollywood’ Hollywood’s tions seriously—was taking a pummeling. corridors of power. power. “What do you think about the intensifying climate of conglomeration in the COMING FULL CIRCLE movie industry?” I ask Osher. “Do you, at Despite my fresh discoveries, there are Miramax, feel pressured to become a big plenty of young, off-beat talents, as well as commodification machine? Serve up more industry veterans like Bill Mechanic, the cinematic Slurpees®?” former chairman and CEO of Twentieth Osher laughs, “No, not at all.” Century Fox, who’ll still roll their eyes when “I mean, after all,” I reply, “you’re owned asked if corporatization hasn’t driven creative by Disney.” content into hiding in Hollywood. On PBS’ scriptmag.com
( development ) FRONTLINE titled The Monster That Ate “If you’ve written a killer script, Hollywood , Mechanic offers a perspective not unlike Peter Guber’s. and by hook or crook managed Yet there’s an industry original riding in off the moviemaking horizon who offers new to raise the money to get it hope for us screenwriters who, for better or worse, see our daily duty in terms of creating produced, the first thing you works of lasting value. The guy’s name is Gregory Kahn. He and his partners Kerry Edelstein and Gavin Black usually try to do is get it into form, of all blessed things, a market research consulting firm called filmBUZZ. one of the regional film festivals.” I’m talking to Gregory as he prepares to hop a plane bound for the Nantucket Film Festival. good content is a trend that can still win “If you’ve written a killer script,” says the day,” he says. Gregory, “and by hook or crook managed to “This is how we discovered a movie that raise the money to get it produced, the first cost about $5 million and had no buzz at all. thing you usually try to do is get it into one We simply convinced the independent film of the regional film festivals.” community of the merits that a whole lot “Cool strategy,” strategy,” I chime in. of regional festival-goers recognized as well. “What we do on the behalf of these often That film, Nowhere in Africa, was just nomiunknown filmmakers is help them under- nated for an Academy Award.” stand who their target audience is. We help I listen to Gregory, thinking that in the get their films seen.” film world, friendship’s truest measure is the “How do you do that?” I ask. amount of time fighting for someone who is “We partner with 15 different regional unknown. film festivals—and that number is grow“We got behind that hidden gem,” coning—and we poll the audiences when these tinues Gregory. “[The film] was based on a films are screened.” s creened.” phenomenal script, and we devised grass“Poll them how?” roots marketing strategies—that is, selective “We ask them questions, like ‘How’d you promotional screenings, word-of-mouth, like the film’s plot?’ or ‘What did you think the Internet—all the inexpensive ways we of the film’s pacing?’ or ‘Did you like the writ- could devise to reach out to an intelligent, ing?’ It’s quite a panorama of questions. We appreciative audience we knew this film get into things like whether the viewer would would attract. pay to see it again, or would they buy it on “The funniest thing about all of this is, DVD. [All] questions about the demograph- you don’t need to go to Cannes and hole up ics [of the film]. If we see a deserving film and in some posh hotel with a bunch of famous collect solid marketing information at the fes- movie stars. You don’t have to travel to tival, then we can go to a distributor.” Berlin, or New York, or any of the other big “Not the studios?” I ask. festivals,” he continues. “Studio people rarely show up at regional Suddenly, it seems, the entire world of festivals. They’re dealing with huge films, moviemaking is shimmering with a new huge ad campaigns, splashing their movies on benevolence. television—all over the place. I’m not bashing “There are truly talented people,” conthem. We’re just doing a different thing. cludes Gregory. “They’re writing and produc“So we present distributors—say, the peo- ing scripts on a shoestring ... and you know ple at New Yorker Films, Zeitgeist Films or what?” Searchlight—spotlighting a trend why these I know he’s smiling. particular movies should be picked up.” “They’re all right in your own back“For instance, what kind of trend?” I ask. yard.” “That people still react to good content.” We’re both laughing. It’s so obvious. So overlooked. So true, true, true. Robert Goethals, Minority Report’s first par“In an era that’s so hyped and controlled ticipating writer, is currently producing his first by powerful marketing influences, here we are, coming back full circle. We believe feature and is a contributor to Cineaste magazine. ( 2003 )
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