As I was watching the lowest rated Oscar telecast in history the other night a few things occurred to me. First off, no one has seen any of these movies. I am an avid movie goer and I had only seen four of the Best Picture nominees. I don't know anyone who has seen "There Will be Blood", and very few who have seen "Juno" or "No Country...".
I'm not saying that Hollywood should start pandering, but as the rating have demonstrated it is a big problem. If you look at years where the rating were high, 94, 97, 01 many of the best pictures were also box office smashes. This is actually a symptom of a bigger problem. Namely adults don't go to the movies any more.
The other thing that got me thinking was about the films themselves. If "There Will be Blood" was submitted by an unknown writer to a studio wold it get noticed? The complete lack of dialog in the beginning, the characters that don't seem to change at all over the course of the film, the abrupt ending...etc. Wouldn't these choices create red flags in the minds of the studio readers? Where are the three acts? This film doesn't fit into the checklist cookie cutter that so many films are measured by. Neither does "No Country for Old Men". Would these films get made in Hollywood with out big names behind them?
I say no and that's a big problem.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
Listen very carefully
Right now, as you read these very words, fingers are typing away on keyboards. The fact that they are typing is not as important as what they are typing. SCREENPLAYS! A wave of newly inspired Diablo Cody clones have decided that being a screenwriters seems like a cool thing to do. God help us.
If you go to any of the big screen writing comps websites and look at the amount of entries you will see a spike shortly after the year 1994. This is the year that Tarantino exploded into the mainstream changing indie film forever(it seemed like forever at the time, but I think its over now).
QT's love of cinema, his nostalgia for the 70's, and his amazing dialog spawned countless imitators(almost ass bad) and motivated thousands more (myself included) to sit down and write our own stories (All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy).
This is all well and fine, but here is the bad part. When the volume of anything goes from a trickle to a wave it becomes harder to stand out and make it. Screenplay comps jumped from 1200 to 4000 entries in a single year, cold calls and query letters came flooding into agencies and production companies, Hollywood was deluged with screenplays. Most of them awful.
If I can give myself credit for one thing its this, I never send out my stuff until it's ready. By that I mean, typo free, formatted, and with the approval of at least two other screenwriters. I don't just crank out half finished scripts and immediately start spamming them all over the place.
Until yesterday all of this seemed like it was slowing down. Over the last five years poker had turned into the big shiny balls that the get rich quick idiots liked to chase. Why waste your time with all that typing when you could sit at a table and win millions at cards. Hey once you won the world series of poker you could write a movie about that anyway. Screen writing wasn't hip anymore. Poker and hip hop was the dream of choice for the unwashed masses.
Until last night! The story of an ex-stripper who writes a screen play in a month and won the academy award is going to draw a lot of attention. Reams of paper are flying off shelves as we speak. An avalanche if quirky, pseudo-edgy, pop culture referencing garbage is going to crush us all.
What to do, What to do? Well as I see it, we only have one thing going for us, time. All of these Diablo clones are going to write 30 pages and get tired, they need to buy supplies and screen writing software. They are going to need at least three months to ramp up.
This puts them past all of the major screenplay comps deadlines. We have one shot to place in these contests and secure some type of attention(representation/deals). After that it will be 10 times harder to get anyone to read anything.
The count down has started, the ship has sounded its horn, in t-minus 90 days things are going to get really crowded around here. Best of luck to us all.
If you go to any of the big screen writing comps websites and look at the amount of entries you will see a spike shortly after the year 1994. This is the year that Tarantino exploded into the mainstream changing indie film forever(it seemed like forever at the time, but I think its over now).
QT's love of cinema, his nostalgia for the 70's, and his amazing dialog spawned countless imitators(almost ass bad) and motivated thousands more (myself included) to sit down and write our own stories (All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy).
This is all well and fine, but here is the bad part. When the volume of anything goes from a trickle to a wave it becomes harder to stand out and make it. Screenplay comps jumped from 1200 to 4000 entries in a single year, cold calls and query letters came flooding into agencies and production companies, Hollywood was deluged with screenplays. Most of them awful.
If I can give myself credit for one thing its this, I never send out my stuff until it's ready. By that I mean, typo free, formatted, and with the approval of at least two other screenwriters. I don't just crank out half finished scripts and immediately start spamming them all over the place.
Until yesterday all of this seemed like it was slowing down. Over the last five years poker had turned into the big shiny balls that the get rich quick idiots liked to chase. Why waste your time with all that typing when you could sit at a table and win millions at cards. Hey once you won the world series of poker you could write a movie about that anyway. Screen writing wasn't hip anymore. Poker and hip hop was the dream of choice for the unwashed masses.
Until last night! The story of an ex-stripper who writes a screen play in a month and won the academy award is going to draw a lot of attention. Reams of paper are flying off shelves as we speak. An avalanche if quirky, pseudo-edgy, pop culture referencing garbage is going to crush us all.
What to do, What to do? Well as I see it, we only have one thing going for us, time. All of these Diablo clones are going to write 30 pages and get tired, they need to buy supplies and screen writing software. They are going to need at least three months to ramp up.
This puts them past all of the major screenplay comps deadlines. We have one shot to place in these contests and secure some type of attention(representation/deals). After that it will be 10 times harder to get anyone to read anything.
The count down has started, the ship has sounded its horn, in t-minus 90 days things are going to get really crowded around here. Best of luck to us all.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
HD-DVD, you are dead to me.
I just sold my XBOX 360- HD DVD drive on ebay for 50 bucks. Between that and the two discs I included, I wound up taking a 150 dollars bath. Until this very moment Sony hadn't won a format war EVER!
I really liked watching HD-DVD's and I think selling my drive was a mistake. Even if the format is dead, it was still a great up converting player.
I was going to use the money to buy a blu ray player, but they are too expensive and the current players(version 1.0) will not be able to play all the features on the new discs(version 1.1) that will be coming out soon. It's nice to see that Sony treats its early adopters so well.
Maybe physical media storage is dead?
I really liked watching HD-DVD's and I think selling my drive was a mistake. Even if the format is dead, it was still a great up converting player.
I was going to use the money to buy a blu ray player, but they are too expensive and the current players(version 1.0) will not be able to play all the features on the new discs(version 1.1) that will be coming out soon. It's nice to see that Sony treats its early adopters so well.
Maybe physical media storage is dead?
Monday, February 11, 2008
STRIKE OVER!
Woooo whooooo! I feel like the Ewoks after they saw the second death star get blown up. Except I don't suck.
Congrats to the WGA for taking a stand.
Congrats to the WGA for taking a stand.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
A "What the F*ck!" moment in my life.
About two years ago, around this time of the year I was working a day shift and got a call from my assignment editor. "I need you to head over to "Times Square." When ever I get sent to TS all I can think of is the parking nightmare that awaits me. "What's going on?" I asked. "The Oscar statues are on display". he informs me. "The Oscar Statues?" I ask. "Yeah the ones they hand to all the winners, the actual statues." he tells me. "Awesome!" I shout. "Yeah I knew you would like that" he replies.
So I rush on over, park in a commercial zone and hoof it to the location. I walk in and across the room, near the window are the statutes. I was in awe. My awe was interrupted by a PR team. The same questions, where was I from, what was my name. I never understood why they try and get my information. I don't decide what airs or what future events we cover, why would you want to contact me? If you see me at your events the choice to cover it has already be made. After the inquisition is over I tell them I just want a few shots of the statues.
I walk over to the case and gazed in at a little army of golden boys. Oscars are much bigger in person. Which is kinda funny because movie stars are often smaller in person, a bit of a paradox. I pulled out all the stops and completely overshot the crap out of the little golden calves.
I left shortly before God made up his mind about whether or not to smite me. As I returned to my car I had one of those moments where you look at your life and wonder why it has deviated so far from your original plans.
Its not that things are so bad for me. I do ok. I live pretty well and most of the time I like my job, but it's no the dream. I had just walked out of a room holding 40 something dreams. Lifelong, hard fought, dreams were in that buildings and for 1/4th of the people in attendance that dream was going to come true.
Where was I? Taking pictures of other peoples dreams. That is a hard reality to face.
So I rush on over, park in a commercial zone and hoof it to the location. I walk in and across the room, near the window are the statutes. I was in awe. My awe was interrupted by a PR team. The same questions, where was I from, what was my name. I never understood why they try and get my information. I don't decide what airs or what future events we cover, why would you want to contact me? If you see me at your events the choice to cover it has already be made. After the inquisition is over I tell them I just want a few shots of the statues.
I walk over to the case and gazed in at a little army of golden boys. Oscars are much bigger in person. Which is kinda funny because movie stars are often smaller in person, a bit of a paradox. I pulled out all the stops and completely overshot the crap out of the little golden calves.
I left shortly before God made up his mind about whether or not to smite me. As I returned to my car I had one of those moments where you look at your life and wonder why it has deviated so far from your original plans.
Its not that things are so bad for me. I do ok. I live pretty well and most of the time I like my job, but it's no the dream. I had just walked out of a room holding 40 something dreams. Lifelong, hard fought, dreams were in that buildings and for 1/4th of the people in attendance that dream was going to come true.
Where was I? Taking pictures of other peoples dreams. That is a hard reality to face.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
The Strike Hits Me Where it Hurts.
My station like all or rather almost all T.V. stations is owned by a large network. This network has programs that have gone off the air due to the strike. No programs, less revenue. Less revenue= cuts. Those cuts have cut me. My hours are down, my overtime is gone baby gone. The hurt is certainly on.
I have to tell you though, I'm not mad. Well I am not mad at the writers. I am just as behind the WGA as I was when this started. I know that stakes and I respect the decision to strike. If my financial situation has to suffer as a result, then I'll make due.
It gives me more time to write anyway.
I have to tell you though, I'm not mad. Well I am not mad at the writers. I am just as behind the WGA as I was when this started. I know that stakes and I respect the decision to strike. If my financial situation has to suffer as a result, then I'll make due.
It gives me more time to write anyway.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
My Strike Solution
One big word..... Google. If Google really wants to live up to its reputation as a radical outside of the box thinking tour de force they need to jump on the massive opportunity that is the writer's strike. Think about it, if Google took about 5-10 billion dollars(money they have, money they could lose and not even think about it) for that sum of money they could turn to the WGA and say, "Sure, we'll play ball." They could create all new shows, webisodes, and movies, content! Content is king and if Google bought the writers, all of them, they would send the entertainment industry into a frenzy . If Google even expressed interest in such an arrangement the strike would end tomorrow.
I know it's a radical idea, but if the whole this industry is eventually going to the internet any way why shouldn't Google lead the way. We(writers) would get in on the ground floor and reap the benefits. What if we established a 10 percent on the gross rule for writers, on every film? What would that do to the status and perception of the writer in the industry? Hey the first step into getting something is wanting it, badly.
So if anyone from Google is either one of my two readers please pass this up the ladder. Oh, and if this works out and Google does buy all of the writers I want a small finders fee. Let's say 1 percent of the grosses of all movies for the rest of time, or a billion dollars. I'm easy
I know it's a radical idea, but if the whole this industry is eventually going to the internet any way why shouldn't Google lead the way. We(writers) would get in on the ground floor and reap the benefits. What if we established a 10 percent on the gross rule for writers, on every film? What would that do to the status and perception of the writer in the industry? Hey the first step into getting something is wanting it, badly.
So if anyone from Google is either one of my two readers please pass this up the ladder. Oh, and if this works out and Google does buy all of the writers I want a small finders fee. Let's say 1 percent of the grosses of all movies for the rest of time, or a billion dollars. I'm easy
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