The Rules – a screenwriting ‘guru’ perspective:
“I always tell writers to expect the worst of life and in Hollywood. This way you can guarantee that your surprises will be exclusively of the pleasant variety.
What I think really pays off is stumbling around, blindly and stupidly, and grabbing on to that which you really like. That’s true in your life narrative, and it’s also useful in your screen narrative. (more…)
As Halloween approaches the end of next week, it’s worth remembering that this time of year marks the 40th anniversary of the initial release of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, widely considered the most popular cult classic film.
There were many memorable songs; here is an excerpt of probably the best known…
It’s astounding. Time is fleeting.
The Rules – one for all:
(a) “Even a film that was shot in six weeks…has hundreds of people bringing their contribution to the table. That the initial vision of the screenplay page remains intact by the time it hits the screen is miraculous considering how many fingerprints get on it along the way – even when those fingerprints are well meaning fingerprints. So when you see something intact, you really have to take pleasure in it, if you’re the guy who put the words on the page in the first place… To see those components having all sailed in the same direction and landed safely, instead of hitting the rocks, is fantastic.” (more…)
The Rules – reputation:
(a) “If you do things that get you a certain reputation, when you come up in a meeting or discussion, you can get shut off very quickly. If you have a reputation for being difficult, if you have a reputation for threatening to sue people, if you have a reputation for not being able to deliver, then where there’s a discussion around a table, someone will say, ‘I heard this’, or ‘I heard that’, and they’ll go on to the next choice.” (more…)
The Rules – circling the writers:
(a) “Once you’re hired for a job, there’s a very high anxiety level, which just stays in the background – it’s sort of like a white noise of ‘What’s gonna happen to me on this adventure? Am I gonna make it down the river? When are the giant falls with the writer-eating crocodiles in ‘em gonna come? Are they gonna come way down the river? Are they gonna come right away, which they do sometimes?’ You know, you turn in your first draft, and good-bye. Or maybe you’re gonna sail way down the river and get it close to production, and then something bad is gonna happen. Or, in a rare case, you’re gonna make it all the way through.” (more…)
The Rules – the new reality:
(a) “A corporate style of conducting business has been imposed upon the movie industry, which used to leave room for the disruptions of talent. It is stunning to see how cleverly everything has been assigned a number value, and any idea
is immediately dissected into numbers representing the stars, the subject matter, the possible disposition of it in various media, countries, ancillaries…it totally neglects whether it’s going to be done well or not.” (more…)
The ‘Players’ – a director’s view:
“I believe that great writing makes great stories, and great stories make great films. I start from that, so I really don’t move until I trust the material that I have in my hands… There’s a totem pole in Hollywood for sure, about who they want to entrust certain material to. The more successful you are with your films financially, the more access you have to better material. (more…)
The ‘Players’ – performers:
(a) “If you want actors to listen to everything you say, get unknown actors. If you are lucky enough to work with film stars, you find there’s a reason why they’re film stars. They tend to be incredibly smart people… If you’re lucky enough to make a picture with these people, you’re gonna listen to what they have to say, and you’re gonna accommodate a lot of what they have to say…” (more…)
the watch of time 
Memorable Quotes: Tales of Screenwriters – Part Twenty-Five
Minefields – next…:
(a) “You’re like the architect, but they’re building the building, and sometimes they decide, ‘You know what? That’s not quite the building we want. We’re gonna bring in somebody else to design the new gazebo.’ I’ve replaced writers and I’ve been replaced. The times it’s gone well have been when everyone’s a grown-up about it.” (more…)
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