What About the Writers????
I read an article in the New York Times this morning that made me want to scream. Yet another non-filmmaking journalist whose closest brush with cinema was at a Blockbuster video store has written an article about what's wrong with Hollywood. I guess if I stop reading them maybe they'll stop writing them....Anyway, the thesis of the article is that because studios indulge talented directors rather than challenge them, there has been a decline in said directors output and, subsequently, in quality films. As if the answer is stop blowing the director. How about the fact that flash and dash writing has been on the rise since the (not so coincidental) rise in the spec market??? Or the fact that it's easier to get a promotion as an exec if you have the "right" relationships because your boss has less taste than tepid water? Or that agents care more about perk packages than they do about the quality of the material they put their clients in, or.... well, I'm sure you can see where this ends up.
Anyway, it always and in all ways goes back to story. And to telling a good one, well.
Anyway, it always and in all ways goes back to story. And to telling a good one, well.
3 comments:
I think the article makes a valid point in saying that Hollywood now champions ideas that make big $$ over films that actually have social impact, have something to say. To me, the films of the 70's and even 80's provided social commentary, a place for art. Now, it's only about the money. Even as writers, agents wants to only see comedies and thrillers, which to me is a sad state of affairs. What about filmmaking being a mirror of our society? I think this is why so many foreign filmmakers are leading the charge these days...
Hollywood has always been in the business of making big $$ films over films that have a social impact. For every great "social commentary" film of the 70's and 80's you had at least one STAR WARS knock-off.
I guess I'm just burnt because the journo didn't even mention IN PASSING that directors pick SCRIPTS not movies. Directors MAKE movies. If anything, the real decline is in the number of producers who have the ability to develop material -- creatively and fiscally -- and the number of executives who know how to effectively manage that process. There are definitely plenty of places that are doing a great job, but for this outsider to pinpoint the problem as directors being coddled and executives being indulgent is beyond reductive reasoning.
Go Diva...you tell 'em.
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