Sunday
Sep202009
Why writers feel aggrieved
September 20, 2009
There may be many reasons, some better than others. The Writers Guild has a session this week at BAFTA on the crisis in TV drama that will no doubt air some of these issues.
I am dealing today with a situation in which a writer has worked on a script with the production company for some months and it has got better and better. Then a director comes onboard and all of a sudden the film the director wants to make is at such variance from the film the writer and producer have agreed they are making, that the writer is forced into a corner.
Stand up and argue against the big director, or give in and see the film possibly changed for the worse. The big question is will it be worse? Does the director have a vision that will lift the script, together with the actors, into a higher league than the writer and producer had in mind? Looking at the changes the director wants to make there is little doubt that some will be detrimental.
Did the writer and producer spend too long on the script so that they can only see it the way it is? This reminds me of titles for films and books – the starting title becomes well-worn and comfortable, so that it seems to be good, but to someone who knows nothing about the project, coming in fresh, another title might be better.
I wish I could say that directors always improve matters. They don’t. They sometimes do. So is it a kind of Russian roulette? Must writers lie back and think of England or wherever, just because the film industry is a director-led industry?
The truth is that if directors and producers were really good they would enable there to be calm and detailed discussion about the changes they want. The changes would not be forced upon writers unilaterally, as they sometimes are.
I reall a TV movie written by a client with over 400 hours of top TV drama behind him, including (at that time) the highest rating single on ITV. When an ITV commissioner greenlit the film there was no director; the director was hired after ITV provided all the money and the director promptly fired the writer and brought in another, so in effect even undermining the decision of the ITV commissioner.
So much depends on the management of people, on the diplomacy by all concerned. In my experience writers feel aggrieved often because they are simply not treated with respect but like naughty children who must be told what to do. Because the director might be right there is no reason why what the writer wants must de facto be ignored or rejected. There is every reason for the process to be as collaborative as possible, rather than firing the writer simply because the director thinks they know better. Who will rid me of this meddlesome writer? Unfortunately is is not necessary to get a bunch of mercenaries as producers ensure that is possible to fire the writer in the basic contract.
No wonder writers want to be producers and directors. It is one of the reasons agents also want to produce. The moment that any of the players pull rank rather than behave in an inclusive way, the rot is in danger of setting in and the Writers’ Guild and all writers and agents need to stand up and be counted.
This is another obvious reason why getting several hundred writers together at the Cheltenham Screenwriters’ Festival and why the Guild are so important. We need to build bridges and to work together so that the fragmented freelancers who make up the scriptwriting community can have some cohesiveness. That is exactly why ScriptWriter magazine and TwelvePoint.com were set up.
I am dealing today with a situation in which a writer has worked on a script with the production company for some months and it has got better and better. Then a director comes onboard and all of a sudden the film the director wants to make is at such variance from the film the writer and producer have agreed they are making, that the writer is forced into a corner.
Stand up and argue against the big director, or give in and see the film possibly changed for the worse. The big question is will it be worse? Does the director have a vision that will lift the script, together with the actors, into a higher league than the writer and producer had in mind? Looking at the changes the director wants to make there is little doubt that some will be detrimental.
Did the writer and producer spend too long on the script so that they can only see it the way it is? This reminds me of titles for films and books – the starting title becomes well-worn and comfortable, so that it seems to be good, but to someone who knows nothing about the project, coming in fresh, another title might be better.
I wish I could say that directors always improve matters. They don’t. They sometimes do. So is it a kind of Russian roulette? Must writers lie back and think of England or wherever, just because the film industry is a director-led industry?
The truth is that if directors and producers were really good they would enable there to be calm and detailed discussion about the changes they want. The changes would not be forced upon writers unilaterally, as they sometimes are.
I reall a TV movie written by a client with over 400 hours of top TV drama behind him, including (at that time) the highest rating single on ITV. When an ITV commissioner greenlit the film there was no director; the director was hired after ITV provided all the money and the director promptly fired the writer and brought in another, so in effect even undermining the decision of the ITV commissioner.
So much depends on the management of people, on the diplomacy by all concerned. In my experience writers feel aggrieved often because they are simply not treated with respect but like naughty children who must be told what to do. Because the director might be right there is no reason why what the writer wants must de facto be ignored or rejected. There is every reason for the process to be as collaborative as possible, rather than firing the writer simply because the director thinks they know better. Who will rid me of this meddlesome writer? Unfortunately is is not necessary to get a bunch of mercenaries as producers ensure that is possible to fire the writer in the basic contract.
No wonder writers want to be producers and directors. It is one of the reasons agents also want to produce. The moment that any of the players pull rank rather than behave in an inclusive way, the rot is in danger of setting in and the Writers’ Guild and all writers and agents need to stand up and be counted.
This is another obvious reason why getting several hundred writers together at the Cheltenham Screenwriters’ Festival and why the Guild are so important. We need to build bridges and to work together so that the fragmented freelancers who make up the scriptwriting community can have some cohesiveness. That is exactly why ScriptWriter magazine and TwelvePoint.com were set up.
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