The Plight Of The Good Story

Ah, networking...Can anything else be so discouraging as a simple networking event can be?  I mean, I'm sure there can be, at least on an equal level anyway, but hear me out for a moment.  Seminars, panels, parties, and screenings.  Sometimes they're really great.  Sometimes they make me feel like I'm truly doing the right thing but sometimes they make me wish I'd gone into a more simpler industry...like brain surgery or rocket science maybe.

After a 5 hour session of seminars and panelists at the first iHollywood event in Santa Monica I felt like someone had gagged and bound me then thrown me in a trunk.  It started out innocently enough.  A couple hours of two speakers discussing financing and business plans while promoting their books at the same time.  I have to admit it was a little dry but if I listened closely I realized I was able to pick up some fine points.  John Reiss, author of a book called Think Outside the Box Office was the first speaker and Louise Levison, author of Filmmakers and Financing: Business Plans for Independents was the second speaker.  They gave us some pointers on the changing world of film distribution, what to put in a business plan and, well, ok, I think I tuned out after hearing them discuss a couple things I was already doing based on just plain common sense.  I recorded it though and at some random moment I suppose I'll go back and listen again as I do recall muttering a couple hmm's and huh's.  It's those classroom type situations that tend to force my mind into wander mode.  Never was good at absorbing a lecture unless it allowed me a dialogue and interaction as it went along.

Anyhow, we then broke for some networking and dinner.  Nick and I attended this one together and we parted at this point to schmooze with the crowd at separate tables.  I found myself with a man from Florida looking to distribute a comedy and a sci-fi he had just finished, a guy with a company that offered internet to TV programming, and an ex-wildlife cinematographer now somehow involved with the WWF.  I liked the latter guy and his charisma quite a bit.  Definitely social and easy to talk with.  Having always had a desire to do camera work for Discovery & National Geographic and being a big fan of "Planet Earth" I couldn't resist drilling him on some of his camera experience.  I got an interesting story or two on arctic shoots he had been on.  The Florida guy was a bit tough to get a flowing conversation going with but he was friendly enough and the internet guy offered a down to earth kind of sense of humor and demeanor.  My table was ok.  Nick, on the other hand, was across the room being questioned on why he didn't have his badge on, being tortured by IT guys, and having to fight his way into a conversation with a lady from Paramount.  He eventually came over after I texted him about the cinematographer.

We moved from dinner to a workflow presentation that lasted about 20 minutes.  By now it was just about endurance for me.  Find a little gem of info wherever I could was the goal.  But then the panel came up.  Oh the panel.  Six studio guys in black suit coats.  This whole panel changed the entire mood and seemed to start a small fire under my seat.  They all discussed the ever distracting new world of James Cameron's god forsaken 3D pioneering.  They seemed to praise 3D, big budget filmmaking and 2009 movie going like they'd struck Texas tea.  They asked the audience who we were..."Post production?" About 5 people.  "SAG, DGA, PGA, WGA?"  About 5 people. "Technology?"  About 5 people.  "How many people watch the Oscars?"  "Hahahaha"....The rest of us indie filmmakers were left out and on our own.  This should have tipped me off to the fact that I was in for an hour of frustration.

They started out saying movie ticket prices were going up this weekend.  Yay!  How much more money will the world demand from me for the simplest of things?  They moved into the gigantic success of 3D filmmaking and how "Avatar" helped everyone.  They backed that statement with numbers based on the big success of the opening weekend of "Alice In Wonderland".

Oh man.  Really?  I began to clamp down on my tongue.  Did they not realize that "Alice in Wonderland" did so well because it was and is a well known, classic work too many of us grew up with and loved?  Did they not know that had it been in 2D most of the same people would have gone to see it simply for Johnny Depp and Tim Burton?  The 3D was just a strange perk that added to the wild ride of that crazy story.  That's all.  That's it.  3D wasn't the driving force.  And actually turned out to be not so impressive to this movie goer or her companion when they ventured down the rabbit hole.

They continued on, saying thanks to the awesome 3D movement gigantic budgets would be the norm, less movies would be made, so less work for everyone.

Hurray!  Great for the thousands of us currently clamoring for jobs in the industry as it is now.

They continued on, praising big studio works and went so far as to state EVERYTHING would be in 3D sooooooonnnnnn!!!!!

Are they nuts?  I wondered.  Do they not realize the group of people they're talking with have not even one finger nail in the door of big studio production?

One little guy I'd seen before at some other panel and certainly filling big shoes, made the comment that the wrong movie had won the Oscars after another bashed the boredom of the entire show itself.

Boring?  Really?  Didn't they say the same thing last year?  Maybe it's award shows that are really not too thrilling to watch...Wait.  Did he just say?  Did he just say the wrong movie won the Best Picture Oscar this year?  Now I was squirming in my seat, teeth firmly on tongue, lips cemented together.  First of all, not one of the nominees was a best picture in my opinion.  Not one gave me that fulfilling feeling I get after seeing a masterpiece.  Not one.  BUT of them all the one that came close was the one that actually won, "Hurt Locker".  Damn good ol' boys.  Enough already.  It's 2010.  Granted the little guy was heavy on the marketing side of "Avatar" but come on.  Integrity? Art? Film?  Is it only business now?  Is it only how much money a movie makes that matters?  I guess so if you're going to be spending $200 million and up on each film...big hole in the joy of that amazing 3D trend I'd say.

So, after about a half hour of big studio ass kissing they suddenly turned around and said ultimately it was about story.  Concept.

Eh?  "Clash of the Titans"?  "Avatar"?  "Footloose"?  Remakes??  Where's the story there?  I looked around the room several times to try and read the faces of the audience.  Were they in agreement here?  Nick pronounced a bullshit at one point so I knew he was struggling as much as I was with the opinions of these men.

Then a lady spoke up and I knew we weren't alone...."So, so you're telling me I'm going to want to see "Sex In The City" in 3D?"  She informed the panel they were in a room of indie filmmakers and threw the SAG guy on the panel a bit of compassion for the magnitude of talent that would be struggling for work with this new technological advent.  Another lady, somewhere in the end, asked the question,  "How will digital media benefit me as an indie filmmaker?"  They questioned whether it was theatrical release or general exposure she wanted.  Her response was that she didn't know yet.  So what did she get?  A pat.  A patronizing pat on the head.  She was informed self distribution and marketing would be an opportunity as she would have a plethora of new media and internet at her fingertips.

Ha!  Right.  I've personally tried the internet distribution and grassroots marketing measures for someone else's feature film and no indie filmmaker has the money or manpower for it.  That is a super saturated world.  Try to find your demographic in a sea of invisible Youtube and Netflix watchers.  Damn near impossible at this moment.  And theater is where we all want our films shown.  Big, bold and beautiful.  Not on an Ipad, Iphone or computer monitor.

They went on to obliterate celluloid filmmaking.

I'm sorry but I love film.  I love the richness of it.  I love the artistry of it.  I don't want it to be obsolete any more than I want vinyl to be obsolete.  I completely understand the financial savings and ease of production and post production with digital but if I had the funds and had the choice 35mm would be the direction I'd go in every single time. Why turn our backs on it completely?

As we neared the end the panel emphasized how important good story was as much as they could and it was all I could do to wish nothing but evil on the Hollywood conglomerates.  I hoped 3D would be their downfall  not their success.  How quickly they did a 180 once they knew what the audience in front of them wanted to hear.  We left that building bursting with complaints and full of animated conversation as we drove up the 405.

My solution for those of us who need to keep our industry open to everyone interested in good visual storytelling is to create an equally powerful and competitive indie film community.  Fill it with independent film investors, distributors, filmmakers, and exhibitors.  And collaborate, collaborate, collaborate.  Come together and operate together.  Stop scrambling to be the next big blockbuster director if what you enjoy is crafting story based, intelligent and/or artistic movies.  Stop stepping on each other to get to the tiny top.  Start listening, talking, engaging other like minded movie makers and build a part of the industry that benefits everyone rather than just the Hollywood studio system.  New media may be good but seeing your creation on a large screen is great.  There's nothing that says independent film can't be out there competing with the giant machine currently way too overly impressed with 3D technology. - TKS

Screenwriting, Werner Herzog, and Embracing the Loneliness

Sitting in the cozy bosom of the Writers Guild Foundation/Writers Guild of America buiding in Los Angeles, it struck me just how important validation is for a writer.  A validation that doesn't come once in a career, or the kind that strikes in a lucky bolt of triumph and recognition when your script or novel is sold; I mean weekly, even daily validation.

I was attending the latest installment of "Anatomy of a Script," hosted by Robin Schiff and Winnie Holzman, where successful screenwriters come and discuss their careers, answer questions and break down their work over a three hour session that goes by all too fast.  (If you are a screenwriter in the Southern California area, this is a wonderful resource).  Listening to Laeta Kalogridis discuss her screenplay "Shutter Island," I took great comfort hearing her describe her challenges fighting page count, spending too much time focusing on transitions, and turning her wheels on a few lines of dialogue for hours at a time.

Of course I should have known it wasn't just me that struggles with these things, but when you spend so much time alone in a room with a cursor blinking back at you, you're hypnotized into questioning what's right and what's wrong, what's good and what's bad.

Everyone has notes and opinions when it comes to someone else's writing, and they sure don't have any problem sharing those steadfast views with others, but when it comes to one's OWN writing, suddenly the labels fall off the compass.  There is no right answer, THERE ARE A THOUSAND ANSWERS, and all you have is your soppy gut to guide you across the bright white empty wasteland.  When the words do finally come we see just how fragile our theories about what's good and what's bad truly are.  Who really hands over their work for the first time and doesn't question everything they know and believe about everything?

It's a need for validation that manifests itself in an entire industry of magazines, how-to-books about the process of writing, #scriptchat on twitter, writers groups, writers blogs, writers tips of the day, and movies, of course the movies about writers who struggle with their art...

"Stand by Me," "Stranger than Fiction," "Misery," 2 out of 5 workshop samples, "Adaptation," "Wonder Boys," "Barton Fink," "Barfly," "Shakespeare in Love," "Sideways," Bukowski: Born Into This" -- Born Into This -- Could anything sound more pretentious? 

What is this uncanny, insatiable need for writers to write about writing, if it's not a passive aggressive plea for validation? -- To show everyone, just how noble and important writing is to the world?  "I am a writer.  Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"

"Theeis eeis masturbation," I can imagine Werner Herzog say with his soft inflection that contrasts his Arnold-Schwarzenegger-like accent.

On Saturday I got to see a double feature including his two films "Nosferatu the Vampyre" and "Cobra Verde," between which he spoke to the audience.

Werner Herzog.  This a soldier of film.  A man who declares that he sees the films in his head, in their entirety before he sits down to write them in the course of 3 to 5 days.

It shows.

These films, namely "Cobra Verde," were hard to follow, sometimes hard to sit through, but they were also beautiful and most impressively, teeming with confidence.  They give you the sense that this man doesn't give a damn if you like or dislike his movie.

He spoke of being a soldier of film, about "Holding an artistic outpost that others have abandoned.  It means discipline.  It means perseverance.  It means courage." 

While you're wondering what's the hell is going on, questioning the plot, continuity, Herzog presses on, unwavering.  If the plot or the character won't pull you through the film, it's Herzog's utter confidence that will pull you to the credits.

Herzog says of the iconic image of steamship hauled over a mountaintop in his film "Fitzcarraldo,"  "The image of a steamboat going over a mountain is very unusual and it drew a lot of attention.  It's like a big metaphor, but don't ask me what the metaphor means, because I wouldn't know."

Watching Herzog's films, you get the sense he's not questioning himself when he's sitting there alone in front of the computer.  He embraces the loneliness!  He sees virtue in that abandoned artistic outpost.  He just writes.

This is the impression he gives his audience of film aficionados, filmmakers, directors, and writers looking for a little validation on a Saturday night...


Charles Rhoads