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My POV
Brian A. Wilson
Independence: Make the Most Of It
Happy 4th of July! If you're reading this on the holiday, give yourself an extra 10 points and a gold star for determination and focus on your career.
The concept of independence has an interesting meaning for us screenwriters.
Like so many aspects of both Hollywood and real life, independence is a double-edged sword.
On the down side, being independent, being a writer working for yourself, you get no paid holidays, no two weeks' vacation, no health benefits. You don't' write, you don't eat.
That's the measure of your independence.
Now, the good news. Being independent, not answering to The Boss, we get to run our lives as we see fit. Living in the land of the free, we get to write about whatever we choose to write about. Want to pen "Emma"? Have at it. Prefer "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer"? Knock yourself out.
To my thinking, having that option of writing whatever I choose to write is the most satisfying aspect of my life as a screenwriter.
Actors have to plow through scripts, hoping to find something they like. Directors, producers, UPMs-they're all wading through scripts, wondering if they'll find something they can invest themselves in for a year or two or three.
But not us! We write what we want to write. We're not picking and choosing through somebody else's creations; we craft our own creations! Say whatever else you will about this profession, but if you don't enjoy writing what you're writing, you have no one to blame but yourself.
Oh now I suppose some negative-thinkers out there would counter this point of view by saying, "But we must write what the market wants!"
Really. So what does the market want? Nobody wanted war movies until Robert Rodat's "Saving Private Ryan" came along. Mel Brooks torpedoed production of westerns by parodying them to death with "Blazing Saddles;" nobody touched the genre to any great degree for decades, yet Clint Eastwood picked up an Oscar for "Unforgiven."
Nobody knows anything in Hollywood, and nobody knows what they want or what will sell...until they see it and make it and it sells.
This returns me to my original point: Write whatever the hell you want. Nothing is an easy sell in Hollywood, and nothing is an impossible sell. Anybody trying to guess the market by looking at what's showing now and writing based on those films is a good three to five to ten years behind the development curve.
I spent a week meeting with 25 producers recently. Some could trot out genres that, on a personal level, did or did not interest them. But that was about as far as most went when asked, "What are you looking for now?" What, then, ARE they looking for? "Good stories." "Well-written scripts." "Good writing."
There you have your marching orders, fellow writers. Write well. Write what you want to write. Write what you enjoy writing. Write a good story that engages you and your reader and, with luck, a broader audience.
Nobody is paying you a dime, yet, to do what you do, so you get to call the shots.
That's the payoff of being an independent writer. Make the most of it.
After all, it's a free country.
Happy Independence Day.
BW
LA
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