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My POV
Brian A. Wilson
MOVE AHEAD BY LOOKING BACK
Impatience rules Hollywood.
Studios want overnight success at the box office, yanking movies after just one or two weeks.
Producers want "the next _______" (fill in with last weekend's box office champ).
Agents want to sign a writer only if they can pick up the phone and sell the script before the ink is dry on the paperwork.
And writers aren't immune. How many fellow scribes do you know who plan to knock out a sure-fire script, quickly sell it for a lot of money in a Monday-morning bidding war, then embark upon a lavish lifestyle to which they hope to become accustomed?
The trend is to make everything faster, shorter, more idiot proof. Pitches used to be 10 minutes. Then it was five. Now, if you can do it in 30 seconds, you're on solid ground. More likely, you'll get to say a logline and that's about it. Oh, and if you can condense that logline to about 4-5 words ("XXX meets MI2!"), whomever you're addressing would really appreciate it, because there's a call coming in and a meeting to attend.
Do yourself a favor.
Slow down.
Step back from the maniac landscape of present-day Hollywood, and treat yourself to a glimpse of its glorious past.
Here's your assignment: Pick a distant decade, then rent three best picture winners from those years and watch them
The 40s? You'll choose from the likes of The Lost Weekend, Best Years of our Lives and Hamlet. Prefer the 50s? From Here to Eternity awaits, as does Bridge on the River Kwai and On the Waterfront.
You get the idea.
Watch these movies. Watch the pacing. Watch the character development. Savor the artistry to the storytelling, in the writing, the directing and the cinematography.
Then try to incorporate some of that artistry into your own writing.
It's too easy to start thinking that everything you write should emulate XXX, Fast and the Furious or whatever Lucy Liu is starring in next.
It doesn't.
You can write action because you think it'll sell easier than something else, but write it artfully. Observe the work of the masters, men and women who created the greatest films in cinema history. Create a script that's not just a concept, but is a screenwriting masterpiece as well.
Yes, good screenwriting is still being done today. But it's easier to spot it if we look further back, watching films that don't have a lot of cultural baggage, or marketing campaigns for them still ringing in our ears.
My suggestion for where to get your movies: Rent from netflix.com It's a great by-mail DVD-only rental service. You pay one monthly fee, then rent as many DVDs as you want. Hint: Choose the cheaper "two DVDs at a time" option. For about $12 a month, you can't beat it.
Remember: Study the greats if you want to be great.
Keep writing.
BW
LA
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