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They say the first rule in architecture is: Get the job. Once that part's accomplished, the battle to get your design realized begins.
The client who hired you based on your design will now want you to change it.
Like Daniel Libeskind, the architect whose design for the rebuilding of the World Trade Towers was just selected by Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg. The powers that be are already asking for changes.
He'll either fight them or concede or both. Maybe give a little here, be unbending a little there.
He might as well be a screenwriter dealing with development people, producers, directors and actors who are demanding changes in the script that was already bought.
Because for screenwriters it's the same rule as in archtecture: First, get the job.
Or...first, sell the script.
There will be changes. The buyer may love the script, but there will be changes. You have to fight to protect your script. But you also have to be smart. You can risk pissing people off just as easily as you can risk having people think you're a doormat.
It's all about choosing your battles. If you get an idiotic note from the heavy hitter in the deal you have to address it. You can't say it's an idiotic note. What you have to do is try your best to convince him why his idea can't work.
What if you can't convince him? What if he's the big dog on the project and is going to have his way, then you have a problem. You can ride the wave and hope that down the rode a wiser head will prevail (like the director or star or somebody the big dog trusts) or you can walk, which is risky if it's your first deal.
Is it better to be attached to a bad movie that gets made then to have a stack of unmade scripts? I say yes. Once you become a produced screenwriter you're swimming in different waters and you're meeting more people and you're looked at differently than a screenwriter who's sold scripts or had deals or won a contest. You're looked at as a screenwriter who got a movie made.
Daniel Libeskind got the job. Getting the plan he designed made exactly as he envisioned it will be a long, hard journey for him. He'll probably have to compromise and wish he'd never gotten involved.
But he got the job.
I'd rather get the job or sell the script and deal with the crap that will come, then not. |
