A question for Readers

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #61
    Re: A question for Readers

    The idea that all a writer has to do is "write a great script" is based on the mistaken conceit that a truly talented writer can through his own God given "greatness" control his fate and have his "greatness" recognized and praised by those in HW.

    It's a disillusioning and a little frightening to realize that your fate is out of your hands and that your efforts may go unrecognized while works you think of as inferior are acclaimed.

    But that is reality.

    Some people are not ready for reality.

    Some people will never be ready for it.

    There is nothing wrong with telling writers to write the best script they can, because it is after all the only thing we can control.

    But there is everything wrong with telling a writer the only way to sell a script is to write a truly "great" script that is better than all others. As already stated many times by people more informed and eloquent than I, it is not founded in reality and even a casual comparison of scripts that do sell will prove that being "great" is not a requirement for a script to sell.



    EDIT TO ADD:

    [Frankly, I don't care much for the analogy only because it is built around a subtext wherein the "Gourmet" writers have more skill and are better than the "Big Mac" writers, which is an arrogant fallacy that permeates the newbie world.]
    I agree, Joe. Gourmet, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder or mouth of the taster.
    Fortune favors the bold - Virgil

    Comment


    • #62
      Re: A question for Readers

      Originally posted by BestWriterEver

      You've actually made it very clear to me why people are so offended by my insistence that quality wins out over time. Thank you.

      Here's where you (and almost everyone else) are getting off track. The Big Mac is not great when compared to the highest ideal of the culinary arts. The Big Mac is a great cheeseburger. That's where it's competing.


      140 years ago there were almost no choices for entertainment. If there had been movies, television, radio, internet or CDs, Dickens would have sold a fraction of the books he sold. Even in the book world, there were almost no genre works being produced -- they didn't exist -- to compete against him. Standards aren't down. People have options.
      Dickens had plenty of competition, just as Shakespeare did (and in his day, Shakespeare was not the most successful playwright; not by a long shot.) Dickens was also up against a vibrant theatre scene, music-hall entertainment, and the music that people made in their own homes.

      Are you saying the Big Mac is the ne plus ultra of cheeseburgers? I bet it isn't. I can think of a dozen far better hamburger restaurants in Manhattan, and I'd bet there are an equal number in L.A. It's just cheap and readily available and people eat it because it's handy and serves its purpose. Virtually no reviewers thought Brown's novel was a work of quality, and I suspect it won't be around in fifty years as an undisputed classic. A term like that is usually applied to something a bit closer to art.

      Comment


      • #63
        Re: A question for Readers

        Originally posted by Deus Ex Machine
        ... even a casual comparison of scripts that do sell will prove that being "great" is not a requirement for a script to sell.
        so, deus, now you're saying my king kong meets star wars epic (with comedic elements) does have a shot?

        do i still have to trim it down?

        Comment


        • #64
          Re: A question for Readers

          Originally posted by writerly
          If I understand the question, which as usual has gotten spun into something else, you want to know various Readers' opinions on the number of actually well-written scripts...?
          Yup.

          I used to read for some major distributors as well as prodcos. The script came as already bought and in most cases with A list talent attached.

          I passed on Ripley's Game, On The 'L or whatever that piece of crap was called, The Believer, The Mothman Prophecies, Basic Instinct 11, and a host of others. Not because they were badly written. - Okay some were, but mainly for very varied reasons not connected with the writing.
          http://wasitsomethingiwrote.blogspot.com/

          Comment


          • #65
            Re: A question for Readers

            Deus--

            "Great" only exists in the eyes of the buyer, man.

            Your "casual comparison of scripts that do sell" does not --and in fact, cannot-- "prove that being 'great' is not a requirement for a script to sell."
            I only pick on you (your advice is usually awesome) because you very succinctly voiced my pet peeve: random opinions about a screenplay are meaningless because the evaluating criteria is not the same as what the value of a screenplay is actually determined by. The only real-world criteria that ultimately matters is "Buy." Everything else is like evaluating a NASCAR car based on your opinion of the color scheme. Moreover, even narrowly confined, that evaluation obviously varies greatly from one potential purchaser to the next.

            Bottom line, "great" is meaningless the way it's being used here.

            Comment


            • #66
              Re: A question for Readers

              damn joe.

              Comment


              • #67
                Re: A question for Readers

                Originally posted by Jake Schuster
                Shakespeare was not the most successful playwright; not by a long shot.)
                Then who was?
                The better part of valor is discretion, in the which better part I have saved my life. (Henry IV. Part I: Shakespeare)

                Comment


                • #68
                  Re: A question for Readers

                  Originally posted by Happy Camper
                  Then who was?
                  Neil Simon. Duh?
                  http://wasitsomethingiwrote.blogspot.com/

                  Comment


                  • #69
                    Re: A question for Readers

                    Okay, so if I knew someone who knew an exec and my script was given to that exec based on the relationship we both had with that person ...

                    would the exec give the script to a reader first? If so, does the reader feel s/he needs to read that script differently because the exec has a "connection" to the writer?

                    Getting the script read by the right people is the bottom line, so it seems this is as much about marketing as it is about writing. Am I way off here?

                    I've only tried to sell one thing. It was years ago. It was an unfinished mystery novel. A friend knew someone who was starring in a movie produced by David Wolper. 50 pages of my (it was crappy) "novel" was given to someone who gave it to a reader. The reader was incredibly kind and said it would make a better tv series than feature, but they were not pursuing tv at the time.

                    Looking back, I think the reader was being polite out of respect to the actor who referred it. A pass is a pass, but it was such a nice and encouraging one, but I also know that if I had something that was worth buying, I could have done something.

                    Product quality (in terms of idea and execution) plus marketing is what will work, I think. I see them as being seperate things, but somehow equal.

                    Comment


                    • #70
                      Re: A question for Readers

                      Ben Jonson was by far more commercially successful than Shakespeare. In fact, it was nearly two centuries before Shakespeare really became the true leading light of the English theatre.

                      But there were many, many more playwrights working at the time: Kyd, Beaumont & Fletcher, Marlowe, Robert Greene--many others.

                      Comment


                      • #71
                        Re: A question for Readers

                        Originally posted by echo2218
                        Getting the script read by the right people is the bottom line, so it seems this is as much about marketing as it is about writing. Am I way off here?
                        If you mean 'marketing' is getting your script to those who might do something with it then you are spot on.
                        http://wasitsomethingiwrote.blogspot.com/

                        Comment


                        • #72
                          Re: A question for Readers

                          That's exactly what I meant.

                          Comment


                          • #73
                            Re: A question for Readers

                            Originally posted by Jake Schuster
                            Ben Jonson was by far more commercially successful than Shakespeare. .
                            Yeah but he took steroids and shamed his nation.
                            http://wasitsomethingiwrote.blogspot.com/

                            Comment


                            • #74
                              Re: A question for Readers

                              Originally posted by Jake Schuster
                              Ben Jonson was by far more commercially successful than Shakespeare.
                              But Bill was on the cover of "Elizabethan Us Weekly" far more often.

                              Comment


                              • #75
                                Re: A question for Readers

                                Originally posted by English Dave
                                Yeah but he took steroids and shamed his nation.
                                We still look down at the powdered finish line.
                                A talent for drama is not a talent for writing, but is an ability to articulate human relationships.
                                Gore Vidal

                                "Aisatsu Yori Ensatsu"
                                Money is better than compliments.


                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X