This is purely hypothetical and not based on personal experience, but I thought it could make for interesting discussion.
Let's say you are the average aspiring writer. You've been a semi-finalist in the Super Duper Screenplay Bonanza and the Antarctica Film Festival. You've never sold a script or made any money from your writing. You write a clever low budget horror spec called Throat Slasher that everybody loves. You get a modest non-guild offer from a small prodco. They're willing to fork over $20k for your script. It's the only offer on the table, so you decide to go for it. Throat Slasher ends up getting produced for $150k with Tori Spelling in the lead role. Along the way, the producers and director make some changes that you don't totally agree with, but hey, your movie is getting produced. You are a produced writer!
Throat Slasher goes straight to streaming, makes no real impact on the zeitgeist, gets a 5.1 on IMDb, and a 38% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Now instead of being a total nobody, you are "the writer who did Throat Slasher". It's the first thing people see when they look you up on IMDb. You will forever be linked with it.
If you want to eventually write AAA movies or pitch to big entities, are you now actually in a worse position by having this dud attached to your name?
Can affiliation with a terrible product actually be worse for your reputation than no credits at all?
Let's say you are the average aspiring writer. You've been a semi-finalist in the Super Duper Screenplay Bonanza and the Antarctica Film Festival. You've never sold a script or made any money from your writing. You write a clever low budget horror spec called Throat Slasher that everybody loves. You get a modest non-guild offer from a small prodco. They're willing to fork over $20k for your script. It's the only offer on the table, so you decide to go for it. Throat Slasher ends up getting produced for $150k with Tori Spelling in the lead role. Along the way, the producers and director make some changes that you don't totally agree with, but hey, your movie is getting produced. You are a produced writer!
Throat Slasher goes straight to streaming, makes no real impact on the zeitgeist, gets a 5.1 on IMDb, and a 38% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Now instead of being a total nobody, you are "the writer who did Throat Slasher". It's the first thing people see when they look you up on IMDb. You will forever be linked with it.
If you want to eventually write AAA movies or pitch to big entities, are you now actually in a worse position by having this dud attached to your name?
Can affiliation with a terrible product actually be worse for your reputation than no credits at all?
Comment