It occurs to me that there are two forces at work in show business: MONEY, and CREATIVITY. Unfortunately, these two things work against each other., Money pollutes the creatives process, leads to monstrosities like the Blacklist.
Capitalism is a necessary evil in the writer's world, and, as artists we need money to ;power our ideas. But I believe writers, and artists in general should divorce themselves from the money, and marry the dream....Just sayin'
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I guess the good thing about what you said is....if you marry the dream...and then divorce it...and have no money....you don't have to worry about paying that dream any alimony.
I like money, and I like creativity, and gotta balance it all in my aspirations to keep them friends.
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I did that... married the dream in '95... believed in it so much that I ran out of money, credit, & friends... ended up homeless in Venice Beach in '99... so I crash & burned with that notion. $$ pays rent, groceries, gasoline
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Is this post just a backhand swipe of the black list website? What did a website do to you from achieving your dream?
Geez, tell all the professional folks on the “Happy Writers” website they should listen to pitches for free. Good Luck.
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The call it show business instead of show art for a reason. It is a business.
Hey Dan, we all know that young 'uns (anybody younger than I) are entitled to be successful, rich and famous in the glamorous film industry. It's just that all those websites are ganging up and conspiring against 'em. Their lack of success is their fault - certainly not theirs. (My backhand swipe against millennials.)
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wow, I um, didn't mean to hit a nerve here. As our old buddy Forrest would say: "Didn't mean tuh stot a fight at ya plack pantha Par-tee
I've got nothing against the Blacklist, or the people working for it. They've helped a lot of good projects get to fruition,. But what I mean to say is materialism and creativity are different brainwaves frequencies, and one is not always good for the other
I'll save my BACKHAND SWIPES for the likes of the Trump administration.
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Pamela: "Money is not hard to obtain" Really? I'd love to live in your world! The lack of money will certainly not deter me from writing. When all else fails.....there is pen and there is usually something one can find for paper.
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Oh, And BRIAN, if you want to talk crash and burn, several of the scripts I am now trying to promote were originally written by hand, in pencil - a pencil I had to sharpen with the concrete floor of my prison cell, for you see my years of alchoholism,, homeless drifting, depression, adhd, dyslexia, demonic possession etc, led to a number of petty theft charges after I resorted to stealing booze, several of my original handwritten drafts are written on the back of my parole violation and court papers, because that was the only paper I had in my twenty two hour lockdown world.
Diagnostic centers are hell, they're worse than prison.
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Anthony Silverwood Good on you for not giving up. One thing I did learn from choosing artistry over money for years was giving 100% focus to my craft... its arrival is never on schedule so giving it your 24-7 allows you to catch it when it reigns
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The problem I have with the diagnostic centers you mention is what Robert Pirsig of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance called "the righteousness of the sane." If they consider you broken, it's hard to sway those perceptions.
@Laura Scheiner, you are right. Bigger budgets allow for a much greater unleash of imagination on a much larger scale.
But if you write a screenplay on such a scale, and without holding back your imagination, will it still be accepted or just rejected? In other words, is it OK to write like that and still hope to have success with it(eg:sale, being made, etc.)?
I never held back in writing or "controlled" it based on external factors. I just wrote whatever is on my mind..
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Walt had Roy = Vincent had Theo (van Gogh) -- please pass the absinthe (he typed in jest) - but I'll pass on da ear, ya hear?
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The premise of "Money vs Artistry" is bogus anyway. Jeff Goins's book Real Artists Don't Starve demolishes the myth that money and art necessarily exist at cross purposes.
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We all know what SHOULD BE in our little fictional world. But in the real world, commercial filmmaking is a profit based reality that supports a lot of folk. Screenwriters weave compelling tales from the air. Directors paints it up on the big screen. The Editor sprinkles in a little magic dust to make it cinematic. The Producer mines for the gold needed to make it all happen. And then there all those mystical folk like set designers, wardrobe wizards, cast and crew miracle workers. All of these people are artisans each in their own way. But the simple truth remains that commercial filmmaking is a real world business that requires a blend of MONEY and CREATIVITY. Neither stands alone.
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Doug is right. Screenwriting is a combination of art and business. Producers and studios need to make money to stay in business and we need them to stay in business. You can't really have one without the other.
Taking Doug's comments a little further down the road....and all those industry folks buy a lot of stuff. Houses, cars, medical expenses, school expenses, utilities, property taxes, food, liquor, meals, clothes, entertainment etc....and all those service providers then buy a lot of stuff...and so on...and so on.
Those initial dollars that start out at the top of that chain sure end up keeping a lot of people outside of the industry safe and content, too.
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Anthony Silverwood “Capitalism is a necessary evil in the writer's world”
The capitalist system isn’t evil. In the film-business people give money to get entertainment. The more the audience loves your product the more money you will get. Writing/producing movies that do not sell, means nothing else that people don’t like your work. Claiming that creativity and money work against each other is the same as say as saying: creativity and entertainment don’t go together. Or: what writers want to write is not compatible to what the audience wants to see.
Ultimately you complain that people do not like your creative output.
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Where da money at? Name a fair price and I'm there both artistically and commercially. I've have a creative soul but I'll sell for the the right fee.
I am finding this thread a bit ridiculous. Money or the lack there of isn't going to stop anyone from creating. That's like saying to a young couple in love that they can't have children because they can't afford them.. Creativity doesn't stop on a dime. We will produce. It's a lottery as far as I can deem as to whether or not the produced product is ever brought into the world. That's the crux of the matter. My children(screenplays/art/novels/screaming,kicking ideas will always be alive for me, the artist.
Ingrid: No disrespect intended, but lots of young couples don't have children because of financial circumstances. You can read all about it if you Google it. It's a sad but true fact in life - and not only in America, but all around the world.
DUH!
There is an overwhelming consensus here. You have succeeded in changing my mind about this. And in retrospect I think my original argument here was profoundly stupid.. Money scares me, because i'm so bad at managing it, and don't have a head for numbers anyway .I let that color my perceptions
The key to earning money for the person who has a hard time handling it is. Earn more and spend only half.
RC: median family income in America is roughly 60K, meaning half earn less than that. 40% of American families don't have $1,000 in savings. So for those 40%...saving half of what they earn is obviously not a solution, because they can't even save 2%. What is the "key" for them, besides making more money, which probably isn't even possible? There isn't one, is there?
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Well I recall a time I lived on Spaghetti and milk. Lived in a studio apartment at the bottom level and the one window had three pains of glass to stop the stray bullets. I worked two jobs so I only had to spend little time there. Had to ride a bike until I had enough saved for a junk car. I did not say it would be easy, but to me saving something is possible and nessesary
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I keep my Day job. What drives me first is writing a good story, that has 3-4 stories within it. Something I would like my grandkids to think was pretty cool. If I like it and spent 2-3 years or more developing it, I sure in hell am not giving it away. I will leave that to the folks who get my boxes of scripts in my will. They can give em away, but I only feel good if I am paid for my genius.
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RC: good point about 3-4 stories. Having an effective A,B,C story with a killer unity of action is always one of my goals.
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The catch-22 for me is that I left a great electrical engineering career in LA in '95 to marry my dream of a supernatural screenplay, and the 100% focus without a job was necessary to complete it. Now though 23 years when I could use a job to help fuel advertising for future sales of my 37 books, people look at my resume and don't see an electrical engineer anymore.
I mean, I'm glad I made the leap of faith, endured the freefall, went through the experiences with 100% focus 24-7-365 to transform into a writer and musician... I do like the artist I've become.
However, I do miss making that engineering money... because my royalties for 37 books last month was about 7 bucks.
Artistry is nice, but 7 bucks don't pay many bills.
Yet, it's better than all the years it was $0.00
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On the other hand, Jimmy Fallon wouldn't have mentioned me and my Eat Some Vegetables song on his Tonight Show this past month if I were still that engineer at Hughes Aircraft.
I was good at math and engineering, but I love writing and drumming a lot more.
If you love what you do everyday, it's not work. That's where artistry matters.
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Professionals get paid. I don’t see LeBron James playing basketball for free. My brother dropped $2000 to see Bruce Springsteen on Broadway. Bruce doesn’t sing and talk for free. They are all artists and they ain’t sellouts. They know their worth.
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Brian: looking in my crystal ball....Brian Shell....Hughes Aircraft.....early 1990's....banana peel....lunch room......oh man, Brian...it's a good thing you left, bro. It's a very good thing you left.
Kudos for taking that kinda chance. I did, too. Sometimes I regret it, sometimes I don't. My processing is always relative to my current situation It takes a certain kinda person to give up a sure thing to chase a not-so-sure thing, all rational things considered.
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Good one Bill. That career was like a monetary springboard which enabled escape velocity from past perceptions to transform into someone new. From cocoon to metamorphosis requires practice. Daily practice at a pursuit you love that pays for a Frank Lloyd Wright home and a Lamborghini is someone who looks in the mirror and smiles because ya took the time to hone/earn your craft. Champions practice daily.
My friend in LA, drummer Ndugu Chancler, made it out of South Central Watts with practice and two drumsticks... went on and played with Santana and Michael Jackson.
That's a gift he gave me... the belief.
When I play percussion, I'm glad I took the time to get good. The Who's drummer said that he's never lonely because he can play music. His talent became his best friend.
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Brian: nice words. Keep up the great work and great attitude. And Ndugu sure was a great human who left this world a better place.
RIP, Ndugu Chancier (July 1, 1952 - Feb 3, 2018).
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Anthony. You are right there are two forces that come into play. Money does not pollute the creatives process. Blacklist is not part of the film making industry, so they really have zero to do with anything related to making movies.
Capitalism has more to do with the film making business than it does with the writing process. I agree with you and I don’t think about the money I just think about the writing part. If I do a good job writing the money will come later.1 person likes this
Bill: did not know about Ndugu's passing. Stunned. Tremendous person with infectious laughter. In 2014, I drove from Detroit to LA to give gratitude to former mentors, and Ndugu was the first I thanked. Makes me glad I made the 8000 mile trip even more now.