This is part 2 of my BBC meeting, but important enough to be separate.
At a meeting with a producer I was asked, “Do you have anything that focuses on environmental issues?”. I don’t. But during the meeting she said every person in the funding and development world is looking for things that heavily lean into environmental issues.
The next sentence was the important sentence.
“Don’t bother writing one. By the time you have a first draft, they’ll want something else.”
Yes, there are large concepts that are popular ad have a longer shelf life. But the HOT topics have the life expectancy of a spark. They burn bright and are gone in a second.
The metaphor that stuck with me “It is like a merry-go-round. Stand still a horse will go by and you can get on. Chase one, you’ll never catch up”.
I hope this helps. I guess, just being the writer you are is the best form of attack.
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Best advice I've heard all day: “Don’t bother writing one. By the time you have a first draft, they’ll want something else.” You see this all the time with studios. They see a trend and get something into development that never sees the light of day because it's off-trend by the time it's a shootable script.
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This is great, thanks for sharing your experience Craig D Griffiths!
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Following certain cultural issues has worked out well for Budweiser, Target and Disney. Best avoid them if you want to appeal to a mass audience.
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I thought relevant now nuclear war was.
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Most new ideas where thought of five years ago… in my opinion.
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I love this. Thanks for the encouragement.
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Craig, thanks so DARN much for posting this!
I understand how it really doesn't make sense to chase trends...especially when you consider how long it takes a screenplay to become a released movie and a TV script to actually get on the air. (No telling how many stories out there about a certain TV series finally hitting the airwaves a decade or so after the thing was first proposed.)
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Absolutely agree. Great advice Craig D Griffiths .
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I agree that we should not be chasing trends for the sake of popularity, but I think that the environmental issues we are facing today are not really a fad and it's important that Hollywood is recognizing these issues now, realizing the power it has to make a difference. I don't think these environmental issues are going away anytime soon.
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Issues going away, no. Appetite for them, perhaps.
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Haha. Yes, very true.