In TV the writer is king. In features are not considered highly (unless legendary).
I have notes from a financier via a producer. The financier discussed sentence structure. I laughed so hard I didn’t think my pants would dry.
No real feedback in the story except they’d like more action and less dialogue. Which the director will probably promise and then ignore.
Just thought I’d keep the strange coming. If this person was good at investment he would take the black box approach. If you have a black box that when you put in a dollar you get two. Keep doing it till it stops working. There is no need to open the box.
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It's amazing how different film, TV, and playwriting really is in terms of influence on the writer's part. Had a literary manager only this week commenting on how much more complex film is compared to theatre in terms of structure. I joked that it was to help launder all the dirty money... well, I like to think I joked.
I guess the producer also thought the comment was funny or he or she would not have passed it on to you.
Had a call with the producers. We have found a few things we can do to make the money people feel that they have had input.
I have found a story element can expand and bring in the elements they wanted. It may not survive the edits. But, if they are willing to pay to have it filmed I am their man.
My only concern was that we would be going to numerous financiers. Meaning contradictory notes. But this finance deal is a 100% deal. So we make them happy, we are away.
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Roll with it. Smile work around it.We had a football team(soccer to you unwashed) and once in while a sponsor would give us tactical advice. We would nod in appreciation and promptly forget the interaction as soon as they left.
With money comes great responsibility and bad advice.
I just made that up.
Now, tv pays fantastic salaries.. if you are a creator/Exe Prod/Showrunners. But few rookie writers ever create an original idea into a series. They’re unicorns with heavy hitter backers and unbelievable timing. Right idea, right time. Mickey Fisher did it with his sci fi idea and Spielberg at the time was into artificial intelligence robot stories.
The low budget indie movie is the easiest least resistance path (it's just you and your people) for a beginner filmmaker to becoming a player.
Hi Peter, nothing upsets me (very little anyway). I can balance things pretty well (in my life) and have very small rear view mirrors.
This is not the only film I will ever make. So why stress about changes. Plus I get to make the changes. So it is still me on the screen. There is another film I am involved in (written it and not much less). It is very bad. They have made changes on the fly. The story is there, but the presentation is bad. Continuity issues, some poor acting and the lighting is… well (not sure). Oh well, not the only film I will ever make.
On the flip side. Four guys tried to get into my house (we have them on security cameras). They had things in the hands (couldn’t quite make the items out). So I am guessing it wasn’t going to be good if they got in. But I have large dogs and the barking scared them off. Now if I way up having to physically defend myself against a rewrite. Hmmm, I think the rewrite wins hands down.
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I've spent some time in a major network writer's room. The pay wasn't 'fantastic' but it did pay the rent and the benefits were pretty good. The downside is that you only work until the series is cancelled. Then you got to find another gig - which may take some time. The upside is that you get to rub shoulders with some of the movers & shakers in the industry - what you do with that access is up to you.
Doug, these days the volume of TV due to streaming has given for more opportunities. I think that there is a levelling of wages. People can make a slightly better wages these days there is so much demand for writers.
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Craig. I agree but today there are more screenwriters trying to break in so the odds of making any real money are still probably in the 1 in 4,000. I think the odds of being a successful TV Repair Person are much better.
Dan. I don’t have any numbers. But I think back to when my brother was writing for TV (I only got free booze from it). In Sydney we had three commercial stations, one government one and a Special Broadcast Service for non-English speakers. These had local and oversees content.
We now have about 30 digital free channel as well as cable and all the streaming stuff. True the barrier to entry for writers is non-existent. But that just means the swamp is huge. Doesn’t mean that there are the same ratio of good writers. Talent isn’t a function of volume. The more writers there are, only increases the visibility problem, not the competition. Once you are seen above the rest I think there are more opportunities.
Like I said, I don’t have the numbers to back up this thesis. Just a thumb in the air assessment.