What do you do when you can't stop dreaming? When all that matters is the possible and not the reality of your world? When you look at the stars and see hints of the Milky Way, knowing how much more there is to know and see and understand and yearning for it even as you know you'll never be able to take it all in? It's not possible. Yet still you dream.
I don't write screenplays, anymore. It's a pointless exercise because 90% of being a screenwriter is selling your work. It doesn't have to be good; I've seen so much crap made, it's no longer even a cliche...it's proof that quality does not matter. What matters is building networks and knowing people and being the right kind of guy they want to work with and make money off of. If you can't schmooze, you lose...it's as simple as that. Yet still I dream.
I've written 15 completely original screenplays and sold none of them. Had none produced. Barely got a nibble on one 15 years ago, then it got tossed aside...not because it was bad or mediocre or even too good for the production people, but because it was set in Ireland. That's all. The guy who signed the checks didn't want to make a movie set there.
I should have seen this was how it would be, thanks to how the first work-for-hire script I wrote wound up. I adapted 2 books on Beryl Markham into a screenplay for a couple of women who wanted to produce it. The final script won awards...but it turned out they didn't really have the rights; they had a handshake option which vanished when Sydney Pollack decided he wanted to do the story and bought both books. He wouldn't even read my script; and it wasn't because it was bad...it's because I wasn't established. So all the work I did was for nothing, unless I'm willing to try and buy the rights from his estate for more money than I made in the last three years.
Awards didn't matter. Quality didn't matter. Even having an agent didn't matter. What mattered was how well you played the game and how close you got to people who did matter. So now I write books and I've made more than I ever did working in film. And I'm happy with my books. With my characters. With how they turned out and yet...
Still I dream.
I don't write screenplays, anymore. It's a pointless exercise because 90% of being a screenwriter is selling your work. It doesn't have to be good; I've seen so much crap made, it's no longer even a cliche...it's proof that quality does not matter. What matters is building networks and knowing people and being the right kind of guy they want to work with and make money off of. If you can't schmooze, you lose...it's as simple as that. Yet still I dream.
I've written 15 completely original screenplays and sold none of them. Had none produced. Barely got a nibble on one 15 years ago, then it got tossed aside...not because it was bad or mediocre or even too good for the production people, but because it was set in Ireland. That's all. The guy who signed the checks didn't want to make a movie set there.
I should have seen this was how it would be, thanks to how the first work-for-hire script I wrote wound up. I adapted 2 books on Beryl Markham into a screenplay for a couple of women who wanted to produce it. The final script won awards...but it turned out they didn't really have the rights; they had a handshake option which vanished when Sydney Pollack decided he wanted to do the story and bought both books. He wouldn't even read my script; and it wasn't because it was bad...it's because I wasn't established. So all the work I did was for nothing, unless I'm willing to try and buy the rights from his estate for more money than I made in the last three years.
Awards didn't matter. Quality didn't matter. Even having an agent didn't matter. What mattered was how well you played the game and how close you got to people who did matter. So now I write books and I've made more than I ever did working in film. And I'm happy with my books. With my characters. With how they turned out and yet...
Still I dream.
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