This hit hard. I remember having a star attached to our pilot. We were gonna be his company’s next show. I almost shed a tear hearing that. So reading. Your account brought back memories. Tough ones. The struggle is real. To quote the great Crash Davis, “Fuck this fucking game.” Appreciate you sharing.
Such a classic movie, right? its all good. I mean reading your experience is oddly comforting that I'm not insane, or maybe that I am insane, lol. I mean that it is not unique to me, this the battle we all are facing. cheers!
As someone who worked in development for years, there’s a huge amount of luck in getting through development as every exec, producer and assistant that reads it isn’t trying necessarily to make the project better nor get it through development. Everyone wants to impress their boss. You are so right about an actor or producer seeing each other at a party and saying blanket statements like we should work together and then both ask their assistant or date, who was that again? It’s impossible not to work for free though until you can afford to work for free. They will endlessly have you rewrite for various actors, various locations to take advantage of tax credits, and the studio you are approaching. And you do it because it’s better than not having a project in development at all! It sucks, but it is what it is. At least you’ve been around the block and know what is bs (as much as anyone can). Also from working with actors on the level you’re speaking of, they have plenty of these vague projects and notepads full of notes. Mostly the ones I saw go through, they happened very quickly. The ones that need rewriting for various reasons stayed in development but I’m sure there are millions of cases where that isn’t true. Interesting stuff
Yep, all of this. I often hear screenwriters and producers I admire say, “Nobody sets out to make a bad film,” but I’ve literally heard both say they were. Or, they were more interested in moving the film forward than making it great. I’ve even been given notes prefaced with versions of, “I know this note will make the script worse, but it’ll help us get Actor X attached.”
Haha, I got one note like that early in my career and couldn’t believe the guy was admitting the project was going to be worse incorporating the notes but still was necessary! It’s shocking when you start.
Oy vey. I had a project with an AAAA List Actress attached. TV series. A list producer attached. The AAAA List Actress has never done tv. She decides to do a 4-ep arc as a guest star on a show. FYI, a guest star is treated like, well, a guest — you’re not family, no matter how AAAA you are. I yell at my agents, “get her signed before she does the 4 eps or she will back out.” They don’t, she does. 3 months of work out the window — she never wanted to do tv after 4 eps where she had a small trailer, no dedicated make up artist, wardrobe artist, etc. I KNEW she would hate tv if she was to do it……..
Yep, this isn’t close to being my only “how could you mess up this attachment?” story. Mine have always left me wondering how any attachment actually happens.
After decades in the biz, I have concluded that Agents, Managers and Actors are in league to foil any creativity or originality. Hence, remakes of Hawaii 5-0 and Scrubs and [fill in the blank]. I am convinced it is all designed to make writers become heavy drinkers! THANK GOD THEY SUCCEEDED! LOL
Is this "just a phase" and how long do you think it'll last or is this the new normal?
From the outside, it doesn't seem sustainable in even the medium term - it looks more like all the changes in the media landscape have kicked over a rock and all cockroaches (producers, studio execs, etc) are scrambling around utterless clueless before they get sprayed with Raid once everyone realises that the "value add" most of them provide is exactly zero (if its not actually negative).
At the same time, there are some amazing fan-made TV/Movies being created on shoestring budgets, with mind-blowing special effects built by leveraging AI the right way to help bring the vision to life and not just to churn out AI slop scripts.
I can't see the Ellison's merger of major studios turning out any way other than a complete disaster, so maybe we're overdue for a return to more indy studios distributing via non-traditional channels?
It’s always refreshing (if also depressing) to read stories like this. I am not yet a screenwriter, but I have dreamed about it. I don’t really desire to write for TV, just features, and really, I’d just love to bootstrap my own projects initially. But it all feels so insurmountable at times—the money, I mean.
As someone who currently gets paid pretty well to write in advertising, I can’t imagine writing so much for free. What you’ve described should, frankly, be illegal.
Alas, I wish you the best with the book and whatever other projects you’ve got in the oven! For now, I’ll keep dreaming and drafting just for fun.
back in the day, businesses used to take on the burden of risk, in exchange for their employees’ and suppliers’ work and loyalty
but overtime businesses began outsourcing their risk – first to their suppliers, then to their employees and then (those with enough clout) to their governments
the middle class shrank, the ranks of the working poor grew and (some) businesses became too big to fail – now billionaires rule the Earth and billions will suffer at the whim of a few thousand (3,000?) parasites
This hit hard. I remember having a star attached to our pilot. We were gonna be his company’s next show. I almost shed a tear hearing that. So reading. Your account brought back memories. Tough ones. The struggle is real. To quote the great Crash Davis, “Fuck this fucking game.” Appreciate you sharing.
Ha - I just rewatched BULL DURHAM a few days ago. I’m sorry to hear anything I said sounded familiar to you!
Such a classic movie, right? its all good. I mean reading your experience is oddly comforting that I'm not insane, or maybe that I am insane, lol. I mean that it is not unique to me, this the battle we all are facing. cheers!
As someone who worked in development for years, there’s a huge amount of luck in getting through development as every exec, producer and assistant that reads it isn’t trying necessarily to make the project better nor get it through development. Everyone wants to impress their boss. You are so right about an actor or producer seeing each other at a party and saying blanket statements like we should work together and then both ask their assistant or date, who was that again? It’s impossible not to work for free though until you can afford to work for free. They will endlessly have you rewrite for various actors, various locations to take advantage of tax credits, and the studio you are approaching. And you do it because it’s better than not having a project in development at all! It sucks, but it is what it is. At least you’ve been around the block and know what is bs (as much as anyone can). Also from working with actors on the level you’re speaking of, they have plenty of these vague projects and notepads full of notes. Mostly the ones I saw go through, they happened very quickly. The ones that need rewriting for various reasons stayed in development but I’m sure there are millions of cases where that isn’t true. Interesting stuff
Yep, all of this. I often hear screenwriters and producers I admire say, “Nobody sets out to make a bad film,” but I’ve literally heard both say they were. Or, they were more interested in moving the film forward than making it great. I’ve even been given notes prefaced with versions of, “I know this note will make the script worse, but it’ll help us get Actor X attached.”
Haha, I got one note like that early in my career and couldn’t believe the guy was admitting the project was going to be worse incorporating the notes but still was necessary! It’s shocking when you start.
Oy vey. I had a project with an AAAA List Actress attached. TV series. A list producer attached. The AAAA List Actress has never done tv. She decides to do a 4-ep arc as a guest star on a show. FYI, a guest star is treated like, well, a guest — you’re not family, no matter how AAAA you are. I yell at my agents, “get her signed before she does the 4 eps or she will back out.” They don’t, she does. 3 months of work out the window — she never wanted to do tv after 4 eps where she had a small trailer, no dedicated make up artist, wardrobe artist, etc. I KNEW she would hate tv if she was to do it……..
Yep, this isn’t close to being my only “how could you mess up this attachment?” story. Mine have always left me wondering how any attachment actually happens.
After decades in the biz, I have concluded that Agents, Managers and Actors are in league to foil any creativity or originality. Hence, remakes of Hawaii 5-0 and Scrubs and [fill in the blank]. I am convinced it is all designed to make writers become heavy drinkers! THANK GOD THEY SUCCEEDED! LOL
Ha!
Is this "just a phase" and how long do you think it'll last or is this the new normal?
From the outside, it doesn't seem sustainable in even the medium term - it looks more like all the changes in the media landscape have kicked over a rock and all cockroaches (producers, studio execs, etc) are scrambling around utterless clueless before they get sprayed with Raid once everyone realises that the "value add" most of them provide is exactly zero (if its not actually negative).
At the same time, there are some amazing fan-made TV/Movies being created on shoestring budgets, with mind-blowing special effects built by leveraging AI the right way to help bring the vision to life and not just to churn out AI slop scripts.
I can't see the Ellison's merger of major studios turning out any way other than a complete disaster, so maybe we're overdue for a return to more indy studios distributing via non-traditional channels?
It’s always refreshing (if also depressing) to read stories like this. I am not yet a screenwriter, but I have dreamed about it. I don’t really desire to write for TV, just features, and really, I’d just love to bootstrap my own projects initially. But it all feels so insurmountable at times—the money, I mean.
As someone who currently gets paid pretty well to write in advertising, I can’t imagine writing so much for free. What you’ve described should, frankly, be illegal.
Alas, I wish you the best with the book and whatever other projects you’ve got in the oven! For now, I’ll keep dreaming and drafting just for fun.
back in the day, businesses used to take on the burden of risk, in exchange for their employees’ and suppliers’ work and loyalty
but overtime businesses began outsourcing their risk – first to their suppliers, then to their employees and then (those with enough clout) to their governments
the middle class shrank, the ranks of the working poor grew and (some) businesses became too big to fail – now billionaires rule the Earth and billions will suffer at the whim of a few thousand (3,000?) parasites