This was a fascinating read. Can't wait to read the rest of the series.
I wonder. There are always talks of a producer hellbent on turning a good idea into a total clusterfrak - the infamous Kevin Smith story about Superman vs the Giant Spider comes to mind. Does it ever happen that they turn out to be right? As in, a producer suggesting …
This was a fascinating read. Can't wait to read the rest of the series.
I wonder. There are always talks of a producer hellbent on turning a good idea into a total clusterfrak - the infamous Kevin Smith story about Superman vs the Giant Spider comes to mind. Does it ever happen that they turn out to be right? As in, a producer suggesting a radical change in development that turns out to be a success?
There are several levels of response to this question. I don't have the time to be literary about it, so I'm just going to lay out some bulletpoints:
1) The short answer is: yes, this happens.
2) The longer answer is: it should never happen through coercive or otherwise abusive behavior.
3) The even longer answer is: when it does happen and the writer agrees with them, the writer almost always makes those changes. If the writer disagrees, the employer settles the debate. In my case, the employer's wishes were persistently disregarded.
4) Success is not the only metric to use. Look at cinema. There's a long list of films that were successes that everyone, including audiences, agreed were terrible or at least disappointing. Sometimes, success comes because of a moment in time nobody predicts. Sometimes failure comes to projects that were wonderful and brilliant and deserved much more.
5) I don't know if any of this specifically answers your question. But producers are very often additive to a project. I have worked with many brilliant ones. The tragedy is, explaining all the ways someone supported you and made a project better is both not an interesting read *and* how it's supposed to work - meaning, there's nothing for readers to learn from the experience. I've long tried to think of a way to adequately express my admiration for good producers here, but I have yet to find a way that isn't...boring.
I was a bit afraid my question could be a full article prompt. :) Thank you for taking the time to answer!
Fair point about abuse and coercion. Goes without saying that it's never OK, even if the point being made is correct. But it's even worse when used to push stupidity.
When I said "success", what I had in mind was both in the commercial and artistic sense. I could probably worded it better. Of course, "artistic success" as a metric is such a subjective one, and so difficult to quantify.
It seems to be a universal, frustrating truth that writing or talking about incompetence or malice is more compelling than expressing admiration. Here's another one: the breach between how things are supposed to work, and what some people seem to find acceptable, seems to grow ever wider.
This was a fascinating read. Can't wait to read the rest of the series.
I wonder. There are always talks of a producer hellbent on turning a good idea into a total clusterfrak - the infamous Kevin Smith story about Superman vs the Giant Spider comes to mind. Does it ever happen that they turn out to be right? As in, a producer suggesting a radical change in development that turns out to be a success?
There are several levels of response to this question. I don't have the time to be literary about it, so I'm just going to lay out some bulletpoints:
1) The short answer is: yes, this happens.
2) The longer answer is: it should never happen through coercive or otherwise abusive behavior.
3) The even longer answer is: when it does happen and the writer agrees with them, the writer almost always makes those changes. If the writer disagrees, the employer settles the debate. In my case, the employer's wishes were persistently disregarded.
4) Success is not the only metric to use. Look at cinema. There's a long list of films that were successes that everyone, including audiences, agreed were terrible or at least disappointing. Sometimes, success comes because of a moment in time nobody predicts. Sometimes failure comes to projects that were wonderful and brilliant and deserved much more.
5) I don't know if any of this specifically answers your question. But producers are very often additive to a project. I have worked with many brilliant ones. The tragedy is, explaining all the ways someone supported you and made a project better is both not an interesting read *and* how it's supposed to work - meaning, there's nothing for readers to learn from the experience. I've long tried to think of a way to adequately express my admiration for good producers here, but I have yet to find a way that isn't...boring.
I was a bit afraid my question could be a full article prompt. :) Thank you for taking the time to answer!
Fair point about abuse and coercion. Goes without saying that it's never OK, even if the point being made is correct. But it's even worse when used to push stupidity.
When I said "success", what I had in mind was both in the commercial and artistic sense. I could probably worded it better. Of course, "artistic success" as a metric is such a subjective one, and so difficult to quantify.
It seems to be a universal, frustrating truth that writing or talking about incompetence or malice is more compelling than expressing admiration. Here's another one: the breach between how things are supposed to work, and what some people seem to find acceptable, seems to grow ever wider.