What if the movie I wrote turns out god-awful?
I am a young screenwriter in Canada who has recently had the privilege of having a film made of my first screenplay.
Surprisingly, the script was financed for production and went to the boards rather quickly – 6 months to be exact. For whatever reason, I got this one right, with the type of feedback a person could only dream of, from everybody involved, including producers, distributors, the crew and cast, the financiers. I felt validated and motivated and eager to continue on, with offers and interest and such.
Here’s the problem: the film has just locked picture and one of the producers gave me a copy to screen. It’s terrible. Astonishingly bad. This isn’t an issue of opposing visions or creative difference. Despite the fact that the script has been heavily cut and rearranged, it just seems to lack life or vision.
The entire treatment is superficial. The performances are terrible, the images lack nuance, there is no sensitivity to the material, never mind entertainment. And I’m not the only one that feels this way. The producers, the distributors -– all are very disappointed. My question is, will this hurt me and my reputation? Will I be given another chance? And how do you deal with a loss of this kind? It’s pretty devastating.
Jeremy
First off, my sympathies.
This is one of the worst things about being a screenwriter: you ultimately have very little control over the movie that gets made. The director might shoot your scenes; the actors might speak your lines; the editor might assemble them in a logical manner. And yet, when it’s all done, the film may in no way resemble what you set out to accomplish when you wrote your script.
When I saw the first cut of Go, I nearly threw up. I’m talking physical nausea, with shortness of breath and heaviness in the arms. It was terrible. I remember thinking, “Maybe they can just never release it.”
But after a few hours, my optimism gradually returned. Because I’d been on set for every second of filming, I knew we had much better versions of everything. So I sat down and wrote eight pages of notes. (You can read them here.)
After the next cut, I wrote another seven pages, then three pages, and a final three pages.
Ultimately, we went through five or six major cuts of the film, including three days of reshoots. My notes certainly didn’t save the movie. But by writing things down, I was able to get the team (the director, the editor and the producers) to focus on one set of issues, and help steer discussion on what to do next.
I’ve given notes on every film I’ve written since, sometimes with good results (c.f. Charlie’s Angels), sometimes not (c.f. Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle).
So my first advice, Jeremy, is ask those producers and financiers how locked the picture really is. Given a choice between a bad movie and a pissed-off director, most producers will gladly unlock the picture if they think it can really help.
Have you seen dailies? Are they significantly better than the movie? The cliché is that no movie is as good as the dailies, or as bad as the first cut. But if you were watching all the dailies and didn’t sense a train wreck, maybe your movie went off the tracks in the editing. The good movie you wrote may still be in there, hidden under bad choices.
But there’s the very real possibility your movie is just awful. If that’s the case, there’s little you can do except remember that most filmmakers have some credits that make them cringe. Hell, James Cameron directed Piranha Part Two: The Spawning. I’d argue that even a bad credit is better than no produced credit.
So if it ends badly, take the emotional hit. Feel it. Then move on. Your career’s not over; it just didn’t start on quite the note you wanted.
Articles
April 20th, 2006 at 9:24 am
I remember reading about Andy Breckman (writer of “Rat Race� and creator of the TV series Monk) standing outside a theatre showing “Arthur 2: On the Rocks� (which he wrote) apologizing to moviegoers for how bad the film was.
April 20th, 2006 at 10:09 am
A buddy of mine just finished directing a documentary film that the producers hated the final cut of (I though the cut was great) and promptly changed the entire direction of the project. They changed the entire tone of it, and basically ruined a very good film. The point is he was the “important” guy: the Director.
Don’t feel too bad, this can happen to anyone.
April 20th, 2006 at 10:22 am
Jeremy,
Condolences. Try to remember that you’re the WRITER. You can only do your job - and if you did it as well as you could, I suspect the industry folk familiar with not just the finished product but with your script will be understanding. Can I ask who the director was? A fellow Canadian, one of us?
I sincerely congratulate you for getting your first feature past Telefilm development hell. And, like John said, I predict cuts 2,3,4, etc will slowly massage your hatred and nausea into something more satisfactory.
April 20th, 2006 at 11:00 am
Jeremy, all my sympathy!
The second script I wrote (it actually was a film school exercise) also became a feature film. I was really excited. But, as in your case, the movie turned to be kind of horrible. I didn’t have the chance to see any previous cuts and neither producer nor director asked por my opinion on the stuff before the picture was closed.
I felt really ashamed. In some way, I felt responsible for it. Maybe my script had all those flaws and now they became visible. I could always blame those last minute changes someone made on the dialogues but… well, that wasn’t too fair.
The movie didn’t get many press reviews - it was a box office failure, of course - but some of them mentioned it was poorly written. I felt really bad about that. That guy didn’t read my work! He just inferred it was bad because the movie was!
That happened some years ago, now I think maybe it was the right way to start. You know, sometimes failure (though you probably have no responsibility for it) helps you learn. And, I agree with John a bad credit is much better that no produced credit at all. Everyone in film industry knows how it works.
If I were you, I would ask myself: am I able to write another script as good as that one? do I have already a couple ideas in my mind? did I learn something from this experience?
If the answers are “yes” then go write!
April 20th, 2006 at 11:54 am
NO. NO. NO. People of the REAL filmmaking world, stop being so naive and take heed. There is a very SIMPLE and SAD explanation why Jeremy had that horrible experience. He was unlucky enough to have his film produced in CANADA.
You may think he was fortunate to actually get produced, but I’ll bet my old flat-bed Steenbeck that Jeremy got a dollar and a quarter for his script and that, if it was an average Canadian film in the $5 mil range, most of the money went to the producers and financiers who have no interest in producing good cinema other than to get their grubby hands on the tax credit money.
I know of what I speak since I’ve been in this pseudo-business for more than two decades up here. Illiterate, unimaginative, stale directors. Greedy shyster lawyers posing as producers. Vapid, incompetent distributors. Status quo, buddy, and the problem is the SYSTEM.
And that system revolves around TELEFILM. I was just at a WGC (C is for Canada) get-together where everyone was ragging on this poor excuse for a government film agency. It was the same story from everyone. The people who run it are NON-FILMMAKERS who give our tax dollars to FRAUD ARTISTS because they go to the same parties for all I know.
The general consensus was that Telefilm should change their mandate and only fund, dollar for dollar, producers who achieve a certain level at the box office. I know, BLASPHEMY.
In the meantime, we’ll continue to produce crap because the only thing that will purge the dead-wood bureaucracy from there is a coupe d’etat.
And you, my young screenwriter friend, should buy a one-way ticket to LA and get the f**K out of this piss-pot country as soon as you can before you too turn into a dinosaur!
April 20th, 2006 at 12:09 pm
Your screen credits are your handholds on the mountain. Separate your survival instincts from your disappointment, and hang on.
April 20th, 2006 at 12:42 pm
Note from John:
Please stay on topic.
Vince is entitled to his opinion. But if this become a Canada Rules!/Canada Sucks! thread, I’ll shut it down.
April 20th, 2006 at 2:24 pm
Thanks much for posting those notes, John. Very helpful.
April 20th, 2006 at 4:42 pm
Jeremy, regardless of what some may say, you have not only officially sold a script for something, but that script got MADE! That’s a massive accomplishment. I’ve heard–but don’t actually know from firsthand experience–that it’s entirely possible to have a screenwriting career in which you make millions writing and selling scripts without ever getting one made. John is rare in terms of how many scripts he’s gotten made. Keep this in mind: most of us (aspiring screenwriters) would love to sell just one script. Well, okay, so I suppose our overall ambitions are often greater than that–but most of us at least want to be paid something, sometime, for our script(s).
Don’t let the poor movie dog you too much. I’ve read a number of scripts of produced blockbuster hits and often found them FAR superior to what eventually made it onscreen. All you can do is write the best script you can; if it sells, great! Your part is done. If you have the opportunity to give notes then by all means do. However, blaming yourself for a bad movie is like blaming the architect because the builder did a bad job. To some extent it’d be wise to immediately start divorcing yourself from caring too much what the “builder” does with your script. Anyone who’s worked in construction (or watched a movie and read the script the movie is based on) knows that liberties are often taken, and the product is almost never as good as the design/blueprint.
Again, my congratulations on your sale and production!
Abe Burnett
April 20th, 2006 at 6:29 pm
John, I apologize to you, Jeremy and your readers for hurting any feelings and causing trouble on your great site. All I can say about the film industry here in Canada is that I’m passionate about it and want to see it grow.
And I am not denigrating our wonderful country as a whole, just mouthing off on a small and very specific aspect of it that affects people like myself who live and work here…and that person can be a real A-hole sometimes.
One last thing, there ARE many great artists here: writers, directors, actors and even some producers that I could call artists. We do have an enviable industry that does produce great films year after year. Look who took the Best Foreign Picture award last year: Les Invasions Barbares. A film produced in Quebec. So we are doing something right.
I’ll slither back into my hole now.
April 20th, 2006 at 7:34 pm
Hey, Jeremy — this film wouldn’t happen to be The Untitled Work of Paul Shepard, would it?
April 20th, 2006 at 8:12 pm
John thanks for the notes! Oh, and btw, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was chosen as one of the top fifty book to movie adaptions. Check it out http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1756383,00.html.
April 20th, 2006 at 8:23 pm
jeremy
hmm. let’s see. let’s go with a logic approach. a bad film made from a good script is better than no film made from a good script.
okay, okay that sucks. let’s go with: any film made from a script (good or otherwise) is better than no film made from any kind of script.
that sucks too. how about: dude, you’re off and running. don’t stop. this won’t be the last bump in the road.
to wit: (how many movies can you name that cost gobs of money and had huge stars that are now considered embarrassments)? (also–who/what do you remember about these films)? it’s the stars, right? not the writers. sometimes abject anonymity has its benefits.
z
ps - just refer to yourself as a ‘produced writer’ and let it go at that.
pps - learn euphemisms such as ‘a small film’, ‘oh, it’s something you’ve never seen, but i’m proud of it’, and ‘it was this little indie art film’
April 20th, 2006 at 8:37 pm
Ok see this is where the different levels and locations of your career come in to play. I’ve had a similar experience when I was writing back in NYC. I had the joy of having someone not only purchase a script I wrote, but fasttrack it into production. The budget was modest $1 mil. but everyone (producers, director, hell even the crafts people) seemed great. Everything seemed to be falling into place for a great independent film. A few months later I too saw a rough cut. And not only was it chock full of HORRIBLE ad-libs, but it was sickening to watch. From the rearranged scene order, the cutting of one MAJOR plot point, and a handful of other things.
Anyway, I had little say, and what I did actually say fell on deaf ears. The final cut wasn’t much better then the rough cut.
Now, back to the “different levels” of career. At the time the above happened I had done ok for myself, but solely in the independent market. Hollywood was a beast I’d yet to even touch. And it was at this point in my career that a produced BOMB could in fact kill a career. See, in Hollywood a produced credit, is a produced credit, but outside of here a produced credit is nice, but if the finished product doesn’t stand up it can work against you. Producers in Hollywood simply (well not simply) see “produced credit”… someone else believe in you enough to put money behind it. In the independent market they want to SEE what it is you made.
Of course this is all subject to who you’re dealing with. So, none of this could mean anything in the end of things
But, if the finished product does become a BOMB, mention it was produced, etc. etc. but keep the product away from future employers.
Good luck!
April 20th, 2006 at 9:01 pm
John, is it typical for the writer to be asked for notes after the first cut, or did you do this nevertheless? If it is a typical practice, in your experience (and the experience of other writers you know) how often are they read, headed, or respected?
April 20th, 2006 at 9:27 pm
So they kept “The Macarena.” What song DID you hum instead, John?
April 21st, 2006 at 5:55 am
PIRANHA 2: THE SPAWNING!! I was actually looking for this the other day on IMDB (long story) but for some reason the only title I could come up with was FLYING PIRANHAS FROM HELL in my mind. I knew it was wrong, but I just couldn’t get past it…Thanks John!
April 21st, 2006 at 7:58 am
Hmmm… spell check failed me — should’ve been “how often are they read, HEEDED, or respected?”
April 21st, 2006 at 8:56 am
Here’s what you do… Write a new script, about a screenwriter who has written a great script that gets turned into a lousy movie by a bunch of guys that don’t know what they’re doing. Your hero (the screenwriter) then tracks down all the people who screwed up his vision, one by one, and vivisects them in gruesome, yet creative ways.
Then, you send this new script to the dorks who produced your last picture, with all the enthusiasm you can muster. Hopefully they read between the lines. It’s cathartic and who knows, you might actually write something good that plumbs the depths of your real pain and passion.
April 21st, 2006 at 8:58 am
John, how do you feel about Charlie Kaufman or Eric Roth ? Do you guys call each others houses and chit chat or is everyone pretty much on their own worlds ? Just wondering how established screenwriters treat one another.
April 21st, 2006 at 11:13 am
I like Godsbane’s idea!
April 21st, 2006 at 11:18 am
Mark Clemens –
No one ever asks me to do notes. I just do ‘em and fax ‘em. More than anything, this is my advice: Don’t wait around for someone to take you seriously. Speak your opinions clearly, politely, and early.
I always address notes to the director, since it’s his or her perogative what to implement. In general, the whole team reads them, however.
Scriptweaver –
Instead of the Macarena, I hum a tango version of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” which was actually recorded for us by Boulder band Cabaret Diosa.
April 21st, 2006 at 11:33 am
Isn’t there some universal pseudonym disgruntled screenwriters can ask to be listed as in the movie’s credits? I think if you absolutely do not want any connection to a real ‘stinker’, you can request this. Another unfair test is the “Ebert & Roperâ€? test, where Roger Ebert will often blame a movie’s mediocrity on a screenwriter’s lack of skill – there are so many factors that he overlooks (such as the butchering of the original script by all those attached to its production… directors… script-doctors… actors… production people… studio execs without one iota of creativity in their whole body). I bet most original scripts are pretty great BEFORE all of the changes are made. Maybe I’m wrong.
I don’t know. I would love to have that problem though! Having a movie made from your script — even if it is an abysmal hack-job of an interpretation with little more resemblance to your original vision than a steaming pile of poo — is STILL a movie based on your idea! Like you mentioned, even James Cameron had to start off somewhere… now look at his career!
I’m hopeful to gain some notice in the contests I’ve entered my spec into, and basically keep writing until something happens. If my works makes the grade and gets produced, that would be a dream-come-true for me.
Best Regards,
~Devin
April 21st, 2006 at 3:50 pm
One thing to note, though it has been said many times before. Film is a collaborative business. if you are not a novelist or a playwright, your work will be change, will not be exactly as you had it in your head. Sometimes this will be for the better, sometimes for the worse. You won’t actually know until much later. I’ve been lucky enough to have quite a few produced credits, and have worked on many films late in the process, through post, without taking credit. I have seen that the credited writer only benefits by having had the film made. Never suffers. Professionally that is. Personally, it can tear you up in a fresh way each time. But bear this in mind: the first time you see/hear your work cut together, it is almost always jarring, shocking, unsettling. Before deciding that the film is a disaster, watch it again, without expectations. If it is still terrible, follow John’s advice. He’s correct about making your voice heard in a strong but polite way. As a writer you have a huge advantage–the ability to present your thoughts cogently. Set them out, and when the group is grasping, they will, inevitably turn to the reasonable argument at some point. And, yes, they may also discard them at some point. But at least you will have been heard.
April 21st, 2006 at 7:52 pm
Thanks for the advice, John. Much appreciated.
April 21st, 2006 at 8:48 pm
I think I saw an interview where James Cameron said he got FIRED from PIRANHA 2: THE SPAWNING. That’s an even better story.
April 22nd, 2006 at 10:57 am
John, thanks for sharing those Go post notes. Very interesting, and shows how fluid things are (or can get) in post.
Are you on set for all your shows, and/or watch all the dailies? Or just some of them?
Do you ever make notes during the rushes, like certain takes you thought were spot on? And what are the screenings like? Nonstop? Interrupted? Do you scratch notes during, or get a digital copy to look at later for your notes?
And do you see alot of what runs through the Avid? And how often?
I guess that’s all my questions…
-Sean
April 22nd, 2006 at 11:34 pm
Wait, Sean! You forgot two more–
What’s the meaning of life?
And
Why do we drive on a parkway, and park on a driveway?
April 23rd, 2006 at 10:16 am
I’ve had it happen: write a script that makes for an awful finished production. And there are countless reasons why it could happen, some of which might have something to do with the script, but many of which probably don’t. The thing you have to remember, Jeremy, is that the reason you got the script made in the first place is you probably have talent. The fact that the director and/or editor DON’T have talent will never take away from your innate gifts to write and tell a story. The downer part is, yes, people will judge you based on this movie. I’ve found even veterans of the business find it hard to detach themselves from the experience they get watching the finished film–and at this point, they’re really no more a veteran than a 16-year old from the suburbs sitting in the theatre eating popcorn: “Like, that movie rocked” or “Like, that movie totally sucked.” But a writer continues to write DESPITE the criticisms, and sooner than later you’ll write something that some smart producer or director will realize is damn good. In the short term, you might not get flown to Hollywood for big meetings with Dreamworks. In the long term, you can be as successful as any writer out there. Ask yourself if you’re any good. If the answer is yes, then just keep going. The doubters, naysayers and execs that judge you on the bad movie probalby don’t know what they’re doing anyhow, and you’ll out-last as well as out-write them.
April 25th, 2006 at 11:40 am
This man just made me tear up. Well said.
April 26th, 2006 at 12:03 pm
John
Have you ever had a script made into a bad film where, with the benefit of time, you realize that part of the problem was flaws in the script? Surely every bad movie doesn’t start as a great script.
May 17th, 2006 at 1:17 am
Lol Scott — I can’t believe the writer did that…