Directors

I am an aspiring screenwriter with several screenplays nearing completion.
I envision my screenplays as independent films, with low budgets and talented
character actors. I will need a director. I’ve been told excellent director
contacts can be made at film festivals. Is this good advice?

–Kristy B.

It’s great advice. In fact, I intend to steal it as soon as I get the chance.

Early in their careers, most independent directors aren’t exactly getting
besieged with scripts for them to direct, so you have a pretty good shot of
getting them to actually read it. Having been through the festival grinder
a few times, my only advice would be to try to find a relaxed moment to talk
about the project, and not swarm the stage after a Q&A session.

If you don’t have a chance to meet the director at the festival, you can probably
find contact information in a program or at the festival office. Drop a note
telling the director how much you liked her movie and a few paragraphs describing
what your script is about, and asking if you could send it to her.

It’s certainly not foolproof, but it would be a good way to get your foot
in the door with a director you hope to work with.

What happens when you disagree with what a director does with your script?
Has that ever happened to you? Is there anything you can do about it?

–Jane

Disagreements can and do occur between writers and directors, and at least
in terms of feature films, the director almost always wins. After all, it’s
the director who is responsible for getting the film up on the screen, and
every department needs to support this effort.

However, it’s important to distinguish between bad disagreements and good
disagreements. Bad disagreements are easy to spot, because they often involve
shouting and name-calling and vows never to work together again. While there
may be genuine issues at hand, more often the battle is over ego, turf, money
and fear. These kinds of situations are movie poison, and usually hurt the
film.

Fortunately, most disagreements between writers and directors are good disagreements,
where they may have different opinions on characters, scenes or plotlines,
but argue only with the intention of making the best film possible. Remembering
the first rule of disagreements (the director almost always wins), a smart
writer will try to figure out not only what the director wants, but why he
wants it, and how to best achieve the outcome without hurting the script as
a whole.

In my experience, many directors use their writer conversations during development
and pre-production to answer their own questions about the project: What will
the movie feel like? Why is this moment important? How will I direct that actor?
The more confident and secure a director feels about the material going in,
the better the movie will hopefully turn out. So it’s generally worth it to
set aside your defensive tendencies and let the director explore the material.
Hopefully, you’ll find yourselves trying to make the same movie.

Disagreements during production are more treacherous, because exhaustion breeds
paranoia, and every hour of filming is literally costing thousands of dollars.
Often writers aren’t very involved during production, but if they are, the
most important thing they can do is make sure the story is still being told,
despite the obstacles and changes that arise.

In post-production, the director’s primary collaborator is the editor, and
the two of them will have the same kinds of disagreements as the writer and
director had during pre-production. The writer’s involvement during editing
is unfortunately rare, but can be extremely helpful. The writer generally has
the best sense of how the story was originally constructed, and can help nudge
it back into shape.