Oh yeah, screenwriting is hellish profession partly because Hollywood really doesn't think highly of screenwriters. The hierarchy in Hollywood is evident in the salaries. For example: James Marsters makes at least 6,900 or 7,000 an episode for a guest staring role. The script writer? About $2000-$3000 if that. The info came from a recent TV Guide survey. Directors and Actors make far more than writers do. Want to know why Whedon is doing comics right now? Writing for movies and tv is hellish. You fight networks, you fight actors, you fight directors, and you have to get used to having your script re-written and re-worked. Doris Egan tells a story about working on either Dark Angel or Homicide Life on the Streets, where her script was completely re-written to the extent that the only thing she recognized was one line. Then there's Whedon's horror tales of writing scripts for the original Buffy movie, Alien Resurrection, and X-Men. He sweated bullets over them, only to have them either ruined by the director, rewritten completely or have another writer chop them up.
Years ago, my brother did an internship with a film director - they were redoing "Love Crimes" - which had been directed by Lizzie Borden and written by her. The studio didn't like it. They hired Kit Carson, the guy who directed the Texas Chainsaw Massacre II (the old one) and worked on, directed and co-wrote the screenplay for Paris, Texas (which he didn't really get credited for- but his son did have a part in.) Kit brought back the actors, who got paid extra. Refilmed, rewrote, reedited the film. It was sent back to the studio. They re-edited it again. And my brother complained about how half of their hard work ended up on the floor. My brother got so disllusioned by film (he was in LA for a while, and had numerous friends who interned - one with Tim Burton on Nightmare Before Xmas, one with Oliver Stone, and one with Speilburg - he told me horror stories about all three), he left, changed his major, and runs his own graphic art/marketing company in NY. He told me that I did not want to be a screenwriter - screenwriters are treated like dirt in Hollywood. Be novelist instead. (Which was fine with me - I prefer the format of the novel to the script have done both and read enough of both.)
And a lot of novelist agree to. Chandler, Fitzgerald, Sue Grafton, and William Goldman have all stated that screenwriting was hellish. They all did it for the money or a love of movies, only to be disllusioned. Grafton refuses to sell the rights of her novels to the screen because of her disillusionment. TV writing is better than film writing - the writer had more control over the product and is often in charge, not the director. TV of the mediums is more the writers - which may be one of the reasons I love it. Theater is the actors- they have control. Film - the directors/editors/cinematographers - they have control. It's good to know, because you can decide what to see often based on who is at the head of each. A good actor can make a mediocre play fantastic. But a good actor cannot save a film from a bad director, and can't save a tv show from bad writing. All are collaborative, but writers have more control in tv over the others. Also there are more jobs in TV. But it is hellish. You don't do it unless you really love it and are driven. Heck you don't write period unless you are driven and love it.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2007-08-19 02:08 pm (UTC)Directors and Actors make far more than writers do. Want to know why Whedon is doing comics right now? Writing for movies and tv is hellish. You fight networks, you fight actors, you fight directors, and you have to get used to having your script re-written and re-worked. Doris Egan tells a story about working on either Dark Angel or Homicide Life on the Streets, where her script was completely re-written to the extent that the only thing she recognized was one line. Then there's Whedon's horror tales of writing scripts for the original Buffy movie, Alien Resurrection, and X-Men. He sweated bullets over them, only to have them either ruined by the director, rewritten completely or have another writer chop them up.
Years ago, my brother did an internship with a film director - they were redoing "Love Crimes" - which had been directed by Lizzie Borden and written by her. The studio didn't like it. They hired Kit Carson, the guy who directed the Texas Chainsaw Massacre II (the old one) and worked on, directed and co-wrote the screenplay for Paris, Texas (which he didn't really get credited for- but his son did have a part in.) Kit brought back the actors, who got paid extra. Refilmed, rewrote, reedited the film.
It was sent back to the studio. They re-edited it again. And my brother complained about how half of their hard work ended up on the floor. My brother got so disllusioned by film (he was in LA for a while, and had numerous friends who interned - one with Tim Burton on Nightmare Before Xmas, one with Oliver Stone, and one with Speilburg - he told me horror stories about all three), he left, changed his major, and runs his own graphic art/marketing company in NY. He told me that I did not want to be a screenwriter - screenwriters are treated like dirt in Hollywood. Be novelist instead. (Which was fine with me - I prefer the format of the novel to the script have done both and read enough of both.)
And a lot of novelist agree to. Chandler, Fitzgerald, Sue Grafton, and William Goldman have all stated that screenwriting was hellish. They all did it for the money or a love of movies, only to be disllusioned. Grafton refuses to sell the rights of her novels to the screen because of her disillusionment. TV writing is better than film writing - the writer had more control over the product and is often in charge, not the director. TV of the mediums is more the writers - which may be one of the reasons I love it. Theater is the actors- they have control. Film - the directors/editors/cinematographers - they have control. It's good to know, because you can decide what to see often based on who is at the head of each. A good actor can make a mediocre play fantastic. But a good actor cannot save a film from a bad director, and can't save a tv show from bad writing. All are collaborative, but writers have more control in tv over the others. Also there are more jobs in TV. But it is hellish. You don't do it unless you really love it and are driven. Heck you don't write period unless you are driven and love it.