You must watch..."Citizen Kane"

Today, an endorsement for the “greatest movie ever made” according to a bunch of critics, like the people who make the AFI 100 list, and such.

Rosebud...

What’s so great about Citizen Kane?  I watched it for the first time in film school and not knowing much about it, I went in expecting it to be boring.  Needless to say, I was surprised by how impressed and engaged I was with the film.  The way the film is photographed really grabbed me.  Many of the angles and camera movements felt very ahead of their time.  Other than Hitchcock, I can’t think of many other filmmakers doing that sort of work in the early 40s.

As far as the screenplay, I can’t say much.  It’s very good but also very epic.  I’m not sure there are many things  a baby writer can learn from it other than to create an extremely engaging main character.  Beyond that, the film does a lot of stuff I’m sure baby writers would LOVE to do (like tell a story completely in flashbacks) stuff that might not work for everyone. 

Funny enough, of all the Oscars Citizen Kane was nominated for (including Best Picture) Screenplay was the only one the film won.  But, that’s probably the best reason to watch Citizen Kane right now, post Oscars.  If you’re feeling like the wrong films, actors, sound editors, make up artists, or any of your favorites lost out last night (especially because of Hollywood politics) you can take solace in knowing the “greatest movie of all time” didn't even win Best Picture the year it was nominated.


EDIT: So I write this post, go off and watch the Oscars, and Steven Spielberg up and says basically the same thing before he introduces Best Picture.  Ha, love it!

The difference between an Oscar and a Razzie

Happy Friday!  Today is the day I usually talk about my own writing, but who cares, it’s OSCAR WEEKEND!  I’ve always enjoyed the Oscars though as I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten more jaded about them and the fact that the nominations/wins often reward a person more for their career or their last project than their current project, but hey, whatever, it’s the OSCARS.

One good thing about being a little jaded now is that I’m pretty good with an Oscar ballot.  Not to toot my own horn too much, but in the past few years I’ve won several Oscar pools.  My secret?  Honestly, the thing that clinches it is usually the shorts, docs, and technical awards.  If you just look these up beforehand or go with who won the guild awards, you can usually pick correctly, otherwise pick the movie with the coolest name, that works too.

Anyway, I’m clearly excited to see the show.  Also, for the first time ever, I worked on a movie that was nominated for a couple things, so I've got people to root for (actually I’ve worked with people who were nominated in previous years because Hollywood is such a small world, but I feel closer this time).  On the downside, I will probably be less objective with my ballot picks, but on the upside, it’s a nice change to tell people you worked on an Oscar nominated movie instead of a Razzie nominated movie (yep, I worked on one of those, too).  The funny thing is, from my perspective, the people I work with are always working hard and doing excellent and professional jobs.  I’ve worked on a couple “bad” movies, and their sets and costumes totally blew me away.

Now, I’m not saying I couldn’t tell the difference between working on an Oscar movie and a Razzie movie...in hindsight there was definitely a difference.  But in what areas?  Well, I’d say the biggest differences were at the script level, followed by the higher ups level (Director, Producers, etc.).   Now, maybe that’s just me being biased as a writer, but it makes sense doesn’t it?  All other technical quality factors being fairly equal, a better script with a stronger vision/direction, equals a better movie.

And on that note, I'll leave you with this video that cracked my up and made me think of all us baby writers out there.  

While I wouldn't recommend copying Seinfeld word for word if you want to be a comedy writer like this little girl, I think watching shows you love or exposing yourself to anything written by a writer you like can only help you be a better writer (plus, you've gotta watch a bunch of shows anyway if you're planning to write a new TV spec this year).  Speaking of exposing yourself (ha) to good work, here is a link posted by ScriptShadow yesterday to all the 2011 Oscar nominated scripts.  Enjoy, and happy Oscar watching/happy writing (whether you're penning a future Oscar winner, or just your latest TV spec, like me).  

Christopher Nolan, James Cameron, and YOUR original screenplay

It’s the most wonderful time of the year in LA….awards season!  Soon, Hollywood will rain trophies and praise on itself.  Nominations are rolling in, and the WGA announced their nominees last week.

As I was looking over the nominees in the narrative screenplay categories, I was surprised to see a lot of scripts with multiple writers, and sometimes multiple writers on top of multiple “story by” credits.  There were a few lone wolves, but of the 10 nominees (5 in each category) 7 had more than one writer.  This struck me as funny.  The joke is usually that the quality of a script goes down with each additional writer.  This stems from the reality that lots of writers often equals lots of drafts/development/people pulling in a bunch of directions so that what you finally see on screen is some terrible patchwork of fifty disparate visions.

So yeah, that was interesting, but what was even MORE interesting to me was WHICH films only had one writer.  I think there is another perception in Hollywood that the movies written by committee are the big blockbusters while the solo efforts are original low budget indie projects (like Nicole Holofcenar’s Please Give, one of the nominees).  Lots of baby writers have this fantasy of sitting alone in their ivory tower, writing movies like Please Give, and one day reaping the rewards (sounds good to me).  But then you see a nominee like Christopher Nolan's Inception, one of the biggest blockbusters of the year...an original script AND a solo writing job (oh, and like Holofcenar, Nolan directed, too).  Last year, it was the same, there was James Cameron's Avatar.  Oh, and both Inception and Avatar made a TON of money.  

So, what does that all mean?  Well, it means original screenplays ARE being made AND doing well…BIG name “visionary” directors are getting studios behind them to produce their original stuff.  But what does that REALLY mean for the rest of us?  Well, Hollywood always wants to make money.  With the financial success of movies based on popular books like Alice in Wonderland, Twilight, Harry Potter, and cartoon/comic book characters like Transformers and Iron Man, studios can be expected to continue to greenlight movie after movie based on existing properties.  And who can blame them?  Hey, I liked the first Pirates of the Caribbean and that was based on a theme park ride, should I really be appalled that there is going to be a Ouija board movie?

But then, some of these movies flop, like The A Team and Jonah Hex.  So, did I have a point?  Well, as a baby writer, it’s a tough road.  It’s hard to get ANYTHING sold/made let alone something original you wrote all by your lonesome.  Maybe the only way you’ll ever see your solo masterpiece is to ALSO become a visionary director?  Or, more realistically, maybe these original projects doing well for big directors (both critically AND financially) will spill over for the rest of us?  Maybe the success of these films will justify studios getting behind more original scripts (like the next Furry Vengeance…)?  I recently read an interesting interview with Scott Rudin where he talked about his current awards season movies getting wide releases from their studios rather than small releases under their studios' indie divisions (like they might have a few years ago).  And what do you know, these movies have done well critically AND financially.

One final note…have you all seen the trailer for Sucker Punch the latest from director Zach Snyder (300, Watchmen)?  Usually movies categorized as "epic action fantasy" are based on a book or graphic novel, but nope, this one is totally original (although it has more than one writer).   Interesting...


EDIT: So I wrote this whole post, and then I saw this interview with Christopher Nolan where he addresses studios and originality...ha.