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LIVING THE HOLLYWOOD LIFE
(dis)enchantment
(dis)enchantment
http://1.SEX AND HOLLYWOOD
Saul Zaentz, the legendary producer from SF, once told me he’d lived through the Summer of Love, read the Kama Sutra cover to cover and believed he knew everything there was to know about getting fucked. Then he came to Hollywood.
Saul Zaentz, the legendary producer from SF, once told me he’d lived through the Summer of Love, read the Kama Sutra cover to cover and believed he knew everything there was to know about getting fucked. Then he came to Hollywood.
2.PITCHING A SERIES IS EASY
All you need is six seasons’ worth of a serialized story complete with cliff-hangers, a pilot outline, character arcs, a sizzle reel, a look book, and “a hook.” And maybe some “rules” for “world building.” In a twenty-minute zoom call. On spec.
All you need is six seasons’ worth of a serialized story complete with cliff-hangers, a pilot outline, character arcs, a sizzle reel, a look book, and “a hook.” And maybe some “rules” for “world building.” In a twenty-minute zoom call. On spec.
3.YOUR FIRST CUT IS PERFECT
Until it’s screened. “Studio opinions,” a producer once instructed me, “are like assholes. Everybody has one and is one.” And I once heard Steven Soderbergh tell an executive, “You confuse having an opinion with having an idea.”
Until it’s screened. “Studio opinions,” a producer once instructed me, “are like assholes. Everybody has one and is one.” And I once heard Steven Soderbergh tell an executive, “You confuse having an opinion with having an idea.”
4.IF YOUR PREVIEW SUCKS
It’s probably because the audience knows something’s not working but can’t articulate why. Doesn’t matter what you intended, can you see what they’re seeing? Do you make changes to please them? To please the studio? These are not rhetorical questions.
It’s probably because the audience knows something’s not working but can’t articulate why. Doesn’t matter what you intended, can you see what they’re seeing? Do you make changes to please them? To please the studio? These are not rhetorical questions.
5.WHY DIRECTORS ARE SO WEIRD
Everybody else goes from one director’s set to another. You, meanwhile, live in a lonely world of your own devising, reinventing filmmaking according to your unique obsessions, eccentricities, and fetishes.
Everybody else goes from one director’s set to another. You, meanwhile, live in a lonely world of your own devising, reinventing filmmaking according to your unique obsessions, eccentricities, and fetishes.
http://6.MOVIE STARS DON’T AUDITION
Except when their best performance is the one they give while sitting in your office pretending to be mere mortals while paying no attention to the elephant in the room – the role they desperately want.
Except when their best performance is the one they give while sitting in your office pretending to be mere mortals while paying no attention to the elephant in the room – the role they desperately want.
7.FEUDS
Be mindful of making enemies of executives. Sometimes it’s unavoidable. But remember, whoever you alienate on you way up will inevitably be in a position to torture you on your way down. Nobody forgets where they buried the hatchet.
Be mindful of making enemies of executives. Sometimes it’s unavoidable. But remember, whoever you alienate on you way up will inevitably be in a position to torture you on your way down. Nobody forgets where they buried the hatchet.
8.STUDIOS NEED TO MAKE MOVIES
They’d like them to be good but most of all they need them to make money. Every time an executive green lights a movie, he risks getting fired. It’s a start-up that succeeds or fails overnight. Think about it, would you want that job?
They’d like them to be good but most of all they need them to make money. Every time an executive green lights a movie, he risks getting fired. It’s a start-up that succeeds or fails overnight. Think about it, would you want that job?
9.AIM HIGH
The alternative is aiming low and hitting the target. Da Vinci said "You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more that works. If it works big, others copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is doing something else.” It sounds better in Italian.
The alternative is aiming low and hitting the target. Da Vinci said "You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more that works. If it works big, others copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is doing something else.” It sounds better in Italian.
10.WHAT I HATE MOST
Ingratitude. Anyone who isn’t abjectly grateful for the privilege of making movies doesn’t deserve the opportunity. Gabriel Garcia Marquez said it best: “The sheer pleasure of telling a story may be the human condition that most resembles levitation.”
Ingratitude. Anyone who isn’t abjectly grateful for the privilege of making movies doesn’t deserve the opportunity. Gabriel Garcia Marquez said it best: “The sheer pleasure of telling a story may be the human condition that most resembles levitation.”
