{"id":1248,"date":"2014-07-21T14:06:29","date_gmt":"2014-07-21T18:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/factualfiction.com\/lighthouse\/?p=1248"},"modified":"2017-04-26T22:40:17","modified_gmt":"2017-04-27T02:40:17","slug":"respecting-writers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/lighthouse\/2014\/07\/21\/respecting-writers\/","title":{"rendered":"Respecting Writers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

Craig:<\/span> I have just general umbrage for the world of speeches that don\u2019t acknowledge the writer. I think everyone\u2019s speech should thank the writer. And why? Because we are first. You cannot figure out how to costume the actors if the writer hasn\u2019t created the character, including very often the setting, the time period, what they kind of dress like, what they look like. You can\u2019t do anything \u2014 you can\u2019t find a location, you can\u2019t produce a set, you can\u2019t light it, you can\u2019t shoot it, you can\u2019t act it, you can\u2019t cut it, the sounds. Every single person\u2019s job is touched by the writer, every single one. The writer should be the first person they\u2019re all thanking.<\/p>\n

And it makes me crazy, crazy that at the very least the people who are speaking the words that the writer wrote specifically aren\u2019t thanking us, but frankly I think the writer should be thanked by everyone. Everyone. I can\u2019t help but feel that the writers aren\u2019t being thanked because our existence somehow makes people feel insecure about what they\u2019ve accomplished. And I want to just give everyone a big hug and say stop that. Stop it.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t feel diminished by the fact that somebody had to perform this character. I can\u2019t do it. I can\u2019t do that. I don\u2019t even know what lights, I don\u2019t know how the lights work. They talk about these lights and I go, \u201cOh my god, it\u2019s freaking wizardry that they know that you\u2019re supposed to put a filter in a thing and put a light there instead of here.\u201d I don\u2019t understand any of it. And I\u2019m okay with that. I love and respect everything that people do to make a movie happen. Why is it that other people should feel insecure and diminished by what we do?<\/p>\n

Is it because we\u2019re first? Is it because the screenplay has primacy? Maybe so. I will say this: the process for an Oscar-winning movie ends at the Oscars. And at the end of that process people get up and they accept awards for their role in making a movie. But you know how the process begins? We can\u2019t pay a dollar to make a movie until we get a good script in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, we\u2019re not going to be able to get a director unless we get a good script. Well, we can\u2019t get an actor unless we get a good script.\u201d And what are the actors, and the directors, and the financiers all say, \u201cWell, it\u2019s all about the script.\u201d They\u2019ll just say that. They will say it casually at the beginning of the process, verbatim. It\u2019s all about the script. They say it like it\u2019s the most obvious thing in the world, because it is. And then at the end of the process the script is gone. The writer is gone. And that has to stop.<\/p>\n

How was that?<\/p>\n

John:\u00a0<\/span>There was some umbrage there. I would want to also just have a discussion about what you may say up at the podium. And I think there\u2019s basically two tracks you can choose when you\u2019re up there accepting an award. If you are going to talk about how grateful you are for this journey, you\u2019re going to thank the people who gave you the award. You\u2019re going to say something about what it means, or something about sort of an aspiring message. I think that\u2019s an absolutely valid choice. And I think you can go down that route and then take your statue and start to walk the wrong way off the stage and then get redirected and head the right way off the stage, like everyone does. and that\u2019s absolutely great and fine.<\/p>\n

But I think the moment you mention any filmmaker by name, anybody who was a part of making this film by name, you mention the director, you mention the producers, you mention this. That\u2019s when you have to mention the writer. So, you can go two different paths and I think they\u2019re both okay \u2014 mentioning none of the actual creative team. Fine. Mentioning the creative team. Great. But if you\u2019re going to mention the creative team you have to include the writer, otherwise you\u2019re just a dick and don\u2019t be a dick.<\/p>\n

Craig<\/span>:\u00a0Well said. And with much greater calm.<\/p>\n

Full Transcript Here:
\nhttp:\/\/johnaugust.com\/2014\/scriptnotes-ep-134-so-many-questions-transcript<\/a><\/p>\n

Tip\u2026listen to Scripnotes at 2x speed or faster with their iOS app:
\nhttps:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/app\/scriptnotes\/id739117984?mt=8<\/a><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Craig: I have just general umbrage for the world of speeches that don\u2019t acknowledge the writer. I think everyone\u2019s speech should thank the writer. And why? Because we are first. You cannot figure out how to costume the actors if the writer hasn\u2019t created the character, including very often the setting, the time period, what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-storytelling"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/lighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1248"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/lighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/lighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/lighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/lighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/lighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1248\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/lighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/lighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/lighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}