trying to grill a steak… can movie development be made better?
sorry for radio silence on this channel. all too busy over at the sugarhouse these past few days. day 5 of shoot and all seems well….
But activity going on back here at Ealing also. A lot of thinking in past few days on our development process. For even as we shoot this film, we are thinking forward to the next ones.
By common wisdom, develompent in movies is hell. A never ending process that would make Sisyphus weep. But does it have to be?
We at slingshot believe not, and will shortly be unveiling our development and training programme for the next year, which has been awarded a major grant in recognition of its innovative take on this tired space.
Before we tell you more, though, we’d be interested in your views and experience of film development in the UK or elsewhere. Do you, like my late great friend Douglas Adams find that development is a process akin to ““trying to grill a steak by having a succession of people coming into the room and breathing on it” or has your experience been more positive and tasteful?
Comments and stories please.
August 25th, 2006 at 8:35 pm
This question kept cropping up at the recent Script Factory SCENE Insiders programme (see ’slingshot in Edinburgh’). The split in the room was roughly 60/40 with the writers in the majority and the question was thrown out there — “Who here has had a positive development experience?”
It was a pleasant surprise when a rush of hands flew into the air… so much of a surprise to our tutor that it through her off, she couldn’t quite believe it. She had cited the much famed ‘Story and Character’ - a collection of interviews with British screenwriters:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0747561893/026-0221277-2852407?v=glance&n=266239&s=gateway&v=glance
and mentioned how nearly all all them moaned about a negative experience. But one of the writers piped up ..most of those writers were part of the real old school of British filmmaking, she felt a lot less precious about her work and script developers are there to help right? And after all it’s only an opinion…
August 27th, 2006 at 3:09 pm
I am an American filmmaker. I heard about your site via Rachel whom we met at Edinburgh where my film The Treatment was screened. Our film was produced independently so perhaps was made outside the traditional development process. Thus perhaps we were spared. However along the way of finalizing the script, many people including many producers saw the script and made their comments. I have to admit this process was both very helpful and also a bit sysiphean i.e. one step forward, two steps back and emotionally fraying along the way. In the end I think it was fruitful however. At least I learned alot. But maybe the next time around I will be smarter as to how to react to people’s ideas. We shall see…
September 1st, 2006 at 9:44 am
Hi Oren: glad you found the development process fruitful, if fraying. For so many the balance is wrong. There is a good debate going on with the writer of our first film, SUGARHOUSE LANE, over on their blog:
http://www.sugarhouselane.com/2006/08/18/walking-the-dog/
One of the things we think about here is utilising fellow practioners, i.e. other writers, in the development process, rather than relying solely on Execs who, however well intentioned, can’t have the insight into the writing process.
I’d be interested in views on that. Would you prefer your script to be critiqued by a Script Editor - or a fellow writer?
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