Film Courage: I almost picture it like the kid in the class that finishes the test before
everyone else and everyone looks around like how did they finish that so fast?
If we take that same analogy with a new writer who kind of says “I just want to get my
work out there.
I don’t really need all of these drafts.
I know this is good.”
Wendy Kram, owner of LA4Hire: You know, it’s possible.
Someone might be a savant of screenwriting and able to do it.
Every great screenwriter that I’ve seen, the ones who get all of the awards, they always
say that it’s taken them 30, 40 drafts.
There’s a top, top, one of the most powerful show runners in television history and she
said (and this might be an obvious thing to say) but she says “A lot of people say they
want my life, but they are not able to put in the hours and the blood, sweat and tears”
I have another friend who is a top female show runner and I know the hours that she
works and it’s not a 40-hour-a-week.
Sometimes it’s an 80-hour-week.
She loves her job and on weekends sometimes she’s there until Midnight on a Friday and
Saturday working eight to twelve hours and then the weekdays.
So like Mozart, I think he wrote his amazing compositions and he was somewhat of a savant.
So I think it possible but something that gets in the way…I understand the enthusiasm
and excitement to want to get your script out there but there can be either naivety
or hubris.
And I’ve noticed that there are a lot times when the writer (and it could be the same
with an actor) that they are more focused on the end results and I know for me (as the
producer and the executive), I’m focused on the end result.
There is nothing I want more than a movie to get made.
It is the greatest high after you’ve gone through all this work and seeing it come to
fruition and seeing the set designer create the sets and your actors actually performing
the lines in the scenes.
But if you look at every wonderful writer, director, filmmaker, actor, the trajectory
of their careers, they started out like doing little bit parts and movies that you never
would have thought they would have ended up one day getting an Oscar.
So each step is a part of the process of the journey.
I used to say whether it was someone like Kathryn Bigelow when she started out or Patty
Jenkins (for example) when Patty did MONSTER and I think she’d gone to AFI, she just
kept doing good work.
These are people who just kept doing good work.
I don’t think that Patty Jenkins thought when she was in AFI “Oh, I’m going to
do an indie film called MONSTER.”
And get an Oscar for the leading actress and then I’m going to do WONDER WOMAN, superhero
and be the first woman to break all box office records as the director.
Barry Jenkins when he did MOONLIGHT, I don’t think he was doing it because he thought “Oh,
I’m going to get an Oscar.”
I think he was compelled to want to tell a story.
And he told it beautifully and it affected and resonated with so many people.
So I think the most important thing for writers, directors, actors is to stay committed to
the craft and just doing the best work that you can and surround yourself with people
who give you really constructive feedback even if it’s not always what you want to
hear.
But to be open to feedback that can be constructive and make you a better writer.
Film Courage: Do you think that’s a factor of age?
Do you think young people really want to rush through it or it’s not about that, it can
vary.
Wendy Kram: In my experience, it’s not about that.
Because I know older writers who feel like time is not on their side so they actually
in some ways can be in more of a rush than younger writers.
Film Courage: When you see a writer that you know that they do have talent and you can
see that it maybe just needs a little more refining and you need to slow them down, what
are some of the things that you do?
Wendy Kram: First of all, I don’t like to ever feel that I’m in the position to slow
someone down.
Most of what I do is just ask questions.
In the script there are plot aspects or character behavior that is not clear to me or confusing
or inconsistent, I’ll just ask the question and I’ll always tell them never to feel
compelled to agree with me.
It’s not a dictatorial thing.
But it is for the purpose of I feel I’m a pretty good barometer of how other executives
are going to respond to material.
And if it’s not clear to me then there’s a good chance that it might not be clear to
someone else.
So they never feel like I want to impose something to be done a certain way but I will raise
a question or I’ll say “I feel this dialogue, it doesn’t feel authentic to me.
It feels like there’s an agenda, the writer has an agenda.”
That you want the character to say this but I think if we’re really looking in the scene
and the daughter is responding to her mother, how would she really respond?
And I’ll ask the writer to go back and kind of try to find the truth rather than the written
agenda (if that makes sense)?
So I think it’s really more about asking questions and pointing out areas that can
be improved rather than slowed down.
Like if you think it’s ready to go and you’re happy with it and you don’t agree than by
all means you should pursue that.
But I think a lot times there can be a tendency to take something out there too hastily.
Film Courage: Do you think people are aware of how damaging that can be because if they
get consistent coverage it just kind of labels that one project or even their name (as not
ready)?
Wendy Kram: Because here’s the thing, a lot of writers will be focused on networking
which is great, networking is important.
Let’s say you meet someone as a producer and they say “Great!
Send me your script.”
And it’s not very good, you have a frozen moment in time to capture that person’s
attention and if they don’t respond to it or they have an assistant who reads it as
says (because a lot of times that is what happens) and says “It wasn’t very good.”
The next time you want to get something in, they might not be as inclined to read your
work.
“Tell them it’s a pass.
The writing was just not up to snuff, it was very amateurish.
The person doesn’t even know how to write a script to be honest.”
There are certain things where there is classic formatting but there is also certain telltale
signs such as if there is dialogue on the page that takes up half the page or almost
the whole page, that’s the telltale sign of (with exception) of course there are always
exceptions but that would be a sign that it’s an amateur.
If there are pages in a script that are so dense that it looks like a novel, that would
be another sign.
If there’s like page after page of very dense descriptions, that will wind up in the
recycle bin or the trash in your computer.