Friday July 9, 2010

FROM: the Desk of Marco Mannone / Executive Editor @ Forth Magazine

TO: the Desk of Richard Verrier / Los Angeles Times

RE: “Screenwriters Find Work is Dwindling” (July 3rd article)

Richard,

Just read your sharp piece “Screenwriters Find Work is Dwindling”. Shedding light on this topic is like pushing a vampire into the sun… Executives and Greedheads around this town tend to burst into flames when they’re told they should Respect their writers. After nearly a decade of sheer desperation, 2010 has proven the most lucrative year for me yet as a paid, working screenwriter here in L.A. The catch is, my checking account is still running on fumes and I might have to siphon gas from some fat-cat’s Lexus in order to drive my car off Mulholland Dr.

That I’m on the verge of turning 30 and that I’m still without representation shows some kind of resilience on my end, I think. Two projects back-to-back have found their way to me this year, both where I am receiving sole credit. The first was financed by a millionaire living in Arizona and stars a handful of well-known television actors, the second is being financed by a millionaire in Canada and I am currently neck-deep in revisions (awaiting feedback from the director is the only reason I even have the time to write this now). Without belonging to the Almighty Guild I have been compensated mostly with peanuts and loose-change, but both films stand a fighting chance to see some kind of distribution in the not-too-distant-future. My point is, while Guild writers working within the Studio System might be falling on hard times, there is an underbelly to this story about us non-Guild writers who are like rats clinging to the cables of billion-dollar cruise ships by our tiny, pink paws. Instead of going for the all-you-can-eat buffets, we are surviving on the crumbs left behind and making the best of it.

These despicable “one-step deals” that are holding writers hostage are not limited strictly within the Studio System — although within that system it is even more heinous because of all the Big Money being swapped around like bodily fluids on a constant basis (you would think they could afford to feed the Idea Men a bit more). Working in lawless international waters as I have been, I can attest that the one-step deals are also common in the field of Independent Filmmaking. Treatments and First Drafts are essentially lumped together as one, and Revisions and Subsequent Drafts have no distinction whatsoever. This is easier to stomach where I’m coming from, because even though the movies are being funded by millionaires in the ether, the fact remains these are private investments with a single risk shareholder for each, not to mention I am not entitled to any legal rights without belonging to a union. Sadly, a gun-for-hire is a gun-for-hire big or small, and when it comes to the quality of even Independent Cinema, you get what you pay for.

My advice to your readers (other than finding themselves a millionaire with money to burn) would be to abandon the Studio System altogether in favor of (true) Independent Cinema, and pool together their precious resources — however limited — to create their own mafias. To hell with the Big Bastards. If they think they can fleece the writers of this community for everything they’ve got, let’s see them regurgitate the same tired material on their own. What they are too greedy to realize, is that these one-step deals which save them money up-front are actually doing the Studios a disservice in the Back End, because “finding a movie in a second or third draft” is precisely why so many films coming out are half-baked turkeys ripe with Salmonella. After all, this total disregard for Originality and Risk Taking in the industry has proven to be so hugely successful (sarcasm) this dismal summer season, which is the worst since the 90′s.

Mind you, the Guild writers are also to blame so long as they choose to stay in these abusive relationships. Wallowing around for another black-eye is nothing less than masochistic, and if they have any sense whatsoever, they would secede and create on their own. This is precisely what I am doing now with a script intended to be shot on a shoe-string budget called “Mark & Tom” — the short film version of which will be screening this month at the L.A. Shorts Fest, a fine venue for us semi-young filmmakers still full of piss & vinegar to showcase our passion for originality… along with our general disdain for a failing system beyond repair.

With Fervor,
–
Marco Mannone
Executive Editor / Forth Magazine
www.forthmagazine.com