wearing thin

I finally heard back from the producer of that movie in January. Over the past several weeks it has become a ridiculous game of innumerable scheduling conflicts and limited to no communication. I was beginning to question what this might suggest about actually working with the guy. Then I began to reconsider doing it at all. Just when I started to write him and his project off of my radar completely, he popped back in only to reschedule with me once more.

Against my better judgment, I decided to attend the meeting today. I brought the script, the five pages of alteration suggestions I put together, and some other things I'd worked on, ready to have a good dialogue about this flick we're preparing to work on. Unfortunately all of this enthusiasm I brought to the party was quickly deflated.

The most glaring issue is that he has me assigned to a completely different job title than the one we'd discussed three weeks ago. He made some dumb apology for having given me "that impression". There was never a question in my mind. At our first meeting I made certain he reiterated it for me. I think he's making a mistake. This new job completely under-utilizes my skills and strengths.

I wasn't certain going in whether or not I'd mention my displeasure with the troubled script, in my pre-determined tactful fashion. As our time was winding to a close, and I needed to be elsewhere, I decided to drop the bomb. I would've felt dishonest with myself not even alluding to my tub of ideas I feel can really improve their concept.

I merely asked how different he thought the final draft might look. That about did it. I opened up a big ol' can of arrogant, but illogical, worms with that one. Given the time constraint I mentioned that I could e-mail him some of my thoughts so he could have more time to mull them over. I didn't want to put him on the spot and have him pull together a quick retort.

Unfortunately he got me to make one point, which got a prompt interception of silly, less than logical rambling that culminated with "the whole movie is leading up to the last fifteen minutes". I hate to state the obvious, but all movies are. I decided to jump on the e-mail idea again in an effort to divert attention from the wall my statement hit. I think it's a pretty major flaw. I wasn't even nit-picking. If that's the response I get from the writer's brother, then I just don't know what to do. If anything.

I know what it's like to write with blinders on. The whole world just doesn't get it or some variation. When things are going well, it feels like Christmas morning. Most of the time things are not going so well, though. Creating from nothing and getting all of these elements onto the linear plain of eight and a half by eleven from that more fluid mental place is no easy feat.

A lot of times the average reader misses what would come from a deeper look, however sometimes they're right on the mark but the writer fears their influence. I fully understand the weighty prospect of other people's fingers on your "baby". I've been there! But let's call making a movie with a low budget high school. Well, in my opinion they're going in making first grade mistakes. Maybe that's the mark they want to hit, though. He was damn proud to attest to killing off most of the characters at the end of all of their movies. Can you say cop-out?