Merry wotsit. I shall do my review of 2009 and goals for the coming year on Thursday because I'm just a pedantic bar steward.
I had a private response to my Solicitations blog (the previous one) from one of the actors who appeared in our Monsters mini-pilot. It was on the subject of making direct contact with producers and directors with a view to getting in. (He gave me permission to talk about it.)
There's a production company that have an amazingly commercial idea, well they've had it for at least two years. I had seen their website and their idea myself. Anyway, my correspondent saw their website, recognised that the idea had potential and introduced himself via email as an actor who'd very much like to be in it, if it ever got made.
Cutting a long story short, they stayed in touch, and two years later the film is getting attention and that means money. And it's looking like it's actually happening - at which point he gets an email inviting him to have a featured, but non-speaking, role.
Devastated.
I have another friend who's a writer-director, he's been trying to get a horror movie made for at least the last five years. It's a decent story, a decent script, and he's got real name talent attached (big names). And yet - nothing. Why? Because he wants to direct it himself and the people with the money find that prospect too scary.
It's the way it works. As Simon Beaufoy said at the Screenwriters Festival - it's their money so yes they do have a right to have their conditions met (at least some of them). They are gambling millions.
So what's the solution? There isn't one really, at least, not by being pig-headed or cutting off one's nose to spite one's face.
In the first story, this actor (having got over his initial disappointment) realised that this was a very good opportunity and that it could easily lead to better things - a credit in a successful movie is valuable.
In the second, the director has been producing other work - proving that he can direct. And things are beginning to move.
Anyway, back to the bearded bloke and the reindeer - have you heard that one? No? Pity. I don't know how it ends either.
What's on the turntable? "Joanni" by Kate Bush from "Aerial"
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