Monday, April 21, 2008 Visiting personal projects POST A COMMENT I sat in a "screenplay" workshop, (with the talented Marilyn Horowitz at the helm), and she had everyone in the room write a TV Guide like teaser of film you want to write. And then she would re-spin it, playing the role of what "sells" -- to help make the story more "Hollywood marketable and ultimately more sellable." It kinda bummed me out that everything in the film biz needs to be neatly pitched and overly marketed (like a science project)...'leaving little room for personal stories. In that world films like "The Visitor" might never get made (unless an A list actor was pitched as the lead). I know that film is an expensive medium, I get it. And people need to watch a part of themselves up on the screen, so they can relate to and spend ten bucks...blah, blah, blah. In my perfect world, perfectly pitched and marketed films would be underdone and a lot more messier. The Visitor Granted this story doesn't rock my world: "The Visitor, stars 60-year-old Richard Jenkins as plain, unremarkable Walter Vale, a lonely suburbanite who teaches economics in Connecticut. Walter undergoes a profound transformation after meeting two illegal immigrants in desperate straits." -- I like knowing that such personal films are still possible. Labels: indie film posted by Henry Cruz at 4:22 PM 0 Comments: Post a Comment << Home     ARCHIVES October 2005 . November 2005 . December 2005 . August 2007 . September 2007 . October 2007 . November 2007 . December 2007 . March 2008 . April 2008 . May 2008 . June 2008 . July 2008 . August 2008 . September 2008 .