West of Doheny: Why Hollywood Doesn't Get It
West of Doheny. Remember that phrase. If you're wondering why you can't find a movie you're glad you paid to see, blame the folks who mostly live west of Doheny Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California all the way to the Pacific Ocean and up to Malibu. Let me explain... I teach a class called Your Screenwriting Career that is available in over 1,000 schools and is accessible to the U.S. military. It's a fairly popular course because I tell them the truth about what goes into the writing of successful movies. I got this from a student this morning. After praising the course she said - "You've ruined me for movie watching. I've been looking at movies in light of all you've taught. My question is this: obviously, the principles you have shared are the basics of good screenwriting. If everyone is looking for good screenplays, why are so many really terrible ones produced? For example, if something doesn't "happen" in the first ten pages, why is it produced at all? It seems wasteful. I've seen more compelling Dora the Explorer episodes than many movies. Am I missing something? Is it possible to not realize a story is weak until it is actually on film?" I told her it was because executives often don't read scripts. They read a reader's description of the script, a few sheets of paper called "coverage." I didn't tell her about a project of mine at Disney now that was optioned once. An "option" is a down payment on a literary work. If it goes into production (don't count on those odds), the writer gets paid the rest of the money. I was asked to synopsize a novel of mine (the executive called it a "treatment" but that's actually a much longer document). I turned in a 7-page synopsis. Oooh, but that was too long for the exec to read, could I cut it down to two? I did. Disney's still thinking about it. Now, what these people are actually doing, who knows. Shopping for Jimmy Choo shoes? Negotiating for a better seat at their favorite restaurant? Dealing with the contractors doing the addition to the house? Buying a new house? I have no idea, but they're damn not sure not reading scripts in a lot of circumstances. And then there's the other factor, the most important factor. Mid-2005, I went to a signing of Gigi Levangerie's latest novel, The Starter Wife. If you didn't read it, it's about a Hollywood wife who gets dumped and suddenly finds that she's outside the social circle that stops at Doheny Drive in Beverly Hills. Just before the end of the year, I had a meeting with John Platten and Flint Dille. I'm doing a book about gaming with them. They were picked to be in the top dozen "power players" of that business by Variety during the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. While waiting for Flint to arrive, John and I were talking about the big dip in Hollywood revenues this year. John opined before I did, and I was pleased to hear that he has the same opinion as I do. Namely, people cocooned in their own social bubble, with their own prejudices, who believe they are smarter, more clever, above the people they depend upon to make their living. Those people they depend upon would be you and me. What makes the most money? Good entertainment. If people want a message, what do they want? Something that parallels their values. (Hint: The Passion) Do they care about gay cowboys in Wyoming? Hell no, partner. The critics do, but the critics are like the west of Doheny folks, the deep Manhhattan folks, the people out of touch with the bulk of America. If you live in those places and disagree with me, fine. The numbers don't back you up, they back me up. Do you know why the Chronicles of Narnia got made? Only because Philip Anschutz has a certain belief system. What prompted an oil and communications billionaire to get into movies? Here's something from a speech he made: My friends think I'm a candidate for a lobotomy, and my competitors think I'm naive or stupid or both. But you know what? I don't care. If we can make some movies that have a positive effect on people's lives and on our culture, that's enough for me. Hello? Hollywood? Hope you're listening. There are seven Narnia books. Funny thing is, most people don't live west of Doheny. Wish I did - I generally love the real estate. When I'm writing my books and teaching my courses, though, I pay attention to my customers. Hollywood increasingly only does that when forced to do so. In 1999, I did a study about what makes the top films successful and was surprised to discover a unique package of characteristics I dubbed "Kids Love It" that cause some films to be mega-successful. I redid the study in 2003 and offer it to any of my readers if they only send me an email ask for it. It applies even with "Titanic" believe it or not, and that phrase applies to much more than "family friendly" movies or movies for the elementary school set. In the Thursday, December 29, 2005 issue of Variety, in an article called "B.O. plays slip 'n' slide" (B.O. meaning "box office"), writer Ben Fritz reported that 2005 admissions had dipped 11% from the previous year. "Even more bad news," he said. "527 new pics were released in 2005, compared with 507 in 2004. That means Hollywood did less business with more films." 11% down in any business is pretty bad. In Hollywood, it's a crisis. The Hollywood film business is a nine billion dollar a year industry. 11% of that is... gulp! So let's see. Shouldn't a business try to please its customers? One would think. Aren't the bulk of Hollywood's customer in the cineplexes in the malls all across America. Why, yes they are. So when's the last time you saw a Hollywood movie that didn't treat Middle Americans like something less than a tiny speck outside an airplane window in "flyover country"? When's the last time you saw a Christian minister represented in a Hollywood film as a decent person? Did you know that a TV show about a character like that, and his family, was the longest-running series on "the WB"? Maybe you did. A lot of people in Hollywood don't know that Seventh Heaven ran a full decade. In your own business, I hope you never become so comfortable in your circumstances you are "west of Doheny." If you do, you might feel like you're living the good life in a house in Malibu. In reality, that house might be built on the sand. And when that happens, expect the tide to turn, with a big storm to follow.Posted by Baron of Burbank on December 30, 2005 at 10:48 PM in Customer Dialogue | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/407529/3942423
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference West of Doheny: Why Hollywood Doesn't Get It:
