Marc at 2011-01-23 16:17:51:

A trailer (or movie) like this leaves you sort of empty. You just tapped into one mood and it right away does a 180 on you. In the end you have seen everything and nothing. You were never sucked into the story and you don't care because you are too busy tuning your emotional anticipation.

I wonder if this idea pans out. Putting in everything to lure lots of people into it. Maybe in the first week or so, but there must be bad word-of-mouth that follows. This way of thinking always seems strange to me. They just want to make a quick buck but they could make an even bigger buck if they made something that has more integrity and tone/genre-fidelity.

Or maybe the editor who put the trailer together just did it over morning-after-breakfast.

James at 2011-01-23 16:31:41:

I'm actually having this problem with my manager. He wants material for large, broad audiences.

I've started calling him Mr. Kitchen Sink (at least in my head).

Somehow, I can't convince him that if you nail your niche audience, it opens up the material to a broader audience.

See: THE DARK KNIGHT.
See also: THE HANGOVER.

It is very difficult to balance mainstream audience with niche audience. And if you material is very genre specific (as most TV, and film is) you should always wow your niche.

The only way you are EVER going to bring in a wider audience writing within a genre is by knocking the socks off your niche audience. I mean, if you can't even get the people who are supposed to enjoy your material to enjoy it -- you're already fighting an uphill battle.

Not sure why agents, managers, producers like making things harder on themselves.

(I'm lying. I know why. They see the money. Want to please everyone. Don't understand the fundamentals. Just what worked in the past. /eyeroll).

I need to dig up a Harlan Ellison quote...

If you can wow the people with a voraccious appetite for the genre you're writing in -- that's th

Jeff at 2011-01-23 19:19:27:

It funny, I just started reading the latest (and last, I guess) Blake Snyder book - - Save the Cat Strikes Back - - and it has, thus far, blown me away. While I enjoyed his first two books, his pat answer to everything always made my skin crawl. Can't stand it when someone thinks they can pidgeonhole and compartmentalize art into 12 easy categories or whatever.

But I'll be damned he nailed it this time out. Because this book deals with "problems." And addresses them very honestly and with the utmost candor. If you choose a life of screenwriting, you're choosing a life of... well, problems. How we deal with said problems pretty much is the gauge of our success or failure, which is the basic thesis of this particular book. He sticks to his guns with his Beat Sheet (which has always been the strongest aspect of the Save the Cat process) and his funky new "genres" but, again, in a very realistic way.

How this relates to the topic at hand - - don't try and get cute, don't try and queer the system, don't write something because you think the market demands it - - oh if only it worked that way, right? (cough cough The Chaperone cough cough) No, just cobble together your concepts, hammer out the best logline you can, and, as Scott is known to say, "write the hell out of it." One eye on the market, one eye on your integrity.

What more can we do?

(and yes, I can't recommend enough Snyder's final volume. i think he clarifies the more abstract aspects of his process as well as expands on the qualities I initially found overly simplistic. plus there's no denying his joie de vivre when it comes to writers and screenwriting. the reading experience is twice as moving because of the author's untimely demise.)