The theory that a film director can influence a film so much they can be ranked as the author, discussed by Steven Moras is an interesting piece that takes into account many different points of view and theories over the years. “The theory misrepresents the collaborative nature of most film production”. But as Maras explains it is still an interesting theory to look at due to the historical reasons and the insight into corporation filmmaking.
Staiger highlights that in 1914 a detailed shooting script became of great importance and parted conception and execution to give management more control. “The separation of the conception and production phases of work and the pyramid of divided labour”. This is a concept more important in big industry film making than independent film as it becomes about a uniform rule for projects and can almost resemble a construction line with every element separated to get each part finished speedily. In these productions usually the writers show the directors their work, the directors change it, the writers go back and adapt it and if necessary the process repeats.
I prefer the more collaborative production methods and believe Dunne got it right when he said “You don’t need to rob one person of credit to give it to another, there should be equal enough to go around.”
What I found most interesting reading this piece is how I straight away backed Dunne who was triumphing the scriptwriter but by the end I realised that these polarised views can never encompass all of the work so many different people put into film making, as much else in life it is all about balance and compromise. Many Screenwriters have also been directors and vice versa. The main issues highlighted seem to be that the Director and Writer need to work closely together for a film to work well and be given an equal amount of credit and respect.
“Calling yourself an auteur in film, one of the most communal art forms, is so vain it’s almost a clinical condition.”
Ian David makes me wonder if that means that writers are the most altruistic of all media makers as they all know it’s the most unlikely way to get credited?
Corliss believes “a movie can have many authors” but I would argue that this perspective becomes a discussion of semantics, the definition of Author is – a writer of a book, article, or document. Therefore a movie script could have many different authors if it was co-written, but a director who hasn’t written the script could not also be an author. But he is the author’s boss, the director controls everything on their set – everything during production.
The absence of artistic control can lead to the story ending far away from where it began and can become something it was never meant to be. Ways writers can increase control are; by taking solo assignments, affiliating with a director or producer and becoming a director or producer themselves. Many Screenwriters have also been directors and vice versa, some of my favourite writers are also directors and they have the ability to change it up and work on different elements. I appreciate this quality because I think the broader the range of film-making skills, the more understanding you have for the other people working on the project. It also gives you the ability to have complete auteurship if you have a particular project very close to your heart. I often worry that by handing over a script to a director, the project may lose its integrity or at least some of its original vision.
Separation of concept and execution
Sometimes it’s good for separation to exist with a very good script so that the design can be implemented in the intended way, however only being able to ‘shoot as written’ denies some of the amazing creativity that DOP’s bring to the project let alone the actors and directors.
It also makes it more difficult to write in colour, movement and sound; much like the game we recently studied, ‘Journey’ which doesn’t even list a writer on the wiki page, just Director, Producer, Designers, Programmers, Artists and Composer.
McClosky suggests a director can shape a project but writers “pave the way for the director.” When thought about in this context, Dunne’s thoughts on Directing being an interpretative craft and writing a creative craft, makes sense to me. I always used to organise the workload into:
Pre-production – Writer
Production – Director
Post-production – Editor.
I slightly disagree with Nicholas as I feel that we should be able to divide the different tasks that go into making a film etc and still work together with a shared vision of what we want the project to be. I do understand his concepts of scripts as “Blueprints of projected films”, however I don’t see the issue with the final piece of work being a conglomeration of different people’s specialties as long as everyone who works on the project sees eye-to-eye and works well together. Probably one of the reasons why some of my favourite writers and directors choose to work with the same people again and again.
Conversely, I also disagree with Truffaut that execution is just illustration of the script. As someone who has studied a myriad of different filmmaking elements over the years, I know that the end product could be entirely different if two different crews made the same script into a film.
I’m interested in who is generally thought of as the Auteur for Stargate or Game of Thrones as they have many different writers and directors over the seasons. Stargate, for instance, names the creators as Jonathan Glassner, Robert C. Cooper and Brad Wright. I believe that they were all writers, although they would have brought in many different writers over the course of ten seasons of SG1 and their following spin offs. Of course the original film was written and directed by Roland Emmerich, so in this instance it would be difficult to tell as there are many versions of the same idea.
“Corliss’s work seeks to re-value the work of screenwriters in the context of auteur theory… he does not simply succumb to rivalry and dethrone the director in favour of the scriptwriter.”
Maras finishes the piece by concluding that whilst there are elements of truth in the theory it is important to still see cinema as a form of expression and not simply an economic commodity, a production should be made up of many differently skilled people because there are so many elements that make a film good and no one person can do it all. Writers write in different styles, just as directors or actors have different styles. As long as you discuss which style suits you better when contemplating who to work with it can be a rewarding collaboration.
In case anyone else finds this interesting – screenwriters who didn’t like the directors direction!
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/546863/screenwriters-who-hated-their-own-movies
