Creativity and Process

Last night’s ushering gig was for a panel discussion on the creative process as it relates to movies. The speakers were Brett Ratner (director of X-Men 3, producer of Prison Break, among other things), Peter Guber (producer of A Few Good Men, 7 Years in Tibet and Batman Returns, among many, many others) and Bob Balaban (producer of Gosford Park, director of The Exonerated and actor in many things – you might recognize him as the studio executive who leaves Hollywood and joins Greenpeace to save whales in order to impress Elaine on Seinfeld). There were a few things that I took away (four if you include the fact that Campbell Brown from CNN is prettier in real life than on TV, wench, pretty or smart, pick one).

The first is that the Oscars are pretty much the big ball of hooey that I’ve always figured they were. And are getting hooier by the minute. One significant item I found out is that the only category where you are required to have seen all entries in order to vote is foreign film. Thank you and good night. The Academy just lost all semblance of credibility with me. Oh, I heard Sandra Bullock was good in that. Let me check that box.

Second, and really sad for me personally, is the disappearance of the middle budget film. Once upon a time, if you really, really wanted to get your movie made, you’d figure out a way to do it for between $5 million and $30 million, and if you had any sort of a reputation or were considered a hot prospect, odd were that you’d be able to get it made. But because they’ll only double the investment at best, and make another piddly $15 million, they aren’t considered good business. So those are movies that tell a good story and need enough money to pay for a modest location in the real world and good actors with some name recognition, but you aren’t going to blow anything up, shoot at the top of the Eiffel Tower or film in 3D. So what you are getting is big, tent-pole, franchise, merchandise tie-in movies. Or the Blair Witch Project. And even the Blair Witch Projects are getting harder to see, because the studios are afraid of buying something that isn’t the Blair Witch Project or Little Miss Sunshine. So, anyone who’s a fan of movies where people talk, you may be SOL in the next few years at the picture show.

And lastly, and least fully, I started thinking about something as I watched the 3 people talk. It was interesting to me that the two most financially successful people on the stage (Ratner and Guber) focused less on luck and talent in what they do than on the hard work. They focused on the things that they could control: how much effort they could put into a project and how well they were able to apply their talents. Bob Balaban is less financially successful, but, in my eyes at least, more interestingly successful. He focused more on being open to opportunities as they came along. The acting thing wasn’t offering him new challenges, so he decided he’d take a directing gig and found he enjoyed it. Then he wasn’t that excited with the directing projects he was getting, so he decided to start producing projects he found meaningful. When he wrote a script for kids, and was offered to turn it into a book instead – hey, okay, that can work too. He seemed to have a lot of pots on the stove, and when one cooled down, he could turn and concentrate on something else. Always busy. I’m not sure what the lesson is here on this. But it’s definitely something to think about.