Welcome Written By Readers!
Welcome to The Artful Writer, published by Craig Mazin and Ted Elliott as a free service for all professional writers. As you wander through the site, note that you can always return to the homepage by clicking the logo at the top of the screen.
If you’d like to comment on my essay in Written By (which first appeared here in a slightly different version), just click on the “Click Here For Comments” link at the end of this entry. While it’s always nice to know everyone’s name, you may comment anonymously if you desire.
On the right side of your browser window, you can see all of our recent articles. By selecting any one of the menu subheaders running across the top of the screen, you can see the articles grouped by interest. We’ve had discussions ranging from end credits to writers’ self-esteem issues to art versus commerce to various member questions.
As Ted and I both currently serve on the Board of Directors of the WGAw, you can also ask us any union question you’d like as long as you’re a member of the Guild.
If you have general questions or if you just want to drop us a line, you can email us.
Thanks for joining us!
Craiz,
Excellent /Written By/ column. I’ve heard you and Ted speak/post about this philosophy of the job, but it’s nice to see it in a somewhat definitive form. I genuinely believe that this approach, if widely applied by working screenwriters, can change the landscape of the profession for the better.
Michael:
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.
Dear Mr. Mazin;
as a director of television pilots, episodes and films, I was greatly heartened to read your excellent article on the writer’s role in prepping, shooting, and posting a film (“Working Out”; “Written By” 4/05). You’ve clarified a nebulous area of collaboration between writer and director - a relationship that I’ve always encouraged to extend into production and post, for exactly the reasons you’ve laid out. While the director is off making a thousand and one decisions about how to translate the words on the page into moving images, it’s incredibly helpful to have someone focusing solely on how those decisions affect character arcs and broader story lines. I believe I will start carrying copies of your essay to give to my future writer/collaborators! Thanks!
Lev:
Call me Craig (or Craiz…this seems to be gaining in popularity).
Glad you liked it. I love that this might work as a starting point for you and your collaborators.
Dear Craig, I wanted to thank you for your “Story Experts for Hire” article. It was the single best explanation I have ever read for what the writer’s place SHOULD be seen as in film and TV production.
I started out in low-budget film production, so I respect the importance of the skills that each of the craftsmen bring to the finished film. We wrote, directed, edited, shot, made coffee — whatever was necessary for the good of the project. Since then I have spent 20 years writing, mostly for TV. Over and over I have seen movies that looked amazing, were well-acted, tightly cut, imaginatively directed, stunningly scored — but somebody screwed up the story. Or I have spoken to writers that give half-efforts because “They’re going to change it all without asking me anyway, so why fall in love with it?”
The single biggest problem with movies today is that people who don’t know the craft of storytelling feel comfortable reworking (or ignoring) the work of those who do.
Thanks again for bringing such a clear focus to the problem. I hope to shamelessly quote you soon and often. Best,
ERIC LEWALD
Eric:
Thanks for the kind remarks. Now go spread the word!
I am trying to get in touch w/ Lev Spiro, whom I went to Whitefish Bay School with many moons ago. If anyone knows his address please pass this along..
Thanks