Monday, June 08, 2009

Collaborationists


So what's wrong with Mutant Chronicles? Not the costume design.

The script, on the other hand, could have used a minimum of three more drafts. I say 6 more drafts and we would have been in good shape.

It seems fair to credit designers and such when the design is good, but when the design is bad -- well, that could very well be the director's fault. The director should either fire the bad designer, or have them change stuff so that it's good. I sort of have the same feeling about screenplays. A good director will tend to keep after a script and get it to be as good as it can be whereas a less-than-good director will be all like "let's just shoot what we have here."

Many writers seem to think in terms of other people screwing up their otherwise perfect movies. I'm not one of those writers. I tend to think of collaborating with other people as making my writing a whole lot better. This is why I never write without at least one partner. I figure if Nabokov can be edited, I sure as hell can be edited. The greatest writers in the world have all had strong collaborators and editors. Generally, of course, they weren't called "editor" or "co-author". They were usually called "wife".

But I digress.

This post needs a picture of a bunny.

Oops, no bunny. But a practical LOLCat.

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