Business screen magazine (1967)

Some Notes on the Pursuit of Excellence: (CONTINUED FROM PACE 103) but no one. should take offense. I Well, who's to say they're all I wrong? The film writer, then, must cope with more jargon than just his own. He has to translate words from clients and producers into what the words really mean — not necessarily what thev impart literally. The tremendous overflowing of film into our society has worked its own Gresham's law of overabundance. The teen-ager now yawns as he clicks off the next space launch on color television. How do you top Cinerama? So much is happening, sometimes with a large H. that more people get more jaded earlier in life than was ever thought possible. In this overflowing, themes and ideas, approaches and gimmicks, camera movements and angles, become commonplace in themselves. But a fresh idea, even if it's only partially fresh, retains a certain freedom from cliche that all our gimmickry cannot overcome. The only trouble is that an idea, any idea, has in it the germs of offending someone, however slight a minority that someone might be. The fresher the idea, of course, the more possibility that it can offend. This is the cross we all bear in film — clients, producers, directors, writers, editors — the whole shebang of us. I wish 1 could suggest a cure for this, something that would make it possible for every man-jack of us to express himself fully and refreshingly on film. But most of life is something of a consensus, something of a committee-ization, so film becomes that, too. A camel, it has been said, is a horse designed by a committee. Still, we who write films — we who want to do little else in life and are probably good for little ESKO TOWNELL Writer -Director p. O. Box 273 Cherry Hill, N. J. 08034 Telephone: (609) 428-3722 else — will congenially and patiently, sometimes with blood on our brows, try to fight this great Truism: ideas are dangerous and fresh ideas are more dangerous than any. We film writers have a lot to learn. Our successes, let alone our failures, are full of the imperative to keep an open mind, to avoid any hint of smugness whatever the degree of material success. Our industry has a passion for festivals, for awarding prizes, for issuing press releases on how good we are. This is human enough and American enough. But in our heart of hearts, we're smart enough to know that excellence is always somewhat elusive. This pursuit of excellence can keep us young. Nothing really good can come from someone who thinks he has all the answers. What we need most of all is a kind of collective instinct among clients and producers, directors and writers, that consensus is not always the answer. Nor, for that matter, is unbridled individualism. Gimmicks and interplay, coffeeklatsches and conferences, middle echelons of command and higher echelons of command, camera tricks and emotional ploys — all are the /n/rastructure of film, the environment of the business. The real structure is idea. Film k primarily idea or film is primarily nothing. The world will little consume nor long remember anything else, anything le.w. My own dictum of film is that anything that can be expressed as an idea can be expressed in film terms. Sometimes it's quite hard, but it's always quite possible. In these terms, audio is never subordinate to visuals nor vice-versa, but both are always subordinate to and serving iileas. A film of the Gettysburg Address, for example, would have audio superior to visual, almost certainly — a kind of blasphemy to many film-makers. Bui it would be the idea of such a film that makes this necessary, therefore desirable. Film is for us. We are not for ihe film. When the medium heloiiies the message. Dr. McLuhan, the message becomes worthless. Cinerama is a 3-inch screen compared to the mind that is stimulated by an idea worth having. • • • * Ki>. Nort: This 'open forum" for experienced film writers will be continued in subsequent issues. HAVING FILM PROBLEMS? TRY AV OF H0UST0N!!O £7 ( ORPORATION now has a multi-million foot lOmm color processing capacity with three fully equipped color processing machines as well as black and white. £7 CORPORATION is one of the largest, completely integrated motion picture and audio-visual facilities in the country. ^ CORPORATION'S permanent staff of more than 21)0 employees includes writers, producers, directors, editors, cameramen and animation artists with the most sophisticated and modern Oxberry animation equipment at their disposal. £7 CORPORATION'S fully integrated facility provides us with unique capability to produce the highest quality films — whether documentaries, scientific, commercial and industrial.educational.or TV Commercials for clients all across the country. fi"^] CORPORATION P.O. BOX 66824 • 2518 NORTH BOULEVARD HOUSTON, TEXAS 77006' PHONE; 713-JA 3-6701 FOR COLOR... IT'S DOUGLAS FILM INDUSTRIES— CHICAGO Specialists in 55 MM, 16 MM, 8 MM for Producers, Industry and Agencies mil I'HODI < I ION RKVIF.W 207