Business screen magazine (1946)

paradox BY STANFORD SOBEL •THE FILM SCENE FROM THE WRITERS VIEWPOINT" /' IK •!/)(' \ 111 ordrr lo <1«> c»iil.sl:iii(liiiC work ill liu film iii(lii>lr>. m>u must li;i%i' 11 »er> slroni; sviisc of [UTsoiiiil i(li'iilil>. iiiid >•»> ■■■»'<< iDsisI <•■> cloiii;; Ihincs >«>ur own wa>. bul ... in ordi-r to sur>i\i' lone t'noiinh lo g,vt the iluinci to do sonuthinc oiitstuiulinti. \ou must losi a lot of smalU-r hatlk-s alone the "a\. and ui>r in to produiiTs and sponsors \>hoin \ou know lo hv niislaki-ii in thfir jndumtiils at Ihilime. Ai one time in my checkered career 1 had occasion to deliver a total ot eleven babies in the line ol duly, and I think 1 am reasonabK sale in making the statement that no other film writer in our industry is also a registered male midwife. (There are a great many doctors writing medical films, ot course.) But although I have lorgoiien most ol the births 1 attended, the lirst baby I ever delivered was a memorable experience, for the simple reason that it was the delivering mother who directed the proceedings. She had taken one look at me when she entered the delivery room and then said, "Don't be nervous, Sonny, I've had nine babies and this is my last, and 111 tell you exactly what to do when the time comes." She then grasped the leather strap at the lop of the table, and proceeded to tell me exactly what to do. I think that was when I first began to respect expertise purely for its own sake, admiring the sheer technical performance of someone who is very good at what he does, regardless of what else about him is either right or wrong. Another example that comes to mind is watching my mother make Hungarian strudel dough in her earlier years. She would start with a glob ol dough about the size ol your fist in the middle of a large table, and slowly lilt and stretch it with her llngeriiii-until it was as thin as tissue papei. and covered the entire table, about the size of a pool table, without a single rip. tear, or hole. 1 was watching a real pro ol a projectionist recently handling a multimedia presentation in the round I had written. It was beautiful to sec him run sniiH)lhly through his procedure, anticipate equipinent loul-ups. and then correct them when Ihey tKcurred. (I've also seen plenty of the opposite situation, when something goes wrong ,md cvervune stands around wondering what to do next.) Mechanical problems are sometimes dilficult to solve, sometimes impossible, but with a technical problem you can at least figure out that you can't figure out the answer. Not so with creative problems. Creative problems may or may not have answers to them, but the tirsl tough job is to try to determine what the problem is, then whether an answer is possible, and finally what the answer might possibly be. It tries a writer's patience, if not his very soul, when neophvtes keep coming up with the same tired ideas as if they were originals. They arc original, of course, so far as the newcomer is concerned, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're equally fresh to everybody else. It's at times like these that you simply have to pull yourself together, draw upon your ego-identity strength and say "No, that's wrong. It won't work and it will ruin the picture." Of course, that's very easy to say after you're established and have the respect of your clients and producers, so they'll listen to you. But if you talk like that when you first get inio the film business, you're probably going to be out of the film business before you're out of your twenties. But I draw a very sharp, clear distinction between having strong convictions and just plain stubbornness. (Lately I notice that other people are just plain stubborn more often now, whereas I have the strength of my convictions which comes from a secure ego.) That last statement is something like the difference between gimmicks and devices. I decided years ago that "You gotta have a gimmick!" just wasn't true for me. In fact, I often say that other writers use gimmicks, whereas 1 employ ilevices. r\e had many assignments in lh.it curious world of "financial public relations." And last year I had one of my toughest in that field. The client was a financial PR man who had been .1 writer in his early years, as is often the case with tinanci.il PR professionals In fact, m.inv ol them still keep .i l\pewnter in their office, sort o( like engineering VPs, who keep slide-rules m sight on ihcir desks. It's a way of showing the flag' or something, even though they may not have used a typewriter or slide-rule for years. Well anyway, this client. ( I can think of no other word for him. I kept pulling rank on us during the production of the picture. He added extraneous scenes, flustered the narrator during the recording, threw in new copy at the interlock to compensiite for the silly scenes and the bad reading, and just generally acted like Peck's Bad Boy. We would fight with him almost all the time, trying to prevent him from inserting his sophomoric notions and print-media suggestions into the picture. Normally his reaction was,' "Dammit. I'm the client, and this is the first motion picture our company has ever made, and this is going to be done the way / want it done!" Needless to say, he got his way, and when the picture was shown to the board of directors they decided not 10 release it. Part of this decision was due to the depressed state of the stock market, but a lot of it was due to the fact that it w.is a simply awful picture. After the debacle ot the answer print showing, he s;iid to his comp.mv president . . . "Well, Jim, we got the best professionals money could buy, and still they made a mess of it. I tried, Jim. you can ask them. 1 fought them every inch of the way, but I just couliln't save it!" I kninv what you're saying, Re.iders. you're .s;iying to yourself, "So what else is new? That's the story of my life in sponsored films." Well, Friends, there is something new. 1 can now tell you of the story of another client. 180 ilegrees frinii the one above. This also was a tinanci.il public rcl.ilions picture, and they also were m.iking their first image film, and 12 BUSINESS SCREEN