Business screen magazine (1946)

I came He saw I conquered. The Fairchild Seventv21 A portable, compaci, allachecase sized Super 8mm sound cartridge motion picture projec lor that sets up m seconds Remarkably simple to operate, the Seventy 21 uses the continuous loop "pop m" Movie Pak* cartrirtqe lo eliminate all thread ing and handling of the film II you're looking lor a better may to win someone over lo your side, write Fdiichiiri lor details F=^\IRCMIL.O induvtil.ll PllHllKtS UlVIMflll ;'.M.ill Oi .CuiiiMi.ii l I I , M V It /?' I ■ ",it,i H(,.i >{|.im P (U '(1(1 ox STANFORD SOBEL /A 'ARADOX: It \ou want lo he hot conmiercially, you have to stay cool creatively. This month's column hegins vMth the ahove golden rule, which at one time was on my wall along with several other equally choice gems, known collectively by my colleagues as "Sobers Cynical Selling Rules." These incUiilecl such masterpieces as these: The hi)>t>i-r the talk, the smaller the hiidcet. The more entertainin}; the salesman does, the less the chance of KettinK the job. ,\iul iin own favorite: % Our best verbal guarantee is the solemn, moral committment of a client you trust implicitl.>, accompanied h\ a written purchase order. Almi>st e\er\ producer who ever stepped into the office and read these rules on m\ wall wanted a complete set for his own office walls. At one time. I thought I would put them together as an ad. offering them free lo readers. But then I realized there would be so many requests for copies, I would have no time for script writing. like all writers. I have some pericxis of intensely busy writing activity, and others of comparative idleness. Because there is no predictable pattern to these cycles, it is difficult to plan vacations, turn down script.s you don't really want lo write, or manage cash flow in a sensible manner. This point was brought home to me recently when I met with m\ accountant, anil learned lo my astonishment that 1 had h.id a very giHxl \e.ir. Retrospective analysis established what had happened, l-arly in the year, .mticipating dillicult times u> come. I had taken .i great m.in\ sm.ill. low biidgel jobs of the kinil th.il in giH>d ye.irs I 01 31 Circle 128 on reader service card 54 often bypass. Then, for no reason th: 1 can determine— even in restrospw — I also received ms usual number assignments. The incredible result? . a very good year financially. One reason that I expected a ba year and accordingly, started takin smaller, less profitable jobs early i the year was that I had competed f( a couple assignments on which I ha lost out. In lx)th cases, good friea received the a-ssignments. and in bol ^ cases, the producers went into Cha| ter Eleven, leaving the writer holdir the bag for those big, high budgi scripts. At the time. I was chuggin along on a low-budget training scric writing a slide film a week for twelv weeks, and being paid for each serif as it was delivered. None of this proves that 1 am te ribly smart — just lucky, at least fl this case. 1 was so depressed by m '^ getting a big script assignment that didn't trim my grape vines in Febn ary, and as a result, our wine turne: when we tried to cask it last fall. No' you know how badly 1 wanted thofjf"' assignments I was fortunate enoU| not to get. I mention this business of ginxl fo tune because usually it is difficult f( the average person to evaluate, ar for the writer, it is absolutely impw sible. Most things that have been bles ings for me professionallv have a rived in the guise of calamity. I coul write an entire column on the subjc^ of calamity, and another, on deprd sion. I think the reason most profc sional writers have difficulty recogni ing good fortune is that they a depressed so much of the time — f( cither gixxl or bad, reasons. Writers are depressed, obviousi when they want a job and don't get ! but they arc equally depressed wh< they don't especially want a job. ar they do get it. Then they must wri something they didn't really want write in the first place. Writers are depressed also when thi get jobs with short deadlines, becau' It nie.ins the\ h,i\e ti> work nights ar weekenils to complete and hand the job on lime. It means also ihi have to scrimp on quality to deliv' the script by the deadline. On tl other hand, writers arc equally d pressed when they gel jobs with plen of lime lo do the writing, Ix-c.iusc means they wnn'l be paid for a lot BUSINESS SCREC :iil