ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

9 years, 5 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

Sheep are the biggest employers in Wales! Without them, thousands of jobs in farming, feed manufacture, veterinary medicine, supermarkets, restaurants, mills, tailors, shops, exporters, etc wouldn't exist. Sheep should be paid more!

Ok, I'm extrapolating to make a point - all of that stuff happens because of sheep, but they don't cause it to happen.

9 years, 5 months ago - John Lubran

Paddy's analogy nails it. There are far more great scripts that will never get made into film than there are producers who will pull together all of the essential elements required before a film can be made. Clearly it's the producer whose in charge, who enables and empowers, who hires and fires.

9 years, 5 months ago - Rickardo Beckles-Burrowes

Be interesting to hear your thoughts on Jim Hart's video clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xLLQhz6UFI which fed into this article.

9 years, 5 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

If producers weren't making his scripts, they'd be making someone else's. He references the strike as a display of the power of writers, but that's a display of collective union, not writer power. If the strike had run for another month or so, frankly all the writers would have been replaced. The programmes would have still been made, those jobs still created. I think it's disingenuous to claim the glory for 12,000 people employed by the film.

9 years, 5 months ago - Dan Selakovich

Writers, especially, forget what a collaborative effort a film is (and I say that as a writer that has optioned a couple of scripts). Take almost any department head out of the process, and you still don't have a film. Sure, everything starts with the script, but what if you have a bad script with an amazing concept? A good creative producer might help you form that concept into a great script. Then that producer goes out into the world to attach money and talent. Take the producer out of the equation, and what have you got? A collection of pages. What if you took the editor out of the equation? You can't just splice shots together and expect to make money on a 100 hour film that makes no sense. What about the actors? Good ones can make that script better than it is. No actors means no film. In fact, I can easily argue that if a producer can't attract a name, you still end up with a collection of pages. You could have a mediocre script, but if George Clooney wants to be in it, I guess he's the job creator.

So, in the end, there are a lot of job creators. Take any one of them out of the equation, and you don't have a movie.

9 years, 5 months ago - Marlom Tander

I write, I love writing. But that won't employ a tea boy until a Producer decides to run with it.

Why don't I Produce? Because I know what's involved and I don't have the time. Producing is something you do properly or not at all, and properly, for commercial movies, means pretty much full time.

Writing however I can do around my real life :-)