I have been observing two big film industries (Hindi & Tamil) in India for over a decade now and has strong views based on my interactions with leading Producers on the need to be a Creative Producer than being a Financial Producer to be reasonably successful.
Unfortunately, most Producers whom we see in the film industry are Financial Producers or Deal Makers, who put together a team and leave it to the Director to complete the project by giving them all financial and manpower support. They are at best aware of the "One Line of the Script" or the theme and have very limited idea about the final script and screenplay, leading to Director taking the liberty and doing what he feels like, which most of the times turn out to be average to bad, except a few.
After leaving the final script part to the Directors, the Financial Producers depend or trust so much on the Directors that many a times, they do not even see the double-positive (edit version) before the first copy is prepared, leading to the film coming out as just the Director's point of view, instead of a teamwork and its point of view. When the film's first copy is taken out or ready for first copy, many Producers realize that the film is not up to their expectations or meeting commercial viability. They then try to do desperately whatever they can do. But even at that stage, most Directors convince them (with examples of how such previous films succeeded) that it will do well and they need not worry. When the Producer trusting even at that stage, does the marketing and distribution of the film, he ends up with a dud at the box office. When the losses occur, they commence speaking ill about the Director and his film among friends and media.
I would squarely blame these Producers for all such failures. As the eminent Producer-Director Yash Chopra once said, it is not the films that fail, but the scripts and budgets, which fail. When the scripts and budgets go wrong, no film can be saved. Unless the Producers decide to work closely with Directors on the final script and the budget, the films will normally come out without any control on both these aspects, and more or less a failure in hand.
No Director is God who knows exactly what will work with the audience, since if that is the case, the film industries in every language will not be facing over 90% failures. Every Director is trying to state a point of view and it may or may not work with the audience. A Producer should be the person, who is able to understand the script better, get more views from other team members or experienced people before giving the go ahead to commence the work. He then, should work closely with the Director to fine tune the script and screenplay so that it meets the audience's expectations on 6 "E"s , we mentioned earlier (or whatever parameter he feels adequate) before finalizing the same.
The Director must be given the freedom to translate the final approved script into celluloid in his own way as each one has his own style and presentation and that is where the creativity comes in.The Director also must be given all the freedom to improve on the pre-approved screenplay-dialogues during the shoot. There the Producer cannot intervene as at the shooting spot, only the Director must be the captain. However, before getting into that stage, every Producer must play a strong role in working with the Director for as many days in finalizing the script and screenplay, which helps to save him later of all the troubles.
Being a Financial Producer is relatively easy as one needs to just put together a team and organize funds and leave the rest to the Director and the production team. However, being a Creative Producer is tough. He or she must be involved in every stage of script, screenplay and dialogues, finalize the composition of songs with the Director, finalize the casting, budgeting and actual production. Net, the Creative Producers must be "hands on" on the project, knowing each and every detail (including the dialogues and music of the film), so that they are a great support to the Director and a good team member. When the Producers behave like "Mudhalalis or Owners" of a film, they remain as "Financial Producers". When they are actively involved in every aspect of the film they become "Creative Producers" who have great control over the project.
Of course, Creative Producers are hated/disliked by the Directors who look for free hand in the film and wish to take all credit for the final outcome. But at the end of the day, it is the money of the Producer, which is at stake. Hence, my personal view is every Producer must be a Creative Producer to have great control over the films and also have total ownership for the final output. The Producers must treat the Directors as a team member and a team leader and give the respect due than treating him like a God before the film release and treat him like a Demon post the release and failure of a film.
This point of view can be corroborated with the success ratio of known Creative Producers like Yash Chopra, Karan Johar (in Hindi), R.B. Choudhry (Super Good films), AVM Studios, Kavithalaya banner (in Tamil) etc.
I will discuss in another blog the success ratio of Producer-cum-Directors Vs pure Directors.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Whatever Happens is for our own Good
Last week my car's gear box conked off and the repair work is taking more days since the parts have to be brought from Delhi. So, no choice other than using the public transport after a long long time. My daughter, who is used to go by Car to the college, for the first time has been forced to go by bus, which she was always resisting for months now. I who hated to travel by auto, has to wait and pick an auto to travel to my office and come back home.
Last one week's travel by auto and bus by both of us has made us realize some interesting things about life:
1. Once we get used to any pain or difficulty, it is no longer tough and we tend to accept such things and move ahead than keep worrying about it.
- In the beginning I was cribbing to myself about waiting to find an auto, the way he drives and the pain of sitting inside and the difficulty to take calls while travelling etc. But, after 4 to 5 days, it has become normal/routine and even this journey by auto is interesting and making me observe more the happenings around me than what I could do when I was traveling by car, driven by someone.
- Every pain or difficulty in life is tough only when we face it for the first time. Once we start accepting it, it becomes normal and a part of our life. Just check this with any one who lost his/her limbs or any one who lost anything in their life (it can be their loved ones or anything). They have all accepted it and moved on than keep crying about it. As they say, Life Moves On and the best way to face it is by being confident with the thought that "This Too Shall Pass". Mumbai moved on with 26/11/2008 experience and no longer worries about except the newspapers, who are giving such headlines.
2. Everything happens for our own Good. All these difficulties (small or big) also happen for our own good only.
- My daugher who never learnt how to travel by bus, now learnt the various bus routes/services and is able to go to her college and come back on her own, without any support from us. She will no longer require the car to drop her, which saves us from several planning hastles.
- I would no longer be dependent on my car for travel. I would be fine with both public transport or by my car and will enjoy both the rides.
This reminds of a beautiful story, I read few years back about "whatever happens is for our own good".
An old story is told of a king in Africa who had a close friend with whom he grew up. The friend had a habit of looking at every situation that ever occurred in his life (positive or negative) and remarking, “This is for our own good!”
One day the king and his friend were out on a hunting expedition. The friend would load and prepare the guns for the king. The friend had apparently done something wrong in preparing one of the guns, for after taking the gun from his friend, the king fired it and his thumb was blown off. Examining the situation the friend remarked as usual, “This is for our own good!” To which the king replied, “No, this is not good and I shall show you how” and proceeded to send his friend to jail and commenting lightly about the loss to the King.
About a year later, the king was hunting in an area that he should have known to stay clear of. Cannibals captured him and took him to their village. They tied his hands, stacked some wood, set up a stake and bound him to the stake.
As they came near to set fire to the wood, they noticed that the king was missing a thumb. Being superstitious, they never ate anyone that was less than whole. So untying the king, they sent him way. As he returned home, he was reminded of the event that had taken his thumb and felt remorse for his treatment of his friend. He went immediately to the jail to speak with his friend. “You were right”, he said, “it was good that my thumb was blown off”. And he proceeded to tell the friend all that had just happened. “And so I am very sorry for sending you to jail for so long. It was bad for me to do this.”
No, his friend replied, “This is also for our own good!” What do you mean, “This is for our own good?”” How could it be good that I sent my friend to jail for a year?”
The friend said, “If I had NOT been in jail, I would have been with you and would have become the perfect food for them.”
Remember, whatever happens, happens for our own good ...
Last one week's travel by auto and bus by both of us has made us realize some interesting things about life:
1. Once we get used to any pain or difficulty, it is no longer tough and we tend to accept such things and move ahead than keep worrying about it.
- In the beginning I was cribbing to myself about waiting to find an auto, the way he drives and the pain of sitting inside and the difficulty to take calls while travelling etc. But, after 4 to 5 days, it has become normal/routine and even this journey by auto is interesting and making me observe more the happenings around me than what I could do when I was traveling by car, driven by someone.
- Every pain or difficulty in life is tough only when we face it for the first time. Once we start accepting it, it becomes normal and a part of our life. Just check this with any one who lost his/her limbs or any one who lost anything in their life (it can be their loved ones or anything). They have all accepted it and moved on than keep crying about it. As they say, Life Moves On and the best way to face it is by being confident with the thought that "This Too Shall Pass". Mumbai moved on with 26/11/2008 experience and no longer worries about except the newspapers, who are giving such headlines.
2. Everything happens for our own Good. All these difficulties (small or big) also happen for our own good only.
- My daugher who never learnt how to travel by bus, now learnt the various bus routes/services and is able to go to her college and come back on her own, without any support from us. She will no longer require the car to drop her, which saves us from several planning hastles.
- I would no longer be dependent on my car for travel. I would be fine with both public transport or by my car and will enjoy both the rides.
This reminds of a beautiful story, I read few years back about "whatever happens is for our own good".
An old story is told of a king in Africa who had a close friend with whom he grew up. The friend had a habit of looking at every situation that ever occurred in his life (positive or negative) and remarking, “This is for our own good!”
One day the king and his friend were out on a hunting expedition. The friend would load and prepare the guns for the king. The friend had apparently done something wrong in preparing one of the guns, for after taking the gun from his friend, the king fired it and his thumb was blown off. Examining the situation the friend remarked as usual, “This is for our own good!” To which the king replied, “No, this is not good and I shall show you how” and proceeded to send his friend to jail and commenting lightly about the loss to the King.
About a year later, the king was hunting in an area that he should have known to stay clear of. Cannibals captured him and took him to their village. They tied his hands, stacked some wood, set up a stake and bound him to the stake.
As they came near to set fire to the wood, they noticed that the king was missing a thumb. Being superstitious, they never ate anyone that was less than whole. So untying the king, they sent him way. As he returned home, he was reminded of the event that had taken his thumb and felt remorse for his treatment of his friend. He went immediately to the jail to speak with his friend. “You were right”, he said, “it was good that my thumb was blown off”. And he proceeded to tell the friend all that had just happened. “And so I am very sorry for sending you to jail for so long. It was bad for me to do this.”
No, his friend replied, “This is also for our own good!” What do you mean, “This is for our own good?”” How could it be good that I sent my friend to jail for a year?”
The friend said, “If I had NOT been in jail, I would have been with you and would have become the perfect food for them.”
Remember, whatever happens, happens for our own good ...
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
6 "E"s for a Good Script
Last 3 years of my life have been fascinating as I could get the opportunity as the Head of Film Business, to read over 100 scripts in Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam languages, which helped me to understand what a good script comprises of. Adding to this, is the knowledge and experience of watching hundreds of good, average and bad movies over the years in several languages. Based on this learning and knowledge, I could arrive at a set of requirments, for a good script to be. Though I cannot write a good script myself, the best thing is I am able to appreciate a good script or comment on a script with detailed points, has been time and again accepted by several new and established script writers in the last one year in many languages. In fact, some of them mentioned that I am a good Script Doctor!
I have written about this in one of the film magazines, which led to an invitation to speak at a leading Film Institute and explain this further. The students have lapped up the idea and appreciated the concept and in fact each of them did an empirical study on some 20 films released in the recent past and corraborated the concept itself on how worthy was these scripts.
To my mind, a good script must have 6 "E"s if it has to be commercially viable. Remember, if the objective is to make a film for awards or for some other purpose, it need not follow this concept. Films meant for "niche audience" can be a single person's point of view (writer and director), without worrying about the likes and dislikes of the audience. For a commercially viable film, the script must appeal to larger audience and hence must follow some pattern / set of requirements.
1. Entertaining: The film's paramount objective should be to entertain the audience. If the film script is not entertaining at least in parts (if not in full), it will fail to motivate the audience to see it again. The audience are coming to entertain themselves to a film and hence the script must first fulfil this requirement.
2. Emotionally Connecting: The audience must be able to emotionally connect with the film script. When the audience is able to connect with the film emotionally, they would speak about the film favorably leading to good word of mouth and repeat viewing. If there is no emotional connect, the film will not the hearts of the people.
3. Engaging: The film script must engage the audience in such a manner that they are not bored in between for long and or made to leave in between. Even if the script engages the audience from time to time, it has a better chance of appeal with the audience. If the script can engage the audience for 2 hours, at least for that sake, there will be one time viewing by most.
4. Educating / Enlightening: Take aways from the script/film is important. What does the film script intends to convey to the audience and how far it helps them to think, is the key. It cannot be a plain entertainment oriented film with mindless comedy/sequences as such a script will have only one time/instant appeal and not a long term appeal. Film, which are educating the audience on a new concept/theme, has better appeal. However, they must not be preachy ... the script must educate/enlighten in a subtle manner, appealing to the subconsicious mind.
5. Experimenting: Without using the conventional formula or masala stuff, how the script is different from the rest will make a better appeal. The script must stand out from the rest of the movies for it to have a better chance of success. If every script is going to be a conventional one (following standard formula of songs and scenes), why should the audience see this film?
6. Empowering: The script must leave the audience empowered at the end of the film. They should either learn or feel empowered with the script for the script to make a bigger impact. Empowering here must be seen more from the concept of whether the film made them feel great watching it, apart from entertaining them ... Films like A Wednesday, Mumbai Meri Jaan, Chak De, Lagaan etc. have all made common man feel empowered at the end of watching them.
No script can score on all the above 6 parameters. The best way to judge how a script fares on the above parameters is to assign a rating of 1 to 5 (1 for Least and 5 for the Best) for each of the 6 parameters for the script. Once the ratings are assigned, total the same for the entire script and plot it against the following table to know its fate:
Score 0 - 10: Never consider such scripts. Reject.
Score 11 - 15: Need improvements in the script. Rework and then review on the parameters to see whether it is worth considering again.
Score 16 - 20: Average script. Can be considered if done on a tight budget.
Score 21 - 25: Certainly worth considering and a Hit script
Score 25 and above: Perfect script and must not be missed.
I have plotted the above ratings and scale for several films and find it is working empirically. Why not you attempt the above for your set of film scripts also? ... A method to the madness of film making is this attempt. Hope u would make use of it.
The biggest challenge is studying the script in detail, evaluating them on the above parameters and then taking a decision. Most of the decisions on the script are taken instantly by the decision makers leading to huge failures. It is a classic case of "Instant Pleasure (of saying Yes to a script) and Long Term Pain (of losses)". One must time more time to select the Script before venturing into Production is my strong view.
Another key to apply the above concept is, the ratings must not be done only by one person as he or she can be biased on the parameters. At least 3 - 5 people who have read / listened to the script must evaluate the script on the above and the average of their ratings for each of the paramters must be used to arrive at the total score and the consequent decision.
We have started using it ... hope others would find it interesting to use this method.
I have written about this in one of the film magazines, which led to an invitation to speak at a leading Film Institute and explain this further. The students have lapped up the idea and appreciated the concept and in fact each of them did an empirical study on some 20 films released in the recent past and corraborated the concept itself on how worthy was these scripts.
To my mind, a good script must have 6 "E"s if it has to be commercially viable. Remember, if the objective is to make a film for awards or for some other purpose, it need not follow this concept. Films meant for "niche audience" can be a single person's point of view (writer and director), without worrying about the likes and dislikes of the audience. For a commercially viable film, the script must appeal to larger audience and hence must follow some pattern / set of requirements.
1. Entertaining: The film's paramount objective should be to entertain the audience. If the film script is not entertaining at least in parts (if not in full), it will fail to motivate the audience to see it again. The audience are coming to entertain themselves to a film and hence the script must first fulfil this requirement.
2. Emotionally Connecting: The audience must be able to emotionally connect with the film script. When the audience is able to connect with the film emotionally, they would speak about the film favorably leading to good word of mouth and repeat viewing. If there is no emotional connect, the film will not the hearts of the people.
3. Engaging: The film script must engage the audience in such a manner that they are not bored in between for long and or made to leave in between. Even if the script engages the audience from time to time, it has a better chance of appeal with the audience. If the script can engage the audience for 2 hours, at least for that sake, there will be one time viewing by most.
4. Educating / Enlightening: Take aways from the script/film is important. What does the film script intends to convey to the audience and how far it helps them to think, is the key. It cannot be a plain entertainment oriented film with mindless comedy/sequences as such a script will have only one time/instant appeal and not a long term appeal. Film, which are educating the audience on a new concept/theme, has better appeal. However, they must not be preachy ... the script must educate/enlighten in a subtle manner, appealing to the subconsicious mind.
5. Experimenting: Without using the conventional formula or masala stuff, how the script is different from the rest will make a better appeal. The script must stand out from the rest of the movies for it to have a better chance of success. If every script is going to be a conventional one (following standard formula of songs and scenes), why should the audience see this film?
6. Empowering: The script must leave the audience empowered at the end of the film. They should either learn or feel empowered with the script for the script to make a bigger impact. Empowering here must be seen more from the concept of whether the film made them feel great watching it, apart from entertaining them ... Films like A Wednesday, Mumbai Meri Jaan, Chak De, Lagaan etc. have all made common man feel empowered at the end of watching them.
No script can score on all the above 6 parameters. The best way to judge how a script fares on the above parameters is to assign a rating of 1 to 5 (1 for Least and 5 for the Best) for each of the 6 parameters for the script. Once the ratings are assigned, total the same for the entire script and plot it against the following table to know its fate:
Score 0 - 10: Never consider such scripts. Reject.
Score 11 - 15: Need improvements in the script. Rework and then review on the parameters to see whether it is worth considering again.
Score 16 - 20: Average script. Can be considered if done on a tight budget.
Score 21 - 25: Certainly worth considering and a Hit script
Score 25 and above: Perfect script and must not be missed.
I have plotted the above ratings and scale for several films and find it is working empirically. Why not you attempt the above for your set of film scripts also? ... A method to the madness of film making is this attempt. Hope u would make use of it.
The biggest challenge is studying the script in detail, evaluating them on the above parameters and then taking a decision. Most of the decisions on the script are taken instantly by the decision makers leading to huge failures. It is a classic case of "Instant Pleasure (of saying Yes to a script) and Long Term Pain (of losses)". One must time more time to select the Script before venturing into Production is my strong view.
Another key to apply the above concept is, the ratings must not be done only by one person as he or she can be biased on the parameters. At least 3 - 5 people who have read / listened to the script must evaluate the script on the above and the average of their ratings for each of the paramters must be used to arrive at the total score and the consequent decision.
We have started using it ... hope others would find it interesting to use this method.
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