I saw BLACK SWAN not too long ago. It was pretty good. I liked it. But part of me hated it. It wasn’t because of any of the film’s weaknesses. It was because I have a script that was similar that hadn’t been made.
My script isn’t about a ballet dancer, it takes place at a women’s magazine, but it’s about a young, ambitious, over-talented woman who is thrust into a big job and goes crazy with all the crazy things that are happening around her. So, in that sense, it’s similar. It’s more than similar – there’s even a scene that seems lifted out of my script, not that they stole it from me – mine scene is better.
In fact, my script is better. But that doesn’t matter.
Darren Aronovsky got his film made. Whatever I think of his talents or the flaws or strengths of his script, his film was made and mine languishes on the proverbial shelf.
My point is that part of the skills and talents of a director is getting your film made, because if you don’t have that particular skill set, you’re never going to be able to show any of your other talents. I have friends who are far more talented than me, but they have yet to get a film made.
How to get your film made varies, and the stories of films getting made are as different as the styles and stories that are in the films themselves. But the fact remains that there are directors who get their films made, and those that don’t. There are directors who are awful, but we have seen their films because they somehow know how to get their films made. Nobody has seen the films of the directors who are geniuses, but haven’t gotten their films made – because they don’t have any films.
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