The Power of Film

Don’t you just love coming out of a movie theater after seeing a really original film? You can literally find yourself singing with contentment. The world looks brighter, your dinner tastes better, and you’re more alive on the planet—the movie has taken you to another level. Which is amazing when you think about it. Just by sitting in a dark room with images flashing on a screen for a couple of hours your life has changed. Maybe your opinion on something has been altered, maybe you decide to call an old boyfriend, maybe you think about moving to another city, maybe you download a different kind of book to your Kindle…whatever. Point is, movies have the power to change us—in big ways and small.

And who is the architect of that change? The screenwriter. The person who had the idea and mapped it out and brought it to life on the page.

Much has been said about how little power the screenwriter has in Hollywood [or Bollywood or wherever movies are being made] and in many ways it’s true. After you write your screenplay and it starts its journey to being made, it’s the producers and the directors who call the shots. Once they buy your screenplay they can hire other writers to change it, they can do as they like and you have absolutely no involvement. Let alone power.

But where DO you have power as a screenwriter? On the page.

When you choose to write about something close to your heart—rather than writing about something similar to what you saw in the most recent remake—you’re using your power.

When you create a character who’s the district attorney in the small town drama you’re writing, you can choose to make that person whatever ethnicity you like, whatever sex you like, whatever background you like. You can create diversity on the page that will translate to the screen. That can be very powerful.

It’s the writer who has the power to challenge the system—with every word you write. MAKE people sit up and take notice of your passion about your subject, of your off-beat sense of humor, your window into a world they never knew about. Take all of those agents and studio execs on a ride into the land of your script…have a powerful vision and get it onto the page. Be brave, be bold—and write your little heart out.

Copyright © Diane Lake

16Oct16

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com