[HN Gopher] How a script doctor found his own voice
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How a script doctor found his own voice
Author : Caiero
Score : 37 points
Date : 2023-12-30 04:03 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.newyorker.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.newyorker.com)
| CodeBeater wrote:
| Frank's transition from script doctor to top screenwriter mirrors
| a classic dev story: a shift from fixing bugs to building entire
| systems. His journey underscores the universal truth in creative
| fields: mastering the basics leads to groundbreaking work.
| triceratops wrote:
| From reading the article it sounds like he first wrote his own
| scripts, had one of them produced, then adapted a couple of
| novels. After the success of the adaptations he was "inundated"
| by rewrite job offers.
| BryanLegend wrote:
| https://archive.ph/WjlR8
| kleiba wrote:
| _> For decades, Scott Frank earned up to three hundred thousand
| dollars a week rewriting other people's screenplays_
|
| "Decades" (plural) suggests this must have been at least 20
| years. So let's see, what that would have made in the best case:
| $300,000 * 52 * 20 = $312,000,000
|
| Not the worst reason to keep that job.
| epmaybe wrote:
| "Up to"
| kleiba wrote:
| True. So, in the worst case, there was a single week where he
| earned that.
| grogenaut wrote:
| It's a newspaper article. It's very likely there was one
| week he was paid for the previous 5 years of messing around
| with a script all at once. Or it was actually a week and he
| holed up with some director for a week to save a show off
| the rails. Is this how the final season of game of thrones
| happened?
| simonw wrote:
| The New Yorker have an extremely strong reputation for
| fact-checking every detail in every one of their stories.
|
| A couple of fun New Yorker stories about that:
| https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/02/09/checkpoints
| and https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/15/daniel-
| radclif...
|
| I'd be really interested to hear what their fact-checkers
| came up with for this $300,000/week note!
| fieldcny wrote:
| Yeah so that's the best case scenario, but it's an absurd
| estimate.
|
| I can assure you the first years doing this were hard work and
| low pay.
|
| What point are you trying to make, that he was just doing it
| for the money?
| merrywhether wrote:
| He was doing it for the money (at least at the end)! That and
| the psychological safety of not doing his own things.
| kleiba wrote:
| Honestly, I don't really know what point I'm trying to make
| or if I'm trying to make one at all. Sorry.
| owyn wrote:
| That's not how it works. It's literally in the article. For
| undivided attention on a script for a couple of weeks, for a
| movie that might have a budget of tens of millions of dollars,
| this is completely reasonable. The article also says he's
| worked on scripts for 60 movies in 20 years. So yeah, maybe 3
| per year. How much is it worth to the studio to have Saving
| Private Ryan be a better movie?
|
| _For such assignments, which are generally uncredited, he
| commands a fee that he acknowledges is "insane": three hundred
| thousand dollars a week. Most jobs last a few weeks._
| merrywhether wrote:
| > "There is something so vulnerable and frightening about doing
| your own thing, because it's your fault if it doesn't work. And
| then there's this other kind of work, where you're paid an
| extraordinary amount of money, you're the hero before you walk in
| the door, you're not even held that accountable, because you have
| a limited amount of time, and all you can do is make it better."
|
| This quote from Frank resonated with me as very similar to
| software dev. It's so much psychologically easier to work a day
| job than even small side projects. And that's for a variety of
| reasons but I normally focus more on the "mechanical" obstacles
| like context-switching and the difficulty of shapelessness. But
| with enough reputation your job can also give rise to something
| of a "risk-free" external-affirmation loop that your brain
| doubtlessly pushes you to keep spinning.
| KyleSanderson wrote:
| https://archive.is/WjlR8
| simonw wrote:
| I'm fascinated by screenwriting, and this profile has so many
| delightful little notes about why it's such a challenging craft.
| chrisaycock wrote:
| Then you might enjoy Scriptnotes, a podcast about
| screenwriting:
|
| https://johnaugust.com/scriptnotes
|
| It's hosted by John August ( _Big Fish_ , _Corpse Bride_ ) and
| Craig Mazin ( _Chernobyl_ , _The Last of Us_ ).
| simonw wrote:
| Already in my Overcast!
| narag wrote:
| I read "Maltese Falcon" in the eighties. I remember vividly that
| story about Flitcraft, even if I had forgotten where it came
| from. It's really powerful.
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