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Chris Moore's Column - The Narrowing Down Process
The Narrowing Down Process
Wow, what a trip to watch it all play out on TV. Am I really that big, in the elevator going to let the two non-winners know? I looked like a giant. Weird. Maybe this is why people in my office call me SHREK! Anyway, I thought this episode really captured how hard it was to be a judge. What did you guys think?
From my point of view, we really underestimated how hard it would be to pick a winner, how awful it would be to tell those not moving on in the contest that indeed, they were not moving on, and most amazingly, how psyched everyone would get about Project Greenlight. I was proud and excited about how cool this thing we had done was becoming. How much it meant to people means a lot to me.
When we started this thing we really believed people would take it seriously and that we would get good movies to pick from and boy were we right. I am always amazed at how negative some people are in Hollywood, and Project Greenlight was certainly met with skepticism. That 10-3-1 event was awesome and proved so many of our beliefs in people and in amateur filmmakers that I was sort of shocked with excitement.
I have a few things I want to touch on regarding the episode and hopefully I will catch your concerns. If not, respond on the boards and I will try to answer on the Wednesday edition of the site.
First was just to say that is was harder than you think. Second was to say how hard it was to tell the folks who did not move on. It just had not sunk in how much this meant to people, but I was really floored and shaken by people's clear sadness and disappointment. Matt says it in the show and I say it again here, we never saw the difficulty or pain of choosing when we signed on for Project Greenlight. It was awful. To David, Rick, Chris, Katie, Rob, Bruce and Ken, Barron and Evan, Matt, and Brendan, I am sorry it was hard. But boy am I grateful to you for your time effort and sportsmanship during that whole process.
The third thing was "Why Pete?" As I think was obvious, there was disagreement, particularly between Matt and I. The debate is an age-old Hollywood battle, and I think we came down right on our respective jobs' traditional stances. Basically, from a creative standpoint, Matt was on the side of executor and I was on the side of concept. Now we both see merit in each other's position and Matt would never pick a role based just on the director and I would not produce a movie just for the concept, but we certainly weighed these factors differently.
Once we got to the top three it came down to the following criteria: Ability to direct, quality of screenplay, commerciality, and budget. So, we started with three scripts. Brendan Murphy had the best directing piece of the three finalists followed closely by Barron and Evan, except their casting choice for their lead hurt them, and then Pete. Pete's story was the one we all fell for, it had heart and laughs and drama and we all liked it the most. Barron and Evan's story was funny but unbelievable, and Brendan's was inaccessible and not linear. Barron and Evan's script was the most commercial by far, followed pretty closely by Pete with Brendan in a distant third. Brendan's movie was the easiest to do for the million dollars, followed closely by Pete, and Barron and Evan coming up a distant third, as their movie would be a 20 million dollar Sandra Bullock-starring vehicle.
Score so far:
| Directing: |
1. Brendan
2. Barron and Evan
3. Pete |
| Story: |
1. Pete
2. Barron and Evan
3. Brendan |
| Commerciality: |
1. Barron and Evan
2. Pete
3. Brendan |
| Budget: |
1. Brendan
2. Pete
3. Barron and Evan |
Based on the score above, Barron and Evan have two 2's, a 1 and a 3, so they should win. But the budget problem and one large plot problem caused them to be dropped pretty fast. The budget problem is obvious, the best version of their movie was not the $1million version, and so we really were hard pressed to force it into the $1million box. We felt this would take away what was great about their script.
The plot point had to do with homosexuality. This is a touchy subject for some, but not one any of us are afraid of. Ben did "Chasing Amy," Matt did "The Talented Mr. Ripley," I have been developing "The Dreyfus Affair" for three years, and Miramax rose to fame with a little film called "The Crying Game." So sitting in that room we were not afraid, but we were experienced in the movie battles around homosexuality. The one plot point, in "Freeing Mr. Jiggs" that concerned all of us, was a 30-day, sexually active, love affair between two men, that never gets properly explained.
We were not afraid of taking the stance of the script that homosexuality is neither nature nor nurture, but is about love and who you love at the time. Our problem was that Barron and Evan didn't seem to think the affair needed to be explained. The confusion came from the motivation of the characters. On one hand, the fiancé is trying to figure out if her husband is gay. This seems fair to know before you marry someone. So the resolution must be an answer to her quest -- gay or not gay? The groom's response is "not gay, just a fling when I was young and experimenting." On the other hand, the former gay lover of the groom is still so in love with the groom that he has come back to get him. The "experimenting" seemed to be more than just that. So, what is the audience to believe? Was the groom just experimenting? It seemed a stretch to all of us. The groom needed to explain more and the fiancé deserved a better explanation. All these questions left the ending in jeopardy.
So this plot point and the budget made us all say, even though Meryl "wanted Jiggs," they were out. So we had Brendan and Pete. Their scores were pretty even. This is where the debate got hard. Matt and others felt Pete's script was not that good, and that his scene was not that good, so he should be out even though his story was better. I felt I would much rather make Pete's movie. His script was good and more accessible than Brendan's and he did well with the actors in his scene. So the battle raged: director and execution versus story and concept. Well, as you saw, concept won and the rest of the jury decided to go with the more commercial script. I was happy because I wanted to make Pete's movie and now that I have seen it I am thrilled he won. But no one will ever know if Brendan's would have been more commercial or what Barron and Evan could have done with a million dollars. Too bad, I would have loved to make all three.
Now as for life on the panel it was great. Everyone was so passionate and thoughtful. No one got angry or personal. Patience and working through it were the ways of the day. It is too bad you could not see all seven-plus hours of our deliberatioin -- it was wild. The free Sam Adams helped us reach consensus, that is for sure.
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