The Rules of Screenwriting and Why You Should Break Them by Bill Mesce Jr

Author:Bill Mesce, Jr.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McFarland
Published: 2017-05-17T04:00:00+00:00

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The Screenwriter:

Robert Conte

(I interviewed Bob Conte of HBO about the same time I interviewed Dave Baldwin. I felt Conte’s piece, like Baldwin’s, is still relevant to what we’re looking at here, particularly considering the difference in Conte’s perspective. Conte not only helped HBO pick projects for its various programming divisions; he also wrote—and still writes—movies.)

Bob Conte is one entertainment industry veteran not inclined to join in the hand-wringing over the present state of American movies. “I don’t think of movies as being worse than they used to be. That seems like cheap cynicism to me. Movie nostalgia works like this: you remember the 20 great movies from the last 70 years and forget the 2000 bad ones. If you’ve been to twenty movies this year, you forget the one or two good ones, and focus on all the bad ones—at least when you’re characterizing the state of the industry.”

Conte’s take on the business comes with more than a little informing experience behind it. Looking around his office at HBO where he’s been employed for over 30 years, the shelves bow with the weight of scripts. As Senior Vice President of Creative Affairs, it’s Conte’s job to read scripts, hear pitches, review DVDs of film projects—in stages from first draft scripts to completed movies—to look for material which might be suitable for the company’s HBO and Cinemax services, its DVD arm, or possibly even as an original HBO film.

But Conte’s also served on the other side of the desk. He and his writing partner, Peter Wortmann, have worked steadily as a screenwriting team for over two decades. Working on originals and as re-write men, they have lent their talents to projects at companies like Columbia, Universal, Disney, and Warner Bros.

His situation as both acquirer and talent, and his years served on both counts, seem to have left him with a sanguine imperturbability. He gives the sense of understanding the freakish combination of insanity and sagacity which are often simultaneously involved in the Hollywood decision-making process.

Conte dismisses the complaint that the tide of big-budget blockbusters is a sign the movie business has become inordinately obsessed with making money. “It’s always been about making money.” What is different these days are the market dynamics. “I think in mainstream movies there is that desire for characters and events to be larger than life.” He feels that may be a necessity when one considers the environment in which a movie must survive. “With a TV show—as quick as the networks are to pull the plug on under-performing but promising shows—you have time; time to let the characters develop, time to set up your story, time for the audience to get hooked and tell their friends. With a movie, you have a few months, or as little as a few weeks to create awareness (before the picture is released), and then a week in theaters—maybe two—to sink or swim.”

Conte himself, however, has managed to avoid any pressure to overinflate his works.

I haven’t often had the experience of being told to pump up the action.

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