Most times after watching a very terrible movie, the natural instinct when asked by someone who hasn’t seen it is to blatantly admit it is a total wash out. Words of condemnation can stream out of your mouth unconsciously to express your disappointment and it is okay.
But it ceases to be okay once you decide to take up the screenwriting profession.
The reason is very simple, very soon your work will come under the searchlight as well and you will come to understand how hard it is to write a blockbuster movie. So in screenwriter parlance, you are permitted to say the movie works for me… if you love it. Or it doesn’t work for me… if you dislike it.
The reason we play on words in critiquing other people’s works is this.
1. Screenwriting takes a lot of effort to put together and it will be very demoralizing to outrightly pass a vote of no-confidence on another person’s work.
2. Because it is a creative piece, it is very subjective. What doesn’t appeal to one may appeal to another.
3. Experienced screenwriters always know that every bad screenplay can be fixed, so it isn’t out right rubbish.
So as a screenwriter, the next time you watch a movie that doesn’t work for you…think of possible ways the writer could have handle it better.
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