rexmere.com

One of the unexpected benefits of my interest in the recent WGA strike was my discovery of a number of screenwriters who maintain quite interesting blogs. One such was John August, who wrote the screenplays for "Big Fish" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" among others. His blog was an excellent source of information on the strike from a writer's perspective. It is also a treasure trove of information for anyone interested in the screenwriting process or story telling in general.

Mr. August has the text of a speech he gave at Trinity University in San Antonio, "Professionalism and the Rise of the Amateur", posted on his site. In it, he meditates on the distinction between "amateurs" and "professionals". The core of his thesis is that a "professional" is characterized by professional behavior more than anything else. He elaborates on that quite a bit in his speech and I recommend that you read his text.

This is relevant to me in light of the sorts of things that I've been seeking out on the Interenet of late. All of the items in my last post are, in my view, "professional" as described my Mr. August. Indeed the "New Voyages" folks specfically can't make any money (often used as the measure of a professional) lest the dogs of Paramount be set on. Money or not, the "New Voyages" episodes are done with an attention to detail and affection of the source material that would be difficult to describe as anything but professionally done.

The folks at Decoder Ring Theatre went on a marathon binge of writing and producing their shows so that their producer's pending paternity leave did not interfere with their release schedule.I was willing to start listening to "Playing for Keeps" before it had been completed because Ms. Lafferty's reputation in the Podosphere was such that I was confident that I wouldn't be left "hanging" before the story was completed.

All done very professionally despite the fact that they aren't the product of the traditional sources of media in are world, and in fact come to me very nearly directly straight from the artist's brush as it were.In a recent email to a friend, I observed that in the old equation:Talent + Discipline + Luck == Success The mechanics of the Internet are diminishing the importance of the "Luck" component. What I'm coming to realize is that that comes with a corresponding rise in the importance of the "Discipline" component. Perhaps the crux of the good that the Internet does lies in the fact that the component least under an individual's control, "Luck" is being replaced in importance by the component most under and individual's control, "Discipline". "Talent" of course, remains the wildcard.