What Happens When Too Many Cooks Are in the Kitchen?

[00:00:00]I've become friends with a few like big Hollywood writers because I roasted their movies. People who are credited as the main writers on major movies are like about 5% of my script made it to the screen. They they're not offended because it's not really the movie they wrote. [music] >> What makes [music] for a good candidate for a pitch meeting?

[00:00:24]Um, blockbuster movies where there are a lot of executives involved when there are too many cooks in the kitchen. That's great for me. Um, >> when you can feel like, oh, there there was something here, but it looks like someone someone's note messed it up or something. I've gotten I've gotten comments from screenwriters and and producers and and people who actually work in the industry being like, "Yeah, the the pitch meeting is not too far off from what actually happened."

[00:00:53]>> [laughter] >> like someone had a note about this.

[00:00:56]It's like no, I've never gotten an an angry email from anyone. It's always been like, yeah, that that's about it.

[00:01:03]That's about how that happened.

[00:01:05]>> I mean, how frequent does something like that happen where you get a message from someone in the industry related to their actual product they worked on or a film they worked on?

[00:01:16]fairly often. Um I've become friends with a few like big Hollywood writers because I roasted their movies and they'll come back to me like there man notes are so crazy or like uh executive involvement is so intense that people who are credited as the main writers on major movies are like they're like about 5% of my script made it to the screen, you know? So, it's like they they're not offended because it's not really the movie they wrote. And but then the executives aren't really offended because it's not really their movie either. It's almost like that's really just like too many cooks in the kitchen where no one is fully responsible for the thing. So, everybody is and nobody is and you get this kind of weird Frankenstein mess.

[00:02:03]And funny enough, it's on the movies that have the biggest budgets. There are just too many people involved. too many people and too many people justifying their jobs. I think you know >> if you're on if you're in the food chain you feel like you need to give a note even if >> and then it then then it's like a battle of egos like do it's like battles to be had like do I fight the executive on this note or okay I'll let I'll do this one but then like as long as I can keep this thing so you get like these it's yeah that's that's prime pitch meeting right there just uh >> well you mentioned it started with Justice League, which is like the example of like in studio insanity.

[00:02:45]>> Yeah. Yeah. And and like I mean just Supergirl uh two weeks ago, funny funny enough cuz like I feel like James Gunn is very good at what he does, but it felt like I don't know, man. It didn't uh it didn't feel like one person made that movie. Not that one person makes a movie. Like obviously there >> Singular Vision.

[00:03:06]>> Yeah. Singular vision. like it feels like there's not a clear leader sometimes. I don't like insulting specific people either. You know, screenwriter guy is not necessarily representative of the actual screenwriter of that movie and producer guy is uh >> a combination of uh the entire system.

[00:03:25]You know, it is it is very much like >> Yeah, I like poking fun of at the system and the the broken nature of the too many cooks uh problem.

[00:03:34]>> Well, like even going back one of the big things Everyone walks out of a movie and you go, "Oh man, that script was horrible.

[00:03:42]>> I didn't I didn't just sit down and read the script. I don't know what the person wrote." Like, >> I watched a movie and I'm assuming a lot when I say that. And when the more you learn how movies are made in particular, like you said, these gigantic blockbusters where so much is on the line, so everyone has an opinion and you go, "Oh, writers are hired guns that are sometimes given terrible notes. It's then given to a studio that rewrites it.

[00:04:08]The director rewrites it. Stuff happens on the set. It's reworked. It's reshot.

[00:04:12]And even the credited names that like it's such a process that you don't know who's responsible.

[00:04:20]>> Yeah. And it could be anything. It could be like in the script there could be maybe the writer wrote that this thing happens in this specific location, but then they couldn't get that specific location, so they had to shoot it in this other one. And that doesn't quite make sense, but they had to do it.

[00:04:33]That's not the writer's fault. That's like just that's nobody's fault really.

[00:04:37]If they couldn't get it, they couldn't, you know, or that place doesn't exist.

[00:04:40]It's just it's yeah, any number of things like it's a miracle whenever a movie is made, you know, even if it's good or bad. There there's so many things that can and do go wrong that people need to work around. Um that is just yeah it's it's uh hundreds of people hundreds of people and any one of them could could like have to do something in a different way or they have to listen to the boss or they need to you know make this client happy or this this this artist this this actor's ego needed this to happen the rock can't get beat up like >> all this all this kind of stuff >> and that's and that's are studying how movies are made and the behind the scenes. There's so many of those little things where well to get the financing for the movie we needed a movie star of this category. Yeah. Well, that guy's really difficult and he has he wants this to happen and therefore this happened over here. It's there it so many moving parts for a movie to work.

[00:05:41]So that's where like when you have these people like Nolan or Ryan Cougler that like have consistently made really good movies, they're just some maybe they got lucky at some point in time, but also just incredibly high competency at multiple different things, working with people, knowing how stories work and technical skill set of working with teams. Those are really advanced things while under an extreme amount of pressure. Mhm.

[00:06:07]>> And not everyone works great in every ecosystem and or every budget or you're great with these two things you have to be good at, but not this one over here.

[00:06:16]>> And you hear about these like major projects that are finishing the script as they're already shooting the movie.

[00:06:23]You know, that's crazy.

[00:06:24]>> Yeah. But like coming back to obsession, you know, like Curry B Curry Baker, sorry, Baker Barker Barker, Curry Barker had like the movie was done before he even shot it. And I think like that's the way >> that's the way to go. He had everything storyboarded. He knew the lighting before. And I think like a lot of good movies are like that where it's so clear.

[00:06:49]We're just gathering the shots that I already know I need to get, you know?

[00:06:53]Whereas um yeah, movies that are like, "Okay, we'll figure out the third act once we get to shooting it." You know, like that's not going to work.

[00:07:01]>> Yeah. And that's like I I go to a couple film festivals every year and see a lot of these, you know, 500,000 to10 million dollar movies and there's just not a bunch of cooks in the kitchen. They're smaller films, but they're really tight.

[00:07:14]And you're [clears throat] watching a movie where like if something happens, it matters matters later on in the movie. And then you watch the $250 million movie that had 15 people write it, re-shot, re-edited, and when you're shuffling everything around and everyone's taking a turn, all the little setups, all the things that make for a tight, cohesive vision, tonally speaking, plot-wise, it gets lost because everyone added their thing, everyone took their thing out, and it it just feels like bland the movie. It's super slick.

[00:07:45]>> Yeah.

[00:07:45]>> But bland. It's that's that's that strength phenomena modern