David Landau on How We Talk and Write About Lighting

From the HD Pro Guide Magazine archive: this article first appeared in HD Pro Guide Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 1 (NAB 2018). By David Landau.

By David Landau I have often been perplexed when a producer or another writer reads something I wrote and then gives the following comment, “Dig deeper.” I suspect all writers get this feedback. My first inclination is to think to myself, “What? You want I should dig the hole I’m in deeper?” Is there some book that only producers read that tells them when to say “dig deeper” instead of giving specific comments? When I first saw Adaptation by Charlie Kaufman, I laughed and was moved by it. This isn’t really a comedy. It’s really a tragedy. Writers block, loss of self worth, self-destruction

• these are all themes within the two hour story. The story

was on the surface about a screenwriter attempting to adapt a non-linear book into a movie. But Kaufman dug deeper. He wrote about adaptation – changing to survive. That’s what self-doubting screenwriter Charlie – the character in the film not the author – fails to do, while his brother actually Donald does. As Donald realizes success, Charlie falls deeper into despair. Ironically, and a true statement on Hollywood, it is Charlie who lives. Virtually everything in Kaufman’s screenplay runs counter to the agreed upon collective instruction on how to write for the screen. The screenplay is imbedded with voice-over, not just of Charlie but of the female main character Orlean as well. It features flashbacks within flashbacks. It doesn’t even seem to know exactly who its protagonist is – Charlie or Orlean. While these might all be severe comments given to Kaufman by a producer or reader, one thing he made sure they can’t say is “dig deeper”. And that is why Adaptation works perfectly just the way it is. Kaufman found a universal feeling that connects all human beings – the feeling of despair. His two writer main characters both share this, while seeing all around them others who seem not to share their plight. Despair is a lonely business. Kaufman seems to be saying that despair is a downward spiral that ends with horrible consequences

• for us and those around us. That’s deep.

But the screenplay is full of humor and irony. Despair is so heavy that if Kaufman left out his wit and his social commentary, we would all be killing ourselves half way through the feature – or at least walking out. A good story has a balance between the tragic and the comic. They are two sides of the same coin. Unfortunately many writers seem to forget that. The despair in Kaufman’s writing is particularly strong because it is off set by the humor -counter opposed to it. It is the juxtaposition of the funny lines with the sad circumstances that makes this story so poignant. Kaufman isn’t the first to do this. Certainly Charlie Chaplin was adapt at this art as witnessed in his film City Lights and Larry Gilbert did it in MASH.

When we writers are told to dig deeper, we aren’t be asked to fill in more of the back ground of our characters, or add more obstacles for our protagonist to overcome. We are being told to do what Kaufman did, find that universal, all connecting “something” that we have successfully hinted out but not quite grasped a hold of within our writing. This is our theme. It is what our story is “really” about. It’s there, some where, and the person who told us to dig deeper saw a glimpse of it, otherwise they wouldn’t have bothered to say the comment at all. They would have just concentrated on the standard screenwriting workshop commentary – the stuff Kaufman defiantly makes fun of and refuses to bow to.

But just because Kaufman rejected McKee and Fields and all the rest, doesn’t mean I can. If all I want to do is get into the game of trying to make a sale, I can do what the character Donald does – although he dies in the end. The deep question Kaufman might be posing isn’t “can we adapt,” but “how far can we adapt before it’s too late?” Maybe what Kaufman did was what his Charlie character wanted to do – write something from the heart, from the soul. And few things are closer to the soul than despair and inner doubt. This theme makes it a story that resounds and connects with many people.

In Adaptation Kaufman adapted his tragedy into something as non-linear as the book his main character was attempting to adapt – a daunting task that reflected his inner problems. He also adapted tragedy into comedy and drove the point home so much more effectively. Sometimes the best adaptation is to break the rules.

Production still. Film, “Adaptation.” Meryl Streep and Spike Jonze.

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