Filmmaking lessons to take from "The Studio"
Not paid marketing, I just like the show!
This week marked the end of the first season of Seth Rogen (& Evan Golberg & Peter Huyck & Alex Gregory & Frida Perez)’s The Studio (for Apple TV+). And it’s been a hell of a ride. I love this show. I think it’s so funny. And so spot on to how stupid this industry really is. It’s extremely tapped in to the emotional experience of working in Hollywood — which is primarily a wild ride from soul-crushing defeat to top-of-the-world “I am invincible!” and back again, over and over.
This is the human experience. And how every industry feels. Everyone is in over their heads. There is a constant fire to be put out. The old way of doing things is nearly dead, replaced by a new, worse way of doing things.
And while I’m aware that this series is very much a madcap self-owning satire about how nothing in Hollywood makes any sense, and most of the people working here have basically no idea how to do anything other than try to make money (or worse, look cool)… I do think the show has some genuine creative lessons we can apply to our own careers in this messed up town.
There’s a reason the newsletter’s called Hollyweird. It’s a very weird place. But love it or hate it, it’s still where we’re working. And The Studio gets all of that. After all, it’s made by some very very smart people who really do love the movies.
If you haven’t yet watched, there are spoilers ahead! But I don’t think anything that would ruin the show. I don’t even believe in spoilers! But for those of you who do… be forewarned!
Most of the decisions being made (good and bad) are not about you at all.
They're most likely choosing to buy your movie because it helps catapult their own careers. Or because their boss wants them to. Or they’re not buying it because their boss doesn’t want them to. Or they’re agreeing to be in the movie because they actually thought the director was someone else and now it’s too late to back out (see: the “why Bill Murray was in Garfield” story). We all tend to take success and failure personally (how couldn’t we? it’s happening to us!) but it is very important to remember that… not everything is about you!
And when it comes to Hollywood, almost nothing is about you!
Instead it’s probably about some internal development mandate about how “people will watch shows about space, but only if 50% of the action takes place on a planet…” [This is a real pass I was given once?]
Of course we all want to do the best we can to do the best we can, but it’s also imperative not to take it personally when you don’t get the thing, or when the thing you did get is unceremoniously killed. There are A LOT of moving parts in this business, and it almost never has to do with you.
This business is all about the long game.
That guy you let crash on your couch ten years ago? He’s now winning a Golden Globe. That woman who used to run the studio? She’s now an independent producer (also winning a Golden Globe). The entertainment business is, more than anything, a war of attrition. If you can keep eking out even moderate successes, and in the process keep building your creative portfolio and relationships, eventually you will have outlasted everyone long enough to quite possibly have a real career. This isn’t the lottery, it’s a game of Survivor.
Sure, every once in a while a fresh faced newcomer breaks in big, but more often than not success really looks like just continuing to make things, long enough that you start to get good at it (and recognized for being good at it). So be like Sal. Let your actor friends sleep on your couch, because you never know which of them is going to end up winning a Golden Globe and name-checking you in their acceptance speech.
Be flexible, but don't contort yourself into being part of the problem.
If you really want to make a movie about Jonestown and the studio demands you call it Kool-Aid... is that really going to compromise your artistry? Probably not. Will you still get the budget you need and complete creative control? If so, let them call the movie whatever they want!
If you're the writers of the second (worse) version of the Kool-Aid movie and a month before production you're told that actually the entire movie should now be a third, entirely new idea, one that is actually about the Black experience, and you yourself are not Black, do you really want to stay flexible? I’m not so sure!
It pays to have a bright line somewhere so that you can at least say, “Okay. I will compromise my artistic integrity to a point, because I am aware that this is a business… but after this point, I probably have moved from compromising artistically to compromising morally and that is… not ideal.”
Do not compromise your integrity! You always always always pay the price. Either financially, spiritually, or (if you’re a television character) in a hilarious schadenfreude inducing snafu.
Movie theaters need to have something for everyone.
Entertainment is an ecosystem. And like any ecosystem, it depends on a delicate balance. All the wildlife needs something to eat.
Without a broad and diverse range of movies for people to go see... we are losing a broad and diverse range of moviegoers. Our industry (and our artists) cannot survive on a diet made up entirely of increasingly expensive movies about increasingly obscure superheroes. A healthy diet demands vegetables (indie dramas). And proteins (action movies). And fats (comedies). One could argue that processed foods (superhero movies & Disney live action remakes) should be nothing more than a once in a while indulgence!
I am mixing metaphors here, but that is because I really do believe we can and should have it all! I for one support Matt Remick's vision of a studio making movies for everyone. At least Continental seems to have not just one but TWO adult dramas coming out next year. Better than some studios!
Audiences can feel an artistic challenge. And we like it.
The series itself is constructed of VERY LONG single takes, all shot on one lens (25mm*). It means that there is a tremendous amount of effort and pre-production work to make even the stupidest jokes work. Seth Rogen has been sharing a bunch of behind the scenes magic via instagram, and it's great to watch for people who, like me, miss DVD commentaries.
*If you are into this sort of lens talk — the show’s DP Adam Newport Berra has an extremely in-depth breakdown of their process of making the show (and his thought process around gear!).
Why go to such extraordinary lengths to maintain a formal conceit? Especially for a comedy? Audiences really can feel the care that goes into making something. And if you are making something without care, we can equally feel that. So if you are absolutely busting your ass to make a goofball comedy — we can tell!
And it tends to pay off! The Studio has been renewed for a second season, and it’s truly been one of the highlights of my television watching year so far.
Believe it or not, I think it’s the kind of show a lot of us here in Hollyweird could learn a thing or two from.
This is a great creative lesson! Thanks for writing this