Movie reviews

SCRIPT FIESTA

OKRAGLY STOL SCENARZYSTOW

Błażej Hrapkowicz talked to Kaja Krawczyk-Wnuk, Łukasz M. Maciejewski, Krzysztof Rak, Marta Szymanek and Mateusz Pacewicz. The whole conversation is subtitled, in small print, in English, with some mistakes again but perfectly comprehensible. The writers' names appear together with little captions with their most famous titles. 

A bigger part of the meeting focused on how far a writer is involved in the production, e.g. during the casting or on set. The work on the script ends when it's approved at the last test screening. Low culture of teamwork means a director often shoots a different movie than the scriptwriter has written and than the producer requires. Another issue is that writers' names are omitted or they are not invited to festivals. Royalties were mentioned too, e.g. Canal + and HBO pay them to directors and writers while Netflix doesn't - as yet, in Germany they've started paying. Authors don't sell well, unlike US showrunners, e.g. renowned Polish writer Piesiewicz co-wrote a book which he titled "Kieślowski" since his long-time co-worker director will sell the interview with himself (i.e. Piesiewicz) better than the author himself. Błażej Hrapkowicz's joke sums up writers' position the best: The happiest person is the pessimist because they're glad if they're right and they're happy if they're wrong. Altogether, it's a fascinating meeting with five smart people conducted by a skilled presenter.