I don't usually talk about my career here. It seems to me the folks who spend all day on the internet talking about their career have work that shows just that.
But I gotta share this.
I'll be as detailed as I can.
I gotta keep names out.
Please don't ask me who they are.
So I do a lot of writing (like the name WORDMAN didn't give it away) and I've got work with CLIENT. We're shooting around ideas. CLIENT: "I want to do something black." Wordman: "groan." Because any time you hear someone say this, regardless of race, it has a high potentiality to go south. CLIENT is black, so I know what CLIENT is "trying" to say. We shoot around some "black" ideas.
I approach writing jobs like I approach graphic design jobs: what does the person want - give them that.
It comes down to two ideas.
1) project on jazz music.
or
2) an urban crime flick.
Take a moment and note the irony, of a black hollywooder, trying to decide on a new project, choosing between the two.
CLIENT is all about the urban crime flick.
Wordman: "You mean another black people shooting black people movie?" CLIENT: "Nah man, I'm talking about a crime, gangster thing. You know, but it takes place in the hood." Wordman: "A black people shooting black people movie." CLIENT: "Nah man, I'm talking about the kind of shit they used to make in the '90s. Like New Jack City and shit." Wordman: "Sigh."
CLIENT is the same individual who complains about the "lack of opportunities provided for blacks in Hollywood." (work with enough hollywooders and you'll hear it so much you no longer believe their sincerity). I remind him of this fact. CLIENT: "Yeah, but Nino Brown son!" Wordman: "Sigh."
Now I have the "urban crime flick" script 80% finished. I'm not one to compare scripts (because most folks - writers included - don't read scripts, they just see the movie), but it's as good if not better than any since the "golden era" of urban crime flicks. CLIENT will love it and get right to work on it. Now the jazz jawn is around 40% finished. I'm trying to buy myself some time and show this cat the light. Help me out and post some titles to remind CLIENT that just because we have some money doesn't mean we have to move backwards. We could actually - GASP! - do something new.
The '90s Black People Shooting Black People Movie Post.
PEACE




"Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand." Saul Williams