June 1, 2009
Risatrix Attends a Conference
After years of halfheartedly attending academic conferences, I thought it was time to try something a little different. I had the chance to attend the Nashville Screenwriters' Conference and thought, Why not?
Thus I find myself at the Union Station Hotel. Upon registering I receive a t-shirt and a canvas bag full of swag. I'm impressed by the chocolate, Goo-Goo clusters, energy drink, and boutique-y breath mints--we're already way ahead of most academic conferences here. I'm also thrilled by the continuous availability of free coffee.
Still from "I Love You Phillip Morris"
The first day features two speakers, both of whom are very good. One is a charismatic local screenwriter. The other is a CAA exec who is as cheerily enthusiastic as Cheri Oteri's character on "Just Shoot Me," but a lot smarter and cooler.
That night, we see a preview of "I Love You Phillip Morris." As the sponsors remind us, this is "straight from Cannes." Pretty exciting stuff! The movie is very good, and the next day kicks off with a panel featuring the writers/directors. The same team wrote "Bad Santa," one of my favorite movies ever, so I tell them how great their comedy is.
The rest of the weekend features panels of screenwriters, many of whom have written movies you've actually heard of ("Pirates of the Caribbean", "Shrek", "Wanted", "Scary Movie 3", etc.). I'm struck by the fact that these writers seem like very normal people. No diva-ish artistes here, just folks with a pragmatic sense of how to make a story work.
I enjoy the stories about joke writing, of course. The writers can tell a good yarn, as you might expect, and in general they don't take themselves too seriously. One writer, clearly jonesing for a cigarette, patiently lets a fan take a picture before he goes out to smoke (I know this because I was made impromptu photographer).
I realize that the panelists are interesting enough to make me actually want to talk to them after the panel is done. I wonder if this is what real academics feel like at academic conferences. I choose not to pursue that thought, as it would probably mean having a pretty serious career crisis, and I'm just not in the mood.
Instead, I am delighted to find Plato lurking in some of the panels. Many of the writers and producers talk about the fact that it's very easy for a movie to become bad. The process of making a movie is long and at every turn, as one writer/director observes, there's a choice that could lead to mediocrity or awfulness. I think about Plato's insistence that virtue consists in choices, made willfully, every day and every hour. Despite their down-to-earth approach, these writers have a sense of virtue that Plato would surely admire.
I enjoyed the conference. Between the candy and the people talking about what they did, I felt like I was at some sort of "Career Day" for adults. Perhaps I should go to more random conferences. Every group has meetings, I suppose, and you can go to conferences about yoga, marketing, music, and anything else. It's a good way to see what the world has to offer and, come to think of it, maybe I should be considering alternative careers. You know, just in case this professor thing doesn't work out.
