Sometimes I wonder whether there’s any point to it at all. I work hard, I write stories that move audiences and that mean something to people, I bring out stuff that keeps getting fanmail for years after its release… and it doesn’t mean anything. I keep wanting to tell myself that quality means something, but it doesn’t. Not to the middlemen, and the middlemen run everything.
The script that I wrote for the Amazon Studios Best Science Fiction Script contest didn’t even get picked as a semi-finalist – even though it had more positive reviews (not just from fans) than almost all the scripts that did get picked. And, much more importantly, even though quite a few of those scripts are either really bad or completely obvious rip-offs of other movies. Here was a chance to have my script read by one of my favourite writers, who I’m quite certain would have greatly enjoyed it… but the middlemen aren’t interested in quality. What are they interested in? Frankly, I don’t know, but making movies or telling stories doesn’t seem to be it. Half the scripts there would be dismissed by a real studio just for the ridiculous cover images stolen from the web.
And so I’m stuck. I have stories to tell, I have people who want to hear these stories, but quality counts for nothing. Again and again and again, quality is simply not relevant. Hard work isn’t relevant. Craft isn’t relevant. I just wonder what the fuck is relevant.
