Without rich wanting nothing arrives
In the early 1980’s I took a course at Bellevue Community College called “A Think Tank in Screenwriting”. The course was taught by Stanley Kramer who had retired to Bellevue, Washington and was writing a column on movies for The Seattle Times.
The course was very popular and a diverse group of people signed up for it: actors, writers, film buffs, fans, young people and seniors drove out to B.C.C. every week to hear what this man had to say about film making.
Jesus Christ himself (that is to say the actor James Caviezel who was to play Christ in the 2004 “Passion of the Christ”) attended Kramer’s course.
From the outset Stanley Kramer made it clear (regardless of the course description) he was not teaching a writing class but rather a class in about film making. Some of the things he would cover would be how the director works, working with writers (Kramer worked in MGM’s research department and worked his way up to editor and screenwriter) and how it felt being an independent producer in an industry dominated by conservatives and reactionaries. He ruffled a few feathers when he gave work to blacklisted screenwriter Nedrick Young in “The Defiant Ones.”
He explained what we could expect from taking the course---like some of his ‘war stories’ about the people he knew in his many years in the business, and he would bring in some of his best friends to share their expertise and experiences with the class.
Hopefully, he continued, through all this mishmash, some of us might pick up a few pointers about what to expect when we worked in film and avoid some of the more common mistakes of the screenwriter.
At the time Stanley Kramer was in his early seventies, and he made many jokes about his ‘hardening arteries”----he warned us that we would be getting his point of view of moving making and his living in Bellevue took him out of “loop” on what was happening in the film industry today.
In fact, the entire film business had undergone a sea change from the time he was making movies in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s.
He pointed out that his controversial and message driven films of the like “Home of the Brave” (a film that dealt with racial prejudice during WW11), “The Men” (about disabled second world war veterans, and incidentally marked the film debut of Marlon Brando) were not being made anymore; indeed were not even relevant in today’s world.
The film he was most proud of was one he released in 1967 when he released the movie “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner” the critics claimed that its upper-middle class setting was out of touch with a reality in which black neighborhoods in America’s inner cities were burning to the ground.
For me A Think Tank if Film Making” was like getting a ‘peek’ into a world that I’d only read about----his ‘gossipy’ stories about how Katharine Hepburn who was known for her independence, (people quaked in their boots around her) turned into a marshmallow when she was around the love of her life, Spencer Tracy. On the set of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” she was at Tracy’s every beck and call and was downright subservient to him.
He said that the film he had the most fun directing was “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” (a film about American greed), it was quite a thrill he said to be able to work with virtually every comic in the US at the time: to name a few: Milton Berle, Don Knotts, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Mickey Rooney, Phil Silvers, Jonathan Winters, Joe E. Brown and Buster Keaton!
In spite of his denying that he was not teaching a screenwriting course, I learned a good deal about writing from him.
I learned by listening to all the stories of the people ‘who made it’ that you must really be dedicated to your craft in order to be successful at it. You must have an armadillo hide (for the inevitable rejections) and you must want to write (direct, act, etc) more than anything else in the world or you’ll not be able to survive the sacrifices that a career in the arts will demand of you.
Saying you want to write does not make you a writer.
At one point in his lecture Kramer asked a show of hands on how many of the 300 attendees wanted to be screenwriters? About three quarters of the class raised their hands. How many of you have started a screenplay? About half of the class raised their hands. How many of you have finished a screenplay? Embarrassed laughter, and then about one eighth of the class raised their hands. How many of you are on your second screenplay? Ten people held up their hands.
Writers write, Kramer said, they do not talk about what they want to write, what they’re going to write, what they might write, the just write. And write. And write. It never gets any easier, and you never really ‘learn’ it. If you’re talented, and tenacious you might have a shot at ‘the big time’. Probably not, being that the odds are against you, but if you’re talented, and persistent, you will be eventually be recognized. If you’re very lucky, and in the right place at the right time, you might be able to make a livable wage out of something you love to do.
The week that Kramer had ‘the show of hands’ was also the week that his friend Robert Wise was a guest.
Robert Wise (Academy Award winner for directing (The Sound of Music and West Side Story) talked about his life in the film industry and he ended his talk with a quote from his favorite author, Carl Sandberg. The poem is called “A Father to his Son”and it is about a father’s advice to his son upon nearing manhood.
The father tells his son that that he must be both strong and gentle, “…a tough will counts. So does desire. So does a rich soft wanting. Without rich wanting nothing arrives.”
Without rich wanting nothing arrives, was the line that Robert Wise quoted, and that was the line I entered in my notebook as a reminder to have continued passion and desire in my work as the years go by.
Stanley Kramer died on February 19, 2001 in Los Angeles at the age of 87.
I feel grateful that I was privileged that I was in the right place at the right time and was ‘lucky’ enough to have been able to take his class.
Well, me and Jesus that is.
The course was very popular and a diverse group of people signed up for it: actors, writers, film buffs, fans, young people and seniors drove out to B.C.C. every week to hear what this man had to say about film making.
Jesus Christ himself (that is to say the actor James Caviezel who was to play Christ in the 2004 “Passion of the Christ”) attended Kramer’s course.
From the outset Stanley Kramer made it clear (regardless of the course description) he was not teaching a writing class but rather a class in about film making. Some of the things he would cover would be how the director works, working with writers (Kramer worked in MGM’s research department and worked his way up to editor and screenwriter) and how it felt being an independent producer in an industry dominated by conservatives and reactionaries. He ruffled a few feathers when he gave work to blacklisted screenwriter Nedrick Young in “The Defiant Ones.”
He explained what we could expect from taking the course---like some of his ‘war stories’ about the people he knew in his many years in the business, and he would bring in some of his best friends to share their expertise and experiences with the class.
Hopefully, he continued, through all this mishmash, some of us might pick up a few pointers about what to expect when we worked in film and avoid some of the more common mistakes of the screenwriter.
At the time Stanley Kramer was in his early seventies, and he made many jokes about his ‘hardening arteries”----he warned us that we would be getting his point of view of moving making and his living in Bellevue took him out of “loop” on what was happening in the film industry today.
In fact, the entire film business had undergone a sea change from the time he was making movies in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s.
He pointed out that his controversial and message driven films of the like “Home of the Brave” (a film that dealt with racial prejudice during WW11), “The Men” (about disabled second world war veterans, and incidentally marked the film debut of Marlon Brando) were not being made anymore; indeed were not even relevant in today’s world.
The film he was most proud of was one he released in 1967 when he released the movie “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner” the critics claimed that its upper-middle class setting was out of touch with a reality in which black neighborhoods in America’s inner cities were burning to the ground.
For me A Think Tank if Film Making” was like getting a ‘peek’ into a world that I’d only read about----his ‘gossipy’ stories about how Katharine Hepburn who was known for her independence, (people quaked in their boots around her) turned into a marshmallow when she was around the love of her life, Spencer Tracy. On the set of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” she was at Tracy’s every beck and call and was downright subservient to him.
He said that the film he had the most fun directing was “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” (a film about American greed), it was quite a thrill he said to be able to work with virtually every comic in the US at the time: to name a few: Milton Berle, Don Knotts, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Mickey Rooney, Phil Silvers, Jonathan Winters, Joe E. Brown and Buster Keaton!
In spite of his denying that he was not teaching a screenwriting course, I learned a good deal about writing from him.
I learned by listening to all the stories of the people ‘who made it’ that you must really be dedicated to your craft in order to be successful at it. You must have an armadillo hide (for the inevitable rejections) and you must want to write (direct, act, etc) more than anything else in the world or you’ll not be able to survive the sacrifices that a career in the arts will demand of you.
Saying you want to write does not make you a writer.
At one point in his lecture Kramer asked a show of hands on how many of the 300 attendees wanted to be screenwriters? About three quarters of the class raised their hands. How many of you have started a screenplay? About half of the class raised their hands. How many of you have finished a screenplay? Embarrassed laughter, and then about one eighth of the class raised their hands. How many of you are on your second screenplay? Ten people held up their hands.
Writers write, Kramer said, they do not talk about what they want to write, what they’re going to write, what they might write, the just write. And write. And write. It never gets any easier, and you never really ‘learn’ it. If you’re talented, and tenacious you might have a shot at ‘the big time’. Probably not, being that the odds are against you, but if you’re talented, and persistent, you will be eventually be recognized. If you’re very lucky, and in the right place at the right time, you might be able to make a livable wage out of something you love to do.
The week that Kramer had ‘the show of hands’ was also the week that his friend Robert Wise was a guest.
Robert Wise (Academy Award winner for directing (The Sound of Music and West Side Story) talked about his life in the film industry and he ended his talk with a quote from his favorite author, Carl Sandberg. The poem is called “A Father to his Son”and it is about a father’s advice to his son upon nearing manhood.
The father tells his son that that he must be both strong and gentle, “…a tough will counts. So does desire. So does a rich soft wanting. Without rich wanting nothing arrives.”
Without rich wanting nothing arrives, was the line that Robert Wise quoted, and that was the line I entered in my notebook as a reminder to have continued passion and desire in my work as the years go by.
Stanley Kramer died on February 19, 2001 in Los Angeles at the age of 87.
I feel grateful that I was privileged that I was in the right place at the right time and was ‘lucky’ enough to have been able to take his class.
Well, me and Jesus that is.
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