ROCK ‘N’ ROLL HOTEL AND THE CURSE OF “EDGINESS”
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Read my screenplay Global VillageIdiot here for free!
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“Script development” is the point at which a film producer or studio takes control of a screenplay and assigns junior employees to “help” the screenwriter rewrite the script.
Ask any screenwriter who’s gone through the process, and you’ll find that the most common phrase uttered in a session of script development is: “It needs more edginess."
From front-lot production bungalows to office suites in Century City, “edginess” is the magic talisman of Hollywood; producers and studios cling to it like we common folk cling to our guns and our religion.
I have never heard a screenwriter say that his work needs “more edginess”…the phrase is only spoken by story analysts, script consultants and other production employees…who don’t actually do any of the writing themselves, but have plenty of ideas on how to insert edginess into the screenplay.
To a film producer, edginess means “daring, provocative, at the forefront of a trend.” But edginess is also defined as “feelings of anxiety that make you tense and irritable.”
The latter definition applies to the screenwriter who, when that magic phrase is uttered at his first story conference, suddenly feels the collapsing sensation of the rug being pulled out from under his work.
Studio execs and producers place such faith in “edginess,” that I’m convinced that it has nothing to do with the script at hand, but everything to do with a filmmaker’s status in the Hollywood pecking order. What producer doesn’t want to be known as the maker of “daring, provocative” films? Daring and provocative gets you respect – it proves you’re a serious artiste, not an assembly-line supervisor, shipping product on time.
The trouble is that, too often, true edginess – that is, innovation in the concept and execution of the film's themes (and the themes themselves) – is not what producers are looking for. They seek a cheap ersatz edginess of: “what are the kids into today, and how can we drop that into the film?”
One of the many problems with Rock ‘n’ Roll Hotel, from the scripting point of view, is the injection of ersatz edginess that does nothing but date the film to its particular time period, and weigh the film down with visuals and attitudes that work against the emotional core of the movie.
I’ve worked on two films that deal with the theme of rock ‘n’ roll music – Rock ‘n’ Roll High School and Rock ‘n’ Roll Hotel. RRHS is still relevant today because the storyline and visuals capture the essence of rock ‘n’ roll – simple, youthful, funny, dumb, sexual, rebellious – in short, the joy of liberation from parental authority into autonomy. This is the emotional core of rock ‘n’ roll.
What do these images from RR Hotel capture?
To me, they capture life inside a void – remote and cut off from the world. There is nothing simple, youthful, funny, dumb, sexual, rebellious or liberating about these images
Why would you make a film about rock ‘n’ roll that incorporates so many visuals that are antithetical to the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll?
Oh, that’s right, I forgot…you’re going for “edginess.”
At that time, MTV was just beginning, and bands needed quick, cheap visuals to go with their music. Enter “The Void” – a strange, pretentious world of dry ice and dark lighting that tried to hide the fact that you had no money for real sets or actors and were trying to film something as fast as you can. New Wave bands cranked them out by the dozens.
The strange world of “The Void” became associated with edginess – New Wave rock videos were the avant garde of the time.
In small, 3-minute doses they were easy enough to take. But a movie is 90 minutes. The producers of the movie thought they could expand the world of a 3 minute video by 3,000 percent (I did the math!) and end up with a satisfying feature-length movie.
But a feature film is a different art form. The audience expects and demands certain things from a feature that a rock video – no matter how long it is – cannot deliver.
The search for “edginess” is only one of the many reasons why Rock ‘n’ Roll Hotel was so troubled – but it is a great window into the spirit of the age, and it will be fascinating to relive 90 minutes of pure, big hair 80s again on Monday night!
Read my screenplay Global VillageIdiot here for free!
New! Follow me on twitter as @RussDvonch. I'll be tweeting and posting every day until the premiere showing of Rock 'n' Roll Hotel on August 30th at the Byrd Theater in Richmond, VA...
INT: VOID — NIGHT 1982
“Script development” is the point at which a film producer or studio takes control of a screenplay and assigns junior employees to “help” the screenwriter rewrite the script.
Ask any screenwriter who’s gone through the process, and you’ll find that the most common phrase uttered in a session of script development is: “It needs more edginess."
From front-lot production bungalows to office suites in Century City, “edginess” is the magic talisman of Hollywood; producers and studios cling to it like we common folk cling to our guns and our religion.
I have never heard a screenwriter say that his work needs “more edginess”…the phrase is only spoken by story analysts, script consultants and other production employees…who don’t actually do any of the writing themselves, but have plenty of ideas on how to insert edginess into the screenplay.
To a film producer, edginess means “daring, provocative, at the forefront of a trend.” But edginess is also defined as “feelings of anxiety that make you tense and irritable.”
The latter definition applies to the screenwriter who, when that magic phrase is uttered at his first story conference, suddenly feels the collapsing sensation of the rug being pulled out from under his work.
Studio execs and producers place such faith in “edginess,” that I’m convinced that it has nothing to do with the script at hand, but everything to do with a filmmaker’s status in the Hollywood pecking order. What producer doesn’t want to be known as the maker of “daring, provocative” films? Daring and provocative gets you respect – it proves you’re a serious artiste, not an assembly-line supervisor, shipping product on time.
The trouble is that, too often, true edginess – that is, innovation in the concept and execution of the film's themes (and the themes themselves) – is not what producers are looking for. They seek a cheap ersatz edginess of: “what are the kids into today, and how can we drop that into the film?”
One of the many problems with Rock ‘n’ Roll Hotel, from the scripting point of view, is the injection of ersatz edginess that does nothing but date the film to its particular time period, and weigh the film down with visuals and attitudes that work against the emotional core of the movie.
I’ve worked on two films that deal with the theme of rock ‘n’ roll music – Rock ‘n’ Roll High School and Rock ‘n’ Roll Hotel. RRHS is still relevant today because the storyline and visuals capture the essence of rock ‘n’ roll – simple, youthful, funny, dumb, sexual, rebellious – in short, the joy of liberation from parental authority into autonomy. This is the emotional core of rock ‘n’ roll.
What do these images from RR Hotel capture?
To me, they capture life inside a void – remote and cut off from the world. There is nothing simple, youthful, funny, dumb, sexual, rebellious or liberating about these images
Why would you make a film about rock ‘n’ roll that incorporates so many visuals that are antithetical to the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll?
Oh, that’s right, I forgot…you’re going for “edginess.”
At that time, MTV was just beginning, and bands needed quick, cheap visuals to go with their music. Enter “The Void” – a strange, pretentious world of dry ice and dark lighting that tried to hide the fact that you had no money for real sets or actors and were trying to film something as fast as you can. New Wave bands cranked them out by the dozens.
The strange world of “The Void” became associated with edginess – New Wave rock videos were the avant garde of the time.
In small, 3-minute doses they were easy enough to take. But a movie is 90 minutes. The producers of the movie thought they could expand the world of a 3 minute video by 3,000 percent (I did the math!) and end up with a satisfying feature-length movie.
But a feature film is a different art form. The audience expects and demands certain things from a feature that a rock video – no matter how long it is – cannot deliver.
The search for “edginess” is only one of the many reasons why Rock ‘n’ Roll Hotel was so troubled – but it is a great window into the spirit of the age, and it will be fascinating to relive 90 minutes of pure, big hair 80s again on Monday night!
Posted by Henry Halloway at 8/21/2010 3:23 PM 
Categories: Rock 'n' Roll Hotel, Me Myself and I, Screenwriting, Rock 'n' Roll High School
Tags: Dick Shawn Hollywood Rock 'n' Roll Hotel Judd Nelson screenwriting Rock 'n' Roll High School Donna Mckechnie rachel sweet
Categories: Rock 'n' Roll Hotel, Me Myself and I, Screenwriting, Rock 'n' Roll High School
Tags: Dick Shawn Hollywood Rock 'n' Roll Hotel Judd Nelson screenwriting Rock 'n' Roll High School Donna Mckechnie rachel sweet
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