WHO WROTE ROCK 'N' ROLL HOTEL?
Read how I got kicked out of Hollywood here!
Read my screenplay Global Village Idiot 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 Theatre in Richmond, VA.
This will be my final post before the benefit screening of Rock 'n' Roll Hotel in Richmond. I hope to meet you all at the VIP session before the screening at the Jefferson, and at the after-party following the film.
Now seems like a good time to address a final question:
Who Wrote Rock 'n' Roll Hotel?
And by that, I mean, who wrote the version of the movie that is screening at the Byrd?
The honest-to-God, cross-my-heart, look-in-my-eyes-and-witness-the-burning-sincerity-within answer is...
...I don't know.
Really.
Not kidding. Not trying to weasel out of the blame. Not being ironic, with air quotes everywhere.
I really don't know who wrote the movie anymore.
To understand why, let me go back to the beginning of my involvement.
I was called away from vacation by my agent who told me that a movie was about to go into production and they needed a rush job on the screenplay. So I flew out to Manhattan, where the offices were located.
When I first met with the producers, they were only about five weeks away from rolling cameras.
They told me the basic facts. Someone had created a new type of 3D process to film movies. In computer terms, they had the hardware for it — camera and lenses — but they needed software for it, that is, a movie to shoot with the new technology.
So the movie was created essentially to be a showcase for the 3D process.
In our first meeting, the producers presented me with a very brief outline of a story for the movie. At that time, 1982, MTV had just appeared on cable TV and rock videos were the new, hot thing.
Every movie needs a hook — apparently, even a 3D hook movie — and the producers decided to use rock video as the explotation factor. The film would be built around rock video segments. That's why Richard Baskin, and later Paul Justman, were hired as directors — they both had experience making rock videos
At the time I was hired, they had already figured out a basic storyline to build the music around. The band, let by Rachel Sweet, would compete in a battle of the bands concert at Rock 'n' Roll Hotel. The manager/owner of the hotel would be the antagonist — he also wants to win the battle of the bands, and schemes to keep the kids out of it.
The hotel would have elements of teen horror to it, and this would be the excuse to showcase the 3D effects of the movie — we'd throw spiders and rats and knives at the kids...and the audience as well.
So, that was it. That was all they had.
And you know what? As thin as that sounds, when you come down to it...that's all I needed!.
I honestly believed then — as I believe now — that the outline they presented to me was sufficient as a premise to create a good teen movie.
The only part that troubled me — the part that sent alarm bells ringing in my head and panic attacks pounding inside my chest — was the fact that cameras were going to start rolling in less than five weeks, and they needed a completed 1st draft of the screenplay in three weeks.
Now, you might think in a situation like this that the writer goes off someplace by himself to work for 21 days, then comes back to the producer, drops 120 pages on his desk, and says, "OK...here it is."
Nope — the production team is involved every step of the way. They need to start seeing pages immediately so they can start work preparing the sets, actors, locations, etc. right away.
And by "pages," I mean 5 - 6 new pages every day, starting from page one. The grind goes on every day, with no looking back, because there's no time to look back, only to look forward to the next 5 - 6 pages.
Producers love "pages" and writers hate them. To the producer, it's proof that the work is moving forward. To the writer, its proof that the work will end up half-assed.
Here's why — something that producers, stars, and everybody else on the production never seem to understand.
The heart of any movie is something called "echoing." Movies are full of motifs that appear over and over again throughout the movie. Some of these motifs have to do with character, others the moral theme of the story, others with visual symbols, and so on.
It is these motifs that provide the creative inspiration for the things the characters do and say, the places they visit, the situations they find themselves in, the choices they make, etc.
These motifs need to be carefully chosen, and then woven through the entire fabric of the movie as often and in as many different ways as possible. This is what ends up making the movie memorable. This is what makes a good movie good.
When you're writing "pages," the possibility of discovering and incorporating motifs is severely limited. You don't have time to think things through. You just go with the first thing that comes into your head, because there isn't time for anything else.
This is not normal. Under normal conditions, when a writer writes a line or thinks of a new idea, he pauses. He stops to ask himself, "What can I change earlier in the script to reinforce this idea. And what can I add later in the script to also make the idea stronger?"
This goes on all day long — a line, a scene, an image is never considered by itself. It is always considered as part of the whole. The writer knows that every element of a screenplay is like a pebble dropped in a placid pond of water. The effect of the element ripples throughout the work, influencing what comes both before and after it.
But Rock 'n' Roll Hotel was not written under normal conditions. It was a rushed job, and my screenplay showed it. At the end of the process, I knew it was far from my best work.
But the screenplay was good enough to base production on. And so cameras started rolling and I flew back to Hollywood, my work completed.
When did I learn that the shoot was in trouble?
A week or so after arriving home, I got a phone call from a girl I had dated previously. She asked, "Did you just write a movie called Rock 'n' Roll Hotel?" I said yes and I asked how she knew about it.
She replied, "Because I have a girl friend named Janice Shapiro who just got a call from the producers...she's flying out tomorrow to do a rewrite on your movie. She asked me if I ever heard of a writer named Russ Dvonch."
After that, I made a few phone calls and found out that the director had been fired, a new director hired and that the new director wanted his own writer for the movie.
I can't say I blame him.
No writer likes being rewritten, but honestly, I didn't feel angry or upset with the new writer. In fact, I felt pretty bad for her. I knew what she was in for, and you don't want to wish that on anybody.
Pac Man was all the rage back then, and there was a game in the lobby of the Richmond Holiday Inn where I stayed finishing up the screenplay. I still had a spare token from the game, so I taped it to a letter and mailed it off to her and told her to play a game on me, to relieve the stress.
Some time later, after the film was shot and edited, there was a screening of a rough cut of the movie that I attended in Hollywood. It was projected in 3D for the full effect.
And the full effect was terrible — it sucked in all three dimensions, and possibly nine other dimensions, if "string theory" turns out to be right.
At the screening, I tried to see how much of my stuff survived.
As near as I can recall — some survived, but not a whole lot. The bare bones of the story were still there, but there was much that was new to me that I had nothing to do with.
It's hard to even put a percentage on it. Was it 20% mine? 30%? 40% I honestly don't remember. It was 28 years ago.
The situation is even more complex because apparently new scenes were shot after that Hollywood screening and added to the movie, and it's this version with the added scenes that will be shown at the Byrd.
I truly don't remember the stuff that was mine and the stuff that belonged to Janice.
The only way to know for sure is to compare screenplays, but I can't find mine and Janice hasn't said anything avout her experiences on the shoot, that I know of. I wish she would — I want the scoop.
I'll try and figure out what's mine and what's not during the screening at the Byrd. But, as I say, it was all so long ago...and I spent nearly 3 decades trying to forget. My memory on this isse is about as good as that guy in Memento.
So to answer the question: Who wrote Rock 'n' Roll Hotel?
I must bravely stand and face the court of public opinion and say:
"Guilty as charged, Your Honor...but with an explanation!"
Read my screenplay Global Village Idiot 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 Theatre in Richmond, VA.
This will be my final post before the benefit screening of Rock 'n' Roll Hotel in Richmond. I hope to meet you all at the VIP session before the screening at the Jefferson, and at the after-party following the film.
Now seems like a good time to address a final question:
Who Wrote Rock 'n' Roll Hotel?
And by that, I mean, who wrote the version of the movie that is screening at the Byrd?
The honest-to-God, cross-my-heart, look-in-my-eyes-and-witness-the-burning-sincerity-within answer is...
...I don't know.
Really.
Not kidding. Not trying to weasel out of the blame. Not being ironic, with air quotes everywhere.
I really don't know who wrote the movie anymore.
To understand why, let me go back to the beginning of my involvement.
I was called away from vacation by my agent who told me that a movie was about to go into production and they needed a rush job on the screenplay. So I flew out to Manhattan, where the offices were located.
When I first met with the producers, they were only about five weeks away from rolling cameras.
They told me the basic facts. Someone had created a new type of 3D process to film movies. In computer terms, they had the hardware for it — camera and lenses — but they needed software for it, that is, a movie to shoot with the new technology.
So the movie was created essentially to be a showcase for the 3D process.
In our first meeting, the producers presented me with a very brief outline of a story for the movie. At that time, 1982, MTV had just appeared on cable TV and rock videos were the new, hot thing.
Every movie needs a hook — apparently, even a 3D hook movie — and the producers decided to use rock video as the explotation factor. The film would be built around rock video segments. That's why Richard Baskin, and later Paul Justman, were hired as directors — they both had experience making rock videos
At the time I was hired, they had already figured out a basic storyline to build the music around. The band, let by Rachel Sweet, would compete in a battle of the bands concert at Rock 'n' Roll Hotel. The manager/owner of the hotel would be the antagonist — he also wants to win the battle of the bands, and schemes to keep the kids out of it.
The hotel would have elements of teen horror to it, and this would be the excuse to showcase the 3D effects of the movie — we'd throw spiders and rats and knives at the kids...and the audience as well.
So, that was it. That was all they had.
And you know what? As thin as that sounds, when you come down to it...that's all I needed!.
I honestly believed then — as I believe now — that the outline they presented to me was sufficient as a premise to create a good teen movie.
The only part that troubled me — the part that sent alarm bells ringing in my head and panic attacks pounding inside my chest — was the fact that cameras were going to start rolling in less than five weeks, and they needed a completed 1st draft of the screenplay in three weeks.
Now, you might think in a situation like this that the writer goes off someplace by himself to work for 21 days, then comes back to the producer, drops 120 pages on his desk, and says, "OK...here it is."
Nope — the production team is involved every step of the way. They need to start seeing pages immediately so they can start work preparing the sets, actors, locations, etc. right away.
And by "pages," I mean 5 - 6 new pages every day, starting from page one. The grind goes on every day, with no looking back, because there's no time to look back, only to look forward to the next 5 - 6 pages.
Producers love "pages" and writers hate them. To the producer, it's proof that the work is moving forward. To the writer, its proof that the work will end up half-assed.
Here's why — something that producers, stars, and everybody else on the production never seem to understand.
The heart of any movie is something called "echoing." Movies are full of motifs that appear over and over again throughout the movie. Some of these motifs have to do with character, others the moral theme of the story, others with visual symbols, and so on.
It is these motifs that provide the creative inspiration for the things the characters do and say, the places they visit, the situations they find themselves in, the choices they make, etc.
These motifs need to be carefully chosen, and then woven through the entire fabric of the movie as often and in as many different ways as possible. This is what ends up making the movie memorable. This is what makes a good movie good.
When you're writing "pages," the possibility of discovering and incorporating motifs is severely limited. You don't have time to think things through. You just go with the first thing that comes into your head, because there isn't time for anything else.
This is not normal. Under normal conditions, when a writer writes a line or thinks of a new idea, he pauses. He stops to ask himself, "What can I change earlier in the script to reinforce this idea. And what can I add later in the script to also make the idea stronger?"
This goes on all day long — a line, a scene, an image is never considered by itself. It is always considered as part of the whole. The writer knows that every element of a screenplay is like a pebble dropped in a placid pond of water. The effect of the element ripples throughout the work, influencing what comes both before and after it.
But Rock 'n' Roll Hotel was not written under normal conditions. It was a rushed job, and my screenplay showed it. At the end of the process, I knew it was far from my best work.
But the screenplay was good enough to base production on. And so cameras started rolling and I flew back to Hollywood, my work completed.
When did I learn that the shoot was in trouble?
A week or so after arriving home, I got a phone call from a girl I had dated previously. She asked, "Did you just write a movie called Rock 'n' Roll Hotel?" I said yes and I asked how she knew about it.
She replied, "Because I have a girl friend named Janice Shapiro who just got a call from the producers...she's flying out tomorrow to do a rewrite on your movie. She asked me if I ever heard of a writer named Russ Dvonch."
After that, I made a few phone calls and found out that the director had been fired, a new director hired and that the new director wanted his own writer for the movie.
I can't say I blame him.
No writer likes being rewritten, but honestly, I didn't feel angry or upset with the new writer. In fact, I felt pretty bad for her. I knew what she was in for, and you don't want to wish that on anybody.
Pac Man was all the rage back then, and there was a game in the lobby of the Richmond Holiday Inn where I stayed finishing up the screenplay. I still had a spare token from the game, so I taped it to a letter and mailed it off to her and told her to play a game on me, to relieve the stress.
Some time later, after the film was shot and edited, there was a screening of a rough cut of the movie that I attended in Hollywood. It was projected in 3D for the full effect.
And the full effect was terrible — it sucked in all three dimensions, and possibly nine other dimensions, if "string theory" turns out to be right.
At the screening, I tried to see how much of my stuff survived.
As near as I can recall — some survived, but not a whole lot. The bare bones of the story were still there, but there was much that was new to me that I had nothing to do with.
It's hard to even put a percentage on it. Was it 20% mine? 30%? 40% I honestly don't remember. It was 28 years ago.
The situation is even more complex because apparently new scenes were shot after that Hollywood screening and added to the movie, and it's this version with the added scenes that will be shown at the Byrd.
I truly don't remember the stuff that was mine and the stuff that belonged to Janice.
The only way to know for sure is to compare screenplays, but I can't find mine and Janice hasn't said anything avout her experiences on the shoot, that I know of. I wish she would — I want the scoop.
I'll try and figure out what's mine and what's not during the screening at the Byrd. But, as I say, it was all so long ago...and I spent nearly 3 decades trying to forget. My memory on this isse is about as good as that guy in Memento.
So to answer the question: Who wrote Rock 'n' Roll Hotel?
I must bravely stand and face the court of public opinion and say:
"Guilty as charged, Your Honor...but with an explanation!"
Posted by Henry Halloway at 8/29/2010 8:39 AM 
Categories: Hollywood, Rock 'n' Roll Hotel
Tags: Rock 'n' Roll Hotel screenwriting
Categories: Hollywood, Rock 'n' Roll Hotel
Tags: Rock 'n' Roll Hotel screenwriting
Comments