I'm a UK agent repping screenwriters, AMA

No I totally understand that. I acknowledge that film is a collaborative medium.

I believe that there are three phases of direction to a film. The first (arguably most important) is writing. You start from a blank page and then suddenly you have a fully fledged idea of where the film is going in terms of message, feeling, entertainment value, etc.

The next stage of direction is production. If you outsource a director then that director has to make sure that they connect with the screenplay. Now, this could mean that the writer's vision is not the same as the director's vision. Likely so, there won't be huge differences but you would have to accept that the director may want to put their own spin on the project.

Then for editing it's the same. You can take footage from a drama film and make it into a comedy. It might be tacky, but it can be done.

So what's my point? I believe that having a constant (which would be the writer/director) could mean a better more cohesive film. Now, that doesn't mean that separate writer/directors will be unable to create great art - TV showcases that, so do collaborative filmmakers like Coen Brothers, etc). It just means that for those films to work, the vision has to be a shared understanding. That might be difficult to pull off for certain films.

In the films that I hope to write and direct I know my role is to act as that constant. In the same way Tarantino does for his films. It doesn't mean that he doesn't appreciate the collaborative nature of filmmaking. In fact, I'm sure he more than appreciates the great value of collaboration. It's probably why he works with similar actors - or why anyone works with the same people again and again. Because they have an ability to easily share the same vision.

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