When I’m directing, I have mixed feelings about improv.
Sydney Lumet said it best –– and I’m totally paraphrasing –– but something like, “Do people really think the line that someone makes up on the spot is going to be better than the one the writer spent endless time perfecting?”
Of course, there are sometimes improv moments of genius.
And my favorite, personally experienced one was during the filming of my feature film DEAD BROKE (Starring Paul Sorvino and Jill Hennessy, and Tony Roberts and John Glover and the now astonishingly famous Justin Theroux.
My brilliant actress friend Patricia Scanlon played the fiercest of the debt collectors in DEAD BROKE and at one point during her monologue, she shouted out “Look at the Board, Harvey! Look at the Board!” gesturing to the totals on the chalkboard the prop department had constructed behind her. (“Harvey,” her boss, was played by Paul Sorvino.)
This little insert wasn’t in the script –– it grew out of the set design –– but I love the tiny 10 word improv in every way and kept it in the movie.
Now, I well know that according to all my New Age beliefs, I’m supposed to be all positive and tell the story as I want it to be, and truthfully book promotion is going extremely well. (I intellectually know that.) Yet still, there are moments where it feels exhausting and endless and unclear what the actual concrete results are/will be from the several dozen interviews and guest postings that begin in earnest next week and forever after.
At these times, I am most appreciative of my collage of those who have written reviews and posted them on Amazon and the collage I have made of those wonderful folks.
You see, at a certain undefined moment –– when you get enough heat or traction or whatever –– you register on Amazon’s radar and they begin to promote you. [IE, I’m no longer marketing to just my limited circle of influence, but being marketed BY Amazon’s vast web of connectivity and algorithms.]
So Yes, I’ve been shamelessly pleading with my friends to write reviews, but I’m also happy to say that many complete strangers have as well. For their pictures, I either googled an image for their screen name such as “Happy Hiker” (who I do not believe is actually 7 as his/her picture suggests) or just their initials or whatever.
Anyway, the point is …
Now at my low moments, I simply turn to my collage –– and don’t worry if you’re not on it … I’ve started a second so please just write a review ASAP–– and say to myself:
“Look at the Board, Edward … Look at the Board!”
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