Don't Hide Your Brushstrokes!
TheAuthentic.blog is inspired by an open letter to artists written by Matt Weiner, the creator and show runner for the TV show ‘Mad Men’.
In the letter he talks about the common phenomenon where artists “hide their brushstrokes”.
“I remember studying Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “Kubla Khan” in high school. According to Coleridge, upon waking from a deep, opium-induced reverie, he recalled a vision and immediately wrote the 54 famous lines. But when we started doing the poetic analysis, it became clear that there was no way this poem came out all at once. It has this amazing structure. We learned from letters and notes that had been discovered that it was likely Coleridge had not only worked on “Kubla Khan” for several months, but that he also sent it to friends for feedback. Artists frequently hide the steps that lead to their masterpieces. They want their work and their career to be shrouded in the mystery that it all came out at once. It’s called hiding the brushstrokes, and those who do it are doing a disservice to people who admire their work and seek to emulate them. If you don’t get to see the notes, the rewrites, and the steps, it’s easy to look at a finished product and be under the illusion that it just came pouring out of someone’s head like that. People who are young, or still struggling, can get easily discouraged, because they can’t do it like they thought it was done. An artwork is a finished product, and it should be, but I always swore to myself that I would not hide my brushstrokes.”
The letter really struck a cord with me, so that’s what I’m trying to do with this blog - share the process. I’m going to post scenes of the screenplay for ‘Authenticity’ as I write them - like chapters in a book. The plan is that when I’m finished writing the screenplay, I’m gonna shoot the film in excerpts that I’ll post here too - so you guys can come on the whole journey, potentially make suggestions that influence it, and experience the crazy ups and downs of making a film! (Btw - this method has a pretty good pedigree - 160 years ago that’s how Charles Dickens wrote ‘Great Expectations’ - publishing consecutive excerpts in a Weekly Periodical until the whole book was finished and then he published it in its entirety. Ummm…*facepalm* Not that I’m comparing myself to Dickens…)
And I would be totally remiss if I did not extend many, many thanks to the amazing Amanda Walther (Fay from the Jazz Duo ‘Dizzy and Fay’) who first suggested I write a blog - give dizzyandfay.com a listen - they are brilliant!
Sooooooooo…without further ado - let’s get started! Go to the blog for the first scene of ‘Authenticity’!