9TIMEZONES.COM: AN EMAIL SCREENPLAY COLLABORATION BETWEEN HUNGARY AND L.A.

by Alan C. Baird and Aniko J. Bartos

(Xlibris, 1999)

$18, 316pp, ISBN: 0738806137

 

 

            "Remarks, Ernest, are not literature," Gertrude Stein reportedly

told Hemingway.  Casual writing lacks the focus, dramatic structure and

intensity to rise to the level of literature, which engages the reader on

a journey of emotional response, self-recognition and revelation.

            But sometimes we are attracted to casual writing.  We go to letters,

diaries and journals, especially when written by a celebrity or someone

known to us, in order to discover personal secrets.  We become voyeurs

behind the scenes, loving each moment of it.  But we still must be engaged,

either because we are curious about the personal life of the author or

because the author writes of events we care about.

            This strange concoction of a book fails to engage the reader at

either level.  Presumably about a screenplay collaboration conducted via

email, 9timezones.com never comes into focus because it makes the

fundamental error of presenting only one side of the correspondence.  We get

Baird's emails to Bartos but not her replies.  As a result, everything

Baird writes about lacks sufficient context to make it engaging.  There is

no drama here, no interesting dialogue, no mirror of the process of

collaboration.  Whatever collaborative experience was shared between these

two is not recorded here in a dramatic, interesting or even informative way.

We meet Baird but not Bartos. 

            Moreover, the narrative, as restrictive as it is, is constantly

being interrupted by the inclusion of Baird's short stories, poems, and

other diversions electronically sent to Bartos along the way.  What do these

have to do with the collaboration?  Apparently Baird was trying to impress

Bartos and establish his credentials as a writer.  Is he trying to do the

same thing with the reader?  If so, his lack of focus is not making his

case.

            What results is neither literature nor diary, neither engaging

communication nor interesting personal reflection, because no principle of

order emerges from the mixture of email and reproduced prior work.  This

book is the literary equivalent of Andy Warhol turning on a camera at a

street corner, filming everything that happens, and releasing it as a movie.

            What on earth did the authors have in mind?  What audience did they

believe would be interested in this one-sided conversation?  A strange hint

of purpose comes in an Epilogue:

            "Yeah, I finally 'paid attention,' after it penetrated my thick

skull that I was in love with her..."

            Is this, then, some convoluted document of courtship?  Perhaps there

is a wonderful romantic tour de force here, hiding in the wings.

            The tragedy of this book -- and I consider it a tragedy because

screenwriting is the most collaborative of our narrative forms and this

process deserves more serious reflection in print than it has received --

is made greater by an Appendix that presents the first draft of their

screenplay, THE FALL IN BUDAPEST. 

            Here is Baird's synopsis of the story:

            "Vitaly, a former KGB agent, takes a nasty tumble in Budapest's

late autumn, and he's aided on his road back to health by the Hungarian

nurse Erzebet. The course of their blossoming romance is marred by ugly

memories of the past, involving their own personal experiences, as well as

the violent intersection in the history of their two countries."

            Although over-written and suffering from problems of focus and

structure common to early screenplay drafts, this story has great potential.

If we could have been witness to the process and dialogue that developed it,

rather than getting it all one-sided, and with constant interruptions at

that, then perhaps a book of interest to screenwriting students might have

resulted.  The  backdrop of this screenplay is unusual and the story as a

romantic thriller has tremendous possibilities, which make the failure of

this book to realize the potential suggested by its subtitle, a book

about the process of collaboration, all the greater.

            This book also is a consequence of the digital revolution in

publishing which made it possible.  Print-on-demand publishers now will

publish anything at low cost -- in fact, a new partnership between Xlibris

and Random House will publish a book at no charge!  While certainly a number

of valuable non-commercial books will appear as a result, so will anything

that anyone with delusions of grandeur, or more charitable motivations,

chooses to bring into print.  An avalanche of published remarks is sure to

result, although hopefully not everyone will decide to publish their

collected email.  Lost in this digital revolution are the standards and

competitive pressures supplied by editors, who understand the difference

between something that is publishable and something that is merely

written.

            Baird and Bartos do not seem to understand this difference.

------

Charles Deemer is the author of SCREENWRIGHT: THE CRAFT OF SCREENWRITING and

teaches screenwriting at Portland State University.  Six of his screenplays

have been optioned.