This weekend I watched the movie Kissing Jessica Stein on DVD. (http://www.foxsearchlight.com/kissingjessicastein) The film was created by Jennifer Westfeldt and Heather Juergensen– who also play the two lead characters. I listened to the commentary in which these two women describe the process of making the film – they discussed all kinds of things, ranging from in-the-moment decisions to long term production issues, all of which had an impact on the final product. (DVD commentary tracks are a great source of information about the creative process of film making!)
Several things stood out for me. To begin, I thought of my friend Lauren, who, like Heather and Jennifer, is an actress and writer in New York, trying to break in to the industry. Lauren is brilliant — her writing has a depth, a warmth, and an intelligence that rivals some of today’s best screenwriters. But so far, very few people know this, and her work is not getting staged/produced very much. I wonder how it happened that Heather and Jennifer — who are just as talented as Lauren, but not more so in my opinion, got their movie made. One thing that seems important, based on their commentary, is that they somehow had access to people who were what we would call “gatekeepers” — studio execs, investors — who read the screenplay and made a decision that the work had merit and was worth pursing. Without such access, and without the positive evaluations of the gatekeepers, I don’t think the movie would have happened, no matter how excellent the screenplay might have been. So an issue for aspiring writers becomes, “How do I get access?” I’d love to know more about how that happened for Jennifer and Heather.
Another thing that stands out is the long evolution that occurred before the film was made. Heather and Jennifer met in a writing workshop and decided to work together – at first they wrote vignettes, which then turned in to a stage play which was produced (off-Broadway, I think). Then there was a screenplay that got picked up by a studio, where they continued to work on it. Then they decided they wanted to make the film themselves, so they bought back their rights and “went indie.” Even once they began production, the film continued to evolve, with actors and crew making contributions and stimulating ideas for Heather and Jennifer.
Heather and Jennifer are very aware of the collaborative nature of the work, and they acknowledge throughout the commentary the contributions made by various actors and crew members to the story and the characterizations. They also acknowledge the role that various constraints — especially financial ones — played in shaping the final product — often for the better. It seems that getting an indie film made involves a lot of creative problem solving — how to tell the story one envisions given limited locations, time, and resources.
Last, Jennifer and Heather mention frequently that they spent two years at the studio “learning how to be screenwriters.” This was an important comment in my view, because it reminds us that there is a certain amount of learning that must go on and expertise that must be developed in order for creative work to succeed.
