[Watch the video interview on Youtube here]
Film Courage: You said you’ve written everything you possibly can for money. I’m curious what’s the difference between writing for money and not writing for money?
Andy Guerdat, Television Writer, Producer, Instructor, and Podcaster: The difference between writing for money and not writing for money is more than just being a mercenary. I’m a working writer which means I make a living or have made a living for 45 years writing. Other than teaching, I haven’t I don’t have a day job, I never have since I sold my first script, so I have to write what sells. I have to write what people are paying money for so that means I’m often writing something that isn’t my first choice.
I spent the last 20 years to a large degree writing children’s animation. I wouldn’t have chosen to write children’s animation but that was what was paying so I learned how to do it and I’ve enjoyed it and I’ve done some very good work doing that. That’s one distinction is that I write my own projects separately, not for money. I’ll write spec scripts and continue to do it. Sometimes they sell, sometimes they don’t. Probably more often than not spec scripts don’t sell, but that’s me putting my best work into the world.
When I write for money I’m trying to execute someone else’s vision as well as I possibly can. That’s the one distinction but it’s not quite as cold-blooded as all that because when you write for money that means you’re writing for a form that the producer thinks will get that money back, the money he’s put into it plus more, plus a profit. By definition that means you’re writing for an audience. There have to be people out there who are going to watch…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
About:
Andy Guerdat has been a working writer/producer in film and television for the past 45 years, with hundreds of credits in movies, half-hour comedies, hour-long dramas, theater, and animation. He is currently a consultant at Disney TV Animation.
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