One of the questions that seems to be dividing the screenwriting and filmmaking communities right now is whether you should be writing or submitting scripts about the coronavirus and/or the pandemic that we are presently experiencing.
I’ve already seen plenty of pitches, scripts, and short films that focus on the current coronavirus, and judging by the social media posts of other producers, script readers, and competition selectors of late, this has become a hot topic in the writing community.
But is now the right time to be writing a script or making a film about this subject matter when we are still living through such a traumatic time?
As with most things in the creative arts, there are no "right" answers to this question. However, I do believe that there are valid arguments both for and against:
Arguments For Writing About The Virus And Pandemic
There’s an old adage that most screenwriters are taught early on: “Write what you know”.
Everybody’s life has been affected by this pandemic - everybody’s! And for creative people such as writers and filmmakers, even the most traumatic of events can also represent an opportunity to tell an interesting and relatable story.
This has been a time when many people have been experiencing heightened emotions, and have been living through things that they could never have imagined. When you were told to write what you know, that may never have been more appropriate than now.
Indeed, some of the virus-related projects that I have read or seen have been wildly imaginative. Some have been sad and reflective, but others have been surprisingly freeing and joyous. It’s been extremely interesting to see how artists have interpreted this time, and how they continue to do so.
Artists and their work are supposed to reflect real life. With the pandemic so central to everyone’s daily existence right now, and so fixed on people’s minds, it makes sense that this is a topic that writers would want to write about, and that filmmakers would want to create content about, in order to share their experiences in a way that we can all relate to.
Arguments Against Writing About The Virus And The Pandemic
While the arguments for writing about the virus and the pandemic center around the experiences of the creators, the arguments against it focus more on the other important factor in this equation: the audience.
Filmmaking (and art in general) is not just about the artistic expression of the creator. It is also about the people who consume it.
This is still a business. And, as art forms go, filmmaking is about the most expensive business that you can find. Every filmmaker must be aware of their audience, and figure out how to give them what they want if they expect investors to fund their projects.
So, the question of what to write can never focus solely on what you as an artist want to create. It must also take into account what audiences want to see.
Do audiences want to see work about the virus and the pandemic right now? Do readers want to read these scripts? Do investors want to finance them?
It’s hard to generalize about a global population of 7 billion people. The beauty of art is that different content finds different audiences, so there is not a “yes/no” answer to these questions.
I can only talk from my own feelings, as well as from those that I have spoken to both within and outside of the industry. In that context, when I ask people whether they want to be reading scripts or watching content about the coronavirus and/or the pandemic right now, the answer is generally a resounding “NO”!
Every time we turn on the television, it seems to be more bad news. And every time there is good news, it feels like it is tempered by a reality check. The pandemic is everywhere, all around us, every single day. It is incessant. It never leaves us in peace.
This is why art has become so important. Not only has it filled our free time, but it has also allowed us an escape from the traumatic events of the last year.
When we look at the highest-rated shows of the pandemic period, it’s clear that content such as “Bridgerton” and “The Queen’s Gambit” represent pure escapism into another world and a safer time, one that was disconnected from the reality that we are now living with every day. Heck, even “Tiger King” showed us a slice of life that very few of us will ever experience ourselves - and fortunately so, I would argue!
The last thing that most of us want right now is to be reminded of the struggles that we are facing. There is enough brutal reality on the news without us needing for one of our few escape routes to be filled with it as well.
An Ever-Changing Situation
There is also the practical consideration that, while we are in the middle of the pandemic, and even with increasing optimism surrounding the current vaccine rollout, we still don’t yet know how and when it will end (assuming it ever does!).
This alone doesn’t mean that creators shouldn’t share their experiences thus far, which are perfectly valid. However, it does mean that they need to tread very carefully when plotting out their stories to make sure that they will still be relevant in years to come, no matter the twists and turns that may yet take place in this pandemic.
Nothing has been straightforward so far over the last year. Every piece of progress has been countered by new obstacles, such as the new variants that now threaten the efficacy of certain vaccines.
In this ever-changing situation, a pandemic-related script threatens to become obsolete before you’ve even finished writing it!
Then consider that an independent feature film can take one or two years to get financed and produced before it even sees the light of day. What kind of world would this film be getting released into?
Sadly, none of us has a crystal ball to predict what the rest of the pandemic looks like, nor how it will be regarded in a couple of years’ time. That represents a huge risk for filmmakers, and while some might see this as an opportunity, most will likely encounter reluctance from producers or investors right now to take a chance on their pandemic-related work.
Indeed, I have already seen some short films and feature scripts that were written and produced in 2020 that are already obsolete by now. While they may still serve as a filmmaking showcase for the creators, it pains me to think of the money and effort that will be hard to recoup given how quickly the landscape has changed to make them already less relevant.
Looking To The Past
I recall when I first moved to Los Angeles in 2007.
At the time, there had been a rise in popularity for the American family drama genre. I was seeing script after script after script depicting different families in which every single character was dysfunctional in some way, and each of them was trying to hold their life together in the midst of all their struggles.
Many of these films were being made by good directors with name cast, and were doable for anywhere between $3m and $8m. They seemed to appeal to both investors and audiences alike.
Then the 2008 financial meltdown happened. In case you don’t remember, the economy pretty much sucked for the next few years. From 2009 to 2012 (at least), many people suffered greatly across America and the rest of the world.
And for that reason, the last thing that many of them wanted to see was a very sincere family drama where people just like them were struggling against a society that simply didn’t seem to care. For too many people, these films hit far too close to home, and provided a reminder of their troubles rather than a distraction from them.
It’s no coincidence that the superhero franchises really started taking off around this time. Audiences craved that escapism, where they could sit in a dark theater and forget about their problems for a couple of hours.
Unfortunately, many of those family dramas had already been greenlit and shot, often at budgets that couldn't be justified by an audience that was no longer interested in seeing the finished product. Many great films got dumped on to home video, and many investors lost a lot of money. Many more great scripts simply never saw the light of day.
While not an exact equivalent to the current situation, that time is nonetheless comparable as a time of crisis across America and the rest of the world. How audiences responded to it serves as an important reminder to take notice of what people want to watch. It is the audiences that define the market, not the filmmakers. We must never take that for granted, or forget the audiences' importance in the filmmaking equation.
There Will Come A Time…
The pandemic has already inspired billions of stories. Many of these will one day be worth re-telling in books, in art, and in film and TV. As with every period in time, audiences will want to reflect on this period and share their experiences.
My own opinion is that now might not yet be that time. We’re just too close to it, too involved. It’s still all too real, and too tragic for many people. These things are often best appreciated once a little bit of time has passed, and once a wider context has been established.
Above all, in a situation that is still so dangerous, audiences will likely only be able to appreciate its art most fully once they finally feel safe. At that point, with this experience hopefully growing smaller in our rear-view mirror, I believe that we will see a slew of wonderful pandemic-related projects, and audiences that are hungry to watch them.
This is an industry that is always driven by its audiences. Filmmakers need to listen and respond to them, follow trends, and understand what they do and don’t want to see. Back in 2008, the situation came on suddenly, and many filmmakers (including myself) got caught up in a situation that was out of our control.
This time, it’s a bit different. We know the situation that we are in right now. We all need to keep our ears close to the ground, see what people are responding to, and listen to whether pandemic projects are something that the public wants, both now and in the foreseeable future.
That’s my opinion anyways, and I’ve been wrong before! Let me know whether you agree - I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Ricky Margolis has over 15 years' experience in the entertainment industry, and has been involved in the finance, development, production, and/or distribution of over 30 titles.
To learn more about you can get your next project financed and produced, check out our series of books "How The Hell... Do I Get My Film Financed?" by clicking here.
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