Most of us are familiar with the miserable statistics when it comes to screenwriting: that of the approximately 50,000 scripts that are registered yearly with the WGA alone, only a few hundred are actually produced; that even those writers lucky enough to earn a living through the craft face shoddy treatment at the hands of producers; that the existence of a writer is a solitary and—for the most part—utterly thankless one. So the question remains, what does drive people to write the large number of scripts that come into existence on a yearly basis?

This is the central question posed by Dreams on Spec. Focusing on the attempts of three aspiring screenwriters with industry-ready drafts to get their scripts produced, it is a moving, warm and insightful documentary that also provides a surprising amount of laughs, many of which come during a generous selection of interviews with such world-renowned names as Carrie Fisher, James L. Brooks and Nora Ephron.

This is not a film with a perky “can-do” message, but neither does it fall into discouraging cynicism.

David’s horror-slasher film BEHIND THE MASK has been optioned and we follow him from the early stages of pre-production to the beginning of the shoot. Joe, a part-time stock trader, looks after his autistic daughter whilst putting the finishing touches to his script Rattled. Meanwhile, Deborah, a former script developer, is trying to obtain financing for her romantic comedy WHEN YOU’RE NOT THERE.

Each of them has been prepared to make considerable sacrifices. Joe hires the not-inexpensive services of renowned script guru Dara Marks, whilst suffering the strains that his dreams have put on his family life. Deborah has moved to a small apartment in order to keep her overheads low so that she can continue with her writing projects, and David has to suffer the indignity of giving his producer a co-writer’s credit for cutting his script and writing in many elements that David is unhappy with.

His predicament highlights a dilemma that many writers encounter upon seeing their work produced. His initial elation at witnessing his project get off the ground quickly turns to frustration when his script is taken out of his hands; in one instance, the producer has rewritten the protagonist’s beat-up car as a Toyota Prius in the hope of getting sponsorship. Likewise, he soon discovers that the $20,000 fee that he was paid for his script has effectively terminated any further creative input on his part.

Irving Thalberg once said that “the most important person in the motion picture process is the writer, and we must do everything in our power to prevent them from realising it.” Certainly, the established Hollywood screenwriters tend to confirm this sentiment. Each of them recounts stories of being expelled from projects, kept away from sets and facing a myriad of rejection (LIAR LIAR was turned down nine times and it would be four more years from that point until Imagine picked up the project). It would certainly seem that in the film industry, the screenwriters are on a par with toilet scrubbers elsewhere in the world.

Ultimately, the charm of the overall film comes from its well-chosen character studies.

At one point, Joe muses on how often the films he sees in the cinema are what he considers to be “first or second drafts” and wonders why it is that so many bad scripts get made and so many good ones turned down. Thankfully, this is a question the documentary doesn’t attempt to answer. The riddle of why talented artists the world over are overlooked in favour of their distinctly average contemporaries is as old as culture itself, and its omission here is sensible.

Ultimately, the charm of the overall film comes from its well-chosen character studies. From David’s laid-back surfer persona to Joe’s earnest deliberation on the importance of integrity in writing (one gets the sense that he would suggest screenwriting as a viable solution for World peace) and Deborah’s frequent bouts of teary soul-searching, you can’t help but feel genuine empathy for these people.

Towards the end of the film, David enters the courtroom that is being used as a set piece on BEHIND THE MASK, his first visit to the set of his own film. His child-like grin of delight is an image any self-doubting screenwriter should pin somewhere close to their workstation to use as inspiration. Conversely, there is something genuinely heart-breaking about the last images we see of Deborah, sitting behind the wheel of her car in a parking lot and breaking down as she tries to explain why she will never stop writing. We learn moments later that she pulled out of making the film shortly afterwards.

This is not a film with a perky “can-do” message, but neither does it fall into discouraging cynicism. Rather, it looks more at the reasons why some people are compelled to commit their ideas to Final Draft, risking isolation, financial hardship and the frustration of their nearest and dearest. And this is not something that can be explained away merely by the pursuit of money or celebrity, though of course this plays a part. Shortly before her exit from the project, Deborah says of her writing—“there isn’t any other time when I feel completely human. There is a place in my own self that starves if I don’t write.” Perhaps it is this sentiment which comes across so gracefully in the documentary, and makes the subject’s stories all the more heart-warming in the face of such miserable odds. ■