Basic Trope: A creator has carte blanche to produce their work however they see fit, without interference from editors or the backing studio.
- Straight: Orson is given free rein by Sanz-Talante Studios to make his next film, The Opus, however he wants.
- Exaggerated: Orson has the power to bend reality itself to make The Opus precisely what he wants it to be.
- Downplayed: Orson is given more leeway than usual for his next project, which means Sanz-Talante's suits have taken at least one foot out of his depth of field.
- Justified:
- Orson's last project blew up at the box office like an atom bomb. He could pitch a film about the phone book and get it greenlit.
- Orson has proven to be a competent journeyman director for the studio, and the studio execs are curious to see what he can do with a little encouragement.
- Inverted: Orson's films, while critically lauded, almost always lose money. This puts him on a very short leash for The Opus.
- Subverted: Once the execs see the crowd of 100,000 extras, robotic elephant and life-size scale model volcano, Orson's auteur license is revoked without mercy.
- Parodied: Orson has his interns carry him around on a litter once he gets wind of his creative freedom.
- Zig Zagged: Depending on how his films go over upon release, Orson vacilates between auteur and commercial director.
- Averted: Orson is subjected to the same two rigors as any other studio director during the making of The Opus: will it sell, and will it piss someone off?
- Enforced: Orson owns his own studio and has secured funding from a number of backers, essentially printing his own license.
- Lampshaded: "You mean I get to make the movie, and all you good people get to do is smile and write checks? How novel."
- Invoked: The studio is trying to make a terrible film as a tax write-off, and elect to let Orson do what he pleases in the hopes he'll put out a flop.
- Exploited: Orson decides to put a whole lot of crazy stuff in The Opus because nobody is going to stop him.
- Defied: The Opus is buried under an avalanche of studio notes, eventually ensuring that it never sees the light of day.
- Discussed: During a contract negotiation, Orson makes sure to get everything he wants in The Opus put in writing.
- Conversed: Orson does a press junket to talk about how free expression in entertainment needs to be given all the help it can get, especially by the large studios that control most of the conversation.
- Implied: Orson rewrites the script for the The Opus to be less subtextual to take advantage of his clout.
- Deconstructed:
- Being freed from all restraints is one thing if you're talented. If you're Orson, it means disaster. The Opus quickly becomes a white elephant for the studio and one of the biggest flops in movie history, resulting in his license being voided, shredded and buried in the Mojave Desert next to his career.
- Orson's fellow creatives become incensed when his license takes precious resources away from their films in service of his glorified vanity project. After a walkout, the studio caves and reins him in.
- Reconstructed: Orson is smart enough to know being given too much money and too much equipment is a bad thing if he doesn't use it wisely. He strives to live up to the awesome burden of total creative freedom by giving the studio (and more importantly, his fan base) something they can be proud of alongside him.
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