“Advanced Writing Tools: The Pixar Way”
Tom Benedek with some thoughts on the value of having the right tools:
Having the right tool for the job is crucial. I just finished a rewrite and polish on an adaptation that I had been working on for a long time. In the beat sheet/story outline I mapped out long ago, things were very straight-forward. There was a chronology that was logical but it lacked some emotional force, something to tie it together. Eventually, it dawned on me that I needed to add some elements. Not just plot or character but ways into the story. I finally added a very unusual narrator plus some time shifts. I took liberties carefully. However, I had precedents in other scripts I admired. I also was aware of how these tools functioned reasonably thoroughly. Once I started in on the changes in the draft, I had these tools and their intended uses right in front of me — ready to use.
Simultaneously, I have recently been doing some small home improvement projects and to make my life easier, I have been really careful to have everything on hand for each given task before I start. (My proudest achievement: switching out the internal hard drive on my iMac. Yes, iMacs can be opened. You need suction cups to get the glass off. It is actually held on by magnets. I didn’t know that for $25 you could buy a set of suction cups strong enough to lift a small refrigerator! On and on. Don’t get me started about the nuances of switching out an iMac hard drive. (If you are curious, go to ifixit.com and watch the video. I now have 1TB of space on my iMac and I am writing this post on it — Happy Ending — I didn’t have to carry the computer into an Apple place for a 5 day repair job and it works fine. The job itself took 60 minutes. BUT I read the instructions 5 times, acquired all the right tools — computer screwdrivers, spudger and suction cups:)
The point is — knowing which tool to use for a given job is crucial. And the more tools we have available to us, the better. As we write pages, though sometimes we may just write freely and unconsciously, other times it may serve the project best to have a specific and less common storytelling tool at the ready — for a specific purpose.
The opening pages of Up! are a great example. In theory, all the back story which is presented early may seem to be a massive rule breaker. But the way they did it works fantastically well, I think, because they use an array of craft tools through those sequences. We can all stretch the limits and improve our scripts by using the correct tools for the right moments in a script. To enhance audience/reader experience, how we choose to tell the story may make all the difference. Expanding your personal inventory of writing tools is essential and part of the fun of being a writer, I think.
Understanding more tools helps us to tell stories better — make our scripts better. In going back through some Pixar scripts to identify specific uses of an array of writing tools, I am blown away, once again, by the craftsmanship inherent in the best of Pixar. We all know it is there. We feel it as we watch the films and read the script. I will be teaching a one-week class — Advanced Writing Tools the Pixar Way — starting on Monday at Screenwritingmasterclass.com. Using Pixar scripts as role models is, of course, a great way to expand screenwriting craft knowledge. So do consider joining me in this fun and exciting class.
For more information on Tom’s new class, go here.