Dispatch From The Quest: Paul Wie

Over the course of the 24 weeks I am working with the writers in The Quest, each will write a weekly dispatch to share with the GITS community. There are several reasons for doing this, the main one educational: Hopefully you will learn something of value for your own understanding of the craft from the experiences of the Questers. I should also add they are a great group of people, so I expect you will enjoy getting to know them.

Today: Paul Wie somehow ties together The Godfather, Kurosawa and high-concept:

When I was fifteen, a bunch of relatives from Atlanta and Seoul stayed at my house for a couple weeks. One night, I suggested that we all watch “The Godfather”. I had never seen it, neither had my cousins nor my eleven year-old sister, but I assured everyone that it’d be great (“Roger Ebert gave it four-stars”). So nine of us Koreans sat together in the living room to watch this violent crime saga of an Italian family. My aunts and parents are not native English-speakers. My sister and my cousins had never really seen an R-rated movie before. I was a bit apprehensive how this would go over.

Then something amazing happened. For the next three hours, our small audience, generations and cultures apart, sat mesmerized by the story of the Corleone family. We screamed at the horse’s head, cringed at Sonny’s death, and were quietly awe-struck by Michael’s unexpected transformation into the leader of his family. Then before the kids ran upstairs, my mom declared, “we’re watching Part II tomorrow.”

Thinking back years later, I see that night as a pivotal moment in my film education. It was one of the few times my family was united by a movie experience. It showed me that a great story could cross any barrier set by man or time, that a great story was powerful and utterly compelling.

I bring up this anecdote for two reasons. One: the action-adventure I’m writing is highly influenced by “The Godfather”. And two: we spent the last week learning about creating strong, universally resonant story concepts. The latter’s importance is evident. More so than ever, movies today must attract and entertain an international audience. They need a simplicity and emotional impact that can be understood by anyone anywhere in the world. This doesn’t mean a movie needs to be simplistic, impersonal, or lacking in richness and complexity (“The Godfather” certainly isn’t); artistry and popular appeal are not mutually exclusive. It simply means that we as writers need to up our game, and find a way to tell more universally appealing stories that connect with people in a truly effective way.

Akira Kurosawa once said, “A truly good movie is really enjoyable. There’s nothing complicated about it. A truly good movie is interesting and easy to understand.” What Kurosawa is essentially defining is the high-concept movie. And I see a great trend in modern storytellers (ex. J.J. Abrams, Joe Cornish) trying to make high-concept movies with a level of personality and intelligence that such films usually lack. I’m happy to learn that the Quest is pushing us to do the same. This week, we re-worked our loglines until we were left with what could be a more enjoyable, interesting, and easy to understand movie. I’ve still got more work to do, but I’m glad to see my story evolve, and become a bit richer and more entertaining as I push further along. Hopefully, when I’m done, I’ll end up with a movie Kurosawa might call ‘truly good’ — one that my whole family can understand and enjoy. Minus the horse’s head.

I wonder how many of us can point to a single movie that proved pivotal in our personal and even professional lives. For Paul, it was The Godfather. For me, it was 2001: A Space Odyssey. For you…?

I love that Kurosawa quote: Interesting. Easy to understand. Think about the conjoining of those two ideas.

Interesting: Something compelling about the story, we find ourselves absorbed by it. Not overly complex or confounding, but easy to understand: Simple, not necessarily simplistic, trafficking in fundamental and universal themes and dynamics.

If we can take high-concept stories and make them “interesting” and “easy to understand,” both compelling and resonant in a fundamental way, then that’s a path to pursue… because that’s what Hollywood is looking for.

And that is what The Quest is all about!

Here’s to Paul and all writers everywhere in pursuit of “truly good” stories!

Tomorrow: Another Dispatch From The Quest.

About Paul: Director + Writer. Loves Spielberg, Truffaut, Abrams, Kurosawa, Attack the Block, cinematic stories beautifully told. @paulhwie.

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