Screenwriting 101: Frank Pierson

“Frank Daniel, who started AFI and was the head of Sundance, said a very interesting thing — we can have 10 or 15 very different advisors, people who do radically different kinds of pictures, but we all see the same problems in a script. He remarked that that insight is enormously encouraging because it indicates there is some science and craft to the making of motion pictures. But then he added that when we sit down to discuss how to solve the problems, everybody goes in totally, wildly different directions, which is also encouraging because it indicates that making motion pictures is an art. It is our craft that gives us the ability to hang on year after year and keep on writing. As far as the art, the mystery is concerned, we hope we can always stay in touch with our demons and our childishness, as God knows, the divorce courts can testify to the writers’ record on that score. Both are necessary, there’s no question about that. But the craft may dominate because it allows us to accommodate the art.”

— Frank Pierson (WGA Journal, February 1993)