Screenwriting 101: Peter Straughan

“It’s obvious why the film industry, as an industry, would want to find ways of predicting and controlling the success of a story with an audience. I understand why they want to turn writing into a science, but I do think it’s a mistake. I think there’s a subtle tide in filmmaking and it flows in the direction of prediction formula. That current makes us begin believing film should have a certain structure, and certain beats and elements, and, worst of all, as audience members who are fed on a diet of this, we begin to expect that too. Instead of being open to stories that work in a different way, we feel baffled or bored or obscurely insulted by them. So we reach the point where we can only digest stories that tell us things we’ve already been told. And that has to be anti-art.”

— Peter Straughan [Variety, October 30, 2012 from BAFTA presentation]

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