Screenwriting as problem-solving

This popped up on Twitter the other day:

This reminds me of two things. First, the idea that screenwriters are fundamentally problem-solvers. Some insight into this from Hollywood Movie Producer Extraordinaire Max Millimeter:

Kid, you just don’t get it. You think they think like you think, that you’re a writer. That’s not what they think. What a studio executive sees when they look at a screenwriter is this: problem-solver.

See, each of them is responsible for a boatload of scripts. 10, 12, 14, whatever. Now a normal person would look at a script that a studio has dropped coins for and say, ‘Hey, look! It’s a movie!’ Beautiful thing, right? Not an exec. They look at that script and all they can see is one royally screwed-up story. And that’s not only a problem, it’s their problem.

Which is where you come in. You walk in for a meeting, you schmooze a little. Hey, such and such movie really bombed this weekend, hate to be tiptoeing around that studio, eh? You hear about so-and-so, got busted for making out with a St. Bernard at that wedding reception, can you believe it? You know, lighten things up. Then you get to the story. And here nothing matters what you say… nothing… except one thing: Are you gonna solve their problem by fixing their script? They don’t give two titties about your theories, your craft, your art, okay? That script you’re meeting about is a busted toilet filled with yesterday’s beef brisket and you, my fine young friend, are the plumber.

This is why it is absolutely crucial for you to develop your critical analytical skills, to be able to read a script, identify the issues, then come up with possible solutions.

The second thing is a quote I picked up somewhere along the line about rewriting: Make the problem the solution. As enigmatic as that sounds, more often than not, I’ve found it to be true. Take the Brad Bird anecdote. Everyone was acting with the assumption that the problem was the dialogue, it made Bob seem like a bully, people didn’t like him. But when Bird dug back into the scene, he discovered the dialogue wasn’t the problem. “No, that is what he [Bob] would say, that is how she [Helen] would respond.” In other words, he confirmed what the characters were saying was true to who they were. In embracing that, the problem became the solution: Don’t change the dialogue, but the way the dialogue is delivered visually: Draw Helen’s body size to match Bob, so they are equals in stature.

In writing a script, we confront hundreds, maybe even thousands of problems. It’s a natural and inevitable part of the process, which means at a basic level, screenwriting is about problem-solving. We need to embrace that reality. One way to do that is to spin our perception from negative to positive: Make the problem the solution.

UPDATE: Writer-director Jessica Bendiger (Bring It On, Stick It) tweeted this:

True. They don’t call it ‘development hell’ for nothing! For background on the Pixar Brain Trust and their creative process, you can check out my 2012 interview with Mary Coleman, head of the Pixar’s story department. They really have a unique things going on up in Emeryville, CA.

Comment Archive