Video: “What advice do you have for screenwriters?”
Literally every single piece of advice in this video is directly relevant to what we do. Watch and learn from the likes of Aaron Sorkin, Drew Goddard, Seth Rogen, Matt Charman, Danny Boyle, Sarah Silverman, Brie Larson, Jeff Daniels, and Steven Spielberg.
If some energetic soul wants to transcribe this video, I would be hugely grateful as I’d like to parse each one of these comments.
Via Academy Originals.
UPDATE: The GITS community comes through again! A major Hat Tip to Colin Derby for going putting together a transcript of the comments from the video. Here they are!
AARON SORKIN: To young screenwriter, I would say that screenwriting is no different than playing the violin. You have to practice. Read the screenplays of your favorite movies. Uh, watch the movie with the screenplay on your lap. Just try to, sort of reverse engineer it. Figure out what it looked like on the page and how it got there.
DANNY BOYLE: Keep going. We all depend on you. There is nothing without the writing. And it’s true. It’s em… They’re often not treated or considered with the importance that they should be.
RIDLEY SCOTT: Stop doing four screenplays at once. And do one at a time. And address the problem.
SARAH SILVERMAN: Sometimes it’s like exercising, it’s just getting your sneakers on that’s the hardest part. So just write the bad version, write the shitty version. If you just think of it with no stakes, then you get pen to paper, finger to keys.
SETH ROGEN: I would suggest writing something that is… um… inexpensive to produce. Don’t write like a two-hundred million dollar movie and then wonder why no one wants to take a shot and make it.
MATT CHARMON: The best screenwriting really starts with character. I don’t think that an audience need to like a character necessarily, they need to be compelled by them. The point at which you’re just about to lose an audience’s sympathy with a character is probably the kind of… the best place to be.
JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Try not to concern yourself too much with… uh… what other people will think. Or whether this will be a popular movie. Or, you know, whether it conforms to the structure that, you know, m-movie executives expect to see. Or any of that.
MICHAEL SHANNON: When I can see that somebody is following a system or some formula that they’ve been taught I completely lose interest. I prefer things that break the rules somehow.
LAURIE MACDONALD: Follow your curiosity. Stories are found in, sometimes, the most unlikely places.
LENNY ABRAHAMSON: Don’t over-describe. Let the action and the dialogue do the work.
BRIE LARSON: Please don’t describe your female characters as broken but beautiful. Please, please. I’ve read it so many times. I think as little description as you can give to your, about the way your characters look physically. Unless it’s something that is just… incredibly important to the story.
JEFF DANIELS: When you write the script, you have to write elaborate stage directions, you know, for the executives. But you know, after you do that draft… and you’ve hired the actors. Then do a draft where you take out all the stage directions, and all the parentheticals. Clear all that out and just see what we might bring to it.
DREW GODDARD: If I could give one piece of advice to screenwriters, it would be: Don’t worry about anything other than you. Just focus on what you love and trust that that’ll get you through it.
ALAN SILVESTRI: When the script is magnificent, uh… everything else seems to fall into place. So, write great stories. Great scripts of great stories.
STEVEN SPIELBERG: To uh be pioneers. Find stories that are risky but, speak, you know, volumes about who you are as a writer. And what you believe in, and your whole outlook on the way things are. And uh… if it’s personal enough there’ll be a big audience to see it.
Seriously, from big to small, virtually every comment here is worth considering re the craft. Which ones jump out at / speak to you?
Again thanks, Colin for taking the time for the transcription!
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