If you wanna write movies, you can't stop when you get pissed on and rejected.
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“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There's no way around these two things that I'm aware of, no shortcut.” Who wants to become a writer? And why? Because it’s the answer to everything. … It’s the streaming reason for living. To note, to pin down, to build up, to create, to be astonished at nothing, to cherish the oddities, to let nothing go down the drain, to make something, to make a great flower out of life, even if it’s a cactus. There's a phrase that you hear in Hollywood; 'It's a movie'. I didn't really understand that phrase when I first came into the business. It's code for: this script is everything we need it to be. It can attract an actor, it can attract a director, it can be marketed, it can attract an audience; it's a movie - it's complete. I don’t think screenplay writing is the same as writing — I mean, I think it’s blueprinting. My three Ps: passion, patience, perseverance. You have to do this if you’ve got to be a filmmaker. Dialogue is a necessary evil. In terms of writing characters or stories, at least initially, there's no difference between live-action and animation. A good story is a good story, whatever the medium. Screenwriting is like ironing. You move forward a little bit and go back and smooth things out. I could be just a writer very easily. I am not a writer. I am a screenwriter, which is half a filmmaker.... But it is not an art form, because screenplays are not works of art. They are invitations to others to collaborate on a work of art. If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor. When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done. FRANK CROSS
It's Christmas Eve! It's... it's the one night of the year when we all act a little nicer, we... we... we smile a little easier, we... w-w-we... we... we cheer a little more. For a couple of hours out of the whole year, we are the people that we always hoped we would be! A good film script should be able to do completely without dialogue. Everyone has to start somewhere. I can remember that first screenplay I wrote. It was some kind of superhero mash up, it felt like a good idea at the time. If I'm honest, it had a good kernel of an idea at the heart of it, but it just wasn't very good. Actually, it was pretty atrocious, now that I think about it. I knew nothing about screenwriting and what exactly it involved or how hard it really is when I wrote it. Looking back, I can honestly say that I'm glad I did write it, if it hadn't been for that first attempt. This writer would never have discovered screenwriting. I'm currently typing a screenplay that a wrote two-three years ago into Final Draft. As I've been typing this thing and reading it. I've come to realize that it's absolutely terrible. It has a good idea at the heart of it, but the execution of this thing is somewhat lacking to put it politely. It's basically a big pile of steaming horse manure. Things just happen to the characters for the sake of moving the story forward. It's just bad and if I was giving notes on this thing, I'd be tearing it a new one. The fact that I entered this thing into contests is just ridiculous, not only did it put a dent in my wallet, but I can honestly feel the pain that the reader must've endured while reading this travesty of nonsensical nonsense. What's become apparent as I've been typing this thing, is that a lot of writers come up with some pretty cool ideas, but it's the execution of the story that inevitably lets them down. If you have an idea for something, sit down with it, let it percolate and grow in your subconscious for a while. And hopefully while it's stewing away in your head, you'll come up with more ideas that will help you turn it into an interesting and entertaining story. That someone will hopefully enjoy reading. Don't rush in there and start writing straight away.
There is no sure fire way of writing a screenplay, everyone is different, but the above will certainly help in the creative process. Once all this is done. Then you can knock out that first draft as quickly as possible. The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof, shit detector. I made this commitment to myself that I was going to be a writer. I figured, ‘Well I’m going to be a writer for the rest of my life.’ I had a book I got just out of film school that was a writer’s guide and it was interesting because they listed the produced credits of a writer but they also listed all the unproduced scripts the writers had written. So you’d get this many produced credits (indicates a small number) and this many unproduced credits (indicates a larger number). So you see even top writers write way more scripts then ever get made, and these are people who get paid a million bucks a script. So I just thought realistically film is a capital intensive medium. It cost now $50—100 million to make a movie. It’s a little like architecture. Even someone like Frank Gehry will design 10 buildings and maybe one or two of them will get made. I think as a screenwriter you just have to assume that there’s going to be a 90% failure rate. As so I just thought, ‘Well, okay, I’m a screenwriter—I’m going to write one screenplay a year for the next 50 years so I’ll write 50 scripts. And if I assume a 90% failure maybe five of those scripts will get made and maybe two of them will be good movies.’ That’s just realistic. That’s not being overly pessimistic, that’s just what everyone else goes through. I wrote five scripts, then I wrote Little Miss Sunshine and then I wrote four more before I finally sold Little Miss Sunshine. It’s an endurance race.” “I firmly believe that the currency of the screenwriter is a finished script. Not an outline, not a take, not a beat sheet, not a rough draft. A finished script. You just have to be careful you don’t fall into the trap where you stop writing and spend three years chasing jobs.” If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. The first draft is nothing more than a starting point, so be wrong as fast as you can. You can make a movie about anything, as long as it has a hook to hang the advertising on. |
Welcome to Russell’s website. A storyteller who enjoys writing screenplays for movies. Even though the process is hard. It keeps his imagination working overtime.
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