THURSDAY'S SCRIPT TIP:
WRITING FROM THE HEART
1) Any script you don't care about
will not turn out a good script, and probably won't sell.
2) Screenwriting is for a mass market audience, and
because films are expensive to make, a script has to appeal to
that mass market. The average movie costs $100 million and needs
to make around $200 million to break even... that means your script
has to be appealing to over 20 million people.
Those two statements are not contradictory.
Writing an entertaining film doesn't mean you have to sell
out... In fact, if you sell out you are doing inferior work, and
it probably won't sell. If you aren't involved in your story, why
would you expect 20 million people to be involved in it? The key
is to find the common ground - the story that you want to tell
that 20 million people want to hear. If that sounds difficult,
you understand why screenwriters are paid more than any other
form of writing (except maybe ransom notes). Some writers are
better suited to telling stories that appeal to smaller
audiences, and novels, short stories and stage plays might be the
perfect market for their work. But let's stick with
screenwriting...
Make a list of ten films you really love.
Make a list of recent films you couldn't wait to see in the movie
theater.
Now look at that recent films list - because that's YOUR
market. Your market, not mine and not "Hollywood's". You are the
target audience for those films. Those are the type of films you
care about seeing, the kind of films you love, so that's what you
should be writing. Without any hype, without a single TV ad, I
would still have gone to see RUSH HOUR 2... hell, I'm going to see RUSH HOUR 3
I love action movies,
and I especially like funny ones. Once I saw RUSH HOUR 2 I was
disappointed - because I'm a fan of that kind of movie my
standards are pretty stringent. My expectations are pretty high,
too. But even though I wouldn't stand in line to see RUSH HOUR 2
again, it's the TYPE of film I like... and the type of film I
enjoy writing.
I think the key to success as a screenwriter is to write the
films you pay to see - those are the films that YOU care about,
and Hollywood is paying to make those films. But there's a
strange catch: You have to be seeing movies. If you haven't seen
a movie in 30 years, you may be writing great films... for the
1970s. Great if you have a time machine!
Another catch: Your list of films may be all import films, or
all Indie films made by writer/directors. If that's true, you'll
either need to move to some darned foreign country or take up
directing. Your script has to follow the same path as the scripts
to the films you love. If you love independent films and you want
to write independent films you have to do things the independent
way... and most indie films are written-directed-produced by the
same person. All of those French films are made by French
people.
Third catch: If your list has MICKEY ONE or ERASERHEAD or
ISHTAR or other films that never made any money, you are in big
trouble... No one wants to make a film that loses money. Not even
Indie producers. Miramax is in business, too. They make their
films to attract their audience. Those art house films are
commercial ventures. Even though an art house movie is made on a
smaller budget and doesn't need 20 million people to break even,
it STILL needs to attract an audience. If you find your list of
recent films are all big money losers that couldn't find an
audience, I don't know what you should do.
Commercial isn't a dirty word - it just means that people will
like it. That you will be communicating with more people. My
TREASURE HUNTER script began as the story of a 30s office worker
who takes the ultimate adventure vacation looking for a lost
treasure. It was originally about a guy in a dead-end job who is
worried that this is all life has to offer. Is this cubicle his
destiny? His future? Where's the adventure he dreamed about as a
kid? It was going to be all about my boring real life as a writer
and how I love the adventures I take when I write a script or go
to the movies... and I was trying to hook into the audience's
feelings of experiencing an adventure on screen (their real lives
are boring, too). It was sort of AMERICAN BEAUTY but with an
Indiana Jones type adventure instead of a cheerleader.
But the producer wanted to "cast young" - early 20s. No chance
to do a story about a burned out office worker if my character is
21... so my story changed. I had to find a way to make my
characters young and still tell a story that had meaning to ME.
Find that common ground between the story they wanted to tell and
the story I wanted to tell. So I remembered back when I was
starting to write, and got little or no support. I believed I
could be a screenwriter - But I think I was the only one. My
parents told me that I should be prepared to fail - being a
screenwriter was unrealistic for a blue collar kid, my teachers
told me that I didn't have the talent, and my friends thought I
was crazy. But I wrote anyway. So I made the script about a kid
with a dream... and the lengths he will go to in obtaining that
dream. The script became the story of my early struggles as a
screenwriter - but I played the story out as an Indiana Jones
adventure. The dream was treasure hunting, not screenwriting. All
of the emotions remained the same... my hero had parents who
think his dream is silly and unrealistic, a mentor who tells him
he doesn't have the talent, and friends who think he's crazy. I
could tell a story that was important to ME and a story that
would attract 20 million people with $10. LAST ADVENTURE is a
very personal script - written from the heart.
I pay $10 to see thrillers and action movies. I'm writing
exactly what I pay to see. But I'm also writing the stories I
want to tell. I'm not selling out, but I am writing personal scripts that
I can sell.
HOLIDAY BLOCK - older tips that haven't run for a while because site traffic is slow... look for a bunch of NEW tips at the beginning of the year!
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