Never Give Up

As Churchill said, "Never, Never, Never, give up," in writing or in life. If you have something to say, say it. 

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James Joyce Quote

Having had the privilege of studying James Joyce's work on his own home turf, Trinity College Dublin, I can say that hit his target, in terms of forever mystifying scholars. It is said that you could rebuild Dublin, if it ever burned to the ground, from his intricately written novel, Ulysses.

Having just watched The Prestige and Interstellar, I have a feeling that film critics will be dissecting Christopher Nolan's films 50 years from now, in the same way.  What is it, again, that we want to be fooled about?

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Build Your Castles Well

I love this quote from Anne Lamott's book Bird by Bird. If you haven't read the book, it is one of my top 3 books on the craft of writing. Her love of the craft of writing is infectious.

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Interstellar

Interstellar is one of this decade's most fascinating philosophical films.  Director and Co-Writer Christopher Nolan weaves meaning and thematic elements into the film is a way that is thought provoking and exceedingly mystifying.  For my full breakdown of the film, check out Interstellar: Humanism vs. Love.  

Writers....Write!

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Oscars 2015: My Nomination Predictions

The Oscars are closing in upon us and it's always a fun game to see which films end up in the running.

Best Picture: Boyhood, Theory of Everything

Best Original Screenplay: Boyhood

Best Adapted Screenplay: Gone Girl, Wild, Theory of Everything, Unbroken

Best Score- Hans Zimmer (Interstellar)

Best Animation: Big Hero, The Lego Movie

Best Actor: Eddy Redmayne (Theory of Everything)

It's still really early to make a prediction, but there goes it. 

Oscar Age

The last post was about the Oscars and how most Award winning Screenwriters are in their 40's and above.  One possible reason was just the shear odds of getting your script made, let alone winning an award.  Maybe it takes several tries to beat the odds.

Let's look at the past 4 years of Oscar winner for Best Original Screenplay.

2010

The King's Speech - David Seidler (74). 

How many films did he write prior to this win?  18 movies or television series.

2011

Midnight in Paris - Woody Allen (75) 

How many films did he write prior to this win? 68. 

2012

Django Unchained - Quentin Tarantino (49) 

How many films did he write prior to this win? 17. 

2013 

Her- Spike Jonze (44)

How many films prior to this win? 13. 

As you can see this game isn't for the young--only for the young at heart.

Screenwriters are Like Fine Wine

In the back of the book Write Screenplays That Sell: The Ackerman Way, there is a section that lists every Screenplay that has ever won an Academy Award. What's incredible fascinating is that it lists the ages of the Screenwriters.

I scoured through every year and what I found was that most of the Screenwriters were in their 40's or 50's when they won an Oscar for their work.

At the very low end of the spectrum was Matt Damon (27) and Ben Affleck (25) who are the youngest Best Screenplay Oscar winners in history for their film Good Will Hunting.

So why don't young Screenwriters win? Aren't there plenty of USC Grad students pumping out Award winning scripts?

Is it a game of odds?

Out of 10,000 screenwriters, only 1000 might actual know what they are doing and be trained in the art. If there are 1000 proficient Screenwriters, probably only a hundred of them are good enough to be entrusted with creating a story worthy of a $100 million budget.

Those 100 films end up in theaters, with only 30 of them doing well and getting attention.  Out of those 30, about 12 of them will get the more minor Golden Globe or Writer's Guild Awards.  Out of those 12, five will be chosen for Academy nomination, and out of those five, one will reign supreme.

So, talent aside, you have a one in 10,000 chance of getting an Oscar for your screenplay.  If you have exceptional talent, you improve your odds to about 1 in 100.

Maybe you have to fail several times before you win the golden prize. Or, maybe it takes until your 40's, and have written dozens of screenplays, to have the maturity needed to win at a game that is slightly rigged.

But, then again, is it about the Oscar or is it about the audience and the "look on their faces?"

Hugh Laurie Screenwriting Quote

"Screenwriting is the most prized of all the cinematic arts. Actually, it isn't, but it should be." -Hugh Laurie


Hired, fired, and thrown under the bus. 

How many Screenwriters do you know who are celebrities? Actors get their moment in the limelight, and now the director gets some of the glitz and glamour, but the writer--he is thrown to the wolves. 

Think about it: how many Actors can you rattle off?  Now, think of how many Screenwriters you know.  If a film wins Best Picture, does anyone care who wrote it?  

We know this going into it, and frankly, it was never about the red carpets, the fancy champagne, or the Oscar speeches. It was always, and always will be about the story.  

We get 3% of the budget, while a hot shot actor reads our words for $20 million, but it doesn't matter, because, at the end of the day, we are proud of the words we write--and we know deep down inside that the show wouldn't go on--in fact there would be no show--if it weren't for us.  

Sleep soundly, my friends, because you earned every penny of that 3%. 

Why We Write

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Stephen King's "On Writing"

On Writing is one of the best voices in the noisy conversations on the craft of writing.  Join me, as I blog my way through this book.

Stephen King, the master of mystery, suspense, and the paranormal dishes out his best advice to writers, but his writer gate is much narrower than the usual self-help style books that crowd the "How to Write" market. He states:

"This is not an autobiography. It is, rather, a kind of curriculum vitae-my attempt to show how one writer was formed. Not how one writer was made; I don't believe writers can be made, either by circumstances or by self-will (although I did believe in those things once). The equipment comes with the original package."

What do you think?  Are Writers made or formed?

I agree with King, that either you have it or you don't--and if you have it--what you have can be polished until it shines.

He's preaching to the choir.

The Descendants

The Descendants is an Oscar winning film about the heirs of one of Hawaii's largest plots of land.  It tells the story of Matt King, a father trying to hold his family together while his wife wilts away in a hospital bed.

What would be paradise, turns into Matt's own personal prison. He and his young, rebellious daughter, Scottie, hop islands to pick up her older sister from boarding school, and bring her home to see her mother. However, in view of her mother's almost certain death, she reveals to her father that she wasn't the saintly mother Matt remembered her as.  She was having an affair.

***Warning, Spoilers Ahead!***

Matt, with family in tow, seek out his wife's lover, who happens to be the real estate agent associated with the billion dollar land trust his family is selling.  What starts off as a journey of curiosity and petty revenge, turns into a place of understanding and forgiveness.  Matt sees his wife's lover's family and decides not to blow their father/husband's secret.  They actually look happy together and Matt doesn't want to spoil it for them.

What this film is really about is the tension between desperately wanting to preserve something and needing to let it go.  When his wife first has her accident, Matt is hopeful that things will return to normal shortly.  However, the doctors deem her brain dead, and per her wishes, they are required by law to take her off of life support.  Meanwhile, Matt is struggling with wanting to preserve his family's land and balancing the needs of the trust.

With his wife's deteriorating state, he decides to give everyone who loved her a chance to say good-bye and grieve, instead of continuing to hold out for a miracle that would never come.  He lets go of his wife, but decides to keep the property because it is part of his life and something that can be preserved--and should be preserved--for future generations.

I saw the film when it was released in 2011, and read the screenplay last night. If screenwriters want to perfect their craft, the best way to do so is to read the good, the bad, and the ugly.  This one was phenomenal. I read it into the wee hours of the morning and found myself, at 3 am, weeping.

That is powerful; how can the few words between FADE IN and FADE OUT have so much of an affect on someone?  How can a few loglines and chunks of dialogue bring a reader to tears? That should be the goal of every screenwriter: to picture a story so beautifully that they are brought into the emotional roller coaster ride.

Ultimately, as screenwriters, our job is to win over the heart of a producer by allowing them to personally connect with the story.  If he or she isn't laughing, crying, or shaking their fist in anger, then we have failed at our craft.

You can read the script for free here.