Okay, perhaps this is plagiarism. Not sure about blogging community rules. But instead of linking to the Garden State blog (my favorite movie last year, next to Finding Neverland) thought I'd post his words here for all you screenwriters. You know, Zach Braff, Mr. Independent Spirit Award/Grammy winner. And for the record, UCLA's MFA program has now rejected me four times (despite my MA from New School and current 4.0 in NYU's Education Theatre MA, dammit). Does that mean I'll have an Independent Spirit Award someday? I hope so.
"So many of you ask me about writing, just skim through the comments and you'll see thousands of stories to write about. All I did was sit down and write about what I was feeling in my own life. What bothers you, what makes you laugh, what do you obsess about, what makes your stomach turn, what do you lust over? - just sit down and write about those things. That's what's universally interesting; those are the kinds of movies I like to go see: regular people in real life situations, dealing with emotions and worries I can relate to. Also, think about starting very simply; don't overwhelm yourself trying to think about the whole movie; write a scene between two people, then write what happens after that, then what happens after that. Don't get boggled down worrying about outlines and rules, just tell a bunch of stories that happen to the same group of people. And try (for lack of a better expression) keeping it real. There's a saying I really like to think about when I'm writing: "Don't do that, they do that in movies." Anytime I find myself writing something that feels nowhere close to reality, I try to stop and reign it back to what's true for me. Blah, blah, blah. I just wanted to offer up a couple of thoughts since so many have you have asked about it.
But take it for what it's worth. This is coming from a guy who got rejected from USC, UCLA and got C's in screenwriting at Northwestern." - Zach Braff
No comments:
Post a Comment