10 Screenwriting Tips from Paul Schrader - Writer of Taxi Driver

[@2ME-T]

This led me to completely turn a script I wrote, rewrote and submitted, on it's head! It has led my tip of the iceberg idea something deeper! Now: to tear it apart😅

[@AC-gw4qu]

"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Tolstoy

[@garrybaldy327]

What changed my screenwriting was reading Adventures In The Screen Trade and Which Lie Did I Tell? by William Goldman. My own "voice" was weak, then those books threw a hand grenade into my head and I've gone from strength to strength ever since. My "voice" is now assertive, clear and I'm so much more fearless in taking the story to places I would once have been too lacking in confidence to go to. My own tip: Know your characters before you begin, then you'll know exactly how they'll react in any dramatic situation, and that will just snowball the narrative.

[@FindOutTech]

What process do you use to get to know your characters?

[@keithv2974]

Knowing your characters is a good habit. Take it one step further. Get rid of the characters. Put people in your story. Scrap the main character and put your dad in the story. Put your sister in there. Your least favorite high school English teacher. Combine the people in your life to create a new person. People are different than characters. They are illogical, unpredictable, emotional, confusing and complex. Whether they are fictional or not isn't the point. Whether they are alive or not isn't the point. They are alive in your head and that's all that matters. Here is what I tell writers: Think about the people in your dreams. Do you refer to them as characters? No, because they, in some strange cosmic way, have their own life. They are not created to push a plot like a character is. They are people with their own hopes and dreams and worries. A person and a character are as different as a theme park ride made up to look like a swampy forest and an actual swampy forest. Ask yourself, if you were to film a scene in a swampy forest, would you rather film in on a set, or go to the real thing? Same thing with people. Why stuff your story full of characters when the world is filled with people?

[@15jchilders]

Whatever baldy😂😂😂

[@Tom-dq9si]

One of the best writers that ever lived, great director too.

[@derekf9017]

Holy moly hes amazing all words perfectly chosen

[@RidingwithStymie]

I like how the image of Pulp Fiction lit up right when he said "poorly written." Lol!

[@stu9000]

Great tips there thank you. His book on Transcendental Cinema is great too.

[@sstaners1234]

This was one of the greatest characters ever written for film. The fact that Fight Club, the Machinist, and even Nine Inch Nails the Downward Spiral owe a great deal to the film is a testament of great writing.

[@chuckwagon7354]

The link for the TAxi Driver script actually brings up the script for Maverick.

[@lisaandanna100]

This is fab! Can you do '10 Screenwriting Tips from Susannah Grant'?

[@captaingoodness9812]

Wasn’t sure he was going to make it through the interview.

[@christophlohnherr]

You really made me laugh. I read your comment in part 2 of his advice and thought the same… I admire his work, though. Great writer, great director.

[@umairm.5662]

Lmao

[@rg3388]

The Mystery: I like to remind people that a Rorschach Test is meant to probe the psyche of the viewer, not of the guy who made the inkblots.

[@liltick102]

Cinema Cartography described Taxi Driver and Apocalypse Now better than the actual creators did tbh

[@seanmclaughlin9482]

The jittery splicing makes Mr. Schroeder look and sound like Max Headroom. Click.

[@CaptainAhnungslos]

Paul Schrader, Gewürze Im- und Export Paderborn.

[@corbenalley8382]

Man really wrote Taxi Driver and.... First Reformed, which plays out like a sophomore college student who just got kicked out of his youth ministry group and then discovered pollution in his responsible citizenship class 101 class.

[@autoclearanceuk7191]

Up until 3.00 I was thinking he wrote Taxi the sitcom

[@runi5413]

I followed his advice about projecting my personal problems onto a character, but for some reason no one in Hollywood wants to make a movie about a manically depressed Sonic the Hedgehog

[@chrispybaked]

Shout out to First Reformed

[@RinkuD.Mandal]

Make a video about "Satyajit Ray"

[@dga-bkk2020]

🙏🙏🙏❤

[@WestSideGorilla1980]

If danny devito could write screen plays, so anyway I start blasting

[@BassmeantProductions]

Don't be the stereotype. Be the metaphor.

[@ivyking4149]

I got ten tips for paul

[@davintong4150]

more content pls

[@colelacroix3445]

What is this from

[@nataliamalima2230]

Thanks for the video, but the background soundtrack is so annoying.

[@ManiKandan-sy5nn]

Need new videos brother waiting on you 🫰🏼🔥

[@OxybroCone]

1:29

[@claudiamanta1943]

17:12 (voiceover) ‘And the last thought that inhabited the girl’s brain was “God must be one hell of a screenwriter”’ *The audience gasps, but continues to watch the movie with eyes full of mesmerising horror*

[@RachaelCollins-]

👋😁

[@MonkeyBars1]

What is "Letting the mystery"? English issue there…

[@ArthurSanford3706]

The full phrase was "Letting the mystery be." Like letting something be

[@chewycenter]

9:57. Quentin Tarantino, anyone?

[@ConstructiveMinds100]

So many tips on making movies. So why do the movies are getting worse every year.

[@acmeuser]

For the same reason why everything gets worse.. 💸💸💸

[@baron7755]

Any tips from someone who wrote a screenplay this decade?

[@theexpresidents]

Screenwriting hasn't gotten any better. In fact, it's worse. Read Preston Sturges or Robert Towne. Now read some woke bullshit. Decide for yourself.

[@mchammer1836]

A classic like Taxi Driver is timeless

[@kryptonkiller]

@@mchammer1836a masterpiece!

[@juliechatterjee5901]

​@@theexpresidents Coverfly is filled with woke crap, I submitted my script obviously not selected but when i went through the synopsis of the quarterfinal scripts, most of them were woke.

[@NativeTexMexican]

​@@juliechatterjee5901 What do y'all want? Seriously?? A movie where every hero and character is white. Nobody mentions colonization or slavery. Y'all can say the N Word all you want. You can tell Mexicans to go back where they came from. What else... Y'all want some lynching scenes? Maybe some domestic violence plot points where you show the audience that she in fact "had it coming" because she was "askin for it" by having her own opinion. Or maybe she wanted an abortion so he beats her. Thats not woke, Right? That's what y'all want. Ohh, Or maybe a fan fic pic where trump actually did something on J6 and the coup went through... Then it shows the rapid decay of millions of lives due to the people who tore it down not actually knowing how to run their own lives, Much less a country. I'd watch that. Fascist dictator and idiot supporters get what they want but everything predictably goes to sh-t, Because they're all idiots. Sounds pretty good to me.

[@iknowbetterthanyou6260]

woof... just a panting boomer trying to promote his world view. I must be gone.

[@NativeTexMexican]

I'm glad somebody said it...

[@Peace2Umans]

Hollywood is dead ☠️ in 2024 😮 Fact Where are all the Original screenplays?? Barbie the best you can do??

[@doctorkayak]

Guy writes one hit and now he's a expert?

[@VegaVTG]

He didn't just do Taxi Driver, he even worked in Raging Bull, Last Temptation of Christ and Bringing Out the Dead with Scorsese but also directed a bunch of other films such as Mishima and American Gigolo

[@doctorkayak]

@@VegaVTG I know, I was just being a troll. Seems like the thing to do now. Maybe if we all do it they will shut down this chyt show we call KZbin.

[@PlayNiceFolks]

Çould their be a more overrated movie? So much sin in this world and all these Hollywood demons are adding to it with glee

[@claudiamanta1943]

Why is this in my feed? 😐😤