20 Screenwriting Tips from Taika Waititi

Taika Waititi is a New Zealand filmmaker, actor, and comedian. He is a recipient of an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Grammy Award, and has received two nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards.
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1. As a filmmaker, you don’t have the right to say “they just didn’t get it”.
2. Let your screenplay be the only pitch you need.
3. 90 percent of all ideas are shit. Let this ratio allow you to relax when writing.
4. The easy way ultimately becomes the hard way, because you pay the price which is producing mediocre work.
5. Never start with a theme. Instead, collect enough scenes that you think are cool until you find some sort of shape to your script and find your theme then.
6. Massage the audience through the story. Test your script and film with multiple people to make sure you’re not boring or overstimulating your audience.
7. Take as long as you can to write your script.
8. To keep jokes fresh, only use them in the script as a suggestion and explore what you can do with them while shooting.
9. No matter how unconventional your characters are, always make them more human and more relatable
10. Always do your own thing.
11. Failure is a brilliant thing.
12. Work with friends. They’ll always be honest and you won’t have to beat around the bush.
13. Start with the beginning and the end, then figure out the scenes in between. Outline your whole story, and only then start the actual writing.
14. Allow your cultural background to flow throughout your work and be part of your writing voice.
15. Filtering your writing is key to ensuring your scripts aren't bloated.
16. Make sure to do the opposite of what you’ve seen before.
17. Remember that film is an escape, so don't be afraid to embrace human absurdity in your writing and fid the right balance between humor and drama.
18. Don't try to replicate someone else's career, stick to your own guns and follow your own vision.
19. Write everything by hand first. Then, when you have the structure down, only then type it out.
20. First do your work and write your whole script until It's ready to shoot, and only then go for finance.
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[@alicial4857]

Mr. Waititi has excellent advice. My favorite tip is to do your own thing, both creatively and professionally. I would like to see an actor's perspective on how to tell whether a script for a screenplay is good, unless that would threaten their career.

[@malachilewis2424]

My hope is Love and Thunder will be more of like David Lynch’s Dune experience for him. He’ll hopefully go to his own ideas and start from scratch and perhaps explore his own worlds rather than something with a pre existing universe.

[@Kpictures_NYC]

He’s so talented and grounded.

[@jellestarremans5990]

I would love to see more about tv-writing.

[@TheRealEyeSpy]

This man is one of the BEST in the business - be it screenwriting, directing, or voice acting.👍

[@Beanz06]

He is none of those things

[@TomEyeTheSFMguy]

@@Beanz06 *all of those things

[@lucasbennett7717]

People that are actually great at all those things don't get hired for marvel movies my guy, they hire ape brains who they can control

[@kr6productions]

Top 25 maybe

[@SunlightGwyn]

No he’s not.

[@cjgayle7815]

One bad film shouldn't take away all of his credibility. Being an artist means constantly taking risks. Every project you take on is a risk. He was brave to take on Thor Ragnorak and it worked out, Love and Thunder didn't. Its a lesson for all of us. The next piece of writing or project you or anyone else takes on, if you're brave enough to show it to others you can be praised or criticised.

[@TomEyeTheSFMguy]

Fucking THANK YOU

[@cjstryder5441]

I enjoyed Love and Thunder was entertaining too me.

[@manasyoga]

I believe in letting the audiance to be or rather become part of the creative prosses ,the "best" directers out therefore would NOT feed them only with concussions and prefabricated answers unless documentary of course...

[@manasyoga]

Big thanks for all you do to educate and enrich us who are interested in the craft . Greetinngs from the UK.

[@destinsleutel5541]

It was lazy and childish and careless and nonchalant and just absolutely disgusting. How could you ever look at that and not feel encumbered to release it?

[@schnucksergio5808]

i like him, he is different and talented.

[@TomEyeTheSFMguy]

Alright, more tips!

[@guystudios]

Love Taika

[@zacegan1]

Taika been eatin

[@lizryan6670]

Can you do Martin McDonagh please

[@SuperEngel69]

And making a sh*t load of green….

[@hide_and_go_sikh]

I checked out your website it seems pretty legit. I've got a script I've been working on but I only got the opening part of the movie finished. It'll take me a few months to get it finished but I'll submit it to you and see what you think. I was going to say it seems like a way to scam people out of money. But to read all of the scripts and provide feedback, it doesn't seem unreasonable to charge something for that.

[@VincentMcmanus.]

After Thor: Love and Thunder, I don't think I want Taika's advice.

[@Devosimms]

Every comment is about Love and Thunder and it was honestly not bad. Some silly stuff but a good villain and a lot of comedy

[@ChristopherCopeland]

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and anyone can enjoy anything even if they’re the only one, but frankly the volume of people who dislike it means that you’re in the minority. No one can say something is objectively bad, but if the mission of your movie is to connect with an audience (like a soulless marvel/Disney movie is designed for) and it fails to do that, then the audience is the judge.

[@Devosimms]

@@ChristopherCopeland Obviously that's wrong. A vocal minority mihht dislike it but I'm willing to bet most of the people who watched it enjoyed it.

[@OmegaIL]

Never thought he's a person to ask advice about movies. Probably cez I don't really like shit.

[@miromaro4822]

And after a year I'm glad to see that nobody actually gives a shit about getting advice from this guy.

[@DavidJReidOFFICIAL]

Dont take notes people!!!!! ur film career will be over if ya wait years between drafts

[@TomEyeTheSFMguy]

What if you aren't writing for a corporation?

[@tankprohp]

More Thor Ragnarok type movies instead of love and thunder

[@michaelmcdaniel7901]

Q&A's must get tedious...lordy.👍🏻 thnx for great insights. NOW THEN... high time *WE'RE WOLVES script got "dust off" eh? *Epiphany Bell rang rewatchin Bennecio's flawed (ButNotAsBadAsTheySay) WOLF MAN: We're Wolves. We'reWolves. WEREWOLVES. 🤦🏻‍♂️! ...felt like last to "see" stereogram OR find Waldo😖!... "We're Wolves" ...title alone worthy of TWO SNAPS UP .. and if HALF as brilliant as WWDITS🧛🏻‍♀️🧛🏾‍♂️.. it'll be 100% ABOVE competition. Taika & Jemain: modern Merchant & Gervais.. just need to GET MOVIN... ✍🏻✍🏻

[@z0uLess]

Let me sum it up: smile and say things people want to hear. Most of the things he says is contradictory, but people arent really listening anyway ... so, makes an easy life for him. Being tall and good looking helps.

[@hillsjason1]

He makes fun films, but I just never feel like I buy anything he says. Perplexing mixed emotions about this guy 😂

[@Devosimms]

Why?

[@emilstalzer8553]

😂

[@TheRealQuinten]

Holy shit I think I just found the mythical modern audience that’s to blame for all the eye garbage we get now days. Yeah he’s gold I can’t wait for his rendition of Rocky and the godfather. I’d love to see all the slapstick jokes of Rocky farting every time he gets gut punched.

[@DanCreaMundos]

Well I mean, he has made quite some interesting things. And then there's Gorr the God Butcher :/ so take it with a grain of salt

[@TomEyeTheSFMguy]

I don't think so. He's hasn't lost credibility just because of one bad film. He still has a good amount of good films before it.

[@ZionistWorldOrder]

he is 90% odd name and ethnicity while 10% talent.. he is talking about judging his work 😂

[@moonhead6165]

tv writer not film

[@ricksanchezdeluniversoc1379]

The man who never did a good movie giving advice on writting.

[@gothxm]

Something about this guy is off to me.

[@metaphysiiickz]

I cant stand what this guy did to THOR. New Zealand valkyries. Terrible

[@LaneTheBrane]

He's a hack

[@ZionistWorldOrder]

one bad film? how about he got lucky with one and the rest he ruined..

[@Rebe-Caufman]

Thor 4 is trash tika waikika

[@harshitmishra8431]

After Thor Love And Thunder.... Sorry!!!

[@hunnybunny814]

He single hadedly ruined the Marvel universe for me.

[@brodull1142]

Did adding screaming Goat and his own character were one of the screenwriting tips? This man is overrated

[@j4vl3r]

Horrible actor

[@winterbird4447]

Try so hard to be funny that it is no longer funny.

[@alphonsetram1]

"Screenwriting tips from Taika Waititi" 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@harshitmishra8431]

After Thor Love And Thunder.... Sorry!!!

[@hamidkiani2025]

Bro not every time you can do a geart work understand.

[@TomEyeTheSFMguy]

You wanna reject great advice because of one small blemish in his filmography, fine. Left to your own ignorance.

[@harshitmishra8431]

@@TomEyeTheSFMguy Yes because instead I can take advice from David Fincher, Scorsese, Bong Joong ho and Tarantino who never comprises their script in contrast to him whose film's script had so much potential to be great but he butchered it for the sake of comedy

[@armankaya4826]

He created the best marvel film too, don't forget that

[@harshitmishra8431]

@@hamidkiani2025 I understand but even the films that are good have some glaring flaws in the scripts. Jojo rabbit is almost perfect to me.. Rest aren't.. That being said that his filmography isn't that long yet.. But still after Thor love and thunder.. I don't think I can trust taika the way I earlier used to do