7 Tips From Screenwriters

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Variety recently sat down with some of our 2016 Writers to Watch, including the scribes behind “Moana” and “Sully,” at the Whistler Film Festival where they gave us a few tips on how to become a successful screenwriter in Hollywood. Check it out!

[@iluvber247]

Visit the set. Yeah very helpful tip for aspiring screenwriters...

[@zacharykim295]

"get someone to write for you"??? Yeah very practical, thanks

[@nehemiahsaycsar]

In regards to the paying someone to write for you, say you're BROKE af, couldn't you just record yourself free thinking and then go back to it later with an editing mindset?

[@ItqonAskary]

Nehemiah saycsar Fleurima This is actually gold...

[@HelloHello-tm7uc]

Makes me think of the movie Adaptation haha

[@ruly8153]

That’s if you can stand the sound of you voice.... 😂

[@kindofachannel7362]

>Next Tip for upcoming screenwriters. Hire someone to type for you Lmao why do you think I'm getting screenwriting lessons from KZbin

[@aliasjon8320]

Out of curiosity what channels were you using for screenwriting lessons ?

[@Red-pv7kx]

Alias jon lessons from the screenplay - delves deeply into writing / visual analysis. Nerdwriter1 does it on a variety of levels, genres, art etc. However, read books e.g. Story Robert Mckee, The Anatomy of Story John Trubey and Screenplay cover most areas from what I’ve heard. Have them all but currently reading Screenplay.

[@ruly8153]

@@Red-pv7kx You ant read a book and learn how to write You have to find your own “way of seeing” through story. As pretentious as that sounds...

[@Red-pv7kx]

@@ruly8153 I know.

[@raymondnegron8005]

Awesome! Real life TIPs. Touching Intrinsic Power. Thank you for sharing! Now, let's all get to work, and day dream the dreaming of writing that script. Awesome!

[@clairogray4977]

keep calm and just write. WOW

[@emilywong8111]

tip #3 is gold lol

[@ThatJoeGClift]

dude, step 6 - know your place. Yeah, as a writer I already know my place. Writers are the top of the food chain by default. TV gets that. Theatre gets that. Film needs to start getting it too. There is no production without a script. It simply doesn't exist. The characters don't exist. The story doesn't exist. The script is what brings people together when it's a good movie. When people want a pay check, or just want to hang out with someone they always wanted to work with, maybe people bring you into a project, but when people are there for the art everything just works out better. The most important films of the last 60 years have nearly all been made by writer/directors. That's not just in the West, that's all over the world. The attitude that the director is god is fucking absurd and completely without grounds. Why rely on their interpretation of your vision? It's your idea, and if you can't shoot it yourself then it probably shouldn't be shot.

[@ca916]

Joe Clift I agree with you in some points, but I think the director's type is more to sell. If you really wanna sell something you wrote you might won't find directors or producers etc who really wanna hear you or something. It will probably be just them buying something and doing whatever they want. I think the type is more for selling than to construct something.

[@ThatJoeGClift]

blabla bla but don't you see how absurd that is? Can you imagine Shakespeare being turned down by a team of Hollywood execs by virtue of the fact that he was a writer first and foremost? The idea should be what's being sold. It's not about who could star in it or who should direct it. It's a matter of placing a creation above currency. It isn't a commodity to be sold, it's a creation to be bought and nurtured so that it can be valued by an audience. And since writers create the work, naturally they should receive the lion's share of the credit. I know saying something can be bought without being sold sounds oxymoronic, but I hope you get what I mean. The problem in film is that producers have sold movies based on actors and directors from the ground upwards, but that's not how it should be. The perception of the public needs to be changed to focus on the people who actually form the foundations of the film you love because without them there isn't a film for you to love at all. Once the perception is changed, writers can take their rightful place as the selling points of their medium. The easy way to combat this is for writer directors to start publicly emphasising the writing part of their process. Tarantino puts effort into this at points as does PT Anderson and a few others, but still, more can be done and it should be.

[@ca916]

Joe Clif Yes, I really see the absurd about it. Yes, I get your points and agree but we are really far to see people really recognising everybody's work since there is, as you said and we've seen this hierarchy that choose the "importante one". And no, I cannot picture Shakespeare passing through it.

[@evyatarsegal1198]

Joe Clift hey did you know that Iron man (1 or 2 I can't remember) was shot without a script? they just made it up as they went (I mean I guess they had a general idea of the story but no real script.) and although it is definitely NOT a master piece it IS a blockbaster which is good enough for me.... the art of words is writing, and it is dominant in books, when the artists use only words. in a movie there are WAY MORE THEN WORDS. (music, lighting, sound, actors, editing, locations and there are 4 guys operating the camera unless your'e indie). the director sets the vibe and can disagree with whatever he wants. he is the boss of the artistic side of the movie, and even if that's not fair it would be less fair that writers would be the kings because they have no place in the in the production nor the post-production... so how about we'll agree the writers are the kings of the pre-production? BTW if you think that your movies were made/good mostly or only because of you then your'e delusional.

[@ThatJoeGClift]

you're looking far too simplistically at this. Words aren't only able to be an artistic outlet in books, surely anything that is written can be artistic, therefore as long as one is writing, there can be a place for art. Writers as artists dominate plays and theater, and television along with teleplays too. Every other creative medium seems to understand what i'm saying apart from film, and that's solely because directors like the limelight, they like to reap the rewards of writing without the ability to write themselves. The notion that the director is in charge of the artistic side of film is astoundingly short sighted, and categorically wrong. A writer can easily note down music, mis en scene, casting choices, editing decisions - cuts, use of split screen/slow mo ect ect - location and camera movement/shot composition. I know, i'm a writer and i do it all the time as i aim to direct my work, and i'm far from alone. Tarantino, Anderson, fucking John Hughes, people like Bruce Robinson and Peter Greenaway and Lynne Ramsey, or basically ANY playwright (Miller's direction and notes to the set designers are what come to mind in the Crucible at present) worth their salt can do this. It's not hard. You don't just write a piece of dialogue, or an action, you give the words a speaker, the speaker a face, a body, a head, a heart and a world to speak within, and a wardrobe to wear, and a shot to exist in. You flesh it out because it's your idea and it's your duty as a creator to nurture your idea. At least i and a fair few others more successful than me at present do, but i believe with some encouragement there are more. I'm not saying every writer is made to direct, but as Danny Devito put it when he saw Tarantino's writing at a Cannes workshop, if you can write well, you can direct what you've written just as well as you've written it. I'm sorry, but writers do have an innate understanding of their own work because it was theirs first. Directors really only adopt, they never bare the creation themselves. The only reason that writers are often left out of production and post production is because they aren't allowed in. Tarantino, again, finds a work around, as do people like Kevin Smith (not a fan of anything post Chasing Amy but he was on fire up to and especially including that film) and the Coen Brothers. And if you're calling me delusional for thinking that a script isn't what can make a movie great, watch Clerks, watch Withnail and I, and read their scripts (not the shitty PDF paraphrases, i mean buy a copy of the script - i've got both on my shelves), and come back to me. Neither of these films are exceptional to look at really, but the energy, the wit, the pathos, every bit of poetry found on screen can be found in their scripts.

[@Stoney-Jacksman]

'I have had 7 men in this scene.' Thats what she said.

[@karsaurlong]

Stones Jones ??

[@BrandonNinja]

Hiring someone to type lol I wish I could do that.

[@HariGovind-qe9hk]

Brandon Ninja me too

[@silviomp]

like it

[@OwenTuson02]

Hiring someone to write for you? Fuck. That.

[@thetramp123]

I think a good alternative for his suggestion would be to get a digital recorder or something where you can dictate to it. I would be surprised if many struggling screenwriters have the means to hire people to dictate to.

[@OwenTuson02]

thetramp123 here here! I mean to each their own, but it's just not practical for beginners. It's also not that technically taxing to actually type or write down words on a page, seems lazy

[@aegresen]

I've started using this dictation software called Dragon. It's quite good; as you dictate more and more, it adapts to your accent and becomes surprisingly accurate. You can even use your computer just by speaking!

[@ScriptSleuth]

It really does boil down to #7: just write. And keep on writing. We have to wash away the sand to find the gold.

[@ruly8153]

Hi there Big fan of your channel You’ve replied to me a few times 👋

[@danieljoseph1996]

Here is my tip: know your beginning, middle and an end. An extremely important tip for the tip. When you watch the whole film, you can see what is going on in every scene for an hour or 2-3 hours defining the sequences.

[@KimTownsel]

Fresh and interesting info. 😎

[@AuntieMessy]

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[@ufomechanic11]

Great video, would have appreciated some faces of color though.

[@formula2233]

satire

[@jamesentertainment9030]

These tips were awful. Hire someone to write for you, keep calm, respect the director ?? Um I was looking for WRITING tips

[@ianschulze1461]

I hate when someone offers the following advice "Don't do it."

[@michaeljohn1462]

Ian Schulze Same here. I job-shadowed as a vet, and they all said that because it's hard work I should try something else.

[@bradebronson8835]

They're trying to squeeze the weak ones from the ones who really want it.

[@juanvilchez965]

This is mostly horrible advice

[@tatianahadjisava-kaufman]

THE MEG (2018) SCREENWRITER: "IT'S A BLOODBATH!" watch here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j6GxiZ2DlrNnotk

[@supercruiser4925]

First interviewee passes off a subliminal feminist message...geez.

[@akramsaidi2849]

BAD SOUND

[@ruly8153]

If you need to look at the fucking ceiling to write you probably shouldn’t do it. That’s just lazy

[@TheMichaelCardoza]

Starts off with feminists ideology. Yeah that was helpful.