JOAN TEWKESBURY:( Nashville) Robert Altman said the only way you're ever going to get to direct is if you write your own script. So that's how it all began.... writing scripts is very much like choreographing to music. There are measured scenes that go on for a certain amount of time, with a beginning, middle and end."Nashville" was written to Bach.
TOM SCHULMAN:(Dead Poets Society) I had to be my own best salesman. I had to know everything that was going on in Hollywood, who might or might not be interested in my piece, and guide my agent in those directions, even if he disagreed.
AMY HOLDEN JONES:(Indecent Proposal, Mystic Pizza) Roger Corman taught me a very valuable lesson. He said you could make a movie about just about anything as long as it had a hook to hang the advertising on.
ERIC ROTH:( Forrest Gump, Mr. Jones) I finished the script on a Friday, and I sent it over to Tom and the producer to read. Tom Hanks read it the same day I sent it to him, and that night he called me and said, "I want to do this movie." Which is a big advantage.
JIM HART:( Hook, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Mary Shelly's Frankenstein) I learned a great lesson from Coppola on "Dracula" Francis gave me a great insight as to when you are dealing with studio executives and the studios' needs. You agree with everything they say then you go off and do whatever you want to.
LAWRENCE KONNER:(Jewel Of The Nile, Star Trek VI, Beverly Hillbillies)
A character's dreams are most important because I think almost always what their dreams are will help you motivate the story. It's something they want.
WESLEY STRICK:(Cape Fear, Wolf, True Believers, Arachnophobia)
I find that when I am working I become like an antenna and suddenly, somewhat like a paranoid-schizophrenic, everything relates to my screenplay: a mentioned recipe, a joke somebody tells, a billboard that I see. It all becomes grist for what ever screenplay I'm working on.
AMY HOLDEN JONES:(Indecent Proposal, Mystic Pizza)Usually when you have a block, It's because you've lost the motor of the story.
MICHAEL TOLKIN:(The Player, The Rapture) ( Quoting William Carlos Williams:)
...To make the listener listen, the theme is repeated stressing a variant: it is a principle of music to repeat the theme. Repeat and repeat again, as the pace mounts.
TOM SCHULMAN:(Dead Poets Society) I think that what you're trying to do is blend the commercial and the personal.
TOM SCHULMAN:(Dead Poets Society)I want to know my whole story works before I start working.
PETER RADER:(Waterworld) Even after selling "Waterworld" it took me 3 years to get comfortable in the shoes of a writer.
PETER RADER:(Waterworld) Your ego and your conscious mind already have way too many rules. To receive another set of rules about having 3 acts and 1st act twists and all sorts of things like that, I think, is a way of homogenizing movies. It's very destructive to the industry. On the other hand, your sub-conscious, the crazy person, that's the one who needs the rules.
JIM HART:( Hook, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Mary Shelly's Frankenstein) I think too many screenwriters try to be commercial as opposed to being accessible. Find that material which speaks to you and has a certain truth. Forget about whether it's commercial.
"Dracula" took me 15 years. "Hook" took me 10 years.
ERIC ROTH:( Forrest Gump, Mr. Jones)I think part of being a good screenwriter is being as concise as possible.
LAWRENCE KONNER:(Jewel Of The Nile, Star Trek VI, Beverly Hillbillies)Robert Towne has made the comment, and I agree with him, " An audience will forgive a lot at the beginning but very little at the end." If the story is constructed properly, then the ending should be inevitable, but not predictable.
LAWRENCE KONNER:(Jewel Of The Nile, Star Trek VI, Beverly Hillbillies) I think the first thing you should do before writing a script is to sit down and write a biography of that person.
JOHN MATTSON:(Milk Money, Free Willy 2)
My job is to satisfy these people who are my bosses.
Part of what I was hired to do was be on location, be there for rehearsals, and do any changes that were necessary based on what the actors thought...and its a lot of fun if you like thinking on your feet, running around and working with a bunch of people. It's a good contrast to sitting in your room by yourself being tortured.
MICHAEL TOLKIN:(The Player, The Rapture) (Quoting William Carlos Williams:)
...To make the listener listen, the theme is repeated stressing a variant: it is a principle of music to repeat the theme. Repeat and repeat again, as the pace mounts.
TOM SCHULMAN:(Dead Poets Society) For me the challenge is always to look inside myself and find what's really behind what I'm working on.
AMY HOLDEN JONES:(Indecent Proposal, Mystic Pizza) One of the big things you have to learn is who to listen to and when; and you can't listen to everybody.
WESLEY STRICK:(Cape Fear, Wolf, True Believers, Arachnophobia)
I have two tricks. One is that I write every day, regardless of whether I want to or not because as I just said, in a way I never want to write. It's not even an issue. I just write four pages a day when I'm working. I have a quota. A sub-set of that system is that I am a firm believer that bad ideas lead to good ones. When I am not inspired and I don't know the solution I will just type out the most banal solution and know that at least it's on the page and it gets me to the next story beat.
JOAN TEWKESBURY:( Nashville) Robert Altman said the only way you're ever going to get to direct is if you write your own script. So that's how it all began.... writing scripts is very much like choreographing to music. There are measured scenes that go on for a certain amount of time, with a beginning, middle and end."Nashville" was written to Bach.