John August

QandA

Collaborating with multiple writers

QandA, Writing Process

Just recently
my friends and I have decided to make a short film. We have elected to individually
write several scenes for this short film, then combine them when complete.
Is this advisable, or is there foreseeable problems, such as writing styles,
continuity etc? How hard is it to co-write scripts?

–Mark B

I’ve never written with a partner, so my only experience in co-writing comes
from the two television shows I’ve created, in which I needed to work with
other writers to come up with episodes. In those cases, I was clearly the guy
in charge, so the experience was only collaborative up to the point where we
disagreed. Then, I always won.

Unless you and your friends are remarkably (dare I say pathologically) sensitive
to each other’s talents and feelings, I think you are in for trouble. While
filmmaking is ultimately collaborative, with up to hundreds of people working
on a movie, the writing process is inherently pretty solitary. You’re not just
pushing around words on paper; you’re pushing ideas around in your brain. And
the more brains you try to distribute this conceptual process between, the
more muddled the ideas become.

I’m not saying your short film is doomed. But I really doubt it’s going to
turn out better for this novel approach. I’d recommend you and your friends
talk through all of your ideas at length, and then let one person actually
write the script. Everyone can offer feedback and suggestions, but the best
writer among you should be the keeper of the keyboard.

Action writing

QandA, Words on the page

Say you were writing the script to an action flick–LETHAL
WEAPON, for instance. When you get to the part where Mel Gibson and Gary Busey
are trouncing
each
other at the end of the movie, do you write a blow-by-blow account of the fight
in the stage directions, or do you just write "Gibson and Busey trounce
each other for a while, and Mel wins," and let the director/choreographer
worry about the details?
I’ve always wondered about that concerning the action
scenes in movies, like fights and gun battles and car chases and such.

–Roger

There’s a common misconception that a screenwriter only writes the dialogue,
while the director handles the rest. Being a guy who writes a lot of action
sequences, I can say definitively that’s not the case — at least not in the
21st century.

Supposedly, when the screenplay for GONE WITH THE WIND got to the climactic
fire scene, it stated only this: “Atlanta burns.” Just two words,
but in the movie the sequence took several minutes.

In modern screenplays, at least those that make it into production, the action
written on the page pretty closely matches the action on-screen. A fight sequence
will almost never be written blow-for-blow, but will at the minimum give
a sense of the action, the stakes and the most important moments within the
battle. If you don’t believe me, flip through the script to THE MATRIX, which
you can find in most bookstores. The Wachowski brothers don’t label each punch
and kick, but reading the script, you get a very good idea what the fight sequences
will look like.

The same holds true with almost any action sequence you can think of. In GO,
I spend half a page describing the chase down the alley in Vegas, in which
the Riviera gets stuck sideways. Everyone reading the script — producers,
the director, studio executives — could see exactly how funny the moment would
be, which is how such an expensive and time-consuming stunt stayed in the budget.
Otherwise, it would have been the first thing cut.

The danger with properly-described action sequences is that if they’re not
written very deftly, they can slow down the read immensely. That’s why I spend
at least as much time working on these moments as the dialogue scenes. They’re
much less glamorous, and honestly, more difficult to write. But the ability
to write interesting and economical scene description is what distinguishes
the screenwriter from the playwright.

That, and the weird “gh” in the name. If a playwright writes for
plays, shouldn’t a screenwright write for screens?

Actress audition

QandA

I am an aspiring actress. [Recently]
I went for an audition in Brooklyn. This casting notice was placed in Back
Stage. Anyway, the Director,
Producer,
and Writer, who are all the smae individual, gave me a call back
for Monday. The call back location was at his house. I did not know this until
I got there.
I was a dingy, broken down and creepy place. It was to double as a location
for his film (a horror movie). He also stated that
there
was
a love scene in his film and would I have any objections to it. I said "no," and
felt comfortable saying it. Well, he wanted me to do this (simulated) love
scene with him, with my clothes off. Remind you, just he and I in this
creepy room that he calls home.

My question to you is: was I hustled into thinking that I
may get this part if I did this love scene with him, or is this a normal thing?
Do producers
have actors/actresses go to their home and do love scenes? And, could I have
ruined my chances of becoming an actress if he was the real thing, cuz I said
some really nasty things to him and called him a perv trying to get his (bleeps)
off.

–Donna in Staten Island

This guy may claim to be a writer/producer/director, but the truth is, he’s
just a creep. For the record, it is NOT normal for a producer to You were absolutely
right to call him that and get the hell out of there. The important thing I’d
like to stress is that you should never have been in there in the first place.

Casting shouldn’t be done at somebody’s house. Period. Whatever the building
is, if you don’t feel safe going into an environment, don’t go. I’m glad you
got out of there with only rattled nerves, but it could have been a lot worse.

This guy was using an ad in Back
Stage to lure you over to his house, all
with the intention of getting you to take your clothes off. It might not be
illegal, but it’s certainly unethical, and clearly violates all standards of
acceptable behavior. Call Back Stage and investigate what the complaint process
is for the magazine. At the least, you might get him banned from placing more
ads to lure over more young women.

When nudity is involved in a role, a red flag should always go up. While there
are cases where a legitimate audition will require nudity – such as for the
strippers in GO – the situation should be more professional because of it,
not less. For instance, most casting directors will insist on having a female
staff member in the room at all times.

You had a horrible experience that fortunately didn’t become any worse. Don’t
let it sour you on acting. Rather, let it sharpen your creep detectors, so
it won’t happen again.

Index cards

QandA, Words on the page

Do you use the "index card" method when preparing
to write a script and if so do you find that your screenplay fleshes out
in the same order as
you wrote it in the index cards?

–Ruble

For those who don’t know about index cards, it’s a technique a lot of screenwriters
use. Each scene or sequence is given its own card. Then the cards are laid
out, pinned up or otherwise arranged to figure out the best structure for the
movie.

While I always outline scripts, for me it’s 50/50 whether I use index cards
or not. For the CHARLIE’S ANGELS sequel they were a big help in pitching the
movie, partly because each card had funny stick figures (e.g. "Car Wash
Angels get the evidence"). I also used different colors for different
types of sequences: action was always on purple cards, while narrative was
blue. When you looked at the whole movie layed out on the table, it was easy
to see the pacing. In discussing an individual
scene, you could point at it.

For a lot of scripts, particularly those without action sequences, index cards
might be a waste of time. A better bet would be to write up an outline or a
treatment that lets you get a sense of the feel of the movie, not just the
big beats. Whatever technique you use, remember that scripts develop their
own logic. Use the cards or the outline as a map, not a Bible.