Screenwriting and Filmmaking:"But What I Really Want to Do Is Direct"

[CharlieDontSurf]

Well to be honest I'm not real sure how I should start this thread off given the subject matter is incredibly broad and there are so many different tangents one could go off on.

Basically this thread will be for people who are interested in screenwriting, filmmaking, and the movie industry in general. There are many 2+2ers who work in the industry in many different areas so I'm sure just about any topic or question can be covered.

Seeing that I know of multiple 2+2ers who are aspiring to work in the entertainment biz and become writers and directors I thought it best to create a thread about those crafts which is seperate from a general movie discussion thread.

I personally am working towards a career as a writer-director in feature films, and I also work full time in the industry as a lowly assistant. I did the whole film school thing(overrated), read just about every screenwriting book known to man while in high school and college, and have worked as an assistant at a major studio, at a lit management company, and for a indep. film producer.

Given a lot of my work "friends" are managers/agents/screenwriters/directors and assistants to just about every type of person in the industry, I figure I can answer just about any screenwriting or industry question one might have and if I can't there are countless others who may be able to---Prv Joker, Dom, Pryor, etc etc etc.


This isn't a ask me type thread cuz I ain't that interesting. Its mainly a discussion thread for anyone interested in trying to gain a career in the industry, wanting to write screenplays, direct shorts/films, or the state of film in general, or any other crap you can think of etc.

Industry gossip is welcome too.

CDS

[Boris]

What do you think about my idea for a screenplay?

[CharlieDontSurf]

There are 1 trillion people with ideas for movies...many of them good

The people that actually sit down and write out 110 pages with that idea are screenwriters. The majority of them do a really really crappy job.

I like ski movies...there are probably like 100 of them in development right now. You have an idea, not a movie.

[Golden_Rhino]

For anyone who is a movie aficionado:

I try to watch movies with a critical eye. What should I be looking for when it comes to rating a movie? What is the difference between a great movie and just a good movie? What should I be looking out for as far as directing/camera work goes?

Thanks.

[CharlieDontSurf]

[ QUOTE ]
For anyone who is a movie aficionado:

I try to watch movies with a critical eye. What should I be looking for when it comes to rating a movie? What is the difference between a great movie and just a good movie? What should I be looking out for as far as directing/camera work goes?

Thanks.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is more up Pryor's alley given he is a critic but I get the feeling he may not even wander over here from the Lounge.

In reality the key component to a great movie is almost always the quality of the script.

With directing...wow the list is huge.
Lighting and set design is big. Framing, camera angles, and different types of shots used, lenses used.

[cobrakai111]

Mark me down as another aspiring screenwriter that has never been able to get my act together enough to focus longterm. I've tried collaborating with a partner but he was as useless as me and our writing styles just never meshed. Does anyone have methods to keep them on track. Has anyone written successfully with a partner before?

(On a side note I've always thought a mockumentry Christopher Guest style on poker would have potential to be hysterical. Such amazing characters to shape and work with.)

[CharlieDontSurf]

If you can't do it solo you'll never get off the ground.
A partner just works for some people because it is a sounding board to have around at all times. I always say go solo because its not half the money/control for the same amount of work if you actually ever get successfull.

If it gets to the point where there are multiple 10+ people on here who are trying to write scripts etc we might get a seperate discussion going for just that and have a screenwriting group/class where we can view each others pages etc...

[pryor15]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
For anyone who is a movie aficionado:

I try to watch movies with a critical eye. What should I be looking for when it comes to rating a movie? What is the difference between a great movie and just a good movie? What should I be looking out for as far as directing/camera work goes?

Thanks.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is more up Pryor's alley given he is a critic but I get the feeling he may not even wander over here from the Lounge.

In reality the key component to a great movie is almost always the quality of the script.

[/ QUOTE ]

that's part of it, but almost all great films "swing for the fences". that is, they take big chances that could easily fail spectacularly, but they manage to pull off. they aren't necessarily "perfect", in fact they can be flawed in various ways, but they are often alive despite (or even because of) those flaws.

that's an oversimplification, but one that's often ignored.

[Voltaire]

>almost all great films "swing for the fences". that is, they take big chances that could easily fail spectacularly,<

This is true in the book biz and in the art world as well. Everybody with the power to make money decisions in the industries (they are that) protects their butt by trying to do something that HAS BEEN SUCCESSFUL. Naturally that peters out. Along comes an innovator with skill and nerve and a devil may care attitude or a karma yoga stance (doing it for doing it) and boom you have, e.g., Following (1998) and then Memento (2000) and a hundred imitators and the keys to the Hollywood kingdom of financing.

[JackWilson]

[ QUOTE ]
For anyone who is a movie aficionado:

I try to watch movies with a critical eye. What should I be looking for when it comes to rating a movie? What is the difference between a great movie and just a good movie? What should I be looking out for as far as directing/camera work goes?

Thanks.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just wanted to reply to this specifically:

You seem to be approaching this from entirely the wrong angle, as many do. You don't suddenly become a film critic by looking at specific things. That's not at all how it works.

A movie critic is usually a semi-intelligent person who has seen a lot of movies and is critical or a perfectionist by nature. You're crazy if you think people who break a movie down and study its core components are real critics. There's nothing wrong with examining a movie's plot, but you can't do so in a vacuum. There are some excellent movies that have little or no plot.

Films aren't meant to be looked at that way. If they were, filmmakers would send off individual copies of the script, the audio etc to the critics. They don't. A film is a complete product, a complete experience. A real critic watches for enjoyment, not to pick something apart. However, things a real critic enjoys are usually things like a good plot, good acting, strong dialogue etc. All of that comes together to make a good film. It should always be enjoyment first. Before someone points at that documentaries are films and they're not necessarily for enjoyment - there is more than form of enjoyment. If something touches you emotionally e.g a true life drama, that is still enjoyment even though it doesn't make you happy.

What I'm trying to say is that you're wasting your time looking at specifics first. Find a great scene in a movie, a scene you really enjoyed. If you want, you can look at what makes that scene great, and you'll usually notice things like clever camera angles, subtle use of transitions, witty dialogue or whatever. But trying to justify something as being great without actually having enjoyed it because it uses many different and very technical camera techniques is just wrong IMO.

A good example is the UK series of The Office. One of the reasons why I enjoy it is because it's very realistic, if you've ever worked in an office, you meet idiots like that all the time. However, since you don't work with these people, you can laugh at their stupidity as much as you want, it's not real life. There are many ways in which this realism is achieved, I'll give you three examples. No laugh track. The use of little shots just showing normal office behaviour, there isn't always something happening. The extensions of awkward silences way longer than it takes for the "punchline" to set in. These are some of the film techniques which make the series so great, but you couldn't see that by looking at the individual parts. Look at the whole. Did you enjoy it? Everything starts there. If you have to articulate why you enjoyed something, then it becomes necessary to study it. The first step is to find out why you enjoyed it. Then look for things that enforce that reason.

Unless you want to just get yourself published, in which case you should become a good writer first.