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Giving legions of struggling screenwriters one more opportunity to learn something from their role models at the top of their craft, director Peter Hanson (screenwriter, Stagehand) assembles a chat fest of interviews with the stars of the profession commiserating over their experiences as employees of studios and independent producers. The lengthy documentary is broken down into thematic chapters in an attempt to give some clarity on individual aspects of the job. Resisting that goal is the random nature of the recollections.
But that doesn't matter much if you tune into this collective diatribe because you think it might improve your own work or give you a leg up on marketing your scripts. No less than the writer of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, Paul Schrader, gives us this tip: "If you can be happy doing anything else, do that." An ex-screenwriter informs us that "A writer friend of mine once described screenwriters as 'egomaniacs with low self-esteem." Mick Garris, (Riding the Bullet) tries to be more helpful: "The first screenplay you write is rarely going to be sold and made into a movie," he posits, "but it might be a good sample to get you hired to write something else. I probably wrote a dozen scripts before I ever got paid to do one."
Shane Black (Lethal Weapon), John Carpenter (Halloween), Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption), William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid),and the aforementioned Paul Schrader, are a few of the leading voices in this impressive lot (culled from 50) who analyze their triumphs and recall their failures and the effect each milestone had on them and on their subsequent careers. The participants explain how successful writers develop the skills--not so much to write but to tough it out with their paymasters in one of the world's most competitive industries, and how they deal with playing second fiddle to some employers who aren't fit, in a literary sense, to carry their luggage.
The highlight here is when someone relates (in first person) the previously untold story behind some of the greatest screenplays ever written, and describes their adventures with luminaries such as Harrison Ford, Morgan Freeman, Stanley Kubrick, Joel Silver, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg.
You wouldn't necessarily know from these accounts, however, that the screenplay is seen by some as the single most critical element in movie-making. When a giant like William Goldman talks of his travails as though he's just an ordinary hired hand, and others who similarly command top earnings from their craft do likewise, they are passing on the reality that a list of impressive credits doesn't translate into much control over their material on their latest project.
But what writer who has looked for an agent or a producer hasn't already learned that lesson? Those who haven't yet exposed themselves to the creative firewalls of Hollywood movie-making, on the other hand, might just learn something for the first time.
The most to be gleaned from Tales From the Script is an inside perspective of what the big talents on the pedestal of major filmmaking success talk (and bitch) about.
The interviews are available in book form, as well.
But that doesn't matter much if you tune into this collective diatribe because you think it might improve your own work or give you a leg up on marketing your scripts. No less than the writer of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, Paul Schrader, gives us this tip: "If you can be happy doing anything else, do that." An ex-screenwriter informs us that "A writer friend of mine once described screenwriters as 'egomaniacs with low self-esteem." Mick Garris, (Riding the Bullet) tries to be more helpful: "The first screenplay you write is rarely going to be sold and made into a movie," he posits, "but it might be a good sample to get you hired to write something else. I probably wrote a dozen scripts before I ever got paid to do one."
Shane Black (Lethal Weapon), John Carpenter (Halloween), Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption), William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid),and the aforementioned Paul Schrader, are a few of the leading voices in this impressive lot (culled from 50) who analyze their triumphs and recall their failures and the effect each milestone had on them and on their subsequent careers. The participants explain how successful writers develop the skills--not so much to write but to tough it out with their paymasters in one of the world's most competitive industries, and how they deal with playing second fiddle to some employers who aren't fit, in a literary sense, to carry their luggage.
The highlight here is when someone relates (in first person) the previously untold story behind some of the greatest screenplays ever written, and describes their adventures with luminaries such as Harrison Ford, Morgan Freeman, Stanley Kubrick, Joel Silver, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg.
You wouldn't necessarily know from these accounts, however, that the screenplay is seen by some as the single most critical element in movie-making. When a giant like William Goldman talks of his travails as though he's just an ordinary hired hand, and others who similarly command top earnings from their craft do likewise, they are passing on the reality that a list of impressive credits doesn't translate into much control over their material on their latest project.
But what writer who has looked for an agent or a producer hasn't already learned that lesson? Those who haven't yet exposed themselves to the creative firewalls of Hollywood movie-making, on the other hand, might just learn something for the first time.
The most to be gleaned from Tales From the Script is an inside perspective of what the big talents on the pedestal of major filmmaking success talk (and bitch) about.
The interviews are available in book form, as well.
