Students ask me how I learned the craft of screenwriting. I give the same answer that Walter Hill did:"The usual story -- read a lot of scripts, saw every possible movie."By and large, most folks seem to do a pretty good job on the 'seeing movie' front. But reading scripts? Not so much. I think I know why that's the case. When we think of "movies," we almost automatically think entertainment. And even if we students of screenwriting sit in a theater, checking our watch at every major plot, tracking subplots, and questioning story choices, on the whole the experience of watching a movie is entertaining. But when we consider reading a screenplay, my guess is that the first word that comes to most people's minds is work.
Well, that's true enough -- reading a screenplay is work. But you expected to play your way to the top of the screenwriting heap? Think of any other creative outlet: painting, sculpture, novels, poetry, acting, dance, violin, composing. Do you think that any of the people who succeed in creating a career in any of these fields got there without studying the subject matter at a granular level?
The simple fact is if you are really serious about learning the craft of screenwriting, you must read scripts. It is perhaps the single best way to drill down into the heart of the craft. It's one reason that so many script readers become successful screenwriters -- reading all those scripts, even bad ones, is a massive learning experience.
So here's something you can do to kick-start your screenplay reading habit: read 14 scripts in 14 days. I recommend this to my students often and the ones who've actually done it report back that it helped them immensely. Reading that many scripts in a compressed time provides a Gestalt grasp of the craft that you would not likely get any other way.
[Warning: old fart story ahead.]
Now way back when K-9 sold and I moved to LA, screenplays of existing movies were not that easy to find. I had to cobble together other screenwriters, my agents' assistants, and other fans of the craft into a kind of 'black market' of screenplays. This was especially true of the latest hot selling spec scripts like Basic Instinct and The Last Boyscout, but track them down I did. Trudging 5 miles every morning... through thick snowdrifts... in the pitch black... oh wait, that's another old fart story. My point is this: you're lucky! With a couple of clicks of your computer's mouse, you can tap into a universe of screenplays -- for free! My favorite screenplay hosting website is SimplyScripts.com, but there are plenty others.
So allow me to cut trail for you with links to 14 scripts. Different styles, writers, genres, and decades. I'm including Back to the Future and Witness because those are the first two screenplays I read, so perhaps a bit of good luck will rub off on you.
Day 1: Back to the Future
Day 2: Witness
Day 3: Alien
Day 4: Some Like It Hot
Day 5: Body Heat
Day 6: Fargo
Day 7: The Shawshank Redemption
Day 8: Die Hard
Day 9: Thelma & Louise
Day 10: Dead Poet's Society
Day 11: The Matrix
Day 12: Network
Day 13: Memento
Day 14: Toy Story
14 great scripts. 14 days. Trust me. It's worth it.
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27 comments:
Woohoo. And our time starts ... now
Be sure to check back in and let us know about the experience, what you learned, etc. And good luck!
Scott, thanks for all the links. I've actually been trying NOT to read scripts, as I write my own, so I don't like become a clone of someone else. Rather, I've tried to pick-up the basics from the "how to" books.
BUT, that said, I do think some amount of studying the masters is needed. Will try to read some of your linked scripts. But right now I'm just starting a new spec., and I've got a 8 hr. a day job with 3 hours of commuting there and back...
Real life can REALLY cut into one's fantasy life. Uhg.
Would love to take one of your classes. You sound like a fun guy to learn from. Well-p, gotta get back in the kitchen. I'm trying to make seafood Portofino a la the Olive Garden.
- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA
Over the next week, I'll be posting some caveats and other thoughts about reading 14 scripts in 14 days. One of them is do not read other scripts when writing your own. Don't want that influencing your decision-making process. However, if you're in between projects or the earliest stages of prep-writing phase, no reason not to read great scripts by great writers. Any doubts to the wisdom of reading other scripts, go back to the Walter Hill interview where he talks about how after he'd been making a living as a screenwriter for three years, he read a script by Alex Jacobs which caused him to change his writing style.
Re my classes: I teach 1-week courses online through UCLA Extension every quarter. For more information, go here and check out the Writers Program online program.
Good luck with your seafood Portofino!
At a recent WGA function, various panels of writers spoke about writing. To a person, they were all very conversant in other writers' screenplays, old and new. Both in referring to films and in discussions amongst themselves, they cited a film’s screenplay more so than the film itself. All were huge proponents of reading screenplays, and most said that their own styles – including the breaking of formatting rules in order to make a script more readable – were heavily influenced by other writers. Just as you cite Walter Hill and William Goldman, they did too.
By the way, the writer of one of the screenplays on your list – Tom Schulman of DEAD POETS SOCIETY – was one of the writers on those panels.
this is a great idea! I'll do it and review them on my blog...
how do I do this humbly?
http://potentialisamuscle.blogspot.com/
William Goldman says the same thing, btw. He says that reading 100 scripts is the equivalent of going to film school.
Well...maybe not. But he IS William Goldman.
Tom, thanks for watching my back with that 'report' from the WGA. I think most professional screewriters will read new scripts that come out simply out of curiosity. In particular, it's interesting to read spec scripts - when a pro screenwriter takes the time and effort to write something on spec, it's always intriguing to see in detail the story concept that turned them on, the style with which they approach the narrative voice, and so on.
You mentioned Tom Schulman: he sold a spec script for big bucks called Medicine Man. His script Dead Poet's Society is superb. Very tricky story to tell because it's all about human interactions, a 'small' story with big ideas and heart.
Who else was on the panel, Tom, do you remember? Nick Kazan often appears with Schulman.
Vanilla Chunk, thanks for cross-posting on your blog. I hadn't read that quote from Goldman about 100 scripts, but I wouldn't doubt. Clearly, he reads other writers' scripts as this interview proves.
Again, it's just mind-boggling how easy it is to access scripts nowadays. I used to have nearly 1,000 scripts and they took up nearly an entire wall of my office. When I left LA, I gave most of them away. Now I've got all my favorites again only as PDFs. Incredible.
Tom Schulman was rather funny talking about selling “Dead Poets Society, saying that the title contained possibly the three worst words you could use in marketing a script. He might have been joking, but he said a studio exec asked “Do they have to be dead?” Also, the film’s lead character was based on himself as a kid – shy, awkward and a rabid reader.
Three of the newer writers were Michael Brandt, Derek Haas and Simon Kinberg. Brandt and Haas are writing partners, and wrote “2 Fast 2 Furious”, “3:10 To Yuma” and one of this summer’s big hits, “Wanted”. Their big focus when writing is on the pace of the story. One of their big influences is Shane Black, who demonstrated a certain leeway to entertain in the script. In doing so, they sometimes skirt typical formatting rules in order to keep the reader entrenched in the story, ala Goldman and Hill. Sometimes, they aren’t even sure where one act ends and the next begins. They told a story about a meeting with, I think, Brad Pitt, who told them that the end of the second act needed to be strengthened. They shook their heads yes, then after leaving the meeting had to figure out where the hell their second act ended.
They also stressed the need to write for actors. At a meeting with Denzel Washington, Denzel (and I’m paraphrasing terribly here) went through the action script and pointed out that plenty of other characters had shot, been shot at, beaten someone up, been beaten up themselves, etc., before his lead character ever got to fire his gun. I think this is may be somewhat an adjunct to Billy Wilder’s rule about there being a clean line of action for the lead character. Here, the other characters were getting all the action.
Simon Kinberg wrote “Mr. And Mrs. Smith”, which was his thesis project for film school at Columbia, “X-Men: The Last Stand”, “Jumper” and a “Night at the Museum 2” rewrite, though he professed to being a fish out of water writing a comedy. As with the others, Simon paid homage to the writers and screenplays you’ve mentioned many times.
All three of the writers said a major influence in their becoming screenwriters was “Star Wars”. Simon in particular mentioned that he was at a discussion where Lucas said that when he writes, he drafts a long, involved, twisting, turning, exhaustive story. And that’s his first act. Which endeared Lucas even more to Simon, as he ascribes to the same style of writing.
I can’t remember which of the writers said this, but when asked what mistakes they often see in scripts, one of them said that too often, a writer starts a story and/or a scene TOO late. This is in direct conflict with that rule about entering and leaving scenes as soon as possible, but maybe because enough writers have scene this rule, it’s now being taken to an extreme. This writer thought that spending a little time to develop a connection between the reader and the character would be time and pages well-spent.
Anyway, all of this is paraphrased and possibly a little inaccurately remembered. Mary was also there and may have a much better recollection than me. But ultimately, your advice about reading as many scripts as possible was followed by all these successful writers.
Tom, that's an excellent report from the front lines. Do you mind if I promote your comment to the front page?
Your mention of Denzel's Washington comment reminds me of a meeting Siegel & Myers took with actor Carl Weathers (this was back in his Action Jackson days). We started pitching this story we'd worked up, about an ex-Vietnam vet, down on his luck truck driver. Before we'd gotten perhaps 2 minutes into it, Carl got up and said, "No, here's how I see his entrance," then proceeded to paint this portrait of his character, standing tall, backlit with the blazing headlights of the truck, basically macho man at the top of his game. Of course, that didn't give his character much room to grow given our story set-up.
Sometimes the discussion is about the character; other times, it's about the actor playing the character.
Sure, Scott. Feel free. That's hilarious about Mr. Weathers. I guess it's just more validity to the quote you had from Garry Marshall about one of his three screenplay drafts being designed to attract the actors.
I think I am going to re-read the 14 scripts of your list because that is a pretty damn good cross section of excellence I have seen.
Scott, thank you for posting this (including the links to the scripts). This is just what I need right now.
Excellent resource, thank you so much. I'm gonna cross reference you at my blog as well and get the word out at my favorite screenwriting haunts.
www.pjmcilvaine.blogspot.com
Well, I'm glad folks have connected with this idea of reading scripts. As I said, there is a special kind of 'learning' one can get from reading a bunch of scripts in a compressed time. Same thing with watching movies. Don't know how to describe it other than you somehow 'get' things you wouldn't otherwise.
Scott, you love TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and JEAN DE FLORETTE/MANON OF THE SPRING??
I think I'm about to faint! Or maybe that's because it's 87 degrees in the house....
To Kill A Mockingbird is probably my favorite movie of all time. And Jean de Flortette / Manon des Sources is a magical experience / memory for me. I saw them for the first time at the Telluride Film Festival when they debuted there in 1987. As you know, the ending of Manon is incredibly sad. I sat through the final credits, attempting as best I could to compose myself. Then exited the theater into this blinding sunlight. Shielding my eyes, I did a slow 360 degree pivot, taking in the surrounding beauty of that wonderful mountain community. And there it was -- sadness / beauty -- all suffused into a single moment.
That's what I mean when I say that movies are magical.
Hey Scott -- Just found your site and wanted to say I'm digging it. I like your Lists section. Lots of cool little nuggets that will hopefully help me on my quest to get out of the screenwriting slums and into a better neighborhood.
"The single most important question, I think, that one must ask one's self about a character is what are they really afraid of? What are they really afraid of? And if you ask that question, it's probably for me the single best way of getting into a character. That finally is where stories are told... with a character that's real."
-- Robert Towne (Chinatown, Shampoo, Mission Impossible)
What a gem. Thanks.
Hi Scott -
Earlier, I thought I was leaving a comment and ended up creating my very own blog-site! I'm one of your new followers - and a past student back in 2005 when you were awarded "best on-line instructor" at UCLA.
I'm on for your challenge. Thanks for keeping the list up as I see you first posted it some time ago.
Any thought about sharing some "not so great scripts" or scripts that were borderline re: a "recommend" from your script reader days?
We can learn in two ways: Attempting to emulate what's great while learning to avoid the not so great...
Thanks again for the links. Happy holidays!
SB
Scott, Did you ever live in Mexico City when you were a kid?
Steve, never even been to Mexico City. If this is a, "Hey, are you the Scott Myers who [fill in the blank]", I've discovered there are a LOT of Scott Myers around. I Googled my name once and interestingly discovered there are a lot of college teachers named Scott Myers -- which oddly is what I was going to do when I went to grad school before taking a year off and discovering screenwriting, etc.
Thank you for this list, I'm half way through the list and I can't thank you enough.
I'm finding it much easier to spot the psychological underpinnings of a film by reading it.
Dear Mr. Myers,
sorry for writing you here, but unfortunately, I can't find your e-mail. My name is Maria Zatulovksaya, I represent Russian film company Bazelevs and personally Timur Bekmambetov. Bazelevs is an established film company that produced such Russian box-office hits as "Night Watch", "Day Watch", "Irony of Fate. Continue". Mr. Bekmambetov is director and producer of all these films, he is also director of Hollywood film with Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman - WANTED, and he co-produced with Tim Burton and Jim Lemley animated film 9. Our partner is major studio Universal. We produce together film "Black Lightning", which will be on screens in December.
This autumn, together with our partner Kazakhfilm - major film studio in Kazakhstan - we would like to organize sreenwriting workshop for the talanted script writers from Russia and Kazakhstan. We would like to invite you to participate as a professor at this workshop. We think that it might be a workshop in Kazakhstan or an on-line workshop. We would be glad to hear your advise on how it would be more efficient to organize such workshop.
I would be glad to answer all your questions and give you more details about us and our workshop. I hope our offer will interest you.
Looking forward to your reply,
Sinecerely yours,
Maria Zatulovskaya
Development department manager
Bazelevs
mob: + 7 916 678 74 77
office: +7 495 223 04 00
bazelevs.ru
maria_zatulov@mail.ru
Nice, I'm glad to see somebody else recommends this kind of discipline and that it pays off.
I've been reading more then the 14 in 14. I originally set off to do a 30 scripts in 30 days and actually exceeded that. I'm young and have been working in Hollywood for almost 2 years now. All entry level work up to this point..I usually have a 2 week hiatus during Christmas..and I'm just finishing off another 2 week break because it just so happens the last show I was on wrapped 2 weeks after Christmas. I completed the 30 in 30 starting before Christmas and wrapping soon after... When I have freetime I have found myself reading 2-3 scripts a day if possible. I am really wanting to get into screenwriting so it's a boost of morale to see professionals recommending this sort of regimen!
Reading scripts is certainly a great discipline, and many thanks to Scott for bringing the idea to my attention.
There's a problem, though. What exactly are we reading as we work our way through these lists?
Some of the scripts are evidently first drafts that underwent radical revision before hitting the screen (eg Back to the Future). OK, good, we can certainly learn from that.
Others may be shooting scripts, hacked from the writer's original drafts for the purpose of finally putting the movie together. We can learn from these too, but we'll need to be careful not to base our own writing on camera direction cadences. And it might be that whatever it was in the early drafts that made the thing leap off the page has by this time leapt off the page into the bloodstream of the production, leaving little behind.
Other scripts, it strikes me, may not really be scripts at all. At least one in the list here seems to me to be an amateur transcription, faithfully recording the dialogue and reflecting the actions of the characters, but utterly lifeless as a seed for any kind of artistic endeavour. I really can't see that there's anything at all to be learnt from this. Far, far less than you'd learn from watching the movie, and quite without value when measured against the first draft submission of any greenlighted movie, even if it eventually reached the screen in a completely different form, if at all.
Scott's right -- reading scripts is an essential part of the game. And there are thousands of scripts out there on the Web. But without knowing the provenance of what we're reading -- what are we actually doing when we read these things?
--
Chris
Following GITS for a few days now. A newbie on this matter. English is not my native language. I am starting today V1 of "14 days of screenplays". I find this blog very encorauging and extremely helpful. Thank you!
PS
Sorry, I had to correct a typo and post again.
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