Film Courage: Do you believe every screenplay a screenwriter
writes begins with their five favorite movies?
Brooks Elms, Screenwriter/Filmmaker: No
and they're probably better off leaning into their favorite films to inspire
what's next for them because our favorite scripts, our favorite films or shows depending what we're
writing spoke to us in a deep way because let's I mean let's look at this there's tens of thousands
of movies and shows that we could have watched in our lifetime lifetime you know one percent of
them or whatever we've actually seen so thousands of people thousands of movies and shows thousands
of hours for sure if you get to the point where you're writing a screenplay you've probably seen
you know thousands of hours of content so of that let's say it's a thousand just for hypothetical
which are the favorites and why are those the favorites and then when you get down to
the specificity of my favorite seven films it's not gonna be like anybody else's favorite seven
on the planet so you're talking about a very specific almost code of what speaks to me
and if you take a look at that there's connective tissue in terms of theme or character arc or
genre or just feel or tone or things and it's I found very instructive for me and for
writers that I mentor to use that as the well I mean this is what they could have picked anything
right they could have you know but the ones that they saw and of the ones they saw these are the
ones that sort of stirred their soul so why would you not use that as a resource to say this is what
I love most and now I'm going to do my version of that sure what if we're at a risk of of putting
too many let's say we're taking from black swan or we're taking that you know from the opening of
Forrest Gump or what you know we're infusing too many things that have already been done and
people can spot that and say yeah you were that that's derivative right we recognize that so the
what we're always looking for is the same but different if for if it's too much the same what
you're talking about then it feels too derivative it's it's boring right if it's too different
just it's too kind of weird it's too idiosyncratic and it's like whatever
right the stuff that's speaking to you most deeply has a beautiful balance of the same but different
someplace right in the middle and when I create my new version of the same but different.
That's where the magic is I mean that's where the really profound beauty is if I try to do that and
it's feeling derivative then I’ve just leaned over to this pole too much and I need to go
okay I'm borrowing too much for my favorite stuff how do I make it more personal to me
what was going on in my life that inspired me to like that movie what is it that
you know so if you look at something like star wars right none of us were star fighters or
you know you know what do you call him he's a fighter pilot or whatever it was for the rebellion
but like the way like in episode four I'm talking about the way that he interacted
with his his families and uncle and the way he kind of was like you know had to do his chores
and then he had this calling to go on this adventure to face the the empire we relate to that
because if we do if if we relate to that we're living because we feel similar things
in our own sort of experience right so so if episode four is on my list of favorite movies
you know you might take that it's sci-fi from it you might take that it's a hero's journey story
you might take that it's that he kind of had this mundane sort of teenager type life and he
was called for some more sort of adventure there's different things that you can take and if I take
x from it and I'm putting at my screenplay and I'm getting a reaction from people I respect who are
going yeah this feels like it's too close to star wars then it's like okay that's interesting how
do I make it more personal to me you know because what I'm probably not doing is going deep enough
into what I love about this that material can I give this a try with some of my favorite movies
one of them being Forrest Gump I mean I can speak to Forrest Gump
I mean I saw it when it came out but it's such a iconic film so I have some thoughts on it
if that were on somebody's list of favorite movies you know you might take away again the thing is to
look at the whole series right if you look at seven and if let's say all of them are fairly
similar to Forrest Gump there's a there's a playfulness in that there's an innocence it's
sort of I mean Blake [Blake Snyder, Author of Save The Cat] would call it the full triumphant story
and so I would you know I would look at that type of story
I would look at the type of protagonist that was sort of a special needs protagonist this
idea that life is nothing but a box of chocolate so that's a thematic idea that might speak to you
the setting it was like in the south right in like georgia or some place or Alabama
so I would take those elements and just note them so it's a soft easy process and then list
your other six favorite movies and then you start looking about like are there any other
movies that are full triumphant type movies from Blake Snyder's professor or any other movies
that are sort of set in the south or any other movies about characters that had special needs
or any other movies that have thematic idea of sort of you know
you know like life is like a box of chocolates or whatever that was or you know they talked
about there was sort of nostalgia stuff going on in there too so you just take the pieces
and you start looking through it so and then you will see connective tissues and you'll realize
I'm drawn to these things for really deep reasons and when you come with your new material you
create your new material from those deeper reasons it's almost certainly going to be more resonant
more singular and you are speaking to that as a creative authority on what you love the most
because those are your favorite damn movies and you can talk about them all day long as
an authority and so when you come from that sort of swagger and love and passion that's exactly
what Hollywood is looking for they're looking for you to be the creative leader on your sensibility
because that's what we're doing when we tell a story we're leading millions of people
on this journey from here to there and we can't do it unless we're comfortable and confident
about what our sensibility is so listing your favorites and analyzing them is a way of sort of
making you already know what those are but you're bringing it to a conscious level and go yeah
I love these things and here's why I love them and I can talk about them with authority
and from that authority you put that on the page and then it crackles in your own unique
way and speaks to other people well Russell Crowe and I'm just forgetting you the name
that's where he's the tobacco inside The Insider [1999] yeah fantastic yeah so if
that was on the same list as Forrest Gump so one connection I'm seeing with that movie is you have
you know also kind of the both of them have like this innocent kind of flustered
main character I mean well yeah you know tom hanks character isn't flustered but he runs and
crazy doesn't stop running but the the the Russell Crowe character is totally flustered
and overwhelmed and and so to me those are very significant so if those were two of your favorites
I would say there's something about being sort of in over your head less you know sort of that
fish out of water thing but like but just sort of innocently kind of stumbling into something
and like it being like a really big deal so those to me are pretty significant and with The Insider
there's also I mean that's politically charged it's socially social issue charged that one is
grounded to Michael Mann perhaps at his best one of my favorites from him and you got Pacino who's
this you know dynamic sort of crusader and you have that beautiful scene in the courtroom of
so good that well that one actor I don't know his name but he's in that courtroom scene and he just
he sticks to the tobacco company he was just basically like look you knew this was wrong
you did it anyway it's now gonna stop you can't push you can't bully us anymore so it's that
that bullying thing so maybe that's the theme in you so again those are just two movies if you
brought out the other five you can start seeing some really significant connective tissue and
then if you you can almost see it like a Lego set right you're the Lego set of your favorite movies
and then you take that same Lego set and then you create your own new movie with those same Legos
and maybe you add a few new ones but like you are much more likely to to write something that is so
connected to like your soul for the reason that you came to the planet that the thing that like
who else are we gonna go to about those movies but you because they're your favorite movies
you can teach anybody something about those movies because your favorite so that's sort
of the way that I help people get aligned with their superpower or where I do myself for my own
work if I get a little bit kind of confused about something or resistance I'm like well how are they
doing at my favorite movies and I gotta look at that and I learn and I go okay well they did this
and they did this and they did this and I go well I'm doing this this and this and then it's like
okay well how do I make those dots connect how do I connect apples to apples with my favorites
and and then once I do it for me I give it to somebody else and I go are they seeing
it you know because if it's just me if I'm a professional it can't be just me it's got to be
eliciting the reaction the other people too which is even more fun anyway.
Question For The Viewers:
Do you borrow ideas from your favorite movies and put pieces of them into your work?