Film Courage: What is the stupidest way to write a screenplay?
Mark Sanderson, Screenwriter/Author: Well you are talking to someone who is a big fan
of the outline so…and not that the person who doesn’t is stupid…
Film Courage: But those are my words not yours…
Mark: Your words…
Film Courage: My words…Karen’s words.
Mark: Send the letters and cards.
Film Courage: They know the email.
Mark: It would just to sit down and say “I got an idea.
A half-baked idea that really wasn’t thought out.”
And you can do what you want which is fine but I just think you know and you may find
there’s a scene in there that is great and brilliant but a cohesive through line and
all that it takes time, it takes work.
This isn’t something that just spills out.
Some people say I can just spill a script out in a week.
Well that’s just fantastic and maybe you can do that.
Everybody has their own way but there are a lot of pitfalls in doing that with the story
and things aren’t working and I hate when I sit there and I write something that I know
is just bad and you know we all go through that but the best times are where it’s like
this weird channeling and I can see it in my mind’s eye and that’s going onto the
page and I feel good about it because I already watched it in the theater but it hasn’t
existed yet in my head so in a way when it’s really good it feels like you’re channeling
it.
When it’s bad there is something that the channel, those waves are not coming through
not to be like Oohhh!
Film Courage: You’re on dial-up versus…
Mark: Sure you’re tapping into your creative thing, your well whatever you want to call
it where you go and it’s…beep…the signal is not and you just write down a scene and
it’s like “That’s going to have to be re-written.”
Imagine…now a person probably wouldn’t think that just burning through a script “Oh
this is great.”
But it’s just bad when you’re like “Oh my gosh, it’s garbage.”
It’s terrible like a placeholder instead of the real scene.
Yeah okay well this is just the bad version as everyone says.
You get that note from people well here is the bad version and they tell you it and you’re
like that’s really not that bad but no, no, no I don’t want you to do that.
Here is an example of what not to do you know the bad version is as you hear in Hollywood
a lot and you’re like “Are you ever going to tell me the good version?”
And they say “No, that’s for you to figure out.”
I’m like “Oh, you’re right!
You’re right because I am the writer.
Throw me a lifeline here.
I’m drowning because I’ve got the bad version that’s the real bad version.”
Film Courage: Is this SUNSET BOULEVARD?
Mark: Exactly.
Film Courage: Is it almost similar to the people that in college said “I don’t have
to study, I just show up for tests?”
Mark: In a way and there are some that can.
I’ve never met any but yes especially I think with the odds.
There are so many scripts out there and so many good scripts too.
That I think a lot of times writers may not see the mountain that they’re climbing everyday.
You are not only up against your own competing with yourself to be a better writer next time
and next time learn like you should but also what is actually out there if you want to
work in the marketplace type of thing.
And I know when you say that, when I say that it sounds very non-romantic but it’s a business
so why not put your best foot forward in creating that unless you have a good day job and there
is no pressure that this script has to sell to make your rent or your mortgage payment
and you are just like Yeah, I’ll dabble in it but dabbling takes time as well as so
while you are dabbling another person is working 24 hours a day learning the craft and really
passionately they want it more than anything else and it can be a hobby it’s fine but
I think there are ways to approach a career or a writing career in a certain way and people
can try however they want but back to your original question it’s just to go I think
I have an original idea and not really Whoah…hold on a second.
What are you doing here with this idea?
Every idea is a kernel of a premise that builds, but do we have enough type of thing?
And not to second guess what is selling.
If it’s really a passionate idea you want to write absolutely you must do it.
Film Courage: And what about people who say that I don’t want to write for TV or I don’t
want to write a movie that doesn’t have any A-list talent in it and they stomp on
something because it’s not STAR WARS?
What do you say to that?
They want to be a screenwriter, they want to work in the industry but oh…no that’s
not 48 HOURS or sorry let me pick something from the last few decades.
Mark: I know what you mean.
You’re saying they stomp on the smaller ideas?
Yes, I read a lot of scripts that are big, big ideas (Hollywood ideas) which is fantastic
but the real odds of the unknown, uncredited writer it could happen.
It does once in awhile.
Not as much as it used to in the past.
Selling that thing that’s the only thing they’ve written because intellectual property
(IP) is all the rage.
It’s already been a book, a comic book that’s been a sequel or a prequel.
STAR WARS is a perfect example.
We just manufacture until the end and then we come up with a new series, right?
That’s all done and then we veer off on this one and we’ll take that character and
make a whole series on that one.
That’s a bigger…you’re trying to hit a home run out of the park which we all do
all of the time but I think you’re also shrinking your possibilities because they
already have the A-list writers out filling those jobs.
How do they get there?
I don’t know, everybody has their journey if you trace.
I was saying a writer who was a big TV person now in features started on XENA PRINCESS WARRIOR.
Now people would look down and be…Xena…that’s a ridiculous blah, blah, blah.
Everybody starts somewhere and was it his heart’s desire to work on that show forever,
no?
But that was a stepping ground.
Everybody has that stepping ground.
My experience and the people I’ve known you don’t just start out at the top.
You take the job and you go yeah okay it’s not my perfect thing but I now I will…it’s
a step-by-step process.
I would say in that way don’t step on those little ideas because those are the ones that
can get made.
You’re taking a bigger gamble writing this hundred million dollar script that’s locked
into that budget.
It can’t be made for less so then you say so where can it be made.
I don’t know there’s four studios that can possibly do this.
Let’s say they all pass where are you going to go with the script?
Somebody is going to have to shell out a 100 million dollars of their own money.
So the smaller idea (smaller in scope) meaning we’re not out to save the universe (the
universe could be your own life) your little universe could actually be made for five million
dollars, two million dollars.
It’s not glamorous.
Like a lot of writers “Well I’ll just sell my script for millions of dollars.”
And you think your life changes overnight.
You still have the same problems, you still have the same relationship, you’re still
a person.
It’s just a job.
I hate to sort of shrink it down to that “Oh a screenwriter!”
I used to think the same way too.
Oh my gosh, you read the trades you’re like “Oh!”
I’m going to live the life.
Live the life, yeah.
You’re going to be living the life at 2 in the morning writing the screenplay.
That’s what it is, it’s work.
It’s not glamour.
There are times when you’re forgotten about at a screening.
It happened where they thank everybody and they thanked the craft service person and
they go “Let’s run the film.”
And you’re sitting with the stars and they look at you and you’re mortified.
You’re like [emits nervous laughter].
Then afterwards of course it was just an oversight and at the party it was like Oh my gosh, so
sorry.
Have another martini…
Film Courage: I’ll call you.
Mark: It wasn’t that bad but you know what I mean, it’s not all going to be and if
you’re in it for that fame and fortune and fanfare not the writer I mean we made inroads
a little more than the past but you’re still the writer.
It’s one of the most important people because that’s where without a script there is nothing
right but that’s why you should try to be a hyphenate writer/producer, writer/director
or something like that eventually or start out as that’s your choice, that’s your
career direction but just the writer it’s an interesting road.
Question For The Viewers: How was that helpful to you?