Christian Elder, Screenwriter: You'll notice that sooner or later it has you in its grips
to the point where you're like where it'll do something that is so enthralling that it
won't leave your memory, that you won't forget it. It just won't go away?
Film Courage: Do you ever envision your script sitting in a pile on someone's desk or maybe
in their study on a weekend and think what's going to make mine stand out here? What chance
do I have?
Christian: Yes, absolutely. The way I look at that at the risk of sounding redundant
is I’ve talked about the whole aspect of the voice. But the voice is one thing in my
case I'm confident in my voice now you go on you move on to that other word which is
confidence so with that with with with confidence you what you want to do when you have like
a polished sample or a polish spec script that you're submitting or or somebody's reading
or it doesn't matter who's reading it really doesn't because once you're once you are mincing
what eyes are on your script you're in trouble right there you you you need to convince anybody
and anyone that what you have is is worth seeing turned into a movie so what that means
is you either you have either have to knock them in the head punch them in the gut or
kick them in the balls and and and and and that's something that you have to be doing
in the narrative of your story and and if you are doing that with your story you'll
notice what I'm saying here is like it's not just your script it's your story because your
script is a artifice that starts to make someone believe that there are reading a a story a
potential movie something that they get immersed in that they get lost in now if you're not
taking them to that place if you're not creating that illusion with the words that you mind
to do it then you've lost from the get-go from the beginning so that's if anything is
what I imagine if somebody has my my script in a pile over the weekend and the thing is
that what what I enjoy about that thought or that that metaphor is that I’ve had experience
with running the gauntlet of that metaphor is like when you like you're like oh hey like
let me give you that that'll get your attention boom and then you get the call you get the
phone calls like wow I love your love screenplay wow that was amazing that really hit me I
was I read 200 scripts over the last five days that's you there's nothing more that
you love to hear than that you can look and yours got my attention
that's the kind well 200 might be a little but a bit people read a lot of scripts in
the industry and and that's because there's a lot of stuff out there that you got to fight
to get through to to to have people recognize your talent as a storyteller so you like I
said you gotta whack them in the head punch them in the gut or kick them below the waist
so yeah okay can you can you give me an example of a movie that is going to whack them or
kick them in the nether region that that they never read sorry in case it's pg-13 whatever
I'm censoring myself.
Can you give me an example of a movie that if I saw an opening it would do that and if
that was the script I was reading I would be feeling that to one degree or another okay
let me see one that I can think of well just because we were just discussing it Michael
Clayton is great because you have you have a lawyer who takes off his clothes during
a death position immediately I'm like okay I'm in it doesn't happen every day. What I
mean it's like what is this about I want to know I'm curious right okay that works so
like that's one I'm always at a loss for like pulling examples for for some films like at
the at the drop of a hat let me see if I can extract I can like if I go down the list of
like for me of Tony Gilroy movies is really actually not so hard with him because like
you can go like to the Bourne Supremacy which is amazing opening one of the great openings
where like there was a chase and they find where born is where he's hiding out with his
girlfriend and his girlfriend get hurt in the first the first 10 minutes I think of
the film and I'm like and you're like the stakes are so high at that point it's this
is what you have to do with your storytelling most of the time now now what I mean by that
when I say like wax them in the head punch someone in the gut or kick them in the nether
region so to speak is that it can be a slow burn too it doesn't have to be immediate if
it's a slow burn in it and it hooks you you'll notice that sooner or later it will it it
has you in its grips to the point where you're like where it'll do something that is so enthralling
that it won't leave your memory that you won't you just you won't forget it it just won't
go away and that is what you're doing with storytelling if you are under the notion or
the idea or the the misconception that you are you are trying to express something that
you feel is well for lack of a better term I think that that that some writers new writers
they get caught up in these jimmy exercises of emulating certain other writers and filmmakers
they really admire and it's just an indulgence because they're just trying to piece together
the things that they like thinking that's going to make an impression on the reader
but that is not going to do it what's going to make the impression is someone getting
lost in what you're telling them and the way that you tell them tell them it and if you
get caught up in those kind of details you're gonna you're gonna be in trouble you're people
are going to get bored and they're going to shut your script because what really happens
with readers what really happens with executives and producers and people that have very busy
schedules is they take five pages of your script and they read it and then they put
it down if it doesn't hook them. You'll be lucky actually if you get five pages you'll
be lucky so those five pages whatever you're doing in those five pages whether it's the
way you've written that description whether the way it's the way that you've delineated
those characters whether it's it's a passage of dialogue they have to be firing on all
cylinders or it's like so-and-so becomes a drink coaster yeah next, that's the way it
works.
Film Courage: Can you give me an example and I'm trying to come up with a euphemism for
the term that you use but of a writer who's stroking their own ego (a master of their
domain as you so well explained)? Christian: They're bad writers it's like you can't take
on someone who is successful because more than likely they're doing something right
do what I'm saying so you can't cast dispersions against anybody that's successful at what
they're doing because they're doing something right to you and to people's attention so
it's simply just that it's like keep people turning the page and tell your story but you’ve
got to keep them excited or they'll throw it away sometimes I’ve gotten into the situation
and this happens a lot where someone will say send me send me a couple of screenplays
send me three free scripts or something like that right now you have to be smart about
that all right because when you do that you go like well maybe they like this maybe or
maybe they won't like that and maybe they'll like that over here all right so you send
it and the and and sometimes they'll go what I was reading I’ve been reading pile of
scripts and one of your scripts it's I just didn't really connect it but the other one
because you what you're doing that's the confidence I'm talking about what you're doing it's like
well maybe they're not this sort of thing that they're in that's their oath but maybe
this over is like that's a little conversely on the other side of that of this kind of
subject matter so so that's what the game is that's what the the strategy is behind
the game the game is getting them hooked just as you would be hooked if you were in the
theater watching the story all right because if it reaches that stage like we said if you're
we're successful to get to that point then you must be doing something right unless we
do even the more lackluster stories still are stories.
Question For The Viewers:
What movie opening do you love?