Logan Burdick, Screenwriter: The magic of being a screenwriter or any of these crafts
is to figure out the pattern and then once you understand it
then figure out how to bury it so that no one's paying any attention to it.
Film Courage: Logan, what can you tell someone that's never written a screenplay
but loves film and television about the craft of screenwriting?
Logan: I think obviously it goes without saying that you have to read scripts.
I don't know how you would approach it otherwise. I feel actually reading them and then trying to
figure out through whatever means are available to you whether that's reading books or just trying to
take things apart yourself how do you reverse engineer to figure out why this works right
and the hard thing with that is that there's a lot of things scripts are doing simultaneously
right you have to figure out why it works from a pacing perspective and a plot for
perspective and a character perspective and in theme and emotional arcs and all those things
but I think that the best way to do that is to read scripts and then try to reverse engineer them
and again there's a lot of there's a lot of great material where people have done that Robert Mckee
and I forget who wrote save the cat I know I have not read Save The Cat but I definitely read story
when I was younger the only other thing that I would say about it is
don't think that any one way is the only wayI think it's important to to
immerse yourself in a bunch of different people's perspectives
and then I feel by doing that you'll actually start to understand why it's working I think that
emulating is important is an important part of learning right even literally children learn
at the very beginning by just copying right they're just emulating what someone else is
doing they don't understand why that's important but I think to really transcend that you need
to figure out why it's working and you have to understand it on a much more intrinsic level of
againI always hate to be too mathematical about it but so much of it is why why this line here why
this beat here what was planted when and why does it pay off here and okay sure that was all done
just from a thematic place but are there different ways that you can infuse that
to from a character perspective or again whatever that means because all these different attributes
are all again happening in parallel but I do feel that's what's really important is
again immersing yourself both in the raw material scripts and movies oh and all literally
sorry I'm just having thoughts I'm doing this sometimes if there's a type of movie that
I'm interested in figuring out why it works in certain ways I'll literally I will both read
the script and then I will watch the actual movie and then I will time out the movie and I will see
when I will see what in the script how many how many scenes and where they were and what
was happening in them and then all I'll put that against the actual finished movie and then I'll
say oh okay because sometimes when someone writes the script that isn't what ended up working the
best in the movie right and sometimes you need to look at the final holistic project to go oh okay
this is the they made these decisions that even the writer themselves were not thinking about but
if you watch enough material and you read enough material you'll find you should find the patternsI
think that the literally the again the magicians the magic of being a screenwriter or any of these
crafts is to figure out the pattern and then once you understand it then figure out how to bury it
so that no one's paying any attention to it right that's not fun for anyone people want people want
the experience to be new and fresh and interesting but even the stuff that is new and fresh and
interesting if you really start digging in you'll find it's the similar building blocks that's what
I would say so when you see something that you you resonate with you want to really dissect why did
this work for me and then you want to look at the script and then time it with the actual maybe even
have the sound down at times just to see some of the pacing and things that because to you
that's a magical product how did it become magical that yeah it's just really to me it really
is reverse engineering it's if I walk into a building it's it's amazing that the ac is running
if without seeing the blueprints I'm not going to understand I'm not going to understand why the ac
is running or how it's running or why they why did they place it here because I'm just lost I'm just
lost in the experience of it right but all those there's thousands of decisions that are made as to
why and however you start being able to figure out on your own how to get to those answers
I think is really important and again to me the best way to do that is to just look at a lot of
blueprints and to really dive as deep into them as you can and then again looking at what
people who are experts say and understanding why they said the things they said and then also take
it with a grain of salt because there's they're also not the end-all be-all it's important to
it's important to be able to listen to everyone and take it all in and realize why they're saying
it and then figure out how you want to implement that right it's that balance you have to respect
the experts at it but you also have to then figure out how to take what they're doing and
try to put your own unique spin on it what's the wrong way to start screenwriting the wrong
way to start screenwriting the only thing that I will I don't know I don't know the wrong way
to start screenwriting I if I'm I do feel that there's no real wrong way to be creative right
and that's different for everyone and it should be I think that to me the only thing I would advise
is to be to be conscientious of your time because you can play around with something forever
and maybe that's all you want to do but I think that I think that the more tools you can have to
try to stay on track while still giving yourself freedom to play I think that's the best
the best meeting of the worlds and I will also say that I do think that it is also important to be
aware that it is a business and that and to have fun and to be creative and play but also be aware
for yourself that if you're writing something that's not that's not there's not a market for
maybe there will be but there's also a good possibility that there won't be
and you have to make peace with that and if that's and if that's cool with you
then that's fine again that's that's you and your time but if you really if you're really trying to
figure out how to transition into a into a career that's something thatI would say I wouldn't
I would not pay attention to that I think a lot of times
people don't pay attention to things that they find discouraging or uncomfortable or negative
you need my you need my suggestion would be to really look at it in in the eyes
acknowledge it you it's the difference between what some what something is and what you want
it to be right you can even look something in the eyes of what it is and go I don't love what that
is i'd to change it i'd to it for it to evolve and become better that's all fine but I would still
I would still start by going but this is what I'm up against this is what people
are looking for this is what's expected this is all what the landscape really is
what that information is even if you don't it even if it's scary or it makes you feel bad
you're not going to figure out ways to approach it and work with it or around it
or however you want to do it if you don't know what it is from my from my perspective anyway
when you were working on it takes three were there times in your head where you're I'm not sure if
someone's going to it how well it will be received and then how much time am I going to spend with it
were you questioning yourself to at that time because you were still
it was if you said you were working on it in a few months the in that situation
to me to me the next step always is is once I've come to terms with that I'm going to undertake
a project whatever that is then I then I fall in love with it there's no point in
unless something's really not working right and that's a different story
but otherwise I'm I wish I knew there's a very famous quote about this but it's basically some
version of you do everything you can to prepare and then you just go and that's I at least again
for me I find that that's what's always been how I make decisions is I do I do the most ground work I
can to feel as confident and good about something as I can and then I don't worry about that anymore
and then I just focus on being creative and doing the best job that I can
because otherwise you're you're just second guessing yourself for no point you've made
you've made an informed decision stick with your informed decision and then if it fails
or or it doesn't get what you were expecting out of it to me I to me outside of again that first
thesis film everything I've done that's been that hasn't gotten me what I expected or would
have liked to have gotten out of it I don't have any regrets about because I believed in it
and I still believe in it I think that sometimes that doesn't matter there's so many other factors
at play you try to make the best informed decision of you that you can about why you're undertaking
a project and then you basically you just give it your all and you don't worry about whether or not
it will be successful or it'll do what you were expecting it to do because you should feel
confident in it even if external forces don't line up in a certain way that gets the result
that you want because sometimes that happens and that's not your fault and it has nothing to do
with the project and so that's why I think that I try to approach it that way.
What do you like about this video?