Film Courage: Do you think it's misleading or selling false hope to have screenwriting books,
to teach courses to give people the idea that they can actually make a living as
a screenwriter? Paul Joseph Gulino, Associate Professor at Chapman University Dodge College of Film and Media Arts: It depends on how it's sold. There's...okay...I'll give you an
example. A few years ago maybe a decade ago now
on Chapman's own website they had a very clever kind of marketing thing and it
was a clapboard you know and it's said on it your it said like a student's name
and then the feature film was your movie career you know and and I've looked at
that and I contacted Dean you have to take that down you're saying that people
will get a career out of this that's like you can't say that you can't
sell this school on that idea because it's so difficult you have to yes you're
going to try to nurture them you're going to try to help them be the best
filmmakers they can be but to say to have like a warranty that yeah at the
end of this you know you'll have a job is not something that that's ethical the
question of the function of the books and the function of the film school
actually I thought I'll quote somebody I thought just online recently Martin
Scorsese saying if you if you want to pursue film because you think you'd like
a career in it then don't do it if you want to pursue film because you you will
always be making films and you can't stop it then do it and that's how I see
it i we have students that come in what was it
I used to tell the in the prospective students I don't know if I've ever got
in trouble for it but I would tell them no I would tell them they're all eager
and they they're thinking they're going to go to films God say if you can do
anything else and be happy do it before they got it
except that before they applied if you can do
anything else because this is gonna be really really hard and you'll have
doubts and most people don't have a career in it but if you have that fire
inside you have the other point of view which is at some point well let me tell
you a personal story when when my my first wife was was passing away she was
in Hospice okay and in the same room there was somebody who I couldn't tell
if it was a man or woman it was this figure very ancient kind of like that
if it was time for a bath but people came in gave them baths if TV was on all
day I don't know whether anybody was actually watching it and I thought I
looked at that they said you that's a reality that's gonna be you someday and
when you're in that position where you can't take a bath without somebody
giving it to you and you haven't really given it a shot like do something that's
really exciting you haven't done that you're not even gonna be able to go like
that you're gonna have to ask the nurse to do that and you that's the reality
there's wanting to do this thing and the fact that you're gonna be in that place
and we're all gonna be there well what do you want it to be when you look back
and so if you don't do it and a lot of people actually they come out and then
they find a niche somewhere else in the business they don't have a movie made
and some will find it very interesting but we have a really brilliant writer
graduated a few years ago was a double major and got a great scholarship to
study psychology as a grad student and is brilliant and that's the direction
she went she I was inside a sense of what it's like
to tell a story see a movie I'll never see a movie the
same again once you've studied it but she took a different path so I don't
think it was a waste for her she was actually really good so the question of
the ethics of it I think if people are interested in it they're going to avail
themselves of whatever they can and it's up to them to try to see what's possible
in their life if you yeah but if you were to sell a product and say this will
get you in this will be your ticket this is a way to do it then that's more on
the edge you don't want to raise people's hopes like that you want to be
honest with them and and we live you know at a at a time like I say that the
technology and distribution has changed you may wind up making movies they may
just be smaller they may be you don't make a living at it you do something
else but you were still making movies and you do it all your life I know one
person have collaborated with who's about 81 years old and he had a very
successful career as a director and a producer but he's 81 and when you're 81
everybody you know is dead you know or they're not in the business anymore
but he's out there working with students he's working with you know he works in
the the Ruskin Theatre directing he he just wants to this guy will do it until
he can't do it anymore and it doesn't matter if he gets paid or not they'd
love to be paid but he wants to be on a set with actors working with them
creating magic for an audience and that's in him to his blood that's what
he's going to do so did you ever personally experience naysayers
naysayers meaning well people that try to persuade you to do something else or
or or told you flat-out you'll never do this you'll never
even even you know yes hello screenplay whatever did you encounter that and
right well I had this experience once of well you get a lot of it you know when
you're when you're a potential writer as opposed to a writer but actually once
you're writing your writing forget it that's it but you might have the
impression and I did okay well I'm have potential here but it's not realized and
I got it maybe it won't happen and then you have
friends that are going on and having families and doing stuff and I remember
one time I had a like I say I think Frank Danielle was this remarkable
teacher well I helped me write the thesis screenplay but then a few years
out of school you know and I was trying to do a follow up that one had gotten me
an agent and got me recognition and maybe gets made my career started but I
found that in without his guidance the follow-up script was really hard I was
struggling and then I said well I'll get into playwriting where I'll have an
audience and get my spark back and I went to this theater this writing class
in a play in New York theater in New York City and came home one day just so
frustrated and I decided that's it I'm gonna do this anymore
wouldn't do something else that's it and this voice in my head said I wonder if
there's a story in this I wonder if I could turn this into a story okay
somebody who's so dead they're gonna give up and that's when I realize it's
never gonna go away it's gonna it's just part of you and it's you're gonna do
this and I turn that into a play that won me the first prize I wanted in
variety I'm one of my first hundred dollars in San Francisco it was done up
in San Francisco but so that that's sitting maybe an example of naysayers
but certainly people don't don't get it or but it's it's about what you want to
do with the bulk of your waking hours is that something that excites you so and
also the flip side of that is on a Tuesdays with Maurey did you did where
it's him advising Mitch Albom not to chase success
to stop and sort of see the life around him so there's there's that as well at
home alright of smelling the roses kind of thing because I've heard of that but
I've not read that oh it's great yeah it's great you can also go on in
see there it's based on a real guy I think Morrie Schwartz this is name yeah
and so he's fantastic in these interviews and you know it's a very
touching story and I think mitch is still writing and well that's it's true
you you have this idea of nostalgia and most people think I think of nostalgia
as seeing the past wrongly you don't see it properly because it's rose-colored
glasses or it's it's an idealized version of your past but it occurred to
me a few years ago what nostalgia really is it's experiencing moments in your
past stripped of any anxiety for the future because when you're in that
situation when you're let me and I think about it in New York City you're sitting
among friends at a cafe eating eclairs and having coffee and talking about
stories and it's like you're 25 years old and you have all this what could be
better and you stay there until they the guy throws you out you got to get
another Eclair er we're gonna get out of here because we got to have this table
and it but at the time you're worried about well it's just a waste of time am
i doing this right am i maybe this is all foolish so it's harder to experience
that joy so this key to living of course is to experience every day as nostalgia
like stripped of this anxiety but that maybe is what what he's talking about
that you you have these moments and notes moments are or you're actually
living this is you're you're actually doing it you're not about to do it and
you're not striving to do it you're doing it right now and that's what you
do so yeah
you