Film Courage: How do you know a story is great? Stanley M. Brooks, Filmmaker/AFI Professor/Producer: Well how do I know a story is great? That's a
good question. I have to trust my instincts in my gut I think for me
spending a childhood and a high school years and college years watching lots
and lots and lots of movies gave me a film language and I think allows me to
spot a good story I've seen so many really good movies and so many bad
movies and read so many scripts and so many bad scripts that I think the
experience of that kind of indoctrinated me to spotting something when it's
special I think if you the longer you walk in the wilderness easier it's just
spot of forest or water I think and so for me I have a very in-depth film
language from having watched endless black and white movies from the 30s and
40s and 50s so I think that I mean if swatched every movie on the AFI 100 for
example so I think that helps I think it also helps recognize something that's
too similar to something or oh that's a no Maj to and you know okay and neither
either they've done it well or they haven't done it well and I you know
there's certain filmmakers like Billy Wilder who who I would love to pattern
my directing career after who I admire so deeply and so I think you know
following their instincts and reading what they did what they thought
I think informs my decisions as well how do you know if a script is ready for
financing wow that's a great question how do I know a script is ready for
financing I got to pay bills I mean the truth is I think it's you know it's real
subjective and I think it's instinct because the truth is you know if you're
an editing room you could edit forever there's no end to when it you need a you
need a delivery date deliberate rate in two forms
and I think pressures and forges the best movie you can make during that time
it's not open-ended and I think the same is true with screenplays I think the
better screenplays are the ones that have to be made within a time frame and
so at a certain point you have to sort of say okay
this is the best we're gonna do to go get the financing right now we can't
play with this for another year now is the time just move this this has sort of
reached the time when it's either we're not gonna make it we're not gonna send
it out or it's ready and I tended to I think I tend to have a reputation of
sending in scripts to networks when I was in the television movie business as
a producer that I could get behind so I would not send it in much to the chagrin
of screenwriters often until I thought I could defend it and if I couldn't defend
it then I would have the writer do more work and if I could defend it then I
would send it in and there were a rare occasion where the writer would do no
more work and was unwilling to to fix it and and I think I scored a lot of points
because I would tell the network my candid feelings so I wouldn't send
something in as a lot of my competitors do and say everything's brilliant I
would send something in if the writer hadn't done the work and say look this
is not in good shape I'm sending it to you because I can't get the writer do
any more work but this isn't ready yet normally I wouldn't show this to you so
you you are believer in multiple drafts of notes and revisions things like that
Oh screenplays are not written they are rewritten the best screenplays have been
rewritten and rewritten there is no such thing as a brilliant first draft that
goes to screen unless maybe your David Kelly but I mean that's know movies are
rewritten not written all of the problems in the script get solved and
rewriting all of the character issues gets solved and rewriting all the
production issues get solved and rewriting you'd want to throw money at a
problem you want to solve it on the page so yeah I'm a really big believer in yes
multiple drafts and then there's you know there's again the draft that gets
your movie ordered and then there's the draft that you shoot those are not the
same and then by the time it makes it to the editing and it's on the timeline
it's the spoilers yeah that's totally different different beast yep and so is
that one thing that you tell your students is
to not be so precious with whatever was the final version of the script versus
what well I approve some students not
screenwriting well I have screeners as well but primarily I'm teaching
producers and I critique their stuff pretty strongly when they pitch in my
class so they don't have a choice they can't be precious in my class do
you also teach them to have tough skin yeah I there's a ten commandments that I
teach them on pitching and one of them is be strong but take a punch you know
the truth is you want to be back in that room again so even if they're passing
you want that experience to be positive so you know even if they're saying no
find a good moment in that meeting so that when you call back again a year
from now and you got another project they don't go that was the guy that
fought with us so I think you want to make sure that any pitching experience
is a good experience for both people whether you sell or not the truth is you
know you're not gonna sell most of what you know you only need you can get 99
noes as long as you get one yes so the truth is you've got to be resumed you
got to get up off the man I think that is I think there are producers that are
better at that than talented and that's their skill is that they just are
relentless and doesn't matter how people say no they just keep going they don't
care they have they are able to just get knocked down and get back up and take a
punch from Mike Tyson and get back up and take another punch with Mike Tyson
get back up I'm not that resilient I take you know I take passes a little
more personal less so now than I did in my early my career but yeah well I had
to learn how to have a tough skin but if you if you're if you definitely can't
handle no and you're in the wrong business well going back to Rain Man you
were told initially no and then you kept going and obviously that worked yeah
with Rain Man we pitched it to Warner Brothers and Warner Brothers said we
just bought a project similar to this called Forrest Gump from Steve Tisch and
so we're not gonna buy your project and we went out and pitched it take someone
else that we pitched the United Artists and you know I said yes
and then there was the long gestation after Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise
committed because we went through four directors before we actually ended up
making the movie it was went through Steven Spielberg and Marty breast and
Sydney Pollack before we ended up at Barry Levinson so it was like four years
of rewriting and rewriting and rewriting and then directors leaving the project
before we actually got it made why do you think the industry saw it as
a competitor to Forrest Gump two separate stories uh well the executive
at Warner Brothers saw it as similar because it was about a mentally
challenged person whether they were simple or actually truly artistic and so
after six long as Rain Man was so I think that's why and they had bought a
book they apparently have pretty penny for the book with Steve Tisch and so
they just decided even want to develop now the irony is and I'm sure people one
of those don't forget that Forrest Gump got made at Paramount and Raymond got
made at United Artists and they both won Best Picture and either both got pitched
at Warner Brothers and both got passed at Warner Brothers they developed a
script and Faris Gump and then didn't make it and then they passed on the idea
of Raymond
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