Guido Segal, Screenwriter, Journalist, Film Critic, Instructor: So he's at Ralph's at 3 a.m
in a bathrobe with sunglasses and he pays for a carton of milk with a check.
Film Courage: What are three things every great story has?
Guido: Well I think I want to be a little bit obvious here but I think a great opening
you need a hook. Especially nowadays that people are so distracted and there's so much
to read and watch. So a great hook, a great opening that offers a question, intrigue.
Let's say that of course if I say a great opening I have to say a great ending
and usually I'd say when I write that's those are the two things I think of first
I need to know where I'm starting off from and I need to know where I need to get to
and the beauty or the challenge is okay how do I get from point A to point B.
But I'm gonna say the third element is a a great character of characters
I think one of the most difficult things things to do is to find characters that feel
real or possible and not just ideas but that feel like people and that's why the temptation
is always to steal from someone and what I mean is think of people in your life
and and you never I personally I don't ever do just one person I don't I'm not trying to
portray a single individual I'm taking different elements it's a composite of different people
with character I would say though there has to be an emotional connection and with this
I mean it's very easy to have ideas and then apply them and the risk with ideas is that
you're not connected to them they just sound great they sound original but if there's no
emotional connection to you you can sense it you feel it's cold right it's it's too rational
so with character you I try to find that emotional connection why do I relate to this trait
why the certain quality right why do I want to keep seeing this why do I want to write about this
so I'd say a great beginning a great ending and at least one singular memorable character
can you give me an example of a character film or television that definitely seems real you
could see them once the movie ends they're still living their life somewhere and then
the opposite one that maybe was all hype but really it felt one-dimensional
well I mean the this is the the first the first character I use this in class because the way it's
written it's it's just I'd say memorable is the word so with the big Big Lebowski the way the way
he's in the character is introduced in the script the way it's written and the way we see it on
screen it's just that we know that guy right I don't know him personally. I mean I don't know
him exactly like that but that that guy exists and he's so LA he's so Venice to be specific and
I don't we don't know how he makes a living and he's funny and he's high all the time and he's by
the way so he's at Ralph's at 3 a.m in a bathrobe with sunglasses and he pays for a carton of milk
with a check right so it's like who is this guy I know him he's just by looking at him I'm laughing
and that's because I recognize that character and he's memorable
so Coen brothers are so good at that but if we take The Graduate Benjamin in The Graduate
for example a totally different character more grounded I recognize that guy as well I'm sorry
I'm just mentioning male characters I'm sure I can find female ones too but what I'm saying is those
are people I can relate to and if I can relate to them it's because they're specific enough
and you can come from a totally different that's the beauty of of art you come from a different
culture a different background and even different gender and you connect because there's something
about the human experience that you see there I don't know if I can I remember the quote but I
David Lynch who I was listening to on a podcast yesterday said find the thing
that by knowing it all there is to be known and what that basically means is if you capture
a little thing that's real you're capturing truth in general and people connect to that
that sounds very abstract but what it means is the more specific you are with your characters
the more with what they like what they don't like what they do how they like their coffee
and I tell students this all the time ask as many questions as possible try to try to enjoy
the process of getting to know your characters as if you were knowing someone you just met
and then the opposite a character or characters that there was a lot of hype around the film or
the television show but they fell flat to you that's a tricky one because I have to criticize
someone's work I off the top of my head I don't know I can usually this is the thing
big franchises don't have great characters because it doesn't matter and I don't want to be cheap and
cr so I enjoy the fast and furious movies because I do I mean I watch them they get more bloated
and more insane by by the movie so those are not really characters they're tropes and it it's okay
because maybe those movies don't need characters I think that's that's a choice I don't think that's
an accident action movies in general you don't need characters to be too deep right they just
need to be resilient and bleed and fight we go back to The Graduate Mrs. Robinson yeah was she
was she three-dimensional oh definitely that well I mean there is no movie without her right it's
Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson and and this is what's interesting when I first watched it I think in my
probably as a teenager I don't think I understood her that well as you get as you get older you you
get her predicament more clearly it's like oh I see where she is in life I see why she
feels unfulfilled I see why she would flirt with this youngster it's such a complex character and
I feel like if you can get characters to do anything and you can still understand
their motivation and their contradictions and relate to them then that's that to me is success
you talked about great openings have there been excellent films that had kind of weak openings
or is that always a through line great films great openings you can't have
one without the other I'm thinking I know there are films that take their time to get there
see the thing is I those are the ones I forget great openings are memorable
I always say that things you forget are because not because you have a problem and maybe you have
a neurological problem but mostly the things I forget is because they were not memorable
and what's memorable memorable and what's not that's another question but I do know the
I do know which openings I remember every single time and that's because they're great and I could
say for example the opening of back to the future right I remember that exactly why is it that that
because that's a perfect script in its own genre right same with Indiana Jones I mean
I don't know even the exorcist the great openings are I'm talking movies I could talk
tv as well breaking bad I mean all sorts of examples but great openings are always
memorable the reason I can't think of any negative examples is because I've forgotten
bad I mean there's really I mean I have no need to archive that to save that in my in my
brain archive because the ones I've been over and over again are the ones that I take as examples.
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