✍️ Professional screenwriter in Hollywood for over 45 years 💪 Techniques to make your screenplay better 🎥 Not here to make money, here to see better movies
Have a screenwriting topic/ question that you want me to address?
What is your opinion on thinking of an act as a question and answer? An act is the dramatic question it introduces to the story, persisting until the question is answered and the protagonist has made a choice that sends them in a new direction.
Yes, I suppose that's a way of thinking of it. I personally think of it as an event that forces the protagonist to deal with a very new set of challenges, which keeps the audience from getting bored -- the only purpose for an act anyway. Or any other element of screenwriting.
The Gorilla's name is Koko or Koko the Gorilla. That is interesting that she has a sense of humour. Now I wonder about the other story about her. One day Koko the Gorilla was given a kitten to take care of and she was very gentle with the kitten. One day, Koko had a tantrum and tore the sink off the wall in her enclosure. When the caretakers inquired about what happened to the sink, she pointed to the kitten. At that time, the caretakers were shocked that the gorilla lied and didn't know animals could do that. But after hearing your story, maybe she was being funny in her own or both lying and being humourous. My Gorilla story to you. Thanks for the video. learned something more. Gonna have to rewatch.
To be fair, in the Bosch novels, the City of Los Angeles is very much a character and is often described at night as Bosch is watching from his balcony in the Hollywood Hills. I guess the poetry of the description is wasted on a drone shot.
Interesting point, and yes, shots of places can have meaning and purpose - but I'm quite sure that was not the real intention behind the drone shots: they were just trying to interrupt dialogue scenes. If the filmmakers wanted to create a sense of the character of LA, random drone shots are not an effective way to do it. To see it done well, watch the 2nd act of a great film noir called "Act Of Violence." LA never seemed more malevolent.
32:57 That's me being clever, or at least the endeavor... That really made me laugh, although you said it kind of seriously. But after reading those lyrics to make a statement that also rhymes, just got me. I don't know why. That is what I love about clever comedy.😅
As a child growing up in a lets say, less than loving, traumatizing home situation in southern indiana, there was a lot going on that was the opposite of funny. But at that same time i grew up around some of the funniest redneck hillbilly barn yard bulshittersss, and also the continuous flood of 70s and 80s comedy tv shows, (many of which you wrote for) and all the stand up and talk show comedy icons of that era and i think between that and the need to use humor to survive the danger and trauma, i learned to think fast and always have a comedic remark in the chamber ready to fire. Humor is like alcohol, some use alcohol to get through a tough situation and others use humor. It comes from a combination of funny influence and trauma.
Immersive theater is a thing and has been for a very long time. And it never passed the "niche" level. We collectively decided eons ago that we don't want to know how the sausage is made.
I probably will eventually, but for the most part the cinematic storytelling principles are the same. A story is a story, whether it's 5 minutes or 5 hours.
Interesting to see comedy as with all the knowledge you're sharing broken down into easy to know quantified parts. 🤔 Reminds me of Tommy Cooper, who cleverly mixed funny with serious beautifully, he was so great that when he had a heart attack on stage, everyone roared with laughter thinking it was part of his act. Sadly he passed there and then doing what he loved. Terrific work, thank you so much Andy👏 🙏 👍 😊
Wow, 1941! I certainly had forgotten that movie ever existed. Another masterclass by the great Andy. I cannot thank you enough for this truly valuable and humble content. Cant wait for the next one.
i've always thought that the comedy scenes in schindler's list were intentional. when it was shown to my year 10 history class i was sent out of the room for being insensitive. i still don't fully understand why spielberg and co were so bold as to incorporate comedy in such a film but it's clear that they did
Those scene I showed certainly was intentional. The reason is that, as I suggested, they wanted to show the absurdity of the Nazi inhumanity as well as its horror.
I'd just like to thank you again for these videos. I've found a new appreciation for film and have finally gained the confidence to put something meaningful on paper. Thank you.
Hello sir, I love your videos, it's the highlight of my week. One question, what is your opinion on mixing genres? Like I'm writing a thriller with elements of horror at the moment, but I can't get rid of the feeling that a movie only deeling with these topics feel "un-immersive", if you know what I mean. Would it break the verisimilitude if I also incorporated, say, relationship dramas and few amounts of jokes in order to give the characters more depth?
Mixing genres is fine. Just be aware that a "genre" (horror, romantic comedy, Western, whatever) is in fact a genre because the audience has expectations. For example, a thriller needs to have thrills, a comedy must have laughs, etc. But as long as you fulfill those expectations, anything you can do to make the genre fresh is usually welcomed.
We also saw him as more prejudice than O'Connor character, brillianly revealed when a black neighbor complained Meathead only talked about black causes to him, Mh. Responded, what do you want me to talk about, the weather?" "Why not? We get rained on and everyfhing." Archie would have talked about the weather without prodding.
40:14 I agree. Do you know if they made their own props or did they ask the locals for them? I want the water bottle the characters drank from, it looks cool
Well, first of all, what is or isn't funny is a matter of taste. I'm not a big fan of them either, but millions of people are, and both have done good work when they're in something well-written and well-directed. And trust me, neither of them is dumb. Lowbrow comedy isn't easy; it requires a lot of skill.
If you want to do a lecture/study on funny vs not funny, just look at the movie pee wees big adventure compared to big top pee wee. I know people that have watched the first movie 100 times (which might be a cry for help now that i think about it) and i have watched it several times and still laugh at it. I forced myself to suffer through big top pee wee once and if anyone wants me to watch it again, you will have to pay me cash up front to endure it. Same character, same whacky theme, but it was about as much comedy value as schindlers list.
This is gold for anyone who want to study comedy writing .. i think no channel has teach by showing clip and dissecting why the scene works. I love the method.Thankyou so much for the video.
Do you remember the scene in the movie joe kidd where the bandits handcuff the sheriff to the courtroom railing? Everyone runs out of the courthouse leaving the sheriff alone. The sheriff rips the railing loose and runs out into the street dragging the railing with him. I thought it would be funny to have a hapless, innocent middle aged man just looking for real true love and always finding himself in some kind of bad situation by no fault of his own when the woman he is with turns out to have other ideas than what he was thinking. At one point he finds himself with a prostitute in a 3rd floor hotel room wearing only his boxer shorts, socks and a tank top. Before he knows it, the prostitute has handcuffed him to the metal bed frame at the foot of the bed. He is standing there trying to figure out what is going on when suddenly the fire alarm goes off and everyone runs out of the hotel in a panic. After some struggling, the man breaks the bed frame loose and makes his way out of the room and down the hall dragging the frame with him. In the next shot we see him standing in the street surrounded by news reporters and firefighters. A hotel fire is not a funny thing, but it can be the setting for something funny.
The term tragic comedy makes me think of the story i read about doug kenny, of caddy shack fame, when he fell to his death in hawaii in 1980. Some thought it was suicide, and others thought that his falling off the cliff was an accident. Someone then wrote or said something like, this is the spot where doug kenny accidentally fell to his death while looking for a place to jump.
The joke at 9:25 reminded me of a problem with current video games (not saying its the same thing) . There's a great video that describes it titled "Millennial Writing" that goes into detail.
Great episode. Looking forward to Character. Not sure if it is the quote you meant but your description made me think of Oscar Wilde's "Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit but the highest form of intelligence".
Yeah, I know that quote, and it's not what I was thinking of. No matter. I do love Wilde. He was the rarity who was leaned toward cleverness (and was impossibly smart) but was somehow still funny. If performed correctly - which it rarely is.
This confirms that Arsenic and Old Lace,, Bringing Up Baby,, My Favourite Brunette, My Cousin Vinny and Grosse Pointe Blank for example, is the comedy that I recognise as actual comedy :-)
Not sure how I confirm that, but okay. Comedy, more than most art forms, is totally subjective. I hate Jerry Lewis movies but respect the right of others to laugh at them.
@@TheGoDraft Jerry Lewis never appealed to me :-) He was supposed to be popular with the French, but Monsieur Hulot was the real deal. For example: Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953) My thoughts on the matter are that watching drunks clown around for about a minute, is enough comedy for me and most others. The Hangover struck a good balance, and kept the laughs coming by hanging the gag-reel onto a detective story form that has enough story, to last the length of a movie. Legally Blonde would have been much better at 70-minues. Modern comedies are akin to a more controlled and considered variation of drunks clowning around for the whole movie. :-) Hey . . comedy's as hard as they say :-)
Hi Mr. Guerdat, I'd like to thank you and let you know that I've received a ton from your videos. I think you're the best teacher I've encountered so far. You put things in a clear and concise way. I have a couple of questions and I thought they might serve as ideas for future videos. I'm still unclear as to how much of an outline is needed before we start writing scenes. You said not to write to the midpoint, which makes sense for several reasons, but does that mean not having a complete outline before we write scenes? I'm also curious about drafts. How much "perfection" do you expect out of a first draft? How many drafts do you usually write before you turn in the script? Thank you.
Glad you're getting something useful out of the video series. Re your questions: You should write as much of an outline as you personally need to keep track of your story (I'm assuming you are writing on spec, for yourself, not on assignment -- in which case you'll need to write whatever length of outline the paying producer wants). If you're beginning your screenwriting career, I advise you to write a fairly detailed outline -- but then you can veer away from it if you need to, once you get into the writing of the script. As for "perfection." every rough draft ever written needs a lot of rewriting, so look at that first draft as "dirty pages" (as a writer friend of mine calls 1st drafts), just a starting point to the major rewriting that must inevitably be done. And once it goes in to production (if you're that lucky), be prepared for even more massive rewriting when scenes that you thought were perfect don't work when on their feet and need to be rewritten again for the actors or the locations or whatever. Tom Stoppard may be the greatest living dramatist, and he rewrites every play every time it goes into a new production, improving and adjusting it. If he does it, we all should.
