Charlie Kaufman | BAFTA Screenwriters’ Lecture Series 

charlie kaufman is like a character in a charlie kaufman film

"Failure is a badge of honor. It means you risked failure."

watching this instead of actually writing lmao

"And if you offer yourself with authenticity and generosity, I will be moved." I love that.

" (...) Say who you are. Really say it in your life, and in your work. Tell someone out there that it's lost; someone not yet born; someone that won't be born in 5000 years. Your writing will be a record of your time, it can't help but be. But more importantly if you're honest about who you are, you'll help that person be less lonely in their world. Because that person will recognize him or herself in you, and that will give them hope (...) " - Charlie Kaufman

If you are going through videos about writing and screenwriters you will notice that Kaufman doesn’t speak about certain formula or techniques or tips for writing. He only talks about how to be an artist and what could help you to find your own way to tell a story.

the best things on youtube are these kind of gems. views are nothing... the quality of it is everything.

He's very open and sincere about his anxiety, which is very noble.

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle that any human being can fight and never stop fighting.

Met Charlie at a coffee shop and he watched my film, he was excited and asked me questions of how I did certain things. He's a humble guy to say the very least. I didn't even feel right telling an academy award winner how to make films in any way, but I suppose this is, in part, what makes him special. No way in hell almost any other established filmmaker is going to behave that way.

"What I have to offer is me. What you have to offer is you. And if you offer yourself with authenticity and generosity, I will be moved."

I am not a writer but I admire Charlie's work. I come back here from time to time when I'm depressed and this speech pulls me back to "normal", whatever that may be. So inspiring.

what a humble, intelligent and complex man.

Man this is one of the best speeches I've heard. So honest.

This speech is far more overwhelming than any other advice he could have offered. Honesty and authenticity are so difficult because we are so seldom asked to know ourselves and sit with ourselves. I even find two minutes of meditation unbearable just because my body and my Self feel like strangers who know all my secrets. Mr. Kaufman is beautiful and never fails to challenge me

Wow. I've come across this lecture at the right moment.

I have a feeling Charlie doesn't care for superhero movies.

"'That's two hours I'll never get back.'" 13:13 Thank you, Charlie for mentioning this phrase and the ultimate ridiculousness of it. It's always annoyed me when people say that about a movie they didn't like. Thank you, Charlie. It's great to know I wasn't alone in thinking this about that very silly phrase. And yet that same person will invest countless hours, days, months and perhaps even years arguing over politics on a comment board that will change nothing and only make them feel frustrated and angry. I'd say wasting two hours watching a bad movie is a much better investment than that.

I don't think I've seen any public lecture or talk that made me think as deeply as this, on so many fronts. I'll need to watch it many times again I think before I hear, see and make sense of what he's saying, doing and revealing all at the same time. The care, in every sense, that he put into this talk is wonderfully inspiring. And clever. And generous.

Charlie Kaufman is just amazing. This is what real thinking and writing looks like standing up talking, trying to get it out.

It scares me to think how many brilliant people are out there, like Charlie Kaufman, who I will never learn of or from. For once, the AI algorithms got it right and showed me this video. Thanks for creating it.

“We do not talk - we bludgeon one another with facts and theories gleaned from cursory readings of newspapers, magazines and digests.” Henry Miller 1945

Synecdoche New York is charlie kaufman's best work.

The joke he tells towards the end was, in a strange way, kind of tragic.

"Don't compartmentalize to make things simpler than they are." 🔥🔥🔥

this is the best speech I've ever heard

This has way to few views. This is important

Everything about this speech is tremendous to my heart, my entire being. I wish I can have this speech and attach it as an extra body part for everyone to see or reduce it to a mass-produced object and hand it to every person I know. Thank you, Charlie Kaufman. I will cherish this wonderful experience of coming across this video and deciding to watch its entirety. ♡♡♡

Rawness. Talent. Respect.

Power is a great disguise. Two minutes in and it's already genius!

I would be honored to work with him one day I will! , he's the type of writer who cares more about the project than his ego

I was looking for just an interview with tips and tricks about screenwriting and stumbled into a masterpiece. I need to rewatch it...

13:20 Charlie: Inspirational message and warning Audience: Laughs at existential confusion

This is a jewel: I found a recent quote that I found: we do not talk we bludgeon one another with facts and theories gleaned from cursory readings of newspapers magazines and digests that was actually written in 1945 by Henry Miller and I mean I think it's timely and I think what it says is that the world has been on the present course it's on for a long time people all over the world spend countless hours of their lives every week being fed entertainment in the forms of movies TV shows newspapers RU-vid videos the Internet and it's ludicrous to believe that the stuff doesn't alter our brains and it's also equally ludicrous to believe that at the very least this mass distraction and manipulation is not convenient for the people who are in charge people are starving they may not know it because they're being fed mass-produced garbage the packaging is colorful and it's loud but it's being produced in the same factories that make pop-tarts and iPads by people sitting around thinking what can we do what can we do to get people to buy more of these and they're very good at their jobs but that's what it is you're getting because that's what they're making they'reselling you something and the world is built on this now politics and government are built on this corporations are built on this interpersonal relationships are built on this and we're starving all of us and we're killing each other and we're hitting each other and we're calling each other liars and evil because it's all become marketing and we want to win because we're lonely and empty and scared and we're led to believe winning will change all that but there is no winning what can be done? say who you are really say it in your life and in your work tell someone out there who is lost someone not yet born someone who won't be born for five hundred years your writing will be a record of your time it can't help but be but more importantly if you're honest about who you are you'll help that person be less lonely in their world because that person will recognise him or herself in you and that will give them hope and it's done so for me and I have to keep rediscovering it it's profound importance in my life give that to the world rather than selling something to the world don't allow yourself to be tricked into thinking that the way things are is the way the world must work and that in the end selling is what everyone must do try not to

That last line almost brought me to tears. Your message was so deep and powerful! I've always felt torn when I try to write because my soul wants to be laid bare but the doubt, and the fear of acceptance has always held me back. The problem especially in the arts is that everyone is so use to living in fear, presenting a facade in order to be accepted in the world that we struggle to be honest. Thank you for not giving another speech about the technicalities of writing a screenplay and reaffirming what I knew all along - that all art needs to come from an honest conversation with ourselves.

Well, he's my friend now.

The world doesn't seem as lonely with Charlie Kaufman in it.

I like that this video has 400,000+ views and 15,000 likes. I'm sure at least 15,000 people, up to 400,000, related with what Kaufman had to say in this speech, and that's comforting. I wish it were 8 billion. I feel very lonely, and I've never felt connected to anyone, it's too difficult to explain in a way that's not wordy and seemingly melodramatic, but I think Kaufman does a good job. I wish I had someone in my life like that, someone who also at least understands the feeling of being completely alone, falling very fast into death. I just don't want to feel alone, I want to feel loved, and I want to live for however long I please.

I have thoroughly enjoyed every film he's ever graced with his writing, although I haven't seen them all. It doesn't surprise me that he exists outside of the spotlight so to say, as he is a man inadvertently pitted against the Hollywood machine. Just as he says, he won't allow himself to be in futile competition to be known or to have an audience. However I quite enjoy the fact that most will have to had made a conscientious effort to find his works or his public appearances. On our behalf, we must generally be aware to know who he is to have actively sought a speech of his. There is merit in that very fact :)

A man gives a speech in a theatre. A video editor decides to make themself feel talented and important by imposing their art onto his speech. They will make it better. They will let themselves be inspired by his words. And the audience is separated from the man and his speech. And instead they see the video editor’s fingerprints. One of them writes a sarcastic comment underneath the video out of frustration. “That will show them”, he thinks.

This is the most honest thing I have ever heard from any human beings mouth ever, and I have never been able to relate more to what he said

“A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” ― Thomas Mann So true! example: It takes me an excruciating long time just to write in my co-workers birthday card.

Great speech. He really nailed it. Not only was he entertaining, but I really learned something.

this is so refreshing...to hear the honest struggles of a creative mind...for me the creative process has to do with pushing through fear/anxiety/selfdoubt to express yourself honestly and giving voice to the gnawing in the old gut. Charlie understands this ...every artist should hear such an articulate expression of the neurosis that accompanies creative endeavors.

Cannot express how many times I have come to this video sharing and found new meaning in my work as a film professional - deeply grateful to the team BAFTA Guru

Oh the irony of these ads

Anyone sees some similarities with David Foster Wallace?

I always began my comedy routine with the lines: "I'm suing the Tobacco Companies. All my relatives are in their 60's. All smokers.. I was promised early release."

Fascinating. Ultimately we are all severely wounded and unlovable and hide that from others, but that wounded self is what wants to live and that's where your art comes from. Do you. Be naked. Be the wound.

the most raw speech I've ever seen. The laughs are laughs of uncomfortableness

This video moved me greatly, as a creative wanting to pursue writing and filmmaking this cut straight through and plucked my nerves more than once. There were moments I felt tears beginning to form when Mr Kaufman remarked either himself as a person who writes with love; the audience individually different in our processes; or the craft itself as something to nurture, instead of being viewed as a mass production value machine. I will definitely revisit this video in future to brush up on what was said because, ultimately, while he stated to the audience he was meant to talk about how screenplays are written, in actuality he did. He gave an honest, open-hearted view into how he works as a writer; he allowed us the full view of his vulnerability, as writers trying to build characters, he gave us his personal template. Also a top comment on here states how few views this video has. This thing should be spread around; it needs to be seen.

I wish this video would never end. There are so many wonderfully thought provoking, inspiring and personally relatable ideas and emotions in this speech. I have never related to anyone in my while life as much as I do to Charlie Kaufman. I repeatedly listen to this before going to bed because it’s rawness and beauty helps ease me to sleep. Truly one of the greatest screenplay writers of all time and certainly the most genuine and bravest. I want to say ‘Thank you’ but that could never express my gratitude for your existence, sir.

came here after watching thinking of ending things, Charlie Kaufman IS his film, even the way he talks and the whole setting of this speech feels like one of his movies.

"it was gorgeous, it was gorgeous, it was gorgeous. And yet it was the same ___t." And I know that this movie did really well..." Love Gerwig, but finished watching Barbie movie and just had this lecture playing in the back of my head. "THE ONLY GOAL".

"if you're honest about who you are you'll help that person be less lonely in their world because that person will recognize him or herself in you, and that will give them hope"

Charlie Kaufmann is brilliant at being himself.

Writers need this 💁🏽‍♀️nurturing. We don’t need an mla handbook 👩🏾‍🏫on writing. If your still reading “How to...” books, 🙅🏾‍♀️you haven’t tapped into your 👩🏾‍🎨✍️

"This thing that I just wrote, that hopefully is going to get made, is... a musical. You know. And I've never done that before. So I did it"

'Speak the truth, even if your voice shakes' - I think they were talking about Charlie Kaufman.

real honesty is rare! and beyond most of us.! this is real courage!

“Writing seminars are a scam”

this is a fantastic film itself..

Complicated guy..

What a blessing this man is.

I first watched this like maybe 5 years ago and have come back to it a couple of times and it always connects to something I am doing in that specific moment or where I am at. And this time the lecture seemed so short because I was like literally having a conversation. wow - has always been one of my favorite writers.

Very few videos seem like they changed my life because I spent a few hours watching them. Very few things overall feel like that because I spent a few hours on them. And I haven't even got around to the impact on my writing yet. There is a me before I saw it, there is a me after. I have all kinds of "keywords" now, mental anchors to remind me of insights triggered when I heard him talk about them. Usually I find them one at a time. Precious gems. Now I'm in Alibaba's Cave.

12:00 This is all fine, but at the same time, I never had much love for romanticism of the tortured creative soul in the first place. Then, as I became more proficient as a writer myself, I soon had no remaining use for this metaphor whatsoever. Nor am I alone among writers. The other main school of writing-who largely hail from the camp of writing as vocation-is the "grit" school of waking daily to to the first crack of dawn, and then grinding it out until noon, come hell or high water-every so often, words will flow like water, and you'll still be glued to your chair at midnight, but the bulk of the exercise is tedious tenacity. What Kaufman seems not to have figured out yet is that there's a difference between being "interesting" as a person, as a persistent mode of being, and of being interesting for a fleeting moment, in a state of high fancy. We are _all_ interesting when we get unselfconsciously caught up in a fleeting passion. There's this active point of contact at all times between what we are trying to understand about ourselves and the world around us, and what the world is offering and demanding from us in that same moment. If you write from that active point of contact, it's dead easy to be interesting. Interesting is the least of your problems. Your far bigger problem is filtering. Once you master how to filter less, then you enter this strange domain of contingent and contextual TMI. What amounts to TMI is highly sensitive to your competence in how you handle it. If you put your self-exposure in the subject or topic position as part of your main line of exposition, you'll be constantly at risk of wallow-through. When I'm writing in that mode, being interesting is way, _way_ down my list of concerns. The upside is that this mode of writing makes a fantastic chronicle of your life experience, per the minute details of what you're working through on a daily basis. The downside is that the joy of the fantastic chronicle largely accrues under "you had to be there". You don't emit a lot of durable writing for the ages. I have a thousand inspired turns of phrase now languishing in off-the-cuff improvisations (what amounted to my morning "bar exercises" over the keyboard for many years), none of which I have any present urge to reread. For the other type of interesting, where you can walk into a room full of jaded, cynical, distracted, phone-toting civiopaths-with quick-turn competence at _instant messaging_ and rarely exercised depth of soul in any form of _immersive_ messaging-and instantly command attention, well of course in that case you're either conquering summits in far away places that might earn you an unmarked grave, you're Mary Roach following publication of _Bonk_ (2008), or you're actively courting neuroticism. Among the heroic first group, Robert E. Peary, Matthew Henson, Roald Amundsen, Edmund Hillary, Tenzing Norgay, Don Walsh, Jacques Piccard, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin all held court at The Explorers Club-but then again so did David L. Brainard who once spearheaded a disgraceful war against the Nez Perce (though his reputation may well have been spotless in the "boring" department). Of the last valiant men and women standing among the Nez Perce, almost any one of them could have strode onto a stage, faced the audience, said not a word, and silenced the entire room by sheer gravitas of spirit and earned charisma. From what I've gleaned from various historical accounts and dramatic depictions, the Nez Perce had few excess words for "snow" and not a single word at all for "down-trodden". Nobody wants to hear a blow by blow account shot through with down-trodden. Nevertheless, many who have fallen under tedious sway of Grievance Studies wish to be heard (for our belated, collective benefit), so we've shuffled "interesting" off to the dustbin-along with Woody Allen altogether-and replaced it with this new groove known as "voice". That's the other viable route: if you can't go through it, you can go around it. Of course, I offered that last comment in illustration of the other primary doorway to becoming interesting: to show up with a point of view, and take a vibrant side-without any visible use of cheaty props like trending hashtags, cue cards, speaking points, teleprompters, or tribal cliche. Yes, I finally succumbed to #GrievanceStudies, but before going there I earned it by trotting out writing as vocation, fleeting passions, contingent and contextual TMI, wallow-through, civiopaths, Mary Roach, Buzz Aldrin, and the commanding personal gravitas of the Nez Perce. This _minor_ form of earning your indulgences merely requires cultivation of a sufficient breadth of character and considered life experience, always instantly and immediately on-line, as eventually available to any person with long-standing commitment to living in his or her own skin without taking all the easy social-media shortcuts-such as having the mammoth attention span to _sometimes,_ at least, make it to the end of a long post such as this one, time and again.

1:58 "i'm just telling you off the bat" same expression used by Clementine in her scary warning speech to Joel the second time they meet at the book store...

The way he says, “and um.. and he’s my friend now” in the running story is verbatim my interaction with any cashier or passerby who even ‘hello’s me

"And I don't think it's symbiotic." Real talk.

The push and pull between being appealing and being true pretty much sums up art and artists in general.

The joke within the first two minutes of putting writing on his tax forms went over everyone's heads. Lol

There are no words possible for how amazing this speech is... Powerfully, gut-wrenchingly incredible.

This is incredible. Thanks a lot for uploading.

what i love the most about his work is that it's very honest. that's why it resonates very well with us

One of the most interesting "speeches" I heard. Has to be viewed by more people!

Dear Charlie, I Love your films! Please make more of them!

pop tarts and ipads kinda look the same actually

Anyone here from Mr Collier? :)

This is definitely one of if not the most beautiful speech I’ve heard. You hear people say it is best to be your authentic self. Too often writers give speeches on how they made a successful script but we all know that’s mostly likely not going to work for others. Charlie certainly nailed it! You’ve inspired me!Thank you for keeping it all the way real!

This is so magnificent! Thanks to Jacob Collier for brining me here 🧡

"This will be on RU-vid"

perhaps you can be so self aware and meta that you no longer really exist?

With his perspectives on being a screenwriter this guy renewed totally the eternal standards of a screenwriter as a hollywood-seller machine.His ideas are those of a writer who made his own way through the hills to be the only one who is offering a world the only thing he has: himself,take it or leave it.Respect.

What a brilliant mensch!!!

I'm thinking the trailer was for "Drive", does that seem right to yall?

Absolute honesty takes unfathomable bravery because it opens the artist up for random criticism to now be potentially hurtful... When it's a non-fictional story about yourself, your journey, your real inner thoughts and emotions - that's true courage...

2020.07.13 Thanks for great contents as always!

36:35 It's a 'running gag'

True, real, and very deep, ...much respect to Charlie Kaufman

We’re so lucky to have Charlie Kaufman.

sent by yacob colyer

It's amazing the manner the multi layered dimensions flow so naturally under a controlled intensity.

Wow. This is incredible. He's like the Thomas Merton of screenwriting. So thankful for this talk.

8:56 I shed a tear.

We can appreciate your feelings of insecurity, but sir, you are a screenwriter and a fine one at that.

Did anybody figure out which movie he was talking about?

Kaufman is truly one of my heroes -- he seems to cut through the bullshit and to explore things that are genuinely uncomfortable that few want to explore at a mainstream level. A wonderfully unique voice, if nothing else 🙏

Since I left Islam, this has become my Quran.

Oh man, we need to hear more from Charlie Kaufman, this guy is a genius