How I Wrote Knives Out - Writing Advice from Rian Johnson 

Are you Tyler Mowery?

@@crisfilms8165 No, but I'm good friends with him. My name is Nehemiah Jordan.

I think calling Riri an "expert screenwriter" is being a little generous.

@@jesupcolt RJ is a good writer sorry. Maybe you didn’t like his vision on SW that’s it

@@yuampi5707, I've seen two movies he's written and directed. Brick was okay. Mediocre, but serviceable. The Last Jedi was an absolute mess completely swallowed up by its own massive plot holes. It's not about his "vision," it's about the writing, which was extremely flawed. Sorry, but you just have a higher tolerance for poor story telling than I do. That's it.

I suck at figuring out whodunnits, but I'm so proud of the fact that that was the one thing I was able to predict.

it's hard to remember now as this was a while ago but i think i entirely missed that line on my first watch since the focus was on marta and it was portrayed in a way as if he was rambling about nothing

@@cheekybananaboy3361 nothing in a script like this is by accident

I dont remember that line, when was it said?

@@Telsion By Harlan Thrombey to Marta over their Go game, when he's toying with the knife he'll soon use to cut his own throat. I think it was also a metaphor for the kind of thinking he and Ransom used, running silly games in the face of real life-and-death stakes. Ransom cooked up a murder scheme worthy of Harlan's stories, and Harlan took the bait, playing along to the point that he killed himself. Had he done the sensible thing, he'd have been fine. But he couldn't resist playing the game as though it was all prop knives, even though it was a real one that opened his throat. I think there's an even larger metaphor at play here about the difference between the way wealthy people view the world and people like Marta, who're never more than a paycheck or two from ruin.

TBH, it did feel cheap. He literally said he knew Marta was the killer from the second he met her based on blood evidence on her shoe that he ignored. Why did he ignore? Because of his supernatural power to know she was innocent after 5 seconds of meeting her and then wasting the entire time pretending to investigate something he already knew the answer too, all while putting crucial evidence in jeopardy. I liked the movie, but the ending was too "the author handed me, the investigator, all the answers on a silver plate and I didn't earn any of this" for my taste.

@hasslfoot there's always one in every comment section lol just let him have his moment. He's letting off steam here instead of snapping and hurting some random person at work

@Jared Bradley you wrote so much yet said so little

@@blueskye2790 he didnt ignore her, he was putting the pieces together. He knew he was hired by someone with a lot of money to investigate the death, he then realized after talking with the family and meeting marta that Marta had something to do with it. The person who hired him literally told him Marta cant lie without puking. So he knows marta is involved, but she obviously didnt hire him, nor did the rest of the family, and he didnt see why she would murder Harlen, if she knew it would be impossible for her to lie herself out of the crime. He also knew whoever hired him wanted Marta arrested so she wouldnt inherit the money, but the rest of the family didnt know she was inheriting it from the will, Only Ransom did, so when he pulled up Blanc began putting more pieces together, the only family member who knew what was in the will. He realized something was wrong and it was likely a setup from the very beginning, so he stayed close to Marta until Ransom got her away during the whole will reading ordeal. Theres a lot to it, and it makes sense that Blanc wouldnt immediately arrest marta. The police deemed it a suicide, and he wasnt in a position to prove it wasnt, hence the follow up tox report. A drop of blood on a shoe wont hold up in court, shes a nurse, theres a lot of reasons why she would have a drop of harlans blood on her shoe, including a drop from his innoculation. He needed to put all the pieces together carefully for the full picture. Even at the end they admit they cant arrest Ransom because they dont have enough evidence for the court system unless Fran survives. Fran died, and they tricked Ransom (the worst part of the film genuinely since Marta lies) and then they could arrest him.

if anyone else is interested the cinematographer goes more into the color science on his website. he really does destroy the film vs digital debate imo www.yedlin.net/

Ever since the first i saw the trailer for this film, it looked really obvious to me that it was shot on digital, and i i didn't like that choice at all but after seeing the film i was completey on board with the digital look on the film because i found it fitting narratively as it is a modern take on a classic genre.

in addition, during the grading process DP Yedlin added a subtle gate weave and he also wrote a script to mimic the halation effect that happens around bright windows and other bright lights when exposed on film. It’s too subtle to notice if you aren’t looking for it, and even then almost imperceptible. But since they shot digital and wanted a filmic look, they went to great lengths to achieve it.

@@MAronson How cute. It's still lazy filmmaking from hacks more concerned with saving a buck than creating Cinema.

@@rustyshackleford3160 that just explains your shitty taste in movies .

$300,000,000 is a smaller budget?

@@cheekybananaboy3361 Don't get confused with the difference between "budget" and "grossing".

cheekybananaboy it’s 40 million you dumbshit

That's rarely ever not been the case though.

I don't know if 40 million is a small budget, but I do agree that smaller budget movies have the potential to be truly great in a way the big ones just can't reproduce. Whiplash with only 3.3 million in budget is one of my favourites

Well put. I'm familiar with the disparate sound bites, but the way he's assembled this feels almost as if he got Rian Johnson specifically for this video to create a comprehensive breakdown of his own process on the film.

Thanks for watching. And welcome to the channel!

Thanks, Rishon. I try to make something new from what I've found.

The family always say Marta is like family. But like you said they always get her nationality wrong but she is treated like the help Martin even gives his empty glass to her as he put her on the spot, she was also outvoted from the funeral. Even the police thought so at the start of the film

See what you did there

Naytone 😂😂

Uploader knows how to subvert expectations...

😂😂😂😂

Im so confused lol

I agree. But, Parasite ❤️. 2019 was an embarrassment of riches.

Meedo Taha oh man, Parasite was incredible. But I felt like this movie deserved a little bit more recognition.

True. :)

Meedo Taha Parasite wasn’t really an embarrassment for rich people tho

Parasite and Knives Out were equally amazing screenplays, but wish Knives Out had more noms like Best Pic, Direction, Score, Costume's, Cinematography, Score, Editing, and even an acting nod for Ana DeArmas

He thankfully applied his skill and sense of unique vision to Star Wars. I just wish they gave him the entire trilogy... we would have gotten something absolutely incredible, instead of one great movie in the middle.

Most directors would kill to have their reputation tied to something as good and successful as TLJ.

Wow. This thread is rare and I love it

Star Wars fanboys need to grow up into fan gentlemen. Ryan Johnson is indeed a very talented director and writer.

TLJ is by far my favourite of the sequel trilogy. FA is a remake of OT and RoS is just a hot mess with bad pacing.... AND a rehash of OT at time... TLJ takes the universe we love and tells a totally new story and lays a fundation for an amazing 9th movie. I wish he had made ep. 9 too, cuz I truely believe it would make both movies better and more in sync

TLJ was good too.

Yeah, I personally didn't like TLJ, but this was a really enjoyable film.

He also directed the best TV show episode ever 'Ozymandias' in Breaking Bad

RJ is a genius. But for some reason he's horrible when it comes to Star Wars.

Yeah, he is a good director but they shouldn’t have had him do Star Wars. He is better at gritty realism not cartoon sci fi

Wow, that's crazy!

Stefan Grubesic Yoo me too

Yep, most people who say for example that TLJ is "objectively bad filmmaking" often when asked will bring up the Prequels as their favourite movies or similar garbage like Zack Snyder films... like, you clearly don't know what the fuck actually goes into a good film or watch most of anything outside the tentpole movie franchises.

Ikr?

I couldn't agree more. While the merits of writing themeselves are debatable. Far too many people who are not well educated on any aspect of filmmaking are acting like authorities on filmmaking and manipulating people into thinking their experts, when really their most advanced education is cinemasins or Nostalgia Critic reviews.

@@jimjam7928 what? Most of the people who hated TLJ cite the original trilogy as their favorite.

@@wowthatscrazy5222 I definitely agree!

The BBC series is actually really good imo

I'd like to see a good cinematic version of The Mousetrap.

I've said it before "The Last Jedi" was terrible and I'm not a huge Star Wars fan. I am obsessed with this movie however. I watch it every evening after work. I quote it to people like a geek. Johnson certainly does well handling a concept he created himself.

Glad you caught that!

The will reading scene was funny as hell.

That’s a costuming problem. You can’t tell when the time changes or when it changes too. Shouldn’t have won that oscar

@@hannahbanna_ yes. Especially when there is such change in skirts and hairstyles from the 1860s to the late 1870s. The hair and makeup people could've done a little better in making the actors look younger as well. Also, the hair, makeup, and costumes didn't suit the characters, but oh well. Little Women got so much unwarranted hype that it was bound to win

honestly, The Last Jedi was a great film but the fanboys bashed him for what THEY wanted...last jedi is best as a stand alone film...because the sequel trilogy doesnt flow very well..if anything, I could only watch frce awakens and last jedi and thats it

@@UNSTABLE111 I had to drop the Star Wars reboot really early. Pretty lackluster. I think I only like Mandalorian because I always leaned towards bounty hunters and Boba Fett was cool in the comics.

@@UNSTABLE111 tbh I think it’s biggest mistake isn’t really a mistake. The movie is practically an art house film, which makes it immediately really inaccessible to viewers of a mainstream American sci fi franchise. It’s a movie where the underlying themes are more telling than its literal plot points so it’s often misinterpreted

@@UNSTABLE111 The Last Jedi was an extremely mediocre film with confused themes, groan-inducing humor and a story that was very unfitting for the Star Wars universe. And it brought back an old fan-favorite character, Luke Skywalker, just to shit on the character. Give it a non-Star Wars title and it might have been decent. It wasn't a good Star Wars film. I'm convinced Rian Johnson is a good director, just not for Star Wars.

​@@BT-su1yfI completely agree. Plus, part of the reason it was a messy film was because the directors changed in between movies. They both had a different idea of what they wanted the sequel movies to be.

Wow, that's a big statement

You should watch rian's previous works (pre-TLJ). I suggest brick.

Big statement for a terrible movie

Karl The Slav i like this movie because of all it’s details it implements throughout the movie the you have to look out for yourself

ezwar99 well I like more action based (aka Marvel, Star Wars, etc...) more fiction cause I’m lowkey a big nerd :)

I agree with you there, there was alot of his influence as well as eastern asian cinema influence even more so in The Last Jedi but its gonna go over peoples heads to be honest..

Glad you enjoyed the video! Any future video suggestions?

The honor is mine! Hope you have fun diving into the other videos. :)

Awesome! I appreciate you sharing how you found the videos. That's always interesting to hear. Glad you like the videos! More are on the way!

Much appreciated!

Always happy when people pick up the small details like that. Thanks for watching!

@@ARM3LO Thank you! They are collected interviews. I have the links to the full versions in the description. I'm working on getting exclusive Interview content to you soon!

Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you so much for being a long-time supporter.

Thank you! Also, you have an amazing username.

Dude, you're great. Thank you for sticking with me for so long. 9 months now! I have something in the works that will be even better than Patreon and I may be reaching out to you soon for early access if you're interested... stay tuned! :0

Behind the Curtain Yes please! Keep up the great work the grind is paying off

Yea why wouldn’t he just do that

J A because he knew from the beginning, even without asking her

@@RauMichael Then why did he keep giving her access to evidence? That doesn't seem like something you would want to do if you plan on making any sort of court case.

Well she didn't technically kill him, a knife that cut his throat did. So even though she believed that she was the reason why he died, it was him who ended his own life and Martha would probably be able to answer NO without vommiting..

@@lukasnovak399 Nope. She vomits if he believes she's lying. It doesn't have to be an actual lie. So yes, the detective could have just flat out ask, but he didn't. He also ignored evidence he saw immediately and paraded her around putting that evidence in jeopardy because the author willed the character to know she was somehow "actually innocent". lol

He isn't even bad in the first place.

He was never a bad filmmaker in the first place, do people judge his skills just by one movie instead of his ENTIRE career?

No problem 👍 I'm glad you got something out of the video. :)

Thanks for watching!

Thanks for the love!

Had to sneak that in there

@@BehindtheCurtain im a huge radiohead fan! Rlly cool! Keep up ur great work, rlly love ur channel!

YES IT IS... I thought the same thing too!

Thanks for the support!

It was! Nice catch!

I mean they literally show you her accidentally overdosing Harlan. So, no, she's not supposed to look "guilty" as in she's a cold-blooded murderer who did it on purpose. She's supposed to look like someone who made a mistake and was pushed into a cover-up.

This is a good mindset. And I agree.

The seuqel trilogy already had a bad start, the problem was that it was desided to put RJ in sw for no reason and the fact that he did not undertood how SW. To what he did to KO, which worked, the same tried to TLJ. And if the sequels had any chanse to be better, he killed tht compleately. But yea TROS was way worse

Yeah, I was surprised that they actually are doing a sequel. It's a nice compliment that people really liked Knives Out, but to actually try and make a sequel that's on par is difficult. Hope he nails it as well.

Nice

@@BehindtheCurtain Great video once again, looking forward to the next one! Would love to eventually see one on Edgar Wright or Taika Waititi

@@MarkMoughamian Edgar Wright is coming in the next few weeks!

It's a violin cover of Knives Out by Radiohead

@@BehindtheCurtain Thank you! It sounded so familiar, just had to know. Damn, clever song choice btw ;)

Very true.

Gross

I would love to do something like that. Now that I've done Parasite, I'd be more comfortable doing a Studio Ghibli film. Also, I've done some research and it looks like there are quite a few interviews with the creators of House M.D. I'm not sure when I'll get around to making a video on House, so you may really enjoy listening to those interviews! Thanks for being such a consistent viewer.

Still doesn't excuse his failure with TLJ

snowwhitewitch he didn’t fail. He tried to make a good movie but ended making a Star Wars movie that divided the dabs

MR. Random In other words: he failed.

snowwhitewitch how?

MR. Random By making a bad movie

Same :) definitely one of the best directors in the game :)

@@i-deni-i5138 No there is not. TLJ was terrible

@@fredy2041 you just didn't understand it. Try reading why it's one of the best Star Wars movies. I'm not trying to be offensive, but TLJ is complexly written and it has many subtle references to even the PT and many other movies in general. It takes more than one viewing to understand it and even then there are many things to find out by watching it more. It's a subversive, metaphorical and thematical masterpiece. Hell maybe you did understand it, but disagree with it. But there is a line between disagreeing with something and seeing its true quality. For example I agree with it 100% but I can fully understand why somebody wouldn't. What I can't understand is when someone says it's terrible when it truly isn't. It's a filmmaking fact that it's a great movie. There are many movies I don't like, but know their true value.

@@i-deni-i5138 *complexly written and it has many subtle references to even the PT and many other movies in general* *It's a subversive, metaphorical and thematical masterpiece* Explain and deeply, beacuse for what you told me, is like you watched a different movie entirely. But please, explain me deeply. BUT NO with assumption, making things up, using your own headcannon of things you think it happened. USE THINGS THAT LITERALY JUST ONLY the movie shows and says and NOTHING ELSE Becuase I tell you this. The movie was terrible writting, nonsensical stuff that do not make any sence, the movie feels for braindead people that dont think to much. It has poor editing, poor continuty, a poor choreography ( TPM's one is miles better in compare ), lack of force on a fight. Contradictions of preeexisting canon. Awfull annoying characters, Rose more than any. The abobination of Canto Bight, a terrible misplaces Marvel esk humor that takes you out of the film, destroys any seriousness and doesnt not belong to any SW everbefore. If you thik this, the movie doesnt have anything new. Is a reskin of ESB and ROTJ, the rest is a very "sloooow" and pointless chase. The movie itself wasted 40 minutes with CB feeling worthless as well. There is subervion for subersion alone and nothing else, the movie ended with nothing. Whats more hilarious is that it ended with everyone happy, smiling and laughing despite literaly less than 20 people are alive, of thousands who just died. We have also need to count that this movie just happened a day after TFA. *Where is the good subersion that is not for subersion alone?* *Metaphorical how?* *Thematical masterpiece?* Again dude, how. how!? Explain withouth making things up beacuse it lieraly feels like if you were high and not paying attencion whatsoever and your ended overthinking it and believing what you want to believe on things the movie on reality never tells or shows. But of course, your a RJ lover, right? You will never admit that your god made a mistake and you prefer death than rather admiting, right? After you go any further I recomend you that you watch RobotHead's videos and Mauler's videos, specialy the introduction of his critic on TFA

@@fredy2041 here we go again with robot head and mauler. Robothead made a video about Disney not understanding lightsabers where he bashes how Luke says "lasersword" because it's always talked about as a lightsaber, yet he forgets that Anakin says "lasersword" in TPM and George Lucas refered to lightsabers many times as laserswrod because THATS WHAT THEY ARE. Disney doesn't understand lughtsabers yet in ROTJ when Luke smashes onto Vader with his, the railing takes hits from the lightsaber a few times, yet it only gets cut thru when Luke cuts Vader hand off. Spare me with Robothead and Mauler and their pointless dissection of the ST while ignoring same flaws from the previous trilogies. You are one of those who wont admit that it's a good movie even if I wrote that goddamn bible about TLJ because you listen to morons like those two. You just proved yourself not legit. Not only because you watch them, but also because you can't pay attention to a movie and connect it with the other movies. Go search the internet for TLJ's explanations and TRUE values instead of asking me to write all of that just for you because it's a shit ton to write because of how fucking complex that movie is. But then again I doubt that you would accept anything from those explanations. You would say about stuff that is headcanon even if it makes perfect sense because you're one of those if it's not drawn to you, you can't figure it out yourself. I would suggest to you to first learn filmmaking. Cheers. "RobOT HeAD aND MauLeR" 😂😂😂 ..I've seen this response from a mile away.

Dylan Chapman shut up snowflake

@@astralflick You're the only one having a cry here.

It's in the over 1 hour long making of. If you were truly interested in that, you would know that.

@@i-deni-i5138 I've watched it several times. I was disappointed in the lack of detail he goes into in terms of scene's relevancy to the canon (like he does here) and legacy characters. It's more a symbolical story board and personal growth portfolio than a proper breakdown.

@@CyanKash oh ok. Too bad

You are

Because, as he stated in the video, you have to do GOOD work.

Jurassic Lion Two of those statements are correct. Knives Out is great. Rian Johnson is a great director. Last Jedi is no where close to the best Star Wars film. The plot is superfluous at parts and completely unnecessary. Characterization from previous movies is destroyed. Luke’s character changed drastically. Rey does not train early enough. Poe’s story is just a case of “I’m a woman of power, you must listen to me” despite the fact he clearly has more heart for the Resistance than the Jurassic Park person. Sequels have two jobs: be creative and stick to the logic of the previous films. TFA did more of the second thing, which is safe. It makes a good movie, but not a great movie. TLJ did the first thing which almost fucked up the SW universe. Hyperspace is somehow not canon with itself, if that’s even possible. ESB is considered to be the best movie. RotS, RO, and RotJ are considered to be up there at the top. TLJ is not close. The only ones who like that movie either aren’t Star Wars fans (as in they’re the people to say “Who’s that character again?”), they hated the backlash Rose and the Jurassic Park person got (which was unnecessary as their acting was fine; it was the director’s fault), and/or they’re the people that like to rebel and like what is unpopular. You know the type

Jurassic Lion opinion after opinion after opinion. Man, I live the internet

Supreme leader 049 Some opinions are more valid than others, and some opinions are actually fact. ESB is considered to be the best SW film. That’s a fact. Having an opinion doesn’t mean it’s correct. Its very nature means that it can be easily changed and thus doesn’t hold much weight in an argument

Mark Ray Okay? I don’t see how that contradicts anything I said. I said some opinions aren’t actually opinions, but instead facts. That fits with what you said

@@jacksonmccrocklin3968 a bunch of opinions doesn't make anything a fact. Just look at religion (no disrespect to religion). Even facts change as science and understandings of the world evolve through time. Movies and art in general will always be subjective because it's all it can be. An idea, a concept, a vision, an expression etc. If you truly think that it could ever be objective and facts matters to how we experience art, then there nothing to discuss about the subject and you killed the conversation before it even started.

You're the best! Thank you.

No

My money is my money it's not my family's money it's my money. When I die that money will go to the person I want it go to and it's not necessarily my family because it's not their money it's my money being related to me doesn't mean you're entitled to a damn penny.

I like this theory a lot

Yes.

@Matthew Evans "It's just a movie"? The hell? Movies have points and messages, obviously. Yes, this is ABSOLUTELY a major point of the movie. These rich white people who don't even know where she's from (she's just an "other") lose what they feel entitled to but didn't earn.