|
You Gotta
Love It! In the screenwriting workshops that Madeline DiMaggio conducts throughout the United States and Europe, she has found that its the writers who love it most that are ultimately the most successful. She remembers one of her students telling her about a specific turning point in his career. Somebody asked Kevin how many screenplays he wrote before he sold, DiMaggio told Writers Digest, and he said, Seven.And that person asked, What kept you going? And he said, You know what?I know the moment that I asked myself that question. I was driving on the freeway. I was getting on the on-ramp, and an inner voice asked me, What if I never sell a script? And then I heard the answer.Im going to keep writing anyway, because I love it. DiMaggios student was Kevin Falls, who is now an Emmy winner as the co-executive producer on the popular and critically acclaimed NBC television show, The West Wing. Throughout the interview, DiMaggio framed the points she was making as little scenes. No matter what she was trying to explain, she created a scene in which she played all the parts.It was as if her mind automatically translated everything into the form that films require.You see, Ms. DiMaggio loves to write; she has been a story editor and creative consultant for Paramount Studios, but writing is her first love.She enjoys the whole process, from idea through development through execution, and if she didnt love it so, she probably wouldnt have achieved the success that she has had to date. She began her career working on a lot of cop shows, among them, the 1970s police drama Starsky and HutchFrom there she moved to situation comedies like Bob Newhartand Threes Company.Later, she wrote movie-length screenplays, or long form, as she called it, which are not necessarily more difficult. Its just that they require different talents. Most recently, she finished a special for Showtime, Murder With Privilege, and the first draft of a movie script for Commotion Films entitled Catherine Called Birdy, both of which she co-wrote with Pamela Wallace, a frequent collaborator and the author of Witness, a 1985 movie that starred Harrison Ford and garnered an Academy Award for Wallace.DiMaggio characterized Catherine Called Birdyas Cluelessmeets Shakespeare in Love.Were on a good roll with that one.Its a fun script.It was like a dream project from the get-go. Q:Is there a particular strength to your work?Something you do especially well? MD:I come from an acting background, and I have an ear for dialogue, and pacing and tempo.I highly recommend that writers take an acting class.Some writers are tone deaf, and either you have a good sense or not. It can be taught, but I think with actors it becomes automatic.After all the years of acting that I put in, Im in tune with the flow and the pacing and the tempo and the fun of dialogue. Its just my favorite thing. Q:I understand that a lot of actors will tone up the dialogue, give it more impact. MD:Yes, that happens a lot.It depends on the power of the actor, but when you look at Aaron Sorkins work on West Wing, I hear the actors dont even stray from an ahh in the script.But Sorkins dialogue is utterly brilliant. It really depends on who the writer is, who the actors are, and what the medium is. And the personality of the director. Q: How did you get into script doctoring? MD:I got into script doctoring through teaching.I was reading writers material and I go down to Hollywood, I pitch to Hollywood, I write for Hollywood, and I knew the material wasnt ready.It needed that professional edge. What I try to provide for writers who are trying to get into the marketplace is the benefit of all my years of rejection.I try to show them how to get into the story later, give the story more edge, have characters we root forare riveted byand make the story as visual as possible.How to give it all that polish that says professional. Ill tell you, there are a lot of good script doctors out there, and I highly recommend that everybody get the critique before they go out because writers are just too close to their material.Youve only got one shot.Once a particular company rejects you, you dont have another shot with that company. You want to do the best possible presentation you can do. Q:What are the most common weaknesses you see in screenplays? MD:The biggest fatal flaw is structure. Also, the characters need to drive the story forward rather than the plot.Many, many, many times, Ill read a screenplay thats plot-driven and the characters are stuck in there like automatons to take the story from point A to B to C.The next move should be created by the characters and not by the plot. Give a character a compelling need, and then its the writers job to create obstacles to that need, and its those obstacles that create conflict, that create all the action.We are who we are by what we dontget, not what we get. Were made by what we dont get.Character-Need-Obstacle-Action.All good stories are based in conflict.And thats another fatal flaw in screenplays: not enough conflict.The stakes are not high enough.You hear that in Hollywood all the time. Q:Do you believe, as Jeffrey Katzenberg and others have maintained, that the idea is king? MD:Yes.You can say,
well, doesnt that conflict with the fact that you have to write from
your passion, you have to write from your heart?But yes, story is king.Concept
is crucial.However, it has to be executed well, and a lot of writers dont
have a bent for that high-commercial edge.I mean, if you are Shane Black,
and your passion is an action type of Lethal Weapon movie, then you are
a very lucky individual. Q:Do you think theres a difference between the way males and females approach story and idea in a script? MD:Thats an excellent question, and I think there is.Writers need to watch that.They talk about ageism in Hollywood, they talk about genderism, they talk about all those things that to some extent exist, but what often happens is that you can see those things in a script.You can read a writers age in a script and you can read the gender, and thats not good.Because thats the writer taking a point of view.So you want to be careful of that.I think women can write action, and I think men can go into the heart of a woman.They can go into a womans soul.Unmarried Woman, a very old film, is a brilliant insight into being a female, and it was written by a man.But try to detach yourself from who you are and just write a good story, so that its not identifiable.Hollywood tries to pigeonhole you, and you can avoid that to some degree if you keep your own point of view out of the story. Q:What, exactly, is a coverage? MD:Its unavoidable
and its a roulette table.When you turn in a screenplay, it does not get
to the producer, it does not get to the story editoralmost always it
goes to the reader.And the reader writes coverage on the material.The
reader might be somebodys kid whos home for summer vacation or the reader
can be a member of the Writers Guild whos been doing it for 25 years.Its
the luck of the draw.Unless you get with some very small production company
or you get read by somebody you can get to directly, it always happens
through coverage. Q:Discuss the difference between a treatment and a full screenplay. MD:A treatment is in prose, and its basically a synopsis of the storyline done in present tense.Just like all movies are made in present tense.You dont put in the treatment what couldnt be shown on the screen.I dont have the luxury of going into interior monologue like I do in a book.Essentially, its a synopsis of the storyline of the movie. Q:Ive heard it recommended that an aspiring screenwriter work on a treatment before writing a full screenplay. MD:I absolutely agree
with that, but the treatment is for the writer, its not to market.Its
to get the story down with a strong beginning, middle, and end.Its to
create a structure that works, and from that, the writer can create the
screenplay.Everything in the screenplay should matter.A treatment should
be like an artists work table where you can cut and paste and make sure
the story works before you commit to a first draft. Q:What about pitches?Does every writer need to frame their story in 2 or 3 sentences? MD:I highly recommend that all writers do that.It doesnt necessarily mean that they market it like that, but it clarifies things for the writer.In my classes, I ask writers, What movie is it most like?Not because theyre copying the film or plagiarizing it, but because it roots the writer in knowing tone.It roots the writer in knowing what they want to accomplish.I tell writers, If you cant define it, you cant write it.I ask writers to define their story in 4 or 5 lines. Q:What kinds of objections to that do you hear to that? MD:Objections? Q:Like, My storys much too complex to. . . MD:Ah!You know, I was
teaching an advanced screenwriting course in Hawaiiand I dont believe
theres such a thing as an advanced screenwriter, I mean, a writer can
be experienced, but every story has a new set of challengesbut these
people were considered advanced because they were all in the process of
writing screenplays.So I said to them, Your first assignment is to go
home and come back tomorrow with 3 lines of what your story is about.Out
of about 12 writers, 6 could do it.If you cant define the main line of
action in your story, youve got a problem. Q:And once the writer defines that, the writer can pitch it? MD:Writers are terrified of pitching.Absolutely terrified.So I try to tell writers not to worry about pitching because they wont be doing it.I mean, the bottom line is that until you can write a screenplay and can prove that you can write, you wont be invited in by companies who want to hear your idea.The most important marketing tool you will ever have is your screenplay.Thats number one.The most important thing a writer can do is write a good screenplay. Q:Thank you, Ms. DiMaggio, for allowing us your time here.A couple of last things:What do you see as the hottest trends in Hollywood today? MD:Dont ever go by
trends.By the time you write and market, the trend has passed.It takes
too long to write the stories, too long to market them.Never try to create
on a trend.People may say, The teen market is flooded or The public
is tired of Vietnam stories, but there will always be a teen market,
there will always be another Vietnam story.The point is that if you try
to create on a trend, you will always be behind the wave.You want to get
out front, and so that means that you should always save everything you
do, because the trend will come back around. Q:You Can Write a Movie, Pamela Wallace said that the two most important things are to believe in yourself and to write from the heart.Youve mentioned a lot of useful things today, a lot of good advice, but what would be your two primary pieces of advice? MD:Thats a very good
question.I definitely agree with writing from your heart because I think
a writer must feel passionately about what they write about.That comes
across in the read.I think many times writers try to be too commercial
and they arent writing from the truth of who they are.The most important
thing that happens in a script is its emotional honesty. Sidebar DiMaggio Highly Recommends. . .
|
Email
Madeline@cre8ascript.com