Tag: Fiction
This man has just earned a lot of points in my admiration scale thanks to this interview.
On art: You try to go to a producer today and say you want to make a film that hasn’t been made before; they will throw you out because they want the same film that works, that makes money. An essential element of any art is risk. If you don’t take a risk then how are you going to make something really beautiful, that hasn’t been seen before?
On screenwriting: A screenplay has to be like a haiku. It has to be very concise and very clear, minimal. When you go to make it as a film, you’re going to listen to the actors and the photographer because they have great ideas, and then you make the decision that you feel is best. Cinema is collaboration.
On money: I have another job. I make films, but I make the money in the wine industry. You work another job and get up at five in the morning and write your script. 200 years ago, if you were a composer, the only way you could make money was to travel with the orchestra and be the conductor, because then you’d be paid as a musician. There was no recording. There were no record royalties. This idea of some rock n’ roll singer being rich, that’s not necessarily going to happen anymore. Because, as we enter into a new age, maybe art will be free. Maybe the students are right. They should be able to download music and movies. I’m going to be shot for saying this. But who said art has to cost money? And therefore, who says artists have to make money? So I would say, “Try to disconnect the idea of cinema with the idea of making a living and money.”
On this last topic, Neil Gaiman has something important to say:
The times they are a-changin’. The debate goes on.
Sorry, this entry is only available in Español.
Yesterday we posed a question: Which is the best chosen word in this line?
Her voice was so weak that it seemed to come already from a great distance.
It’s not the verb, “was”, as it doesn’t express action but merely introduces the attribute. It might be “voice”, which is the noun that the sentence describes, or “weak”, which is its main feature. It might even be “distance”, a noun that evokes the weakness even better than the adjective can. All the words in the sentence are common, simple. Any reader will understand them.
But the best chosen word is “already”. The moment I read those seven letters, I knew that the kid’s mother was dying.
Imagine the line without that word. It becomes a correct description with no additional meaning. It is the “already” that places us in context by telling us so much with so little.
I noted the lesson and decided I had to share it with you.
I’d like to present you today with a good example of the simple, precise prose to which we always aspire. And with the example, an exercise.
Last night I started reading “Of Human Bondage” by W. Somerset Maugham. On the first page, a maid takes a sleepy child in her arms to his mother’s bed. The mother greets him. Maugham writes:
Her voice was so weak that it seemed to come already from a great distance.
Exercise: Which is, in your opinion, the best chosen word in this line? My answer, tomorrow.
John August spells out the keys to a romantic movie:
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Characters we give a shit about. They don’t need to be likable, necessarily, but they need to be compelling. We need to be curious about what they’re going to do next.
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A credible reason to keep them apart. This could be almost anything — war, prejudice, a sinking boat — but if we don’t buy it, you’re toast.
Actually, that’s basically translating to romance the basics of fiction: interesting characters and a conflict.
If you want to take it further, don’t miss out on the comments for additional ideas!