[0:00] So, oddly enough people think of
writing as dialogue and to me
[0:03] writing is structure. Dialogue is the
cherry on top. The cherry on top does not
[0:08] support the ice cream sundae it's it's a
it's a delicious little added thing but
[0:12] the real story telling the real
structuring that to me is the hard part
[0:16] writing building the the scaffolding the
skeleton of the story if you will for a
[0:20] long time I tried to think out
everything and the story even though I
[0:25] know things would completely change as
like as I go on however now I've
[0:29] realized that it doesn't do me much good
to think too much past the middle I mean
[0:34] I might know where I want to go I mean I
write genre pieces so you have an idea
[0:39] what the third acts gonna be yeah you
know and Kill Bill I guess she'll
[0:42] probably kill Bill with him but you know
John Ruby you think you know where
[0:46] you're going and you're probably right
and you have an idea of how you might
[0:49] want the ending to end as for you know
for both a movie and for an audience but
[0:54] for the most part you can kind of work
out more or less what's gonna get you to
[0:59] the middle but to think beyond that is
kind of silly because by the time you
[1:05] get to the middle when you've actually
been writing it well it's a different
[1:10] story now it's a different thing now you
know you are the characters you know the
[1:15] characters things that you could never
have known before you started writing
[1:19] are now they're in your blood it's like
this entire month you know there is a
[1:24] mythology to my movies to some degree or
another not mythology is delivered as as
[1:29] I write and I might have a checklist of
things that I might want to do during
[1:33] the course of the time but some of them
they are you know
[1:36] become irrelevant yeah
and when other ones take their place and
[1:41] some things you thought could have been
a big deal while they are a big deal
[1:44] and some things you may be half the
reason you wanted to write it by the
[1:47] time you get to where that would happen
and prints for something else that's not
[1:51] for this but by that time you get to the
middle that's where you want to be you
[1:55] want to have it be this expert you want
to be in the middle of the story you
[1:58] want to know who these people are and
now with all this knowledge now you
[2:03] figure out where you want to go for the
second half I'm trying to write to that
[2:06] spot where I don't know what's going to
happen I'm trying to get to that trying
[2:09] to get off that that that that blueprint
and I'm trying to get to that place
[2:14] where now the characters are telling me
and the characters are exciting me I'd
[2:18] be being disingenuous with you to say
that I kind of can construct the story I
[2:22] mean I never feel like I know how to
construct the story except just like
[2:27] that's a great way what you just said
like yeah dumping things on a table and
[2:32] like spreading them around like that for
sure and hopefully getting lucky enough
[2:38] to kind of get enough things going in a
row that feels like something worth
[2:43] doing something worth telling something
worth going to shoot I open up a file
[2:48] final draft and I write about a page of
story beats which would be single lines
[2:55] so spaceship on the way to the Sun you
know seven characters or a door kind of
[3:02] a moment so it goes on and just single
lines and the lines are the basic beats
[3:09] of the story and what I've got to the
end I sort of take the cursor up to the
[3:14] top of the page so I've got about a page
of lines
[3:16] I'd say the kind of back up to the top
of the page and I've write the first
[3:20] scene and as I reach story beats I
delete them so eventually so the script
[3:27] is getting longer and the story beats
list which is only a page is getting
[3:30] shorter eventually I delete the last
line and at that point I've got a full
[3:34] script and that's it that's a first
draft and it will be crap
[3:40] but that's okay because I know that
there's a couple of things I get from
[3:46] there one is you've got something to
work with and it's getting to that point
[3:51] that's often the hardest yeah the
nervous does influence Lee somebody said
[4:08] that if the author doesn't know where
the story is going the audience can't
[4:12] possibly know I write really
structuralist I have to start I really I
[4:17] spend I spend to this the first big
chunk of time just working in little
[4:22] notebooks and all I do is I draw like
arcs and split them out and see like
[4:26] sequences I need to basically be able to
see the whole plot in my head before I
[4:31] can sit down and actually start writing
or I'll get lost in the weeds so I plan
[4:36] and plan and plan then plan and this was
like that only more so
[4:40] this was even more crucial for me to
have the whole thing mapped out but then
[4:43] you actually get into it and as you guys
who are writers you know you get into it
[4:47] no matter how much you plan you know
it's it's like you plan out your map
[4:52] through the forest looking at like the
map and in your cozy living room and
[4:55] then you get in there and you're
actually hacking through the forest and
[4:58] you figure out stuff doesn't work and
figure out new paths and so yeah it's
[5:02] kind of a mixture I guess I don't
outline I don't outline I was well I I
[5:09] mean I say that I definitely don't
outline before I start writing there is
[5:14] a moment when I do outline but it's only
after I have a great deal of material I
[5:20] find when I outlined before I write it
it's the fastest way to kill all my
[5:25] ideas I can't um I can somehow it makes
everything quite literal for me
[5:33] I've never outlined before I use index
cards it just kind of organizes my mind
[5:40] I've never index carded the whole movie
because I don't think I've ever at the
[5:47] point when I've started writing a
screenplay known everything that there
[5:51] is to know
about the whole movie I've figured out
[5:54] how it's gonna start and I have some
other things along the way but it's kind
[6:00] of like walking in the dark with a
flashlight you could really only see as
[6:04] far ahead of you as as the light goes I
think rules are great if you're in
[6:08] trouble and if you're not in any trouble
with what you're writing they're
[6:11] absolutely useless and possibly worse
than useless it may happen that every
[6:17] script has it has the characters
established by page 10 and it may not I
[6:22] don't think there's any reason to be
thinking about that when you're trying
[6:25] to write a script and it may be that
every successful script has a reversal
[6:30] and have two-thirds of the way through
and one another 1/3 of the way through I
[6:33] don't know it's not really an I don't
see what you're gonna I don't I don't
[6:38] think that kind I think that kind of
thing I think every time I read a script
[6:41] and it goes off it's because at that
point the script is trying to be like a
[6:46] script and it's not and it's at that
exact moment when it loses its
[6:50] individuality and it's interest I mean
what I do is I do a very detailed step
[6:58] out under the story and then you break
it down to like whatever all the scenes
[7:01] that need to be there I go and I put in
all along all the scene settings of
[7:06] every scene so I know where you are and
at what time you know and actually it's
[7:10] good to figure out so the the rhythm of
day and night in in movies I mean Little
[7:15] Miss Sunshine is three days most films
are like a few days and you want this
[7:19] rhythm between day and night you don't
want to be cutting from day to day you
[7:22] know from one day to the next day you
want to be moving up and down and so
[7:26] I'll go through and just do all the log
lines not a log lines all those scene
[7:30] lights log lines and just put them in
and you can see you can even see at that
[7:35] point if something if there's an action
sequence that's too long or if there's
[7:38] something that you could Oh there could
be another scene in here and once you've
[7:42] got all you know you got your 50 slug
lines or whatever they are your 50
[7:45] scenes then you just can go ahead and
put your dialogue into them and what I
[7:49] started doing at Pixar now is doing what
I call sequence outline which is you
[7:53] break the film down into you know
fifteen or twenty sequences and I do it
[7:57] on four pieces of paper so it is a first
act on one piece of paper which is the
[8:01] title of the sequence and then what
happens in it and usually you have five
[8:04] or six sequences in your first act
and then the second page is the second
[8:08] quarter of the film what you'll take you
up to your midpoint the third page is
[8:12] the third quarter and then the last page
and then you have your whole film is on
[8:15] four pages but it breaks down it by ACT
basically you know you get to the end of
[8:20] the first page you get the end of the
first act and you can just look at stuff
[8:23] and and because it's broken down by
sequence you can figure out you know
[8:26] this right here can go over here you
know you're able to visually see the
[8:30] whole film and I find that really
helpful in terms of moving stuff around
[8:34] but with index cards I always feel like
it's just too much it's just clutter
[8:38] everywhere you know on the floor of your
apartment and it's better to just be
[8:42] able to put four sheets of paper in
front of you and figure out why
[8:46] something isn't working or not I'm such
a strong believer in knowing where
[8:50] you're going before you start out that
hopefully once you've and inevitably
[8:55] things change you know I mean that's
what you just things change but
[8:59] hopefully you'll at least get to the end
of your first draft you know with a
[9:02] semblance of what you started out trying
to do it's a big deal for me
[9:07] I can usually look at it outline which
is usually about you know it's like I'll
[9:10] be able to just have scene headings you
know and know her in her office or
[9:15] something like that where she realizes
this or gets the first message or
[9:18] whatever it is and that will that will
go for about three pages you know of
[9:22] that and I can usually start to see the
rhythms and see what's wrong with with
[9:28] the piece and what needs to be thought
more about we would sit in front of a
[9:34] corkboard three feet by five feet with a
big thing of thumbtacks and a big thing
[9:39] of index cards and a whole bunch of
sharpies magic markers and we'd sit down
[9:43] and we say okay what's the teaser but
you know with any build it brick by
[9:46] brick each card represents a plot beat
not necessarily a scene but you know
[9:53] three or four six eight cards might
represent one scene and by the end of it
[9:57] you filled up this entire three foot by
five foot cork board with a teaser and
[10:01] and
the four act structure sitting there
[10:04] together or alone alone as much harder
still and figuring out each plot beat is
[10:09] essentially that the good analogy I
suppose is a bunch of engineers sitting
[10:15] around on their drafting tables or their
communal drafting table and drawing the
[10:19] design thus drawing the architectural
drawings for a skyscraper then you got
[10:24] to go build a skyscraper which is a huge
amount of man hour and labor and you
[10:30] know all of that but you can't build
that skyscraper unless you got the
[10:35] architectural blueprints to begin with
and to us an actual sitting down and
[10:39] writing is it's kind of carefree
compared to the breaking because I've
[10:42] got this outline I've got these these
index cards and I know you know what
[10:47] happens next so the writing is a
important part of it but it's not the
[10:53] hardest part and it's not to me the most
crucial part
[11:12] you