The original screenplay for 'Argo' is something I read in one of my screenwriting classes. It starts out in the courtyard and buildings of the American Embassy in Tehran in 1979. The young Marines in the guard shack by the gate are facing thos massive, ugly crowd. The Iranian police are doing nothing. Suddenly, a young man climbs over the fence. They frantically call the ambassador's office. Those in the building aren't really concerned at first, because demonstrations have been going on for some time. But this feels different. Then the gates are breached, the frantic calls go out to burn and shred sensitive documents, in a rush to safeguard important onformation about agents we have. You can't put the screenplay down. That's how you do it.
Adam talks more about his job with Todd Phillips in this video - th-cam.com/video/Kq093BTb_rw/w-d-xo.html Also here is another interview where we talk with someone about his job as a script reader - th-cam.com/video/fvn53-mH4iI/w-d-xo.html and th-cam.com/video/fL0YFMKcn34/w-d-xo.html
Well, not so great actually. It seems great only to someone who is an outsider of the industry. The problem is this: if you work as a reader or editor or story-editor (and you are paid to read hundreds of scripts), 99.9 % of the time you will read horrible stories written with an unreadable prose, nonsense plots and dumb characters. That's it, that's your job: scrapping terrible stories hoping that one or two acceptable scripts per year will pop up on your desk. The consequences are that you will lose passion in reading, and the bad prose you read every day will affect your own writing. Your prose will get worse and worse. Believe me, almost every young editor I know regrets to work as a reader/editor, their writing was ruined by their job and now they have lost hope to ever becoming writers. It's a good job only if you want to read and scout scripts for the rest of your life. If your dream is to become an author, then it's kind of problematic. Please remind that not all that glitters is gold...
As a man of 42, I'll say most will never have a brain until 40, when they know everything is downhill from there. Majority of them still never use that brain. It is easier to feel and try not to care, especially when you've been doing all your life.
I half agree. Internet can inspire depending on how it's used. Many are too lazy to read 1 paragraph and this was before the internet and social media. People need to learn how not to be limited and taught that reading and imagination can make a world of difference when it comes to bringing things into fruition.
I will say this about the internet though, it has caused grammar to go downhill unless a person takes it upon themselves to look up a specific syntax. I predicted this in a college thesis paper I wrote, which included forms of communication. Something along the lines of Bad Writing Habits: Death by Texting.
That is not true. You still have an attention span, but its been reduced. It has absolutely nothing to do with the internet rotting your brain. This affects people who are internet users and people who are not internet users. This means that there is some kind of a countdown going on to an event that is about to happen and once this event happens, the countdown is complete and the attention span should start to increase again.
I remember when the “inciting incident” was supposed to be 25 minutes into a feature length screenplay! But I agree with this guy and I see this problem in novels too: get to the point!
Im curious about his feelings on Alien Romulus. Great movie but i hear many people complain it takes too long to get going.... it seems properly paced so I wonder if its an attantion span issue.
Alien: Romulus is only two hours long. The problem with the script is that the story has nowhere to go other than seeing who will survive, and since it's an alien movie, usually only one or two people. Poor subplot structure is typically the culprit if a film feels like it is running long.
Critical Drinker did not like it. There should be a law...no more than 3 films in a franchise. Ex: Jurassic Park. They should have stopped after the first one. Seriously.
Here's a possible comment: I found this video really insightful! As a screenwriter myself, I've come across a few scripts that could use some improvement. Adam's comments about character development and plot holes really resonated with me. I especially appreciated his suggestions on how to avoid common mistakes. I'm definitely going to take his advice to heart and revisit my own script. Great video, thanks for sharing!
Is this why most modern movies have pacing issues? they're too rushed and try to force character development, like the guy who details the backstory of the protagonist to the himself.
Lack of attention span. Young folks are so used to rapid cut, frenetic pacing. I like slow, deliberately paced film. "The Conversation" starts out so slow, then builds...and builds...and builds...
It all depends on the genre you’re exploring, my advice is see movies that have similar themes and similar narrative so you can have a start of point, then measure your story with those. At the end you creat what’s realistic or not within your story and as long as you don’t break your own rules working your narrative anything goes. Verisimilitude is key to having the audience buy into your story.
Nothing should be bad? There's a thousand people writing Dune? I get this guy is in the industry but that doesn't excuse why so many mainstream movies which already have a cult following are so bad, they are forgotten within minutes.
It's so funny that you get these people who are giving advice, yet he hasn't made one successful or memorable project.Why should anybody listen to this person? Hilarious 🤡
I love Roger Ebert, but he made one, terrible film. We all have different strengths. Just because we can know what is good and bad writing doesn't mean we can do better.
@@filmcourage I am grateful to filmcourage for its quality interviews--such as this one. You provide film education for people FREE on youtube. Kudos to all the guests you interview.
To @zerostozeros Your wasting time trying to sound important or get attention when another person on the screen holds more value . No one knows who you are ,and since your not getting interviewed. No one cares 😅
Other than the inciting incident point, I couldn't disagree more. "Fast" does not equal "good", and a LOT of movies have been ruined in the last 5-10 years by editing that reflects this mindset. And people don't actually have profoundly shorter attention spans, we just have more options. Endgame is 3 hours long, has the slowest possible opening, and was a massive commercial and critical success.
More on this topic from Adam - th-cam.com/video/o43vpXZwCvM/w-d-xo.html
Such great points and a very good perspective, Adam. Thank you so much Film Courage for all the conversations on this channel ❤ 🙏😊
Thank you for watching!
I would pay for this guy to release commentary on “The Room”.
That would be fun!
The original screenplay for 'Argo' is something I read in one of my screenwriting classes. It starts out in the courtyard and buildings of the American Embassy in Tehran in 1979. The young Marines in the guard shack by the gate are facing thos massive, ugly crowd. The Iranian police are doing nothing. Suddenly, a young man climbs over the fence. They frantically call the ambassador's office. Those in the building aren't really concerned at first, because demonstrations have been going on for some time. But this feels different. Then the gates are breached, the frantic calls go out to burn and shred sensitive documents, in a rush to safeguard important onformation about agents we have.
You can't put the screenplay down.
That's how you do it.
No doubt the opening to Argo is intense!
Getting paid to read a hundred screenplays as a day job would be amazing to be honest with you.
Adam talks more about his job with Todd Phillips in this video - th-cam.com/video/Kq093BTb_rw/w-d-xo.html Also here is another interview where we talk with someone about his job as a script reader - th-cam.com/video/fvn53-mH4iI/w-d-xo.html and th-cam.com/video/fL0YFMKcn34/w-d-xo.html
@@filmcourage Todd Philips is a fantastic filmmaker. Pretty lucky dude getting to work with a legend. Lol
Well, not so great actually. It seems great only to someone who is an outsider of the industry. The problem is this: if you work as a reader or editor or story-editor (and you are paid to read hundreds of scripts), 99.9 % of the time you will read horrible stories written with an unreadable prose, nonsense plots and dumb characters. That's it, that's your job: scrapping terrible stories hoping that one or two acceptable scripts per year will pop up on your desk.
The consequences are that you will lose passion in reading, and the bad prose you read every day will affect your own writing. Your prose will get worse and worse. Believe me, almost every young editor I know regrets to work as a reader/editor, their writing was ruined by their job and now they have lost hope to ever becoming writers. It's a good job only if you want to read and scout scripts for the rest of your life. If your dream is to become an author, then it's kind of problematic.
Please remind that not all that glitters is gold...
@@Eippol_I can see that tbh...
Not really. Bad screenplay are a slog, and depressing.
Fantastic video, great advice given here!
We think Adam makes some strong points here. Especially the part about intuition and trusting your gut.
No one under 40 has an attention span anymore. The internet rotted our brains.
As a man of 42, I'll say most will never have a brain until 40, when they know everything is downhill from there. Majority of them still never use that brain. It is easier to feel and try not to care, especially when you've been doing all your life.
I half agree. Internet can inspire depending on how it's used. Many are too lazy to read 1 paragraph and this was before the internet and social media. People need to learn how not to be limited and taught that reading and imagination can make a world of difference when it comes to bringing things into fruition.
I will say this about the internet though, it has caused grammar to go downhill unless a person takes it upon themselves to look up a specific syntax. I predicted this in a college thesis paper I wrote, which included forms of communication. Something along the lines of Bad Writing Habits: Death by Texting.
That is not true. You still have an attention span, but its been reduced. It has absolutely nothing to do with the internet rotting your brain. This affects people who are internet users and people who are not internet users. This means that there is some kind of a countdown going on to an event that is about to happen and once this event happens, the countdown is complete and the attention span should start to increase again.
I remember when the “inciting incident” was supposed to be 25 minutes into a feature length screenplay! But I agree with this guy and I see this problem in novels too: get to the point!
Thank you!
Im curious about his feelings on Alien Romulus. Great movie but i hear many people complain it takes too long to get going.... it seems properly paced so I wonder if its an attantion span issue.
Alien: Romulus is only two hours long. The problem with the script is that the story has nowhere to go other than seeing who will survive, and since it's an alien movie, usually only one or two people. Poor subplot structure is typically the culprit if a film feels like it is running long.
Critical Drinker did not like it.
There should be a law...no more than 3 films in a franchise. Ex: Jurassic Park. They should have stopped after the first one. Seriously.
@@zerostozerosA two hour movie crammed into three hours.
Here's a possible comment:
I found this video really insightful! As a screenwriter myself, I've come across a few scripts that could use some improvement. Adam's comments about character development and plot holes really resonated with me. I especially appreciated his suggestions on how to avoid common mistakes. I'm definitely going to take his advice to heart and revisit my own script. Great video, thanks for sharing!
Is this why most modern movies have pacing issues? they're too rushed and try to force character development, like the guy who details the backstory of the protagonist to the himself.
Lack of attention span. Young folks are so used to rapid cut, frenetic pacing. I like slow, deliberately paced film.
"The Conversation" starts out so slow, then builds...and builds...and builds...
I had a question regarding plot, how would you know if your plot or even logline is too unrealistic? Is there any way of judging that?
It all depends on the genre you’re exploring, my advice is see movies that have similar themes and similar narrative so you can have a start of point, then measure your story with those.
At the end you creat what’s realistic or not within your story and as long as you don’t break your own rules working your narrative anything goes. Verisimilitude is key to having the audience buy into your story.
Would you say this is also true for stage plays?
What film or tv series has an opening with a big impact scene making it difficult to stop watching?
The opening scene with Hans Landa in Inglorious Basterds.
@@elementeight8 Agreed. It surprised to learn the runtime of the opening, it’s so captivating. It makes it feel like 10 mins
@@elementeight8Superb scene.
The opening sequence of "The Blacklist" pilot.
Matrix
What movie has the Russian roulette scene he mentions?
This one - tubitv.com/movies/564745/wally-got-wasted
Some solid advice but he kinda lost me when his only explanation for how a long scene can be good is casting talented actors
Oh, it surely is not the only way a long scene can be good. But you get sidetracked in these interviews and don’t come back to certain topics.
Good dialogue, suspense, mystery, great music, amazing visuals and many other things. I’m sure can all make a long scene amazing no question about it.
Please read, listen mine
Nothing should be bad? There's a thousand people writing Dune? I get this guy is in the industry but that doesn't excuse why so many mainstream movies which already have a cult following are so bad, they are forgotten within minutes.
That's because Studio executives.
Or JJ Abrams is involved.
He states the obvious. Not very helpful.
It's so funny that you get these people who are giving advice, yet he hasn't made one successful or memorable project.Why should anybody listen to this person? Hilarious 🤡
What do you mean?
I love Roger Ebert, but he made one, terrible film.
We all have different strengths. Just because we can know what is good and bad writing doesn't mean we can do better.
@@filmcourage I am grateful to filmcourage for its quality interviews--such as this one. You provide film education for people FREE on youtube. Kudos to all the guests you interview.
Thank you motherboomer! We appreciate it!
To
@zerostozeros Your wasting time trying to sound important or get attention when another person on the screen holds more value .
No one knows who you are ,and since your not getting interviewed.
No one cares 😅
Other than the inciting incident point, I couldn't disagree more. "Fast" does not equal "good", and a LOT of movies have been ruined in the last 5-10 years by editing that reflects this mindset.
And people don't actually have profoundly shorter attention spans, we just have more options. Endgame is 3 hours long, has the slowest possible opening, and was a massive commercial and critical success.