I've always thought the advice of "Write what you know" too easily created stories that became rather "preachy" for lack of a better term. But I love the idea of writing within the genre of whatever I may be experiencing at the time; whether or not that happens to be romance.
George RR Martin interprets the phrase "write what you know" as being write what you know of jealousy, gratitude, joy, fear, hope, anger, disappointment, happiness, heartbreak etc. Which to me makes more sense than, say, writers only writing about characters who are writers. Or getting too preachy, as you say.
@@nathannemeth4094 It was a while ago. It was a quote from an interview, but I can't remember the source, unfortunately. But it was such a good response that it stayed with me!
Adding to what @@jamesbramwell6547 said, "Write what you know" doesn't have to mean "stay in your lane." It could also mean, "If you don't know, find out. Then write about it."
No connections? This man IS the connection. But I love his sincerity and warmth anyway. I appreciate the way he speaks about the scriptwriter he had helped. A perfect collaborator.
Thank you for this thoughtful and insight revealing interview. I would like to encourage my son - a young film maker - to get in touch with Mr. Goldstein.
After my experience in film school, I can definitely say that there is much that can be learned from those sources. However, there is one thing that film school can offer that is harder to find elsewhere: connections. You can have all the knowledge in the world regarding how to make a great movie, but you won't get very far by doing everything by yourself. In fact, that's why I went to film school. I needed to be in an environment where I could make movies with other people trying to do the same thing instead of pulling my siblings and cousins into something they didn't want to do and ultimately didn't end up actually doing. But yeah, once you find those people and gain a bit of experience in that environment, film school can quickly become irrelevant. 😄
@@judahdardenyoutube You noticed the winking smiley after my remark, right? It was basically a statement made just to compliment Film Courage. 😉 But nonetheless, I liked your reaction anyway, it's nice to hear about other peoples journey 👍
I’m not usually one to post critical comments here, but this was not a helpful or inspiring video, which is not the norm for Film Courage or Goldstein. In this video the secret sauce for “How a beginning screenwriter with no connections breaks into the business” is to be a 1984 IT worker that happened to program Gary Goldstein’s (GG’s) computer for three weeks. He befriended GG, got GG to read several of their scripts, then got GG to forward their script to the inner circle. Easy as that. Or GG’s story of just starting a “literary manager” business and hanging it all on finding soulful artists to sign as clients. Title and video aren’t really telling the same story to me. The title should be worded more akin to the actual topic of “how one screenwriter launched a meaningful career by striking Gold(stein) with one lucky connection” Sorry if this seems too critical but the title set me up for something that it didn’t deliver.
Did you miss the part where he’d already written five features before all these random jobs he was taking turned into a connection where someone would read one of them? Also be sure to check out the part where the scripts all had a ton of potential, as well as the part where when asked to write another he jumped on it and delivered something spectacular. The real lesson is in amongst those parts of the story and they’re really worth learning about if you actually want to make it as a screenwriter
Look up working producers on IMDB and see if they have their email listed. Reach out after that, but make sure you have a hook to initiate a conversation (e.g. mention one of their movies you may have just watched or an interview that had somewhere), then a door may open. Not saying it's a magic formula, but It worked for me with different producers and casting directors. Keep pushing. Doors with open up, if you knock on enough of 'em.
Hey! Great question… honestly I think it’s a case by case deal; however, I’ll tell you my approach and you can come up with your own little ‘Jeet Kune Do’, if you will. .. I watched an interview with a producer. The interview was just before his premiere of his latest film He opened up about his past and his career in film. Real cool dude and is a straight shooter. I’m a fan of his past films, so naturally I watched his upcoming film. It was good, so I went, “hey, I’m gonna shoot this guy an e-mail. What’s the worst that can happen? No response? 🤷♂️” I kept the email short and concise. I addressed him has Mr… and thanked him for his films and for his boldness as a film maker. Alluded to his past films and let him know I appreciated his interview, as well as him sharing his past…. The email was short (less than a paragraph). Finished by saying “thank you and keep up the good work!” No joke I got a response about an hour later…he was excited to hear my response to his films, he thanked me for taking the time to watch his interview. From there he asked me: “tell me about yourself? What’s your story?” From there we have been corresponding. His assistant is reading my script (as I type). That’s totally legit, no making that up. In summation, just be you, be respectful and don’t sound desperate. Producers can smell it. Be concise, and let ‘em know the impact they’ve had on your journey. If they bite, feel it out from there and you can get on that “what’s up, dude?!” Level. Make sense? I hope that helped. Remember: you’re interesting, and there’s no one like you. You bring a different talent to the table that nobody else has… keep goin’! Don’t look back it’ll only slow ya down and down worry about tomorrow; it’ll only rob you of todays strength. God bless and go get ‘em🤙🏼
I'm very grateful to have found this channel. I take in every word. However, telling somebody who's probably your senior over and over again that their view is "fascinating" comes accross as patronising, even rude.
How A Beginning Screenwriter With No Connections Breaks Into The Business: You don't. It is nepotism and connections. End of story. It's like telling a peasant in the 12th century: How to become a nobleman without connections. You don't.
He’s talking about a first draft (called “Three Thousand”) that later became “Pretty Woman.” The screenwriter is J.F. Lawton (Jonathan Frederick Lawton).
@@thereseember2800yeah that original screenplay is nothing at all like what ended up being the movie they filmed. Julia Roberts talked about what she signed up for vs. what the studio forced them to make
The way he told the opening story was so freaking cringy with racist undertones. It is a prime example of everything that is wrong with America today. Smh
Is that what you took from it? How very bizarre. Maybe, just maybe you're the source of the cringe, and you carry that vibration around with you. Snap judgments about people can be quite tricky. And sometimes mistaken. I will leave it at that. I have heard this gentleman on this program before, and always found his observations to be on point and perceptive. Maybe you should listen to him speak on some other subjects, before you write him off. Or not. Why take my advice? I might also set off your cringe alarm, or be a casual racist. Oh well...
B.s ice cube &dj poo wrote Friday Hollywood rides off of box office draw.ibe written over 49 scripts a James bond a batman. I started in 1992 and turned in half to production companies to be rejected but found my scripts chopped up and used that way I can't claim elements any jerk can say.so with my own money I produce my own films.get a iphone and do them myself.available on TH-cam December 2022. 30yrs in the making
Huge amount of luck plays into this, considering Disney was behind the ultimate outcome of this little "genius" project that some wonderkin created after being jilted ... please. Pretty Woman could have easily been script 8 on the pile of unreads.
![Business and Craft Of Screenwriting - Corey Mandell [FULL INTERVIEW]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cj5tlCDEdcE/mqdefault.jpg)
What an inherent warmth in him. You can feel it. Even through youtube. His honesty and straightforwardness. So nice.
I've always thought the advice of "Write what you know" too easily created stories that became rather "preachy" for lack of a better term. But I love the idea of writing within the genre of whatever I may be experiencing at the time; whether or not that happens to be romance.
George RR Martin interprets the phrase "write what you know" as being write what you know of jealousy, gratitude, joy, fear, hope, anger, disappointment, happiness, heartbreak etc. Which to me makes more sense than, say, writers only writing about characters who are writers. Or getting too preachy, as you say.
@@jamesbramwell6547 Does he have a book on writing, or is that just from an interview? That sounds good.
@@nathannemeth4094 It was a while ago. It was a quote from an interview, but I can't remember the source, unfortunately. But it was such a good response that it stayed with me!
Adding to what @@jamesbramwell6547 said, "Write what you know" doesn't have to mean "stay in your lane." It could also mean, "If you don't know, find out. Then write about it."
@@MamuTVies exactly
No connections? This man IS the connection.
But I love his sincerity and warmth anyway. I appreciate the way he speaks about the scriptwriter he had helped. A perfect collaborator.
There's a documentary about "Pretty Woman" that highlights screenwriter J.F. Lawton's contributions who Mr. Goldstein discovered. It's worth watching.
Awesome to listen to this - synchronicity‼️👍💙 when preparation meets opportunity comes to mind!
Thank you for this thoughtful and insight revealing interview. I would like to encourage my son - a young film maker - to get in touch with Mr. Goldstein.
Awesome to listen to this‼️👍💙 When preparation meets opportunity comes to mind! 👍
By now I'm pretty certain one can make movies just by watching every single video of Film Courage and Studio Binder 😄👍 Who needs film school 😉
After my experience in film school, I can definitely say that there is much that can be learned from those sources. However, there is one thing that film school can offer that is harder to find elsewhere: connections. You can have all the knowledge in the world regarding how to make a great movie, but you won't get very far by doing everything by yourself. In fact, that's why I went to film school. I needed to be in an environment where I could make movies with other people trying to do the same thing instead of pulling my siblings and cousins into something they didn't want to do and ultimately didn't end up actually doing. But yeah, once you find those people and gain a bit of experience in that environment, film school can quickly become irrelevant. 😄
@@judahdardenyoutube You noticed the winking smiley after my remark, right? It was basically a statement made just to compliment Film Courage. 😉 But nonetheless, I liked your reaction anyway, it's nice to hear about other peoples journey 👍
@@mr.b6789 Yeah, I noticed. I don't mean to come off as correcting, I just felt like sharing. Hope that didn't seem rude.
@@judahdardenyoutube I'm from the Netherlands, we're very direct in communication, so don't worry; you're weren't even close to being rude 👍😉
@@mr.b6789 lovely 👍
I’m not usually one to post critical comments here, but this was not a helpful or inspiring video, which is not the norm for Film Courage or Goldstein.
In this video the secret sauce for “How a beginning screenwriter with no connections breaks into the business” is to be a 1984 IT worker that happened to program Gary Goldstein’s (GG’s) computer for three weeks. He befriended GG, got GG to read several of their scripts, then got GG to forward their script to the inner circle. Easy as that.
Or GG’s story of just starting a “literary manager” business and hanging it all on finding soulful artists to sign as clients.
Title and video aren’t really telling the same story to me. The title should be worded more akin to the actual topic of “how one screenwriter launched a meaningful career by striking Gold(stein) with one lucky connection”
Sorry if this seems too critical but the title set me up for something that it didn’t deliver.
"meaningful" lol
Did you miss the part where he’d already written five features before all these random jobs he was taking turned into a connection where someone would read one of them? Also be sure to check out the part where the scripts all had a ton of potential, as well as the part where when asked to write another he jumped on it and delivered something spectacular. The real lesson is in amongst those parts of the story and they’re really worth learning about if you actually want to make it as a screenwriter
So make connections? What if you're not in Hollywood to do so?
Hollywood is not the only place where movies are made.
Look up working producers on IMDB and see if they have their email listed. Reach out after that, but make sure you have a hook to initiate a conversation (e.g. mention one of their movies you may have just watched or an interview that had somewhere), then a door may open. Not saying it's a magic formula, but It worked for me with different producers and casting directors. Keep pushing. Doors with open up, if you knock on enough of 'em.
@@brettprieto3636 How do you open an email like that? Like..very formal or?
Hey! Great question… honestly I think it’s a case by case deal; however, I’ll tell you my approach and you can come up with your own little ‘Jeet Kune Do’, if you will. .. I watched an interview with a producer. The interview was just before his premiere of his latest film He opened up about his past and his career in film. Real cool dude and is a straight shooter. I’m a fan of his past films, so naturally I watched his upcoming film. It was good, so I went, “hey, I’m gonna shoot this guy an e-mail. What’s the worst that can happen? No response? 🤷♂️” I kept the email short and concise. I addressed him has Mr… and thanked him for his films and for his boldness as a film maker. Alluded to his past films and let him know I appreciated his interview, as well as him sharing his past…. The email was short (less than a paragraph). Finished by saying “thank you and keep up the good work!” No joke I got a response about an hour later…he was excited to hear my response to his films, he thanked me for taking the time to watch his interview. From there he asked me: “tell me about yourself? What’s your story?” From there we have been corresponding. His assistant is reading my script (as I type). That’s totally legit, no making that up. In summation, just be you, be respectful and don’t sound desperate. Producers can smell it. Be concise, and let ‘em know the impact they’ve had on your journey. If they bite, feel it out from there and you can get on that “what’s up, dude?!” Level. Make sense? I hope that helped. Remember: you’re interesting, and there’s no one like you. You bring a different talent to the table that nobody else has… keep goin’! Don’t look back it’ll only slow ya down and down worry about tomorrow; it’ll only rob you of todays strength. God bless and go get ‘em🤙🏼
Wish my story ends up like this. Awesome 🤩
We hope so too!
WOW! Thanks for sharing.
Goes to show next great voice comes from computers to Pretty Woman👍
He really just casually dropped that Matt Reeves bomb there at the end 😂
What do you like about this story?
beyond connections connections connections
A great piece of the interview.
So the way you break in with no connections is get lucky enough to do IT work for a movie producer? Lol
Ikr
You have to be super lucky. Almost winning the lottery lucky
This video is motivational. Thanks. I trust there are more in future :)
And in the present - bit.ly/3kVkYjs
I'm very grateful to have found this channel. I take in every word. However, telling somebody who's probably your senior over and over again that their view is "fascinating" comes accross as patronising, even rude.
Lmao what
@@SirChesterBellington Fascinating
@@ik3871 Hey, I am an elderly man and I, therefore, find that word highly offensive
Huh? She listens to her guests. I believe she IS fascinated.
How A Beginning Screenwriter With No Connections Breaks Into The Business: You don't.
It is nepotism and connections. End of story.
It's like telling a peasant in the 12th century: How to become a nobleman without connections. You don't.
Can you see yourself having similar results?
Such a genius to create hits like Pizza Man and Chain Reaction lol.
Colorful?
Who is he talking about and which are those movies he wrote?
He’s talking about a first draft (called “Three Thousand”) that later became “Pretty Woman.” The screenwriter is J.F. Lawton (Jonathan Frederick Lawton).
@@thereseember2800yeah that original screenplay is nothing at all like what ended up being the movie they filmed. Julia Roberts talked about what she signed up for vs. what the studio forced them to make
The way he told the opening story was so freaking cringy with racist undertones. It is a prime example of everything that is wrong with America today. Smh
Is that what you took from it? How very bizarre. Maybe, just maybe you're the source of the cringe, and you carry that vibration around with you. Snap judgments about people can be quite tricky. And sometimes mistaken. I will leave it at that. I have heard this gentleman on this program before, and always found his observations to be on point and perceptive. Maybe you should listen to him speak on some other subjects, before you write him off. Or not. Why take my advice? I might also set off your cringe alarm, or be a casual racist. Oh well...
B.s ice cube &dj poo wrote Friday Hollywood rides off of box office draw.ibe written over 49 scripts a James bond a batman. I started in 1992 and turned in half to production companies to be rejected but found my scripts chopped up and used that way I can't claim elements any jerk can say.so with my own money I produce my own films.get a iphone and do them myself.available on TH-cam December 2022. 30yrs in the making
What did you say ??
@@MBACCOMEDY If you ever find out, please let me know...
Huge amount of luck plays into this, considering Disney was behind the ultimate outcome of this little "genius" project that some wonderkin created after being jilted ... please. Pretty Woman could have easily been script 8 on the pile of unreads.