It's really not. This is a terrible writer telling other writers they're bad because he's even worse than they are. Don't take any advice from Corey Mandell. It's not actually that he's bad at writing, it's that he doesn't care. And telling by one page if a writer is talented or not? I think that's just him admitting he doesn't actually care about anything except keeping up his own lame appearances. That's like saying "I'm a really good novel critic, I can tell if someone is bad at writing by their blurb" Fuck off
@@ccorsen6467 'Unimportantly depressing' sounds a lot more profound than 'unimportant.' What's 'importantly' depressing, then? I'm sure 'Notes From The Underground' by Fyodor Dostoyevsky comes to mind.
He actually said "The people who get it don't need to be taught anything... And the ones who don't get it, I can't teach them to get it" He does not sound like a good teacher at all
I think what he means is that the ones who don't understand the craft can't be taught. You need to have an open mind. Most of these writers think, they know the craft and are stubborn to learn new techniques. which makes them close themselves to the teacher. You can't be taught, if you aren't willing to learn.
Yeah, those are the words of someone who doesn't understand anything about what makes writing any good. If he understood what made good writing good he could actually explain something. Popping off the page? You might as well just say good writing is good and quit your job. But that's probably what you should expect from a guy with two writing credits to his name; one being a film you've never heard of, and the other being a famously bad adaptation of an L Ron Hubbard novel.
@@Nautilus1972 agreed. No one can teach you how to write. You have to do it, learn to get better at it, and see for yourself if your writing is any good by the feedback you get. Other than that, no teacher in the world can help you. His honesty is refreshing because he isn't here to sell us anything, but to give us quality input on what it means to be a good writer. You have it or you don't, and the fact is it takes years to find out.
Anyone who was in this guys earlier classes and were part of the “90 percent” should get a refund. Glad he changed his ways, but how many creatives went on to other fields because of people like ‘old’ him cherry picking who they thought truly had a voice? It’s fucked up to consider, and it’s even more ridiculous that they believe none of the other students wouldn’t have picked up on their attitude towards them. Creatives are generally self-loathing and don’t always tend to be the most confident. Sitting in a class like that watching two people be fawned over can’t possibly help them on their journey. College is such a scam nowadays -.-
But here's the thing -- You have stand offish elitist guys like that even among critics and gate-keepers in the industry you are getting into. The focus as a learner shouldn't be the classroom or your peers, or even your professors (who can and does have flaws and ideas that are old) -- the focus should be YOUR OWN CRAFT. I knew I was better than the grades they were giving me and that my intelligence wasn't determined by the numbers they posted. But I appreciated learning how to meet deadlines, and learned that about myself.
Just curious, do you still have the same opinion now as you did 4 years ago in regards to the comment above? I realize I am late to the party, but I am genuinely curious.
I'm in a constant fight with myself. All the time. I'm questioning my talent, my abilities, but i write. I don't want to give up. I was looking for screenwriting tips for television shows. I found this video, and thought : what if I'm a bad writer, and everything I've done is just.... most of them are meaningless and mediocre.... Don't have the IT-Factor....i was literally about to cry... Poor me... Then... I read your comment. You can't imagine what it means to me. So, first thank you for giving my faith and courage back. Second: thank you for making me laugh. Take care!!
In the graduating class of my masters program there were 80 of us. My professors all had a short list of those who they "knew" would go on to do great things. They were wrong on every count. It's arrogance to think you can pick winners and losers without actually giving people shots. This is why capitalism works so well. The proof is always in the pudding, not in the eye of a professor. Parenthetically, the top 3 achievers who were in my graduating class...everyone thought we were nothing's in school.
Capitalism works so well? Capitalism is not sustaiable. The unchecked exploytation of natural resources and cheap labor you see in the third world and elsewhere creates extreme wealth inequality and suffering. Capitalism only works well if you discount the consequences.
it's probably like draft picks in sports. A lot of players taken in the top 10 don't become stars while some late draft picks or even undrafted players do become stars.
This is a belief held by most creative teachers. I went to school for photography, and my profs told us the same; maybe two out of the 30 or so in our year would go on to have a successful career in photography. That was three years ago. I'm in contact with a lot of my peers through social media, and at least half of them pretty much never picked up a camera again after they graduated ... and half of what was left have already given up.
I decided to look this guy up on IMDB, and he only has two film credits to his name, scored (Battlefield Earth) 2.4 and (Love Kills) 5 out of ten stars.
I always remember about Abbie Lee from Dance Moms (yea lol), she was never a very good dancer, but she can make those poor girls get rich dancing. But yea, we shouldn't trust people with not many qualifications right away. I try to be aware if what the person is teaching me is relevant or not.
uknow who ok, i paused at min 5 and read the comments, then i just read yours and i said to myself "whatever, 4 minutes and i can criticize wether he rectifies or not" and he ends up saying he is a lousy teacher and that he changed his teaching approach and, surprise, he went from 1 good student to 7 good students... yea... either you have it or you dont... and he definetly does not have it... for teaching...
I looked up this guy and his most well known movie is this www.imdb.com/title/tt0185183/?ref_=nm_knf_t1 which is rated the 53rd worst movie ever made , those who can't do teach.
Only the 53rd worst movie? Wow. I thought for sure it would be in the top 3 worst movies of all time. In case you're interested in all the gory details here's an interview I did for KCRW: coreymandell.net/66/
You have to be extrovert. You have to have connections. You have to able not to write a brilliant story, but thousands of mediocre stories. You shouldn't be an artist. You should be a machine, who knows the systematic procedure of writing. That's it. Others are just lucky guys.
When you teach, you teach the whole class, not just the few who can understand something immediately. That is just so messed up to hear as a teacher. Students can sense it when you don’t take them serious. Anything is possible and as a teacher you have to believe your students are able to make it. They can surprise you! You get paid to teach, every student has the right to be taught in a way the teacher believes in them. No matter what they can or cannot do. If they can’t do something, that’s why they took your class! And you are the one to teach them. If you ever had a teacher like this (or even worse: a teacher who actually said you couldn’t make it): you can do anything you want! Never give up on your dreams because someone tried to stop you or put you down. Believe in yourself when no one else does! 👏🏼🙌🏼✨
Minka, I understand what he means...when I was in my early 20s I was studying art at my university and out of the 100 or so students I knew back then from 3 different classyears, eventually only about 7 or 8 of us ended up having a career that lasted a good amount of time. Looking back at it, sure the teachers treated everybody equally but many of them just weren't working hard enough, or were just looking for an "easy" way to get a diploma. and many of them just plain gave up.
He did say he would never tell a student they didn't have what it takes, because 'you never know', he then went on to give examples of those 6 out of 8 who did not have the popping off the page impact, but went on and got careers. He wasn't singling out those two students and ignoring the others. He taught them anyway, knowing it would be their call in the end. I do get what your saying, though, about teachers. I tried to take a beginning computer programming course in college and ended up dropping the class because the teacher catered to those who already had some background in that area. He never focused on teaching those of us just starting out the gate. But Corey, here, is not saying that he does that. He's saying this is the reality of teaching writing. Those who simply do not have it will " figure it out on their own." I'm just starting out as a script writer, working on TV Limited Series. I take this guy's words to heart, because I need to develop that compelling conflict area. I'm going to be one of those writers who will develop that growth mind set and skill set. I want to learn, and I know I've got potential. It's drive and desire to realize your weaknesses and strengthen them. I may not have those scenes that 'pop off the page', yet... but I'm going to get there. This actually helped me to focus on that particular weakness.
He said he already changed his approach and shows every single student a book that teaches them they are all capable of learning to develop skills similar to talent.
He reminds me of other professors in the arts at various universities. Voice professors aren't interested in teaching students how to sing. You're suppose to know how to sing at a very high level before you even get to university. All they're interested in is coaching young singers on things like diction and song interpretation...nothing about the HOW, the nuts and bolts structure of singing as it occurs in the physical body. As they say, those who can...do; those who can't...teach.
Quick reality check: you CANNOT do anything you want. "Anything is possible" - get out of here. You just sound like a commercial for NIke. What BS. I cannot be a heart surgeon, because I lack the necessary skills and I am not talking about not having received the training etc. - I am not the kind of person and I have my talents elsewhere but not in medicine, bottomline. Now of course teachers shouldn´t give preferential treatment or neglect less talented students, but do not fool yourself, quality comes first and if youre sub par, do not whine about it or blame the system or the heartless teacher, focus on something you have a natural inclination towards and put the time and work in. "someone tried to put you down" man that´s a victim mentality you are promoting there.
Guys, see the video until the end, Corey is pretty much saying that anyone can learn how to write in professional level, and that what makes so many people fail is not developing a growth mindset
Ironic how this guy started talking about growth mindsets and fixed mindsets when he thinks that 90% of his students will never be good at writing if they aren’t good at it right away.
i think some writers talk too much. you have to take with grain of salt all screenwriting video talks. if we heard everything of everyone as pure truth we got nowhere. do this guy even has great movies himself?
you completely misunderstood what he said. he said he initially thought you either have it or you don't but learned that some skills--like escalating conflict--can actually be learned through hours of practice. So he admits he had been wrong. He's making a point far too subtle and nuanced for a TH-cam comment section.
This guy is the epitome of: Those who can...do; those who can't...teach. Discouraging, confusing, and ruining hundreds of students before they even begin. Yikes.
It's so unfortunate for the 90% who will not get it. Kinda like going to the doctor and realizing you need a second, maybe third opinion. Don't give up on your dreams!
Don't listen to anything this man has to say. If you fail time after time after time again, and you want it bad enough you will get there. It takes relentless Passion, Patience and Perseverence.
Agreed he is supposed to teach people how to write , teach the techniques and show them a way to become better at it. He makes it sound like he is waiting for students that already know how to write which is ridiculous.
Very true. I think there is also too much emphasis in writing for an audience and writing professionally. You can write for yourself and still find joy if writing is what you like to do.
This interview just inspired me a compelling conflict: take money in return for empty promises VS. tell the truth and save people's time and money... BTW, give me a thumbs up if my post pops off this webpage!:D
Pop off the page? This guy teaches writing? Perhaps the 9 students suck because he's the teacher. And the one or two that are good didn't need to pay someone to say, "great job, it pops off the page" lol
Here's my opinion on Compelling Conflict, you may agree or disagree but this is what I believe. Compelling Conflict has three basic characteristics: DYNAMIC: Compelling Conflict is dynamic, which means that the inner and outer conflicts are shaping each other. A lot of writers believe that the inner conflict and outer conflict are separate things, the character's inner struggle is it's own thing and the character's outer struggle is it's own thing. That's the problem. That's fake conflict. Compelling Conflict makes the inner and outer conflicts shape each other. Something bad happens to the character (outer conflict) and that traumatizes them on the inside (inner conflict), now traumatized, the character makes a decision that they wouldn't normally make, which gets them in a worse situation (outer conflict) and so on and so forth. PERSONAL: The Conflict matters to the characters, it's not just scary or annoying or troubling to them, it's downright OFFENSIVE. It gets in their face, and, assuming you built enough empathy and sympathy for the character, it will feel like it's right in our face too. MOTIVATING: Compelling Conflict forces characters to take actions they wouldn't normally take, it's what makes ordinary characters take extraordinary actions. By "Action" I don't mean there needs to be gunfights and or explosions, although those are really fun to watch when in appropriate genres and situations, but rather I mean decisions. The characters make decisions to get out of the conflict that is in their face and altering their decisions, but the decisions just get them in deeper and deeper until the climax, where they solve everything with one or two climactic actions. Hope this helped :)
A teacher once said her goal was to write without adjectives. Every noun already has a double meaning, denotation and a connotation, definition and how you feel about it. Here "compelling conflict" has little to do with conflict. The goal of writing is to be COMPELLING. Once you have a command of semantics, you'll write better. What meaning of meaning do you mean? Most statements are circular, true in both direction, self-defining opinions. "This book is compelling. Example of compelling is this book." "She's a pretty girl. Girls who look like her are pretty." Other statements are directional, verifiable, equate 2 non-equal things... the conflict. One connotation for 2 different things. Or one thing with 2 meanings (connotation), ambivalence, ambiguity. For example X = Y means they have the same numeric value but X is not Y. You need a grain of sand, an untruth, a conflict, to make a pearl.
yeah he wrote battlefield earth for fucks sake atleast if they cant afford QT or coens they can alway go to simon pegg or wright like they are alway up for that
I love how out of all screenwriters you picked him lol Tarantino screenplays ate like a messy room. All over the place. He knows how to cast, shock and his dialogue is balsy bc it immitates a lot of what he watched all his life and especially while he worked at the video store
This was infuriating to listen to. As a child i was nurtured and then faced racial bias from teachers in my later years where there war occupied space in their teaching for their favorite students. By not "telling them" and letting them continue to work and learn under your name, you are the failure. YOU. instead of cultivating every flower, you are cherry picking. You are misleading your student pool for personal profit. Jesus this was astoundingly painful
He is saying everyone is capable of it, just that 10% of writers have it easy since they can naturally do things others have to develop through hard work.
I mean.... of course he became a better teacher after removing some bias in his teaching style. If you expect students to fail, there is no way that doesn't get conveyed subconsciously to them.
Watch the whole video. He explains that his "1 person is going to make it" mentality was wrong and when he shifted to a growth mindset, more of his students became successful. It just took him a while to explain it
Every story has a character who wants something. You must create a compelling story in which you make the reader care about the character and want he/she to succeed. Each and every scene should act as a stepping stone in telling the story, the scenes flowing at a steady pace, logically and naturally one after the other. From the point in which your character knows what their goal is they should encounter difficulties in obtaining it. The goal is singular but the problems they encounter along the way towards achieving it are multiple. The difficulties placed on the character build pressure and tension until the climax in which the character usually with a single action obtains their goal. Every scene that you write must consist of two things. It must be necessary in the telling of the story and it must provide the reader with some kind of emotional response.
I should clarify that most films have a singular goal for their character however there are films in which a character has more than one goal. A prime example of this is Rocky. Rockys main goal is to survive until the final bell against Apollo Creed however he also has a secondary goal which is to win the love of Adrian. The reason why this works for the story is that both goals are intertwined. Rocky needs the love of Adrian in order to help him in succeeding against Apollo. In short a character can have more than one goal but the goals must relate and intertwine with one another in the telling of the story.
Brief recap for anyone who doesn't want to watch the whole video: The best writers are the people who write the best stuff... Thank you, that was my problem. I was only writing good stuff, I never even thought of making it the best. Phenomenal.
I guess (like every field) there are those who come with more talent, which gives them a head start. As a teacher myself, I would say to any student trying to learn a skill that it is crucial to find out your strengths and weaknesses and spend far more time trying to develop what you are not good at. The role of the teacher is to show you what you are doing right and where you are going wrong. Most importantly, they need to show you how to improve on what you are bad at. This guy's approach to teaching was awful. He seems to think that his job was to create great writers, whereas it should have been to make the students in his class better at writing.
What the hell is this guy talking about? What teacher gives up on their students? He's being paid to bring out the best in them, not letting them find out later on that they can't do it.
I don't agree with Corey that certain things "can't" be learned. But what REALLY pisses me off is that he holds this belief that only 10% of writers will ever be good enough, but he'll STILL take your money and not say anything to you, while offering those two prize students his real attention. This is really unethical.
4:12 The way Corey Mandela sees his students disgusts me. He is not fit to be a teacher. What a hack. A teacher should see that there’s potential in every person and not talk like as if he’s pick his prize winning horses from the first page of read. I’m cringing from every time he snaps his fingers and says “pop off the page” in a pretentious way. I’d rather learn from teachers like Brandon Sanderson who doesn’t have this crap world view.
As a happy amateur writer, I often do read for reads with other amateurs. But I often find it hard because I can tell the majority of them aren't very good at writing. They have no goals or aim with their plot (if there is one at all), or no character development, or no likeable characters, white room syndrome, or they write in telling and passive voice 90% of the time. It makes me wonder, am I just too hard on other newbie writers and expects too much, or am I better than them and that's why I react to it so much? I like to think that my writing is pretty good. Not super great, I'm still a beginner, but still pretty good. People who read my stuff most often tell me it's good and engaging. Everyone tells me my action scenes are great. I like to think I'm well aware of my problems too. My first book is a little clunky in the beginning ( too many flashbacks, and it takes a little too long for the MC to become the driving force). But that's the main thing people complain about and that I feel myself isn't working 100%.
It’s funny how Neil Simon wasn’t writing compelling conflict and than became famous for writing great conflict. Stuff like the Odd Couple and the Sunshine Boys
He is saying other people CAN learn to be talented. Why is everyone so butthurt in the comments? It is 100% truth people have talent and ease for certain things. He is saying people should NOT have a fixed mindset and they SHOULD have a growth mindset. He makes all his students read a book that tells them they can develop talent through repetition of certain specific skill sets. People are so damn sensitive they just wanna be lied to and told everyone's special.
This guy has a VERY elitist attitude. You TEACH the students what they need, and how. You don't just say "I teach for the one or two". You can learn anything if you put your mind to it.
The astounding thing is NOT that he wrote the screenplay for Battlefield Earth. The astounding thing is that he had the discipline and the fortitude to read the novel first.
Who cares if you don't make it. It's not about 'making it'. It's about doing something you love and getting better at it every day. If you're one of the 90% in his class who don't make it, it doesn't mean you're a bad writer, it means you don't get consistently paid to write. Which puts you in the same category as Ibsen, Chekhov, Geothe, TS Eliot, Wallace Stevens, list goes on.
Yeah, while the subject is screenwriting, whenever you hear bullshit like this, always remember that Snookie wrote a financially successful book and JK Rolling is still a thing. That one fucktard doesn't "get" your work doesn't mean they represent the majority. Just also don't forget that success in sales doesn't mean success in art.
80% of those who comment here will fail. majority taking failure & frustration out on him. youre bitter, confused & deaf. 10% will listen, apply the formula & make a living. 10% will 'pop off the page', cut through the competition, & ball. Pareto Principal
Yes. Lots of venom out there. I suspect that he takes way too much responsibility for the apparent “failure” of the 95% when they don’t become employable in the rough and tumble world of reality.
Agree. 80% of commenters here are mad that he didn't give them the secret key to selling or writing their screenplay. The secret key is to keep working and bettering your craft. Self-motivation.
Ha! He doesn't seem to have an extensive vocabulary either when he can only describe a certain way of writing as "pop" and finger-snapping. Arrogant, redundant and reductive.
When I came out of undergrad in '92, I was one of ten graduates nationwide for a screenwriting fellowship. One year in L.A., room and board and $35K stipend, to learn and to write scripts. I turned it down; I had ZERO interest in Hollywood or the business. I stuck with non-fiction--a newspaper column, articles, etc., and some short stories and a handful of novels. About a year and a half ago, one of my short stories caught the attention of a screenwriter, who tried to convince me that it was a movie. I balked, same reasons as 25 years ago. He called, we talked for two hours until he would not take no for an answer. I read forty or fifty screenplays, then took a stab at the adaptation, and, after 23 re-writes, I've got something that I'm quite proud of. The kicker is this, and it's not easy to admit: This is my favorite kind of writing, ever. I absolutely love it, and already did a draft of an adaptation of one of my novels and another short story. I'm like, Crap, I had no idea. I don't know if I'll "make it," in the business sense, but I already feel very successful--and exceedingly happy. Writing screenplays is, and I know this is cliche, what I was born to do.
Way to go!! My story is similar. I balked at script writing because it was so 'limiting' so never bothered to pursue it. About 25 years later I got this incredible revelation that my novellas would 'look better on screen.' I had, not 8 months before that, met a lady at Jiffy Lube who is a script reviewer and writer and has been in the business for over 30 years. On the morning of that revelation I found her business card in less than 10 minutes. We began conversing. I began learning how to write TV scripts that very day and, like you... I'M LOVING IT! Plus... it's actually helping me edit the novels. I'm nowhere NEAR ready to submit anything as yet, but I'm learning and growing and desirous to learn MORE! From Spec to Shooting format, how it all works to sell and then how it works after the sale. If writing screenplays are what you are 'born to do', then believe me... with that kind of drive behind you, you'll get there! Cheering you on!!! :D
For a demonstration of who and what he’s referring to in this video, read this comment section. Elvis said that truth is like the sun, you can shut it out for a time but it ain’t going away.
There are so many people who can tell a writer what to do but very few who can explain how to do it. How about compelling and escalating conflict with breathers for the viewer to recover?
This guy wrote Battlefield Earth. Roger Ebert gave it 0.5/4 stars Rotten Tomatoes - 3% IMDb - 2.5/10 Budget - 73 million Box Office - 29.7 million This guy is a con man. Weaseled his way into the big screen with tricks and got exposed LMAO
He didn't bring his point across very well, this is reflected in the comments. His actual point, as far as I understood it, is actually quite good, but he somehow managed to make people think he was saying the complete opposite.
Hey, Oh!sama, at about the 9 minute mark he explains that in a more recent class, he had six out of eight students go on to develop successful careers when only one of them had the "pop-off-the-page" level talent at the start. This was after he read "Mindset" by Carol Dweck, PhD, and realized that he needed to change his approach to teaching, especially his academic assumption that talent cannot be taught. (Read "The Talent Code" by Coyle.) Six out of eight is evidence of an outstanding teacher, especially in view of his honesty about his past shortcomings as a teacher and as a scriptwriter on another video. Here's a quote from his website: "In the past three years, 98 of my students have sold spec scripts, with dozens more getting staffed on such shows as Community, The Fosters, Bones, Justified, Mozart in the Jungle, Rosewood, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Treme, Jane the Virgin, Playing House, Chicago Fire, The Mentalist, The Blacklist, BoJack Horseman, Pretty Little Liars and The Leftovers."
Talent is not something you can teach. You can refine someone's talent but either someone has it or not. The movie industry is looking for the best unless you have money to fund your own film. For me I enjoy the writing process and I have some stories I want to tell. Once I'm finished I will try to get an agent. If that doesn't work out then I'll know that at least I tried and I can walk away knowing that I completed something that I set out to do. Screenwriting for me is not about making money or even seeing it on the big screen. It's about telling a story from beginning to end. Developing characters and having a compelling message. Something my writing partner would tell me is to write your own story. In a way it's therapeutic.
How dare you? So is the bar for success likening the writer to Hemingway, Faulkner, etc? Can one not be a successful 'writer' in innumerable other ways? According to Mr. Mandell's standard there must be very very few writers out there. What a narrow, constrained, insulting view.
@@JN-ox2yd That's true, but that 'popping off the page' mantra with zero definition of how he determines that might have repelled her and pissed her off.
I think I’m “one of those two people”, but I have no one to critique my work, and can’t afford to pay a professional service $400 for every damn script analysis. I just finished a screenplay and won’t have a spare $400 till February.
Hmmmm…. I get the feeling that successful writers may begin their writing by using a completed Story Outline. Read or listen to the Audible version of The Foolproof Outline by Christohper Downing. It's the best outline method I've come across.
I had two physics teachers in college, one who kept telling me, when I would ask him to explain things I was curious about, "this math is above your head, you're not ready for this yet" and wouldn't engage me, challenge me, or do much more than regurgitate a textbook. The other would answer me to the best of his ability, even if it blew me away, and would demonstrate how it all worked in reality if he could; I learned a lot from him, and carry forward the attitude of genuinely wanting to invest in people and believing they're capable of more than where they are at in the present time, even if they're not "ready" for it then, they might be later -- water the seeds so they grow! I'm not a physicist, as I want to tell stories that have an impact on people, but what that professor taught me applies to life as a whole and not just one subject. I suppose it's easy enough to tell which kind of teach is on display in the video...
"there's that something that just *snips* pops off the page... I can't tell you what it is exactly blablabla..." maybe he's just not good enough with words to specify what IT is?! *snippydysnip* And what hypocrite takes good money from people in his writing class, whom he obviously can't help?! And what selfish bastard gives a writing class anyway, who believes you just have to have *snip* IT?! If you teach writing you should be convinced that it's something that can be learned.
I think of all the great filmmakers I admire who write their own stuff , like Michael Haneke, Werner Herzog , etc... then I think of this little man and his UCLA job and say to myself, “ Art dies in academia”.
@@pawsitivenooz The book was a Scientology book brought to him by John Travolta ( who is Scientologist) and he had to make a story out of it. Lol. I feel bad for him.
Am I wrong or is this like saying you teach physics at MIT and Einstein is in your class but everyone else is useless. I mean what is the point of having a teacher? I get some people are naturals, but compelling conflict is a very teachable element to scriptwriting. Then again this dude wrote Battlefield Earth which has a 3% on RT... sorry @filmcourage why did you put this guy on tape? I've done more then this guy and don't look like I'm continually trying to keep my lunch down when being interviewed. Just saying.
The takeaway from this video was the book he recommended. He does make a good point about the mindset of the student/writer. Would have been better if he had more specific advice, rather than talk about how he became a better teacher.
TL;DR: They can't teach you anything that your didn't already know. So it's useless waste of money for people who want to learn and for people who already know. Also, just because you have good skill in something does not mean you can teach that skill to others.
I liked his video explaining what went wrong with Battlefield Earth, and nearly everyone agrees that conflict is a necessity. But "pops off the page" is such a nothing series of buzzwords, and he uses it as an entire crux of his argument. It tells you literally nothing about what's going right or wrong about the conflict, just the vaugest possible "vibes". I find his notion that you can magically tell that 90% of writers won't make it based on their early work to be bull shit Rebbeca Sugar, the creator of Steven Universes' first narrative work, was bad invader zim fanfiction (and Ratatouille porn). Toby Fox, the creator of Undertale, first wrote Meglovania, one of the most beloved songs of 2010s video games, as a song in an earthbound hack game. Gee, it's almost like creatives improve drastically from what they make when they first start out. Most writers are bad in the beginning.
I have a friend who went to USC film school - and his professors gave him straight As and his work "popped off the page" HIs classmate was Shonda Rimes - who didn't get very good grades. My friend has never done anything. He works in aerospace.
take a drink every time he says "Pop off the page". You'll be wasted in minutes.
I swear i was coming to make this joke.
Do it with water and you’ll be well hydrated.
Lol
man, he's a shitty writer if that's the only way he knows how to describe a good story.
lmbao
Even professional athletes have said that talent only gets you so far it's the work you put in that gets you there
"compelling conflict" lol that's my problem right there! See I've been aiming for uncompelling conflict this whole time! Now I feel foolish.
I love your comment. :D
HAAAAA
HA HA HA
Useful tip. Always look up the writer's filmography and credits before investing your time on these interviews.
Vague and uninformative.
and unimportantly depressing
You’re joking, this is one of the most valuable lessons I’ve heard on this channel. I don’t think you were listening properly...
It's really not. This is a terrible writer telling other writers they're bad because he's even worse than they are. Don't take any advice from Corey Mandell. It's not actually that he's bad at writing, it's that he doesn't care. And telling by one page if a writer is talented or not? I think that's just him admitting he doesn't actually care about anything except keeping up his own lame appearances. That's like saying "I'm a really good novel critic, I can tell if someone is bad at writing by their blurb"
Fuck off
@@ccorsen6467
'Unimportantly depressing' sounds a lot more profound than 'unimportant.' What's 'importantly' depressing, then? I'm sure 'Notes From The Underground' by Fyodor Dostoyevsky comes to mind.
@Joe Moore: it is depressing, though. This is a teacher who fully admitted he wrote off over 90 percent of his class for years. That’s fucked up.
He actually said "The people who get it don't need to be taught anything... And the ones who don't get it, I can't teach them to get it"
He does not sound like a good teacher at all
I think what he means is that the ones who don't understand the craft can't be taught. You need to have an open mind. Most of these writers think, they know the craft and are stubborn to learn new techniques. which makes them close themselves to the teacher. You can't be taught, if you aren't willing to learn.
Yeah, those are the words of someone who doesn't understand anything about what makes writing any good. If he understood what made good writing good he could actually explain something. Popping off the page? You might as well just say good writing is good and quit your job.
But that's probably what you should expect from a guy with two writing credits to his name; one being a film you've never heard of, and the other being a famously bad adaptation of an L Ron Hubbard novel.
At the very least, he just admitted his job is bullshit.
You can't teach someone to be a writer. FFS - why can't people understand this? Could you teach someone to be Picasso?
@@Nautilus1972 agreed. No one can teach you how to write. You have to do it, learn to get better at it, and see for yourself if your writing is any good by the feedback you get. Other than that, no teacher in the world can help you. His honesty is refreshing because he isn't here to sell us anything, but to give us quality input on what it means to be a good writer. You have it or you don't, and the fact is it takes years to find out.
At the end of the day, all you gotta do is *(*snap*) "pop off the page"*
Ctfu 😂😂😂
Anyone who was in this guys earlier classes and were part of the “90 percent” should get a refund. Glad he changed his ways, but how many creatives went on to other fields because of people like ‘old’ him cherry picking who they thought truly had a voice? It’s fucked up to consider, and it’s even more ridiculous that they believe none of the other students wouldn’t have picked up on their attitude towards them.
Creatives are generally self-loathing and don’t always tend to be the most confident. Sitting in a class like that watching two people be fawned over can’t possibly help them on their journey. College is such a scam nowadays -.-
But here's the thing -- You have stand offish elitist guys like that even among critics and gate-keepers in the industry you are getting into. The focus as a learner shouldn't be the classroom or your peers, or even your professors (who can and does have flaws and ideas that are old) -- the focus should be YOUR OWN CRAFT.
I knew I was better than the grades they were giving me and that my intelligence wasn't determined by the numbers they posted.
But I appreciated learning how to meet deadlines, and learned that about myself.
Just curious, do you still have the same opinion now as you did 4 years ago in regards to the comment above? I realize I am late to the party, but I am genuinely curious.
Sound advice, from the brilliant mind that brought us 'Battlefield Earth'.
I wish I could favorite a comment.
LOL
I'm in a constant fight with myself. All the time. I'm questioning my talent, my abilities, but i write. I don't want to give up.
I was looking for screenwriting tips for television shows. I found this video, and thought : what if I'm a bad writer, and everything I've done is just.... most of them are meaningless and mediocre.... Don't have the IT-Factor....i was literally about to cry... Poor me... Then... I read your comment.
You can't imagine what it means to me. So, first thank you for giving my faith and courage back. Second: thank you for making me laugh. Take care!!
@@Norciusz Please keep writing, no matter what.
@@SnoopDogg6110 thank you, thank you, thank you 🙏🙏 your words are so kind!!! Have a wonderful day my friend.
In the graduating class of my masters program there were 80 of us. My professors all had a short list of those who they "knew" would go on to do great things. They were wrong on every count. It's arrogance to think you can pick winners and losers without actually giving people shots. This is why capitalism works so well. The proof is always in the pudding, not in the eye of a professor.
Parenthetically, the top 3 achievers who were in my graduating class...everyone thought we were nothing's in school.
Professors don't know Jack.
@@LouStoriale And you do?
Capitalism works so well? Capitalism is not sustaiable. The unchecked exploytation of natural resources and cheap labor you see in the third world and elsewhere creates extreme wealth inequality and suffering. Capitalism only works well if you discount the consequences.
"This is why Capitalism works so well" 💀☠
it's probably like draft picks in sports. A lot of players taken in the top 10 don't become stars while some late draft picks or even undrafted players do become stars.
What a great way to admit that you can't actually teach people how to be good writers and just waste their time and money.
This is a belief held by most creative teachers.
I went to school for photography, and my profs told us the same; maybe two out of the 30 or so in our year would go on to have a successful career in photography. That was three years ago. I'm in contact with a lot of my peers through social media, and at least half of them pretty much never picked up a camera again after they graduated ... and half of what was left have already given up.
it's like that syd field clown, took a fortune from hack writers and never wrote a damn quality thing himself.
@@_lithp
So he was right lol
Don't go to UCLA kiddos!
This guys needs to stop clicking his fingers and saying Pop off the page......
I decided to look this guy up on IMDB, and he only has two film credits to his name, scored (Battlefield Earth) 2.4 and (Love Kills) 5 out of ten stars.
He knows what not having it is
Prime example of "those who can't, teach".
Coaches don't play? Idk just needed something clever to say
Doesn't make what he says any less relevant.
I always remember about Abbie Lee from Dance Moms (yea lol), she was never a very good dancer, but she can make those poor girls get rich dancing. But yea, we shouldn't trust people with not many qualifications right away. I try to be aware if what the person is teaching me is relevant or not.
so basically if you're not amazing at first, you'll never make it?
uknow who ok, i paused at min 5 and read the comments, then i just read yours and i said to myself "whatever, 4 minutes and i can criticize wether he rectifies or not" and he ends up saying he is a lousy teacher and that he changed his teaching approach and, surprise, he went from 1 good student to 7 good students... yea... either you have it or you dont... and he definetly does not have it... for teaching...
watch the full video please before commenting
This guy is infuriating. He shouldn't be teaching anybody.
This is the guy that wrote Battlefield Earth, yeah?
I looked up this guy and his most well known movie is this www.imdb.com/title/tt0185183/?ref_=nm_knf_t1 which is rated the 53rd worst movie ever made , those who can't do teach.
Only the 53rd worst movie? Wow. I thought for sure it would be in the top 3 worst movies of all time. In case you're interested in all the gory details here's an interview I did for KCRW: coreymandell.net/66/
I am curious maybe I' don't know everything but the audio isn't playing,
no audio. Battlefield Earth is easily one of the top 10 worst movies ever.
Thanks for letting me know, Thomas. The audio is now fixed. coreymandell.net/66/
"I didn't think about quitting because I'm not that smart." Very interesting interview, worth the listen. Thanks
You have to be extrovert.
You have to have connections.
You have to able not to write a brilliant story, but thousands of mediocre stories.
You shouldn't be an artist. You should be a machine, who knows the systematic procedure of writing.
That's it.
Others are just lucky guys.
When you teach, you teach the whole class, not just the few who can understand something immediately. That is just so messed up to hear as a teacher. Students can sense it when you don’t take them serious. Anything is possible and as a teacher you have to believe your students are able to make it. They can surprise you! You get paid to teach, every student has the right to be taught in a way the teacher believes in them. No matter what they can or cannot do. If they can’t do something, that’s why they took your class! And you are the one to teach them.
If you ever had a teacher like this (or even worse: a teacher who actually said you couldn’t make it): you can do anything you want! Never give up on your dreams because someone tried to stop you or put you down. Believe in yourself when no one else does! 👏🏼🙌🏼✨
Minka, I understand what he means...when I was in my early 20s I was studying art at my university and out of the 100 or so students I knew back then from 3 different classyears, eventually only about 7 or 8 of us ended up having a career that lasted a good amount of time. Looking back at it, sure the teachers treated everybody equally but many of them just weren't working hard enough, or were just looking for an "easy" way to get a diploma. and many of them just plain gave up.
He did say he would never tell a student they didn't have what it takes, because 'you never know', he then went on to give examples of those 6 out of 8 who did not have the popping off the page impact, but went on and got careers. He wasn't singling out those two students and ignoring the others. He taught them anyway, knowing it would be their call in the end. I do get what your saying, though, about teachers. I tried to take a beginning computer programming course in college and ended up dropping the class because the teacher catered to those who already had some background in that area. He never focused on teaching those of us just starting out the gate. But Corey, here, is not saying that he does that. He's saying this is the reality of teaching writing. Those who simply do not have it will " figure it out on their own." I'm just starting out as a script writer, working on TV Limited Series. I take this guy's words to heart, because I need to develop that compelling conflict area. I'm going to be one of those writers who will develop that growth mind set and skill set. I want to learn, and I know I've got potential. It's drive and desire to realize your weaknesses and strengthen them. I may not have those scenes that 'pop off the page', yet... but I'm going to get there. This actually helped me to focus on that particular weakness.
He said he already changed his approach and shows every single student a book that teaches them they are all capable of learning to develop skills similar to talent.
He reminds me of other professors in the arts at various universities. Voice professors aren't interested in teaching students how to sing. You're suppose to know how to sing at a very high level before you even get to university. All they're interested in is coaching young singers on things like diction and song interpretation...nothing about the HOW, the nuts and bolts structure of singing as it occurs in the physical body. As they say, those who can...do; those who can't...teach.
Quick reality check: you CANNOT do anything you want. "Anything is possible" - get out of here. You just sound like a commercial for NIke. What BS.
I cannot be a heart surgeon, because I lack the necessary skills and I am not talking about not having received the training etc. - I am not the kind of person and I have my talents elsewhere but not in medicine, bottomline. Now of course teachers shouldn´t give preferential treatment or neglect less talented students, but do not fool yourself, quality comes first and if youre sub par, do not whine about it or blame the system or the heartless teacher, focus on something you have a natural inclination towards and put the time and work in. "someone tried to put you down" man that´s a victim mentality you are promoting there.
FYI: For those of you new to this video. This guy wrote Battlefield Earth!!!!!!!!!!! RUN AWAY!
Thank god im watching this video for free. I’d never take his class.
Guys, see the video until the end, Corey is pretty much saying that anyone can learn how to write in professional level, and that what makes so many people fail is not developing a growth mindset
this guy wrote battlefield earth..............
OMG!!!
😂😱no way!
Andre Meerse Oh my god! Him and his Man Animals!
best comment
Yep, and that's about it.
please say 'pop off the page' one more time...
So you're saying write with 3D ink? How else can I -SNAP- pop off the page?
Ironic how this guy started talking about growth mindsets and fixed mindsets when he thinks that 90% of his students will never be good at writing if they aren’t good at it right away.
i think some writers talk too much. you have to take with grain of salt all screenwriting video talks. if we heard everything of everyone as pure truth we got nowhere. do this guy even has great movies himself?
you completely misunderstood what he said. he said he initially thought you either have it or you don't but learned that some skills--like escalating conflict--can actually be learned through hours of practice. So he admits he had been wrong. He's making a point far too subtle and nuanced for a TH-cam comment section.
This guy is the epitome of: Those who can...do; those who can't...teach. Discouraging, confusing, and ruining hundreds of students before they even begin. Yikes.
Thank GOD I didn’t learn screenwriting from this guy. Sounds like a really awful teacher.
It's so unfortunate for the 90% who will not get it. Kinda like going to the doctor and realizing you need a second, maybe third opinion. Don't give up on your dreams!
That 90% need to give up ....
I'd like this guy to "pop off the page"
*snap*
bt10ant+ He's too lazy to find another way of describing clear , well edited writing- he's fallen in love with "popping".
Don't listen to anything this man has to say. If you fail time after time after time again, and you want it bad enough you will get there. It takes relentless Passion, Patience and Perseverence.
That, and a good approach.
God bless you !
Agreed he is supposed to teach people how to write , teach the techniques and show them a way to become better at it. He makes it sound like he is waiting for students that already know how to write which is ridiculous.
which he says at the end.....please watch full videos before commenting on them
5 yrs later and you never got around to the end of the video, huh?
Just keep writing if that's what your heart desires 💓💓💓
Very true. I think there is also too much emphasis in writing for an audience and writing professionally. You can write for yourself and still find joy if writing is what you like to do.
This interview just inspired me a compelling conflict: take money in return for empty promises VS. tell the truth and save people's time and money...
BTW, give me a thumbs up if my post pops off this webpage!:D
Compelling conflict? I'd like to see you do a video on that topic - spell it out for us.
Pop off the page? This guy teaches writing? Perhaps the 9 students suck because he's the teacher. And the one or two that are good didn't need to pay someone to say, "great job, it pops off the page" lol
Here's my opinion on Compelling Conflict, you may agree or disagree but this is what I believe.
Compelling Conflict has three basic characteristics:
DYNAMIC: Compelling Conflict is dynamic, which means that the inner and outer conflicts are shaping each other. A lot of writers believe that the inner conflict and outer conflict are separate things, the character's inner struggle is it's own thing and the character's outer struggle is it's own thing. That's the problem. That's fake conflict. Compelling Conflict makes the inner and outer conflicts shape each other. Something bad happens to the character (outer conflict) and that traumatizes them on the inside (inner conflict), now traumatized, the character makes a decision that they wouldn't normally make, which gets them in a worse situation (outer conflict) and so on and so forth.
PERSONAL: The Conflict matters to the characters, it's not just scary or annoying or troubling to them, it's downright OFFENSIVE. It gets in their face, and, assuming you built enough empathy and sympathy for the character, it will feel like it's right in our face too.
MOTIVATING: Compelling Conflict forces characters to take actions they wouldn't normally take, it's what makes ordinary characters take extraordinary actions. By "Action" I don't mean there needs to be gunfights and or explosions, although those are really fun to watch when in appropriate genres and situations, but rather I mean decisions. The characters make decisions to get out of the conflict that is in their face and altering their decisions, but the decisions just get them in deeper and deeper until the climax, where they solve everything with one or two climactic actions.
Hope this helped :)
A teacher once said her goal was to write without adjectives. Every noun already has a double meaning, denotation and a connotation, definition and how you feel about it. Here "compelling conflict" has little to do with conflict. The goal of writing is to be COMPELLING. Once you have a command of semantics, you'll write better. What meaning of meaning do you mean? Most statements are circular, true in both direction, self-defining opinions. "This book is compelling. Example of compelling is this book." "She's a pretty girl. Girls who look like her are pretty." Other statements are directional, verifiable, equate 2 non-equal things... the conflict. One connotation for 2 different things. Or one thing with 2 meanings (connotation), ambivalence, ambiguity. For example X = Y means they have the same numeric value but X is not Y. You need a grain of sand, an untruth, a conflict, to make a pearl.
I think Michael Hauge might disagree. There are a lot of fun, successful movies out there without that internal conflict. Then again, idk.
What does that mean? Tried to translate it to Swedish but it did not make things clearer
Please interview Tarantino, or somebody that actually knows what he's talking about, he is just interested in money and that's it
preach
yeah he wrote battlefield earth for fucks sake atleast if they cant afford QT or coens they can alway go to simon pegg or wright like they are alway up for that
I've noticed that ppl who have the most talent give the worst advice when it comes to doing what they do.
I love how out of all screenwriters you picked him lol Tarantino screenplays ate like a messy room. All over the place. He knows how to cast, shock and his dialogue is balsy bc it immitates a lot of what he watched all his life and especially while he worked at the video store
@@novelenterprise word!
SO basically this guy helps people that don't really need his help or need much help....,
and he wrote one of the worst films out there
You can teach what Hollywood expects so you can earn a living. Plumbing can be taught.
This was infuriating to listen to.
As a child i was nurtured and then faced racial bias from teachers in my later years where there war occupied space in their teaching for their favorite students. By not "telling them" and letting them continue to work and learn under your name, you are the failure. YOU. instead of cultivating every flower, you are cherry picking. You are misleading your student pool for personal profit. Jesus this was astoundingly painful
FFS just tell me if I don't have what it takes! Sugar coating and hand holding is for rich people with time to kill.
Exactly, someone could've dropped the class before they take all that student's money.
He is saying everyone is capable of it, just that 10% of writers have it easy since they can naturally do things others have to develop through hard work.
The
The
9
I mean.... of course he became a better teacher after removing some bias in his teaching style. If you expect students to fail, there is no way that doesn't get conveyed subconsciously to them.
COREY MANDELL WROTE BATTLEFIELD EARTH (2000).....let that sink in
Watch the whole video. He explains that his "1 person is going to make it" mentality was wrong and when he shifted to a growth mindset, more of his students became successful. It just took him a while to explain it
Every story has a character who wants something. You must create a compelling story in which you make the reader care about the character and want he/she to succeed. Each and every scene should act as a stepping stone in telling the story, the scenes flowing at a steady pace, logically and naturally one after the other. From the point in which your character knows what their goal is they should encounter difficulties in obtaining it. The goal is singular but the problems they encounter along the way towards achieving it are multiple. The difficulties placed on the character build pressure and tension until the climax in which the character usually with a single action obtains their goal. Every scene that you write must consist of two things. It must be necessary in the telling of the story and it must provide the reader with some kind of emotional response.
I should clarify that most films have a singular goal for their character however there are films in which a character has more than one goal. A prime example of this is Rocky. Rockys main goal is to survive until the final bell against Apollo Creed however he also has a secondary goal which is to win the love of Adrian. The reason why this works for the story is that both goals are intertwined. Rocky needs the love of Adrian in order to help him in succeeding against Apollo. In short a character can have more than one goal but the goals must relate and intertwine with one another in the telling of the story.
in comedies characters have more than one goal
StoryIsEverything *** Every character in a story should want something.
Not necessarily.
Basically Sneaky Pete, Breaking Bad and Banshee.
seems like the guys that always carry on about learning skill sets are the ones that charge people money to take classes
Hahahaha true
Do a shot every time he says "POP OFF THE PAGE!" and see how freely the ideas flow 🙂
COREY
(clicks fingers)
'it just pops off the page'
(looks up and to the right, waves hands around emphatically)
Brief recap for anyone who doesn't want to watch the whole video:
The best writers are the people who write the best stuff...
Thank you, that was my problem. I was only writing good stuff, I never even thought of making it the best. Phenomenal.
"We don't tell them" Yeah sure, let them spend the money for nothing.
@Vladimir Peter "Your tearing me apart lisaaaaa"
I guess (like every field) there are those who come with more talent, which gives them a head start. As a teacher myself, I would say to any student trying to learn a skill that it is crucial to find out your strengths and weaknesses and spend far more time trying to develop what you are not good at. The role of the teacher is to show you what you are doing right and where you are going wrong. Most importantly, they need to show you how to improve on what you are bad at.
This guy's approach to teaching was awful. He seems to think that his job was to create great writers, whereas it should have been to make the students in his class better at writing.
What on earth is he blathering about?
More like what on Battlefield Earth is he blathering about 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂👌🏿👌🏽👌🏿👌🏽👌🏿👌🏽👌🏼👌🏽👌🏿👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽👌🏿👌🏽🎅🏿don't @ me
Work on your weaknesses, talent can be nurtured and manufactured ... it’s not just innate
He helped write the screenplay for Battlefield earth ...
I don't think he snapped his fingers enough
So he was a bad teacher for a long time. That’s what he’s trying to say.
Those who teach...
At least he's honest that he's a bad teacher.
What the hell is this guy talking about? What teacher gives up on their students? He's being paid to bring out the best in them, not letting them find out later on that they can't do it.
I don't agree with Corey that certain things "can't" be learned. But what REALLY pisses me off is that he holds this belief that only 10% of writers will ever be good enough, but he'll STILL take your money and not say anything to you, while offering those two prize students his real attention. This is really unethical.
4:12 The way Corey Mandela sees his students disgusts me. He is not fit to be a teacher. What a hack. A teacher should see that there’s potential in every person and not talk like as if he’s pick his prize winning horses from the first page of read. I’m cringing from every time he snaps his fingers and says “pop off the page” in a pretentious way. I’d rather learn from teachers like Brandon Sanderson who doesn’t have this crap world view.
I love Brandon. He's so down to earth and humble about his craft, and you learn a lot watching his lectures.
Watch at 0.5 speed
I had to watch at 1.5
He’s high
Interesting, at the very end of the interview: 'after years my approach changed and I became a better teacher'. He seems honest to me.
Did he refund the students who never followed their dreams and went on to careers they hated because he sucked at teaching them?
As a happy amateur writer, I often do read for reads with other amateurs. But I often find it hard because I can tell the majority of them aren't very good at writing. They have no goals or aim with their plot (if there is one at all), or no character development, or no likeable characters, white room syndrome, or they write in telling and passive voice 90% of the time. It makes me wonder, am I just too hard on other newbie writers and expects too much, or am I better than them and that's why I react to it so much? I like to think that my writing is pretty good. Not super great, I'm still a beginner, but still pretty good. People who read my stuff most often tell me it's good and engaging. Everyone tells me my action scenes are great. I like to think I'm well aware of my problems too. My first book is a little clunky in the beginning ( too many flashbacks, and it takes a little too long for the MC to become the driving force). But that's the main thing people complain about and that I feel myself isn't working 100%.
It’s funny how Neil Simon wasn’t writing compelling conflict and than became famous for writing great conflict. Stuff like the Odd Couple and the Sunshine Boys
He is saying other people CAN learn to be talented. Why is everyone so butthurt in the comments? It is 100% truth people have talent and ease for certain things. He is saying people should NOT have a fixed mindset and they SHOULD have a growth mindset. He makes all his students read a book that tells them they can develop talent through repetition of certain specific skill sets. People are so damn sensitive they just wanna be lied to and told everyone's special.
Finally...someone who watched the entire video.
This guy has a VERY elitist attitude. You TEACH the students what they need, and how. You don't just say "I teach for the one or two". You can learn anything if you put your mind to it.
The astounding thing is NOT that he wrote the screenplay for Battlefield Earth. The astounding thing is that he had the discipline and the fortitude to read the novel first.
A writer who can't articulate what actually makes a good writer. He Spent the entire video speaking in vague terms and cliches.
Who cares if you don't make it. It's not about 'making it'. It's about doing something you love and getting better at it every day. If you're one of the 90% in his class who don't make it, it doesn't mean you're a bad writer, it means you don't get consistently paid to write. Which puts you in the same category as Ibsen, Chekhov, Geothe, TS Eliot, Wallace Stevens, list goes on.
Yeah, while the subject is screenwriting, whenever you hear bullshit like this, always remember that Snookie wrote a financially successful book and JK Rolling is still a thing. That one fucktard doesn't "get" your work doesn't mean they represent the majority. Just also don't forget that success in sales doesn't mean success in art.
You guys gotta chill on the ads. 4 in 10 minutes is too much. You know this. Do better
80% of those who comment here will fail. majority taking failure & frustration out on him. youre bitter, confused & deaf.
10% will listen, apply the formula & make a living.
10% will 'pop off the page', cut through the competition, & ball.
Pareto Principal
Yes. Lots of venom out there. I suspect that he takes way too much responsibility for the apparent “failure” of the 95% when they don’t become employable in the rough and tumble world of reality.
Agree. 80% of commenters here are mad that he didn't give them the secret key to selling or writing their screenplay.
The secret key is to keep working and bettering your craft. Self-motivation.
Welcome to the 80% percent !
Ha! He doesn't seem to have an extensive vocabulary either when he can only describe a certain way of writing as "pop" and finger-snapping. Arrogant, redundant and reductive.
When I came out of undergrad in '92, I was one of ten graduates nationwide for a screenwriting fellowship. One year in L.A., room and board and $35K stipend, to learn and to write scripts. I turned it down; I had ZERO interest in Hollywood or the business. I stuck with non-fiction--a newspaper column, articles, etc., and some short stories and a handful of novels. About a year and a half ago, one of my short stories caught the attention of a screenwriter, who tried to convince me that it was a movie. I balked, same reasons as 25 years ago. He called, we talked for two hours until he would not take no for an answer. I read forty or fifty screenplays, then took a stab at the adaptation, and, after 23 re-writes, I've got something that I'm quite proud of.
The kicker is this, and it's not easy to admit: This is my favorite kind of writing, ever. I absolutely love it, and already did a draft of an adaptation of one of my novels and another short story. I'm like, Crap, I had no idea.
I don't know if I'll "make it," in the business sense, but I already feel very successful--and exceedingly happy. Writing screenplays is, and I know this is cliche, what I was born to do.
Grats!
Way to go!! My story is similar. I balked at script writing because it was so 'limiting' so never bothered to pursue it. About 25 years later I got this incredible revelation that my novellas would 'look better on screen.' I had, not 8 months before that, met a lady at Jiffy Lube who is a script reviewer and writer and has been in the business for over 30 years. On the morning of that revelation I found her business card in less than 10 minutes. We began conversing. I began learning how to write TV scripts that very day and, like you... I'M LOVING IT! Plus... it's actually helping me edit the novels. I'm nowhere NEAR ready to submit anything as yet, but I'm learning and growing and desirous to learn MORE! From Spec to Shooting format, how it all works to sell and then how it works after the sale. If writing screenplays are what you are 'born to do', then believe me... with that kind of drive behind you, you'll get there! Cheering you on!!! :D
WendelltheSongwriter + Thanks for taking the time to share your story. Did you really regret turning down the fellowship?
How many of you really watched the whole video, he was trying to say that his previous fixed mindset was wrong and that talent can actually be trained
For a demonstration of who and what he’s referring to in this video, read this comment section. Elvis said that truth is like the sun, you can shut it out for a time but it ain’t going away.
There are so many people who can tell a writer what to do but very few who can explain how to do it.
How about compelling and escalating conflict with breathers for the viewer to recover?
Damn. WTF. Those who do do and those who don't *****. I started at age eight and just kept going--I suggest you do the same ;-)
This guy wrote Battlefield Earth.
Roger Ebert gave it 0.5/4 stars
Rotten Tomatoes - 3%
IMDb - 2.5/10
Budget - 73 million
Box Office - 29.7 million
This guy is a con man. Weaseled his way into the big screen with tricks and got exposed LMAO
Here's the story behind Battlefield Earth - th-cam.com/video/bwMcg6_AU_g/w-d-xo.html
Examples of compelling conflict would have been great.
Battlefield Earth
He didn't bring his point across very well, this is reflected in the comments. His actual point, as far as I understood it, is actually quite good, but he somehow managed to make people think he was saying the complete opposite.
Hey, Oh!sama, at about the 9 minute mark he explains that in a more recent class, he had six out of eight students go on to develop successful careers when only one of them had the "pop-off-the-page" level talent at the start. This was after he read "Mindset" by Carol Dweck, PhD, and realized that he needed to change his approach to teaching, especially his academic assumption that talent cannot be taught. (Read "The Talent Code" by Coyle.) Six out of eight is evidence of an outstanding teacher, especially in view of his honesty about his past shortcomings as a teacher and as a scriptwriter on another video. Here's a quote from his website: "In the past three years, 98 of my students have sold spec scripts, with dozens more getting staffed on such shows as Community, The Fosters, Bones, Justified, Mozart in the Jungle, Rosewood, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Treme, Jane the Virgin, Playing House, Chicago Fire, The Mentalist, The Blacklist, BoJack Horseman, Pretty Little Liars and The Leftovers."
He just said the secret but it went right over most peoples’ heads
Talent is not something you can teach. You can refine someone's talent but either someone has it or not. The movie industry is looking for the best unless you have money to fund your own film. For me I enjoy the writing process and I have some stories I want to tell. Once I'm finished I will try to get an agent. If that doesn't work out then I'll know that at least I tried and I can walk away knowing that I completed something that I set out to do. Screenwriting for me is not about making money or even seeing it on the big screen. It's about telling a story from beginning to end. Developing characters and having a compelling message. Something my writing partner would tell me is to write your own story. In a way it's therapeutic.
These are great videos! I have been binge watching them, maybe I don't have what it takes but its time to try. :D
"You can learn if you know how to train yourself and you're willing to put the time in..."
So how do I train myself to do that?
How dare you? So is the bar for success likening the writer to Hemingway, Faulkner, etc?
Can one not be a successful 'writer' in innumerable other ways? According to Mr. Mandell's standard there must be very very few writers out there. What a narrow, constrained, insulting view.
Debbie Rice I think he measures working as a professional screenwriter as success.
What's even more narrow and constrained is making hasty judgments before watching the entire interview.
@@JN-ox2yd
That's true, but that 'popping off the page' mantra with zero definition of how he determines that might have repelled her and pissed her off.
@@ephemera...
So he's not as dumb as people think he is.
Wow, this guys so encouraging 😕
I think I’m “one of those two people”, but I have no one to critique my work, and can’t afford to pay a professional service $400 for every damn script analysis. I just finished a screenplay and won’t have a spare $400 till February.
Hmmmm…. I get the feeling that successful writers may begin their writing by using a completed Story Outline. Read or listen to the Audible version of The Foolproof Outline by Christohper Downing. It's the best outline method I've come across.
I had two physics teachers in college, one who kept telling me, when I would ask him to explain things I was curious about, "this math is above your head, you're not ready for this yet" and wouldn't engage me, challenge me, or do much more than regurgitate a textbook. The other would answer me to the best of his ability, even if it blew me away, and would demonstrate how it all worked in reality if he could; I learned a lot from him, and carry forward the attitude of genuinely wanting to invest in people and believing they're capable of more than where they are at in the present time, even if they're not "ready" for it then, they might be later -- water the seeds so they grow!
I'm not a physicist, as I want to tell stories that have an impact on people, but what that professor taught me applies to life as a whole and not just one subject.
I suppose it's easy enough to tell which kind of teach is on display in the video...
oh mate, Battlefield Earth sure popped off the page and straight into Rifftrax
Is that you Dr Forester?
"there's that something that just *snips* pops off the page... I can't tell you what it is exactly blablabla..." maybe he's just not good enough with words to specify what IT is?! *snippydysnip* And what hypocrite takes good money from people in his writing class, whom he obviously can't help?! And what selfish bastard gives a writing class anyway, who believes you just have to have *snip* IT?! If you teach writing you should be convinced that it's something that can be learned.
FWAJR Did you watch to the end?
The man wrote the Battlefield Earth screenplay- he hasn't got a clue about good writing. he's a fucking terrible writer.
I think of all the great filmmakers I admire who write their own stuff , like Michael Haneke, Werner Herzog , etc... then I think of this little man and his UCLA job and say to myself, “ Art dies in academia”.
Francis Coppola, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas all went to UCLA film school together. And Jim Morrison.
This man wrote Battlefield Earth. Do not listen to anything he says.
Oh wow, thank you for that piece of info. Now I feel better.
Scientologist?
@@pawsitivenooz The book was a Scientology book brought to him by John Travolta ( who is Scientologist) and he had to make a story out of it. Lol. I feel bad for him.
pop!
pOp!
POP!
I want it to EXPLODE
georgie and pennywise teas
Am I wrong or is this like saying you teach physics at MIT and Einstein is in your class but everyone else is useless. I mean what is the point of having a teacher? I get some people are naturals, but compelling conflict is a very teachable element to scriptwriting. Then again this dude wrote Battlefield Earth which has a 3% on RT... sorry @filmcourage why did you put this guy on tape? I've done more then this guy and don't look like I'm continually trying to keep my lunch down when being interviewed. Just saying.
The takeaway from this video was the book he recommended. He does make a good point about the mindset of the student/writer. Would have been better if he had more specific advice, rather than talk about how he became a better teacher.
That advice would probably get him kicked out of other fields of philosophy.
TL;DR: They can't teach you anything that your didn't already know. So it's useless waste of money for people who want to learn and for people who already know. Also, just because you have good skill in something does not mean you can teach that skill to others.
I liked his video explaining what went wrong with Battlefield Earth, and nearly everyone agrees that conflict is a necessity. But "pops off the page" is such a nothing series of buzzwords, and he uses it as an entire crux of his argument.
It tells you literally nothing about what's going right or wrong about the conflict, just the vaugest possible "vibes".
I find his notion that you can magically tell that 90% of writers won't make it based on their early work to be bull shit
Rebbeca Sugar, the creator of Steven Universes' first narrative work, was bad invader zim fanfiction (and Ratatouille porn). Toby Fox, the creator of Undertale, first wrote Meglovania, one of the most beloved songs of 2010s video games, as a song in an earthbound hack game.
Gee, it's almost like creatives improve drastically from what they make when they first start out. Most writers are bad in the beginning.
I have a friend who went to USC film school - and his professors gave him straight As and his work "popped off the page"
HIs classmate was Shonda Rimes - who didn't get very good grades.
My friend has never done anything. He works in aerospace.
Does he still write on the side?
I wanted to reach into the screen and pluck away that feather (or whatever the hell it was) on his upper right shoulder lol