TIPS 26 > 55

26. Write stories that's got 'a film inside'
"I'm still not entirely sure what it was about Lynn Barber's piece that had such a strong pull on me, but quite clearly there was one," says screenwriter Nick Hornby, who adapted journalist Lynn Barber's memoir  An Education. I read it and gave it to my wife, Amanda Posey who is one of the producers, saying, 'Look, there's a film in here'.  "I always thought I must remember at some point to write the whole story of my first boyfriend as I always thought it was extraordinary," says journalist Lynn Barber of her brief memoir. Read more

27. Use point of view to strengthen your story
Screenwriter Katherine Fugate created the interwoven stories in Valentine's Day "to show how love was approached from different angles and different generations--from the unjaded 10-year-old boy with his first crush, to the thirtysomethings dealing with their relationship, or lack thereof, all the way to the older married couple looking back at the journey of love they have taken together.  Love also takes on many different faces that go beyond romance, but at the end of the day, love always brings us back to what is most important in life." Read more

28. Take an unconventional approach
With My Name Is Khan, the filmmakers wanted to depart from the story of the quintessential Indian film hero and instead tell the story of a man, of a couple, who are set apart from the rest of us for a reason.  Their first order of business was to provide Rizvan Khan the appropriate motivation for his journey. More importantly, they needed to avoid having his desire to state: "My name is Khan and I'm not a terrorist" lapse into becoming a polemic that would diminish the emotional reality of the story. Read more

29. Adapting a Pulitzer-prize winning novel
From Cormac McCarthy, author of No Country for Old Men, comes the highly anticipated big screen adaptation of the beloved, best-selling and Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Road.  It was adapted by Award-winning writer and director Joe Penhall was described by The Financial Times as "one of the finest playwrights of his generation." Read more

30. Find the perfect team to write with
Once the rights to Skin were optioned, Fabian began  on  the  screenplay  which  was  developed  over  several  drafts written  consecutively by   Helena Kriel,  Jessie Keyt, Helen Crawley and himself. Read more

31. Create a franchise
Ratcheting up tension and invention with each successive film, the Saw franchise has touched a chord while jangling millions of nerves worldwide. It has picked up the baton from classic horror series such as Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street to become a cultural touchstone, as well as the most profitable horror franchise, both theatrically and on DVD, in movie history. To date, the five SAW titles have taken in over $665 million in worldwide theatrical box office and DVD sales have exceeded 28 million units. The franchise has helped make Lionsgate the leading studio for horror today. Read more

32. Write about teenagers
Novelist Nicholas Spark, who collaborated with long-time friend Jeff Van Wie to write the screenplay of his bestseller The last Song, traces the beginnings of it to a conversation he had with producer Jennifer Gibgot, who was looking for a project that would allow teen star Miley Cyrus to showcase her dramatic abilities. "I try to vary the ages of the characters and their dilemmas to keep the work fresh and interesting for me, as well as for the readers. I'd recently written a couple of novels with characters who were anywhere from 20 to 50 years old, so I was leaning toward writing about a teenage character, which I hadn't done since 'A Walk to Remember.'"  Read more

33. Turn a short film into a feature film
"It's a dream come true," says director Shane Acker of the rare opportunity to expand his Student Academy Award-winning short film 9 into a feature. "I had fallen in love with the world and the characters, and my head was full of ideas of what I would want to do to show more of it, and more of them, as they discovered the world and themselves." For Acker, the theatrical release of the feature film 9 caps a decade of exploring a world he created. Through the years, from short to feature, his core concepts have remained consistent while also inviting and encouraging creative collaboration and audience interaction. Read more

34. Make it funny
Writer-director Oliver Rodger originally wanted to write a personal story with I Now Pronounce you Black and White. "I wanted to explain in film what it was like being a foreigner here and what my first impressions of SA were … Once I started writing I went in a different direction. I am white and my girlfriend is coloured. It amuses me that we still get the odd funny look when we hold hands together. This was one aspect of the story that I wanted to highlight...But after a few drafts I just decided I wanted to make a funny romantic comedy and made it less about myself and more about what I thought South Africans would find entertaining." Read more

35. Let a father-daughter story drive the narrative
"I thought it was a great idea," says director Martin Campbell of Edge of Darkness. "I've always felt it was a very powerful story: a father loses his daughter and goes on a journey of discovery not only to find out who killed her and why, but also who she really was." "I responded emotionally to the father/daughter storyline," Oscar-winning screenwriter William Monahan offers.  "I have a young daughter so I basically put myself in the shoes of the protagonist, and asked what I would do if this happened to me." Read more

36. Write with an actress in mind
When writer-director Martin Provost wanted to write a film about the life of Séraphine de Senlis, he pictured the actress Yolande Moreau, with her singular appeal, her hands, eyes, severity and gentleness, and wanted to capture the intensity and incredible force that permeated Séraphine's whole life. "The writing process centered on Yolande, driven by each new meeting and carried along by her enthusiasm and the perfect match between her and the character.."  Read more

37. hape your idea into a plot
"In the beginning there was no plot, only a vague idea about two strangers who longed for each other, and how that longing had shaped and misshaped their psyches," says writer-director Rodrigo Garcia of Mother and Child. "It was to be, hopefully, a portrait of complicated feelings and the intertwined destinies of two women, then three … it's possible that it came from every parent's fear of being separated from their child by time or illness or accident or misunderstanding or malfeasance -- but no parent in their right mind will voice these fears." Read more

38. The writing process begins with a story outline
"The writing process on Iron Man 2 was unique and began before there was a screenwriter brought on," explains director Jon Favreau.  "That tends to be the case with these types of movies because what happens is that Robert Downey, Kevin Feige, Jeremy Latcham and others all sit around and start discussing things like what interests us; where should the characters go; where should the next leg of the journey start; what should Tony's arc be, etc.  So you begin to outline a basic story and break it down into scenes and set pieces.  Then when you arrive at that point, the actual scriptwriting process can begin."  Read more

39. Introduce a new generation to the past
Producer-writer James Schamus saw bringing Taking Woodstock to audiences as an opportunity for "a new generation to go back and visit Woodstock and get a feel for what it must've been like when you could have hope, and really move some mountains and enjoy it. Schamus notes, "Underneath all the comedy in this movie are emotions, and meditations on what it means for people to transform themselves. In the midst of a great cultural moment, Elliot comes to fully accept who he is. His gay identity is part of the story, and so is his identity as his own man - not just as his parents' son. Woodstock is freeing and transforming for all three of them, but it's Elliot's life that's the most positively impacted." Read more

40. Use writing as a healing tool
For filmmaker Brandon Camp, the journey to the romantic drama Love Happens started several years ago when he lost his mother.  "It was a very difficult process for me," he offers.  "There was denial at first; I didn't really feel anything at all for about a year.  All of a sudden, it hit me one day and there was just a flood for six months.  I found out that there was something very interesting in the process of grieving and what people go through." Camp's longtime writing partner, Seattle-based producer Mike Thompson, was moved by how his friend was coping with the loss and wanted to work with him on a new project in which they could explore the themes of grief, letting go and acceptance.  Read more

41. Write a comedy with romance
Director Mark Steven Johnson, who is best known for comic book adaptations like "Daredevil" and "Ghost Rider," returns to his comedy roots with When In Rome.  "Comedy is where I started--writing 'Grumpy Old Men'--and I really wanted to get back to it.I'm a guy, and I'm not a big romantic-comedy guy," says the director. "I wanted to make a comedy with romance, versus a 'romantic comedy.' I wanted to make a comedy that was really funny that also had a big heart to it. We had fun with this film, blowing out a lot of the conventions of a traditional romantic comedy." Read more

42. Never assume everything has been done
"I think that Mark Millar has had millions of brilliant ideas, but I could see why he was particularly excited and I shared his excitement," says screenwriter Jane Goldman. "It is one of those ideas that makes you ask 'God, has nobody done that? That's insane!' The very basic story of someone who loves superheroes deciding to give it a try without having any powers simply hadn't been done before." From there, Goldman tipped off her writing partner and STARDUST director Matthew Vaughn, who was already looking for his next movie, and Kick-Ass seemed to fit the bill. Read more

43. Make a documentary
Producer/ director and writer Eric Schlosser have been wanting to do a documentary version of Schlosser's book, "Fast Food Nation".  And, for one reason or another, it didn't happen. By the time Food. Inc. started to come together, the filmmakers began talking and realized that all food has become like fast food, and all food is being created in the same manner as fast food.  Food Inc.  illustrates how complicated and compromised the once simple process of growing crops and raising livestock to feed ourselves and our families has become.  Read more

44. Write a story that raises consciousness and is universal
Inferno Distribution chose to finance and produce Hachiko: A Dog's Story because they are interested in making films that raise consciousness and saw the universal appeal of a story of a man and his faithful dog. Producer Bill Johnson says, "When I read the script, I immediately understood the power of the message it could project on a massive amount of people - of loyalty, commitment and unconditional love." Working on a project with such universal meaning got the cast and crew pondering their personal connections to the story and how this special dog's example touches their own lives. Read more

45. Approach your story from a completely different angle
Alessandro Camon came up with the idea a few years ago," says co-writer and director Allesandro of The Messenger. "He suggested writing a script about Casualty Notification Officers because no one was looking at the war from that angle at the time, no one was shining a light on the home front from the perspective of the messengers who bring the consequences of war to the families, to the people who pay a direct, intimate and everlasting price for the decision to go to war. It's an impossible, horrible job, and yet it's as real as it gets. I was also excited by the idea as an indirect way to deal with my own military service demons.  Read more

46. Don't hessitate when inspiration strikes
For more than a decade, writing partners Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont have been collaborating on comedies.  With Leap Year, they admit that the concept for their latest project came to them very quickly.  Kaplan recalls: "I was on a news website, and it was actually February 29th.  There was a headline that read 'Women in Ireland Propose on Leap Year Day,' and I said to Harry, 'Does this sound like a movie or what?'  We dropped what we were working on, and within two weeks we had the outline of the story.  Within another two weeks, we had sold it to Spyglass.  We then wrote it very quickly, and Amy signed onto it.  It all happened lightning fast."  Read more

47. Allow supporting characters to enrich primary characters
Away We Go follows the journey of an expectant couple (John Krasinski (The Office) and Maya Rudolph (Saturday Night Live), as they travel the U.S. in search of the perfect place to put down roots and raise their family. Along the way, they have misadventures and find fresh connections with an assortment of relatives and old friends who just might help them discover "home" on their own terms for the first time. The journeu provides a bracing reminder of how much it takes to sustain a relationship and a family. Read more

48. Put familiar human struggles in the context of immpossible struggles
Taking on the task of bringing the cult classic Clash of the Titans into the 21st century were screenwriters Travis Beacham, Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi. "I loved the original, so this was an irresistible, if intimidating, proposition," says Beacham.  "One of the things I loved about it, and myths in general, is that they put familiar human struggles in the context of impossible circumstances, to express things that couldn't otherwise be expressed. Want to save the girl?  How bad?  Because you'll have to fight this unstoppable monster to get to her.  Want to find yourself?  You'll have to journey to the edge of the world and back again.  Want to rebel against your parents?  Well, your dad's a god, so let's see what you're made of."  Read more

49. Create unconventional heroes
Directed by Jacques Audiard, who claims that A Prophet aims at "creating icons, images for people who don't have images, the Arabs in France," though he also had stated that the film "has nothing to do with his vision of society," and is a work of fiction. We wanted to create heroes out of people that we didn't know, that didn't already have an iconic representation in cinema. Arabs are a good example. In France the tendency in cinema is to represent them in a naturalistic or sociological fashion. So instead, we chose to do a pure genre film, in the manner of a western that spotlights people we don't know and transforms them into heroes.  Read more

50. Transport your audience
It was nearly six years ago when the book How to Train Your Dragon of British author Cressida Cowell came to the attention of creative executives at DreamWorks Animation. "If you're writing about Vikings and Dragons it has got to be something that is going to be on a grand scale," says Cowell. To helm the project, the studio turned to  Oscar-nominated writer/director Chris Sanders. "For a very long time, I have wanted to do a film that somehow involved creatures, people or superheroes flying, so when I read an early version of this story, I thought, 'Oh, my gosh!  We can take that to places that you've never been before!'"  Read more

51. Write a story to redeem yourself
The Cove begins in Taiji, Japan, where former dolphin trainer Ric O'Barry has come to set things right after a long search for redemption. In the 1960s, it was O'Barry who captured and trained the 5 dolphins who played the title character in the international television sensation "Flipper." But his close relationship with those dolphins - the very dolphins who sparked a global fascination with trained sea mammals that continues to this day -- led O'Barry to a radical change of heart. One fateful day, a heartbroken Barry came to realize that these deeply sensitive, highly intelligent and self-aware creatures so beautifully adapted to life in the open ocean must never be subjected to human captivity again.  Read more

52. Explore fear of the unknown
When Neil Marshall's The Descent went on UK release in the summer of 2005, reviewers called it "One of the scariest movies ever", "Brutal, bloody, terrifying, astonishing" and  "Truly harrowing and intense". The nightmare tale of 'six chicks with picks' facing unimaginable peril in the darkest of underground terrains became a global hit. "I was thrilled by the success of The Descent", affirms director Neil Marshall. "We hit collective nerves regarding claustrophobia, fears of the dark and the unknown lurking behind every corner. The chilling sequel The Descent Part 2 Is here.  Read more

53. Put a fresh spin on a timeless classic
"But as a movie, I've never seen a version I've really liked," says Tim Burton of Alice In Wonderland. "It's always been about a passive little girl wandering around a series of adventures with weird characters. There's never any kind of gravity to it. So that's the attempt with this, to take the idea of those stories and shape them into something that's not literal from the book but keeps the spirit of it." Read more

* The Princess and the Frog is the sixth collaboration by the veteran team of Ron Clements and John Musker, whose roster of film achievements reads like an animation hall of fame, from their first teaming in 1986 on "The Great Mouse Detective," to "The Little Mermaid," "Aladdin," "Hercules" and "Treasure Planet." As usual, the animated duo was drawn to the project because of its compelling story and comic promise--potential that had eluded other development attempts. Read more

* Inevitably, to turn Dahl's slim children's story of Fantastic Mr. Fox  into a film required changes. "Not enough happens to make a feature-length movie," Wes Anderson explains, "so we knew we had to invent a lot. But as we did it, all we wanted to do was to try and write something that we hoped Roald Dahl would think was suitable and fit with what he has invented in the first place. We were trying to write a Roald Dahl movie. Read more

* Screenwriters Wesley Strick and Eric Heisserer used Craven's 1984 film as a blueprint but evolved the ideas further as they explored the psychologically resonant elements of the character of Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare in Elm Street.  "Trying to write Freddy in a fresh way led me back to the Pied Piper, who'd punished a town by taking away its children," says Strick. "When I learned the term 'pied' meant 'stripes of contrasting colors,' just like Freddy's famous sweater, it felt like a sign that I was on the right track--making Krueger even scarier by painting him as a righteous avenger, a dimensional villain who's complex and more human and who may have been falsely accused." Read more

54. Let your story celebrate the uniqueness of your culture
For Better For Worse celebrates the lives of South African Indians, their culture and lifestyle which is something that has hardly been tackled before. The city of Durban within which the film is located is given ample exposure.  The intent of the producers was to make a stylish, slick product moving away from shoddy stereotyping and ghettoising of Indians. "The story idea was inspired by the people who make up the unique and vibrant community in which I was raised, Indian South Africans. Further, it explores and interrogates the idiosyncrasies that makes us at once South African and yet Indian," says director Naresh Veeran. Read more

55. Allow real life experiences to make your story meaningful
As with all the great Pixar films, Toy Story 3 blends comedy, action and heartfelt emotion to give moviegoers a uniquely moving experience that touches the heart and tickles the funny bone. The filmmakers drew on their own life experiences and families to make the story even more meaningful and believable. To kick off the creation of "Toy Story 3," Pixar gathered virtually the same team that had created the first two "Toy Story" films. During the retreat, the participants watched the first two "Toy Story" films in their entirety as a point of reference, and to help immerse them into that world again. Read more


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