Guido Segal, Screenwriter, Journalist, Film Critic, Instructor: I didn’t just sit down and write, I had to figure out Okay, how do I dig deeper? What do I want to say?No one can tell me that. You’ve got to figure it out yourself.
Film Courage: You’ve said that good writing demands honesty and a large degree of emotional involvement?
Guido: Yeah, I certainly believe it. I think it’s the most difficult part of the equation. There’s certain concepts like honesty or freedom that I know what it is but can’t define like what is honesty? I feel like you know when you’re being honest and that’s why intuition is such an important part of it. Only you can know that. You’ve got to be honest first of all with yourself and that’s why I questioned the notion of the idea so much which is I had a great idea, is it honest? Does it resonate? Does it tingle? No. Then let it go. I mean of course if you can have a lot of ideas that’s great we all do but Is this the story I want to tell? Is this what want to talk about right now? I’m talking strictly from if you have a choice right, again if you’re hired, you’ve got to find your honesty within that material because it’s first and foremost a job right? You’re an artist but you’re getting paid to do something so if you’re a writer and have got to write a procedural, find your honesty and make it work without within that frame. But if you’re writing your own story, we’re all constantly changing and we’re not the same person we were two or five years ago. What you’re going to be interested in now or what resonates is not going to be the same thing and that’s the problem. Sometimes with rewrites, which is you wrote the script…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
BIO:
Guido Segal was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Before moving to Los Angeles to pursue his MFA in Screenwriting at UCLA, he was a journalist and a film critic, selected as a Juror at la Semaine de la Critique, during the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. Segal has worked as a documentary filmmaker for History and Discovery Channel covering political topics (Asylum Seekers; Sicarios). He also has vast experience as an assistant director and screenwriter for films and TV. Segal co-wrote the Argentinian films Leones (2012) and Kékzsakállú (2016). He was also staffed as a TV writer in three shows: Un Año Para Recordar (2011-2012); La Asombrosa Excursión de Zamba (2014-2016); and Siesta Z (2016). The last two animated shows were nominated for International Emmy Awards in the Kids category. Segal has lived in Argentina, Spain and Finland, and taught Screenwriting and Film Analysis in Universidad del Cine (Buenos Aires), Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona), TAMK University (Tampere, Finland) and UCLA.
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