[Watch the video interview on YouTube here]
Film Courage: How can you tell if a writer has rushed through the writing of their screenplay?
Andrew Zinnes, Author/Senior Teaching Fellow/Script Doctor: Right. A lot of that has to do with the internal logic of the script, the choices the characters are making and the dialogue that they’re saying oftentimes it doesn’t reflect how they truly are feeling.
Now, I should say that yes, actions speak more than words and a character can be saying one thing but really feeling another. That can be good writing and not rushed. That can be actually a very nuanced, sophisticated way of developing characters but you can tell that if in a way they’re saying just to get through the scene or to get around a point that might be sticky.
For example, if there’s obviously an obstacle that we would think…I’m blanking one right now… but if there’s an obstacle in the way and they’re just trying to get around it very quickly to get on to the next bit, you can sometimes think that they’ve rushed through that.
I also feel that they haven’t thought about the theme thing again, they haven’t thought about the message again they’re leaving meat on the bone for situations where the characters could find themselves in or the story could go that could explore the theory in the theme in a different way. Perhaps they haven’t done enough research on what they’re trying to discuss about or the world that they’ve created. Maybe they haven’t thought of another way that creates obstacles for the character.
If you live long enough in the world you start thinking well wait a second…(Watch the video interview on YouTube here).
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About:
Andrew Zinnes is Senior Teaching Fellow at the University of Portsmouth, UK. He has worked in development at Paramount Pictures and at USA Networks. He left to become a script analyst, and worked for Morgan Creek Productions, Artisan and several script analyst companies. Using his documentary filmmaking experience, Andrew was the perfect co-author for The Documentary Film Makers Handbook. He has taught documentary at the NY Film Academy and has lectured on filmmaking at schools and colleges around the US. He is a founding partner of the film company Crazee Pictures.
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