Film Courage: Do you believe every screenplay a screenwriter writes begins with their five favorite movies?
Brooks Elms, Screenwriter/Writing Mentor: No and they’re probably better off leaning into their favorite films to inspire what’s next for them because our favorite scripts, our favorite films or shows depending what we’re writing spoke to us in a deep way because let’s look at this, there’s tens of thousands of movies and shows that we could have watched in our lifetime, one percent of them or whatever we’ve actually seen. So thousands of people, thousands of movies and shows, thousands of hours for sure. If you get to the point where you’re writing a screenplay, you’ve probably seen thousands of hours of content. Of that (let’s say it’s a thousand just for hypothetical) which are the favorites and why are those the favorites? Then when you get down to the specificity of my favorite seven films, it’s not going to be anybody else’s favorite seven on the planet. You’re talking about a very specific (almost code) of what speaks to me and if you take a look at that, there’s connective tissue in terms of theme or character arc or genre or just feel or tone or things and it’s I found very instructive for me and for writers that I mentor to use that as the…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
BIO:
Brooks Elms is a screenwriter and independent filmmaker. His specialty is grounded personal characters and writing story tension so thick it knots up your stomach. He’s written 25+ screenplays, a dozen of them on assignment, and sold several scripts, including one this year with Brad Peyton as Executive Producer. Brooks was recently hired to rewrite a screenplay started by an Oscar-winning writer. Brooks began his career writing, directing, and producing two indie features (personal dramas) that he screened all over the world. And Brooks also loves coaching fellow writers who have a burning ambition to deeply serve their audiences.
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↓ The book Brooks mentions ↓
Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need by Blake Snyder
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