Film Courage: How do you write a great scene?
Jason Satterlund, Filmmaker: Writing a great scene is one of the strangely hardest things you can do. I think the writing piece of all the stuff we have to do in filmmaking is the hardest part because that’s where it all begins, that’s the foundation that your entire house is built on. When you’re building this house the easiest thing to do is you get your house done and you’re looking at it and you’re like Something looks off. It doesn’t look a little level and you’ll get notes and the notes will come back and say Yep it’s probably because your house is red. If you paint it green it might not look off. So you’ll paint it green and it’s still off but it’s because the foundation isn’t right and the foundation of scene work is amazingly hard to do. What I’ve learned (especially over the last few years in depth) is how tricky it is to come up with scenes that work. I think the best way you can learn this is through watching plays. Not every filmmaker but a lot of the filmmakers I talk to always say I just can’t write small. I just can’t write simple. I get that because Oh I want to go into outer space and fly a ship around! I want a planet to explode. Well that’s great, I do too but that can be the filmmaker waving their arms in front of the camera saying I don’t have a story so I’m going to distract you with all of these explosions so that you forget the fact that what it actually really isn’t a very good foundation. The whole house is still leading to the left because you never figured out how to write a good scene. It comes down to these very simple nuts and bolts. If you watch a play, you’re watching scenes on the most basic level and you’re looking at generally one or two characters or two or five characters or something talking on a stage and you’re pulled in How are they doing that? What is the magic sauce that’s making that scene work? It reminds me of…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
BIO:
Jason Satterlund is an award winning film director who has been working on films for over 25 years. He has extensive experience in all areas of production including directing, producing, writing, cinematography, and editing. He works all over the world directing, commercials, documentaries, music videos, and feature films.
Early on he developed his skills as a storyteller and uses them to this day on projects as diverse as sci-fi steampunk action films, high end commercials, underwater sea life in the tropics, television shows, top country music artists in Nashville, Tenn, and feature films. He is the only person ever to conduct a night shoot in the ancient city of Petra, and the first person in America to use film lenses on an HD camera.
Satterlund has done extensive work for clients such as Warner Brothers, Bon Jovi, Amazon, Microsoft, Jack White, CNN, Hallmark Entertainment, ABC, and the country of Jordan.
He is creator and director of the award winning feature film, “The Record Keeper,” which premiered at the Raindance Film Festival in London, and won the first annual Geekie Awards.
Satterlund’s latest film THE ABANDON (written by Dwain Worrell) features a wounded soldier awakening in a strange cube that tests his physical and mental limits as he attempts to find a way to escape against a ticking clock.
ABOUT THE ABANDON MOVIE:
U.S. soldier, Miles Willis, is shot and wounded during an intense firefight in Iraq. As he tries to radio for help, a sudden blinding light surrounds him, and he awakens to find himself trapped in a strange, colorless cube with nothing inside but his own combat gear. As time passes, the cube begins to change: fluctuating extreme temperatures, random shifts of gravity, and strange writing appearing on the walls. His only communication is with one person — a mystery woman who calls him on his satellite phone, claiming to be trapped in a similar space. As the clock ticks, the two of them must figure out who has them, why they were taken, and how to escape.
A film by Jason Satterlund
Written by Dwain Worrell
The film stars Jonathan Rosenthal, Tamara Perry, and Regis Terencio
Produced by Victoria Hadeler and Regis Terencio
Executive Produced by Jonathan Rosenthal and Jordan Foley
Edited by Jason Satterlund
Cinematography by Ray Huang
Music by Geoff Koch
From Mill House Motion Pictures
Runtime is 1 hour 36 Minutes
This drama/thriller film is not yet rated
CONNECT WITH JASON SATTERLUND
Jasonsatterlund.com
IMDB
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Vimeo
Youtube
Advertisement – contains affiliate links:
More affiliates:
Camera we use for interviews – https://buff.ly/3rWqrra
Editing system – https://goo.gl/56LnpM
Sound we use for interviews – https://amzn.to/2tbFlM9
Writers, try Final Draft free for 30-days – https://ow.ly/Gz4w30rDSKt
Other books on Amazon that Film Courage recommends – https://buff.ly/3o0oE5o
