John August

QandA

Do writers have a say in the music?

Charlie's Angels, QandA

Once your screenplay
has been sold, do you (the writer) have any say in the music that is used?

–Joel Norn

Almost never.
The music in a movie is ultimately the decision of the director and a contentious
committee that includes the composer, the music supervisor, the editor, the
producer, the studio, and the soundtrack representative. Sometimes the writer
will be included in that group, but rarely, because the problem is usually
too many opinions, not too few.
An exception is when a very specific song needs to be used for a scene.
For example, in CHARLIE’S ANGELS, a scene opens with Tom Green’s character
singing "Angel
of Morning" while making breakfast, and that was always in the script.

Finding confidence

Psych 101, QandA

As a fledgling screenwriter/English major in college I
often feel insecure about my work. How did you get over this as a writer
and any advice for the
rest of us?

–Jeff

Alas, the flip side of Insecurity tends to be Arrogance. I highly recommend
the former over the latter.

Ideally of course, you’d find a middle ground called Confidence. Maybe you’ll
be lucky, and that will come early in your career. Until then, here are a few
pointers in no particular order of importance:

  • Remember that you’ll never please everyone with your work.
  • Seek out the opinions of people you trust and respect.
  • Don’t make changes based on opinions of those you neither trust nor respect.
  • Remember that first drafts are never perfect.
  • Strive to make every sentence as good as it can be, even if it’s just a
    character walking through a door.
  • Just because someone is more successful than you, doesn’t mean they’re
    more talented.
  • Role models are fine, but remember you’re only seeing their successes and
    not their failures.
  • Patience is a virtue, but impatience might make you work harder.
  • Most good writers weren’t popular growing up.
  • You will fail and succeed at various times for various reasons you can’t
    predict. Know this going in, and you’ll roll with it when it happens.

Writing for VFX

QandA, Words on the page

questionmark
The visual effects in CHARLIE’S ANGELS are dazzling. Did you write this into the script, or was it the work of the director? Could you please advise on how to write those slow motion shots?

–Lawrence

answer icon
The writer’s job is to communicate whatever is seen or heard on screen, and that includes effects. The best way to do this is usually to visualize the scene in your head, and do the best job you can describing it efficiently and compellingly.

Obviously, the director, along with the cinematographer and visual effects supervisor, are going to have the final say about what the effects look like. But until these people come along, the writer is all those jobs, so you need to do what you can.

Regarding slow motion, we’ll start with a lesson in cinematography. To achieve slow-motion, the camera runs at a speed faster than the usual 24 frames per second, often at an even increment like 48 or 96 frames per second. Then, when the film is played back at normal speed (24 fps), the action appears to be slowed down. More than that: it often has a somewhat dreamy, sexy quality that makes car crashes and pretty-girls-getting-out-of-pools extra appealing.

In order to achieve this effect in a screenplay, I add extra vowels and consonants to words. So instead of writing:

The Thug fires four rounds at Maxwell.

I write:

Thheee Thhhuugg ffiirrees fooouurr rrrounds attt Maxxxxwweelllll.

I’m kidding. Please don’t do this.

Instead, at the start of a scene that really, really needs to be slow-motion to make sense, I’ll add the phrase, “in SLOW-MOTION,” to one of the action sentences. So the sentence might read, “In SLOW-MOTION, the Thug fires off four rounds at Maxwell, whose fingers just reach the button in time.”

In the CHARLIE’S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE, I wrote:

Handing off an UNCONSCIOUS MAN to PARAMEDICS, firefighter Alex pulls off her helmet to set loose a slow-motion cascade of black hair.

That time I didn’t capitalize “slow-motion,” because there were already a lot of words in all-caps. And I’ve been known to write, “in super bad-ass slow-motion” if that’s really the feeling I’m going for.

Third-party storytelling

Adaptation, QandA

I recently graduated from college with a film and video degree. The one thing
I can’t get anyone to answer is on adaptation. I have asked people ranging
from well known screenwriters, feature film producers and so on. They always
dance around my question!

I am writing a screenplay based on a true-life story,
but my information is coming from a non-fiction book that tells the story.
Much like THE PERFECT STORM in the way that it is told by a third party writer
of the facual events. What is the process that I need to go through to get
the
rights,
without
putting me in debt for life?

–Scott Adams

The reason people are dancing around the question is because there are so
many variables in each situation. A blanket answer probably would be false
as often as it is true. I can talk you through a very general scenario that
will give you an idea of the issues involved, but an experienced attorney will
ultimately need to get involved.

The first two questions this person would ask are:

To what degree are you basing the project on the book, versus public domain
material? In the case of THE PERFECT STORM, the movie is very clearly
based on Sebastian Junger’s book, relying on his research, characterization
and storytelling structure. The producers paid Junger money – in this case,
quite a lot of money – for the right to adapt his book into a motion picture.
Even though the people and events depicted are non-fiction, it’s Junger’s unique
telling of the story that makes it literary material. Junger controls the copyright and
all subsidiary rights (such as making a movie).

Other producers might make a movie
about the same maritime tragedy without buying the book rights. But the job
would be a lot more difficult. First, they
would have to document all their research – every interview, every article
– to defend themselves against a possible lawsuit by Junger and THE PERFECT
STORM’S producers. These interviews would be more difficult than you think,
because Junger probably
made contracts with the key people involved
in the story, so that they couldn’t cooperate with other writers. Finally,
the rival producers would need to come up with an original storytelling structure
that doesn’t mirror Junger’s.

It sounds difficult, but it’s not an impossible task. An example is OUTBREAK,
which was produced by Arnold Kopelson for Warner Brothers. He and producer
Lynda Obst were both trying to buy the rights to "Crisis in the Hot Zone" an
article about an ebola scare that would eventually become a best-selling novel.
Obst ended up winning the rights, but undaunted, Kopelson developed a fictionalized
version and got it into production first. The "real" version never
ended up being filmed.

Are the characters in your movie based on real people, even if the names or
some details are different? If so, you face problems of defamation, libel and
invasion of privacy, among other complications. This topic is an entire semester
in college, so I won’t try to summarize the details and defenses. But know
that you’ll have to tread carefully. For instance, Kimberly Pierce’s BOYS DON’T
CRY faced legal action from one of the women portrayed in the movie, because
the film placed her at an event she denies witnessing. And 60 Minutes reporter
Mike Wallace was none too thrilled about his depiction in THE INSIDER.

Don’t take this as saying you can never use real-life people in your story.
Just remember that it’s complicated.

After asking yourself these two questions, answer honestly: Are you adapting
events, or are you adapting a book? If the answer is the latter, you need to
option the rights.

Are you including real-life people in your story? If so, you need a plan for
addressing the potential challenges they may bring.

I hope this helps.