A Steven Spielberg sighting. I love it. How did they manage to rope him for this interview? Something I heard in there that seem at odds with each other---don't worry about the rules, structure, break the rules.... but the notes given usually seem to discourage that, unless your Tarantino, Sorkin. Not arguing for one way or the other....just making an observation.

Academy Originals: What Advice Do You Have For Screenwriters? In order of appearance. AARON SORKIN: To young screenwriter, I would say that screenwriting is no different than playing the violin. You have to practice. Read the screenplays of your favorite movies. Uh, watch the movie with the screenplay on your lap. Just try to, sort of reverse engineer it. Figure out what it looked like on the page and how it got there. DANNY BOYLE: Keep going. We all depend on you. There is nothing without the writing. And it’s true. It’s em… They’re often not treated or considered with the importance that they should be. RIDLEY SCOTT: Stop doing four screenplays at once. And do one at a time. And address the problem. SARAH SILVERMAN: Sometimes it’s like exercising, it’s just getting your sneakers on that’s the hardest part. So just write the bad version, write the shitty version. If you just think of it with no stakes, then you get pen to paper, finger to keys. SETH ROGEN: I would suggest writing something that is… um… inexpensive to produce. Don’t write like a two-hundred million dollar movie and then wonder why no one wants to take a shot and make it. MATT CHARMON: The best screenwriting really starts with character. I don’t think that an audience need to like a character necessarily, they need to be compelled by them. The point at which you’re just about to lose an audience’s sympathy with a character is probably the kind of… the best place to be. JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Try not to concern yourself too much with… uh… what other people will think. Or whether this will be a popular movie. Or, you know, whether it conforms to the structure that, you know, m-movie executives expect to see. Or any of that. MICHAEL SHANNON: When I can see that somebody is following a system or some formula that they’ve been taught I completely lose interest. I prefer things that break the rules somehow. LAURIE MACDONALD: Follow your curiosity. Stories are found in, sometimes, the most unlikely places. LENNY ABRAHAMSON: Don’t over-describe. Let the action and the dialogue do the work. BRIE LARSON: Please don’t describe your female characters as broken but beautiful. Please, please. I’ve read it so many times. I think as little description as you can give to your, about the way your characters look physically. Unless it’s something that is just… incredibly important to the story. JEFF DANIELS: When you write the script, you have to write elaborate stage directions, you know, for the executives. But you know, after you do that draft… and you’ve hired the actors. Then do a draft where you take out all the stage directions, and all the parentheticals. Clear all that out and just see what we might bring to it. DREW GODDARD: If I could give one piece of advice to screenwriters, it would be: Don’t worry about anything other than you. Just focus on what you love and trust that that’ll get you through it. ALAN SILVESTRI: When the script is magnificent, uh… everything else seems to fall into place. So, write great stories. Great scripts of great stories. STEVEN SPIELBERG: To uh be pioneers. Find stories that are risky but, speak, you know, volumes about who you are as a writer. And what you believe in, and your whole outlook on the way things are. And uh… if it’s personal enough there’ll be a big audience to see it.

Eric, this is where the rubber meets the road. It's almost a lock that any pro screenwriter when asked for advice will default to: Write what you want to write. Don't worry about the so-called rules. And while that is fundamentally true, they're saying from inside the Hollywood system where they have more latitude, frankly, than those without. Because while there literally aren't any rules, there are conventions. And scripts readers, from lowly interns to studio execs to producers, anyone who works in development, will be carrying some of those conventions with them into every script they read. My advice: Read my series So-Called Screenwriting Rules which, I believe, is the most comprehensive take on all this type of stuff and provides a middle ground which is: We should be free to do ANYTHING our story compels us to do in order to tell that story the way it wants and deserves to be told. And yet, we have to bear in mind the conventions, not that they should restrict us, rather be damn well sure we NEED to defy them in service to the story.

Colin, you are da man! Here is a special blast of creative juju just for you! KAWAMBAWAMBAWOOOT! I'm going to update the OP with this transcript and give you a big old Hat Tip, too. THANKS!!!

No problem. I'm just glad to be of some help. Back to the Zero Draft 30 challenge, for me. Cheers.

All of it awesome

Wow! Thanks for the transcript!

Thanks Scott, It does seem like producers do want to be surprised, but they are also comfortable with certain conventions. If you break those conventions, you have to do it so well that you make them comfortable.

Let's play a game: Rank the advice in Order of Importance. It will tell you something about yourself as a writer. There are no wrong answers (unless you lift Seth Rogan off the bottom of the ladder!) My hybrid fortune cookie of wisdom (the top two merged): The best stories are about unlikely characters. 1. LAURIE MACDONALD: Follow your curiosity. Stories are found in, sometimes, the most unlikely places. 2. MATT CHARMON: The best screenwriting really starts with character. I don’t think that an audience need to like a character necessarily, they need to be compelled by them. The point at which you’re just about to lose an audience’s sympathy with a character is probably the kind of… the best place to be. 3. STEVEN SPIELBERG: To uh be pioneers. Find stories that are risky but, speak, you know, volumes about who you are as a writer. And what you believe in, and your whole outlook on the way things are. And uh… if it’s personal enough there’ll be a big audience to see it. 4. JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Try not to concern yourself too much with… uh… what other people will think. Or whether this will be a popular movie. Or, you know, whether it conforms to the structure that, you know, m-movie executives expect to see. Or any of that. 5. MICHAEL SHANNON: When I can see that somebody is following a system or some formula that they’ve been taught I completely lose interest. I prefer things that break the rules somehow. 6. DREW GODDARD: If I could give one piece of advice to screenwriters, it would be: Don’t worry about anything other than you. Just focus on what you love and trust that that’ll get you through it. 7. DANNY BOYLE: Keep going. We all depend on you. There is nothing without the writing. And it’s true. It’s em… They’re often not treated or considered with the importance that they should be. 8. LENNY ABRAHAMSON: Don’t over-describe. Let the action and the dialogue do the work. 9. AARON SORKIN: To young screenwriter, I would say that screenwriting is no different than playing the violin. You have to practice. Read the screenplays of your favorite movies. Uh, watch the movie with the screenplay on your lap. Just try to, sort of reverse engineer it. Figure out what it looked like on the page and how it got there. 10. RIDLEY SCOTT: Stop doing four screenplays at once. And do one at a time. And address the problem. 11. BRIE LARSON: Please don’t describe your female characters as broken but beautiful. Please, please. I’ve read it so many times. I think as little description as you can give to your, about the way your characters look physically. Unless it’s something that is just… incredibly important to the story. 12. JEFF DANIELS: When you write the script, you have to write elaborate stage directions, you know, for the executives. But you know, after you do that draft… and you’ve hired the actors. Then do a draft where you take out all the stage directions, and all the parentheticals. Clear all that out and just see what we might bring to it. 13. SARAH SILVERMAN: Sometimes it’s like exercising, it’s just getting your sneakers on that’s the hardest part. So just write the bad version, write the shitty version. If you just think of it with no stakes, then you get pen to paper, finger to keys. 14. ALAN SILVESTRI: When the script is magnificent, uh… everything else seems to fall into place. So, write great stories. Great scripts of great stories. 15. SETH ROGEN: I would suggest writing something that is… um… inexpensive to produce. Don’t write like a two-hundred million dollar movie and then wonder why no one wants to take a shot and make it.

Yes, that feels about right. The opposite is true, too. If a writer writes TOO MUCH to convention, it can feel formulaic, too familiar. Again so much of this comes down to the characters and the story itself, what THEY want to say and how IT wants to say it.

Michael, interesting exercise. I'm really tempted to do a series using these as individual post topics. For example, the one you select for the bottom of list -- "I would suggest writing something that is inexpensive to produce" -- is a really sound practical piece of advice. I hear this all the time from managers: If they can get a writer who has more than one script in their arsenal with at least a couple of them in the $5M and under range or even $2M and under, they can take those scripts EVERYWHERE. Tons of financiers who can afford those small budgets, and even the major studios are interested in micro budget filmmaking. So from a purely creative standpoint, I can totally see this point being at the bottom of the list. However balancing out creativity with practicality, a $5M and under budget movie has got the potential to go to a lot more prod cos than a $200M budget script.

Scott, I hear what you're saying. Seth Rogan's advice isn't bad. To me it's low hanging fruit; like charge your laptop. All 15 pieces of advice are equally valid. But some you will connect with faster than others. Some will live longer in the memory; and some will seep into your sub-conscious. I recently read/watched a few interviews with different screen writers who pretty much said all advice was equally valid (even the stuff in formulaic screen writing books) but the trick was just to see which advice you connected with the most. One was Hoss Amini; struggling to remember who the other writer was. Ranking other writers advice is just a way to hold a mirror up to your own creative instincts!

Scott, I'm wondering if you're familiar with any good guides that could help screenwriters understand what things actually cost when producing? Other than the keep it small, avoid children and historical pieces, how does one actually figure out what a script might cost while writing it? Is there a math we can plug into our writing so we don't write things people will never produce? Thanks! Doc

Doc, I'll tweet this and see if I can get a response. One big thing: Locations. Minimize them. Transportation and housing costs add significantly to budgets, which is why you often see low-budget horror and thriller movies filmed in one primary location.

Absolutely with you, Michael, and think it's a great exercise. It actually speaks to the point: see which advice you connect with most. By sorting this list in order of what speaks to YOU most, that should indicate at least something of what is important to you as a writer. As I always say: There is no right way to write. Find the way that works for YOU!

Thank you, sir. Yes, locations ... like the one I'm working on. ;-) Ha!

I'd like to thank the Academy....

1. Arron Sorkin & Sarah Silverman (similar advice) 2. Jeff Daniels (Love that) & Brie Larson - also very similar - the rest are all equally awesome - Seth is absolutely right I think the order depends on where you are. Right now I am consumed with life, work, staying alive.... Although I keep backing into situations that could be used in writing. But just to stop to write is a big issue. Perhaps I need an intervention or maybe there's a pill for this.

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