Tony Gilroy's Screenplay Writing Process

SPARK
1. Starting point
  1. Small, specific
    1. Not big themes
      1. Can be anything that grabs, interests, or affects you
        Examples: people / characteristics
        real, imaginary, from your life, from news
        person, character, occupation, role, trait(s), ironic combination
        situation, task, project, skill, milestone, failure, challenge, etc
        Examples: moment / event / scene
        DIALOGUE often helpful
        conversation, human interaction
        twist, discovery / revelation, hiding, oddity, activity, creation
        threat, suspicion, difficult / impossible task, challenge
        confrontation, fight, win, loss, breakdown
        Examples: an intellectual question but make it as small and concrete as possible
        mystery, something you don't know but want to find out
        who does this? how is this made? why does this happen?
        what's behind the curtain? how could X & Y be connected?
        look at a snapshot (photo / film / life / imaginary)
        ask journalistic / private investigator questions about it, speculate what if
        Examples: a viewer experience
        spectacle, combination of spectacles
        feeling, sequence of feelings, mood whiplash
        headscratcher / frustration with another movie (why didn't they...)
        structural trick, novel way of storytelling
        SPARK review of key elements
        Small, specific, CONCRETE: see it with simplicity, clarity
        Tiny, tiny, tiny; development will come later
        It MUST grab / interest you; don't guess what other people might like; don't criticize yet
        Importance of imagination cannot be overstated; we're in the business of making stuff up
        EXPLORE
        Play with the spark
        Where can it go?
        What if situations
        Keep track of possibilities: don't delete!
        Generate many different versions
        Tweak, expand, introduce
        Grab, shock, thrill, tease, disappoint, move, setback
        Allow characters to rise
        Dialogue often helps this
        Character interactions: what would they do? NOT DO?
        What would they say? NOT SAY?
        How did they get there?
        What do they want?
        What do they need?
        What do they have?
        What do they lack?
        CRITICAL: Record all this! Voice, writing, computer, combo
        Delete nothing ever
        Judge it later, delete it never
        Palest ink beats the best memory
        You will not remember; record it
        Keep asking, "....and where can that go?"
        Optional: collaboration is often dramatically faster
        If solo, keep the stimuli coming
        Use any and all tricks / games / resources to throw different things at you
        Any story telling activities; for any ages
        Learn / read anything and everything about the spark
        Ideas will grab you; seek and ye shall find
        Imagination + learning = exploration
        DROP
        Where is the movie?
        What is the movie about?
        What's the anthem?
        When the answer hits you, the movie "drops" in your lap.
        One spark + exploration path will hit you like lightning.
        If not, keep exploring.
        At worst, explore a different spark.
        Your mind may generate explorations of a different spark while exploring another spark.
        The movie may "drop" when a scene (or scenes) could make the trailer.
        Examples
        Bourne Identity diner scene
        "How do I know how to do these things...."
        "...but I don't know who I am?"
        Michael Clayton alley scene
        Michael: "I'm not the enemy..."
        Arthur: "Then who are you?"
        It need not be a specific scene
        It could be compelling questions / back of DVD
        Bourne Identity: what if you think you're good, but you discover you're bad?
        Duplicity: what if romance was corporate espionage?
        Michael Clayton: what if the crazy person was the only sane one?
        Michael Clayton: what if you passed your last exit for redemption?
        Bourne Legacy: what if your cured handicap was threatened to relapse?
        State of Play: what if the guy helping my kidnapped wife was vastly superior to me?
        The Devil's Advocate: what if I was literally the devil's advocate?
        Most of the work in these early stages happens before this "drop"
        Don't settle
        Don't deny it when it's obvious
        Keep sparking and exploring until it drops
        No one said creating was easy
        Commit to real (or,at worst, invented) deadlines
        Commitment forces progress
        All of us work much harder for others than we do for ourselves
        Use this to your advantage
        Job ensures way more productivity than hobby
        CREATE WORLD
        Know something.
        What you know about limits your writing.
        Be curious.
        Expand general knowledge.
        Read / watch what you don't know.
        Study what you don't like.
        Know enough intro material to be a dinner companion about ANY topic.
        Pursue this always.
        When it comes time to learn a lot for a story, then you know sorta where to start.
        Dive in and burrow a hole into that topic.
        Create a world with credibility.
        If it's based in reality, learn the reality.
        People, places, settings, values, customs
        Gear, skills, challenges, limits, evolution, history, main events
        If it's not based in reality, which parts are connected to our reality and which depart?
        Establish the "rules of the game" to prevent later "cheating"
        True for real or fantasy
        Also helps set tone
        Decide on the tone that gives story max effect & layers
        Tone within genre choice
        What *kind* of (genre of film)?
        Earnest? Cynical?
        2 feet on ground? 1 foot? 1 toe?
        Plausible? Dreamlike?
        Humane? Detached?
        Does now follow from before?
        Not predictable but also not contrived
        Decide what world you want to create
        Learn until you can create (hard research part)
        Knowledge is fractal; will take many "passes" at research
        Insufficient knowledge kills believability
        Viewer will not visit a contrived world
        Story will not be heard
        Believable world (even if fantasy world) cannot be emphasized enough
        Why did *you* turn off that movie?
        HUMAN BEHAVIOR
        Absolutely must know.. well
        Technically part of "create world" but deserves its own topic
        Implausible human behavior = kiss of death
        Implausible for that specific person
        "Why would she do that?" --> "yeah, right" --> tunes out
        Eccentric OK; setup the later plausibility
        Common theme throughout: we can work backwards to setup later events
        Understand your characters better than they do
        Understanding is not agreeing
        Know what they would say to any story relevant question
        But don't have them actually say these things
        Creates "on the nose" unrealistically forthright dialogue
        If you must, do so delicately and rarely
        People do not say everything they think/feel
        If you object: people *in movies you like* rarely say what they think/feel
        You already know what grabs you & what seems stiff
        If you can't think of anything to work on, read applied psychology
        Record in your notes why you dislike a scene in movie; don't do that
        Tried & true tricks: every scene must have a conflict
        Conflict comes from different wants
        Know what each person wants
        Internal conflict comes from competing wants & needs
        Conflict need not be life/death, physical, peril
        Could be simple as keep secret vs gain disclosure
        Independence vs influence
        Gain vs give approval
        Fear vs desire
        Unknown vs peace of mind
        Make 2 characters argue/conflict --> disclose info & draw viewer in
        Esp if 2 antagonists or 2 "team protagonist" characters have some degree of conflict/argument
        Bourne Identity: Abbott presses Conklin for reassurances
        Michael Clayton: Crowder resists saying anything incriminating with Verne
        No limit to the contradictions, complexities, conflicts of human behavior
        Limit the *shown* complexity to story-relevant; know the iceberg but only show the tip
        Make some aspect of each character righteous about something
        Connect their stance with "philosophical conflict" in climax
        OUTLINE
        Do not write in screenplay format until the bitter end
        You don't paint the trim if you don't even have walls
        Outline it from beginning all the way to the end AS SOON and AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE
        This is painful but necessary
        Avoiding this means you have more to do in earlier stages
        Almost always means do more in explore & create world stages
        Writing without outlining leads to bad stories 99% of the time
        Common theme: know what stage you're in
        Act accordingly
        Don't try to explore (etc) while outlining; pause, go explore (etc), then come back
        Think of each stage as a separate occupation
        You don't wear a tuxedo to a diner
        Apple doesn't ship you raw materials
        Know what hat you're wearing
        Shift gears freely but know the car's gear
        Reverse gear doesn't help you go forward nearly as well as forward gear does
        Writing is not one monolithic activity
        Most objections to these distinctions of writing stages are not made by experienced writers
        Include as much key dialogue as possible
        Entire scenes are not necessary
        Must include the *point* or outcome of each part of the outline
        Specific outline format doesn't matter; just understand it
        Copy a grade school story template
        Copy any story template if you're stuck
        Talk it out / act it out
        Record it like a radio play; be narrator & characters
        Transcribe it into an outline
        Keep track of what the audience knows and when
        Keep track of what is set up and when it pays off
        Keep track of what audience expects and revelation/surprise moments
        Be a reporter "on the scene"
        "Report" on the movie in your head
        Make each person talk like they would really talk
        WRITE IN FORMAT
        Do not proceed without an outline from beginning to end
        I do not know a writer who writes in the final formal without an outline
        Get "visually excited" about each scene
        What visually grabs me about this scene?
        Make it cinema; not a play, novel, short story
        I have to see it or hear it on screen
        Make it captivating to look at even on mute
        It has to move quickly
        Make the reader say, "I feel like I'm falling through your movie"
        No chunks of text
        LOTS OF WHITE ON THE PAGE
        Max ~3 lines of any one thing
        Read dozens of RECENT screenplays of good movies
        Proper "literary" sentences are rare to absent
        You're writing a blueprint for the movie
        Don't mention camera instructions
        Tell the story concisely and relentlessly
        Does this look how a good movie looks?
        Every scene has a conflict
        Every scene moves the story forward
        Most "writer's blocks" at this stage are "not being able to see it"
        Go there, if possible, and see the location
        If not, get videos, photos, drawings, make a model if you have to
        Structure allows for creativity
        Like scales and themes for an improvising musician
        Each location: what are the possibilities, limitations, challenges
        Real actors will be there, what are they doing?
        1 page is about 1 minute onscreen
        You have 1 page to hook me
        Then another 2 pages (p2-3) to make me care
        Establish protagonist, baseline, want, and flaw/need in first 10 pages
        Break the "1,2,10" rules at your peril
        ANNIHILIATE (& repeat write/annihilate)
        Cut crap out
        Does he have to say that?
        Does she have to do that?
        When I watch this, am I captivated?
        Is there a conflict?
        If this wasn't my movie, why would I care?
        Does now follow from before?
        Does the viewer clearly know enough to retell it?
        Does the viewer know too much to be surprised?
        Always be revealing / discovering.
        Setup and payoff
        Was the payoff setup well enough?
        Was the payoff predictable? Add distractors.
        Was the payoff satisfying? Did the story end?
        Useful structural points; not absolutely necessary, but often seen in good movies; use if stuck
        First ten pages (already described)
        Who are the "3 people who matter?" Rarely, just 2 if strictly a romance only.
        What do each want/need/have/lack?
        What is the conflict between each pair?
        Know the climax; work backwards
        Climax: resolution of external, internal, philosophical conflicts
        External: what is the overall goal?
        Internal: how do(es) the changed character(s) change?
        Philosophical: which side wins "the dilemma" or "the argument?"
        Great climax resolves all 3 of these simultaneously.
        Bourne Identity: I ended the threat; I decided to be good; individuals have free will.
        Michael Clayton: I exacted justice; I respect myself; it's never too late for redemption.
        Duplicity: we got the secret formula; we trust each other; love & trust defeat cynicism.
        Typical structure: hook, 1st 10 pages, establish overall goal & immediate goal...
        Succeed at successive immediate goals while making overall goal less likely
        Lowest point / darkest hour then climax
        At least one of the 3 people who matter change at the climax
        Both of the 2 in a strict romance change
        Steadfast protagonist is fine (Fugitive) if another key character changes (Gerard)
        Know your stage; act appropriately. THE END!

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Tony Gilroy's Screenplay Writing Process

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