finding inspiration everywhere

this is the 2nd of 2 short summer posts looking at inspiration. this one looks at how inspiration can show up absolutely anywhere and how it is important to keep your eyes and ears open in the hunt for that gem of a story or even a scene or character.

a few weeks ago, the film safety not guaranteed opened in america, an indie ‘time-travel’ film that i am looking forward to seeing. the basic premise is “three magazine employees head out on an assignment to interview a guy who placed a classified ad seeking a companion for time travel” (imdb), but what was just as interesting to me was how this story began.

a man called john silveira was asked to write some jokes as filler for the thin classified pages in the sept/oct 1997 issue of backwoods home magazine by a friend who worked at the publication. the classified ad (pictured above) sent america’s media into a frenzy as they searched for this self-professed ‘time traveler’.

(as it happens, the text was the opening to an unpublished novel of silveira’s!)

that the ‘poster’ of this advert was anonymous only increased the curiosity of the media! eventually, writer derek connolly and director colin trevorrow took the idea of the search for this person and made their movie.

inspiration can come from anywhere!

there is a terrific scene in the player written by michael tolkin, where are a group of studio executives discuss how ideas can be found. (there are no character names here, just the dialogue.)

“I’m just saying there’s time and money to be saved…if we came up with these stories on our own.”
“Where are these stories coming from?”
“Anywhere. It doesn’t matter. The newspaper. Pick any story.”
“Immigrants protest budget cuts in literacy program.”
“Human spirit overcoming human adversity. Sounds like Horatio Alger in the barrio. Put Jimmy Smits in it and you’ve got a sexy Stand and Deliver. Next. Come on.”
“This isn’t my field.”
“It doesn’t matter. Give it a shot. You can’t lose here.”
“How about ‘Mud slide kills hundreds in slums of Chile’?”
“That’s good. Triumph over tragedy. Sounds like a John Boorman picture. Slap a happy ending on it, the script will write itself.”

the irony of this scene is that the executives are finding out ways of creating stories themselves in order to eliminate the writer from the process, but the idea that you could open a newspaper or visit a news website and adapt a story from any real life event is very clear. try it sometime – it is exercise for the creative mind if nothing else, and who knows what you might find!

happy writing and have a great summer

phil

scriptguyphil.com

you can also follow me and make comments on twitter and facebook

remembering what got you started

this is the 1st of 2 short summer posts looking at inspiration. this one looks at keeping a hold of the first seed of an idea that started you on the long road to getting your story onto the screen.

in an interview with f/x executive john landgraf on kcrw’s podcast the business, he discussed, amongst other things, the working methods of american stand-up and tv star louis ck.

one of the interesting points that came up was that when writing his tv show, louis ck only writes a first draft, preferring the raw instinct of his original thoughts to refining the writing to a more streamlined and (hopefully) perfect place.

louis ck made his start, and continues to perform, as a stand-up comedian, so it stands to reason that the idea of a live performance would creep into his writing style somehow.

now it takes a very special talent to be able to pull that off, and as a script consultant i tend to agree more with william goldman when he stated that “writing is re-writing” in his book adventures in the screen trade. but listening to the interview, it struck me that in the constant re-writing that goes on with most projects can often lead to too much diluting of the original idea, the original inspiration, and that the heart and soul of a story can disappear if you’re not careful.

one of the first questions i ask of a writer if the process has begun to get bogged down a little is “what was the single, original image that put you on the path to writing this story?”, and it usually is an image. the big ‘what if?’ question comes at an early stage, but i’m talking about that moment when inspiration struck. if you dig deep enough (although you probably won’t have to), it will come back to you and hopefully remind you where this story was born.

so if you get bogged down, try and remember that key moment – it might help you get back on track!

happy writing and have a great summer

phil

scriptguyphil.com

you can also follow me and make comments on twitter and facebook