star wars first draft

believed to be one of the first drafts of ‘star wars’ by george lucas and dated may 1974, this is one for fans who can see where this iconic series of films began.

it is a first, rough draft and absolutely a work-in-progress. usually, out of respect for the writer, i would never post a draft of a screenplay at the stage this is at, but as it is nearly 40 years old, and considering lucas has passed everything on now, it seems reasonable to consider this as both a learning tool and something for fans of the series to enjoy.

The Star Wars

happy writing

phil

scriptguyphil.com

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to the power of three

regardless of what brought you to writing – a love of telling stories, the ‘lone wolf’ lifestyle or whether it is something you simply have to do – there is no way of getting away from the fact that the film industry is a collaborative industry. even if you are steven soderbergh or robert rodriguez who shoot and edit their own films, they still work with countless others, including writers, on their films.

a great many filmmakers work with the same writers and/or crew on a regular basis, but what i want to talk about here is a triangle of collaborators that form a solid foundation for a successful and extended career:–

writer – producer – director.

making the leap into the world of professional screenwriting on your own is a daunting task! one of the best ways to make this task a little easier is to form alliances as early as possible.

you could hook up with a producer that likes your work and will get to you to do some re-writing work and build things from there. you could go to festivals and meet other filmmakers who share your perspective and taste. you could answer advertisements and work for free on shorts being made in and around your area in the hope of making some good contacts that way. all of these are valid ways of making friends and new potential collaborators, particularly if you’re coming into the industry cold.

alternatively, you could look closer to home. many of you have been involved in the industry in one way or another already. and many of you will have been to, or are still going to, film school or another kind of film/media study programme. i’m sure even at an early stage that you will have made close friends who are also ready to break into the industry? are there potential collaborating partners in your close circle of friends?

when looking at the writer-producer-director triangle, there are three examples of how successful collaborations can be formed:–

the first one that sprang to mind was the triangle of john hodge, andrew macdonald and danny boyle.

hodge was (and still is, i believe!) a doctor by trade, but he met macdonald at the edinburgh film festival in 1991. this meeting obviously inspired hodge to write a screenplay – which became shallow grave (1994). once it was finished the hunt for a director was on. that hunt ended when they saw the tv drama mr. wroe’s virgins, directed by boyle. the triangle was complete! together they made shallow grave, the era-defining trainspotting (1996), a life less ordinary (1997), a short film alien love triangle (1999) and the beach (2000). they have also worked in pairs with macdonald producing the boyle-directed 28 days later (2002) and executive producing films written by hodge, the final curtain (2002) and the sweeney (2012). boyle has recently directed a film, trance, co-written by hodge, which is currently in post production.

the next threesome has created some of the funniest and most engaging comedies of the last decade – simon pegg, nira park and edgar wright.

this collaboration began when pegg and wright worked together on the tv comedy series asylum in 1996. pegg got together with another performer on the series, jessica hynes and they wrote the cult series spaced. having both worked with wright before, they brought him in to direct. the series was produced by channel 4, but a co-producer was big talk productions run by nira park. since spaced, they have worked together on shaun of the dead (2004), hot fuzz (2007) and are due to be making the world’s end (2014). park has also produced the wright-directed scott pilgrim vs. the world (2010), as well as paul (2011) co-written by and starring pegg.

the final triangle i want to mention is relatively new – antonio campos, sean durkin and josh mond.

this is an interesting triangle because they all want to write and direct their own films. what makes the difference here is that the writer-director of a project is backed up by the other two who act as producers. they met at new york university’s film school (although only one graduated), and soon after set up their production company borderline films. after producing 4 shorts together, their first feature was afterschool (2008) directed by campos. their follow-up was the excellent martha marcy may marlene (2011) directed by durkin. their next film, simon killer, also directed by campos, has been picked up for distribution but no release date has been set. to hear their story in their own words, check out the q & a with jeff goldsmith podcast on martha marcy may marlene – where you will also hear why josh mond is yet to step into the director’s chair!

there are important things to consider when forming collaborative partnerships. all parties need to have the same kind of drive and love for filmmaking, everyone needs to pull their weight in whatever role they have taken on and above all there needs to be trust – you need to know that your partners have your back and will go that extra mile for you! i wrote a blogpost about how to assess a working relationship, which you can read here.

making the leap into the industry will always be daunting no matter what, but if you are not making that jump alone and you are with people you trust, then it makes that leap just a little bit easier!

happy writing

phil

scriptguyphil.com

if you have any comments or other examples of writer-producer-director triangles, then feel free to post them here, or you can also find me on twitter and facebook!

culture clash

i recently came home from a fun and intensive three days at the berlin film festival, where i met with filmmakers from more than 20 different countries. i heard a great many stories from many different cultures, which highlighted one of my favourite parts of my job and this industry. i find cultural differences deeply fascinating, and an integral part of what makes the film industry such a terrific area to work in.

just by looking at what is on offer at my local arthouse cinema today proves the  diversity of global filmmaking – an american film set in the uk, a danish documentary set in russia, an american film, a german documentary, a danish film, a japanese animation based on a beloved english story, a french romantic comedy, a film by an italian director made in the u.s., an iranian drama and a classic british novel directed by an american.

on a personal level, i have worked on films made in denmark, belgium, romania and canada, and have helped develop projects in the u.s., the u.k., france, spain, germany, poland, sweden and australia – and i wouldn’t have it any other way!

cultural differences present to me, not only an extraordinary variety in the projects i get the chance to work on and the writers, producers and directors i get to work with, but also one of the greatest challenges in my work.

back when i worked on belgian film bullhead (rundskop), a situation arose where the production company had worked extremely hard to reduce the number of shooting days in compliance with their projected budget, and they were still a few days too many. as i had already worked on 6 drafts of the script, they asked me to take a few days to find potential ways of reducing shooting days by cutting, combining locations, etc. i was very knowledgeable of the story, but still enough of an outsider to not be too attached to the script in a way that might affect my judgment on whether certain elements of the script were absolutely necessary or whether the production team were simply too attached to them.

one of the things i chose to do was to cut two characters (the two french mechanics) who were part of a subplot that had a small influence on the main story. i found a way of incorporating the important information from their scenes concisely into other parts of the story.

however, by doing this i had unwittingly eliminated an important part of the tone of the film relating to cultural differences. when i had worked on drafts of the script they had been translated from flemish to english, so the elements regarding the differences between flemish-speaking and french-speaking belgians had been slightly lost in translation. these cultural differences mirrored somewhat the suspicions between the flemish farmers and the french-belgian mafia that runs throughout the story. having now seen the final film, i can see what the mechanics mean to the tone, and i can understand more clearly why they are there.

in the end, we got the shooting days down, the film got made and was recently nominated for an oscar as best foreign film. and i got to learn something about the cultural differences in belgium!

as an englishman, it was an eye-opener that two countries such as england and belgium would have such pronounced cultural differences. they are so close geographically, and are both part of western europe.

many filmmakers from all corners of the globe have tried to make films in hollywood, or at the very least in english or a language different from their native one with varying degrees of success. Right from the early days of silent and talkies, filmmakers from europe (curtiz, lang, wilder, etc) have moved to America and become influential filmmakers. many suggest that the combination of a european sensibility combined with american culture is what has made the films of these filmmakers so interesting – and i’m inclined to agree with that idea.

three prominent danish directors have tried, with varying degrees of success, to make films in english and/or the u.s.

lars von trier has been incredibly successful in critical circles for many years now – albeit with a certain amount of controversy and he often divides critics. he is certainly more highly regarded outside of denmark than he is at home, but he has also never truly cracked the american market, which possibly highlights a european/american divide.

thomas vinterberg, after the huge success of his breakout film festen also tried to make the leap into english like von trier. the two films he made, its all about love and dear wendy, (the latter interestingly enough written by von trier), were both highly ambitious, critically mixed, financial failures. vinterberg is now back on track making films in denmark, including the impressive submarino.

nicolas winding refn is the one director that seems to have the ability to adapt himself better to all markets. his story is an interesting one. he broke out with pusher  and bleeder, then went to america to make the underrated and underseen fear x. after financial troubles, he relaunched his career with pusher 2 and pusher 3, two highly successful films, then went to the u.k. to make bronson and valhalla rising. most recently he made drive in the u.s. all of these films have been well-received critically and, with the exception of fear x, have had financial success.

one of the most prominent filmmakers of the last 2 decades is ang lee. after success in taiwan, he was an unusual choice to say the least to direct an adaptation of the very british sense and sensibility. a film not in his own language or time period, you could be forgiven for thinking he might be out of his depth. however, emma thompson, the film’s writer, said that it was precisely because of this cultural difference that stopped the film being the usual british period drama, and gave it an additional dimension and took the film to a higher level. it was a financial and commercial success garnering 7 oscar nominations. he since made a number of successful films in locations, time periods and genres (brokeback mountain, the ice storm, lust, caution, etc) that wouldn’t at face value seem to be a good match for ang lee, but that he has adapted to and brought his own cultural sensibilities to the project that have added something to these films.

whether it is the project, the person or a combination of the two that makes the transition succeed or not is as difficult a question to answer as what makes a film successful.

with so many films receiving financing from multiple countries, it is important, now more than ever, to embrace cultural differences. we are working in a global industry now and i see that as a very positive development.

happy writing

phil

scriptguyphil.com

(and you can follow me here on twitter and facebook)

being a writer-producer

the legend goes that samuel goldwyn, one of the great hollywood movie moguls of old, once said, “writers have all the power in hollywood. we just have to make sure that they never find out.”

the amount of power writers actually have varies from production to production, but more often than not, once the writer’s work is done and production starts, the director and production team take over leaving the writer to a) start work on the next project and b) wonder whether the script they toiled so hard over is being treated well or not.

a small percentage of writers are lucky enough to be on set for re-writes and will have some creative input in the editing phase, but the majority will only have a minor influence once the script has been handed over.

it doesn’t seem fair that someone who has put so much creativity into a piece of work has to sit back as others bastardise and make changes to the work you have done – sometimes for the better, sometimes for worse. but they are still changing what you have done.

that’s fair enough to a certain extent as film is a collaborative process, which is one of the reasons i love working in this industry. (there is nothing better than sitting down with a writer, director and producer to discuss a script and find that everybody clicks and the project improves as a result). and hopefully you have been paid well for your work.

what i do find difficult to take is how the balance of influence seems to be misplaced. why is it that a writer has less overall influence than some others involved in the production of a feature film? that is a question that has been discussed for decades with no clear answer, but regardless of what the answer to that question is, it just doesn’t seem right that the person that started the ball rolling – in fact actually built the ball, often from scratch – is left twiddling their thumbs wondering how everything will turn out.

rightly or wrongly, film is a director’s medium – you only have to look at the ridiculous “a film by…” credit! – and seems that it will remain so for the time being, but that doesn’t mean a writer should lie down and take it!

some writers end up deciding to direct their own scripts, which gives them much more creative control. however, that is also very time consuming, and a lot of writers either don’t want to commit to that – because they want to write – or they find it hard to be given the opportunity because they don’t have the experience.

that is why more and more writers are becoming writer-producers.

here’s a list of names for you – all have served as writer-producers. some have also directed, but the titles listed here are writer-producer credits only.

steven zaillian – girl with the dragon tattoo (2011), american gangster

mark boal – the hurt locker

matthew vaughn – the debt

rick jaffa/amanda silver – rise of the planet of the apes

charlie kaufman – being john malkovich, human nature, adaptation, eternal sunshine of the spotless mind

and not forgetting luc besson who has been doing this for many years and has 22 credits as writer-producer on top of the films he wrote, produced and directed!

a separate list would include people like judd apatow or j.j. abrams who are ‘multi-hyphenates’, but are chiefly thought of in the industry as producers who write, and occasionally direct.

to show that you don’t have to be a big shot writer to be a writer-producer, here is another list of writer-producers on lower-budget, independently produced films that have also found relative success.

steven gaydos – road to nowhere

brandon freeman/heath freeman – skateland

deborah calla – a beautiful life

robert longstreet – septien

all of these films have been released in the last 6 months alone and account for less than half of the films released on the independent circuit with a writer-producer credited, so it is possible to become a writer-producer regardless of your experience or the size of the film as long as you do the work.

if you are a writer than wants to hold on to a certain amount of creative control then you should try and work your way to a producer’s role. there are three main producer credits of any weight for you to choose from –

‘producer’ – you could become the major producer of the film, controlling the hiring and firing, the financial and organizational aspects of the whole production. this, however, is even more time consuming than being a director. you would be on the project longer than anyone else, and would need to be available to everyone 24/7. unless you have the energy of the duracell bunny, chances are that it will be unlikely that you would be able to write your next masterpiece and produce a film at the same time.

‘executive producer’ – this is where you would aid the production financially in some way, either through your own private financing or by deferring some or all of your fee in return for more input down the line. an executive producer credit is also the one given to a writer who has been on a project at an earlier stage, but when the project takes a different direction and the writer leaves, they are given this credit as a thank you and/or a pay-off.

‘associate producer’ – this is by far the most appealing of the producer credits for a writer. the definition is often confused with the ‘executive’ credit, but whereas the ‘executive’ is predominantly a silent partner, the ‘associate’ is defined as a person who has done an extensive amount of creative work throughout the production – enough to warrant more than a straightforward writing credit. this would mean that you might have been doing extensive re-writes on set, probably outside what has been set out in your contract, or had some input during the editing phase, as well as perhaps having input with the actors and other creatives in rehearsals or pre-production. you would give up a certain amount of time performing this role, but you would be able to split your time between production and writing your next script. this, to me, makes it the optimal producing role for a writer who wants some creative control, but who also wants time to move on with other projects.

a fourth, lesser credit is that of ‘creative producer’. this is a more ephemeral title, and is used on smaller films as someone who has been highly involved on the creative side in the early stages, chiefly in development, but has little influence during production and post. on larger films the ‘creative producer’ is someone who has been involved in creating a specific world, storylines and characters designed for a potential franchise, where the work done at the beginning will be carried on through subsequent films.

it isn’t easy getting a producer credit as they are rarely given up lightly, and you will really have to put the work in for others to consider you worthy of the extra credit. bear in mind that it is the main producer that hands out these titles so it really depends on who you are working with and how willing they are to share the credit! you will need to gauge the relationship you have with the producer and the amount of additional work you have done before negotiating whether you are eligible for a production credit or not.

so are you a writer that wants to retain as much creative control as possible, or are you a writer that is willing to put your trust in others to do their jobs and to do them well? are you happier spinning your stories in the seclusion of your writing space, perhaps enjoying the process more than the end result, or are you the sort of writer that has the patience to follow a project through to the very end?

either route is commendable and both have their advantages and disadvantages. take things project by project and as long as you’re enjoying your work then that is what matters the most!

if you have any questions about becoming a writer-producer, then you can either leave a comment or send me an e-mail – phil@scriptguyphil.com

happy writing

phil

scriptguyphil.com

(and you can follow me here on twitter and facebook)

producer’s document series #2 – comparable films

This is the second in a series where I will be uploading documents that production companies use during the development phase.

These documents highlight the commerciality of a project and will give an insight into the development process from a producer’s perspective, particularly in regards to financing. Although I would always urge a writer to write the script they want to, it is definitely an advantage to have information like this in the back of your mind, not only regarding your story and its potential budget requirements, but it might also help you in your decision as to which companies/producers to approach.

This time I will be looking at how producer’s use previously released films similar to your script to help raise financing, but which also aids in marketing a finished film. (If you missed the first in the series on the Project Sheet, you can find it here).

When a producer approaches private investors to access funding for a feature film it is important to have a proof of concept. Investing in movies is a gamble – plain and simple – and that is where comparable films come in handy.

A solid, varied list of films comparable with the one that you are trying to finance will give a clear picture to the ‘money men’ as to what they can expect for their investment. A producer worth their salt will be able to draw up a list that is both realistic (an investor can smell an overly positive list a mile away!), but also one that will peak their interest that the project in question has the potential to make them a buck or two.

An interesting thing to be aware of is that box office gross, although important, isn’t the number one priority for an investor. They are more concerned with those three little words – Return on Investment (ROI). Naturally the more money a film makes the more they will get back, but these are people that work in percentages, and the higher the ROI percentage, the better, regardless of how many thousands or millions of dollars we are talking about.

That is why the key figure at the bottom of the comparable films table is the ROI percentage – not a dollar value!

I’ve attached a comparable films table below for a serial killer film we had in development at Zeitgeist Film so you see how our projections for the project compared with films of the same type. It is very important to choose films that are as close to your own project in genre, tone and budget. Working with films of a similar budget is key – your producer shouldn’t compare a low budget indie film with a hollywood studio film even if the stories and themes are the same as it will create an unbalanced outcome.

Download the comparable table here – comparable films – TOMB

I hope you find it helpful!

To be sure of picking up future document downloads, follow me on twitter or join me on facebook.

Good luck and happy writing

Phil

scriptguyphil.com

producer’s document series #1 – the project sheet

Over the coming weeks I aim to upload a series of documents that production companies use during the development phase.

These documents highlight the commerciality of a project and will give an insight into the development process from a producer’s perspective, particularly in regards to financing. Although I would always urge a writer to write the script they want to, it is definitely an advantage to have information like this in the back of your mind, not only regarding your story and its potential budget requirements, but it might also help you in your decision as to which companies/producers to approach.

First up is a project sheet.

Project sheets are a bit like treatments in the sense that there is no one set way of presenting a project sheet as each company puts emphasis on different things. The one I have uploaded here is based on the template I created during my time at Zeitgeist Film.

A project sheet is basically a one-stop shop that gives an overview of a project that a producer will use to keep track of all the vital elements during the development/financing process, and as a result it is constantly being updated. The project sheet will also be included in a project portfolio that gets sent out to prospective investors be they state/regional funding, private investment, etc.

Here’s a quick breakdown –-

• Company information – including attached crew
• Film specifics – budget, locations, etc.
• Pitch and synopsis
• Current financing details – confirmed and potential
• Comparable films
• Unique selling points – what makes this project special.
• Casting options
• Director and writer bios
• Conclusion

For a writer, I would suggest paying particular attention to the section “Unique Selling Points”. This is where a producer will make a case for why a project could be successful and deserves financing. As a writer, if you can come up with three strong USP’s it will certainly help your own case when submitting to producers.

The attached project sheet is for Ghosthunters, a project that Zeitgeist Film has recently helped develop, and will hopefully produce in the coming 18 months. I have also included the original excel template I created so that you can either have fun testing your own projects, or maybe even use as an additional document when submitting your scripts to potential producers.

ghosthunters project sheet example              template – project sheet

I hope you find them helpful!

To be sure of picking up future document downloads, follow me on twitter or join me on facebook.

Good luck and happy writing

Phil

scriptguyphil.com