Five films for Screenwriters
I usually try to see writing more as a sport than as a science. It is a world where technique complements talent and discipline compensates everything else.
When writing, it is extremely important to document yourself well, not only about the form but also about the medium. As we are learning how to make films, the best learning is done via watching film. These are five movies about the creative process.
Adaptation (Spike Jonze, 2002)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMwOEkTmTyQ
Charlie Kaufman was nominated for an Oscar, together with his fictitious brother, for this movie. Together, they star in a film that examines the world of Hollywood, film production and creative blockage.
Any writer can feel identified with the character that Nicholas Cage plays, who sees how his surroundings go for short-cuts and other screenwriting tricks instead of helping him get over his creative blockage, which will eventually unravel an avalanche of creativity.
Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman, 2008)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIizh6nYnTU
We continue with Kaufman. In this movie, we are not talking anymore about the absence of inspiration, rather the contrary. Infinite themes are explored here, and each character becomes its own play. The film extends in itself and we see how a small idea becomes a magnum opus.
The Revenant (Alejandro G. Iñárritu, 2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoebZZ8K5N0
This film it is not literally about a script or the making of one, but the contrary. The Revenant has a super simple plot, no introspective dialogues. It’s the minimal expression of a script, but its directing takes acting, technology and cinematography to its limits.
I still remember some people complaining on Facebook about how the film barely has any dialogue, and they’d call it pretentious for its multiple silences. A lot of people accused Iñárritu of being sensationalist, when we could all applaud him for achieving a frenetic escape from its comfort zone, film after film.
It’s with films like these where we realize how much prominence can simplicity take in the plot of a movie. And where the message can be lead by its result.
The King’s Speech (Tom Hooper, 2010)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcxBrTvLbBM
This movie, in the end, is more about the importance of communication and interpretation, and less about its historical elements. All artists have been confronted with their need of exercising leadership, failing in the search and finally achieving it.
Hooper’s impecable film made him deserving of various prizes, but the original message of the film keeps being intact and is key for any filmmaker. Something as simple as knowing to talk in public becomes a challenge under the right circumstances.
Birdman (Alejandro G. Iñárritu 2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJfLoE6hanc
Another meta-film. Michael Keaton is a splendid actor who got typecast in an old superhero role he once played, which doesn’t represent the ampleness of his career and talent; as the main character of the film.
In a last review of the creative process, we see one that is focused on experience and the real world. It is not anymore the fight of the artist against himself or that, which is stopping him from producing. This film is about how can audiences be an obstacle for an artist who is trying to open up and breakthrough it.
I believe these 5 movies show the milestones of the creative process:
- Inspiration
- Achievement
- Realization
- Interpretation
- Critique
What brings them together is that the message of the film is what makes them exist. Films about how to make films. It’s worth to watch them again with that in mind and to try putting ourselves in the shoes of the filmmakers.
