![]() ![]() He uses these cards to distill what is necessary to tell the story. This offers the ability to move those pieces around to find that story structure and narrative. "What I do is start to take that material, whatever it is, and boil down the moments I think are cinematic and the moments necessary for the story."īlack then puts those moments onto notecards, each of which is as pure and singular as possible. Find the Moments in Your Research That Are Cinematic He goes on to say, " 90% of you'll never use." But that 10% you do use is so important to finding the truth of your concept, your story, and your characters.Īnd if you're looking for inspiration, you can learn how to master character names and movie titles with this free guide. There's a terrible studio note that Black mentions, which always seems to find its way into studio coverage or meetings - "Make the characters relatable." He points out that screenwriters shouldn't be trying to make characters "relatable". It's about understanding the tone, atmosphere, and dynamics of those people, those types of characters, those worlds, and those time periods. Research isn't about copying and pasting facts and placing them into whatever context required within your script. What is the industry really like? What is the environment like? What was the time period like? If you're setting your stories within a particular industry, environment, or time period, you have to get to the truth of those elements. He has boxes and boxes filled with research material.īut there's also a place for truth in fiction as well. Black often researches for a year or more before he tackles a real-life story. When you're writing a screenplay based on actual events or real characters, it's vital that you do the necessary research. "I think it's very, very important to get to the truth. Something deeper has to drive the work, and that drive will often take your script to the next level that it needs to be at to get noticed. Having a cool idea, cool story, or cool characters isn't enough. Perhaps the story or characters are significant to current cultural issues. Perhaps you're trying to redefine a genre. Perhaps you're telling a true story that you feel needs to be told. If you truly want to get noticed, there has to be more. Hollywood is flooded with such scripts, and they are almost instantly forgettable because there are so many. It's not enough to just develop and write a screenplay that has an entertaining or interesting premise. Not that it's entertaining or interesting, but why are you telling that story? What is the purpose of that story?" Taking an idea - whether it's fiction or non-fiction - and figuring out, 'Why?' Not just what you're going to tell. Here are five screenwriting lessons that screenwriters can learn from Black, accompanied by our own elaboration on his wise words. Edgar for Clint Eastwood, Virginia, and created and wrote for the mini-series When We Rise. Black won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. He showed a draft to Milk’s former aide Cleve Jones, who then passed the script to Gus Van Sant, who would go on to direct the feature film Milk. Interested in the story of Harvey Milk, Black wrote the eventual screenplay on spec. He was a staff writer in the first season, executive story editor in the second season, and then became co-producer for season three. With his background of being raised as a Mormon, Black secured a job as a writer for the complete run of the celebrated HBO series Big Love, about a polygamous Mormon family. He directed and was a subject of the documentary On the Bus, about a Nevada road trip taken by six gay men. Academy Originals' Creative Spark Series features Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black as he takes viewers inside his screenwriting process.īlack attended UCLA and graduated with honors from UCLA’s School of Theater, Film, and Television in 1996.
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