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INTERVIEW
WITH RICHARD WALTER |
I
met with Richard Walter, legendary chair of UCLA’s
screenwriting program in anticipation of the release of his
new book, Essentials
of Screenwriting (available in stores now). The
notion of interviewing him came up in a telephone
conversation about trends in the industry in teaching,
creating, and promoting story as well as his impending
return as a revered speaker at the Screenwriting Expo in
October. I looked forward to the encounter in its own
right, and felt privileged to be able to help promote one of
the enduringly influential and important voices in our
industry – in part because I very much agree with so much
of what he has to say and think it important to be heard.
Anyone who has ever spoken with him knows in advance, it was
a wide ranging and occasionally careening conversation with
an expansive mind at its peak and a heart so full of passion
for what he does. He often speaks with hands raised and
gesturing as though conducting a symphony of words and
images, a genuine love of story filling the room. I share
the following portions of that conversation not so much
just to promote a single book (as singularly important as it
is), but as a reminder of the importance of the voice behind
it and as an additional reminder to heed its timeless and
timely dedication to story, craft, and the enduring
essentials of narrative. All I can say is, you should have
been there. This is truly a man who takes delight in story,
our industry, and guiding others through their intertwined
personal and professional journeys of life, craft, and
creativity.
PH – Some of the things I
have long admired about you and that seem most timely with
your new book coming out is your ongoing commitment to
quality of story, the genuine mastery of craft –
especially in an industry that is going through such rapid
change.
RW – To some
extent, but that is of secondary importance. People often
get their priorities mixed up because it is easier to think
about industry issues like that than to deal with
story. The obsession is with everything except story and I
think the reason people avoid story is because it is so
difficult to really, really, tell a good story and it is
just underappreciated, the challenge that represents.
PH – Yes. And there are so
many groups and events that have fed into the notions that
you just need to meet the right people and have the right
idea, and generally succeed by some kind of magic osmosis in
just being in the presence of successful people - with more
emphasis on analytic mechanics rather than story.
What were you after or want to bring into relief with
this new book?
RW – My
basic principles remain the same. Nothing has changed
since Aristotle. Aristotle never talked about three act
structure – he talked about beginnings, middles, and ends.
What I think I have discovered is the relationship between
the fictional narrative and the life narrative. The
fictional narrative, be it in a novel or a screenplay or an
opera is, with its beginning, middle, and end – if it
is good – is an idealized, romanticized model of a human
life. I believe that every ideal narrative is a model of the
human life and that leads to a third consideration – which
is really in the center of my last book and is emphasized
and underscored and brought into a more palpable relief here
– and that is that all narratives are really
thematically about the same thing: identity. Every work of
art is a portrait of the artist who created it.
I remember I was leaning over a water fountain just down the
hall here and suddenly it dawned on me what marks the
current age is the disappearance of borders and boundaries.
There is no more East and West. You can go to
Shanghai and you could be in the Banana Republic, The
Gap, and it does not matter where you are. You are in the
same place all around the world. Women do what men used to
do. Men do what women used to do. There are no longer
borders or boundaries, and the implications are sweeping.
Increasingly movies are becoming enterprises without borders
and boundaries, world phenomena that blend and blur myriad
experiences into a common entity.
PH – What prompted you to
write a new book now?
RW – This book
vastly updates and revises my previous two books treating
screenwriting, folds them into each other, and also presents
a whole bunch of new material. I have had a lot of
experience since then as a writer, and that experience is
leveraged by my very intimate experience working with other
writers both here on campus and throughout the industry. I
have the experience of many writers. So much new stuff has
occurred, I really wanted to address that.
PH – What impact if
anything would you like your book to have on writers and
perhaps the industry itself or the people they have to deal
with?
RW – I want to
think that they will be able to write better scripts and to
recognize that is the best way to deal with the
industry, to write more effectively and to have a script
truly ready when you submit it. The simple goal is to allow
writers to write stronger material. If writers do
that, the business works itself out. I have in this
book about seventy-five principles that emerge and
one of them is that screenwriting is not about the movie
business; the movie business is about screenwriting. Even
the town seems to understand. There is the famous statement
by Thalberg in the 30’s that writers are the most
important people in the business and we producers have to do
everything in our power to keep them from knowing that. So,
it really is about the writing. Writers have power over
what? They have the power over the quality of
their scripts.
PH – And what is the
missing element there?
RW – Time.
You’ve got to put in the time. I said to a writer friend
the other day "How are you doing?" He said,
"Much better now." I said, "What’s
up?" He said, "For nine months I sat and struggled
with this script and was almost done but just couldn’t
finish it. I kept procrastinating and getting distracted and
it just haunted me and ate me up and finally I sat down and
drew the shade and just buckled down and at long last got
through the draft in a single weekend. I finished it up. It
works well and my agent likes it and there are already
overtures." I said, "That sounds like nothing but
joy. What are you bothered about?" "I’m
bothered that I wasted all that time. I should have done
that nine months ago and spared myself from all this
heartache." I said, "You couldn’t have done that
nine months ago. You needed to suffer and struggle and live
these nine months in order to become the different
person you are now, a writer who is finally able to do
that." I like to tell people, time is what your life is
made of. It is the currency of life. It means that if
you’re serious about writing, you have to give it your
life.
PH – Do you think it
requires a strict or rigid plan?
RW – Deepok Chopra
says it’s a fundamental mistake to attach to any act in
your life an expected outcome. That to do otherwise is
merely a recipe for frustration, a formula for
disappointment. The mistake writers make is they attach to
the act of writing the script the expectation of
selling it and they don’t understand that from the
get-go this will prevent the sale. First of all they
don’t understand that when a script does not sell, that is
not the end but just the beginning. There’s a whole
array of possibilities that comes from an unsold script and
there are some certainties that come of it, too. You will be
a better writer for having written that script. You are
going to have more inventory. Every screenwriter is an
entrepreneur, a small business owner. Inventory is a basic
element of business. I’ve seen people get development
deals based on scripts that did not sell. I’ve seen
them win representation. The hardest part is
to stay open to the surprises. And, again, you have to do
that not only in your script narrative but also in your life
narrative. You don’t want to drag narrative back to some
intellectualized analytic notion that you had earlier. You
just have to get out of your own way.
PH – And what about
following or jumping on trends - the most common advice
almost everyone gives new writers?
RW –That is the
problem with trends, isn’t it? Trend means two things.
One, that it was already in motion with projects being
developed before any were successes and helped set the
trend. Secondly, trends change as new scripts and projects
take years to develop. Trends change. The biggest problem
with writing to trend is you cannot write fast enough to
cash in on it and are up against everyone else chasing the
same trend. I tell people to do the opposite. Write against
trends. Start new trends. That way you will stand out.
PH – It is clear that
after decades of doing what you are doing, you are still
exuberantly passionate about all this. What do you impart to
your students facing such a seemingly impossible industry
with literally thousands more lined up at the door than
could ever break in?
RW – I
tell them that every well established writer, without
exception, was once totally, wholly unknown and
inexperienced. Regarding the competitive nature of the
business, I tell them that they are literally trying to
traffic in their own imagination. They’re trying to sell
their dreams. We get paid, writers do, for what other people
get scolded for, which is daydreaming. So, why wouldn’t
you expect a lot of people to compete for that? You’d
better be able to compete. Let’s face it, you and I both
know that to read the first page of a screenplay and to want
to turn that page is rare. And to do that for a hundred to a
hundred and five pages? If you can do that you will succeed.
But you have to give it the time. The reason not everybody
succeeds is they don’t give it the time.
As for what continues to fire me up? I have the best job in
the world.
For more information and to
buy Richard Walter’s new book, visit www.richardwalter.com.
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