Day 17: Roadmap into the industry

Movie clips we studied last night in Directing Actors course included:

• The Graduate (interaction between Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft; imagery in first scene)
• Rain Man (characterization vs. character. Characterization is how we are introduced to Tom Cruise at the beginning of the story--selfish and greedy, unable to love--while character is what he becomes)
• Next (lack of an interesting/intriguing plot leads to flat performances as the actors don't have internal conflict to draw upon; also a good example of character as Nicolas Cage rescues Julianne Moore even though she will torture him later)
• The American President (amazing performance Annette Bening gives as she hides her emotions from Michael Douglas while moving out of the White House)
• Gladiator (great storytelling in this movie, inspired by the story of George Washington)

In Gladiator the audience is introduced to Russell Crowe as he stands on a charred, empty landscape. His mind wanders to home, where he imagines he's standing in a field; he caresses golden stalks of grain as we hear children playing. Then the movement/sound of a small bird brings him back to the present. He's wearing the uniform of a Roman General; his expression changes to resolve--he has decided that he will fight one more battle before returning home. Even before one word of dialogue is spoken, we see that he isn't a fearless warrior, that he's a kind person who loves his family, and home.

As we studied clips from the various movies, Michael Uno's urged us to think simpler, viscerally. He'd ask a question and instead of a complex explanation, he asked us to evaluate the story and what the characters' actions reveal with one-word answers: is the character sad, mad, jealous. If we started to give a complex explanation, he would stop us and tell us that the answer was much more simple.

This is one of the hardest things for me to do. When I worked with Irvin Kershner, I learned that he despised minuscule details that were unimportant to the story, especially in the beginning stages of planning. As I outlined the scenes, he asked me to write on index cards using the biggest, thickest marker I could find. Being able to squeeze only four or five words onto each card forced me to distill dozens of thoughts into what was really important.

Here's to keeping it simple.

NOTE: These entries are inspired by the final assignment for The Business of Writing for Screen and Television, a School of Cinematic Arts' course taught by Frank Wuliger. Hoping to help his students become working screenwriters, he asked us to create a personal, five-year road map into the industry.