Harvard Book Store; WGBH Forum Network; Neil Landau and Matthew Frederick: 101 Things I Learned in Film School

Right. And so tonight I'm honored to welcome Mr. Landau Mr. Frederick here with us to discuss 101 Things I Learned in film school. Like all the books in the creative 101 series 101 Things I Learned in film school is trimmed of fat and full of fascinating expert tips. Film buffs and established directors alike can enjoy this guide to the world of film making of the book Emmy Award winning screenwriter Jane Anderson writes I'm a screenwriter who's always loved 101 things I learn architecture school. I'm thrilled that Neil Landau and Matthew Frederick have given me a companion to that wildly smart little book Flip to any page and your writer's block will disappear. Mr. Landau is a screenwriter whose credits include Melrose Place Doogie Howser M.D. MTV undress don't tell mom the Babysitters Dead and one of my favorites from childhood the secret world of Alex Mack. He has written and produced for Universal Pictures Disney Columbia Pictures and 20th Century Fox. You'll work as a consultant and teaches in the MFA in screenwriting and producing programs at both UCLA School of film and television and you as see School of Cinematic Arts.

Mr. Frederick is an architect and urban designer and a Harvard bookstore regular. He is the editor creator and illustrator of the hundred and one things I learned book series. His book on one things I learn architecture school is an award winning best selling guide to the daunting world of architecture. In addition to his many design products he is a regular lecturer critic and frequent co-author. We're absolutely thrilled to have them with us this evening so please do a mean welcoming in the L.A. Matthew Frederick. You guys know you probably know this right that this has been Harvard bookstore has been so good to this book. I actually figured out the other day this is sold. We're now around one hundred forty thousand copies one out of every hundred has been sold here. And I was trying to wonder as I figure out why that was the case and I was the irony is that there are too many architects in Cambridge you know that probably right you could spit out the window hit when there are too many. That's why I couldn't make a good enough living practicing architecture so I had to write a book which is why the book is also well so it's some kind of weird

cycle and before I go on so there's also a fashion school and military school and business school and they all do the same thing they all basically say these are confusing worlds. And as students we can all get lost in them. And so with just a. One lesson per page format every page looks like that. And when the world is too confusing or business or call an area or architecture or film school are too confusing. Here's one thing you can do to get better than you were a minute ago. Having good teachers in school one of whom was taught by a gentleman in the back row of a church maleo helped being very fine and clear about those things really helped me get through school. So thank you Harvard bookstore very much thank you. All right so I'm just curious how many folks here are actually like Invision selves or are in the film world let's say they are in the film world or screen are screen writers employed. No I have sold a screen a script or know what to be want to be. How many are more not novel and are writers of another type. Maybe novelists want to integrate.

OK well thanks. So there are many lessons in this book that I think are good for in the film book that are good for writers of all types as well and I'll count on the all to to talk about some of those. If you can get to so we're going to trivia you guys you guys warmed up. Did you study. But so Boston TV and movies. All right. Did it did anybody really study for this because it was average. Right. There are prizes and not not cheesy ones either these are really good prizes. So I'm going to I'm going to start with an easy one. All right. Right so free copy to whoever can tell me who directed you can answer by the way Dave. And maybe not you either I'm not sure who directed the Boston based film Mystic River first hand.

It was Clint Eastwood Yes that's what I said. So that was a trick question because I thought who would think of Clint Eastwood for an urban movie if you didn't already know I would have guessed it. All right so let's see how about Connery school. Let's let's pick another fairly well out of this is easier not if you're from Boston I think you know this name. The three Boston movies adapted from novels by Dennis Lehane. I think she knows you know all three. You get to share the book of two if you can figure it out all three. Did anybody give it. You are have two out of three. I won't tell you which two. So you said Mystic River the town and gone baby got a very close one of one of those is wrong. Yeah. OK give me all three. No. Yes. You got it.

Let's see. This is. Great. Yeah. OK here's another. How many how many really pretty hardcore film guys in here people. One or two all right let's let's. And I told you Dave stop that. It's this one from the departed was a 2006 film by Martin Scorsese and if you can answer but I just want to see if you guys know this. It was adapted that the departed was adapted from a 2002 Hong Kong film by a Dorchester born screenwriter William on him. What was the name of the original film that the departed was based on this guy in the Infernal Affairs You got it and a copy of 101 things I learned as well. And the last book will be more questions more prizes. Let's see. All right let's go with

what Boston based film is Martin Scorsese's highest grossing film worldwide in his career in the back. It is not the departed. No it's a good guess. Good guess. I would have I would have guessed that I was very surprised at this answer. Yes Shutter Island yes. Oh. Great. All right let's wrap it up here. How about some TV ready TV trivia So let's see everybody in this room is this nobody young real young here right. Really on Merissa. OK. So let's see if you know this one. This is TV The late actor Bill Bixby was a graduate of Lowell High School and he was known for a number of television roles such as coach of Eddie's Father and later the Incredible Hulk he played Dr. David better. And My Favorite Martian. So he also now i know calling out until you think you know the answer and wait let me get

through this. He also directed and starred as a newscaster in 1983 84 television sitcom. It lasted for 18 episodes he's played opposite Mariette Hartley Boston based television sitcom What was the name of the program. Yes sir you got it and you get it. You get two tickets to the Brattle Theater. Yes. There you go. All right so is it C this time. How about we play for a let's see do we want to go for the yes let's play for that. I have two passes to the Boston movie tours and the Boston movie tour will take you on a tour of sites in Boston related to films that have been shown here. Tour you'll see you'll get to watch those clips on the bus and be taken to various sites with all kinds of be told all kinds of cool things that happened that were filmed there and doing a terrible job to describe it to sell it and sell it later. So for two passes to the Boston movie

tour this has to be a film ques this is a Boston question for sure. Actress Mara Tierney who starred in Newsradio the television program and also E.R. And she also appeared in Liar Liar with Jim Carrey played his wife. I grew up in Boston's Hyde Park neighborhood. Her father held what notable position in Boston politics for 15 years. This is another weird Boston one the perfect storm. This is again for two more tickets for the bus movie tour the perfect storm was based on a book of the same name by Sebastian Younger who grew up in Belmont. One town away you know when younger was a child his parents hired a man to do construction work in their home. And this man turned out to be the subject of a 1968 movie. He was played by Tony Curtis what was the movie. The Boston Strangler the handyman was Albert is a. Very good thank you Ray. That's it we're running out of prizes already this is supposed to go on for like an hour now. Let's say so we now have we have two more two more cool

prizes so the next prize I don't actually have something to give away to see me afterward I will need your name. But if you are a writer of any kind you will like this prize in particular. This is a one year membership to Grub Street which is a writer's group in located in downtown Boston. And Grub Street is just an amazing organization of very warm and very smart people. If you don't know about it and you're a writer get in touch with them there is no reason to be intimidated by this group they have wonderful classes and workshops and they have parties. They have very well-known writers who sit on the board. This gentleman does as well says Arlene. Actually Snow is an advisor but many many well-known writers part of participate in making Grub Street a really great organization. So when your membership to Grub Street gets you discounts on workshops and seminars Let's say you get a free classified ad you get a $25 discount your Harvard frequent flyer card frequent buyer card. Discounts at some other places doing a mobile book fair rhythm in the U.S in Newville Wellesley Booksmith Brookline

Booksmith you get cheap parking at the Boston Common garage look at that and many other things sell for a Grub Street membership. We need a really good good twisted but ok good Boston question. We remember George Wendt who played nor on Cheers went after went went after Cheers to star in a very short lived programme called the George Wendt show aired on CBS in the 1996 season it lasted three episodes. This program was based on the antics of what well-known Boston media duo. You got it. Very good Click and Clack. Also known as Tom and Ray Kelly and so on were time. Car Talk Car Talk is the show yes. So see me after and I will make sure I get your name and grub will make all the arrangements. And by the way if you really hate your prize you can

do a Yankee swap and I mean I won't stop you. And now we have a really amazing prize. It's a Harvard to think oh wait a minute wait and we have a signed copy of don't tell mom the Babysitters Dead. Signed by Neil Lipschitz. I'm sorry and that is the prize for knowing the answer to this question. Oh this this is this is one of my favorite trivia questions and it's one I'm going to come in and tie it to Boston film through the back door here. But I'm cheating a little OK. So the greatest Boston movie of all time according to many critics is the friends of Eddie cloying which a lot of people forgot about because it was in 1970. There abouts old film and the part of the bartender in this film the bar that was used for much of the film it was at the corner of Newbury Street amass Avenue and if you guys remember before that building was renovated and Tower Records went in there in the late 80s or something. This dive bar was in there and the part of the bartender in this

film in French vertical it was played by Peter Boyle Peter Boyle you might know as playing in the monster in Young Frankenstein. And as the dad in Everybody Loves Raymond. So here's the quest The answer to this is not a Boston answer. It's just a really good trivia question Who is the what famous musician was the best man appear Boyle's wedding. And remember there's a lot at stake. There is a lot here babysitters like I mentioned it's signed right. You can get of course you can guess. Wait that doesn't count now. OK sick now famous or well the Sinatra famous Jay guy's not not famous enough not me. It's not who somebody who physically would be inclined to pair with me I'll give you a hand. Yes and 1 0 4 0 0 0. No but you're getting warm.

Nope nope. Yes you said John Lennon. You did. John Lennon was best man. Well that's all the question so thank you for participating in that and so before I turn over to Neil I just want to say that I really I want to be able to know how much I've appreciated his work on this book. We were so excited by this book in doing it. It is so much I think in spirit like the architecture book. I got to learn a lot about film. Neil really understood what the book was supposed to be about and taught me also what it needed to be about. And he has become a friend so I really appreciate all of his work and his friendship and I know given the landau Thank you. Thank you very very much for coming. And if anybody standing and wants to sit you're welcome to come and sit down. I'm going to just talk for about 15 20

minutes and then have any questions. That would be great I'm going to show a clip from up in the air which I think is one of the best movies last year how many people saw up in the air. Oh good. That's helpful. And the thing that I really learned during the book was that writing shorter and less is much harder than writing volumes and volumes. And I was the kind of student where if there was an essay test and I didn't know the answer I just wrote a lot and hope the answer was in there somewhere. And so I did. That was a little bit of the process with this book I would just say to Matt you know this is just a lot of knowledge and information and he would keep telling me let's distill it what's distill it what's really the point here what's really the lesson. And I'm saying that as a little prologue because what I want to do right now is present basically what would be like a 10 week course MFA in screenwriting in about 15 minutes. So I had to really distill what would be the most important talking points and so

what I want to talk about are three main things. And whether you are a screenwriter or a novelist or a playwright I think they all these things still apply. I don't think they apply to poetry. I do think also that if even if you're not a writer or or have any interest in writing for film it will increase your appreciation when you see movies. So this these these three main points are going to make will both enhance how to write a screenplay and what I think would be the three most essential things that to make sure that you have and how to read a movie. When you see a movie just sort of when it works to go Ah those are those three things you talked about. And so the three things are starting off with what I would say is an iconic character an iconic character is a character that has a built in contradiction within the character. So for an iconic character is someone who you may not remember the plot of the movie very well but you never forget the character in indelible character.

So when you think of Rick in Casablanca when you think of Scarlett O'Hara when you think of Hannibal Lecter when you think of Ryan Bingham and up in the air Lester Burnham in American Beauty these are iconic characters because they possess both very positive and very negative qualities. They have self-defeating behaviors so theres contradiction just built right in so Scarlett O'Hara is both incredibly tough incredibly strong and yet extremely fragile and extremely vulnerable. Ryan Bingham in up in the air. As you'll see in the clip us shown a few minutes he lives for superficial relationships he always has to be on the move. He his main goal in life is to accrue as many frequent flyer and hotel loyalty points as possible so that he never really has to forge deeper relationships and because he's terrified and he doesn't have any relationship with his family and he has a job that's perfectly suited to this comfort zone of his which he's a corporate Terminator. He flies from

place to place. He fires people who he's never going to see again. And then he moves on to fire the next people. And the reason there's a movie and the thing that really helps with an iconic character is once you establish them you then want to put them into a situation that they're completely ill prepared for. That's going to challenge. Every fiber of their being that so in up in the air of course they change company policy and they're going to take him off the road and they're going to start firing people over the computer you know. And do it in a way that he's not going to get to keep moving. And so he's going to have to stay in one place which terrifies him. The other thing about an iconic character is there's something mysterious about that character something that we don't quite understand why the person is this way. When we meet them and so that builds a mystery. It's an embedded mystery within the character and you think how did this person become this way why is this person this way. And it will always come from their past some kind of wound from the past something that is incomplete in them in the

present comes from the past. And in the course of the movie they're going to have to confront the the fears and inner demons and the things that have been holding them back. Another way of looking at it is you know that sort of pop culture saying from I think it originated in the 1000 70s which was that when people talk about it all the time you meet somebody and you say they have a lot of baggage. Someone has a lot of baggage iconic characters have a lot of baggage and the process of the evolution of the characters is that. The baggage has become just so heavy that they can't keep carrying it around anymore. And during the course of the movie they have to take some of the darkness and some of the skeletons out of the bag and they and hope hopefully if it's a happy ending which most Hollywood movies are they will let go of the baggage. So one of the things that also defines an iconic character is that they have both positive goals and negative goals. So in

like Michael Corleone in The Godfather another incredibly iconic character his positive goal is to help hold his family together after his father you know collapses and his negative goal and he wants to seek justice for the family his negative goal as he does it through very destructive means and he ends up killing and he ends up becoming the thing he feared most which is just like his father. At the end of the movie. So this positive and negative pull and push within a character is essential in a in an iconic character and on the board when I teach screenwriting at UCLA and I just started to lecture seminar class at USC film school. I always write on the board. The first class where is the heat. Where is the heat in the story. Because at UCLA of the chair of the screenwriting department he always starts every class with three words. Don't be boring. He says that's the biggest sin a screenwriter can commit. Being boring but it's our job to sustain dramatic tension from start to finish. And if people get bored

it's not their problem it's our problem that our job is to create a page turner to create just taut suspense that's going to sustain through the whole movie. The heat is what's generated by both positive goals and negative goals. They're trying to win something they're trying to achieve something positive but at the same time if they don't they have something to lose and something to lose that has emotional stakes and that has it. Real consequences. So when you think about the essentials of a screenplay and iconic character always they need to have something really vital to gain by achieving their goals and they have to have something to lose that has real value which would be the stakes or consequences. And so I guess the way you could sum it all up for a what makes an iconic character is a character that contains a core paradox. There's something paradoxical about the character.

So if you're writing a screenplay and you're asking yourself right now or a novel or a play is my complete as my character complex enough I would ask yourself do you. Does a paradox exist within this character. And I would also ask yourself you know what don't we know about the character. Because I think audiences are much more. Audiences are intrigued and compelled to know more about characters who contain contradiction. You know if you've seen the movie Up in the air with George Clooney another George Clooney movie with George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez remember this movie the opening scene he robs a bank and he's George Clooney's incredibly suave and he's he robs the bank seamlessly. He's so charming that after he takes the money from the teller he says to her Have a nice day. And she says You too. As he leaves with the money from the bank. But then he goes out of the bank and he gets in this car and his car won't start. And it's this crappy little car and he gets caught. So right away we're thinking you know he wasn't as smooth and slick and competent as we thought he was he's actually really troubled.

And what we see is that some of the smoothness by the way if anybody standing in the back there's chairs if you'd like to sit you won't be you know feel free to come in. So the other part of an iconic character is when we are first impression when we first meet the character. We have kind of a misconception about who he or she is. Usually I like to stay there wearing some kind of metaphorical mask. Sometimes it's a literal mask and sometimes it's like like in the town the first time we see the characters they're literally wearing masks. They're never quite what we think they are and the course of the story is almost like unpeeling the layers of an onion you know where we keep stripping away more and more about who the character is and who we get to the core. The two cores of an iconic character in this is all in my humble opinion the two corps are two poles of positive and negative on one side is there a yearning that they yearn for something. Because I believe that the common

link between all human beings is a yearning that we all yearn for something something that's just out of reach or some dream that we have or something that some somebody who we think we're supposed to be. But there's just certain elements of our lives that are keeping us from being that. And there's usually you can tell when it manifests by the people you admire most. If you have any role models or people you look up to you yearn to be more like them. But my belief is also that all characters yearn for the same thing no matter whether it's a scifi movie or a comedy or a thriller or her movie that at the core all protagonists yearn for the same thing which is to be free of fear to be free of something that limits them that holds them back. And usually those fears are manifest very early so they're either if they're afraid of abandonment they're afraid of success they're afraid of failure you know really basic universal things because movies need to speak to very universal things things that we can all relate to. Because

if movies were just for a fringe of this many people they wouldn't make money and Hollywood. Even an indie movie needs to make money I mean that's how movies get made it is a business it's called show business. And so the idea is to tap into universal themes and relatable emotions and iconic characters I think really do that. The other point I want to make besides talking about iconic characters is in terms of plot which is I think it's really essential that a good idea for a movie contains a strong central conflict and this will almost always manifest itself when you tell somebody what's the movie about whether you wrote it or just a movie you saw. It will contain the word but in the middle of the idea. And one of the one of the lessons in the book is have a strong but I think that's all. So like when you think of a movie like tell me if this is I don't have a price for this by the way but here's a question for you. Here's a movie. A man is on the run he's being chased by innumerable enemies and they

all want to kill him. But he can't remember anything about his past or who he is what's the movie. The Bourne Identity Jason Bourne really strong central conflict built into the movie. But if you think of a movie that's not an action movie if you think of a movie like Erin Brockovich she it's a woman takes on a huge utilities can Clymer it with unlimited funds and legal resources and it's just basically her who just takes on the cause. But she's not a lawyer she's an educated she's broke she's a single mom. So the thing the fight that it's David and Goliath the fight that she's up against is she's not prepared for she doesn't have the tools and she's going to have to rise to the occasion. One of my favorite movies is a movie called The verdict with Paul Newman. There is a case medical case about a wrongful you know somebody was given the wrong medication and is now in a coma

and this he's a lawyer who takes on the case. And it's sort of the last chance to win the case. But he's a drunk and he can barely function. So he has to sober up in order to win the legal battle. So the thing that one of the ways to look at a strong central conflict is can the weaknesses and limitations of the character. Can they overcome those weaknesses in order to achieve and triumph in their quest. And if you look at pretty much any movie What's this movie a man going to a midlife crisis sees a beautiful female and it just. Reinvigorates him to the point where he's almost reborn and becomes a whole other person and becomes happier than he's ever become. But the female he falls in love with is 16 years old. American Beauty. So. And on and on and on. I would look at movies and ask yourself what's the central conflict

what's the but in me idea if it doesn't have one. Especially you know when I teach a lot of times people pitch half an idea like what I would call half an idea where the central conflict isn't developed yet would be something like to see which is a great movie by the way but here's half of to see an out-of-work actor who can't get hired on either coast puts on a dress and becomes successful but as an actress now it has a conflict. But if you it's half an idea because I feel like that's just one joke. How many times can he stumble on the high heels and how many times can he. Call you know taxi with a male voice and then realize you know like there's only a certain amount of jokes you can get out of the man in drag movie although there's many good ones. The part that gives it the strong central conflict is he falls in love with his costar on the soap and he but he can't have her because she hasn't she doesn't know that he's really a man and that he desires are so until much later in the story. So sometimes you have to ask yourself is the but enough to sustain a really big central

conflict. Because movies now tend to be about a hundred and ten pages which is a little 10 minutes shy of two hours. The but the central concept will give you the whole second act the second act of the movie is where the central conflict presents itself and where that positive and negative the positive goals against what can be lost. The quest against the consequences. That's about 55 pages that you have to sustain in the middle. One of the lessons in the book is Act 2 is where a poorly structured screenplay goes to die and the idea of it is that the central conflict is not complex enough that the quest and the challenge of the protagonist is too easy to accomplish. So when you see a bad movie or not or an unsatisfying movie. You're sitting there usually in the audience thinking why doesn't he just do this this or this. And he could solve the problem. And if you can come up with things pretty easily I don't think the screenwriter traps the character in the situation and I don't think that the center or the

central conflict just wasn't difficult enough. You know they were able to overcome it too easily. You want that but to be a big butt. The other thing that I think is really overlooked when people are coming up with movie ideas and developing their screenplays is they overlook the value of a strong central mystery essential. I think that mysteries in movies don't necessarily have to be something that's completely hidden but something that's obscured a truth that is that is obscured. And if you think of movies like Gone Baby Gone the whole movie depends on the central mystery which is what happened to the little girl. We're given we have unreliable information from everybody almost everybody is lying in a sense it's a film you are because one of the lessons in the book is In film you are everyone is corrupt in The Departed everyone except the Mark Wahlberg character is corrupt. And there is a mystery embedded in the story and the

reason it's so important is that I think. Writing a screenplay is a lot like if you were playing poker these would be all of your cards and act one you're going to show some of your cards and in act two you're going to show some of your cards in act three you're going to show some of your cards. There's one card you're going to hold onto. This is your trump card. One of the lessons in the book is The climax is the truth. This is the card that we're waiting and hopefully filled with anticipation to find out what really happened. So if you look at Gone Baby Gone We don't know until the climax. Well right before the climax Actually it's when have you guys seen by a gun baby gun. He finds out what happened to the girl he puts it all together. If you look at the usual suspects we find out about Kaiser Soze a in American Beauty. We know from the voiceover in the very beginning that Lester Burnham will be dead by the end of the movie. We don't know how we don't know who. We have to wait until the climax so holding onto a

card is really vital to sustaining central mystery. And I gave a workshop at Grub Street yesterday and the title of the workshop was suspense 101 and another lesson in the book is every movie is a suspense movie so wet it because you tend to think of suspense movies as thrillers. Right you know or he you know Hitchcock was the master of suspense. But the reason I have a lesson of every movie is a suspense movie is because suspense is not necessarily generated by scary music and mood lighting or things popping out suddenly in the dark like in a horror movie. Suspense is generated by our emotional investment in the protagonist. Another way of putting that was I thought very well put I saw Dorothy Allison speaking you know she wrote Bastard Out of Carolina. And she said you have to make me worried on every page I have to be worried about your protagonist. I have to be worried what's going to happen. So in a romantic comedy we can worry too. We can worry are they going to be together. Is he going to show up at the top of the Empire State

Building and in time is you know is he going to walk in on her and get the wrong idea that she's having an affair when it's just a misunderstanding. Suspense is generated because we care what happens. We care if they get hurt if they're rejected in the week. We care if he gets caught. And if we care if he gets the JESSICA LANGE You know Julie character. The other thing about another quote that I think's very useful kind of relates to all of these three things was a quote I heard from Walter Mosley which was three words. Plot is Revelation and the idea is that as the plot progresses you are revealing more and more about who the characters are so that the hidden aspects of the character the central mystery of just who the character is. The paradox and sort of what's a what's what we don't know about the character will finally be revealed as well at the climax of the story. So it's not just that the climax is the truth like

in a courtroom drama like a whodunit We'll find out who done it or in a courtroom you know courtroom drama will find out the verdict in a love story where the person will finally show up completely vulnerable and admit you know I love you and I. Or in the case of When Harry Met Sally I hate you but they really but she really means I love you Mary. But if you know the last two lines of When Harry Met Sally are I hate you Harry I really hate you. Which actually is the opposite of what she means. So the third the third thing the last thing I want to mention is something from Aristotle which is characters are defined by their actions. They're defined by what they do. They're not necessarily defined by what they say. So dialogue in screenplays. The best dialogue is filled with subtext. And so when a character says there's a great illustration in the book that Matt did actually that it's a character standing in her body language is very rigid and somebody is basically

saying you know are you mad at me. And she's saying you know now I'm not mad at all. But her words are exactly the opposite of what her truth is. So I think it's useful to always be aware sometimes what I do is I write the scene badly first and just on the nose. And it has all the text because I need to know what the scenes about I need to know the motivation of the character in the scene I need to know the obstacle. Then I go how do I hide that. How can I do it with subtext and. You're always looking for Lesson number one in the book is show don't tell. So you're always looking for ways to show stuff and indicate things without anybody just coming right out and saying it. The last thing I want to say and then if anybody has any questions we can talk about virtually anything. I just want to read lesson number one and this is Lesson 1 0 1. You are your protagonist. The film may be viewed by millions but filmmaking is ultimately a personal endeavor that directly draws from and touches the life of a filmmaker. We

create stories to mirror our own lives to see how we will react when projected into the extraordinary circumstances of a film story. This is a major reason why it is difficult to create a flawed protagonist a storyteller must publicly display him or herself is flawed telling the story you're most afraid to tell. Taking real personal risks dramatizing taboo events pushing the protagonist to the Edge of Reason showing things that seem too confrontational or emotionally raw for the audience is most likely to translate into a provocative memorable film experience. So I encourage you to. Not respect your character's comfort zones to always push them to the edge and to really think in earnest when you're thinking where is the heat that that really means that it's not about starting cold and then ending warm but starting warm simmering on page one and building two like a volcanic eruption of molten lava. Because in a comedy the more desperate things get

the funnier it will be. And in a drama The more intense and uncomfortable and raw the emotions are the more satisfying the experience is ultimately. So if you look at a movie like Precious it's difficult to watch but it's extremely successful I think. You know as a cathartic experience for both the filmmakers and the audience does anybody have any questions. And there is a clip but I don't know if we'll have time to show it but maybe having a strong central conflict which an idea that contains a butt or however or unfortunately and central mystery. And there's. Central mystery would be the third. Yeah I mean a movie that comes to mind when you're speaking is 500 Days of Summer. Did anybody see that. It's very there's dramatic tension under every scene because of the way they told the story. So when you see a happy moment at day number 32 you've already seen

Day Four hundred and ninety two and you know that it leads to a lot of conflict. So that almost makes the happy moments more bittersweet because you know just like in life even though we hopefully don't remind ourselves of these things although I tend to more than I should when you having a really happy moment you think. You know I wish this moment could last forever because you know that you know a lot of times that's fleeting and that we have to enjoy those moments when we have them. But you know most of the time when it's the way that a script can just really be just be boring or feel dead or flat is where there's not enough conflict. You know I have the most simple way to put it in my opinion is movies are about people with problems. And as the movie progresses their problems have to get worse. They have to intensify but blushing but that doesn't necessarily mean that there can't be. There have to be moments highs and lows and positives and negatives. But I think that in in the most happy moment. There has to be dramatic tension running under

that or we will get bored and believe it or not because it sounds extreme but I think it's 100 percent true. In a movie every single scene has to have a conflict. There's no scenes that don't have conflict because if you if you're a writer and you try to write a scene that doesn't have a conflict you can't write the scene. I mean even if it's just a very small conflict. I mean even if it's just something like the montage of two people falling in love and they're sharing an ice cream cone and the ice cream falls off the cone and hits the floor. You know that's still a little bit of a conflict. It's probably not enough. I would say it's a cute moment but even when I'm with my students and myself when I'm doing a sort of a series of quick cuts to show people falling in love or a progression of somebody getting into shape or you know something in the book about this you. There's always something a little bit off about each moment or I would say pick different moments they're not interesting enough. You don't ever want something that's just flat and informational or expository. You want there to be conflict under it because there needs to be heat.

I think that it's very indicative of the times in which we live. Also because right now there's an expression for sort of happy movies that they are known as Blue Sky meaning there's no storm clouds in the sky because times are rough right now. And I think that like for example there was a period of time where there were a lot of war movies coming out over the several years ago and they all failed at the box office because people were turning on CNN and it was on our newspapers every day and you know between Iraq and Afghanistan people didn't want to go. Most people go to the movies for escapism. And what that means is they want to you when you buy a movie ticket you're buying a ticket to catharsis and catharsis comes from Aristotle he says it means the purging of pity and fear. It means that you will you have an emotional response to what happens on screen. That's when a movie is successful. And what that means is emotional response means you want to cry. You want to laugh or you want to be afraid and hide and hide from the screen. Those are emotional responses. If it's a

movie like Marley and Me You're going to cry. And I actually because I love dogs so much I didn't want to go see Marley and me because I didn't want to see that. But it did well. So sometimes people are in a mood where they want to tear jerker but they want kind of it. They want to they want to tear jerker because they want to. They don't want to go through that themselves but they want to see other people maybe have to face grief and despair and rejection and things you know like. But most of the time people go for escapism in a positive way where they want to see people overcome their fears. They want to see people transcend grief. There's a new movie out right now with Matt Damon here after it just opened. It's about people kind of transcend death and it's about the afterlife which I think there's I mean Obama was elected on the slogan people want hope right now. I think now is a time for some hope. I think in the 70s there was a real push for angry dark movies that any one of my favorite movies of all

time is the network head HFC wrote the screenplay. And there's a part in the movie where Faye Dunaway plays the network executive and she's telling her junior executives what what she wants. And she says I won angry shows people. There's a I want shows that articulate the public rage because that's what people wanted that was what was in sort of that's the scariest. I think the social network is doing really well for a number of reasons one you know social media and is replacing one on one. And I think people are you know it's people are just very fascinated by that. I think people are fascinated by. I mean talk about central conflict. He's the youngest billionaire ever. And you know the slogan of the movie with when you connect millions of people you're bound to make a few enemies you know. So he's like Mr sociable he knows how to connect people but he's lonely and empty. And so I think that's so at I in terms of

happy ending sad ending. I think the times right now I think Hollywood's probably not going to want to put out a lot of downer movies because people already down it. I'm working I'm executive producing a movie that is going to start shooting in New York next year. It has it's based on a Russian novel so you can imagine it has a downer ending. But there's a love story embedded in it. So one of the characters dies the main character dies at the end but sort of in a very dreamy he wants to die in a blaze of glory and he does he gets you know mowed down by a lot. You know he dies you know in a very dramatic way. But the love story of the girl he saves the girl kind of like Taxi Driver he saves Iris although he you know many people remember Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver dying at the end. He doesn't die. But you know that. He doesn't die. And now there's all these things like you've seen the movie all that jazz number about Bob Fosi

Roy Scheider plays Bob Fosi right. You probably remember the dances a lot in the movie he never dances like there's some little subliminal tricks there's one scene where he sort of lifts somebody up. It's his daughter but he's helping her dance he never dances anyway. So I'd say you have better luck in Hollywood if you have a hopeful ending or an ending that suggests something positive. I love the ending of sideways I mean where he walks up the stairs and just knocks on the door. He doesn't have you don't know if he opens it or not you're pretty sure she does. But it's just symbolic for this character a lot of growth and evolution is that he has the courage to walk up the stairs and knock on the door because he felt so defeated and not he didn't have the confidence to even do that in the beginning. So for him that was growth. Hopefully she's home where she and she let him in with romantic comedies I just in an interview two days ago for the UCLA newspaper and the article was about why romantic comedies are so

bad and formulaic lately and the reporter said you know do all these movies have to have the same the same predictable elements that we're so used to that there's nothing surprising and I said the bad ones do the good ones like 500 Days of Summer. It breaks all the rules. It tells the story out of chronological order. Have people seen 500 Days of Summer I don't want to I don't want to spoil the ending that I really liked my best friend's wedding. She doesn't end well. Lots of spoilers. But one of the think tests I often ask students and I ask myself too is pitch. Tell somebody what your movie's about. Or your novel or your play and say based on the first two thirds of what I've told you what do you think's going to happen. And if they just go well this if like you ask three four five people and everybody knows exactly where you're going I would change the ending or I would complicate the ending. My favorite romantic comedy of all time is The Philadelphia Story which goes

way back to Katharine Hepburn and. And I think that because you don't know who's going to walk down the aisle it's going to be Cary Grant or Jimmy Stewart. You really don't know it could equally be either one. So one of the staples of a romantic comedy is of course the love triangle. I always tell my students make sure your love triangle has two viable options in different ways because if one like Sleepless in Seattle the problem I had with that was that one part of the love triangle was just clearly the wrong guy. Like there was no way she was going to choose Bill Pullman with all of his allergies and neuroses. It was so clear that. You know so I think that. You know make it we're not quite sure I always think it's better when you think and wonder which weren't even as good as it gets. Which was the one with Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt. It seems impossible that these two can get together. And it's

surprising that they do even though you're sort of expecting it. It's very surprising that it can happen because he's so deeply flawed and they start so far apart. The other one is something's gotta give with Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson. If Keanu Reeves wasn't so miscast that would have been much better because in my again my opinion but you know because you just thought Diane Keaton encounter Reeves there. I just don't think they're going to add up together you know. And he was just not a developed character. But if imagine if. And apparently I found out that. He was cast because of foreign value. You know because of the Matrix movies he's he they want to box office so they can. They had to cast canneries. But anyway I mean you can count on me. There's Mark Ruffalo the brother. So he's not a love interest but there was Matthew Broderick who works at the bank who she has the affair with. And then there was John Tenney. He's on the show now the closer you know with a curious injury. I thought those were both interesting choices. The

Matt Broderick care Matthew Broderick character was married John take it to the character was good looking but kind of boring and you could see that one had more sparks than the other and Sleepless in Seattle I just think that for humor they tried to just make him a comedic kind of character. But I thought it would have really benefited by giving him more substance where she would be with him and actually we'd see the connection between them on some level. So we would think well you know like when you try to compare two things I think in that movie it was like this you know of course one of them she never met. And you know it was just but that that's just sort of in terms of sort of trying to avoid predictability which is part of what you're saying about endings. If it's a happy ending that's so predictable then it's obvious and it's not satisfying on more than one level you know. But I felt like Dermot Mulroney and Julia Roberts had such a strong such strong chemistry but I felt like.

Julia Julia Roberts character that her duplicity would not be rewarded because she didn't feel it didn't feel like she should win based on that. But she won. There's the climax of that movie is when she hit the climax is the truth when she admits all the sabotage and everything that she did. And she says and I lost. He doesn't love me he loves you. And that in that moment it kind of elevates her. All of the really negative underhanded stuff she did suddenly because she's willing to admit defeat. And it kind of redeemed her. And we learn from movies that characters who are willing to admit their vulnerabilities are stronger than characters who can't. So a tragic villain a tragic villain can't admit weakness or vulnerability and that's why they are tragic. You know I mean but when they can admit it

the playing field kind of levels again it's just interesting to me. Did you guys like The Hangover. It's very silly. You know over the top but I think that it's really hard to make a good comedy. You know it's great. Yeah Birdcage. I think the best comedies there is there's something emotional at stake in the story. There has to be an emotional core. You know where I like to like Wedding Crashers there's actually it's there's a surprising amount of heart in that movie that you know you realize that at the core there is something that is it's not just jokes. That's another thing in the book about comedy isn't just jokes. You know and the best comedies have some depth and some

dimension. And we were talking about up in the air also which is you know it's it takes you someplace surprising it. It has more depth than you think it's going to have. And if you think of the great comedies they have iconic characters and they have a lot of suspense that runs through them. I mean look at the stakes in Some Like It Hot You know if they don't put on the dress and join the band they're going to be killed you know.