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Anne Thompson> Before we go to the questions, it's a tradition for each of the
writers to, in this case briefly because we're running out of time, tell us
what your process is literally, pen, paper, computer, the writing process,
starting with Mike. Mike Mills> The last, "Beginners", and the
script I'm writing now, I started with just 5x7 cards and try being as formless as I could
and sort of free and as far away from writing in final draft as I
could, to be just as wild as I could be and I have a box that's full of these
3x5 cards. And then I go to try to make an outline of
some kind and then I finally go to writing in final draft.
Anne Thompson> Okay. Mike Mills> Was that it? I was trying to be
short. Anne Thompson> That was good!
Will Reiser> I guess for me the process with the way "50/50" started and the movie I'm
writing right now, the way that starts is I just will have a basic idea and I
will start thinking about my characters and I will just start...
And I won't actually sit down and start writing on my computer.
I will just randomly just throughout the day just have thoughts and I'll
maybe email ideas to myself about my characters or I will write them down in
scraps of paper and I'll just kind of collect them and pool them.
And then eventually, the characters start talking to me and the story starts--
They start guiding me through the story and the arc of the story and where it's going.
And then I eventually just start pooling all these ideas and I create a document
that ends up just being a mess of ideas, which is-- It's not organized in any
way whatsoever and then I spend a week going through all of those ideas and
trying to organize them with a highlighter and figuring it out and sort of--
It's sort of like there's very chaotic period when I'm sort of trying to shape it.
And that's sort of where it all begins for me.
Jim Rash> For me, I don't think anyone ever would like my process because it's--
You read these books like "write from your heart, just don't edit yourself," and I have
the hardest time doing that because I'll just read it and I'll go "This is horrible,
change it now in case someone finds it." "If you pass out now or die, they'll go 'At
least we don't have to see that shot.'" (Laughter)
For me it's all about the first scene. I will spend forever because I just like writing
the first scene. It may not end up being the first scene of
whatever we've written. I just enjoy the idea of "what's the first
thing they're going to see?" And so it might be a very long scene that
you will never use. It's not necessarily just an image.
I just enjoy that first scene of the movie and how it starts.
And for me, then I sort of set it aside and I just think "I want to get from there to
where I imagine or end." And that's it and then everything else is
insanity and no one ever would be interested. Anne Thompson> Now on "The Descendants," did
you get your first scene? Jim Rash> Well, we had several different things
because we had the draft where you sort of see the image of her on
the boat, just sort of enjoying riding the motorboat.
We had one that started-- The one that I sort of like, we did a thing that sort
of revolved around Scottie. It was her. We wrote this long scene where
she was at her elementary school and they were showing show and tell.
So what we thought we would do is we had all these kids showing what they
brought the show and tell, which we thought you could either do the written ones.
Or it might be fun to get real kids and have them bring stuff.
And then Scottie comes up with her book that has all the pictures of her mom
in a coma as sort of the end of this scene that sort of takes us into meeting Matt King.
But then ultimately, yes, you want to get to Matt King's story.
So that was within the draft, but I enjoyed, it took a long time and just like--
Because we just kept spitballing what kids would bring, a conch shell, whatever
we could think of. So that was one scene that you'll never see.
(Laughter) Anne Thompson> Tate? Tate Taylor> I spent a lot of time with my
characters thinking about them and writing down.
I love to come up with funny bits for my characters. And for me it's about tone.
Pathos and humor and the tone I'm going to establish.
And I start outlining once I've got all my characters down and I kind of have
all their Bibles of who they are. I then try to figure out how to have the humor
and pathos and rhythm. And that kind of dictates my outline and then
I outline it extensively, then I write the first scene, then I come to what
I had as the second scene and I go "I hate that," and then I just start writing.
But it's all in there, kind of, I don't know. That's all I could say.
Anne Thompson> JC? JC Chandor> Yeah, I have a tiny little notebook
that I carry around with me. I usually jot down...
You know, it can take a year or two years or ten years just sort of thinking
about a thing, it bounces around. And then at some point, I sort of don't have
the-- I don't know what it is but I write very quickly once I finally sit down.
So sometimes it could just be six things that happen throughout a story and you
don't really know how any of those things are going to connect to one another.
And then I usually go into a very intense sort of lockdown where this was
written, the 81, whatever, 82-page draft was written.
In three-and-a-half days, I sat down and it was just whooosh.
And then I usually stop for months, let it sit, and dialogue and stuff like that
normally doesn't change at all. I usually end up just adding. And I've written
other things that dialogue-wise were good and that's just-- I try not to over-think
that part of it. So I guess I'm not sitting down to actually
do it until I really do probably subconsciously know what's going to happen.
But then it all usually comes out very quickly. And if it doesn't, I will stop and procrastinate
for another three months or something.