…that we were not able to get to on the show.

Unanswered Questions from John August on Vimeo.

According to The Guardian he is:

Synecdoche, New York opened in America last October, and it has already appeared at several UK film festivals, so you may judge the hopes for its commercial success that it is only just opening commercially next week. That may prove a generous use of the word “commercially”. Still, you may love the film and be changed by it. Sometimes the wistful voice of a website posting says it all, like this letter addressed to Charlie Kaufman, the man who wrote and directed Synecdoche:

“Charlie i hope you read this and only posted it in the hopes that you would. i live in birmingham, alabama and had to drive to atlanta, georgia to see your movie in theatres. i want to say this is the greatest film experience I have had all year. your film touched me in the deeps depths of my heart in the most wonderful way. i love your films and want you to keep making them and despite all the dumb ass critics I think that synecdoche new york is a masterpiece of cinema that humanity doesn’t deserve.”

To which I would add this: a few critics raved about the picture; several others welcomed it. I’m urging you to see it - if only to discover what the writer of Being John Malkovich and Adaptation can do as a director. Plus the film cost $21m and has so far grossed $3m in its home country. All I want to know is how Charlie Kaufman, with this story and his hangdog shyness raised even $21, let alone millions.

CHARLIE KAUFMAN IS A WORRIED man. Ever since making his screenwriting debut with Being John Malkovich, the New York-born writer has enjoyed the “weird, atypical and lucky” experience of having his idiosyncratic scripts filmed.
However, now that parts of the film industry are feeling the pinch along with the rest of us (some ex-bankers and politicians excepted, of course), the creative force behind Adaptation and the Oscar-winning Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is confronting an uncertain future.

“I’ve been able to do the things I want to do, pretty much, and I don’t know now,” he says gloomily. “Just based on what’s happening in the independent world, and what’s happening in the economy, I think it’s going to be trickier.”

Kaufman knows that his experience to date has been extraordinary. Instead of churning out easy-to-market sequels, prequels or riffs on the last big thing, he has built his reputation on works that are so singular, they have actually given rise to an adjective: Kaufmanesque. To the writer’s amusement, a commentator even used it recently to describe his ambitious directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York.

“That’s kind of amazing. I mean it’s actually Kaufmanesque to describe it as Kaufmanesque.” Then again, he once saw a news report where a shipwreck was referred to as a “real-life Titanic”. “I swear to God!” he says, laughing.

Suggesting that Kaufman has become his own genre causes the writer’s mood to darken. “I don’t write genre stuff in any form,” he says irritably. “I’m not interested in it. I always try to do the opposite of that.”

His screenplays eschew the classic three-act structure slavishly adhered to by many of his peers – he once declared: “I don’t know what the hell a third act is”. “I have something I’m interested in and then I decide I’m going to explore it,” he says. “I don’t know where the characters are going to go or what the screenplay’s going to do. For me, that’s the way to keep it alive and make it interesting and worthwhile.”

It is easy to see why he slyly sent up Hollywood screenwriting guru Robert McKee in Adaptation. Kaufman’s approach is organic, not rule-bound; his narratives often take sudden and unexpected turns. “Realistic and naturalistic are not the same thing,” he says. “And I think it’s interesting to play with surrealism or dream logic and try to create a poem, a metaphor, something that conveys a feeling or makes something happen in your gut that you don’t necessarily intellectually understand.”

No wonder he was disappointed by George Clooney’s conventional direction of his script for Confessions of A Dangerous Mind. Kaufman had enjoyed close collaborative relationships with the directors Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) and Michel Gondry (Human Nature, Eternal Sunshine) but Clooney, stepping behind the camera for the first time, did not want him around. “I wasn’t really involved. So I feel disconnected from that … product,” he says, sneeringly.

…Read More

Paul Haggis’ appearance Monday evening at the Mondavi Center no doubt will draw plenty of aspiring filmmakers from UC Davis.

After all, Haggis directed and co-wrote “Crash,” named best picture at the Academy Awards in 2006, and scripted “Million Dollar Baby,” honored as best picture the previous year. Winner of a screenplay Oscar for “Crash,” Haggis also was nominated for “Baby” and “Letters From Iwo Jima.”

All of this would seem to render him uniquely qualified to offer advice to young people.

“I think I am qualified to tell people what not to do,” Haggis, 56, said with a laugh. “They can look at my career and say, ‘We should be smarter than that.’ ”

He’s being modest, of course, but he did take a circuitous route to becoming one of the most sought-after screenwriters and directors in Hollywood. For much of his career, Haggis worked in television – on cartoons, sitcoms, dramas and however you choose to classify “Walker, Texas Ranger,” the long-running Chuck Norris series co-created by Haggis.

…Read More

PITCH YOUR SCRIPT TO HOLLYWOOD - The William Morris Agency!

Callers will be able to pitch their screenplay to Christopher Lockhart who is the story editor for legendary talent agent Ed Limato at the William Morris Agency. He is looking for potential projects for a small roster of “A” list clients including Mel Gibson, Denzel Washington and Steve Martin. He is also a creative consultant for COLLATERAL producer Julie Richardson and has set up several projects, including A RHINESTONE ALIBI (Paramount) and THE MIDNIGHT MAN (Dimension).

Each caller will be able to pitch their screenplay and at the end of the show, Chris will pick the best one for a read. If he likes, you’re in. This is a RARE opportunity for a one-to-one pitch with a real power player from Hollywood! Don’t miss this incredible opportunity!

Listen to this show: ScreenTalk Radio

Third Acts are your race to the finish line. Everything has been setup and the final payoff(s) are coming in. Remember, your Third Act is buried in your First Act. You’ve raised a question about your Protagonist, placed an obstacle (the first of many) in his or her way, you’ve setup something that has to be resolved and usually has to be in such a way it is the final act by the Protagonist to signify their transformation.

Typically Third Acts are not more than 15 minutes long. (There are always exceptions to the rule). The event that sends the Second Act hurdling into the Third Act should be the emergence of the Protagonist overcoming his lowest point. The Final Action is taken by the Protagonist. Now it’s a race to the finish. The suspense, tension and drama are at the highest point here.

You often will expose the theme o f the story with this final act or redemption, resolution. How and why the Protagonist has acted tells us something about the character.
Your Third Act must do the following:

1) Resolve the central action line;
2) reveal the final image of the Protagonist: has he changed, into what? What is this new identity;
3) all that which is setup must be paid off.

Finally, the pace and tempo must be at its highest point here. The 3-Act structure is a building process of emotion and tension. Even with dramas and comedies, there is something going on. The Protagonist is heading towards this Third Act deliverance where the final decision is made and the action is resolved thereby allowing the theme of the story to be revealed.

Good luck and keep writing

Chris Wehner
www.4screenwriters.com