Interviewing this time, we have
author Christina Hamlett who penned the textbook "Screenwriting for Teens" a comprehensive and helpful guide for the
young and ambitious aspiring
screenwriter or filmmaker just starting out. "Screenwriting for Teens" aims first
to help you understand the structure of story, and then teaches
you the basis of screenplay structure. Hamlett's book is a very
optimistic and exuberant piece of information that seeks to
teach the craft before the fundamentals, and will weed out the
writers from the people with spare time. Though, the caveats
being the links introduction (websites are often here today and
gone tomorrow), and the overall glossy tone, "Screenwriting for Teens" will be a very handy guide for those seeking to
break into the business and need a little push in the right
direction.Screenwriting is
a tough skill to master, because it's a literal form, and "Screenwriting for Teens" conveys that to its audience and helps them
ponder if the idea of the reader is better suited for a book,
play, or film. You'll also be glad to know there are
"Brainstorms" at the end of every chapter, these are activities
meant to provoke thought as Hamlett poses questions to the
reader asking they interact, and it's quite an effective
activity. The book can be read in a group community, or by
yourself, and the intent is to challenge the reader, and it's
quite a helpful aspect. We talked with Ms. Hamlett and picked
her brain about her book:
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Your
book offers the notion that Hollywood wants scripts that
are new, then what do you account for all of the
recycled, rehashes, and remakes they opt for lately?
The answer is twofold. The first
is that film is a high-risk business. If producers are
going to spend great gobs of money on a new production,
they want it to come with a guarantee of recouping their
investment. The obvious way to do this is to recycle and
reinvent material which has already proven itself to be
successful with audiences. Secondly, there’s more truth
to the premise behind The Producers than most
people realize; specifically, not every movie is
intended to be a success, much less to be done well.
Some are produced to fulfill contractual obligations,
some are half-hearted favors for friends, some are set
up for quick turnaround to DVD for lucrative
distribution overseas, and others, sadly enough, are
only born to be tax write-offs. |
Frankly
speaking, do you find most young screenwriters are anxious creative
individuals with ambition, or bored folks who aren't willing to put
in the time?
It’s actually a combination but, bear in
mind, neither is a scenario specific to the age of the aspiring
writer. What I enjoy about young writers is their boundless
enthusiasm and the fact that they see no speed bumps between where
they are now and where they want to be in the future. (I am often
reminded of my nephew who, at age 10, decided he wanted to be a
lawyer, a legislator, Governor of California, and then President of
the United States.) Their excitement to learn is what fuels my
enthusiasm to teach them. On the other hand, I mentor teens – and
even more adults – who are so accustomed to the “instant now” of our
society that all they are looking for are shortcuts. I can’t tell
you, in fact, how many emails I receive per week from individuals
who have great ideas for a movie but want me to write it for them,
pitch it to Hollywood, oversee the production – and offer to split
the proceeds 50/50 with me. Hello??? When I recommend that they
write this marvy story themselves, they protest, “But I’m too busy!
Why can’t you just write it for me?”
Do you find writing scripts that focus on real time, for example
movies that take place only in the course of a day, are harder than
work on scripts that focus on reel time?
The only scripts that I write in “real” time
are one-act plays for the theater. They are remarkably easy to
orchestrate because the majority of them take place in one setting
or simultaneous settings via the use of a split set, platforms and
spotlights. My screenplays, however, all take place in “reel” time
and are more fun for me than “real” time because I get to scoot
along and, unlike real life, cut out all the boring parts.
I agree it's best to bring the audience in at eye level even when
a film is written from your own personal experience. What do you
attribute to the success and acclaim for the films of Woody Allen
which are heavily based in and around New York, and its mindset?
They work because people like Woody Allen
are following the adage “write what you know best”. There’s a big
difference, however, between being cathartic and being commercial. I
read a ton of scripts wherein the authors have opened a vein and let
blood gush all over the page in the hope that (1) the parties who
wronged them will be humiliated because the planet at large will
universally recognize them or (2) these insensitive wrongdoers will
feel compelled to rush over to the author’s house and make immediate
amends. Although I’m the first to admit I’m not averse to turning
past loves and annoying supervisors into chalk outlines on the
floor, I’ve never lost sight of doing it in such a way that it can
be entertaining and enlightening to an audience who has absolutely
no connection to the actual events. As for why Woody Allen “works”
so successfully, there’s a secret side to all of us that envies
native New Yorkers and their edgy joie de vivre. Why are New York
sitcoms consistently popular? Because we all want to have the kind
of friends who let themselves into our apartments, our lives and our
refrigerators and who will be with us through thick and thin. Yes,
they’re kooky and neurotic but they serve the useful purpose of
making the rest of us feel perfectly sane.
Which format do
you think allows for more creativity, screenplays or novels?
I think it’s a tie. Furthermore, I think the
creative challenge of writing for live theater beats them both by a
mile.
Were the
brainstormers difficult to create, and were they a collaborative
effort?
The majority of the brainstormers were
exercises that I had already been using in my workshops. To make
sure they were fun and relevant to teens, however, I enlisted the
input of my young apprentice, Nick Morgan, the teen to whom
Screenwriting for Teens is dedicated. Nick teen-tested each of
the ideas for me during development and let me know which ones he
thought were awesome and which he thought were a tad “lame”. The
latter got tweaked immediately.
You mention that
it's essential to introduce the main character quickly before the
audience bonds with the character who parts from the story, do you
think this guideline applies to films like "Psycho," or "Scream"?
The distinction to be made here is that
an audience needs to know within the first 10 minutes who the story
is going to revolve around. In Sunset Boulevard, for example,
William Holden is floating in a swimming pool but we still know that
his “living” point of view will prevail. Likewise in Braveheart,
where the narration sets up the flashback for William Wallace, a
martyr who is already dead. In contrast, Janet Leigh is offed fairly
quickly in Psycho but the film is not about Marion Crane at
all; it’s about the twisted Norman Bates. That said, a frequent
problem I have with new screenplays is when the author introduces
multiple subplots with 4-8 supporting characters and doesn’t
introduce the actual protagonist and his/her dilemma until nearly
half an hour has elapsed. This makes for confusion because audiences
enter the theater with the notion of bonding with a main character.
If this character is not readily identified for them, the result is
detachment from the bulk of the movie.
Do you
think the term genre is becoming an antiquated concept what with the
sub-genres being divided into sub sub-genres like Rom-Zom Com, and
Science Fiction Comedy?
No. I still think we
need anchors to define what any given film is “mostly” about. What I
advise clients and students is to consider where their film might be
shelved at Blockbuster when it goes to DVD. I recall one client who
was zealously penning an Action Adventure Sci-Fi Romantic Comedy
Mystery. (Clearly he wanted to touch all possible bases.)
Does good horror
have to involve monsters, or can they simply reach down to our
deepest fears of any kind?
There are no greater monsters than those
which dwell within our own colorful and tortured imaginations. Look
at someone like Stephen King who can turn innocuous things like
cars, dogs and country inns into objects of absolute terror. It’s
not the extraordinary items that terrify us; it’s the ordinary,
workaday stuff that is dispatched in extraordinarily wicked ways
that truly scare our socks off.
Which
genre do you find has a better chance of garnering the writer
success?
The genre that
will garner a writer success is the one that he or she has the most
aptitude, knowledge, and familiarity to create. Horror films, for
instance, are always in high demand and a lot of them can be made
more cheaply than other genres. If horror isn’t something you
particularly enjoy writing, however, it’s going to come across as
forced, superficial and phony in its execution. If you weren’t a
naturally gifted comic, would you rush off to comedy clubs just
because you heard the pay was pretty good? Yes, the money is there
but only for those who know how to deliver a product that comedy
club audiences have come to see.
Where can
readers find more of your writing?
If your writers simply
Google “Christina Hamlett”, I come up in hundreds of places which
link to books, magazine articles and columns on a broad range of
subjects. In addition, I am the screenwriting editor of Writer’s
Journal, as well as a frequent contributor to Writer’s
Digest, The Writer, Scr(i)pt, and MovieMaker Magazine.
Those who live in the Las Vegas area may be familiar with Vegas
Essential, a high glitz magazine featuring yours truly’s
interviews with celebrities who make the Vegas nightlife memorable.
Writers can also stay abreast of current projects at my
website; I also
maintain a blog at
Fylmz which
provides insights on how I keep bad movies from coming to a theater
near you. My film related books include Screenwriting for Teens
and Could It Be a Movie (Michael Wiese Productions) and
ScreenTeenWriters (Meriwether Publishing).
Thank you
for taking part in the interview!
Thank you! This was
fun!
-
Felix Vasquez Jr.
12/22/06 |
