James Schamus wrote the
screenplay of “Taking Woodstock” and also is the president of indie distributor
Focus Features. Katey Rich interviewed him for cinemablend.com. Here are two
tidbits:
First, on the writing
process: “You get to live in
a fantasy life a little bit for a while. You get to see something in your mind
and follow it, there's freedom there, funnily enough. Writing, I think for most
writers and screenwriters, 90% of the work is when you're walking the dog,
taking a shower, staring out the window, these characters are alive and you're
trying to grasp that almost meditatively.”
And the
philosophy of his distribution company, which sounds like a pretty good
philosophy for anything: “ We stopped playing by the rules a while ago and just
started going, what the hell. Everything is falling apart around us, why not
just trust our instincts, trust the creativity of the team. And make sure
everybody's having fun and working hard, but also know that we're bringing
something different out there. That's all. Sometimes you lose, sometimes you
win.”
(Want to get started writing your own screenplay? A
good starting point for any kind of writing is my book, “Your Writing Coach,”
published by Nicholas Brealey. You can get it from Amazon and other online and
off line retailers.)
