Frank Cottrell Boyce (“24 Hour Party
People”) recently shared his thoughts about screenwriting in the Guardian. It’s
worth reading the whole article, but here is worth one point that I think is
especially worth noting:
"Don't write excuse notes -- Sympathy is like crack cocaine to industry execs. I've had at least one wonderful screenplay of mine maimed by a sympathy-skank. Yes, of course the audience have to relate to your characters, but they don't need to approve of them. If characters are going to do something bad, Hollywood wants you to build in an excuse note. If you look at Thelma and Louise, you'll see it's really just one long excuse note with 20 minutes of fun at the end. The US cop show The Wire, on the other hand, gives you characters you couldn't possibly approve of, or even like. Then, when it needs to, it gives you another glimpse of them. In one heart-scalding scene, a nasty, hard-nosed young drug-dealer from the projects finds himself in a park and says: "Is this still in Baltimore?"
PS: He also notes, “In Sunset Boulevard, the screenwriter says: "Maybe you saw my last movie. It was about Okies in the dustbowl. Of course, by the time it went out, it was all set on a submarine boat." Screenwriters famously kvetch about the rewrite. I don't get this. One of the glories of being a writer is that you get so many chances to get it right.”
Yeah, but the problem often is that what started out as a good movie about Okies in the dustbowl is turned into a terrible movie about a submarine boat. If he's had at least one wonderful screenplay ruined "by a sympathy skank" then I'm surprised he doesn't understand what William Holden was talking about.
(for lots of useful information about writing screenplays and other forms, take a look at the free material available at www.timetowrite.com)
