Sometimes directors feel a script needs something, but they're not sure what it is, so they show it to a friend; if the friend is a writer, he ends up kicking around with that script for a while.
One of the nice things about the world of filmmaking is that you make friends in the business.
My mind gets into a verbal mode.
I have to go with what I do, and what I do has more to do with what people say to each other than telling a story through images. Of course, you're trying to do both. And there are some people who are brilliant at it, but I don't consider myself to be particularly good at it. My mind gets into a verbal mode.
Sometimes I watch a scene I've written, and occasionally I think, "Oh, for God's sake, shut up."
My scripts are possibly too talkative.
I really love being in postproduction. First of all, it's all quite self-interested: You can protect things.
Sometimes people are so close to the material, they miss an important cross-reference. You can't drop this line because half an hour later, it affects that line. And the writer is the person who knows that immediately.
Normally, even if you're on the set for 12 hours, there may be only a moment or two when you are actually useful.
A writer doesn't really have much of a function on a movie set.
It's probably unprecedented for a filmmaker simply to take the writers' script and treat it as the instructions on the package. What really happens is you pretty much suppress your own instincts - and your own views on the matter - and write things the way filmmakers would like to have them, though the filmmakers often don't know what they want. They can only find out by reading what you do.
I enjoy writing dialogue; it comes naturally to me.
It's not so much that I enjoy screenwriting, though mostly I do, but the difference is, with adaptations, somebody else has done the hard part - made up a story, provided the characters.
I really enjoy working on adaptations.
A play that works well and is done quite a lot - I've never done the math - but it's probably more remunerative than a movie.
I've never written an original piece for film; all the original things I've done are for the stage.
I began writing for theater, and maybe because of that I've always thought of myself as a theater writer who does work in film sometimes.
I like plays where people talk a lot. Conversation is sustained. Argument is sustained.
I don't write at the library, because I smoke when I work or would like the possibility of a smoke. Also, I need to be at my own desk.
I smoke too much whether it's going well or badly. After all these years, I definitely associate having a pen in my hand with having an ashtray just out of eye line.
To be frank: the translations that often sound bad in the mouths of the actors, these have often been done by linguists.
Most British playwrights of my generation, as well as younger folks, apparently feel somewhat obliged to Russian literature - and not only those writing for theatres. Russian literature is part of the basic background knowledge for any writer. So there is nothing exceptional in the interest I had towards Russian literature and theatre. Frankly, I couldn't image what a culture would be like without sympathy towards Russian literature and Russia, whether we'd be talking about drama or Djagilev.
Having translated two plays by Chekhov, and not speaking Russian myself - I cannot say one sentence. This may shock people... However, I am not shocked, as it is not hard to find out what the words mean.
You always end up with too much, so it's good to be part of the conversation about not just what you can omit, but how you are going to do the grammar of the omission, how you make things continue to work when there's something missing. It's your last chance to rewrite.
Rewriting isn't just about dialogue, it's the order of the scenes, how you finish a scene, how you get into a scene. All these final decisions are best made when you're there, watching. It's really enjoyable, but you've got to be there at the director's invitation. You can't just barge in and say, "I'm the writer."
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