This Is One Screenwriting Lesson I Learned 20 Years Too Late - Tom O'Brien
Tom O'Brien is a Los Angeles based writer/director. He teaches acting and writing at Scenestudyla.com. Tom’s first feature film, Fairhaven, Starred Chris Messina and Sarah Paulson and was a critics pick in the New York Times.
Tom's second feature, Manhattan Romance, starring Katherine Waterston and Gaby Hoffmann was distributed by Netflix worldwide. Tom’s online series, OM City, that he created with his wife, Jessie Barr, was a New York Times Critic’s TV Pick.
Tom is also a produced and published playwright and a former college hockey player.
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"We need time to daydream" is the best advice ever.
Fermenting a film idea and marinating a film idea in to a story line from start to mid to end logically before writing can strengthen the entire process
I’m still learning more about the craft daily. I keep writing screenplays and learning from experts here! This channel is a tremendous resource! Thank you!
Thanks Michael! Nice to hear we can contribute a little bit!
I appreciate the idea of just recording conversations then trying to build them out into a story, daydreaming, etc. That's relatable and actionable. He makes the comment about changing facts to fit the story, but that's always a slippery slope. Making a 'neat' story might be fun for the ego of the writer; and the film production might prefer the streamlined version, but as a viewer I often completely loose interest and/or respect for a story based on real events, when after I go read about the real event and realize the truth is way more interesting than the fiction. When I see they butchered the history and then amateurishly stitched together a cursed taxidermy, only to present it as the real thing. It really depends on whether we're telling a smaller-scale story based on personal events, vs telling the story of a historical event that is well documented and involved many potentially famous figures. In any case it's always hard to find the structure in a story whether you made it up or not. My approach is often more 'sandbox' where you build up different little spaces to play around in and then connect over time as they grow, but it all starts very non-linear and can be constantly updated and reworked; Vs starting with a skeleton and then filling out the bones. The problem with the latter is you can swap out what fills the skeleton but you have to know what you want the end result to look like when you pick the skeleton. It can mean that good ideas don't fit that skeleton and maybe it's the skeleton that didn't fit what you wanted to make more than the scenes or events. By contrast, with the sandbox approach you can keep working on areas until the linking networks start to emerge on their own, and from that you can see what the skeleton looks like and then refine it. It may be that you went in thinking you'd get a bear skeleton, but instead what fits your space ends up more like an alligator.
Excellent interview, I agree with the daydreaming aspect of it. Time to let my imagination loose.
Daydream & Imagine... absorbing & integrating one's real life experiences into a fictional world/realm. Very relatable experience I'm perpetually going through in my writing.
HOLY SMOKES. everything in this interview spoke to my soul. Like every point he brought up was pointed directly at my problems. Thank you so much. Keep these coming!!!!
Happy Thanksgiving Screen Courage!!!! Thanks for a great year of content. 😆😆😆
Happy Thanksgiving Wex! Our best to you and your loved ones!
Great interview! Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I did it. 10 times..10 films later I'm still learning...and my films have been distributed globally and have made returns...but still learning the craft
Great insights. 83.
I love it
His script idea sounds like it could be a Disney movie or Disney Channel movie!
👍 👍
I do feel being social could be a beneficial element to screenwriting or any writings, especially writing dialogue.
07:00
What screenwriting lesson has taken you the longest to learn?
that you can visualize a movie without writing a single word
Writing characters first and letting them lead
@@XxSEETH3RxX structure first!
Writing the whole thing before editing. I always get stuck halfway because I edit as ideas come to me, then rarely finish.
Character based vs situation based vs theme based and how a combination of all three will manifest itself. That has been a bit difficult for me to fully understand. One has to be the dominant or else it'll be a confusing storyline
i think i missed the lesson learned 20 years too late. can anyone explain?
Learn structure.
@@rociodiazperez thanks man!
...and that question is at video time 4:24 cheers!
The secret to my success? Crack.
Congrats! I want to learn how to write, direct, & produce 301st🤙🏿🫡💯🎂