Given that “Yellowstone” is technically in competition with the enduringly popular “Sunday Night Football” telecast, the fact that the show pulls in more than 7 million viewers in Nielsen’s time-adjusted Live + Same Day ratings — perhaps even appealing to many of the same viewers — is a tremendous feat.

This confirms the key points in Part 1 of this article. I noted that Sheridan is immensely prolific, his work is increasingly popular, and his scripts maintain a high professional standard.

Let’s now look at his power, politics and – potential – progress. With an ever-expanding universe of serial drama, Sheridan has established himself as one of the most powerful screenwriters in the States. Should he put this to good use, he may be in a unique position to help change the politics of a troubled people, and contribute to some badly needed progress.

POWER – Yellowstone going all Lord Of The Rings

In the late nineties, Peter Jackson signed his $180m LOTR deal with New Line. He leveraged part of it to build a massive film infrastructure hub in his hometown of Wellington. In this way, he didn’t just achieve economy of scale; he also escaped the prying eyes of Hollywood.

Now, Taylor Sheridan is taking a leaf out of Jackson’s book. Only, where Jackson bought buildings and SFX machines, Sheridan now owns almost every horse on the screen.

WARNING: spoilers for 1883 and Yellowstone.

Soon after moving back to his native Texas, Sheridan clinched a $150m+ deal with Paramount. Next, with a group of investors, he bought the legendary “6666” ranch. Why would a filmmaker buy a horse and cattle ranch covering an area twice the size of Chicago, at a cost of around $350m? Perhaps because he’s obsessed with horses, and now his toys are tax-deductible…

Or perhaps, 6666 will become Sheridan’s studio lot. Right now, it already serves up western-style EXT-DAY shots, but I could see soundstages added to the mix as Jackson did with Stone Street Studios. And who says 6666 can’t also become a creative hotspot modelled after Jackson’s Park Road Post (or even Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch)? Texas has enough local talent to benefit from such facilities.

In this scenario, Sheridan would become a big player, and consolidate his influence not only as a creative but also as a business mogul. The next question is what he wants to do with all that power.

POLITICS – Making America United Again.

The heroism in 1883 may conjure the image of a red hot banner reading Make America Great Again. But Sheridan was no fan of #45. Instead, he shows us the positive human values at stake then. His perspective is nobler than the unbridled capitalism, opportunism and antagonism that is the brand of modern Republicans.

If it sounds romantic, it is not naive. Character actions in the Yellowstone universe are earned. You make a mistake and you do penance, before carrying on more wisely. In season 4, Beth and Rip reject Carter before ultimately taking him in; Lloyd attacks Walker, but not without reconciling. The Texans in 1883 first antagonise the immigrants, but then make the compassionate choice to help them out.

And while John Dutton in an early Yellowstone episode says “This is America, we don’t share land here”, I suspect that his mindset won’t survive the show. Second chances, compassion for the underdog, compromise and reconciliation are big themes here.

Sheridan doesn’t want to tell you how to think, but his stories are crystal clear about where he stands. He shows us people, a world, and a way of living that many can relate to, regardless of who you vote for. In this universe, the central characters (Kayce in Yellowstone, Mike in Mayor Of Kingstown, Brennan and The Duttons in 1883) model dignified and moral actions, offering an alternative to the cynicism and hatred in many of the critically acclaimed shows full of rich a-holes.

Just don’t harm the family – or you’re off to the train station.

In the words of fellow Texan Mathew McConaughey, Sheridan is an aggressive centrist. His concern for the flyover states was just as clear in his first film Hell Or High Water, as it is today in 1883, Yellowstone or Mayor Of Kingstown. He’ll make sure his stories are palatable for the audience they’re about, and not just to the intellectual elite. This differentiates his work from the likes of e.g. David Simon.

Similar to his central characters, Sheridan tries to build bridges instead of burning them.

PROGRESS – Making a difference

And you know what? It’s about time we try this route. Audiences are sick and tired of being lectured to. I love watching Clooney’s work, but what has it achieved? Same for Sorkin: watched by the privileged, worshipped by intellectuals. When has Sorkin ever portrayed ordinary people? Never. Because he doesn’t understand them. And while I enjoyed Don’t Look Up as a piece of entertainment, we all know the amount of change it will bring: exactly nothing.

All these Hollywood hotshots preach to the choir, and along the way blame ordinary folk for their voting choices. It’s interesting that the critics are happy to criticise Don’t Look Up, while at the same time ignoring the alternative right before their eyes.

Sheridan believes he’s being overlooked by the awards and critics because he breaks storytelling rules. I doubt this explains it (although he does break rules – successfully). The real reason: his writing is not fashionable. It lacks the sophistication, the clever and the cool of the Successions of this world. Sheridan has opted for melodrama and heart. Try finding that in the world of Logan Roy.

Of course, another explanation for the snubs may be Sheridan’s decision to physically distance himself from the screen production hubs. Perhaps people rather vote for faces they see in the corridors and the street, and for those hanging at the same parties. Of course, it doesn’t matter anyway, because these little statuettes are all about perception. Audiences don’t care for awards or critics. They’ll decide for themselves what’s on the screen next season.

And rather than holding him back, his Texas outpost may well become Sheridan’s superpower.

2022 And On – The Next Decade

With names such as Clark Johnson (The Wire, now also Mayor of Kingstown), Terence Winter (Boardwalk Empire, now Kansas City) and Tom Hanks leaking into the Sheridan universe, my guess is that the detractor pundits will soon capitulate.

With more shows added to his line-up, and A-listers to his pantheon, Taylor Sheridan’s name will only become more ubiquitous. And once the Paramount deal runs out, expect to see his work and name everywhere.

I wanted to explore if Sheridan is the most important and influential screenwriter today. Admittedly, he may not be there quite yet, but in terms of output and popularity, he has no match. And as his first decade as a writer is coming to an end, his productivity is only just getting to cruise speed. And the Thoroughbred Sheridan seems to be, there is a lot of mileage left.

Karel FG Segers

Karel Segers wrote his first produced screenplay at age 17. Today he is a story analyst with experience in acquisition, development and production. He has trained students worldwide, and worked with half a dozen Academy Award nominees. Karel speaks more European languages than he has fingers on his left hand, which he is still trying to find a use for in his hometown of Sydney, Australia. The languages, not the fingers.

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We live in the age of noise. Everyone is trying to get your attention. TV commercials, banners on your favourite website, YouTube ads, in-app advertising on your phone.

The same is happening in the writersphere. Screenwriters are spamming producers; service companies are spamming writers.

Getting someone’s genuine attention has become a tremendous challenge. My default mode is to keep the noise outside, and I suspect the same from you. In order to get access, you will need to come through a door of trust.

Back To Common Sense

If you’re desperate, and you want money from your writing now, you will be susceptible to scammers. They will promise you an agent, to get your script in front of this or that producer, etc. The sobering news is that nobody is going to open the gate of screenwriting heaven for you tomorrow, for money. Why not? Because there is no gate to screenwriting heaven. And if you still believe in it, you’ll have to die first.

To die, in this context means: doing the hard work.

Before answering the calls to adventure from unreliable mentors, think about it critically yourself, first. There are gatekeepers, alright, and you need to know who they are. Once you have identified them, you need to network your way through to them. You may do this in the real world, or online.

Online And Offline

Most will agree that the best networking is still done offline. Unfortunately, you may not have many opportunities to meet your target gatekeepers in the real world. If you don’t live in a metropolitan area – let alone Los Angeles – you are not going to casually bump into the Hollywood decision makers.

The great thing is that online, you can.

Years ago, when Toy Story 3 was about to be released, a friend texted me: “Do you know Lee Unkrich just tweeted you?”. Indeed, the director of the most highly anticipated movie at that time had responded to one of my tweets. It could have been the beginning of a conversation… (After all, if I had been an animator, I would have had a link to my portfolio website right on my twitter page.)

So let’s see what else is possible online.

The Google Truth

Say so-and-so has read your work, and they like it. Before they enter into a collaborative arrangement with you, They’ll want to know more.  What do people do when they want to know more about you? They google you. Depending on how many others share the same name, they will find a LinkedIn profile, YouTube video, or Amazon book. In the worst case scenario, the search may lead to some unflattering Facebook photos a friend tagged you in.

Not if you have a portfolio website.

In that case, almost certainly your site will be the first result (unless of course Justin Bieber is their namesake). Your website is the only place online where you fully control how you want to be seen. And if you are the right person to work with for people googling you, this will be clear from your site.

Your website is the first, and most important place to market yourself.

My two most exciting jobs of the past decade both came to me through the website (and it wasn’t even a portfolio website). One was the offer to work on a high-profile feature film. The other, to travel and lecture in Europe. How cool is that?? Both opportunities have opened up subsequent business that continues to this day.

Where Is Your Portfolio Website?

Today, when I google ‘screenwriter website’, on the first page I find the names of Caitlin McCarthy and William Nicholson. Neither I must admit I have ever heard of (although Nicholson co-wrote Gladiator).

But now I have.

If you look for a writer by googling “[their name] screenwriter website”, in 99% of the cases, the right person will be listed first.

Try “Emily Blake Screenwriter website”, and the first listing will be Bambookillers. That’s Emily’s blog. In fact, it’s also her portfolio website, as it lists the screenplays she completed, and those in development. Her last post dates back from 2014, but the website strategy is so powerful that it still lists her site first in Google.

Build Your Portfolio Website, And …

If you build it, they may not come.

If you don’t build it, they most certainly will not come, no matter how loud you scream.

For me, setting up WordPress sites is a hobby that got out of control. Out of the 55+ domain names I own, a few dozen are hosting sites that I built. It all started with this site, followed by Logline It, and The Story Series,  (which is moving from an offline course now online).

Over the past year, I helped a few writers build their portfolio website.

Leon is a lawyer retiree, who committed himself to screenwriting only a few years back. His site now lists eight screenplays, both original and adapted. If anything, it shows Leon is dedicated, and he works fast. If I were looking for a screenwriter today, these are critical qualities.

The other writer is Lachlan, who is an internationally celebrated playwright. He doesn’t really need the site, because right now he is busy enough as it is. But Lachlan knows that in our industry, things can change at the drop of a hat. At that point, he will have an impressive portfolio online, and Google will honour the seniority of his website, as well as his frequent blog updates, by giving him a prominent ranking.

A good quality website is a potential honeypot for writing gigs right now, while you are saving marketing collateral for the future. It is a no-brainer.

If you don’t already have that portfolio website, consider building it this week. It doesn’t require rocket science, and you can afford it.

In truth, you can’t afford not to have it.

-Karel Segers

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I am hosting a free webinar for writers who would like
to set up their own professional WordPress portfolio website:

Karel FG Segers

Karel Segers wrote his first produced screenplay at age 17. Today he is a story analyst with experience in acquisition, development and production. He has trained students worldwide, and worked with half a dozen Academy Award nominees. Karel speaks more European languages than he has fingers on his left hand, which he is still trying to find a use for in his hometown of Sydney, Australia. The languages, not the fingers.

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So here I am about to approach three years in L.A. (June 10 to be exact) and I feel the need to share my journey once again despite completely falling off the radar for well over a year with this confronting piece of my Hollywood sojourn.

As I look back, it’s been an up and down rollercoaster ride full of trials, tribulations, emotion and adventure. But then what else was it ever going to be. While I have disappeared for months at a time (across social media, email and more), I am still alive, I’m still kicking, and I’m still flying the flag as best I can.

 To be honest, that’s not always been easy. In fact, it’s been bloody hard at times.

 There have been days where I have wanted to be anywhere else but this city. I’ve not left the country, let alone this state, in the three years I have been here, and if you know me you know how much I love travel. So it feels like I have been going stir crazy. 

 But I found some solace as I discovered but then subsequently lost a relationship – my first here in the U.S and my first in over three years. And while I look back on that year we had with mixed emotions, I can only smile and say thank you to one very special woman who took her own serious leap of faith, and embraced me and my journey and in the process turned me into an even greater version of myself than I could have ever imagined. I am forever changed as a result. 

 But she wasn’t the only woman I had to say goodbye to that year.

 I lost a grandmother and step sister all within six months of each other last year but I didn’t go back. I was super close to my gran and she used to take great delight in reading these articles. I miss her, and writing postcards from abroad just isn’t the same.

I left Australian shores knowing I may never ever see her alive again. But it was with her gentle words of encouragement that I was able to make peace with that cold, hard reality.

 When she died last Mother’s Day, not only did I cry as the news filtered through, but I also had a beautiful vision of her that morning. She appeared before me and whispered: “Keep writing.” It was a profoundly affecting vision.

While all this disquietude, chaos, and loss was going on around me, somehow the only thing keeping me sane was my writing. And thank fuck! Because I am not sure where I would have been without it.

 I found myself sinking into a slow depression-like state during July yet I kept writing. My relationship was breaking down all around me but still I wrote. My grandmother passed, I wrote. My step-sister slowly had her life taken away after battling a brain tumor for years, more writing.

In the space of that one year, while my entire world was collapsing around me (even now I can shed some tears if I allow myself to reflect), my writing was my saviour. I wrote more than I ever have, I became more professional than I’ve ever been, and I churned out four feature scripts over the course of that year. One of which I pitched and which subsequently beat out over 40 other submissions vying for the gig.

 After my relationship broke down I also found myself in the position of moving out of the only apartment I had ever known during my entire time here. I stepped up as a man and offered my ex-girlfriend the space. A space that no longer felt like home. A space that allowed her a better chance to survive in this town than me.

I then found myself in North Hollywood, and while that sounds glamourous, it really isn’t. There are two very distinct parts to North Hollywood. The cooler, funkier ‘Arts District’ and what is unaffectionately called, “the ghetto”. Somehow I went from the clean, green, central beauty of Studio City, to a dirty, dry backwater Mexican suburb (nothing against Mexico).

From a private, spacious, comfortable apartment for myself and my girlfriend, to a smaller, cramped two bedroom place with two other guys – one of which slept on a couch in the lounge room.

 At times I have felt embarrassed by my living situation but this town can be brutal and sometimes you are forced to go backwards to move forwards. But when you are freelance copywriter and the Australian dollar drops (and hard), you are forced to make some serious changes.

 I hated going to bed alone. I didn’t like where I now found myself. I was miserable.

While I never ever lived above my means, I had to go where I could afford. It made me withdraw even further and made me truly understand the definition of humble, but what was more important, to look myself in the mirror and ask some very genuine, honest questions of myself.

 But it has all served to only strengthen my resolve and succeed where many others would have failed, fled or simply given up.

 My year turned and I met and fell into the most amazing, supportive writing group I have found during my time here, after I was fortunate enough to be accepted into a new writing program I applied for.

 It was the first time I felt ‘home’ among like-minded people. A writing group that despite my repeated searches and hopes, I had never ever found in the two years prior.

 And now this group of people I can call friends. How I have craved that. As I retracted from the outside world, I found my friendship base here shrink. In part due to changing dynamics as others disappeared, while a couple of others put their head down to become more professional themselves but also because I was seeking something deeper from myself, my writing… my heart.

It’s a writing group that’s made up of some talented and successful people where I have seen their valuable input and feedback further enhance, improve and rocket my writing skyward. A group of only seven other people who I get enormous pleasure from in so many ways. I cannot thank them enough.

Somehow I overcame a very tough, emotional year and became not only a greater writer for it but a kinder, more sincere, more authentic and honest me.

It’ll be three years in June since I first made the leap, and it’ll be three years I will celebrate in my own quiet, genuine way as I look back. I’m thankful for how far I’ve come, for what I have achieved, for where I now find the level of my writing, but most important of all, where I now find myself as a man.

So raise a glass and cheer on a man who continues to stare down this town. A man who is not afraid of a single thing. A man who will not make up the numbers. A man who will succeed. Because I have faced hardship, loss, death and yet I continue to smile and write.

Here’s to an even greater year of writing, greater success, greater wealth, and so much more as I continue to pursue dreams, my passion, and love.

– Mark Rasmussen

Mark Rasmussen

Mark Rasmussen has been a professional writer for over 15 years. He has written and produced three short films (two of which have IMDb credits), as well completed four features. One of his films ranked inside the Top 10 for the World Wildlife Fund competition (WWF). He is currently working on three feature scripts, two book adaptations, a TV pilot, and a web-series, as he increases his thirst for great writing and storytelling.

Syd Field was the first true screenwriting guru. His book Screenplay is still a standard, more than thirty years after its initial publication. Syd Field visited Sydney only once in his life and during that occasion, we interviewed him.

Continued from Part 1
Interview: Karel Segers, David Trendall and Niels Abercrombie
With thanks to Syd Field and Screen Australia

Karel: There are a great number of films with critical acclaim that don’t seem to find an audience. How do you explain this?

Syd Field: I teach all over the world now and people come to me and say “I want to write a Hollywood screenplay” and I say: “Have you ever been to Hollywood?” No. Have you ever lived in the States? No. Why do you want to write a Hollywood screenplay?

There are people there who spend their entire lives wanting to write a Hollywood screenplay and what makes you think that your material, who’ve never been there, does not know the culture, does not know the language or the slang, why do you feel that you can write a Hollywood screenplay?

Why don’t you go into your own culture and find symptoms and problems and find ways to illustrate something that you know and have lived through… something can resonate here with the human condition.

Why do you feel that you can write a Hollywood screenplay?

Karel: So our cultural distinctions will make the subject matter more interesting.

Syd Field: My feeling is that there are no distinctions between human beings even though we’re different colors, different races, different languages. When you get right down to it, we’re the same in terms of needs, wants and emotions. We all want to be loved, we all want to be successful, we all want to feel good, all want good health and we go through every culture, every race.

Everything on this planet is the same. James Cameron does that with Avatar. All living things are united, so why don’t we have the same culture, consciousness, that everybody else has. So that’s really my message, we rise one step above our distinctions, which have been with us since the dawn of time of course, and it’s not something we will give up very easily, but the idea is that we all exist on a different plane beyond the person, beyond the personality, beyond the culture, beyond the language, beyond the intellect, beyond all of that we are all the same, we are all the same consciousness.

We are all the same consciousness.

Karel: Good writing creates almost a religious experience?

Syd Field: I always say if God is a sheet of paper and if you cut that sheet of paper into a thousand pieces are each one of those pieces God? For me the answer is yes, so we have to honor that and that’s in our stories. That’s what makes stories universal, that’s why Avatar deals with ideas and a cinematic experience that is extraordinary.

Avatar deals with ideas and
a cinematic experience that is extraordinary.

Karel: Cameron touched the world, not just with special effects but with great storytelling skill. He connected with the mythology of our times. Now why is it that so many writers are not even trying to connect with an audience?

Syd Field: I think people get tied into the end result before they begin the process. The great eastern text, the Bhagavad Gita, says “Do not be attached to the fruits of your actions,” meaning: don’t write a screenplay because you want to impress somebody, write the screenplay because it’s something you want to do, have to do, need to do. Nobody can take the experience of writing away from us because… I call that a one on one. It’s where the mind and the computer screen or the piece of paper really are one, they are connected. There is simply a connection of energy between the pen and the paper.

Nobody can take the experience of writing away from us.

Karel: Pen and paper?

Syd Field:  Well I come from typewriting, so when I started writing, and after my first stint as writer of 7 years, I had experienced so much pain in writing my joke was I would always hit my head against the typewriter until something came. And when I came back to writing after that 2 year hiatus I said I don’t want to experience that pain again that I had before.

So I realised that I cannot use the same methods as I had used in my first incarnation as a writer, I had to change and create a new form. So what I did was I started writing long-hand, and what happened was I created a new groove of consciousness, I started writing long hand and then when I got my computers I started typing it into computers.

Gradually over time, and giving myself permission to do some really shitty writing I gradually came to the idea that I did not need the in-between steps of writing long-hand.

I created a new groove of consciousness.

Karel: I was teaching mythical story structure in Canberra, and one of the students was an ambassador. In referring to his story’s turning points, he didn’t use the Hero’s Journey terms but talked about “Pee Pee One and Pee Pee 2”!

Syd Field: (Laughs)

Karel: He admitted he had studied your book. Now, how did you come up with those specific terms?

Syd Field:  At cinemobile I was working with writers everyday, taking meetings, listening to ideas, pitches and so on. Once we established the language, we could understand each other, so I said “I’ve got to create definitions!” So I created a definition of screenplay, definition of structure… “a linear arrangement of related incidents, episodes and events, leading to a dramatic resolution”.

So, I was kind of talking about writing and preparing and developing character and putting things down in a structural order… and one of my students asked me, “What is a screenplay?” The question really took me by surprise because I had no idea, I had never thought about that.

So as I was talking about an hour later, suddenly this image of a screen or a painting came into my awareness and I said “Do you want to know what a screenplay is?” And I drew a straight line and all stories have a beginning, a middle and an end and there’s some point in which the beginning turns into the middle and the middle turns into the end… that’s what a screenplay is.

“What is a screenplay?”
The question really took me by surprise
because I had no idea.

And I said what do you do with Act 1? You set up your story. And what do you do with act 2? That’s confrontation, that’s where people run into obstacles and what do you do in Act 3? That’s the resolution of the story, because when I was reading I did not find those things. I felt I had to find a language common to everybody so we could understand the commonality, so a writer and reader could sit on opposite sides of the desk.

Karel: But why is it that all authors and gurus come up with new terms rather than use what’s already there?

Syd Field: Now, that’s an interesting question. I think everybody wants to be unique and creative and inventive. And the way to do that, is instead of calling it a plot point they call it a turning point.

I was interviewed yesterday for an on-line publication and she was asking me questions about the protagonist, I said “What? What is the protagonist?” I still get confused with protagonist, antagonist, themes, plot… You mean the main character and the major characters. In the article she wrote protagonist. That’s a hangover from an old tradition of English literature that to me doesn’t really exist any more.

She was asking me questions about the protagonist,
I said “What? What is the protagonist?”

Karel: Which of the foundations of screenwriting do you find aspiring screenwriters struggle with the most? Is there one thing you can lift out?

Syd Field:  To me, if you go into a definition of a screenplay it’s really a story that is told with pictures and what I find with many new screenwriters  or people who have no training is what they do is tell their story through dialogue. Through explanation. And that’s not a screenplay.

I’m a big fan of Billy Wilder and The Apartment
but it’s wall to wall dialogue, I got antsy just listening to it.

I show clips in a master class and I show films from the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s and it was wall to wall dialogue. Look how much information is there! It took us eight minutes to get this information out about this character! Then I showed them one little train sequence – one minute fifty-seven seconds – from The Bourne Ultimatum and in terms of flashback and memory and story points and so on you have all the information you need to know. “Who is Jason Bourne” and “Why is that guy out to kill me?” That’s what we need to know.

I’m a big fan of Billy Wilder and The Apartment but it’s wall to wall dialogue I got antsy just listening to it.

Karel: It’s almost television

Syd Field: It’s almost television. Exactly.

Karel: People say there’s a decline in the craft of screenwriting. Do you agree?

Syd Field: I don’t think there’s a decline in the craft as much as there’s a decline in the nature and dynamics of story. I don’t think people know how to tell a story, or they are so one single lined, linear lined… that they don’t give themselves an opportunity to explore the dimensions of their character or the story. See, Jim Cameron’s a master at that. He created his own world, in Pandora… but he also created a character who was trapped between two worlds.

Everything on this planet is the same.
James Cameron does that with Avatar.
All living things are united.

He has the limits of one world but also the accessibility of the other world on Pandora, so he made a choice. How many people would go into the consciousness state and would say for example that the only way we could defeat the encroaching violent human beings from earth is that if the entire living planet of Pandora rebels and fights off the invaders? I mean, how many people would go there?? Nobody. I mean this man brought in another dimension that made a single story stand out amazingly!

I walked out the first viewing of Avatar and I thought immediately of dances with wolves and I thought immediately of last Samurai. The same themes are there but Jim Cameron did, was just amazing in terms of digging into another spiritual dimension and allowing that natural consciousness of humanity shine through.

When the character, Jake Sully, is in his Navi’ form, and he doesn’t know what to do when he goes to the Hometree. He goes there and he lets it go and surrenders and asks for help. How many people would do that?? How many people would think that is a dramatic enough situation to make a movie?

Well, there’s not enough explosions, there’s not enough action here, there’s no tension… but in that simple singular moment you get everything from that character and that’s what great screenwriting is about. Finding those moments.

Continued next week: Syd Field about Cameron, Nolan and Roth.

Karel FG Segers

Karel Segers wrote his first produced screenplay at age 17. Today he is a story analyst with experience in acquisition, development and production. He has trained students worldwide, and worked with half a dozen Academy Award nominees. Karel speaks more European languages than he has fingers on his left hand, which he is still trying to find a use for in his hometown of Sydney, Australia. The languages, not the fingers.

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For years, I blindly followed this dogma, as it seemed to make a lot of sense. Learn from good and bad examples. Don’t we all do that in other fields? With hundreds of screenplays readily available for download from www.script-o-rama.com, www.imsdb.com and other sources, it appeared to be a quick and easy way to study the craft of scriptwriting.

But does it?

On average, I try to watch a movie a day, either in the cinema or on DVD. With the birth of my son late 2004, that became a bit more of a challenge. I found myself falling asleep in the second act. To remedy the ‘early fatherhood syndrome’, I would make notes, forcing myself to stay awake. As long as I had the discipline, I would even type them up into structural diagrams.

Suddenly, I had a revelation: the more I liked the film, the easier it was to find the Aristotelian three act structure and the principles of dramatic tension.

Revelation? Hardly.

What was truly phenomenal was that to crack the key to the film’s story structure, it had taken me only the duration of the film plus a few minutes. If I had read the screenplay instead, I’d have spent hours reading and taking notes – and only then would I be able to start work on piecing together the structure. A finished film underscores the drama in ways that help you identify the importance of the beat, scene or sequence: through music, fades or the use of light and colour (Soderbergh’s TRAFFIC is an extreme example).

At the time of writing I was developing a story with Wojciech – “Aerosol” – Wawrzyniak, whose structure is vaguely similar to Kenneth Brannagh’s MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN (thank you, Chris) so we decided to read the screenplay and watch the movie.

That’s when the true value in reading screenplays became apparent: it allows you to compare script and finished film. It shows the areas where filmmakers struggled, where what was on the page didn’t translate into what was onscreen.

Comparing script and film also reveals where directors made last minute decisions because they didn’t believe the script worked (or more often, the money ran out). A great example is the Chicago Train Station climax in THE UNTOUCHABLES. Mamet’s original Third Act had Capone’s accountant going on the train, with a chase and shootout following. However, De Palma had blown the budget and was forced to improvise.

For years, De Palma had been dreaming of shooting a homage to Eisenstein ‘Odessa Steps’ sequence from THE BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN. A budget issue in THE UNTOUCHABLES finally threw the opportunity into his lap. In my view, reading lots of screenplays is the hard way to learning how to write good stories. However, analyzing a few classic scripts in terms of language, style and formatting may help you find the right balance to turn your final draft into a better read.

– Karel

This week Sam Worthington mentioned our project in an interview to the press in the US as he is first in line to play the lead. Sam voiced the narration for the documentary from the same producer Martin Walsh and this documentary is now available for the first time at no cost, in HD video. I have embedded it on this web page.

This is a fascinating story and when you watch it, you’ll understand what an amazing opportunity it is to work on the movie, with my three co-writers James Nicholas, Paul Sullivan and Jack Brislee.

From the Long Tan web site:

A true story of 108 ordinary young Australian and New Zealand soldiers and their extraordinary courage, heroism and triumph against an overwhelming enemy force of 2,500 soldiers.

With a large budget, an internationally appealing ensemble cast featuring three generations of Australia’s best onscreen talent and the best creative team offscreen, Long Tan will be remembered for its visceral scenes of combat, its deep and broad range of characters, and the extraordinary drama of a true story.

Happy Australia Day!

If you liked this, check out more videos about screenwriting or filmmaking. And if you know of a great video on Screenwriting, let us know in the comments. Thanks!

Karel FG Segers

Karel Segers wrote his first produced screenplay at age 17. Today he is a story analyst with experience in acquisition, development and production. He has trained students worldwide, and worked with half a dozen Academy Award nominees. Karel speaks more European languages than he has fingers on his left hand, which he is still trying to find a use for in his hometown of Sydney, Australia. The languages, not the fingers.

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My first international lecturing trip in 15 months, to a country I had never been to. And I love traveling. Welcome to The Philippines.

by Karel Segers

Leaving Sydney airport is a high in itself: no queues, relaxed atmosphere. At the Apple counter I can’t help checking whether my new landing page for the Story Series – Sydney is optimized for the iPad. It is.

Belgian beer while waiting for the gate to open. Then a perfect flight, with heaps of leg room. When you pre-check in online and you travel economy, make sure you pick the first row of the section. In my case this was row 30 for both flights.

Hong Kong

The first minutes of my two hour stopover in Hong Kong, I spend looking for a power outlet for my laptop. Believe it or not, this is where I find it in the last 30 seconds of battery power.

Too bad I have brought four different power adapters, none of which fitted the British style three-way flat pins. I researched Philippino plugs, not the Hong Kong ones.

All around me people are having ramen breakfast and I’m a sucker for ramen, so next up is a generous bowl of scallop ramen with gyoza. The free WiFi is free but not fast. I give up and start taking pics of the airport using my favorite iPhone app ‘Hipstamatic’.

I’m a terrible photographer but this app saves me some embarrassment.

On the old 747-400 I am seated next to the great grand son of the composer of the national anthem of the Philippines. We talk about Europe (he lived in even more European cities than me and currently resides in Paris), about Philippino family business empires and music. He owns a Bosendorfer piano and refreshes my memory on the great romantic composers. I am pleased to not completely sound like a dimwit when I refresh his mind on the name of that Polish contemporary composer Penderecki.

Landing in Manila. It’s hot and humid. It always is.

Manila

Picked up by Rob, the producer of the lecturing tour. He is a legend. When I had my doubts about the feasibility, he powered on and moved mountains. Rob and his team managed to mobilize pretty much the entire film industry, including the top names. They’re all endorsing our seminars. I’m truly humbled.

After a short taxi ride that reminded me of Bali – the only other truly Asian place I’d ever been – we arrive at the hotel, a small boutique place in the heart of the city ‘Intra Muros’. The 1,000+ hours of Latin I once studied keep paying off. It means this is a walled city and we’re safe on the inside. Well, the ‘safe’ remains to be seen. Some people warned me about that.

The hotel exudes a simple charm and reminds me of the Best Western in Mexico City I once stayed at. I adore this type of places. Give me this any day over a Marriott, Hilton or a Hyatt.

Novelist

At the hotel, a TV crew awaits me and they want to dive straight into it. Did they really not notice the sweat marks? the smell and the walls under my eyes? Okay, Sophia gives me 30 minutes and I thank her from the bottom of my heart.

I used to do a lot of TV stuff back in the nineties but it has never really come naturally to me. I can sound convincing but I don’t like my style. Anyway, the interviewer from Philippines Star is happy and we go to lunch. (Update: when it hits YouTube, I’m a “leading Australian Novelist”. I’m sure ‘novelist’ is the Philippino word for ‘story analyst’.)

Food

Lunch is great. Even though I am not terribly hungry, I eat a lot. But I’ll blog about the food here later. My first experience is slightly overwhelming. I don’t count the number of times Sophia said: “Have you tried THIS? You should try it!” but it runs in the dozens. Her first objective is to make sure Luke and I are happy and healthy. Her second and third objective: to keep us eating and fatten us up. So the plates keep arriving. Distant memories from my previous Italian life.

I like my hotel room. Some would call it ‘austere’ but it has enough wall sockets for my gear, a gorgeously tiled floor and it is spacious. No mini bar, not even a kettle for tea. A wide screen TV, which I manage to hook up with my laptop.

It’s nearly 4pm and time to go into town and check the venue for this weekend’s seminars. I’m taking my beloved MacBook, which will do all the hard work. Given the insanely high temperatures here, I’m slightly concerned. Hmmm… Perhaps I should buy a cheap USB-powered cooling mat?

Now there’s an idea.

– Karel Segers

Karel Segers is a producer and script consultant who started in movies as a rights buyer for Europe’s largest pay TV group Canal+. Back then it was handy to speak 5 languages. Less so today in Australia. Karel teaches, consults and lectures on screenwriting and the principles of storytelling to his 5-year old son Baxter and anyone who listens. He is also the boss of this blog.

Karel FG Segers

Karel Segers wrote his first produced screenplay at age 17. Today he is a story analyst with experience in acquisition, development and production. He has trained students worldwide, and worked with half a dozen Academy Award nominees. Karel speaks more European languages than he has fingers on his left hand, which he is still trying to find a use for in his hometown of Sydney, Australia. The languages, not the fingers.

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Much like The King’s Speech, the movie itself, the story of the writer David Seidler is one of hope for all you writers who are trying to overcome the obstacles that are holding you back from breaking through. Here is a short interview introducing the writer and the background of the story.

Be inspired!

With thanks to Louise Lee Mei and Adrian Kok. If you liked this, check out more videos about screenwriting or filmmaking. And if you know of a great video on Screenwriting, let us know in the comments. Thanks!

Karel FG Segers

Karel Segers wrote his first produced screenplay at age 17. Today he is a story analyst with experience in acquisition, development and production. He has trained students worldwide, and worked with half a dozen Academy Award nominees. Karel speaks more European languages than he has fingers on his left hand, which he is still trying to find a use for in his hometown of Sydney, Australia. The languages, not the fingers.

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Continued from Part 1
Interview: Karel Segers, David Trendall and Niels Abercrombie
With thanks to Screen Australia

Karel: There are a great number of films with critical acclaim that don’t seem to find an audience. How do you explain this?

Syd Field: I teach all over the world now and people come to me and say “I want to write a Hollywood screenplay” and I say: “Have you ever been to Hollywood?” No. Have you ever lived in the States? No. Why do you want to write a Hollywood screenplay?

There are people there who spend their entire lives wanting to write a Hollywood screenplay and what makes you think that your material, who’ve never been there, does not know the culture, does not know the language or the slang, why do you feel that you can write a Hollywood screenplay?

Why don’t you go into your own culture and find symptoms and problems and find ways to illustrate something that you know and have lived through… something can resonate here with the human condition.

Why do you feel that you can write a Hollywood screenplay?

Karel: So our cultural distinctions will make the subject matter more interesting.

Syd Field: My feeling is that there are no distinctions between human beings even though we’re different colors, different races, different languages. When you get right down to it, we’re the same in terms of needs, wants and emotions. We all want to be loved, we all want to be successful, we all want to feel good, all want good health and we go through every culture, every race.

Everything on this planet is the same. James Cameron does that with Avatar. All living things are united, so why don’t we have the same culture, consciousness, that everybody else has. So that’s really my message, we rise one step above our distinctions, which have been with us since the dawn of time of course, and it’s not something we will give up very easily, but the idea is that we all exist on a different plane beyond the person, beyond the personality, beyond the culture, beyond the language, beyond the intellect, beyond all of that we are all the same, we are all the same consciousness.

We are all the same consciousness.

Karel: So good writing creates almost a religious experience?

Syd Field: I always say if God is a sheet of paper and if you cut that sheet of paper into a thousand pieces are each one of those pieces God? For me the answer is yes, so we have to honor that and that’s in our stories. That’s what makes stories universal, that’s why Avatar deals with ideas and a cinematic experience that is extraordinary.

Avatar deals with ideas and
a cinematic experience that is extraordinary.

Karel: Cameron touched the world, not just with special effects but with great storytelling skill and he connected with the mythology of our times. Now why is it that so many writers are not even trying to connect with an audience?

Syd Field: I think people get tied into the end result before they begin the process. The great eastern text, the Bhagavad Gita, says “Do not be attached to the fruits of your actions,” meaning: don’t write a screenplay because you want to impress somebody, write the screenplay because it’s something you want to do, have to do, need to do. Nobody can take the experience of writing away from us because… I call that a one on one. It’s where the mind and the computer screen or the piece of paper really are one, they are connected. There is simply a connection of energy between the pen and the paper.

Nobody can take the experience of writing away from us.

Karel: Pen and paper?

Syd Field:  Well I come from typewriting, so when I started writing, and after my first stint as writer of 7 years, I had experienced so much pain in writing my joke was I would always hit my head against the typewriter until something came. And when I came back to writing after that 2 year hiatus I said I don’t want to experience that pain again that I had before.

So I realised that I cannot use the same methods as I had used in my first incarnation as a writer, I had to change and create a new form. So what I did was I started writing long-hand, and what happened was I created a new groove of consciousness, I started writing long hand and then when I got my computers I started typing it into computers.

Gradually over time, and giving myself permission to do some really shitty writing I gradually came to the idea that I did not need the in-between steps of writing long-hand.

I created a new groove of consciousness.

Karel: Syd, you’ll like this anecdote. I was teaching mythical story structure in Canberra and one of the students was an ambassador. In referring to his story’s turning points, he didn’t use the Hero’s Journey terms but talked about “Pee Pee One and Pee Pee 2”!

Syd Field: (Laughs)

Karel: He admitted he had studied your book. Now, how did you come up with those specific terms?

Syd Field:  At cinemobile I was working with writers everyday, taking meetings, listening to ideas, pitches and so on. Once we established the language, we could understand each other, so I said “I’ve got to create definitions!” So I created a definition of screenplay, definition of structure… “a linear arrangement of related incidents, episodes and events, leading to a dramatic resolution”.

So, I was kind of talking about writing and preparing and developing character and putting things down in a structural order… and one of my students asked me, “What is a screenplay?” The question really took me by surprise because I had no idea, I had never thought about that.

So as I was talking about an hour later, suddenly this image of a screen or a painting came into my awareness and I said “Do you want to know what a screenplay is?” And I drew a straight line and all stories have a beginning, a middle and an end and there’s some point in which the beginning turns into the middle and the middle turns into the end… that’s what a screenplay is.

“What is a screenplay?”
The question really took me by surprise
because I had no idea.

And I said what do you do with Act 1? You set up your story. And what do you do with act 2? That’s confrontation, that’s where people run into obstacles and what do you do in Act 3? That’s the resolution of the story, because when I was reading I did not find those things. I felt I had to find a language common to everybody so we could understand the commonality, so a writer and reader could sit on opposite sides of the desk.

Karel: But why is it that all authors and gurus come up with new terms rather than use what’s already there?

Syd Field: Now, that’s an interesting question. I think everybody wants to be unique and creative and inventive. And the way to do that, is instead of calling it a plot point they call it a turning point.

I was interviewed yesterday for an on-line publication and she was asking me questions about the protagonist, I said “What? What is the protagonist?” I still get confused with protagonist, antagonist, themes, plot… You mean the main character and the major characters. In the article she wrote protagonist. That’s a hangover from an old tradition of English literature that to me doesn’t really exist any more.

She was asking me questions about the protagonist,
I said “What? What is the protagonist?”

Karel: Which of the foundations of screenwriting do you find aspiring screenwriters struggle with the most? Is there one thing you can lift out?

Syd Field:  To me, if you go into a definition of a screenplay it’s really a story that is told with pictures and what I find with many new screenwriters  or people who have no training is what they do is tell their story through dialogue. Through explanation. And that’s not a screenplay.

I’m a big fan of Billy Wilder and The Apartment
but it’s wall to wall dialogue, I got antsy just listening to it.

I show clips in a master class and I show films from the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s and it was wall to wall dialogue. Look how much information is there! It took us eight minutes to get this information out about this character! Then I showed them one little train sequence – one minute fifty-seven seconds – from The Bourne Ultimatum and in terms of flashback and memory and story points and so on you have all the information you need to know. “Who is Jason Bourne” and “Why is that guy out to kill me?” That’s what we need to know.

I’m a big fan of Billy Wilder and The Apartment but it’s wall to wall dialogue I got antsy just listening to it.

Karel: It’s almost television

Syd Field: It’s almost television. Exactly.

Karel: People say there’s a decline in the craft of screenwriting. Do you agree?

Syd Field: I don’t think there’s a decline in the craft as much as there’s a decline in the nature and dynamics of story. I don’t think people know how to tell a story, or they are so one single lined, linear lined… that they don’t give themselves an opportunity to explore the dimensions of their character or the story. See, Jim Cameron’s a master at that. He created his own world, in Pandora… but he also created a character who was trapped between two worlds.

Everything on this planet is the same.
James Cameron does that with Avatar.
All living things are united.

He has the limits of one world but also the accessibility of the other world on Pandora, so he made a choice. How many people would go into the consciousness state and would say for example that the only way we could defeat the encroaching violent human beings from earth is that if the entire living planet of Pandora rebels and fights off the invaders? I mean, how many people would go there?? Nobody. I mean this man brought in another dimension that made a single story stand out amazingly!

I walked out the first viewing of Avatar and I thought immediately of dances with wolves and I thought immediately of last Samurai. The same themes are there but Jim Cameron did, was just amazing in terms of digging into another spiritual dimension and allowing that natural consciousness of humanity shine through.

When the character, Jake Sully, is in his Navi’ form, and he doesn’t know what to do when he goes to the Hometree. He goes there and he lets it go and surrenders and asks for help. How many people would do that?? How many people would think that is a dramatic enough situation to make a movie?

Well, there’s not enough explosions, there’s not enough action here, there’s no tension… but in that simple singular moment you get everything from that character and that’s what great screenwriting is about. Finding those moments.

Continued next week: Field about Cameron, Nolan and Roth.

Truth is: the year end was hectic, next I went holidaying with my son Baxter and his mum. Then suddenly 2011 was upon us with urgent and boring stuff.

But hey, I’m back! And I have devised a plan with my super team of interns (Niels, Dave, Adrian and Louise – you are absolute legends!) to get this blog back on track with regular posts. We’ve been slacking off and that’s not good for anyone.

There’s so much more I’d like to tell you but I’ll have to keep it for my friendly newsletter. Have you signed up yet? Click the ‘Be A Friend’ button at the bottom right in the sidebar and I’ll tell you some more stuff about myself and The Story Department behind-the-scenes.

Today I’d like to be opinionated again as it’s been a while – and some of you love it when I am.

The Australian film school is running a course for script assessors and a few people have asked me:

If I could find the money, would this course be worthwhile? Is there enough work out there to do this, or would it be helpful for my own writing?

The short answers: NO there is not enough work out there for assessors and YES it could be helpful for your own writing.

What follows is somewhat biased (I am after all the only serious script assessor in town) and some people may direct the same concerns towards certain other screenwriting courses and workshops.

1. What do you want to get out of it?

If you want to learn a methodical approach to reading and critiquing scripts, this may well be a good start. If you want to understand how they assess your script, this is your opportunity. But if you want to learn how to give others professional feedback, it may take more than a 12-hour course. The teachers are acclaimed writers and if you don’t believe writers are necessarily good assessors, at least this is an opportunity to get to know their process.

(If you had already decided to take this course, do not read on.)

2. This course won’t give you the experience

The best script editors and assessors didn’t wake up one day and decided to review scripts. I had been in the industry for twenty years, both as an acquisitions exec and later as a producer, before I started offering this service. To become a reliable reader, an understanding of the industry is essential and you’ll need to read dozens, if not hundreds of scripts. A course can’t do this for you. Readings scripts, as you know, you can do for free at home.

3. This is for producers more than anyone else

Producers need to be able to read and understand scripts. But what will this course offer that they haven’t already learned from McKee (or me). Plus, they’ll still need to hire an assessor for an independent appraisal on their own projects. Writers may be able to learn the development lingo in this course but they, too, will always need a second pair of eyes to review their work objectively.

4. There is no need for more assessors, seriously

If you are hoping this course could get you some extra income, forget it. The streets of Sydney are paved with script editors. I am under the impression that many highly experienced assessors are scrambling for work. Those with money to spend, i.e. bigger prodcos and government agencies, favor US based assessors over Australians – even when more sensible options are available locally – or keep going back to the people they’ve always worked with.

5. The Jack-of-all-trades in development

The standard script assessment wants to be everything for every script, covering concept, character, structure, dialogue, etc… you name it. Mostly the writer should focus on one thing only and 9 out of 10 this will be concept, then Hero (main character) and structure. By covering everything, writers get confused, or worse: they’ll just pick whichever aspect of the script they like working on, which is hardly ever what the script needs the most.

6. Script Notes should be phased out

Our industry has been very much focused on ‘Script Notes’. If this course is again focusing primarily on written assessments, I truly think it’s a wasted opportunity. After years of experience working with writers and producers, I have just stopped promoting my written assessments in favor of an interactive Script Review. Script Notes as we know them are usually no more than an expensive upgrade from standard Coverage.

7. Are they just taking your money?

The course is advertised for $950 and runs over five sessions for a total of … 12 hours. It costs more than McKee! Unlike corporations, the average writer or producer doesn’t have stacks of cash in the learning department. And remember, this course is really only the start of your learning. If you want to educate yourself in assessing screenplays, it will be an ongoing process. And how much difference will this course ultimately make?

All that said, I’m about to announce my own course calendar for 2011. When I do this, can you please forget all the concerns I have raised above? Thank you.

So, to close, if you had $950 for your screenwriting education right now, how would you spend it? Share it with us in the comments!

– Karel Segers

Karel Segers is a producer and script consultant who started in movies as a rights buyer for Europe’s largest pay TV group Canal+. Back then it was handy to speak 5 languages. Less so today in Australia.

Karel teaches, consults and lectures on screenwriting and the principles of storytelling to his 5-year old son Baxter and anyone who listens.

He is also the boss of this blog.

Karel FG Segers

Karel Segers wrote his first produced screenplay at age 17. Today he is a story analyst with experience in acquisition, development and production. He has trained students worldwide, and worked with half a dozen Academy Award nominees. Karel speaks more European languages than he has fingers on his left hand, which he is still trying to find a use for in his hometown of Sydney, Australia. The languages, not the fingers.

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