Have you really got what it takes to be successful?

Fresh back from presenting The Fantastical World of Scriptwriting in New York for the celebration of the 40th Anniversary of Woodstock, in this second contribution to The Story Department, filmmaker and teacher Jack Feldstein bares all and gives us his honest advice on the matter.

Previously: Confessions of a Scriptwriter (1)

11. HOW NOT TO BE PRECIOUS.

“Kill your babies” is a saying that’s prevalent in scriptwriting circles. As is “you can’t polish a turd”.

How does a scriptwriter learn to have “open heart surgery without an anesthetic”? In other words, to accept editing by others – or even oneself – for the benefit of the film/project.

Acting like a professional scriptwriter is rarely easy. But criticism that improves the script must be accepted. How does a scriptwriter get “out of the way” of the ego? While still maintaining enough self belief to continue?

The Zen knowledge of the acceptance of not being able (or want) to control the world greatly benefits a scriptwriter.

There is a line between arrogance and confidence. Where is that line?

Think about this. If it is said that “pride is a prison” then “humility is the key”. Separating both is that line.

Confidence can be learnt by surrounding oneself with confident people. Plus continuing to achieve small successes.

Above all, if one cannot find it in oneself to say something positive about one’s own script, then it’s best to say nothing at all. RATHER than point out a negative.

Besides, people will find plenty of flaws without the scriptwriter’s help.

12. OPPORTUNITIES AND OPENING DOORS

Should a scriptwriter accept every job and opportunity that comes their way?

Probably. On the path through life, learning is the goal. And every situation presents new challenges.

It’s helpful to remember that the next script a scriptwriter writes rests on the mistakes and successes of what has been written previously.

Hopefully the mistakes won’t be repeated and the successes will help build confidence.

Perhaps not being afraid of failing with a script, (or being brave with the concept of failure) is a great lesson in itself.

It might be best in scriptwriting to not look backwards too much and rather to be optimistic and look to the future (next) script.

A nice metaphor for this is the story of Lot’s Wife who turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back.

13. MONEY AND ART

That infamous unholy matrimony.

In a capitalist world, the balance of the two is a necessary axiom. Maybe discovering and then accepting the sort of scriptwriter that one is, is the only solution to this eternal dilemma. For instance, if certain ethics are important, consider documentary.

These days, becoming a filmmaker is a common option for a scriptwriter as well.

If a person’s attitude is “I’m an artist and I’m not going to be dictated by evil commercial interests” then definitely a life as a filmmaker should be considered, rather than one as a scriptwriter.

Otherwise a future grappling with ulcers and hypertension might be on the cards.

We are all human. And perhaps all we can hope for is aiming for the best we can be, in any particular situation. Forget this at one’s peril because then the scriptwriter runs the risk of being dogmatic and didactic. And – unfortunately – the cardinal sin of… boring.

Have something to say, but be careful not to force it down people’s throats.

14. HOW CAN A PERSON TELL THEY ARE A SCRIPTWRITER?

They read scripts. And actually, they love reading great scripts.

To write structure and plot can be learned. But a scriptwriter must have the aptitude to write characters who ring true to an audience. Perhaps, as in many paths of life, a scriptwriter is born that way. It’s the way they think. With the ability to understand people.

Is it their consciousness? I’d need ten years studying metaphysics for the solution to that question.

All people may be born equal… but we are certainly not born the same.

Certain traits in a person’s nature can aid in making a scriptwriter’s life less difficult. For instance, bohemian rather than corporate expectations can help.

Most people know the alphabet. They’re literate. But few literate people are truly scriptwriters.

If a person’s ease of writing is greater than or equal to their ease of talking then they are probably a writer. If in their writing, they are drawn to drama and conflict, then they are most likely a scriptwriter.

A script is not a mouthpiece for one’s views. (Except of course for propaganda). It is a blueprint interpretation of what a scriptwriter has seen/heard/experienced.

15. RES IPSO LOQUATOR

The thing speaks for itself.

A script must contain the blueprint basis for all the information that will be conveyed to an audience. Further analysis is inevitable but that’s AFTER the experience of viewing the film/play/series.

The academic world of analysis of films runs parallel to the scriptwriting world itself.

16. HOW DOES A SCRIPTWRITER KEEP ON WRITING?

In psychological terms, writing might be an attempt to heal inner emotional damage from childhood. If that’s the case, a scriptwriter seems almost compelled to continue scriptwriting.

But blocks can occur. What are they?

The inability to face certain truths? Fear? Of failure? Of success? Of offending others? Of self-revelation?

Or a lack of having anything left to say that’s not repeating what the scriptwriter has already said? Can the creative well run dry?

When inner psychic damage is repaired (healed), does a scriptwriter stop being a scriptwriter?

These are interesting points with no clear answers. They are issues that should be considered by each and every scriptwriter for themselves.

17. WHAT IS TALENT?

Is it determined by the Zeitgeist? The cultural milieu for whom it’s meant?

Is a scriptwriter’s job to capture the Zeitgeist… and is the ability to do this a measure of the scriptwriter’s talent?

After all, without common cultural references, many great works lose their relevance and their meaning is obfuscated.

Is this perhaps, why many Australian films don’t travel easily into the wider, global market? (see # 23 for further discussion)

Also, remember Mozart and Salieri or Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell. A human being can learn almost anything, except: to become more talented.

There might be an unconscious desire for a less talented individual to kill a more talented one.

Scriptwriters should choose their friends carefully.

18. DRINKING AND DRUGS

The trouble with these is that they wear off. And both lead to poor judgment.

A scriptwriter’s greatest asset is a clear mind. Best to keep it that way and NOT choose Aldous Huxley as a role model.

19. COMEDY : THE TEARS OF A CLOWN

Comedy may be the most lucrative of all genres. The public seems to have an insatiable appetite and need for humour. And it is often said in the scriptwriting business, “funny is money”.

Also well known is a definition of comedy as “when tragedy happens to someone else”.

To write comedy, the scriptwriter must take a subversive and lateral point of view of their own inner wounds. No one wants the tears of clown. (Think Pagliacci, in the famous opera.) Or the anger of a clown. (Robin Williams occasionally falls into this trap.) The sexuality of a clown. (Paul Reubens aka Pee Wee Herman is a case in point.) Or even the nihilism of a clown. (Woody Allen’s serious filmscripts are a perfect example of the latter.)

What psychic price does the scriptwriter pay with funny scripts?

Be aware there is one.

A scriptwriter should know that under the best humour lie the greatest truths.

20. PROCRASTINATION AND EASE

One trick scriptwriters use to start a script is to pretend to themselves that no-one will ever read that script. They are writing it merely for themselves. And will place it in a drawer. Then, of course, a script has been written and it’s too late.

As for ease of scriptwriting, a free road to one’s unconscious and consciousness is clearly beneficial while writing a script. (As opposed to real life, where it might be rather challenging.)

Reasons for procrastination can include fear of failure. Or even fear of success.

But only a mind reader can really know why a person might constantly talk about writing a script and yet, ironically, never write one.

Jack Feldstein is a director, playwright, scriptwriter, script editor, series creator, interactive scriptwriter, filmmaker & lecturer in Sydney. His short films including ‘The Ecstasy of Gary Green’ and ‘The Great Oz Love Yarn’ have been shown at festivals around the world and have received acclaim for their originality and humour.

Cherie Lee

I studied acting for three years and hold a graduate diploma in writing from Sydney’s UTS. My interest in film and writing was solidified through interning at The Story Department and gave me the opportunity to fine tune my skills. I’ve been involved with several film projects, the most recent of which was shortlisted for Tropfest.

With the knowledge gained from university and my experience at The Story Department, I’m now specialising in professional feedback on short films and documentaries.

THE EMPOWERMENT THEORY

Machiavelli postulated that man’s quest is for power. He said that no-one is more miserable than a disempowered man.

Ironically, he wrote his thesis as a book called THE PRINCE but when he presented it, hoping to impress his Medici rulers, to reap glory (and status), they hated it. And banished Machiavelli back to his disempowered state.

In his head, the scriptwriter has endless power. He/she is more powerful than Superman, and perhaps as omniscient as a god. The seduction of infinite power could be a valid reason alone to write a script.

Say your job is a janitor during the day. Picking up office workers’ discarded used tissues and dropped apple cores. Scrubbing toilet pans and facing mysterious indelible stains on white towels. But at night your characters (a facet of yourself) have the power to fly, rescue the needy and fall in love…all in your script. Your abilities are only limited by your imagination. You are empowered! Until you have to sell the script, in which case you may crash to earth with a giant thud. But that’s another story.

Immortality is another aspect of empowerment. The gods are immortal, but humans are not. But a film can be everlasting. Especially a classic. So the drive to write a wondrous script appears a way to cheat even death. And that’s mighty powerful.

Often you hear would-be scriptwriters say this, “ I’m going to write a script about my life. It’s more interesting than anything you see on the screen these days”

These are people who desire empowerment in their lives. They want the ability to control the uncontrollable aspects that surround them.

I can’t help but think of the tale of Faust. The doctor who gave his soul for empowerment and immortality. Sadly, it didn’t turn out well.

———————————————–

In conclusion, the scriptwriter is a complex and complicated psychological creature. Often psychically damaged but compelled to do his/her best to repair that inner wound.

We can only wish him/her luck, courage, the avoidance of neurosis and psychosis plus, of course, the occasional brilliant script.

Jack Feldstein.

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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In an average life, most people have a very constricted time. Rarely is a person satisfied with as much sex, food, money and fun as he/she desires. Mostly, society (and health issues) enforce humans to lead somewhat disgruntled lives. Because the alternative, if everyone did exactly what their hearts desired and damn the consequences, would be anarchy and chaos. Plus obesity and death.

The thing inside us all, in our unconscious, that wants to be free, regardless of outcome, is what Freud named the id.

And it wants to play.

Seemingly, scriptwriters have discovered a method to let their id run free. In a script, they can allow their characters to indulge in any taboo behaviour. And with impunity to boot!

Freud said that every person in your dreams is you. And so logically, every character in a script is thus a facet of the scriptwriter. And when characters have sex, kill, and generally do whatever they want, it’s the scriptwriter’s id at work.

Often you’ll meet a scriptwriter and he/she will be bespeckled and timid. And then you’ll read their script and be astonished at what the scriptwriter has written.

You’ve probably heard these comments said about certain scripts…

“I couldn’t continue reading it after he ate his cat.”

“The fact your protagonist does that with his mother makes him unlikeable.”

“I had to look up coprophilia in the dictionary”

Unchecked by the Super Ego ( the disciplinarian part of the unconscious) the id can truly run free. And occasionally some scriptwriters fall prey to their unencumbered id ruining their script. A good example of this is Joe Eszterhas, the writer of BASIC INSTINCT. By the time Eszterhas wrote SHOWGIRLS, a famously bad film, his id had truly and uncontrollably run amok.

Jack Feldstein.

Previously:
PART 1 – THE AUTISTIC FANTASY THEORY
PART 2 – THE NARCISSISTIC THEORY
Next: PART 4 – THE EMPOWERMENT THEORY

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.

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

by Jack Feldstein

THE NARCISSISTIC THEORY

It might be said that scriptwriters are those who fall in love with their own thoughts. And the process of recording those thoughts is scriptwriting.

This explains the intense anger often experienced by scriptwriters when their work is rejected or altered. If they love their own ideas then rejection of those ideas leads to a personal sense of feeling unloved.

And very few things make a person more furious than their love being scorned.

The very act of scriptwriting indicates that the person believes their thoughts are unique and worth noting. That belief of “specialness” is a classic narcissistic trait. After all, every human being has many thoughts. But only some believe those thoughts are extraordinary and possess great value as the basis for a film.

The very act of scriptwriting indicates that the person believes their thoughts are unique and worth noting.

When the world conspires to counter a scriptwriter’s belief system ( for instance, when a script is not chosen or changed vastly by a director or not recognized to be as special as the scriptwriter him/herself believes ) then cognitive dissonance in the scriptwriter creates great inner psychic pain.

Cognitive dissonance is defined as when the outside world is at odds with a person’s inner belief system. If that inner belief system is challenged, (“My script is special! Yet they rejected it!”)…then to soothe him/herself the scriptwriter must rationalize why the script was rejected.

Otherwise he/she faces much psychic turmoil and pain with the knowledge that maybe their thoughts aren’t special and loveable after all.

Scriptwriters often utilize phrases like these below to save themselves from great psychic pain and to protect themselves from the need to question the sense of their own “specialness”.

“ Those executives are idiots.”
“ No-one knows how to read a script.”
“Look at the crap they chose instead of mine!”

Often their narcissism leads scriptwriters to feel much Schadenfreude when another film bombs at the box office.

Often their narcissism leads scriptwriters to feel much Schadenfreude when another film bombs at the box office.

This helps scriptwriters maintain their inner narcisstic premise which says, their script, had it been selected, would have made a highly successful film.

-Jack Feldstein

Previously: PART 1 – THE AUTISTIC FANTASY THEORY
Next: PART 3 – THE ID THEORY

Jack Feldstein is an award-winning scriptwriter and neon animation filmmaker.

His rambling seemingly make-it-up-as-you-go-along, stream of consciousness monologue narratives have been likened to Woody Allen and Spalding Gray, but with an Australian twist.

Feldstein woke up one morning and began making neon films.

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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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SCRIPTWRITING

Or: why a seemingly sane person sits in a room staring at a blank page.
By Jack Feldstein

Since almost the invention of writing in Sumeria, certain people have been compelled to sit, often alone, in a room (or a hut) and fabricate and record their stories.

Why?

I’m going to examine a few psychological explanations for why an apparently rational person might be compelled to undertake the arduous, and mostly thankless, task of writing a script.

PART 1: THE AUTISTIC FANTASY THEORY

An autistic fantasy is defined as a withdrawal into excessive daydreaming rather than taking proactive action in the world. Here the daydream is another term for the unconscious. Scriptwriting would be the act of recording the daydream (unconscious) in words.

A person, often feeling distressed and anxious in the real world, may retreat into their autistic fantasy inner terrain. This is their escape hatch. Here the person is king of the castle and master of all they survey. Which would certainly not be the case in the outside world if they are at the bottom of the pecking order.

Disappearing into an autistic fantasy is known to provide relief from external stress factors. And rather than face true challenges, the scriptwriter chooses to dream about a happy outcome.

Often we hear scriptwriters describing their autistic fantasy like this.

“ I have to get into the zone.”
“My characters have taken over the script.”
“I can only write after a scotch. Or a magic mushroom.”
( alcohol and drugs are well documented in their ability to alter inner psychic states)

A well-known case of extreme autistic fantasy writing is writer and scriptwriter, Virginia Woolf ( she wrote the play ORLANDO which was used almost unchanged to make the film ORLANDO by Sally Potter). Her stream-of-consciousness writing style can be explained by an autistic fantasy state.
Whether, however, that can be blamed for her eventual suicide remains a point of conjecture.

If we say there are two types of people in this world, the hunters (proactive) and the gatherers (passive). Then the scriptwriter lives the life of the safe passive gatherer but possesses the dangerous inner terrain of an active hunter.

And this is enacted in his/her autistic fantasy…

Which is then translated into a script.

Jack Feldstein.

Next week: The Psychology of Scriptwriting (2) – THE NARCISSISTIC THEORY

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.

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!