Aaron Sorkin Flashcards
What is NECESSARY to any film/show?
An intention and an obstacle
When to introduce intention & obstacle
With modern streaming services it is very easy to turn off a show, so it must not be dragged on.
What are the two types of research?
- First type of research is the nuts and bolts, specific stuff you need to know. How many bolts are in the golden. gate bridge? How do aides behave with the President? Etc.
- Second is trying to find the meaning in your writing, where your going
Why should you talk to people?
You should interview people because you get a first hand account of the event, and you gain tidbits of information that could be extremely useful. You can also discover whole plots.
What’s the key to a good interview?
A good interview is best if under an hour. The first meeting should be, Just Coffee. You just want to build a relationship and trust. You can ask questions in later interviews. The rest can be in phone-calls and emails.
What’s meaningless research?
Meaningless research is putting the correct baseball scores on a piece of paper that’s crumpled and in a wastebasket. It will never be shown on camera.
How do you incorporate research?
You incorporate research by locating a problem and writing about it. Ex) The President runs out of toothpaste, the President is an actual human(President’s Diary), there are problems with the census(found through research).
What’s a good way to incorporate research into lines of dialogue
One way to incorporate research is by making the character smarter than the viewer. Several lines in Steve Jobs, Sorkin had no clue what they meant. He found out through research there was a technical problem so, he wrote that
How do writers lie?
Writer’s lie all the time because people don’t talk like dialogue. You can lie as long as you are doing no harm and still have the more important truth.
Who shall do no harm?
When writing non-fiction you cannot ‘deface’ people, for example, instead of drinking a beer in college, Mark Zuckerberg is doing lines of cocaine(can’t do that).
Why does the more important truth matter?
The more important truth matters because even if the story isn’t 100% correct you are still following the same truth. For example, Zuckerberg was originally drinking a ‘Screwdriver’ instead of a can of beer. The more important truth was that he was sad and getting drunk. Even though the director chose to change it the truth is there either way(just the screwdriver is much more visually cinematic)(and its not like he’s shooting drugs instead of a beer)
What’s the best way to learn writing?
Become a diagnostician, take apart scripts. If you dislike a movie or show, ask Why? Or what made it good?
How are car people or computer people similar to writers?
Because they take the computer or car apart and learn everything about it, similar to a script/film for writers.
Why are rules necessary? (think about sports without rules)
Rules are what make it fun, what make it good. If in soccer you could just stab the goalie and score, it wouldn’t be very fun.
What should you do to become a diagnostician?
Watch TV shows, plays, and movies with the screenplay in your lap. When something doesn’t work, figure out why it doesn’t work. Did it break one of Aristotle’s rules?
Why are understanding the REAL rules important?
Once you understand the real rules of drama, you will know how to break them and make unique stories.
What’s the difference between a story and drama?
The queen died is a fact. The queen died and left a king with a broken heart is a story. The queen died, and she was the
brains behind the king who is now struggling to keep his
throne is drama.
What’s act 1-3 of a movie drama?(using example of tree)
Act 1: You chase your hero up a tree
Act 2: You throw rocks at them
Act 3: You get them down (or not)
Say we use a gun or find a way to get down ‘the tree’ in the 3rd act. When must it be introduced?
The 1st act. Exposition is the first part of drama. You must avoid any magical surprises in Act 3 by setting up and introducing everything in Act 1 through exposition
What’s the point of exposition? What does it lead to?
Exposition gets the audience to understand the story. After you’ve set up the exposition, introduce the main conflict of the story with the inciting action.
Who helps the audience understand the story better?
A stand-in for the audience often helps the exposition, because they ask questions of the main character the audience might have.
What’s the inciting action? What must happen before the inciting action?
The inciting action makes the main characters intentions clear and the story begins. Exposition must come first.
What should you do by page 20-25 of a movie?
After the exposition the inciting action should be introduced by page 20-25.
How can page numbers be used as when writing?
Use page numbers as road signs to know if you’ve hit a certain milestone in your script.
Why are the first 15 pages the most important?
When a producer or studio executive is deciding whether to produce your script, you have to hook them with the first 15 pages.
Why are the last 15 minutes also very important in screenplays?
You must reward the audience for the time they have spent watching. Even if most of the movie is amazing but the ending is bad, people will hate your movie.
What’s a sign that you’re not ready for writing?(this show, episode, etc.)
If your writing is coming out slowly and painfully, you probably aren’t ready to sit down and start writing yet.
What are some ways to get past writers block?
Aaron drives around and listens to music to both get unstuck and to inspire himself. Sometimes the music itself can be the inspiration for the score for a scene, like it was for “The West Wing” episode “Two Cathedrals.”
What are some starting points before writing?
- Prepare enough research
- Define the intention and obstacle of the first scene you are going to write
- Use index cards to map out the next few scenes
- Focus on progress, and give yourself little milestones to check off at the end of every day.
- And most importantly, write what you like, and write like yourself
