I did something very unusual on Sunday.
No, it’s not unusual for me to be listening to a filmmaking podcast. But it is unusual for me to be listening to a filmmaking podcast WHILE WASHING MY CAR!
Anyway, it was an insightful On The Page podcast about writing for the faith-based market. Useful, because I have a few ideas for stories for that market. And I’m part of the market.
In following up some of the links offered by the guests, I visited Alan Tregoning‘s website. On there, I found a link to a very insightful memo written by none other than Jeffrey Katzenberg, in ’91 while he was still at Disney.
Although the memo is over twenty years old, the wisdom offered is very relevant today.
In fact, in their Scriptnotes podcast, Craig Mazin and John August bemoan many of the same issues raised by Katzenberg over twenty years ago.
Katzenberg talks about the danger in relying on a small slate of expensive tent-pole movies. He talks about the reality that many movies will fail. And that it’s okay to fail if you’re trying to make original, imaginate fare. He talks about the importance of having a great idea at the centre of your movie.
It is almost thirty pages all up, but well worth the read. So point your browser to the PDF of the memo hosted by the LA Times.
There’s some invaluable nuggets of wisdom for the screenwriter, but I’ll leave you with what Katzenberg considers to be crucial in translating a great idea into a compelling story:
Part of what makes a story work is mystical. Its originality, its theme, its characters, its dialogue – all these are undefinable ingredients that contribute to the alchemy of a successful story.
But, given this, there are still some overall guidelines of key importance in telling a good story. Most important of these is the need to create one or more central characters who confront something elemental about themselves by the end of the film…
All this means is that there should be a sympathetic protagonist who goes through some transforming experience with which the audience can relate. This applies ot the whole enormous and extraordinary range of film experience. Name any truly successful movie and you will find that this is the case.
Jeffrey Katzenberg, Disney Memo, 1991