MARK BOAL
Screenwriters. On Screenwriting. The BAFTA Screenwriters’ Lecture Series in association with The J J Charitable Trust 17 -25 November 2017
I think rules are great if you’re in trouble. If you’re not in any trouble, they’re absolutely useless, possibly worse than useless. It may happen that every script has the characters established by page 10, and it may not. I don’t think there’s any reason to be thinking about that when you’re trying to write a script... Every time I read a script that goes off it’s because at that point the script is trying to be like a script. It’s at that exact moment when it loses its individuality and its interest. K E N N E T H LO N E R G A N S C R E E N W R I T E R SÕ L E C T U R E 2 016
Welcome Welcome to the eighth edition of the BAFTA International Screenwriters’ Lecture Series, in conjunction with The JJ Charitable Trust. As always, we proudly celebrate the primacy of the screenplay in narrative filmmaking, whether as part of an auteur’s vision or as the prima facie document in the collaboration between writer and director. The sheer range of talent and vision on display this year is breathtaking and unmissable. We open with the world-renowned, BAFTA-winning screenwriter Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty, Detroit). Boal’s background in journalism gives his screenplays a level of authenticity reflected in the visceral films that he has written. Multi-garlanded writer-director Sean Baker (Starlet, Tangerine, The Florida Project) delivers the second lecture. His writing collaborations have created several of the most innovative films in recent years, making social realism sexy and colour-blocked with sincerity and excitement. Next, we are proud to host the visionary writer-director Dee Rees (Pariah, Bessie, Mudbound) as our third lecturer. Her forte as a filmmaker lies in her vivid talent for humanising her characters, with nuanced dialogue that renders their humanity so beautifully on screen. Closing this series is the double BAFTAwinning screenwriter, playwright and novelist Anthony McCarten (The Theory of Everything, Darkest Hour, Bohemian Rhapsody). McCarten’s many gifts as a writer include his genius for giving the infamous familiarity and empathy, allowing an audience to enter into what would usually be off-limits. We celebrate all four of this year’s screenwriters in the knowledge that great films begin and end with a great screenplay.
Jeremy Brock Screenwriter and Founder of the Lecture Series Follow the series on Twitter: @BAFTA and @BAFTAGuru with #screenwriters
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Mark Boal
Friday 17 November, BAFTA 195 Piccadilly
It’s hard to not make a connection between Mark Boal’s former life as an investigative journalist KER and his current career as a multi-award winning screenwriter and producer. four films he RAZMIKThe cat? of has written to date all bear the hallmarks a or g o d a t a by someone who has embedded created s th Ibeing themselves in the subject matter, researching YEVA as many witnesses every minutiae, interviewing and experts g. as possible and learning all the whos, dowhys, Awhats, hows and wherefores before settling (an intense turn by Tommy Lee Jones) as he IK down to pen theirRfinal feature. searches for his son, listed as awol by the military. AZMcompelling ? e m Next came The Hurt Locker (2008), which Amid the intensehdrama and nail-biting action, a n e t there’s to Boal’s writing that Boal based on his own experience embedded Whatan’sauthenticity is impossible to ignore VA often makes for with the US Army’s crack bomb disposal unit, YE(and the EOD, as a war correspondent in Baghdad. uncomfortable viewing). ie.film, In the Valley of Elah (2007), Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, the first of three lffirst AHis director and writer, this was borne out of his own article , gbetween K ‘Death and hacollaborations ved doyet RAZMI e b electrifying gruelling film netted Boal two Dishonor’, originally written for w Playboy, and l l e y director ver a BAFTAs and two Academy Awards, both in the adapted for film by Boal and Paul s i . e i etprofound Best Film and Original Screenplay categories, AlfBoasting quithis so cast, Haggis. It’ansall-star ? h u h drama follows a retired US Army staff sergeant among numerous other industry awards. He would be nominated again in the same two categories for his third film, Zero Dark If youÕre repairing a car, you have to have Thirty (2012), about the hunt for and eventual some imagination about what might be wrong assassination of Osama bin Laden. His latest with it. If youÕre writing a screenplay thatÕs collab with Bigelow, Detroit (2017), set during supposed to be about human beings, you the riots in the city during the 1960s, will most have to have some imagination about what likely be in consideration once more come this those S human beings are like. And in order to .O.)awards season. E REEenjoy a film or screenplay, yourLimagination rise developing an untitled A IKE (Vnto thBoal e sisuncurrently o has to be able to believe that what youÕre opens is otelevision peningmini-series based on the dramatic akmind brtoenot seeing isHreal, the i parts that g n earorthas k a 2016 election and has written e enUS presidential brthat are fantasy enparts arenÕt real,o am oapscreenplay evthe t I u o n F orrenjoy for a film called Triple Frontier, h e t k i o t w because theyÕre I am br he new lighcurrently in pre-production with JC Chandor at And fantasy. nA Nto t the helm. within K E N N E T HBLO RG roNkEe
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Sean Baker
Saturday 18 November, BAFTA 195 Piccadilly
It will perhaps surprise no one to learn that writer-director Sean Baker counts such uniquely creative minds as Eric Rohmer, John Cassavetes, Ken Loach and Hal Ashby among his influences. There’s a non-conformist independence of spirit that runs through Baker’s work that makes it as challenging to categorise as the oeuvre of those who inspired him. In an earlier time, he would perhaps have been called a maverick filmmaker. There’s certainly a fearlessness overarching his work. Tangerine (2015), his fifth feature film, was shot entirely on an iPhone 5s, not simply to show that it could be done (and perhaps inspire a whole new generation of independent filmmakers), but also because Baker felt it was the best way to tell that particular story. The result is a raw, intimate portrait of the lives of transgender street prostitutes working in West Hollywood, which wowed audiences and critics alike when it debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to win an Independent Spirit Award.
Tsou. The story revolves around a desperate illegal Chinese immigrant caught up in a smuggling ring in New York. Shot on location in the city, the film’s candor about the struggle of illegal immigrants is credible, engrossing and very much still topical. Between this and Tangerine, Baker created the television sitcom Greg the Bunny for Fox, which ran for three seasons, and made two other films, Prince of Broadway (2008) and Starlet (2012). Rather appropriately, the latter won the Robert Altman Award at the Independent Spirit Awards (Altman himself known for his naturalistic filmmaking), and was also nominated for the John Cassavetes Award (the third time Baker had been nominated for this honour). Baker’s most recent film is The Florida Project (2017), which caused something of a sensation at the Cannes, Toronto and New York film festivals. Boasting a bigger budget and starring the filmmaker’s first major mainstream actor, Willem Dafoe, this movie is certainly broader in scope than Baker’s previous features. However, it If something interests me and if I research it, it still has a kinetic feel and independence of spirit will end up in the film somehow, but I donÕt go ARK BOAL M that would happily play alongside A ORNof S theNBwork out to say, ÔI will now make a political film,Õ or, Rohmer, Cassavetes, Loach and Ashby. s. ÔThis should be a statement about this or that.Õ Everything I do is to try to get the characters as rich as I can, or to understand them as much as I canÉ even if itÕs just a side character. M A REN A DE S C R E E N W R I T E R SÕ L E C T U R E 2 016
His first feature, Four Letter Words (2000), has a similar element of vérité. As well as improv, Baker fashioned the film’s witty banter between high school buddies, chewing the fat at the end of a booze-fueled party, from recorded conversations between his own friends. Take Out followed in 2008 (although it was completed in 2004), co-written, co-directed, co-edited and co-produced with Shih-Ching in association with The JJ Charitable Trust
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The Screenwriters’ Lecture Series
Anthony McCarten Sunday 25 November, BAFTA 195 Piccadilly
Anthony McCarten’s history of writing goes back long before he penned his first theatrically released feature film. He started out as a journalist on a local New Zealand periodical, adding playwright and novelist to his CV before adapting his own play, Via Satellite, into a film in 1998. His books have been international bestsellers and translated into many languages, while his stage plays have also been hugely popular – Ladies Night (written with Stephen Sinclair) remains the most commercially successful play in New Zealand’s history and has toured the world. To call him a strong all-rounder – both in terms of writing talent and choice of subject matter – would be an understatement. He has a deft knack for investing his stories (both notorious and fictional) with a level of compassion and perception that makes complex concepts, which might be impenetrable elsewhere, effortlessly accessible.
in association with The JJ Charitable Trust
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Your job as screenwriter is to set things up in just such a way that the audience, without feeling dumb, figures out the story on their ownÉ Even if you take something thatÕs as straightforward and classic as a fatherson story, you can express it in a way thatÕs totally unique to you. P H I L LO R D S C R E E N W R I T E R SÕ L E C T U R E 2 016
The clearest example of this has to be his script for The Theory of Everything (2014), exploring the complicated relationship between world-renowned physicist Professor Stephen Hawking (Eddie Redmayne) and his first wife, Jane (Felicity Jones). The film won McCarten two BAFTAs, for Adapted Screenplay and Outstanding British Film, and was nominated in eight other categories, including a win for Redmayne. In the US, his wonderful script earned him two Academy Award nominations. Hopefully, McCarten’s lightness of touch and insightful commentary will be evident in two other biopics due a release in 2018. Darkest Hour is directed by Joe Wright and centres on Winston Churchill (played by Gary Oldman) during the early days of World War II. While Bohemian Rhapsody stars Rami Malek as the eponymous Freddie Mercury in the story of the star’s rise to fame and tragic death. Elsewhere, McCarten has adapted his stage play The Pope for Netflix, which stars Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce as Popes Benedict and Francis respectively. McCarten’s previous feature film credits include Death of a Superhero (2011), Show of Hands (2008) and The English Harem (2005), all of which were based on his own novels.
THE WRITE STUFF
Celebrating the writer with Lucy Guard, co-trustee of The JJ Charitable Trust, which has supported the Screenwriters’ Lecture Series from its inception
I
t was nine years ago that Jeremy Brock and I met for a cup of tea in Old Compton Street to talk about his brilliant idea for the Screenwriters’ Lecture Series. Having worked in drama development for years, I had grown to hugely admire the very few really good screenwriters I’d had the privilege of working with. What always amazed me was how under-celebrated they were. Writers spend hours of their days on their own, wrestling with their inner critics as they subject themselves to roughly 90 per cent self-punishment and 10 per cent praise. Then they go to meetings where external forces critique their work, prompting feelings of yet more failure. The process, which can take years, is about graft, rigour and redrafting, which means a lot of ‘killing your darlings’ along the way. A writer can be sacked indiscriminately (sometimes only discovering this in the trades) and their deeply nurtured work instantly binned. On top of this, there is no guarantee that anything will make it into production, which can make for some serious existential angst. If and when scripts do finally make it, it’s rare for writers to be allowed on set. Imagine having someone else direct your story in a way that doesn’t marry with the vision you had worked so hard to create. And, to cap it all, when one of your ‘babies’ does make it on to the screen, it’s the director that invariably receives the biggest nod. Without good writers, there are no good scripts. Without good scripts, there are no good films. Everything leads back to the quality of writing. The Screenwriters’ Lecture Series was created all those years ago to celebrate and support screenwriters. If we want better films, maybe we all should think about how to do that even more.
Frank Cottrell Boyce, 2011 lecture
Emma Thompson, 2014 lecture
The J J Charitable Trust is part of The Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts. For more information: www.sfct.org.uk The Screenwriters’ Lecture Series
Last Year’s Learnings Some advice from last year’s Screenwriters’ Lecture Series speakers Maren Ade on creating characters… “I work for a while on the characters, writing down ideas. I start writing dialogue very early, that’s something that is very important for me. I have a document where I write down how people talk, or how this character talks. The story always comes out of the characters.” And writing about what you know… “It’s important to find something personal. My films are not autobiographical, but I always write about something that I know, which I then make bigger for the film or make more intense. It’s always a process of finding something out about myself.”
Kenneth Lonergan on developing the idea… “I usually have to have at least a loose architecture to start with or I can’t get very far. I can have an idea for a character or a situation, but if I don’t have an overarching idea I go nowhere.” And on the sincerity of intent… “When films feel false, or anything fictional feels false, I think it’s because the creators are not reflecting their own experience, I think they’re trying to guess what the audience is like. They see someone talk in a certain way, or behave in a certain way, but they’re not seeing it as real. It could be a science fiction movie, or it could be a complete fantasy movie, it doesn’t matter, this is nothing to do with the naturalistic level of the fantasy. It has to do with the sincerity of the intent. And whether the sincerity of the intent is to say, ‘OK, we all know this kind of guy, and he’s like this’. To me, half your mind’s on a generalisation, and very little of it is on the guy.”
Park Chan-wook on Phil Lord on his starting point… receiving notes… “For me, the plot, the narrative “When you get notes from is always the most important. your partner, or from a test Not the characters, nor the screening, or from a friend style. First and foremost who reads the script, it’s comes the narrative. I’m not saying that in my really important to take those notes on faith. movies that’s the most important part, but I’m You can put your energy into arguing about whether that’s the right impulse to have, but the saying it’s the one thing that comes first.” truth is that this is a human being who watched And adapting source material… “What you need to be aware of about taking on something or read something as earnestly as source material and adapting it into a film is that possible, and they reacted in some way, and you don’t make those films by yourself. When that reaction is truth.” And Christopher Miller on writing comedy… there is a source material, there’s a producer and there’s the financier, or sometimes the source “The thing that made you laugh the first time, material might reach the star of the film first. and maybe the second and third time, by the All of these people read the source material and time you’ve gone through it 27 times it’s not have different pictures in their head about what making you laugh anymore. So that’s why this film is going to be. And there’s no reason showing it to an audience, letting someone else why those pictures will be the same, or will be read it, [is important]. If they are responding the same as the picture that I have in my head. to it, you know it is still working. You have to That’s something that you should always be trust the audience. That’s the best way to fight careful of.” the, ‘Argh – I’m tired of this joke!’ feeling.” in association with The JJ Charitable Trust
Previous Screenwriters’ Lectures have been given by: 2016 Kenneth Lonergan Maren Ade Park Chan-wook Phil Lord and Christopher Miller 2015 Nick Hornby Andrew Bovell Nancy Meyers Jimmy McGovern Beau Willimon 2014 James Schamus Emma Thompson Steven Knight 2013 David S Goyer Hossein Amini Susannah Grant Tony Gilroy Richard Curtis cbe 2012 Lord Fellowes Scott Frank Peter Straughan Brian Helgeland Abi Morgan 2011 Charlie Kaufman William Nicholson obe Moira Buffini John Logan Guillermo Arriaga Frank Cottrell Boyce Paul Laverty
SCHEDULE AND BOOKINGS Mark Boal Detroit, The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty Friday 17 November, 19.30 at BAFTA 195 Piccadilly Sean Baker The Florida Project, Starlet, Tangerine Saturday 18 November, 19.00 at BAFTA 195 Piccadilly Dee Rees Bessie, Mudbound, Pariah Thursday 23 November, 19.00 at The British Museum Anthony McCarten Bohemian Rhapsody, Darkest Hour, The Theory of Everything Sunday 25 November, 19.30 at BAFTA 195 Piccadilly
H OW TO B O O K Tickets for all Lectures can be booked via the BAFTA website at: www.bafta.org/whats-on
Share your thoughts on #screenwriters with @BAFTA and @BAFTAGuru Each of these events is being filmed and will soon be available to view on guru.bafta.org
2010 Aline Brosh McKenna Simon Beaufoy Christopher Hampton cbe Sir David Hare Sir Ronald Harwood cbe Peter Morgan cbe
The Screenwriters’ Lecture Series
WITH THANKS
F O R BA F TA
Mark Boal Sean Baker Dee Rees Anthony McCarten
Film Programme Manager Mariayah Kaderbhai
Jeremy Brock Lucy Guard The JJ Charitable Trust Adam Kersch Angela Smith Ellen Steers Liz Miller Rachael Reiss Sanam Jehanfard Susan Bruce Tolley Shields Altitude Film Entertainment Entertainment One Netflix Universal
L TIT T IP SCR
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Director of Learning & New Talent Tim Hunter Event Producers Pelumi Akindude Julia Carruthers Cassandra Neal
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PR & Learning Campaigns Manager Niyi Akeju
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Press & PR Officer Eleanor Pickering Learning & New Talent Assistant Lizzie Warham Learning & New Talent Interns Kambole Campbell Abigail Teflise Shoot Producer Ryan Doherty Hair and Makeup Karla Zajec Photography Manager Claire Rees Photo Shoot Producer Jordan Anderson Brochure Design Joe Lawrence Brochure Editor Toby Weidmann
Portrait photography by Daniel Bergeron (Sean Baker cover); Eric Charbonneau/ REX/Shutterstock (Mark Boal cover); Netflix (Dee Rees cover & internal); Warren Toda/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock (Anthony McCarten cover); BAFTA/ Greg Williams (Mark Boal internal); BAFTA/Jamie Simonds (Emma Thompson, Frank Cottrell Boyce, Kenneth Lonergan, Park Chan-wook); BAFTA/Jonathan Birch (Maren Ade); BAFTA/Scott Kershaw (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller); BAFTA/Stephen Butler (Anthony McCarten internal); BAFTA New York/ Van Stolatis (Sean Baker internal). The Academy chooses Garda, supporting excellence in print. Printed on Garda Satin 300gsm (cover) and 150gsm (text). Supplied and printed by Taylor Bloxham Group. taylorbloxham.co.uk The carbon impact of this paper has been measured and balanced through the World Land Trust, an ecological charity.
in association with The JJ Charitable Trust
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The Screenwriters’ Lecture Series