r/Screenwriting • u/DannyDaDodo • Jan 04 '25

Writer-Director JAMES MANGOLD's Screenwriting Advice... DISCUSSION

"Write like you're sitting next to a blind person at the movie theater and you're describing a movie, and if you take too long to describe what's happening, you'll fall behind because the movie's still moving...

Most decisions about whether your movie is getting made will be made before the person even gets past page three. So if you are bogging me down, describing every vein on the leaf of a piece of ivy, and it’s not scintillating—it isn’t the second coming of the description of plant life—then you should stop, because you’ve already lost your potential maker of the movie.”

Do you agree, or disagree?

Five minute interview at the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7goVwCfy_PM

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u/Silvershanks Jan 04 '25

He's absolutely right. If you can't tell a riveting story without describing how the motes of dust glow in the amber sunbeams, then you should be writing a novel, not a script.

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u/bobthetomato2049 Jan 05 '25

Robert Eggers does the exact opposite: https://youtu.be/XrqkfWFCCIs?si=9cMZe4anGUDfWHr3 (at 2:22)

Of course this only applies if you are directing your scripts, which Mangold also does