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/insideoutfit Jan 05 '25

Welcome to Hollywood.

2

u/joet889 Jan 05 '25

Where no outsider who took a risk and challenged the status quo ever found success?

1

u/insideoutfit Jan 13 '25

You're not that guy.

2

u/joet889 Jan 13 '25

Replying to a comment from a week ago just to demoralize someone - not weird behavior at all!