Writing A Screenplay In 3 Months by Paul Osborne Video Lecture | Screenwriting: From Beginner to a Pro - Career Development

so Paul for a favor how long did it take
you to write the film and how many
drafts did you go through what was your
process like let's see with favor
you didn't take long to write actually I
had the idea ahead well to back it to
the beginning of it you know your indie
filmmaker you write for what you have
access to if you have access to a world
war 2 tank you write a film with a world
war 2 tank in it I had access to these
two pretty great actors that I knew that
I wanted to write something for Blaine
Weaver and Patrick Day and I finally at
some point got the the brain flash that
maybe they would work well together and
he writes both of them and kill two
birds with one stone so I came up with
the idea for the film pretty quickly and
then I remember I had drinks with Blaine
Weaver at the well in Hollywood and I
pitched him the idea and just to see
what do you think he's like yeah it was
very off-the-cuff
because if someone says I'm gonna write
a screenplay for you what do you think
that everybody that's talk doesn't mean
anything but he liked the a Thierry's
does he seem to so that gave me the
impetus to start writing and I wrote it
over the course of a couple of months it
came together pretty quickly my process
is I tend to come over that idea I get
excited about it I tend to write it very
quickly I used to do outlines
I don't do outlines anymore because
that's unless it's very complicated
because I'll start writing the outline
and I I think it's so much detail off in
the beginning that I'm often trying to
write it fast enough before I forget
what I'm thinking so if I start writing
an outline by a page - it's becoming
scenes anyway like I keep like it's like
c1 I'm gonna write one word I'm gonna
write one sentence for each scene and
see ones this and the thing - is this
and scene three is this scene four is
this and see I'm now I'm at writing
scenes so I just start running the
script and I tend I try to write very
quickly the first draft I try to write
10 pages a day trying to think about it
too much just puke it out just but I
also don't often write an order so I try
to write where I'm excited to run I'm
excited to write this scene Emma's path
to that and then write this and then
write this and it kind of again I kind
of already know how it's all going to go
together and
when I'm done I have a you know a first
draft then you know less than two weeks
then I step away from it for a couple of
weeks and go back and look at it and and
then it's either you know it's either a
lot of work to fix her a little bit to
fix it this one wasn't too bad I mean it
the story never really changed in the
first draft it was a question of kind of
going through making the dialogue not
terrible what's the big the big thing
sue you know a month and a half of that
of rewriting and rewriting it and and it
was it was it was done we didn't know
how to change this once it went to the
actors I mean oh that we you know I
allowed them on set you know if the
dialogue line doesn't feel right it
feels better to say it a different way
go ahead and say it a different way as
long as I still recognize the scene or
the talkback the act other actor has
doesn't screw that up that I'm fine with
it so they were all able to play a
little bit loose and dialogue which is
great because then when they improve it
I get to take credit but it came
together pretty quickly for this one in
particular some scripts I struggled with
like 10 to lean I struggled with for
months but this one was was pretty fast
so do you ever struggle with that
worried like you know that sounds too
written that that that like somebody
wouldn't really say that they would just
be like uh-huh instead of well I think
you're wrong
you know let me do I think I've gotten I
mean that's something you obviously work
on is making sure that characters speak
like characters not like don't speak
perfectly you know the subtext of a
scene comes out I've gotten pretty good
with that in terms of you know what the
character says versus what the character
means the trick is making it not sound
clumsy you know it's like I often it's
it's a question of like staying back
kind of speaking it in your head or
speaking out loud and making it so what
would it normally sound like not make it
sound too perfectly written in terms of
the sentence construction it gets a more
conversational but also not clumsy or
falling over a bad pun or you know it's
a question of rewriting and rewriting it
I haven't I haven't had too much trouble
with people speaking perfectly for a
while fortunately that was something I
had to work on pretty early on in the
career because I would
they just you know here's what I mean
but super obvious right right well it
seems like a lot of stuff lately has
become more like that whereas I just we
were talking about What's Eating Gilbert
Grape
right and there you sometimes you just
see Johnny Depp and she wouldn't even
have to say a word he just kind of
raised an eyebrow no and it spoke
volumes and I was I don't know I miss
those movies well that's that's go back
to Breaking Bad that was one of the best
things about that show is that every
scenes got three or four layers in it
and the characters are saying something
they mean like three different things
and this and what they're saying is so
often not what they mean I think it's
great I think I hope we accomplish that
in favor because I I feel like a lot of
that movie is about these two guys who
have been friends for a long time and
they're not really friends they don't
really have anything in common they're
friends more of habit and the idea of
being friends it hasn't had it hasn't
been tested like ones they both started
in the same place when they were kids
and now one tear and ones here they have
really nothing else in common with each
other but they still call themselves
friends and there's been nothing really
to test the connection and when this
favor is asked for it all gets tested
and the pretense of their friendship
slowly falls away
you know they know we're buddies this is
favor you know and and and you know it
takes a good hour and a half of the film
before it really just is like we're not
friends
you know that's so that was a lot of
dancing around the subtext and so
obviously you've got a very full life
for yourself where are you doing this
writing because I know sometimes at home
it's so difficult you've got kids
animals phones the editing I do at home
and I have to carve out time for that
usually it's out of my sleep the writing
though I mean that's the beauty of the
laptop you can go anywhere so if you're
trying to write quickly and try not to
think too much I mean I do need a quiet
space they can write at Starbucks I
can't do that whole whole like their
necks like there's too much going on but
you know if I'm you know I get hard to
edit and I have downtime in the editing
room where it's just me so it's just
like I cracked that laptop
just can just I can just shoot through
it again
go fast it's harder to find time to edit
what I've written and reread it and
rewrite it because that requires more
focus then just being in the moment and
kind of shooting through it that way
you