10 Screenwriting Tips from Billy Wilder - The greatest screenwriter of all time!

well you see there is a there is a sort of a misconception that that that pace and speaking quickly is the same thing you can have pace by people not speaking quickly it depends on the cut it depends on on the rhythm of the thing well structure to me is compare it with building a house you have to have a base where the house is going to stand you have to have walls you have to have uh pillars that are going to hold it up staircase the second story and whatever it is it is a kind of a mixer writing a movie is a mixture of of architecture and forgive me the pump is worth poetry so most of the time it is kind of off the kind of the script is there and if something better occurs you know i'm the first one to accept it if it comes from an actor if it comes from if it comes from an electrician from the script girl even if it comes from a producer which is rare enough well you see there is a there is a sort of a misconception that that that pace and speaking quickly is the same thing you can have pace by people not speaking quickly it depends on the cut it depends on on the rhythm of the thing because uh leisurely moments silent moments uh they they have much more power but certain pictures have to be played at a just rattling things off you know don't don't confuse that you know there's obviously a confusion in in in our world that's like people confuse poverty with misery i have known very many poor people they have not been miserable and i can tell you people in true stale that are really miserable you know this confusion kind of constantly occurs billy how would you determine structure well structure to me is compare it with building a house you have to have a base where the house is going to stand you have to have walls you have to have pillars that are going to hold it up staircase the second story or whatever it is it is a kind of a mixer writing a movie is a mixture of of architecture and forgive me the pump is worth poetry or storytelling on a certain level but it has to have it has to have a very solid uh thing so that the the the second act follows the first act on it's strong enough to keep the audience in the seats to see the third act what is happening there but you you need that very very very strongly it's not that i make myself a drawing and a blueprint and it's just it's just kind of an instinctive thing i'm talking about myself because you've talked to another 500 writers everybody has got his own method some just start writing you know kind of some some have the the the the kind of uh the kind of flighty mind of of of uh we have a very good example now forrest gump you know the writers who who function like forrest gump you don't know where it's going but you can't do that with a picture i mean i couldn't do it with a picture well how do you do it i tell you i i mine is kind of another unique thing that i i cannot i don't like it if you write a scene and we say we'll fix that later we will manicure it and go to the next scene to the next scene i just go back to the first scene and until it is about as good as possible i may change something subsequently but i never write first version second version third version last weekend i wanted to catch the atmosphere of new york i needed i needed third avenue at that time there was still an elevator going up above i needed that it needed vast vistas of of new york of skyscrapers of when he's going up third avenue uh you know trying to hack to to pawn the typewriter because he needs money for some more booze personally just between you and me you know i i much rather shoot inside the studio because i can control it i don't have to fight the light which is going all the time the weather the sun is going all the time oh it starts raining and then you re-shoot for the and then the sun comes out again you know you have no control and you compromise i'm embarrassed to tell you the truth and so many actors about shooting in front of a lot of people i'll tell you a good story about it just care for another drink okay now this is what happened we were shooting seven year itch with marilyn monroe and you remember that famous shot do you remember the wind that is lifting her skirt well we were all set up to shoot that thing you know on the 59th and madison something like it i had in order to make sure that this skirt is being lifted not only that they were five and ultimately ten thousand people they were like they were the electricians and the and the mechanics who were working the the fan down below so that it would work right they accepted big bribes of people around they all wanted to be underneath there and look up marilyn's skirt and uh and we did it and we did it and did it and it never quite worked and people were heckling from the sidelines you know and people were running up for autographs and it was very embarrassing i tell you and the judy major who was at that time the the husband of of maryland you know he he was watching it and he didn't like it very much his wife making a spectacle of herself and i i didn't i didn't like the lack of control i couldn't really get it right and finally ultimately i i we did that shot in the studio it was perfect how do you go about developing your characters i tell you uh i i learned that i learned that from from charles lawton we were doing a picture called uh witness for the prosecution and the first two days he was rather shaky and then the third day he would come to me says i got it let's do the first two days again which i very often do because you don't know the crew you don't know how it's going to sound it's just kind of more or less you should have tested he he searches in his memory for a character that he had known and and he then placed that character he knew he knew he was searching for a judge or a lawyer that he knew it that was it was in the legal profession and and and once he he he gets the the sound of that guy and the manner of of of uh walking of looking he's got it but that goes with every picture he just tries to fix on a on on somebody that knows and he uses it he elaborates on it naturally but he uses it to be in the right key as you would say on the screen you cannot take a character of of one of your one of your uh uh friends or people that you know but uh and and make him into a murderer you have to plant that thing uh that thing within that character it was it was not it was not very easy with uh with uh uh fred mcmurray in in in in double indemnity to make him into into a uh into a murderer but uh you had to believe it you had to believe it and you had to have i was trying very hard a certain amount of pity that this that this guy was was led into something which which i which had i saw it with my own eyes how he felt and i was worried about him and he did it and i understand why he did it but i will because i object to it you have to you have to plant things you have a character but you have to plant string streaks in his character moments seconds uh where he makes a decision and you say that that goes with that guy you know this is what else did i expect it's no surprise it gets to be logical to the is yes well that's that's that's if if i could explain it you know this is like like you know if if i if i knew the formula you know i would patent it but nobody quite knows uh how to arrive at it but the best illustration which i use when people ask me about the deluge dots now if you have a class of students writers let us say or directors and you say i would like you to dramatize the the following situation there is a king and there's a queen there is a lieutenant the king is played by george barbier a very opulent fat actor in his 60s the queen is yunna merkel she was very pretty them and the adjutant the guidance of the king is maurice chevalier now dramatize the situation that the queen has an affair with the lieutenant and the king finds out now do it do it your way do it any way you want to and those hundred students who are very good to comedy very good they're very imaginative they go out and they come back a week later and they will all have good solutions amusing maybe long maybe uh maybe they're a little too explicit maybe it's too sensible but nobody nobody in the world could have come up with a better solution than mr lubitz does here's his solution and i'm putting now the opening scene in the smiling lieutenant you open up in the bedroom of the king bobby and the queen and he's getting dressed and there's little nose rubbing and tickling and saying it's all very sweet and she's very nice to the king now he leaves the bedroom leaves the bedroom and as he leaves the the bedroom we see that at the door with a sword standing there and clicking his heels is mauricio valley and he's now watching the king and the king is going down some steps it's a long staircase that leads down from the bedroom of in that palace boom boom boom boom now we cut back to mr shirali and he sees that the king is leaving and he now enters the bedroom of the queen the door is closed you don't cut into the bed now as the king is descending he suddenly sees that he he forgot the belt and the sword he turns around and he goes up the steps back into the bedroom now we have a situation going ah now he opens the door goes in the door closes we are still outside we're never inside now the king comes out and he's got the belt and he's got with the sword right and he is smiling and now he's going down the step boom boom boom and suddenly he tries to put it on and it's not his belt it's much too small for him [Laughter] now back he goes again and now he finds him under the bed right but you see you see how he operates that thing you know it's it's all done with a kind of a a akote kind of a kind of uh throwing it away so that is that is the the little bit statue how do you write an original something like the apartment you told us you got the inspiration for that from a picture david lena directed it was called a brief encounter one of his best pictures black and white very simple married woman a lover who lives in london and she would come and see him and he would use he would use a friend's apartment for for for his tris or whatever you want to call it and i remember we were shooting we were shooting strong like it had and we were halfway through and i was in love with lemon and i just thought there's an enormous talent i did not know him before and i if i could get him for a next picture but what what kind of a next picture can we can we can we can we find and um i i i have um draws full of of first acts of characters of curtains of themes for future pictures and i remember that i had something there that that fitted him and i found it that it was a five page outline uh for the apartment namely the story of the friend whose apartment the leading man was using it and the lion just very simply started with but what about the man who has to crawl back into his warm bed what happens to him and i decided that that would be a good uh a good uh uh character to to to start with uh and lemon was just he was just not really a leading man in the sense you know of richard bartleman off clark gable there was there was he was a leading man but there was something funny and pathetic at the same time you you touched on a very good point because i think i i should i should and i will henceforth if i get another crack at it i should prepare myself better but uh unfortunately the way the industry works the actor is just flying in from yugoslavia and uh and he arrives on friday on monday we have to start shooting and we don't we don't have the time you have when you're working on the play to really rehearse and rehearse and find so most of the time it is kind of off the kind of the script is there and if something better occurs you know i'm the first one to accept it if it comes from an actor if it comes from if it comes from an electrician from the script girl even if it comes from a producer which is rare enough but i should have i should have more time and very very good and very professional director like herbert ross he uh i just saw his last picture last night and i talked to matthau and he said you know we had two weeks rehearsals that's very very helpful but it uh it it is not it is not it is a luxury that you cannot always afford but i will insist on it it's it's it's terribly important that you that because while you're rehearsing that doesn't cost any money once you start shooting it's 25 35 50 000 a day that the time is the time is before and not after after you know you start after the war started after you're over the top you've got to go you wanted to go into directing because you you feel your scripts we are not we are betrayed or you're not you need to control i wanted to have more control and uh you know i just thought that directing was already fun writing is misery writing is sweat writing is hard labor the fun is to be on the set if you have a good script and and capable or if you're lucky enough to have outstanding actors that's a real fun you know that's that's the the thing to do you mean the writing is the toughest part of the filmmaking so you it's it's too much to to do the toughest part and somebody else's absolutely yeah the holiday it's like making the bed for somebody and then then he hops into the bed you know and i go home you know but you were not really satisfied with the system because you wanted to achieve more control you switch from scriptwriter to director and then director to producer producer director and that is the level of the producer who uh talking about great producers like the thawbergs and selznicks and and the the gold ones um i'm talking about a studio producer who you know since they cannot uh write since they cannot direct since they cannot act since they cannot compose they become the the head of everything and that was the ultimate control so it was a question of not of power but of of ultimately having it as close to on the screen to what you what you first imagined to have it as close to that after the execution you

Channel: Outstanding Screenplays

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Keywords: video essay, screenwriting, screenwriter, analysis, screenplay, scriptwriting, screenplays, screenplay tips, quick tips, how to write, cinema, writing, film, script, tips, story, oscars, review, how to, outstanding screenplays, filmmaking, directors chair, advice, interview, plot

Id: TJCdmP7amQc

Length: 18min 48sec (1128 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 25 2021