Ron Howard Screenwriting and Directing Masterclass

it takes a long time to make a film i want to be fascinated by that journey i was getting an awful lot of sort of you know patronizing kind of pats on the head and hang in there and that's not what i wanted to hear at all some of us are jerks some of us are talkative some are very quiet um none of that really matters very much the big thing is taste taste and judgment most people get their first chance to direct by blackmailing their way in generally they have to say well if you want me to write the script you've got to let me direct it want me to act in the movie you got to let me direct it keep building a spec you know or an outline or something so you're collecting your own intellectual property at all times [Music] it takes a long time to make a film i want to be fascinated by that journey in a project like hillbilly elegy it was relatability i love family stories but i've i've never had one that was a true story that dealt with characters from rural america and that's my family's background i grew up in california but my mom and dad are from the midwest i felt like i just connected with these these characters this family dynamic and journey the ways in which they were funny the dramas that they had to work through and of course the always relatable journey of a young guy discovering himself understanding the strengths that he's inherited but also overcoming some of the baggage you got to think about these kids what do you think i've been thinking about since i was 18 years old huh the biggest thing is to never stop writing you know keep building a spec you know or an outline or something so you're collecting your own intellectual property at all times you know even while you're you're going out and starting to take meetings now the development game is not what it once was and even though you have some heat from having something optioned you want to take advantage of every one of those get to know you meetings that you possibly can and open up relationships with development executives because that's so important interesting rewrite jobs might come your way those are great for paying the bills but more importantly you know you're developing relationships with the gatekeepers the people who will can can help you you know get things done that's really important but vital is to not just have you know one calling card okay you've got an option that's great it's you want to just keep being as productive as you can and collaborating and as this one that's been optioned moves forward my suggestion would be to stay as nimble and loose about um continuing to collaborate and take on collaborators it's been your baby but that's not really the way film works you know now there are two or three key voices that often enter into the evolution of a screenplay and you know the collaborators directors producers studio executives love somebody who can continue to advance by you know having that creative conversation taking some notes building upon the good ones and being smart about editing out and weeding out the ideas that are you know that are not compatible with the with the screenplay so the more you can demonstrate that you know the more you just build goodwill and your own that own create that muscle that uh that most great screenwriters need to have as a young person a young adult trying to make the transition from sitcom actor to motion picture director well i mean i was getting an awful lot of sort of you know patronizing kind of pats on the head and hang in there and you know in another 10 or 15 years i'm you know i'm sure somebody will give you a chance to direct and that's not what i wanted to hear at all so i had a lot of frustration about that and i kind of earned my way out by by making student films myself by writing and by being fortunate enough to put myself get myself into a position of of some leverage by being one of the lead actors on happy days i had some leverage it's had something i could sort of trade with most people get their first chance to direct by blackmailing their way in generally they have to say well if you want me to write the script you got to let me direct it if you want me to act in the movie you got to let me direct it you know if if you want this money this group of investors that i've found you're gonna have to let me direct the film and and that's nobody really wants to hand a first-time director the reigns you know directors some of them some of us are sweethearts some of us are jerks some of us are talkative some are very quiet um none of that really matters very much although i you know i always i always think that it's nice to be decent to people but that's me uh it's not imperative the big thing is taste taste and judgment that's what it's all about and it's it's uh it's understanding you know what's what exists within the possibilities of the story you're interested in telling you know and and and and how many of those details can you capture how can you sequence them together in the editing you know what does that add up to and um it really doesn't much matter how you get there whether there's a large crew or a small crew whether it takes a long time or just a little while but what it really matters is what did you get and what does it mean to other people when you edit it together and share it with them i think that the number one lesson probably was that trying to achieve a quality entertainment is something that requires incredibly diligent focus and dedication andy embodied that and at the same time you could work hard on the creative problem solving you could you could respect the audience and and try to achieve a level of quality but you could also have fun and laugh and that in fact the creative collaborative uh energy could be really intoxicating and thrilling to be around but it also required this sort of equilibrium between focus professionalism and an ongoing sense of play because you are you are engaging in in sort of make-believe to try to help achieve the the goals of any scene no matter what the genre well we were trying to do um internet content starting like about 99 89. yeah i think it was 99 and dreamworks and imagine combined on a thing called pop.com which was sort of gonna had we kept it going which we didn't it might have grown into sort of youtube i mean it was that idea of making short films for the internet creating an environment where people could upload their their short films and and things like that and um and it you know we couldn't get it to work we we started it it failed just didn't make business sense we were out in front of it and cost too much and stuff like that so um but but it in my mind i felt like there was a maybe a a new kind of um lower cost sort of television that could be produced that would utilize the the the of a new kind of visual vocabulary that was coming out of reality television um and docutv like sort of like cops but also the reality tv show and i'd done ed tv which was about a reality i mean it was before reality tv shows existed um the notion of just following people around and uh and and and sort of you know ntv they're they're they're airing it live uh but um i felt like that there was a a way to do a sitcom that would feel very spontaneous and and and could be dense comedically dense because you could do more visual humor you could be more cinematic you could do you could have a narrator you could do flashbacks you could you could uh let person say a person say one thing and then you could expose them for the hypocrites that they are with a quick flashback you know and things like that and and um and it could be a sort of you know a modern [Music] more cinematic approach to a sitcom but it would have to be genuinely funny not just smug when you're doing something as emotionally um risky um as as you know sort of working on a tv show or or or a movie i mean part of it is that you're you're you're facing yeah the real possibility of complete public humiliation i mean it's not all that unusual for people to just say oh that was terrible did you see that guy he's oh he was awful see steaks and and so everybody knows that that's out there because they've participated in that same kind of kind of ragging on on uh shows and movies they know they know you're that that you're putting yourself you know up for that sort of um that sort of judgment you're opening yourself so as a result you know there there does need to be a kind of trust but i found that in the creative community there's often a sort of an instant trust and you can either in in just one or two conversations you can actually determine whether that trust exists um in you know in a relationship or not my first movie was a car chase comedy young people on the run called grand theft auto and made for 602 thousand dollars but the film made a terrific profit and it got me started i had to i wrote it with my father um and and i had to star in it in order to get to to direct it but that's the last time that i acted in anything that i directed one of the things that i suggest to almost anybody and i do it myself from time to time is whatever the genre if there's a movie and there's a there's a that you particularly like and there are sequences that you remember and and you think are cool watch them over and over again watch them a couple of times with sound and then watch them a couple of times without sound because when you pull the sound out which is like the final finish that really in a lot of ways brings a lot of you know gives a lot of the impact to a scene you also begin to see really how the filmmakers captured those images did they use the same shots over and over and keep cutting back to them was it always a different shot on a different angle is the camera moving is it static you know what's the what's the language that they're using and what does it mean and it answers so many questions because we sort of understand movies intuitively but when you really start breaking them down and understanding what was done on the day to create that that sequence of shots that we love that meet that has an impact on us you know it's like a light goes off you just begin it simplifies everything it removes a lot of the mystery anybody can shoot anything but it's how you how you begin to build it and piece it together that i think means the most and uh of course the the editorial software is so cool now that you know anybody should take advantage of that and um you know and start putting together putting together our images the first thing that i do when i step on set is usually hand off my shot list to the script supervisor or if i haven't built my shot list yet and all i have is a bunch of notes is uh you know i'm bypassing you know uh stop off at the porta potty uh and get a cup of coffee that's kind of obvious early in the morning uh but um get out there look at the set get a quick report if there are any surprises um is anybody sick are your actors okay is everybody on time uh is what's the weather supposed to be you get a quick you know rundown then you see if the plan that you made the the day before still holds so you know your first shot's going to be and and then it's really about getting that first shot launched sometimes that entails getting the actors there for a rehearsal first sometimes you know what the staging is going to be and you get the camera crew going and then you you know you begin the the process if i haven't made a shot list once i've staged that first one and broken it all down i'll step aside with the script supervisor and and jot down a shot list for the entire day could be up to 50 shots but i'll work it out with him or her and and that's usually about 75 accurate in terms of what we're really going to do but it becomes a great organizing game plan at 65 ron howard continues to exhibit a youthful exuberance for many americans he knows he is forever opie in reflecting on his latest documentary subject luciano pavarotti howard focused on the tenor's drive and willingness to take risks you come across as an easy-going person right that's been your that was your actor persona as well but there's clearly some driver ambition or even is there a killer instinct in there that well only a respect for the medium i mean i think that look pavarotti was he he was charming people loved working with him they really wanted to work with him you know i hope people feel that way about working with me i bring a lot of joy and excitement to the set with me because uh you know that's the way i feel you're 65 you've been at this a long time 61 of 65 but you seem to be busier than ever as a storyteller um it's it's uh it's almost like this buffet uh it's it's uh um incredibly energizing to me all right ron howard thank you very much pleasure thanks you

Channel: Outstanding Screenplays

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Keywords: video essay, screenwriting, screenwriter, analysis, screenplay, scriptwriting, screenplay tips, quick tips, cinema, writing, film, script, tips, story, oscars, review, how to, filmmaking, tips from screenwriters, directors chair, ron howard interviews, hillbilly elegy, arrested development, a beautiful mind, apollo 13, frost nixon, ron howard masterclass, bryce dallas howard, hillbilly elegy trailer, solo a star wars story, rush, the da vinci code, the grinch, splash, oscars 2021

Id: OacAPEqv_MU

Length: 14min 59sec (899 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 23 2020