Hi, I'm Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, and this is screenwriting one on one. Pick an idea that you really like because it takes a long time to write a movie and a lot of energy. And some people, like lose steam on their own ideas just because they slowly realize they don't like them as much as they hoped they did. So pick an idea that you are really passionate about and that will help you finish to whatever the same kind of premise once you have everything figured out and have a strong premise that you stick to, an idea can come from anywhere and start as anything. And we've had some movies. Where it's born of like characters and we've had other movies where it's born of like a plot, and then the characters are kind of made to fit that plot we've had and a story almost nonstop and party started with the title. I remember that early. It's already started as a title. And we made a movie based around that generally commit to three act structure. But we also break all sorts of rules all the time. There are some things that are repeat themes in everything we do, like characters need to change or not. Good. Yeah. And something relatable, like I've seen some movies recently about like all powerful God and stuff like that. I'm like, you need something to anchor a human being too. But any rule can be broken. You're just like basic guidelines that you can just shatter them into moments. Right. But it's usually characters changing in general, characters changing and and some version of a three act structure, even if you're just coming and coming to root and something to root for some cause someone you want to have something big up. Almost every arc is born of contrasts, you know. And so I think like films are no different. It's like combining different elements. And and and that's what makes the other element be, you know, be featured, you know. And so I think it is just modulating. How funny is it versus how dramatic. And I guess the one thing you know, I'm one of the things that you have to try to pretend you're experiencing it like the people who will experience exactly the advantage film, like, you know, or you used to know how people are going to experience it. Now, you kind of know how people are going to kind of help, you know, but we're going to figure it out. Yeah, making yourself the viewer is very important and and really calibrating towards that experience. And then we come to an end of the world crossing party. We thought we'd do like a Pixar kind of thing, but ultimately, like, they have to be simple stories that would work if they weren't animated or they didn't have been and didn't have crazy visual effects or wild comedy. And so the end is just about a guy who had new friends. Old buddy doesn't mess with them and he just really wants everyone to get along and they're not. And and the party is about someone who goes on a hero's journey to try to help everybody realize that they're living a lie and they're just like simple things that could work in a weight drama and that has to be there or nothing works. I think some scenes, you know, function better than others. And and some scenes have more opportunity for improvization than others do. And some others are much better at improv than others and and are actually able to create additive material. And other actors are completely unable to do that. And therefore, it's not something you should call on them for or rely on them for. So it's not like in general, I would never advise everyone to write a scene like don't worry, we'll improvise this better on the day like that is not a good strategy. Like it should always be written as though no one's ever going to come up with anything better. And if someone does, fantastic. But you should never count on that. I don't think, you know, by world dependent like and this is the end. We thought it really had to make sense. And there was some broadeners there, but we thought it needed to be real. And it's sausage party. We had a never ending conversation about the reality of anthropomorphize toys. Another thing, another pain of having you talk. Why can't the Forks talk? Why can't the table might over the sheet of paper and a chair talk? Yeah, like a piece of pizza talk. But it's cheese, tomato sauce and bread and they talk before they talk. Yeah. So we have all the conversations, but eventually you just have to draw the line somewhere and every movie has a different line. But there probably should be some sort of line because the audience does like to understand the rules of the world that they're experiencing. You know, I would say often the last scene in the film there we are, the very last scene of a movie is is is sometimes the hardest write because you're trying to say, like, here's what here's the same thing. You've been enjoying the whole movie in one of the best ways you've had in the whole movie. But also everyone's changed. It's always a little tricky. But when you actually like, what do you want to leave people with, you know what I mean? Like, what is the last like whatever it is, no matter what, it leaves a big impression. So there's a lot of pressure on the last the beginning, the very beginning in the very end of the movie are both the hardest and most important parts. And always there's hundreds of drafts and it never stops. And it's a never ending, transforming, painful experience like 15 drafts of the script we're writing since the beginning of quarantine. And there was probably 50 drafts before that, and one where we like wildly changed things more than you would probably think, we change things a lot because we we just want to see it. But we try not to be precious about our writing. And and at times we found it's faster to just write something and see if it works than to spend a lot of time deliberating whether maybe or not it is going to work half the time. It's not going to work. And you realize it and you're doing it. And the other half you finish and then you realize it. But. But I think, like demystifying the actual act of writing is something that, thank God, happened to us a long time ago because just we've been doing it so long. So we're not incredibly precious with, like the movement of our fingers on a keyboard. Like if there's a version of a scene where we're like, oh, what if we completely change this part of the movie and look at the scene and then wrote another scene that we'll just do it rather than kind of deliberating it for a super long time. One person generally feels way stronger about it than the other person. Like it's like we will be just sitting and one of us feels like 10 degrees about it and the other feels like two degrees about it. So it's not really that hard of an argument either, because like generally the person who just cares way, way, way more will we'll win the argument that often end with the other person just saying, like, you care more about whatever it's like. And again, it's not like there's a lot of times for that to come back to that. Whatever it was, I was going to say that like like there's things where I'll be like you'll find out that he's wrong a year and a half exact words sitting in a preproduction meeting. Like that's what I'm going to be right about this point. Like we have we know we have belongings, so we know panic and be right more in a short period of time. Definitely. A good screenwriting quote that I've read that I think of a lot is like a script is not a work of art. A script is an invitation to come collaborate on a work of art. And a screenplay itself is is nothing. So like but what a screenplay should be is something that hundreds of people read and are inspired by and want to come together to help bring something new to life, you know, and that's what you should think of a screenplay as it is not the finished product.
