Living the Romantic Comedy: Triumph of the Unconscious?

Nick Kazan was the guest speaker at my Cinematic Storytelling class this weekend. The Oscar-nominated screenwriter (for Reversal of Fortune, in 1991) is also on the Board of the Writers Guild, so it was especially generous of him to spend some time with a small group of fledgling screenwriters -- given that the momentous meeting in the Shrine auditorium that would help decide the fate of the writers' strike Saturday night was merely hours away.

Perseverance was a theme in our discourse: working sometimes for years on a story to get it right, with the particular kind of stubborn will-power that's central to the modern storyteller's craft and career survival. Simultaneously what struck me as a through-line in our conversation, surfacing in different contexts as we discussed how a story takes shape and develops on the page, was how much of the screenwriter's method is intuitive.

When he starts to write a scene, Nick favors literally closing his eyes and letting the images flow. "Just watch what happens in the scene, don't try to force it," he said, "then write down what you see. Then close your eyes again. You're tickling the unconscious... If you let the movie happen, let the characters speak, then what you get is more visual and cinematic." And we talked about how film operates like a dream.

So now I'm sitting... picturing... having to retype this sentence three times in a row since I can't actually spell well with my eyes closed and I'm dreaming --

Fried. Basted. Knackered, flattened... Words fail me at the end of Day 3 of a four-day screenwriting intensive at the Writers Program. It's kind of like teaching on acid.

Also it resembles group therapy, of some benign locked-in-a-room EST-ian variety. Trying to get a handle on her script's theme, one student spoke of the pain of being split in half by religion, politics and parentage (adopted, she thought of herself as living betwixt and between her current and birth-mother families). Another confessed that her seemingly lark-like female buddy comedy was actually based in her not long ago having been left by her husband of 10 years (with three kids' lives in the balance); it was about having to face sharing her children with a second "mom."

We bathyscape into the depths here. It's a cinematic psyches sea world. And it was so odd to emerge into this night of all nights, where a writer-director friend, back from the Shrine meeting, couldn't quite get with the cheerlead-ish brio at the strike's imminent ending. "You always want to make yourself feel good about the decision you've made," he noted wryly, as in: regardless of what realities might be implicit in a lowered-expectations deal.

What did we win? is bound to be the question that'll occupy a lot of scribe minds this week, as they pick their way past the debris of whatever's been lost in three months of picketing. Me, I'm momentarily incapable of inhabiting the win-lose world. Here in the training grounds, where storytellers go after their truths with terrier-like tenacity, digging them out in draft after draft, trying to tickle their unconsciousnesses into letting those images flow, it's so not about percentages and residuals. For the writers (poor beautiful suckers) it's always about making dreams come true.

How's this dream going? I wonder, and I guess we're about to find out.

After I've visited my own dreamland and taken a few days out of pocket to revive and refuel, I'll be back -- on Valentine's Day, to discuss Why Romantic Comedy is Deader Than Ever... Yet ALIVE, I tell you, it's ALIVE!!!

Comments

Screenwriting is the far-out trip, The Scribosphere the group therapy because of the massive comedown... For me, anyway!

Posted by: Lucy | February 10, 2008 at 02:47 AM

Billy, you have the coolest friends. Would have LOVED to have been there to hea Nick Kazan speak. I am truely blown away by how many of today's professioal screenwriters put themselves out there and are willing to mix it up with the general public and beginning writers. 'Cause their mindset could well turn the route of, "Well, I've got mine. I'm ABOVE that now. Let them find their own way."

Recharge those batteries, Periphery man! Can't wait to read what you have have to say on Valentines Day!

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

Posted by: E.C. Henry | February 10, 2008 at 05:42 AM

I watched the Heartbreak Kid last week (the new one, as research) and was amazed at how awful it was. Really awful. And the new movie with Kate Hudson and Matthew Mc...? How did they get roped into that? I could tell it was going to be shit 30 secs into the trailer?

Why is writing romantic comedy so hard? I'll be curious to hear what you have to say on Valentine's Day.

Posted by: Christina | February 10, 2008 at 08:34 AM

cat dancing....

"Triggering the Grand Irrationality?"

Cowering in an obscure corner of the food pyramid

somewhere between the tofu and the unflavored yogurt

contemplating the juxtaposition of intangibles for all you are worth.....

Posted by: poetryman69 | February 10, 2008 at 11:23 AM

Happy Valentine's Day, Billy and everyone! This is a perfect time for renewal. Can't wait to hear your words of wisdom and romance when you come back! Yes, Yes, the Rom Com is ALIVE!!! Long may it LOVE!

Posted by: debbieb | February 11, 2008 at 02:55 PM

Hi Billy,
I'm currently working on the most challenging screenplay I've ever attempted through the Prof.program at UCLA.I look forward to your posts every week as they always provide me with a little inspiration and connection to all those other 'beautiful suckers'.
Cheers,
Judith

Posted by: Judith Duncan | February 11, 2008 at 03:02 PM