Paul Brown Talk - Screenwriter & Producer

[twasadark]

In early December, justy213 invited me to a talk by Paul Brown, a writer and producer with credits from Quantum Leap, X-Files, and most recently, the kids movie Camp Rock which I guess was all the rage last summer and earned a gajillion bucks. If you have a chance to see him, I highly recommend it. He's incredible - very heartfelt and knowledgeable and honest. He talked a lot about spiritual principles, giving to others, having faith, being authentic, following your dreams, and so on.

In case anyone is interested, here are my notes on the talk. Please, always feel free to share things like this with the comm.

On Being a Writer

• You as a writer will always have doubts about the merit of your stories, confusion about what you're doing, and fear. ( Well, I guess I'm doing something right!! haha)

Brown's mentor says that all scenes are about:

• Love
• Death
• Power
• Some combination of these.

A satisfying story has 4 stakes (a stake = something gained or lost). These are:

• External (conscious - this is what the character wants)
• Internal (unconscious - what the character needs. This often involves a “fatal flaw” AKA a wounding to the character, such as the death of Braveheart's wife in the movie. It propelled him to seek freedom.
• Relationship
• Philosophical/theme

To Make Your Work Resonate with Others

• Ask yourself, what is the ghost of the story? What actions/people from the past haunt your characters?

Recommended books:

• Inside Story by Dara Marx
• Anatomy of a Story by John Truby
• The Heroine's Journey by Maureen Murdock

An old writing trick:

• Figure out the theme of your movie. Then flip it 180 degrees in the opening scene. For instance: if your story is about becoming your own man, as it is in Dead Poet's Society, then the opening scene should illustrate some sort of conformity (which it does by showing a ceremony in church).

Get Support

• Because writing is so unrewarding for the most part, make sure that you form a community that supports you and your work. Or risk burn out.

On Writer's Block

• He doesn't believe in writer's block. Imagine that you are being paid $7,000/week to write a script that 100 people are waiting for on Monday morning. You don't have time for writer's block.

Age

• Someone asked about age as a barrier. He said not to worry about it because it can make you crazy.

Reading the Trades

• Even though the “experts” always tell you to read Variety to see what's being made into movies and so on, he didn't think that was of much help since those projects were pitched a year or two ago.

Quote

• Follow your bliss, as Joseph Campbell says, and expect to get some blisters on your back.

Day Jobs and Integrity

• He chose not to give himself another option than success - he came to L.A. without a plan but to be a writer. He had to sacrifice a lot to do that - time with family, relationships. He's known others who put family first and pursued other careers, then came to writing later. He believe that you can succeed either way. He maintains personal integrity while paying the bills by alternating between doing commercially viable films and those that mean something to him personally.