Interview with Blake
Snyder
Interview by Jenna Glatzer
Blake Snyder joined the family business at age 8 as a voice talent for his
father, Emmy award winning children's TV producer Ken Snyder (Roger Ramjet, Big
Blue Marble). Hired out of college as an NBC Page, Blake became a
production assistant on the Aaron Reuben-created sit-com Teachers Only, starring
Lynn Redgrave. He then wrote and directed for the Disney TV series Kids,
Inc. and became a full-time freelance writer. Before long a Hollywood
trade paper noted that Blake was "one of Hollywood's most successful spec
screenwriters," to date selling ten original screenplays to major studios
including two million-dollar spec sales: Nuclear Family to Amblin Entertainment
and Blank Check, which became a Disney family film hit. He lives in Santa
Barbara, California.
What sparked your interest in screenwriting?
I always wanted to be a writer. Then when I was 14, I saw a movie called Paris
When It Sizzles starring William Holden, who plays a screenwriter, and
Audrey Hepburn, as the typist he hires to help him one weekend. Scene one
is Holden laying out the blank pages of his screenplay for Hepburn, all over the
floor of his multi-level Paris hotel suite. Here, boy meets girl, here --
a reverse! -- here, boy loses girl. After Holden gets to his big finish,
he announces to Hepburn that he has written exactly nothing. It's due Monday
and, by the way, he's already spent all the advance money. He then offers
to make martinis. I was hooked.
I understand you had a close relationship with your
agent, Hilary Wayne at Writers and Artists. What kinds of advice did she
give you that helped you to become a successful screenwriter?
Hilary was my first agent. She sold a lot of my scripts and built my
career from scratch. She was a huge influence on how I see the business
and write for it even now. She encouraged me to think more commercially,
to write the poster first, to think in terms of the target market (who is it
for?) and the target studio (who is trying to fill that need?). And she
backed it all up with results -- she loved to sell. She knew how to position
the script, and me, the writer. She liked to say that "Every sale has
a story" -- a compelling reason to buy beyond just the script. Her
most reassuring advice to me was: "It just takes one," meaning
that a hundred people can say "No," but all it takes is one buyer to
make a sale and a movie.
How would you define a good agent-writer relationship?
How often do you speak with your current agent, and how much input does she give
you on your work?
In a perfect world, I have a list of ideas, and about two or three times a year,
I go in and pitch my agent. He or she says "That one!" If
I have good relationship with my agent, he or she will be as blunt about which
idea is best suited for the current market as he or she is about whether or not
I can deliver. In turn, I trust their judgment and their gut, and can then
go forward without a worry. Bottom line: it's a partnership like any
other. I've been really fortunate. I've learned something from every
agent who's ever represented me, and nearly every one has gotten a sale for me.
But when it's all tallied up, I'm still convinced that concept is king. No
matter how good a script is, if no one is in the mood to buy a "giant alligator"
movie (or whatever) they won't. So that first meeting, and my agent's and
my instinct as to which idea is "the one," is key.
For those of us who haven't yet had the pleasure of
finding out, can you tell us how a bidding war works?
I've been in Los Angeles for two spec bidding wars and there is nothing more fun
than to be walking around the city, eating lunch, whatever, and knowing that the
entertainment juggernaut is focused on you and your little movie notion.
The basic idea is for your agent to build up interest in the script among
potential buyers, send it out all at once, and see if they can get two or more
people to bid against each other. It's nice to be wanted by anyone.
But once a second studio gets into it, suddenly anything's possible. And
that's very heady. I've also had the "One Hand Clapping"
experience where a script goes out and all you hear is crickets. But this
is what happens when you have William Holden as a role model.
There seems to be an awful lot of conflicting advice--
some writers say it's best to study the marketplace, find out what's selling,
and write something high concept that fits with what producers are buying.
Others say to write a story that really resonates with the writer, and forget
about current trends. What's your take on this?
It depends on your goal. My goal is to make a sale and get a movie made --
and I like the big, pop movies that travel internationally -- so I guess I'm in
the right business. I also think that if you're writing on spec, it's the
concept that counts most. And odds are that's not going to be something
drawn from your life. It's not that screenwriting is not personal, it is,
but the job priority, I think, is entertaining strangers who, on Saturday
afternoon at the cineplex, do not care how this movie represents your growth as
an artist. When I speak to writing seminars I tell them to work on the
one-line!! With all the things competing for an audience's attention
-- TV, movies, books, Internet -- you've got to hook people with a compelling
idea. Inevitably I always get, "But if Tom Hanks plays the
lead...." No. You can populate a film with every big star out there,
but if the concept is dull, no one will show up. And if it really is a
good idea, it works with anyone you tell it to, in or out of the business.
You've been in this business since the 1980s. How
has the screenwriting market changed through the years?
It's the same as it's always been. A good script is still, and always will
be, the coin of the realm. Have no fear, good work rises to the top. It just
will. If you know your stuff, if you know the market, buyers will find
you. How they find you is in many ways beyond your control, but if you're good,
and have a good attitude, and like what you're doing no matter what, the selling
of you will take care of itself. As long as you enjoy playing with this
little Chinese puzzle box where creativity and marketing meet, you'll win
eventually.
You say you're a much better writer now than when you
started. In what ways has your writing improved?
Screenwriting is a craft. It's full of tricks. And that craft and
those tricks can be learned with experience. Having written or co-written
74 scripts (including TV), and maybe a hundred more story pitches, what's wrong
with a story becomes clearer faster, and I love that! I am better at it
now because I am no longer afraid to say I'm wrong, or fix some part that's just
limping along, dragging the rest of the story down. I also think my
writing has benefited from other kinds of writing I've done. In my
occasional periods away from the business, I've written a weekly Internet
column, a novel, and articles for magazines and newspapers -- that's all
helped my communication skills tremendously.
When you sell a script, apart from dibs on the first
rewrite, is your relationship with the producer over? Are you kept in the
loop as far as what's going on with the development of the script?
My joke is that making a movie is the only relay race where you hand off the
baton to the next runner, and the first thing they do is turn around and shoot
you. I know that's cynical, but it's kinda true. "Thanks!"
Bang! If someone wants to know my opinion I am happy to supply it.
It's rare. But strangely enough, there may be some logic in not having the
original screenwriter around as the movie is developed and goes into production.
The whining alone!
I have been guilty of dragging my feet on changes, hanging on to little
darlings that I can't stand to see killed -- and who needs that when you're
trying to launch a multi-million dollar enterprise? My current mantra
is: find, and work with, the very best people you can. As the writer,
that's the last decision I really have to make. Once I hand off the baton,
it's out of my control. The only thing I can fight for, if I have a
choice, is to hand it off to someone I think will do the best job.
Are there any screenwriting books, seminars,
conferences, etc. that you recommend?
I never took a screenwriting course until after I sold my first screenplay.
I was an English major in college and I read Syd Field (after I'd been hired to
write a script and the producer kept referring to the "act break"),
but I'm self-taught and, frankly, I think everyone is. There are
shortcuts, and lots of tricks that you discover, but you have to find them
yourself for them to have meaning for you. I think the method I've
developed over the years is a combination of things I've cherry-picked from Syd
Field, Robert McKee, Joseph Campbell, Viki King, but also from fellow
screenwriters.
I sat down and codified a bunch of these one day and there are a dozen little
rules that aren't in any book, that I use all the time. But my method
works for me... and I've taught it to others successfully, so all I can say is
THANKS! to those who came before me and keep passing on what I've learned.
If anyone wants to know what the "Double Mumbo Jumbo" rule is or want
to know what the "Fun And Games" section of a screenplay is, I'm happy
to share.
Okay, tell us!
The Double Mumbo Jumbo rule says that you are only allowed one suspension of
disbelief per movie. Any more than that stretches audience patience -- and
the reality of the world you are creating and is -- Double Mumbo Jumbo.
Of course this rule is broken all the time -- and it's a personal pet
peeve of mine. A great example of this is seen in the recent SPIDERMAN.
You are asked to believe in a world where someone can be bitten by a radioactive
spider and gain superpowers, while across town, in a separate set of magic
circumstances, the same level of super powers can be gained in a jet ski
explosion. Okay... They let it go because "it's a comic book"
and your suspension of disbelief is expected to be left at the door, anything is
possible, right? But it's double mumbo jumbo. The fix, to me, would be to have
good guy and bad guy created by the same incident -- they did it right in
BATMAN. Hero and Villain were two halves of the same "accident."
The Fun and Games section is found in both drama and comedy screenplays. It is
that section right after the Act One break, up to the Midpoint (p. 30 -55).
This is where the promise of the premise is concentrated -- the fish out of
water is the most new to his surroundings, the buddies who've been paired
together are at their rawest in their ability to deal with each other and, in
both cases, conflict is at its height. This is the section that answers:
why did you come to this movie? This is where most trailer moments are
usually found -- and for good reason, this is the place to pack every "what
if" idea about your premise. At the midpoint the stakes are raised, the
story kicks in again, and the tone is more serious, but in Fun and Games, the
"fun" of the premise is most in evidence.
If you were just starting out today, what would your
plan of attack look like? Is it important to have an agent first? If
so, how can a writer with no credits land an agent?
From a standing start? I'd move to L.A. Get a job as a reader maybe,
or any job where you can gain experience of the development process.
I think if I had to do it all over again, I would read more scripts -- I'm
talking hundreds. All kinds. I'd study the market. And then
I'd concentrate on the type of movie I really like. I think to know what
your specialty is, what kind of service you offer, where you fit, and where you don't
fit, is important to know. If you have a passion for family movies, then
become an expert and write nothing else. I don't see any benefit to being
a jack-of-all-trades just to have samples in all genres. (Unless you don't
know what type of movie you really like yet.)
Get good at one genre because the skills of basic screenwriting will come
with that expertise. And those skills translate even if your genre goes
out of style. But after that, the career path of a screenwriter starting
from scratch is the same now as it was for me. Don't worry about agents.
Write a spec. Write another. Write another. Eventually, the agent
will find you. Keep learning. Rinse. Repeat.
What's your top advice for new screenwriters?
Other than what I've already suggested, I'd read anything I could about how
films are made and marketed. I read American Cinematographer
every month even though I have zero interest in becoming a director, because it
gives me a sense of what goes on in production. That goes for anything
connected with movies. I love dissecting the weekly box office reports (www.boxofficemojo.com).
I love to go to my local movie theater and talk to people about what they like
and why. I think that building your knowledge of all parts of the
business, learning to see patterns, looking for needs that are not being met, is
invaluable.
Anything else you'd like to add?
Just this: I've had a lot of fun in the business -- ups, downs, it's all been
great. This is an amazing time to be involved in movie making. The
independent film, the rise of desktop production, the lowering of costs of
special effects and ready access to new types of distribution bode extremely
well for creative people. The future looks very bright for anyone with a
new idea and a strong spirit to make their idea a reality. It will be
interesting to see what this business looks like in 20 years; I think we won't
recognize it. But good storytelling will always be in fashion. Learn to
tell a good story and you will always be in demand.
Jenna Glatzer is the editor-in-chief of Absolute Write (www.absolutewrite.com)
and Absolute Markets (www.absolutewrite.com/marketplace.htm).
She is the editor of Conquering Panic and Anxiety Disorders (www.absolutewrite.com/anxiety.htm)
and is the author of three e-books for writers: The More Than Any
Human Being Needs To Know About Freelance Writing Workbook (www.absolutewrite.com/workbook.htm),
Sell The Fun Stuff: Writers' and Artists' Market Guidelines For
Greeting Cards, Posters, Rubber Stamps, T-shirts, Aprons, Bumper Stickers,
Doormats, and More! (www.absolutewrite.com/greetingcard.htm),
and Animal and Nature Markets (http://tinyurl.com/k35).
