Carson Parker
12-21-2003, 04:57 PM
A few thoughts on this article in Vol10, NO.1:
This man is now my official screenwriting hero.
Thank you so much for this inspirational article. Mr. Arriaga is one of the most honest, forthcoming scribes I've ever come to admire.
Amores Perros was one of my greatest influences when becoming a writer. Being Latino myself it was quite invigorating to see another Latino with such command of his storytelling and passion for transferring life's experiences onto the big screen. There is nothing left out of his work. If it's honost, sometimes brutally, he immediately captures it. Something very hard to come by in cinema today.
In my own writing I knew I had to capture pure human growth and leave nothing out when it came to the raw aspects of love and redemption. His writing helped me reach some of these goals.
I was the first in line for 21 grams and once again he nailed it. I walked- no, ran out of the theater and straight for my PC. My head was once again reeling with excitement and I had to get back to writing, he just has that kind of affect on me.
Now back to the post. I immediately jumped into my latest
Scr(i)pt Mag when I found out Guillermo Arriaga wrote a personal piece about himself.
He was just as I imagined, a truly insightful, dedicated and more importantly, passionate individual. He wrote, 'I like structures that help the audience get involved in the emotion of the story, so they can smell, touch, see, feel. That's it: feel.' It was thoughts like this that poured out in this article, much more than just being honest, he was opening himself and stayed completely raw.
He even goes into detail his passion for 'light' and the way he will try to manipulate it to create emotion in his scripts. Most scripts I read, the last thing they worry about is light, they couldn't care less actually. it's the directors job after all, right? Hmm.
What was also inspiring and intriguing was his approach to character development. He states that most of his teachers told him he had to know all his characters, down to the brand of underwear. He dissagrees, as a matter of fact he 'likes to know very little, almost nothing' about his characters. He states he wants them to come alive by their own means. Truly inspiring, once again.
He tends to work against common practices in this area and others, tho not always orthodox his approach seems to be almost 'romantic', as if it's a completely organic experience that takes him on the journey, not the other way around. This is what I asspire to create myself, this is what I want to capture. The more I learn about this man and his work, the more I know there's hope for my own writing.
Anyway, I know that I'm just rambling here and expressing the concepts that are not tangible, but I think we get so caught up in the harsh and sometimes rigid complexities of screenwriting that we forget that there are some beautiful writers out there that seem to pull from a conviction for life experiences and not just a how-to book. Guillermo Arriaga is one of those screenwriters.
Thanks for this insightful piece Scr(i)pt. Bravo.
This man is now my official screenwriting hero.
Thank you so much for this inspirational article. Mr. Arriaga is one of the most honest, forthcoming scribes I've ever come to admire.
Amores Perros was one of my greatest influences when becoming a writer. Being Latino myself it was quite invigorating to see another Latino with such command of his storytelling and passion for transferring life's experiences onto the big screen. There is nothing left out of his work. If it's honost, sometimes brutally, he immediately captures it. Something very hard to come by in cinema today.
In my own writing I knew I had to capture pure human growth and leave nothing out when it came to the raw aspects of love and redemption. His writing helped me reach some of these goals.
I was the first in line for 21 grams and once again he nailed it. I walked- no, ran out of the theater and straight for my PC. My head was once again reeling with excitement and I had to get back to writing, he just has that kind of affect on me.
Now back to the post. I immediately jumped into my latest
Scr(i)pt Mag when I found out Guillermo Arriaga wrote a personal piece about himself.
He was just as I imagined, a truly insightful, dedicated and more importantly, passionate individual. He wrote, 'I like structures that help the audience get involved in the emotion of the story, so they can smell, touch, see, feel. That's it: feel.' It was thoughts like this that poured out in this article, much more than just being honest, he was opening himself and stayed completely raw.
He even goes into detail his passion for 'light' and the way he will try to manipulate it to create emotion in his scripts. Most scripts I read, the last thing they worry about is light, they couldn't care less actually. it's the directors job after all, right? Hmm.
What was also inspiring and intriguing was his approach to character development. He states that most of his teachers told him he had to know all his characters, down to the brand of underwear. He dissagrees, as a matter of fact he 'likes to know very little, almost nothing' about his characters. He states he wants them to come alive by their own means. Truly inspiring, once again.
He tends to work against common practices in this area and others, tho not always orthodox his approach seems to be almost 'romantic', as if it's a completely organic experience that takes him on the journey, not the other way around. This is what I asspire to create myself, this is what I want to capture. The more I learn about this man and his work, the more I know there's hope for my own writing.
Anyway, I know that I'm just rambling here and expressing the concepts that are not tangible, but I think we get so caught up in the harsh and sometimes rigid complexities of screenwriting that we forget that there are some beautiful writers out there that seem to pull from a conviction for life experiences and not just a how-to book. Guillermo Arriaga is one of those screenwriters.
Thanks for this insightful piece Scr(i)pt. Bravo.