PAUL HAGGIS Screenwriting Lesson

Documentário Manuel Vicente D'Anunciação

Pessoal, este é o link do documentário do Manuel Vicente D'Anunciação produzido pela RTP Portugal.
http://email.terra.com.br/cgi-bin/vlink.exe?Id=PXJXJbzzMRieWVRdeVy8y/wyjVfmqMlIjhAFw7cBj5dNh2r2CKiE7tLe8c4RdeQh&Link=http%3A//www.rtp.pt/wportal/informacao/reportagem/

Manuel Vicente D'Anunciação

A RTP, emissora de tv portuguesa, está produzindo o documentário "Ser herdeiro de uma grande fortuna, mas viver na miséria". É este o drama dos descendentes de Manuel Vicente D'Anunciação. O português enriqueceu no Brasil e depositou toda a sua fortuna num banco inglês.
Há anos que os herdeiros tentam levantar o dinheiro sem resultado. Mais de 100 anos depois, o banco diz que perdeu os papéis e que não tem forma de confirmar o depósito.

O livro "O capitão dos Índios" - da escritora e pesquisadora Ana Lígia Lira, está sendo adaptado por mim para o cinema. A obra relata a história de Manuel Vicente D'Anunciação e toda a sua trajetória em terras tupiniquins.

Marcos Galinari

"Todas as vezes que eu te amei"

Trecho de diálogo extraído da minha peça "Todas as vezes que eu te amei"
Marcos Galinari

CRIS
Estes dias eu estava arrumando umas coisas e achei um bilhetinho que você me
escreveu ...

SÉRGIO
(surpreso)
Você ainda guarda essas coisas com você ?

CRIS
(lendo)
‘O tempo seca a beleza. seca o amor, seca as palavras. Deixa tudo solto, leve, desunido para sempre como as areias nas águas.

SÉRGIO
(lendo)
‘O tempo seca a saudade, seca as lembranças e as lágrimas.Deixa algum retrato, apenas,vagando seco e vaziocomo estas conchas das praias’.

SÉRGIO e CRIS
(juntos)
‘Esperarei pelo tempo com suas conquistas áridas. Esperarei que te seque, não na terra, Amor-Perfeito, num tempo depois das almas’.

SÉRGIO
Canção do amor Perfeito.
Cecília Meireles. (pausa)
Cris, você não acha que no meio deste caminho, sei lá ... as coisas podem ter se perdido ... parece que tanta coisa mudou ...

CRIS
Depois que nós nos casamos ... eu não sei. Eu não sei ...
Às vezes eu acordo te amando e ... no final do dia
esse sentimento parece que já mudou ...
Sabe, eu me lembro de quando a gente começou a namorar.
Já era serião ... esse seu jeitinho de preocupado, querendo toda hora bancar o
certinho ...

SÉRGIO
(tímido)
Ah, não era assim também. Cris ... (pausa)
Eu ainda me lembro do primeiro beijo ...

CRIS
De repente eu te aguarrei ....
e te dei aquele beijo.

Os dois quase se beijam. Meia luz, música. Eles se abraçam e dançam lentamente. Ao final da música os dois sentam-se no sofá, abraçados.

CRIS
Eu tenho saudades daquele tempo sabia ...

SÉRGIO
Eu também. Ficava esperando sempre, o momento seguinte ...

CRIS
Você sempre protetor, cheio de cerimônia ...
Na frente dos amigos então, sempre se empolgava !
Contava pra todo mundo como a gente se conheceu...

SÉRGIO
A gente se divertia muito lembra ?
E a primeira vez que eu te peguei ...

Cris interrompe.

CRIS
Eu sei, eu sei ...Você já falou isso umas mil vezes !
Me pegou de biquíni tomando sol na laje da casa da minha mãe !
BOBO ! (rindo)
E a primeira vez que nós brigamos ... ?

SÉRGIO
Também !Você jogou fora toda a minha coleção de latinhas de cerveja !

CRIS
Joguei fora não ! Foi pra campanha de reciclagem lá da escolinha da filha da ...
Filha da amiga da ... Você não lembra ?

SÉRGIO
Claro que eu lembro ! Claro que eu lembro !
Aquela FILHA DA ... Você deu todas as minhas duzentas e trinta e cinco latinhas !
Eu tinha latinha até da Antártica Malt 90 Carnaval Bahia 96 Série Dourada Tampinha Azul.

CRIS
(rindo)
Como ?

SÉRGIO
(Rindo)
Mentira ! A tampinha era verde !
Até hoje eu sofro com isso sabia ...
Sofro ! Só de lembrar me dá um aperto assim ó ...

CRIS
Meu Deus ! Como nós éramos terríveis !

SÉRGIO
E a primeira vez que eu viajei sem você ?

CRIS
Não saí do meu quarto, chorei por três dias !

SÉRGIO
Nosso primeiro aniversário de namoro ...

CRIS
Há isso não dá pra esquecer mesmo !
Praticamente me seqüestrou da casa da mamãe.
Passamos a noite inteira dentro do seu Fusca fazendo mil planos !

SÉRGIO
Eu cantei pra você a noite toda lembra ?

CRIS
Lembro ... foi horrível !

SÉRGIO
Foi horrível ?

CRIS
Horrível, horrível !
... mas eu adorei a surpresa. Você foi muito lindinho ...

SÉRGIO
Viajamos o mundo todo naquela noite ...
Fizemos até um pacto !

CRIS
Casaríamos, teríamos filhos ...

SÉRGIO
E o nosso aniversário de dez anos de casamento seria ...?

CRIS
Em Veneza !
Sabe, desde pequena eu sempre quis conhecer esta cidadesinha.
Imagino um lugar assim ... apaixonante !


SÉRGIO
A gente dizia que o amor era tudo lembra ?
Mas às vezes a solidão pode ser ainda mais forte ... ela destrói.

Regime

Texto: Marcos Galinari

Meu espelho disse que preciso perder cinco quilos. Comecei ontem. Às sete da manhã, para ser mais exata.É automático. Você levanta, toma banho, se troca e já vai logo abrindo a geladeira.Eu falei êpaa! Pára com isso já! Fecha essa boca monstra. E começava alí o meu martírio, quero dizer... regime.E olha que não era nem segunda-feira. Comecei na quarta mesmo, meio da semana. Uma coisa meio auto-punição depois que eu me vi bela e refletida naquele bendito espelho. Mais refletida do que bela na verdade.Deixa pra lá. O importante é... estou empolgadíssima! Torradinha no café da manhã... Magina! Pode tanta coisa. Duas torradinhas. Duas. É o máximo. Água também pode, a vontade. No trabalho, na hora do almoço eu... É, eu almoço no refeitório da empresa. Todo mundo alí, reunido. Não, tem gente que faz de propósito, só pode. Aquela magrela do departamento pessoal. Cafona, horrorosa e fingida. Não sei como não enfarta de tanto comer. E eu lá né, firme. Mastigando a minha alface. Na parte da tarde, só tomei chá. Chá também pode. A vontade. E a noite chegou. Uma sopinha leve, rala, bem rala aliás. Muito rala. Horrível, praticamente água pura a infeliz. Eu disse água? Quase não saio mais do banheiro de tanto tomar água. Hoje é o segundo dia do regime, quatro da tarde. Contados ali ó, todas as horinhas do dia. Ainda estou viva. Agora a pouco eu encontrei sem querer, bem por acidente mesmo, uma barra de chocolade na minha bolsa. Na hora eu me lembrei do espelho. Que se dane o espelho.

Writing the Action Script

by John Truby

With a good Action script you can write your own ticket. But Action is the most deceptively challenging genre in Hollywood. What may seem simple and straightforward on the movie screen actually requires careful planning and extremely creative solutions from the screenwriter. Action films are deceptive in a number of ways. Many people think Action movies lack character, plot and theme, but they're mistaken. The best Action films have deep stories, complex characters and a profound effect on the audience. The challenge for the writer is to create compelling characters, surprising plots, and important themes within the limiting structure of an Action piece. Speed is the enemy of the Action writer, despite the ongoing trend to increase the pacing of Hollywood films. Ironically, pure speed is not what thrills an audience. Which is why good Action writers actually try to slow the film down to make it appear faster. I know what you're thinking -- what does that mean? The faster the pace of a story, the less chance you have for surprise. And surprise is the fundamental requirement of plot. As a writer, you take on the role of a magician. The audience looks to you for events they can't predict, but thinking back, realize they should have seen coming. When you move characters down a single path at top speed, turns literally become difficult. The audience can see everything down the path all the way to the obvious conclusion. If you slow the pacing, you give yourself the luxury of putting a few more twists and turns, so the audience can still be surprised, and will continue to pay attention. Tip #1: Give your hero a personal problem You can start your script with a big action scene if you want (some hit Action films do, some don't), then back off. Give the character a personal problem that he must solve simultaneously with overcoming the big action problem. You don't need to take a lot of time with it. But do it. You have now set up the all-important double-track line, contrasting the personal with the action problem. The key then becomes making those two lines appear to the audience to be one. Tip #2: Make them believe first Action stories, by their nature, push the envelope of believability, so you have to convince the audience early that your hero is quite capable. After all, you're showing someone whose ability to act is almost super-human. You almost never see a successful Action script where the hero learns to be good at physical action over the course of the story. Your hero has to have a background of exceptional physical ability from page one. And you will need a scene early on to hint to the audience just how good your hero really is. It doesn't have to be the first scene and you don't want to show all your hero's talents. Just tease them. You not only give the audience a kick early, you allow yourself to push the envelope later without losing the audience. Tip #3: Plot comes from moving from one surprise to another By surprise, I mean surprise to the hero as well as to the audience. And that means you have to hide as much about your opposition as you can. The best Action scripts deal with deception and hidden information, especially about the true nature and identity of the opponent. Great Action scripts are really a battle of wits - it's about who can deceive best and who can think the best. Tip #4: Make the Hero strong, but the Opponent stronger A heavyweight fight where one guy is a stiff is boring. Take a lot of time to figure out some special talents and tricks that your opponent has that will give your hero fits. But don't show them right away. Hold them back. When you do bring them on, bring them fast and furious. You want the hero reeling so he has to dip into all his skills and he has to fight back on feel. These are four of my favorite tips for writing great Action Scripts. As you can see, Action writing is more complex than it seems at first look. If you're serious about nailing that big Action spec, try out our ACTION Audio Course and Software. Good Luck and keep writing! John TrubyJohn Truby coaches top writers for screen and television and has served as story consultant and as a script doctor for major studios and production companies on movies, sit-coms and dramas for television. He is also the creator of the top selling Blockbuster story development software. He founded Truby's Writers Studio where he teaches writing techniques and has created a number of books, audiotapes and other essential tools for the writer, all of which are available through the Writers Store.

Writing Great Dialogue

by Rob Tobin
There is a myth that the ability to write great dialogue is a gift that can’t be learned and can’t be taught. You’re born with it or you’ll never have it. One version of the myth goes something like this: you have to have an ear for dialogue in order to be able to reproduce realistic, believable, crisp, dialogue on the page. Great dialogue does not come from having a good ear for dialogue. It does not come from having some innate gift or talent for writing dialogue. It comes from this: knowing your characters so well that you know what they will say and how they will say it when faced with specific people, situations or events. Now that may seem overly simple and in a way it is – given the same character and same situation, two writers of very different abilities will create greater or lesser dialogue. The dialogue in Good Will Hunting and As Good as it Gets does not come out of every writer’s laptop no matter how well that writer knows his characters. That’s because there’s an added component to both of these scripts and other scripts like these: genius. And genius dispenses with the rules of ordinary life and ordinary writing. But, I firmly believe that if two writers know their characters equally well, if both writers develop those characters fully and if both writers know the other characters in a scene equally well, both sets of dialogue will be of a high quality. Let’s take some examples. One of my favorite films is Good Will Hunting. Let’s take one particularly well-done bit of dialogue from that movie. It’s not just any dialogue, but brilliant dialogue, so it ought to be a great test of my theory that all great dialogue comes from knowing one’s characters. Will Hunting, the main character played (and written) so brilliantly by Matt Damon, goes with his simply-structured childhood friends (including his best friend Chuckie played and co-written by Ben Affleck) to a bar near Harvard, frequented by that school’s Ivy League students. Chuckie spots a small group of pretty young women and decides he’s going to hit on them. So the rough-around-the-edges Chuckie goes up to the girls and pretends to be a student. The girls, who are students, know immediately that he’s full of it, but they graciously go along – besides, Chuckie’s kinda cute, so what’s the harm? As Chuckie fumbles with trying to pass himself onto the targets of his affection/lust, a bona fide Harvard student comes up and arrogantly destroys Chuckie, exposing his lies and his lack of academic credentials and book-smarts. Just as it seems that Chuckie is about to show this guy the intelligence in his two fists, his friend Will steps forward with a brilliant dissertation that ends up being a verbal slaughter of the arrogant Harvard a-hole. Then he ends the dialogue with a very telling sentence: “If you want to take this outside.” Why is this dialogue so brilliant? Because Damon and Affleck knew who their characters were. Not just the main character, Will Hunting, but Affleck’s character, and the character of the arrogant Harvard pissant. The writers also knew what event they wanted to occur in this scene, what events led up to this scene, and what repercussions they wanted this event to have. So who is Will Hunting? Well, he’s brilliant and a polymath. That’s the point of the whole movie. He’s a troubled ruffian; we see that fairly early on. We learn later that he was abused as a child. Although we the audience don’t know about the abuse suffered by Will Hunting at the time this scene in the bar takes place, the important thing is that the authors know about it, so it colors Will’s reaction and his dialogue. Why? Because Will could just as easily have gently taken Chuckie by the arm and led him away from the scene, offering him a free beer, soothing his ruffled feathers and bruised ego, making a joke of it. The dialogue in that case would have been more than a bit different. But you see, the authors knew their characters so well, that the event that did take place, the dialogue that was spoken, was in essence inevitable. This is critically important to understand. When a specific piece of dialogue is the only dialogue that could be spoken in a given situation by a given character to a given character, then that dialogue can seem brilliant, and it doesn’t have to be eloquent dialogue, as long as it’s the exactly right dialogue. “I coulda been a contender” resonates down through the decades even today and can certainly be considered brilliant dialogue for its poignancy and for the fact that it was exactly the right thing for Marlon Brando’s character to say to the specific female character in the particular setting and circumstance he was in at that time. Will, having been abused as a child, has a chip on his shoulder the size of an Oregon redwood. He has undying loyalty to his friends, especially his best friend Chuckie. He was born and brought up in “Southie,” the southern section of Boston, the poor, uneducated Irish section, so he was considered to be white trash. He could have let Chuckie deck the Harvard snot, but then Chuckie would have gotten into trouble. He could have decked the Harvard snot himself, but there were the pretty girls to consider and besides a fistfight would have made him look even more like white trash in front of this Ivy League a-hole. So Will’s only or at least best response is to use the one weapon that would destroy this Harvard moron-in-sheepskin clothing: Brilliance. Knowledge. Erudition. Debating skills. And being right about subjects that the Harvard a-hole should have known about but didn’t because he was educated, but not learned. Will is not educated, but he is learned, profoundly so. What Will said was so perfect, so believable given who he is, where he is, who he is in relationship with, and whom he is saying it to, that it comes across as brilliant. Another important aspect of that scene from “Good Will Hunting” is the fact that we not only like Will, we identify with him – the downtrodden good guy who fights back but somehow only succeeds in digging himself a deeper hole. We’ve all felt like that. Why is that important? Because it matters to us what happens to Will, we hope for him to succeed. Thus in this scene Will does several things that make us feel good and triumphant and vindicated – he bests the snotty bad guy, he impresses the pretty girl, he stands up for his friends. Could anyone write dialogue that brilliant? Maybe not, there is after all a touch of brilliance to the dialogue throughout this brilliantly written screenplay. But still, the elements that led up to that scene and that dialogue are all there for us to see and they are all based on the authors’ complete, profound knowledge of who their character is. There is another factor in writing great dialogue. It’s the understanding that there are four key components to any story, whether screenplay, novel, play, or short story: characters, situations, events, and dialogue. If you’ve read my book “How to Write High Structure, High Concept Movies,” or attended any of my workshops, you’ll know that I’m big on relationships. Well, what’s important to know about these four key components is how they relate to each other in a cause-and-effect way. Throughout a story, these four components will affect and effect and be affected and effected by each other. For example, a character creates a situation that causes him to create an event that leads him and others to be affected by that event, which leads the character to make a statement or revelation (dialogue) that itself causes a reaction (an event) that leads to yet another situation, the stakes rising, the jeopardy increasing, changes happening and leading to other changes and events and dialogue which affect characters who, well, you get the picture (no pun intended). But if you cause these four components to interact in just the right way, you will get the picture and maybe even your name in the credits of that picture. So what role does dialogue play in this? Well, essentially dialogue is just another event (I know, that means there are only three key components to a story – so sue me, math wasn’t my major in college). It’s caused by characters and in turn causes other events and affects other characters. It’s something that happens, that takes place in space and time, and is both a result and cause, just like an event is. When characters speak, they are doing something, performing an act. Great, but how does that help us improve our dialogue? Well, think of it this way: what happens when an event in a story occurs that has nothing to do with the rest of the story? It sticks out like a sore thumb. That’s what happens with dialogue that has nothing to do with the rest of the story. In other words (pun intended), you have to make your dialogue relevant to the story. More than just this, however, is that you have to be aware of the cause and effect of that dialogue just as you are aware of the cause and effect of an incident. If a guy in your story waves his hands around in an unusual way and nothing comes of it, you’re left wondering why he did that. If you find out that the reason he’s waving his hands around oddly is that he’s schizophrenic and thinks that he has magical powers and that with a wave of his hand he can make his enemy disappear or make a beautiful woman appear, then you begin to see the relevance of that odd waving and flailing about. If you take this one step further and have a beautiful woman witness the odd waving and recognize it as the gesture that accompanies a magical spell, then the odd gesture has an effect on another character and maybe on the story as a whole. Maybe the beautiful woman, believing the delusional guy is a sorcerer, befriends him and takes him on a wild adventure with her because she believes he can use his powers to help her. So now the event works – we understand why the event occurs (the guy is schizophrenic with delusions of being a sorcerer), and we understand what effect the event has – it leads to a grand misunderstanding and an even grander adventure. You’ve connected the event to both the past and the future. You must do the same thing to your dialogue – all of your dialogue. Damon and Affleck do this with Will’s dialogue in the Harvard bar scene. The dialogue results from who their character is, where he comes from, the events in his past, and his relationship to the characters in the bar and even to the bar and the university and the area of town and the economic and social class of the people in the bar and in that area of town. Similarly, Damon and Affleck not only create repercussion from the hero’s dialogue, they create the entire rest of the story from it. Because he showed off his intellect and his loyalty to friends and his apparent peaceful way of dealing with adversity in this scene in front of Minnie Driver’s character in the bar, Will brings her into his life and she has the most profound effect of anyone in the script with the possible exception of Robin Williams’ psychiatrist character. Will, in fact, ends up leaving his entire life behind to be with this woman in front of which he just showed off with this dialogue. So you want brilliant dialogue? Make it the only dialogue your character can possibly say given who he or she is, where he or she is, and to whom he or she is saying it. Then make sure you have all your ducks in a row – every event leading up to the dialogue should be believable and every event after the dialogue should be at least partly a result of that dialogue. Finally, make us care about the character so that we’ve got a vested interest in what he or she is saying, and in the results of what he or she says. Do these things and you will find people responding to your dialogue more deeply and excitedly than they ever have. One or two of them might even say that it’s brilliant.Rob Tobin has read over 5,000 scripts as a reader, development exec, and script doctor, and is the author of How to Write High Structure, High Concept Movies.