Host George Edelman welcomes Ed Solomon to share how lessons from both success and failure—along with one wild night at an Alaskan Strip Club—have had a hand in shaping the writer he is today.
In this episode, we talk about…
How Ed’s high school experience inspired him to be a writer and why he tells himself he’s an imposter dailyHow shifting from big budget films to smaller specs expanded Ed’s creative pathHow a trip to an Alaskan strip club led Ed to write the play “Strip Club” and how it got him hired for Laverne & Shirley The fallacy about gateways that lead to your career—you make your own pathWhy Ed considers Men in Black as a series of failures that culminated in success Developing a skill set to learn how to write while you write and learning from every script How Ed approaches storytelling: Remember you’re always dealing with point of view even if you don’t realize itKnow what it means to have a healthy relationship with the audience and always keep in mind what they knowExamples of objective vs. subjective points of view Consider your audience as a friendly ally Advice for new writers: Get other people to say your words out loud and listen to itTake your words and mount it, direct it, film it, edit it Take acting, editing, and cinematography classes Watch your very favorite movies and transcribe them—internalize what those writers didWhat you can learn from transcribing films: How little dialogue you actually needHow little stage direction you need How short scenes are and how they do not have a beginning, middle and end but just a middle (usually)The importance of sequences and how things are a juxtaposition of little pieces to form a sequence You really only learn about writing screenplays by writing a bunch of screenplays Why Ed is choosing to keep a beginner’s mind until the end
Links to Resources:
No Sudden Move on HBO max
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