Conversations with Screenwriter Dan Gurskis

Dan Gurskis is the writer of The Short Screenplay: Your Short Film from Concept to Production. He is Associate Professor and Chairperson of the Film Department at Brooklyn College-CUNY in New York. He received his B.A. from University of Pennsylvania and his M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Brandeis University.

Dan is a member of the Writer's Guild of America and an Emmy-Award Winner, Cable Ace Nominee, Shubert Fellow, and MacDowell Colony Fellow. He is a screenwriter, playwright, producer, director with over 40 credits in feature films, telefilms, episodic television, and the theater and has worked for Columbia, Paramount, RKO, HBO, ABC, Showtime, Cinemax, and the USA Network.

To the video production students: now is your chance to ask Dan questions about working as screenwriter in the industry, specific questions you have about his book and how it relates to your crew's script, or general screenwriting questions to pick his brain. Please keep your questions short and to the point and he will do the best he can to answer them over the next week.

Posted 02/11/07 by Liz | Filed under: General

Comments

What is the best advice you have recieved for reaching success in your industry?

Posted by ReenaP at 02/20/07 10:35:17

Well, the main problem with working in the entertainment industry is that there's really no straight-line path to success. It's not like accounting, for instance. If you're interested in creating content as a writer, a producer, or a director, you should have at least two really strong samples of your work that you can show potential employers. You should also try to find a mentor, someone with experience in your chosen specialty, who can help you navigate the shark-infested waters of the entertainment industry. Last, you should never give up. Never, never, never.

Posted by Dan Gurskis at 02/23/07 11:31:45

Could you give us some suggestions in regards to creating a successful script for our video projects given the amount of time we have to prepare a script and the length restriction on the video itself?

Posted by MichaelL at 02/25/07 12:41:12

Dan: I should point out that they have a single semester to complete a video project as a team. It is why I have suggested keeping the scripts short and simple.

Michael: Could you elaborate on your question and give Dan some details of what you plan to do for a video project?

Posted by Liz at 02/25/07 18:55:20

Hello,

I have taken a screen writing class in the past and am used to witting long films over an hour long. I think it's going to be hard for me to condense a whole story into a short film.

Therefore, I was wondering what advice you have in order to create a really dramatic/powerful resolution in only a 6 minute movie

Posted by JasonD at 02/25/07 22:15:31

When pitching a movie to a production company, investors, or whoever, how do you condense a full 110 page script into a few sentences and keep the passion and intensity of your movie alive? In "pitch" exercises I've done in the past it seems like the movies lose their originality and become very generic scripts that dont have a lot behind them.

Posted by WilliamD at 02/25/07 23:09:05

When writing a short screenplay, should I be more focused on the lines said by the characters, or should I focus more on describing the scene? We're trying to create a thrilling atmosphere, and it's difficult to write in "suspense". How should I use the scene descriptions to effectively communicate the mood/setting/etc? Thanks.

Posted by ShaunF at 02/26/07 08:17:39

Our group is doing a promotional video for a non-profit organization. I feel like there may be little screen writing involved in a piece such as this because it is hard to tell how much the customer will change their idea based on how filming goes. How do you recommend approaching this kind of a project? Would we draft a copy of what we would like to do and have them go over it or should we try to go through a sequence of what they would like before making a draft?

Posted by BrittanyM at 02/26/07 08:54:32

My group and I are making a movie about snowboarding and skiing. Professor Ledoux has had students do this topic before for a short and thinks a new angle needs to be taken. We proposed interviews with each one of the skiers/riders to say why they do it and what it means to them. Do you think this is a good angle to take?

Posted by FrancisG at 02/26/07 10:38:48

Hi Mr. Gurskis, the short screenplay my group is working on is a fictional screenplay based on a person's four years at college. We have decided to have it involve several interviews with this person's friends and professors, along with flashback sequences. We realized that in a short screenplay we would not be able to fit that many interview/flashback pairs and I wanted to ask you whether you felt it would be more effective to try to shorten each interview/flashback pair or to concentrate on only a select few of them?

Posted by AlanK at 02/26/07 10:40:33

Hey Dan, I was wondering if you think it is easier to write an adapted screenplay or an original screenplay? In writing an adapted screenplay is there often a lot of interaction between the writer and the original source of the material?

Posted by KurtJ at 02/26/07 12:05:43

Hi Dan,

I noticed a lot of people were asking you specific questions to their movies, but I guess I had more of a generic question. What specific screenwriters have had an impact on your career. Also were their any particular films that made you realize this is what you wanted to do with your life?

Posted by ChristopherK at 02/26/07 12:38:35

Hi Dan,

My question is also a general one. Being a professional screenwriter I am sure you have encountered a difficult director or producer (or others) that have wanted to take some "artistic liberty" with what you have written. How have you dealt with this before? (Without naming names of course)

Posted by AndrewW at 02/26/07 12:58:43

Hi Dan,

As a professional screenwriter, do you prefer to write comedies, dramas, or suspense/action scripts? Which is your favorite to write and which one have you experienced the hardest to write for?

Posted by MarkR at 02/26/07 13:12:49

Wow! The last time I checked this blog there was just one question. Spring break must be over. And I just learned from your esteemed professor that I can't actually link a response to the question that generated it. Ah, technology....

Posted by Dan Gurskis at 03/04/07 20:07:49

This blog software is free and therefore useless. Sorry about that.

Posted by Liz at 03/04/07 20:09:38

This one is in response to AndrewW....

If you ever wait until the end of the credits for a film, you’ll see that the copyright notice belongs to the movie studio. This means that the studio is the “author” of the film. In other words, as a screenwriter, once you sell your work, it no longer belongs to you. You may be asked to continue working on the screenplay as the film heads toward production ... or not. In fact, you may be fired from the project even before the ink dries on the contract. So the question about taking liberties might be better posed to a studio executive: did the screenwriter take liberties with your film before he handed in the last draft of his screenplay?

Posted by Dan Gurskis at 03/04/07 20:17:27

This one is for ChristopherK....

My students always ask me, what are my favorite films and what are my favorite screenplays? I never know what to say. I guess that I just don’t respond to films in that way. There are many films that I like, and there many films that I like a lot, but my decision to watch any one of them would depend on my mood and what I was willing to invest into the viewing experience.

Here are some films (in no particular order) that I would watch pretty much anytime of the day or night:

32 Short Films About Glenn Gould
The Red Violin
Run, Lola, Run
Chinatown
The Godfather
Unforgiven
Shakespeare in Love
Don’t Look Now
The Player
The Big Picture
This is Spinal Tap!
The Graduate
The Philadelphia Story
It's a Wonderful Life
Jules and Jim
8 and 1/2
Flirting (a GREAT Australian film)
I’ll Wait for the Next One (a French short film)
Gridlock (a Belgian short film)
Kom (a Swedish short film)
Black Rider (a German short film)
Tunnel of Love (a British short film)

Posted by Dan Gurskis at 03/04/07 20:38:05

MarkR....

Really good screenplays are always difficult to write, no matter the genre. If they were easy to write, there would be many more good films.

Posted by Dan Gurskis at 03/04/07 20:44:47

Kurt J....

Your question about adaptation is an interesting one. It's also impossible to answer in so short a space because the process of adaptation differs so greatly depending on the source material: novel, short story, news article, play, reality, etc. The bottom line is that none of these things is a film, and therefore the source material will have to be totally reinvented if it is to work as a film.

Posted by Dan Gurskis at 03/04/07 20:51:57

AlanK....

Four years covered in a short film? With flashbacks? Tough to pull off. You would be better off trying to find one pivotal moment that defines the character's college life and then dramatizing that.

Posted by Dan Gurskis at 03/04/07 20:55:05

FrancisG....

I would try to find one snowboarder who has a particularly interesting story and then focus on him/her.

Posted by Dan Gurskis at 03/04/07 20:56:34

ShaunF....

You should take a look at some successful screenplays to get an idea of the right balance to strike.

Here are two places to start your search:

http://www.dailyscript.com
http://www.movie-page.com/m...

Posted by Dan Gurskis at 03/04/07 21:02:28

Dan: you are a marvel! Thank you so much for taking such time in responding to the students' questions!

Posted by Liz at 03/12/07 11:29:58

Dan: you are a marvel! Thank you so much for taking such time in responding to the students' questions!

Posted by Liz at 03/12/07 11:30:18

I'm thinking, for a boy Daniel LeDoux and for a girl Danielle LeDoux.

Posted by Dan Gurskis at 03/16/07 19:21:09