20 Tips from Martin Scorsese

The writer-director of Mean Streets, Goodfellas, The Age of Innocence, and Casino with reflections on cinematic storytelling.

Outstanding Screenplays put together this terrific compendium of film clips from several interviews with writer-director Martin Scorsese.

I say “writer-director” to remind people that Scorsese is also a screenwriter including the movies Mean Streets, Goodfellas, The Age of Innocence, and Casino. And, of course, movies he directed which he didn’t write such as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Color of Money, The Last Temptation of Christ, The Departed, and The Wolf of Wall Street.

The 20 tips are:

1. Use film to express emotions you find hard to talk about.
2. In cinema, we’re working with subtleties.
3. Always push your boundaries further.
4. Two images placed together will always create a specific sensation or “phantom image” in the viewer’s mind. Be deliberate about what kind of images you’re placing next to each other.
5. Find humanity in your anti-heroes.
6. Learn visual literacy.
7. Promote yourself shamelessly.
8. Make your own industry.
9. Write your screenplay in a way that the reader will always have an emotional connection to the protagonist.
10. Write what you know.
11. Limitation can be good for creating.
12. You have to make sacrifices.
13. The story and character is what people will always come back for. Plot won’t be enough to hold up a film.
14. You can’t do it by yourself. Work with like-minded people who like to explore similar interests as you.
15. Write with music in mind.
16. Study other films.
17. Write empathetic characters.
18. Characters must reap what they sow.
19. Use the people around you when starting out.
20. Use projects to learn more about yourself and the important life questions.

I especially like this one: “Write your screenplay in a way that the reader will always have an emotional connection to the protagonist.” Nice lead-in to my book: The Protagonist’s Journey: An Introduction to Character-Driven Screenwriting and Storytelling.

Here’s a treat: A 1964 short film called It’s Not Just You, Murray which Scorcese made when he was a film school student at NYU.

And here is the trailer for Scorsese’s latest movie Killers of the Flower Moon.

For more Outstanding Screenplays videos, go here.

For 100s more interviews with screenwriters, filmmakers, storytellers, and industry insiders, go here.