How Judd Apatow used email to write “Knocked Up”

“As I waited around for sets to be lit or actors to arrive, I would send long emails to myself with fragments of outlines, and sometimes even fully completed outlines.”

Email is a curse. An easy distraction. Why not turn that around, make the problem the solution? Why not make email an asset for writing?

In the introduction to the Newmarket Shoot Script series book “Knocked Up,” writer-director Judd Apatow writes this:

Knocked Up was the first film I have made that was written with the assistance of BlackBerry technology. I have been using a BlackBerry since the year 2000, when we were shooting the college-themed television show Undeclared. One day I realized that I was spending a lot of time on set, and that maybe there was some way to get some writing done between setups. Then it struck me — I could outline future episodes on my BlackBerry and then email them to myself.

So that is exactly what I did. As I waited around for sets to be lit or actors to arrive, I would send long emails to myself with fragments of outlines, and sometimes even fully completed outlines. What was even stranger was that when I read the e-mails, there was a lot of good stuff in there. Those ideas were not garbage!

Flash forward to the year 2005. Now I am a completely addicted BlackBerry user. You know the kind — the ones who put the BlackBerry on their night tales and stare at them all night long to see if the light indicating a new message has illuminated. The kind who types into it while having a conversation with you, and only hears 8 percent of what you say while nodding. The kind you want to punch in the face — hard.

I had just completed The 40-Year-Old Virgin and was very busy running around trying to make sure the publicity and marketing were in good enough shape so that it might succeed and I could hopefully get the chance to make another film. But at the same time I had an idea for a new film, and the ideas were coming fast. So I started using the BlackBerry to e-mail myself the ideas that would one day become Knocked Up. In the subject line I would write “pregnancy” so they would one day be easy to locate among my voluminous list of e-mails.

I thought it might be interesting to show you some of those e-mails. Here is one of the early ones:

From: Judd Apatow
Date: August 7, 2005 12:57 PM
To: Judd Apatow
Subject: Pregnancy

A couple gets pregnant on the first date.

Older sister of the woman has kids and represents its difficulties and complications.

Going through this helps her adjust her life in a positive way. She doesn’t like Seth. Maybe Seth admits she is right at some point.

Seth’s parents are willing to let them live with them. But that is the last thing the girls wants to do.

We can show them meet. The first encounter. How it leads to sex. Not using birth control can be a major point of contention for the whole film. Why didn’t they use it? The idea of being forced into a relationship for life is the main conflict. A relationship in reverse. A baby, then get to know one another. A friend can say, “No matter what, you guys are stuck dealing with each other till you die.” Also the sister can fill her younger sister with all the questions that the sister can’t believe she doesn’t know the answers to yet. Which leads to the couple fighting. The rush to get to know each other quickly. For the girl there can be a sense that this is the end of her dreams, vocationally. Her ability to finish school etc. is impossible unless they become a team. There could be an exploration of adoption. Maybe even private adoption. Seth could have a friend who was adopted and is crazy and is violently against it. A friend of hers can be very pro abortion. That is explored. Documentaries watched. Should they find out if it is a boy or girl is a big debate and fight.

Religion. Maybe she keeps thinking he’ll run till finally she forces him to run. The idea of the film is that their idea for their lives is altered completely. Freedom is gone. Tracks are laid down permanently and it causes breakdowns. What about my year living in Europe or etc. so the end is realizing this is a bizarre gift and that the woman is as well. But she should not be the kind of person he thought he would wind up with. She could work with her sister. Running a shop of some type. Something he knows nothing about and cares nothing about. He can’t even fake it. Like clothes. We see them attempt interest in each other’s work. They have to meet friends, which couldn’t be more awkward. They could have huge fights about her drinking. He thinks she is pushing it. She says you are allowed to drink a glass of wine. She is a little more reckless than he comfortable with. And then he can’t get it up because he doesn’t want to hurt the baby. He could design menus for dvd’s or something with computers. Need a non hacky work environment. He could spend a lot of time on computer.

What if at some point Leslie gets pregnant. Or thought she was.

Leslie says spend a day with me and see what it’s like, then it is hellish in every way. Seth spends time with Rudd in some way. They lie about what they are gonna do, then get drunk in a bar.

There are so many things you can’t say.

Maybe Rudd complains like crazy about family life and then is always sweet with kids, and Seth realizes he is all talk. And just blowing off steam.

Seth is panicked to get career and money going in the middle.

She wants sex to start labor. “I’m fat.” “I don’t want to crush and poke the baby.” She is past her due date.

How do we move time forward? Smoking. She has trouble quitting. Weight. Has issues with gaining weight, stretch marks, the first time she sees them she hates him. The movie should be about the fact that he falls in love with her first, but she takes longer and isn’t sure. She is terrified, doesn’t trust him. At some point she goes off on him so hard that he runs and she completely flips out. Suicidal even. And what happens is he proves his devotion. He commits to the idea of committing forever and she eventually sees this, feels safe and falls hard for him.

She feels like she is letting everyone down. Him meeting her mom is a big sequence. He gets so nervous that when he is introduced to her brother, he leans in to kiss him like he is a woman, then stops at the last moment. The baby forces everyone to face the reality of their situations. We can move time by having a montage of him at doctor’s appts. Looking uncomfortable. With doctor’s hands in her. Happy montage. Broken-up sequence. Almost fistfight with other pregnant woman. Bed rest. Suddenly huge boobs which squirt milk, or she wants him to get them going for the baby. Mucous plug. Baby class. But not married. Hospital tour.

A shocking amount of that made it into the movie. You could analyze Apatow’s email and glean much about the creative / writing process. For example, notice how Apatow keeps coming back to possible themes for the movie:

• Going through this helps her adjust her life in a positive way.
• The idea of being forced into a relationship for life is the main conflict. A relationship in reverse. A baby, then get to know one another.
• For the girl there can be a sense that this is the end of her dreams, vocationally. Her ability to finish school etc. is impossible unless they become a team.
• The idea of the film is that their idea for their lives is altered completely. Freedom is gone.
• The movie should be about the fact that he falls in love with her first, but she takes longer and isn’t sure.
• He commits to the idea of committing forever and she eventually sees this, feels safe and falls hard for him.
• The baby forces everyone to face the reality of their situations.

While using the email to brainstorm and generate ideas for specific scenes, subplots, and beats, Apatow surfaced and worked through various possible story themes.

Why not follow Apatow’s lead? Whenever you get a free moment — waiting for a meeting to begin at work, standing in a long line at the post office, halftime of your kid’s soccer game — pull out your Smart Phone and email or text yourself any / all ideas you come up with for your current story.

I’ve used this approach for years. Back in 1986, as I was driving up and down the state of California from one stand-up comedy gig to another, I had a little hand-held tape recorder into which I would spew thoughts that came to mind about a story I was working on called K-9. Then when I’d take off a week or so while living in Berkeley, I’d go through those tapes and type out a sort of transcription / set of notes. Years later, when I got a cellphone, I would leave voice mails for myself with story thoughts. Now with email, I do exactly what Apatow does. Between that and the Voice Memos app on my iPhone, I can always do prep-writing on my stories.

Even if you only have 5–10 minutes, use it. Think about your story and put those thoughts into words in a email to yourself. You do that three or four times a day, by the end of the week you’ll have several hours worth of brainstorming all typed out for you in a series of emails.

I’ve posted often about brainstorming on this blog including here. I can’t think of a better example to demonstrate the value of brainstorming than Apatow’s email which basically shows how he cracked the movie’s plot in one fell email swoop.