Screenwriting 101: George Axelrod

“What’s amazing to me is that nowadays everybody in the world is writing a screenplay. A screenplay is the hardest single form there is. You can’t make any mistakes. Because it’s not like a book where you can turn back the pages and say, ‘Oh, that’s what he said!’ It’s continuous, razor-edge-of-now action. You aren’t allowed any mistakes, because the audience is a fantastic entity. You can have 1,100 morons sitting in the audience, but when they come together in the darkness, an almost mystical thing happens, a kind of mass unconscious that is smarter than you are. They can spot a phony a mile off.

The first part of a movie has got to be not only engaging their attention in some way but building their trust. If you lose their trust, you can never get it back. They’ve got to feel that they’re in good hands, that the guy who’s telling the story knows what he is doing.”

—George Axelrod

For a How They Write a Script article on George Axelrod, go here.

For 100s more screenwriter quotes on the craft, go here.

The Protagonist’s Journey: An Introduction to Character-Driven Screenwriting and Storytelling is a 5-star rated Amazon #1 Best Seller in Film and Television. Endorsed by over thirty professional screenwriters, novelists, and academics, you may purchase it here.