Screenwriting 101: Jessica Bendinger

“There are three different movies, as the saying goes. There’s the one you write, the one you shoot, and the one you cut. They’re all iterations and different forms. A friend of mine who created a show had a movie idea. He was like, ‘Can I go over this with you?’ I was amazed at how plotty his movie pitch was. I said to him, ‘You know what? Here’s the difference. Your movie has to be about something. A movie is not a plot. What’s it about? What is it about thematically?’ There’s a symbolic language in movies that works the unconscious. It’s the synthesis of being able to tell stories symbolically. Meaning is a rich thing we synthesize in movies and screenplays. That can be done in TV as well, because TV takes a longer view and writers have the luxury of time. In film you’ve got to do so much heavy lifting in such a short period of time… the economy you have to use, it’s haiku. You have to trick people. You have to work their subconscious without being obvious. I’m always amazed when people think screenplay format equals a movie. Whether they’re writing for TV or movies. It’s like, ‘I did the format, therefore I know how to do it.’ No, it’s beyond the format of Final Draft. You have to do all this heavy lifting in every single thing you’re putting on the page.”

— Jessica Bendinger

From Go Into The Story interview, July 2016

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