Video: 10 Screenwriting Tips from Paul Schrader

Advice from the screenwriter of such notable movies as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, and First Reformed.

Paul Schrader has written some of the most memorable movies in the last four decades including The Yakuza, Hardcore, American Gigilo, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, Mosquito Coast, and First Reformed. This is a video compilation of interview excerpts produced by Outstanding Screenplays.

Here is an excerpt from a How They Write a Script post in which Schrader talks about his writing process.

“I know exactly where I’m going beforehand. I know to the half page if I’m on or off target. I draw up charts before I do a script. I endlessly chart and re-chart a movie. Before I sit down to write, I have all the scenes listed, what happens in each scene, how many pages I anticipate each scene will take. I have a running log on the film. I can look down and see what happens by page thirty, what happens by page forty, fifty, sixty and so forth. I have the whole thing timed out to a hundred and five, a hundred and ten pages. You may go two, three pages ahead or behind, you may add or drop dialogue or scenes; but if you’re two pages ahead or behind, you have to work that into the timing. Especially if you get five pages ahead, or, worse, five pages behind, then something you had planned to work on page forty may not work the same way on page forty-five.”

Here are three video excerpts from a master class I moderated featuring Schrader at DePaul University.

For more Outstanding Screenplays videos, go here.

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