Video: “How I Wrote Whiplash”

Writer-director Damien Chazelle reflects on his Oscar-winning 2014 movie.

A Behind the Curtain video featuring Damien Chazelle whose movie credits include 10 Cloverfield Lane, La La Land, and Whiplash.

One observation from Chazelle: “I knew exactly the first image in the movie and I knew what the last image the movie would be. They’re bookend images, they’re the same things. It’s a push-in on Andrew drumming and then everything in between, I think wound up taking shape as I wrote. It’s hard to begin a script without knowing exactly what the ending is going to be, not just in broad structural strokes X Y Z will happen, but literally what the last image is gonna be.”

Here are those two images:

Check out this video comparing the endings of Whiplash and La La Land.

Visual storytelling. Something we, as screenwriters, need to remember.

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For hundreds of links to audio, video, and written interviews with screenwriters and filmmakers hosted at Go Into The Story, go here.