Video: Paul Schrader Master Class
A 90-minute presentation by the screenwriter and filmmaker whose credits include Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and First Reformed.
A 90-minute presentation by the screenwriter and filmmaker whose credits include Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and First Reformed.
Paul Schrader is a fascinating individual. Not only is he a noted screenwriter whose credits include Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and The Last Temptation of Chris, and filmmaker who wrote and directed First Reformed, he has taught a 10–week master class several times at universities like UCLA and Columbia University. A person of strong opinions, Schrader says instead of looking for ten students who can write, when he teaches the class, instead he looks for “ten interesting people,” working with them to see what unique story they can develop and tell.
The video is an overview of Schrader’s process. It is a rigorous one.
“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.”
Whatever negative thoughts you may have about outlining, you owe it to yourself to take your own rigorous approach and create a scene-by-scene version of the story before you type Fade In. I suspect you will never again work without breaking your story into an outline .
You can watch my 2018 interview with Paul Schrader here:
For 100s more interviews featuring screenwriters and filmmakers, go here.