{"id":240,"date":"2008-10-30T17:05:35","date_gmt":"2008-10-31T01:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/?p=240"},"modified":"2015-07-12T00:40:34","modified_gmt":"2015-07-12T07:40:34","slug":"take-risks-like-charlie-kaufman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/take-risks-like-charlie-kaufman\/","title":{"rendered":"Take risks like Charlie Kaufman"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"synecdoche\"<\/p>\n
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Charlie Kaufman said he always thought “Being John Malkovich” would be a sample. What happened instead was that it got made. Kaufman then gave us the off-beat “Adaptation.” He has experimented with the weird for a while but his magnum opus is now “Synecdoche, New York.”<\/p>\n

“Synecdoche” is distinctly Kaufman but also as weird and refreshing as Lynch. It’s a movie you can see multiple times and have a different experience. It makes you wonder. Lately, cinema doesn’t let me wonder. It lets me know the bad guy is dead and the good guy gets the girl. However, I always knew that would happen. With the work of people like Kaufman, I never know. That is different. That is a real film experience. <\/p>\n

This is a level of screenwriting that no new writer seems to tackle. It is the almost<\/em> impossible. It is that surrealist film that your market-minded brain says you cannot sell. While there might be some truth to that, you probably won’t sell it, but also given statistics, you probably won’t sell your too-cool-for-school actioneer either.<\/p>\n

People should tinker with symbolism, darker themes, and the unknown. If injected into a more conventional piece, it adds some edge. Or if it’s a writing experiment, it would be cool to have a trippy sample in your deck of cards. You can let your work flow and not be as worried about plot points and act structures.<\/p>\n

A published poet and friend of mine, Stephanie Valente, took a stab at a semi-surreal script and managed to come full circle in a month. “The Space Between Dreams” is a feature script that is as tight as most thrillers, about falling in love with someone in your dreams and how to make those dreams a reality. It’s a refreshingly different read than most scripts floating around out there.<\/p>\n

Everyone should feel okay with writing something different. I think it’s a very liberating experience for writers new or old to just go for it. It helps you grow as a writer and makes you think differently in the future.<\/p>\n

You’ll have to see “Synecdoche, New York” for the full effect, but right now you can get inspired with the WGA’s Charlie Kaufman interview<\/a> (embedded below), Wired Magazine’s two-and-a-half-hour interview<\/a>, or Creative Screenwriting’s hour-long podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n