Writing Comedy – Interview with Louis C.K.

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Louis C.K. in FX channel's "Louie"

Louis C.K. in "Louie" on FX

I’ve hired a lot of writers… The more original, the more unique your stuff is, the better, I think, rather than trying to hit a certain place that’s going to get you employed.  That usually just makes you like everybody else.


Continuing my coverage of FX Networks programming, I took part in a conference call interview with comedy veteran Louis C.K. who is premiering his new 30-minute comedy show “Louie” tonight.

Louis had some great insights into comedy writing and, for my money, elucidated the problem with network television and why it’s been getting its ass kicked by cable television for the past decade. Louis C.K.’s credits include Late Night with Conan O’Brien, “TV Funhouse” on Saturday Night Live, Lucky Louie on HBO and the cult hit movie Pootie Tang.

FX NETWORK:  Louie

Premieres June 24, 2010/11:00 p.m. PDT

Dan Calvisi: You are listed as the only writer on IMDB.  I don’t know if I missed some press materials where it lists other writers, but if that’s the case, what exactly is your writing process for writing these episodes?

Louis C.K. I am the only writer.  That was a decision I made because I just wanted to write and make the show.  Writers’ rooms, they kind of gravitate towards a certain place.  There’s a need to perfect things in a writers’ room, and that can take a lot of fun out of a show sometimes.  It’s a struggle.  It depends on your personality.  Some people love working with a writing staff.  I had a great writing staff on Lucky Louie, but it sometimes felt like Congress or something.  It’s like if you’re the president and you have the ability to just fire Congress, life would get kind of fun all of a sudden. Read more

Book Review: Tales from the Script: 50 Hollywood Screenwriters…

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A while back, I was sent an advance copy of Tales from the Script: 50 Hollywood Screenwriters Share Their Stories and I can report that is a fantastic book that gives you the inside word from the best, most influential and most legendary screenwriters in the business. If you’re working on your first screenplay, have written 50, or you’re just a movie buff, this is an invaluable glimpse into a segment of the industry that is absolutely CRUCIAL but rarely explored in such detail.

From Mike Binder to Nora Ephron to Steven E. de Souza to John August to Paul Schrader to Mick Garris to Frank Darabont to Larry Cohen to Josh Friedman… there’s bound to be a writer in here that changed YOUR life with their words that were translated into film. So don’t just worship the actors and directors; work a little harder and learn about the scribes that the pretty people need but will never give their due credit.

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Inception featurette continues the legacy of The Dark Knight – WATCH IT!

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Can you press 3rd floor for me-aaaahhhhhh!

There’s a reason why that anti-gravity hallway effect in Inception looks so amazing.

It’s because that shit is real.

No CGI. It’s a giant rig that rotates 360 degrees and it must have cost a fortune. It’s another example of how and why Christopher Nolan is this generation’s James Cameron.

Like Cameron, Nolan insists on spending millions of the studio’s money on creating real, physical spectacles, sometimes for only a single shot.

This is why those aerial IMAX shots in The Dark Knight looked so amazing; those weren’t sets, they were real skyscrapers in Chicago and Hong Kong.

When we see Batman riding his batpod motorcycle…it’s real. They didn’t just hand off the scene to a bunch of animators.

batpod pic

A team of engineers spent months (and a batload of Warner Brothers’ cash) designing and building a new vehicle that a stuntman could actually drive.


Don't try this at home.

Let’s be clear: they invented a vehicle.  For..one scene?  Yes, for one scene (okay, two and a half scenes, geeks).

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The A-Team: please don’t call them if you’re in trouble

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Because this A-Team does not help people in trouble.  They’re only out for revenge.

This A-Team did not serve time in the same military unit and then escape from a prison camp, thus bonding them together for life. In fact…

The B-team.

This A-Team doesn’t make any sense, whatsoever.

And it just got pitied like a fool by The Karate Kid, which made DOUBLE its gross in their mutual opening weekend.

At this time last year, “The Hangover” and “Up” were going gangbusters at the box-office — both ORIGINAL scripts.


But, wait, The Karate Kid is also a remake of a piece of campy 80s material. So why did it fare so much better?

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Screenplay Structure

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Would you like to learn how to write a screenplay from a professional screenwriter and Script Doctor who has worked for major movie studios and is based in Los Angeles, California, Hollywood, the entertainment capital of the world?

I can give you the TOOLS — the professional screenwriting how to — to write a great movie screenplay or television script. My method is called Story Maps Screenwriting and it is the most simple, clear and effective roadmap to take you from your initial concept all the way to a polished draft that you can submit to agents, managers and producers in the movie industry in Hollywood. Read more

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Story Maps on Facebook: facebook.com/storymaps

The Voice of the Screenwriter

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Featuring examples from The Departed, Saving Private Ryan, Collateral, Munich, Lethal Weapon, As Good As It Gets, Forrest Gump, Casanova and The Chronicles of Narnia.


Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan

[note: some of the screenplay excerpts on this page have not been properly formatted for this blog, yet.  I’m working on it. -Dan]
There are three main categories of skill needed to write a screenplay: Structure, Characters and Voice. Dialogue may win Oscars and get many an established pro hired on assignment, but I believe it’s a distant fourth when it comes to a spec screenplay submitted by a NEW writer.

You’ve probably heard about the dreaded studio Readers who read only the dialogue in a script.  Well, that can happen, so I’d contend that it’s your job to make the reader WANT TO READ your description by seducing them with a compelling narrative voice that establishes TONE, PACING and EMOTION right off the bat, rather than just listing flat stage directions.  You need to grab them, shake them, and hold them.

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Don’t Pay for Script Coverage!

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Buyer Beware, fine screenwriters: DON’T PAY FOR SCRIPT COVERAGE!

I don’t offer script coverage as one of my consulting services; I prepare detailed story notes that identify narrative problems and offer specific suggestions on how to fix them. However, I wrote coverage on scripts and books for years as a professional movie studio Reader. So I’m very familiar with it. You will find a number of services online that offer screenplay coverage, but in my opinion it’s not the best thing to spend your money on. Here’s why…

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Screenplay Coverage

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Attention Screenwriters: Don’t pay for screenplay coverage!

I don’t offer script coverage as one of my consulting services; I prepare detailed story notes that identify narrative problems and offer specific suggestions on how to fix them. However, I wrote coverage on scripts and books for years as a professional movie studio Reader. So I’m very familiar with it. You will find a number of services online that offer screenplay coverage, but in my opinion it’s not the best thing to spend your money on. Here’s why…

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Inktip Discounts

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“If you are looking for someone who

combines expert analysis with incredible

credentials and experience, put

Daniel Calvisi in your

script analyst black book.”

Script Magazine.

Dear Screenwriters,

I have been an Inktip member for years and I recommend it to every screenwriter I meet, coach or collaborate with. I know several writers who have found success by listing their scripts on Inktip.

I have been one of Inktip’s approved Screenplay Consultants for years.

In fact, Inktip is the only site outside of my own that I’ve ever endorsed for the simple reason that they have an incredible track record when it comes to getting films made.

I am proud to be involved with Inktip as one of their approved Consultants for the first annual Inktip Pitch Summit. It’s the only pitch event that I’ve ever been involved with.

With that said, I love to work with Inktip screenwriters
because I know that they have made a
serious commitment to their careers.

Let me tell you a little bit about me
and the DISCOUNTS I can offer you.


The first reason I stand out from the ever-increasing pack of Script Consultants is that I have extensive experience in the movie industry as a Story Analyst with a list of past employers that includes MIRAMAX FILMS, TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX, NEW LINE CINEMA and the production company of director JONATHAN DEMME (The Silence of the Lambs, Beloved, The Manchurian Candidate).

I was an “A” List Reader. I worked for executives who developed and/or executive produced the films CHICAGO, ULEE’S GOLD, SPY KIDS, SCREAM 2 & 3, CHOCOLAT, THE GAME, VOLCANO, MIMIC, ONE FINE DAY, THE WEDDING SINGER and many others. I was given top-priority material, including the original spec draft of THE SIXTH SENSE and the source novel of THE DARK FIELDS (now a major movie starring Bradley Cooper and Robert DeNiro).

Secondly, I have been focusing on screenwriting as a career for over 14 years (as a Screenwriter, Reader, Coach and Teacher) and I have helped to guide over 450 screenwriters since 1997. As you can see from my extensive website which lists all of my credentials, services and contains many blog posts, I am serious about the craft and business of screenwriting.

  • With all that said, I always offer DISCOUNTS AND SPECIAL OFFERS to INKTIP MEMBERS!

If you can forward me one of your Inktip member emails as proof, I can extend to you one of the following offers…

$100 off an 8-Week Private Online Screenwriting Course!

$50 off my Story Maps private class!

$45 off a Full Screenplay Consultation
or
$25 off Fastback Screenplay Notes!

To make it in this incredibly competitive business, your script can’t just be good, it must be great. So let’s make your script GREAT!

Sincerely,

Daniel Calvisi

To book your Consultation or ask a question… Email or call me.

Dan photo on YouTube

Where are you at in the screenwriting process?

To book your Consultation or ask a question… Email or call me.

  • To sign up for my Screenwriting Newsletter to get bi-weekly updates on new articles, interviews, tips, discounts and special offers…use the form on the left column HERE.

The Dark Knight Screenplay Analysis

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Christian Bale as Batman - The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight is an expert example of building an active story around Theme, one of the main dramatic elements in the “Basic Story Map.”

  • Download the FULL STORY MAP FOR THE DARK NIGHT Here.

In a movie, especially a superhero action thriller, there must be HIGH STAKES with SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES. Life or death. Loyalty or betrayal. Love or Duty.

In The Dark Knight, the screenwriters wisely push the story to the extremes of the conflict. To find those extremes, they began with Bruce Wayne/Batman’s character and mythology and used those elements to push him into an impossible situation.

Here are three “essential truths” of Bruce Wayne/Batman:

  • Bruce Wayne has sworn to protect the people of Gotham City.
  • Bruce’s alter-ego Batman is the only thing that can protect them.
  • Bruce’s one rule is not to kill.

The screenwriters will push Bruce into a position where he has only two options:

  1. Give up his identity as Batman and turn himself in to the authorities, or
  2. Kill The Joker.

In other words: an impossible choice. This is what great drama is built upon.

Heath Ledger as The Joker in The Dark Knight.

The glue that holds it together is Theme.

The Theme of The Dark Knight is “Desperation pushes men to act in self-destructive and chaotic ways.”

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VIDEO Interview with Graham Yost… Justified, The Pacific, Band of Brothers, Speed, Broken Arrow

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I sometimes cover openings in Hollywood.  I caught up with Graham Yost at the premiere of his TV drama series Justified which airs on the Fox’s FX Network and stars Timothy Olyphant and is based on original characters by Elmore Leonard.

Graham Yost is the series creator/Executive Producer of Justified and a veteran writer/director in film and television with an impressive list of credits that includes Band of Brothers, Boomtown, Raines and The Pacific and the feature films Speed, Broken Arrow and Mission to Mars. He won an Emmy for his work on the mini-series From the Earth to the Moon.

Related: Interview with Elmore Leonard and Graham Yost, creators of “Justified”

script-coverage-RDJ-Iron-Man

Why I don’t do Coverage and why you don’t need it

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I don’t offer script coverage as one of my consulting services; I prepare detailed story notes that identify narrative problems and offer specific suggestions on how to fix them. However, I wrote coverage on scripts and books for years as a professional movie studio Reader. So I’m very familiar with it. You will find a number of services online that offer screenplay coverage, but in my opinion it’s not the best thing to spend your money on. Here’s why…

Read more

Best Movie Scenes of the 2000s by Dan Calvisi

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Great lines. Great performances. Great payoffs.

Huge laughs. Crocodile tears.

This is why we love to go to the movies. These scenes are what is best about the movies.

The greatest siege battle ever put on film.

My favorite scene about making music.

A moment that I think about every time I go to the gym.

The most hilarious child choreography ever.

The most ridiculous thing ever done with a grocery cart.

The scenes on this list will never fail to inspire me. If there is any doubt that this was a great decade for film, one only needs to watch these clips to see the truth.

[Note: Clips not available for every scene.  I’m working on it.]

In no particular order…

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M. Night Shyamalan: Method To The Madness

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M. Night ShyamalanOriginally published in Script Magazine Online in 2005 in a slightly shorter form here.

Below is the full article…

M. Night Shyamalan is the modern master of the high-concept thriller. He is also a mad scientist.  A tinkerer.

With each new film, he’s gone back into his lab and concocted some new experiment in suspense storytelling.  This is a screenwriter who has mastered traditional narrative and gotten bored with it, so he’s decided to consistently take chances with the form.  From his sub-basement sanctum sanctorum, amidst the smoking beakers and jarred brains and that lightning-rod thingee, adjacent to the plasma screen playing non-stop Hitchcock films, he straps standard three-act structure down onto a slab of unforgiving granite and goes to work.  With The Village he shocks his most bold experiment into life.

Shyamalan has always enjoyed playing the puppetmaster of our emotions.  Don’t kid yourself — he may be fascinated with the retooling of narrative structure, but ultimately, he’s experimenting on us, the audience.  Like Hitchcock before him, Shyamalan is the Great Manipulator.  Manipulation is not a bad word to M. Night; rather, it’s his raison d’etre.  He loves it, gets off on playing us like a marionette.  And considering his four straight commercial successes (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, The Village), it’s safe to say we keep coming back for more.

We want him in that lab.  We need him in that lab.

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Don’t suck…Suck in the Reader!

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I worked for years as a professional Story Analyst, or “Reader” for major movie companies in New York City, reading and evaluating incoming screenplays and books for executives and producers who developed films like Chicago, Scream, The Game, The Faculty, Volcano, Beloved, Ulee’s Gold, and Chocolat.  Their production slates ran the gamut of genres and so did the material that I was handed.

And I realized that the common wisdom about your Act One being “Setup”…is crap.

Click to read excerpts

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“The Art Of Pitching” Panel In Los Angeles

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I attended this panel on October 29, 2008 sponsored by the NYU Tisch “Writers’ Lab West” alumni group.  The panel offered a valuable range of opinion from members of different sectors of the business, all people who have heard many pitches…

  • Sean C. Covel, Independent Producer (Napoleon Dynamite, Beneath)
  • Maradith Frenkel, Creative Executive, Universal Pictures (Mamma Mia,Frost/Nixon)
  • Eddie Gamarra, Literary Manager & Producer, The Gotham Group (represents screenwriters, animators, novelists, and illustrators with an emphasis on animation, family and graphic novels.)
  • Chris Lawson, Executive, Creative Artists Agency (locates and develops source material to inspire new film and television projects for their clients.)
  • Ellen Sandler, Television Writer/Producer (Everybody Loves Raymond,Coach)

The following is my own collection of notes from the panel.  In some cases, I’ve identified the source of the comment. Read more

Pitching a Screenplay by a Pro

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Northrop Davis has sold three movie pitches
to major film studios in Los Angeles.

I am proud to have him join us for a
guest column on pitching a screenplay…

10 PITCHING TIPS FROM A PRO!

First thing, why a pitch? We all know it’s very hard to sell one.  But it’s also terrifically difficult to sell a spec script.  Pitches take less time to develop (though far more than you’d think).  But that’s not the reason I like them.  I like them for feedback.  They allow you the opportunity to present your story to industry feedback, and “find the spine of your story.”

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Screenplay Help

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Would you like to learn how to write a screenplay from a professional screenwriter and Script Doctor who has worked for major movie studios and is based in Los Angeles, California, Hollywood, the entertainment capital of the world?

I can give you the TOOLS — the professional screenwriting how to — to write a great movie screenplay or television script. My method is called Story Maps Screenwriting and it is the most simple, clear and effective roadmap to take you from your initial concept all the way to a polished draft that you can submit to agents, managers and producers in the movie industry in Hollywood. Read more

Screenplay Mentor

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Do you want a screenplay analysis from a Script Doctor with major movie studio credentials?


Are you looking for a screenplay coach to give you the best script consultation you can get and to mentor you through the process of how to write screenplays?

I am a screenplay teacher and script doctor with over 14 years experience in the craft and business of screenplays. I have worked for major movie studios and I live in Los Angeles, California, Hollywood, the movie and TV capital of the world.

I can give you the TOOLS — a professional screenwriting consultation to blow away all other script services — to take your script to the next level. My method is called Story Maps Screenwriting and it is the most simple, clear and effective roadmap to take you from your initial concept all the way to a polished draft that you can submit to agents, managers and producers in the movie industry in Hollywood.

  • 95% of great movies follow the Story Map

Let’s look at a few examples from popular movies: The Matrix, a Science Fiction action thriller and As Good as it Gets, a Dramatic Comedy. Both movies are blockbuster hit films and employ strong Story Maps. They are very different stories in completely different genres, but employ the same storytelling structure.

As an example, I will highlight one of the unique beats found in my Story Maps structure.

The INCITING INCIDENT is an event of HIGH CONFLICT that…

  1. Upsets the established ORDER
  2. Ups the STAKES for the Protagonist
  3. Acts as a crucial CATALYST for the story.
  4. Occurs in the range of page 8 – 10 of the screenplay, or 8 – 10 minutes into the movie.

The Matrix

Exactly 10 minutes into the movie, NEO (Keanu Reeves) meets TRINITY (Carrie-Anne Moss), who tells Neo that the answer to the question “What is the Matrix?” will find him, but only if he wants it to. This introduces the LOVE INTEREST (Trinity), the THEME (Free Will vs. Destiny) and the main STORY ENGINE for Act One (Neo searches for “the Matrix.”).

As Good As It Gets

Exactly 10 minutes into the movie, MELVIN (Jack Nicholson) meets CAROL the waitress (Helen Hunt) for his daily meal. As they talk, Melvin makes a horrible remark about how her sick son will die just like the rest of us. This introduces Melvin’s LOVE INTEREST, the powerful CONFLICT between them (negative vs. positive), the THEME (Don’t let pessimism rule you) and Melvin’s central GOAL: to learn to love.

There are 9 other crucial story beats in the Story Maps structure,as well as 4 story engines and 9 main dramatic elements. These are the BUILDING BLOCKS of your story, and once you understand that I can teach you about proper screenplay format, how to write a screenplay treatment or synopsis and how to sell a screenplay.

Where are you at in the screenwriting process?

No matter if you’re just starting out or have written several scripts, I can help you achieve your goals.

Good luck and happy writing!

Dan Calvisi