Thursday, February 24, 2011

Screenplay Origins

I have this little theory about the origins of ideas, it goes like this: imagine a conscious life is like a layer cake.  On the surface (the frosting, let's say) you have speech.  We communicate with each other primarily with words, either spoken or written.  This is the visible layer, the layer of the 110 pages. Below that layer, you have a layer of thought. This layer begins the layers we believe to be private. Below the thought layer you have emotions.  Below emotions you have felling.  Once below feelings, a region we cannot access with our minds begins, a region where (I believe) all of our consciousness is shared. My belief is that ideas are generated from this unknown space. Like bubbles in a boiling pot of water.  They come up first as a feeling, then emotion, a thought and finally out as words where they can be communicated. But the word is only the final step in the process.  The real gold is the pre-translated impulse and the purity of that impulse. So what I'm thinking is, the best way to get compelling, authentic stories is to start in the depths and let those impulses and emotions define the words, not the other way around.

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