Friday 3 October 2014

Eric Roth on screenwriting

Eric Roth is the writer of Forrest Gump, The Insider, Munich, The Good Shepherd, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and many others.

Here he takes viewers inside his creative process in an exploration of where ideas come from.



And here he is collecting the 2012 WGAW Screen Laurel Award.

IMDb  |  Twitter  |  Wikipedia

1 comment:

Unknown said...

If you follow this blog you learn about every great screenwriter eventually.

Eric Roth says a writer needs arrogance, the self confidence that they will be able to articulate a story that will stay with the audience in a primal way.

Mr Roth exercises and works every day, starting at page 1 of the act each time. If he gets stuck, he changes something about the scene. He also reads 3 books a week.

He begins with theme - what will resonate? Then the subject matter. Then how the characters relate to the subject matter. A good writer sees his characters as real people and knows everything about them.

The acceptance speech is inspiring. Films are where dreams are made, they find a place in the psyche. Films have to reach an undefinable truth, or else the audience will think about one themselves.