screenwriting - Blog 2.0 - California Film Foundation2024-03-29T15:46:05Zhttps://californiafilm.net/profiles/news/feed/tag/screenwritingCohen Brothers On Writing Lebowski and Herding Catshttps://californiafilm.net/profiles/news/cohen-brothers-on-writing-lebowski-and-herding-cats2021-03-23T22:04:23.000Z2021-03-23T22:04:23.000ZCFF Adminhttps://californiafilm.net/members/CFFAdmin<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/8697629274?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p> </p>
<p>If you ask the Coen brothers about how they write their films, you might not get a straight answer. "It's mostly napping," Ethan tells <em>Fresh Air</em>'s Terry Gross.</p>
<p>"We go to the office, we're there, we're in a room together," Joel adds. "We take naps, but, you know, the important thing is that we're <em>at</em> the office, should we be inspired to actually write something."</p>
<p>The brothers don't split up writing responsibilities — they "talk through" the dialogue and "work it out together," Joel explains.</p>
<p>The process seems to be working for the brothers who wrote and directed <em>Fargo, The Big Lebowski, O Brother Where Art Thou?, No Country for Old Men</em>, <em>A Serious Man</em> and <em>True Grit.</em> Their latest film, <em>Inside Llewyn Davis,</em> just won the Grand Prix at this year's Cannes film festival, and it's nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture, musical or comedy, and an Independent Spirit award for Best Feature.</p>
<p>Set in 1961, <em>Inside Llewyn Davis</em> stars Oscar Isaac in the title role, as a folksinger in Greenwich Village, just before Bob Dylan comes on the scene. He's known in the clubs but isn't particularly successful.</p>
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<p> <iframe title="NPR embedded audio player" src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/251638952/251978781" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe></p></div>From ‘Succession’ to ‘Killing Eve,’ Isolation Leads to Major Character Growthhttps://californiafilm.net/profiles/news/from-succession-to-killing-eve-isolation-leads-to-major-character2020-08-18T17:39:49.000Z2020-08-18T17:39:49.000ZMaria Fernanda M.https://californiafilm.net/members/MariaFernandaMerayo<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7516627456,RESIZE_1200x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7516627456,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="450" alt="7516627456?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></p><p>The second season of “<a id="auto-tag_succession" href="https://variety.com/t/succession/">Succession</a>” opens on Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong) emerging from the warm waters of an Icelandic spa.</p><p>Kendall has just begun a much-needed stint in rehab, away from his poisonous family, when he is called back by his father and plunged once again into the media dynasty rat race.<br />HBO’s “Succession” is one of several of this year’s drama series nominees whose characters’ pasts and obsessions lead them to potentially dangerous or perhaps healthy levels of isolation — depending on whether it’s time away from your partner in crime in Netflix’s “<a id="auto-tag_ozark" href="https://variety.com/t/ozark/">Ozark</a>,” the person who tried to murder you in BBC America’s “<a id="auto-tag_killing-eve" href="https://variety.com/t/killing-eve/">Killing Eve</a>,” or your traumatic past in Disney Plus’ “<a id="auto-tag_the-mandalorian" href="https://variety.com/t/the-mandalorian/">The Mandalorian</a>.”</p><p>Rather than giving Kendall some space, “Succession” showrunner Jesse Armstrong says the move was more of a forced exile — Logan punishing his naughty son for betraying him and trying to take over the company behind his back.</p><p>“There’s a history in powerful families of trying to get rid of black sheep or people who don’t fit in, or have mental ailments,” Armstrong says. “It feels like the isolation of a problematic element in the family life. Maybe he needs it, but I’d actually say what he needs more is true connection with his family and a bit of honesty.”</p><p>“Succession” deals with vast wealth, power and the competition that naturally arises between siblings when they are raised with the idea that their father’s “business empire is hereditary,” Armstrong says, with the idea that only one of them will inherit it all. This central idea forces the family members apart, while their wealth forces the family itself further away from normality, as well.</p><p>“Very rich people isolate themselves because they don’t want contact with other people, and then guess what, they find themselves rather isolated and out of touch,” Armstrong says. “That wonderful, rather extravagant-looking yacht that they find themselves on at the end of Season 2 is a living hell. I’m not crying for them, but it is nevertheless a great irony that they’re cut off from the stuff of happiness in life as a whole.”</p><p>Whereas viewers will never know if several months in rehab would have put Kendall on the straight and narrow, one central character who benefits from an intense period of isolation is Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman) in Season 3 of “Ozark.”</p><p>In one episode, Marty is kidnapped by the leader of a Mexican drug cartel and forced to endure sleep-deprivation in a cell. While locked up, he has an important reckoning over his and his family’s future.</p><p>“Marty’s whole arc in that episode was internal and coming to a realization about himself that he didn’t get into this thing by accident. In a lot of ways, he actually wants to win, it’s not like he just wants to get out,” Mundy says. “That was a step toward Marty understanding himself better because he had to, it was just him alone in a cell for so long.”</p><p>Much like Logan Roy’s offspring, the Byrde children suffer because of their parents’ work and cut more distant figures as a result. However, in Season 3 of “Ozark,” it’s Charlotte (Sofia Hublitz) who insists that Marty and Wendy (Laura Linney) see a therapist together as part of a deal that will see her return home.</p><p>“Family is family and I think she realized that the world is a little scary out there on your own,” Mundy says. “Even as messed up as the Byrde family is, they are still the only people that can truly understand the situation they’re in. There’s so much they can’t say, and the secret they share keeps them in some way dependent on each other, both for good and for bad.”</p><p>The central characters of “Killing Eve” and “The Mandalorian,” on the other hand, isolate themselves in large part because of past trauma.</p><p>“With these two women, it’s really about the fact that they’re seen by the other in a way that no one else has ever seen them before. I think that for both of them that’s such a unique and powerful experience that no matter how hard they try, they’re unable to find anything else that quite matches that,” says “Killing Eve” executive producer Suzanne Heathcote.</p><p>Their delicious, yet poisonous obsession with each other also leads to collateral damage on both sides, leaving Eve (Sandra Oh) in particular feeling like she’s a “danger to others.”</p><p>“Even though [Eve] is trying to regain some sort of normality, her version of that normality at the beginning of the season is a version where she completely removed herself from her life in a very isolated way of living because that feels safe, both for her and for those around her,” Heathcote says. “She feels like a dangerous person, and the fear is she has no idea how far she can go because she’s already gone so far.”</p><p>The season ends on a somewhat cryptic note, with each character looking back at the other across a bridge, after Eve acknowledges that she cannot live her life without Villanelle (Jodie Comer).</p><p>“Villanelle could walk away from Eve and all the danger that she represents in her life as well. Yet neither of them is able to continue that journey away from each other, without looking back,” Heathcote says.</p><p>The attraction that the titular Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) feels towards his newly adopted protégé the Child (aka Baby Yoda) also hauls Mando out of his isolated ways, says executive producer Dave Filoni.</p><p>Mando begins as a lonely gunslinger, broken by the death of his parents as a child and “that armor he wears is representative of how he’s protecting himself inside — how he’s protecting that fragile, young part of him that obviously went through trauma early on,” Filoni says.</p><p>But taking the Child under his wing puts Mando on a different course, moving away from his solitude and defining his life by his profession.</p><p>“Having [the] Child with him has put him in touch with people and in situations that he’s had to make more selfless choices,” Filoni says. “The Child represents the nature of the force; he’s the conscience through this whole thing, guiding these characters that are on the margins to better [choices] than they would have made without him.”</p><p>Article written by Will Thorne for <a href="https://variety.com/2020/tv/features/emmys-2020-drama-killing-eve-ozark-succession-mandalorian-isolation-1234732226/" target="_blank">Variety.</a></p></div>How Hollywood Can Better Represent Muslim Characters and Storylines (Guest Column)https://californiafilm.net/profiles/news/how-hollywood-can-better-represent-muslim-characters-and-storylin2020-08-11T18:27:17.000Z2020-08-11T18:27:17.000ZMaria Fernanda M.https://californiafilm.net/members/MariaFernandaMerayo<div><h2 class="article__deck"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7413513688,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7413513688,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="450" alt="7413513688?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></h2><h2 class="article__deck">A new proposal for seeing whether a TV or film project presents Muslim characters in dynamic, nuanced and intersectional stories and contexts.</h2><p>For self-identifying Muslims, there was something to finally cheer when Emmy nominations were <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/2020-emmy-nominations-live-updating-1303894/item/emmys-2020-nominations-best-supporting-actress-a-limited-series-movie-1304673" target="_blank">unveiled</a> on July 28. Ramy Youssef (Hulu's <em>Ramy</em>), Mahershala Ali (<em>Ramy</em>) and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (HBO's <em>Watchmen</em>) were all nominated in major categories. While only time and tenacity will tell, it appears we are in a moment of real change in the entertainment industry.</p><p>These nominations are a breath of fresh air since racism and vilification have been perpetuated by Hollywood's <a href="https://www.interlinkbooks.com/product/reel-bad-arabs/" target="_blank">long history</a> of portraying Muslims and other marginalized groups in the U.S. as less than human. </p><p>After 9/11, the entertainment industry exposed Americans to a surge of violent, inaccurate and inauthentic portrayals of Arabs and Muslims. It wasn’t until advocacy groups protested that we started to see what the industry considered an <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814707326/arabs-and-muslims-in-the-media/" target="_blank">improvement in representation</a>— “patriotic Muslim” characters. In reality, these patriotic portrayals, in shows like <em>24</em>, <em>Homeland</em> and <em>Quantico</em>, were red herrings since audiences got to know Muslim characters as good or bad only in relation to terrorism. And, as we see with depictions of characters from other underrepresented communities, audiences are often short-changed from learning about the Muslim character’s history or backstory. They are also often in the background rather than in supporting or leading roles.</p><p>Authentic and nuanced representations are urgent given that viewers are <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0093650215619214" target="_blank">more likely to support</a> restrictions on Muslim civil rights and wars in Muslim countries when exposed to these types of one-dimensional storylines.</p><p>Fortunately, in the last several years, we have seen more diverse representations of Muslims than we have in the last century that the entertainment industry has existed. Even before Muslim-produced <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/emmys-ramy-youssef-his-wild-first-nominations-1304746" target="_blank"><em>Ramy</em></a>, and <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/hala-review-1179571" target="_blank"><em>Hala</em></a> (Apple TV+), CBS, in <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/ncis-fbi-franchises-15-scripted-renewals-at-cbs-1293554" target="_blank"><em>FBI</em></a>, introduced us to the first Muslim leading man, played by Muslim actor <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4976368/" target="_blank">Zeeko Zaki</a>, and The CW's <em>Legends of Tomorrow</em> features a Muslim computer hacker superhero. <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/red-line-review-1205183" target="_blank"><em>The Red Line</em></a> (CBS) included a queer Indian Muslim recurring character in the series. CBS hired <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fawzia_Mirza" target="_blank">Fawzia Mirza</a>, who identifies as Muslim, queer and South Asian, to write one of the episodes. These nuanced and dynamic portrayals are refreshing and long overdue.</p><p>As in the examples above, Muslim characters are being featured in newer and different contexts. However, the credibility of the character is sometimes compromised because networks are not doing basic due diligence. Take, for example, <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/9-1-1-lone-star-review-1270779" target="_blank"><em>911: Lone Star</em></a> (Fox), in which the show’s Muslim character prayed incorrectly. What could have been a great scene turned out to be <a href="https://twitter.com/drdadabhoy/status/1257544680863969280?lang=en" target="_blank">fodder for Muslim Twitter</a> in May, as many were quick to point out the error.</p><p>The industry also needs to get over its fetishization of Muslims as solely religious and political beings. Netflix's <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/80117557" target="_blank"><em>Messiah</em></a>, for example, offers a complex context that includes a refugee crisis and U.S. military interventions. However, Muslim characters are <a href="https://www.fromthesquare.org/will-netflixs-messiah-spark-outrage-at-the-portrayal-of-muslims/#.Xy1zExNKhp9" target="_blank">reduced to their politics and religion</a>, and culture and faith are often conflated.</p><p>There are about 1.8 billion Muslims globally, and Muslim identity and appearance are incredibly diverse. It is lackadaisical how Hollywood was able to create a “Muslim look” that is Arab and South Asian, and often times with actors outside of those communities. Black people make up the largest group of Muslims in the U.S., comprising <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2017/07/26/demographic-portrait-of-muslim-americans/" target="_blank">20 percent</a> of U.S. Muslims. And the Latinx community is the fastest-growing Muslim community in the U.S. But we rarely see these portrayals. Expanding storylines that include Muslim characters really requires reflecting the diversity of Muslim communities.</p><p>The shift away from stereotypical stories and characters is slowly happening, however, one need not look farther than the recently announced remake of <a href="https://deadline.com/2019/02/frank-coraci-sinbad-millennium-click-wedding-singer-eagle-films-1202555380/" target="_blank"><em>Sinbad</em></a> to see that the industry still defaults to problematic source material when it wants to tell Muslim stories. True improvement will require new stories, new themes, new ideas and new characters in new contexts. </p><p>We are inspired by the <a href="https://bechdeltest.com/" target="_blank">Bechdel Test</a> that evaluates representations of women; the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/feb/01/ava-duvernay-test-racial-diversity-hollywood-selma-director-oscars" target="_blank">DuVernay Test</a> on racial representations; the <a href="https://www.glaad.org/sri/2019/vitorusso" target="_blank">Russo Test</a>on LGBTQIA+ representations; and the <a href="https://www.riztest.com/" target="_blank">Riz Test</a> on Muslim representations. These tests offer templates of how to evaluate stories that are trying to avoid stereotypes and to create characters not solely defined by their racial, gender, sexual or religious identity; but rather who are cast in more leading roles with fully realized lives. </p><p>The Riz Test is named after activist/artist Riz Ahmed, who has done a great deal in bringing awareness to the issue of Muslim portrayal. It was the first of its kind to evaluate Muslim representation in TV and film, focusing on how media has historically vilified Muslims as terrorists, misogynists and culturally backward. Given the promising current expansion in portrayals and the vast pool of talented Muslim screenwriters in the industry, we are building on these criteria to raise the bar further.</p><p>To that end, we propose the Obeidi-Alsultany Test, which uses the below five criteria to evaluate whether a TV or film project presents Muslim characters in dynamic, nuanced, and intersectional stories and contexts.</p><p><strong>The Obeidi-Alsultany Test</strong></p><p><strong>1. </strong>The project that includes a Muslim character(s) does not reproduce or reinvent old tropes but rather explores new stories and contexts.</p><p><strong>2.</strong> The project that includes Muslim character(s) has a Muslim-identifying writer on staff to ensure that Muslim cultures, religion, characters and storylines are being portrayed accurately and authentically.</p><p><strong>3.</strong> The Muslim character(s) is not solely defined by their religion. Religion can be part of the character’s backstory but should not be their entire story. Muslim culture and faith should be accurately delineated.</p><p><strong>4. </strong>The Muslim character(s) has a strong presence and the character(s) is essential to the story arc and has a rich and clearly defined backstory.</p><p><strong>5. </strong>The Muslim character(s) is portrayed with diverse backgrounds and identities.</p><p>Permanent change requires acknowledging the long-standing, systemic problems that have been tolerated for far too long are no longer viable. To depict people in their full humanity is pretty elementary. </p><p>Article written by Sue Obeidi and Evelyn Alsultany for <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/how-hollywood-can-better-represent-muslim-characters-storylines-guest-column-1306331" target="_blank">The Hollywood Reporter.</a></p></div>