10 Screenwriting Tips from Damien Chazelle on how he wrote Whiplash and La La Land

Oscar winning director Damien Chazelle Interview about the screenplay writing process and lessons from the screenplay on his favorite movies and films: Whiplash, La La Land and First Man. His regular collaborators include J.K. Simmons, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for La La Land and Best Adapted Screenplay Whiplash (2014) which was adapted from his short film of the same name Whiplash Short (2013) film about drumming. Both short and feature film won at Sundance Film Festival in consecutive years. Damien was a drummer himself which was the inspiration for Whiplash. La La Land was inspired from umbrellas of cherbourg. He won at Golden Globes for directing. Chazelle directed a short film “The Stunt Double,” Shot on iPhone 11 Pro. We can’t wait for his new movie Babylon starring Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie.

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0:00 - Intro

1:11 - TIP-01 - If you want to get your first screenplay made, write something small and focused and lean and mean. Let it be a simple clear-cut story with two characters going against each other.

2:46 - TIP-02 - Most of the greatest love stories in history don’t end with happily ever after. If you’re telling a story about love, love has to be bigger than the characters.

3:15 - TIP-03 - At the start of every project know roughly where you are headed in terms of the final scene. Know what kind of story you want to tell and make sure your ending is HONEST but still UNPREDICTABLE.

5:20 - TIP-04 - Always have an intimate personal connection to the story you’re writing. It doesn’t have to be a literal connection, you can find a personal angle in every project even if it’s about space for example.

6:11 - TIP-05 - As a screenwriter when you get notes, always try to identify the person behind the notes and then ask them to be SPECIFIC, direct and HONEST as possible.

8:46 - TIP-06 - The best way to get your first feature film off the ground is to make a short proof-of-concept film. If you then also win awards with the short film, this will get investors extra interested.

11:18 - TIP-07 - Take relevant concepts from the past and try to reinvest them with a certain kind of modern energy and put them in a modern context and subvert them and add on to them.

12:00 - TIP-08 - The greatest skill you have to develop as a screenwriter is THICK SKIN. Keep your faith, keep being persistent, don’t be overly sensitive to rejections. All it takes is one yes.

13:31 - TIP-09 - When you have scenes with music, make the storyboard to the tempo of those songs. Plan as thoroughly as possible as those scenes need perfect timing, emotion and pacing.

17:00 - TIP-10 - Don't overstuff the ending with dialogue. You’ve done your mechanical storytelling to get you to this point so at the end try to just let it flow, let it be pure cinema.

19:12 - Outro

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