Be simple with what you tell them. Don't spend too much time explaining. It's a lot like sports. In sports, if you ask somebody to do something that they know how to do that's good for them, they will often do it and do it brilliantly. And if you asked them to do something they don't know how to do then they suffer, and it will be awkward. One of the most important things in working with actors is to learn what they are and what they do naturally and work with that; go with that; use that.

Henry Bean has put himself in the hot seat. A successful
scribe for many years, he has moved into the director's chair
on his new picture, The Believer. Shot on Super 16mm
for $1.5 million and seen earlier this year on Showtime, The
Believer (now in theatrical release) has generated more
than its share of praise and controversy.

Try to have a little fun along the way in the process because life is very short. And it's very difficult to be in the film business-or any artistic business, whether it's music or painting or anything like that-and I'm just trying to have a little fun.

2001 proved an unbelievable year for Milo Addica: six
years after co-writing the script for Monster's Ball,
the writer/actor witnessed the enormous success of a film
that almost never was. With several new projects on his plate,
including one for Steven Soderbergh's Section Eight and another
for Imagine Entertainment, Addica opens up about the writing
process and the power of perseverance.

Never stand in doorways.

If you don't recognize writer Coleman Hough's
name from her equal billing with Steven Soderbergh's on the
poster for the powerhouse director's new film Full Frontal,
it's because this is her first produced screenplay. Here Coleman
talks with MM about working with Steven Soderbergh
and how her writing is always "torn from the pages of
her life."

Don't be delicate and don't be precious with the original story. Infuse yourself into the work; take it, own it and make it yours. Never worry what the writer of the original story will think or you will be blocked.

She's no stranger to the literary world. A writing professor
at Duke University and a renowned playwright, Erin Cressida
Wilson's work has been performed at theaters around the
globe. Her first foray into the realm of screenwriting has
proven successful as well. Based on the short story by Mary
Gaitskill, Secretary-directed by Steven Shainberg and
starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader-has gained wide
acclaim since its 2002 Sundance premiere.

When you're creating a piece of theater-either as a writer or director-you must make it entirely and thoroughly theatrical.

Tim Blake Nelson makes his own rules when
it comes to working in the film industry. Best known as an
actor with key roles in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Minority
Report and The Good Girl, for the past five years
Nelson has been quietly building a reputation as a talented
writer and director. But none of his films have plumbed the
depths of human emotion as deeply as his latest, The Grey
Zone, which explores the world of Sonderkommandos, Jewish
prisoners who were offered a better quality of life in exchange
for aiding their Nazi captors in the crematoria.

Know your arse from your elbow. And keep your pecker up.

There's no denying the passion that fast-talking, chainsmoking
writer director Lynne Ramsay has for her
work. Ramsay made her auspicious film debut with the critically
praised Ratcatcher. Now tackling the script for The
Lovely Bones, based on Alice Sebold's best-selling novel,
Ramsay will also direct the film. It's a coup for the moviemaker,
and the pressure will definitely be on, but from the looks
of her new film, Morvern Callar, starring Samantha
Morton, the unconventional and confident Ramsay is up to the
task.

Stay true to the spirit of a film.

What Jeff Nathanson thought would turn out to be just a great writing sample has quickly turned into a Steven Spielberg-Leonardo Di Caprio-Tom Hanks vehicle-and a box office hit.

You think your creative writing teacher was mean? Getting critiqued by most producers and executives is like standing there naked while they point out all your flaws (see Emily Mortimer's bare-all scene in Lovely & Amazing for an apt comparison). My advice is lay out in the sun a lot, so your skin gets nice and tough.

Where Kirsten Smith goes, success seems to follow. She sold
her first screenplay, 10 Things I Hate About You, as
a spec script to Disney, and the resulting movie launched
the careers of Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger. Reese Witherspoon
has Smith and her writing partner, Karen Lutz, to thank for
the $15 million paycheck she'll receive for this summer's
Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde, the sequel
to their 2001 hit Legally Blonde. Though Smith and
Lutz are not penning the sequel, Smith is keeping plenty busy
with several projects of her own, including Don't Ask,
a story that she describes as "sort of a 'Private Benjamin
with a gay man.'"

Leave the ego at home.
The worst thing a director can do is be so in love with his or her own ideas that he or she won't listen to anyone else's. Some directors fall into the trap of needing to appear authoritative by being firm. The point of creative discussion should be to make the best movie possible, not to be able to take credit for everything. I was really good at recognizing when people had better ideas than I did.

They always want to see something sooner rather than later, but I've shown something early to a producer and I've regretted it. They're not your co-writers, they're your producers. The last thing you want is them barraging you with bad ideas to fix something you already knew you should have fixed in the first place.

Plenty of screenplays have instigated debates. A few have incited riots. But only Eric Axel Weiss can lay claim to writing a script that prompted a Sundance audience member to launch an Evian bottle across a crowded room-nearly clobbering Oscar-winning actress Anna Paquin.

There are films that are made as pieces of expression-films that are made because people need to tell certain stories and need to get things out of them. Then there are films that are made because a group of executives around a conference table decide that they need to slot in Movie X during Release Pattern Y to fulfill Demographic Z.

A subtle character drama is probably not what you'd expect
as the directorial debut from the scribe behind such Hollywood
blockbusters as Men in Black and Bill and Ted's
Excellent Adventure. But to hear Ed Solomon tell it, you
can't judge a moviemaker by his/her IMDB credits.

An Interview with Kristina Boden

Having worked consistently with Michael Almereyda (on Happy
Here and Now and Hamlet) and Paul Schrader (including
Auto Focus and Light Sleeper), editor Kristina
Boden maintains an open mind when any new project comes
up-even after a very full decade of experience.

Writing the words that will come out of a flesh-and-blood
actor's mouth is one thing. But writing dialogue for a wooden
cowboy, a renegade ant, a child-scaring monster and a kidnapped
clownfish is a completely different story-and writing process.
Finding Nemo's Andrew Stanton talks about
what it takes to succeed in the family entertainment game.

Fight for your film. Fight for a bigger budget, your favorite actor, the best locations, the best distributor and the best theaters to show in.

The biggest advice I give to people is this: we're all neurotic about what we're good at. Ridley Scott is neurotic about the images of his film; he'll never do a bad image. Other directors may be neurotic about the direction, and not the image. What we must do is surround ourselves with people who are not us, who don't have the gifts we have and become neurotic about what we're not good at. The easiest way to achieve that is to find someone who's really good at it.

Moviemaker Bart Gavigan is
a rare bird. A writer-of-repute for countless years, he is only now beginning
to see his own name in the credits. Luther, an epic tale about Martin
Luther, the 16th century German monk, is Gavigan's first feature screen
credit. It's also only the latest in a chain of pictures that have benefited
from Gavigan's august input, either as a much sought-after ghostwriter
or consultant.

Write what you love. Write the kind of movies that you want to see. People can generally tell if you're writing to sell something. If you're writing something that you really care about, that translates into something that will make a good movie.

You can't blame David Berenbaum for being happy. At only 32

Some writers only work when they "have time." It's very important to make time in one's schedule-even if it's only for 15 minutes a day.

Jerrol LeBaron founded InkTip (formerly The Writer's Script Network) in 1999 after he wrote what he now refers to as "a crappy screenplay." He soon discovered that getting anybody to see his script took an astounding amount of work. With a background in sales, he was quick to recognize an entrepreneurial opportunity and InkTip was born. In the last year alone, the company has seen nine of its screenplays produced and at least one of its writers ink a six-figure studio deal.

The transition from producer to entrepreneur is a logical one-particularly when you've heard one too many complaints that there "are no good scripts." For producer-turned-screenwriting-guru Mark Andrushko, that's exactly what prompted him to co-found the Scriptapalooza Screenwriting Competition with Genevieve Cibor in 1998. "[I] realized how thirsty my production company and literary contacts were for great writers and material," he states.

Have the guts and the confidence to reach deeper.

by Cindy J. Rinaldi

With over 30 credits in film and television, screenwriter Gerald Di Pego's filmography includes The Forgotten, Phenomenon, Instinct and Message in a Bottle. This down-to-earth master of storytelling spoke with MM about his sources of inspiration, themes in his work and his key to success as a writer.

If you can't tell your story to a stranger and entertain them, something's wrong.

In 1994, in only our fourth issue, MM spoke with a young man in
Seattle who spent his days as a legal assistant and his nights as a screenwriter.
A decade later, George Wing is living the life that he then
only dreamed of—with a hit film in theaters and a host of opportunities
ahead of him. Along the way, he’s learned a number of valuable lessons about
what it takes to navigate the Hollywood waters—all of which he’s happy
to share with MM readers.