Episode 14: Comedy vs. Tragedy in Screenwriting
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- Опубликовано: 20 окт 2024
- The Go Draft is a masterclass series with veteran Hollywood screenwriter Andy Guerdat.
In each episode, Andy breaks down the proven techniques that he uses and has used for 45 years of writing in the industry.
If you are currently a staff writer, a screenwriting student, or just someone who wants to break into screenwriting, then this series is for you. Learn how to take the writing skills you may already possess and elevate them to start getting paid within the industry for your work.
If you have topics that you want covered or have questions for Andy, feel free to email them to thegodraft@gmail.com
Yes! A new video! Thank you, Andy Guerdat!
You're welcome! Thanks for watching.
I`ll confess I was starting to miss my favorite wise uncle, lol. Cheers !!!
I', a wise old uncle, huh? Well, I'll take that, I guess.
@@TheGoDraft Not that old, c'mon. Thou shall not worry -- for it's well-established grandchildren take preference -- See? Wise.
I think framing comedy as a contrast from tragedy is a useful framework to approach a lot of other concepts as well: how to show irony, how to make loud/quite moments impactful, etc. It's all in the dynamic range! great references as always
Thanks. And yes, a lot of dynamic are involved in dramatic writing. Like music.
The way you teach about this is brilliant. Thank you.
Glad you're getting something out of it. More to come.
Just finished watching your videos up to this point. And as someone who has watched quite a lot of screenwriting videos and lessons in youtube, I can say your course has been the most enlightening. I guess in no small part because you bring actual, real-life experience in the business. As others have mentioned, you carry a certain wise-uncle energy in your lessons, and I guess that's what I was missing from other channels.
Thanks a lot Andy for your videos. I hope you get lots more viewers and this helps elevate the quality of future screenplays.
I'm happy to know it's working for you. I'll take "wise old uncle." I've been called worse.
10:02 had me dying laughing! LOL Hell, I'm still chuckling. Aaaand...now at 10:52 Andy has me thinking I'm a psychopath....
I'm glad... or I'm sorry, whichever is appropriate.
Love this!
Cool!
I had spent a lot till now on may screenwriting workshops and books, but these videos were far more better and organic. I have watched videos straight for 5 hours without break. Thank you Uncle🙏, Love from India ❤
Glad the videos series is working for you. Good luck to you.
Hello Mr.Andy It seems Episode 5, 10,12 were hidden. Can you please make them public.
Thank you from the Tennessee jungle for reminding me what an idiot I was for leaving your town.
Screenwriting as taught in school can be disorienting!
Songwriting is a different animal as you're aware and all the crap I tried to learn later about screenwriting is finally being bridged by your videos.
Thank you!
Humor comes from the pain within and after 40 years of drug traffickers, corrupt officials, San Francisco legal experts recommending parenting classes for strip club racketeering parents and pissed off pseudo christian hillbillies who played a role in killing my wife- I just want a hovel in a woodland hills basement with a solar cell a fifth of cheap wine and an IBM selectric. Hail! "The Way Of Things"
A bowell squirtingly funny indictment of the world we live in, how it got that way and where it's going!
Thank you again for delivering " stuff that works."
It's more than a Guy Clark song.
Glad it seems to be of value to you. I lived in Eastern TN for while.
The book "STORY" confused me at the time.
After leaving the crazy music scene that for me was early 80s country, SF
city college film classes just weren't a natural shift.
So I married the gf of a mob guy, and now that everyone's dead- I''m going back to LA to try to write.
East TN can be beautiful, but I miss LA - even a shit box in Oxnard.
You have an approach I can understand better. Thank You I just turned 62 and found a new purpose in life.
great video. I'm rewriting a romantic drama that teeters back and forth between comedy and tragedy. Good to have some tips on how to be intentional about it.
Cool. I'll do more on comedy-dramas in my next episode.
This was an interesting insight into comedy v/s tragedy especially using the same emotions can be conveyed differently by the writer and the director. But the major take away was understanding the subtext.Thank you so much,helps apply the techniques to my writing.
Happy to know you're getting something out of the series.
Hi Mr. Guerdat, I'd like to thank you and let you know that I've received a ton from your videos. I think you're the best teacher I've encountered so far. You put things in a clear and concise way. I have a couple of questions and I thought they might serve as ideas for future videos. I'm still unclear as to how much of an outline is needed before we start writing scenes. You said not to write to the midpoint, which makes sense for several reasons, but does that mean not having a complete outline before we write scenes? I'm also curious about drafts. How much "perfection" do you expect out of a first draft? How many drafts do you usually write before you turn in the script? Thank you.
Glad you're getting something useful out of the video series. Re your questions: You should write as much of an outline as you personally need to keep track of your story (I'm assuming you are writing on spec, for yourself, not on assignment -- in which case you'll need to write whatever length of outline the paying producer wants). If you're beginning your screenwriting career, I advise you to write a fairly detailed outline -- but then you can veer away from it if you need to, once you get into the writing of the script. As for "perfection." every rough draft ever written needs a lot of rewriting, so look at that first draft as "dirty pages" (as a writer friend of mine calls 1st drafts), just a starting point to the major rewriting that must inevitably be done. And once it goes in to production (if you're that lucky), be prepared for even more massive rewriting when scenes that you thought were perfect don't work when on their feet and need to be rewritten again for the actors or the locations or whatever. Tom Stoppard may be the greatest living dramatist, and he rewrites every play every time it goes into a new production, improving and adjusting it. If he does it, we all should.
@@TheGoDraft Understood. Thank you.
I knew from the start of this episode that Airplane was gonna be featured in some way 😂
Guess I'm getting predictable. Sorry. But it works.
Thank you for such an insightful and life changing video!
Life-changing! Wow, that's cool. Glad it's of use to you.
Excellent timing. I just wrote a rom-com that isn't funny. Great stuff as always.
The term comedy in storytelling is sometimes used to refer to a "funny" movie and sometimes to refer to a movie with an "up" ending where the protagonist overcomes their flaw (even dramas). What you describe here with the distancing I think is differentiating "funny" versus "serious" movies. Is that correct?
When deliberately adding comedic bits to an otherwise serious story, should the approach be different for an "up" ending drama vs a true tragedy where the protagonist never overcomes their flaw?
Yes. Intended to be funny vs. intended to elicit tears.
I used to watch Empty Nest lol! 😂
Glad someone did. Actually, it was one of those shows that was pretty popular, though it rarely won awards or anything.
Woow..this is great.. Hope more videos on comedy and tragedy..and can u explain how to make comedy premise and do u have any recommedation of book on comedy
Yes, there another comedy episode coming up (as soon as I can do it!). Not many good books about comedy that I know of, but you might check out "Comedy Writer" by my friend Andrew Nichols.
There is a phrase that is attributed to Freud (I can't verify it because I don't know German): Every joke contains a part of a joke, but the rest of it is true.
Where I live, everyone knows this phrase.
Never heard it, but it's a good line.
I have two questions. When are the Cohen Brothers funny and when are they not funny?
I laughed out loud at the scen when the guys wife fell down the stairs. Nobody else in the auditorium laughed. I will forever think of myself as a bad person because of that moment.
If it's funny to you, it's funny. No joke has ever been written that EVERYONE agreed was funny. My wife and I roared with laughter throughout BIG LEBOWSKI when it first came out, and the rest of the theater was silent.
I like your dad 🙂
I did too.
Why is it painful when you didn't write it intentionally for laughs? Wouldn't it be great to have a few scenes for comic relief in a thriller or drama?
Yes, but only if that was what you intended. When you want people to choke up with emotion and they laugh at you (at your work anyway), it is NOT pleasant. Trust me. Or talk to anyone it's happened to.
I have experienced dissected comedy remaining funny, but for the duration of the dissection you had to leave all social niceties of civilization behind.
Well, yes, I guess. I try to always make everything I do sort of amusing, if not actually funny.
@@TheGoDraft Your classes always imply you are having fun -- an attitude much appreciated. I've watched a few hours of your work now, looking forward to watching all you have on line multiple times, because -- like life -- each time I watch my brain is a wee bit more prepared to glean your accumulated wisdom. THANK YOU very much for taking the time to share so much.