This week we explore Pete Docter and his team at Pixar Animation Studios' Soul, capitalising on the contrasts between the big city and the cosmic realm, a unique 23 journey from inspiration to film.
We also look at how actress and now writer-director Emerald Fennell reimagines the revenge fantasy with her directorial debut Promising Young Woman.
It takes a committed team of writers to write a screenplay for a new Pixar film.
The screenplay for Soul was crafted by director Pete Docter, chief creative officer at Pixar Animation Studios and Kemp Powers (pictured), with Mike Jones, a senior story and creative artist, who has been a writer and story consultant to Pixar Animation Studios since June 2013, and serves on the brain trusts of many Pixar films.
It started with my son—he’s 23 now—but the instant he was born, he already had a personality,” says Docter. “Where did that come from? I thought your personality developed through your interaction with the world. And yet, it was pretty clear that we’re all born with a very unique, specific sense of who we are. In our story, everyone is born with a soul, and those souls don’t just show up unprepared, they’re trained and given personality and interests.”
Co-screenwriter Mike Jones agrees. “I think no matter where we are or how far we’ve come, we sometimes wonder about greener grass. We’re always pushing. There’s always that drive in an artist to create something, to never be satisfied.”
Docter recognizes the idea in his own life. “I’ve been so lucky to work with some incredible people and make movies that have been seen around the world,” he says. “But I realized that as wonderful as these projects are, there’s more to living than a singular passion—as expressive and fulfilling as that may be. Sometimes the small insignificant things are what it’s really about."
Emerald Fennell Reimagines the Revenge Fantasy With ‘Promising Young Woman’
When it comes to writing a script, not every method is the same. Some choose isolation in order to get the script done, while others throw themselves into research to make their work authentic.
For writer and director Emerald Fennell, who plays the woman we love to hate on Netflix’s The Crown, Camilla Shand, makes her feature directorial debut with the arresting, blackly comedic quasi-thriller Promising Young Woman, her method includes music and years’ worth of work.
“I basically approach all writing the same way,” says Fennell, “I just write it all in my head completely for years, and then I just transcribe it at the end once it’s done. So, I’m basically staring at a wall for years, listening to music.”
But the real impact of Promising is in how it subverts the hackneyed notion of the femme fatale, “It’s a sort of warped homage to the well-known Margaret Atwood quote, “Men are afraid women will laugh at them. Women are afraid men will kill them,” which was exactly Fennell’s intent. “I wanted to make something that felt like a subversion of the revenge movie genre,” says Fennell
“I just wanted to take all those traits and use them in a fun way; if people are used to particular beats, then sort of twisting those expectations. I wanted to make something that looked almost like an allegory.”
During the last 22 years The Writing Studio has shaped the successful careers of many of South Africa’s leading filmmakers and storytellers, and is now honing the skills of future writers in the art and craft of storytelling. During a time of hardship, The Writing Studio encourages writers to write their stories and offers a 50% discount on The Write Journey course. Read more
Story & Script Editing
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If you want your script or manuscript polished professionally, The Writing Studio will turn your copy into exciting and thrilling narrative, into words and images that jump off the page and characters that resonate.
The journey with my screenplay editor, Daniel Dercksen (The Writing Studio) has been smooth sailing. In fact – it was blissful! The organic and creative nature of the collaborative process was very rewarding and uplifting. Libé Ferreira – Former Head of Drama department at The National School of the Arts / Former Writer, Casting Director, Acting Coach at Franz Marx Films(Screenplay: What’s In Your Suitcase, 2020)
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For the last 43 weeks Opera buffs have been in opera heaven with the Met’s series of free Nightly Opera Streams that features outstanding performances from the award-winning Live in HD series.
In this week’s free Nightly Met Opera Streams you can explore some of the bitterest operatic rivalries. Fraught love triangles, fearsome face-offs, and deadly duels abound—often with thrilling musical results.
Learn how to tell stories and make films from the world’s master filmmakers and screenwriters
If you want to learn how to be screenwriter and filmmaker, why not learn from the best.
The Writing Studio’s exclusive in depth articles on filmmaking and screenwriting show how inspiration instills passion, how ideas are born, nurtured and realised, how the conventions of genre are challenged, themes explored to its fullest, and characters brought to life.
These personal notes from producers reveal to what extent filmmakers and screenwriters will go to realise their dreams and make the most of each story they tell.
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