All language subtitles for MasterClass Aaron Sorkin teaches Screenwriting_Full

you wouldn't be Sydney El Wade by any

chance would you well there's always

been a concern about the two Bartlet you

want answers I think I'm entitled you

want answers I want the truth you can't

handle the truth you buil The Voice demo

The Voice demo is blaky I've been

telling you that for this thing is

overbuilt it worked last night it worked

the night before that it worked 3 hours

ago it's not working now so just skip

over The Voice demo skip over everything

else is working f if you're wondering

crime boy I don't know is when I decided

to kick your ass match.com for I Contin

with my deposition you know you really

don't need a forensic team to get to the

bottom of this if you guys were the

inventors of Facebook you'd have

invented

Facebook writing like any other art form

uh there are chunks of it that can be

taught and there are chunks of it that

can't be taught so we're here for the

parts that can be taught the way you're

going to be taught these things uh is

there are teachers you you can be a a a

playwriting major a screenwriting major

uh uh there are you know there are books

of of varying quality uh that you can

read you can listen to Schmucks like me

uh uh talking every writer is different

uh uh so it's entirely possible that the

way I work and the way I approach it

another person would not be able to

relate to at all and and they're going

to do their thing but my hope is that uh

that I'm able to say something in here

uh that will be meaningful to some

writer uh and uh uh and you know will

allow them to do what they want to do

and uh and get better here's what we're

going to talk about you it I'm I'm

unfortunately and I apologize for this

in advance

when I'm speaking out loud as opposed to

writing I I swerve all over the road uh

I I uh I can't go in a straight line

from the beginning of the sentence to

the end of the sentence uh and I would

much rather communicate with the world

on paper uh where I have an opportunity

just to be alone in uh in my room and

and get it right I'm I I I communicate

much better on paper than I do when I

open my mouth so I apologize in advance

but uh we're going to talk

about intention and obstacle which is

the the most important thing in in drama

without that you're screwed blue without

a strong clear intention and a

formidable obstacle you don't have drama

uh we're going to talk about success and

failure and the importance of failure

here uh I'm going to try to give some

examples from uh things that I've

written that you might be familiar with

uh uh that there are there are mechanics

uh and then there's as a golfer would

say there's the griet and ripet uh uh

part uh what golfers mean by that

is a a a golf swing has a zillion

different components and if you're

learning how to play golf uh you know

you're going to be toble your hips have

to be here and your left arm has to turn

here but this has to swivel through

first this has to go to it's a lot of

stuff to think about uh and it finally

ends with pick up a club grip it and hit

the ball as hard as you can okay that's

what uh you're supposed to do once

you've laid down the foundation here I

am swerving all over the road but once

you've you've got a solid foundation of

intention and obstacle you now you get

to grip it and rip it

okay now you get to do what you love to

do now you get to be an individual okay

it gets to be your voice uh and uh you

you get to do the thing that probably

got you interested in writing in the

first place we'll be talking about those

things and anything else that comes up

I'm Aaron sorin and this is my master

class

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what I need before I can do anything uh

is an intention and obstacle okay

somebody wants something something's

standing in their way of getting it they

want the money they want the girl they

want to get to Philadelphia it it

doesn't matter um uh but they've they've

got a really wanted bad and whatever is

standing in their way has got to be

formidable uh I need those things uh uh

and I need them to be really solid or

else I will slip into my old habit back

when I was 21 uh with the electric

typewriter of just writing Snappy

dialogue that doesn't add up to anything

we we won't be moving forward so let's

say for instance uh

that you and a friend you and a couple

of friends uh

one summer or after you graduated from

college you drove cross country okay and

on that trip uh some weird and cool

stuff happened and you think this is

going to be a good screenplay uh you

want to write a screenplay inspired by

this cross country trip that you took

with your friends you're great um uh I I

want to hear your stories I'll bet

they're good uh but you can't start yet

because you don't have an intention an

obstacle so let me give you one that's B

we it's not like we haven't seen this

before but just as an example it can't

just be a leisurely Drive uh across

country somebody in that car has you're

going from New York to Los Angeles

somebody in that car has to be in Los

Angeles on a certain at a certain time

on a certain day you know six days from

now um uh it's super important it's a

job interview it's their friends wedding

uh uh it's something they have to be uh

in Los Angeles things are sto stopping

them from uh getting there they had a

whole plan we're going to take this

route and that route we're going to do

this uh and we're going to get there

with plenty of time but there are now

going to have to be flat tires uh along

the way and weather and getting lost uh

and anything else you can throw at it

once you have that intention and

obstacle now like a Clos line you can

start hanging those cool stories from

the real trip across the country that

was the reason you wanted to do this

whole thing in the first place you have

to build a drive shaft first and that

drive shaft can only be intention and

obstacle that's what creates friction

and tension and that's what drama is if

you don't have that then it's

journalism how do you know if the

intention is strong enough how do you

know if the obstacle is formidable

enough you do what's called pressing on

it uh uh you press on it the intention

um uh if the intention is okay we're

driving from New York uh to La uh

because we've got some friends in La uh

that we want to see that doesn't seem

very urgent it doesn't seem like you

have to be there on Tuesday you can see

your friends on uh Wednesday uh you're

driving to LA because you've always

wanted to see the Dodgers play in uh uh

in Dodger state ium again if I'm sitting

in the audience it's I'm not going to be

on the edge of my seat going come on

come on uh you can make it to Dodger

Stadium because I've been to DOD stadium

and it's no big deal um uh same thing uh

uh with the obstacle uh how many times

have you gone to the movies uh and

turned to your friend or you're walking

out of the theater and said why didn't

you just pick up the phone and uh uh and

call and do this why didn't they just

walk out the back door um uh why didn't

he just offer him $20 if if there are

ways if that again if that obstacle is

inform formidable if there are ways to

get out of it easily you need to plug

those uh uh things up uh if let me just

take the last example if if $20 will do

the trick then great I've got $20 uh

that I want to give you well there's no

money uh uh in my wallet okay I promise

wait right here I'm going to go uh uh to

the ATM I'll give give you my watches

collateral now we've got a story going I

can't think of a situation where I'd say

God that intention is too strong and

that obstacle is too formidable that it

seems to me like you're describing a

great

story it's not required that your

protagonist that your hero overcome the

obstacle they don't have to win they

just have to try

how do you show a a character's

intention well the easiest way is uh to

have the character say I want or I need

and then follow it with what the

intention is uh uh make it clear why

that's important um uh uh you know we

were talking about you got to press on

it uh and make sure your intention is

strong press on the obstacle make sure

that's uh uh formidable well have a

scene where you through uh all those

things why do you have to be there on

Thursday can't you be there on Friday no

because uh of this you you can uh uh

listen you can start out by in scene one

uh uh stating the intention and an

obstacle nothing wrong with that and

it'll be very clear we've got to storm

the castle and rescue the princess but

to do that we've got to get across the

moat that has crocodiles in it we've got

to get past 150 armed guards and then

she's locked uh in the Tower and we've

got to figure out how to undo that lock

uh and you can apply that to you know

robbing a casino uh in Vegas they've got

the greatest security system in the

world no one's ever been able to uh uh

break into it there's your obstacle or

you can start out and seing one simply

stating the intention and have your

protagonist and or there could be

several protagonists um uh think that

it's going to be smooth sailing until

they get to the moat uh and realize the

whole plac is surrounded by a moat and

there are alligators uh uh in there well

we didn't see that okay we got across

the moat now it's going to be smooth

sailing no because the 150 armed guards

uh uh you can have them continually

confront

obstacles it's not until you introduced

the

intention um that you've really begun

the story

um and it's not until you then introduce

the obstacle that you've that that the

conflict uh uh has begun that we're

going from journalism to drama now uh

that there's some kind of conflict in

terms of uh of how much time uh uh will

the audience give you before you've got

to uh uh show what your cards are uh

show what the intention is show what the

obstacle is it really has to do with the

audience's relationship with to uh what

they're seeing

um people have walked out of plays

before but it's a hard thing to do

because uh you spent a lot of money you

left your house um uh uh maybe you got a

babysitter uh you went out to dinner

you're on a date uh those tickets are

expensive leaving a play is a a hard

thing to do um uh so we know we've we've

got you uh uh for a little bit and we

can go at a slightly slower speed at the

beginning um leaving a movie is easier

yes you left your house uh yes it uh uh

cost you money um but it's a little bit

easier to walk out of a movie the

easiest thing that there is is to change

the channel uh on a TV show um so uh a a

a a network particularly would encourage

you to whatever you're going to do

please do it in the first uh uh two

minutes can you make something blow up

uh uh in the first two minutes can you

put somebody in Jeopardy in the first

two minutes that kind of thing and with

a movie it's somewhere in

between the writer William Goldman uh uh

who wrote he won Oscars for Butch cidy

the Sundance Kid and All the President's

Men and he wrote The Princess Bride and

Marathon Man and uh a a ton of uh a ton

of other uh great screenplays he taught

me everything I know and about a tenth

of what he knows so let's look at Butch

Cassidy in the Sunan kid uh for a second

his second movie and his uh first

ostar uh what we get is about 15 20

minutes of introduction to who Butch

Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are uh

they're the leaders of the hole in-the

Wall Gang um and everything is great

they own the wild west uh uh basically

he's the best uh shot in the West Butch

is the most Charming Outlaw uh that

there is and they like robbing trains uh

and it always goes well uh uh every time

they rob a train they get to make jokes

they make a lot of money uh and then

they go back to their Hideway until this

one time um uh and suddenly another

train comes along with the posi the

super posi uh that's out to get them uh

and uh then the intention and the

obstacle become very clear

um uh we don't want to get caught and

sent to jail for the rest of our lives

that's the intention the obstacle is

these guys won't stop chasing us um

they're going to chase us all the way to

Bolivia this is really hard

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there are two parts to having an idea

you first have to know what an idea is a

and then you have to have it um an idea

isn't I want to write about surfing uh

okay um I I'm surfing I'm going to write

a movie about surfing you don't have an

idea yet you have a

um you know where to park the trucks uh

by the beach you can ride exterior Beach

there's a lot of waves uh but you don't

have an idea you don't have an idea

until you can use the words but except

and then uh uh things like that it was

uh it was a normal day like any other

day when all of a sudden um uh I went to

the beach to go surfing and the surfing

was great but then

um uh you don't have the idea until that

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happens how do I know if an idea is uh

is good enough to turn into a screenplay

it's for me it's not a matter of good

enough it's

uh it's sort of the same way a uh a

batter decides what pitch he's going to

swing at right um I he the batter's

looking for his pitch his pitch is low

and outside high and inside it's a

hanging curveball he's he's looking for

his pitch he has now the batter has

about like 8/10 of a second to decide uh

if that's his pitch because the ball is

coming at him pretty quickly I have

longer than that um so what I want to

know is first of all is there drama in

there someplace is there conflict uh

sometimes you'll see a shiny and you'll

think this is boy I really want to write

about this and it will turn turn out

that there's no conflict for instance

Harry Houdini is a pretty interesting

guy uh right um and uh a lot of people

have tried to write about him but kind

of unsuccessfully because it turns out

that this very interesting guy really

didn't have much conflict in his life at

all you would think that somebody who

locks himself in a box and you goes 200

ft on under water and that kind of thing

would have conflict but uh uh he didn't

basically

he did a trick and got out and then he

did the next trick and he got out and he

was happily married uh he died under

strange circumstances when he was uh uh

in his early 50s uh I think um but

that's not a great uh pitch to swing at

uh with the social network uh I I saw a

a 10-page book proposal uh and and

buried in that book proposal were these

two lawsuits uh that was going on and

when I saw that I it's not like I could

picture the whole movie in front of me

or anything um but I just knew that that

was a pitch that uh I could swing at

I've never signed on to anything where I

was able to see it and it was just going

to kind of come out in the typing uh I

it was everything has been a a long

climb but what you're looking for is

intention and obstacle yeah you're

looking for conflict uh and uh you're

hoping uh that and and and the the the

generally the conflicts that I write

about are ideas uh it's it's usually not

uh robbing a casino that has the the

greatest security system uh in the world

um it's usually a conflict of ideas and

what what you want is for the competing

ideas to be equally Strong by the way

going with the basball batting metaphor

if you know in baseball I if you get a

hit one out once out of every three

times you go to the plate you're going

to the Hall of Fame if you only fail two

out of every three times uh uh you step

to the plate you're going to the Hall of

Fame roughly the same uh in movies you

can see that really good pitch uh uh you

can swing hard at it and Miss there

there are plenty of times that I've that

I've seen a pitch and uh uh if I if if

not totally missed then kind of fouled

it uh uh back into the stance as a

matter of fact there I have never

written anything not a movie a play or a

single episode of Television that I

don't badly wish that I could have back

and and write again it's particularly

true with uh The Newsroom uh uh with

with the series on HBO it I I never felt

comfortable uh writing that show I never

felt comfortable in my chair I I felt

like I had a pebble in my shoe uh I I

could write a good scene I could write a

good couple of scenes I could uh I could

write an almost good uh episode but um I

I

just could not for some reason put it

together uh to

write the the kinds of episodes I

thought that I was going to write when I

first saw the pitch coming at

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me any idea that I'm considering what I

hope uh is first is that it would make a

good play um uh because I I I've only

written three of them and I wish I'd

written more uh at this point but it's

it's it's the thing that I'm most

comfortable doing uh is writing plays I

I I still feel like an outsider in

movies and and television uh so if

something can be a play then I'd like it

to be a play

I if

not here's if for instance the my my

first uh uh series was Sports night

right um and that happened because I

became addicted to watching sports

center uh on ESPN I was watching it a

lot while I was WR the movie the

American president I would stay up late

writing the American president and then

to kind of keep me company while I was

falling asleep I'd turn on Sports Center

and I was watching it and I thought well

that you know that seems like a really

fun place to work that you could like

make friends there and you could meet

your girlfriend there and uh I'll bet

it's just a lot of fun and I'd like to

write about that place but all of the

stories that I was thinking of and I I

was I was thinking of that as a feature

that it would be broadcast news but said

it uh ES SPN but all the stories that I

was thinking of were short stories uh uh

they weren't long and I I said that to

my agent who said well it sounds like

you're describing a television series uh

so that's how that happened um and so

generally if it's uh if it's the place

that you're attracted to um uh whether

it's the white house or a newsroom or uh

uh a cable Sports show if it's the place

that you're attracted to uh that's a TV

series uh if the

characters metaphorically speaking die

at the end of the story if there's no

more story after that then it's a

[Music]

feature I wish I had more ideas um but

uh because I don't I usually have to

start something without having uh an

idea I'll say yes to

something uh a it'll be usually not

always uh a blind date uh where I'm you

know there's enough there uh that I

believe I can fall in love with it uh uh

and uh I'll I'll find the conflict I'll

find the tone uh that that kind of thing

uh that was the case with Steve Jobs um

the uh as opposed to The Social Network

which even though I didn't know what it

was going to be when I started writing

it I knew it was there uh and it was

just a matter of it's a good pitch don't

miss it don't swing too early don't

swing too late don't swing too high or

low uh there are you know there are

vague Notions uh uh that I want to write

about uh there are genres uh uh that I

like that I I don't write about enough I

wrote I've written one romantic comedy

the American president and I really like

romantic comedies uh and and and uh I'd

like to write them I really like space

travel um uh uh not

uh science fiction space travel but

honest to God you know the Apollo

missions the space shuttle geminy uh uh

Mercury um and Apollo 13 was was so good

uh and the right stuff was so good I

keep hoping that there's a story in

there somewhere that hasn't been told

yet uh that I can get a crack at I keep

hoping I'll I'll wake up one morning

having dreamed of a great plot I'm still

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waiting if you are a new

screenwriter uh you've already got a lot

of heavy stuff in the backpack uh uh

that you're carrying and this is all new

to you and uh uh it would be great if

you could start

off doing something where a number of

the problems uh have been solved uh I I

I would recommend unless listen that I'm

sure that there are screenwriters uh new

screenwriters who are walking around

with great ideas I have a hunch I can't

say this for sure I've never asked him

but I have a hunch Quenton Tarantino was

born with great plot ideas uh uh in his

head it's just what his movies feel like

to me um uh that he was able to see the

whole thing uh before he typed fade in

if you are not a a you know a genius

freak like uh uh Quenton Tarantino um

and you're a new writer uh I would

recommend if there's a a short story uh

that you love try dramatizing that uh uh

something where the the the plot's been

broken uh and you're

you're now going to make it into a a

performance

[Music]

piece well that was a uh uh that was

quite a ride uh the American president

what happened was I had just done a Few

Good Men with Rob Riner and we wanted to

do another movie together and we wanted

to do uh another washington-based movie

together and Robert Redford heard that

that's what we wanted to do and for

about a decade maybe a little bit longer

Robert Redford had been trying to

develop a movie uh for himself where he

got to play a widowed president of the

United States we all had a meeting Rob

ryer Robert Redford uh and myself and he

pointed to a carton of scripts uh

written by about a dozen different

writers or writer directors uh uh

scripts with titles like um

the president steps out the the State of

the Union the um uh the the president

elopes things like that and uh I I I had

never read any of these scripts so I

have no idea whether they were good or

bad but they had for whatever reason

been rejected by Robert Redford anyway

Redford pointed to the box of scripts

and said do you just pick anyone out of

there and rewrite it uh for me and I

said I'd really rather not do a rewrite

uh uh at uh at this point Point um but I

have to tell you I love the casting idea

of you as a widowed president uh of the

United States how would you feel about

my just going off and writing a script

where you play a widowed president of

the United States and both Redford and

Rob Riner uh agreed that that's what we

would do I started writing this

character Andrew Shepard um and uh and

the people around him and

listen most screenplays are about 120

Pages minor long longer because uh it's

might have more dialogue than action and

dialogue takes up more room on the page

and less time on the screen than action

which takes up less time on less room on

the page and more time uh on the screen

uh so my scripts in those days were

running 140 150 Pages now they're 180

192 I just wrote a 201 onepage script uh

um but this one uh the first draft of

the American president was 385 pages

long uh I I delivered it to the studio

on a shopping bag uh and the reason why

it was uh that

long

uh was cuz I really felt in love with

the sound of my own voice um uh I I

really liked pretending to be the

president we in this 385 page script we

never even meet the Annette Benning

character until like page 110 uh uh in

this thing so uh uh I delivered that

very long draft uh of the script and Rob

Riner was incredibly patient and he said

listen I I think what we should do is

this story with the female lobbyist um

uh I I like that and we can kind of cut

away uh uh everything else uh those

those things that got cut away became

the first ideas for the westwing um

uh anyway um uh just to finish the story

uh at the 11th Hour uh uh Robert Redford

dropped out for reasons that are

unimportant we were very lucky that

Michael Douglas uh wanted to step in and

do it um so what happened was I I found

a conflict uh uh

between Andrew Shepard and Sydney Ellen

Wade uh uh the lobbyist

and once you've got that once you've got

the conflict once you've got the

intention and obstacle it's like a

taught clothesline that you can hang

everything else uh on um uh you can hang

comedy uh on there you can hang you know

if there

are if there are points you're dying to

make uh uh you can hang them on there

but building that taught clothes line is

the most important thing you're going to

do

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I I don't have characters uh uh in my

head it's not like that the character is

born from uh the intention and an

obstacle they're born from the intention

uh uh uh from intention and obstacle and

then how the

character the tactic that the character

uses uh to overcome that obstacle are

what that's what the character is going

to

[Music]

be with the social network uh uh what I

had was Mark Zuckerberg's blog post from

the Tuesday night when he was a

sophomore at Harford from the Tuesday

night that he invented what they called

face Mash uh okay uh and it's a very

angry blog post he's very angry at a

woman I changed her name uh in the movie

I called her Erica so he's very angry at

Erica because he's he's he's

just in his opinion been treated badly

uh on a date he's kind of been broken up

with or blown off or something like that

um and he writes a blog post where he

narrates the the rest of the night he he

narrates that he's drinking and that

he's drinking to get drunk drunk he

narrates that he wants he needs some

kind of uh Act of Revenge to to get to

rid himself of this anger that he feels

uh toward this girl uh so he's just had

a great idea I'm going to create a

website that compares women to farm

animals and you get to vote uh uh Who's

hotter uh this woman or this farm animal

that morphed into wait a second we'll

put actual two women uh uh up there two

Harvard undergrads uh and you get to

vote um uh Who's hotter one is only

slightly less misogynist than the other

I'm not even sure which though um but uh

so I I had that whole blog post I wanted

to start the movie by imagining the

scene that came before that blog post

and in that scene we see what Mark wants

okay uh he and it's something we can all

identify with he wants to be one of the

cool kids okay he wants to be

socially uh uh accepted um uh he wants

to date girls uh uh uh and and he wants

to get into the uh the exclusive clubs

as a way of doing all that um so his

sort of macro uh uh intention his I want

uh uh

is uh

uh I I want to be accepted uh I want a

social life what he ended up doing uh

was building a virtual one uh an

artificial one um that he

was sort of the mayor uh of this world

uh the obstacles toward uh uh to doing

that are there are a lot you know that

what's the obstacle toward building the

most successful website in the

world there are a ton of

[Music]

them Toby gets around obstacles if the

for Toby uh if the obstacle is the

president Toby is a lot more direct uh

with the president than most of the

other characters if not all the other

characters save his wife stalker channy

um uh uh Toby is the one uh very early

on it's in the episodes the crackpots

and these women uh which I think was

episode four or five uh of the series uh

Toby was the one who basically

said well actually now that I think

about it it's in a number of episodes

where uh uh Toby says you are not

fulfilling your potential um uh you

don't pretend to be dumber than you are

to Pander to all of the dumb people uh

uh in in America you are the smartest

person in the room be the smartest

person in the room uh uh

Toby dresses down the president while

you know he's respectful of the office

respectful of the man um uh respectful

of the room that he's in it's often the

Oval Office uh but uh Toby's tactics are

uh bluntness and honesty

Toby if you have something to say please

say

it Richie is good for all time

zones my family signed the Declaration

of Independence you think I've got an

ethnicity problem well the line isn't

between light skin and dark skin yeah

it's between educated and

masculine or Eastern academic Elite and

plain spoken it's always been like that

yeah but a funny thing happened when the

White House got demystified the

was left that anybody could do it you're

not telling me anything I don't know

it's one thing that Richie came out for

the Pennsylvania referendum today but

the manner in which he articulated it

his presence the clear sign he wasn't

personally engaged with the fact staff

was cringing I promise you and we let it

go it wasn't the moment to go asked the

question do you have anything

else S I don't think I need to tell you

that the level of respect with which the

staff speaks of you doesn't change

depending on whether or not you're in

the room but well there's always been a

concern about the two

bartletts the absent-minded Professor

with the odad sense of humor disarming

unthreatening good for all time

zones and the Nobel

laurate still searching for salvation

lonely frustrated lethal you going to

sing a country western song the one his

father never liked him cuz he was too

smart this stopped being fun for me a

little while ago sir it was actually

never fun for me I was just being

polite your father used to hit you

didn't Mr

President excuse

me your father used to hit you

sir yeah not like a spanking he hit me

why he punched you I'm done being polite

now you did it because you made him mad

but you didn't know why Toby it was a

complicated relationship can I help you

it was because you were smarter than he

was it was a complicated relationship

didn't like you sir that's why he hit

you that's why people hit each other he

didn't like you you were smarter than he

was why are we talking about this so

maybe if you get enough

votes win one more election you know

maybe your father you have stepped way

over the line and any other president

would have your ass on the sidewalk

right now yes sir they'd have had you on

the sidewalk a long time ago I don't

know what the hell goes on in a Brooklyn

shrinks office but get it the hell out

of my

house thank you Mr President

[Music]

Leo who's also the president's best

friend uh will be blunt when he needs to

be but uh

uh Leo's running the place and his his

uh uh his character is probably more

defined by his relationship to the

staffers uh uh who

he kind of manipulates with a sense of

humor um the staffers are almost more

frightened of Leo than they are uh of

the president um

but again that that was informed by

casting as well uh John Spencer ha had

uh uh he sadly he passed away uh a

little while back uh had a real Hard

Scrabble Street sense uh about him

that's not usually something we see in a

chief of staff so I didn't want to

smooth that over um uh I wanted him to

uh uh to have that uh uh gruffness I

wanted to use that face that has the map

of the world kind of uh drawn on it uh

and and it's a real contrast with

Bartlett too who was to the manner born

uh and that these two would be best

friends was was really interesting to

me a Lee Mr McGary Leo's fine yes

sir will you off offered coffee or

something to drink yes the woman who

works out there who I imagine is your

secretary offered me coffee or soft

drink okay so she was also kind enough

to ask for my coach excellent she seems

to be a very good secretary well she'll

be happy to hear that she's standing

right outside the door

ow so I have to tell you I've never seen

Sam Seaborn get beat the way you beat

him on

Monday yes well Mr McGary Leo yes sir

I've been thinking about that ever since

your office called me on Tuesday and I

have something to say on my own behalf

if you'll permit me a moment to say it

and I understand if you won't but I

would really appreciate it if you did I

didn't really follow that but whatever I

think that it is wrong for a man in your

position to summon someone to the White

House to reprimand them for voicing

opposition I think that that is wrong

and it is inappropriate it's

inappropriate and I'll tell you what

else it's wrong yes that's fine except

you weren't summoned here to be

reprimanded well then if you'll permit

me while was I summoned you have an

interesting conversational style you

know that it's a nervous condition I

used to have a nervous condition how did

yours manifest itself I drank a lot of

scotch I get sick when I drink too much

I get drunk when I drink too much well

Mr McGary real yes sir I'll ask again

for what purpose was I brought here

today so I could offer you a job I'm

asking because I do not think that it is

fair that I be expected to play the role

of the mouse to the White House's cat in

the game of you know the game cat and

mouse yes and it's not like I'm not you

know the fact that I may not look like

some of the other Republicans who have

crossed your path is not mean that I am

any less inclined

toward here it

comes did you say offer me a job yes

associate White House counsel you'd

report to the deputy White House counsel

who reports to the White House counsel

who reports to me I'm sorry a job in

this White House you want a glass of

scotch yes please I think that for

everyone on the

westwing their true colors would always

come out when this president was

disappointing them uh somehow when their

idealism met reality and reality was

winning or won would always be when we

would see who you know who who really

who these people were

[Music]

I think that uh if you

are writing long biographies of uh of

your characters of of fictional

characters um and this character uh when

they were 5 years old they did this and

when they were six years old they did

that things that have nothing to do with

the story you're telling um I I think

that you're getting involved with

magical thinking and uh and that it's

not going to work uh I I think that uh

especially when you're beginning the

script anything that isn't intention and

obstacle uh is going to mess you up I

don't say uh uh here's what this

character would have eaten for breakfast

when they were 5 years old uh okay

because it's

not the character was never 5 years old

uh the character was born at the age

that they are when the lights come up

the character was only only gets to be 5

years old if the character

says when I was 5 years old I saw my

father kill himself uh okay it's then

and only then that the character uh uh

was 5 years old I I wouldn't take out a

yellow legal pad uh and a pen and start

writing down character traits

okay uh let's see uh he likes baseball

and he likes creamy peanut butter but

not chunky peanut butter and he likes

this and he doesn't like that um and he

Parts his hair on the left side uh and

that kind of

thing I I don't think that any of that

is going to come in handy uh I don't

think that there's a use for any of that

I think that what it's doing I think

that you're doing it because you feel

like you're supposed to do it I think

you're doing it because you feel like uh

the more human character traits you

write down on this legal pad the more

human the character uh is going to be

what's going to happen is you're going

to have a scene where uh a guy or a girl

needs to convince their parents to uh uh

to loan them money uh uh for something

and you've got this yellow legal pad

next to you and you're figuring out how

to work in creamy peanut butter uh uh

into the SE because these are the things

that are going to make your character

more human forget that uh okay uh uh

forget that stuff get this guy to get

money from his parents uh uh obviously

if the parents if if the first line of

the scene is Mom Dad I need money and

the second line of the scene is no

problem how much um uh you've kind of

overcome the obstacle uh a little

quickly um

but make him or her have to play their

uh

intention and things are going to come

up you you might stumble across a joke

about creamy peanut butter uh okay and

that's when your character likes uh uh

creamy peanut butter oh it was because

there was this joke about it uh okay put

the yellow legal pad

[Music]

aside believe it or

not the properties of of characters and

the properties of people have very

little to do with each other uh I I I

know it seems like the goal should be to

have a character be as human as possible

and that's not uh the goal or at least

not my goal

that's something for critics to talk

about okay that's something for

audiences to talk about it was such a

human moment uh uh when they did this it

was so human when they did that it

revealed Humanity uh uh when they did

this that's something that's inferred um

uh that's not something that you do it's

the equivalent H listen there's

something cool in painting about photo

realism um uh where you look at

something and it looks like a photograph

and then you see gee it actually

somebody painted it uh there's something

cool about that and yes there is

something cool about uh a writer who is

trying to write the way people talk

who's trying to imitate uh uh

that Cadence and uh uh and all of that

and an actor who is trying to behave

exactly the way people behave uh if you

can accomplish that you've done

something but what you've done is

pretend to make a documentary uh okay

and there are cases where that has an

awesome effect spinal tap okay okay any

Fox uh uh documentary

but

uh being as much like a human as

possible isn't one of the parts of drama

it would be the equivalent of a singer

trying their hardest to sound like a

musical instrument okay it would be a

cool thing to do wow I my eyes were

closed and she sounded exactly like a

flute but other than than that like

being impressed by the

accomplishment um wouldn't you rather

listen to a

flute we've got one available and a

really good flst you know let's do

[Music]

that I'm not going to tell you how to

approach writing characters that are uh

uh that are different from yourself that

are uh uh if if you're a man writing a a

woman if you're straight writing someone

who's gay if you're black writing

someone who's white uh I'm not going to

tell you how to do it I I'll tell you

what I do generally

speaking uh because I do write you know

from time to time I write about politics

and that includes social issues

generally speaking if there is a

character who uh I I I am a straight

white Jewish male um and if there's car

if there's a character who is something

other than

that

uh this is a long way of trying to say

uh that I I'll steer clear of trying to

write about what it's like to be black

in America in the 21st century what it's

like to be gay in America in the 21st

century and my contribution to equality

will be uh having it be irrelevant to

the story and that's why I try to fill

the writer room with people who who are

with smart people who aren't like me um

uh who have different backgrounds uh

different perspectives uh who um uh who

will disagree with me uh politically uh

and who will even if they don't believe

it themselves will be able to uh uh say

you know listen Aaron what you don't

understand uh

about the people I grew up with uh is is

this um I said great now I've I I've got

an argument going uh you know now I've

got two people in a room who can

disagree about something and their

arguments will have equal weight at

least for a

[Music]

while every writer Works differently so

what works and doesn't work for me

doesn't necessarily mean it's going to

work or not work uh a free you I have to

have something in common uh with the

characters that I'm writing I have to

not judge them uh at all uh I have to

find something in common with them if

I'm writing a character who maybe

uh has the qualities of an anti-hero who

isn't so easy to like uh I I I can't

judge them I have to write them as if

they're making their case to God why

they should be allowed into have

uh whether it's Nicholson's character uh

and A Few Good Men Steve Jobs and the

way he treats his daughter Mark

Zuckerberg and the way he treats

everybody um uh I I can't judge them I

have to find what it is about them

that's like me uh and right from that

point of view in A Few Good Men uh

Nicholson has a speech uh on the stand

and the part that people remember is you

can't handle handle the truth

um I the the speech that comes after

that is

defending

uh the idea that letting this one Marine

PFC William Santiago die actually saved

uh a a ton of other lives you want

answers I think I'm entitled you want

answers I want the truth you can't

handle the

truth son we live in a world that has

walls and those walls have to be guarded

by men with guns who's going to do it

you you lieutenant

Weinberg I have a greater responsibility

than you can possibly fathom You Weep

for Santiago and you curse the Marines

you have that luxury you have the luxury

of not knowing what I know that

Santiago's death while tragic probably

saved lives and my existence while

grotesque and incomprehensible to you

saves lives you don't want the truth

because deep down in places you don't

talk about at parties you want me on

that wall you need me on that

wall we use words like Honor Code

loyalty we use these words as the

backbone of a life spent defending

something you use them as a punchline I

have neither the time or the inclination

to explain myself to a man who Rises and

sleeps under the blanket of the very

Freedom that I provide and then

questions the manner in which I Prov

provide it I would rather you just said

Thank you and went on your way otherwise

I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand

a post either way I don't give a damn

what you think you are entitled to did

you order the code red I did the job did

you order the code you're goddamn right

I

did the the

Badness to use a very broad word with

Nicholson's character is is self-evident

I don't need to have him

I'll give you an interesting example um

uh this doesn't have anything to do with

writing really it it has to do with

acting I saw uh when A Few Good Men was

on stage when it was on Broadway uh in

New York an underst study went on in one

of the parts I'm not going to tell you

which one because I don't want this guy

to accidentally see this somehow um uh

an underst study went on uh in one of

the parts he was playing a Marine

uh okay uh and uh because I understood

was going on I went down to the theater

uh uh just to check them out these were

all my friends uh to see how he was

doing and he was awful uh okay he he

changed his voice he changed his body he

was playing Marine man um and I'm going

to talk like this cuz I'm a marine and

I'm tough and I'm crazy um and uh I was

beside myself and uh after the play um I

I went out for a couple of beers with uh

a friend of mine in the cast and I said

I don't understand he he he doesn't need

to be a great actor but wh why can't he

just say the words in in his own voice

um uh and you know it'll all get done

and my friend said it's because he

doesn't believe that he is a as much of

a man as this character is he doesn't

believe he's as strong as this character

is so he has to start putting on

Christmas ornaments uh uh like changing

his voice and changing the way uh uh he

stands and everything um

and so what does that have to do with uh

uh what we're talking about I don't

agree with what Nicholson was saying on

the stand um uh in fact if you kind of

sit and think about it he it he sounded

like a sociopath uh on the stand and

that in fact was treated as such

horrified the court uh and then was

arrested um but I keep hearing about

people like Bobby Knight the former head

basketball coach at Indiana and then um

Texas Tech uh using that speech to

inspire uh uh his his players uh there a

lot of people get inspiration from it

because when they hear that speech they

think you know what he's absolutely

right he has a point you want me on that

wall you need me on that wall and you

know you Elites don't like to talk about

that uh uh at parties and so when I'm

writing that speech I've got to be you

know that I I have to come up with that

argument and and I believe in that

argument when I'm writing it if you

don't uh you really run the risk of of

having someone twirling their m

[Music]

mustach people like me don't write

things that are meant to be read they

write things that are meant to be

performed so the actor uh is also going

to play a part and you

know now you're seeing it walk and talk

and uh uh and and breathe I can't think

of a better example than Richard Schiff

uh on the westwing uh

Richard is a I mean he's a very special

actor he had just a lot of inner life uh

uh going on and uh I remember even three

or four days into shooting the pilot uh

of the westwing I didn't notice until

the third or fourth day that he was

wearing a wedding ring uh on his hand

and I went up to him uh up between takes

and I said got to tell you Richard I uh

I never thought of Toby uh as being

married uh and Richard said me neither

um and I said uh well why are you

wearing a wedding ring and he said so

you can figure out why I'm wearing a

wedding ring um and uh and it became uh

a thing he's divorced but still in love

uh with his ex-wife he doesn't want to

take his wedding ring off yet

there are two kinds of research that you

do uh when you're writing the first is

nuts and bolts research that's literally

find out how many nuts and bolts were

used to make the Golden Gate Bridge uh

okay uh it's it's hard research specific

research I don't mean hard difficult I

mean uh uh that it's specific it's not

uh uh subjective at all uh uh with a

movie like Steve Jobs at The Social

Network where uh I'm

I'm technically illiterate uh I don't

know much about computers at all so uh

uh there was going to be a lot of uh of

the first kind of research uh of the

hard kind how does a computer work uh uh

kind of thing the other kind of research

uh is when you don't know what you're

looking for yet and and it's it's

research where you're trying to find the

movie for instance uh with the movie

Steve Jobs I really didn't know what I

was going to write I I didn't know what

it was going to be about of course I had

Walter isaacson's biography uh uh to

work off of but I I knew I wasn't going

to be writing a a straight biopic so I

wanted to be with and talk with as many

people as I could uh uh who were close

to Steve and uh hope that some points of

friction uh made themselves known and

that I could write about that with the

second kind of research you absolutely

you need to hear it yourself because

again you don't know what you're looking

for uh and uh you never

know what might pop up with the westwing

um uh someone will say in passing you

know G did you know that the president's

motorcade uh uh leaves as soon as the

president gets in the car and that

sometimes a junior Aid will get left

behind when they're out in the middle of

the country someplace uh and somebody

ran into a gas station to buy postcard

uh they came out and they found that the

uh the motorcade was gone I think great

there's uh uh there's an episode that

kind of

thing you never know where a cool story

is going to come from so that's why you

want to talk to uh as many people as

possible by the way the the people are

very nice they will often times come to

you you know you'll uh get an email

saying uh I heard you're doing a movie

about this let me tell you my story uh

uh so but it it'll be dozens and dozens

of people that you're talking to uh over

a stretch of months you have to start

somewhere it it's a it's a standing jump

so uh again using Steve Jobs as an

example you know you you you knew you

wanted to start with Steve Steve wnac uh

uh with you know with with people in the

book who who were close to him uh and

then in talking to them they'll say gee

if you really want to know about that

you should talk about to this person and

and that kind of thing uh you'll find at

the end of all of it that 90% of the

research didn't make it into the movie

but uh uh but you need to do it anyway

in this case it was easy it it was a

high-profile project it was a

high-profile book then it became a

high-profile movie um uh I have a a

research assistant um and uh uh usually

it's

a that research assistant tracks down

the email address I don't know how he

does it um uh I'll I'll find out though

um and I send an email introducing

myself and uh here's what I'm doing and

uh uh i' you know I'd love to meet with

you at your convenience

I don't want to wear them out or take

too much of their time I want them to be

happy uh uh to be doing

it an hour will usually do the trick I

mean listen there are some cases where

uh like Lisa jobs uh uh uh with with

Steve Jobs Lisa did not participate in

the book because her father was alive at

the time but she did participate uh in

the movie and that was

was several meetings um uh because

again there's the easy research and the

hard research the the easy research

is what does the Secret Service do when

they you know hear a bullet uh a a a gun

go off tell me what happens what

everybody uh uh does the hard research

is I don't know what I'm looking for yet

I only know Lisa that your father denied

p

uh of you until uh this age so I'd like

to talk to you I I by the way I would

not put it that harshly to uh uh to to

Lisa um uh so that something like Lisa

that's a a process of just getting to

know each other uh uh getting to trust

each other in that first meeting I I I

wouldn't ask any tough questions at all

I might not even ask any questions um uh

it it's just a cup of coffee um and you

get a little closer in the second

meeting and so on and so on but uh you

know sometimes you can just be direct

about it uh tell me something I don't

know uh about how uh the Nightly News is

done uh you know tell me something I

don't know uh about uh you know what

goes on in the locker room of the

Oakland days we did have a a secret

service adviser uh on the westwing he

was a former was a great guy a former

secret service agent uh one of the

people uh who was protecting Reagan uh

on the day that uh that Reagan got shot

and he now runs uh I'm gonna uh I'm

going to do a little plug for him um uh

he and several other retired Secret

Service agents run a absolutely not

for-profit uh organization that helps

find missing children um and these

people are good at it uh so uh I'm I'm

really grateful to him but uh it's we'll

usually meet once in person uh and then

everything after that can be done by

email or over the

phone then there's the

research that I find meaningless that

other people don't

um

I when I was very little uh um through a

friend I got taken onto the set of All

the President's Men the The Washington

Post Newsroom set and the person showing

us the set I was little but I still

remember it uh the person showing us the

set reached into one of the trash cans

next to a desk on the set pulled out a

crumpled piece of paper and uncrumpled

it and showed us that on that piece of

paper were

yesterday's baseball scores yesterday

being

1973 uh uh yesterday um in other words

the garbage cans were filled with what

the garbage cans would be filled with

and even at whatever age uh I was I

thought myself the cameras are never

going to see the garbage cans much less

what's in the garbage cans much less

what's printed on a crumpled up piece of

paper um isn't this self-indulgence

uh on the part of the director it seems

to me the only good it does is showing a

visitor to the Set uh uh that this is

cool but there are some directors you

know who who like to do that um uh

I for me if it's not helping the actors

and if the camera can't see it uh it

doesn't matter often times actors will

do uh uh research that's that's

meaningless and they get to do whatever

they want however they cross the finish

line however they give the the great

performance that they give which was the

reason you hired them uh is fine with me

but

um okay uh on the movie Malice uh Alec

Baldwin played a a a trauma

surgeon Alec is a great actor is a truly

great actor and I like him very

much but uh he wanted to spend a lot of

time uh in uh an operating room uh

watching surgeons

operate until one day I just said you

know Alec we're not going to ask you to

actually operate on somebody there

there's going to be dialogue and your

hands are going to be doing this uh you

know um

uh so I I that that that kind of

research always seems uh uh pointless to

me but if makes the actors feel better

that it's fine with me um as long as

they don't come back

saying this one surgeon said this really

cool thing and uh I I want to say it you

know

how do you incorporate the research into

the writing you know it depends on uh

what you've discovered uh in the

research like I I mentioned as an

example the uh the president's motor

Cade uh which became uh a westwing

episode uh uh you know that that was a

gift from the gods that was too much

that was too good to be true uh the the

one piece of research that really got me

going uh with the American president was

uh I I hired a researcher and the

researcher got me um a whole bunch of uh

what are called the president's daily

diary the president's daily diary is not

dear diary today she looked at me in

Geometry uh uh it is a minute by minute

accounting of what the president did

that day from 7 a.m. to 7:03 he got his

intelligence briefing from 7:03 to 7:06

he took a picture with so and so 708 he

went back to the residence he returned

to the West Wing it's that kind of thing

and it was for presidents going all the

way back to uh Herbert Hoover and uh I

was just suddenly struck

by the fact that it was a human person

uh uh in the white house because next to

a meeting with a treasury secretary or

with a king um he would uh you know go

back to uh the East wing for or a

20-minute nap um and then there would be

something else and so uh I I I just got

really interested in the in the

president as a person like when he runs

out of toothpaste uh what happens if

somebody tells you something where there

is an inherent problem uh for instance

uh again with the West Wing we did an

episode very early on about the census

and you wouldn't think that there would

be anything dramatic about the census

it's somebody with a clipboard knocking

on your door and ask asking you 10

questions uh but it turns out that uh

that there is and uh so you know once

you've located that problem then you

start writing about

it screen says it's an unimplemented

trap but the air code is wrong it's a

system error so what's the upshot it's

not going to say hello it absolutely is

going to say hello it's nobody's fault

it's a syst Bu The Voice demo The Voice

demo is FL telling you that for this

thing is overbuilt it worked last night

it worked the night before that it

worked 3 hours ago it's not working now

so just skip over The Voice demo skip

over everything else is working skip

over The Voice demo we needed to say

hello the screen says it's an

unimplemented trap but the dialogue box

is wrong it's a system error uh I still

don't know what that means and I I wrote

the movie uh I we wrote many drafts of

the movie so I wrote that line many

times I've obviously seen the movie many

many times working on it in the editing

room seeing it in theaters I still don't

know what that line means um I what I

know is is that it's correct it's it's

what happened um uh that's what research

gave me I'm there are a couple of things

I'm looking for depending on the

situation but one of the things uh I'll

look for often is cool pwa um uh the

language

specific uh uh to a vocation that will

make us in the audience feel like those

guys are really good at what they do

they uh they know what they're doing and

there's a a whole vocabulary in there

that I get to figure out now there are

times when you don't want the audience

to know what uh aign means either

because what the moment is about is

these guys know uh what they're talking

about these guys know a lot more than I

do this is what it sounds like when Andy

herzfeld uh who's a world-class engineer

and Steve Jobs and Joanna Hoffman are

talking about a computer problem it

doesn't sound the same way it does when

I'm talking about a computer problem

which is you know should I turn it off

and then turn it on again I'm pretty

sure that in that that in that case in

the case of that

line uh that it probably came in an

email from Andy herzfeld Andy herzfeld

was uh the chief engineer for the

Macintosh he was very close to uh Steve

Jobs he was played in the movie movie by

Michael stalberg um and uh I had met

with him I had met with Andy once and

then we began an email

relationship uh

so uh I asked him uh about this it

really happened that uh uh the that the

Macintosh refused to introduce itself

which it was supposed to do but it

actually happened I think a couple of

weeks before the launch uh and not a

couple of minutes before the launch so I

started emailing with Andy um uh saying

uh you know talk me

through what would happen uh in this

instance um and then I get to use what I

want and not use what I don't

want if you're a writer you have a a a

an inner moral compass um uh if you're

writing

non-fiction um uh and you have to judge

for

yourself what's what's the more

important truth because you're going to

be lying almost constantly during this

you have to people don't speak in

dialogue people's don't people's lives

don't play out in a series of scenes

that form a narrative uh uh you are

you're the one doing that it's the

difference between a painting and a

photograph uh and and we're doing

paintings so if I'm telling a true story

particularly if the people are still

alive uh uh if I'm telling a true story

I'm not going

to

uh do something that would hurt someone

uh uh it's you kind of take the the

hypocritic oath first to no harm uh I'm

not going to do something that that

hurts someone uh and I'm not going to do

something that changes the

fundamental Truth uh of what's Happening

uh I'll give you an example uh in The

Social Network um that

movie begins with uh Jesse Eisenberg and

Rooney

Mara having a bad date and breaking up

uh in a bar and then Jesse as Mark

Zuckerberg goes back to his dorm room uh

and he begins to

blog I have Mark Zuckerberg's blog post

uh from that night it's not through any

secret means anybody can get it he tells

us that he's drunk and drinking in that

so originally in the script what I wrote

was Mark comes into uh his dorm room

okay uh that were on his computer he

walks into the frame Powers up his

computer walks out of the frame we hear

some clinking and Ice goes into a glass

vodka gets poured over the ice orange

juice gets uh poured over that while

we're hearing uh uh this voice over well

a couple of weeks before we started

shooting we found out out that Mark

Zuckerberg was drinking beer um that

night and in fact it was Becks so our uh

uh director David Fincher who I love a

lot um uh said you know we got to change

it from uh a screwdriver to beer and

it's going to be beex and I pleaded with

him uh let's not do

that making a vodan orange juice is more

visually interesting than opening uh a

bottle of beer uh uh making a vodka on

orange juice says I'm drinking to get

drunk as opposed to drinking a beer a

college student that's what they do uh

when they're thirsty and

mostly it did not for me change the

fundamental truth Mark tells us that

he's drunk and he's drinking I would

never have him doing a line of cocaine

uh uh in that situation that's different

uh uh than drinking I'd never have him

uh uh shooting up um

uh I probably wouldn't even have him

doing a bunch of tequila shots uh in a

row but having him drink a vakka and

orange juice instead of a beer that was

perfectly fine uh uh Truth for me to

change it didn't change the more

important truth um uh

so uh uh

you you have to decide is this lie that

I'm telling unfair somehow to this

person um

am I doing damage to the just the

concept of Truth uh uh in general um or

uh is it again for me having him drink a

screwdriver uh instead of a beer uh uh

was was fine with me it was not fine

with David Fincher and that's why in the

movie he's drinking a beer

here here's something important to

remember and to uh uh you you kind of

learn about it as you go the audience is

a component in the event and here's what

I mean by that and I'm I'm I'm going to

use a famous painting uh as an example

example uh uh the George Sarat painting

that hangs in the Chicago art museum uh

I'm going to mess up the title I think

it's a Sunday on the island Sunday on

the aisle of lron shot but it's a it's a

famous painting Steven sonheim wrote a

musical about it Sunday in the park with

George um George Sarat was a poist uh

okay which

meant he he didn't paint like that in

Brush Strokes he painted like that uh uh

with the tip of the brush uh uh with

dots but most often he painted with two

brushes in his hand going red blue red

blue red blue red blue red blue red blue

red blue very very close together

because he felt that if the viewer stood

back from the painting which is how you

have to uh uh see the painting there's a

you know it's a Velvet Rope uh in the

museum and you're standing about 10 feet

back from it he felt that the viewer in

their that their mind will mix that red

and blue into a violet much more vibrant

than he can mix on his palette by mixing

red and blue there so that the

viewer becomes a a very important part

uh of this painting the painting is

actually different when no one is

looking at it uh uh than it is when

someone uh is looking at it you want as

much as you can for the audience to be

uh a a a part of what's going on the

more the audience can be putting things

together in their head the

they that's something they like um uh uh

they you you want to treat them like

they're smart uh and and they are uh uh

and uh they they don't want to just sit

back and kind of observe uh uh uh they

they want to put things together uh

themselves and by the way if you can get

them doing that and they don't see

reversal coming um

it's if you're in the audience it's a

it's a very satisfying feeling that oh

God I didn't I didn't see that and I'm

smart and I've been paying attention and

I didn't see that um uh if if you're

able to you know say you're writing a

Sherlock Holmes uh story and you're able

to give the audience all of the clues

that Sherlock Holmes uh has uh the exact

same information that Sherlock Holmes

has but he figured this thing out and

you weren't able to uh that's a very

satisfying

experience I saw a made for TV movie uh

recently uh which was it was very good

but there was a scene uh a character has

to testify in front of Congress uh so

there's the uh you know walking up the

steps uh of the Capital uh moment you

know getting out of the car walking up

the steps of the capital

uh uh with his

lawyer uh and there's press everywhere

uh uh shouting

questions and as they're walking up the

steps the lawyer is quickly filling the

client in okay so they're going to ask

you this they're going to do that and

then you're going to get to do this and

do

that and that scene I Promise You Rang

a little bit false to anyone who was

watching the show and you wouldn't even

know why but it's just going to it's

going to be like a little Pebble in your

shoe it's going to ring false the reason

is we know in our bones that that scene

would have happened already before they

showed up to the steps of the thing the

lawyer didn't wait until that moment

getting out of the car to tell the

client what was going to happen uh in

the room that happened back at the

lawyer's office over a period of days if

not weeks hours of prepping uh for this

the only thing that's going to happen on

those steps is just be cool um uh

pretend the Press isn't there uh uh just

be cool you're going to be fine okay it

it's okay to do something that would

never happen as long as the audience

doesn't know that it would never happen

um and but the

audience without having a rule book on

their lap the audience is a pretty good

judge of uh of what would and and

wouldn't happen and say uh uh the Oval

Office

um you you know no no nobody could take

out a gun uh uh in the Oval Office the

audience would uh uh go like that um uh

so I'm trying to think of of something

I've done that you know wouldn't or

couldn't happen uh well let's stick with

the westwing uh uh for a second um uh I

got it was really fun especially in the

early days of The West Wing I would get

chewed out by meline Albright uh by

Sandy berer the uh the uh uh president's

National Security uh uh adviser um

because they felt that really important

foreign policy and Military decisions

were being made only by the president

the chief of staff the chairman of the

joint Jo Chiefs um uh you know it was

just John Amos Martin Sheen and um uh

and John Spencer that was doing it

where's the Secretary State uh uh you

know where's the National Security

adviser it was because of getting chewed

out by Sandy Berger that uh Ana deir

Smith came on the show uh in the second

season that's stuff that you don't

really notice uh couldn't happen uh the

stuff that you know if you make the

audience groan

if you do a reel that couldn't happen or

that wouldn't happen I can tell you it's

hard to get the audience

back the first thing I I want to

know fact the only thing that I want to

know uh uh when when we do a test

screening or when a play is in

previews uh uh the the what I want to

know is was it comprehensible uh uh did

you follow the story did uh uh were you

able

to I mean the question I'll ask is did

you understand it uh uh basically

there's a joke in A Few Good Men that

worked on stage and didn't work in the

movie even though it worked during

rehearsals uh of the movie and the joke

it's not the greatest joke in the world

but uh uh it Tom Cruz Kevin Pollock and

Dei Moore uh are in Cuba uh they're

investigating this thing they're talking

to various people and they're talking to

kefir southerland's character Lieutenant

Kendrick um uh who is uh uh he's a bible

thumper um uh and he kind of explodes uh

at one point uh saying listen I believe

in God and in his son Jesus Christ and

because I do I can say this Santiago did

not die because he was sick Santiago did

not die because he was tired Santiago

died because he had no code he had no

honor and God was watching and there's a

pause and Kevin Pollock's character

turns to Tom Cruz's character and says

how do you feel about that theory um uh

and it always got a big laugh on stage

and in fact when we were rehearsing the

scene uh on the set I I'll never forget

this it was my first movie I walked onto

the Sound Stage and I saw that uh you

know Rob Riner the director was standing

at the monitors and his father Carl

Riner uh had come to visit the set that

day and was right next to him they uh uh

so I just gave them some space I stood

like 10t behind them so I didn't get in

the middle of a fatherson uh moment uh

and they didn't know that I was standing

back there and the guys did the scene um

and Carl uh turned to Rob and said how

do you feel about that theory that's a

funny line um uh and I'll never forget

that like sort of getting validation

from Carl Riner really one of the

funniest people ever anyway in the movie

there's no laugh and the reason there's

no laugh is because it's a single of uh

Kevin poock turning and saying how do

you feel about that theory as opposed to

a two shot or a wider shot and because

it's a single we're not 100% sure who

Kevin Pollock is talking to uh uh when

he says that do you think Santiago was

murdered Commander I believe in God and

his son Jesus Christ because I do I can

say this private Santiago is dead and

that is a tragedy but he is dead because

he had no code he is dead because he had

no

honor and God was

watching how do you feel about that

theory sounds good let's move on if you

put confusion uh into the mix even the

tiniest bit of confusion an audience is

going to be apprehensive okay an

audience needs to feel when they sit

down in that chair that the

Storyteller uh has them by the hand and

uh uh and is leading them through this

story um uh but unfortunately the

antidote uh of for confusion can be

dangerous too uh

because the worst crime you can commit

is telling the audience something they

already know uh okay um uh it's it's

like dropping a ball on a playground and

suddenly that ball turn that basketball

turns into lead it's very hard to uh

pick up again it it'll take a while for

the audience to forgive you uh for

having done that um uh so you've got to

sort of balance right on the edge of

that razor uh of them not being confused

and you're not telling them something

they already know

[Music]

the best way you're going to

learn about screenwriting about writing

for television about writing plays is by

watching movies watching television

watching plays and mostly reading

screenplays reading tele plays reading

play

if you have pick your favorite movies

pick your favorite five movies find the

screenplays for those movies sit and

watch the movie with the screenplay on

your lap see exactly how

the what's there on the screen what it

looked like when it was on the page uh

uh see how that really you know people

who uh uh who love cars uh

they they take apart cars

um uh they started by opening the hood

of a car getting underneath a car and

just taking everything apart and uh and

laying it on the floor do that people

who are super into computers um uh they

all have one thing in common when they

were 9 years old they built a computer

uh uh they or took one apart uh they

they took their parents' computer apart

and laid it on the floor um you know

there are some people who uh have never

taken a music lesson can't read music

and they sit down in front of a piano

and they just get it uh and they can

play uh I'm sure that there are people

who can sit down and understand what a

story is without ever having been told

uh what a story is I I I wasn't um uh

but I learned this rules of story uh

first by uh I I went to college and got

a BFA in uh in theater you know it was

an academic uh uh approach to uh drama

which

is learning Aristotle learning the parts

of drama uh Theater history reading a

lot of plays and talking about uh okay

there was the exposition here's the

inciting action uh here's the action

reversal uh um uh Climax and

[Music]

Dan there's a tendency to think that

with

uh that that art is finally the place

where there are no rules where you have

uh a complete freedom and I'm I'm going

to with write I'm going to sit down at

the keyboard and it's just going to flow

out of me onto the paper and it's going

to be pure art no what you are

describing is finger painting there

rules are what makes art beautiful rules

are what makes Sports beautiful if uh uh

most popular sport in the world soccer

uh uh if you were allowed to pick up the

ball run into the stance run down to the

other end uh of the field shoot the

goalkeeper in the head and toss the ball

uh in the net it wouldn't be a very

interesting game uh it's the it's the

rules that make it beautiful think about

the rules to baseball did having her

double day was a freaking genius um uh

uh that you know that's a great game

football is a great game it's the rules

that make Sports beautiful and it's the

rules that make art not finger painting

uh uh think about music and all the

roles that music

has anyone who you know studied music

for a year or two when they were in

elementary school anyone who picked up a

flute or a trumpet uh knows that at the

beginning of every piece of music

there's a time signature and a key

signature if you're in four4 time it

means there are four beats in a measure

and a quarter note gets one beat there

can't be five beats in a measure there

can't be three beats in a measure if uh

you're in the key of C uh it means that

there are no Sharps and no Flats there

can't be a sharp there can't be a flat

these rules also apply to writing the

rulebook is the Poetics uh uh by

Aristotle all the rules are

there or you can if you don't want to

read even though I really recommend that

you do if you don't want to read a 25

100y old 64 page

pamphlet you can absorb these rules by

being a

[Music]

diagnostician I'm constantly reading

plays uh and seeing plays reading screen

plays and uh and uh uh and seeing movies

same with television uh you know I learn

a lot from what other people do and you

know when you're a writer especially

when you're starting out but I think

it's a good rule for uh for the life of

your career you need to be a

diagnostician uh uh when you see

something and it doesn't work uh instead

of just being snarky about it uh instead

of just joking with your friends about

uh you know how bad this thing was that

you just saw figure out why it's bad um

and don't use any snark terms all uh

your goal shouldn't be to make fun of it

your goal should be to diagnose it uh

Why didn't it work looking it's

something that appears to break one or

maybe all of Aristotle's rules of drama

appears to but works anyway and figuring

out why it worked and the answer is

going to be because they didn't break

Aristotle's rules and here's how um uh

is very helpful be a

[Music]

diagnostician you're going to hear a lot

of rules and a lot of them are going to

be wrong uh they're going to be dumb

rules invented by people who don't know

the real rules for example in 1970 a CBS

executive announced to Jim Brooks James

L Brooks uh uh writer of The Mary Tyler

Moore Show writer of taxi writer and

director of Terms of Endearment and

Broadcast News CBS executive told Jim

Brooks that there are four things you'll

never see on

television a divorced person a Jewish

person a person from New York City and a

person with a

mustache four more ridiculous things

have never been said about television

and obviously you none of it uh uh came

true you're going to hear rules like

that um uh you're going to hear rules

like well you uh listen uh uh there was

a hard and fast rule in television which

is that you can't write about politics

you can't write a show that takes place

uh in DC there had been a rule in movies

for a really long time that baseball

movies don't work and then in one year

Field of Dreams bulld Durham and Major

League uh were released all of them

massive hits those rules are all

nonsense the only rules there are are

the rules of drama um and I I I I keep

going back to my God Aristotle but it

it's just because he wrote them down uh

in you know he he he organized them in a

way

that's fairly easy I say that fairly

easy to understand I say that because

I'm able to understand it so it must be

fairly easy to understand uh and I

if if there's something wrong with your

script if it's not working there's a

good chance that it's because you broke

one of those rules and so understanding

those rules are super important

[Music]

we've been using the word story uh a lot

um story and drama are two slightly

different things start with what a fact

is uh okay um the queen died that's a

fact a story is the queen Di died and

then the king died of a broken heart uh

okay but it's still not drama uh there

there hasn't been conflict yet what

would make a drama our queen and king

story uh probably a million things off

the top of my head okay the queen dies

um uh and now the king is alone and it

turns out the queen was the brilliant

one uh uh she was the brains uh behind

the outfit uh in the outfit she's the

brains behind the king uh and now the

King has to to uh uh go It Alone in the

face of people who are trying to get him

off the throne because everyone knows

he's dumb and the queen was smart uh

that kind of

thing generally we think in three acts a

play is two usually um uh and uh an

episode of Television there like six um

uh but thinking in the threea structure

uh for a movie uh act one you chase your

hero up a tree act two you throw rocks

at them act three you get them down um

uh or not it's okay if they die in the

tree um as long as they die trying if

they're going to get down from the tree

in the third act you have to have

introduced the way down in the First Act

uh okay uh uh there's an old saw that uh

you can't use a gun in the third act

unless you've introduced it in the first

um a gun can't appear from nowhere you

have to open a drawer and see that a gun

is there as somebody's got a mention I'm

packing or something like that

conversely you don't introduce a gun in

the First Act unless you use it in the

third in other words if we open a drawer

and see a gun there and then nothing

ever comes of it uh that was bad writing

um so whatever that uh uh Escape out of

the tree is going to be has to have been

introduced to us

uh uh in the First Act you can't all of

a sudden in the third say we forgot

about our magic rope um uh that gets us

out of the tree that magic rope needs to

be introduced in the First

[Music]

Act you want Stakes to be High um I I I

I do think in those terms uh uh you you

want uh

whether somebody wants the girl or the

money uh or

to build a a computer that is better

than they are uh uh you you you want the

stakes to be as uh as high as possible

um uh so that we're sitting forward in

our seats sometimes the stakes are

automatically as high as they can be Few

Good Men you guys are on trial for

murder okay

do you don't really need to Hype up the

uh the stakes there for for everybody

involved Steve

Jobs

uh you need to understand why it's so

important to Steve that uh that a

product be perfect uh that it that the

the rectangle have rounded edges that

the the thing that everybody else is

making fun of in terms of his

perfectionism you need to understand why

that's so important to him um uh so that

we care if he fails or

[Music]

succeeds Exposition is the first part of

drama uh and before you can do anything

else you have to tell the audience what

they need to know in order to understand

the second thing that's going to happen

which is the inciting action uh and

Exposition is tricky uh because what you

need is is at least one character who

knows as little as the audience does uh

otherwise you're going to find yourself

starting lines with as you know um and

if if you ever start a line with as you

know you're probably doing something

wrong um uh so you need to uh it

it and it's a constant problem for me

because I'm ordinarily I'm writing uh

about not ordinarily all always I'm

writing about people who are smarter uh

than I am so who are you going to find

uh at Apple who doesn't know how the

Macintosh works right um when Steve is

uh uh telling chrissanne about the Mac

uh she becomes a stand in for the

audience uh he's he's he's really

telling us you you uh the way you sell

it uh the way you get the audience to

buy it is she doesn't get what is such a

big deal about uh uh the Mac um uh so it

doesn't seem quite a you don't want the

exposition to be bald you don't want it

to present itself as uh as Exposition uh

you don't want a Steve that begins with

a scene that begins with Steve what's

this thing um of course she's going to

know that uh uh so in her case it was I

don't see what the big deal is uh and

Steve tells her what the big deal is uh

so you have to find uh a a character uh

or more than one character who knows as

little as the audience does and you know

I was talking about courtroom dramas

before it's another really good thing

about courtroom dramas because the jury

is the stand in for the audience and the

jury knows as little as the audience

[Music]

does the inciting action is what makes

the drama happen

um Hamlet doesn't really begin until the

ghost of Hamlet's father uh tells Hamlet

you know that here's what happened

here's who killed who uh and what are

you going to do about it Hamlet uh

that's when uh uh that's that's when The

Story begins but before we can see that

scene we have to know that Hamlet is the

prince of Denmark that his mother uh is

the queen and that his uncle is the king

and that his father recently

[Music]

died page numbers let's talk about page

numbers for a second

uh a screenplay most screen plays are

around 125 Pages some of them are

shorter there's some that are 105 some

of them are a little longer mine are a

lot longer I I write a lot lot of

dialogue not that much action dialogue

just simply because of screenplay format

takes up more room uh on the page so for

instance uh the social

network was about 185 pages long uh uh

50 or 60 Pages longer than your average

screenplay but it was still just two

hours uh uh it had a normal running time

same thing with Steve Jobs same thing

with the movie I just wrote uh Molly's

game so my my my in this discussion my

numbers are going to be more inflated

than the average number let's let's

let's let's pretend a screenplay is 125

Pages if you're on if you look down and

you see you're on page 20 uh page 20

page 25 and you haven't introduced the

protagonist yet or you haven't

introduced the inciting action yet uh

look at the uh you might be in in

trouble but those page numb can serve as

you know as road signs along the way

uh I

uh I I just finished writing a

screenplay uh the screenplay is 2011

Pages uh I I don't recommend that but

this movie also has a lot of VoiceOver

in it so anytime there's voiceover

you're doubling the amount of pages

right because you need

the the language and then you need the

description of what's going on

underneath the

voiceover uh uh and

I I I kept seeing that uh and and the

real thing of the movie happened the

movie takes place in Los Angeles and

then New York and the real thing of the

movie happens in New York um uh uh it

happens when three this is a true story

and three Russian Mobsters get involved

in a poker game and I I kept finding

that I was on page 101 102 we haven't

gotten to New York yet um I when I

always thought in my head act one is Los

Angeles and then acts two and three uh

are New York that just didn't happen

that way um uh the first half is in Los

Angeles the second half uh is in New

York you're hardly ever going to end up

with the thing you thought you were

going to write at the beginning it it's

always going to be a little bit or maybe

a lot

[Music]

different I'll tell you this purely from

a uh business

standpoint uh uh this is going to sound

like one of those silly CBS rules uh and

maybe it is it's it's just also

true the last 15 minutes of any movie

are the most important but the first 15

pages the first 15 pages of any

screenplay uh are the most important

just from the standpoint of getting the

movie made I'm talking to Young Writers

now who want to get their foot in the

door they want their scripts

made if you have a kickass first 15

pages a studio executive will

forgive the crummy 110 pages that follow

it'll need to be Rewritten um but uh

those first 15 pages if they really hook

you uh uh someone's goingon to be

interested last 15 minutes of a movie uh

I

if if you've given them a fantastic two

hours and you blow the last 15 minutes

you are going to get zero credit for the

Fantastic two hours okay it I wish it

worked differently but it doesn't um I

it even when you hit a home run you are

obligated to round the basis uh and

touch home plate so uh like I said you

can have a killer uh of first two hours

you are obligated to finish

[Music]

from the moment I uh uh I say I'm

starting until the moment I deliver it

is usually about 18 to 24 months uh on a

screenplay but most of that time uh most

of that time is

spent trying to think of it uh and being

rest there are people for whom it is 10

weeks uh 12 weeks uh in fact I'm pretty

sure my the contracts that I signed say

that I'm going to deliver it in 12 weeks

and just nobody ever believes that

uh most of that 18 to 24 months is spent

not writing uh most of that 18 to 24

months is spent uh bulking up preparing

uh uh to write once I start typing the

screenplay if everything's going great

uh I I can usually do it in two or three

months what came before that was months

and months and months probably a year of

not writing of banging your head against

the wall uh

of doing a lot of research whether it's

reading or meeting with uh people uh

banging your head against the wall it's

a one of the um mentally challenging

parts of being a writer uh is that there

most days you don't write uh most days

you wake up in the morning and you go to

sleep at the end of the day and you

haven't written anything and uh it's

it's a demoralizing feeling on the other

hand uh

those much less common days uh where you

did write and you wrote something good

you feel like you can

[Music]

fly when I start writing the script and

I mean by write now I mean literally

typing uh uh the script uh I have to

have the intention and the obstacle uh I

have to have it already uh in my head or

at least have the inten and Obstacle of

the first scene of uh of the thing that

I'm writing it's okay if you don't know

what the second scene is uh uh with the

American president it's not like I had a

genius idea or anything it it felt like

a genius idea at the time uh when I said

you know what I'm just gonna start by

beginning the President's Day uh I'm

just going to have him walk from the

residence uh from the East wi to the

westwing um and along the way he'll run

into various staffers and uh uh will

introduce various problems and we'll be

Charmed by this guy

who uh ordinarily in uh uh in popular

culture uh our here elected leaders are

uh are portrayed either as Machiavellian

or adults um uh and in this case he was

going to be a very bright very uh uh

Charming guy so I was going to introduce

us uh uh to that for some reason that

felt like it felt like the greatest idea

in the world uh and whatever it was it

got me writing it uh uh it got me

actually typing and then once I started

I couldn't stop and then you you

know just talking about the first

scene once I know what the first scene

is once I'm ready to write the first

scene I write the first scene in roughly

the amount of time it takes to type the

first scene uh and uh and if you're

doing that uh you're you're doing well

uh if it's coming out like ketchup out

of a bottle uh then you don't have it

yet you haven't pinpointed the conflict

[Music]

the software I use is final draft it it

took me a long time uh uh to get to

final draft because uh when I first

started writing I final draft didn't

exist uh I was writing on uh a piece of

software that doesn't exist anymore

called uh Mac right uh

and you you said screenwriting you know

is very format intensive they're they're

margin tabs everywhere uh and you set

all those yourself and it wasn't until I

was doing I I think the I think the

westwing um that the writer assistants

uh on the show begged me to switch to

final draft they' been begging me for a

long time to switch to final draft and I

didn't want to because I just

didn't I I was so used to it I didn't

want to be writing and think what I it's

command what for uh uh for character um

uh I didn't want to have to learn

something new until finally they just

lied to me uh and said uh that new

computer that you just bought uh it's

not compatible with the software that

you're using you have to use final draft

uh uh so I got final draft thank God

it's a it's incredibly helpful for such

a format intensive thing I use final

draft I use index cards uh once I know

what the first few scenes are I'll put

it on index cards I'll put it on a

corkboard I like seeing it in front of

me I like that it's starting to get

organized that it's not all not just

floating around like some weather system

uh in my head uh uh so I like organizing

uh my thoughts that way and it's a

little bit like walking in the dark with

a flashlight you can only see as far

ahead uh as that beam will go so if I

can only see five scenes uh uh ahead

that's what goes up and then uh I take

it from there

[Music]

writing like playing the violin uh you

get better with practice uh the more you

do it the better you're going to get and

the more you do it the more comfortable

you're going to become with your own

voice and your own style and those are

the things that you can only learn uh on

your own uh and I'll tell you you know

I've been doing this for a little while

and I still will from time to time sit

down and try to write like someone else

because I I feel like that's what's

required of me um and uh you have to

remember that you can only write like

yourself back to that American president

uh uh story before I started writing the

385 Pages there were months and months

and months and months of just banging my

head against the wall just walking

around my uh apartment trying to think

of an idea just trying to think of an

idea for a a a first scene um and what

was going through my head and this this

this was fairly early in my career so

this is this is something that's going

to happen when you're not as sure as

your of yourself as you'd like to be uh

but what was going through my head was

what does Rob Riner want to see um uh

what can I write and when I turn it in

uh uh Rob won't think I'm a phony writer

he won't say you know he's guy's an

amateur we got fooled the first time uh

around because that is what every writer

is thinking that they're fooling

everybody uh and after a while so much

time had gone by that I had no choice

but to say screw it I I I I have to

forget about Rob and just write the way

I write write something that I think is

good and keep my fingers crossed that he

thinks it's good too and then that

people who buy tickets to movies uh like

and that's something that that every

writer has to do I I think that trying

to figure out what it is everybody wants

and then trying to give it to them is a

bad recipe for uh for good storytelling

I think you have to write what you like

maybe what you think your friends would

like maybe what you think your mother or

father uh uh would like and then keep

your fingers crossed that enough other

people like it that you can keep doing

it

[Music]

when people ask me if I if I ever

experienced writer's BL I I just have to

laugh because that is my default

position I'm in a constant state of

writers block it one I I what I run into

from time to time

is is not having writer block uh and

those are those are great days if you

can put together uh a few of those days

uh then then you can do this there are

plenty of times when uh you start

writing the screenplay and somewhere in

the middle you run into a a

snowbank

uh there's something I'm writing right

now

uh I've been on page 15 for about five

weeks uh and I'm going to lose my mind

if if I stay on page 15 much longer uh

but whether it's it's a movie an episode

of tele Vision the play that I'm writing

right now that I'm on page 15 uh with uh

you are going to go through this period

of thinking it's never going to happen

uh that you've already written the last

thing that you're going to write that

you've used every word that you know and

every order that it can go in uh and

that you're not going to be able to do

this and really tomorrow morning I

should pick up the phone and tell the

people who are waiting for it that uh

that it's not going to happen

and uh somehow or other you spring

yourself from

[Music]

jail uh for me driving around in my car

uh and listening to music is a way to

get unstuck uh or

inspired um uh

I by and large my taste in music stopped

maturing uh after I graduated from high

school like my taste and everything else

else food um I still eat the same food

uh uh that I ate in uh in college but I

still listen to the music I listen to in

high school so I'll drive around and uh

I'll listen to this music and

uh sometimes it it'll just inspire me in

some way that's that's intangible that

you can't really put your finger on one

way or another driving and I'll I'll

pick a long straight stretch of road to

drive on so I don't have to think about

turning like I'll get on the 405

um uh and that's a a a freeway here in

Southern California just drive straight

um but sometimes uh I'll hear a song on

the radio I'll hear a song on a CD uh uh

you know of loggin and MSA or Cat

Stevens or early spring steam whatever

was I was listening to in high school um

uh and I'll think you know I want this

song this song would be work great as

the score uh uh to a scene I want to

write a scene that can be I'll I'll be

doing it in reverse order I want to

write a scene that could be scored uh by

this song and to do that I'm going to

need to write uh you know the scene

leading up to that and then the scene

before that and suddenly everything will

uh H have gotten started by the song

There's a um uh for anybody watching who

might be a westwing fan there's an

episode of the Westman called two

Cathedrals um uh which got some

attention and uh it ends with

uh dyus Strait's uh uh Brothers in Arms

um and kind of the whole team coming

together to uh uh to stand behind their

guy uh Martin Sheen and that all started

backwards it wasn't like I wrote that

thing and thought you know it' be

perfect here uh Brothers in Arms it was

I'd heard Brothers in Arms it's song I

know i' heard 10,000 times uh I heard

brothers in arms and just thought this

is uh a really good score for something

and and I went backwards from

[Music]

there anything that can give you the

feeling that you're making progress is

going to help you emotionally and I

don't mean to to sound like a delicate

flower but uh

remember writing and and and painting a

fence uh are two different things

painting a fence may be backbreaking

work uh but first of all you know what

you're supposed to do you dip the brush

in the paint and uh uh and you paint uh

but mostly you can see the light at the

end of the tunnel that light may be a

long way away it may be a really long

fence uh but you can see see where it

ends uh

and what you don't need when you're

here's where really what I meant to say

about the fence what you don't need when

you're painting a fence is to be in a

good mood uh okay you can be in any mood

you want and the fence is going to turn

out roughly the same when you're writing

you need to be in a good mood you need

to have energy you need to

feel entertaining you you you need to

feel good uh and and that's when you're

going to do uh the best writing so

any any little uh emotional helpers like

Crossing things off and seeing that

you're making progress anything that's

going to make you feel good is good when

I started I was working as a bartender

to pay the bills uh and I was working as

a bartender at at Broadway theaters um

uh so I had the whole First Act off I I

tended bar during What's called the

walk-in half hour before curtain to

curtain and then an intermission and I

had this hour hour and 10 minutes uh uh

of doing nothing and so I wrote A Few

Good Men on cocktail napkins uh and I I

would come home to the apartment I was

sharing with 19 people and throw the

cocktail napkins on the desk and start

typing it on the very first Mac um but

what I loved about those cocktail

napkins is that you get to cross things

out and write things in the margin and

use arrows and things like this and it

just it it makes you feel like like

you're writing it makes you feel good

you really need to feel good when you're

writing uh so I mentioned before that

I've been stuck on page 15 of the thing

uh that I'm writing right now for a

really long time each day that I'm stuck

on page 15 I feel worse uh uh but I know

that um if I can figure this problem out

and shoot from page 15 to page

22 uh I'm that's the when you want to

ask me if you can borrow money

uh you have each come in with a scene

from a screenplay uh that you're working

on so we're going to read through uh uh

the scene the author is going to cast it

for us it's going to be the wrong cast

We're Not actors here this going to be

like me playing the lead and pretty

woman okay uh but we'll just read it

through uh out loud so we can get a

sense of it and then we'll talk about it

and JJ braer we're going to start with

you great

um uh you know what I'm just going to

read out loud the full script uh a log

line okay do you mind no please um uh

this is Untitled uh by JJ braer the full

script log line is upon hearing I'm

sorry upon learning that his absence

from the battlefield has cost his

beloved sister her life allejo y aljo

the most lethal Soldier in a Mexican

cartel is assumed with a rage is

consumed with a rage for vengeance that

knows no bounds and this is adapted from

Homer The Iliad exterior Farmhouse High

Desert Dawn first light picks out the

edges of a ram shackle Farmstead

satellite dish cracked Adobe and ATVs in

the yard we're in

uhis halisco

Mexico uh in an age t-shirt and carrying

a steaming travel mug of coffee a stout

middle-aged farmer emerges slips on

boots that he'd left outside the door

the previous night his son and daughter

both in their 20s follow him out of the

house the farmer CL climbs into one of

the ATVs its engines Roar rips the

silence he leaves his children to start

their days go to exterior Fields we're

moving moments later the ATV's

headlights cut through the receding

Darkness we hear a Coro playing in the

farmer's headphones as he drives uh uh

out into his land am I pronouncing that

right Cito yeah Cito what is a Cito uh

it's a uh uh Mexican folk ballad okay

there still contemporary songs we hear a

Cito playing on on on the farmer's

headphones as he drives out into his

land he stops here and there to check a

sprinkler head or readout on his laptop

modern farming at another point he rips

a rifle from its housing on the back of

the fourwheeler to try to pick off a

jack rabbit it vanishes before he can

align his shot continuing his headlights

pick out a muddy puddle blocking the

dirt path among the roads of agavi

plants he stops and Dismounts to

investigate the flooding he looks

perplexed he pulls a two-way radio from

his belt and removes the headphones

still playing we got flooding out on the

North End East Agave Fields you seen any

irrigation issues on your end he wads

out into the water no readings and

problems in the remotes how much

flooding are we talking he wads F

farther the growing light of day reveals

a vast overflow into his Fields [ __ ]

it's a vast muddy swath of his farm

soing up the cacti we'll come and check

you out the farmer takes in the terrible

destruction exterior flooded area day

the farmer's boots slog through the

ankle deep water looks to be coming from

the creek he stops something catches his

eye he Stoops and comes up with a shell

casing now he sees they litter the

ground he moves on but he shrugs the

rifle off his shoulder he wads on

ribbons of blood coil through the water

ahead farther on he a stand

of fur trees marks the path of the creek

the flooding is heaviest here he comes

through the trees and stops dead the

creek is indeed damned up by a pile of

bloodied bodies they fell so thick

they've completely closed off the Stream

flow and Beyond them standing in the now

Dry Creek bed before the pile of human

wreckage he created smeared in Blood and

seething is a single man he is a Leo ton

taen Twi he is a Leo taeen he's 32 his

rigid posture conveys power a terrible

mad grief Rens his dark eyes he still

holds the automatic weapons he turned on

the two dozen men who lie dead before

him the farmer gapes at the scene in the

tense silence a new song starts from his

headphones lejo turns his eyes to the

farmer and we cut to

Black the song continues over

black it's uh Nar you want to pronounce

that for Naro it's a Naro a modern crime

ballad it tells a tale of rage and

bloodshed interior sub uh Subterranean

stash pot night a half dozen people

three children there's six eight and 10

three women in their 30s cling to each

other in Terror uh super tile 10 days

earlier they're in a grimy little recess

beneath an iron grate the Amber glow of

a street light just finds uh them from

above Chris one of the women sings

softly to the children she's wearing a

little necklace with a virgin of uh

suyapa mhm all right finally with a

virgin of suyapa on it frequent

eruptions of Screams and gunfire make

the kids Flinch and whimper the women

are desperate to quiet them exterior

above the great warhouse uh above ground

it's War the great is a fake storm drain

in the lot outside a Dusty Warehouse

several SUVs are AR raid around it

engines running doors open headlights on

the warehouse two groups of armed

attackers sweep from the SUVs toward the

warehouse they trade gunfire with unseen

men inside on the left 10 Marauders they

run headlong at the warehouse on the

right six masked Fighters not formal

soldiers but trained so well they could

be move as a unit to secure the

perimeter interior forklift dock

Warehouse Knight crash a garage door

crumples and folds in the Marauders

burst through the breach screaming guns

blazing a handful of Defenders hiding

behind Park forklifts return turn fire

Flats of cash stand behind them one of

the Marauders throws a grenade the

explosions rip uh the explosion rips men

and money in a flash of shrapnel and

fire the cash starts to burn the

Marauders make no effort to douse it as

they overwhelm their foes they crack

skulls and deliver execution shots as

the loot Burns interior hallway

Warehouse night from behind uh pallet

barricades eight hardened men trained

their guns at the door at the far end of

the hall the sounds of fighting draw

draw near two other men at the back of

the Carter hoist shrink wrapped bundles

of heroin up a ladder out of nowhere six

precise shots ripped through the

sidewall of the hallway right through

the concrete six shots six men drop only

then does the door burst open a single

masked figure steps through he fires

four shots the last four men fall he

walks up the hall unhurried no wasted

movement his Fighters allow him inside

one Wheels a hand truck the lead fighter

removes his mask it's Ajo he hands the

first bundle to one of the fighters they

start loading the hand truck exterior

Warehouse moments later Two fighters

direct the

hand what I want to do first because

this is the most important thing uh uh

when you're starting guys for I'm going

to be switching glasses back and forth I

have two different prescriptions one for

reading and one for uh being able to see

you so I'm going to be doing this a lot

um uh so I just want to hear from people

who aren't you uh did you understand uh

the first scene just simply we're not

dealing with good or bad what works what

doesn't just did you understand it yeah

yes follow the action most part yes you

follow the action okay um uh good uh I

did too and it was pretty cool I'm this

is going to be interesting because I'm

uh my we spot by far is action uh which

is what like if I had written this scene

it would have been a conversation

between two guys with guns uh uh with

Heroin sitting over there um uh but you

are are very good with action why is

that uh I'm not sure I sort of stumbled

on it uh um I I started really as a as a

dialogue guy and then found that that

the action seemed to come out all right

as you watch a lot of action movies uh I

did Growing Up but not not not an

inordinate amount uh um so uh it's just

something I found a kinship with as a

writer Strangely I got a real feel for

it where where's this going uh well I'm

I'm not really sure I wrote it this

weekend uh it was uh off the the

assignment that we were given an option

to do of taking a classic work and and

trying something um so I mean I I I

imagine it following the course of the

of the Iliad fairly closely um you know

by the end of the the First Act um peely

will die uh in the mirrored SUV

which when she's mistaken for aljo um he

will have withdrawn from from the

fighting and this war going on between

cartels um the tide will have turned and

so she will have gone out to pretend to

be him in this mired SUV be be killed

and then that will set off his his rage

against um Hector and and the the the

Rival cartel very cool uh I think he did

a great job I'm I'm only going to give

one note and it's a general note yeah uh

that may not even apply uh uh to what

you've done um but because there's a lot

of action here I'll use this moment to

give this note you want to try as much

as you can to have any description of

action take roughly as much time as it's

going to take for it to actually happen

on screen why um uh I don't think this

is important enough to write down uh I'm

I'd be surprised if anything I say is

going to be important enough to write

down if if that happens it'll be an

accident but uh here's what I'm talking

about

we uh uh do a peculiar kind of writing

uh uh the writing we do is not meant to

be read it's meant to be performed right

except once except for one time uh and

that is trying to get the movie made um

there's going to be one round of people

reading it whether it's uh an agent or a

studio executive or a director uh or an

actor uh uh uh that you're trying to get

that's going to be the one time that

reading the script uh uh is important

after that it's just performing The

Script but you do want that reading

draft to be good and readable um uh and

again I'm not uh I'm just using this

opportunity to give this note this was a

very readable uh

scene very often times a

screenplay will be to a movie what uh um

oh hell hell what what's it called what

a blueprint um uh is to a house uh which

is to say a blueprint isn't going to

give you a very good idea of uh your

emotional reaction to this house you

know is it is it a a pretty house is it

is it nice a blueprint is there to tell

the uh people who are building it where

to use the 2x4 and and uh and where to

bang a nail too often a screenplay is a

blueprint uh of a movie too often it

doesn't read very well it's there as uh

an instruction manual for the director

uh that this is what I want you to do so

here's what I mean by um uh by having

the description of the action take

roughly as long uh uh as the action if

you have a character walking down the

sidewalk um and they turn the corner and

there's a a a monster there uh some kind

of monster whether it's a person with a

gun or King Kong uh some kind of monster

there who who scares them and you

describe that moment of fright in in a

half a page uh that um uh his eyes pop

out of his head he jumps back exactly 18

Ines he is feeling the same fear he felt

when he was 12 years old and all of this

happen when the moment that you're

looking for is ah uh okay um uh when

that's all that happens the the

description has to take that long in

fact you did it um somewhere in here I

won't find the page where you just wrote

the word crash

right or bang uh or something uh bottom

of three you say crash yes

um good you did two things right here

you kept it roughly uh uh um the the the

same length as it's going to take on

screen and you just I'm assuming

instinctively if it has to take longer

than the time it's going to take on

screen give it a headline uh okay make

it crash bang um then this uh uh happens

pow this is what's uh uh just happened

um often some from time to time you

actually have to I'm trying to think of

an example of this um uh here's what

I'll do from time to

time if I if I can't make it happen that

fast um uh I'll I'll roll back the clock

a little bit on the script um uh I'll

say

um

uh jeie falls down because here's what

just happened um uh she walked into the

room and this happened and this happened

and this happened and this happened and

then I'll take you back uh uh to the

script I'll actually write in the past

tense uh uh for a second letting them

know that the effect is just bam Genie

falls down but here's why it's going to

take me three sentences to tell you um

but it's only going to take that bam

amount of time uh on the screen you did

a really really good job I'd love to see

the rest of this uh script um let's move

on to uh uh the next one and see if any

we can find somebody doing something

wrong

e is for

Ed written by our own jeie

Bergen this is a half hour

pilot all

right out of curiosity

um because I don't know what what you

kids are doing these days okay and I

don't know what's what's down with the

kids uh uh these days I try to keep my

finger on the pulse of the kids okay but

with what would the

um what's this internet thing you guys

internet is that what it's called uh

okay uh your 60 Minute pilot is it 60

Minutes or 42 minutes do you know what

I'm asking yeah it's 60 okay you're 30

minute pilot is it 30 minutes or 22

minutes 30 streaming our cable network

okay

sorry your show again go

ahead all right exterior Wisconsin Back

Road day uh wood panel station wagon

swerves wildly down the road blasting

Whitney Houston's I will always love you

super 1994 Riley Barnes 9 drives not

well considering she can barely see over

the steering wheel she's Plucky selfish

determined blonde with a chipped front

tooth Edie Barnes 10 intellectually

disabled stubborn sits in the passenger

seat smiling she Taps her foot to the

music her shoes are velcro the easiest

kind Barney a small stuffed purple

dinosaur sits in the back Riley veers

off the road screeching to a halt she

gets out unbuckles Ed's seat belt

tightens the velcro on her shoe and

leads her into the corn interior station

wagon later Riley peels away happy

interior corn field day uh Edie stands

in the middle of the cornfield alone

into your station wagon day Riley looks

at in the rear mirror Barney is still in

the back seat a smile plastered on his

dumb little face Riley size guilty

interior cornfield day Edie sits in the

corn scared a rustling Riley stands

above her blocking the sun here Riley

hands Barney to Edie Edy Smiles then

Riley runs over the cornfield uh with

the uh station wagon speeding away and

Ed alone helpless uh the title card e is

for Ed okay and let's hang on there for

just one second um uh I just want to

make sure that I'm I'm right in this

cold open um that when you

say and leads her into the corn okay

Riley veers off the road screeching to a

halt she gets out unbuckles Ed seat belt

tightens the velcro on her shoe and

leads her into the corn it that's the

very first mention of corn right okay

okay um that's kind of a got it a

surprise I would just uh in the

description a wood panel station wagon

uh SES wildly down the road with

cornfields on other side yeah um on each

side the corn is as high as an

elephant's

eye reference the musical Oklahoma by

Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein

II 1944

boom okay it's very good that was the

only note on the cold open go ahead ex

The Grove Los Angeles night uh Barber

Shop cortet sings Santa Claus is coming

to town uh to a crowd of mostly Jewish

people okay here's where um uh a

director is just going to pick up the

closest object hit you in the head with

it okay um uh uh they they'll feel bad

after they hit you but not before they

hit you they'll be happy to do it a

crowd of mostly Jewish people what does

that look like I I guess it

doesn't yeah

okay yeah shalom

uh uh now listen yeah if it's important

to you that they be mostly Jewish

people uh I'm a mostly Jewish person um

and I'm trying to think uh I I I you

don't mean them to be hidic Jews right

uh uh yeah

um listen you can it's the Grove it's La

you can have a yamika in there but I

don't know about a crowd of people with

let's find out how important it is that

this crowd is Jewish okay okay keep

going super present day uh also mhm um I

should have let off by saying that you

are a fantastic writer okay I I forgot

to do that you

anti-semitic

horn person that drives into the corn

like wait a second the hell did the corn

come

from okay so uh a barber shop quartet is

singing to a crowd of mostly Jewish

people there's a joke in there

so go we're now in the present day uh

restaurant patio Riley now 29 picks at a

salad nervous she's still Plucky and

determined but deeply insecure in this

gluten-free Town cold 22 naive kind

scarfs a slice of pizza confident how's

the salad riveting want the pizza no

thanks your boobs look good Riley laughs

embarrassed what they do thanks a thin

waitress 21 Smiles at Cole flirty Riley

pretends not to notice so are you going

to go home for the holidays Riley shakes

her head no what about you yeah my

parents would kill me if I didn't go

home for the holidays yours are cool

they're dead [ __ ] I'm sorry it's okay

your parents will die one day too thanks

um so do you have any siblings Riley

considers telling the truth then nope

just me she smiles into your Cole's

studio apartment night Cole and Riley

make out Riley pulls away do you have a

condom slow down I like kissing you he

moves in she pulls away rejected can I

use your bathroom now no in 10 minutes

she heads toward the nearest door that's

the closet Captain Riley

salutes interor bathroom night Riley

rolls her eyes could she be any more

embarrassing I I captain she wiggles out

of her Spanx and sits on the toilet she

checks her phone missed call Gabby Riley

looks concerned a gentle knock Riley

sets down her phone distracted are you

okay doing good thanks Riley hides her

Spanx under the sink inter your living

room night Cole is naked on his futon

his pants and shirt are folded did you

fold your pants don't worry about it

Riley Smiles he's kind of sweet into

your living room later Cole and Riley

lie naked under a blanket uh he tries to

wrap his arm around her waist she scoots

away don't be so self-conscious I like

women with meat on their bones I do not

have meat on my bones coal I have hips

and boobs and an ass I know Riley stands

a

and where you going Riley imagin saying

what she really wants to begin fantasy

sequence you should just go [ __ ] that

skinny waitress and stop pretending like

I'm someone you can actually be with the

thin waitress enters in a Victoria

Secret Angel get up wings and all she

hands Riley a box of pizza uh then

mounts Cole Riley eats the pizza

defeated and fantasy sequence in reality

Riley goes with home I have class at 10

tomorrow just stay why so you can

barbecue me in the middle of the night

no so I can [ __ ] you again in the

morning Riley lays back down blocks cold

arm again Riley what just let me like

you okay he slides his arm around her

Riley stiffens uncomfortable exterior

Southern California University day a

beautiful sprawling campus lined with

palm trees college kids Mill about

Carefree Riley exits the city bus

hurried interior classroom day Professor

Bronson 50s uh masculine Stern addresses

a class of grad students uh early 20s

hopeful uh and mid-40s cynical a

reminder that your applications for the

New York Times summer internship or due

next week need I remind you that this is

a highly coveted paid position that will

go to only one of you he looks at Riley

she smiles I encourage you all to apply

as I'm sure you know having a master's

degree no longer guarantees you a job or

hope of any kind great why don't we just

all kill ourselves now Lauren 30

confident uh neurotic Whispers to Riley

God he makes me so wet don't you just

want to [ __ ] him Riley eyes Professor

Bronson thinning hair soft belly wedding

ring he's married that's his problem

Lauren Smiles mischievous exterior Camp

day Riley and Lauren walk together after

class arm in- arm do you want to get

lunch I can't I have to go work on my

application you've been working on that

thing for like a month just send it oh

sure no big deal just a job at the best

newspaper in the world in like my dream

City you're one of the smartest people I

know you'll be fine or homeless could go

either way Lauren s's annoyed if you

decided if you're coming to my parents

for Hanukkah yet I don't know no one is

feeling sorry for you I promise we're

Jews we'll be too busy feeling sorry for

ourselves I might go see my sister if I

can sure yeah no prush I slept with that

undergrad guy how was it he slapped me

in the face with his dick wait like

violently no more like a gentle tap it

was kind of hot get it girl Riley's

phone rings uh Gabby I got to go it's my

sister's caregiver everything okay I'm

sure last time she called it was to tell

me she couldn't get Ed's poop to flush

she had to use a stick to poke it down

the toilet TMI see you at home Lauren

kisses Riley on the cheek Riley answers

hello there's a breathing uh on the

other end then click Riley dials Gabby

straight to voicemail mailbox is full

and count on accept any messages at this

time goodbye Riley dials again straight

to voicemail weird interior Library

later Riley reviews her New York Times

internship application for the millionth

time she hesitates then clicks send her

phone rings Gabby she answers it hushed

hey can I call you right back a man 40

with a thick Spanish accent replies

nervous Roland can you read that is this

Riley yes who is this Ed sister yes is

something wrong is Edie okay Ed's fine

where's Gabby she doesn't know we are

calling you but there's something you

need to know what are you talking about

you're scaring me I'm sorry to be the

one to tell you this but Gabby is dying

what the [ __ ] ENT Riley's bedroom later

Riley pulls a suitcase out of her closet

frantic as she does she shoves aside a

wedding dress Lauren watches he was just

like Gabby is dying by pretty much so

who's watching your sister her niece I

guess he said her family is there they

came up from Mexico so she call it her

family but not you does a state know

they don't even know I live in

California

[ __ ] my favorite kind of writing is when

I uh want to meet the person who wrote

it um uh and uh and that happened here

so

how lucky am I you're right here uh can

you uh do you mind just talking a little

bit about yourself your background sure

um so I originally started in theater

too I studied acting at the University

of Arizona are you from Arizona um no

I'm originally from Wisconsin in the

cornfields um I grew up in Wisconsin was

raised by my grandparents or my grandma

um with my sister and we moved to

Arizona in high school stayed High

School undergrad I was a reporter for a

few years in Tucson and then I um had

success doing that I knew I wanted to

come out to LA a print reporter or um TV

TV yep um and then I came out here got a

job at a marketing company got into USC

did the USC MFA screenwriting program

graduated about a year and a half ago

and since then I've been working in

development at a studio okay comedy

development and um

uh how many how much have you written

before this where are we in your um I've

written an hourong drama pilot um and my

my thesis pilot which a 30 minute um as

well from USC and then a feature um in

rough shape okay when did you write this

I wrote this over the past year and uh

where are you with it who's read it who

who who are you out to um people are

starting to I'm starting to send it out

um I where I want to be with it is I I

want a producer to help guide me through

this um it's my personal story and I

feel like I need I need um I need a

producer like because it's this is my

story and it's really my heart and my

whole life um I need people around it

who are going to care for it I it's I

don't look at it necessarily as a piece

of business even though I know it's just

this is the most important thing to me

um so yeah so I need a good producer who

gets that yeah as someone like Jill

solay you can help Shepherd the process

and really will protect it yeah yeah

those people are are out there um they

are Unfortunately they look exactly like

the people who aren't good uh uh at this

there's there's no way to um until you

have swim in the water um uh but uh but

you're right uh uh that's what you want

uh uh this is very good let's talk about

it um uh first of all let's let's hear

from uh uh you guys what are your

thoughts I thought the opening um

cornfields aside um was was um kind of

riveting I mean I I loved the the image

the cornfield ruined it for me oh wow

absolutely ruined it for me wasn't able

to pay attention to anything else after

the cornfield mistake

MH I'm kidding

Genie are you kid all you did was leave

out of stage Direction it's

okay

fine oh my God I'm sorry I I really am I

was just joking uh literally like three

words it it is all no but it's so funny

I don't know how many times I've read

this and I've never noticed that mistake

I can't tell you how many times I've

done that um uh that uh uh and here's

why it it happens um and you can apply

this to

everything you know

more in in your head than you're able to

put on on the piece of paper and so the

first thing that's why I'm the the first

question I'm I'm asking you after we

read these things is did you understand

what uh uh what you just read That's

always what I want to know uh when I'm

done before we get to is it good or bad

um did enough of what was cuz what was

in my head was brilliant um what was in

my head was the best episode of

Television you've ever seen the best

movie you've ever seen the best play

you've ever seen makes Hamilton look

like garbage uh okay did it get from my

head through my arm into my fingers and

and and down on on a piece of paper uh

uh that's what I want to know so that's

why you leave accidentally leave things

like corfield out it was you're

picturing it in your head they're

driving by cornfields and it's natural

to assume that everyone else is

picturing the exact same thing that

you're picturing okay uh I like Riley uh

a lot uh I like this character first I

want to talk to you about the

autobiographical uh element and then I

want to talk about

the phone call about uh Edy okay I've

never

written straight up autobiographically

uh I never have that's not to say that

experiences that I have or feelings that

I have

haven't seeped uh uh into the work that

I'm doing um but I've I've I've never

written autobiographically so uh I don't

know exactly what it's like when I have

written non-fiction when I've written

real people

um I can tell you that I I take the

facts uh the person's life I don't

distort the facts of the person's life

but by page two of what I'm writing it

becomes a that real person becomes a

character that uh that I've invented uh

in Steve Jobs that was my Steve Jobs uh

up there it was my Mark Zuckerberg uh uh

in The Social Network it was my version

of Billy Bean in uh Moneyball um or

Charlie Wilson I got to stop writing

nonfiction this is uh uh seriously I

started out as a fiction writer I got to

get out of the non-fiction business um I

and I'm saying this to you uh

because you have to um do the same thing

for two reasons uh for the sake of the

writing which is very very uh uh good

right now but we're talking about a

series so you're going to hopefully do

this 100 times all right um and I think

for your own sanity um uh uh you Riley

needs to become your imaginary friend um

and uh and not you uh it might be

helpful for you or maybe not okay I I

don't really every writer is different

um uh and maybe the way you write Riley

is like you were writing in a journal or

a diary uh and uh and it comes out that

way my I'm the reason why I'm concerned

and bringing this up m is because

writing in a journal or a

diary you don't have to obey any of the

laws of uh of drama and storytelling

right and you do here um so I don't want

one to be in conflict with the other now

this phone

call that Edie is

dying who is this guy I'm sorry that

that uh um uh uh uh that Gabby is dying

uh who is this guy he is a f her family

m member who's anonymously calling her

uh do we know that no because I want it

to be an an it's an anonymous man do you

think that we need we need to know who

it is who's making the phone call I

don't but I

think let's just watch something let's

read the phone call again okay and I

just want to show you something let's

just read the phone call it starts on

page

eight into your main library later Riley

reviews her New York Times internship

application for the millionth time she

hesitates then clicks send her phone

rings Gabby she answers it okay here's

where the beat starts her phone rings

it's Gabby right we're going to see that

on the phone she answers it hush go

ahead hey can I call you right back a

man 40s with a thick Spanish accents

replies nervous is this Riley yes who is

this Ed's sister Riley stands worried

yes is something wrong is Edie okay Ed's

fine where's Gabby she doesn't know

we're calling you but there's something

you need to know what are you talking

about you're scaring me I'm sorry to be

the one to have to tell you this but

Gabby is

dying what the

[ __ ] okay uh cool but I I I feel like

the next line has has got to be we we've

got to cut to actually it's just you

need to expand on what the [ __ ] um I

just got the weirdest [ __ ] phone call

of my life a complete stranger with a

thick Spanish accent called and said

Gabby is

dying okay doesn't that deserve that

level of uh shock and surprise and

puzzlement because the audience is going

to be that puzzled right um and you need

to tell the audience it you're supposed

to be that puzzled don't worry our

heroin is uh uh that puzzled um so here

we've arrived at a moment

where uh uh there's a character and

happens to be the lead character knows

as little as the audience does okay

um okay now uh what I want to do is uh

we only have 10 pages here so tell us

about this

show um okay so the show is about a

young woman who suddenly becomes the

caregiver to her intellectually disabled

sister she brings her to California

she's in the middle of pursuing her

dreams she's in grad school I'm assuming

she suddenly becomes the caregiver

because Gabby is dying gab is dying

she's been the guardian

autobiographically been the guardian

since I was had a caregiver she stayed

with my sister stayed with the caregiver

came out here for grad school to work

the caregiver died so I brought her to

live with me your sister is mentally

disabled she's mentally disabled um so

I've been her guardian but she had a

caregiver and the careg passed away um

so I brought her out here so essentially

it's Riley's journey of you know can she

take care of herself can she pursue her

dreams her passions while also taking

care of Edie Ed is the biggest obstacle

to what she wants she wants normaly she

wants to live the life that everyone

else seems to have and she has this

person who's completely dependent on her

and she has to fight for her and make

choices on her behalf so it's really

this emotional journey of Two Sisters

where in the beginning Ed's been on the

back burner for a long time and this

situation forces Edie to be take you

know she's on the front burner I guess

um and so it's really a story of them

coming together as a family but also

Riley's balance of her own life and what

she want aunts and her sister so by the

end of season 1 Riley has to fight the

state of California for uh Disability

Services she needs to find Ed a home

while also finishing her last year of

grad school end of season one I see

Riley she finds a home for Ed and it's

her dropping her off and just being

absolutely devastated that so it's she's

grown so close with her sister now it's

she's fearful of giving up that

responsibility to someone else of of

trusting yet again another caregiver

other people to come in when it's really

just been the two of them and you were

talking about how you see the end of

season one um are you leaving it there

that simply that Riley is devastated at

having to do it or is Riley going to say

I changed my mind sis come back and live

with no she's doing it and that's season

two is opening it up into the group home

and how does she balance you know when

she's had to take on this responsibility

and she said to fight so hard how does

she let new caregivers come in how does

she trust that and then there's going to

be incidents where she realizes she

can't necessarily trust them um but she

also knows she cannot bring her back to

live alone with her because that means

it's just not a good situation for

either of them and it's not what's best

for both so does that make sense it does

make sense um can you talk about Edie a

little bit yes so Edie is um by looking

at her you can't tell that she's

disabled um is it's an intellectual

disability she's a younger sister uh

older a year older so she's a year older

um same size as Riley strong stubborn

manipulative doesn't have a lot of words

10 to 15 words um she likes to watch wey

the Pooh Barney she carries a Barney

doll um she is very stubborn if she

doesn't want to do something she'll sit

on the ground Riley lives in a second

story apartment so she frequently have

has to carry her up the stairs um so

she's but she's also very sweet and

loving and they have these tender

moments together where I'm sorry she has

to carry her up the stairs because is

unwilling to go up the stairs

or is unwilling to go up yeah so part of

her she's stubborn she's like a a

three-year-old child if she doesn't want

to do something she's not going to do it

um and she's you know but she's 32 years

old so she has the body of a 32-year-old

woman so it's these two women who are

the same size but one is significantly

intellectually delayed well this is some

pretty challenging stuff for series

television don't you think I do think it

is but I think it's incredibly important

and I think especially with humor you

can approach difficult subjects like

disability and really talk about it

because this is an experience one in

five Americans are disabled and we don't

see them on TV they're prop characters

they're in the background um this is an

experience people are out there people

are fighting the government for services

there I really want to see you win this

one um I I think first of all that uh

you had a good Instinct giving it a a

comic tone okay in 1970 a uh CBS

executive famously said to Jim Brooks

James El Brooks um who talking about the

Mary Tyler Mor show taxi um uh when he

went into features Broadcast News Terms

of Endearment uh right this is a very

serious writer uh here CBS executive

told Jim Brooks that there are four

things you will never see on

television a divorced person a Jewish

person person from New York City or

person with a mustache okay that guy was

super

stupid okay those are four rules that

have nothing to do with the rules of

drama um and the point that I'm making

um is a I like to uh seize any

opportunity to embarrass that person uh

uh who said that um to

discourage contemporary people from uh

uh making the same mistake uh but also

to tell you that when you go out there

whether it's with uh a a a pitch for TV

series or for a movie or a spec script

you're going to have a lot of dumb

obstacles uh in front of you um you're

going to hear a lot of rules that are

not the real rules uh of writing uh

they're fake rules made up like you you

can't have a divorced Jewish person with

a mustache uh living in New York City by

the way I'm pretty sure every half hour

now is about a divorced Jewish person

the mustache living in unity um uh

and Genie you're gonna hear the same

thing um uh I think that you're smart

enough to know um that uh uh you've got

something very very good here which is

uh a a but a but a tough needle to

thread and I'm saying this believe it or

not not to discourage you but to

encourage you um uh I I want you to

thread that needle um and I I don't want

you to have to compromise the truth of

who Edy is what do I mean by that um if

you can and if you can't find me and

I'll help you do it if you can read the

first first draft of Rainman okay in

which uh

Rainman

uh was

um we were told he was autistic um but

uh for instance um uh the end of the

movie uh had um the Dustin had the

Dustin Hoffman character Raymond um uh

and his brother I can't remember Ry I

don't know wasn't Ray of course uh

whatever Tom Cruz played uh in that

movie hugging each other and saying uh I

love you when the reality is that an

autistic person is not capable of that

they are not capable of doing what we

want a character to do by the end of the

movie which is to have changed um uh and

uh uh so it it it was a satisfying movie

moment but it was just a big fat lie uh

and uh that script got Rewritten when

the Academy Award uh uh for best

screenplay and with a very honest

performance uh uh from Dustin Hoffman

there wasn't any hugging uh or I love

you they you remember they touched

foreheads um uh which was as far as uh a

Raymond can go but then Raymond gets

back on the train and he he's the same

person uh uh he was the beginning of the

movie was

pretty bold thing to do but boy did it

pay off uh in a big one it's a great

movie uh right

um

so I guess what I'm saying is I'm dying

to see the second 10 pages and the third

10 pages and the fourth 10 pages of this

because I want to meet Edie um and uh uh

you are going to run

into uh a lot of people who are going to

tell you that uh sorry but uh a

um an intellectually challenged person

on television it's just not going to

work um don't believe them okay they're

wrong uhh they're wrong and you're right

okay I promise you say in s told me

so do it

uh the next one is chronic chronic

Roland zeleski you're up me it's a

feature script the full script log line

is a former explosives expert is

kidnapped and wakes up to learn that

every time his heart beats 1,000 times a

bomb will detonate somewhere the city of

Los Angeles um that's pretty cool uh

sample scene description um flight

attendant attempts to disarm a smuggled

explosive on a passenger flight with the

instructions uh of Alex Quinn former

bomb expert who's in the middle of his

own mission to track an arms dealer uh

okay

okay uh interior airplane day uh 747

passenger aircraft 20 minutes into the

air Sunshine pouring Through the Windows

insert Friday 10:35 a.m. down the aisle

muddlers fathers businessmen tourists

children brooding teenagers uh the end

of the plane storage area's attendant

seating in bathrooms Lily Thompson late

20s a flight attendant knocking on one

of the bathroom doors her patients

quickly wearing down sir the pilot has

turned on the seat belt sign I need you

to return to your seat sir a male

attendant breezes past Lily holding a

bag of trash he stops recognizing her

frustration half the time it's a medical

issue and the other half masturbation oh

sorry I don't know what I'm masturbation

he's been in there

got please be medical come on man wrap

it up hello no response the attendant Mo

removes a keychain from his pocket

singling out a plastic hook device he

wiggles it inside the handle unlocking

the door James Bond in occupied bathroom

a smirk from the attendant as the door

clicks unlocked Lily pushes it open sir

reveal inside the bathroom a middle-aged

man crumbled on the floor his wrists

bleeding pool of blood all around uh

pale skin dead Lily

screams holy [ __ ] the attendant rushes

in checking the man for signs of life

nothing he rushes back out panicked

close the door I'll see if I can find a

doctor Lily stunned nods she enters the

bathroom Doors door closed the hum of

the turbines in the b and a beeping

faint Lily looks around confused Lily

kneels removing the small trash

container from under the sink the

beeping is louder now coming from inside

the trash Lily Roots through the garbage

finding an electronic box wired plastic

molding attached to the back a countdown

on a tiny view screen in the corner 402

4014 359 Lise face turns white as the

Turbin's noise intensifies merging with

the mechanic uh mechanized screeching of

interior Los Angeles Subway day a Subway

charging down a passenger platform focus

on the back of a man waiting for the

train he's off to the next station

insert 10:37 a.m. the man's right arm

moves covertly for his ear listening to

the instructions through an earpiece the

man moves inside the subway fourth

compartment for the first time we see

his face Alex Quinn 30s a warrior build

with a l lover smile he scans the seats

finding an Asian businessman the seller

holding a metal suitcase Alex floats

along the aisle nonchalant watching him

eyes on the target don't intercept until

we identify the buyer Alex Alex takes a

seat hell of a way to start my vacation

you missing a volleyball game or

something you're funnier than I remember

only because all those DC Pricks are

making you corporate Alex watches as the

seller stands and moves for the sliding

doors waiting as Alex Rises up we're

suddenly in interor Los Angeles FBI

offices hallway same double doors

bursting oops double doors bursting open

out walks Lieutenant division Chief

Frank Falco 50s thin age Beyond his ears

with a bullish face of a man confronted

with Perpetual life or death situations

insert 10:38 a.m. an associate 30s

walking beside him as get LAX TSA to

mobilize a response unit on the ground

is the plane turning pilot just

confirmed we have the girl the associate

hands Lieutenant Falco with cell phone

Miss Thompson this is Lieutenant Falco

with uh

fbic how much time interior a airplane

restroom same The View SC screen 2

minute 30 seconds 2 minutes 29

seconds Lily on the phone with Falco her

forc composure descending into pure

panic you have to do something intercut

Lily and Lieutenant Falco how much time

a little over 2 minutes Lieutenant Falco

stops turning to the associate who do we

have on the uh the field that can talk

her through this uh Ramirez and jacobo

can be patched in what about Quinn he's

in town this week right he's on an OP

now sir I checked and he doesn't work

for you he's not working for me he's

working for them and he's the best we've

got get him on the line now interior

subway station same the subway coming to

a stop at the next station Alex's eyes

still fixed on the cellar with the

suitcase now standing by the sliding

doors we're getting an emergency

transfer I'm punching you in transfer to

who Falco FBI counterterrorism I can't

it can wait no it can't Alex's eyes rise

surprised by the new voice interior

airplane restroom same Lily still in the

bathroom phone glued to her ear the

countdown 149 148 147 in audible click

on her phone Lily perks up Alex's voice

is now on the line you're breathing too

fast intercut Alex and Lily ding the

dway the subway doors open people on the

move a rapid flow of commuter spilling

out into the platform there's only a

minute and a half left I don't know what

to do Alex gets up from his seat

blending him with the herd following the

seller out to the platform the seller

walking briskly up the nearby escalator

Alex following how big is the device

about the size of a brick Alex heading

upstairs keeping a distance covert

focused it's a concentrated explosive

with an electrical trigger there should

be three copper wires attached to the

molding do you see it Lily turns the

device around in inserted into the

plastic explosive three copper wires I

see it Alex reaching the upper platform

the seller heading towards a dense crowd

Alex Shadows him trying to keep up if

you try to remove the wires it'll set

off a default activator and detonate the

wires are connected to small chip inside

the casing the chip controls the

countdown I see a chip inside the casing

a small silver micr chip wires running

through three larger holes inside of it

the countdown 1 minute 18 1 minute 17 1

minute 16 Alex reaching the ground level

platform heading outside the station

bustling with activity you need to reach

in and remove the chip without it

touching the wires Alex's eyes following

the Celler as he stops by the curb

remember don't let it touch the wires if

there's any change in conductivity the

Detonator will activate I can't I don't

think I can do this at Le trembling hand

reaches inside the casing she retracts

terrified the countdown 102 101 1

someone else can find it's you I know

this is happening fast I know you're

scared Alex's POV the seller looking

down the street a white sedan turning a

corner heading towards the

St okay uh can you just tell us a little

about this uh yeah it's the feature

itself uh yeah um uh have have you

finished it yeah it's in first draft

form uhhuh yeah so it's it's it's

intended to be sort of a it's kind of

crank meets phone booth where an old

rival of this guy mysterious we don't

know who it is sets up this kidnaps him

basically for a weekend puts him under

sedation does surgery on him with a team

of Specialists connect a pacemaker to

his heart which he needs surgery for

anyway because he has a heart condition

and actually connects the pacemaker to a

series of bombs in Los Angeles but each

bomb correlates with certain pivotal

moments in this guy's life this guy's a

degenerate father he's ignored his young

daughter his wife's great basically a

single mother um and it's sort of him

having to retrace the steps in his life

trying to find these bombs um which

ultimately kind of like allows him to

realize why he was put into this like

game to begin with because there's a

larger plot behind this all um and it

sort of is like a play on time too cuz

like if you think about the faster he

tries to get to these explosives the

less time he actually has because the

more he's actually exerting himself and

using his heart pumping more so if he

actually movees slower he has more time

but he's going to not get to the

locations as fast as he would so it's

going to have all these well has all

these elements of like sometimes he has

to speed his heart right up by taking

like Red Bull and pills and sometimes he

has to slow it down or sometimes he has

to like electrocute himself just to make

his heart stop and have someone else you

know well that's a pretty cool idea it

it really is and this was a good scene I

just want to talk about a couple of

things uh

uh is this is a minor thing uh uh is

this going to take place you start off

with um uh with a title Friday 10:35 mhm

the fact that it's Friday significant is

this going to take place over a week he

gets kidnapped the following this

weekend coming up on Saturday okay uh I

just want to make sure that you're not

giving us more information that we need

than than we need I want to make sure

that we're not thinking something is

important that isn't gotcha um uh but

let me get to uh the the real thing um

because then you're your next titled by

by the way is 10:37 which we are to

presume is the same day uh uh uh but 2

minutes later um 10:37 is opposed to

Friday

10:37 it's not a big deal uh let me tell

you something

I

don't care at all about reality uh what

I care about is the appearance of

reality you shouldn't care about uh uh

reality either you should care about the

appearance of reality what do I mean by

that mash the TV series Mash you've all

seen it right um I I I don't know what

an army surgical hospital in Korea uh uh

really looks like but I believe that I I

I buy that one it had the appearance of

reality um and because it had the

appearance of Reality by appearance of

reality uh

I I mean that they used Jaron uh uh that

I didn't understand just all as opposed

to let's take another great half hour TV

show The Mary Tyler Moore Show okay this

is a great half hour I'm not putting it

down but nobody your enjoyment of the

show doesn't depend on believing that

that's really how local news is done

with one guy sitting at a desk and a

typewriter and an idiot in front of the

camera um and the like there three

people who work there um if you look at

Murphy Brown uh your enjoy another great

half hour your enjoyment of Murphy Brown

doesn't depend on your really thinking

that that that's how 60 Minutes is done

by five people around a lolium table

near the elevators uh okay one of whom

is the receptionist you know um uh those

two sets those are comedy sets there are

lots of doors in them uh uh that's

that's what a comedy set is with mash

what Larry gilbart wanted to do was make

it seem real and by having it seem real

he could have a show that was funny and

emotional and

uh uh you know deadly serious um and

political not just in the same series

not even just in the same episode but

off times in the same scene there was

blood in that operating room um we

really believed that you know people

were going to live or die uh on on that

table you you bought it all so what does

this have to do with what you

wrote the real thing can sometimes go a

long way in terms of establishing

credibility

have did you for instance in writing

this did you find

out what would really happen if a flight

attendant you know busted open uh uh the

door of a restroom found a dead guy in

there with certainly what looked like a

ticking

bomb um a little bit it's they turned

the plane around but if there's nothing

they can how does the flight attendant

communicate that to the

pilot isn't that the first thing that he

or she has to do yeah communicate to the

pilot there's a bomb on the plane right

are there special words that they have

for that pilot we have a code blue here

uh uh is there something that's what we

want to see right then we want to go

behind the scenes on a plane where

there's a bomb because I am sure um that

they that flight attendants are trained

uh in this and if I see a flight

attendant go in there because it's a

fantastic setup um a guy who just killed

himself uh there's a ticking bomb we're

going to get to how that bomb could have

gotten on the plane in uh in a second um

but at that moment what I want to see is

what really happens uh uh when uh when

when that goes on um and is it really

the flight attendant who's tasked with

uh disarming the bomb um as opposed to

say the uh the co-pilot and what do they

say to the passengers um and as so for

instance instead of uh um I'll see if

there's a a doctor on

board he he doesn't have to that's a

male flight attendant doing that right

uh he doesn't have to say that to the

other flight attendant there's a

procedure uh uh if someone's down you

just wanted to pick up the thing uh and

say ladies and gentlemen we have a

whatever uh uh the thing is how how it

is that they don't alarm the other

passengers but but do a thing I want

right then to see the real thing uh I

know we're at the movies I know that

there's a bucket of popcorn in my lap

but the thing that's going to entertain

me the most is finding out what would

really happen uh in that situation and

you're going to be surprised it's going

to be cool okay whatever the thing is

you're G to say oh man that's great uh

that's a really cool thing um uh and

suddenly it it only took a matter of

seconds for me to believe this whole

thing um uh now on the ground uh uh with

Alex um

Alex is both giving instructions on how

to disarm this

bomb and trying to bust a uh an arms

dealer uh at the same time right there's

a trick for when you have to try to pull

off something slightly implausible uh

okay let me back up for a second um uh

and talk about implausible things

I think that you're all reading uh

Aristotle's

Poetics right maybe not um uh maybe that

that's an assignment that'll be given to

you if you haven't read it it's it's not

even a book it's like 64 Pages it's a

pamphlet and uh uh it's a it's a thing

that Aristotle wrote and it it's it

gives it defines what drama is it gives

all the rules of drama and you should be

Evangelical about Aristotle's Poetics

the way some people take the Bible

literally you should take Aristotle's

Poetics

literally because it is the law uh okay

uh and one of his laws is this follow me

now that a probable impossibility is

preferable to a possible improbability

what does that mean uh a a probable

impossibility a probable

impossibility is ET following a trail of

um Reese's uh pieces uh uh to a guy's

house because at least as far as we know

ET there aren't these guys really cute

guys flying around and and landing on

Earth that's an impossibility but once

we've bought that we are now in a world

where there's ET it's perfectly logical

that he would follow uh a a trail of uh

Reese's Pieces to somebody's house I

don't have a problem buying that um uh

what is a possible improbability

possible improbability is that you turn

on the radio or the television set at

the exact moment that the news that you

need uh uh is coming on um uh you turn

on the radio the killer was spotted on

Smith Street coming okay um uh at that

exact moment it's possible it's more

possible than ET um uh and the thing but

it's not probable so in

drama

a probable possibility is preferable to

a possible improbability what we have

here is a possible improbability okay

that one guy would have to be dealing

with both of these very serious things

at the same time there is a get out of

jail free card on the possible and

probability do you want to avoid it if

you can but sometimes you can't and when

you can't don't pretend that you can't

use it to your advantage and the way to

get out of jail free card for the

possible and probability is simply to

admit it uh okay to fly in the face of

it to have Alex say some form of I'm I

the only law enforcement officer in the

world are you telling me that I have got

to do this while I'm doing that yes

that's exactly what we're telling you

for the following reasons because Joe is

out sick and this guy doesn't know how

to do this yes you've got to do both

these things at the same time the teeth

of it admit what you're doing and you

can get away with it in any situation

like disarming the bomb anytime you can

get the real thing uh okay look at the

real thing because there's probably

going to be cool stuff in there uh you

don't necessarily have to use it uh uh

if you don't want to I remember I was

writing something um I needed medical

jargon for something I honestly can't

remember what it was now um uh but I I

needed medical jargon I needed

for uh you know was one I do remember

what it was now but um it it's one of

those stretcher crashing through the ER

door things um and you need somebody to

shout out he's got this this this this

this and this so I found out what the

real thing was but there was a word I

just didn't like the sound of uh uh in

there it was a word I was tripping on

every time um and you know I decided I'm

not doing this for a an audience of

um of doctors um uh uh I'm I'm just

going to I I made up a word I did I just

made up a word um uh and um uh and use

that instead I never heard and nobody we

got no letters we nothing uh I made up a

word

um I want to hear how the bomb got on

the

plane uh okay um uh uh because we're

again we're going to kind of Be

Wondering that and we're going to sense

listen audiences

are are are cool things um they they

know the rules without knowing that they

know the rules okay um uh it's

I I'm I'm not a chef I don't know

anything about food I'm not really

interested uh in food I know what tastes

good to me and and what doesn't and a

chef a food expert would be able to say

ah well you're tasting the cumin mixed

with the this and that and a light uh a

coding of this audiences don't know

about the cumin being mixed with this

and that they just know if it tastes

good uh or not um uh so if you're saying

to the audience that you don't need to

explain how the bomb got on there in a

day and age when we're taking off our

shoes and can't carry shampoo um uh then

you're saying to the audience none of

this is really rooted in reality and you

can pay more attention to your raisinets

than you thought you're going to be able

to uh uh so I would again I would go to

somebody who knows uh and say how does a

I need I need the following to happen

how can it happen I'll bet you somewhere

in there there's going to be cool

information uh uh that you can use and

Alex and Lieutenant Falco can sound like

uh they know what they're doing uh okay

why is this guy the only one who can

solve crimes how did the uh bomb get on

the

plane um I think that's that's enough uh

for this it's but let me emphasize again

really good job uh uh you know really

good job really nice writing you caught

my attention uh you too can uh write

action uh which is something that I can

now

good afternoon guys it's good to see you

again um uh we're going to start off

with the Merc which is a 1hour pilot

from Evelyn EES over black say you buy a

th000 shares of Coca-Cola from your

client each valued at $42 so that's $4 2

Grand stock goes up to 43 44 45 hell

let's say it goes all the way up to 47

like it did last June fade in on flashes

of skin sex top shelf bottles lotes

nudes and Coke cut into neat white lines

in the bare stomach of a blue chip

hooker an almost super model your

commission off that $5,000 profit is 1%

you just spent 6 months trying to make

50 bucks and you have 100 other stocks

and 100 other clients to worry about but

hey that's Wall Street right a line Zips

through the coils of a $100 bill of the

nostril and grinning face of a Wall

Street stock broker who's pushed out of

the way by more Brokers just dying to

get a hit we pull back to see the full

extent of this debauchery exterior

Battery Park Marina yacht night three

blue chips to every horny broker on 100

foot yacht cruising along the marina

against the backdrop of the financial

district and the World Trade Center

title Battery Park New York

1978 the only man lucid and taking

advantage of their high is Andy marks 30

boyish Brook charm and a sweet face that

belies any trace of Darkness or genius

in this Crow of Suits he's the only

leather jacket out of place but

completely at ease so let's say you

convince your clients to bet on oil at

the Merc where you don't even have to

worry about stockholders or a board of

directors or the SEC you get to drive

the price up and down a million times

over and the only constant is that

everybody everybody needs

oil now you're making 20% off 200,000

you made 200,000 in one morning yes

[ __ ] that's not what you said this

killjoy is David Mercer 34 Leman

Brothers broker unbelievable good looks

money a perfect storm of cocaine and

self-loathing what I said was flashback

to Wall Street 2 months ago a series of

shots the street sign the bull the New

York Stock Exchange in cheer Leman

Brothers Bullpen day box sized computers

index cards telephone cords 10 ft long

all top-of-the-line technology in the

midst of this chaos David unsettled

fixated on I made more money trading oil

Futures than I did my first 3 years

combined nobody's trading oil I am and

so can you cut to maril Lynch day Andy

is now facing an uptight maril Lynch

broker with a serious combover all right

who else forget who else you want the

entire city to get on on this before you

do insure JP Morgan different firm

different broker this one has three

chins and no neck we have to see the

contracts I'll show you the contracts

but let me ask you this what is is your

top priority as a broker interor Goldman

Sachs day same deal same conversation

this broker is all mustache and from

here on out we cut back and forth

between firms to make money the [ __ ]

kind of question is that and where does

it say in your bylaws that you have to

make money betting on Blue Chip stocks

in your entire career it doesn't so

what's the problem back to David who

can't believe what he's hearing what

you're trading this oil thing it's not

on Wall Street that's right it's at the

MC the MC my don't even know what that

is they've never even heard of it so

explain it to them David let s laugh

it's a [ __ ] animal form you got your

butchers cabbies bunch of uneducated low

lives you've been trading potatoes and

eggs for 100 years and now I'm supposed

to explain to my clients how you want to

start trading oil Andy is unfazed by

their attacks you want to sell your

clients why don't you start by those

blue chip stocks they love so much

coover opens his mouth to interrupt Andy

Cuts him off IBM Ford GM they're flat

Landing because the economy's down 7.2%

inflation's up 9% the Dow has lost 45%

of its value and you're in the seventh

worst bare Market in the history of the

index necklace' three chins threatened

to swallow his dumbfounded face who is

this guy and it's not your fault but

none of it matters and they don't give a

damn because the bottom line is everyone

is losing money mustache stares at him

not blinking and he pushes on but you

their brilliant [ __ ] stock broker who

they've entrusted with their lives you

have an answer silence uneasy

Expressions then oil Futures yes at the

Merc that's right they're almost sold

then is every anyone even going to

mention the obvious and

flashback Ellen you are a

badass uh there's no doubt about it you

uh you write great I'd like to know a

little bit about you okay uh can you

just give me some background sure um I

grew up in Jakarta Indonesia lived there

for about 17 years till the end of high

school I grew up watching your shows um

and I worshiped The West Wing and the

moment that I heard about CJ Craig's

epic walk and talks I knew I wanted to

be a writer well that's really nice to

hear uh and

uh post Jakarta post Jakarta I moved to

LA about 8 years ago M um I went to the

New York Film Academy in Los Angeles in

Burbank actually um and I studied acting

first and then screenwriting and then

yeah that's basically

it okay what have you written before

this uh I wrote a couple of features and

then one aborted pilot this is like my

second is pilot you can call it that

okay uh well I'll tell you something um

I have no idea what kind of actress uh

you are but you should be doing this uh

professionally you know uh you are not

kidding yourself uh you can absolutely

do this um uh

this just as a writing sample I mean I

know what you want is is to get the Merc

produced but as a writing sample sent to

agents sent to showrunners you could get

staffed up thank you on a TV show so

let's talk about the Merc um which you

all right about it's first of all you

know I was talking uh uh before about uh

how I love the use of pis to you know

make it sound like to give the

appearance of reality yes um you have

done that beautifully so how do you know

so much about the Mercantile Exchange I

have done exhaustive research on it this

is all from researchers this none of

this is firstand experience no my father

um sort of dabbled in derivatives

trading but in Asia which is like

totally different from this so um

growing up I basically try to figure out

what he does for a living um and

anything he explained to me like went

straight over my head so I just started

reading up as much as I could about it

but he was still talking the

talk not I mean not really he it's it's

definitely not this so it he wasn't very

helpful in that respect um everything I

got I got from you know things I read

documentaries that I watched um I've

been to New York maybe once in my life

for about a week so everything is

basically from shows that I watched

uhhuh um research that I've done and

just sheer imagin

uh let's then talk about your

protagonist Andy yes

um now we only have the first 10 pages

of the script that's that's all we've

read can you talk about where he goes

from here yeah um so basically uh he is

trying to resurrect oil trading which we

can kind of see here and he's sort of

like one of he's one of the last men

standing at the merant exchange which

has basically gone bust after um the

aftermath of the potato market crash so

um and he's trying to do this for the

old guys who basically showed him the

ropes like his mentor Vinnie futari who

we kind of see in the latter uh five

pages is The Merk and you are talking to

somebody who I I'm I'm illiterate when

it comes to uh the

business uh we the money business uh um

uh uh The merkal Exchange is uh uh sort

of

the ugly little cousin of the New York

Stock Exchange right exactly basally do

Commodities and um the original mertile

exchange is found it was founded in

Chicago and they do like pork belly or

orange juice all of the not very sexy

Commodities okay yeah everybody stick a

pin in what she just said and continue

because we're going to return to that

okay um uh you were talking about Andy

and where he's going um so basically

he's tasked with this uh job of having

to bring back this old commodity which

is oil which was not being traded at the

time um and he's dealing with the SEC

and the bureaucratic red tape and most

of all um their reputation the mertile

exchange's reputation is basically this

defunct institution and he has to go

gravel to Wall Street and his old rivals

basically to infuse cash and to bring

investors into this place um so that's

basically where the pilot takes us is

his attempt to uh bring in this Texas

oil Baron to uh to get this oil company

sort of in the fold and to kind of bring

some life into onto the floor basically

are we going to be involved in Andy's

personal life at all in this series uh

not necessarily a pilot yeah very I mean

it is a workplace drama but we do see

his personal life and um mostly his um

the fatherson relationship that exists

between him and his mentor which sort of

uh is a serves as a contrast between him

and his own father who's actually the

boss of the of the Mercantile Exchange

and who has a very hostile relationship

with um and at the same time uh he's in

love with his mentors daughter Karina

who wants nothing to do with the Merc

and he's also uh he's also just hired

this new clerk who used to be uh David's

ex-girlfriend and ex- clerk in Wall

Street so it's sort of yeah okay um uh

that all sounds great to me now

returning to uh uh what you said before

uh that what the difference is between

the Merk andile exchange the Merc and uh

the New York Stock Exchange NASDAQ uh

that kind of thing uh I am not smart but

I don't think that I'm uh considerably

dumber than the average viewer that

you're looking for uh uh with this show

I don't think I'm considerably Dumber uh

uh than that person smar and what I

don't think so um and I'm mentioning

this because as as as as great as this

opening is um uh you know and it it

grabs us it's sexy it

um the flashback in the middle of it uh

uh

works I would think about resisting the

temptation to start with the Wolf of

Wall Street opening okay to not to start

you that can be your second scene it can

be your third scene not to start with uh

the scene about the excesses of Wall

Street Hookers drugs Yachts uh uh that

kind of thing and start by with

something that shows us what the Merc is

uh uh relative to what we're used to

because we haven't seen that uh before

we've only ever seen Wall Street Wolf of

Wall Street yeah every movie about drugs

and uh uh and loss of Soul uh on on Wall

Street is always um you know the the the

panthous of uh of this business um and

my instinct would be uh uh to to make it

clear why this is special okay uh is to

demonstrate some of the things that you

say uh in this opening here that it's an

exchange run by janitors um that you've

been selling eggs and potatoes uh uh for

a 100 years that kind of thing I would

show us uh how this is different I think

by doing that you're going to do two

things at once um uh you're going to

show us how this is different from uh

other things that are in the same area I

think we're going to love Andy more okay

um uh if we see that he is struggling in

triaa ball and not uh uh the major

leagues okay now it's a workplace drama

so there are going to be other people in

this workplace there's going to be

Vinnie yeah or right um and is there

uh do you feel like and it's okay if we

don't know the answer to all these

questions yet um I'll ever to answer

them

uh is there going to be if you look at

you guys watch Silicon Valley yes on HBO

I love Silicon Valley uh uh I think it's

fantastic um and one of the truly

impressive things about this show is

we're now two episodes into season 3 and

they have still they've

sustained the the whole show is about

building one company yeah and it's been

about that since the first episode um uh

and it's it's not like we started with

pi Piper a very successful company and

each episode we'll see what kind of hij

Jinks the P Piper guys uh uh get every

episode there you are building toward uh

the same goal and I think it's

remarkable that they've been able to do

that for what's now I guess 22 Episodes

um do you think that in uh in this

series that the entire series is going

to be working toward a goal or uh or is

is it more like the westwing where each

episode is a slightly different

Adventure in in their lives um I think

it's a little bit of both it's more of a

serialized um show than the westwing um

I think the main goal is for them to

sort of bring uh oil trading into this

they're they're basically Midway through

the series it's going to be the peak of

uh oil trading and they're basically

going to it's it's a reversal of Fortune

and then their eventual downfall don't

we need to know why bringing oil trading

into the Merc is a big deal to Andy yeah

um we need to know that pretty early on

right because you're talking about

something fairly

cerebral um um I would frontload uh that

stuff okay by all means have the scene

on the yacht with the hookers in the

blow uh okay do it um and uh if your

line producer uh can figure out and a

affordable way to have one yacht crash

into another yacht uh uh the way you're

doing here because when I was reading it

I was thinking how how do do you do that

um Can the yacht crash into a canoe uh

is that because those are going to be

the questions uh that you get if your

line producer can do that I've never

seen that on TV before so do that um uh

and uh uh the big takeaway here should

be your you're really very very good

that means a lot coming from you um I'm

uh you have an exciting career in front

of you and I'm looking forward to uh to

watching it as helpful as it is for the

read when when you call characters

mustache and necklace and um uh and

things like that it's actually very

helpful uh uh for the read Because

reading it we know this is an

unimportant character we just it's to

distinguish that kind we get that when

you're reading it um when you're

actually doing it

uh like for in I I would I would give

them names uh and here's why just the

way uh uh when I send out the uh the

final draft I'll change waiter number

two to Jonathan or something just the

Dignity of the actor sure uh uh okay um

who if they came and auditioned for the

job of mustache um uh and competed

against 14 other people to get the job

of mustache and they've got to go back

and tell their family guess what but uh

I got cast on Evelyn Eve's show I'm

playing mustache okay let them have

their dignity um uh uh it's you don't

make them play waiter number two or

mustache or necklace but it's it's

really good for the read um just when

you get to actually casting it I hope to

have that problem and you will um uh

don't uh you know be nice to act

Cory yes you're up all righty um uh from

here to Ali is that how it's pronounced

a i yes so it's not at all how it's

pronounced all could missed any more

than I did from here to iie um uh let's

uh uh read the first couple of Pages uh

of it um and then I have some questions

I want to ask I think it's fantastic I

think it's terrific as you know I was

hoping that you'd tank um uh but uh just

out of spite you know I I hear that um

uh but let's read the first couple of

pages go ahead it's all yours interior

nail salon day M Lyn hollingworth a m a

middle-aged Caucasian woman who hasn't

worked a day in her married life is

sitting in a chair in a spot she's

wearing yoga pants with a matching top

and sporting a ring that could fund a

small business chance a male nail worker

is fervently falling away at her toes

mty Lynn is on the phone sipping a kale

juice no Olivia I'm telling you it's the

absolute best it was the most gentle

colonic I've ever had it was like he

wasn't even there it was like I wasn't

even there wait hold on she Taps chance

on the shoulder Ola um you're digging

into my pinky toey mucho hurt mucho okay

I'm Asian and I speak English sound good

you just keep it at keep at it down

there big tippo big tip yeah chance

rolls his eyes Olivia sweetie what are

you doing over there well it sounds like

you're trying to push a car out of your

vagina a what honey a master cleanse on

Monday is never something to explore

especially with the way you drink you're

all done thank you mu mu Zapatos Olivia

honey I got to go she slurps down the

rest of her kale juice and hobbles out

of her chair she goes up to pay over her

shoulder on the television screen could

be the biggest embezzlement in Ponzi

scheme to hit America in the last 100

years all employees are being indicted

and will be brought uh in for

questioning meanwhile Cromwell says it's

not his fault uh so who's right more

details coming up but first Jan is with

the weather such a shame thanks Tom well

today's going to be another hot one here

in Los Angeles with temperatures ranging

in the high 90s so if you're thinking

about hitting the pool Meanwhile your

card now working your machine no working

swipe it again please she does the

machine beeps and seals her fate nope

the salon cashier Hannah an older Asian

lady in a Mumu holds out her card mty

Lynn snatches it back and starts to dig

into her purse this is obviously a

mistake and I can't believe that as

loyal as a loyal customer who pretty

much keeps you in business you can't

figure this out I'm sorry well me too

here try this one she hands her another

card it works there we go thank you come

again Mrs mty Ren okay Hannah we've been

through this before every time you work

here every time she works here it's

Maddie Lynn yes Maddie Ren Maddy Lynn

Ren Lynn Ren no oh

Lyn l

wa okay uh on page three you have a joke

that I'm really impressed with uh

because it uh you stick with it a long

time it's a joke that it's the Lin Rin

Lin Rin um uh uh thing and uh uh you

stick with it for an entire page which

shows a lot of confidence uh confidence

is terribly important as a writer yeah

you have to write with confidence uh and

uh this to me doesn't look like a new

writer uh uh this looks like somebody

who's doing this uh for a long time who

has absolute faith in themsel uh uh that

they're funny who understands that the

two actresses uh are going to be able to

pull this off I was very impressed with

this joke so um uh somewhere some

somewhere along the line someone will

raise a concern that is

this uh is there subtle racism uh here I

don't think there is uh um uh and truly

I think what's funny is how long you

stuck with it um uh it's really good

now I think I know uh but uh and and

just to so we're all on the P same page

here what we have have here is basically

a Brentwood woman of leisure who's uh um

also not very nice uh uh to people uh

who she doesn't believe is in the are in

the same social class as she is uh she

has two children 15-year-old twins boy

uh and a girl uh and there is another

couple um uh from the other side of the

tracks a woman for whom uh getting a

manicure is a a luxury Splurge um uh uh

having a a Visa card is a is a very big

deal it's a proud thing and it's just

for emergencies she's married to a

gardener it's it uh it's a Mexican

couple uh and what I'm assuming is about

to happen are we about to find out

excuse me that mty Lynn's husband

um is involved in this uh Ponzi scheme

that we heard in the news okay

uh you gave me up to page

12 and we

had we uh a phone call just got dumped

between uh between M Linn's son right

before this last scene that you gave me

the second to last scene um was MN and

Jud are talking uh uh that call gets

dropped but uh is that what Judson is

about to tell Mulin yes okay uh so and

tell me again they're up to page 13 here

is that going to happen on page 14 it is

that very next scene is him crawling out

of the back window of his office trying

to

escape uh okay I should have mentioned

by the way this is a uh a pilot episode

for a 30 or 60 Minute 60 60 um

uh okay

because

uh if we had gone three more pages uh

without that happening I would have said

you need to move up the inciting action

uh a little bit earlier uh but I think

you did it just fine uh uh can you talk

about the rest of this yes um we also

meet um Diego who actually owns a yard

and landscaping business that he wants

to pass down to his son um because he

got it from his dad and the son doesn't

want to do it because he wants to be

more and the wife gab Gabriella she

wants him to be more as well um more

than a gardener more than a gardener

right but the thing is uh Fernando the

son is failing Spanish even though he's

fluent so there's this whole thing

between the two of them him disgracing

the family with the F in Spanish but A's

everywhere else and him not wanting to

be like his dad and ttin to to Art I'm

just I'm so curious I need to stop you

is he fing Spanish on purpose um uh

it's just a [ __ ] you yes it pretty much

is because his dad asks him and he's

like see that's it he's like he speaks

Spanish I don't care if he makes F I

don't care you know um so there's that

but then he's also uh struggling a

little bit with his sexuality and the

Judson uh on the the white family MH is

not necessarily struggling with his

sexuality he wears makeup so those two

will have a secret something at some

point later on in the season or whatever

so there's there's all these things that

cross it's not going to deal

specifically with the families together

all the time because in the each

separate family there are smaller things

um the dad is Peruvian and the mom is

Mexican those two things Clash sometimes

like a Dominican and a Puerto Rican

together it's kind of even in the the

family unit them coming from different

types of you know Hispanic Latino um

causes more things like the Maria on the

shelf or in the middle of the dinner

table it's like no we're not going to do

that so there there's all these

different things but but in the in the

Hispanic family the uncle lives there

the grandmother lives there who is the

housekeeper for the Hollingsworth family

M and the um that's how the two families

are connected that's how the two

families are connected right and also

the grandmother has been saving for

years to buy this particular house

across the street which she didn't know

belonged to the hollingworth family so

they're moving into the house that she

worked so hard to pay for but now she

can't but she still has to work for them

because she's the housekeeper got it

because she doesn't have another job so

okay so this is going to be a uh uh uh

this is a pilot for an hourong uh uh

drama we can call it a drama I get that

there are jokes in it yeah um uh uh an

hourong drama uh about these two

families

mhm individually and together okay uh

tell me a little about yourself I am

from the south bat rge Louisiana M and

um I grew up a shy kaet kid I spent a

lot of time actually writing in journals

and creating stories in my head and when

I was in fifth grade my aunt gave me a

book called uh children's stories and

the back of this book was a play called

the trial of Mother Goose and what I did

was I got one of my teachers to print

out copies for each character and then I

got the art Department to direct to get

boxes so that we could paint and

costumes and things like that and in the

middle of rehearsal in this happened in

Fifth Fifth Grade yes the principal said

what are you doing you you can't do that

I was like well why not next week we're

just going to have the whole thing she's

like well we're graduating next week you

can't just have the auditorium so she

shut down my production and oh man that

was the very first no that I heard um

and unlike uh a lot of these other

brilliant writers here I didn't have the

opportunity to go to school for writing

um I think the most dangerous know that

a person can hear is the one from

themselves and for a long time I gave

myself that no um but an incident

happened that pushed me into uh you only

live once kind of thing and I moved to

New York um still with that no as an

actor and a writer I mean an actor and a

dancer and a singer MH and then I wrote

a play had a table read over some chili

then got some notes for some rewrites

had a table read again put it back there

behind that no and then eventually

um I started to allow things to happen

naturally in

2013 um I'm sorry you said eventually

you started to allow things to happen

naturally that play that you were

writing the Chile play um uh did it feel

good when you were writing it did you

feel confident it felt amazing yeah okay

go ahead um in 2013 in the middle of the

night I got a call from my dad that said

my brother who was younger than me was

24 the time um had been murdered and Jes

I in my self I thought I only get one

shot I let somebody tell me that I

couldn't be a writer because I was an

actor and a and a singer and a dancer

and people would get confused about who

I was so I just put pedal to the metal

and just started writing writing

everything I started reading scripts I

started reading um uh books on

screenwriting I started reading um just

regular books because I love to read

anyway watching things from writers that

I admired and pretty soon I just start

to sit into my and and and just write so

that's how I stumbled up on all of all

of this

um you and I got started roughly the

same way I didn't have anything remotely

approaching the tragedy uh that you did

in your life but I thought I was an

actor too uh when I was going back to

Elementary School uh even I was just

starring in all the school plays and

loving plays my I grew up just outside

New York City my parents took me to see

plays all the time plays that I was

often too young to understand uh what

was going like who's Afraid of Virginia

wolf when I was nine uh that kind of

thing um where I I I either wasn't old

enough or wasn't smart enough to

understand what was going on on stage

but I love the sound of dialogue it

sounded like music to me um uh anyway I

uh I I thought what I was was an actor

and uh uh I went to school and studied

acting uh and it wasn't until I

graduated and moved to New York uh when

I was 21

that I I was

uh I was living in my ex-girl I was

sharing my ex-girlfriend's studio

apartment I don't mean she's my

ex-girlfriend now I mean she was my

exgirlfriend then when I was sharing the

apartment and she was dating my best

friend and for $250 a month I got to

sleep on a futon uh on the floor and uh

I it was a Friday night uh a friend of

mine who had also just graduated from

college and and was a budding journalist

had his grandfather's semi-automatic

typewriter with him that's uh it's

electric keys with a manual return and

he was going out of town for the weekend

he didn't want to schle it around with

him he asked me if I could uh uh just

hang on to it for him for the weekend my

roommate ex-girlfriend was out of town

for the weekend it was one of those

Friday nights in New York where it just

feels like everyone in the world has

been invited to a party that you haven't

been invited to uh somehow I didn't have

$3 in my pocket the television wasn't

working the stereo wasn't working the

home computer hadn't been invented yet

uh and uh there there was no way for me

to entertain myself except to stick a

piece of paper in this old

semi-automatic typewriter and I began

for the first time ever in my life

writing for pleasure instead of for a

school assignment to be gotten through

and I began for the first time in my

life writing dialogue um uh I I started

writing a play and I felt an immediate

confidence doing that just a really

great feeling that I had never felt

acting and I was pretty cocky uh actor

but I knew right away

as young and green and uh much more than

rough uh around the edges as I was uh as

a writer I knew that I was a writer now

I I really identified with what you said

as your identity as an actor singer uh

uh dancer I at that that point for as

far as I was concerned 21 years uh had

identified as an actor that's who I

thought I was so it wasn't like it was

easy to instantly uh stop doing that uh

but what I did

um well then all kinds of lightning

struck my older sister had graduated

from law school she wanted to get trial

experience right away so she she signed

up with the Navy Judge Advocate

General's Corps and started telling me

some stories that made me start writing

A Few Good Men um and uh it in the

middle of that I stopped writing A Few

Good Men to write a one act play because

it never occurred to me to come to if

you want to be a writer to come to Los

Angeles because it may be hard there may

be a lot of competition but there are

jobs here there you you can if you're

lucky get a job as a writer's assistant

as a PA as an intern you can write a

spec script as you guys uh have done get

someone to see it uh those kinds of

opportunities aren't really available uh

in New York uh but what they have are

one act play festivals and I wrote a one

act play it got accepted in this

festival and I was in it I was acting in

it along with Nathan Lane and a couple

of good actors and I was on stage uh of

one night doing the play kind of

watching the other actors and thinking

these guys are really good wouldn't it

be great if everyone in the cast was as

as good as they were and that was the

moment that it was very easy for me to

stop identifying uh as an actor and

identify as a as a playright uh and and

so now uh if I'm doing an interview and

someone says uh now you started out as

an actor right I always say no um I mean

when I was very little I thought I was

going to be an actor but I was never I

mean I I cling to my uh Iden identity as

a writer and what's worse is when they

say and you used to be a playwright

I I haven't written a play in six or

seven years but I'm still a playright i

I'd like to hold on to that title so

identities are are important I think the

fact that you had that really good

feeling uh when you were writing is is

an important sign you're a writer and

and uh and this is very good work uh I

does anybody uh uh want to say anything

about this anybody have any questions or

comments observ

it's good yeah right um also I haven't

seen this uh on television you know um

uh so uh I I really wish you good luck

with it I'd love to read the rest of it

I'd love to read the rest of all of

these scripts I really tip my hat to

whoever found the five of you um uh uh I

I I I think that that you are uh

really good uh uh with really exciting

Futures and uh I I I

would I would hire any of you all of you

uh uh for the staff of a TV show I think

in a in just a short time you've uh um

you you've displayed real talent you uh

uh you really have it

if you're not moving the story forward

you're standing still and you better be

careful about how long you're standing

still uh uh because the audience won't

uh hang out with you as long as uh as

long as you want them to uh so you you

have to be moving the story forward

stories

uh in involve motion okay um if you're

about to write something you're thinking

about this thing that you're going to

write and the idea is that you're going

to start at Point a and you're going to

go do north um uh and end at point B

which is somewhere North uh of point a

but in the writing process somehow uh

you stop going north and you start going

uh uh you know North by Northeast uh and

that kind of thing and somehow point B

ends up being due east um uh and not do

North you haven't done anything wrong as

long as you have traveled from one place

to another

place uh uh you're in good shape your

next script you can go uh uh uh due

north that one you'll probably end up

Due West and then you've got a third

script where uh where you can go doe

North but you have to travel there uh

there has to be motion so at the end of

the scene we have

to uh be at least one step further than

uh than we were

before you can do a uh a a a few

different things um

to to launch yourself from uh from the

end of one scene uh into uh another

scene uh um uh you can have the next

scene be an answer to a question that

you asked in the previous scene um uh in

other words you can uh let's just take

for the sake of argument the Jets and

the Sharks uh okay West Side Story uh

the Jets and the sharks um I uh if you

have a scene with the Jets at their

hangout it's before the rumble uh this

scene by the way does not exist I'm now

making up scenes for Westside Story um

uh

uh this scene does exist they sing cool

boy uh the Jets are you know in their

their Hideout they hang out uh um uh and

they're nervous for the rumble and

they're talking about the rumble um uh

uh you know and someone says you know

gee uh I wonder what the sharks are

doing right now lights up on uh the

Sharks and uh and you do that

uh if uh there was a really

well-made um

HBO movie was written by Danny Strong uh

called recount about the 2000 uh a

Florida

recount and every scene ended with a a

launch uh uh into the next scene um I

mean it was beautifully constructed

every scene would end with well there's

no way that uh you know the Florida

Supreme Court is going to rule this way

cut to the Florida Supreme Court has R

this way uh uh that kind of thing and uh

you know Danny connected that together

like like Lego blocks it was perfect

depending how you're structuring the

script uh uh the the end of a scene can

be you know a a a kind of a mini climax

um and it should jettison you into the

next scene

not every scene has to end with a symbol

crash you know um uh but a a scene does

have to end with you very happy to move

uh uh on you that that you want to keep

going um uh as opposed to this feeling

that you're spinning your wheels when is

this thing uh uh going to gain traction

what am I supposed to be uh looking

for I'm I'm not going to name the show

but there's a show on television uh uh

right now that uh that I have a really

strange relationship with because it's

um it's done by very good people um and

it's there's I'm admiring it there's

there's plainly quality there uh

but I'm on episode four of of this show

and I have no idea what I'm supposed to

be paying attention to or what's

happening or who I'm supposed to care

about I have this really weird feeling

that you could take these four episodes

put them in any order you want and you

would get uh uh the same result and I am

sticking with this show because I'm

certain it can't go on like this uh uh

that at some point they're going to

reward my patience um uh and those

spinning tires will get traction uh on

something uh and I'll say brilliant

that's what uh now I can put all these

pieces together uh that phrase rewarding

patience is is one that I've used from

time to time uh sometimes just as an

excuse for why everything up until now

has been boring um uh but sometimes for

real Steve Jobs um uh that was a movie

that rewarded patience uh uh that uh it

it was essentially saying if you can

stick with us until the last scene uh of

the movie uh I I I think it'll pay off

uh for you and I'll try to make the two

hours leading up to that last scene uh

interesting for you but if we were to

cut that last scene and only show you

everything up until that last scene

there would be a riot in the theater

In terms of how to handle a a

comedy and I I I I always try to I if if

if I can tell a serious story funny uh I

I I think you're uh uh you're you're

you're winning uh so and especially with

characters on The Newsroom characters uh

uh in the West Wing these Mena people uh

uh these super smart people super

dedicated people super hardworking

people uh who are all sure that they're

right having them slip on a banana peel

uh uh from time to time is a lot of fun

I don't know a lot of rules uh uh for

comedy I know that for some reason odd

numbers are funnier than even numbers um

uh so uh the line uh I I told you this

17 times is for some reason better than

I told you this 16 times uh I don't know

why uh words with a K in them uh are

funny I don't know why uh and I can tell

you what I don't do uh uh I I don't use

anyone's physical appearance uh as the

source of Comedy for me the the best

kind of joke is a a a joke you don't see

coming a joke that was set up early that

pays off late that doesn't just exist in

that second that it takes to do it for

example

Le uh in the I'm pretty sure still with

the westwing I I think it's the season 1

finale

um uh Josh's chair is broken uh and um

Donna has taken the chair uh away to get

it fixed uh I shine a light on that with

conversations about why did this chair

have to be taken away to uh get fixed

anything anyway it's put in our head

that there is no chair uh at Josh's desk

so that much later when Charlie duay

Hill is telling Zoe Elizabeth uh Moss

that he works in a building with the

smartest people in the world Josh is in

the background sitting down on his desk

and just falling on the floor uh uh

because there's no chair there I don't

think it's out of line for you to put

your two cents in hi I'm sorry we're

just using your office for you can keep

fighting in just a second I just need to

find something

I also do not think it was out of line

for me to have stuck up for you since

you were clearly chicken Zoe I work in a

building with the smartest people in the

world

Donna hi how you doing we should get

something temporary so that doesn't

happen yeah

boy there are a lot of different great

opening scenes um there are some great

opening scenes that uh without you even

realizing

it uh lay out the theme uh for the

entire movie

go to Butch castley and the Sundance Kid

which is always a great lesson uh in

everything opening scene Paul Newman uh

uh goes into a bank right um and he

looks around and everywhere he looks our

new modern modern being late 19th

century uh a new modern security systems

uh uh a a safe with a heavy iron door

and a big lock a great coming down over

a thing things being closed and and he

says to the uh a security guard uh what

happened to the old bank it was

beautiful security guard says uh people

kept robbing it and uh Paul Newman says

it's a small price to pay for beauty uh

and walks out three lines uh in that

opening scene and it lays out the theme

of Butch casting the sundance's kid

which is that their Days Are Over uh

this is the end of the Wild West uh

uh modernity I never know how to

pronounce that word uh is it

modernity modern itsy um uh uh is has

caught out to them and uh and is passing

them uh now it plays as a very Charming

uh uh scene meet Paul Newman he's a

handsome cowboy and he's great with uh

uh aqy one liner um uh but that scene

lays out the theme uh of the movie

there

are opening scenes uh basically just

meant to kind of grab you uh I like for

instance um I like starting right in the

middle of

conversations um the it back to the

Social Network it begins uh in the

middle of a conversation Steve Jobs

begins in the middle of a conversation

um uh I if you do that if you drop the

audience into a situation where you're

already going uh 100 miles an hour it

forces them to sit forward and uh and

catch up in other cases with uh uh With

A Few Good Men uh it it was a very

traditional opening scene you'll see it

at the the roughly the same opening

scene at the beginning of any television

procedural uh which is to say we see

a a crime being committed um uh and cut

to main titles and now we you know by

the end uh it'll be resolved uh uh if

it's an action movie um uh there's a

there's an action comedy with Will

farell and uh and Mark wallberg that's

terrific called the other guys uh in

which they both do that kind of opening

scene and mock that kind of uh opening

scene it's just a

hellacious crime Chase with

uh uh Dwayne Johnson and uh Samuel

Jackson uh I think um and you'll find

that at the beginning of Buddy comedies

they'll just there'll there'll be action

uh that'll grab you and then you have

the scene with the captain who gives you

your real assignment and that's what the

movie is going to be about could you

start with that scene with the captain

um I'll give you the assignment

absolutely uh if you needed to cut 10

minutes uh off this movie you could cut

the first scene uh off that kind of

movie but you don't want to because it's

an action comedy and um uh uh we we want

to be grabbed a little bit it sort of

plays like uh an overture uh uh for a

Broadway musical that action scene at

the top of action movies for those of

you who don't know what an overture at

the beginning of a Broadway musical is I

can't help you um uh you should go see

Broadway

musicals actually if you don't know what

the Overture is at the begin of Broadway

musical I understand because there

aren't overtures uh anymore it used to

be that uh Broadway musical began with

before the curtain went up the orchestra

for 5 minutes playing basically a medley

of four or five musical themes that are

going to come up uh uh in the show um

and that gets you in the mood and then

the curtain goes up and it's a what a

beautiful

morning a great character introduction

scene a great first scene for a

character is sh the audience what the

character wants not telling the audience

who the character is not having the

character come in there uh and say well

I am as you know chairman of this

company and a very powerful billionaire

um who likes these kinds of cigars and

this kind of food we'll get all that um

uh uh tell us what this character wants

this character doesn't want anything

they're probably cluttering up your

script and you don't need it the

character in there I I I think I talked

about this before with the social

network um I I knew I wanted the opening

scene to be the scene that Mark

Zuckerberg was writing about in his Blog

the scene that we didn't uh uh get to

see um that uh if I could introduce Mark

as a guy who badly wanted to get

accepted into one of the uh final clubs

um uh and that uh we would we would

understand him uh it was an want scene

uh from uh from Mark

Zuckerberg Annette benning's character

Sydney Ellen

Wade it she's introduced in and I want

scene um uh and and I want scene where

the obstacle is also uh introduced right

because Martin Sheen who playing the

chief of staff there is is telling

Annette Benning why she can't get uh uh

what she wants why this is an obstacle

and Anette Benning is uh uh is telling

us okay well then I and my organization

and the zillions of people that we

represent we are now an enemy uh of this

President and so we've got the conflict

uh uh set up and in the part that's fun

and that Benning doesn't realize that

the president of the United States is

standing right behind her as uh as she's

saying all these things Sydney we should

leave Mr mcin Ernie alone now he already

given us Mr maer doesn't want us to

leave him alone because Mr maer's not

yet done what he needs to do

today sir uh Miss Wade's been thrown

into the deep end of the pool on her

first day she hasn't even had a chance

to read the report of the Quebec

conference you're right I haven't read

it if someone had asked me yesterday I

would have told them that the Quebec

conference was made up of six

professional hockey

teams but what I do know is that it's

time for the president to run for

president again Leon Kodak is as good as

it gets when it comes to electoral

strategy and I'm certain he's told the

president exactly what i' tell him you

got to nail down Michigan and California

where they make cars and airplanes and

they burn plenty of fossil fuels but if

ID read these 800 pages I would have

discovered that it's the burning of

fossil fuels which is mostly responsible

for global warming and that the 20%

reduction recommended by the GDC is a

necessary first step toward arresting

the catastrophic greenhouse effect which

has gone unchecked by this

Administration Susan I promise you the

white house chief of staff will not let

us leave here until he's broken the bad

news

I'm afraid Sydney's right although not

about Michigan in

California the president has asked me to

convey to you that he's sending his

energy bill to the floor with a call for

a 10%

reduction now the president is willing

to go It Alone on this but he's asking

for and frankly he's expecting the full

support of the GDC the president's

expecting our full support yes he is the

president's dreaming AJ the president

has critically misjudged reality if

honestly thinks that the environmental

Community is going to whistle a Happy

tune while rallying support around this

pitifully lame mockery of environmental

leadership just because he's a nice guy

and he's done better than his

predecessors then your boss is the chief

executive of fantasy lamb let's take him

out back and beat the [ __ ] out of good

morning Mr President how are you today

couldn't be better my apologies for the

interruption AJ suggests that I come by

and say

hello you wouldn't be Sydney elow Wade

by any chance would you

I don't think he cares about the money

uh uh Mark I think as Rashida Jones

character uh uh says to him you know

we're going to settle for $60 million in

the scheme of things that's a speeding

ticket and we all know how how much

money uh Mark has now

um I think his

intention

I I think he doesn't like being

questioned um uh especially by the

people

people who wouldn't let him into the

club in the first place and that's what

he sees all these other people as

um uh his

intention his intention is to get out of

there uh uh he wants it to be over he's

being held against uh his will and he is

not going to cooperate uh he's not going

to play nicely especially when it comes

to

the accusation that he stole Facebook uh

uh from someone else it was pretty easy

for me to identify with all I had to do

was pretend that um someone was claiming

that they wrote something uh uh that I

wrote and it was

uh pretty easy to you know come up with

a line like um uh if you guys were the

inventors of Facebook you'd have

invented Facebook you sent 36 emails to

Mr Zuckerberg and received 16 emails in

return and this was the first time he

indicated he was not happy that's

correct he had 42 days to study your

system and get out ahead do you see any

of your code on Facebook I could did I

use any of your code you stole our whole

goddamn idea fellas match.com for can I

continue with my deposition you know you

really don't need a forensic team to get

to the bottom of this if you guys were

the inventors of

Facebook you'd have invented

Facebook I can't wait to stand over your

shoulder in what you write as a check no

[ __ ]

let's continue I was most excited in

that movie um uh for the deposition room

scenes uh a at heart I want everything

to be a courtroom drama because the

intention and obstacle in a courtroom

are incredibly clear they don't need to

be explained to anybody the stakes don't

need to be explained to anybody uh the

the jury is a standin for the audience

um uh in that

uh the jury knows as little as as the

audience does uh

so uh I'm I'm I'm crazy about courtroom

dramas and like I said I I try to turn

everything I do into one

[Music]

we're there hey Chris hey Andy how are

you doing terrible you guys caught up

now excuse me for saying hello to my

friend who thinks you're a dick I don't

think you're we're there no it's got a

one in six chance of working God damn it

we're not a pit crew at Daytona this

can't be fixed in seconds you didn't

have seconds you had 3 weeks the

Universe was created in a third of that

time well someday you'll have to tell us

how you did

it here's what I'm going to

do I'm going to announce the names of

everyone who designed the launch

demo I'm going to introduce everyone and

ask them to stand up the bag was

designed by Susan care the Macintosh

font that's scrolling across the screen

was designed by Steve caps The Starry

Night and Sky riding was Bruce horn Mac

paint Mac right

Alice down to the calculator and then

I'm going to say The Voice demo that

didn't work was designed by Andy

[Music]

herzfeld Steve five and six is your

chance of surviving the first round of

Russian allad and you reverse those odds

so unless you want to be disgraced in

front of your friends family colleagues

stockholders and the Press I wouldn't

stand here arguing i' go try and get

some more bullets out of the

gun do it

[Music]

Andy uh I like the scene um uh it's the

scene with uh the first act scene with

uh Steve and Andy

herzfeld Andy herzfeld can't make the

Voice demo work and Steve threatens him

uh uh by saying uh listen I'm going to

introduce everybody who had everything

to do with this and I'm going to get to

The Voice demo I'm going to say it was

Andy herzfeld and it's not going to work

and you're going to be humiliated uh in

front of everybody uh I should tell you

that like the the idea for the scene

came from Andy herfeld uh uh in an email

exchange uh uh I just asked

him in this situation um uh uh tell me

what would happen What would be Steve's

reaction and he said he would say I'm

going to he would say what

[Music]

happened you'll get bored of hearing the

word conflict you'll get bored of

hearing intention and obstacle but uh

the scene works because the conflict is

clear because the intention and obstacle

uh is clear uh writing intention and

obstacle with Steve was fun because of

his famous reality Distortion field uh

uh which is to say that to Steve there

was no such thing as as an

insurmountable obstacle uh um he you

know someone an expert can say what

you're describing is impossible and

Steve would say do it anyway or in this

case I'm going to embarrass you

um uh so uh uh clear intention an

obstacle uh it revealed uh a lot about

Steve uh remember you don't want to tell

the audience who a character is you want

to show the audience what a character

wants

um uh and we we do that with Steve what

he wants at that moment is for The Voice

demo to work um uh so Steve's tactic is

to threaten Andy with uh a humiliation

out there uh and remember there are

people watching uh uh this this scene

too not just what's going to happen on

stage uh Andy's crew is uh uh is hanging

around him and seeing seeing him being

dressed down by Steve

um uh

Andy's intention uh is to make is to

bust through that reality Distortion

field and make Steve understand that he

is asking for Niagara Falls to go up uh

somehow that what he is asking for is uh

is impossible uh so that Steve will say

okay but you did a great job on

everything else don't worry about it uh

uh we don't need uh The Voice demo and

he's not going to get that from Steve

logic are his

uh uh tactics um and I listen he gets in

a dig uh at Steve right um uh when Steve

says you know the world was created uh

uh in a third of that time uh and and he

says sometime you'll have to tell us uh

how you did it uh he gets in a dig at

Steve which only makes Steve matter

that's when he does uh uh his thing

here's what I'm going to do um so

there's a little bit of more than a

little bit of uh you know listen if

you're going to emasculate me um uh uh

to my face and in front of these people

um then you know I'm G to try to get at

least one punch in uh before I leave

[Music]

here there's a third person uh in that

moment Chan right um uh and uh San says

to

Steve that Andy thinks you're a dick

okay um

I so there there there are kind of

three levels of Personality uh uh

happening there um Andy's semi

sheepish uh uh denial of thinking a

Steve's a dick you know Andy's a nice

guy he doesn't think his friend and boss

uh uh is a dick Steve is a dick um uh uh

he's cutting off the guy as he's saying

I don't think you're a dick um and uh uh

croissan who wields these things uh like

weapons by the way I'm not the only one

uh who thinks this way about you

everybody in this building uh uh thinks

you're a dick it's three things in a

pile we call

[Music]

it I write as uh uh the minimum amount

of description

necessary to make whoever is reading the

script understand what What's Happening

Here uh um I I won't

write what Steve is feeling inside as a

turmoil of this and this and this the

the actor is going to uh is going to

take care of that uh but I was picturing

something very specific uh uh in my head

there I wanted to

communicate that in addition to the

dialogue uh that I've written there's

another thing happening which is that

Andy's crew Andy's gang are embarrassed

for him uh okay uh so they're there but

they're

pretending uh uh you know to be doing

something else

um I it was just a

moment I just felt like the moment was

just going to land better if if we saw

that so I wanted to be specific about

you know let's do that uh and

uh I I think also because I don't write

very much description that when I do

write

description uh it's taken seriously

ordinarily I'm not visualizing it very

much I'm hearing it I'm hearing the

whole thing how it sounds but I'm not in

terms of visualizing it it's a there's a

vagueness uh uh to it it's it's I

visualize it a little bit but it's it's

kind of out of

focus so I'm always delighted when uh uh

when I actually see it uh and uh you

know a director who has done nothing but

visualize it uh uh is you know you've

got a partner there now here's the one

exception it's the movie I just wrote

which I'm also going to direct um uh and

in this particular

case I was visualizing it as much as I

was uh uh hearing it um from every ship

of ice coming off a rim of a ski um uh

uh to the clacking of poker chips I I

knew everything that uh uh that I wanted

so I decided to direct it

[Music]

the scene is this but um uh Bartlett is

in the middle of his re-election

campaign he's running for his second

term uh he's running against Robert

Richie uh the governor of Florida the

Republican uh nominees played by James

Brolin and they're both in New York uh

tonight there is a benefit uh I believe

for a c excuse my memory I think it's

for a Catholic charity uh that the

benefit was for uh it's a performance of

a Broadway play I made up uh uh I

invented a Broadway play at the Royal

Shakespeare company uh was doing uh

called the uh the wars of the Roses um

uh where they had put together a bunch

of Shakespeare plays into one evening

and added songs and and things like that

anyway Bartlett is prot

is attending a a Broadway show tonight

and uh uncomfortably enough so is his

opponent uh Richie and in the middle of

the show they both find themselves in

downstairs in in the lounge near the

restrooms if you've ever been in a

Broadway Theater you can uh uh picture

what that looks like uh and uh Bartlett

uh

has a lot of things uh on on his mind

he's uh contemplating contemplating

assassinating uh uh someone and uh CJ

Craig's secret service agent played by

Mark Harmon uh has been shot and killed

uh and just in in the last hour uh so uh

Bartlett's gone down there just for a

private moment and a moment later Richie

comes down there for the the same thing

and there they are the two candidates

for president alone no press no staff

presumably their Secret Service uh uh

nearby uh but they're by themselves for

the first time in their

[Music]

lives caught

me Mr President

Governor you enjoying the play I am how

about you well we just got here we were

at the Yankee game we got you know up in

traffic yeah I know listen politics

aside and I don't want to make a big

deal out of it but you probably insulted

the church and you can head it off at

the pass if you speak to the Cardinal

tonight well I didn't mean to insult

anybody no it's a baseball game it's how

ordinary Americans

yeah no I don't understand that

the center fielder for the Yankees is an

accomplished classical guitarist people

who like baseball can't like books are

you taking this

personally

no something horrible happened about an

hour

ago CJ Craig was getting threats so we

put an agent on

her he's a good guy he was on my detail

for a while and he was in

Roslin he walked into the middle of an

armed robbery and was shot and killed

after to detaining one of the

suspects

crime boy I don't

know we should have a great debate Rob

we owe it to everyone when I was running

as a governor I didn't know anything I

made them start Bartlet College in my

dining room two hours every morning on

Foreign Affairs in the military you can

do that how many different ways you

think you're going to find to call me

Tom I wasn't

Rob but you've turned being unengaged

into a Zen likee thing and you shouldn't

enjoy it so much as all and if it

appears at times as if I don't like you

that's the only reason why you're what

my friends call a superior son [ __ ]

you're an academic elitist and a snob

you're uh

Hollywood you're weak you're

liberal and you can't be

trusted and if it appears from time to

time as if I don't like

you well those are just a few of the

many reasons

why they're playing my

song in the future if you're wondering

crime boy I don't know is when I decided

to kick your

ass I've talked about ad nauseum

intention an obstacle and uh how if you

build

that and it's sturdy uh that that that

is the drive shaft of the car that's the

mechanism and that everything else that

you like uh uh about writing all the fun

stuff about writing you can do now and

that scene that that Bartlett Richie

scene is a pretty good example of uh

sort of the what you can do once

everything else uh uh is working once

all the intentions and obstacles are in

place once all the conflicts are in

place so that scene was the most

literal uh

expression of the of the thought of the

whole campaign the whole Richie story uh

everything having to do with the

reelection campaign the reelection

campaign on the westwing came uh a

couple of years after the bush Gore uh

campaign of

2000 and

uh what what that election seemed about

seemed to be about Bush and Gore was uh

bush bush was offered to us as a guy you

could have a beer with as uh a plain

spoken guy sort of all these synonyms

for uh he's not an intellectual uh and

if you're running as not an intellectual

you're going to have to

demonize intellectualism so Gore is the

Egghead glasses wearing intellectual

stiff guy uh uh who's just too wonky uh

while while bush is the Cowboy and uh

and and and the we touched on that

plenty uh uh throughout the season um uh

in an episode uh uh earlier in the

season called the two bartletts uh uh

Toby dress Richard chiff as Toby uh uh

dresses down Bartlett for trying to be

he says you know don't be just plain

folks uh okay you aren't just plain

folks you are the smartest guy in the

room uh uh be the smart smartest guy in

the room don't run away from that I

don't remember I I honestly have no

memory but I wouldn't be surprised if

that scene between Bartlett and Richie

was never carded um in other words was

never uh written on an index card and

put on the bulleon board if it was never

planned for uh if it was just something

that while I was writing I I wrote um a

and I I I could be dead wrong um uh if

if there was Florence O'Donnell was here

if there was someone on the writing

staff here Eli Addie uh uh Kevin Falls

uh they may say no no no you're crazy we

talked about that scene for a year um uh

but it it wouldn't surprise that would

be the kind of scene uh that would

happen organically by yourself uh when

you're

[Music]

writing it's one of those things we can

all identify with I if if you're

exhausted enough and there's

enough bad stuff going on uh uh for you

this is for anybody I'm talking

about you find yourself actually able to

be more honest uh than you usually are

because you no longer have the energy or

the will to to sugarcoat it um uh and

this was just the right moment

uh uh for Bartlett to say something kind

of extraordinary I don't mean to say

that the writing was extraordinary I

mean just by extraordinary I mean

something you wouldn't expect uh which

is pleading with Richie to Bone up on um

issues uh uh to educate himself to

demand uh uh to be better prepared so

that they can have a a real debate so

here's

Bartlett not trying to win just saying

can we not waste this opportunity uh

maybe I'm wrong about this maybe I'm

wrong about this I won't know until a

smart person uh uh tells me why I'm

wrong now Richie of course of course is

insulted uh uh by this anyone uh uh

would be uh what was Richie's uh

intention in that scene um uh

I

I respect uh I suppose uh right um you

you you got to stop calling me dumb it

wasn't the first time he had um and I

think he says something like um how many

different ways uh are are you going to

find to call me stupid uh and what what

finally pushes Bartlett over the edge

when Bartlett explains that this secret

service agent has been shot and killed

bartlet's just explained that

uh to Richie and Richie's reaction is

crime boy I don't know um and Bartlett

can't get

over the vapid empty like that that's

what you had to say um uh and that's

what kind of pushes him over the edge

and so uh you know the scene ends with

uh in the future if you're wondering

crime boy I don't know is when I decided

to kick your ass

um uh tosses him no

[Music]

lighter Martin Sheen's wife uh uh who is

a wonderful woman um would send me notes

I I I had Bartlett smoke from time to

time maybe uh again I'm sorry if my

memory is off on this I'm trusting my

memory uh uh maybe five or six times uh

in in those four years that uh that I

was writing the show and Martin Sheen's

wife would uh send me notes asking me

please um uh not to have him smoking

that Martin had recently quit uh smoking

and that you know listen when you see

him smoke half a cigarette in a scene

that represents an entire morning of

smoking he's lit that cigarette 15 20

times uh uh and smoked it

um so I and I would always say sure uh

uh to Mrs Sheen that's a request you you

don't deny um and moments later Martin

would always come to me and say it's

okay I can smoke uh uh so the reason why

I I had Bartlett smoking was at any time

I

could the

westwing what I would always tell

everyone who was working on it is that

we want to capture the 2 minutes before

and after what you see on CNN uh we want

to in the westwing get to see things

that we don't

get to see from the president and that's

going to be uh him being [ __ ] uh him

being a person now most stories uh are

about an ordinary person in

extraordinary circumstances I discovered

back with the American president that uh

there is no such thing as an

extraordinary circumstance that the

president can be in he wakes up every

day and he is surrounded by

extraordinary

circumstances uh so what would be more

fun would be to invert that take an

extraordinary man and put him in

ordinary circumstances that's why in the

American president we have him I have

him trying to buy flowers uh for Sydney

trying to just to ask her out on the

phone and she doesn't even believe that

uh uh it's him um you know and he says

this used to be easier um uh I I I loved

all those moments same thing uh uh with

the westwing so uh uh smoking was one of

the ways to do that you know we would

never see a president smoke a cigarette

um and the idea that the most powerful

man in the world has to sneak a

cigarette um uh for the same reason most

people have to sneak a cigarette which

is they don't want their wife to know

that they're uh smoking a cigarette uh

you know I I really like that I you know

I didn't go there all the time but I

went there from time to time and this

was a moment the Bartlett Richie scene

uh that seemed ripe for smoking a

[Music]

cigarette I I don't have a political

agenda uh when I write I'm not

particularly politically

sophisticated uh the the the characters

on the westwing are more politically

sophisticated than I am they are smarter

uh uh than I am almost always I write

characters that are uh smarter than I am

and if you're thinking well how is that

possible uh it's possible the same way

that a a person

can draw a house without being able to

build a house uh uh you know what I mean

um uh uh an artist can draw a 100 story

building uh and have no idea how to

build 100 story building um uh and it's

roughly the same with writing uh I can

create the illusion of uh of

intelligence what I'm drawing on for a

thing like um uh uh people can who who

who like baseball can read books and uh

uh it's a reaction

to dividing the

country in a silly way uh uh dividing

the country into and this is what had to

happen in the bush Gore election in

order for for Bush to win into real men

and something slightly

feminized um uh that if you read books

if you do well in school if you're an

intellectual uh that means that you're

something less than a man uh uh somehow

uh that real men don't read books they

clear brush uh this is a place where you

know my own politics uh uh seeped in for

sure I think that every four years since

I've been born we criminally waste this

opportunity to have the public here to

very bright people with

opposing views argue with each other

debate each other uh so that we can

educate ourselves and participate uh in

our own democracy and instead we always

end up talking about something dumb uh

uh and the campaign uh is about

something else it's wasted opportunity

uh and uh you

know I I react to that in the writing uh

that I do

once we start talking about

dialogue we are talking about the least

teachable part of

writing it it's not completely

unteachable but there are a couple of

things that uh that you can teach it's

also the most personal part of writing

so everybody is going to do it a a

different way everybody's going to cross

the finish line a different way so all

I'm going to talk about is the way I uh

uh do it I'm I'm I'm not suggesting that

this is the way it must be

done my first experience witnessing

great dialogue was uh I think who's

Afraid of Virginia wolf my parents took

me to see plays all the time and often

they were I was too young to understand

what was going on on stage like I saw

who's freder Virginia wolf when I was 9

years old there was no way I could

understand uh what was going on up there

but the dialogue sounded like music to

me just these fantastic actors um uh

uh singing it sounded like Edward Al's

uh uh dialogue David mammo uh uh for

instance uh who is a virtuoso at

dialogue in a particular type uh of

dialogue there's there's no one better

than David mammo at writing a

conversation between two people who

don't know how to communicate with each

other um uh that if you look at Glen

Gary Glenn Ross speed the plow uh

American buffalo uh those always feel

like

um algr uh uh uh very sharp uh kind of

violin Duets uh playing off each other

it's not just that dialogue sounds like

music to me it actually is music anytime

uh someone is speaking for the purpose

of performance whether they're doing it

from a Pulpit uh in a church whether

it's a candidate on the stump uh or an

actor on a stage anytime they're

speaking for uh the purposes of

performance all the rules of Music apply

um I uh Cadence uh and tone and uh

volume all of the rules of music uh uh

apply to this so when I'm writing what

the words sound like are as important to

me as is as important to me as uh uh as

what the words mean it's a lot about

Rhythm uh the actors will know uh uh if

they have dropped a syllable or added a

syllable uh accidentally they'll know

that something was wrong the same way uh

uh you know if if you're playing music

and there's a time signature at the

beginning of it it says four4 time that

means they're four four beats in a

measure and a cordin note gets one beat

there can't be five beats in a measure

there can't be three beats in a measure

and the actors know uh uh if they've

dropped something like I said if they've

dropped a syllable and I know when I'm

writing uh uh if

that if that didn't quite work uh what I

was doing so it and and then if you look

at the uh at the whole piece say a

two-hour play a 2hour movie uh a 1hour

episode of Television it follows along

on the U it has a lot of the same

properties as uh a long piece of music

like a symphony uh uh does or an opera

uh it's got solos and Duets it's got

alros and adagios uh it's got Aras uh

and sometimes they're good and sometimes

they're bad but it it is music

nonetheless here's something important

to remember about dialog uh

you'll hear uh uh

from critics and by critics I don't just

mean you know professional critics I

mean the world uh uh you'll

hear that's not the way people really

talk that who cares that that that

you're not your goal isn't necessarily

writing things the way people talk

people don't rhyme um Shakespeare didn't

care about that he was writing something

different um uh now there are people

who's you know what they do uh what's

really cool uh about their dialogue is

that they are able to uh imitate the way

people actually talk that really sounds

like people

talking most of the time I mean 98% of

the time that happens through

improvisation okay uh whether it's

J A Adam McKay uh or anyone else people

who are fantastic Todd Phillips people

who are fantastic at creating space for

actors who are fantastic at

improvisation to

improvise then suddenly it sounds like

the way people really talk because it's

people really talking uh it was never

written uh it just it's starting out as

as people really

talking imitating the way people really

talk is

has never been a goal of

mine again my goal isn't to imitate how

people really speak but nor do I want it

to sound like how people speak on

television um I want it to sound like

how I write one thing that I wasn't able

to do with Bartlett because it was on a

broadcast network it was on NBC as

opposed to say uh

HBO is that that there's language that

uh that you can't use um I'm not a big

uh I'm not

uh like I'm not David milch I'm not

Steven botko I'm not Armando yucci I'm

naming fantastic writers who are

virtuosos when it comes to using

four-letter words um and uh I'm I'm not

one of those guys but there are times

uh when it would have been really

helpful there's a

moment uh there's a moment in an

episode that I can't remember uh what it

was but a bunch of De agents have been

captured in South America and a rescue

mission uh uh goes bad because they were

basically our guys the good guys were

lured into a trap and they were killed

uh helicopter uh full of people were

killed in Columbia um and you cannot on

network television take the lord's name

in vain you'll be able to say

[ __ ] on network television

before you'll be able to say godamn it

um and all I wanted in the world that

when Bartlett F finds out that that

they've been tricked uh uh by these

thugs he busts out of the Oval Office

into the uh uh there's kind of a

prominade uh uh out there and Leo

follows him out there and I just wanted

to say godamn it um uh uh again a moment

that you don't see on CNN you don't see

the president curse but you can't do

that all you're left with is damn it

and it's only in plays and movies and

television that someone starts a

sentence with damn it no one ever in

life says damn it how could this have

happened um uh they'll say godamn it but

they won't begin with damn it they also

won't end with damn it I want it here on

time damn

it when I'm writing I'm very physical

when I'm writing I'm uh I'm talking out

loud uh uh while I write uh I'm playing

all the parts I'm getting up and down uh

from the desk I'm walking around

everyone once in a while there'll be a

day or I can string three days together

uh sometimes where I know what I'm doing

where it is going well and if it's going

particularly well uh I I'll get excited

uh like I'll say I I I I won't even be

at the keyboard I'll be doing the scene

playing all the parts uh in the scene

I'll I'll I'll have walked two blocks

away from my office I'll have if I'm at

home I'll have walked outside my house I

once broke my nose when I was riding

because I was uh uh being so physical

about it uh and then finally you know

sit down at the desk and and type it

sometimes I'm on my feet um and uh I I I

invent a piece of dialogue in my head uh

and then I kind of keep going suddenly

I'm I'm writing a scene in my head I'll

get very excited about it

after uh 20 30 minutes an hour two hours

of uh of doing that I'll realize I

really should be writing this down uh uh

because I might forget it so I'll I'll

make a note and then I'll feel like you

know that note wasn't enough to remember

the whole thing let me just write down

those first two lines of dialogue that I

was thinking of well you know what I

I've written the first two lines of

dialogue just type the first two lines

of dialogue now keep and the scene will

get

written I would

try uh performing the the scenes that

that you're writing I would I would play

every part uh in the scene and what

you're looking for

is can are these words speakable uh you

know um uh or or does it just sound like

clunky writing let's say it's a

five-page scene um uh cuz I I read long

scenes I'll I'll then read it get

through and I'll not like some of it

some of it will be clunky uh there'll be

a joke that got halfway there but didn't

quite land so I'll either have to fix

the joke or cut the joke

um uh I I will be uh uh I'm I'm reading

it out loud uh

to to listen

for to listen for uh a writing that

doesn't sound good to me

I'll start adding in the idiosyncrasies

the hiccups that I like putting in the

uh the false starts uh of sentences the

stopping and saying um uh uh that kind

of thing I'll look for places where uh I

I went a line or two too far uh that we

we got it already uh and uh you know a

big rule is that you don't tell the

audience something they already know so

if they if you've already said I love

you you the second time you say I love

you is not going to be

meaningful uh that's what I do I do have

to perform it because I want to uh I

want to make sure that actors can say it

uh uh that it it sounds right coming out

of uh uh someone's mouth um uh otherwise

you you kind of end up writing um

o Denise the sunrise it it it it becomes

very stilted uh it becomes more like

dialogue in a novel uh I like

idiosyncrasies and hiccups uh I I write

every sound uh the actors make uh when

they're interrupting themselves when

there's a false start uh in what they're

saying and they uh and they start again

uh I like the sound of uh of two Act

speaking at the same time uh so I'll

write dual or even triple uh a dialogue

sometimes uh that when we're rehearsing

it needs to be kind of time to within uh

an inch of its life again the same

things a composer would fiddle around

with uh when he was writing music

when I talk about a a dialogue being

musical most of the music I mean

sometimes there's a there'll be a line

or a speech which by itself has the

kinds of musical qualities that I'm

talking about

but it in order to create uh that music

you need listen in order to create music

literally uh uh real

music you don't just need the first note

you need the second note before it's

music is not

music it is music

or it it's you need the second note uh

for it to become music with dialogue uh

uh you generally need the next line uh

uh for it to be music it's going to go

back and forth

caught

me Mr

president

governor you enjoying the play I am how

about you well we just got here we were

at the Yankee game we got you know up in

traffic yeah I know listen politics

aside and I don't want to make a big

deal out of it but you probably insulted

the church and you can head it off at

the pass if you speak to the Cardinal

tonight well well I didn't mean to

insult anybody no it's a baseball game

it's how ordinary

Americans no I don't understand that the

center fielder for the Yankees is an

accomplished classical guitarist people

who like baseball can't like books are

you taking this

personally

no something horrible happened about an

hour

ago CJ Craig was getting threat so we

put an agent on

her he's a good guy he was on my detail

for a while and he was in

Roslin he walked into the middle of an

armed robbery and was shot and killed

after detaining one of the

suspects

crime boy I don't

know we should have a great debate Rob

we owe it to everyone when I was running

as a governor I didn't know anything I

made them start Bartlett College in my

dining room two hours every morning on

Foreign Affairs in the military you can

do that how many different ways you

think you're going to find to call me

dumb I wasn't

Rob but you've turned being unengaged

into a Zen like thing and you shouldn't

enjoy it so much as all and if it

appears at times as if I don't like you

that's the only reason why you're what

my friends call us Superior son [ __ ]

you're an academic elitist and a snob

you're a

Hollywood you're weak you're

liberal and you can't be

trusted and if it appears from time to

time as if I don't like

you well those are just a few of the

many reasons why

they're playing my

song in the future if you're wondering

crime boy I don't know is when I decided

to kick your

ass I'm looking at the beginning of the

scene um and that at least at the

beginning of the scene I am making a

concerted effort for it not to be

musical uh I want it to be stilted and

awkward uh between the these two I want

it to be slightly formal and I'm looking

at a line that I already want to rewrite

uh because I just read it to myself it's

it's this line um uh Richie says

Bartlett says uh

um doesn't matter what Bartlett says

Richie says uh we just got here we were

at the Yankee game we were you know hung

up in traffic uh okay that you know is

one of those hiccups uh uh that I like

to throw in but now I wish I'd written

we were you know we were hung up in

traffic that I'd put a second we were uh

in there we were you know we were hung

up in traffic um it's a it's just a

rhythm thing I just said it to myself um

and it comes out more naturally with the

second uh we were um and uh I guess hat

hats off to James Brolin who uh was able

to disguise the fact that uh uh that the

line wasn't written well um so uh uh I'm

I'm

writing I'm writing it stilted

until Richie says uh uh what's happened

is uh uh again this is a a a an event

for uh uh Catholic

Charities uh Richie went to a Yankees

game and has arrived late uh at at this

Broadway show

um and

uh Bartlett says

um uh listen politics aside and I don't

want to make a big deal out of it but

you probably insulted the church and you

can head it off at the past if you speak

to the Cardinal tonight um uh he's you

know this is

a just between you and me a thing he's

helping Richie out um uh Richie says

well I didn't mean to insult anybody

Bart says no uh uh and Richie says and

it's a baseball game it's how ordinary

Americans uh okay this is a dog whistle

he's pushed one of Bartlett's buttons he

he's landed right on the uh uh I

if if you're educated you're not an

ordinary American uh okay um uh and it's

it's you know the the thing that I found

objectionable in that bush Gore race and

again it happened again with bush Cary

uh was the uh

glamorization of lack of

curiosity and the

demonization of

brains

um and so uh he says that Bartlett says

yeah and now suddenly uh uh the stilted

this stops because we've kind of flipped

a switch uh in Bartlett says no I don't

understand that the center field for the

Yankees is an accomplished classical

guitar

people who like baseball can't like

books um uh and now I'm suddenly

starting to employ subtly some musical

techniques no I don't understand that

the center fielder for the Yankees is an

accomplished classical guitarist people

who like baseball can't like books

people who like baseball can't like

books there's an alliteration there uh

uh with baseball and books um uh there

is a rhythm um uh because I'm using the

word like uh uh twice people who like

this can't like that um uh and uh uh and

it has a rhythm uh uh uh to it uh so as

soon as like I said I wanted the

beginning to feel stilted uh uh I suck

the music out of it

um but I can make a musical comparison

uh which is Opera has rest te right

right um uh uh it'll have an Arya or a

duet or a trio or a coral thing but

it'll also have those what seemed like

kind of silly moments of uh you know a a

a baritone

saying bring me the

flowers

good hello uh uh that kind of thing that

that's the uh God I hope you cut my

operon um uh from this uh uh uh so I

suck the music uh out of the top and

Richie kind of push pushes the music

button um and then it starts to get a

little musical then we have our o uh

crime boy I don't know moment it was a

line meant to

be uh the equivalent musically the

equivalent of just uh a thud um uh uh

uh just a thud uh uh something empty uh

it it was it was devoid of Music um

well not really because now that I think

about it be it emotionally it was a thud

uh uh but

musically crime boy I don't know I uh

because Bartlett repeats it uh with with

some disgust

I it was just percussion there uh there

was no tone there it was

just something horrible happened about

an hour

ago CJ Craig was getting threats so we

put an agent on

her he's a good guy he was on my detail

for a while and he was in

rosin he walked into the middle of an

armed robbery and was shot and killed

after detaining one of the

suspects

crime boy I don't know okay I've I've

spotted some musicality uh uh here and

that is the music of taking some words

that someone has just said holding them

in your hand for a moment and then

punching them in the face with it and

that's what Richie does uh uh to

Bartlett Bartlett says uh uh I wasn't

Rob but you've turned being unengaged

into a zen-like thing and you shouldn't

enjoy it so much as all okay is all it

is a musical Thing um and if it appears

at times and if it appears at times as

if I don't like you that's the reason

why Richie says you're what my friends

call a superior some [ __ ] you're an

academic elitist and a snob you're uh

Hollywood you're weak you're liberal and

you can't be trusted and if it appears

from time to time as if I don't like you

well those are just few of the many

reasons why um uh we never expected

Richie to climb on top of Bartlett and

uh uh and kick him that way um and

uh and I like that he does because it's

a game on kind of thing it's uh uh you

know now we got ourselves a fight how

many different ways you think you're

going to find to call me dumb I wasn't

right but you've turned being unengaged

into a Zen like thing and you shouldn't

enjoy it so much as all and if it

appears at times as if I don't like you

that's the only reason why you're what

my friends call a superior son [ __ ]

you're an academic elitist and a snob

you're a

Hollywood you're weak you're

liberal and you can't be

trusted and if it appears from time to

time as if I don't like

you well those are just a few of the

many reasons why

I remember this

scene I wish I could rewrite it

[Music]

the screenplay isn't as good as you

think it is uh once you finish it

because uh you've got

something you probably got something

good in your head uh it feels really

good in in your head it feels emotional

uh it feels sharp but you probably

haven't gotten all of that onto the page

yet uh and uh you discover that once you

start reading it through uh you become

horrified uh that this whole thing

doesn't even matter much you that that

kind of thing this didn't

work rewriting is a lot easier than

writing because you have a problem to

solve you're no longer looking at an

empty page with a flash

cursor uh uh you have a problem to solve

this thing doesn't work here because uh

and uh and you can attack that specific

problem I always recommend if you're

writing something to get to the end of

it before you start rewriting it uh so

you're on page 25 you look down you

haven't introduced the protagonist yet

you haven't introduced the inciting

action yet don't crumple up those 25

pages and start again uh from page one

unless you really want to unless it

really feels good get to the end get all

the way to the end and get to page 400

of this mon shapeless monstrosity uh uh

that you're putting

[Music]

together I don't know what sculptor it

was uh who said this it was a famous

sculpter who was asked uh uh you know

how how did you sculpt that fantastic

statue of uh of David uh uh and they'll

say uh I look at a giant block of marble

and I take away everything that isn't

David uh now that's that's easy for the

sculptor to say it sounds really hard to

me but if in writing terms get to the

end of the thing that you're doing that

thing then once you've gotten to the end

of it that's your big block of Marvel uh

okay

that again that that

clunky monstrosity this unwieldy thing

that doesn't work uh that's your block

of marble but when you get to the end

you're going to know more about it than

you did at the beginning you're going to

realize we talked about the American

president and that 300 almost 400 page

uh a screenplay that had so much in it

that wasn't

Sydney and uh and the president that

that that wasn't that conflict to get to

the American president I just took away

everything that wasn't that uh and

that's what we were left with uh but I

only was able to do that by by writing

the 400 page

monstrosity uh and realizing okay where

this thing lives is in the Love Story

between these two people so I recommend

getting to the end of uh of what you're

doing uh and then saying okay I I know

what this is

now one of my favorite screenplays

certainly of the last 10 years and and

possibly of all time is Tony Kushner

screenplay for the movie Lincoln uh

which also was originally four or 500

pages when he turned it into Steven

Spielberg uh and they looked at it and

said you know the the the part of this

we should do is the part where he's

trying to get the 13th Amendment passed

uh uh and Krishna proceeded to take away

everything that wasn't that uh and ended

up with a fantastic movie about Lincoln

trying to pass the 13th Amendment and

slavery and end the Civil War at the

same

time so get to the end uh before you

start rewriting then go back to the

[Music]

beginning the really tough test uh is if

the thing works without it it shouldn't

be there

uh uh if you can cut it then you should

cut it it's called killing Your Darlings

um uh and uh a lot of it is that

it's hard to do uh because you'll have

written something that you love a a

really good joke uh a really Snappy line

a really good scene and uh you'll

discover usually because it's been

pointed out for you uh by the person

that you're working with you that you

don't need it uh uh that it's

unnecessary that you uh

uh went off on on a little detour and

you need to come back to uh to the

freeway and uh cutting that thing really

for me and it's probably an ego thing

it's it's the hardest thing in the world

I really

admire uh there are writers for instance

the con Brothers uh uh

who if you remember Fargo uh there's a

great scene in Fargo where Francis

mcdorman meets with uh an old classmate

of hers from high school they have lunch

at the

Rison uh and uh he clearly has feelings

for Francis mcdorman Francis mcdorman

finds out later that he's having mental

or emotional problems that his wife

didn't die that all these things that he

was saying weren't true you that scene

doesn't have anything to do with the

rest of the movie that story doesn't

have anything to do with the rest of the

movie and I love that the cons did it uh

uh it it it feels right like tonally

it's eerie and it it and it feels right

in the movie and it's one of those

scenes where if the con Brothers weren't

as you know powerful uh as they are if

the con brothers were brand new on the

scene a studio executive would say cut

that scene but since nobody tells the

con Brothers to cut a scene get to do

that kind of thing um I I'll tell you

another story I I I I saw um an early

screening of Paul Thomas Anderson's film

Magnolia okay um uh and uh I was

watching it with Gary Ross the uh uh the

great writer director Gary Ross we

watched the movie and the cut that we

saw was about 3 hours and 20 minutes

long and the movie was over and it's

it's kind of an epic Masterpiece from

from PTA and uh um and Gary Ross said

you know what uh he needs to cut 30

minutes from the movie but I would never

want to tell him which 30 minutes for

fear that I would accidentally be

cutting some Real Genius uh uh

and I I

personally like movies like that uh or

plays like that or television shows like

that uh where

not everything uh is plot plot plot plot

plot plot plot uh uh where you can take

a moment and and breathe and if you're

good enough the way Joel and Ethan CL

are if you're good enough the way Paul

Thomas Anderson is you can earn those

moments but those moments do have to be

earned

[Music]

as a writer um uh you're going to

develop over a course of time a

relationship with someone hopefully two

three four people uh who you really like

talking about your work with you uh uh

they they're speaking in a vocabulary

you understand

uh uh you trust their taste it it takes

a while uh uh to collect them I I would

say that uh uh for me um the big people

for me obviously Bill Goldman uh uh who

you've heard me mention but then came

along uh a guy with a funny name Tommy

schami okay uh uh he's Thomas schamy

professionally but uh everybody knows

him as Tommy why he doesn't call himself

Tom he's a big 6'5 inch Texan um uh and

for my money uh the best director in

television he and I did Sports night

together he was the other executive

producer and uh and principal director

of sports night same thing on The West

Wing same thing on uh uh Studio 60 and

uh with Tommy I felt I had a great

creative uh uh collaborator uh that um

we understood each other we had respect

for the the other person's job and knew

that we couldn't really do the other

person's job uh we understood and

respected the way the other person

worked and I liked talking to him uh

about uh my material another person is

Scott Ruden uh the producer of The

Social Network Money Ball Steve Jobs um

and I expect a lot of things uh uh that

I'll do in the future Scott's one of the

best producers of both plays and uh and

movies around and he is a great for me a

a a great great script editor um and

then one or

two civilian uh uh friends um my for

instance my assistant Lauren lman um

who's not quite a civilian she's uh uh

she's in Show Business uh but um uh you

know I'll I'll give her pages and her

reactions will range from I'm faking it

polite um you know good job uh Aaron to

I can tell when she genuinely uh likes

something but I can also tell again if

it's comprehensible if uh uh if the

story landed or or if did did too much

of it stay in my head and not make it

onto the paper so those are the

people you really want to be careful uh

about who you're listening to be polite

to everybody uh you can pretend you're

listening to everybody and be polite and

thank them um but but you really want to

be careful about who you're listening to

uh if if you're

lucky you're talking to someone whether

they're your producer your director your

your friend uh you're talking to someone

who's smart who understands scripts and

who understands the way you write

okay uh what you don't want in in a

script editor if you're talking to your

friend who's also a screenwriter um you

want to make sure

that they're not trying to write your

script the way they would write it you

know um uh boy there's an awful lot of

talking uh uh in this thing you got to

cut out that talking and put in more

action um I

it's it you're probably not going to

find that person uh right off the bat

much like you're probably not going to

marry the first person you went on a

date with uh but uh try to find that

person and once you find that person

don't you know keep them in your pocket

don't lose

[Music]

them with a Few Good Men that play and

that was my first professional uh

experience we had our out of town try

out at the Kennedy Center in Washington

and I was standing in uh the back of the

theater and the watching the play the

play would be over the audience would uh

uh file out and uh two women uh came up

the aisle and one of them uh uh as they

passed me said uh I like it I liked it

but I didn't think the second act was

really structured uh right and uh after

I was young then so after you know

stomping my feet and uh and huffing and

puffing

um this is what uh occurred to

me those people um uh those two people

don't really know anything about the

structure of the second act but

something was stopping them from uh

enjoying the second act as much as I

wanted them to do I want to address that

or or were they were they an anomaly

when I go into a doctor's office if I

raise my arm and say hey Doc it hurts uh

when I do that I think it's my rotator

cuff and what I would do is operate

using this kind of surgery and this kind

of anesthetic and I would give it this

kind of treatment I really hope my

doctor stopped listening to me after it

hurts when I uh uh do that because that

was the only useful piece of information

uh that I can give him at that point he

is uh the expert and I don't know

anything

[Music]

here's what it looks like

uh I I finished the first draft of the

script I've sent it to New York I've

sent it to Scott rudden um I at he calls

me a few hours later and does a really

good job saying good job uh and uh why

don't you fly here tomorrow morning um

and we will as he calls it we'll start

turning Pages uh so uh I'll go to New

York and I'll pack a big suitcase

because I know I'm going to be there for

a while um he he'll say a couple of days

and it'll be three weeks I go to his

office every morning uh

we Page by Page line by line uh we go

through the whole script uh and uh

sometimes there's a large note like this

whole thing this whole story with this

character isn't working sometimes it's a

small note uh that's just going to take

an adjustment and I I hear all these

notes I walk out of his office and by

the time I'm pushing the button on the

elevator I want to kill myself uh

because uh I I I realized that I was

nodding my head in there but I don't

know how to fix what he's asked me to

fix um and uh it's going to be a long

night and and and I hate that it wasn't

perfect the first time you know I get

back to the

hotel and I have the notes in front of

me and

uh I just start um uh you know the first

note will

be uh hopefully the first note is an

easy one hopefully the first note will

be You

misspelled something um uh and I'll just

start but I I what I really like doing

the the notes are all written out on a

piece of paper and I like Crossing them

off uh uh as they get

[Music]

done first of all if you're lucky if

you're as lucky as I've been um you work

you you get to work with uh a director

or a producer who's a very good script

editor uh who can sit down and direct

you now direct me uh and

uh you'll you'll take notes uh from that

producer or director uh and if they're

good those notes will be specific those

notes won't be I think it needs to be 33

and a half% funnier uh you will hear a

note

and sometimes immediately sometimes the

next day uh you'll say that's absolutely

right I can't believe I didn't see that

the first first time um it'll usually be

uh you know I talked about uh uh Scott

Ruden being a great script editor so is

David Fincher uh uh David Fincher in

addition directing The Social

Network directed Fight Club seven gong

girl uh uh he's one of the greatest

directors of all time so I love giving

him pages and uh hearing his thoughts he

won't candy coat anything uh and usually

uh uh a a note from David will

be this thing here that was just

described we should see that uh uh

that's a really good moment and and

you'll say God of course uh and if we

see it it'll it'll really land Tommy

will uh give a note that we'll always

start with all right the bad writing

version of it is um I've always loved

you John don't don't you know that uh we

we we need to hear him or her say I've

always loved you now go and write that

better than uh I've always loved you and

that'll be the

[Music]

assignment generally the notes that I

get whether it's from David or Scott uh

or or or anybody else will be centered

around the central conflict

and bringing something into relief that

that's just not quite landing hard

enough yet that has to uh you know

figure out a way to make it land harder

so uh uh you know working with Scott

Scott will know what it was I was going

for um uh and he'll be able to tell me

if I got it or not if it's clear or not

that's the first thing you want to know

when you've written a script not is it

good or bad did I did you understand it

did you

as they say deliver the package

unharmed

um and and then the notes just uh uh

vary depending on what the thing is a

note that I'll get a lot because I lots

of times when I'm writing I sort of live

in this

area uh that's almost melodrama uh uh

you know um uh I I write romantically

and

idealistically uh and unchecked it can

go into melodrama so uh a note that I'll

get is uh this scene is kind of wet um

uh which means uh I went too far in

uh

in an example of a scene that's too wet

is you know just the amount of hugging

and I love you and we did it uh uh when

when when you start having the

characters perform the emotion that you

want the audience uh to be feeling uh

there's a famous story about um uh Maria

callus uh who was teaching uh a master

class an opera uh uh master class and

one of the students got up and sang a

very emotional ARA and the student uh uh

began crying while singing the Arya and

Maria Callis uh got up smacked her

across the face and said I'm supposed to

be crying not you um and uh I I don't

recommend smacking anyone in the face

but uh it's a good lesson the most

important note uh I'll give

is either I don't buy the obstacle uh or

uh I don't buy the intention why does

she need uh uh to do this um uh uh why

does she need to somehow get to the

grocery store that's 5 miles away to get

to buy a bottle of water when there's a

bottle of water right next to her or

when there are surely places that have

water that aren't 5 miles away like the

tap uh uh in your sink it's usually why

does he or she need to do this uh that

you need to shore up

[Music]

that well at some point in the process

even without notes um uh even without a

a goal that I need to go in there and uh

cut 10 pages I need to go in there and

make uh uh you know Eduardo's uh

intention clearer in that scene even

without notes at some point during the

process I type the script all over again

um I I will type the script all over

again just because uh as a hedge against

laziness um and here's what I mean

the script is

there everybody's happy there are no

notes but I know that there's stuff in

that script that's kind of first drafty

uh still um it's it's still high school

yearbook picture it's it's still well

that that's a promising new writer there

uh and it it's it's a a joke that's kind

of that doesn't quite work that kind of

thing and I won't go in and fix it

uh unless again I if I retype the whole

thing then when I get to that moment I'm

automatically going to fix it I'm not

going to retype that uh that bad line so

at some point um uh just as a hedge uh

against laziness as a hedge against uh

you know my memory not uh uh being great

uh I'll will retype the whole thing this

is an addition to uh Surgical rewrites

that I'm doing this is an addition to

problem solving once all the problems uh

have been solved or once we think they

uh that all the problems have been

solved uh I will retype the script twice

once with a copy of the screenplay uh

next to me and I'm just retyping it and

you know that line is weak uh um uh and

I'll try to do better and one time I'll

retype the whole thing from memory uh

and there are times when you're doing it

without it that you are able to write a

scene better uh uh that you you found

something new that you uh didn't write

something that was

unnecessary uh uh that kind of thing so

I do it I do both do you know what some

people do um uh this isn't when they're

working on a script this is when uh uh

they're they're starting out this is a a

thing for new writers they will take a

really good screenplay they'll take

Butch casting in the Sundance Kid and

they'll put it next to to them and they

will type P casting in the Sundance Kid

in the hope and it works

sometimes that um that William Goldman

will osmosis into uh uh them somehow

that just the action of typing who are

those guys or um I can't swim uh

will uh will be a lesson for them uh I I

I know novelists who do that with Mark

Twain uh and I know screenwriters who do

that with the great screenwriters

[Music]

we wanted to as part of

this uh try Rec recreating a writer's

room okay uh but here's the

problem there in in script writing there

there are two big parts of script

writing one is the fun

part and one is the agonizing part the

fun part is the writing um uh just the

the the actual writing of it is is

fun it's the thinking of what you're

going to write that is just agonizing

because you can't um force yourself to

think at least if your job was digging

ditches as backbreaking and thankless as

that might be at least you know what

you're supposed to do right you show up

to work and there's a shovel and

somebody points and says dig a five foot

ditch uh uh there like I said it's not a

job I would want to have and I tip my

cap to those who have it but at least

you know what you're supposed to do okay

um uh by the way same thing with

directors directing is a really hard job

but at least when you come to work in

the morning there's a set of

instructions for you it's a script we

have this okay it it it's just a blank

piece of paper with nothing on it and

it's a soul crushing experience because

you humans are not able to make themsel

force themselves to come up with ideas

okay you can't

go and uh and have it happen so when

they talked to me about you know how can

we have a uh uh sort of virtual writer

room in here I balked because I said

it's going to be mostly filming people

lying down on couches and and and not

having any ideas and I thought to

perhaps cut through that we'd do

something a little crazy uh which is

this uh I left the westwing after season

four okay I wrote the first four uh uh

Seasons with the exception of two

episodes um uh and I left at the end of

uh season

4 I have not seen an episode of The West

Wing from seasons 5 six uh and 7even um

uh there's

there's a reason why I um uh when it was

announced that I was leaving the show

Larry David uh called me he he had left

Seinfeld before Seinfeld was over um and

he said listen you can never watch the

show again you can never watch the

westwing again um because either it's

going to be really great without you and

you're going to be miserable or it's

going to be less than great without you

and you're going to be miserable but

either way you're going to be miserable

and I thought well it's Larry David he's

professional miserable so um uh I had

them send me episode 501 the season 5

episode one I had it was on half inch

tape that's how he looked at things back

then uh I had them sent uh to my house a

couple of days before it aired popped it

in the VCR uh hit play and I don't think

20 seconds went by before I left the TV

and slammed it off not because it was

fantastic or less than fantastic but

simply because it was like watch

somebody make out with my girlfriend um

uh Donna was speaking words that uh uh

that I didn't write you know Josh was

saying these and uh for me it was uh uh

tough so I Then followed lus advice I I

I didn't watch any of the episodes so I

don't know what they did um uh with the

leave uh uh that I gave them leave

anybody play

pool okay uh a leave and pool is you're

not just interested in in uh in getting

that particular ball uh in the pocket

you care about the leave where you're

looking at the next five shots uh I'm

going to hit that ball so the Q ball is

going to end up there which lines up

with that and the Q ball end up there

and that's you're looking five shots uh

ahead at the end of season 4 there was a

good leave um uh uh and I did that on

purpose because I didn't want the uh the

new gang to have to be staring at the

white piece of paper uh I wanted to give

them uh a healthy Le

uh uh that they could deal with I don't

know what they did but let's review for

a second where we left off at the end of

season 4 because together we are going

to break not right but break uh the

teaser and First Act of episode 501 of

the westwing it's entirely possible that

we'll do the exact same thing that uh uh

that they did um by the way has anybody

here seen episode 501 season 5 episode

one I've done my best to forget it okay

um let's talk about where we left off um

uh with uh episode I I guess uh

422 um uh which was an episode called

25 titled after the 25th Amendment um

which gives con give gives the uh the

cabinet uh the power to uh REM

temporarily remove the president from

office if he is mentally

incapacitated um I without that it's

kind of interesting um the vice

president is not the president's

understudy um uh if if the president

gets sick power doesn't automatically

shift to uh to the vice president the

only circumstance under which the vice

president can assume power is if the

president is dead or if the cabinet has

invoke the 25th uh Amendment those are

the only

circumstances Bartlett in season 1

described foretold exactly what happens

uh uh at the end of uh uh season 4 when

Zoe played by Elizabeth Moss um kind of

messes around with her Secret Service uh

uh detail and tries to give him the slip

uh Bartlett purposely scares the hell

out of her by explaining to her that the

secret service's nightmare scenario is

not him getting uh uh shot there's a

constitutional mechanism for the uh uh

president getting killed the vice

president uh uh takes power big deal um

their nightmare scenario is the

president's kid getting kidnapped and it

always is anytime the president has a

little kid they don't talk about it you

don't see articles about what happens if

Sasha or Malia uh uh get kidnapped they

don't want to give anybody any uh ideas

but that is the nightmare scenario what

happens if

Al Qaeda or Isis uh takes the

president's kid hostage and even before

they make demands like let the following

prisoners out of jail or point a bomb a

missile at Israel um or or we're going

to Slit your daughter's throat even

before that you simply you no longer

have I'm the father of a daughter um uh

uh you no longer have a

commander-in-chief you have an out of

his mind father um uh who is not going

to be really can't be trusted to make

these decisions and Bartlett

understanding that uh uh in the episode

25 goes to the cabinet and has them uh

uh invoke the 25th Amendment but we're

not up to the nightmare uh uh part yet

he invokes the 25th Amendment and in

this case uh uh remember there's no vice

president now because I got rid of hins

uh a couple of episodes earlier uh uh to

line this all up the

next in the line of succession as the

speaker of the house right John Goodman

uh I cannot remember his character's

name w w Walkin thank you Glen Glen nice

uh that's a good name I wonder where I

got that from seriously Christopher

Walkin um it's yeah Christopher Walkin

maybe but Glenn Allen Glenn Allen I

don't know where I got that from uh

usually I get a lot of names from um uh

College athletes I don't know just

always have the best names um and I'll

hear a name that I like a lot and I'll

just try to imitate the Rhythm uh of

that name

um uh you know Santana Moss uh um you

can imitate the rhythm of that name

anyway the speaker who is not of the

same party uh as Barlett needs to be

sworn in uh uh as

president now what happens uh okay for

forget for one second the clo and Dagger

part of it of where is Zoe and how do we

find her I will tell you that it was

always my

intention that annaira Smith was right

that this isn't a James Bond operation

this isn't International Terror and

we're going to find Zoe in the back of a

muffler shop in uh in Upstate New York

um and what inspired that by the way was

I was reading about uh

rapturous um I think that's what they're

called uh people who want to hasten the

end of the world uh because the you know

good things will happen they believe

when the girl when when the world ends

uh so they've done this in order to

hasten the end of the world but what

happens now we are now in uh there's no

precedent for this and it's kind of fun

doing something on The West Wing that

there's no precedent uh uh for

[Music]

um you've got the

president I think he's still living in

the residence I think that they've got

him uh in the East Wing I think that

John Goodman is there's no vice

president anyway so you might as well

put him at the Naval Observatory the

vice president's house but what happens

if Leo McGary is talking to the

president the president hates the way

John Goodman is handling something and

Leo McGary loyal to the president starts

to give a contradictory order uh uh what

happens then uh those are the kind of

arguments uh uh that I want to see what

what kind of fight is going to take

place between Josh uh uh and Leo about

the sort of extra constitutionality of

uh of what's going on also I did this

without finding out something and I

still don't know what the answer is and

I'm going to give you some uh research

homework to find out how does the

president get reinstated um uh once the

25th amendment has been uh installed

what has to happen um uh does the

president have to get reelected does the

cabinate uh uh reinstate him uh uh I I

honestly have no answer but what I know

is this we've got the

teaser and then we've got a

one um now uh in the old days uh and

this was uh like 2003 uh I think uh the

format of one hour drama on network TV

was a teaser and forax okay nowadays I'm

pretty sure it's six acts uh is the way

they do it in other words five

commercial breaks uh of slightly longer

a shorter uh uh duration what we did on

the westwing was after the previously on

we did the teaser or cold open uh as we

called it um uh then smash cut to main

titles uh and then the first act before

our first uh commercial break now we're

coming back at the top of a new season

we have got to tackle the exposition uh

of what's going on here Exposition is

one of the toughest things to do because

uh it's an artificial thing that you're

doing you're doing it uh for the sake

of uh the audience knowing everything

they need to know in order to understand

uh uh what follows um uh and to do that

you kind of you need to find uh a

character more than one character who

knows as little as the audience does uh

uh right now uh now you might say well

the audience knows

everything that everybody knows uh cuz

they were watching the show uh last

season I I don't like to trust that over

a three or four month summer Hiatus and

everything they brought everything with

them um so the stuff that's important I

want to tell them again um uh and uh and

do it in a slightly different way

uh so

let's let's talk right now about all the

balls that are up in the air

um and and where we're going to go the

biggest ball that's up in the air right

is that uh uh to Zoe is in danger all

right uh the second is that Bartlett is

no longer the president uh why don't we

write some of these down who's got who

prints nicely this chick right

here okay never never be the one in the

room who PRS niely okay you should have

just not said

now it isn't even like for a whole

season it's for the whole show you're

now the one who does this oh now now I

have something to do okay uh uh Zoe's

missing

okay you do right

nice I don't know about the little

circle above the

eyes I'll live with it uh okay um

Bartlett is not

president Bartlett

out

uh okay um Toby uh just had twins Toby

twins to's twins Toby's twins so happy

for him me

too uh it took us like 26 babies to sh

that scene because it you for a good

reason you you can't these are um we

were working with like two or 3 week old

uh uh newborns and you can't keep them

under Hot Lights uh for more than 20

seconds or so um and so you just kind of

you go into a room filled with mothers

and babies um and you uh you grab the

two that aren't

crying let's go let's go let's go let's

go

um okay am I am I forgetting anything

there's also the deadline coming up for

the Sharie story going public mhm oh

yeah um nice uh deadline on

share anything else we still don't know

who killed Molly I don't know if that's

I think that's part of the Zoe's missing

story um uh and that story The Zoe's

missing story that's our tough one you

can sit down now if you like you did a

beautiful job thank you um it's it won't

be the last time you'll be doing that

I'm just saying you can take a little

break uh this is going to be our

toughest story

because um first of all I wrote it

without knowing exactly what happened I

I I like going with the idea of of the

rapturous but I don't know the mechanics

of uh here here's what we know uh okay

um uh Zoe is uh uh she went to a

nightclub uh right on graduation night

um tell me by the way if I'm remembering

it wrong I haven't seen this episode in

since it was on

um uh

she gets ruied basically I mean with a

really bad drug from her French

boyfriend right uh right

um I

believe

uh I think it was John Spencer um it was

either John Spencer or Clark Greg the

FBI agent one of them said uh uh we're

going to find the drug dealer but he's

going to be dead when we do yes okay uh

I believe them uh uh okay um uh

so plainly a drug dealer was hired by

somebody to give

the French boyfriend a bad

drug which he gave I think he thought he

was giving Zoe ecstasy um uh uh because

they had talked about that uh

so I'm very bad at cops and robbers uh

plots and it's not what the West Wing

does uh okay um uh the westwing isn't a

clo and Dagger show uh and it's not like

you know Toby and CJ are gonna go out

there and solve this crime or anything

our conduit to the to the Crim solving

world is Clark Greg asent Casper was his

name

right sounds right yeah um uh uh as the

FBI leaon so we can hear what's going on

um that they just found this clue or

they just raided this place uh but we're

not going to see it

and I'm also conflicted because uh and

what I'm doing now is I'm I'm giving you

a vague the very vague uh idea of what

I'm looking for and then together we're

going to break it we're going to come up

uh with these plots

[Music]

I would love for the Zoe's missing story

for that clo and Dagger thing I would

love for that to be over at the end of

this episode but I don't think I can

because maybe I can I I don't know

because what I really like uh to me like

where the good stuff is is Bartlett the

powerless king um uh uh in his residence

basically under guard I mean we're in

Shakespearean uh uh territory now

[Music]

um and his loyal

staff uh having to deal with not being

able to take his instructions and is

somebody or more than one somebody uh uh

going to

betray President John Goodman um uh and

probably break break the law uh in the

process like I I wouldn't mind if that

went on for a couple of episodes maybe

it doesn't have to maybe we can wrap it

all up uh uh in this in this one

um so what we need to

do is

uh reverse engineer what happened to Zoe

um figure out how we figure it out um

how how they're caught

uh I I'm assuming that we want Zoe to

live she doesn't have to I'm I'm I'm

assuming she lived in seasons 5 six to

seven um but we can now do whatever we

want um uh here's why I'm assuming Zoe

lives I think it'd be a pretty bad idea

for her to die because everything after

that we're never going to have the

Bartlett that we love back again um uh

he's right he's never going to make

another joke again he's never going to

care about pardoning turkeys uh again we

can't ask him to do that once he's lost

a kid

uh so we're going to reverse engineer uh

uh

Zoe we're going

to get as much as we can out of uh

Bartlett

not uh uh you know sort of being a king

in

Exile um

I I I feel

like we have to kind of Nod at at Toby

being a father really empowered him uh

at the end of uh a season 4

um uh I'd kind of like to stay away from

a baby in Jeopardy you know one of them

is sick or something and and and do

something else um we've got to deal with

the deadline for shareif and we've got a

start a couple of brand new stories uh

uh going we can't just clean up from uh

from the Cliffhanger uh at the end of

four

so like I said the agonizing part is the

thinking um and the

thinking generally doesn't happen in

this room people can start to bat things

around but then usually everyone

retreats to their own offices and thinks

for a while sleeps on it comes back in

uh uh with an idea we know we need some

raw research right on on the 25th

Amendment and uh uh I I may have gotten

it right uh that first time uh but I'd

love to find out

[Music]

um we want to create some

things that John Goodman can do that

Bartlet strongly disagrees with um

whether it's the way the Zoey situation

uh is being solved I and and again I I I

want it to feel real and and in a in a

real the the rest of the

world well the rest of the world would

be captivated by this and the rest of

the world would be scared to death I was

going to say the rest of the world is

still going on there's still a stock

market and stuff but

um all right that that thing that John

Goodman is is doing wrong can either be

something having to do with Zoe uh or it

can be something having to do with

anything uh uh that the president

handles

um and we've got the deadline for sharef

which is good because it means we get to

have John amus and and de Smith on the

show uh uh which is which is great

um my only idea for a teaser uh at the

moment uh

to begin the expository

process is a uh is CJ and a press

conference right the press needs to be

briefed if we pick up the

show

uh you know minutes uh uh after we left

off which was John Goodman being sworn

in uh in the middle of the night

um uh the you know the the Press would

get there at 1: in the morning whatever

uh uh time it is and the Press would be

briefed and reporters are going to ask

questions same kind of questions that

the audience is going to have so we have

our group of people that knows as little

as the audience uh uh does and CJ can

give them information it just doesn't

sound very interesting to

me the one thing that that could feed

into is then recharging the the Sharie

deadline thing um by having her and

Danny peel off together to wrap up the

teaser um and her put the screws to him

about continuing to go past the 3-day

deadline on releasing the story because

because now not only is a terrorist act

potentially at risk if this further fuel

is added to the fire but in addition to

that uh Zoe's life may be at risk if

that story goes public okay but don't

you believe Danny being Danny um uh that

he wouldn't push back very hard on that

given the circumstances uh that he'd say

sure um I'll hold on to this um by the

way I I also want to include since the

rapturous what their hope is is that

this is going to end the world right

there has to be an assumption that uh

it's something far more dangerous than

two people in a muffler shop uh uh that

this uh in other words we we

um what happens in in this situation we

know uh um that when the president is

shot when there's when there's an

attempt made on the president's life we

go into a new defense conditioner Defcon

um uh we assume we're at War uh when

that happens are we assuming that we're

at War now there's a lot I mean there's

a uh uh there's a lot of plot and we

just need to be

careful we need to remember where this

show lives it doesn't live out on a

battlefield somewhere um uh you know it

doesn't live in a CIA uh uh room where

they've the closest we get is the

situation

room

um there's a lot

uh I don't know how to end the

teaser I mean we can have Exposition in

the teaser um uh but I don't know how to

end

it

uh I don't know what happened to Zoe uh

and I'd love to figure that out

anybody have anything

[Music]

okay so uh I want to hear from you guys

uh I just want to hear your off the top

of your head

unformed uh bad ideas okay this is the

time now for bad ideas and feel free to

reach outside the box there's no reason

we've done this several times on the

show and I like it when we do there's no

reason why this episode has to begin 2

minutes after the last episode ended it

can that was my first thought it can

begin um five years ago uh okay it can

be a flashback uh episode um uh we if if

we hadn't done it already and we've done

it twice uh uh you could cut back and

forth between you know the campaign uh

uh when everything's great to now when

everything is terrible but we did that

with uh at the top of season two uh

within the shadow to G so let me hear

from you guys uh uh what do you think so

far I have two um intertwined story

lines so one of them is related to uh

Zoe's boyfriend waking up and um CJ and

The West Wing crew finding out that um

his drug dealer is basically linked to

this white supremacist group of like

Christian fundamentalists and they're

trying to resurrect this group called

The Covenant The Sword and the arm of

the Lord um and so they're basically uh

that's a real group that's a real group

that basically went defunct in the 80s

so these are basically like young

Christian fundamentalists who um

supposedly have kidnapped Zoe but they

don't know yet that she's been kidnapped

they just know that this might be a link

um that I think Nancy MCN had kind of

alluded to at the end of season 4 um so

that's that's the information that they

have right now is that they have this

drug dealer um there's a supremacist

group that he's linked to and maybe they

have zoee

um and then the other storyline is

linked to uh John Goodman's character as

the acting president and um the Kumari

terrorists or baji operatives have

basically sent a video to the White

House claiming responsibility for Zoe's

kidnapping and um the the footage

basically shows a captured girl who kind

of resembles Zoe but they can't confirm

for sure that it actually is her um but

going off of this uh video basically

that is not leaked to the Press yet um

Leo and uh Glenn Allen walking in their

The Situation Room basically um are

forced to decide whether or not to uh

basically storm the place because the

CIA is located they pinpointed where

this place is where they shot the

footage and where Zoe might be located

um so the question is whether or not to

Stage the sort of like Rescue Mission

which you know may very well incite a

war between Kumar which is uh a US Ally

at the moment in order to save uh the

president's

daughter and uh there's a lot of

interesting stuff uh uh in there it's

but I'm I'm confused about one thing

they've they've got footage of someone

who's going to turn out to not be Zoe

right

um but based on where this footage was

shot uh you know they're able to somehow

recognize uh uh this place which which I

buy

um if uh anybody see the movie The Good

Shepherd yes in that movie there's um uh

and this is talking about technology

from the 60s um uh there's a a a short

tape recording um uh they've uh uh they'

they've wired tapped a room um somewhere

and there's a short tape recording of a

girl speaking to we don't know that it's

Eddie redm yet um just saying you know I

love you or something uh like that and

the CIA is able to wash this tape and

based on things that we can barely hear

um uh you know this the sound of a plane

engine um uh they know that it's got to

be located X miles from an airport that

can handle this kind of plane there's an

overhead fan that they know was built in

you know was manufactured in 1960 by

this company uh and they keep narrowing

down where this place has to be they

hear uh a certain kind of church bell uh

going off so they know that it's within

a block and a half of this particular

kind of church that they only built in

the 16th century and so that's going to

be located in Northern Africa um uh and

that kind of thing today the CIA and the

NSA would absolutely be able to do that

kind of thing and more more with uh with

a picture but if it's not real if it's

the Kumaris taking fake control uh of

the situation then whatever room they're

in doesn't matter either right right so

um it seems to me that we can do one of

two things perhaps there's a way to do

them both um but one is we go with the

with fig Zoe uh uh footage

um and and simply have the moment of

[Music]

um no Zoe has a birth mark on her left

ankle that's uh um you know that that's

not you have that's not Zoe uh a moment

uh or um we have real footage of real

Zoey uh and uh we are incredibly

impressed with uh how the CIA uh is able

to locate exactly uh where this place is

that second one both of these were your

ideas by the way I don't want to I'm

going to talk like I'm I had this idea

but uh that second one helps me a lot um

uh it it it helps us get out of

the we don't want to spend an entire

season um uh uh doing a spy Story doing

a thriller right we we kind of want to

get out of this um but we we want to get

out of it good I mean this was a big

time setup here's what we don't want to

do um we don't want

to come back in season five and have

someone running down the hall to tell

bar we found Zoe okay that's that's a

cheat uh um uh you can't do that uh I

it's it's what William Goldman calls

once out of the well um and what he

means by that bill Goldman is is the the

best screenwriting teacher uh that there

is and if you haven't read it I

recommend reading adventures in the

screen trade uh by William Gold but you

know he won Oscars for All the

President's Men for Butch Cassy and the

Sundance Kid he wrote The Princess Bride

misery A Bridge Too Far magic he's great

and when he talks about screenwriting uh

uh he's great to listen to but um

I he he he talks about um you know in

the old days they had shorts in front of

a movie a a two-reeler a 20-minute uh uh

movie there'll always be a cliffhanger

um at the end and in one particular

Cliffhanger our hero has fallen down a

well um and the next movie began with

the narrator saying once out of the well

he

and clearly it was a ro full of people

who couldn't figure out how he got out

of the well and they wrote that well

let's try to avoid it once out of the

well okay um uh uh I I I do like the

idea um of the CIA being able to uh uh

close in on where this place is

um

uh will we're not going to worry about

the third and fourth act now where they

close in on Zoe so let's

um let's end the First Act with uh uh

film that they've gotten tape that

they've gotten um uh on Zoe uh so we

have the she's alive uh a moment and our

first queue because you'll remember back

in um in

422 uh uh in the season finale

uh in one of my favorite moments from

Martin uh uh when he says to Leo I I

need you to to tell me the truth uh I is

is is she alive uh right now do you

think she's alive um it's a pretty tough

question for a father to ask um and Leo

says what I am absolutely certain that

she is uh uh still alive so he's going

to be right um okay

great uh anybody else have we've got

we've left uh Walkin with a a line in

that uh his swearing in scene where um

he talks about playing chicken with the

Air Force yes um and so he's going to be

quick on the trigger um Andes that rule

they get any unidentified aircraft they

get one warning and then blow them out

of the sky so uh if we extend from that

to something else it feels like

particularly if she's going to be held

by domestic terrorists or or rapturous M

um we want to push as far as possible

toward pulling the trigger on bombing

Kumar right um and so if we can maybe

like a teaser out could be if you have

um the rapists are trying to stoke a um

cataclysmic war in the Middle East which

is what a lot of these uh you know

Evangelical extremists want to do um so

that they can hasten the return of of

the of of Christ

um then you could have them set off to

go to their wider plan um bombings that

they want to look like Kumari bombings

in uh Israel and so you could have your

CJ doing the the the the Press briefing

and it's interrupted by word that there

have been a series of coordinated

attacks in you know Tel Aviv um that I

think that's cool but before we get to

that don't we need to

um when do we learn what these people

want uh uh in exchange for a living

Zoey um uh don't we need to hear some

kind of demand there demands that are

put through on the facts um uh right

that they want three particular people

released based on the the teachings of a

Muti and that happened at the end of

season in the end of season 4ot Donna

Donna gets the gets the facts it has the

two uh that's right I remember Donna

getting the facts yes that was

cool you wrote it that was cool uh it's

it sounds like something that wasn't my

idea um because I can't think of cool

things okay

uh let me just keep I'm I'm just going

to keep reminding everybody just so it

stays in the Air Supply uh in here the

westwing is at its best when all all of

our characters are talking to each other

okay and dealing with each other it's at

its weakest um

when

uh we suddenly cut to bombings in uh in

Israel other words we have to hear about

these things and our characters need to

be dealing with each other um uh which

means they have to disagree if in the

midst of all this um uh because I I I

also again I want to keep mining as much

as possible things that could happen a

at the White House that that haven't

happened yet let me give you uh an

example I didn't want to get political

uh uh at all but uh but I will a little

bit because we're living in

extraordinary times uh Donald Trump is

going to be the Republican nominee

probably uh uh for president and maybe

one or more of you support uh uh Donald

Trump and if you do I don't want

to ruffle you um but I believe that

Donald Trump in addition to everything

else uh is a constitutional crisis

waiting to happen Okay I believe that

when Donald Trump's Watergate uh happens

and you know it will okay I don't think

this guy leaves the building

voluntarily um uh uh the way Nixon did

so now we have a problem

uh he also might be a walking even

bigger crisis uh in that some of the

things that he talks

about we should go after the family

members of terrorists uh we should

torture people even worse than water

boarding um uh I'm going to Nuke this

country I'm going to Nuke that country

he is saying that as commander-in-chief

he would be issuing illegal orders okay

and there are very smart military people

who are saying let's going to be a real

problem because I don't know anyone who

would follow that order uh to kill the

child of uh of a terrorist um so uh you

know you you could have a

situation that we only ever see in

movies or third world countries where

there's like the one crazy General who's

loyal to Trump and he's got his Division

and that's a civil war that's uh that's

how Civil Wars start so I don't want to

do a civil war on The West Wing but like

I said I do want to show stuff we

haven't seen before do they quickly need

to name a new vice president because

what if John Goodman suddenly kills over

from pneumonia um it's who is it next

the Secretary of State um who who we're

going through a lot of yeah the

Postmaster General is going to be

president any any second now we we got

to stop the bleeding um your homework is

these are great uh ideas that I'm

hearing coming with more okay um uh

let's find out what the real deal is on

uh on reinstating the president uh who

has

been unin stated uh who's been removed

due to the 25th amendment has anyone

ever been removed to I I used to know

things like this and I don't anymore

there hasn't um I think two I can't

remember exactly which president but

there have been some instances wasn't

the 25th Amendment didn't it happen

because of woodro Wilson um woodro

Wilson was very sick for a long time and

his wife was kind of running the place

right

yeahh I wonder if it happened because of

woodro Wilson

um we might as well learn Garfield took

how long to I like Garfield was 30 like

38 days or something yeah

um poor guy well the doctors killed him

he could have worn a coat you know he

really could have worn a coat and a

scarf if if he' had my mother he'd be

alive okay so I'd like you to come back

with ideas great I'd like you to come

back

with uh uh with the 25th Amendment

stuff

um and we're doing great uh this is we

we're further along than I've ever been

after the first you know uh staff

session on on an episode really doing

fantastic uh I would I would take the

rest of the day and do nothing

[Music]

I was thinking about this uh uh last

night all all I heard yesterday were

good ideas um uh let's hear some bad

ideas so we can talk about uh uh why

they're bad let's learn from some

mistakes okay uh I also had uh another

idea that I was certain I didn't need to

write down because I was going to

remember it just hang on a

second God damn

it okay

um all right let's go back to where we

were uh I remember what my idea is now

um uh I think we do have to start uh

that the logical place to start is in

the Press briefing room in the middle of

tonight uh the last briefing CJ gave

does anybody remember um uh was it in

here's what I remember um uh I because I

I haven't seen you guys have seen it

more recently than I have uh Leo Told CJ

she's got to give uh uh the best

briefing of her life uh when did that

happen early uh did it happened after

Zoe uh uh was taken right okay that's

happened um Abby stalker Channing uh uh

then who has been sedated uh uh

nonetheless kind of shrugged off the SED

Barrel through the sedation um uh uh to

go into the Press briefing room to make

a personal plea from a mother um all

hell broke loose instantly I I I

remember in the script uh uh I I wrote a

stage Direction This has gone from 0 to

60 uh uh instantly with CJ and with uh

Mary Luis Parker uh uh trying to to stop

her Abby gets a couple of feet into uh

uh the Press briefing room everyone

starts screaming they get her uh uh out

of there um uh but that CJ's briefing

was prior to the the president stepping

down okay the press needs to be briefed

again uh it's the middle of the night

right now right midnight 1:00 a.m.

somewhere around then okay so great

we've got that press briefing room to

handle Exposition for us uh and that's

what's going to happen CJ is going to go

in uh uh and brief the Press on the fact

that a short while ago uh uh the

president called his cabinet together

requested that they invoke uh uh the

25th Amendment the president believes uh

uh he is he does not have the mental

capacity uh uh to do this and according

to the Constitution the following has

happened people will have a ton of

questions I uh reporters will have a ton

of questions we'll

decide what questions we want to hear uh

uh answered uh uh that kind of thing um

and I I I I think it's a good idea to

let the audience know that um we expect

this to be wrapped up soon that the that

the West Wing that the series has not

gone into a permanent condition of John

Goodman being the President Martin Sheen

being in the East wing and worse yet um

uh that World War I uh uh is about to

happen I remember um uh early on at the

end of the second episode uh of the

first

season

uh an air force uh a US Air Force uh

plane carrying a bunch of uh military

doctors including the president's

personal physician accidentally wandered

into Syrian airspace got and got shot

down by uh was it Syrian airspace or

Libyan airspace I think it was Syrian

airspace can't remember now um and they

got shot down requiring uh military

action on uh on our part and the head of

NBC at the time uh uh Scott sassa uh who

who was a big champion of the pilot uh

and that was the pilot was the only

script that had been written it's not

like I went to NBC with 10 episodes or

anything it was just the pilot and then

flying by the seat of my pants um uh and

he he came to me and begged to me please

don't we can't spend the the whole first

season at War um uh uh don't don't make

up a phony war that we're fighting I

just I love it when these guys are all

In The West Wing just you know trying to

lift America up and I assured him it's

the that there wasn't going to be a war

though Bartlett

was pretty quick to invade anybody who

bothered him um I think that we need to

tell the audience in this opening press

briefing we need to indicate to them uh

uh uh that this is going to be wrapped

up by the end of the episode uh uh

somehow I I don't want to end there uh

because we all we've done is review the

conflict

[Music]

um we were we had been looking for and I

I gave you guys some homework last night

so I'm going to ask you for it in a

second uh we had been looking

for uh the first Rift

between Bartlett and John Goodman right

the first Rift between Bartlett and uh

uh and wkan and I thought of one um I

thought it could be that Walkin and his

people and he should have people um I

think it would be a good idea for

walking to address the

nation our people the CJs and the joshes

and and everything oh also um uh uh

let's assume that Rob low is willing um

uh let's bring Sam uh uh back okay this

is a terrible tragedy uh that's going on

both publicly and privately and I I I

believe Sam sourn uh uh got in his car I

put the best to the medal and uh and

headed for Washington so Sam's going to

show up uh uh to help out our people do

not want uh uh John Goodman uh uh to

address the country because now it seems

like he's the president but he is the

president um yeah but he's not going to

be the president that much uh uh longer

and we we don't want to project the

image of a uh uh that there's been a

coup or a weaken bar I can see that

being a rift I can see the arguments on

both sides there and what we were

looking for the reason why we wanted a a

rift hopefully the first of of several

um

is because that's where the drama is and

in this story are are our

guys you know the temptation to be loyal

to Bartlett and yet their constitutional

responsibility to be uh uh loyal to the

the president uh are gonna come in

conflict with each other well get back

to that tell me about tell me your

thoughts tell me what happened

overnight I'll start I guess um so one

of the ways that you can does anybody

feel like Evelyn is hogging sorry

someone else come on Evelyn well she

started yesterday and I go ahead you

know what I'm gonna ever since Genie

thought I was serious about the corn

I've been nervous about uh making jokes

do you really think I thought you ruined

a script with yeah I thought because I

had a professor tell me once if you make

an if you make a mistake and you take

the reader out of it like you're [ __ ]

and I was like oh I I did that to myself

but they so that's why I believed you

you didn't take me that far out of it I

was

okay go ahead okay so one of the ways um

in which the president can assume power

again is basically by uh just submitting

another declaration um but there's conf

there because if the acting uh pus

submits another declaration that uh

conflicts with that then we're in

gridlock basically so if uh it's really

interesting yeah so if Bartlett were

sorry no no go ahead go ahead and ask

question if if Bartlett were to uh to

attempt to give out orders to his staff

or if his staff were to try to get him

to uh to issue orders is the president

um I would imagine that John Goodman's

character uh Walkin would have his own

teams you said of people who might uh

oppose that and one of the ways in which

to do that is to get some of the defense

uh not the defense minister he could be

one of them but um some of the other

members of cabinet to oppose uh

president Bartlett if that were at all

possible how does first of all is there

any president for this uh it I mean it's

written within uh the 25th amendment

that uh basically within four days uh

the acting podus needs to submit another

declaration negating what the what the

president has so it is only and I ask if

if there's precedent we we it's never

happened before we we the 25th amendment

has never been invoked it has been

invoked but typically it's uh when the

the president is in a coma or it's the

last thing that happens before the

president dies yes and or not not dies

but is in a coma or in some sort

actually seems to be the

colonoscopy basically whenever a

president gets a colonoscopy yeah the

25th amendment is in V right um but it's

typically so there there are a couple I

think the my reading of it was a little

bit different than that um there's

there's uh the first couple of sections

are about the selection of a of a of a

vice president uh the third section gets

is the thing that Bartlett invokes where

the president uh willingly declares

himself or herself um incapable of of uh

fulfilling the the the obligations of

the office um and in that case is

because it was his or her choice is

empowered to at any time offer a second

Declaration of Competency see that's

what by the way this is all fantastic

and there's no question but that good

scenes uh uh come out of it what seems

strange to me is that once the 25th

amendment has been invoked okay once

Bartlett is no longer president how does

he have any more power than you or I do

to submit any kind of letter that says

anything but he does he does have that

power submit the second declaration but

under the fourth section yeah if the uh

if there is the 25th Amendment section

four section four uhuh um if the uh the

vice president and the majority of the

cabinet are the ones initially

responsible for declaring the the

president

incompetent then if the president tries

to reinstate I'm sorry the ones

initially responsible for declaring the

president incompetent as opposed to to

the president himself initiating or

initiating um that that that

declaration in that case we get into

some of these questions of um I think

it's in both cases like it's pretty it

seems it the the the the thing about the

the disputes is entirely contained

within section 4 and with a thereafter

which suggests legally that it it's only

under those conditions um now we could

have play some legalism you know and and

and do that um we'd have to go through

it seems like more firmly we'd have to

go through a step of of having the um

the president

proem get the cabinet to declare

Bartlett still incompetent yeah um and

then you could get into a point where

actually the Congress has to vote um by

2third and we get into all sorts of sh

would won pull like a power play like

that because when I was I not 24th

Amendment at all but I was thinking like

if I was walking I know realistically I

have a finite time to be the president

Bartlett's going to step back in I'm I'm

going to be up for re election soon this

is a first-term president maybe I can

run for president what can I do as I

hold the Oval Office to maybe sabotage

any chances Bartlett has to getting

reelected maybe I can run that's what I

was thinking okay let's hear your

thought um well I was I was still stuck

on the uh on the the the shareif story

thing and there is earlier in in season

4 there's the moment that um Jack uh the

Christian Slater characters words are

taken are taken out of context or sorry

not taken out of context are that he

thought were said off the Record were

put on the record in one of Danny's

Pieces by a researcher and Danny's

editor yes and there seems to be the

potential for some ill will on the part

of that editor um which we could play

here um uh in uh a sequence of events

that I sort of blocked out um that would

renew that three-day deadline over

dany's

opposition um and make uh walin aware of

the sharf business which he wouldn't

have been before this point in his

capacity as as Speaker of the House once

he's aware of that he's got the source

of political sabotage that he can

possibly use to undermine Bartlett going

forward um I can walk you through the

the thing if we want to well I'm going

to want to hear it but I think first

what I need to do is call NBC and um uh

let them know we'll be doing a two-hour

season

premiere I mean it I I think actually it

I think that's what it needs um uh just

it feels right especially if we're going

to wrap this all up uh uh by the end of

it I it just feels a little bit better

when we we did uh a two two hour shows

uh uh I

think it all it always felt like a meal

um uh uh and uh I think for this not to

seem hokey uh it's going to need to be

uh two hours so uh I can't remember who

it is I'm shoving off the schedule by

doing that but they'll understand um uh

that's all really really good stuff

um uh let me ask uh uh a mertile expert

um under conditions like this of grave

uncertainty uh in the world remember we

have every reason to believe that we are

minutes away from uh a mushroom clad uh

uh somewhere our our worst uh Nightmares

by the way all this stuff was uh well 25

was written after uh a my four years at

The West Wing were the two years before

and after 911 um uh so it's was

interesting to see that uh uh cultural

shift but this is happening after uh uh

911 which means we we are absolutely

prepared to believe that a terrorist

group is uh is not just going to do

something bad to uh Zoey but is gonna uh

harm a lot more people than that with

this kind of uncertainty uh uh in the

world um literally not knowing exactly

who the president of the United States

is uh wouldn't there be massive Chaos on

the stock exchange yeah when the markets

open yeah especially with the oil

markets okay I mean I would imagine that

Kumar is probably an oil producing

nation under those circumstances is

there anyone who is

impowered to close

trading um I'm looking for these

extraordinary these very dramatic things

that would have to happen uh uh under

these circumstances and I without

knowing what I was talking about in the

season 2 opener in the Shadow 2 gunman

which it the president been shot in the

end of uh uh season 1 he's like lying on

a gurnie uh talking to Leo he's about to

be wheeled into uh uh preop and he says

tell I can't remember the the we never

saw the treasury secretary but um uh I

had it was either Hutchinson or bar hill

um tell Jim tell so and so uh to suspend

trading uh on the stock exchange

Bartlett says this knowing that because

he's been shot uh uh the stocks are

going to uh crater so just suspend

trading um and I wrote that line not

knowing if the president actually had

the power uh uh to do that or not or if

the treasury secretary had the power to

do that or if it was the SEC uh or if it

was the fed or if anybody uh can do that

I know that

we uh wasn't trading closed on I know it

was it definitely closed on 911 you know

on on the day I think it was closed on

the 12th uh uh too so somebody has the

power to uh shut that down what else do

we do well um at the mer at the New York

mercile Exchange I think the only time

it's ever been closed was when there was

a bomb threat and they literally had to

evacuate the building but they reopened

immediately the next day

so I I'm not sure I I'm sure there's

some precedent um for it to happen for

them to close trading I would imagine

maybe this the Commodities future

trading exchange might be involved I

just find it so interesting that out of

the entire world of things to choose

from you like really got turned on by

the New York mertile

Exchange that like I think you're going

to I think you're going to write five

movies about the New York mark

exchange uh uh you know it's going to be

like you're

Transformers oh all the sequels um okay

man um uh now by the way we are doing

what actually happens uh in a writer's

room which is you kind of work for a

minute and then screw around for 10

minutes probably be around

now um that I'd say uh you know let's

take a Pop-Tart Break um and we'd have

Pop-Tarts then there would be an

argument about are they better toasted

or not are they better frosted or not

okay easy untoasted

unfrosted really wow you got a problem

with that my friend it's just the okay

because we do your script tomorrow all

right are you sure I think I am be very

sure very sure before you frosted

frosted frosted and untoasted we can

agree on the untoasted thing

but all right what about you I don't

like Po shut the hell up okay I don't

know how you got in this room all right

guys um

your idea about uh you know walking

seeing an opportunity leveraging this

try to do something I think it's a good

idea if it's a walking staffer uh okay

um and not make John Goodman a mustache

twirling guy I think that John Goodman

can be you know he can be John Wayne he

can be tough he can be shoot him out of

the sky uh uh after one warning that

kind of thing um uh and he can certainly

be uh ideologically the opposite of uh

our president but I think that he should

be a fundamentally decent guy who does

not try to take advantage of such a

horrible situation and I'm saying that

for two reasons one he he's a more

interesting character that way

to must we on a rare occasion when we're

introducing a Republican

into the mix make them Donald

Trump

life just writing what we know here um

yeah uh uh so uh if we want to do that

story I think it's uh uh I think it's

wkins

Josh right uh uh who's uh who's doing

that

um now if if we've got all these

characters uh uh that we want to use all

old and new you know we're bringing Sam

back uh we have Josh Molina uh uh R

playing will Bailey uh uh we're going to

have a Walkin staffer uh possibly um uh

the discussion that you're having and

you're having uh uh about just what the

law is here and how does Bartlett become

president again we need some lawyers in

the room uh uh I mean on the show right

whether it's um uh Oliver

or uh or we this was a show where every

time we needed a White House Council it

was a different white house uh uh

Council uh and they got to do an

introductory scene um we need uh all

those people uh the person I think we

want to see most is Emily Proctor right

Angley Hayes uh okay so uh we are going

to very nicely ask CSI Miami and I'm put

us all in a time capsule uh and putting

us back there we're going to very nicely

ask CSI Miami which is on a different

network can we borrow uh Emily Proctor

does she square off against Matthew

Perry um hey both Republicans going to

war with each other and we need we need

Matt too don't we all right it's going

be great but just imagine the promos uh

for this episode uh um uh it's going to

be a good episode line bill that's right

that's right

um but if we are going to have this many

people sitting at the dinner table we

need plenty of food uh uh for everybody

that's not a hard metaphor to understand

right seven course

meal I don't know there's just something

about you that's pissing me off I I

can't like I'm okay with the Frosted

poptart but I don't know what it is I

agreed with you a little bit a little

bit not enough and I really feel like

you should have been kissing my ass I'll

Stand the chair next time

okay

um okay uh so we have right now uh two

big juicy story problems uh uh to deal

with obviously the priority is and one

of those big juicy story problems kind

of has two branches uh okay uh so let's

talk about the Abduction of Zoe uh uh a

big story thing we've got to

find and rescue Zoe okay get her back

safely and we the other branches we've

got to deal

with the uh uh assumption uh that this

isn't a couple of crazy rapur interests

in uh uh you know in Upstate New York uh

that this that that we are at War uh uh

that

there's something military uh uh

Happening Here uh so we need to wrestle

both those stories to the ground we're

close on the Zoe part uh um the idea

that some kind

of remind me again where we left it

Donna got a

fax with a really guys that that uh is

all I'm going to get it was I think like

a blurry picture of

of it was a a yeah blurry picture there

was something I remember there was

something about something Zoe was

wearing that two tank tops yeah two tank

tops she was wearing layered tank tops

that look like yeah and had I um just

remind me if I did a good job or not had

I laid in earlier on that Zoe was

wearing two tank tops somebody remarked

on it CJ CJ remarked on it to the

Press oh CJ said to here's what she was

wearing when she was last seen uh have a

picture of her at the time yeah great

okay

uh I'll tell you what else

um stalker

Abby cannot

be

passive uh guys your protagonists um uh

and in an ensemble TV series uh which a

a at the moment

the the two people pitching TV series

have not pitched uh Ensemble shows um uh

they're pretty much one or one or two uh

uh character shows but your protagonist

by definition cannot be passive uh okay

they can't be a victim of events uh they

can't a a and all of the characters on

this show are protagonists um uh every

single one of them so Donna can't spend

this two hours just saying oh God isn't

it terrible all right she has to somehow

be active Abby can't spend this whole

two hours under a doctor's care um uh

you know saying it it isn't this

terrible she has to be active um and

this is not a show where uh you know the

characters strap on weapons and go and

cowboy uh themselves uh it makes it

harder so let me hear your ideas I

actually just

yours I actually wanted the first lady

to say that she wanted to actually

address the press and the reason why

they bring Sam back is to give um they

say they need another Kenesaw speech

where when the pipes bursted that was

something that the president you know

Sam wred in the car and he was the the

comment from Toby him being a freak um

but Sam comes back and that's how he

gets mixed back and Toby mixed back with

Toby but the first lady actually does

want to address the the press okay uh

how do we avoid that isn't it simply a

redo of what we

did in uh in 422 in in uh uh in the

season finale where the first lady was

desperate to address the Press you know

make a personal Mother's plea uh uh and

they wouldn't let her well coming from a

place of her being I guess emotionally

unstable so you think that enough time

has passed

that I mean she's there with her husband

in that sense consoling him and

obviously he

can't I it's I think it's her moment to

protect him in a sense like the the the

family aspect of things the daughter's

out there he's stepped down from the

presidency so he has relinquished his

power so I'm not sure how he's feeling

um I can imagine it's not we we can

definitely check in with them uh

emotionally

and uh listen it's a that that'll be a a

tricky thing it's going to you know take

some de uh writing because it can become

just mock is and mod and uh incredibly

fast the easiest fastest way for it to

become Mock and modlin is to make these

people passive victims uh of this

circumstance make them active make them

soldiers uh and uh and we you're clear

of that I think that yours is a good

idea but I think that um I'm just not

like feeling enough conflict there and I

think I yeah I'm going to call you in

one second I think that once we start to

figure

out what the FBI is doing what the

Secret Service is doing because those

would be uh the

two uh law enforcement uh agencies

responsible for this right once we

figure out what the FBI and the Secret

Service are doing then we can have Abby

feel like they're doing something wrong

um uh and uh uh you know

and disagreeing with uh her husband who

is powerless uh in this situation anyway

uh but I think that

um uh I think it's going to be really

helpful uh uh once we understand those

things as well as the other branch of

that

uh which is what's going on in The

Situation Room uh uh what are Fitz

Wallace Nancy and Leo who is going to

have you know his hand in every pie uh

uh in an episode like this what's going

on in uh uh in the situation room

um is someone taking false credit uh uh

for this um uh

has

uh I don't want to use names like Isis

and Al qaa because um it it's jarring

we're a parallel universe we're not the

exact same universe uh uh so we we'll we

we make up names like Sharif and Kumar

and that kind of thing um uh is someone

taking credit for it uh and it's quickly

demonstrated that it that it wasn't them

I don't know uh I'm sorry you keep

wanted to say something couple of couple

of things uh one a way to do something

like uh uh Abby wrestling with what to

say to the nation could be if they ask

her to now that he stepped down he can't

address the nation and maybe she needs

to in his stead um to be able to

um on the other track in terms of your

your last open question there um I

remember on on the day of September 11th

um by the early

afternoon uh um the Taliban

uh government in

Afghanistan denied any involvement

immediately you know released a

statement saying we had nothing

whatsoever to do with this and the um

that already felt like a sort of

harburger of Doom like this this clearly

and so if you have feeling the pressure

the Kumari governments say we had

nothing whatsoever to do with this um

and that both feed the the

um uh Anna De Smith Side by saying they

really didn't and on the other side feel

someone saying clearly they're denying

it because they know we're going to

they're trying to get out ahead of this

or something can I ask a quick question

anybody here app

parent okay I am um and if I were in

Bartlett's shoes right now which is

where you have to put yourself if you're

going to any of you would have to put

yourself

uh if I'm in Bartlett situation I could

give a [ __ ] if California falls into the

Pacific Ocean I'm not thinking about

Kumar and shareif and how to do that

which is I'm only thinking about one

thing somebody is holding a knife to the

throat uh of my kid that's it and that's

exactly why I had the cabinet invoke the

25th Amendment it was sort of like with

my last gasp of sane oxygen okay the

last smart thing uh uh that I can do

here that isn't driven by emotion is to

replace me right now um or I'm going to

bomb somebody okay I'll do it uh I'm

going to do whatever they ask me to do

uh to get my kids so get me out of the

game um uh so given that I don't think

that Bartlett at least not right now at

least not at 1:00 a.m. at least not in

act one is strategizing uh uh about the

world well I was separating those two

they were they were two separate

questions I I should them in my liar

okay okay um depend he's still my least

favorite but I'm catching you're

catching up now depending on how much on

how much time is elaps between the

finale and the premiere um because I I

mean I made a small note to myself the

only reference I have is I my dog went

missing when I was like 11 and I didn't

know cuz you're helpless you don't know

what to do you can't be actively

involved in the search so I just assumed

my dog was dead so I made like I

prepared a memorial for him assuming I

have to grieve for my dog he he was

found but when it comes to Bartlet Abby

um an active role that someone could

take is possibly just assuming and

submitting to the fact that maybe your

child is dead then you start making the

prepar You' lost all hope it's an

emotional state people can go on um can

I well well well but but I'm sorry uh

I'm going to get to you in one second I

do like the idea

of uh someone making that suggestion uh

uh to either Bartlett or Abby and having

them you know if you talk to parents

who and honestly if you're a parent just

the thought of it makes your head

explode if you talk to a parent whose

child has been abducted they could be

missing for 5 years and that parent will

hold never uh concede uh uh that the kid

isn't alive anymore in a million years

so somebody made that suggestion to

either of the bartletts um jeder Abby uh

they would get pounded um and I'd like

to see that scene uh so I think it's a

good idea um uh if we do it a little bit

different and jeie you want to say what

if they what if they go to Molly's

parents they have to go to her funeral

and Molly

yeah yeah all we did yeah that's great

um all we did for Molly is Toby named

his daughter after her which I thought

deserves more so much more um but yeah

they've got to

um I love that and still not knowing

that their daughter is is alive or dead

and then they have to go pay to pay

condolences to to Molly which they are

in some regard responsible for they've

put their daughter in this position yeah

that's a great idea it's possible that

by the end of this you will no longer be

the person I like the least but I don't

think I'm ever going to let you more

than I like

Genie just so you know and I also think

it's important that you guys know where

you stand uh uh with me who's my

favorite who's my least favorite uh uh

that kind of thing every few minutes

I'll give you an update yeah I'd really

like to see that scene and then at the

end of the teaser so they go to the

funeral the end of the teaser is she's

alive there's the video there's the she

there there's hope so it's like you go

from Death to she's she's sure I don't

think we can I think that if you did the

the funeral in the teaser um you're

giving it short shrift uh um I I think

we'd have to race by the uh uh the

funeral um but uh I do like ending the

teaser with

uh well I was going to say I do like

ending the teaser with uh she's alive it

doesn't give us a chance to do what we

were talking about we talked about that

as the act one out yeah we talked about

the she's alive as the act one out the

footage the footage claiming

uh claiming responsibility for

kidnapping was was Molly the one who was

who was on the detail no but was on the

detail for one of the other yes

daughters I believe it was Elizabeth in

which case we can have at least

Elizabeth at the funeral and Elizabeth

might be the one who raises the

possibility cuz who else their daughter

could get away with that I would imagine

that there would be a Bartlett Family

Reunion in this absolutely there would

have to be yeah uh-huh well um was there

any evidence found on mol's body about

there was a gunshot there was just a

gunshot gun yeah gun um they didn't take

forensics uh I I I I know this cast is

getting uh uh pretty big but I really

like Tay digs um he would probably I

mean I would imagine the Secret Service

would be after this yeah it'd be very

easy to have I mean he'd be around he'd

be feeling responsible uh uh right he I

mean he was the head of uh Zoe's detail

um they probably follow the lead if they

had one on uh on the rapturous or you

know the the Christian fundamentalist uh

yeah so if we can find some food for Tay

to eat uh as they say it would be great

I also

um uh I really like Ron Butterfield um

uh uh the head of Bartlett's uh uh

detail uh and let's not forget duay uh

that uh it's and I know it's not the

same as a daughter but uh Zoe is

Charlie's girlfriend um uh

so listen there's just a very personal

uh aspect uh to this for a lot of people

uh uh in this show you know you don't

have to have have it be a girlfriend or

a child uh uh who's missing uh you know

if if you're Josh if you're CJ if you're

Sam this is your your world's just been

turned inside out and and an instant um

uh uh this this friend uh is in grave

grave danger the world might blow up uh

any

second someone who's not your boss uh uh

is sitting in the Oval Office there's an

entirely different president the the guy

you know is the President Jed Bartlett

who you've devoted your life to uh is

essentially under armed guard uh in in

the East Wing um uh for fear that any

second he could call Fitz Wallace uh and

say I'm tired of this mobilize the 82

Airborne um uh and here's what we're

going to do and suddenly we've got two

commanders in Chief uh it if we can't

get an episode out of this we should

really turn in our wga

cards uh it there's really good stuff

happening talk to me more I'm I'm dying

to hear a bad idea so I can talk about

why it's

bad um well I think there's a lot come

on I'm kidding go ahead I was just going

to say there's a lot of dramatic tension

in the fact that um most of the West

Wing staff have to deal with the the

official story that's coming out to the

public and that's largely um the extent

to which they're they're controlling the

situation right what what information is

actually getting out to the press and to

the public versus what they actually

know about you know the footage that may

have been found or uh the information

about whatever group may have Zoey and I

think it really parallels with the way

that uh that President Bartlett and his

family are sort of Trapped in the in the

East Wing um trying to figure out what

to do or how to how to communicate to

the Secret Service if they're out on the

field um or you know the FBI if they're

following any lead on Zoe's kidnapping

sort of domestically so we have these

two yeah that's cool are you able to I I

I don't mean to put you on the spot and

this it's very hard to think of these

things and

like on command um are you able to put

what you said

into able to organize that into

uh this happens then this happens then

this happens um partially okay yeah uh I

I I I'm impressed even partially that

you can do it as much as you can do it

right now um okay so uh CJ finds out

from uh from Charlie and uh Tay Dig's

character who I can't remember right now

uh Wes Wes what's his name Wes Wes

um yeah I can't remember his last name

either Wesley Davis uh so Charlie and

Wesley Davis uh I could been a little

more

imaginative Charlie and Wesley Davis uh

find out um about the Christian

fundamentalist group that may have Zoe

um and so CJ is now uh privy to this

information and she has to decide with

you know with Josh and uh the other

members of the The West Wing through

whether or not um

to deliver this information to the

president and whether or not um whether

or not they should sit on it uh before

going to the Press I mean um yes I I I

don't know and I think it's because you

don't know I don't know how we got to uh

uh the rapturous I think let's make

ourselves feel better and uh and put up

an index card

these index cards are too small uh uh

for our purposes but we're going to go

with them anyway okay you index card

junkies back there you have no idea how

much index card stuff we went through um

you're the one uh uh with the

handwriting you blew it on day one okay

would you just write

yeah uh CJ press briefing room

we don't quite know well we know a

little bit about what that scene's going

to be um uh we don't know everything

about what that scene's going to be but

watch how good we're going to feel when

we put

up an index card and wait we even get to

do another one we'll do it on the white

index card would you write teaser yes on

that

were you worried for a second that you

weren't going to be able to fit the

whole word or did you feel like you had

it all the way I had

it I let me tell you something at S I

thought she's

worried okay but you didn't show it uh

all right you you showed nothing but

confidence but at S I knew you were

worded okay you didn't have it all the

way look how well we're

doing okay uh

um uh let me just does anybody have any

general thoughts did anybody have any

ideas

overnight okay here's the I overnight

idea I had we've seen this plot before

in various different forms let's explore

it and see if we can do it in a way that

we haven't seen

before there is the illusion

of uh some kind of international threat

out there right it's not real it's an

illusion that's been created by the

rapturous that's what they're called

right am I using the right name does

anybody know yeah okay well that's what

we're calling them here there's an

illusion that's been created by the

rapturous we're going to make that clear

uh uh in our story that some

actual uh terrorist group uh or or or

even a country uh has abducted uh uh

Zoey and is making certain

demands

that there's an easy way to explain this

by just talking about what we're ripping

it off from um uh uh so let's just talk

about Crimson Tide uh for a sec movie

Crimson Tide do everybody know it y okay

uh uh in Crimson Tide uh they get a

message message launch your nuclear

missiles then they get another message

that's cut off uh in the middle Jean

Hackman

says that message was cut off in the

middle we're going to launch these

missiles anyway Denzel Washington says

whoa whoa whoa whoa we can't launch the

missiles uh uh we've got to wait and see

what this other message is because it

might be saying don't launch the

missiles uh everything's okay and the

movie is essentially aace uh uh with

time to see if they can get the second

half of that message that was cut off

before the moment that they're supposed

to launch the missiles so what if we

have roughly the same race that if we

devise and we're going to need some

military consultants in here to to make

this all legit but we have John Goodman

and his people who are ready to make

some sort of military move I'm not

talking about anything as big as

dropping a nuclear bomb uh or anything

um but they are ready

to start bombing a thing um uh and then

we let's call that the Jean Hackman

faction and we had the Denzel Washington

faction that's an de Smith and her

people saying

th this is it's an illusion um this

isn't happening this is uh this is a

police issue it's an FBI issue she's in

the back of a musler shop uh in Upstate

New York if

fundamentally that was the uh the

skeleton uh of the episode isn't that

enough to and it's a two-hour episode

isn't that enough to start hanging the

things that we want to uh hang which in

particular is

seeing I mean but what turns me on is

the idea of an exiled king um uh uh

Bartlett power

uh uh uh basically under guard in uh uh

in the East wing and a

staff torn between serving the president

and serving their president uh uh

Bartlet does would would that work yeah

can I can I just a couple of questions

clarification um so in terms of the the

um

rapturous because we had we were

discussing

as an aside earlier we had that that um

facts come in and it had the picture of

Zoe but it also had a list of Demands

and those demands matched to the demands

that um a um Kumari Muti had made um

during a sermon an online sermon uh in

days previous um so that would suggest

that the rapturous if they are behind it

were trying to

stoke uh the conflict between the United

States and Kumar in order to incite

exactly the thing that Walkin would be

pushing for on the Gene Hackman side ah

I think that's really interesting um so

uh if that's the case then I guess what

we're look one of the things we're

looking for are ways to stoke that from

the Kumari side that either they're

trying to avoid responsibility or um

they're embracing you know the false

responsibility and trying to get out

ahead of it by being aggressive towards

someone else um so what are those things

that we're going to be sort of throwing

fuel on the fire with from outside the

White House is that I think that feels

like the yeah that feels really good

yeah um let me mention since we've said

the words word rapturous uh rapturous 10

times now uh uh let let me mention this

too I've had plenty of fun uh with this

show and with other things

mocking uh religious

extremists uh let's take advantage of

the fact that on this show we have a

character who is a devout Catholic uh uh

Bartlett

um we've got the crazy uh uh uh people

in other words I I I I want to I want

there to be a voice for the non-crazy uh

uh part of Faith uh and and that can be

Barlett okay even at this his his lowest

moment he thought his lowest moment was

when Mrs landingham was killed and

that's when he at least for a few

minutes abandoned his faith and uh and

cursed out God maybe he didn't abandon

his faith I don't know when we were

shooting that scene you know what scene

I'm talking about yeah uh three

Cathedrals yeah two Cathedrals uh we

shot it in the National Cathedral and uh

uh there were a number of clergy

standing around and uh uh we were about

to rehearse the scene and uh I thought I

better a scene in which Bartlett curses

at God and in the National Cathedral so

I thought i' better warn these guys who

would just come down to watch you know

oh cool the westwing rehearsing here uh

that that was going to happen and I so I

went up to a priest and I said father uh

I just want to let you know that in the

scene we're about to rehearse Martin

Sheen is going to curse out God and he

said I know it's going to be great

um uh uh so uh

I

the true people of Faith did not believe

that Martin Sheen abandoned his faith in

that moment um they believed he affirmed

it uh uh by by challenging God like that

um

I these conversations that don't go

anywhere uh like this believe it or not

are very important uh okay uh uh we

Circle it uh for a long long time and

just like cotton candy uh uh twirling in

there bit by bit meat starts to go on

the bones that said I want

to have a teaser uh okay uh I want to be

able to go in my office and uh and write

the teaser and in order to do

that

uh I think we need to know what the out

is uh on the teaser there was an idea

yesterday can somebody remind

me of what the the out would be on the

teaser does anybody remember someone

mention that the Press briefing gets

interrupted by some major was that just

happens uh bombings in Israel perhaps

that the raptures would have staged in

order to do that or could be something

to do could there be a video I'll tell

you I I I would hold off on that we're

remember we're coming back at the

beginning of a new season let's we got

to catch the audience up not not just in

terms of information um uh but just let

them it's September it's a new season of

The West Wing uh uh we're back can we

just breathe a second before something

blows up and and we have to look uh in

another Direction um uh that's we

basically want to pick up right where we

left off and we are go through trickery

um uh uh through crafty

writing we're actually going to pick up

about two minutes before uh uh we we

left off we're going to do that by going

into the Press briefing room and have

having CJ tell the Press about what we

just saw four months ago uh uh in in the

last SE okay so uh I I think I listen I

I'm okay let's not worry about what

happens in the Press briefing room I

can

uh

uh I used to

uh With A Few Good Men uh or it may have

been the with either A Few Good Men or

the American president one of the two

movies I did with Rob Riner um I'm I'm

very bad at pitching I'm very bad at

talking okay I'm I'm I'm much more

comfortable writing than talking uh and

I'd go to Rob riner's office every day

uh um to to get script notes uh and we'd

come to a problem and we'd start kind of

hashing out the problem and he'd have

ideas that I wouldn't like um and uh I

would say listen I I really feel like I

I know how to fix it I I can't I'd

rather write it than uh than talk about

it can I just go back to the hotel write

the scene uh uh and and bring it to you

uh and those came to be known as trust

me I'm Aaron uh scenes so um uh on on CJ

in the Press briefing I'm gonna say

trust me I'm a okay uh I know how to do

that scene I know how to get out of that

scene

but we're not out of the teaser yet um

um uh we we do need something strong I

don't think it has to be a new event

um I think it can be something just a

statement a fact uh that just at for

instance I don't know if this is it or

not but just as John Goodman uh

said any unidentified aircraft gets one

warning and then I don't care if my

mother is on that plane going to visit

her mother

shoot him out of the sky um I think I

want to

hear John

Goodman make some kind of

Declaration that it doesn't matter to

him if that if Zoe Bartlett dies um uh

she is a casualty of War just like any

Soldier uh uh who's out there that he's

not going to take the demands of

terrorists and that he is going to

fire missiles uh where they need to be

fired

um it's either something like that I

don't think it's time yet for uh for a

new clue like the Donna

facts

um okay I'm going to give you the

radical edge of this thing

okay just to let you know that it's okay

to shout out bad ideas all right here

I'll start with my own bad idea the

teaser ends with uh Zoe's head in a box

being delivered to the white house uh

okay is an idea going to get worse than

that no so go ahead don't be shy give me

your ideas because I'm sticking with the

head in the Box Wan takes over the Press

briefing for CJ and makes a statement he

walks very bad who who else has one

uh but by the way uh it was by the way

it wasn't that bad but um uh uh I I I do

like the we talked yesterday about

Walkin wants to address the nation and

you know there's uh just a a

rift fundamentally uh uh the the

westwing takes place in the

communication shop uh of of the White

House so that's a good uh place for a

rift for us um uh but come on you must

have a bad idea you must have a ton of

them I do

let's

see the teaser could end with like an an

qualter type accusing Zoe of being a

drug drug addict and like V victim

blaming her love it very bad conspiracy

theory of some sort along along those

lines but them claiming that they're

hiding Zoey somewhere that that it's a

White House conspiracy it's really bad

at you okay we're gon to we're going to

get rid of all the bad ideas right now

okay let's do it Cory hit me John Paul

wakes up there we go okay you are now

tied with Zoe in a box and goes to the

Press come on let's go everybody's

offered their bad idea all right all

right

um

uh uh I don't have anything look at this

corkboard this is two hours that needs

to be filled we're like 40 seconds into

this show NBC can't even sell ad time

yet one of the things we talked about

earlier was we haven't gotten to the

first commerci break one of the things

we talked about earlier was Kumar

issuing a statement on it okay I think

that good now we're done with the bad

ideas um I don't think that the plot

should be advanced in the teaser um I I

think we should simply be reminded of

how serious the situation

is a and the the various points of the

spear uh uh that there are I don't think

there should be new information in the

teaser uh uh we're not quite ready to

abs we're going to and we're going to do

this teaser we to roll the main titles

we're going to be in the First Act we

can have new information we maybe check

in with um the bartletts as I think

mentioned um that they would be visiting

uh Molly's funeral or they would be

attending Molly's funeral wherever that

is

or I don't I don't know if we want to go

to the funeral yet because it's it's

still like 1 in the morning on the night

that that this has happened what about

in The Press briefing if the question is

raised if Zoe is actually found to be

dead will Bartlett remain not in Pres

are we going to have a new president now

if the wor should happen is bartett just

gone that's a question I definitely want

to raise that question I'm not sure if I

want to do it in the teaser I'll tell

you here's here's what I really do want

to do your instinct is right let's go to

the bartletts let's go to the east Wing

okay um and uh maybe the maybe the other

daughters have arrived well I mean it's

in the middle of the night but you know

how in the first Superman movie um and

when I say the first Superman I talk

Chris for reason okay

um and now I can't remember if it's the

first Superman movie the second Superman

movie I'm fairly sure that both of these

Superman movies were made before any of

you were born um but uh first of all who

who who saw those Superman

movies with Christopher Reed yeah yeah

yeah okay he somehow he goes goes to the

North Pole he goes to his uh foress of

Fortress of of solitude um and kind of I

can't remember how but he he absolves

himself of he gets rid of his special

powers uh he becomes human uh I can't

remember how then coming back from uh

the North Pole stops into a A Roadside

Diner bar gets into a fight with a rude

customer and

experiences his lack of superpowers

right then he bleeds um uh his punches

don't send anybody into a wall uh uh

anything like that why am I talking

about this why the hell not we don't

have any other ideas I'm talking about

it for this reason um uh I somehow I

want Bartlett to experience his lack of

powers uh uh right now for that go ahead

um I think if Leo or one of the members

of The White House staff came in to

check on him just to check on him but he

expects on some level just because it's

you know routine that they're there to

brief him for something and then he

realizes that they're just there to

check on him so it could be

that I'm still looking for some form of

a moment we played already uh a little

bit at the very end of 25 at the very

end of the season finale

um Bartlett's about to leave they're

about to swear in uh uh John Goodman

um I Bartlett starts to say something

and John Goodman says you relieved uh uh

Mr President um uh and Bartlett turns to

Leo uh and start to says it starts to

say it and Leo says you releves sir um

I I I loved uh uh uh that moment

um so obviously we're not going to do

that again um can we put can we put uh

Walkin and Bartlett together alone in

the room and you know there's some

handoff not that you know obviously not

the football but like something that's

but you know that last little bit of

business the bad really bad version is

like his adjusting the chair a little

bit lower because he's taller than you

know that's a possibility you know

something that that suggests that this

is no longer his space one of my

favorite alltime shows is the office and

um uh I I kind of became obsessed

with how that show got written what

their writer from was like and I finally

got to find out because in the in the

last season of The Newsroom Paul

lieberstein who was one of the EPS on uh

on the office uh join the staff of of

The Newsroom and he would tell these

stories at the

office the show uh uh the office in

their writer's room just to loosen

themselves up like in moments when they

had uh run up against the wall they

would break an episode of

Entourage uh just just for fun um and uh

but there was always one rule which was

at the end of the episode

um Adrien grineer um uh uh who played

the lead uh I'm sorry Vinnie uh yeah

played Vinnie Vinnie Chase uh had to win

the Oscar uh for best act uh so he had

to do an episode that ends with Vinnie

winning the Oscar for best actor uh

we're going to do an episode that ends

with Zoe being alive and Bartlett being

the president uh again um and and we're

almost there uh uh uh we're we're

practically home we just need a last

scene and like 38 other scenes that come

before that and after this

what is your idea um basically our idea

is pretty similar actually just like the

the person who's talking to president

Bartlett is the only thing that's

different um so my idea was um for Leo

to go uh check in on President Bartlett

and uh there was some question of

whether or not he would be briefing um

the president still on a day-to-day

basis or whether or not he would be able

to um deliver that information or there

something would be withheld um because

of the acting president's orders that is

interesting and it's something I'm sorry

did I interrupt you I just I was just

going to finish that thought no it's

okay um and say that uh it would

probably be uh president Bartlett's

natural instinct to kind of give Leo

orders or to find out more information

about whatever it is um but he wouldn't

be able to and Leo would remind him so

it's sort of a call back to the end of

that's what we're looking for I'll I'll

add my thought to that in a second let's

hear your idea kind of similar only I

thought it might be um something that we

haven't really flexed a lot is splett

knows Toby's had twins but that's a new

development at the end of 25 they

haven't really talked about it and

there's this interesting parallel

between Toby having gain children and

Bartlett having potentially lost a child

sure and that's a conversation that I

think could happen because Bartlett

maybe to distract himself maybe Toby he

he knows how much this means to Toby

asks him about his kids you know he

doesn't really know that much about him

um uh he doesn't neither does Toby for

that matter um he just met them a couple

of hours ago I feel like the scene

you're talking about is a good scene

that has to come later um that right now

we are still in the first hours of uh

really Unthinkable crisis uh uh and the

kind of the kind of early on talk

happened uh in the Oval Office at the

end of 25 and um

in a moment where they're waiting uh uh

they're just waiting uh Bartley

congratulates Toby and uh uh I can't

remember what the exactly what the setup

line is but Bartlett asked Toby uh uh

what do you know now that you didn't

know uh uh before and Toby said babies

come with Hats um uh uh and then bartl

says uh you know slap

a can't remember what they're called

those ankle bracelets

that uh onor right now and don't take it

off here's what I know and again it'll

be helpful when we bring in the uh the

military and intelligence and Secret

Service Consultants um uh but here's

what I do know

ex-presidents uh are entitled to every

morning uh uh the president receives an

intelligence briefing uh uh from the CIA

all the scary stuff that none of us uh

uh know about um uh uh we we know about

one of them because it became famous uh

the uh the PDF the president's daily uh

uh pdb the president's Daily Brief um uh

that said uh Bin Laden determined to

attack inside the United States uh uh

presidents get that every morning

ex-presidents are entitled to uh uh get

that intelligence briefing as well um

and uh uh some of them take it

ex-presidents want to kind of be kept up

to date uh on what's going on

uh so

um it's possible that that's a loophole

through which Bartley can get

information it's possible that uh uh

John Goodman wants to keep B it as in

the dark uh as possible so for good

reasons uh so that he can uh uh get this

job done um and so has decided that

Bartlet is not an

ex-president uh that what he is is a

president under the 25th

Amendment umbrella of you're you're a

powerless president um and that's that's

the thing that that we want to dramatize

it it it might be as simple

um

as Abby asking questions of Bartlett

like is is is the FBI doing this um are

they doing this is you know is Fitz

Wallace doing this is this person doing

this and and Bartlet just saying I don't

know they don't work for me uh uh

anymore well she's she was sedated last

we saw so uh if if she actually wakes up

he's he's coming back for the first time

to the east Wing from that scene we saw

and she wakes up as he comes back into

the room and there's even just a moment

as as something like that or even as

simple as tell me you're doing

everything you can and that's the one

thing he can't tell

her you may have found something

um if we play that Abby doesn't know yet

exactly uh that he not the president and

that Abby flips

out that he

has at the moment when his power is most

needed he's given it up

um what if they were to find out by

watching CJ's press I mean is there I

mean

there's if they were finding if she

found out along with the rest of the

nation

um through CJ's press briefing we could

do that but isn't there more can't we

get more out of telling her her her

coming out of uh uh you know a sedated

Haze um and uh and Bartlett telling her

yeah I'll tell you what I I think it

sounds like we want to have a Bartlett

ABY scene okay um

residents Bartlet and Abby you can just

write Bartlett

Abby

news bad news really captures it doesn't

it okay yes to

it's basically the cheer I I'll I think

that I I'm I again I'm still not 100%

sure what's here not 100% sure what's

there either but uh not 100% sure what's

here but that might be our

out I still

think I still think we have got to

basically hear

that John

Goodman is is ready to was Zoe if uh uh

if that's what it takes to save the

lives of of many more people

um

so well I mean does does does Walkin

does he address his cabinet does do is

there I I don't know the precedent for

how this happens but does he address the

cabinet he now controls I was going to

say let's go to the sit room Situation

Room um uh uh so that's where uh uh

Walkin would make that kind of thing

clear to Fitz Wallace to Leo to all the

military people in that room to Nancy

MCN uh

so we've done it

um Situation Room you can put sit room

so that's kind of coming off

her uh uh just if you can write down uh

put it put this in

quotes uh Zoe Bartlet may be a

casualty should I WR maybe a

casualty so

maybe I I don't want to get finicky

about cards but yes I'll do it again um

uh you you do print beautifully I have

to say um uh yeah you can put ZB if you

prefer okay no I'll sit room uh ZB maybe

a casualty

okay now it would be at this

point

um and just to make us feel better would

you write act one on that card

I have to tell you guys

something I've done four different

television series I've written about 180

episodes of Television this is the

farthest I've gotten the

fastest ever uh it's too bad it's for an

episode of Television that's never going

to be done um

now here's what would actually happen uh

at this point um uh I would go into my

office uh probably lie down on the couch

uh and uh just start now really thinking

about these scenes uh and then I would

sit down and actually write them while

you guys were starting to get a little

bit ahead um and getting ready to

pitch

uh ideas either Big Ideas overall uh

ideas or uh here's a loose structure for

act one uh that we were thinking about

um uh I would urge you to remember that

it's a 2hour uh episode it's going to

have not a teaser in forax it's going to

have a teaser and eight ax okay um uh

and you don't have to assault the

audience uh uh with plot you don't uh

resist the temptation to have everything

happen uh uh right away uh there's

there's a lot going on here and uh we

talked about this yesterday this

particular

show can't

handle this particular show is is is

best it's it's in its sweet spot when

it's

In The West Wing of the White House or

the East wing of the White House in the

white house with our people talking to

each other um so scenes of uh uh you

know

negotiating in somewhere in uh Libya we

can't do that uh we can't blow things up

um uh we we can't invade Japan um uh we

can't Al history that much uh and we we

can't do big giant things we can talk

about big giant ideas like hey let's

cure cancer um as long as it never

happens uh right as long as it was a

pipe dream that Fades by uh by the end

of the episode these characters can

dream big but they

are confined by reality you know um uh

which which breaks their heart uh

sometimes

[Music]

to write the rest of the show uh what we

need is specificity uh okay specificity

uh when you're writing I mean when

you're write actually writing when

you're writing dialogue is hugely

important for instance something that I

was thinking when we were talking about

this scene uh okay over in the residence

with Bartlett and Abby uh and we were

talking about you know what's the FBI

doing uh uh Abby wouldn't say well call

the FBI director she'd say well call Bob

uh uh right that kind of specificity uh

is hugely important the specificity that

we need to do the rest of the show is

we're talking about right now just some

vague uh we're talking about the

illusion of the threat not the uh the

real thing but the illusion that they're

trying to create we're talking in the

vaguest possible terms we would need to

start getting specific about that how is

it unfolding over the course uh of

hours what exactly is being done we're

now past the time when Clark Greg and

and ver Smith can just stand around

theorizing something has to be going on

they have to be following Clues and we

need to get specific about that we also

want it we're desperate for the

appearance of reality and with a plot

like this it's very easy to slide off

into fantasy um of uh of of the world

coming to an end uh that kind of thing

uh what's going to help us with the

appearance of reality is getting people

in uh uh who know what they're doing so

what we would do is we would obviously I

either have on a speaker phone

um our the guy who's our secret service

uh uh consultant um uh we would have

various expert consultants in the room

or on the phone and we would tell them

here's what's happened uh okay uh what

do you do now and we'd ask them a ton of

questions all the questions that we can

think of uh tell us uh uh what can go

wrong what's the wrong thing to do what

can our people argue about um uh and we

would want to know for a show like this

answers uh about the military about the

FBI we would want to know uh the the in

terms of the press and the public how do

you deal with this what's CJ's job uh in

this situation um I if we want to bring

Tim busfield danik and Canon uh uh back

in uh uh what he's doing we would remind

them about shareif and we we would get

all these real answers and

um that is what would uh uh make it seem

real uh uh to everybody and what we

would do a lot of is struggle uh okay um

uh uh we would do a lot of banging our

head against the wall uh we would do a

lot

of looking at each other around this

table and then retreating back to uh uh

our own offices to think they going home

at night coming back in with ideas days

would go by with uh uh no movement at

all Panic would start to set in um

because this thing starts shooting on uh

next day and there's an even harder

deadline than that there's an air date

for this episode that uh that hasn't

been written yet and in this particular

case uh We've promised the audience a

lot uh something big has happened we've

asked the network for an extra hour

we're basically saying we're going to do

a movie uh uh in this time slot uh so

we've promised a lot and we would be

scared to death and then it would get

done

I'm terrible at pitching uh and

fortunately I haven't had to do it uh uh

that much uh and I'm I'm really terrible

at

describing what it is uh that I'm going

to do uh

so all I can do to help

you uh is try to anticipate

what you would be asked in uh uh in

these pitch

sessions go ahead I'll get it out of the

way uh so uh after college I I um got a

Fullbright Grant to go and do research

in Italy um I was studying uh the

history sorry

yes I was I've never come close to got a

full bright go ahead

um uh and uh I was but I was studying um

this practice in the 17th century in in

European cities where they would stage

these really highly ritualized and

elaborate uh public Anatomy lessons um

they were these really bizarre events I

mean in in bolognia um they would do it

during Carnival so people would be you

know' have doctors and Scholars looking

at the body but you'd also have people

in masks drunk in the back you'd have

burly students at the door to fight off

the people trying to come in and reclaim

the body of their loved one um and out

of this sort of these stories that I was

getting doing this archival research

this this thing eventually evolved when

would this happen this would happen

during Carnival in the 17th century in

the 17th century okay yeah go ahead um

so uh in the context of all this I I I

wound up eventually coming up with this

um idea for a a minseries um and so uh

the for the pilot episode of this series

called the anatomist um does the series

take place in the 1600s in 17th century

yeah yeah okay go ahead um so uh it

follows uh the um official diss sector

uh for the the public Anatomy um a guy

named niiko seni um who finds himself uh

on the trail of a of a of a killer who

is staging um a sort of very public um

perverse anatomy of his own by

um killing anatomical abnormalities and

then staging them around the city um but

the real Challenge and the sort of

central idea of the thing is um that

niolo in order to catch this guy has to

invent forensic science um there is no

such thing and so he has to sort of

invent tools along the way um to figure

this out um in an era where even

empirical thinking uh was slightly

dangerous and new uh so there's my pitch

wow I think that's really cool uh i'

I've never heard of uh what you're

talking about I think it's really cool

uh I think that just uh 10 or 15 years

ago you'd get laughed out of any room

that uh uh that you pitched that in but

uh we're no longer living in a a time of

it's got to be ABC CBS or or NBC um uh

and uh there are networks that would

cable networks that would uh uh do that

kind of work uh so I think it's terrific

they would if you were in uh an actual

pitch session they would ask you to talk

about uh you know describe some future

episodes uh uh down the line um uh but

uh because I want to get to everyone who

has a pitch uh I want to move on but I

totally wasn't expecting that and I

think it it's cool as hell and keep

thinking the way you think okay who's

next um so I have been my sister's

Guardian since I was 20 years old um my

parent my mom died of breast cancer my

dad ped out when we were little we were

raised by our grandmother who was this

really eccentric woman in Wisconsin your

dad pieced out he pieced out like he

just left yeah ped out Fred away green

yeah um so he he left um we were raised

by our grandmother who's really Centric

she once ran me over with the car um she

often was forgetting that I was not she

she said that I was she couldn't see me

she forgot that I was there um which was

you know pretty much a a metaphor for my

childhood because my sister was disabled

my sister got all the focus so um I

turned to reading books I was this nerdy

little kid I had a chip tooth I had

really no friends um so I was raised by

her when I was 20 uh our grandma died so

um we had an aunt who was a part of the

picture but she um couldn't she had a

lot of problems taking care of my sister

so I had to petition the court uh for

guardianship when I was 20 um got that I

got married I um tried to take care of

my sister I had a caregiver um and I

realized that I wanted to pursue my

dream so I moved to Los Angeles and uh

my marriage fell apart I um got into a

great grad school and then one day I got

a phone call that the caregiver was

dying and um it was a complete surprise

to me um but I did what I believed was

right and I went back there and I got my

sister and for N9 months we lived in my

one Bend apartment I was living

completely off student loans I had no

money so the story it's it's about go

ahead it's about a young a young woman

who suddenly becomes a soul caregiver to

her disabled sister and um her decisions

of you know her finding care um I had a

you know the state caregivers that they

sent me there was one woman who showed

up in a handicap van handicapped your

and just like the things that people try

to do to get by um so it's really the

story of Two Sisters um her getting to

know her sister she's no longer an

embarrassment but really her

responsibility so it's in a way a single

mom story but it's a sister story um and

then the end of the season would her be

eventually finding a home for her sister

knowing that that's the right choice for

both of them um but also being

devastated at that because they've now

grown closer so that is e is for

Ed excellent excellent um uh is there a

love interest for Riley yes for Ry um

yes there is he's he's very kind to her

and very sweet but she keeps pushing him

away she doesn't want to let anyone into

her world she's really embarrassed by

her circumstances but she keeps pushing

him away because of her previous

relationship um she puts a lot of the

reason it fell apart on her relationship

with her sister so she's really hesitant

about bringing someone in um but at the

same time she thinks that part of

normaly is having a relationship so she

has this young guy Who's hotter and he

can go get anyone but she she has him

but she doesn't keep around keep around

for long okay they're also going to

twist their brains into a pretzel trying

out trying to figure out how to not be

offensive while asking you the following

question how is this not going to be a

total Downer every week well it's the

absurdity of life I mean it's the silly

things that the you know the government

requires of people like signing an ID

card I mean my sister was sitting you

know or even going to the doctor I mean

the doctors will always ask like does

she smoke does she drink any drug use

and you know Edna's sitting she's

sitting there she has her Winnie the

Pooh book so so just little silly

moments like that it's and the the the

comedy will never come from the

disability itself but more the the

circumstances that happen because of it

or the wheelchair brakes giving out we

were riding a city bus one time because

I didn't have a car her wheelchair

brakes gave out and she went rolling

down the aisle and she looked at me a

smile and I was like you know like just

silly little things like that I guess as

long as she's smiling if she's not

smiling then I'm right there's no chance

I'm gonna laugh at that you

know okay in the pilot you're going to

set us up with Riley now has to take

care of of Edy uh okay uh we get a sense

of who uh uh Riley is but we set that up

uh in the pilot episode tell us about

the second episode 60 seconds or less

second episode Riley has a roommate she

brings Edie home to live with her says

it's only going to be a week Riley then

takes her down to the division of

Developmental Disabilities to try and

see how she can get Services established

in California she learns that there's a

90-day rule that Edie has to live in the

state of California for 90 days before

she can get her services and so Riley uh

now has to figure out how she's going to

um to get her Services much sooner um so

it's really establishing her new place

of living and um trying to maintain her

relationship with her roommate and

smoothing it all over she's also just

found out that she got this internship

opportunity so she has to ex find out if

she can extend that opportunity so she

doesn't lose her her what she wants um

in this under the Circ

cumstance okay um very

good avelyn go ahead okay um I'm G to

pitch the Merc um basically we all know

the story about the Wall Street Stock

Brokers who'd sell out their mother for

a quick Buck but the MC is an hourlong

drama based on the story you haven't

heard about blue the blue collar Traders

at the New York Mercantile Exchange who

went from being the laughing stock of

the financial IND indry to hijacking the

oil market and led by a Wall Street

reject hellbent on Breaking the system

they claw and scrape their way through

the late 70s and 80s an explosive David

and Goliath battles against Wall Street

the international oil cartel and the FBI

agents trying to bring them down meet

the future kings of the oil Market a

members only Club of former janitors

cabbies and butchers they barely made it

out of high school but they know the ins

and outs of the market like a dealer

knows blow nepotism blackmail and

bribery nothing's off limits because at

the end of every 24-hour workday whoever

makes it out with a most cash wins our

guy is about to find out if he's got

what it takes he's Andy marks 30 and

he's the kind of guy who's the only

leather jacket in a room full of suits

at a place but completely at ease and

he's the heart of the show the underdog

who's trying to break uh who's trying to

bring the Merc back from Exile um and

he's trying to save this place for the

old guys who showed him the ropes like

his mentor Vinnie sorry Vinnie used to

run the floor but now he's basically

sweeping it and Andy doesn't just want

to impress Vinnie he wants to win over

Vinnie's daughter Karina but she wants

nothing to do with this place um but

Andy he he's not even close to giving up

he's basically just got started and he

needs to find investors and cash and

uh uh yeah basically just investors and

cash um and he's willing to go to his

sworn enemies on Wall Street to save

this place cuz um if but if they can't

figure out uh trading potatoes how the

hell are they going to handle

oil um so basically the rest of the

series uh focuses on the problems that

pile up and the delivery guys they bribe

the politicians they blackmail um and uh

the Traders and clients they manipulate

into bankrolling this thing and by the

end of the first season um they don't

just start uh they don't just start

killing it sorry they

don't uh they don't you're doing great

thank you um at by the end of the first

season they're not just breaking even

they start to kill it um and once you've

arrived everyone takes notice the titans

of Wall Street the uh Founders in

Chicago the international oil cartel and

the FEDS from the FBI to the SEC Who

start planning undercover agents and

stings in the floor trying to bust them

for rigging the market and basically uh

the rest of the series focuses on Andy

and the Mer's meteor Rise To Riches in

power beyond their wildest dreams and to

their eventual downfall okay fantastic

just want to ask you a couple of

questions that they would ask yeah in

terms of physical production uh Evelyn

uh are we is there a home base for this

show we

building part of the New York merile

Exchange yeah basically the trading

floor okay that's what's going to be on

our Sound Stage yeah

um uh okay uh and since by and large

people don't care about the price of oil

um uh or or at least

they they care when they're heating bill

CS but they in terms of watching a

television series uh I assume what we're

really going to care about of the people

right absolutely Andy and Vinnie and

they're going to ask you a question like

is there a love interest for Andy or is

it a different girl every week um I want

to see a love story forgot a central

character

um David's uh former girlfriend ex uh

clerk who comes to join Andy um is his

clerk at the merant exchange she's she's

essential character to the show and

she's a love interest for Andy as well

describe the second

episode uh uh in in 60 seconds or less

uh basically after securing uh Texas oil

Baron to uh funnel money into uh the oil

trading at the Mercantile Exchange Andy

has to uh go after a a delivery guy

who's basically stalled um a shipment

from coming an oil shipment from

coming this these pitches are uh amazing

this is not what I thought I was going

to hear

I got a series to pitch um uh it's not

like anything uh I've ever done before

and it's not science fiction um uh it's

just science you ready Mission to

Mars um uh whole series takes place uh

on the I think it's uh takes us about

four years uh uh to get there whole

series takes place on the ship and

mission control um and there's going to

be everything from you know

life-threatening uh uh situations coming

up to normal workplace things

just in it's a Worth Place drama uh in

in space this thing is not crazy

far-fetched NASA is ready to go to Mars

they know how to do it they can't get

the funding for it but they absolutely

uh know how to do it uh and um I I

thought while the Martian dealt fairly

realistically with this with the Matt

Damon part of the science uh of being on

Mars it didn't really care that much

about getting to Mars and uh and back

from Mars The Gang on the ship they were

just a happy gang of people um uh but I

love NASA I love space mission to Mars

boom dro the mic all right okay that's

amazing you should write a series called

ex

presidents maybe maybe there's also uh

uh there's sort of a

secret exclusive Club well there's an

ex-president's Club but there's also a

club in Washington DC for presidential

speech writers uh for people whove been

presidential speech writers uh and you

have to be a presidential speech writer

to uh uh to get into this club uh that I

don't think would really be an

interesting place to set a thing is

nobody turned on by Mission to Mars no

going to freaking go to

Mars okay would you build a Mars Sound

Stage with uh you're asking an

interesting question would we ever get

there um uh would we you know would we

land on Mars uh that depends I guess how

long the show runs um uh I I don't know

if if we begin with blasting off I don't

know if we begin with two years into the

thing or training uh uh to go up there

but workplace

drama on the ship that would go to Mars

we work with

NASA uh uh to see like a real drawing of

what this thing would look like it it's

not going to look like the space shuttle

it's not going to look like the uh

Apollo ships you're going to have to

live on this thing not for eight days I

mean for Apollo they were just able to

kind of seat Bel themselves into these

things and

it's zero gravity you go to sleep you're

going to need living quarters and uh uh

and all kinds of stuff uh like that uh

people can die um uh and what do you do

then sick uh uh people can get sick

people can fall in love um uh e

everything that can happen in uh a

workplace drama can happen except this

time instead of it being the West Wing

of the White House or a newsroom or uh

SNL uh a type show or a law firm or an

emergency room or a police precinct it

is on a spaceship traveling 17,400 miles

hour toward Mars boom again wonder mean

you're coming back to TV I'm sorry does

this mean you're coming back to

television no um uh but feel free to

take Mission Mars I want to watch the

show I don't have time to write the show

but one of you should be right now

sketching now the pilot episode for

Mission tomorrow we're all going to work

on it together you know in colum Tobin's

uh Brooklyn of the the Wake that they

would hold for for people about to go

off to to America because they may not

ever even though it's the 50s in the 90

the 1950s they may not ever come back

but this is a place where you're

definitely not coming back and so you

know starting on the the parties the

send offs but they essentially wakes

before someone's actually died of the

crew that's going to go go off to that

thing that set that is pretty

interesting there's a short story and I

cannot for the life of me remember who

wrote it um it's called the cold

equation um and it's a it's a it's a ray

Bradbery uh uh type story but it takes

place in the future uh at a time

when shuttling to various

planets everywhere in the galaxy is

common place as as Comm as a mailman uh

uh dropping off mail uh there are just

these little shuttle pods with a pilot

in it and you you zip off uh to

someplace uh and a uh a particular pilot

is zipping off to a particular Planet

somewhere to deliver an important serum

uh because there's a group of about

eight people up there um uh a who who

are doing important work uh and they've

gotten sick uh with something and they

need this particular medicine and so

he's bringing these people this

particular medicine and he he blasts off

only to discover about a day into the

trip that there's a stowaway uh on the

ship a young girl a young teenage girl

whose brother uh is on that planet and

the only you know she she wants to see

him uh and the only way she can see him

is to stow away on this thing and what

she doesn't realize what she didn't

realize before she's stowed away is that

these chips are like pre-computer

programmed to go where they need to go

based on the weight uh of the ship and

that by her being on the ship that ship

is not going to get the serum uh uh to

where it needs to go and so this pilot

can either choose to kind of throw her

off the ship into the vacuum of space or

not do that I haven't just described a

series to you because that has a pretty

uh abrupt ending to it but uh I just

wanted to blow your mind a little bit

did I you did you did uh while you all

have pitched very interesting seriously

very interesting series and a very

interesting feature I think I won uh

with Mission to

Mars guys I I I don't I don't know what

I can do to get you excited about going

to Mars um uh what could be more

exciting than that should be should it

be a mission to someplace else should we

be going to Pluto or something not going

to have that same ring Pluto is going to

seem fake right Mars one day one day is

not a planet but do you feel like we as

as an audience as an as a global

audience we've already kind of been on

Mars with the

Martian but we're not going to be on

Mars we're going to be on the

ship this a the way to pitch this it's a

workplace show that happens to take

place on a spaceship it's about the

journey and I think you've got to be

able to cut away to someplace normal so

um you've got to cut away to Mission

Control and there should probably be

Eva's extra vehicular activity that's

when they go outside the ship and Float

around but we just really doubled the

budget uh uh didn't we by doing zero

gravity stuff I think the show should be

said the day after tomorrow where we

have the ability to simulate gravity

just for the sake of no not science

fiction get out of

here the first day it's not science

fiction does not set the day after

tomorrow where we have the ability to do

something that we don't have now we have

right now the ability here's how I know

okay I'm going to name drop you ready

it's a huge name drop I'm sorry but some

years back Steven Spielberg asked me to

come to his house and the reason why was

because he had just been visit Ed by

some NASA hups um who said Mr Spielberg

we want to go to Mars okay and we know

how to go to Mars we can do it not only

that but we can do it for the bargain

price of $25 billion uh uh we can go to

Mars however there isn't an appetite uh

uh we we can't get that money from

Congress because there isn't a public

appetite uh uh for space exploration

anymore so what we want you to do Mr

Spielberg is make a movie uh about going

going to Mars and that's going to get

everybody excited about going to Mars

it'll make it easier for us to get the

$25 billion from Congress uh and SP said

you mean like a documentary or something

no no no no a feature film like ET Close

Encounters any of the movies uh uh that

you've made but it's the real story of

going to Mars and everybody's going to

get excited about it so that's why

Spielberg invited me to his house uh to

say do you want to write this movie and

I said are you telling me that the

future of man explo ation of space

depends on like my delivering a really

good screenplay and he said yes um uh

now I didn't end up doing it but uh uh

but I can tell you that we can go to

Mars um so why in the world isn't there

a TV show set

on you know set on the genie set on the

Evelyn

okay guys Mission to Mars what what's

wrong with you what taking it I think

the title Mission to Mars is taken I

feel like we'll retitle it but uh I

would title it either the name of the

spip of the ship yeah

um uh yeah I would title it the the uh

the name of the ship

so the good news is uh uh is that you

none of you none of the five of you are

fooling yourselves uh uh you are all

professional writers uh you're very good

the even better news is is that as a

writer you get it's the opposite of

being an athlete you get better as you

get older um uh not just because you've

lived more uh but it's practice uh uh

you've you've done it a lot and you've

found your voice you found your stride

uh and uh you know what works for you

and what

doesn't now uh you have to get used to

tuning out other voices uh okay uh a as

a writer whether you're writing a

30-minute TV show a 60-minute TV show or

screenplay uh uh in in this day and age

um uh uh I mean because of social media

uh you're going to hear from a lot of

people

and what you don't want to do is to try

to write in order to change someone's

mind okay uh uh let's say this show is

on the air or your show uh is on the air

you're three or four episodes in uh um

and you're reading a Critic whether it's

the New York Times or Dumbo Dumbo

docomo to address that person's uh uh

concerns it's it's going to be a a

Fool's errand first of all it is

impossible to try to is impos it's

impossible to make everybody happy uh

who's watching your thing second of all

Dumbo Dumbo dcom doesn't know what

they're talking about uh okay that's why

they write a blog and you write what you

write um uh you've got to have Corey

level confidence uh uh in in yourself

now that's not to say that you should

tune out voices of people uh you trust

hopefully you're working with a director

uh uh who's a real partner or a producer

who's a real partner hopefully you have

friends uh in your life you just need

one two three who you can show the pages

to um and uh uh and they'll be

encouraging and honest when you're doing

that it's helpful if you ask them

questions rather than just giving pages

and saying well what did you think okay

ask questions like did you get it did

you understand

this and this and this did you feel

anything uh uh when this happened

um and then my the the the final piece

of wisdom I I want to impart to you I

know that you guys are are living

in uh in in a tricky area uh uh that

exists

between listen basically you guys want

to be professional writers right you

want to pay your bills uh uh writing

that is your goal right now I caught a

lucky Break um uh I never had to write

anything for someone else um uh I never

uh had to uh uh you know be a staff

writer on a television show I didn't

really lik but I could do the work and

get a paycheck and I was a professional

writer my first play Was A Few Good Men

um it like I said it was a fluke uh uh

it it open on Broadway I was brought out

to Los Angeles to turn into a movie that

was a hit and from then on I just got

paid to write what I wanted to write

careers generally uh don't happen like

that so I don't blame you for

uh if you have to you know for for

trying to write what someone else wants

uh uh right now I don't blame you for

doing whatever it it takes to get your

foot in the door to become become a

professional writer but once you do once

you do get your foot in the door don't

forget why you wanted uh uh to write it

can be very easy to just go home at the

end of the day uh uh veg out and go back

to work next day and come up for more

stories for Hannah Montana um uh but I I

I'll tell you I always encouraged uh uh

when I'm working with a writing staff on

a TV show I I know that their dream

isn't

helping me look good um I know that that

they didn't get into it uh for that

reason that this is the job that pays

the rent and that goes on their resume

and I encourage them to anytime I don't

have them working go to your office and

work on your novel uh uh work on your

screenplay work on your teleplay anyway

I wanted to let you guys know that I I I

I I work with a a lot of Young Writers a

lot of new writers um uh and uh I

honestly I've never seen talents at the

level of the of five of you so I really

wish you good luck and I'm looking

forward to seeing uh everything that you

do down the road um and uh I I I can't

tell you any more than that except to

say that it's been a real real pleasure

to be with you uh guys uh uh for the

last few days I have no doubt that you

all five of you uh are going to have

very exciting career years uh as

professional writers I'm looking forward

to seeing your movies uh and TV shows

and I'm looking forward to losing jobs

to you okay thanks a lot everybody I

really appreciate it you bet you take

care one thing we haven't talked about

uh is the importance of failure and uh

and it is

important I

I'm always envious of uh of my friends

who got master's degrees in playwriting

I I have a bachelor's degree and uh and

I didn't go to the L School of drama and

and get a degree in playwriting so I'm

always envious of my friends who did and

when I asked them tell me exactly what

you learned uh in your master's program

because I I'm I'm sure there are huge

gaps in my uh understanding of of what

it is that uh that I'm doing and they'll

tell me that what they learned in their

master's program was fundamentally the

same thing uh that I learned in my

bachelor's uh uh program but that the

real value the real value of say the

school of drama uh uh or USC Film School

in uh in screenwriting or NYU or juliard

or uh act Syracuse University where I

went and any place uh uh where there's a

conservatory program uh in in drama uh

uh the real value they'll say is that it

gives you a chance to write the worst

plays you're ever going to write uh okay

and what they really mean the end of

that sentence what they really mean is

it gives you a chance to write the worst

plays you're ever going to write without

any

consequence and uh I was stupid I I

didn't take advantage of that when I was

in college uh like a lot of people uh I

uh I I wanted to imp impress my friends

I wanted to impress my teachers I wanted

to impress girls uh so I would stick to

doing what I knew I was good at uh and

not take any chances at all and now I've

missed my chance to take chances uh

because now first of all uh writing is

what pays my bills uh uh so failure uh

has a lot of consequence now when I fail

it makes a pretty loud noise when I get

a report card it's seen by millions of

of people uh are are weighing in on if

I'm doing badly or not uh and and

they're happy to tell you about it uh so

so Taking Chances now is uh is a much

harder thing and uh I I really recommend

two things to to Young

Writers I'm going to recommend more than

two things I take that back I'm going to

recommend the following things go ahead

and take chances because that's the only

way you're actually going to find out

where your sweet spot is uh uh what it

is you're good

at write in your own voice and when I

say write in your own voice I don't mean

literally write the way uh you talk uh I

mean write the way you want to write and

don't worry uh that you're not writing

the way I write uh or you're

not writing the way uh uh uh Diablo Cody

writes or or anyone else you write the

way you write uh

and we've talked about this

before if you're thinking to

yourself uh what is it the studios want

to see what what do they hot on right

now what is it people want to see if

you're basically running this through an

algorithm uh of some kind I don't know

you uh uh you you you

may you may hit your mark

uh but I think it's going to be

bloodless and uh and I think you're not

going to be happy doing it you're

exposed uh when when you're writing uh

uh you you are pretty exposed even if

you you don't have to be writing

autobiographically um uh uh you know it

can be a a a futuristic Caper movie uh

and you're still exposed

because it's it's it's your mind uh uh

that's on there it's it's it's your

heart that's on there it's your way it's

what you think is funny it's what you

think is emotional it's what you think

deserves a white hat and what you think

deserves a black hat and what's in the

middle uh it's it's you directly as

opposed to sitting down at the piano and

playing Beethoven uh and uh you are

going

to never ever make everyone happy uh so

I I would urge people to not

try and I would remind them of this too

that there are a zillion different ways

to prepare beef uh uh you can have filet

Minon or Beef Wellington or a a flank

steak anything but if you were to

prepare beef the way the Fest people

find objectionable it would be a

McDonald's hamburger uh every single

time I love McDonald's hamburgers I eat

way too many of them but if I were a

chef I wouldn't want to make one uh uh

for a living

so uh don't make McDonald's hamburgers I

guess would be my advice

uh but I I I really do believe that the

best

way to get good uh at this

is watch a lot of movies read a lot of

movies and write practice find those

people uh uh who you trust who can read

your pages uh

and talk to you about them they can be

encouraging and honest uh at the same

time shed those people uh uh

who

uh might be there might be jealousy Envy

um uh and uh uh and they're they're not

going to make you feel encouraged about

what you're

writing power through the days of not

being able to write anything those days

where uh you know we keep talking about

how important movement is uh in a story

um I I I wish that I could guarantee

movement uh in life that uh that on

Friday evening uh you're going to be

better off than you were Monday morning

uh with the script uh

but most of the

time for me maybe not for you I know not

for Stephen King uh who goes to an

office every day and just freaking

writes okay um uh he doesn't have any

problem problems uh but for me and I'm

sure for at least some other people out

there most of your time is going to be

spent not writing uh no most and and

it's going to be Agony um uh but when

you

do finally

write a scene that works and it's part

of a script that works and you're not

done yet cuz remember we're not writing

things that are meant to be read we're

writing things that are meant to be

performed and you add worldclass actors

worldclass directors worldclass

designers worldclass technicians uh uh

to this and you see it on a screen with

an audience where it's Landing with an

audience I promise you you will feel no

pain