Aspiring screenwriters get tips

You don't have to be a movie- maker to enjoy, and learn from, the lineup of Hollywood talent at the Omaha Film Festival's annual filmmaker conference. I'm living proof.

The film festival ended its fifth run Sunday afternoon at Great Escape 16. The film conference kicked things off March 6 and 7 at Creighton University.

My favorite among the speakers was screenwriter Dan Petrie Jr., whose credits include “Beverly Hills Cop,” “The Big Easy,” “Shoot to Kill” and “Turner & Hooch.” Most of the conference attendees were aspiring writers, and Petrie gave them the most useful information and advice. His rundown of how to approach writing a screenplay was worth the $45 conference fee all by itself.

Movies start with an idea, Petrie began in his low-key, halting delivery. “When people say they've got a great idea for a movie, typically they don't,” he deadpanned. “They have a component, a cool premise, a germ of an idea.”

“The Writers Guild has 12,000 writers, 2,000 of whom work in a given year,” Petrie said. Studios and independents make about 500 movies a year. “The odds are mercilessly against getting into a business a lot of people want to be in.”

His point: It's hard to get your script made into a movie. Do your homework to increase its odds.

Petrie took his 50 or so listeners through the long process of what should come before even putting pen to paper, “the most neglected and important part of the task.”

He recommended textbooks by Richard Walter and Lew Hunter as a starting point. He offered Web sites on which to find good screenwriting (wordplayer.com, artfulwriter.com, johnaugust.com).

His process, Petrie said, begins by rigorously thinking through his premise to make sure it has broad appeal and that it's sound enough to fill an entire movie. He gets clear on his intent (genre) and his theme.

He spends a lot of time developing characters, especially a compelling protagonist or hero, and the obstacles in that character's path. Those obstacles will somehow transform that hero, what he wants and what he finds he actually needs.

Petrie outlines a plot, structuring the movie's first, second and third acts. He structures each act, and then each scene within an act, to have a beginning, middle and end. He storyboards. He does research. He invents biographies and back stories for key characters. He considers how time will be managed onscreen, what point of view the story will be told from.

And then he writes. Typically, it takes years from when a script is written to when it gets made into a movie. If ever.

One listener was so discouraged, he raised his hand and asked: “Why bother? I'm 56. Am I too old to even try?”

No, Petrie assured him, you're not — if your idea is good, and your characters are good, and your plot structure is good, and your writing is good. Diablo Cody, he pointed out, won an Oscar for her first script: “Juno.”

At a later session, screenwriters Andy Stock and Brian Miller made many of the same points.

Miller, who wrote and directed Omaha native Chris Klein's latest movie, “Caught in the Crossfire,” said he starts with a hot beginning, one that will immediately grab a script reader or audience. Next he figures out a great ending. Then he connects the dots.

Stock, who co-wrote “Balls Out: Gary the Tennis Coach” with fellow Nebraskan Rick Stempson, begins with a world and a character. Then he does an outline.

Both said credibility in the details is key. Stock was a high school tennis player. Miller got the ideas for his cop thriller from an ex-girlfriend who was a police officer.

“You don't just write a script and they say ‘Genius, let's go film it' unless your name is Joel or Ethan Coen,” Stock cracked. “I didn't understand, before I got into it, the level your script has to be in. You're asking people to put down real money, millions, to gamble it on what you have. Every page has to be golden.”

Miller said he learned that less is more for screenplays. “Keep it nice and clean.”

Screenwriting, Stock agreed, is not like writing a novel. “It's more like writing a poem or song. Get rid of all your excess words.”

And, said Miller, remember: It's show business, not show art. “Create a product people want to see.”

D'oh. Every screenwriter should think of these things. The film conference helps them focus.

Coming soon: What actor Chris Klein (“Election,” “American Pie”), editor Dan Hill (“Apollo 13,” “Frost/Nixon”) and screenwriter/director Nik Fackler (“Lovely, Still”), had to say at the film conference.

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