[MUSIC PLAYING]
The first stage of development is coming up with your idea,
or what we like to call just sort of the big idea.
And this is, honestly, one of the most crucial things
you're going to do in the whole process, if not the most
crucial.
Because assuming this goes well, you're
going to be working with this idea for potentially years,
or in our case, we've been doing it now seven years
with "Stranger Things."
So you're going to want an idea that really gets you excited
and really inspires you.
I think it is a mistake a lot of people
make in that they sort of--
they're so excited to write a script
and have a script that they kind of go, well,
that idea sounds good.
Let me just start to write it.
I mean, we've certainly made that mistake,
where we've started writing an idea--
there's something good just conceptually wrong
with the idea, or the idea itself is not exciting enough,
and there's nothing you can do.
You know you could waste a year or two years
working on something that is actually just the problem is
that the very first stage.
So it's important that this first stage you get right,
and you're working on an idea that you're really, really
excited about you.
Have to have a ton of passion for it, because best case
scenario, you know, like in the case of "Stranger Things,"
it works, and people like it, and then you
could be working on it for a decade.
So make sure you love this idea.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
This is a difficult part of the process to talk about,
but the way we work, in terms of coming up with that big idea,
is we just start throwing a ton of ideas at the wall,
and we're just seeing what sticks.
And I think sometimes, people make the mistake of going,
well, they're looking around at the shows or the movies that
are popular right now.
The classic, back when we were growing up,
was this is going to be like "Die Hard,"
but I'm going to put it in a different location--
"Die Hard" on a bus.
But that worked.
"Die Hard" on a bus worked, but don't let that throw you off.
So really, I think what you want to do
is just think about what excites you.
A lot of it should be more personal than that.
I think the problem with looking around at what's popular
and riffing on that is that may not have
any personal meaning to you.
It's just what's popular, what's in the zeitgeist now,
but that is changing so rapidly.
I remember when we were coming up in college,
we wanted to sell a script.
The big thing was found footage.
Right?
So I found footage is not much of a thing anymore,
and we were never huge fans of found footage.
But we suddenly found ourselves trying to write a found footage
movie, and we didn't really care about found footage.
Because we didn't have a lot of passion for it,
the lack of passion translated to bad scripts.
So I think an epiphany that we had was--
and it seems so obvious now, but it wasn't to us at the time--
was just kind of cut out all the noise.
Stop reading "Variety" and Deadline and all the Hollywood
trades and obsessing over what's selling,
and just focus on what you love, what you grew up loving,
what you love now.
Maybe it's something personal as a family,
a story from your family.
Or in our case, like our first movie script
that sold was called "Hidden," and it
was set in a bomb shelter.
We had a friend growing up in North Carolina,
and he had a bomb shelter in his backyard.
And we made a little short film set in this bomb shelter.
So we always thought, hey, you know,
wouldn't it be cool to set an entire movie
Inside of a bomb shelter?
Like that would be challenging but fun,
and it was based on this experience
we had as kids in this bomb shelter
that scared the living hell out of us.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
So it's a sort of combination where
you're pulling from your life, but part of your life--
it certainly was for Matt and I--
is we grew up loving movies.
And so we're looking at those movies,
and we're looking at what inspired us about that,
and then you're combining that with your experiences growing
up.
Or in the case of "Stranger Things," a lot of it
is based around our friendships we had
and the amazing times we had when we were kids, growing up
and our summers hanging out with our friends.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
We certainly didn't encounter any monsters
or other dimensions, but that friendship
became such a core of that idea.
So I think it's a mix of those two things, or it's something
that you're very obsessive about.
For instance, Matt and I love a good conspiracy theory.
I remember in high school, we made a short film
about the Philadelphia project, and we love the JFK conspiracy.
So we're sort of a little bit of conspiracy nuts,
and we like looking at all that stuff, which led us--
we'll get into it later-- but it led us
to the "Montauk" project, which led directly
to "Stranger Things."
So it could be just something in your life.
There's another advantage to choosing
something that's a little bit more personal, which is that
it--
especially if this is an early screenplay that you're writing.
Maybe it's your first screenplay.
Maybe it's your second or third, or whatever it is,
but certainly, we found it easier
if it's something that we're familiar with, if it's
populated with characters or a location or setting
that we're somewhat familiar with.
It's just easier to write, so you don't
have to do a year of research.
That is a way to go, and there's nothing wrong with that.
If you want to do like say a historical screenplay,
go for it.
I just would discourage you from doing that maybe
on your first screenplay.
I mean, knock yourself out.
It's just you're going to require
a lot of additional work and a lot of additional--
and as you're learning sort of the fundamentals of writing
and the fundamentals of how to write dialogue,
it's just so much easier if you can
tap into voices that you are more intimately familiar with.
Even on season one of "Stranger Things,"
we felt so much more comfortable writing the voices of the kids.
Just those scenes wrote themselves very quickly for us.
A shadow grows in the wall behind you,
swallowing you in darkness.
It is almost here.
What is it?
What if it's the demogorgon?
Oh, Jesus, we're so screwed if it's the demogorgon.
It's not the demogorgon.
An army of troglodytes charge into the chamber.
Troglodytes?
Told you.
ROSS DUFFER: It was harder for us to write the scientist.
So you'll notice on season one, Dr. Brenner doesn't talk a lot,
and that's OK.
I think leaning into your strengths
and what you're good at, and like Matt's saying,
particularly for this first script, is a great idea.
I think the goal really needs to be
telling a simple story which is much more difficult than it
seems.
It should seem easy when someone ultimately reads your script,
like this just came out of you.
But it's a process even to tell a simple, clean story that
moves from A to B to C to D.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
One fun thing about pulling from things you love
is it gives you an excuse to watch TV shows and movies
and even rewatch things that maybe you've
seen a dozen times, just to look at how it's done,
and also try to find some inspiration in there.
It's like the best homework ever.
It's true, and I don't think you even have
to limit yourself to movies.
I mean, if you're really into video games,
some board games now have amazing narratives.
I mean, just continue to consume that stuff.
And do big movies, small movies, whatever.
You know, the big shows everyone's watching,
the small shows, even stuff that doesn't work is helpful.
And for us, it may just be like a kernel of an idea.
I remember for the first script that we
wrote that actually really worked
and that sold, the one that Matt had referred
to that was set in a bomb shelter
called "Hidden," the movie that sparked
that was a very small independent film
called "Monsters," which is directed by Gareth Edwards who
would go on to direct "Godzilla" and "Rogue One."
But what really inspired us about "Monsters"
is he went out, and he made a very small movie
for not a lot of money, and it did
have this supernatural stuff that we loved.
And it had giant monsters, because we're children
at heart, so we love that.
But at the heart of that movie really was a relationship.
Gareth was able to tell a story with a huge scope,
but tell it very intimately, and we
decided we wanted to try to do something in that vein.
And then two other movies that really inspired us
that were also in that vein were David Fincher's "Panic Room"
and M. Night Shyamalan's "Signs,"
and these are all films that really spoke to us.
And when we started to rewatch them and break it down,
what we realized is that what was really
the connective tissue here was they were big ideas.
But at the heart of them, just like in "Monsters,"
it was really just about these families.
"Panic Room" was about a mom and her daughter,
and "Signs" was about a family, and specifically man
who's who was sort of broken in that family healing
over the course of that movie.
And so we go, even though there are these huge ideas--
you know, aliens, robbers, giant monsters--
the heart of those movies isn't really about that.
It's about something else.
That is the kind of story that we wanted to tell--
ordinary meets extraordinary.
So you can look at it like that, and you can break it down.
And I mean, it's very broad, ordinary
meets the extraordinary, but it was the type of film
that we hadn't seen a lot of out there.
And that's ultimately what led to "Hidden," the bomb shelter
movie, as we're calling it and then and then, ultimately,
"Stranger Things."
So I think it's important, as you're
watching these movies that love and inspire you
to try to break down, maybe there
is something that's connecting all of these things you love.
Maybe there's sort of a thread that runs through all of them,
and I think identifying what that
is could help you identify what kind of story you want to tell.
It's normal and good, in fact, to take inspiration
from these people who have mastered
the art of storytelling, who have come before you.
Right?
And look at what they did, look at what is successful,
and then take your own personal experience
and sort of overlay that on top.
And hopefully, you're bringing your own point of view.
You're not trying to emulate, but you're
trying to take the spirit of what they did
and infuse it with something that's
very unique to you, which is your own personality
and your own personal history.
And your own voice.
And your own, yeah, your own voice.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
As you're searching for this big idea,
one thing that's really important to keep in mind
is drive.
I think every story needs sort of a core drive,
and if you've read any screenwriting
book or heard any screenwriter talk,
you're probably sick of hearing this,
but the idea of a core drive, the idea that there's
a character who wants something and is having difficulty
getting it, it's true.
I mean, you really do need that in order to propel your story,
in order for the story to work.
You know, listen, you can have the most beautiful characters
in the world, but what is getting the reader
to just continue to turn the pages.
And by drive we don't mean-- it doesn't
have to be save the planet.
I mean, it doesn't have to be a Marvel-level drive.
It can be a very small drive.
Like in the sense of a romantic comedy,
it's winning over the boy, winning
over the girl, whatever it is.
If you don't have a drive, it'd be
like building a car without an engine.
Right?
It's just not going to run very well.
People are not going to get past page three, four,
or five, whatever it is.
If you look at "Hidden," it's a very simple drive.
Right?
It's actually kind of built into the title of the piece.
It's called hidden.
The goal of the film, the drive is, to remain hidden.
So we have characters in a bomb shelter.
They're trying to stay hidden.
Something alerts the outside presence, these bad guys above,
that perhaps they're in the vicinity.
And the goal for them is to remain
hidden throughout the film.
So it's a very, very basic, simple drive.
But our very first script that got us an agent--
and we'll go into that more later--
was something called "Origin."
Our main character woke up, and this
was in the midst of a pandemic.
And he realized he was infected.
He was sick, and he had two hours to try to cure himself.
Very simple goal-- he is going to die
at the end of this script, if he's not able to find a cure.
It's a very simple drive, and your characters
are trying to achieve that goal.
Like Matt saying, they want something.
They're having difficulty getting it.
They want to stay hidden.
They're having difficulty staying hidden.
Why are they having difficulty staying hidden?
Because we, as the writers, are going
to continue to throw obstacles in their way to staying hidden.
So every time they're going to solve one obstacle that they're
like, phew, maybe we're hidden now,
there's going to be something else that happens,
that's going to actually make their situation even worse.
They're going to solve that, but then something else
is going to happen that's going to make
it even harder to stay hidden.
And it's just going to continue to sort of build and snowball
and escalate, in this way, you have the audiences
keep turning the pages.
In the course of "Stranger Things,"
everyone's learning more and more,
but it keeps getting more and more complicated.
Finally, they have the puzzle pieces,
and you lead to the climax, but you've
got to keep throwing these obstacles in the way.
But the obstacles aren't going to exist,
if we don't understand what your main characters are actually
trying to get, what their goal is, what their drive is.
But like it's not just about plot.
I think that's a mistake.
If you're thinking, OK, well, this just
sounds very plot-driven, but it actually
involves character and character building.
The way that your characters resolve or overcome
these obstacles is going to reveal
a lot about who they are.
The methods they use to resolve those obstacles
reveals who they are.
If you think about "Stranger Things,"
that's how you learn who these characters are.
Obviously, "Stranger Things," there's a lot going on in it.
Right?
But when you really boil it down, Will is missing,
and we want to find Will again.
It's a very simple drive.
Finding a story and finding a drive
is really the most basic, fundamental aspect
of storytelling.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let's talk a little bit about how do you
brainstorm your idea?
So we talked about you can pull from your life.
It's more of an art than a science, brainstorming is.
I think it's good to let your mind wander a little bit.
This is not something that you can force.
So one thing that Ross and I like to do a lot
is listen to music.
We don't like listening to music with lyrics.
We like listening to movie music.
I've always loved movie music.
The lyrics get my head, whatever.
I mean, this is going to be very personal to you,
but the good thing about listening to music
is you can kind of let your mind wander a little bit.
You don't want to force it too much.
There's other techniques.
A lot of the good ideas that we've had
have come when we're not trying to think too hard about them.
They'll come when you're driving to work.
They'll come when you're taking a shower.
I mean, all of those are good ways of coming up with it.
Ross and I, it helps that there's two of us.
It works with just one person as well, but we like to walk.
There's something about walking that gets the juices flowing
in your brain.
I think it's very difficult, if you just sit down
in front of your computer, and you're looking
at a blank computer page.
And you're like, OK, what is my movie idea?
That's going to be really tricky.
That's going to be more helpful,
once you have the idea, and you're developing it further.
But for this initial big idea, it is, like Matt saying,
it's a tricky thing to teach.
There's no right or wrong way.
You're going to have your own process.
But again, I think if you just try
to sit down in front of a computer and force it,
you're probably just going to get frustrated.
We've certainly done that many times.
We've gotten frustrated many times.
But I think it is important to give yourself
some time and space to come up with the idea.
Even though it is potentially one, two, three sentences,
that can take a lot of time.
So it seems very easy, but the idea is not.
I mean, the idea is everything.
So it's going to take some time, and when
we step through kind of exactly how we came up with "Stranger
Things," you'll see that it was kind of developed,
this idea over the course of--
how many years?
Five?
Five years.
Something like that.
In terms of the whole process of writing,
arguably coming up with a big idea is the most important.
Again, take your time with this.
Be patient with it.
Think back on your life, the things
that you love, your memories growing up as children,
your friends, maybe this story your neighbor told you,
pull from these things.
Pull from works of art you love.
Take your time.
Come up with a bunch of ideas.
A lot of them are going to be bad.
We write down so many bad ideas.
You'll see some of them.
We throw so many things at the wall, and so many of them
don't stick, and that's OK.
You're going to feel it, when you have that idea that just
gets you excited and like you want to sit down and write it
right now.
I think you're going to feel it.
We certainly have.
When we haven't felt it, and we've tried to force it,
or maybe it's a half-formed idea,
it's missing some important element
and we've tried to write it and force it,
that ends up just wasting a lot of time.
Because you're just-- there's something conceptually wrong.
So you want to try to wait.
It's not a science.
It's going to be different every time.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
So I think the first assignment for this class
is probably the best assignment, the most fun assignment.
Definitely.
Which is just watch some of your favorite stuff.
Watch some of your favorite movies.
Watch some of your favorite shows, whatever it is you want.
Read some of your favorite comic books, whatever it is.
Or your favorite books, I mean,
that'll take a little bit longer than watching stuff,
but whatever it is.
And then try to identify what is the connective tissue
between the stuff that you love?
Is there a connective tissue?
Is there something unique about your taste?
Is there a reason that you're drawn
to those particular stories?
See if you can figure out what that is.
And again, for us, it was ordinary meets extraordinary.
It doesn't have-- it can be something very simple.
It can be just one simple thing that
is connective tissue between all of these things that you love,
and maybe that will help give you your inspiration for what
you're going to write.