INT. OFFICE – DAY
The office is brightly lit. Shelves line the space and contain hundreds of screenplays. We pick up a phone conversation with GARRET, 49, a literary agent and president of The Gary-Paul Agency is on the phone.
GARRET
The advantage of an analysis is that
you'll have an edge over writers when
submitting to a competition or festival.
There’s a pause.
INT.
STUDY – DAY
The
study is sparsely furnished, Ikea perhaps. ANGIE, 32; a writer, leans
forward in her chair. She wears the face of doubt.
INTERCUT
ANGIE
What edge? Be specific.
GARRET
Most writers submit what they think is
a final draft but what they really
submit is a first draft.
Most scripts
I've covered in this
stage have inconsistent format and
are not accurate to spec. writing.
ANGIE
Yes, but is
format really that
important if the story is good?
GARRET
I recognize
your point, but do
you have a good story?
ANGIE
What makes you
think you know a
good story from a bad one?
GARRET
I have
about twenty
years experience as a
filmmaker and fifteen years as a
professor of
screenwriting. Beyond
that, I can recognize a good script because my knowledge of screenwriting is supported by a clear understanding
of human nature.
ANGIE
You're a
psychologist?
GARRET
Not exactly,
but I know that all
characters, real or fictitious, are motivated by
basic needs created out of human vulnerabilities. Storytelling
communicates a direct
path to fulfilling the characters' needs which in
the final analysis
creates an indirect path to revealing our
vulnerabilities.
He puffs.
The up-shot is
that novice screen-writers do not always recognize the
reasons for their characters' actions
because they are unaware of the
vulnerabilities that they are engaged
in revealing.
ANGIE
Can't the
writer assume that he
or she knows this intuitively?
GARRET
Maybe, but
usually the result is under developed characters and weak story
potential. Knowing the
vulnerabilities of the characters that the screenplay reveals is key to
understanding them, the story and most importantly, your audience.
ANGIE
So you're an
agent, a consultant, what else?
GARRET
A theoretical
deconstructionist of course.
Even
Angie nods.
ANGIE
Perhaps I
should brush up on my
Jung, Freud, and Campbell?
GARRET
That, or allow me to do what I do best, it's my job.
ANGIE
You've got my
attention. Now what?