10 SCREENWRITING TIPS from Robert Eggers

the most important thing we can do as people who are trying to make creative work is to be yourself and uh Embrace what is uniquely you and your own voice people who want to hire you are looking for something new I know that there is this idea that like Studios want the same yes and no it's like comfortable enough but also we've never seen it before what's very important to me when I begin writing a piece is to not have uh a a message uh to not have um any intention Beyond staying true to the

world in which I'm trying uh to to write in what is story Balanchine once said when he was being criticized for doing choreographic pieces that were abstract you know if a man takes a woman's hand what more story do you need my brothers when they read the script for the first time said well you know I know that they're speaking uh early modern English but it sounds like our family ARG you know you can't be judgmental of the characters and the time period you can't uh rewrite history to to conform to the Zeitgeist but you

do have a responsibility to understand what's going on today and not be fool hearty my inspiration uh often comes from research I'm researching and writing in tandem so I'm uh you know I research enough to write some more and then I research enough to write some more if you think about writing it in achievable way you're not going to write it so just write it and you'll figure it out uh and you have to be blind to the realities of of shooting to to tell the best [Music] story uh the most important thing we can

do as people who are trying to make creative work is to be yourself and uh Embrace what is uniquely you and your own voice so obviously I'm just talking about uh my Approach and uh and I and it's and it's Unique to the kind of strange interests uh that I have and I I just hope that there's some tools that you can put in your toolbox um that can work with how you are you you have to like find your own voice it's okay to start out being derivative uh because that's how we become ourselves

um but but what you know people who want to hire you are looking for something new I know that there is this idea that like people want like like Studios want the same and there's and it's like yes and no you know it's like it's like comfortable enough but also so we've never seen it before a few things that I think about and struggle with uh is trying to find a harmonious balance of certain opposites in in my writing uh the the the the largest things would be like I you know dionan versus appolloni the

sort of um or or I'll start with appolloni which is you know the the the structure the uh what what patriarch patriarchal Western culture would call like male ideals and then the the dionan uh female mysterious the uh stuff like how do you create a balance of something that is like rigorous and and structured and and and clear but also has Enigma and and mystery and atmosphere I'm sorry to admit but I don't tend to get writer block and that's because uh I I'm so research focused so if I'm feeling stuck I can just pick

up a book and read a sentence that's inspiring or even sometimes misread a sentence that's inspiring and can get me uh going I'm researching and writing in tandem so I'm uh you know I research enough to write some more and then I research enough to write some more my inspiration uh often comes from research uh I think you know different stories come about in different ways um very often I start with uh an atmosphere uh that is uh an imagined tactile atmosphere but also a visual atmosphere of of of a world uh that I want

to explore and then I try to find a story that can accompany that so um with the witch for example I remembered the my as a kid like really thinking about the idea weird kid maybe that people who grew up in the reign of Queen Elizabeth were like walking around in the woods behind where I grew up and that atmosphere and the sense of dread and and and a and a real witch uh you know that was exciting to me so then research research research to then find a story that can accompany that atmosphere and

what's very important to me when I begin writing a piece is to not have uh a message to not have um any intention Beyond staying true to the world in which I'm trying to to write in um so but but but thank heavens like as much as I try to seal myself up like an anchorite uh or and lock myself in my alchemical cell uh you know the world is not my world is not vacuum sealed so I am affected by the Zeitgeist whether I want to be or or not and if and that's important

because otherwise you know the witch can't just appeal to people uh who are alive in the 1630s and the lighthouse can't just appeal to people who are alive in the 1890s because there's not enough graveyard screenings uh for that to be profitable um uh so you know with the wit um uh I'm I'm happy that that that most people though not everyone for sure uh sees the film as a feminist film if I were to be objective and stand back I I think I would agree with that stance uh but that was not my intention

I just wanted to make a witch movie as I kind of said and and and but but but but that's what happened with with the lighthouse which I don't know if people have seen um you know I was just trying to make a ghost story in a lighthouse uh which it's finally not but it became you know when I was writing this story this hyper masculine story about two men with my brother I was thinking this is why are we writing this right now this is the worst time to be writing story and then once

we had the first draft we realized like oh I guess we're talking about toxic masculinity and like everything that's like uh messed up about it so uh so that's that's cool um and uh you know but but but but but but even still when you're getting into this this other world you know you can't be judgmental of the characters and the time period you can't uh rewrite history um to to uh to to conf form to the Zeitgeist but you do have a responsibility to understand what's going on today and not be fool hearty uh

the the thing that I'm working on currently has slavery and violence against women and uh and it's takes place in the Viking age so that's going to happen but how do I tell those stories without rewriting history responsibly I don't you know those are the questions I have to ask myself and I can't provide answers what is story Balanchine once said when he was being criticized for doing cor like choreographic pieces that were abstract you know of a man takes a woman's hand what more story do you need uh you know I think um in

America even more than Britain but also in Britain more than Continental Europe there is this kind of like traditional narrative dramaturgy that is held by many film students and and critics to be uh what what is good you know and having these kinds of turning points and threea structure or five act structure whatever it is uh and and your and how you play by those rules to tell the story is um what makes you a good Storyteller but of course that's absurd uh you know I mean from you know Shakespeare's Cor anus is not the

best way to tell that story like the way the scenes come together but it's so well written that it's incredibly moving and that's like the form in in in doing this kind of archetypal storytelling even if it's based on a fairy tale or a myth I still try to bring in you know my my personal experiences the things that that that are me when my brothers first read uh the witch screenplay they said you know even though this is the 17th century it sounds like our family arguing you know um and that's and that's that's

very important you know someone um H not just conveying plot but but but also having little um a sides that that are about life like these kinds of things can of course uh ground it so I think you know you the the there is a scene where um uh mother and the father are having a disagreement that could be my parents disagreement or could be me and my wife's disagreement and but it's just spoken uh with an with an older uh di a different dialect but it's the same conversation uh and I think um and

I I I don't except for when I'm trying to convey certain points of exposition I I very rarely uh Translate from from uh I don't like write modern dialogue and then translate it I'm a writer and director so the way that I write my screenplays is uh would be inappropriate if I weren't directing them um uh as as an actor who recently turned down a role in one of my movies said uh that the screenplay was overwrought uh and and there is a kind of indulgence um in the the details of my screenplays that would

be entirely foolish if I was writing for another director there's a level of specificity in the The Blocking uh you know if William defo wears his reading glasses like this if Robert patson scratches his ear like this it may very well be in the screenplay uh there's never uh in my screenplay Rome Burns or they fight you know Arthur draws Excalibur he thrusts towards the giant who PA and you know the whole thing so um uh so there how important do you think historical accuracy is to filming events from the past well it's not important

to film making at all really and uh and you can make a great period story without being accurate you know cop's Dracula is one of the best designed movies in my opinion but it's not accurate at all but this is something that I like for whatever reason one of the things that it does is that it create is it cuts out a lot of decision making because everyone knows what the bar is it's accuracy for the most part I think that if I was gonna be super strict there was things that I would not have

done but you need to have a little bit of variety in the look of things virtually no Viking helmets from the period have been discovered like so you can't have everyone literally the same exact helmet that's the only one that's been discovered so you have to find a way to make an educated guesses about like different versions based around that they're inspired by the periods nearby that kind of thing um I made a short film called brothers that was a proof of concept to try to get the witch financed um it had been many years

since i' made a short film and my most recent work was a very stylized piece based on EDG Gren Poe which featured a puppet as a character and uh performances that were truly weird uh and uh my producer said you know if you want anyone to finance the Wich you probably ought to make a new short and it should feature uh naturalistic performances by children um and scary woods um and so that was a task you know and and so and and thus I was able to find a story that met with that pragmatic task

yeah I mean the the aspect ratio um it got a little smaller over the years but but I always wanted it to be boxy and I always wanted to be black away 35 millimeter that's something when I that I saw when I pictured the atmosphere um and of course like as you move forward both in the writing and then in development and then in prep you learn more things change you know and your preconceived notions are not always correct but uh but but you find you make choices that are closer to your original intentions even

if they weren't your preconceived not about how to articulate your intention uh and yeah so sometimes I I I see how it's shot and and sometimes in certain sequences I write extremely wide shot Lighthouse tender like in the middle of the sea yada yada yada like close shot the hull carves through the waves like b sometimes I'll do that which again as a writer director I can get away with because it's a terrible thing to do otherwise um uh and and sometimes I see that and don't write it because it's distracting to the flow of

the scene uh sometimes I just see a scene a story and I know that we're going to have to find it later sometimes I see a scene with that's a complicated action sequence or stunt or visual effect or practical effect and I think okay how can I write this in an achievable way and sometimes I think if you think about writing it in achievable way you're not going to write it so just write it and you'll figure it out uh and you have to be blind to the realities of of shooting to to tell the

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