Maverick Chap 0:Formatted 8/9/11 11:14 Page i Maverick Screenwriting A manual for the adventurous screenwriter Josh Golding BLOOMSBURY Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in 2012 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square London WC1B 3DP www.bloomsbury.com Copyright © Josh Golding 2012 Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book. Josh Golding has asserted his rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library PB ISBN 978 1 408 12907 4 E PUB ISBN 978 1 408 15494 6 E PDF ISBN  978 1 408 15493 9 Available in the USA from Bloomsbury Academic & Professional, 175 Fifth Avenue/3rd Floor, New York, NY 10010. www.BloomsburyAcademicUSA.com Typeset by Country Setting, Kingsdown, Kent CT14 8ES This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without asimilar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Quotes on pp. 264–6 abridged from Apocalypse Now Redux by John Millius and Francis Ford Coppola. Copyright © 2001 by John Millius and Francis Ford Coppola. Reprinted by permission of Miramax Books. All right reserved. Maverick Chap 0:Formatted 8/9/11 11:14 Page iii “ When the doors of perception are cleansed, man will see things as they truly are, infinite. William Blake Maverick Chap 0:Formatted 8/9/11 11:14 Page iv This page intentionally left blank Maverick Chap 0:Formatted 8/9/11 11:14 Page v Contents 1 Set-up and back story 1 Preface 3 Introduction 5 Foreword 19 Chapter 1:The prequel 21 Chapter 2:The big “what if?” 35 Chapter 3:The Maverick toolbox 57 2 Time 67 Chapter 4:Become your own timelord by playing with time and causality 69 3 Reality 119 Chapter 5:The different levels of reality 121 Chapter 6:Absurdism 133 Chapter 7:Minimalism 155 Chapter 8:You left my umbrella where? 169 4 Point of view 213 Chapter 9:POV to the max 215 5 Technique 231 Chapter 10:Break on through to the other side 233 Chapter 11:Maverick dialogue 255 6 Everything connects 291 Chapter 12:The matrix 293 Chapter 13:Taking it to the limit 323 7 Which structure is right for you? 351 Chapter 14:Mashing genre 353 Notes 367 Index 371 v Maverick Chap 1:Formatted 8/9/11 11:15 Page vi This page intentionally left blank Maverick Chap 1:Formatted 8/9/11 11:15 Page 1 Section 1 Set-up and back story ‘Buried’ (1953), lithograph © Versus Entertainment/Kobal Collection Maverick Chap 1:Formatted 8/9/11 11:15 Page 2 This page intentionally left blank Maverick Chap 1:Formatted 8/9/11 11:15 Page 3 Preface This book will teach you the advanced narrative techniques that will help you tell an original story in an original way. If that sounds a tall order, never fear. Screenwriting is a craft, as well as an art; and these techniques can be learned. As a student of mine put it, once you understand these techniques, you understand that Maverick films are not complicated. They are just cleverly written. Or as a teacher of mine once told me: everything is hard until you learn it; then it’s easy. All the classic principles of dramaturgy remain relevant. But Maverick techn iques broaden your palette and give you tools that you never knew you had, buried deep inside you. Tools that allow you to play with time, logic and reality. Tools that set your imagination free. In Maverick Screenwriting, all these tools find new and inventive use. We’ll extract the techniques which have been successful in Maverickfilms, andI’ll show you how you can use them yourself to create new and original stories. But technique is only a means to an end. The aim is to learn to look at the world in a different way, and then to put that vision into words. Once you succeed in doing that, you have found your voice, and can throw technique away. This book is not a complete or definitive analysis of Maverick films. No doubt you will have your own lost or cult classic that you feel I have slighted or ignored. This causes me no lost sleep. On the contrary, it only proves that there will always be a need and a hunger for Maverick films. It is the nature of the choices made by these films to be controversial. Great films (indeed all great art works) are made in spite of the system, not because of it. 3