Tales from the Script
Director: Peter Hanson
Writer: Peter Hanson, Paul Robert Herman
“Cast”: various Hollywood screen writers
Seen on: 15.3.2015

“Plot”:
Tales from the Script is a documentary about screen writing in Hollywood. Hanson and Herman interviewed several more and less famous screen writers about their experiences in Hollywood with the movie industry.

Tales from the Script was really interesting. Partly simply delightful, partly making you want to headdesk incessantly, but always entertaining and insightful.

I don’t know how many times I’ve wondered about the absolutely atrocious screenplays and how it could be possible for so many people involved in making a film looking over said screenplays and seeing nothing wrong with them. After seeing the film I realized that so many people looking over scripts and finding things wrong with them might just be the reason for the problems in the first place.

I don’t mean to say that scripts shouldn’t be edited by anybody else but the writer themself (in fact, that is a very important step in the process), but there needs to be one person there who has an overarching vision that can be produced, because if there’s too many people doctoring around with stuff at the same time, the result can only be chaos.

And then there’s the absolute highlight of the documentary: Guinevere Turner describing how the script for BloodRayne came into existence. A first draft that was ripped from her hands, given the once-over by a non-native (barely) English speaker and several actors. I honestly think I have to watch the film now.

If you’re interested in movie making and especially writing in Hollywood, Tales from the Script is an absolutely must-see. Even if you don’t dream of a career as a screen writer, you will never quite look at films the same way again.

Summarziing: Extremely interesting.