I enjoy writing dialogue; it comes naturally to me.
My scripts are possibly too talkative.
I really love being in postproduction. First of all, it's all quite self-interested: You can protect things.
I have to go with what I do, and what I do has more to do with what people say to each other than telling a story through images. Of course, you're trying to do both. And there are some people who are brilliant at it, but I don't consider myself to be particularly good at it. My mind gets into a verbal mode.
My mind gets into a verbal mode.
You always end up with too much, so it's good to be part of the conversation about not just what you can omit, but how you are going to do the grammar of the omission, how you make things continue to work when there's something missing. It's your last chance to rewrite.
Normally, even if you're on the set for 12 hours, there may be only a moment or two when you are actually useful.
Once rehearsals are done the writer really doesn't have a function on the set. If the script is stabilized, then the writer becomes a celebrity tourist visiting the set, trying not to get in the way. It's very good for the ego, to go visit a film set if you are the writer, because they give you a special chair, and tell you where you can sit to watch the monitor. They make you feel special, but at the same time, they make it perfectly plain that you are irrelevant!
One of the nice things about the world of filmmaking is that you make friends in the business.
I began writing for theater, and maybe because of that I've always thought of myself as a theater writer who does work in film sometimes.
Having translated two plays by Chekhov, and not speaking Russian myself - I cannot say one sentence. This may shock people... However, I am not shocked, as it is not hard to find out what the words mean.
I don't write at the library, because I smoke when I work or would like the possibility of a smoke. Also, I need to be at my own desk.
I like plays where people talk a lot. Conversation is sustained. Argument is sustained.
To be frank: the translations that often sound bad in the mouths of the actors, these have often been done by linguists.
