Posted by Midwest at archon-216-68-35-118.fuse.net on January 11, 2003 at 12:19:32:
After watching _An_Evening_With . . . I wished that someone had asked K. Smith about his writing process when it came to writing screenplays. He mentioned how some aspects of one of the scripts (I forget which one) came from some kernel of personal experience, but he stress (a significant point, I think) that personal experience cannot write the movie for you. In other words, if you transcribed the action of what you and your buddies did on that trip to Mexico (for example) odds are that it would make a pretty crappy movie.
Anyway, I was wondering about numbers of drafts, collaboration, or any generalized theories of screenplay composition. I sort of expect that he may of spoken of this elsewhere, so if any of you all know where pass it along. A specific question in this vein could be: "What process do you go through to complete a screenplay (say, for example, _Chasing_Amy_)?"
P.S. I write fiction, and not screenplays, so I'm not here to pimp anything. But I teach creative writing at a hugh(-ish) Midwestern unversity and I think students might be interested in the view of someone who writes something that many of them (and me!) enjoy thoroughly.