Dear Earl,

I read your post about how screenwriters should become directors to protect their work.  Isn’t that a bit much to ask somebody?  It’s hard enough to learn one job.

In that specific case, I was referring to the screenwriter’s weakened position in the moviemaking system.

Directors have more power.  Ergo, if screenwriters want the power to protect their stories, they should seek a position of power.  I’m not saying every artist needs to study every field.

Oh, thank goodness.

But now that you mention it, it’s not a bad idea.

I never went to film school.  There’s a fun story behind that, which I’ll tell another time.

Without any formal guidance, I had to build my own curriculum.  So for awhile, I studied film books.  And in my studies, I came across a man named Sergei Eisenstein.

// STUDIES WITH SERGEI //
Eisenstein is the creator of, among other films, the Battleship Potemkin and its famous Odessa Step sequence.  He lived during film’s early innovation years, when the idea of cutting two shots together was a revolutionary idea.  Literally.

The idea of creating meaning by joining shots is almost second-nature to us now, but Eisenstein helped pioneer the practice.

So where did he get the idea?  Not from studying films (there were hardly any films to study).

By taking concepts from Japanese writing, and combining it with his own experiments in the Soviet cinema training program, he helped develop the idea of cutting film.

// CUT TO: EARL, CIRCA 2001 //

The story of Eisenstein’s discoveries changed the entire way I viewed my self-education, and in the process, changed the way I work, both creatively and otherwise.

From Eisenstein’s story, I learned:

• There are no irrelevant fields of study.
Everything relates, in some way, to everything else. Knowing how one system or discipline works can inform your knowledge of others.

Obvious example: I started life as a screenwriter. Becoming a director (and with that, an editor) taught me what worked on the screen, and what didn’t. It informed my imagination in a way that “more writing” couldn’t have.

Less obvious example: for a time, I worked as an American Sign Language interpreter. I didn’t know it then, but working in a completely visual language taught me the feel for the subtleties of nonverbal communication.  I learned how to tell stories better by applying the principles I learned in sign language.

• Good ideas come from anywhere.
You don’t know where the next great idea you have will come from. That makes everything interesting, on some level. And it also encourages collaboration and humility when you’re working with others. People want to work with me again because they feel like their creative ideas are respected. That’s because when they speak, I listen, whether I agree or not.

• Learning doesn’t stop.
If any discipline can influence any other, how do you know which ones to study, and when to stop? The answer to both is: “you don’t.” And that’s exactly where you want to be.

That passion for learning maintains with Funakoshi called “the beginner’s mind:” a mind open, unbiased, and excited to understand.  (A concept I wouldn’t know to apply, if I hadn’t studied Shotokan karate)

// STUDY EVERYTHING //
Study what you love. Study some things you hate. Above all, study the jobs that relate to your career.

Screenwriters should know how to direct; directors, how to act.  Novelists should know how to edit their manuscripts.

Everyone should know something about marketing.

You do not have to be an expert in any of these. But knowing enough — the lingo, the mindset, the necessities of the job — will inform your own work. You will know how to avoid the pitfalls that appear further down the line.

And if the field has nothing to do with your passion, tremendous.  You are more likely to discover an insight about your work that no one has ever thought of, because they never thought to look for answers in the study of architecture.  (Or robotics, or computer programming, or avid gaming)

If I were a screenwriter starting today, you know whose job I would study?

The unit production manager. AKA, Them What Puts the Budget Together.

Knowing how to keep things cheap is an excellent tool for a screenwriter to have.

Especially now.

Related posts:

1. The End of the Screenwriter
2. Test-Screening Your Screenplay
3. Read More Screenplays (And How)