Stephen Dorff Quotes

The key is a good story. If you have a good story, you have enough emotional beats that you can hit.

I started as a playwright. Any sort of scriptwriting you do helps you hone your story. You have the same demands of creating a plot, developing relatable characters and keeping your audience invested in your story. My books are basically structured like three-act plays.

Anybody can write a film script 'cuz it has been reduced to a formula.

You'd be surprised how hard it is getting the human emotional arc in a script to work. Ultimately a director stands and falls by their ability to do that.

With a film, you have to pare down and take stuff out and squish it all down into a 110 page script.

I'll generally write out every scene that's in the film on a couple of pieces of paper, just with a little one-line. And then I can scan it a bit and go, 'This first third of the film, generally, I'm kind of calm.' Then I might do something on one piece of paper that just relates to the energy of the character.

As long as your storytelling and emotional depth are intact, that's what people will focus on.

I wish I could remember how to write a play. I can't remember how they happened.

The key to making good movies is to pay attention to the transition between scenes.

A director should concentrate on his storyline and his characters.

If you have a great story, any film will work.

Moviemaking is about telling a story. And you need to know what story you are going to tell.

But I've never tried writing an episode of 'EastEnders', even as an exercise.

I have no problems or issues with screenwriting in general.

What I look for in a script is the plot point and whether they're strong, obviously, or not, whether the characters are rich or not, and if I can do justice to the character or not. Some movies you look at and the script is so bad that no one can do anything with the script.

For me, the filmmaking has to be about the dramaturgy.

I don't like plots. I don't know what a plot means. I can't stand the idea of anything that starts in the beginning - you know, 'beginning, middle and end.'

I'm not saying I'm a writer, but I've been in movies for a long time, and I think I could write a script for a movie.

I don't feel the need to direct. I tried to get other people to direct Dances, but they wouldn't do it. They all thought it was too long. One director wanted to cut the Civil War sequence. Another thought the white woman was very cliched.

There are a lot of considerations that come into play when you craft one of these 'Saw' scripts, and there's only so much you can put into them.

Directing is not on my agenda, but writing is. I want to write everything from action, superhero films to quiet dramas, smaller films.

I went to a seminar early in my career on the craft of storytelling by Robert McKee. It was really life altering. There are basic principles on how to craft an engaging story and he covers them well. He's got a book out, 'Story,' that I would highly recommend to anyone interested in improve their storytelling.

Being a good television screenwriter requires an understanding of the way film accelerates the communication of words.

When I was working on 'Big Fan,' I didn't really feel like any lines needed to be changed or enhanced or expanded upon in any way. I thought it was a solid script. All you had to do was what it said.

When you write a script, you always think about what your heart is asking.