Francis Ford Coppola on Writing

Excerpt from a 2009 episode of "Hollywood's Best Film Directors" with Francis Ford Coppola.

The filmmaker describes the way he writes scripts and compares writing to "an actor doing an improvisation".

#francisfordcoppola

[StephenDedalus]

I think I have never been as excited and impatient for the release of a film as I am for "Megalopolis" !!!! :) I hope it will be his greatest film since "Apocalypse Now" !! :) His most daring, hypnotic, profound, visionnary picture since his masterpieces of the seventies !!! :)

[BookClubDisaster]

Me I just completed a draft of a book and I learned to rarely go back and read what I wrote. Just keep going. Don't want to risk breaking the spell.

[Calypso]

Write first from the heart. Get it all out of your system. Then go back and READ IT OUT LOUD. Now the real work begins and you can tighten it up and start working on the final draft. Something ive personally learned over the years and from reading loads of awful first draft Amazon Author books.

[krampus]

I love that this showed up for me today. Usually i’m always anxious and “on the grind” with my writing thinking it’s shit, but the last few days i got my stuff together after 11 months of work and on and of writing, and it’s formed together into something.
It’s still missing things, it’s still needs a huge amount of editing, but i got the heart of it out, and i’m enjoying what it’s becoming and the process. And it’s nice to hear from someone else that that they can just sit back and enjoy the process too.

[OpticLureProductions]

wow great clip never heard this one and thats some killer advice

[CannibalWHORE]

If your going to get advice in how to write movies. This is really a great example by one of the greatest director/screenwriters in America.

[EzeICE]

Cage has said in a recent interview that he channeled his mother for the inspiration of Longlegs.

[JavierGonzalez-lpke]

From "Finding Forrester" (2001) by Gus Van Sant, Adapted by Mike Rich from the Novel by James W. Ellison (2000).

William begins typing at typewriter. Jamal sees him but cannot get himself to begin. William notices, stops his writing.

William
Is there a problem?

Jamal
Nah, I'm just thinking.

William
Oh no. No thinking. That comes later

They continue typing. William VO. Various typing shots.
William
You write your first draft with your heart. Then you rewrite with your head. The first key to writing is to write. Not to think.
He pulls out the completed full page he's just typed, handing it to Jamal.

[TheWaynos]

Coppola’s greatest script was Patton. Simply brilliant.

[arrangearrange]

FFC with a track pad the struggle is real

[gordonmculloch]

It is like daydreaming. What if, daydreaming.

[drbalbon]

Never take your writing too seriously. Remember Jack from The Shining: All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

[superdeluxesmell]

Well if we know anything about Mr Coppola’s process, it’s that it works really well a few times early on and then pretty much flops for many many decades.

[elichilton]

Permiscuous imagination. What a great turn of phrase.

[kuramobay]

He gives me the impression that he starts from the beginning and steadily works his way through till the end of a first draft. Most writers I know tend to start with bits of scenes here and there, ideas for characters, etc. Then at some point they start a step outline or a beat sheet and keep fiddling with this as they add more bits and pieces of scenes and the story slowly begins to reveal itself and the paths of the characters within it. And then the first draft begins. All-in-all, quite a messy process that doesn't sound like a genius at work when told in an interview, so writers tend to mythologize the process a bit. Problem is a newbie writer hears this stuff and feels frustrated when it doesn't work just like the master said he makes it work.

[MegaOCER]

In my first book I write 5 drafts until I felt good about it

[kjmiller]

His best movie is "The Conversation." Nothing else comes close.

[Lanooski]

He kinda strikes me as a guy who should take his soda outta the ice box so it don’t freeze