Michael Arndt:  Exactly. Michael Arndt talks with Jordan Carlos about his free, tutorial film, ENDINGS: THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE INSANELY GREAT. And in LA…. It all just came together. Process. And so part of putting this thing together for me was looking at these examples, these shining examples, you know. I feel like that’s all I do. And then finally one day I couldn’t think of anything and I was sitting at home watching TV of course, and there was an image footage of a child-beauty pageant and they’re always little, skinny, blonde girls parading around, prancing around in costumes. [crosstalk 00:01:51]. My mentor provided me with a lecture about endings of scripts. Michael Arndt:  It’s all out in Los Angeles and I think that A. I was lucky that everything was so cheap back then in Williamsburg. Michael Arndt:  It’s just really smart. So it is a happy ending, and it’s just not a happy ending in terms of the romance. Rather than… You’re right. Arndt used to work as a script reader, and as part of his job, after reading hundreds of scripts, he would be able to diagnose what is wrong with the script. Jordan Carlos:    I really enjoyed the [inaudible 00:12:09] that you’ve given in writing any screenplay, but I have to ask, what’s your process? Just visit pandemoniuminc dot com slash endings dash video. My daughter is in the room, I’m always- shout out to her, I’m always making up stories like that. Michael Arndt has a pretty good idea. Where have you seen it lately at the box office? Jordan Carlos:    Wow, which neighborhood? You know, and I love that. Michael Arndt:  You go on the road, you’re going up the river, or you’re going along the Yellow Brick Road, but you end up in the worst place in the world, right? Jordan Carlos:    Okay, alright, well, that is the kind of cinema that I’ve been watching as of late, but even in that movie there is that antagonist’s aria, which is spelled out by the principal, who says “I’m trying to run a very drone like, beehive school, and your pranks are stopping all of that.”, Michael Arndt:  The other thing that’s really important though is, that you want your villain to be smart, and I think that you want your villain’s point of view not to just be “Aha I’m a mean guy and I like doing bad things to people,” but they just say “Look here’s the way the world works,” so if you go It’s A Wonderful Life, with Mr. Potter, you go through the whole movie, and everyone goes “Who’s the richest man in town? And he gives this great speech where he goes “The bums lost, Lebowski, condolences the bums lost,” and then Jeff Bridges walks out of there and it’s this great thing that, it makes Jeff Bridges’ laid backness heroic, because you’re creating this universe where everybody is kind of uptight and on edge, and that stands in stark relief or contrast to The Dude, you know? I also went to film school in NYU and when I got out I was like, “Should I move to LA or should I stay in New York?” I chose to stay in New York in a weird way. I’m in New York. Do the thing that you feel passionate about. And I feel like a lot of times, if your script is starting to feel like homework, like if it’s starting to feel like ugh, like I have to deal with this thing again, sometimes you cheat on your own script and you sneak off and you have like a little affair with another script that you’re working on. You just feel it. Michael Arndt:  It was only okay, it was only okay. Do you take the subway? You end up either in Kurtz’s compound or you end up in the Wicked Witch of the West’s castle. I have a few questions. His mission is to promote visual literacy though books which engage the viewers’ eyes and minds. I just watched it last night and I didn’t know, it was kind of like an unknown-unknown. Michael Arndt:  Yes, exactly. Jordan Carlos:    Are you on assignment right now? Are there any that didn’t make the cut that you find still satisfying, but just you didn’t have time to include, or? Labels: Beginning a screenplay, Michael Arndt, professional advice. Michael Arndt:  I’m just trying to focus on original scripts and I have a comedy that I’m working on. Why do people like heists more than robberies? He also wrote the screenplays for a few other low-budget, indie films like “Toy Story 3”, “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” “Endings” explores how great film endings work through a close analysis of the climaxes of “Star Wars,” “The Graduate,” and “Little Miss Sunshine.” And Michael is clearly a generous man, because he has made “Endings” available to watch online for free. Let me ask you this. But you’re always getting new ideas also and you’re always excited by like, the latest idea that you’ve had, so I’ve got a couple of, you know, irons in the fire, but there’s one that’s sort of closest to being finished, and it’s a comedy, and…. He created this video to help writers better understand the importance of a strong ending. Michael Arndt:  I guess I would joke that I have the distinction of being the first guy fired off as Star Wars franchise, recently. Never exposed to anything. Michael Arndt:  That’s especially how I feel about this video. Michael Arndt is a screenwriter known for Toy Story 3 and Little Miss Sunshine, among others. Arndt points out that many scripts fail to deliver on their endings. The truth is, what happened was I had gotten out of film school and the rule of thumb always is that it takes ten years to break in as a screenwriter, right? Michael Arndt:  I made a list here actually, it’s Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali, that’s a great ending, doesn’t subscribe to the ‘Insanely Great,’ formula at all. As with life, beginnings are easy but endings are hard. Michael Arndt:  I’m in, I’ve always been in New York. It takes-. Jun 13, 2015 - Oscar-winning screenwriter Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine) for years has given a talk called Endings:The Good, The Bad, & The Insanely Great. The way in which your good guy defeats your bad guys is important in that it speaks to the meaning of your story. This is "What you need to know about endings from Michael Arndt, by Abbie Heathe" by #LondonSWF on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people… So because he follows his heart, because he’s a nonconformist, right, he, you’re tipping the whole fulcrum towards nonconformity, he is literally running out of the church, grabbing the princess out of the dragon’s cave, and running out. You’ve written “Little Miss Sunshine” and you also recently wrote the new, not the newest Star Wars, but Star Wars-. Oh, I would just, to me, I mean my favorite ending of all time is Late Spring, by Ozu. … I’ve learned a lot ever since I watched the video. Like anything is…. So you want to keep that. It’s just like, whatever is the thing that you most want to consume, put that right in front of you and do that right now, because that’s, you know, the problem always is, you wake up in the morning, what’s going to make you excited to sit down and write? I’ll give you a small example, and I was just thinking about this, we’re all familiar with the antagonist’s aria in a superhero film, or Die Hard or whatever, right? Michael Arndt:  Is it firing on all cylinders? Jordan Carlos:    Okay, now we’re back on track. Business. Then, going down a bunch of blind alleys and bumping your head into the wall and just stumbling around and it’s all trial and error. Michael Arndt:  I avoid writing all the time. It just seems like he pushes aside his computer targeting system and so all the other excellent pilots where there trying to shoot the target, but they weren’t using the force. Now it’s just Williamsburg proper. So the worst place in the world in Star Wars is the Death Star, because it’s the ultimate epitome, the apotheosis of violence and coercion, right? Michael Arndt:  I’m just hoping I can solve just sort of some basic nuts and bolts problems. With the Vancouver International Film Festival coming up, I’m back on the culture beat for the North Shore News. We should place the values of community over the values of individualism. Excuse me, I’m not in LA. Because your inciting incident right is they come and they pee on his carpet, right? Michael Arndt:  He’s talking about how, well you have to read Schrader, because he’s so eloquent on this, but I’ll just say it’s ‘Transcendental Style in Film,’ gets a big thumbs up from me. How do you keep your writing fresh, how do you keep your ear for dialogue and things like that? Michael Arndt:  I think that, I’ll just put it this way, when you’re making a film in New York, it seems like this heroic thing. And coming up with really great characters and coming up with something that’s going to make people lean forward and get excited. I’d say, I talk about 8 1/2, the Fellini film, that’s a great, great, great ending, and that actually, that’s an ending that sort of does subscribe to the ‘Insanely Great,’ model, because he’s not going to make the film, he’s alienated from his wife, and he hasn’t been able to figure out a coherent and unitary story about his own life. As you know, at the end of the actual film, … The feel I structured goes back to Joseph Campbell, the structure based on the organic logic of how a narrative unfolds. It took a couple of months, but the screenplay sold and then it took four more years. That it comes from subsequent drafts. New York, New York 10013. So I would say that Ben got what he wanted, and it doesn’t, in a weird way it doesn’t matter if he and Elaine are going to stay together or break up the next day. This first offering is with Academy Award-winning writer of "Little Miss Sunshine" Michael Arndt. So if you go back to the beginning of The Graduate, Ben is talking to his father in his bedroom, but he’s not saying Dad, you know, I want to meet the girl of my dreams and I want to fall in love and I want to get married and I want to find my life partner. Michael Arndt:  No, I’m from DC, actually…. "An ending has to wrap not only the narrative logic of the story," he says, "and it also has to be emotionally fulfilling. From pitching to production, from process to favorite lines, and everything in between. Jordan Carlos:    I have to say, I now see it everywhere, because I was watching one of our great American films, Captain Underpants this morning with my daughter and my son, and my son asked for it by saying “Tra La La,” which is Captain Underpants’, I don’t know if you have kids, or anything like that yet. I probably could have broken in a lot more quickly if I’ve gone to LA. In the video, the Academy Award winning screenwriter explores how great endings work with a close analysis of the climaxes of STAR WARS, THE GRADUATE, and his own screenplay, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE. I’ve given the lectures of it, at Disney, at Pixar, at Warner Brothers, but also sort of at Sundance, also gone down to Austin a couple of times. Absolutely. It’s just meant to live on the web so that it can be a resource for writers to go check it out and just get a few ideas if they’re ever stuck with their own writing to just go look and- I basically made it because there’s a documentary I wish, or is a web-video that I wish I had had 25 years ago when I first started writing. Michael Arndt:  I hope- if it’s helpful to you hopefully it will be helpful to other people. I had a bunch of inchoate ideas about that and when I first got to Pixar, this was at the beginning of 2006, all the writers at Pixar got invited to go to a screenwriting expo in LA and just give a speech about screenwriting. I really do. I mean, I just, you know, I just love movies. Like it’s incredible. Michael Arndt was born on November 11, 1965 in Harris County, Texas, USA as Michael deBruyn Arndt. And I talked to my lawyer and he’s like, as long as you’re not charging money for it, as long as you’re using it for educational purposes, it falls under fair use, you can do whatever you want. So then The Dude, he goes and he just wants, he goes to confront the real Lebowski, and the real Lebowski, no one’s more laid back than the dude, right? And then I was in San Francisco off and on for five years when I was working at Pixar. Beginnings Endings TS3: Mistakes Made, Lessons Learned TS3: Introduction TS3: Opening TS3: Inciting Incident TS3: First Act Break TS3: Midpoint TS3: Second Act Break TS3: Climax TS3: Summary Endings Addendum Critical reaction was far from glowing, and fans weren’t too hot on it either. Pandemonium Jordan Carlos:    Right. I have spent some time lately trying to collect the bits and pieces that can be found from those who've heard him speak. RESOURCE. One of the value systems is going to prevail. For me, my favorite happy endings were the ones in which it looks like the worst possible thing is going to happen and then one second everything flips over in the best possible thing happens. Jump forward five years, I wrote Little Miss Sunshine, it got made into a movie and in the process of writing that screenplay, I really knuckled down and I was studying Star Wars, the ending of Star Wars a lot and trying to look at the mechanics of how a happy ending like that really works. 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