Monday, February 22, 2010

John Sayles on Writing Part 1

EA - How do you make stylistically convincing dialogue for multiple characters set in a different time period, for example where does "Let's keep the wire singing" come from?



JS - You have to read a lot, not from biographies or historians writing at a later date, but primary sources. I read a lot of diaries and try to find good writers from the time period. I actually read a lot of Mark Twain for this story...you find phrases they used, some of which don't make any sense nowadays. For instance, "take off," like to tell someone to "take off" didn't come out until after World War II, because planes weren't that common before. You have to pay attention to that. And then you go back and say the lines again and again until it sounds right.

EA - Are any of the characters based on the journal authors?

JS - A lot of the soldiers are compilations of the soldiers I read about in many diaries. More specifically Chris Cooper's (Colonel Hardacre) is based on an actual Colonel named Hellroarin' Jacob Smith. Liutenant Compton's character is based on a volunteer officer, which would have been one of the better educated Americans who came to the Philippines for...glory or something. They eventually had to choose to go home or sign up as an officer. Compton's plays one of those men who begins to pick his head up and see what's going on. Rafael is based on any of the 100,000 or Filipino mayors who suffered by being caught between the American's and the rebels.

EA - When you're starting a new story, do you see the whole arc and then fill in the middle, or do you start with characters, or a concept...

JS - In most of my movies I see the whole arc - I know the ending, I know where I want the stories and the characters to end up and work from there. The one exception was Lonestar, in which I knew it was going to be "who shot the sheriff," Chris Cooper's father in the film, but I didn't know who did it.

EA - Are there any characters that you don't want the audience to empathize with?

JS - There are some in this movie that the audience may not like, but most undergo some transformation that makes them human. These are characters like Padre Hidalgo, who is kind of Machivellian, kind of the Iago of the village, but who eventually apologizes for what he did...It's important to know how the audience feels about each character and the plot and to try to steer them in a certain direction.


3 comments:

  1. John Sayles is my favorite director. And it's his dedication to historical accuracy and 3-dimensional characters that keeps me carrying the fan torch. I'm lucky to be a native New Yorker, growing up in a city where I could see his films on the big screen, first-run.

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