I think rejection is key. I actually
think it's really essential for art to be really good.
Voiceover gets a really bad rap. People say it's it's a crutch. I've always
resisted that and by the way anybody who

is thinking about going into TV, no I'd
never had television experience. I wasn't intending to go into television. Yes I
started just writing as my next feature film. The thing is I always do what's
called a vomit draft. You just don't care

like you're writing the worst cheesy
dialogue, on the nose as subtext. Everyone's telling you each other how
exactly how they feel and there's a terrible exposition, but you're just
because I, you know, that the scariest

thing is the blank page, so you're just
trying to get shit down there and then you can go back and you can be you could
rewrite it. So I like on page 90 and I was like oh this is not going well
because I was like nowhere near the end

of Act one. I'm on and I'm on, I basically
have written a feature already, so I was just doing that vomit draft of like it's
gonna be long. Every farm that draft is, you know, you just let yourself go, but I
guess I just didn't realize I was going

that long. So this was going to either be
a really long movie that would never get made, or I was like, you know, I could stop
writing here and just turn it into a pilot. Great, so I was like oh that's
easier, so I'll do that and I knew

exactly what the end of the first season
was because that was gonna be the end of my first act and I kind of worked out
like a little bit of an of a Bible again like I was so resistant to this being
like a long-running TV series it was

gonna be a very finite we're gonna get
to the ending the sort of the story I envisioned and
so I'm very specific about what I wanted and so that we we pitched it around and
I told them you know this was initially

featured now it's a very long feature
and that's the only way to look at it I mean and I think they appreciated that I
was very specific and and had it like a very specific direction to take the show
I've never found it hard to hack most

people if you listen to them watch them
their vulnerabilities are like a neon sign screwed into their heads I always
say there's three factors that kind of led to creating the sort of number one
you know growing up being really into programming and kind of being a little
fascinated with the hacker culture I

wanted to tell a movie or television
show I said some sort of story that authentically represented that world
because a lot of the a lot of movies that came out Hollywood especially at
and then you know late 90s and even then

in the 2000s were very corny and had
nothing to do with realistically what was what what hacker subculture was all
about I'd say the second and third things because it kind of happened very
close to one another was the financial

collapse in 2008 and then the Arab
Spring that happened a few years after that, those two things, the concept of a
revolution, which is so tied into, again, the hacker subculture, those two things sort
of kind of helped me develop the character of Elliot and why he wanted
to be a hacker, why he wanted to go into

the subculture, why he had this sort of
grandiose vision of starting a revolution and changing the world
because I was so moved, I was so horrified by the financial collapse and
how sort of the top 1% were kind of

doing these really criminal activities
on a large scale and getting away with it, and then, and then seeing how
technology helped people in the Arab countries rise up and have a voice and
start a revolution. And so all those things have come coalesced into
the character of Elliot, and that started

there, and then from there the story of Mr.
Robot kind of spun out. When I started piecing together who Elliot as a
character is, I wanted to really represent his, his loneliness in a very
authentic way, and because his isolationism is part of what drives him
to hack people. I mean, that was the sort

of irony or twist in his character is
that he's so alone, but yet he's able to access the sort of the most intimate
details of everyone around him. To stay true to that kind of person, that kind of
extreme that Elliot goes to, dissociative

identity disorder sort of fit what
Elliot was sort of experiencing because he wasn't able to essentially connect to
people, and sort of the contrast to that is that he just dissociates from them.
And in fact, there was this also this very profound fear that he has and even
just talking to them, and you kind of see

that in the pilot when he can't even
bring himself to go into his friend's birthday party so DiD was just
something that really fit I think what Elliot's journey was ultimately gonna be
about across the whole series which is about this young man who cannot through
this deep fear and this sort of deep

isolationism can't find a way to connect
with other people hello and I love a friend that's lame maybe I should give
you a name the thing about voiceover because growing up especially in film
school you know voiceover gets a really

bad rap I mean people really put it down
and and it's oftentimes you know in terms of screenwriting people say it's
it's a crutch because you can get exposition and information out that in
an in quote-unquote a lazy way rather

than trying to creatively put it into a
scene I've always resisted that because some of my favorite films Clockwork
Orange taxi driver used voiceover in this really brilliant way that actually
shows the inner life and a character that otherwise you could not do in in a
scene and yes there are there is that

voiceover where it's you know it's it's
not even present it's past tense it's let me tell you a
story and let me fill in all the details and sure that could get X positive and
feel like a crutch but the voiceover you

know and this is one of the things that
really motivated me to figure it out for Mr. Robot because I knew I wanted to be
in Elliot's head that's what this show was about Elliot's had being interior
and I thought thought came up with the

idea of us being that imaginary friend,
that person that he can confide in, that because if this shows about loneliness,
well how does our voiceover sort of complement that? And I thought oh,
that's interesting, he can't open up to anybody except this
person that he's created in his in his

mind. Hello again, a long time no
see. Whatever it is we do every time I write anything it would be foolish to just be
like okay, that's it, I'm not gonna show it to anyone cuz it's perfect and here
you go world, you'd better buy it and

make it.
That's silly, so you know what you normally figure if you're a good writer,
you finish the script and you send it to your best friends, not the ones that are
going to be like oh my god it's amazing, it's the next Citizen Kane, like ignore
those people, you go to the ones that are

gonna be like this fucking sucks, like
how could you write this? Here's how you fix it. A lot of the writers in my
writers room are a lot of my friends from film school that I would always do
this process with, you know, I usually

will say here that the major goal post
so we should hit this season, here's the next part of the story, so we put that up
on the board, I would say okay so this steel mountain hack that has to happen
and it has to fail, and that's sort of

the midpoint, the Darleen reveal that's
sort of the beginning of our of our downward spiral into the finale, and then
the finale beats the hack has to happen, you know what's, and then we kind of put
on the board, now I have more details

that I actually throw up there as well
but those are those were that's what I would say and probably when Elliot this
officer joins us inside, commit that you know that so it's like those kind of
goal posts or go up on the board first

and then we just started filling in well
then we kind of we only start with motivation, well how how does Elliot, why
does Elliot decide what would be most interesting, the motivation for Elliot
to that, who would take Elliot to actually join this group and then what
is the emotional, and then is it honest

and all those different layers, and Ken
who can't and the howl, and then we figure out and then we've had a reverse
engineer, how do we dramatize it to get to that point, so like we knew that on
you know that third episode by the end

of third, he's gonna join that society
and so the question becomes from one to three, would eat so what do you do when
you look at story, well again we kind of reverse engineer, and so we know that the
big motivation is going to be the

discovery that Evil Corp was aware of
his, you know, of the leak which causes his father's death and so it hits on an
emotional level, in its on a plot level because that's that's what the whole
plot you know the fsociety

hack is all about, so we kind of just
build it like a house, you build to sort of the foundation, you figure out those
big character choices, big character moments kind of reveals are happening
and and how they're intersecting with character reveals and how that's causing
even more conflict and that's the stuff

that actually then goes back and changes
supply and changes everything cuz you then you start to feel like oh my god
these are real people and maybe they don't get this right the first time you
know they mess up a couple of times before they get it right and how do they
mess up and how can that be interesting

and how can that be real and then we go
back and we do that we call a world pass well because because of what the f
Society hackers did in the first season right so now we have an economics
consultant who kind of goes through what

like right now and I think that's great
too because then you get to explore those details along with your characters
who are who are also kind of like growing and getting adjusted to the
world to give a man a gun then you can

rob a bank or give a man a bank and you
can rob the world ultimately every choice that we want to make when we're
making the show boils down to what are we trying to say I mean that's what I
always sort of live with my costume

designer my production designer my
cinematographer my actors what are we saying what are we doing we don't want
to just be going through the motions we want to say something otherwise what is
the point unfortunately the the conventional thinking sometimes is to
document the action you look at a scene

you're and you know this person's got to
say this and then leave the room and you're just trying to document that I
think there's so many more layers you could do to fill that out well what does
it mean what's the morality behind these

choices even if it's as simple as you know a couple breaking up on one leaves well what what are you trying to say other than just that because if you're just saying that then you're not really saying anything most of it is not me at

a keyboard typing the words down hours of it is me just sitting there thinking me at a restaurant with Emmy thinking me in a hotel room thinking me on a vacation thinking it's it's constantly about problem solving and refining what you're trying to say and finding the story of what you know because when I

have an inkling of what show or movie I want to make next it comes from somewhere and it's almost like I got to go through this analysis of where is that coming from deep down inside what am I really trying is I think it's

one thing and I by the end of it I mean it's almost ultimately something else something deeper that's the first sort of blush at what you should do before you do really do pen to paper it's now drilling down to why is that interesting

why is that something that you either will think would be entertaining but but on a deeper level why why is it relevant why is it necessary to bring up and talk about and spend millions of dollars and ask an entire crew of people to come

together and produce this thing I mean you're asking a lot for people to make this what is the thing that must be said about this story one thing that I think again conventionally we lean on plot a lot of times way too much implicit plot and inevitably has to make sense and you

have to kind of understand it the
audience has to kinda understand but you don't remember the plot you remember the
characters I really deeply believe that and you remember what they're about and
who they are and what choices they make bad or good and you and that will
ultimately resonate more than the

sequence of events that happen on the
screen you know the plot of like going and beating the bad guy that's that's
every fucking movie and every but it's how they do it and what choices they
make along the way that's interesting

right so with Elliott I knew from the
outset that it was gonna be dishonest if he was if he was going to essentially
shrug this robot thing off and jump back in it like he really needed to be
introspective and deep dive into himself

and really honestly if you know putting
yourself in his shoes he's gonna wanna get rid of this thing he's gonna want it
he wants to be normal I mean that's the thing he's been saying from the beginning
of the of the show so how do we

dramatize that in an entertaining way
and that will feel honest there's a saying the devil's that is strongest
well we're looking the other way like a program running in the background
silently while we're busy doing other

shit it's not about getting gotcha
moments I think those wind up feeling cheap and empty and honestly going into
episode 9 I I mean I assumed people kind of got it by that point and so it really
was about how did it feel to Elliott how

did it feel to that guy so in that
moment in the cemetery it was less about the shock of realizing what was going on
but more about realizing it through Elliott's eyes and keeping that
authentic and real and so that that to

me is what our twists are it's just
revelation character revelations if we're doing our job right it's our deep
character emotional revelations and it's less
about trying to trick you or pull one over on you the one thing that I try
and do before I actually start writing

is get excited about something about an
idea I had a character moment a plot moment whatever it is I don't want to
write something if I'm not excited to write it I'm pushing myself to do it
I get I know it's not gonna be great and

sometimes I have to and I know I'm just
let me just get through this scene let me write that slug line and write the
description but then eventually whether it's when I go back and do another pass
out or whatever I have to hit every

moment with some sort of excitement
otherwise the script is it finished to me and by the way anybody who is
thinking about going into TV know that if you do sell a pilot and you're going
to be making that pilot that they are watching you while you are making that pilot and
they are making a lot of decisions based

on how you act and behave during the
whole pilot process I think rejection is key I mean look I my middle name is
rejection I've been rejected numerous times and you just forget about
filmmakers people in general there are those people that just kind of coast
through life but the people that the art

and the and and the movies and the TV
shows and the books and the characters that I relate to the most are
the people that do get rejected, the people that have gone through struggle
that have conflict in their lives that have to overcome that. It's so rich.
Rejection can be really rich to art. I

actually think it's really essential for
art to be really good is to have that sort of pain that goes with rejection.
And so anytime you get rejected by somebody, the minute you do, the minute
you start feeling pain, use that, use that. Remember it, remember that feeling. Write
it down, take a picture, whatever it is

that you need to do. I think it's gonna
really help you really understand what that means.
Hey, thanks for watching. Next week's video is gonna be on True Detective, so
be sure to subscribe so you know when that video drops. I'll see you guys next
week

as we take another look behind the
curtain

How I Wrote Mr. Robot

Behind the Curtain

좋은 작품을 만들기 위해서는 거절이 필수적입니다.

저자는 처음에 '구토 초안' 방식을 사용하여 장편 영화로 대본을 썼습니다.

이 긴 초고는 TV 시리즈 파일럿으로 각색되었습니다.

작가는 시리즈의 결말에 대한 구체적인 비전을 가지고 있었습니다.

초기 피치는 영화의 길이와 구체적인 방향을 강조했습니다.

프로그래밍과 해커 문화에 대한 작가의 관심은 쇼 제작에 영향을 미쳤습니다.

작가는 이전 작품과 달리 해커 하위 문화를 사실적으로 표현하고자 했습니다.

2008년 금융 붕괴와 아랍의 봄은 캐릭터 엘리엇의 개발에 큰 영향을 미쳤습니다.

이러한 사건들은 엘리엇의 동기와 혁명을 시작하려는 그의 열망을 형성했습니다.

범죄 활동과 반란에서 기술의 역할에 대한 작가의 관찰은 엘리엇의 캐릭터에 영향을 미쳤습니다.

엘리엇의 캐릭터와 스토리라인 개발하기

엘리엇의 외로움과 고립감은 그의 캐릭터와 행동의 핵심입니다.

해리성 정체감 장애는 엘리엇이 다른 사람들과 관계를 맺지 못하는 것을 반영하기 위해 통합되었습니다.

엘리엇의 두려움과 대인관계에 대한 무능력은 사회적 상황을 회피하는 모습에서 드러납니다.

엘리엇의 여정은 깊은 두려움과 고립감에도 불구하고 다른 사람들과 소통하기 위한 그의 투쟁에 초점을 맞춥니다.

미스터 로봇의 보이스오버 사용

영화와 TV에서 보이스오버는 종종 비판을 받습니다.

저자는 고전 영화에서 효과적인 음성 해설을 사용한 사례를 들며 이러한 비판에 이의를 제기합니다.

작가는 음성 해설을 통해 엘리엇의 내면과 생각을 전달합니다.

미스터 로봇의 보이스오버는 엘리엇의 상상 속 친구 역할을 하며 그의 외로움을 반영합니다.

음성 해설은 외로움이라는 쇼의 주제를 보완합니다.

저자는 동료들로부터 건설적인 비판을 구하는 것이 중요하다고 강조합니다.

작성자는 솔직한 피드백을 제공하는 친구들과 대본을 공유합니다.

글쓰기 과정에는 주요 줄거리를 설정한 다음 세부 사항을 채우는 작업이 포함됩니다.

이 팀은 캐릭터의 동기와 감정의 솔직함에 중점을 둡니다.

이 과정에는 주요 순간과 캐릭터의 선택에서 스토리를 리버스 엔지니어링하는 작업이 포함됩니다.

저자는 단순히 행동을 문서화하는 것보다 메시지 전달을 우선시합니다.

이 팀은 캐릭터의 선택 뒤에 숨겨진 도덕성과 더 깊은 의미를 탐구합니다.

단순히 이벤트를 소개하는 것이 아니라 의미 있는 말을 하는 데 중점을 둡니다.

글쓰기 과정에는 스토리의 메시지를 생각하고 다듬는 데 상당한 시간이 소요됩니다.

저자는 글을 쓰기 전에 스토리의 더 깊은 의미와 관련성을 분석합니다.

저자는 줄거리보다 캐릭터 개발과 선택에 우선순위를 둡니다.

관객은 줄거리의 세부 사항보다 캐릭터와 그들의 선택을 더 많이 기억합니다.

캐릭터가 선택을 하는 방식과 그 선택의 결과에 초점을 맞춥니다.

엘리엇의 내적 투쟁과 자아 발견의 여정은 스토리의 핵심입니다.

이 이야기는 정상에 대한 엘리엇의 열망을 정직하고 재미있는 방식으로 극화하는 것을 목표로 합니다.

저자는 줄거리의 반전보다 캐릭터의 계시와 감정의 깊이를 강조합니다.

글쓰기에 대한 흥미와 열정 유지하기

저자는 글쓰기 과정에서 흥분과 열정이 중요하다고 강조합니다.

작가는 대본의 완성도를 높이기 위해 매 순간 흥미진진함을 불어넣기 위해 노력합니다.

저자는 TV 작가 지망생들에게 파일럿 제작 과정에서 자신의 행동에 유의하라고 조언합니다.

저자는 거절을 좋은 예술 창작의 핵심 요소로 보고 있습니다.

저자는 거절의 아픔을 예술적 표현을 풍부하게 하는 데 활용할 것을 권장합니다.

저자는 거절의 감정을 기억하고 처리하여 더 깊은 이해를 얻을 것을 제안합니다.