Expect to fail. It is not a permanent state: Sylvester Stallone, writer & director

I have found this great video of a 43 minutes from the Zurich Film Festival 08 on Sylvester Stallone’s award winning career as a director, screenwriter.. oh yes and a actor. The story of a very successful creative 😉

As always with any successful creative you notice a real will to win, a constant commitment to just getting on with it and a willingness to always find a way. So if today one door is blocked for you, find another or kick a hole in a wall no one was watching!.

I had no idea Sylvester Stallone has directed over 10 films and written over 20 Screenplays. He wrote, produced and directed Staying Alive with John Travolta, I had no idea!

He talks about the scariest is the writing, as you go deepest within yourself and you can get scared. His research process as a writer takes a long time, you have to be able to write the ambience into the film. Usually when he gets there though the grand visions of big shots dont always work, so focus on the character and the energy of the shot rather than use the incredible vistas of the environment.
Advice :Expect to fail. It is not a permanent state.

He wrote Rocky as an opportunity, he saw a door open.
He finds the most rewarding directing as he gets to ‘direct the orchestra’

He loves the change that Final Cut has made to independent filmmakers.
Directing yourself: he thinks it is easy to direct yourself, you should know what you can and can’t do, as the writer or director you know all the lines of all the characters and are watching everyone and thus your ‘character’ stays true to the film you trying to make.

The character has to have as many problems as the audience or you lose them. Use the 10 or 15 identifiable things we all have in common; jealousy, pride, ego, lack of ego and input those into the character.

He treats writing like exercise, he gets up at 4.30am, takes about an hour to get going and writes for 3 hours. The next day he will do the same and even if the brain does not work he will sit there for 3 hours. He tries to stick to a pattern like being in the army to get.
He finds if he writes at night everything is dark and everyone dies, like Edgar Allen Poe. So now he writes in the daytime. He writes in beats eg gets on a horse, goes swimming. He knows in his heart 80% of it will be no good. Do not look for even 50% perfection in the first draft, it is like a child scribbling, maybe 10% is good. The fun starts with the re-writing, and you have a great feeling of accomplishment of writing the first draft.

Decided after Mr Stallone we needed some Arnie positive thinking too 😉