An hour in Iain Smith’s company? You could listen for days.
In a career lasting over forty years, Iain’s body of work as a producer is astounding, including classics such as Local Hero, The Killing Fields, The Mission, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Fifth Element and Children of Men.
But even in only 60 minutes, Iain imparted great wisdom on getting your stories from idea to premiere. The main takeaways are:
1. Master good storytelling
Iain discussed the qualities he considers elevate a screenplay above the rest.
- Understand Story in all its complexity and joy. Take courses. Read stories from around the world. Learn the craft and apply it well.
- Know your ending but also arrive there in an unexpected way.
- Include a resonant theme below the surface. Iain believes a good film “is not what it’s about”. Theme’s “what the audience will tune into,” far more than plot. It’s about “the mystery that lies underneath” any good script. Don’t make a theme too blatant, though. As Luc Besson answered when he asked about the theme of The Fifth Element, “Shhh. Let the audience ask that question”.
2. Meet producers and intrigue them
Getting to producers is important, but accept that facing rejection will be a regular response. Iain still considers three to four scripts a week – and normally it’s a “no.”
The question therefore is – what makes something more likely to become a “yes”?
- Be an interesting human being. A writer/producer relationship is a “mating game.” If Iain reads something that intrigues him, he’ll get to know the writer and see how interesting they are. It may not be your first submission which you work on together, so sell yourself as a writer, as much as your projects.
- Make your work worth their time. When a producer engages in a project, it’s a massive time investment. Your script must thus show something to make him spend years guiding it from idea to premiere.
- Show you’ll take the journey with them. A producer must know you’ll commit to develop the script – not just hand it over. Be prepared to explore why this story should be told, or if it can be told in a more satisfying way.
3. Stand up for your story and innovate through limitations
Iain’s protected writers’ visions so they thrived under pressure. He took the role of protector and enabler to ensure the best film possible for the time and the money. “Be difficult – and trust that you’re on a journey to something,” he says. His tales in this regard included:
- On Mad Max: Fury Road George Miller shot with 4500 storyboards but no screenplay; possibly because with a script, a studio would interfere.
- On Children of Men the studio was worried about Alfonso Cuaron’s methods of complicated shots taking a day at a time to film. Iain had to reassure them the project was on schedule, so Cuaron protected his vision – and the spectacular result.
- On The Fountain Darren Aronofsky had his budget slashed. Iain worked with him to rework the story, honing in on what Aronofsky needed, rather than wanted, to be seen, and to impart the same narrative with the lower budget.
Alexis Howell-Jones is a screenwriter who specialises in thriller features. Having worked helping people through the worst times of their lives after life-changing injuries, he writes about protagonists put through the worst pressure they’ll ever face. Alexis also runs an international group for writers called Write Then Socialise where writers get pages done and network. If you’re interested to know more, join on Facebook or contact Alexis by email (ahjwriter@gmail.com), Facebook Messenger or Twitter (@lexhj).
