I think this right here explains exactly why I am a Mamet fan.

2 Comments | Posted: March 23rd, 2010 | Filed under: Thinking About Comics

An excerpt from a long, long email Mamet wrote to the writers for The Unit, a show he made for CBS.

REMEMBER YOU ARE WRITING FOR A VISUAL MEDIUM. *MOST* TELEVISION WRITING, OURS INCLUDED, SOUNDS LIKE *RADIO*. THE *CAMERA* CAN DO THE EXPLAINING FOR YOU. *LET* IT. WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERS *DOING* -*LITERALLY*. WHAT ARE THEY HANDLING, WHAT ARE THEY READING. WHAT ARE THEY WATCHING ON TELEVISION, WHAT ARE THEY *SEEING*.

IF YOU PRETEND THE CHARACTERS CANT SPEAK, AND WRITE A SILENT MOVIE, YOU WILL BE WRITING GREAT DRAMA.

IF YOU DEPRIVE YOURSELF OF THE CRUTCH OF NARRATION, EXPOSITION,INDEED, OF *SPEECH*. YOU WILL BE FORGED TO WORK IN A NEW MEDIUM – TELLING THE STORY IN PICTURES (ALSO KNOWN AS SCREENWRITING)

THIS IS A NEW SKILL. NO ONE DOES IT NATURALLY. YOU CAN TRAIN YOURSELVES TO DO IT, BUT YOU NEED TO *START*.

I CLOSE WITH THE ONE THOUGHT: LOOK AT THE *SCENE* AND ASK YOURSELF “IS IT DRAMATIC? IS IT *ESSENTIAL*? DOES IT ADVANCE THE PLOT?

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2 Comments on “I think this right here explains exactly why I am a Mamet fan.”

  1. 1 Eric F said at 1:27 am on March 29th, 2010:

    I think that a big reason that a lot of television sounds like radio is that a lot of the time, people are not watching television; they’re listening to it in the background while they do other things. If your show demands constant close visual attention, it’s not going draw enough of the casual viewers that it needs to survive.

  2. 2 NoonThirty said at 11:26 am on April 5th, 2010:

    Reality shows with their confessionals wherein they explain in literal detail what we just saw with our eyes is the exact opposite of this concept.