The “truth” of a script

Truth“is not realism or verisimilitude. The”truth“is a perception of the spectator, which can be very powerful: it is the sign of an anchoring of the film in oneself, of the meaning that a work takes in our life, of the deep enrichment that it brings us. But what is this mysterious”truth“? Can we work on the”truth“of film at the script stage and how?”

Fiction, documentary or experimental: a common truth

When we talk about the screenplay, we think mainly of fiction. But a documentary, or even an experimental film, can also have a script, that is to say a working outline. It may simply not have the same form as a fictional script.

A priori, in the case of fiction, “truth” should not be a subject, since the story is invented, whereas in the case of documentary, the relation to truth seems obvious, since it is based on reality. Well, it can be quite the opposite: a fiction film can be very truthful and a documentary completely false. In the same way, an experimental film, which works mainly with the audiovisual form for example, without telling a story in the normative sense of the term, can “speak” to us or seem to us hollow and formalist, without any truth, or on the contrary touch us in the deepest part of ourselves.

Thus, truth, that is to say the importance of the film for its spectator, is an intense notion, which resides between the lines of the script. The truth probably has to do with the necessity for oneself to treat this subject rather than another. Truth is what makes a film seem essential to some viewers, without them being able to analyze exactly why.

Truth: listening to intuition

In the conception or writing of a project, we often look for a coherence, narrative for example, a structure in several acts, etc. I assert that this is absolutely unimportant, in the face of listening to your intuition. Don’t try to fill in a pre-established dramaturgical framework. The deep structure of your story would then be related not to your mysterious interiority, unknown to yourself and therefore exciting to someone else, but to preconceived notions that have nothing to do with what you are rich in.

How do you sort out a valuable intuition from “anything”? It is a work of letting go: feeling the rightness of something, without being able to explain it. You can feel the rightness in several signs:

1. You have the impression to discover something new, which occurred without warning.
2. You feel like a great void, an unfathomable unknown, almost an impossibility to move forward from this idea: this is an excellent sign.
3. You don’t feel in control, you’re afraid you’re losing yourself.
4. In short, you feel like a stranger to this idea, which doesn’t seem to come from you, but quietly imposes itself.

Take this risk, embrace this mystery. It is completely counterintuitive, because it is neither reassuring nor “framed”. When these signs show themselves to you, it is because you are facing something that is coming “live” from your unconscious. Our unconscious is the underlying structure of all our actions and emotions. Our unconscious drives our dreams for example, or our unexpected reactions, which will make sense afterwards. Use your unconscious, by working to “capture” your intuitions, to enter a fascinating and mysterious world of invention for yourself, which seems impossible to circumscribe, to master: you are in the right place. This place is anything but reassuring, you need courage to go there. Your courage is commensurate with the future meaning of your project for other people.

The mistake of “doing the right thing”: forgetting the criteria of judgment

Of course, when we work on the production of an artistic object that we want to be interesting for other people, we look for it to be “good”. We look for external criteria of judgment, to make sure of the “quality” of our creation, as we work. It is in my opinion a very bad step, because this taking of distance with regard to our creation, our glance that we seek to externalize to judge, make us leave the essence of truth, which can only be mysterious. The application of external, “objective” criteria of judgment on our work, our story, our characters, our settings, will reduce the thickness, will empty our elements of their substance, by moving us away from the “intimate touch”, from our deep contact with our material in gestation.

I suggest you stop trying to judge “good” or “bad” during your creative work. Stay connected to your feelings, don’t let go of what seems unlikely, let it emerge without judging. Other people may see your project from the outside, and at some point you will need the gaze of others, but the “real” gaze of others, that is to say of people other than yourself. Don’t try to substitute yourself for them in anticipation. Stay within yourself.

Read relentlessly

Have other people read your work, over and over again. Ask others for their feedback on stages of your work. Often, we don’t do this, because there is a fear, an almost shame that the other person will discover the “nullity” of our production. We prefer then, all alone, to try to put ourselves in the place of the other’s look, which is absolutely impossible. But we make ourselves believe it, and we censor ourselves, to protect ourselves from any potential criticism. This is not intentional on our part, of course, we think we are doing the right thing. But in doing so, we empty our work of its interest, of its “true roughness”.

You will always be surprised by the way others look at you: they will most often invite you to cultivate your singularity, because that is what will have interested them the most. We don’t dare share with them what seems so fragile, so weak, so personal and therefore uninteresting. And this is precisely where the interest of our work lies. But it is almost impossible to recognize by oneself the value of what is fragile, which is why the gaze of others is so precious.

When dealing with your readers, don’t try to justify yourself, just ask them for their personal impressions, what they received. This will help you either to dig into things that are still tenuous and which they return to you, or to continue on your way in opposition to them. Either way, confronting the gaze makes you move forward, much more than you think.

Embracing the Whole

Reread often the whole of what you have written or produced (because a script is not necessarily just a textual object). This may at first seem superfluous and almost boring. In fact, the more you do it, the less boring it will be: it will put you in touch with all the subtext, the deep breath of your work in progress. And so, what needs to be added or subtracted will come to you in a more and more natural way. It is like building a deep intimacy with your object. This intimacy between you and the object, this truth of the relationship, is the guarantee of a relationship of a similar quality between your future readers and your work.

Don’t try to please everyone

Don’t try to appeal to everyone, because there is no such thing as a general audience. Address a small audience of enthusiasts. People other than these enthusiasts will probably not understand your work, but that doesn’t matter. Be radical. This is how you will open the door to a creative power, free from the need to seduce. A creative power that wants to share with its peers a deep subject, essential to you and to the small community you address.

Know that fads always come from small communities of enthusiasts. Fads never come from the masses.

Work and mastery

To summarize: often we try to “master” our production. This means in reality a quest to reassure oneself. What is reassuring is what is already known, therefore devoid of interest, in artistic terms. Whereas to work is to take risks, to dare, to go on an adventure, without being sure of the result. It is a much more difficult path than the quest for mastery, because it is a path on which there are no criteria for judging. But this work is the only guarantee of the production of a sincere object, truthful in your intimate relationship to it, and therefore potentially interesting to someone else.

Once you free your mind about a concept of Harmony and of music being correct, you can do whatever you want.
So nobody told me what to do, and there was no preconception of what to do.

Interview with Giorgio Moroder in the song “Giorgio by Moroder” (Daft Punk, Random Access Memories, 2013).