How does one choose a story to dramatize? Two acclaimed screenwriters give their views:
“A story worth telling is one that feels new even if it’s not new. You gotta remember, there are a lot of stories out there, and what is the urgency to tell this particular story? I think it’s not going to come out of plot; it’s going to come out of heart and character. The world keeps changing, so as it keeps spinning, there are new stories. Stories have new meaning and new resonance. A good story is when the story is urgent now because, and ideally, the urgency of that now, drives you to a deep place that makes it perennial, and makes it something that’ll last for years.” ~Trey Ellis
“… to me the best stories are the ones that are timeless, that are universal. Because even if a story has people in it that don’t look like me, like take Thelma and Louise for example, which has been such a huge compliment when people speak about our film and that film in the same sentence because those are two very white women living a very different experience than me, but there is something that obviously struck a nerve with that movie, what that was saying, and what those women were maybe trying to do; trying to find a sense of freedom and to find a sense of being alive.” ~Lena Waithe