amandaonwriting:

Billy Wilder: On Writing

1.   The audience is fickle.
2.   Grab ‘em by the throat and never let ‘em go.
3.   Develop a clean line of action for your leading character.
4.   Know where you’re going.
5.   The more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer.
6.   If you have a problem with the third act, the real problem is in the first act.
7.   A tip from Lubitsch: Let the audience add up two plus two. They’ll love you forever.
8.   In doing voice-overs, be careful not to describe what the audience already sees. Add to what they’re seeing.
9.   The event that occurs at the second act curtain triggers the end of the movie.
10.  The third act must build, build, build in tempo and action until the last event, and then – that’s it. Don’t hang around.

Image: Vagabond Scholar

Article: Lists of Note

Billy Wilder (22 June 1906 – 27 March 2002) was a filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist, and journalist, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. Wilder is one of only five people to have won Academy Awards as producer, director, and writer for the same film (The Apartment).