10 Screenwriting Tips from Vince Gilligan on how he wrote Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul
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Vince Gilligan is an American screenwriter, producer, and director. He is known for his television work, specifically as creator, head writer, showrunner, executive producer, and director of AMC's Breaking Bad and its spin-off Better Call Saul. He was also a writer and producer for The X-Files.
Vince Gilligan has won four Primetime Emmy Awards, six Writers Guild of America Awards, two Critics' Choice Television Awards, two Producers Guild of America Awards, a Directors Guild of America Award, and a BAFTA Television Award. Outside of television, he co-wrote the screenplay for the 2008 film Hancock and wrote and directed the Breaking Bad sequel film, El Camino.
1. When you hear a ridiculous idea or a joke, try to think of a domino effect situation that would lead to that ridiculous concept actually being plausible.
2. Have a finite show in your mind while writing. Make sure your characters change and they, like the show itself, have a beginning and an end.
3. To make a coincidence believable, make sure it is ultimately bad for the main character. If it benefits them, there shouldn’t be a coincidence.
4. Build the story brick by brick, index card by index card. Fill the corkboard with indispensable plot points until you have enough for an episode.
5. Make sure you have a one-liner pitch sentence about your show that gives an idea of where the show is going and stick by that one-liner.
6. As a new staff writer, remember to have a good attitude in the writer’s room. Don’t try to change the show, you need to first prove yourself by having the ability to speak in the voice of the characters already in it.
7. Your writing won’t be of quality when you first start, no matter who you are. But if you start with an enthusiasm for it and keep at it, you’ll get there.
8. There’s no other way of pitching than putting one leg in front of the other. Make sure you really believe in the project and just go for it.
9. In television production, you sometimes have to roll with the punches. If something doesn’t go your way, don’t dwell on it, rather try to turn lemons into lemonade.
10. Most of the time, doing organic storytelling that stems from character is a good way to go about writing television, but sometimes writing something just for the fun of it might result in great moments.
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One of the greatest writing moments of any show is the moment when Walt and Jesse are in the RV with Hank trying to get in. The suspense of that moment is off the charts and it's a scenario where the audience can't begin to imagine, how Walt and Jesse are going to pull it off and the writers pulled it off in the most believable way ever. No Deus Ex Machina! Unbelievable!
The scene when Walt to Hank to tread lightly..
Thank you, ding l barry
@@twistedoperator4422 - that's good as well. Another greatest moment of all time is the confession video. Everything came together so brilliantly to make that confession tape possible (it's almost as if they had it in mind all along, which from what I gather they didn't) and the acting from Bryon Cranston on that confession tape along with Hank and Marie's reactions while watching it are amazing. When Walt starts crying it makes me laugh out loud everytime.
And the camera work during it is awesome... It opens up from Walt's perspective where he is looking into the camera and you can see his reflection in his camera, than it cuts to a camera angle behind Hank and Marie with the TV being in between them, then a close up of each of their faces sometimes individually and sometimes together and also from the angle of the TV looking at them and the camera keeps changing between these views. I'm guessing that there was sooo much video of this scene on the cutting room floor to cut through and then pieced together.
Hank and Marie's acting after the video is played and they're hashing out how to handle the situation is even more impressive. The acting in this series is like watching a performance art of the highest level.
@@dinglbarry1275that confession video thing. I also thought the same. I mean how can this be so intricately woven ?
Yeah, they look backwards over their own canon rather than hurrying to ass pull a surprise. So they're always weaving rather than fraying like, for example star wars
i find it absolutely nuts how a silly 5 second joke lead to the creation of arguably the greatest show ever made in tv history, arguably one of the greatest stories told across any medium along with another one of the greatest tv shows ever made
He hinted that the inspiration part is the smallest part. That joke had to happen to those two guys who understood the sweat and toil and the techniques and tricks of writing a show
I love when experienced pros are so open.
The thing that I liked most about the Walt and Jane's father in the bar coincidence is that Walt later addresses it to Jesse and goes into just how astronomical those odds were. Something about him acknowledging it makes the coincidence acceptable... perhaps the breaking Bad universe had a plan and it wasn't a coincidence.
School of GoT. Just have a character say a throwaway line and problem solved.
I like how well-designed the entire series is and the focus on change. The first season is Walter's change, the second is Jesse's, the third is Skylar's, the fourth is Hank, and the fifth is the consequences of how each character has changed.
It's a brilliant way of doing it, allowing each character to have significant change over the course of a season without having to reboot/re-establish themselves. Of course, each character changes each season, but the most significant change is centered around one character. Wish more series had that.
i never realized that. Makes me look at the series totally different now
I never thought about it like that that is so great
Great insight, thanks
Fascinating how the idea for one of the best shows ever started as a joke the creator's friend came up with!
1. When you hear a ridiculous idea or joke, try to think of a domino effect situation that would lead to that ridiculous concept actually being plausible.
2. To make a coincidence believable, make sure it is ultimately bad for the main character. If it benefits them, there shouldn't be a coincidence.
3. Have a finite show in your mind while writing. Make sure your characters change and they, like the show itself, have a beginning and an end.
4. Build the story brick by brick, index card by index card. Fill the corkboard with indispensable plot points until you have enough for an episode.
5. Most of the time, doing organic storytelling that stems from character is a good way to go about writing television, but sometimes writing something just for the fun of it might result in great moments.
6. Make sure you have a one-liner pitch sentence about your show that gives an idea of where the show is going and stick by that one-liner.
7. As a new staff writer, remember to have a good attitude in the writer's room. Don't try to change the show, you need to first prove yourself by having the ability to speak in the voice of the characters already in it.
8. Your writing won't be of quality when you first start writing, no matter who you are. But if you start with an enthusiasm for it and keep at it, you'll get there.
9. There's no other way of pitching than putting one foot in front of the other. Make sure you really believe in the project and just go for it.
10. In television production you sometimes have to roll with the punches. If something doesn't go your way, don't dwell on it, rather try to turn lemons into lemonade.
Well written.
That bit ab coincidences NEEDING to be a bad thing is so eye opening to favorite moments in the most popular TV shows. Like you’ll never question a one in a million chance if it’s something bad, it just gets u more excited bc u can’t believe it happened.
Yeah you wanna know how the protagonist handles shit. When shit happens it's more for them to handle. When random coincidence gets them out of it it's really unsatisfying
I think Vince is a true writing genius. For one, to even write the stuff the way he does takes an observant person combined with a good deal of life experience.
Life experience. Yeah. Too many technicalities
For a starting writer, Vince is truly inspirational
Ok, this is REALLY a weird coincidence, but I was doing some of my own writer's research while listening to this (trying to find a more interesting synonym for "genial"), and JUST as I was looking at the idiom "hail-fellow-well-met" (which is a great old-time English idiom, by the way if you ever are looking for a sort of retro-sounding synonym for genial/friendly/hearty), Gilligan said it at EXACTLY the same time! What are the odds of THAT old-timey, seldom-used phrase coming up randomly in speech, especially by a modern-day tv writer? Shows what a good writer Gilligan really is, that his vocab's not just limited to whatever the modern trendy phrases/slang is, he appreciates the great old anachronistic slang classics of language, too!
I'm sorry, but I don't buy it. Although, if that weird coincidence leads you to lose your hair, your goldfish, and your personal integrity then I'll allow it.
@@ProuvaireJean not very Pollos hermanos of you
The greatest writer of my gen full stop.
I binge watched breaking bad and nearly lost my mind. Thanks for a great channel. I'm recommending it to other writers.
Thanks so much Ken! It means a lot! 💟💯✅🙏
Vince Gilligan seems like such a gentleman. Thank you very much for this channel and these videos!
Really loved it......... To make a coincidence believable, make sure it is ultimately bad for the main character. If it benefits them, there shouldn’t be a coincidence.
YES. was waiting for this!!!
Vince goes on to say that coincidences that are good for the characters is lazy writing. Although I agree, I think it can lead to interesting story-telling sometimes. For example in the pilot of Breaking Bad, the DEA is raiding a home-lab and Walter is sitting in the back of the police car of his brother-in-law, and sees one of his former student spying on the raid by the next house and makes the connection immedietly that he is the wanted suspect. He then proceeds to stalk him with the aid of his files saved in the school's system, to eventually offer him a deal to work as lab partners. It's kind of ironic that Vince goes on to say that, yet this is a pitch perfect coincidence in his pilot, the one who he arguably wrote all by himself. Love Vince, but you can't say coincidences are always bad. They happen in real life, they happen in fiction. Just need to be careful with them.
I think the difference is that it doesn’t align with Walt’s intentions in the pilot. When he goes on the ride along he doesn’t even know what he wants out of it. He sees pinkman, realizes he can make something work from the situation that’s in front of him. I believe what Vince warns against is when u can’t think of a way to move along ur protagonist’s plans- don’t just throw in a coincidence on the level of divine intervention. Have them earn their win. There’s never a moment in breaking bad where all the stars align and the sea parts before Walt and Jesse and they can just say to themselves “well that worked out fairly well!”
@@kierantohill1264 But we do know what he wants out of it. When Hank shows him the bust he made earlier, and how much the meth lab was bringing, he was totally mesmerized and couldn't believe how lucrative it was. He was immedietly drawn by the sheer amount of money one can make dealing drugs. He then asked Hank to show him a meth lab to see how they do it so he could replicate it himself.
That’s not a good coincidence because this is what later destroys Mr White and actually turns him from Mr Chips to Scar face and he goes deeper and deeper to the point that he even looses the ones he was working for so I feel like to some extent he’s right
i think coincidences at the start of any story to get the story going are often necessary
There's a silent rule in writing where coincidences are easier to accept in the begining. That's why it's called an inciting icedent because that's the point of said inciting incedent it can be fair or unfair it just starts the story
love this channel. please keep it coming
Vince Gilligan. That's it, that's the comment! 💯 thank you for this content!!! Better Call Saul Season 6 please! 😀
Bravo Vince
I really wish that he does something outside of the breaking bad universe/ tv series formt, I really want a original movie written by him
Didn’t he co-write the movie Hancock?
Wow! He lost weight! I’m happy for him! I love his writing, it has a very strong beginning middle and end in each scene, A B C, you think it’s A, then you see it’s B and you think the scene will just be that, but at the end, it’s actually C, and it blows your mind
Very well said Ian! 💟💯✅🙌
I think number 8 is the most important for writers that have begun writing
Make on Satyajit ray also!
Why are there so many writers who don't follow these rules? It doesn't sound too hard to me.
what should i first write ,screenplay or story
What does he mean by teaser?6:55
dammi dammi
Uh if every episode of the simpsons is one day, it’s only been 1.9 years…
Maybe if they celebrated Halloween every 22 days...
@@ethantoise4073 Halloween every 22 days? More candy!!!
So ideas are alive like Joe Rogan said, they're just trying to find the right person.
Genius writer unemployed goes free to success
Jimmy McGill coincidently meeting Judge Casimiro at the liquor store (in Better Call Saul) kind of goes against tips #2. And to be honest, this is one of the least believable part of Season 6. So he is right. Wonder why they went against that rule.
That depends on whether you think them executing their plan successfully is ultimately a good or bad thing for them. Seeing as how Ep 7 & 8 played out, I would say bumping into Judge Casimiro led them to a far worse situation.
It doesn't go against the rule at all. Sure it was a good thing in the long run, but it still was a huge hassle for the characters, especially Kim, who had to abort the chance of a lifetime. If you think about it, they could have excluded that storyline and everything would have been fine, no coincidence would have been required, but the storyline was designed solely for Kim and Jimmy to struggle. What Vince was talking about were probably deus ex machinas. Like imagine if Jimmy wasnt aware about the cast and the PI is about to show Howard the original pictures. As he is holding up the picture, the PI accidentally puts his finger over the actors' arm where the cast should be. Now that would be something that goes against that rule.
It's not that coincidences are bad, just that when YOU write your protagonist into a corner where he is faced with a problem he can't solve himself, going for a coincidence to resolve the situation so you could continue with the story is lazy writing. Don't help protagonist.
Judge Casimiro situation doesn't fall under that category because they didn't have to write down that he broke his arm, but they did it to create tension and show how differently Kim and Jimmy would react to the same situation. It's a great writing.
Plus, coincidences are ever-present and are the building blocks of every story. It is a coincidence that two skaters from season 1 tried to scam Jimmy then latter Tuco's grandmother which connected Jimmy with Nacho, which connected him with Mike and Lalo and the rest.. coincidences are fine.
@@ekimool9713 Exactly! The shorter term payoff had Kim showing the audience what she's really about, by breaking off her chance at a chance for a greater career future (this time on something she's passionate about) for something she lusts for (con thrills with Jimmy). The long term payoff came in the next two episodes, with devastating consequences for the main characters.
That opening violin hideously droning along while competing with Gilligan's soft voice killed it for me.
Next time, either lose the melodramatic music, or stick it in where it's actually appropriate. Big Thumbs Down!
Y'all are weak, bro. The violin wasn't even that bad. Y'all exaggerate too much.
@@TomEyeTheSFMguy it was, ruined the moment, bad editing
@@dragan747 okay. I'll humor you. How, man?
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