10 Screenwriting and Filmmaking Tips from Akira Kurosawa

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  • ℹ️ Published 2 years ago
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Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker and screenwriter who wrote and directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in film history. Akira Kurosawa directed approximately one film per year throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, including a number of highly regarded (and often adapted) films, such as Ikiru (1952), Seven Samurai (1954) and Yojimbo (1961).

0:00 - Intro

1:54 - For writers, the most essential thing is the forbearance to face the dull task of writing one word at a time.

3:18 - Choosing what film to make is like sowing seeds - depending on the time and social situation, some seeds sprout all of a sudden. You can’t force them.

3:54 - Making films costs a lot of money, but all you need for writing a screenplay is a pen and paper.

4:30 - The theme alone doesn’t explain all the sensitive details of human feelings. So stating the aim or message of the movie before making it would work against that.

5:27 - When you’re climbing mountains, the first thing you’re told is not to look at the peak. Writing is the same - start at the bottom and put one foot in front of the other.

6:02 - Pay attention to the details. The audience might not notice everything, but they will feel it.

8:15 - Creating comes from memory. You can’t create something out of nothing. Form memories from things you experience or read about.

9:12 - Always think of your next project as the one people will remember you by.

9:48 - When you write, write all the way. If you give up once, giving up will become a habit.

11:20 - Adapt characters, plot and dialogue from real life.


#AkiraKurosawa #SevenSamurai #Screenwriter #Screenwriting

💬 Comments
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I’ll never forget the feeling I got from watching RAN, Kurosawa is a legend

Author — Alex Badeau

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A great man who meant every word he spoke while sharing his wisdom freely and voluntarily. 👏
Salute! 🌿

Author — Charlie Wilde

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Kurosawa’s “Sanjuro” - taught me a hero can be both comedic and fierce.

Author — Coby J. Marcum

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Ozu, Mizoguchi, and Kurosawa (of course there are many more, but these three being paramount) are the last voices to so-capably express life accurate to, and challenging to the artistic, political, criminal, culturally symbolic, and familial differences between pre-and-post-industrial / war Japanese wages between stories of traditionalism and bohemian social shifts. Accurate representation’s of more historic Japanese life— and especially with Mizoguchi, the treatment of Japanese women at a time.. Absolute masters.
I see a lot of directors, and cinematographers trying to avoid thing’s such as colour uses that might accidentally be mistaken for traditional symbolism— much of their greatness, despite being acknowledged, seemed to almost fall into avoided ‘cliches’ such as red in a Chinese film—by filmmakers rejecting modernity and traditionalist injections. Not to say they should or should not hold to them— but it is stupidly reductive imo— a similar sort of mechanism that had Westerns avoid showing slavery.

Author — OGHST

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Seriously if you want to study Cinema WRITE, WRITE, WRITE and READ! Master Kurosawa is a titan of story telling.

Author — Genaro Siles

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Master of his work, Teaching generations to come about Cinema so we keep his Legacy Alive.

Author — Dikshant Chhatani (DC)

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these are not writing tips but advice for every career...we love you..
...we miss you sensei.

Author — sameer ahmed

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Akira Kurosawa, a great pioneer of cinema.

Author — filmmaker610

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I am starting to write. I have been struggling and when I referred "How to?" videos, all say that you need to know the end, but the second quote about "the mountain" broke my vaguely mismatched puzzles into a 1000 different pieces, but now I know how to put them all back into one beautiful piece. I don't know the end, I don't need to, I'll just put one word at a time and let the people I write tell their story through me.

I've tried and failed at most things in life and my career; skepticism has a permanent bite on me. I wish to overcome it. I feel that there is a need for the stories in me to be told; just like diarrhea, the one that you cannot hold. No medication called the real-world problem has a cure for this. Just have to sit and let those words bleed. Dear inspired people and universe, ferry me your goodwill. May months or years pass, once I have my book in hand, I will come back here, to this comment, and pay my respect so that someone else may find their inspiration to tell the stories they have been whispering just n their minds.

Author — Prashanth Sukumar

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This is THE VIDEO for all the upcoming young writers. Thank you ✌️

Author — Reemas

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Thank you guys his Rashoman film screen play is still today gets me in it's hooking me in the film i love it...
Rashoman
Seven samurai
RAN
are my favorite akira Kurosawa films

Author — ROBIN TALKIES

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Wow! Amazing 🤩
I love your videos guys.
I just love how it motivates me.
KEEP it up!

Author — Крайм Фильм

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Many remember Kurosawa for seven samurai but he made better movies than seven samurai.

Author — Kaushik

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When I CAN write, I go into like a flow state, nothing's stopping me, the ideas coming out of me faster than I can put them on the page

When I can't write it's like dragging a sack of bricks uphill.

Author — Patchwork Productions

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can you pls do one for satyajit ray next .

Author — vedansh gure