Unlocking Ava DuVernay’s Screenwriting Secrets: What Hollywood Won’t Tell You
“When I write a screenplay, I’m writing for myself. I’m the director and I need to create an emotional map. Not just plot, but a map of where these characters are, where they’re going and where they’ve been. A map from which I can direct the actor, direct the action, direct the production designer, direct the cinematographer. It helps me to have an emotional map and know what’s going on in between the lines. I put that in there. There are pieces and nuances, of course, as we know, as filmmakers, that will never see it to the screen or will never be spelled out visually. Yet knowing that it’s there and knowing what the thing is about, helps the actor in an unspoken moment that may never make it to the theater. It helps me. It’s a guide. I never fear putting that stuff in there. I never think twice about including some description of a quiet moment or internal thought. I know that, eventually, through osmosis, that does come out in the final product whether it’s through me and the direction. Whether it’s through production design that gets the essence of what a place should look like based on how a person sits on the couch that I put in another scene. All that stuff is a stew that eventually adds to the flavor of what you’re doing.”
— Ava Duvernay
From Go Into The Story Interview, June 11, 2013
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