David Mamet Memo to "The Unit" Writing Staff
David Mamet's memo provides guidelines for the writing staff of the TV show "The Unit" regarding the importance of drama, storytelling, and creating engaging scenes that advance the plot.
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The contemporary screenplay is a Master Scene work that includes only those angles absolutely necessary to the telling of the story and no more.
The movie producer and all-around mensch Stuart Cornfeld once told me that in a good screenplay, every structural unit needs to do two things: (1) be entertaining in its own right and (2) advance the story in a non-trivial way. We will henceforth refer to this as “the Cornfeld Principle.”
At the beginning of a scene characters establish themselves on fairly solid ground, pursuing a goal they believe will restore order to their world. Just when they think they might be getting somewhere, something happens to throw their world into turmoil once again.
sari added
The movie producer and all-around mensch Stuart Cornfeld once told me that in a good screenplay, every structural unit needs to do two things: (1) be entertaining in its own right and (2) advance the story in a non-trivial way.