Go here for information and download the transcript between George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Lawrence Kasdan, as they hashed out their ideas – and tried to nail down the character of this “Indiana Smith” archaeologist guy. I also love the analysis by Mystery Man.
Excerpt from transcript (S = Steven Spielberg, G = George Lucas):
S â It would be funny if, somewhere early in the movie he somehow implied that he was not afraid of snakes. Later you realize that that is one of his big fears.
G â Maybe it’s better if you see early, maybe in the beginning that he’s afraid: “Oh God, I hate those snakes.” It should be slightly amusing that he hates snakes, and then he opens this up, “I can’t go down in there. Why did there have to be snakes? Anything but snakes.” You can play it for comedyâ¦
And I love one of Mystery Man’s screenwriting lessons:
No idea is a bad idea when youâre brainstorming.
Something definitely to keep in mind.
Go read the whole thing. Such fun. Wonderful, wonderful, to listen to those three guys bat their ideas around.
I read this earlier today. Some interesting stuff going on here. I love how Lucas just drives the meeting. You know, you see him in interviews and he’s got this real timid voice and you might mistake that as meekness, but you read this and it’s obvious who’s in charge.
Wonderful pics there, too! The “adventure has a name” poster is superb. (The muscular, smoking Indy, not so much. You can’t imagine that guy getting socked in the puss and then falling on his keister the way Indy actually does in the film – one of his great humanising moments, as you’ve blogged before.) And the great Jim Steranko (better known for his work on classic Spider-Man comics) doing some pre-production sketching? WOW. Total geek meltdown.
“Don’t you think you should read Raiders first?” was Kasdan’s reply. “Well, I just get a feeling about people. Of course if I hate Raiders, I’ll take back this offer”, said Lucas.
HAHAHAHA!
I love the brainstorming session about Marion and what had happened between them. I think they were so so smart to give her a backstory and to give the two of them a history – it just wouldn’t have worked as well if she were a dame he was trying to pick up without all that past stuff between them. And the moral ambiguity worked too – her being a teenager, and his mentor’s son – it gave a grit to the story that reminds me of good old-fashioned noirs.
When I was a print buyer I occasionally had the privilege of sitting in on brainstorming sessions with the creative teams I worked with. Those sessions revolved around coming up with incentive programs and the themes and materials that would be used to promote them(very much like an ad agency environment). Great fun, and “no idea is a bad idea…” was rule #1. No putdowns or ridicule or calling someone an idiot. Of course there was also the context that we were professionals and so we knew our remarks needed to ultimately serve the purpose. That was not the time to reveal one’s thoughts about political issues, for example. I saw many ridiculous remarks morph into a clever theme that a client eventually bought.
Raiders is my favorite movie and that blog post is exquisite “just enough” reading. I think I’d lose the magic if I read the whole transcript even though watching it in its entirety at least 100 times and bits and pieces a few hundred more hasn’t achieved that loss. I can recite that movie.