Write On: A Screenwriting Podcast17 Feb 2024

Write On: 'Masters of the Air' Co-Executive Producer and Writer John Orloff

"I always go back to theme. Why are you writing this story? What is that final couple of minutes of the movie and what do you want the audience to feel? I kind of always build backward from that in some ways. In a movie, how do I make the 118 minutes preceding those two minutes build to those last two minutes? To me that's a really good film. And anything that's not helping build to those last two minutes, throw it out!," says John Orloff, writer/creator of Masters of the Air, the new nine-part series streaming on AppleTV+.

In this episode, Orloff talks about being an un-produced writer and the unusual way he landed the job writing for HBO's Band of Brothers.

He learned a lot from Executive Producer Tom Hanks:

"One of the things [Tom Hanks] said to me is, 'We're going to reveal character through procedure.' That means how you get a plane ready to go, it means pushing buttons, how you do all that stuff. I will take you back to Apollo 13. That is about three guys in a room the size of a bathtub – just pushing buttons. And yet we know and care about them. And so, the procedures of getting an airplane in the air was an opportunity to remind the audience that okay, there's no magic buttons to push in 1943 to get an airplane in the air… Let's capture that and let's explain that to the audience early on in the first episode or two and then they'll know that that happens every time," says John.

For a deeper dive into the show Masters of the Air, now streaming on AppleTV+, listen to the podcast.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(100)

Write On: 'The Smashing Machine' Writer/Director Benny Safdie

Writer/Director/Actor/Editor Benny Safdie is known for defying expectations and using his sense of humor to make a splash. He even once showed up on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon dressed all in s...

5 Jan 45min

Write On: 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' Co-Writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver

"We try to answer two questions before we say yes to a job or embark on a spec script: Why does the protagonist need this movie? And the other is: Why tell this story other than to make money? That wa...

30 Des 202540min

Write On: 'The Long Walk' Screenwriter JT Mollner

"I didn't think I'd be a good fit as a writer if they were going to do a PG version of the story. That's not where my strength lies, so the great thing is that the version Francis [Lawrence, the direc...

3 Des 202541min

Write On: 'Hedda' Writer/Director Nia DaCosta

"I love adaptations. The beauty of adaptation, especially a classic, like Shakespeare and Chekhov or Ibsen, they're such a gift because they give you this beautiful framework, and it's almost like the...

30 Okt 202535min

Write On: 'Splinter Cell: Deathwatch' Creator/Writer Derek Kolstad

"As you do draft after draft, it becomes shorter and rendered down. And [Keanu Reeves and I] would go through scenes going, 'Can people say less? Can the action be tighter? Can the action sequence be ...

20 Okt 202539min

Write On: 'After the Hunt' Writer Nora Garrett

"People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election." –Otto Von Bismarck "It's funny, because when I was writing After the Hunt, I definitely wasn't like, 'Oh, I want to wr...

17 Okt 202537min

Write On: 'Anemone' Co-Writer/Director Ronan Day-Lewis

"[My dad] really started to inhabit the characters, especially Ray, speaking as him during the writing process. That was when I realized this was going to be its own kind of special beast. Working wit...

3 Okt 202535min

Write On: 'All Of You' Writer/Director Will Bridges & Writer/Actor Brett Goldstein

"You have to love all your characters. Even if you're writing a bad guy. You, the writer, have to write them with love and empathy, and treat each character, give each character, a full life and a ful...

26 Sep 202539min