Come on, who hasn?t been watching their favorite television show or movie and thought, ?who writes this stuff?? Daniel Pyne, that?s who!? Chances are pretty good that you have watched or heard of a Daniel Pyne film or television series, (and he even dabbles in a little novel writing).?? With an extensive body of original work, (Fracture, Any Given Sunday) screenplay adaptations, (The Sum of All Fears, The Manchurian Candidate) he has plenty to brag about, but you will never catch him doing such a thing.? This humble, media-shy artist kindly allowed us to interview him ? our conversation ranged from his new show Alcatraz on FOX, his new novelHole in the Ground Owned by a Liar, his degree in economics from Stanford, and his many jobs along the way.
LAX: How?s your morning going?
DP: Thankfully slow.
LAX: Thankfully?
DP: Yeah, I?ve been working on this show Alcatraz, and it?s kind of been a non-stop job for the past four months.
LAX: Yeah, you?re the show-runner on this aren?t you?? Like the ?head guy??
DP: Yes.? It?s the first time that I?ve been a show runner on a show I didn?t create.
LAX: Well, I?m going to ask you a few questions and try and make this as painless as possible for you.? I?ve read your bio in which you state ?In my perfect world I could remain invisible, letting the work speak for itself. Oh well.?? I love that you ended with ?oh well.?
DP: Yeah, this whole publicity thing is really hard for me. I?m learning from this TV show that in the time that I?ve been away from television, the influence of social media has changed television a lot. Networks and studios are extremely aware of what fans are saying online; they do their own internal polling and they?re making demands and changes on a weekly basis based on what they hear online. It?s kind of wild.
LAX: You?re from Colorado?
DP: Yeah, my parents moved there when I was one, so I think it?s safe to say that I?m from Colorado.
LAX:? I read somewhere that you have a degree from Stanford in economics, yes?
DP: (laughs) Yes.
LAX: How did this happen?? How did you get a degree in economics and you are a? wildly successful writer?
DP: My father was a very talented but modestly successful painter and sculptor. When I went to college, he was determined that I would not follow in his footsteps. He wanted me to get a practical degree, preferably medicine. When I got to Stanford, it was just great. I was exposed to so many different things and so many different disciplines. Economics sounded cool and technical.? I quickly realized that it was more like a religion, so I approached it like religious studies. At the same time I was doing Creative Writing and English, and nearly completed a degree in English. I graduated in Econ but, honestly, what it did for me was to give me an understanding of why I wouldn?t be making money. I think it?s great for writers to have a broad foundation of knowledge.
LAX: Did you want to be a writer as a kid?? I read that you have had a few other careers including: cartoonist, silk screener, sculptor, journalist?.
DP: I sort of inherited that visual artistry from my father, which comes through in my writing.? My father was such a remarkable artist that it was very hard to follow in his footsteps. I always liked storytelling in whatever form: film, theater, prose, fiction. I just loved stories. I loved reading them. I always wanted to be a storyteller but it?s one of those things where I wanted to be a lot of things. I think that?s what makes people writers because they can imagine themselves doing a lot of things.
LAX: You ended up going to UCLA film school where you now teach, is this correct?
DP: I do. I teach one quarter a year in the graduate school.
LAX: Do you enjoy this?? Is it artistically satisfying for you?
DP: It is. It does two things. It exposes me to the unfettered enthusiasm of a writer who hasn?t been eaten up by Hollywood, publishing or any of the industries. I enjoy the purity of ideas. It?s also humbling because the more I do it (teach), the less I realize I know. The more I help people with their own projects, the more I?m confronted with what I don?t know, which is always useful.
LAX:? In your opinion, what makes for an interesting character?
DP: Somebody who embodies a lot of the hopes and desires of everybody and also embodies the weaknesses and strengths of everybody so that you identify with them. You want people to identify with their struggle to do the right thing, or to find the right path and accomplish their goals.
LAX:? Your second novel Hole in the Ground Owned by a Liar came out this January.? As well, you have worked on many television and film projects.? What do you view as the biggest difference between novel writing and screen writing?
DP: Someone once described it to me that they are polar opposites. Novels are the art of putting everything in that needs to be in. Screenwriting is the art of leaving out as much as you can without ruining the story.? Screenwriting is so precise and economical. The hardest thing for me is moving between the two because I did a lot more screenwriting than novel writing early on. I have to remember to open up my language and share more with the reader. So much of screenwriting is what?s not on the page; it?s in the spaces between the sentences. You?re trying to create the image in someone?s head and let them imagine what it would look like in a movie because a screenplay is really just a document that gets people to make a movie, whereas in a novel, your words actually have weight because they tell a story and they paint a picture in someone?s head so you have to use more text. You can get inside somebody?s head in a novel in a way that you never can in a movie.
LAX: You?ve also directed. How was that experience? Would you like to direct more?
DP: I would like to do it more. It?s very difficult to get projects set up. It?s especially difficult when you?re a writer because your time is spent writing screenplays. Directing is a lot like writing a novel because you are in control of all the elements of the movie, but it?s different because directors are a little bit like conductors; you have all of these incredibly talented people working with you, and your job is to point them all in the same direction. It?s a lot like show running on a TV show. You have all of these talented people in different departments and your job is to get them to do their best work, not to tell them how to do it?but directing is really fun. I enjoyed it.
LAX: How do you view the relationship between writer and director?
DP: I?ve been really lucky in my career. I?ve had great experiences with most of the directors I?ve worked with. It?s a collaborative thing. As a writer you have to let go a bit and share the story with the director, but at the same time it?s fun because you can feed them a lot of ideas and you can help them make the movie. To a certain extent, the relationship between the writer and the director is the most important relationship on the movie. They are the two people who understand the movie in the most fundamental way, from beginning to end.
LAX: Have you ever had an instance where you and a director have a completely different artistic vision?
D:? Yes, a lot of times. I find that when I?m done with a script and a director comes onto a project, I have to listen really carefully to how they talk about the project. That generally tells you the movie they?re going to make based on your screenplay. They get an idea in their head of what they want to do, and that?s usually what they?re going to do.? You can save yourself a lot of trouble if you just go with that.? I?ve been incredibly lucky in that I?ve worked with directors who are really respectful of writers and are really inclusive.
LAX:? Let?s talk a little about your book that just came out, Hole in the Ground Owned by a Liar. It?s about a man in Colorado who buys a gold mine off of the internet.? Have you known somebody who bought a gold mine off of the internet?? Where did this idea come from?
DP: (laughs) Not off the internet, but my brother bought a gold mine. My brother, who?s a little bit older than me, called me one day and told me that he?d purchased a mine. I don?t know if it was a gold mine. There are all of these mining properties in the national forest that have been abandoned. He bought one up near Keystone ski resort. I think he had the intention of building a cabin on it but he loves to tinker with things so he got this mine and he figured out how to open it because it had caved in. He dug it out and then he would go in and out of the mine, poking around and it was hilarious. It?s a combination of that and these two brother characters wandering around in my head. I put the two together and that story came out of that. It?s a big, wild adventure of these two brothers who have a love-hate relationship, and have an entangled past. It?s about their coming to terms with each other and with themselves. The gold mine is really just a catalyst for bringing them together and really forcing them to deal with the issues that have been driving them apart. It?s a drama about two brothers and about the need for adventure; the need for exploration and the need to have something unknown out there waiting for you; a kind of quest for something. It?s not really about the gold it?s about searching for gold. It?s more about the process than about the end.
LAX: What is the best piece of advice you?ve ever received as a writer?
DP: The best piece of advice I ever received was ?stay in your chair.?? There are so many reasons to get up; so many excuses to get out of your chair and if you?re not in your chair, you?re not writing.? The other one was, to write as well as you possibly can and always strive to write as well as you possibly can. Never settle.
LAX: Do you have and wise words for aspiring writers?
DP: I have two things. 1. You have to want to do it for free, cause you might have to and, 2. Don?t give up.? It?s a really long race and a lot of times persistence is ultimately what makes you succeed, just pure, dogged persistence.
LAX: When do you feel artistically satisfied?
DP: Never.
LAX: Are you a cat person or a dog person?
DP: I?m both if you can believe it. I have two cats and two dogs.
By Jadi Stuart
Filed Under: Entertainment & GRAMMY Central
Source: http://lax-magazine.com/jack-of-all-trades-master-of-one-daniel-pyne/
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