The Coppola Interview (reading)

This is a great interview for anyone interested in screenwriting or directing. If nothing else, Coppola offers some comfort to the artist who, during sustained periods of dedication to one project, discovers a distaste for their own work. I often wonder how many great works of art have been miscarried by an artist who gave up in the face of self doubt. Coppola recognizes the importance of plugging along despite the loss of understanding or even appreciation of the work at hand. Few people would guess that Coppola would associate The Godfather with failure; not because of the end product but because of the experience of that film's creation. I also appreciated the personal importance that he places on his indefinitely gestating "Megalopolis" script. I am sure that it is an effective tool in staging off complacency and maintaining hope for future work. As a writer I sometimes feel frozen by even the slightest doubt about my ideas and imagine that having something like Megalopolis up one's sleeve might help in freeing up inhibitions concerning "lesser" projects. It was also interesting to read a little bit about Coppola's strategies for working with actors, particularly in preproduction. I have achieved a practical understanding of the importance of back story, especially with respect to fully fleshed characters, but Coppola's method of rehearsing scenes from the back story seems truly inspired.