
Francis Ford Coppola: On Risk, Money, Craft & Collaboration - llambda
http://the99percent.com/articles/6973/Francis-Ford-Coppola-On-Risk-Money-Craft-Collaboration?
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akkartik
I enjoyed this as well after seeing it at
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3493364>. My favorite quote:

 _A novel is usually much, much too long to adapt to a film, with too many
characters, too many parts. When you first read the novel, put good notes in
it the first time, right on the book, write down everything you feel,
underline every sensation that you felt was strong. Those first notes are very
valuable. Then, when you finish the book, you will see that some pages are
filled with underlined notes and some are blank._

 _In theatre, there’s something called a prompt book. The prompt book is what
the stage manager has, usually a loose-leaf book with all the lighting cues. I
make a prompt book out of the novel. I break the novel, and I glue the pages
in a loose-leaf, usually with the square cutout so I can see both sides._

 _In the case of “Apocalypse,” there was a script written by the great John
Milius, but, I must say, what I really made the film from was the little green
copy of Heart of Darkness that I had done all those lines in. Whenever I would
do a scene, I would check that and see what can I give the movie from Conrad._

