BILLY WILDER: 10 Rules of Good Filmmaking (Most of Which Apply to Clown Gags As Well)

ICHoF inductee Billy Vaughn and partner in performance at Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus World in Haines City, Florida, June 1977.

Billy Wilder’s Ten Rules of Good Filmmaking:

1: The audience is fickle.

2: Grab ‘em by the throat and never let ‘em go.

3: Develop a clean line of action for your leading character.

4: Know where you’re going.

5: The more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer.

6: If you have a problem with the third act, the real problem is in the first act.

7: A tip from Lubitsch: Let the audience add up two plus two. They’ll love you forever.

8: In doing voice-overs, be careful not to describe what the audience already sees. Add to what they’re seeing.

9: The event that occurs at the second act curtain triggers the end of the movie.

10: The third act must build, build, build in tempo and action until the last event, and then—that’s it. Don’t hang around.