"The more diversity we teach and show in culture, color, and background, the richer we become."

Now that there’s only little more than two weeks left before Euregion Film Festival 2019 kicks off, we decided to interview two of our special guests and mentors – one of them is scriptwriter Moniek Kramer, who will be a mentor of the very first Script Lab of the Netherlands. This course will run for a year, and is aimed at developing feature scripts of the participants who have written or directed one or two short films and are currently working on the idea for a feature film.

Moniek Kramer (64), studied directing on the Theaterschool and screenwriting at the Maurits Binger Film Institute, is a.o. known for Lucia de B., a well-received Dutch drama film for which she wrote the script. Today, she will introduce herself, and tell us a bit more about her profession.

“The more diversity we teach and show in culture, color, and background, the richer we become.”

Tell us a bit about yourself. What made you decide to become a scriptwriter?

“Although I initially started as a writer / director for theater, my plays soon were adapted for television, as I was asked to rewrite some plays for TV. With time, I realised there were lots of blind spots and things I didn’t know about; how does one transform theater into film? Luckily, I was selected as a screenwriter for a project at the International Maurits Binger Film Institute in Amsterdam. The teachers and script doctors at the time opened a completely new world for me: Ken Loach, Ken Dancyger, Margareta von Trotta… It was heaven. To me, it would nearly sound like a contradiction, but at the Binger Institute I found out – the better you become at creating structure, the more free and creative you become as a storyteller.”

You write for different disciplines, like theater and film. How, would you say, do these styles of writing differ from each other?

“Unity of time, place, and action. In theater text, monologue and dialogue is far more important. Inner thoughts, ideas, fears, strategies… You mislead or inform the public with words. In film, however, the story has to be told in images, moving pictures. “Show, don’t tell.” Unity of time, place, and action only counts for one scene in film. You can switch from a fight in a small, dirty bathroom in Heerlen to a love scene on the top of the Eiffel tower in Paris.”

Why is it important to launch a Feature Script Lab? What can it give to Limburg region, in your opinion?

“Different landscapes, different voices, different movies. Woody Allen, for instance, is a typical city person, whereas the Coen brothers were born in Minnesota, where Fargo was filmed. You know what I mean?! They actually grew up in that extremely empty, white winter landscape, so they know that part! At first sight seemingly boring protagonist becomes a monster and then, wow! The red of blood on that endless, eternal white… The more diversity we teach and show in culture, color, and background, the richer we become. And at last: we are a ‘young’ film-country, we are getting better, but if we want to become one of the best, we need more educational projects like this.”

What are your expectations for the participants and the projects?

“That they work their asses off and become the best of their generation.”

How do you see a perfect script consultant and what could they add to the projects?

“Somebody to help you communicate a strong story, who keeps you curious to see what is going to happen next. To help find and then stick to your own voice, to help you go on, even when you are desperate – that will happen, like in the movies.”

What style screenplays do you prefer to write?

“Mostly everything, except for gangster, soaps or science fiction.”

How do you work to improve your writing on a daily basis?

“By working with different generations, cultures and colors. By failing and never giving up. Sometimes, by doing nothing. By discipline and by having fun.”

How does your experience in acting helps you with scriptwriting?

“I know what looks nice on paper, but sounds horrible on screen.”

What did you learn from the writing classes you gave?

“I learned that the structure is used in so many different forms and ways, that the structure and character develops all the time, that the world changes quickly and so does storytelling. It is a bottomless source of inspiration.”