Write the Script First: Akira Kurosawa's Advice to Aspiring Directors ===================================================================== Canonical URL: https://unratedfilmmakers.com/article/write-the-script-first-akira-kurosawa-advice Source: UnratedFilmmakers Type: Article Published or updated: 2026-06-20 Summary ------- Akira Kurosawa reminds young filmmakers that directing begins with writing: read deeply, endure the boring work, and finish the screenplay. Article text ------------ Write the Script First: Akira Kurosawa's Advice to Aspiring Directors Akira Kurosawa reminds young filmmakers that directing begins with writing: read deeply, endure the boring work, and finish the screenplay. Kurosawa on writing before directing Akira Kurosawa on the discipline of writing Filmmaking lessons, director advice, craft discipline, and cinema as practice. Recommended clip: Akira Kurosawa gives one of the simplest and hardest pieces of advice to aspiring filmmakers: write the screenplay first. In this short interview clip, Akira Kurosawa gives young filmmakers one of the simplest and hardest pieces of advice: if you want to direct films, start by writing a screenplay. For Kurosawa, directing is not something you enter through ambition alone. A director has to understand what a film is made of: structure, rhythm, scenes, characters, and emotional movement. The screenplay is where that understanding begins. Anyone can pick up a pen and start, but the real test is not starting. The real test is continuing. What makes the clip powerful is how practical his advice feels. Kurosawa does not romanticize writing. He describes it as boring, difficult, and repetitive work — the kind of work that demands patience more than inspiration. The clip opens in a YouTube modal so readers can watch without leaving Unrated Filmmakers. Kurosawa compares writing to climbing a mountain. Do not stare at the summit. Look at the ground in front of you and take one step at a time. If you keep looking at how far you still have to go, you may lose your footing. His strongest warning is about quitting halfway. Once you abandon a manuscript, quitting becomes easier the next time. The writing may be rough, imperfect, or painful to finish, but finishing is part of the discipline. For an aspiring director, that discipline matters as much as visual imagination. Kurosawa also reminds filmmakers to read. Not only modern books, but the classics. He believed imagination is memory — that creativity comes from everything a person has read, seen, experienced, and lived. Nothing comes from nothing. This is a short watch, but a deeply grounding one. It is not advice about cameras, festivals, or style. It is advice about the foundation: read more, write seriously, endure the boring work, and finish what you begin. A practical reminder that directing begins before the camera: on the page, through patience, reading, and finishing the work. More curated cinema discovery: https://www.unratedfilmmakers.com/