Taika Waititi is a New Zealand filmmaker, actor, and comedian. He is a recipient of an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Grammy Award, and has received two nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards.

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1. As a filmmaker, you don’t have the right to say “they just didn’t get it”.

2. Let your screenplay be the only pitch you need.

3. 90 percent of all ideas are shit. Let this ratio allow you to relax when writing.

4. The easy way ultimately becomes the hard way, because you pay the price which is producing mediocre work.

5. Never start with a theme. Instead, collect enough scenes that you think are cool until you find some sort of shape to your script and find your theme then.

6. Massage the audience through the story. Test your script and film with multiple people to make sure you’re not boring or overstimulating your audience.

7. Take as long as you can to write your script.

8. To keep jokes fresh, only use them in the script as a suggestion and explore what you can do with them while shooting.

9. No matter how unconventional your characters are, always make them more human and more relatable

10. Always do your own thing.

11. Failure is a brilliant thing.

12. Work with friends. They’ll always be honest and you won’t have to beat around the bush.

13. Start with the beginning and the end, then figure out the scenes in between. Outline your whole story, and only then start the actual writing.

14. Allow your cultural background to flow throughout your work and be part of your writing voice.

15. Filtering your writing is key to ensuring your scripts aren't bloated.

16. Make sure to do the opposite of what you’ve seen before.

17. Remember that film is an escape, so don't be afraid to embrace human absurdity in your writing and fid the right balance between humor and drama.

18. Don't try to replicate someone else's career, stick to your own guns and follow your own vision.

19. Write everything by hand first. Then, when you have the structure down, only then type it out.

20. First do your work and write your whole script until It's ready to shoot, and only then go for finance.

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