Category: Knowledge Management

Francis Coppola: The creative process behind “The Godfather”

“The Godfather” (movie) stands the test of time as a work of art because of the hard work that Coppola put into the details of translating the literary work into cinema. When you think about the director lugging this notebook with him everywhere on set and using it as the singular resource for coordinating actors, production crew, etc. you get a sense of how he was able to maintain an understanding of where “true north” was at all times.

Key takeaways:

  1. Record impressions as you have them. You only read the book for the first time, once.
  2. Go deeper. In this case, Coppola was pressure-testing the text against the cinematic context. Figuring out what worked, what would be challenging, what could be dropped.
  3. Make your learning visual. Coppola was careful to preserve the underlying text by expanding the margins, using a ruler to point to passages, and then through utilization of symbols (such as asterisks) for emphasis.
  4. Synthesize, synthesize, synthesize. After understanding the text in great detail, creating a library of things he thought could work, and chunking the book into scenes of his own devising, ONLY THEN did he start mapping the scenes and elements so that they would work on screen. His notes about pacing, character development, synopses, etc. come after a meticulous exculpation of the underlying work.
Francis Coppola’s Notebook on ‘The Godfather’

Followup: Found another, even more detailed look at this notebook.

“Enter the Note-taker”, Bruce Lee

I loved this piece about Bruce Lee over on the ever-excellent Brain Pickings website. Did you know that Bruce Lee carried a notebook everywhere? Obviously, he’s exactly like me… just way more athletic and accomplished… and probably better at note-taking… but we both CARRY notebooks everywhere.

When you repeatedly see that successful people are the ones who curate what they think and how they think about it, you start to see why putting pen to paper can be so important. Check out this bit from the post:

When [the studio] tried to cut all the philosophy out of Enter the Dragon because they wanted a vacantly entertaining action movie, Lee refused to go on set for two weeks, insisting that the kung-fu and the philosophy were inextricably entwined, each the vehicle for the other. Hollywood eventually had to relent and it was precisely the philosophical dimension that rendered the movie — just before the release of which Lee met his untimely death — a cultural icon and a beacon of racial empowerment associated with the Black Power movement, later acquired by the Library of Congress as a “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” artifact.

Bruce Lee’s Never-Before-Seen Writings on Willpower, Emotion, Reason, Memory, Imagination, and Confidence

Lee was comfortable enough with his own values to take a stand for it. A martial artist trying to break into Hollywood who had the presence of mind to say “I want success but on my terms.” This sort of strength comes from a deep understanding of values and motives, something which is frequently uncovered through exploratory writing.

Another element of the post that I found fascinating, is how Bruce seemed to filter his ideas over time, strengthening those that provided the most value, and turning many of them into daily meditations and personal commitments. He captured tons of small details but clearly also took the time to revisit and refine things that he saw as important. This is key element of note-taking systems.

Beyond capture is curation and ultimately creation. Bruce Lee embodied this process in many areas of his life. I strongly recommend clicking on over to the actual post to see exclusive photos the notebooks and letters from the Bruce Lee archive.