Interview: Justin Marks — Part 5
Screenwriter Justin Marks has been described as the “most gainfully employed professional fanboy on the planet right now.” Understandably so given the fact Justin has written such projects The Raven, Super Max, Suicide Squad, Shadow of the Colossus, Hack/Slash and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo.
The Hollywood Reporter recently featured this guest column Justin wrote called “My Life as a Screenwriter You’ve Never Heard Of.”
Justin has written over 20 movie projects. This interview in 6-parts offers an informed perspective of the craft from Hollywood’s front lines.
Today in Part 5, Justin shares some of his thoughts about the screenwriting craft:
Scott: Some questions. How do you come up with story ideas?
Justin: I have a moleskin notebook. I just date them and stack them up on my desk. Every day I carry it around, and if I have an idea I jot it down. Sometimes I put it away for three years and then it just pops back into my head.
Scott: How important do you think the story concept is to the overall strength and commercial viability of a screenplay, specifically a spec script?
Justin: There is a great writer of spec scripts who happens to be managed by the same manager as me. David Guggenheim, who does a fantastic job, especially when it comes to concept. He’s so good at seeing the trailer and being able to reflect it on the page. If you can’t cut a trailer in your own head for how your spec script would look, then it’s probably not a good spec script to be writing right now. At least, if you want to sell it. It’s incredibly important. It’s everything, next to character.
Scott: It’s interesting, this next question, given your background when you were studying architecture. How much time do you spend in prep writing and which of the aspects of prep do you tend to devote the most time to?
Justin: I’m a huge proponent of outlining and note cards. I use Scrivener to pull together story structure, and annotate it, if there’s research. Eventually, I’ll resort to hard note cards that I can post on a bulletin board. I also use a Dry Erase board to gather thoughts. Organizationally, it really just depends on the project. There have also been scripts where I just dive right in, and I just actually try to write a couple scenes, knowing full well that I shouldn’t be doing it. Then, eventually I pull myself out, and I go to the outline.
The short answer to that question of how long it takes me to plan before I write, it can be anywhere from a few weeks to a few years before I really decide to write something. But of course, that’s if I’m on my own dime. If I’m on a studio’s dime then [laughs] I’ve got to work a little faster than that. It’s more like a few weeks of outlining and then ten weeks to write the script.
Scott: How do you go about developing your characters? Do you have specific things you find yourself doing over and over again to find them?
Justin: Yeah, I really love to write a character bio. I think it’s important to do that kind of thing because you find all kinds of contradictions in characters, and that’s what makes them feel alive. Like, you can write a character who’s a neat freak. We’ve all seen neat freaks on screen. But then you write a neat freak, but who also has a really messy personal life, or a really messy bedroom. There are contradictions to it. That’s what makes people feel real. The more contradictions that you can find in your characters, the better off you are.
Scott: How about the dialogue? How do you go about finding your characters’ voices?
Justin: I wish dialogue were easier. I think if you don’t know what the scene is supposed to achieve, you can’t even start writing dialogue for it. But sometimes I do find it helpful to just spend a few pages, like four or five pages, just writing around ideas until you start to create nuggets that resonate. Then you just take that five pages and start over, and distill that into a half page scene.
Scott: You mentioned something interesting about Earth Prime, and I think I understand this correctly. That the theme is really important to you, in fact it’s something that is more an upfront part of the process for you than say, a lot of writers where they don’t really grab onto the story’s theme until the end. Could you describe what your thoughts are on theme and how do you deal with that in terms of your writing?
Justin: I think theme comes very late in outlining. I don’t think it comes immediately at the beginning. I think at the beginning it’s a character that you really like, or it’s a hook that you want to figure out. I don’t think it becomes a movie, though, until you find that theme. Until it centers on some idea that is not specific to the plot.
I think you need to know theme before you start writing dialogue. I think you need to know theme before you start writing scene work. Look at how Chris Nolan writes. Everything is written to theme. Everything comes back to that. That’s what makes the “Batman” movies so great is that they’re always about theme. Every scene is about guiding itself towards theme. When you don’t know what a scene is supposed to be about, the answer is theme.
Scott: That’s one thing I hear from writers is that one of the important aspects of finding that theme is that it does create this touch point for you, this thing that you can always go back to, to remind you what the story is about. Do you find that with your writing as well?
Justin: Yeah. I think if you’re getting away from it, that’s when you ask, why doesn’t this scene feel right? Or, why doesn’t this sequence feel right? Or, why does the third act feel right? Oh yeah, because it has nothing to do with my theme. It has nothing to do with what I wanted this story to be about in the first place. If a script starts to meander beyond theme, I think you lose your reader. Because they start to wonder, “Why am I reading this? What am I getting from this story?” You’re getting theme. If you don’t get it, you’re not going to read it.
Scott: That’s one thing I hear from writers is one of the important aspects of finding theme is it creates a touch point, this thing that you can always go back to, to remind you what the story is about. Do you find that with your writing as well?
Justin: Yeah. I think if you’re getting away from it, that’s when you ask, why doesn’t this scene feel right? Or, why doesn’t this sequence feel right? Or, why does the third act feel right? Oh yeah, because it has nothing to do with my theme. It has nothing to do with what I wanted this story to be about in the first place. If a script starts to meander beyond theme, I think you lose your reader. Because they start to wonder, “Why am I reading this? What am I getting from this story?” You’re getting theme. If you don’t get it, you’re not going to read it.
Tomorrow in Part 6, Justin provides some more thoughts about the craft and some of his own writing habits.
For Part 1, go here.
For Part 2, go here.
For Part 3, go here.
For Part 4, go here.
Please stop by comments to thank Justin and ask any questions you may have.
Justin is repped by CAA and Madhouse Entertainment.
Twitter: @Justin_Marks_