2014 Screenwriters Roundtable (Part 12): Chris Borrelli, Brian Duffield, F. Scott Frazier, Chris McCoy, Justin Rhodes, Greg Russo

A special treat as for the last 2 weeks, I have been posting excerpts from an extensive screenwriter’s roundtable I did in December 2014 with a group of talented Hollywood screenwriters: Chris Borrelli, Brian Duffield, F. Scott Frazier, Chris McCoy, Justin Rhodes, and Greg Russo. How good are they? Between them, they have sold more than a dozen spec scripts and have multiple original screenplays on the Black List.

This is the fourth GITS screenwriters roundtable with this group of writers, the first three of which you can read here, here and here. This has become something of an annual event as it’s a great way to take the pulse of what’s happening in the screenwriting universe, track the careers of these talented writers, and benefit from the many insights into the craft they share.

Here is Part 12:

Scott Myers: It’s interesting, because I’m hearing kind of a thread here. Voice and then Borrelli talking about being a person. Just being authentic.

Scott Frazier: Screenwriting secrets revealed. Be somebody. Be a person.

Scott Myers: Be a person. Who’s got well‑rounded interests, and can talk about stuff and comfortable in their skin.

Greg: I think what you’re saying is you want to be someone that people want to work with. That’s a really important thing to having longevity in this career. You want to show up and do the work. And always be a professional.

Nothing will kill you faster than being the guy that nobody wants to work with, because you’re too difficult or you’re a baby about things or you’re too sensitive. You’ve got to get rid of all of that, because the gatekeepers don’t care. This business doesn’t give a shit about your sensitivity. It wants the ideas in your head, and your words on the page. Period.

You’ve got to be that guy who shows up and people say, “It’s you. We love you. Get your ass in here.” Be that guy.

Scott Frazier: By the way, even if you wrote the greatest script of all time and were still an asshole, you’d get that one movie made, but you’d never work ever again for the rest of your life.

Scott Myers: Somebody told me once, “People in Hollywood like to work with the people they like to work with.”

Brian: I thought that too. But regimes change all the time. [laughs] I’ve absolutely met the worst people I know I will ever meet in my life, and it’s this amazing… You see one CEO leave, and then all the sudden they’re rehired by whoever the new person is.

I went through a really, really rough year, a couple of years ago. The only thing that got me through it was other writers. I think I probably hung out a little solo before then. And I went through a pretty public shit-show that I think writers reached out to me because they’d gone through similar stuff. I think it completely kept me living in Los Angeles and writing screenplays.

I think for me I probably would have done as you guys just said, and been much more social, especially to other writers and just in terms of being encouraging and supportive and excited about what they’re working on. It’s more than what they’re working on, just how they’re doing as people. Because I think it can be a very lonely industry.

I think it’s just something that I’ve been learning the more I’ve been here, how much I value just having lunch with other writers and hearing what they’re going through, and learning who to work with and who to avoid. I think it would have saved me a lot of stress if I had that earlier in my life.

Chris Borrelli: Mine would be, if I could go back to that, I’d say putting about 75 percent of my daily work into things I could control and generate. It’s fine to chase jobs, and it’s great to work with people and stuff, but I’m in a pretty good place right now where I feel, and this sounds almost the opposite of what everybody else just said, but it honestly isn’t — I’m not depending on any one person. There’s not one exec that if I don’t make him happy, my career is over. There’s not one rep or anything like that, and it’s come about because I just really work hard at generating material. My fifth thing’s about to shoot next month, and of the five movies, four of them will have been specs. I’m not saying focus on that, because we know how hard that is.

But, put your time into stuff you can control and generate most of your time into things that can pay off later. Not to sound negative, but don’t depend on any one person. It’s just the facts of the way things roll. That would be what I’d do. I’d just go back to what I’m doing now. A more regimented career from the beginning, and working on just creating stuff, and having some control.

Scott Myers: Let’s just end on this — I’d like to get your take on the movies of the year. What’s your top film of 2014, real quick?

Justin: Birdman.

Brian: Under the Skin.

Scott Frazier: I’ll say Whiplash.

Chris McCoy: I’m going to say Whiplash, too.

Greg: I’m a toss-up between Nightcrawler and Snowpiercer.

Chris Borrelli: I liked Nightcrawler. And The Purge 2 was just this weird guilty pleasure. It was my biggest surprise.

Scott Frazier: You know what, I would also like to give a shout-out to Edge of Tomorrow, which was one of the greatest summer movies of all-time that nobody saw.

Chris Borrelli: It was great. Can I change that? I’ll say that, that’s fine.

Scott Myers: I did a whole blog post on Edge of Tomorrow. That movie was so good.

Greg: Incredible that Dante Harper didn’t get credited. He brought that project to light.

Scott Frazier: It’s a total shame.

Scott Myers: Well, let’s end on that. Total shame. Very screenwriter-ly.

[laughter]

For Part 1 of the Roundtable conversation, go here.

Part 2, here.

Part 3, here.

Part 4, here.

Part 5, here.

Part 6, here.

Part 7, here.

Part 8, here.

Part 9, here.

Part 10, here.

Part 11, here.

On Twitter:

Brian Duffield: @BrianDuffield

F. Scott Frazier: @ScreenWritten

Chris McCoy: @thatthere

Justin Rhodes: @twopointfour

Many thanks to Wendy Cohen for logistical help with the roundtable.

Thus concludes this year’s screenwriters roundtable. Excited to say I will be doing another roundtable later this year with a group of talented female writers. More news on that soon.

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