2014 Screenwriters Roundtable (Part 6): Chris Borrelli, Brian Duffield, F. Scott Frazier, Chris McCoy, Justin Rhodes, Greg Russo
A special treat this week and next as I will be 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 6:
Scott Myers: Stepping back, looking at movies and TV. What’s your take on where things are? And your relative interest at trying to work in both.
Brian: This was the first year I started getting sent things that weren’t movies or TV, which I thought was bizarre and cool.
Scott Myers: What do you mean, Brian?
Brian: At least, in my interactions, people are definitely talking about interactive stuff a lot more, virtual reality, even IMAX short films. It feels like people are starting to think, “What if it’s not movies or TV?” Building it out from there. I am not doing any of those, currently, but it was the first time where, especially towards the end of the year, I had meetings, and companies would be like, “Would you be interested in doing something that wasn’t a movie or TV or a web series?” It took me by surprise few times, and then I was an idiot for continually being surprised.
Scott Myers: Interesting. When you see the showrunners for True Detective or Fargo or House of Cards they’ll oftentimes say, “This is not really TV, it’s a long movie.” There does seem to be this elasticity now between the storytelling that’s going on, and perhaps, it’s not just like TV and movies, or anything.
Do any else of you keep running into this kind of blurring of the lines between the narrative storytelling that’s going on in Hollywood?
Brian: Even with TV, this is the first year where different companies, if they sent a book or a TV show they wanted to do, they were like, “We don’t want to do the typical pilot thing. We’d rather…”
If they had discretionary money, which I think, is a huge shift, just in of itself, where I’ve been at few places where they talked about wanting to write every episode, hire directors for the episodes, and then, at that point, find financing, and then, give it to a network. That feels like something that’s happening more and more.
I remember when Fox was talking about giving up pilots and felt like they were ahead of the curve, and now… they got a little spooked and went back to it. That’s something that is increasingly happening where, instead of having a pilot and 30 pilots, it seems like, there is more and more… networks are giving 10 episodes straight out of a gate to a show.
Especially, a lot more of just one writer working on a show the entire time. True Detective had a big hand in that, and Fargo, obviously. That’s something that’s happened this year where a lot of… at least with me, a lot of the TV stuff has been, it hasn’t been like, “Hey, would you want to write a pilot?”
It’s been like, “Hey, would you want to write a 400 page movie? You would be by yourself the whole time.” Which is appealing and terrifying.
Greg: With television right now, people are willing to take risks that they weren’t willing to take before, and the networks are being leaned on a bit, by the expanse of cable, and all these other broadcast platforms, that are taking all kind of risks.
TV is an wildly-expanding business right now. We all know that. There’s so many things being made right now, so many buyers, and so many studios and platforms that are opening up. With that, comes a desire to find the next “new” thing. To push the boundaries, so we’re seeing that reflected in the narrative devices and show structures being written.
It’s exciting, it’s enticing, and it’s not just writers who see it. This is the reason why Matthew McConaughey is going to go do a TV show, because he can do a 10 episode show and still make a couple of movies a year. Cable is luring over a lot of talent. It’s hard not to follow that Pied Piper, because TV is booming and sadly film continues to contract.
Scott Myers: I wanted to ask a question based on some of the comments you made earlier. Having these multiple projects, stacking projects, you danced around a little bit with the fact that you have to do that, but are there any keys you’ve learned other than time management to be able to manage multiple projects at any given time?
Scott Frazier: I try to not to actually be writing multiple scripts at the same time. If I am writing a script, that’s the script I am working on, while having other things going on, while breaking the story on something else, or while outlining something, or putting note cards up on the wall. It’s always, if I am writing script pages, that’s the script I am working on, and to not jump back and forth.
Borrelli once said that, “Writing is a lot of sitting and staring out the window.” That’s a lot of the work.
The staring out of the window portion of the work, your mind can… at least mine can be divided amongst five to 10 different things, whether it’s thinking of a solution for one thing, or outlining something else, whereas, when I get to the script, that feels like the day job, the heavy lifting, like you’ve got to go to the worksite from nine to five, and be writing pages. For me, it’s always one script at a time.
Scott Myers: Like, literally, writing script pages during the day, but at night, maybe you are doing research or…
Scott Frazier: Thinking about the other project. I live so far away from Los Angeles, anytime I go to a meeting, that’s automatically four hours of thinking time, just sitting in the car. Even sitting at the dining room table, my wife knows this very well, but I am constantly, “in my movies” and she knows that when I get that faraway look, that’s what’s going on.
Chris Borrelli: I blame that on movies, when my fiancée sees me glazed off as she’s talking. I say, I am thinking about an awesome movie. [laughter] But I do agree with Scott, definitely. I do it slightly differently, but the same thing: I compartmentalize the different projects, and it’s a relief to be able to put one aside and jump on the other. I do it in such a way that it’s funny.
Someone will bring up a script I wrote a year or two ago, and they’ll mention some character names, and I’ll be like, “Huh?” I’ll be like a 90‑year‑old guy who forgets his friends, I completely compartmentalize, and focus.
Scott Frazier: I’ll forget character names a month after I finish the script.
Chris Borrelli: Exactly. I am onto something else. I recommend that if you can do it, but it doesn’t mean you can’t have the other things circling. But for me, if I want to be writing by 9:00 AM and by noon I’ve done two‑thirds of the good work for my day or more.
That’s most of my good work, and what I can do is, switch that off and jump on another project after lunch. I don’t like to go back and forth, and I don’t like to be too distracted, it’s not the end of the world, if you don’t answer some emails, take a break. But, I really do think, you’ve got to focus. For me, I have to focus on one thing at a time, pretty much.
Each day this week, I’m going to highlight one of the writers. Today: Greg Russo.
Russo has sold multiple specs, pitches, and has worked on numerous studio assignments during his 5-year career. Recent projects include an adaptation of the action/spy TV series, “It Takes a Thief” at Universal and the original one-hour action drama pilot “Chop Shop,” which he sold to Fox this past season. He’s currently writing the hurricane disaster-thriller “Category 6” at New Line. You can usually find him traversing around the East Side with his wife, and their two rebellious, yet somehow always forgivable, terriers.
For my March 2012 interview with Greg, go here.
Please take time to leave a reply with your observations and follow-up questions, and while you’re there thank these writers for taking time out of their busy schedules to do this roundtable for GITS readers and the wider online screenwriting community.
For Part 1 of the Roundtable conversation, go here.
Part 2, here.
Part 3, here.
Part 4, here.
Part 5, 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.
Monday: Part 7 of this exclusive screenwriter’s roundtable.