Dispatch From The Quest: Paul Wie
Over the course of the 24 weeks I am working with the writers in The Quest, each will write a weekly dispatch to share with the GITS community. There are several reasons for doing this, the main one educational: Hopefully you will learn something of value for your own understanding of the craft from the experiences of the Questers. I should also add they are a great group of people, so I expect you will enjoy getting to know them.
Today: Paul reflects on where he is as he heads into his first draft:
This last week was a culmination of all our prep work — outlines. Writing mine took longer than I expected with numerous late-night sessions; but now that I’ve gotten some rest and feel good about what I’ve created, I’m excited to go into the page writing. Regardless of how difficult this past week has been, outlining has reaffirmed my passion for my story. It’s given me a sneak preview of my movie, and it’s a movie I’d love to watch. Outlining has also reaffirmed my love for preparation. As much fun as improvising can be, my best work comes from having a strong plan A I can riff off of. Being rigorously prepared gives me the confidence to take risks and seize inspired moments when I see it. Even when I’m directing, I love creating very detailed shot-lists and storyboards, because not only do they help sustain my vision and save time/money on set, they free me up to improve my vision when better ideas come along. And when filming or writing, beautiful accidents happen all the time. Actors will give you a great line or look you didn’t anticipate, the sun will shine a certain way inspiring you to film the scene in a whole new light, and characters will emerge on the page saying or doing things you could never have planned beforehand.
So as prepared as I can be, I dive into my scenes, excited to write what I’ve outlined and excited for the new and unforeseen to come. All in all, I look forward to these next ten weeks of creative storytelling. Best of luck and inspiration to my fellow Questers and every writer going on their own journeys. Let’s write great scripts!
Thanks, Paul, for your Dispatches!
About Paul: Director + Writer. Loves Spielberg, Truffaut, Abrams, Kurosawa, Attack the Block, cinematic stories beautifully told. @paulhwie.