Interview: Jay Eden — Part 3
For the last few weeks, I have turned attention to screenwriters, TV writers, and filmmakers who are on the front edge of making their mark in the business. Their insights, so recently on the outside looking in, reflect the excitement of breaking in, yet the challenges of attempting to carve out a career.
Today the last in this mini-series of interviews: U.K based screenwriter Jay Eden who set up his original spec script “Incinerator” with the Boies Schiller Film Group.
Here in Part 3, Jay talks about how the deal went down with “Incinerator” and offers some advice to aspiring screenwriters:
Scott: When you say you worked on the script for years, how long are we talking from the point where you had this original concept to its sale?
Jay: I’d say probably about five years.
Scott: Five years. Wow. How was it that you ended up with Boise, Schiller?
Jay: I was very lucky. I had an agent in the UK. It was a bit of a rocky relationship, really because the UK writing scene is very much TV‑based and there isn’t much of a film industry compared to the US. The kind of films that get funded in the UK are all through the film council.
My agent took me on and I kept sending her American ideas. After about three or four scripts, she kind of said, “Look, I don’t think I can sell any of these for you.” She didn’t really know anyone in America and she couldn’t sell them in the UK.
I was very disheartened. I’d got so close to what…I thought that if I’d get an agent in the UK and write some scripts someone will read them but she just couldn’t get anyone to read my work. I was very disheartened. She basically fired me. She said, “I can’t help you anymore.” I didn’t know what to do.
What kept me going was your blog and others like Script Shadow. I got in touch with a writer in America who was very, very kind to send me a list of email addresses for managers. I basically carpet bombed every single email off that list repeatedly. I’m sure if these people go back and check their emails now they could get restraining orders against me.
I kept firing them off because an email was 10 seconds of my time and when I’m sitting here lonely at night, trying to think of writing, I could do this for maybe half an hour. I just sent them off and off and off.
Long story short, my manager now, Jeff Ross, got in touch and weirdly enough, it was about “Incinerator”. He said, “I think this is a really cool little idea. Can I show it to a few people?” That was pretty much how it started. He started sending it to people and he got really good reviews. He didn’t get any bites, but he got good reviews.
Eventually he sent it to the Boies, Schiller film group. Within a day, I had seven of them on the phone going, “This is so wonderful. We love it. We just want to get involved.” That was it.
Scott: How long ago was that?
Jay: That was about November.
Scott: Did you just rewrite it with them?
Jay: Yes, I did. I did a rewrite to set it in…
Scott: New England?
Jay: Yeah, in Hartford.
Scott: Hartford, Connecticut. Yeah.
Jay: Because they said that’s probably where…Originally, I wanted to set it in Detroit because…
Scott: Tax incentives?
Jay: No. Because I’d seen some stuff on YouTube about how there were these massive parts of Detroit that have become ghost towns because the work had dried up, and the money had gone and you could buy homes for $10. That really fitted everything I needed. It was an industrial city that had died on its feet. It had the transport system that I needed. It was just a really good fit for those characters. I thought it would be a great place that if you’re going to get people who have moral questions about money, Detroit would be a good place to set it.
They decided that it would be better for Hartford in Connecticut because, hopefully, that’s where they’re going to shoot it.
That is certainly one bit of research I did. I’ve never been to Hartford. All my references to Hartford and anything in the script to do with Hartford is purely to do with YouTube research, and [laughs] Wikipedia and a few other things like that.
Scott: How did you manage to keep persisting, keep writing in the face of the long odds?
Jay: That is one thing, I can honestly say, when I first started writing and I got bitten by the bug, if I didn’t need to sleep, I could spend 24 hours a day in front of a computer trying to write films. I love it. I think if I sell my script tomorrow for a million dollars, I would. Within a couple of days of celebrating, I would be back at the computer. I just love it. I love the imagination of it. I love the escapism and there’s nothing better than writing a great character or writing a great scene. Not necessarily, that everyone else thinks is great, but something that you’re proud of. It’s the most amazing feeling. I’ll do it ’till the day I die.
I don’t know if that’s quotable, but I got into this to be a writer because I love films, and I love writing and I can’t think of anything better than watching my kids grow up happy, and being happy with my wife and writing films.
Scott: What advice would you give to an aspiring writer out there who’s trying to break into the business?
Jay: Two bits of advice and they’re screenwriting advice. I thought about this earlier on. My first bit of advice is outline until you’re sick of outlining. I never knew about outlining when I started writing and it shows when I look at anything I’ve written before. Outline almost to a point where you’ve got 60 to 70 detailed scenes, subplots, character roles, character narratives, everything. Get that all outlined before you even try and start writing. Everyone wants to do that. When you come up with an idea, you don’t want to do the hard work, you don’t want to do the donkey work of developing characters, developing ideas, developing theme. You just think, “I’ve got a great idea. I just want to write that.” I think that’s the easiest way to fail because you’ll just end up with a draft that’s nothing more than a vomit draft and could have been five versions down the road with a couple of weeks’ work. That’s my first bit of advice.
My second bit of advice is, I don’t necessarily think I’m the best writer in the world. I don’t think I’m the worst. I just love doing it. I try and read as many scripts as I can. You got to follow your dreams, haven’t you? I know that’s a cliché, but if you want to be a writer, you should just want to write and, hopefully, you’ll get a crack at it one day.
If you have any comments or questions for Jay, please head to comments.
For Part 1, go here.
Part 2, go here.
Twitter: @jayeden238.
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