Interview (Part 5): Andrew Friedhof (2015 Nicholl Winner)

Andy Friedhof wrote the original screenplay “Great Falls” which won a 2015 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting. Recently I had the opportunity to chat with Andy about his background as a writer and his award-winning screenplay.

Today in Part 5, Andy talks about his experience winning the Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting:

Scott: How many drafts of the script did you write before you submitted it to the Nicholl?

Andy: It’s hard to keep track of the number of drafts that I do. I’m someone who goes through scripts obsessively, start to finish, even once I’ve finished them, and keep making tweaks. I guess I finished a draft I was reasonably happy with in October of 2014. There were some issues with that draft and I wanted to go back and fix that.

I basically spent the next couple of months working on a revised draft for the Nicholl. I finished that in January of 2015. As I said, we traveled into the US in April of 2014. The script actually came really quickly. I had an initial draft completed three or four months after that. The final draft went into the Nicholl less than a year later.

It wasn’t something I’d been working on for years. It’s something that came very naturally. It was probably the easiest script I’ve ever written, to be honest with you.

I think that’s sometimes a good sign, when you’re able to write quickly, and know exactly where you’re going, and know your characters that well that you’re able to develop it that easily.

Scott: You submit the script to the Nicholl. Maybe you could walk us through that process of what happened after that.

Andy: As I mentioned I had a different script two years earlier that made the quarter‑finals and didn’t make it further, then the next year I had one in the semi‑finals that didn’t make it further. Because of that I was prepared to, once I got to the quarterfinal round again, not proceed any further. Then I made the semis, which was very exciting. Then I made the finals, which was unbelievable.

Hearing from Greg Beal that I made the finals was very thrilling, and terrifying at the same time. Part of me wasn’t prepared how I would react if I made the finals, and then couldn’t quite make it that final step. It would be such a strange feeling of both extreme pride, and then a tinge of disappointment, that I wasn’t able to participate in the events of the Nicholl Week.

Particularly, as I’m from Australia, it’s great that some of the finalists were able to come to the Nicholl Week, because they live nearby or flew in. I think nearly all of them were from the United States, but coming from Australia, I doubt that I would have been able to get over there if I had just been a finalist. It was incredible to find out that I was a fellow and the whole week was a dream come true. It was amazing.

Scott: How has it changed your life?

Andy: While I was over there I had what they call the water bottle tour of 30‑something meetings over a two‑week period spent driving on the wrong side of the road…

Scott: [laughs]

Andy: It was a really incredible experience, but one thing I’ve learned from the whole thing is you can either view the Nicholl Fellowship as just an achievement or you can also view it as an opportunity. For me it’s an opportunity to write something strong and have people interested in what I write next.

I think it’s a mistake to say, “I finally made it. I’m a Nicholl Fellow. Mission accomplished.” You need to keep working. When I got back to Australia, I still woke up at the same time every morning and wrote the same amount as before. So my daily life in Sydney hasn’t changed that much. There’s been a lot more activity over in the United States with my reps being contact by people interested in my material. That’s been amazing.

I’m in the middle of the visa application process that I’m hoping to get out there sooner rather than later to be more immersed in that side of things. The people I’ve met through the Nicholl Fellowship have been fantastic and it’s great to have an almost instantaneous support network.

Just having that extra breathing room and being able to spend more time writing is so valuable. I think Anthony said during the week, we were basically being paid to write over the next year and we can write anything we want. I’m incredibly grateful for that freedom.

Scott: As part of the Nicholl, you have to write a script. Are you writing something in the same vein, tone‑wise or genre‑wise, as “Great Falls”?

Andy: Yeah, I think I will. I’m someone who writes fairly rapidly. I generally produce a new piece of material every four to six months. I’m hoping I’m able to generate more than one script over the fellowship year.

One thing I will say is that it’s important to develop your voice, and once you’re comfortable in a particular area try to stick in a similar wheelhouse. When people weren’t paying attention, I could write whatever I wanted including surreal Kaufmanesque comedies like “Made in China”. While that script wasn’t great, the process of writing it was still a very important learning experience. In the initial phase of your screenwriting career it’s worthwhile working on whatever excites you with the understanding that those early scripts will be for your eyes only.

Once you find out what you enjoy writing and what you’re good at writing, you can stick to those areas. For me, I really enjoy writing character-based dramas and thrillers. Sci‑fi is another genre I really love as well. That’s where my strengths are, and I think where the next few scripts will be.

Scott: That’s a perfect segue into some craft questions, so let’s jump to those if we can. You came up with the story idea for “Great Falls” based on a newspaper article that you read. Is that a typical way that you come up with story ideas or are there other ways that you generate story concepts?

Andy: That’s one of the ways. Generally, a lot of reading — long-form journalism, novels, non-fiction. Watching films and television. For example, “Stat,” the script that was optioned by Smart, that idea came to me when I was watching The Godfather.

There’s a scene in that where Don Corleone is in the hospital after he’d been shot. Some men are coming to kill him, and his son Michael moves his hospital bed to another room. Then he stands guard on the hospital steps with Enzo the Baker and pretends to have a gun in his pocket.

I thought, “Wow, that would actually be an interesting concept for a film.” A police detective is in a coma in a hospital. Some men coming to kill him. This paramedic has to keep him alive overnight while these hitmen are hunting him through a hospital. That idea came from that brief scene. Ideas can come from a whole variety of sources.

You’ve just got to keep your mind open and stay curious. Often you’ll think “I’d like to explore a theme from the perspective of this character that I’ve thought of,” but for me I don’t think there’s been any single avenue to developing story ideas.

Scott: You mentioned you tend to work rather quickly, churning out a script every four to six months. How much of the time do you spend in prep writing, things like brainstorming and character development and research and plotting and outlining?

Andy: I spend the bulk of the time on research, because I think that’s the most valuable part of the process in terms of getting a sense of the place and people you’re writing about. As I said, the Internet is a fantastic resource and I think it’s just foolish not to use it to its maximum capability. The research often informs my story choices and my story locations.

I’m not someone who spends a lot of time developing complex character backstories or anything like that. There’s a sense I’ve gotten that for some people plot and narrative are dirty words. For me plot and character are in a totally symbiotic relationship. You need character to inform plot and plot to inform character.

There’s no reason you can’t work on both at the same time. It also reflects how people approach movies. When they talk to their friends about a film they saw they generally stick to the superficial logline or narrative but I think the character journey is what actually causes people connect with the material and makes a film work.

When someone asks, “What’s Groundhog Day about?” it’s outwardly a fantastic concept about a man repeating the same day over and over, but what makes that film work is the emotional journey of Bill Murray’s character. If I come up with a theme or a setting or concept that I want to explore, I develop a character that can chafe up against that. Once I have that character firmly in my mind then that informs my narrative, which in turn informs and changes the character. It’s like a feedback loop which you develop in parallel until you have both an interesting and, importantly, logical narrative and a satisfying and emotional character arc.

Tomorrow in Part 6, Andy shares some thoughts for aspiring screenwriters.

For Part 1 of my interview with Andy, go here.

Part 2, here.

Part 3, here.

Part 4, here.

Andy is repped by ESA and Circle of Confusion.

Twitter: @andrewfriedhof.