Interview: Stephanie Shannon (2013 Nicholl Winner, 2013 Black List) — Part 1

Stephanie Shannon not only is one of five recipients of the 2013 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, she did it with her very first full-length screenplay: “Queen of Hearts.”Not only that, the script landed on the 2013 Black List. Therefore I was pleased to have the opportunity to talk with Stephanie about her background, the script and her take on the craft as she has developed as a writer.

Today in Part 1, Stephanie talks about her lifetime love of movies, her film school experience and how she eventually wound her way to Los Angeles:

Scott: How are you doing?

Stephanie: I’m doing well! I wanted to say, first of all, I’m a really big fan of Go Into the Story. I read it all the time. It really inspires me, so I’m excited to be a part of this.

Scott: That’s great to hear, thanks. Let’s jump into it here, dig into your background. In the speech you gave accepting your 2013 Nicholl Fellowship, you talked about your childhood and spending time with your grandmother watching her favorite movie, Gone with the Wind. Is it fair to say that is a key movie that steered you toward a love of films or were there others?

Stephanie: For me, it was combination of movies. I grew up, like most people in my generation, loving Spielberg movies, especially Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones. Braveheart was another big one for me. But, I think the definitive moment for me, when I knew what I wanted (I started off wanting to be a director) was in the seventh grade when I first saw Schindler’s List. It was the first time I saw just how powerful and impactful film could really be. I knew that’s what I wanted to do.

I was an only child, so I would watch my VHS tapes until they were just worn out and wouldn’t play anymore. Growing up without brothers or sisters, I sort of felt like movies were my companions. That sounds pretty sad now that I say it out loud [laughs].

Scott: So you were thinking movie director when you went off to film school?

Stephanie: Yes. I went to NYU Tisch’s Undergraduate program. They start you off right out of the gate directing several black and white 16 millimeter shorts. You do a lot of hands on directing and editing on a very basic level. You even start off learning how to cut your films with razors and tape on those old Steenbeck machines before you can move onto digital editing, which I think does foster an important perspective on the whole process.

Going through that program, as I came out of it, I realized I was more suited to writing. Being on set and being under the time pressures, and having to order people around, that wasn’t for me. I realized writing was a better fit for my personality. That’s not to say that I won’t ever direct, but it wasn’t something I felt I wanted to tackle right away. Writing is still very high pressure, but it’s not as in the moment.

Scott: You graduated high school in Texas. Did you do any filmmaking there?

Stephanie: When I was in high school, they had a program called the Dale Jackson Career Center where you could go off campus for half-days during your junior and senior years to take classes at a vocational center. It was basically this career center where you could take anything from Carpentry to Hospitality to Audio and Video Production.

I ended up being really involved in the Video Production class there. We would do things like learn how to coil cables and handle camera equipment, put on a local cable access show and tape high school basketball games. I was just so excited to be around the cameras, I couldn’t get enough of that class. It was my first introduction to the bare bones of the production world.

I used to stay all night in the editing suites there, editing little movies for hours on end. I was just always there. I’m pretty sure my parents thought I was out running drugs or something. I ended up making a short film there, just this little five minute horror movie. It went to a statewide student video competition and won Best of Show in Texas. When I applied to NYU, I used that video as my portfolio. That’s how I got into Tisch. I just took the leap and went to New York.

Scott: Texas to New York. That must have been quite a transition.

Stephanie: I had never been to New York. I just showed up alone in a taxi with a suitcase — it was pretty cliché. I remember I literally didn’t talk for three days because I was petrified and all I could think was “What am I doing here? What did I get myself into?”. It was a huge culture shock, but I’m really glad I stuck it out. I feel like it made me a stronger creative person.

Scott: Then you made your way to Los Angeles?

Stephanie: After I graduated, I stayed in New York for five more years just doing any job I could find. When you graduate film school you’re like “What? They didn’t hand out Oscars at graduation? I guess I need to get a real job”. I did a lot of PAing on film sets: everything from commercials to indies to reality TV to big studio movies. I did a lot of art department work, which was a lot of fun. I got to run around film and TV sets wearing a tool belt and pretending I knew how to use it. I did production design, props, set decoration and construction. I was a personal assistant to a few directors. I was a receptionist for a while at a production company. I even drove a cube truck, which, in midtown Manhattan when you’re 5’6’’ is pretty terrifying. I just did any kind of odd job I could find to stay in the industry and figure out how to make a living. It was a lot of long hours and really stressful at times, but it was such a good learning experience to see how a set runs and how the industry works from that angle.

After about three years, I ended up getting sick of the production thing. It felt like I was working in a factory where everything was assembled, and I wanted to be on the other side of that. A friend of mine from NYU who worked as an assistant at William Morris Endeavor told me there was an opening at Brillstein [Entertainment Partners] for the head of the New York office.

I was kind of scared because I knew how tough being an executive assistant in Hollywood is. But I wanted to be more involved in that side of the industry because I felt like I wasn’t learning what I wanted to in production.

I ended up working for the head of the New York office of Brillstein for about two years. I learned so much on that job. I really feel being an assistant is grad school for film students. You just learn so much about the industry, from a perspective you can’t get doing any other job.

I read a lot of scripts on that desk. When I was reading, all I could think was that I wish I had tried harder to be a writer. I just felt like I could write something better than half of what I was reading. I talked to my boss and told her I wanted to move out to LA.

She and Brillstein were really great in helping me to transition. I was very fortunate because I came out here with a job. I started working for another manager at Brillstein out here who is now my manager.

Tomorrow in Part 2, Stephanie discusses how she made a plan to write “Queen of Hearts” for the Nicholl competition deadline… and followed through with it.

Here is Stephanie’s acceptance speech when she was presented the 2013 Nicholl Fellowship Award:

Go here to read the Deadline article on the February 2014 acquisition of “Queen of Hearts” by OddLot Entertainment with Seth Gordon attached to direct.

Please stop by comments to thank Stephanie for her time and ask any questions you may have.

Stephanie is repped by CAA and Brillstein Entertainment Partners.

Twitter: @stephshanz.

Comment Archive