Screenwriters Roundtable, Part 4: Chris Borrelli, F. Scott Frazier, Chris McCoy, Justin Rhodes, Greg Russo, John Swetnam
A special treat this week as I will be posting excerpts from a screenwriter’s roundtable I did with a group of talented Hollywood screenwriters: Chris Borrelli, F. Scott Frazier, Chris McCoy, Justin Rhodes, Greg Russo, and John Swetnam. 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 third GITS screenwriters roundtable, the first two of which you can read here and here. Hopefully this will continue as 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 4:
Scott: Something interesting John said, that he actually likes to create that box, and correct me if I’m wrong, John, but you kind of find a freedom there, a creative freedom, once you’ve got those parameters, you know you can just go in there and play?
John Swetnam: For me, that’s definitely the way I like to do it, yeah.
Scott: As opposed to some people, who would feel like it inhibits their creativity.
John Swetnam: I think one of the things is like, and again, this is just something I’ve been thinking about it. It’s completely my opinion. But even the way sample scripts used to be when I first came to town 10 years ago, they were different.
A lot of people would write samples because you would be trying to go after jobs. You had a lot of managers and agents and people that were looking for those kinds of things. To me, the way managers and agents are now, I think the vast majority of them are looking for something to sell.
They’re not looking to find… again, there’s a few managers like that, but I think the majority have leaned more towards I’m looking for a script that I can go sell right now. If that happens to turn into a sample, great, but it’s really about just getting something that they believe is a piece of product that they can sell, which I don’t blame them for. But I just feel like that’s the way representation, in my mind, has shifted, maybe I’m wrong.
Chris Borrelli: No, I would agree.
Scott: John, you sold a spec this year, right?
John Swetnam: Yeah, I sold “Spinback”.
Scott: OK. Anybody else here still writing on spec, or are you all just basically doing assignments at this point and pitching?
Chris Borrelli: I sold a spec this year. It hasn’t been announced, which is kind of odd, but I sold a spec this year. I like to do it. I like it because it’s something I… well, here’s the word control again, but I really believe five days a week, I should be at my desk writing.
I also did an assignment this year that everyone’s pleased with and I’m very happy with it. It was a great experience. I like to do an assignment and a spec and other stuff each year. If I’m not actually writing something on that day, I don’t really take a day off from work. I’ll have something that’s needling around in my brain that I will work at. So I believe in it.
F. Scott Frazier: I still like to do specs. I’m kind of like Borrelli. I like to write a spec a year at the very least right now. My board is full of ideas that I want to do. I did, actually, I wrote a spec earlier in the year, and it wasn’t as good on the page as it was in my head.
I banged my head against it for months on end, and I got to the point where I was like OK, I’m just going to take some time off of this, and I’m going to go work on these other projects that I have and come back to it. I can’t remember who said it, but it’s definitely that idea that your inner critic is at a very high level. The reason that we write is because we want to see what we like be made, and we have a very high taste level. But then we get down to the act of writing it, and our creative muse is not at the same level as our critical muse. I think that that’s one of those things that you can kind of bump against and almost give up on. It’s happened to me a couple of times. I think it’s a tricky beam to walk on.
Scott: Does anybody else have that dynamic, that conflict between the critical voice and the creative voice?
Chris McCoy: I also write books, and this year I had to finish up a book that was part of my first-ever writing deal, which was a two-book deal with Knopf for two YA books. So, this year I had do that second book, which I actually found to be a really nice break for a couple of months from screenwriting.
In screenwriting, you’re constrained to economy of language and three lines of an action paragraph and that sort of thing. I find it freeing to go and dip into books because it allows you to keep both sides of your brain sharp, the more technical screenwriting part of your brain and the go-to-crazy-town-with-ideas novel part of your brain.
Scott: I’d like to move onto some more craft oriented questions. Here’s a reader question. How do you inspire yourselves before starting a new project? They were referring to that interview I did with Kelly Marcel where she said she likes to aggregate pictures and props, stuff to have visual references.
Do you have any tricks like that or things that you do to help get you inspired before you start a project?
John Swetnam: I always shop for houses and cars online. I like to look at really fucking nice houses, and then I get really motivated very quickly.
[laughter]
Greg Russo: There you go. [laughs] Art versus commerce, right?
Scott: Forever known as the Swetnam approach.
John Swetnam: There you go.
Chris McCoy: I can’t write without music. Hopefully, there’s always new stuff coming out that I like. I feel like if there’s a new album that I’m into, it helps with my process. I think it’s more auditory for me.
Scott: You’ll actually buy some CDs or music or whatever that will accompany that particular project?
Chris McCoy: Yeah, sometimes. Sometimes, it’s just like wow, I’m so excited about this new record that came out and it just feeds into my writing. And I write faster and better, and it sort of amps me up.
If there’s nothing that’s coming out that I’m into, that’s when I go back to the well, and I’m listening to Iggy Pop and the Ramones and Bill Withers and stuff like that, the old standbys for when I’m writing certain scenes and trying to get a certain energy.
F. Scott Frazier: Tuesday is always one of my best writing days because it’s always the day that new music comes out. I feel the same way. I go a lot by music. I’ll usually take a week off every four or five months and just completely, what I call, recharge my batteries, where I will just absorb videogames and movies and books and music as just like, a creative topping off.
My inspiration is weird in that I get real inspired by something early on when I come up with the idea, and if I don’t write it within a very short amount of time after the idea comes up, I start losing it. I know there’s a lot of writers that think about something for a really long time, and then they go into it.
I’m kind of the exact opposite, where I’ll get an idea, and I’ll just want to write it. A lot of my inspiration is just being able to get in front of the computer as quickly as possible after it strikes. Otherwise, I find myself almost getting bored with ideas or stories or characters, and I want to move onto something new.
Chris McCoy: I think that’s due to the elevator thing that was brought up before. I’ve tweeted about this, but I have a theory that any time you get an idea, there’s like 50 people or 500 people or 50,000 people that get that idea at the exact same time, and it’s just a race to the finish.
F. Scott Frazier: That’s horrifying, actually. I’m not going to sleep at night now because of that.
Scott: Wendy has a couple questions for you.
Wendy: I guess it’s two separate questions. One is if you’re writing about a very specific subject or specific genre are there times that… you talked about music but other ways to keep yourself within the world? Then, also, just generally as a writing practice, are there certain techniques or habits you rely on?
Scott: Basically to stay in that story universe, right?
Wendy: Yeah.
Scott: How do you do that?
John Swetnam: I’ll jump in. This last year I had two projects. I think I might be doing this on purpose. The first one was “Spinback,” which is an action movie set in the world of EDM festivals and concerts and clubs and then “Step Up 5,” which is all about dancing at clubs, etc. Pretty much, I spent the entire year at clubs and festivals and just partying and it was the best research ever and I really think it came through on the page. I really do.
F. Scott Frazier: John, how good of a dancer are you now?
John Swetnam: I’m fucking amazing! (laughter). But I always tell people about this pigeonhole question because I came out with a horror found footage movie and was the found footage guy and now, somehow, I’m the dance guy. I sold a dance TV show, I wrote a dance movie, “Step Up 5.” I’m directing one. What the fuck? I don’t know how it happened but I’m very happy that my moves are finally getting their due.
Scott: One answer, then, to that question is find something that you really enjoy and write about that and then that way it’s pretty easy to stay in that story world.
Chris Borrelli: Oh, I thought it was just about becoming a really good dancer. That makes more sense.
Scott: Justin, for example, this project “The Breach”. It sounds like a sprawling story and an action-type thing. How did you manage to get into that story universe and stay there?
Justin Rhodes: On “The Breach,” of the projects I’ve done this year, that one was the strangest in that way because normally my process involves a whole lot of research and this one didn’t. So I kind of had my security blanket taken away. Thematically, the script is about encountering stuff we don’t understand. I don’t know. It was hard.
In terms of staying immersed, a lot of the elements of the story sort of made my head hurt. Kind of just coming in every day and looking at it. I probably read the book 50 times and that’s probably not an exaggeration. The thing that’s nice about an adaptation is that you’ve got, in this case, a producer and a director that also have opinions on it, and you can have those conversations when you get stuck, where you can reach out for help if you need to.
Scott: On other projects, you found that if they were research-heavy, that helped you immerse yourself in the story?
Justin Rhodes: Yeah, I’ve got another project about military robotics where I did a bunch of research. For me, research is where I often get to have the most fun under the pretense of work. I got to meet with a roboticist. I did some military training with some Delta Force guys. I talked to an intelligence adviser for the Brookings Institute and all kinds of stuff. That one was a full immersion thing, which is normally more how I go.
For Part 1 of the interview, go here.
Part 2, here.
Part 3, here.
Each day for this series, I’m going to highlight one of the writers. Today: Justin Rhodes.
Justin Rhodes writes and lives in Los Angeles. Current projects include THE BREACH, in preproduction at Lionsgate for director David Goyer and producer Lorenzo DiBonaventura, UNMANNED for producers Chris Morgan and Keanu Reeves, as well as assignments for Scott Stuber at Universal and Legendary.
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.
On Twitter:
F. Scott Frazier: @ScreenWritten
Chris McCoy: @thatthere
Justin Rhodes: @twopointfour
John Swetnam: @JohnSwetnam
Many thanks to Wendy Cohen for logistical help with the roundtable.
Tomorrow: Part 5 of this exclusive screenwriter’s roundtable.
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