Screenwriter’s Roundtable, Part 6: Chris Borrelli, F. Scott Frazier, Jeremiah Friedman, Nick Palmer, Justin Rhodes, Greg Russo, John Swetnam
A special treat this week on GITS as each day I will be posting excerpts from a screenwriter’s roundtable I did with some of the best and hottest young screenwriters in Hollywood: Chris Borrelli, F. Scott Frazier, Justin Rhodes, Greg Russo, John Swetnam and the writing duo Jeremiah Friedman & Nick Palmer. How good are they? Over the last 2 years, they have combined to sell 12 spec scripts, and that doesn’t include the numerous writing assignments they have landed or original pitches they have set up.
Here are the 12 spec scripts they have sold:
Chris Borrelli: “The Vatican Tapes” [Black List 2009], “Wake”, “Sad Jack”.
F. Scott Frazier: “The Numbers Station”, “Line of Sight” [Black List 2011], “Autobahn”, and a fourth project as yet unannounced.
Jeremiah Friedman & Nick Palmer: “Family Getaway” [Black List 2010].
Justin Rhodes: “Second Sun”.
Greg Russo: “Down”, “Autobahn”.
John Swetnam: “Evidence”, “Category Six”.
Our conversation covered many topics and is a unique opportunity to learn what it’s like to go from aspiring to professional screenwriter. Beyond their insights into the craft, I’m sure you will be inspired by their passion for what they do, their love of movies, and just in general how much fun they are.
Screenwriter’s Roundtable: Part 6
SM: All right, a few more questions if you’ve got time for them. Thinking back on all the things you did when you were prepping yourself to become a screenwriter, I’d just like to go through a list of these things really quickly and just get some quick, gut reactions, figure out how important they were in your process. Watching movies. How important is watching movies for learning how to be a screenwriter?
Chris: Huge.
John: Yes, very important. Watching movies is the easy part. At a certain point, you have to start watching movies objectively. Or more strategically. Obviously all of us have watched movies forever for just entertainment and I think we’ll continue to do that, but when I was starting, I would watch movies with the lights on with a notebook in front of me. And I’d watch them over and over and over again. So for me, that was a big part of it. Going from what’s on the screen and then trying to translate that into the page.
Scott: I do that, too. I’ll have the remote handy and I’ll click over to check the time into the movie every now and then, just to see when things are happening structurally. And I like to take notes that way.
SM: How about reading scripts? How important is that?
Scott: I think reading scripts is the number one thing you can possibly do to become a better writer in a very, very short amount of time. There’s so much to be learned from a hundred pages of a Tony Gilroy script. If you’re actually paying attention and you’re not just reading it to read it, but actually reading it to — again, how we were talking about watching movies — to read it to understand it. You can learn so much in a hundred pages of a script, more than you could ever learn two or three books.
Chris: I should probably read more scripts. I read a lot at one point. I try to see lots of movies, I try to read other things, but I would say that, taking a step back in a broad sense, imagination comes from putting things together that haven’t been put together before. It doesn’t always come out of the absolute stratosphere, it’s things you put together. And to do that, you need to experience lots of different things, and have a lot of things in your memory, and notes. So both of those are really important. And back to movies. We should have all seen lots and lots and lots of movies of different decades, stretching back, so we have all those ideas in our heads or those characters, or the way a certain movie or a certain script handled a situation. And what they got right and what they got wrong. I think there’s a lot to be said for watching mediocre movies, movies that didn’t quite work out. Trying to figure out why that is.
John: I think that’s the same for scripts. The way you… at least for me when I was trying to break through, when I did that watching movies that were huge at the box office and break them down. I did the same thing for scripts, where I’d great scripts by great writers and then watch the movie. Or I’d watch the movie first and then read the script. Then I’d also read spec scripts that sold, and then I’d also read shitty scripts. It’s not just watching movies and just reading scripts, there are four or five different ways to do both of those things and for me, both of those things were super important for me as I was trying to learn the craft.
SM: So thinking that the people who are going to be reading this are aspiring writers, people who are out there where you were a few years back, what about studying the business? How important is that for them to understand the business aspects of filmmaking?
Greg: I would put that close to the top. I know you always preach this, Scott, and it’s a great thing, read scripts, watch movies, write pages, but I think one of the biggest things you can do is just follow the business. Read the trades, look at what’s going on, look at what’s selling, there’s your proof right there. And if you’re outside the industry, if you’re not here in LA, you still have access to the internet. It should be one of your biggest tools. You should be online every day reading the trades. I still do. I go on and see what went down that day, what got set up. Because if I don’t know what’s selling, then how am I going to try and do it myself? The other thing that you’ll learn is that you’ll start to get a database in your head. Names of people, managers, producers, who’s selling what kind of stuff, and it’s only going to help you down the road.
John: Totally agree with that.
SM: Let me ask you one last thing. Films are, of course, primarily a director’s medium. Have you been thinking about TV or have your reps been steering you in that direction because it’s so much more of a writer-controlled, writer-oriented thing?
John: Yes, my main focus for this upcoming year is television, and then I’m also going to direct one of my scripts. For me, TV is just really fascinating. I’m working on something right now and one of the guys who I really, really respect, he told me something that I thought was really interesting. He said that the movie business is primarily a development business, where television is a business of production. Every Friday night, something has to be on the air. For me, I get a little ADD sometimes. I want to write something and I want to shoot it. I want to be pushed, I want to have forty eight hours to turn in sixty pages and then we’re going to be shooting it in the next week. What happens with features, and I’ve been lucky with my only two specs look like they’re going to get made but I like the idea of making something. I don’t consider myself to be a writer, to be honest with you, and I’m sure I’m different from a lot of these guys, I don’t want to just write pages, I want to create something that’s actually on the screen. Right now, it feels like television is the place where I can do that and have the most control, and if that isn’t that, then I’m going to go direct my own script. So that’s super important for me and my guys are definitely behind me and have helped me get that set up for this upcoming year.
Scott: There’s definitely been some pushing on my end to push me towards TV, but the thing that I bump up against is that all the ideas that I come up with are two hour ideas. I struggle to come up with an idea that’s a hundred episodes. I love TV. Five years ago, TV had never been better. Things like “Battlestar Galactica” and “Lost”, now we’ve got shows like “Breaking Bad” — television is amazing. I guess my brain isn’t wired to think in terms of that kind of story-telling, so unless I wake up one morning with this amazing idea, it’s movies for me right now.
Jeremiah: We feel the same way but also, once you get in, there’s a lot of pressure and there’s a lot of people pushing you towards TV. There’s a lot of money to be made in TV and like you said, it’s a writers medium, but for the people reading who are still trying to break in, there’s something to be said for just focusing. Movies are really hard and TV is really hard. Just focusing your attention and trying to develop your craft at one thing is hard enough before you go expanding into other things. And I know for us at least, we feel like we’re not firmly set enough in the world of film that we feel comfortable yet expanding into TV. That being said, if we get some amazing TV idea, we’d probably pursue it. But we just don’t have that idea yet.
John: Yeah, I just want to get a TV show going before they realize I’m a fraud when it comes to feature films. Like one year before everyone realizes it, I’m going to try to set up a TV show and makes all kind of money.
[Laughter]
Chris: I’m here with Frazier, and we spent a couple of months writing a TV spec together, so what he said was real news to me.
[Laughter]
Chris: But for real, I plan to eventually get in to TV, and it’s sort of a “when” kind of situation, but I am working on a spec with or without Frazier and working on another one. So I’m looking forward to some day at least having one foot in television.
Greg: I’ve taken a couple of pitches out to a couple of studios in the past year, but I’m still learning. I didn’t realize how different that part of the industry is. It really requires a whole different mindset. I’m not giving up on it, I’m going to try and crack it this year and I think I may just have the idea!
Justin: Pretty much everybody seems to be chasing television, that seems to be where more of the money is, so I’ve had a lot of encouragement to go that route. I’m not, for whatever reason, not as interested in television as I am in films. It’s a medium that I don’t feel like I understand as well so I haven’t made the jump yet, but I imagine at some point I’ll give it a try. We’ll see.
SM: Well, I’m glad to hear you guys like film, because to me, there’s nothing better in the world than sitting in the dark and watching a great story unfold on screen. It’s been terrific talking to you guys, and I feel really invigorated by knowing that there are these young turks out there who are bringing this energy into the screenwriting trade.
John: I just wanted to say if everybody is in LA, we should all be drinking together, or having dinner or something.
SM: After-Party!
[Laughter]
Once again the importance of immersing yourself in the world of movies: watching them, reading scripts, studying the business. From now on, I’ll just hearken back to these writers to make that point!
Each day for this series, I’m going to highlight one of the writers. Today: John Swetnam.
Swetnam’s original horror-thriller “Evidence” starring Stephen Moyer and Radha Mitchell, directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi (The Fourth Kind), and produced by Bold Films and Marc Platt Productions (Drive) recently wrapped and is in post-production. His original spec “Category Six” sold to New Line Cinemas and will be directed by Stephen Quale (Final Destination 5) and produced by Todd Garner. John is also currently working on assignment, adapting the book “A Game of Hide and Seek” for Principal Entertainment. In the TV world, John has partnered with Dr. Patricia Kirby, also known as “the real life Clarice Starling”, and will be pitching a new “Rizzoli and Isles” type show based on her life. He is also developing multiple projects with various producers around town, and writing/developing/producing 5 of his own original spec projects. In his down time, John enjoys alcohol and making very questionable decisions.
You can follow John on Twitter: @JohnSwetnam.
For Part 1 of the roundtable discussion, go here.
For Part 2, go here.
For Part 3, go here.
For Part 4, go here
For Part 5, go here.
Please take a few moments to go into comments and thank Chris, Scott, Jeremiah, Nick, Justin, Greg, and John for taking the time to talk to the GITS and online screenwriting community.
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