Written Interview: John Lee Hancock

Today’s interview is with screenwriter-director John Lee Hancock. His writing credits include A Perfect World (1993), Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997), The Alamo (2004), and The Blind Side (2009). 

Here are a few excerpts of answers Hancock gave to questions provided by Storylink readers:

Do you have a process that serves you best for crafting a story? In other words, do you perhaps make extensive character sketches first, before working on your structure? Make a scene outline first and let the characters grow from the plot-points of the story you wish to tell? Or maybe you visualize a few key scenes, that give you your ending and your theme, and this theme determines whether you need to work on structure or character first? Or do you have some other process(es) that gets you the most successful story as efficiently as possible? — Lance

Everyone skins the cat differently. For me, in the planning and preparation stage, I usually have three different kinds of work product going. One, a constantly changing plot outline. Two, a list of characters and their traits, descriptions, and facts about them. And three, a theme book, although that’s a dirty word to some. This is an ongoing attempt to answer questions for myself: “What is this really about?” “What is this story trying to deliver beyond the plot?” “How does this place work for or against the story and does it have its own storyline?” “What does a character achieve/learn/lose/gain?” John August calls this the DNA of the script and I like that description. It can include questions, photos, pieces of scenes, slang, location information, and basically anything else that feels necessary to make the script more than just a collection of scenes.

How do you KNOW your screenplay is done? Do you rely on feedback from others? If so, are they other screenwriters, script doctors, directors, actors, producers, agent? — Johan

I used to write long, rough first drafts and let execs read them to help me condense and find the heart of the story. I no longer do that. It is so difficult to get movies made that I think you want every step to be positive and forward leaning. They can only read it the first time once and, though they would deny it, in their minds that read results in the script finding its way into one of two imaginary stacks. A small stack of “this movie will be made” and a large one of “this movie needs improvement to have a chance.” So I rewrite and rewrite until I have a draft that I’m very happy with. Then I hand it over to a few trusted friends who want me to succeed (sometimes hard to find) and will be brutally honest with their notes. Then I’ll let my agent and producers read, make more changes and finally, turn it in to the studio or producing entity.

For the rest of the Q&A, go here.