1. Your script Finding Your True Self won award in the category Best First-Time Screenwriter Feature Script. How was the script inspired?
I'm very happy and grateful the script has won, and more so that it
has been getting so much recognition already! The script was inspired
by a number of different things, varying films, thoughts etc. There's
a scene in Danny Boyle's T2 Trainspotting where Renton and Spud go
for a run up Arthur's Seat. I love that scene, the humour, what it
represents for the two of them, etc, and that scene inspired one of
the first scenes in my script, where James and Rosalind go on their
own respective run, for their own reasons. The dynamic of a trio of
friends that's seen in Kings Of Summer, Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl,
God Help The Girl, that sort of dynamic was very much inspired from
films like that. As akin to Perks Of Being A Wallflower as this
script might be, I actually didn't really think about that film until
I was finished with the script.
2. How did the writing
process go? What was challenging during writing?
The writing process
was really the case of me having this idea, randomly drafting scenes
or lines as and when the idea struck me, and then I ended up leaving
it for a while. I came back to it around the start of 2020 and worked
on it more and more, the original plan being to film it in the summer
just gone, which of course didn't happen! I think the challenge was
making what is ultimately more a story of the characters be a "story"
story as well if that makes sense? It's not as if the film doesn't
have a story to it, I'd like to say it does, but I think the main
real thing I had to think about was how does the growth I want in the
characters intertwine with/create a narrative so to speak.
3.
Tell us about your background and when did you decide to become a
screenwriter?
I am currently a final year Film and TV Production
student, and have been doing freelance videography for around a year
now, filming business promo's mainly, as well as event coverage,
weddings, etc. I have crewed on the odd short film as a runner,
clapperboard, etc and have more recently knuckled down a bit on both
my writing and directing. Over the last couple months or so, I wrote
and directed two shorts, Memento Mori and Mick and Rolo, and also
wrote my first commissioned piece, CopyCats, directed by Soeun Park.
I've always loved writing and wanted to be a writer since I was
younger, and my interest specifically in screenwriting has just grown
over time.
4. Films that inspired you to become a
filmmaker?
To be honest, probably about 95% of the films I've seen
has inspired me to make films in some way! Lots of the films I saw
when I was younger, your Jaws, Indiana Jones', Goonies aided me for
sure, but really most films I've seen have inspired me in some way.
I'd love to make a cracking, well choreographed martial arts film
thanks to works such as Ip Man and The Matrix for example. I'm
constantly inspired even now with some of the stuff that has come out
in recent years, especially the more original and different films
such as The Lighthouse and Under the Silver Lake.
5. Who
is your biggest influence?
I don't think I have a key influence
really. Edgar Wright and Tarantino influenced me early on, maybe on
my writing, hard to say. Spielberg of course is notable as well. And
then, as I mentioned in my previous answer, new voices with original
ideas, your Robert Eggers, Ari Aster's, David Robert Mitchell's, they
are an influence on me I suppose to show that different sorts of
ideas can still get made, and can still be well liked!
6.
Do you have a favorite genre to work in? Why is it your favorite?
I
suppose my main genre, thinking about the ideas I've made and have
planned, is probably drama. However, that's by coincidence more than
favouritism. For me, it really varies. A film concept may more about
the idea, and then the genre follows afterwards, or I might just
think "hey it would be cool to make a werewolf film" and
then an idea for that comes. Of course it's likely going to be mainly
a horror, but I don't decide to write a horror and then come up with
the idea, I think more about creating a werewolf film, a slice of
life film, etc then the genre follows. Sometimes a title might even
just be the first thing I think of.
7. What’s your
all-time favorite movie and why?
Favourite movie is a
tricky one! The closest I have to a favourite is definitely helped
because I've seen it so many times as opposed to other films that
might be my favourite but they just aren't as I haven't seen them
enough. But, that said, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is
probably near to my favourite. I think it's got the perfect
combination of a great story, lots of humour, personal connections
and family relationships, brilliant action, and more. I never tire of
watching it, and it's one of the few films where I really know the
soundtrack quite well, which I can't say for a lot of films I've
seen.
8. The most challenging project you worked on. And
why?
The documentary has been the most challenging by
far. However, we are only in the casting stage of the feature (at the
time of me writing these answers) so that is going to likely end up
becoming the most challenging for sure. The doc on the other hand has
been challenging in its scheduling mostly. I've held interviews all
across the North East, some planned out way ahead, some more
impromptu. It's all the consent forms that are the necessary evil!
Besides that, Covid put a stop to my editing as I wasn't editing it
from home, so that's been something that I'm currently in the process
of sorting out.
9. What are your short term and long term
career goals?
Short term goals is to get the documentary edited and
showcased, film a one take short film, likely in December, and keep
plotting towards filming my first feature, fingers crossed February
starting date! Aside from graduating university with hopefully a
decent grade, I want to move into official industry jobs, in the role
ideally of a researcher/script editor, with the career progression
aim to work my way up to screenwriter. I will always be continuing my
freelance work and films alongside anything I do though!
10.
Your next projects?
In terms of next projects, I have the
documentary project to finish the last edits on, hoping to get that
done this year. There's the one take short film and a series of actor
monologues I want to kick into gear. We hope to film this feature
script early next year, and after that I hope to look to doing a
second feature- I already have several scripts in various stages that
the second feature could be.