Film writers roundtable: ‘Air,’ ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,’ ‘Flora and Son’ and ‘May December’ [Exclusive Video Interview]
“If the character’s not there, it doesn’t matter,” says “Air” scribe Alex Convery about what inspires him to write a screenplay. “That’s always the question for me. Who is the character? What’s their journey? And why do we care about them?” We talked to Convery as part of our “Meet the Experts” film writers panel along with Kelly Fremon Craig (“Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret”), John Carney (“Flora and Son”) and Samy Burch (“May December”). Watch our exclusive roundtable discussion above. Click each person’s name to watch an individual chat.
As far as Convery is concerned, if you don’t have compelling characters, “you don’t have a movie.” Craig agrees that character is crucially important in piquing her interest. In her case, it’s about “finding what it is they’re scared about under everything. And then as soon as I can find that pain, that thing that hurts, then I feel like I have a bead on them.” Carney, meanwhile, is “still trying to figure the whole thing out.” Creative inspiration can be a mysterious thing, but “I think for me, it’s probably a mix of character and story and then a killer performance.”
“I think certainly character is what keeps you attached to the story,” Burch concurs, but there’s also something “intangible” about inspiration. ” I feel like I read something Patricia Highsmith said, something like ideas are like birds. You have to intentionally grab one or they just kind of fly by you.” Watch the entire panel to hear the assembled screenwriters also talk about their writing rituals, what it’s like to be able to promote their work since the end of the WGA strike and the fascinating films they’d assign if they were to teach Screenwriting 101.
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