‘Nickel Boys’ co-writer Joslyn Barnes on ‘entering the eyes of the main characters’

“There’s really no fat in that novel, and it’s also very cause-and-effect, in a way. And so we felt, when we first read it, that it would be a very challenging adaptation to do,” remembers “Nickel Boys” co-writer and producer Joslyn Barnes about the Colson Whitehead novel that inspired her film. “It would really require adjusting it and really opening it up in a different way.” We talked to Barnes as part of our “Meet the Experts” film writers panel. Watch our complete video interview above.

Inspired by the real-life Dozier School for Boys, an abusive Florida reform school that operated for more than a century, “Nickel Boys” follows Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson), who have been sent to the fictional Nickel Academy and struggle to survive its violence and corruption. The film is also unique in that it’s shot from Elwood’s and Turner’s first-person points of view. The camera serves as their eyes into the world.

Barnes wrote the screenplay with RaMell Ross, who also directed the film, and “it struck me that his use of the camera was kind of an extension of consciousness. So when we read Colson’s novel and he proposed to do this in first-person, it didn’t really surprise me.” From there it was a matter of deciding “how you get past the conditioning that we all have of being voyeurs, how to entice the viewer into entering the eyes of the main characters.”

Ross also wanted “to shoot the film in oners, without the benefit of coverage.” So they were also writing the script “with duration in mind, in terms of the way scenes would work, and sequences would work.” The film was further complicated by its narrative structure, which “moves both forward and backward in the script simultaneously … and we felt that we would respect the viewer so much if we could give them that experience of participating in the unfolding very directly.” It was all about drawing the viewer in, so you’re not just watching what happens to these boys. You’re also part of it.