Writing process

[alextheman]

Hey I'm curious what everyone's writing process. 

[Chad Taylor]

I feel like my blog gives a pretty good insight into my writing process

[Mo Buck Writers Association]

With adaptations, I think this is straight-forward. I just adapt the material on which my film is based on, it doesn't really require more explanation. 


For original movies based on events (from my filmography, see Cape Torment, October Crisis, Calamity, Under Pressure and Radisson), before I start writing, I ask myself if I would be interested to see a film based on the event, or whatever you want to base your film on. From there, I use the information I have to write a summary of my film. I read it and I ask myself if I feature film can be made out of this and if I say yes and only if I do, I write a detailed summary of the story (major scenes, character details and traits) and I usually go from there. 


For completely original stories (from my filmography, see Don't Hang Up, To the Other Side, Letter to Myself, Mandingos and many others), it usually starts with an idea (duh). However, I get dozens of ideas per week, but I really need to ask myself, can I stretch this idea out to a 2-hour feature film ? If not, I don't write anything. If my answer is yes, then I try to build around this idea. To give you a better understanding, I will give present to you how I wrote my Golden Reel winning Don't Hang Up (one of the best critical reception I've had in my career), so I know that my method, when applied correctly, works).

Step 1 : The idea

It all started during a week in which I received dozens and I mean dozens of scam calls on my cell phone. It rang while I was in school, in my car, at home, it even rang in the middle of the night, for three days straight. (I ended up changing my number to get rid of these annoying phone calls) and on the second day, I decided to answer the phone. The guy was speaking broken French and I decided to have fun with him, so I did the best impression I could do (a comic in Quebec, you won't know him) and I had fun with it. This telephone scam episode of my life gave my a movie idea about guys using their celebrity impressions to scam people. 

Step 2 : Expanding the idea

It's nice to have an idea, but I can't have a two-hour movie with two guys scamming people, I needed to more. I imagined a plotline in my head that needed to be fleshed out and I slept on it. I almost abandoned the story right here and there, because I wasn't able to write anything about it. Dominic Wilkins came on board and helped me write a detailed plotline. From there, all we needed were characters and we were ready to go.

Step 3 : Casting

Sometimes I cast for character I need and sometimes I cast an actor first and write the character later. For Don't Hang Up, it was a mix of both. Michael Keaton was on board from the beginning. I knew I wanted him to play a scammer from the second I had the idea. When I imagined the film in my head, it was Michael Keaton. Now, I needed other characters. We imagined Bob's low-life son, playing video games all day, smoking weed everyday, that kind of stuff, but we didn't want him simply to be a pot-head, he needed charisma to scam people, Ryan Reynolds came on board. We wanted a quirky man who was naive enough to believe in a scam and charming enough to convey sympathy from the viewer. He is also on the comedic side to give the movie a little relief from the dramatic side (it was a dramedy after all). We explored our options a bit and we settled on Zach Galifianakis in a turtleneck. I'll stop there, but you get the idea.

Step 4 : Writing

Once you have your cast of characters (this is where I usually pitch my idea to Admin), I usually let the idea rest in my head for a couple of weeks, sometimes months. (I plan everything in advance). When I come back to writing my film, with the detailed outline and characters, it's usually easy to get right back into it and with a fresh perspective that really gets my creative juices flowing. 

As you can see, I don't write movies left and right. I usually spend about a month writing a movie (on and off and when I have the time to do it) and I adhere the to "quality before quantity". I think it's better to have one good movie released than three "meh" films. 

I know James Morgan uses story-writing software to organise his thoughts (worked well with the out-of-order storytelling of Guilt) a little better, but I don't use them.

I suppose you're asking us this following the release of The William Hung Story. With my method (and I'm not saying it's "the" method and I'm not claiming it's the only way to write a film), a William Hung idea wouldn't have gone past the first step (I could also say it wouldn't even have been through step 1, because I have absolutely no idea who William Hung is). You had the opportunity to drop the idea after you asked us our opinion about it (replacing myself telling my brain that this isn't a good idea).

I realise now that this is way longer than I envisioned, but hopefully it gives you (and everyone else) a better idea how I write.

[alextheman]

I ask honestly for 3 reasons. I want to revitalize the way I write and I want to try new things and learn how to adapt the ideas I have in my head to a feature length and drop the ones I can't. I think things like Hippies in New York and William Hung Story were kind of ideas that shouldn't really existed to be honest. At the time I wrote those I was incredibly cocky and I was like making a William Hung movie that sounds interesting and I did that. Also I'm in the process of adapting Lunar Park and I'm just trying to sort out all of the cool Bret Easton Ellis events especially in the first chapter which is basically autobiography with fictional elements and also how to mix the social satire with the horror.