A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME
I’ve been screenwriting for as long as I can remember. I used to be such a nerd and would write sequels to films before they came out. I once wrote like fifty pages of Lord of the Rings 4 before giving up, and all of this was in LibreOffice…yeah. Not super proud of that. But now I’m on Final Draft.
After nearly ten years of experimenting with screenwriting, I believe I have finally reached the point at which I would consider myself “at a professional level”. It took a lot of time to get the junk writing out and to reach a stage where I learned that you can’t wait for the “right moment” or “right idea” to pop into your head. You just have to write.
I believe that films need to be character-focused, and that worldbuilding is essential. I don’t want to write sequels or remakes of currently existing series’. I want to write new worlds and new characters that have their own lifestyles, economies, and magic systems.
Did I say magic systems? Yes, I did! I am a MASSIVE fantasy nerd and a lot of my screenplays, excluding my historical ones, tend to reflect that!
I want to write things for those people that love traditional Star Wars and Lord of the Rings type films, but I believe I can do it differently. I believe we’ve only tapped the surface of filmmaking and have an inordinate amount of growth to achieve. We’ve begun to focus too much on believing the audience is stupid and have since only created films that the audience falls asleep in. That or we try to destroy an established IP that was good with something dumbed down.
WHY I WANT TO WRITE
When I boot up almost any streaming service, I scroll for thirty minutes before I give up and decide to go write. So why am I a writer? Because I want something to watch. Maybe its a selfish reason, but I know my parents and friends feel the same way. I love movies so much, but am tired of the ‘established formulas’.
So how do we fix that?
Modern films have failed to tug at my heartstrings like older films have. The primary reason for this is that I almost never care about the characters or the worlds that they live in. We need to redefine what the movie-going experience is about, and that has never been made more clear than by the modern box office. Most theaters across the U.S. are fully open, and the box office is still doing terrible. That’s because most of the upcoming movies look like boring, uninteresting, lifeless experiences.
When I’ve gone to the theater recently, there are only one or two trailers that catch my eye, and then out of those two, I generally will only go see one. It’s not because “It’ll just go to a streaming service later,” but because it genuinely just doesn’t look good…and it doesn’t to anyone else either.
Generally, this is because films have become political cesspits, and when they’re not, they are a lifeless horror film or about some weird animal being birthed by a human…which…ugh. Gross.
What if it’s not awful looking? Then it’s another sequel or reboot. I don’t have a problem with sequels, but the market is over-saturated by the same-old-same-old. The fact that I was excited for Dune because I knew it would feel different is stupid. Every film should feel different. I don’t need Fast and Furious 7. I need a fascinating tale that will pull at my heartstrings and inspire me to action. I want to feel like I can take down a dragon or feel like I could live in the world I’m seeing, but all too often, I don’t.
I am going to write differently than the Hollywood norm. I think Hollywood has come and gone. We need fresh experiences and I think society is ready to have morality back in their films.
Why do we love films/shows like The Patriot and Outlander? Because they make us feel something. They tug at our natural instincts of fatherhood, patriotism, and honor. As for Star Wars, it taps into our natural desire to be independent of evil.
I’m tired of pulling up the latest fantasy show on TV and being bombarded by nudity. I’m tired of being preached to. I’m tired of endings sucking because the producers only care about money. I’m tired of retread and rehashing stories that make me feel nothing. It’s time for young writers to come in and reconstruct the film industry.