This Scream Writing Questions post should have been up two years ago but somehow it managed to slip through the cracks of email, a damned shame considering that David J. Stieve wrote one of my favorite movies of all time, 2006’s Behind the Mask: The Rise Leslie Vernon (the poster for which made an appearance in my short, A Short Film With a Happy Ending… please don’t sue me!). This interview is captivating and insightful, I am very happy it was discovered so that we can share it with you.
What first got you interested in screenwriting?
To be honest, I thought I was going to be a novelist. I’ve always gravitated to storytelling, and I assumed I would flex that muscle by writing the next great American novel. Then, one night, while standing in the back of the Orpheum Theatre on State Street in Madison, Wisconsin (where I worked in college), the lightbulb finally came on: I’d worked at a video store in high school, a movie theatre in college… I’d always been around movies, drawn to them. So instead of continuing to struggle with a novel, perhaps I should try to write a script instead. Foolishly, part of the appeal back then was that in my naïveté, it seemed that writing 110 pages of script would somehow be easier than writing a three hundred page novel.
Do you have an example of a lesson you learned from reading a script (rather than watching the movie made from it)?
I think the truest answer here is that I learn a great deal of “what not to do” lessons from reading scripts. That’s a little off topic, but the painful reality is that most scripts I read are not professionally written. The best way to learn what a great script looks like is to sift through the hundreds that aren’t great. The mistakes and common pitfalls start to stick out like big blinking lights, and once that seeps into your brain, you start to instinctively change your writing. More to the question, though, I can say that I always tend to watch movies with the captions on. It’s not quite reading the script, but it’s amazing how much you can learn from “reading” the movie as it plays out. I can add that one specific thing I can say I’ve learned from reading bad scripts is how important it is to write authentic sounding dialogue. Dialogue is messy, it’s not an English paper in high school. That is NOT to say it’s okay to have typos and formatting errors and dialect-heavy slang that’s indecipherable. I’m saying you have to write DIALOGUE the way actual humans speak. We shorten sentences, we mumble, we use bad grammar and the wrong words. We cut each other off, we trail off without finishing. Beginning writers tend to slip into grammar school practices and have everyone speak in perfect sentences like they’re teaching an English course. That’s a huge red flag. You can see what I mean in practice when you watch a film with the captions on.
What’s the strongest piece of advice you have for aspiring screenwriters?Treat it like the specialized skill set that it is. The notion that “anyone can write a movie” drives me fucking batty. Can “anyone” be a master carpenter? Can anyone be a heart surgeon? How about sing an opera, catch a trout by fly-fishing, or bench press 400 pounds? The answer is “maybe, if you train properly and learn how to do so.” But yet there’s this persistent notion that the creativity required to write a good script is somehow instinctual or simply a matter of having enough imagination and a laptop. Screenwriting is an intensely complex, specialized skill set. You need to educate yourself on HOW to do it, by studying the actual mechanics of what goes where, and WHY. Read screenwriting books, listen to other screenwriters talk about their processes, read more books, and also read about a thousand scripts. It is NOT instinctual, and not everyone can do it. But you increase your chances of success the more you drill down into the nuts-and-bolts academics of HOW to structure and write a script. Yet somehow, many people think they’re just naturally gifted and they’ve watched a sufficient number of movies and that’s good enough. But that’s why 90% of the scripts written in this world are shit. Work hard to get yourself into the 10% who’ve mastered the minutiae.
What is your relationship with genre film (love, hate, indifference)? What led to that?
Obviously, I have a soft spot for classic horror. I believe horror films, and the appeal for horror fans to keep soaking them up, is rooted in the fact that horror stories are the oldest human stories of all time. Horror stories are older than love, older than comedy, older than war stories or politics or even basic dramas. HORROR was the first genre – we told each other stories in the caves and around the first fires that were warning tales: “don’t go out of the cave alone at night. There are monsters out in the darkness, beyond the edge of the campfire light, waiting to eat you.” And it was true. Our earliest communications with each other were to warn each other of the dangers of the world, and the boogeymen lurking in the dark. It’s the same today, even if the darkness is the corner of the garage on Halloween night. An instinctive response to horror stories is ingrained in our collective DNA. Having said all of that, though, I don’t ONLY love horror. I love any genre of story if it’s well told. Does it affect the emotional response the creator intended? Does it move me to laugh, cry, get mad, feel motivated, be inspired? If it succeeds, I’m in.
What was something that surprised you in the process of writing your own screenplay?
How much the characters started to “talk to me.” It doesn’t happen all the time, but when you’ve done the work on developing the characters to the point where they exist “independently” in your mind, and they begin to exert that independence, it’s magical. You’re no longer writing dialogue at that point, you’re transcribing what they’re saying to you. It’s a delightful surprise when you find yourself trying to keep up and record what they’re saying.
What’s your favorite thing about screenwriting that doesn’t apply to other kinds of writing?
How much can be (and must be) communicated without the characters saying what’s really on their mind, or without saying anything at all. In fact, sometimes the characters intentionally mislead other characters, and yet at the same time express very complex ideas or motivations. A lot of this has to do with trusting the process that the eventual actor playing the role will understand the truth behind the dialogue or action, and communicate it non-verbally. But I think screenwriting is unique in the aspect of allowing for such a calculated amount of vagueness or outright misdirection, and NOT clearly putting the plot points down on the page. A big part of a great script is in what is NOT written.
What are some of the films and stories that inspired you?Wow. Isn’t it an ongoing process of inspiration, ultimately? Isn’t that why we seek out new stories so instinctively? Thus far in my life, I can cite films like KING KONG, STAR WARS, BLADERUNNER, HALLOWEEN, THE PRINCESS BRIDE, BRAVEHEART, NOBODY’S FOOL, UNFORGIVEN, THE BIG LEBOWSKI, THE STRAIGHT STORY, NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, LOVE ACTUALLY, THE DESCENDANTS… The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the short stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald, the poetry of Robert Frost and Pablo Neruda… tv shows like Miami Vice, The West Wing, the Sopranos, Breaking Bad… I even went through a phase in my teens when I was obsessed with a soap opera called “Santa Barbara.” Though that might have had more to do with Robin Wright’s presence in the cast, a lifelong inspiration in her own right, albeit for somewhat different reasons!
If you could adapt any story in any medium into a screenplay, what is your dream project?There’s a Herman Wouk novel called Don’t Stop the Carnival, which Jimmy Buffett actually adapted into a musical that ran in Miami circa 1999 or something. I’ve been pining to turn that into a feature film or television series for well over a decade now. If there are any parrotheads out there who have a line to Jimmy, please reach out to me ASAP.
Where can people find you online and support your work (present or upcoming)?
Well, I’m a white guy in my 40’s, so I still use Facebook. I’m trying to get better with Twitter (@DavidJStieve) and Insta (djstieve) but have yet to embrace any other platforms. I’m currently caught in post-production hell on my first directoral effort, a short horror film called WAIT FOR IT, which I hope to be able to finish and promote this fall. Or Winter. Or spring 2019. And I’m seeking financing for my new horror/comedy feature, a loving deconstruction of the mutant-cannibal-family-in-the-woods genre entitled THE HILLS ONLY HAVE EYES FOR YOU.
Thanks for sticking with this and getting it out there, Zack! Fun questions and hopefully moderately helpful to some. I love Scriptophobic!