MovieBytes Interview:
Screenwriter Jeff Seeman

An interview with screenwriter Jeff Seeman regarding the Writers Place Writing Competition.

A: Hey, dude, good to see you again! It’s been a few months since you interviewed me about my last contest win, for the script Mardi Gras (https://www.moviebytes.com/ws/Interviews.cfm?InterviewID=186). Say, you’re looking good. Have you lost weight? Oh, yeah, the new script. Right. Sorry. It’s a rom-com called In Your Dreams. It’s about two people who meet and fall in love through a series of shared dreams, until an impending disaster gives them both 48 hours to find out whether there are real-life counterparts to their dream mates.

A: Hey, Mike Wallace, slow down, will ya? One question at a time. Jeez. Okay, let’s see. As I recall, I entered The Writers Place contest because it was so well reviewed on MovieBytes.com. I’ve only recently finished the final polish of the script, so I’ve only entered it in a few contests. But so far it’s been a semi-finalist in two other contests and a winner in this one. Hey, remember the last time you interviewed me? You and I went out afterwards and threw back some beers and really raised some hell. Remember that?

A: Oh, don’t want to talk about it, huh? Okay, I get it. Gotta maintain the professional interviewer image and all, right? Okay, I’ll play along. Yeah, the administration of the contest was very professional. After I won, they communicated with me just about every day to make sure I received all the awards, to make sure the announcement on their web site was just the way I wanted it, etc. I was very impressed by how professional and accommodating they were.

A: Yes. I was told to rewrite the whole script, make it twice as long, cut out all the funny parts, change all the dialogue to incoherent mumbling, and change the two main characters to gay cowboys. And I said, “But that’s ridiculous!” Shows how much I know.

A: Not so far. But then the contest win was just announced and pretty much everyone in Hollywood was away at Sundance at the time except for, like, the janitors. And Hollywood janitors don’t make movies on their own. Although, now that I think of it, I have my suspicions about Big Momma’s House 2.

Hey, what was the name of the stripper we met that night? Foxy? Trixie?

A: Oh, sorry, dude. Your wife probably reads these interviews, doesn’t she? No, it wasn’t a stripper. I don’t know what I was thinking. She was a, um...dental hygienist. Yeah, that’s it. Trixie the Dental Hygienist.

Oh, before I starting writing screenplays I was a novelist. Before that I performed stand-up comedy in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Boston. Before that I was editor of the Cornell Lunatic, Cornell University’s answer to the Harvard Lampoon, and before that I wrote short stories. Before that I was an artist, working mostly in finger paints. Before that I was an embryo.

A: Yes, I live in Los Angeles, which is why I write screenplays. As I mentioned last time you interviewed me, it’s actually the law here; if you’re not working on a screenplay, you’re legally required to move to Fresno. And now there’s a new zoning ordinance being proposed here in L.A. that would force screenwriters to live in certain neighborhoods based on their genre, which I think is a terrible idea. All the writers in the rom-com zip code would be constantly falling in and out of love, all the writers in the horror zip code would be running around with chainsaws and machetes trying to kill each other. Really, I shudder to think of it.

A: Yes, as a matter of fact, I am. This time I’m going to try something completely different. I’m working on a new a horror/black comedy which I really think will... Uh-oh. I just realized, that means I’m going to have to move to another neighborhood. Damn.

Anyway, thanks for interviewing me again. Want to go grab a beer?

Posted Sunday, February 5, 2006