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Screenwriter Interviews
MovieBytes Interview:
Screenwriter James Stevens-Arce
An interview with screenwriter James Stevens-Arce regarding the Screamfest Writing Competition.
Q: What's the title of the script you entered in this contest, and what's it about?A: "Souls" is a 35-minute contemporary psychological thriller, which some readers have described as "Psycho" meets "The Silence of the Lambs," about a murder that takes place in a seedy bar and the unexpected revelations that come out during the ensuing FBI interrogation.
Q: What made you enter this particular contest? Have you entered any other contests with this script? If so, how did you do?A: I entered this contest because it focuses on horror, a genre into which my script falls, and it included a competition for short-form screenplays.
To date, I have entered no other contests with it yet.
A: I'm fully satisfied with the contest and its administration, and I did receive the promised awards.
Q: Were you given any feedback on your script? If so, did you find the feedback helpful?A: No feedback was promised and none has been received.
Q: Has your success in this contest helped you market your script? Were you contacted by any agents, managers or producers?A: I believe my script's winning first place in its category will help me obtain financial assistance from my local government film fund (I live in San Juan, Puerto Rico).
To date, no agents, managers, or producers have contacted me as a result of my script's winning this contest.
A: I'm an independent writer-producer-director in the advertising business in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
I've written four feature-length screenplays: "Soulsaver," a sci-fi action-drama adapted from my award-winning novel of the same name, "Blind Man, Preacher Man," a 19th-century action-drama which semifinaled in the New York Latino International Film Festival, "All You Need is Love," a 1960s romantic comedy/buddy movie, and "Sins of the Heart," a contemporary noir detective story which made the top 5% in the Nicholl and the top 10% at the Austin Film Festival Screenwriting Competition.
A: I live in San Juan, Puerto Rico. If I get a job as a staff writer on a new crime drama series I'm up for, I plan to live in L.A. during those months of the year in which we are in production and my presence there is required.
Q: What's next? Are you working on a new script?A: I've been hired to write an indie script in Spanish for a local production company and I'm writing an Elmore Leonard-type contemporary crime spec script in English (think GET SHORTY and TISHOMINGO BLUES) on my own.
Posted Thursday, January 8, 2004
