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Screenwriter Interviews
MovieBytes Interview:
Screenwriter Daniel Audet
An interview with screenwriter Daniel Audet regarding the Canadian Short Writing Competition.
Q: What's the title of the script you entered in this contest, and what's it about?A: Rusted Pyre. It's about two teenage girls who spend a night in a haunted car abandoned in the empty countryside.
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 found out about the contest because there was an article about David Cormican in the Lethbridge Herald (we are both from that area) and it mentioned how he was starting a short screenplay competition. I had just finished my first short script and thought it would be a great way to get a little feedback. This was the only contest I entered with Rusted Pyre.
Q: Were you satisfied with the administration of the contest? Did they meet their deadlines? Did you receive all the awards that were promised?A: Yes. Everything went according to plan. As promised Rusted Pyre went to camera this November and will be ready for festivals sometime in the spring or summer. It will be a fantastic credit on my resume and hopefully lead to some of my other scripts finding an audience.
Q: How long did it take you to write the script? Did you write an outline beforehand? How many drafts did you write?A: I was working as a security guard at the time so I had hours to daydream out ideas. I had been struggling with finding something that I could do as a short because all of my prior writing had been features. But once the idea clicked the actual writing of a first draft only took a few days. I submitted maybe my second or third draft but since then I've rewritten more drafts than I can count. As far as an outline goes I only do that for a feature length.
Q: What kind of software did you use to write the script, if any? What other kinds of writing software do you use?A: I use Final Draft. Before that I agonized my way through Word and my formatting was unprofessional and random. Do yourself a favor and get decent software.
Q: Do you write every day? How many hours per day?A: My time is divided between oil painting and writing. It seems to go in cycles. I'll be painting for a few months and then stop and do only writing for a few months. There are no set hours but having a normal person's job in addition to my art keeps my schedule regular enough that I don't need to make specific writing hours in order to get things accomplished.
Q: Do you ever get writer's block? If so, how do you deal with that?A: As mentioned above when the writing wanes then it's time for me to paint. Or you don't want to paint you can just consume as many stories, video games, films, magazines, websites, blah blah blah, as possible until you're so saturated with ideas that you have to write something or burst.
Q: What's your background? Have you written any other screenplays or television scripts?A: Rusted Pyre will be my first produced screenplay. I have a slate of other projects that I'm working on in pretty much every medium.
Q: Do you live in Los Angeles? If not, do you have any plans to move there?A: No. I like Canada.
Q: What's next? Are you working on a new script?A: I'm working on a feature script about a young boy who lives next door to a monster called The Owl Man.
Posted Tuesday, December 28, 2010
