Film Courage: How do you write a screenplay in a week?
Jason Park, Director, Producer, Writer, Actor, and Cinematographer: I stick to the
three pages a day rule and then if the story starts flowing then it'll start flowing on
its own and I let that take its place and then when I start feeling fatigued I stop. Because
when you're fatigued you're not do yourself justice. If you think about a week, 90 pages,
15-20 pages, you can knock that out if you're in a flow. You have to keep doing it every day, just
do it when you find those pockets. What I would do is I'd work when I'd have a breathing room because
no one's working eight hours straight non-stop unless you're doing road work or something for
the most part. You have your little break bubbles and what I would do during my break bubbles is I
would shift and I would write. I’d write a page or two and then I'd go back to work and then I'd
write another page or two and go back to work so I would be consistently outputting because the story
as I'm working on this thing and I'm doing this the story's in my head so when I'm working on it
I'm thinking about the story okay this character can go here okay boom then I'll go here and I
write so it's just about utilizing those pockets of free time to write and it again if you stick
to the three pages a day 30 days you have a full feature film but if you did six now you got it
in 15 if you did nine you have it in pretty much about seven days you said that the stories once
you get started pretty much writes itself have you ever had it where the story is not writing itself
and okay this isn't going anywhere no because I'm not concerned with making it someone else's story
I'm not concerned with and now we're all going to pull from what we're influenced
by our favorite movies you're you're have similar stories but when I write
I the bad guy winning sometimes I things happening that you just don't see coming
so when I write there's the only structure really there's only one thing
that I follow as my guide in my draw I'm not a master writer there's this this is not a master
class but the one thing I follow is what's making these characters move forward what's making these
characters move forward and what I notice is a lot of my films they all take place within two days
so as an indie filmmaker it's a lot easier to shoot two days because people don't really
have to change outfits people can wear the same thing in two days so you're able to save that
and you're able to tell a blip of a story within that two days so if you have to do
a period piece or something that takes over a year or two years or you don't know how
many days then there's a lot of things that you add as far as complexity so I steer away
from that and I do stories that are within a small space and the reason why I don't
get hung up on something is because I just let it go and whatever happens is whatever happens
if it's received well it's received well if it's not it's not but what you do know when you watch
it is huh that's a unique take on it that's interesting that's not what I would let's say
if you're a writer watching it that's not what I would I was taught to write because there should
be more back and forth conflict if I watch a movie and you're able to take somebody out it drives me
crazy when let's say you beat up the bat Michael Myers you beat him up and you get in the car and
then you drive off run them over 10 times run them over and then make sure he's good and then drive
off in my stories it's very like linear it's okay we're get from point A to point D and we're go
here and what is what's allowing these characters to go here and that's just the process that I use
and for me it's it's been working because I've been able to get out stories now whether they're
the best or they're not the only thing that I ever try to do and this is from an acting standpoint
writing standpoint filmmaking is I just try to make things that are entertaining I don't care
about winning Awards I don't care about being the best actor can I get you entertained can I
get you to laugh once can I get you to be oh that was cool oh I that oh no get that again if I can
get you to do that once within that film I did my job outside of that I I don't chase Perfection
because I don't think Perfection is real you can have masterpieces absolutely but there's Beauty
in the imperfections so I think it's more important to get out that vision
than to wait for everything to be perfect or for you to create Perfection because what happens
if you're able to create Perfection for 90 but you're not able to finish
a hundred percent and you have something that's been sitting there for 10 15 years and now you've
gotten into a point in your life where you're in this rhythm you're in this routine and you weren't
able to finish your perfection I think it's better to get it out and get it done and get better and
get better and and get master your craft and get better and learn from the mistakes that you make
evolve enhance influence Inspire other people and with that you're able to create more and I think
it's more important to have 20 shots at this dream that we're all pursuing than to have one shot
and I my odds better at 20 shots how do you organize scenes and structure a screenplay Okay so
90 pages I don't really go by arcs so if you go back to okay what's driving them
forward you have this this mission right whatever it is that drives them forward
as an indep me writing it as an indie filmmaker I know that I can't go super crazy
because I have to be able to capture it so I can't do cars exploding drifting off of a bridge into
a helicopter I can't do that not to say that I can't but I'm limited at that moment in time and
space to accomplish that so when I write I write what's feasible I write 90 pages I don't write 120
130 and I have to chop away it's 90 page I write what I know I can film and what I'm going to film
and then I write locations that I I'm pretty confident that I can procure and then once
that's done I break the scenes down by location so if I have 15 locations in the film then each
location is associated with a scene number so then now when I go to that location I know we're doing
scene 7 29 and 3. and then the actors all know okay we're doing 7 29 and three because that's
what's associated with this location so when you break down scenes and scripts this way by
locations and the scenes associated with those locations and you take away the magic Allure of
it and you just put in the work because in reality all we're doing is lighting audio and we're push
and record that's it you take away the thought of I need 20 crew members I need a PA I need a
I need this I need that take all that away and just think about what is the work the work is
to capture your story in front of the lens to the best of your ability at that time so once you're
able to do that and you're able to break it down into these sections now okay I have 15 locations
I have 15 shoot days so let's plan around these 15 shoe days we have three scenes six scenes two
scenes I have four hours two hours three hours now you've created a plan on how to shoot your film
now those are just consistent small steps that you do non-stop then when you get to that last
location and you shoot those scenes you're now done and you're working on the post-production
on editing color grading sound design voices and you're doing all of that but as far as
shooting because you created a plan on how you were going to do it and you were
consistent about it you did it and that's how I break down films I break down films by scenes
and locations and I tie them together so then when I get a location if I have to do 10 scenes
in three hours I know we have to fly there's no there's no Double Take triple take we gotta
fly but if I have one scene for one location I can get 100 shots and take my time with it
so you'll have some scenes that turn out better than others because you had more time with it
but it's better to have a completed film and continue to get better than to just try and
get that perfect shot and then now instead of a 16 15 shoot day you have a 50 60 shoot day that
took three or four years because you didn't plan how did you create the character of Ace in Amigos.
Ace Four Amigos pose a lot of influence from Fast and the Furious I think any film with
cars pulls from Fast and and the Furious but Ace is is almost Paul Walker's character but Asian.
I just wrote what I wanted to see on screen and I pulled from the things that I love
one of the main things that I've loved since I was a teenager is cars in the car culture and
the car community and they are so abrasive of each other right it doesn't matter if you have
a fifteen hundred dollar Honda Civic that you built up in your garage or you have 80
000 CA Corvette it just doesn't matter there's love for cars which turns into love for people so
with Ace’s character I knew okay what could I do to move the story forward what can I shoot that's
feasible from where I am currently at in life I said okay his mom is sick and he has to rob
somebody how can I incorporate cars without making it have cheesy card dialogue and stuff
and my dialogue is very simple because it's really my my films are more
I think story driven and the characters are just develop compared to character driven and
then the story develops so I'm more interested in the story of how did they get from point A to
point d right how did it get there and with Ace I was okay how can I how can I make him
get to where he's trying to get to and incorporate cars that was the main thing because I had access
to these cars these amazing cars and I knew that I had a higher level of success with
the niche film right so if I was going to make a film about cars I know there's an audience
a multi-billion dollar audience attached to that and I I own all the Fast and the Furious
Blu-rays I watch all of them yearly I'll go and just do a Marathon run because I just love cars
and I love car films and car culture so by me Not Me By Us creating a tuner film
we automatically had that Niche audience because I know they're going to want to see
the NSX The Supercharged BRZ these cars I know they're going to want to see it
so by having that Niche audience we have a greater level and greater chance of success
so then it was just about incorporating my character into that space how can I get him into
a action-esque film how can I give him the biggest chance to succeed and when I write these scripts
and I write these stories I write myself in mind for parts that I want to see someone myself play
so by having that connection to his mom anybody can relate because anybody would do anything
to help save their mom or their dad so that already connects to the human portion of of
who we are then to go rob the bad guy I painted the bad guys a real bad guy so when things happen
throughout the story or when things happen at the end you were yeah he was so nasty I'm
so glad they got him and then for the good guys to win even though I do the bad guys winning in
this particular story it was about the good guys winning and then setting up the sequel
there's a lot of scenes where cars are in the film way longer than a normal film would have
had them because I knew car guys just want to see those shots so I left them in there but it
was really about just a hero's journey about a guy that is into car culture that saves his mom.