Film Courage: Do you think you have to be empathic or open to be a good writer? Kelli McNeil, Author/Screenwriter/Producer: I mean isn't
that the job of being a writer is to tell you know the story of humans? I mean
you can certainly write a blockbuster movie. I mean I know that
there there are a lot of big studio platforms out there that just you know
tell and I'm not going to name any particular films but there are some that
just don't have character they're all action and maybe storylines but yeah I
think in order to to tell stories that people gravitate to you you have to be
willing to tell you know a little bit of yourself on each one one thing that
people always ask you when you are writing is why are you the person to
tell this story why why why should you be the voice of
this and it's easier to I don't wanna say prove but it's easier to persuade
people that you are the right person to tell a particular story if you yourself
can relate to it I think that's what we're all looking
for you know any time that we go to a movie we're looking to experience a kind
of catharsis you know we're looking to experience some kind of human emotion
I find that my best pieces my best work are the ones that I've really put myself
into and they have a bit of me in like like the Baltimore school of charm
there's a reason that story is so impactful there's a reason that it
resonates with people is because it's it's inspired by my family it's it's
it's something that you know I've lived through it's something that other women
have lived through it's it's a bit of me on that page absolutely you need to be
empathetic sure and at the same time being empathetic and open also has its
drawbacks and that may be things wound do you more or or it's it's more intense
for you so how are you able to be open and sensitive to things that are coming
at you for story ideas but then also be able to receive notes
and sometimes they're not always going to be positive or go into a room and
maybe you read that room and it's not friendly because I think that that's
learning the writing process you can learn you know is it's like let's
imagine we're building a building you've got to have some kind of a floor plan to
do it right you've got to know the rules before you
can break them so if you can learn structural engineering and how to put it
together then you can shape it into whatever shape you want it to be you
know you can you can make a skyscraper with you know turrets on it if you want
it to but it that's how you that's how you find your voice that's how you start
making stories your own learn the rules before you break them so you know you
can't tell such an emotionally overdrawn story you know for where you've got your
lead and crying or being assaulted or abused for you know two and a half hours
nobody's gonna want to see that I think that you as a writer need to understand
that you have a duty to your audience to make sure you tell a story that moves
forward and they tell a story that progresses don't skimp on character
certainly save those those moments you know of great emotion but learn how to
construct your story first you're serving a lot of masters when you're
when you're writing and if you don't have good structure I mean unfortunately
that's your story will fall apart how does someone become good as a writer you
said at first you weren't sure you could do it but you wanted to definitely learn
have that as a safeguard you didn't want to just try it and say you were a writer
without doing it you know I still have problems saying I'm a writer I don't
know when you ever become good I mean if you're if you're Maya Angelou or
somebody like that then you're definitely a good writer but I think I
don't know I think I think asking yourself the question always wanting to
be better always knowing that you can dig deeper and always finding that you
can do something better that will help you lead to improving your process and I
I I want to stay away from using labels like good or great because that kind of
puts you know that puts a lot of pressure on yourself
especially for somebody that's just starting out you have to be okay with
failing you only need one story to spark the
next thing in your career I failed for three years with with Baltimore and then
when I finally got it right it struck the right chord what do you think the
difference was just working on it just honing it I think I think it was my
dogged perseverance of not giving up on it I I wanted people to see what I saw
and I had to find a way to communicate that out and I think just writing Draft
after Draft after Draft after draft and I've probably gone through 30 iterations
of that script you know with time with time I've certainly gotten better I've
improved my own process so I can shorten that writing cycle but the first one I
had no idea what I was doing what were some of the notes that you got and how
much of the feedback did you incorporate to change I mean I incorporated feedback
from a variety of sources I incorporated it from some of the competitions that I
was in some of the instructors at UCLA
character was one of the things that people would really hone in on I mean
obviously there are things like well this is a bit of a plot hole you may
want to look at this but those are the obvious things but people would always
talk about making the character more in depth like what what little things can
you do to to make a character stick out in someone's mind there's a a second
female lead in Baltimore it's a young girl named Shasta she's 17 and so I
wanted there's there's a relationship between Millie the lead and Shasta so
Millie is trying to outrun the law and she gets stuck in a small town where you
know she can't get out of it and she ends up helping Shasta the young girl
there but Shasta has has a stutter so that was one thing that I was able to to
develop with Shasta initially she didn't have a stutter but she I gave her that
impediment to help show her relationship with the world around
her so I think that there are certain traits there are certain mannerisms
there are certain things that you can do to you know just build up your character
and obviously give them a backstory but that will inform the decisions on how
they interact with the world did you miss the two characters when you were
finished writing was it hard for you to give them up um I tell you what's gonna
be hard for me is when it gets made you know as a writer you typically don't
have any control over something when it leaves your hands so I hope that the
company that ends up buying Baltimore school of charm I hope that they do
those characters justice because it's not a lot it's not a movie of the week
you know it's it's certainly not a melodrama it's it's a very strong
powerful piece and it's my hope that a female director well won't end up
helming it I think that that's important to actually authentically tell the story
you know they're they're like your characters are like your children when
you send them out and the worst that you hope that they they're received well and
that they do well what were so the feet the feedback initially was that the the
character at least the main one wasn't as fleshed out and so you really worked
on making her just more three-dimensional more three-dimensional
yeah and so when you finally sorry you won it was the UCLA screenwriting
competition okay they're extension they're extension okay
and so they these different agencies just found your emails obviously no what
happened is when when there are different categories within the the
competition so it's best feature it's best spec pilot and then best pilot so
and then you're ranked one two and three so there's a total of nine Awards that
give out that they've given out and then there's you know obviously first place
second place third place so when they send the announcement out and they've
got a list of you know thousands of executives and agents that you know
they've spent years cultivating relationships with when the announcement
goes out they put out an ad in variety announcing it and then they also do a
mass to all of these executives so that's how
they got tipped off and you know you you put first-place feature on a competition
like that and it's going to spark some interest and fortunately it did and
fortunately it got me you know the reps that I have today so been part of having
a rep is they're submitting you to work on shows like how does this work um so
typically what happens in a move there's a there's an issue right now with the
WGA and the ATA so I'm not gonna I'm not going to go into that in this particular
interview because I'm there are many people that are much more positioned or
much better position to speak on that than I am but typically what happens is
you know if you've got a aspect pilot or a spec feature they will take that
material and they will send it out to different exalt development execs and
studios and you know see if it's a match and they could you know you can write on
assignment so let's just say if you meet with the development exact and they like
your writing and like well I've got this project would you be interested in
taking a crack at it so so that's the job of an agent is to find their clients
work and so how much advance notice do you get when you have a meeting I have
one this week that has been on my calendar for six weeks and that's good
so you have your outfit everything's ready yeah I had one a couple weeks ago
I had a general a couple weeks ago and she said she actually had an intern and
she asked if it was okay if the interns sat in on the meeting that's totally
fine I mean I'm it wasn't gonna throw me off my game but we talked about it later
she was like she was like I think you set the bar a little too high for
generalists because she said we've had some interesting people coming here she
said yeah I'm one of the one of the worst pieces of advice that I've ever
heard writers being given is to dress like your genre I was like what does
that mean she was like I don't know she but I was like I don't I was like what
what is what are you supposed to do I guess if you read action-adventure
you're supposed to dress I don't know but don't do that that's bad advice
so just wear something like you know business casual or I mean don't dress
like a schlub you know make sure that you look professional and neat
clothes that you're comfortable in I'm sure you're not you're not trying to
over impress you know you're just just yourself just look neat and professional
just be yourself then how long did it take for you to develop sort of like the
pitch that is you because they want to ask you this and sometimes people are
comfortable and then sometimes so tell me about yourself how long did that take
it changes every time I go into a room you have to learn how to reach your
audience because you may be dealing with somebody who is more closed off and
maybe they don't want to know so much personal information about yourself I
think instead of developing your pitch you need to know how to really need to
know your story because you need you can't tell your pitch the same way every
single time because then it sounds canned it sounds like you're reading it
off of an index card and nobody wants to be you know read a PowerPoint slide you
need to be in a position to authentically tell your story any even
you know notice